3 Up 3 Down

3 UP

1. Let All The Earth Rejoice

Longtime umpire Angel Hernandez made what is believed to be his first right call in more than a decade, announcing on Monday night that he would be retiring following his assignment on Tuesday. Granted, if Angel Hernandez says he’s out, we might all need to consider the possibility that he is not actually out.

Since I had six people send me the news of Angel’s pending retirement, I’m guessing most people that know me also know exactly why I listed this as my first Up of the week. He’s one of the worst umpires ever, and he has one of the biggest egos ever to go with it. It’s changed baseball, and not for the better. Forget the opinions. Here’s some facts. This year, Angel ranked 67th in strike accuracy out of 85 umpires. He ranked 70th in consistency and 76th in expected correct call differential.

The larger problem is that Angel is not the sole bad apple of the bunch. The entire orchard has been poisoned at this point, with the likes of C.B. Bucknor, Laz Diaz, Hunter Wendelstedt and Ron Kulpa all among the new crop that are ready to take the reins. (Bucknor was the only umpire worse than Hernandez in all three categories listed above.) You have to address the bad harvest at the source before you can plant again.

Still, the face of awful umpiring is gone, and what I know for sure is that baseball improved this week. That’s a win.

2. It’s About Time

News broke on Tuesday evening that Negro League statistics will officially be integrated into MLB’s database. Better late than never, I guess.

For a long time, I’ve said there was a better way to celebrate Black baseball than everyone wearing 42 once a year. That the Disney version about Jackie Robinson was nowhere close to the actuality of the events that unfolded. I get that’s what Disney does, but it wasn’t supposed to be a feel-good story. That Jackie Robinson wasn’t even the right starting point, but was finally allowed to be because the folks writing the story finally decided that THIS Black ballplayer was good enough for them to make money off of.

After years of whitewashing a huge chunk of the game’s history while hypocritically screaming about the importance of preserving it, Major League Baseball has finally taken a monumental step toward being who they say they want to be. Josh Gibson is about to be a very popular name, as he’s going to be on a whole bunch of leaderboards that he was previously not allowed to be on because of his skin color. Before you tell me about the level of competition guys like Gibson and Satchel Paige played against, please recall that beer-bellied Babe Ruth played against actual locksmiths and farmers, and that’s been good enough for a century’s worth of people who never saw him play to declare him somewhere between a god and urban legend.

Baseball has thrived on stats forever. They spark conversation in a way that they simply cannot in other sports. They connect generations, and now, for the first time, the database will be as accurate as it has ever been. This is a landmark day for Major League Baseball, and quite frankly, it’s about damn time.

3. Commanding Respect

Last week, I wrote about how good Chris Sale has been and how wrong I was on the Braves trading for him. Since then, Sale has continued his dominant 2024 campaign, and I realized that while getting lost in his impressive numbers, I never even mentioned how good his control has been. This got me going down a rabbit hole on guys with great command and if it had any correlation to team success. Spoiler alert. It does.

Sale has four walks in his last seven starts and has just nine walks in 63.1 innings of work this year. The Braves, at this moment anyway, have the third-best record in the National League.

Out in Seattle, George Kirby has issued just six walks in 62.1 innings, a year after allowing just 19 in 190.2 innings. The Mariners have a 3.5-game divisional lead.

Ranger Suarez is in the middle of a career year and is currently the Cy Young favorite in the National League. As of this writing, he has the fourth-most innings in the majors (and is an out away from second), and he has 16 walks. His team is on their best stretch of baseball in over a century.

Turns out, dudes that can throw the ball where they want are actually a pretty vital concept to winning games. Somebody tell Edwin Diaz.

3 DOWN

1. Caught in a Ron-Down

Ronald Acuña Jr. is hurt again, and it came on a non-contact injury between second and third. Say what you want about this dude, but he’s one of the most talented guys in baseball. And for those of you that actually enjoy fun, he’s absolutely electric to watch. Baseball is better when he’s on the field.

COVID shortened the season in 2020, he tore his ACL for the first time in 2021, spent a good chunk of 2022 recovering from that, and then tore his ACL again last week. Those are his age-22 through age-26 seasons. Injuries have stolen his prime. In his two most recent full seasons, 2019 and 2023, he’s totaled 82 home runs, 207 RBI, 110 stolen bases and an MVP.

The only solace I can offer Braves fans is that the last time Acuña tore his ACL, Atlanta went on to win the World Series. Here’s hoping his recovery goes well enough that he can return to being a stud in 2025.

2. Houston, You Have a Solution

The Astros called up prospect Joey Loperfido when Jose Abreu went on a sabbatical due to performance issues (to put it mildly). Loperfido hit .333 with a homer, 5 RBI and a steal in his 14 games in the bigs before sitting for a full week. Abreu went 0-for-7 with a walk being the highlight of his brief stint in AAA.

This is where it gets fun. The Astros then rewarded Loperfido’s play with an option back to the minors because they felt that Abreu’s lack of tangible progress was good enough to just get his job right back. I did not see that coming, but I guess that’s where the Astros always have the edge.

A DFA for Abreu seems inevitable, but Houston is going to give their $19 million man one last chance to get right. Pride is an expensive quality.

3. Old Enough to Sano Better

Angels third baseman Miguel Sano burned his knee because he left a heating pad on too long, putting a delay on his rehab. This is as close as the Angels are going to come to a hot streak this year, but the truth is they just need to burn the whole thing down and start over. Their entire franchise is hot garbage.

3 UP

1. No Refunds on Sale Items

There are sales, and then there are absolute bargains. Back in January, I listed the Braves’ trade to acquire Chris Sale as a down with the caveat that if anyone could fix him, it would be Atlanta. I mentioned Boston’s return of Vaughn Grissom as a positive, and he’s currently got a -0.6 WAR to accompany his .135 average so far. Sale is nearly a third of the way through his season, and it’s safe to say he’s no longer broken. This is starting to look a lot more like a bargain.

As of this writing, Sale hasn’t allowed a run in 20 straight innings, and his season stats are equally as impressive. The dude is 7-1 with a 2.22 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 56.2 innings of work. With the injury to Spencer Strider earlier this year, Sale has been more than a capable fill-in guy. He’s helped the Braves stay within striking distance of the Phillies, who have the best record in baseball. Thus far, he’s been the ace the White Sox enjoyed a decade ago.

I just hope he doesn’t turn the clock back so far that he cuts up some jerseys. 

2. Something in the #DirtyWater

Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers homered in six straight games, which is hard to do on a video game, much less against actual big-league pitching. The record is eight straight games, and among the nine players with a longer streak than Devers’ current streak are names like Don Mattingly, Mike Trout, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Joey Votto and Jim Thome. (Somehow, Rangers legend Kevin Mench is also on that list, but that’s beside the point.)

Devers has 10 home runs in about a quarter of the at-bats he ended last season with, which puts him on pace for somewhere around 40 homers, which would be a career-high. The Sox don’t have a ton to play for this year, so the more dingers Raffy hits, the better.

3. The Cream Rises to the Top

The sausage race has competition as the best thing going on at Miller Park. Brice Turang has 18 stolen bases and has not been caught stealing. William Contreras has the highest average at his position in the National League. Rhys Hoskins has been a pretty decent addition offensively with nine homers so far.

Most recently, Christian Yelich stole home on Monday night. Not a double steal. A straight steal. It was the Brewers’ first straight steal of home since Scott Podsednik did it in 2003.

Milwaukee lost Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and all-world skipper Craig Counsell in the offseason, and at least so far, they’ve just kept on chugging. The Brew Crew currently leads the NL Central (it’s weak, but still), and they’ve scored the third-most runs in baseball behind the fourth-most home runs as a team.

The Brewers have won the division three times in the last six years, and good things are brewing in Milwaukee yet again.

DOWN

1. Never Saw It Coming

While simultaneously retreating to third base and watching the first base umpire’s appeal of a check swing, White Sox baserunner Zach Remillard got thrown out on a heads up play from Yankees’ backstop Jose Trevino. Remillard was the final out of the inning, so it looked even more ridiculous, but man, you gotta be better than that if you’re the runner. Costing your team a run because you weren’t paying attention is probably not the best way to stay on the big club. Then again, it’s the White Sox, so you never know.

The Yankees won the game 7-2, so it didn’t end up mattering a whole bunch, but this dude ain’t gonna live this one down for a while. The White Sox just continue to find new ways to embarrass themselves.

2. What’s All the Hullaba-loo?

If you’re paying attention, unlike the previously-mentioned White Sox guy, then you’re learning that most City Connects earn a down from me. The Cardinals became the latest victim. To be clear, their new uniform, lands in the “meh” category but they lose points for putting “The Lou” across the chest as if they’re a British bathroom. Cards shortstop-of-the-future Masyn Winn was asked about the new uniforms, and after a pause, the only thing he could muster up was “they’re city connects, that’s for sure”.

That’s about all I’ve got on this, too.

3. Most People Just Use A Glove

A Blue Jays fan wore a Bo Bichette foul ball in the face, and to make matters worse, it came off the bat at 110 miles per hour. She got a pretty good softball above her eyebrow for her troubles before taking to Twitter to plead with the Blue Jays to get the ball.

The Jays did make it right, giving her a baseball signed by Bichette to go with a pair of tickets and an invitation to batting practice. I can imagine the Fan Experience intern that had to hook her up with all that was just staring at her swollen alien head and trying to be sympathetic. If all she wanted was a baseball out of it, it seems like she had a chance to get one previously. Gotta use your head.

3 UP

1. Another Astro for MVP?

Who wants to tell Kyle Tucker the Astros are struggling? Pretty clear he never got that memo. I picked Kyle Tucker as my preseason MVP in 2023, and I may have been a year early on that. The dude has been ridiculous so far, and the only thing that might slow him down is the pending back injury from carrying that offense (though the weight got a little easier to manage with the recent demotion of Jose Abreu).

As of this writing, Tucker leads MLB with 13 homers, has more RBI than Shohei Ohtani and ranks fourth in the AL in WAR (behind Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson and Marcus Semien). He’s got a .993 OPS, matching the likes of actual robot hitting machine Mookie Betts. He’s on pace for 49 home runs if he only plays 150 games, and he has reached that in each of the last two years.

He’s a free agent after 2025, and the Astros are going to have some serious competition in the bidding war if they don’t lock him between now and then. He’ll be 28 after next season, so I would expect that he ends up as the highest paid position player of the class. The way he’s playing right now, that’s gonna be easy to justify.

2. Turning Heads in the Twin Cities

If Kyle Tucker isn’t the most undervalued player in the sport right now, Ryan Jeffers most certainly is. Jeffers is the Twins’ primary backstop, and that’s why you’ve never heard of him.

Among catchers this season, Jeffers is currently first in slugging percentage, tied for second in home runs, tied for second in RBI, and fourth in WAR, where he is a tenth of a point behind Adley Rutschman. He has a .617 slugging percentage. For further context, the only two players ahead of him are Ohtani and Ozuna from the Braves. He’s having a better year across the board than Jonah Heim, who started the All-Star Game for the AL a year ago.

You might want to start paying attention.

3. Streamlining the Streaming? 

MLB has announced a new partnership with Roku, and all games on Roku will be blackout-free to MLBTV subscribers. This tells me a couple of things. First, MLB can choose which games are blacked out and where the blackout market will be. They’ve pretty much admitted that with this partnership, so I apologize if that’s breaking news to you. Second and more importantly, this appears to be the most recent experimental step toward making the option of watching teams in local markets more accessible to fans.

I’m in.

3 DOWN

1. We’ve Got Uniforms and Everything

Cleveland became the latest team to introduce their City Connect uniforms, and these are a bit disappointing. There’s some details in there that are kind of tough to understand, the color scheme is essentially the same as the regular uniforms, and it looks like they were kind of thrown together at the last minute.

The city of Cleveland has a rich tradition of blue collar workers, and these missed the mark worse than Rick Vaughn against the wooden dummy batter. There’s a lot to be proud of in that city - the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the West Side Market, LeBron James leaving twice.

There’s not a lot of City Connects that I’d consider to be overly well done, but these are largely a yawnfest to me.

2. The Flavor of the Week

Statcast has started tracking bat speed, and Twitter has jumped all over this as the hottest analytic statistic out there, replacing the reign of exit velocity and the vastly overrated launch angle era. It’s cool to know the bat speed, but like any statistic, it can be manipulated, there are outliers, and it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Here’s some proof. Steven Kwan’s average bat speed this year is one of the lowest in the league. He’s hitting .353 on a first-place team and is going to shatter his career-bests in every major category. Giancarlo Stanton has the highest average bat speed in the league this year, and he’s hitting .230. Stanton costs $32 million this year, and Kwan costs $757,000. Stanton is 34. Kwan is 26. You tell me which guy you’d rather have.

If you need bat speed to tell you that Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto are good hitters, maybe baseball isn’t for you. Don’t be misled by this new statistical fad.

3. Time to Worry in Texas?

The Rangers’ October run last year was the stuff of movies, but right now the defending World Series Champions are struggling to produce a sequel. The Rangers’ theme for this year is “Run It Back”, but how far back are we running? Looks a lot like their 60-win 2021 season right now.

Corey Seager, who finished second in the MVP voting a year ago, is hitting .235 with four homers and 51 total bases in 39 games. Adolis Garcia is at eight homers to go with 50 strikeouts in 158 at-bats. Leody Taveras is bordering on becoming Nelson Cruz in the outfield. Despite having three of the 20 fastest guys in the majors according to Statcast, the Rangers rank 28th in the league in stolen bases. There’s no consistent batting order or defensive alignment, so it’s hard for guys to get in any rhythm at all.

And then there’s the pitching staff. Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer have yet to throw a pitch this season, while Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford and Dane Dunning have all landed on the injured list in the last couple of weeks. In the last four games, Rangers starters, still a pretty good group of Michael Lorenzen, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney and Jose Urena, have a 1.82 ERA. The offense has scored six total runs in that time and the bullpen has allowed 16. The Rangers are 0-4 in that time.

Against the A’s (19-24), Astros (16-25) and Rockies (13-28), the Rangers are a combined 6-10 so far this year. That’s not great for a team with an alleged high-powered offense and playoff aspirations. I keep thinking they’re going to turn a corner, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The good news for Texas is that nobody else in the AL West has hit a consistent stride yet, either. It’s fair to mention that there have been lots of injuries, especially to their pitchers. It’s still early, but the Rangers certainly don’t look like the team that most expected at this point. If a sequel is coming, some of last year’s stars are going to have to reprise their roles.

3 UP

1. Trouble With the Kirb

I wrote in January about the Rangers’ signing of Kirby Yates and how much I didn’t like it. I was wrong. This dude has been one of the biggest difference makers in all of baseball so far.

Yates has been absolutely unreal at the back of the Rangers’ bullpen, as he’s now allowed three whole hits in 15 innings of work without surrendering a run so far. He’s picked up three wins in relief and converted all six of his save opportunities. The best season of his career came in 2019 with the Padres, when he racked up a 3.0 WAR. 13 appearances into 2024, at 37 years old, Yates is already at a 1.2 WAR.

He's obviously not going to go the entire season without giving up a run, but what he’s done to this point deserves to be recognized. For a team with injuries and question marks up and down their pitching staff, this dude has been as consistent as they come.

That’s my bad, Kirbs.

2. Arraez Deal is a Win-Win

I went back and forth on if I liked the Luis Arraez trade, and I still can’t decide, so I’m gonna give you the good and the bad of it. I apologize in advance here.

The Padres acquired Luis Arraez, a two-time batting champion, to be their new leadoff hitter in a trade last week. Arraez is a proven MLB player, and he cost a few prospects that may or may not pan out. Give me the proven guy over the maybe guy every time. Arraez is not making a ton of money this year, which of course the Padres love after trying to shed payroll pretty significantly, but he is still a player that can help you win. In his first game with San Diego, Arraez went 4-for-5 to help his new team to a rout over the defending NL Champs.

If you’re the Marlins and you know you’re punting on this season anyway, why wait? No guarantee Arraez is going to be healthy to trade later. Get your new guys in your system and let them start developing within your organization as soon as possible. This move makes sense for everyone.

3. A’s Good As They Can Be 

Oakland isn’t as bad as we all thought they would be.

Two weeks ago, I talked about how electric Mason Miller is, and he hasn’t cooled off a bit. The same week, the A’s defeated the reigning champs behind a three-homer day from Shae Langeliers. They’ve called Esteury Ruiz back up after he apparently showed what he needed to in the minors.

Just last Saturday, the A’s scored 20 runs in a game, including 10 in an inning. They hit five multi-run homers, had a player with two home runs in an inning, and a player with a two-homer game for his first two career hits. None of that has ever happened in an MLB SEASON, much less by one team in one game.

The A’s are tied for third in MLB with 46 team homers, trailing only the Orioles and Dodgers. Oakland is currently third in a division that has admittedly started very slow (and make no mistake, they’re still not good), but they are in better shape than anyone anticipated at this point.

             Nobody tell their owner.

3 DOWN 

1. A Broken Star

The Astros sent Jose Abreu – a former MVP making around $20 million a year – all the way down to the Florida Complex League. They didn’t think AAA would be a spot for Abreu to work on his .099 average. The only other big leaguer I’ve ever seen this happen to was Alek Manoah, and after seeing his return to the Majors last week, it’s pretty clear it didn’t work for him.

Houston has to get going. Their GM publicly said a few days ago he doesn’t see a scenario where his team would sell at the deadline because they’re too talented. Hate that if you want to, but I think he’s right. They’re notoriously slow starters and have been fine for close to a decade.

The Astros have problems all over the place right now, but Abreu has certainly been the most embarrassing part of their last-place season to date. We’ve been told that Abreu understood the demotion and took it in stride, so time will tell I guess. If Houston is going to right this thing, Abreu’s turnaround is going to have to be at the forefront.

2. Arraez Deal is a Lose-Lose

I tried to tell you I couldn’t decide.

Arraez does one thing very well, which is hit for average, and it’s arguably the skill that matters the least in today’s game. He’s not a great fielder, isn’t versatile at all, is certainly not the fastest guy, and because he has very little pop, you need him to hit for average just to justify having him in the lineup. You traded away Juan Soto just to trade for Luis Arraez a couple months later?

The Marlins made the playoffs last season with a first-year manager, who ended up as the Manager of the Year in the NL. In typical Marlins fashion, they fired their GM and have started to blow it all up. In their first game without Arraez, the Marlins got beat 20-3. It’s difficult to see why they moved him in May. You have to think if they waited until June (and definitely if they waited into July), Arraez’ value may have been higher and there may have been more suitors.

This move doesn’t make sense for anybody involved.

3. Talking Out His Stephen A.

ESPN floating head Stephen A. Smith publicly blasted Mike Trout for getting injured again, asking co-host Chris Russo how he constantly gets hurt as a baseball player. It furthers my hatred when these dudes talk about baseball.

Yes, Stephen. I’m sure Mike Trout enjoys being injured and not playing. I mean, what do you think he is? Anthony Rendon?

3 UP

1. Keep Sleeping on Seattle

I’ve always said too much of a good thing is a good thing, especially when it comes to formidable arms in the Major Leagues. That said, the Mariners pitching staff is for real. If you don’t believe me yet, it’s only a matter of time before you will understand what I’m talking about. Unless you’re John Smoltz, in which case, you’ll recognize it much later than literally everyone else on the planet.

I’ve mentioned several times since we started 3 Up 3 Down last fall how good I think the Mariners pitching staff is. A month into the season, the Mariners just continue to prove all of that correct on a nightly basis. The M’s have a 3.03 ERA. As a TEAM. Absurd. Heading into play today, the M’s have taken the first two from Atlanta, holding that potent Braves lineup to three combined runs.

Logan Gilbert has a 2.03 ERA, 0.800 WHIP and 44 strikeouts in 40 innings. Bryce Miller has a 2.04 ERA, 0.877 WHIP and 39 strikeouts in 35.1 innings. George Kirby has more games started than walks for his career. Their rotation has posted 19 quality starts in 30 games this season. As of this writing, Seattle starters have combined to allow 18 earned runs in their last 18 starts.

And then there’s the bullpen. 16 holds. 8 saves. 1 blown save. One in five inherited runners scores against this team. Here are the ERAs of seven of the eight relievers on the active roster: 2.25, 2.84, 1.54, 0.84, 1.80, 2.70, 3.18. You finally chase the starter and get to face one of those guys with a fresh arm. Doesn’t get easier. All of those are video game numbers, and they’re getting that from everybody.

This is the pitching staff every GM in baseball dreams of putting together. I don’t know if it will translate to playoff wins, but these dudes are producing more quality arms than Remington. Seattle’s offense hasn’t even really gotten going yet, and they will enter May in first place in the division. If the offense hits their stride, and this pitching staff keeps doing what they have been (and stay healthy), this M’s team is going to be one of the toughest teams in the sport to beat. 

2. De La Cruz Control

Through 29 games, Elly De La Cruz has eight homers and 18 stolen bases, with the latter leading the Majors. That’s the most steals in April since 1997, and he has more steals than 16 MLB teams right now. He’s on pace for 45 dingers and 101 steals. Ronald Acuna, last year’s steals leader and NL MVP, is still five bags behind ELDC. Argue it’s easier than ever to steal a base if you want, but nobody in baseball is doing what Elly is.

3. Rays-ing the Bar

The Rays became the latest team to release their City Connect uniforms, and instantly the best of 2024 so far. (The Phillies and Mets have also released theirs.)

To quote some of the official press release from MLB.com, “In Tampa Bay, underground culture thrives in the sunshine, beaming with colorful expression of every kind. An eclectic energy connects across all the Bay’s bridges to the beaches and beyond, creating a home for beach bums, pirates and punk rockers, skaters, sneakerheads and sun worshipers, street artists and acrobats, proud weirdos, real surrealists, bikers and wrestlers, hipsters and hippies, locals and tourists who never went home.”

The alternate logos include a ray with a skateboard, the combination of a ray with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and a pelican in front of three palm trees. The texture of the uniform is designed to simulate a black shirt weathered by the Florida sun, and the texture of the numbers is that of skateboarding grip tape. Oh, and various parts of the uniform glow in the dark.

It was always going to be difficult to incorporate so many ideas for that region, but this one was done perfectly. The team has a slew of events surrounding the launch of the new uniform. The point is to connect with the city and surrounding region. The Rays have absolutely done that, maybe better than any City Connect uniform to date. Everyone that hasn’t done one yet should take notes from this one.

3 DOWN

1. No Swing, But Several Misses

Umpires continue to be terrible and free from accountability. Juan Soto saw a six-pitch at-bat last week, didn’t swing at any of them, and was rung up on strikes. This would be fine if any pitch of the at-bat had been strikes, but alas, not a single one was in the zone. Just another day at the office of incompetence.

But wait. There’s more….

2. Let It Slide This Time

Yep. More bad umpiring here. You getting the theme yet?

Let me paint the scene for you. It’s 4-4 with a runner on first and nobody out in the sixth inning. Aaron Judge slid into second in an effort to break up what was going to be a sure-fire double play, but the throw to first ended up hitting Judge’s raised hand instead. The Yankees went on to score seven runs in the inning and win the game.

Judge is definitely not the only dude that does this. Most guys in the bigs do, actually. He’s just freakishly tall, which is why we’ve never seen it before. All that said, the umpires again missed the call, failing to call the interference that should have been ruled. Of course, the challenge system doesn’t let teams challenge something like this, putting even more pressure on the umpiring crew to get it right and magnifying it when they don’t.

Still, how does an umpire – much less a crew of four Major League umpires – miss something that obvious in real time?

3. We Have Food at Home….Kind Of

MLB has now launched a new service called Ballpark Bites that allows you to have ballpark favorites delivered to your home. It’s basically Door Dash, but you get to pay ballpark prices for a multi-colored hot dog. Who doesn’t want that?

The games are blacked out, half the league is openly tanking, billionaire owners cry poverty, umpires are awful, the rules change from the regular season to the Postseason, and the uniforms are a nightmare. But, in typical MLB fashion, the idea isn’t bad, it’s just not the most pressing thing they should be focused on. It’s a deliberate effort to distract from reality.

I can order Ballpark Bites in my West Texas town of less than 100,000 people, but I can’t watch either Texas team on MLBTV or local channels. If I lived in California, I could order from 44 different locations, but there are parts of the state where all five in-state teams are blacked out.

Nobody asked for Ballpark Bites.

We. Want. To. Watch. The. Damn. Games

3 UP

1. Ranger in a Rhythm

Philadelphia starter Ranger Suarez extended his streak of scoreless innings to 25 on Monday night with another dominant performance, the longest streak by any Phillies pitcher since Cliff Lee in 2011. Draft Kings moved Suarez from +2500 (the 11th-best odds) to +1500 (7th-best odds) after Monday’s win, and he’s now 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 33 innings.

Those numbers are really impressive, and he’s been a huge part of Philly’s best start in over a decade. For context, Suarez won four games in 22 starts last season, so he’s already matched that total. The best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career came in 2021, when he put up a mark of 3.24. He’s currently at 6.40. His hard-hit percentage (80.4) is the lowest it’s ever been. This dude looks different. Like he’s turned a corner.

The rest of that rotation so far has been very good, too. Aaron Nola (3-1, 3.16 ERA), Zack Wheeler (1-3, 2.30 ERA) and Spencer Turnbull (2-0, 1.23) have been the other regulars, while Cristopher Sanchez (1-2, 2.95 ERA) has done a solid job filling in for the injured Taijaun Walker. As of this writing, the Phils have won seven straight. Lots of things going well for them.

This is a team who lost Game 7 of the NLCS last year and lost the World Series in Game 6 in 2022. With Suarez pitching like a true ace, the Big Three of Suarez, Nola and Wheeler looks (for now) like the most formidable rotation in the big leagues. If those three can stay healthy (and that’s a huge if given the trend across MLB right now), the Phillies have a chance to make another deep run.

2. It’s Miller Time

The hardest throwing dude in baseball is a guy you’ve never heard of because his owner is cheap. (Holy Toledo, the A’s are listed with the Ups. I know. I’m shocked, too. Don’t get used to it. It probably isn’t happening again any time soon. Alright. Back to it.)

A former Division III pitcher, Mason Miller debuted last September, hitting 102.4 mph on the radar gun before being named as the A’s closer for this season. In 10 innings this year, he’s got 20 strikeouts and five saves. His average fastball this year has been north of 101, and he’s hit 104 multiple times. At one point, he had the five hardest pitches in the Majors this season, and they all came in a 4-minute stretch.

This is baseball in 2024. Velocity matters now more than ever. Eye-popping numbers matter more than ever, too. This kid is fun to watch, and he’ll be even more fun when the Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas front office inevitably moves him to a contender for a slew of average prospects in a year or two.

3. Lather, Rinse, Repeat

The Orioles’ 3D printer that keeps making studly prospects has delivered yet again, as the team announced yesterday that they are calling up outfielder Heston Kjerstad. The #2 pick in the 2020 Draft, Kjerstad ranked near the top of the minors in a whole bunch of categories: 30 hits (T-2nd), 10 HR (T-1st), 30 RBI (1st), 14 extra base hits (T-2nd), 64 total bases (1st), 25 runs (1st). And he did all of that in 21 games (to go with a .349 batting average, a .431 OBP and an OPS of 1.175). Even though there’s not a set spot for him right now, is numbers couldn’t be ignored anymore. Baltimore isn’t lacking in production, which should take some pressure off Kjerstad early on. He will likely come off the bench for a little while, and he should provide a little added thump while keeping the regulars fresh.

The Orioles’ recent drafts have produced a team that looks ridiculously loaded for the foreseeable future. Grayson Rodriguez in 2018, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson in 2019, Kjerstad and Jordan Westburg in 2020, Colton Cowser in 2021, and Jackson Holliday in 2022, not to mention Coby Mayo (2020) and Connor Norby (2021) who haven’t cracked the bigs yet but certainly could before the end of the season.

The lesson here? Drafting matters. Oh, and tanking works.

3 DOWN

1. The Ump Show Has Been Renewed for Another Season

Five pitches into Monday’s game, Aaron Boone was ejected. He had been warned not to say anything else after an initial comment to the umpire, and pretty much every camera angle available confirmed that Boone was quiet as a church mouse. Instead, a fan behind the dugout said something that the umpire thought was Boone, so he tossed Boone. Yeah, doesn’t make sense to me, either. And it gets worse.

Hot mics captured the ensuing exchange, where Boone said “I didn’t say anything!”, only to be met with “I don’t care who said it. You’re gone.” The umpire sounded more like a mom of three kids ready to turn the car around. You can’t throw a guy for following the exact instructions you gave him because your big blue panties are bunched up under all your insecurities. You can’t hide behind the mask. After the game, the umpire doubled down with an AWFUL statement.

“Aaron Boone is the manager of the Yankees and responsible for everything that happens in that dugout. I don’t want to eject a ballplayer. We need to keep them in the game. That’s what fans pay to see. Aaron Boone runs the Yankees, so he got ejected. In the entirety of my career, I’ve never ejected a player or manager for something a fan said. I understand that’s going to be part of a story. I heard something come from the far end of the dugout, and it had nothing to do with his area, but he’s the manager of the Yankees, so he had to go.” Huh?

This somehow wasn’t Angel Hernandez, and for sake of time, I’ve purposely left two more umpire stories from the last week off. The point is that it’s not a problem that’s just one guy, or one ego, or even just one bad day. Human umpires have proven to not only be ineffective, but too emotional. It’s so incredibly fixable, and yet, nothing.

Umpire Auditor has 1,047 missed calls in MLB games from April 15 to April 22. No league’s officials have ever impacted the game this way, and that’s saying something considering NBA referees have admitted throwing games. End this damn charade already.

2. When the Hit Hits the Fan

In a 0-0 game between the Rockies and Mariners (in Denver), a fan reached over to catch what would have been a walkoff home run in the most boring game of all-time. The umpires got together, called fan interference, and the batter was out to send it to the tenth inning. Have we learned absolutely nothing from Steve Bartman? You’re a grown man with a glove at a Major League game, so I don’t expect you to know a ton, but come on, bro. If you’re gonna sit there, you gotta know what comes with it.

The Rockies ended up with a walkoff single in the tenth. Much less exciting.

3. The Going Has Gotten Tough

I guess if you’re gonna do something, go all out. Here’s some interesting facts about how hard it is to suck as bad as some of the players and teams in baseball right now.

The aforementioned Rockies became the first team to trail in each of its first 23 games since the 1931 Reds. 

The White Sox are the first team to ever be shutout eight times in their first 22 games. They are currently on pace for 19 – yes, 19 – wins in 2024.

The Marlins still haven’t won a series this year.

Anthony Rendon is on the Injured List again just 19 games into the season. He has now played 219 games since signing a $245 million contract, meaning he’s missed 333.

Jose Abreu, a former MVP, has now seen his batting average drop to .068 this season, and he has as many homers as I do.

They say go big or go home. I think some of these guys would be better off with the latter.

3 UP

1. So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance

Anyone who knows me or has ever seen my Twitter feed knows I can’t stand Rob Manfred. I generally go out of my way to find new reasons to hate him, though he provides plenty of ammunition. I don’t think he’s particularly intelligent, and I don’t think he cares an ounce about what fans want. He’s the most out of touch dude on the planet. Please understand all of that as you read the rest of this section. For me to list anything Manfred related as an Up for any reason is nothing short of a small miracle.

As it stands right now, MLB is blacked out more than Brett Kavanaugh at a high school party, but it appears that Rob Manfred is throwing a Hail Mary to try to address baseball’s worst problem. NBC has dropped MLB coverage. ESPN is doing so after this season. Three teams’ regional cable providers have gone bankrupt, and the streaming partner of 12 more teams is on the brink of bankruptcy. The bankruptcies don’t have much to do with MLB, but MLB can use them to their advantage. The timing of those bankruptcies combined with major networks dropping MLB coverage means there are two possibilities.

The first possibility is that Manfred has listened to fans like me for his decade-long tenure as MLB Commissioner – people who want to watch their team on TV. That’s presumably an overwhelming majority of baseball fans. MLB’s propaganda idea that blackouts would increase attendance at games has failed in every way, and MLB can’t look past it anymore. The financials tied to losing fans who can’t watch – especially in small to mid-level markets – are readily available and slapping MLB in the face. He works for the owners. More viewership is a win for all involved parties. Enter Apple TV. What if Apple and MLB are working on a lucrative deal that would put every Major League game exclusively on Apple TV all year long? You could watch your team 162 times a year, and you’d know exactly where to find them. MLB has already experimented with Apple TV games, and that could just be a prelude. Granted, this would mean Apple TV memberships would be overpriced, but ending blackouts would change absolutely everything about a Manfred legacy that currently claims a mixed-but-mostly-still-negative bag of things for which he will be remembered.

The second possibility is that Rob Manfred is actively killing his product, perhaps without even knowing he’s doing it, and with his reputation, you certainly can’t put that past him. We’re a long way from a resolution here, but you can see why I’d be optimistic about the first option.

2. Kemp Keeping it Classy

MLB’s top prospect Jackson Holliday got the call to the Majors last week, and his debut was one of the most anticipated in recent memory. The good news for Holliday meant that the Orioles had to open up a roster spot, so they designated Tony Kemp for assignment. Maybe the worst feeling in the business is when you’ve gotten hit with a DFA, and yet Kemp was all class. They say Kempin’ ain’t easy, and he proved why. 

He took to Twitter to say, “In the fall of 2010, our college had a series against the Longhorns for a 3 game set. Our hitting coach at the time was Josh Holliday, and his brother, Matt, brought his kid to our early practice. I remember watching his son Jackson with a sweet lefty swing. Go get ‘em kid!”

And now I’m a Tony Kemp fan.

3. Sterling is Pure Gold

If you don’t know who John Sterling is, do yourself a favor and go down a Google rabbit hole for a little while. He’s been the Yankees radio guy for 35 years and more than 5,000 games, and he’s announced that he is retiring, effective immediately, due to health concerns. He called every moment of Derek Jeter’s career, and he’s come up with some of the best calls I’ve ever heard. While he gets credit for giving us “All Rise!”, “An A-Bomb from A-Rod!” and “Mark sends a Tex message!”, his best work to me will always be “Like a good Gleyber, Torres is there!”. The creativity is uniquely fitting for baseball, and for many Yankees fans, Sterling has provided the soundtrack to their fanhood.

Forget silver. Sterling is the gold standard. 

3 DOWN

1. Things Are Headed South

Tommy Pham signed a minor league deal with the White Sox this week, which is slightly laughable because he’s got to be a top two or three players in the organization, but my suspicion is that he’ll be on the big club very soon. Tommy Pham was unreal in the World Series last year, hitting .421 with half his hits going for extra bases. He can still contribute to a contending ball club, and the White Sox are nowhere close to contending. His best hope is to be traded at the deadline again, which would be his sixth team in three seasons.

Chicago is 2-14 as of this writing, putting them on pace for 21 whole wins. No professional baseball team has had that low of a win total since the Pittsburgh Alleghenys….in 1890. Even with a trade in July, having to endure the next four months with a loser franchise like the White Sox isn’t going to be a ton of fun for Pham.

2. Please Just Retire Already

If blackouts are baseball’s biggest problem, the nightly ump show isn’t far behind. Of course, the most egregious of them continues to be egomaniac Angel Hernandez. Nobody even needs evidence anymore. Everyone has just accepted as canon that the dude is terrible. Guy blows more than the damn wind. Just last week, Rich Eisen referred to Hernandez as “a witches’ brew of incompetence and arrogance that gets worse every year”. Players know it. Fans know it. And yeah. The league knows it, too.

Last week, while behind the plate for a Rangers/Astros game, Angel ended his night with a 76% accuracy of the strike zone according to Umpire Auditor. That’s the lowest score they’ve ever recorded for any umpire in any game in any season. It’s not just balls and strikes. Later in the week, he granted Jeff McNeil a timeout that McNeil didn’t ask for, which is the only one the hitter is allowed for the at bat. It just never ends with this dude, and a postgame report telling us how bad he was doesn’t fix anything. Nobody expects him to be perfect. Anything even slightly resembling good would be an upgrade.

Angel thinks people pay to come see him. He is the biggest case for a non-human calling balls and strikes (that by the way is working like a charm in the minors). He frequently claims legal action based on race against the league, which is apparently enough for him to remain employed. To be clear, nobody wants him gone because he’s brown. People want him gone because he’s atrocious at his job.

This is actually much easier to fix than the blackout stuff. Even Angel’s bosses know he sucks. In fact, the federal government has previously determined that he is bad, but they did it in legal terms. It’s 2024. Angel has been missing calls since 1991 like he’s Verizon. Why are we still doing this?

3. Breaking What Isn’t Fixed

Rangers reliever Brock Burke pulled an all-time stupid move last week, as he decided to punch a wall after getting shelled (again) by the Astros (again). He’s currently spending time on the Injured List with a fractured right hand, but at least he took Crash Davis’ advice and didn’t fight the wall with his throwing hand. His pride probably has suffered the most damage though, but hey, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. The wall remains undefeated. He had a chance, even with the rough start, to be a regular and earn a more permanent spot in what has been a suspect (at best) bullpen so far. Burke hasn’t produced many quality outings since a 2022 season that’s looking more and more like a fluke with every appearance, and being hurt for being an idiot probably doesn’t help his chances of getting back any time soon.

The Rangers can’t catch a break (no pun intended), as Burke joins Jacob deGrom, Cody Bradford, Jonathan Hernandez, Tyler Mahle, Josh Sborz, Max Scherzer, Justin Foscue, Josh Jung and Nathaniel Lowe on the Injured List. The pitching staff looks like Frankenstein right now, and it’s going to continue to be patched together for the foreseeable future. Talk about a tough break.

The good news for Rangers fans is that they don’t have to watch Brock Burke for a little while.

3 UP

1. Big Fish Deserve Big Ponds

Remember before Shohei Ohtani when Mike Trout was the consensus best player in the world? Yeah, he might be back to that. As of this writing, Trout is tied for the lead league in homers with five through ten games, and his hard hit percentage is only at 37.9% right now, by far the lowest mark of his career. He hasn’t even really gotten going yet, and he’s one of the best hitters in the game again. This guy is always fun to watch when he’s healthy, and that ain’t changing just because Ohtani went Hollywood.

If he is going to try to compete for a championship, health is going to be the most important thing for Trout. Obviously, that isn’t going to come in Anaheim. They couldn’t compete when they had Trout and Ohtani both for six years. They haven’t won a playoff game since Mike Trout got his driver’s license. They willingly got absolutely nothing for the best trade piece in the history of the sport last season. On the current roster, the guy with the second-most service time (behind Trout) is Anthony Rendon, one of the most regrettable contracts in the league’s history. Behind that is Aaron Hicks, who hit eight home runs last year and people freaked out because that was him being “good”. Coming into the season, MLB.com rated the Angels as the worst farm system in baseball with only one Top 100 prospect. 

If they don’t want to win, so be it, but Mike Trout is healthy and productive again, and the clock is ticking on both of those. It’s time for the Angels to fish or cut bait.

2. Embarrassment of Riches

The Baltimore Orioles are absolutely stacked. They won an AL-best 101 games in 2023, and then they traded for a Cy Young winner and the most proven active reliever in baseball to strengthen the roster. Their owner sold to a billionaire who’s a lifelong Orioles fan, and the new owner then brought Cal Ripken Jr. into the fold.

And then there’s what’s happening with their AAA club. The Norfolk Tides are somehow 7-2. I say somehow because those two are a mystery. The stat lines through nine games are nothing shy of absurd.

Jackson Holliday, MLB’s #1 overall prospect, who was called up Tuesday night, was hitting .342 with two homers and nine RBI to go with a league-leading 11 walks. Connor Norby, MLB’s #6 overall prospect, is hitting .395 with four homers and 14 RBI. Coby Mayo, #29 on MLB’s list, is hitting .390 with two homers and six RBI. And perhaps the most nutso statline of all of them belong to Heston Kjerstad, MLB’s #31 prospect, who is hitting .462 with six homers and 25 RBI. IN NINE GAMES. Peyton Burdick and Kyle Stowers, the only Norfolk position guys on the 40-man roster, are combining to hit .333 with 10 homers and 25 RBI. Infielder Errol Robinson has the 11th-highest average on the team….at .308.

With a big-league club that already includes the likes of Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg – all 26 or younger – to go with Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and Jorge Mateo, I’m not sure how Baltimore is going to have room for all their prospects. Perhaps they are able to move some of them to help strengthen the rotation or the bullpen. What I know for sure is that depth is always a good problem to have. This team is going to hit with the best of them for years to come. 

3. Houston, We Have Liftoff

Astros starter Ronel Blanco has been a fun story so far this season, and he’s been the biggest bright spot for a team that’s struggled out of the gate. He made the rotation only after Justin Verlander’s injury lingered and left him off the roster to start the year. In just the eighth start of his career, Blanco tossed a no-hitter against the Blue Jays – a lineup with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Justin Turner and former Astro George Springer. He then responded with six innings of one-hit baseball against arguably the most potent offense in the American League, paving the way for Houston’s new-look bullpen to settle in a little bit after a rough start to the year. 

Blanco is certainly making his case to stay in the rotation, and the recent injury to Framber Valdez may help justify that even further. Houston always seems to have a next-guy-up ready to go, and Blanco is quickly emerging as that early in 2024.

3 DOWN

1. Greed Vs. Grievance

Billy, this is John Fisher. He’s worth 3.1 billion dollars, and he’s been the majority owner since 2005. His defect is that he’s a selfish asshole.

Last week, we talked about the A’s sending players down because they boycotted the move to Vegas. Here we are once again, talking about the A’s as a down, this time because of their temporary move to Sacramento. The A’s will play their final game in Oakland this year before moving to Sacramento’s Minor League park for the next three (or possibly four) seasons while their stadium is built in Las Vegas. It’s going to put unnecessary strain on all kinds of folks. More than that, the move marks the official end of high-level (kind of) professional teams in the East Bay, bringing a wave of disappointment to the area.  

The ballpark in Sacramento is going to need some pretty severe upgrades to house a Major League (kind of) team, including batting cages, training facilities, and space for both an MLB and a AAA team to share. Working on a schedule for both the RiverCats and A’s seems like a tall task to say the least. The A’s are actually now further away from their future Vegas home, and A’s officials made it clear they have no intent of using the Sacramento name anywhere on jerseys, marketing materials, etc. Sacramento becomes just as much a villain in this story now as the A’s entitled owner.

Sacramento – very visibly okay with being used by the A’s – is clearly viewing this as an audition in case the Vegas move falls apart, which doesn’t seem terribly unlikely at this point. I have to believe that the decrease in 49,000 seats won’t matter a ton, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out for the city of Sacramento nonetheless.

I get that this is pro sports and teams move, but this one is because of one person’s greed and nothing more. The fact that MLB owners and brass have allowed this whole situation to unfold this way is egregious, but the lack of accountability that has become a theme with this league will once again take them off the hook. All of a sudden, it’s pretty easy to see how you can not be romantic about baseball.

2. Making Moves Just to Make Moves

The Red Sox, fresh off hiring a new general manager, announced an eight-year, $50 million extension for outfielder Ceddane Rafaela on Monday night, and I gotta be honest. This deal is puzzling to me to say the least. For most people, the extension (or possibly even this writing) was the first time they had even heard the guy’s name.

Rafaela, listed at 5’9 and 152 pounds, has just 38 career games under his belt, and he’s hit .239 with two homers in that time. He hasn’t even been there long enough to have his first lobster roll yet. A small sample size, sure, but nothing warranting a major extension. If you’re Rafaela, I guess you have to take the money, but you know there’s probably more money involved if you put together even one full season of production before you hit free agency. (Ask Ronald Acuna how much he left on the table.) If you’re the Red Sox and can get this dude for cheap for six more years, why wouldn’t you do that? I’m all for early extensions and players getting paid, but there’s been nothing remotely special about him so far. Somebody got fleeced here. It’s too early to tell which side yet.

To be fair, Rafaela is touted as a potential Gold Glove caliber player in centerfield, so he’s not going to make his money with his bat, anyway. He’s got two errors in nine games out there this season, and rumor is the Sox are considering moving him to short, which doesn’t exactly seem like a situation to make his defense better. It seems more like they are rushing to try to create a franchise player who can do it all and play anywhere on the field. Think Mookie Betts. If only the Sox could find a guy like that.

3. Somebody Has to Figure It Out

It’s April 10. The number of uniform problems across MLB is growing, and I don’t mean “the fans hate the way they look” type of problems. I mean players saying they aren’t big-league uniforms. I mean the colors of the uniform not matching team brands. I mean Major League teams not getting uniforms in time.

How does this happen in the highest level of professional baseball in the entire world? How is it still happening two weeks into the season? Fanatics is clearly overwhelmed and underequipped to handle this, and it’s more glaring every day. Everyone involved – the fans, the players, MLB itself – deserve better. There are bigger stories out there, and yet, this is what continues to dominate headlines. It’s got to be fixed. Like, yesterday.

UP

1. Snakes in the Grass

The Dodgers will get all the praise for signing Ohtani and Yamamoto this winter, but man, the Diamondbacks, who it seems like everyone has forgotten are the defending NL Champions, put together a really nice offseason. Eduardo Rodriguez, Joc Pederson, Eugenio Suarez, and Lourdes Gurriel was already a sneaky nice haul. Arizona capped it off last week with the signing of starter Jordan Montgomery with what turned out to be a team-friendly deal (and another disappointment for Scott Boras). Officially, the deal was for one year and $25 million, though if Montgomery meets certain requirements, believed to be making 10 starts, he activates a player option for 2025 worth another $20 million.

Initially, I was not big on giving him huge money based on the fact that his career numbers just aren’t that impressive, but this is a contract every contending team in baseball should have happily given this guy. He’s not going to be an ace on any team, but he’s a more-than-serviceable big-league arm who is capable of eating innings in the regular season and coming up big in October. Arizona now has a rotation that includes Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Montgomery, Brandon Pfaadt, and eventually Rodriguez. That may not look like much on paper, but that’s absolutely a rotation that should be pitching in October once again. We kept hearing that Montgomery was going to end up in Texas or New York or Boston. Arizona waited and laid low in order to get Montgomery, and once his asking price finally lowered, they struck.

2. Will and Grace

A few weeks after setting a record arbitration amount for a catcher, Dodgers catcher Will Smith signed a 10-year, $140 million extension to stay in Los Angeles for the duration of his career. He’s coming off his first All-Star selection and averages 30 homers per 162 games played, so the Dodgers made the easy call to keep him around for a while. As it turns out, if you can hit big league pitching consistently, there’s always going to be a spot for you. Mookie Betts (2032), Freddie Freeman (2027), Shohei Ohtani (2033) and now Smith (2033) are locked up for a combined 33 seasons. Do with that information what you will.

He is obviously not going to be a catcher for another 10 years, as he’s already 29 years old. The Dodgers – one of the best teams in baseball at developing catchers – also have Diego Cartaya and Dalton Rushing in the minors, and speculation is that one of them will have to be moved with Smith’s extension. Of the 490 games Smith has played in his career, 423 of them have come behind the plate, and 46 have been as the DH. With Ohtani presumably locking down the DH spot for the next decade, a move to first seems inevitable, but Smith is only 5-10. We’ve seen Kyle Schwarber – a much less graceful defender – move to left field just to keep his bat in the lineup. I’m confident the Dodgers will make it work with Smith, but they might have to be okay with a grace period at some point.

3. Diaz Defying Dusty’s Doubts

On Monday night, the Astros won their first game of the year, dominating Toronto 10-0 in what turned out to be the first no-hitter of the year. Ronel Blanco, in his eighth major league start and only in the rotation because of injuries, was the guy that got all the attention, but it was catcher Yainer Diaz that was the bigger story to me.

Flashback to 2023 when old school manager Dusty Baker kept penciling Martin Maldonado in night after night, even in the Postseason. By the time last October came along, Diaz, a rookie, had hit 23 homers and .282 with 60 RBI in a little more than half a season’s worth of at-bats. Pretty impressive numbers for a catcher, much less a rookie catcher. Maldonado hit .191 with 14 homers and 36 RBI for the year. I know what you’re thinking because Dusty’s reputation brainwashed you into thinking it – that Maldonado was in the lineup because of his defense at a defensive position. That would be fair – if it were true. Maldonado led the league in passed balls last season, and Diaz actually threw out more runners in a third of Maldonado’s attempts. Maldonado was also 2-for-16 with seven strikeouts in the Postseason. There was no metric and no stretch where Maldonado was better than Diaz in 2023.

On the night when Yainer Diaz caught his first no-hitter from another improbable guy, Diaz also hit two home runs to help provide as much cushion as possible. Through a series and some change, Diaz is tearing the cover off the ball and has been perfect defensively. He’s obviously going to cool off some, but he’s quickly turning into one of the most exciting young catchers in baseball. It’s a shame Dusty couldn’t see that.

Still don’t believe me? Well, at this moment, Martin Maldonado, now with the White Sox, has started his season 0-for-8 at the plate and has yet to throw out a runner in three games. Sorry, Dusty.

DOWN

1. A’s Get an F

The A’s sent 2023 stolen base leader Esteury Ruiz down to the minors on Monday, which just didn’t make any sense considering he was hitting .429 at the time of the demotion. The worst organization in the sport then doubled down, stating that for Ruiz’ speed on the bases to be a factor, he needed to be on base. Again, he was hitting .429. Oakland also has 13 errors in five games. Ruiz does not have one of them, one of four A’s position players who can say that.

Speculation has run wild on Twitter that Ruiz (and another player) have been sent down because they were supporting fans in their boycotts and protests about moving the team to Las Vegas. At this point, you can’t put anything past that front office, even a theory as sad as this one.

“There’s fifty feet of crap. Then there’s us.”

Yup.

2. Put Me In, Coach

In the fourth game of the year, the White Sox delayed the game because there was no one to coach first base, and it’s apparently is a written rule that somebody has to be there. Granted, they were down 9-0 to the Braves at the time, so maybe he had already given up that day. Worth noting that the White Sox’ first base coach is former (kind of) Major Leaguer Jason Bourgeois, who wasn’t terribly familiar with being on base himself during his playing days. Players were looking around the dugout for somebody – anybody – to stand in the first base coaching box, and Bourgeois finally emerged and gave the Chicago dugout and 11 remaining fans something to cheer about.

3. Where’s the Beef?

It took three days for us to get our first bench-clearer of the season. Tampa infielder Jose Caballero bunted his way aboard, a wild throw allowed him to try for three, and he was out by several feet without a slide. After the tag, Blue Jays pitcher Genesis Cabrera got in Caballero’s face before shoving him and eventually getting a three-game suspension for it. If you watch the video, Caballero looks like an innocent bystander. It appears that Cabrera was mad because of either the bunt-for-hit attempt or the trying for three or a combination of the two. All stupid things for a big-leaguer to cry over. Keep your cool, dummy. Not his fault you suck, and not his fault you’re Charmin Ultra Soft.

A few days later, new Brewer Rhys Hoskins broke up a double play with a hard slide at second that knocked over Jeff McNeil, whose reaction caused another bench-clearer. I don’t like the slide because I’ve seen guys get hurt that way, but by the rule, Hoskins’ slide was a completely legal slide in every way. McNeil continued his poutfest for several minutes, and then the next day, after Hoskins had three hits including an absolute tank, the Mets threw at him before saying it wasn’t on purpose. If you’re gonna get him, and this is a dumb thing to get him over, but if you’re gonna, go get him on the first pitch of his very next at-bat. Not five or six at bats later. Not the last time you’ll see him in the series. Add in the fact that the Mets reliever who threw at Hoskins completely missed, and my theory of Mets Gonna Mets continues to find new examples. 

I’m all for some good baseball drama when it’s warranted, but this is the vegan version. These are fake beef.

The biggest up is that baseball season is HERE. The giveaways are packed and ready to go, the grass has been cut, the logos have been painted, and the A’s have already been eliminated. It’s better than Christmas for me. Anyway, let’s get to it….

3 UP

1. All-Star Arm Headed to Arlington

The Rangers announced last week that they had agreed to terms with pitcher Michael Lorenzen on a one-year, $4.5 million contract filled with incentives. For a team who is the reigning World Champions, has a general manager who was a big-league pitcher, and is thin on pitching depth at the moment, this move makes a good amount of sense given the price tag. (To be clear, this wouldn’t have made a ton of sense for a team like say, Seattle, who is deep on pitching. It’s only a good move based on the need of the team he signed with.)

Lorenzen had a weird 2023, as he pitched his way to a 3.58 ERA and an All-Star selection over 18 starts with Detroit before being traded to Philadelphia in August. He tossed a no-hitter in his first home start with the Phillies, but struggled after that to the point that he was a bullpen option. In total, his ERA ballooned to 5.51 in 11 outings for the Phils. Kind of a mixed bag last year for him. So why do I like this move?

Well, as I mentioned, the Rangers are incredibly thin at rotation depth, as Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle may not all be ready until late July or August this year, and that’s assuming they’re all going to come back with no problems – a big assumption. As it stands, the rotation entering the season is some combination of Nathan Eovaldi, Andrey Heaney, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Grant Anderson, and Cody Bradford. Texas has already named Lorenzen a starter, so it’s not clear yet who is coming out of that rotation. He has said he has a huge chip on his shoulder due to his lack of suitors in free agency, but in Texas, he will get a chance to be a heavy contributor all year. His experience in both bullpen and starting roles will surely help his case, too. He provides a flex depth role that nobody else in the organization can fill.

Texas is planning for another Postseason run, and they are not panicking. IF they can get all their arms healthy at once, a rotation of Eovaldi, deGrom, Scherzer, Mahle, Gray/Lorenzen looks pretty darn good on paper. They’re going to need it to compete in that division. They also have the prospects to make some noise with another big arm at the deadline if those guys aren’t ready. Here’s hoping the offense can keep them afloat until those decisions loom larger.

2. J.D. Stands for Just Dingers

I’m not sure how it took so long for maybe the best full-time DH (not named Ohtani) in baseball to land a contract, but it’s been a wacky offseason for the top of the market. Anyway, J.D. Martinez has signed to play for the Mets this year, which can only be viewed as a good thing. Last year with the Dodgers, at 35 years old, Martinez hit 33 homers and drove in 103 runs. That’ll play anywhere.

The Mets hits 215 homers as a team last year, trailing only the Braves, Dodgers and Phillies in the National League. Since leaving Houston and altering his swing, Martinez has averaged 32 homers per full season (not counting the COVID year). He showed no signs of slowing down last year, and now he’ll be dropped into a lineup with Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Alvarez, Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo. In today’s game, you can’t have too much thump in your lineup. Martinez will fit in just fine in Queens.

3. Atlanta Playing the Hits

In the last week, the Braves brought back both Jesse Chavez and Adam Duvall, and both have made the big club. This will be the third and longest chapter of Chavez’ three stints with Atlanta, while Duvall returns for his third stint, as well. The Braves want guys they are familiar with and guys they feel can contribute.

Chavez has pitched well every time he’s gone to Atlanta, as his 1.56 ERA over 36 games last year is the best mark of his entire career. If you take away his entire Braves tenure, his career numbers look significantly worse, but for whatever reason, he has proven to be effective there. Duvall averages 32 homers per 162 games played, and more than a third of his career dingers have come as a Brave despite playing 167 more games as a Red. I can’t explain it, but it works for Atlanta. No need to change the ingredients of success.

3 DOWN

1. Wassup With That?

MLB has announced that they will be selling WWE championship belts branded with MLB team logos. WHAT?! I just don’t get it. I like my WWE. I love me some baseball. When Josh Reddick had a championship belt in the Astros dugout, it was kind of cool because it was a team thing that fit his personality. It’s less cool to try to make money off it. WHAT?! Then there’s the whole part where a sixth of the league has never won a championship. WHAT?! Oh, and they are $550 apiece. WHAT?! This is to clever marketing ideas as the Worm is to finishing moves. It’s like seeing Ken Griffey Jr. play for the White Sox or Matt Hardy form a tag team with Tatanka. Just because it can happen doesn’t mean it should.

My team won it all last year. WHAT?! I’d never in a million years buy one of these things. WHAT?! If you look them up, they look more like a chastity belt to me.

2. A Swing and a Miss

MLB let the Dodgers and Padres open the season with a pair of games in South Korea, which is pretty cool given how many Asian players are on both rosters. In typical MLB fashion, though, they screwed it up and let first pitch be thrown at 7:00 pm local time, which was a 3:00 a.m. start time on the West Coast. After an offseason where the biggest name in the sport went to the biggest market, MLB didn’t even give its’ biggest portion of fans a chance to follow it. I get this wasn’t designed to cater to an American audience, and I’m all about trying to grow the game, but this would have been better suited as a set of exhibition games – you know. Kind of the point of Spring Training. Opening Day is almost a holiday for baseball fans, and the timing of this forces MLB to choose between “growing the game” or fans getting to pack stadiums for Opening Day. 

The Dodgers then didn’t start sensational “rookie” Yoshinobu Yamamoto to counter San Diego’s Yu Darvish in Game 1, missing a chance to further capitalize on the moment and the market. Fans across the sport were excited to watch Ohtani’s Dodger debut and Yamamoto’s first start (Game 2), but the time difference hindered the ability to do so. Attendance was listed at 15,952 or less than all but two MLB teams averaged in 2023. (The Dodgers and Padres averaged just under 44,000 last year.) The game’s highlight was an error that went *through* the mitt of Jake Cronenworth at first. The teams each committed two errors. Once the two-game series ended, both teams went back for the final week of Spring Training. You read that right. Countable, regular season games, and then right back to the Cactus League. Everything about the first MLB game in four months seemed to be a dud. The idea is there, but MLB has left much room for improvement on this one.

3. That’s Sho Business

Unless you’ve been under a rock the last several days, you’ve probably heard about the situation going on with Shohei Ohtani. The news broke after that first game in Seoul that the Dodgers were firing Ohtani’s interpreter – Ippei Mizuhara – for allegedly stealing millions from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts. We don’t know the entire situation yet, and Shohei read an as-expected boring statement on Monday that said he was innocent, hurt and shocked, and that he is going to let the legal process play out. Of course, he mentioned that he has never bet on any sport. All of that makes sense.

What doesn’t is pretty much everything else.

Not long after the story broke, we were told that Shohei Ohtani’s name was on two of these wire transfers, a detail that seems to have been diminished in importance since. We were also given a timeline that stated that Ippei had told the Dodgers players that he was being fired ahead of the final out of Game 1 in Seoul, but we also saw he and Shohei in the dugout laughing and looking as friendly as ever. Ippei, upon what’s believed to be the first questioning on the matter, says Ohtani himself was wiring the money, minutes before changing the story to “Shohei knew nothing” and refusing further comment. Ohtani’s lawyers then arrived at the claim that the money Ippei received was indeed stolen, which led to a predictable press conference four days later where Ohtani took no questions from media, only fueling the speculation. His new interpreter appeared to be jotting down some notes, despite having a copy of the preprepared statement in front of him. We then found out that many of Ippei’s credentials – including his education and experience – had been falsified. MLB waited until the press conference to even mention the story, stating they would be conducting an “investigation”. (MLB has a history of their own investigations showing exactly what they want it to, which is usually as little damaging information as possible.) 

Both men have said they spend “most of every day together” and they are very close, so it’s really hard to know what’s true and what’s not in all the finger pointing. Is there a chance that all of this is on Ippei, who we know has lied multiple times about this very situation already? That Ohtani is a degenerate gambler with an addictive personality? Yes. Of course there is. Is there also a chance that the conspiracy theorists are right, and that Ohtani somehow has single worst best friend, interpreter, accountant, manager, agent, and bank in history? That he didn’t know $4.5 million just disappeared from his account in $500,000+ installments? That the guy who pitched the idea of deferring money to maximize the Dodgers’ payroll flexibility was truly a victim? Yes. All of that also remains a possibility.

There’s also the added juicy caveat possibility that fall guy Ippei sings like a canary, but he’s going to be hard to believe in any situation now. What’s most likely is either the former or the idea that this is a cover up to protect both MLB and its’ biggest name. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, but this story is not going anywhere for a while.

What I know for sure is that one of these two dudes is the absolute best friend of all-time. Either Ohtani is covering $4.5 million (or more) of his buddy’s gambling debt, or Ippei is falling on the sword and going to do actual time in prison to save face for Ohtani.

It took less than one game as a Dodger for Ohtani’s entire life to come unraveled. Stay tuned.

3 UP

1. At a Snell’s Pace

After going almost the entire offseason without a job, Blake Snell finally signed a contract Monday evening, landing with the Giants on a two-year deal worth $62 million with an opt out after this season. While this is still a dreadful deal for Snell and his bad-advice agent, it’s a tremendous deal for the Giants to cap an impressive offseason.

The actual contract breakdown is a $15 million salary for 2024, with a deferred $17 million signing bonus. Snell is the reigning Cy Young winner in the National League after racking up a career-high 234 strikeouts in 180 innings to the tune of a 2.25 ERA. Any team in baseball interesting in winning games should have been all over a deal like that for a pitcher like that.

Snell will now sit atop a rotation oozing with potential. The Giants also have Logan Webb, who finished second in the same Cy Young voting last year and Kyle Harrison, the top lefty prospect in baseball. They will wait for 2021 Cy Young winner Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb to get healthy, and they have Keaton Winn and Mason Black waiting in the wings. Converted starter Jordan Hicks may also see some time in the rotation, but the Giants are going to have lots of options, and they all appear to be very good.

Snell puts a bow on the offseason in the City by the Bay, adding him to a signing class of Hicks, Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee, and Jorge Soler. What seems to be flying under the radar is that the Giants also went and got Bob Melvin to be their new manager, who has a pretty stellar track record. He has managed six 90-win teams, has four division titles, and has managed three different teams to the Postseason, and none of them has the spending limit that San Francisco will have. Oh, and he’s managed Blake Snell the last two years in San Diego.

Everything about Blake Snell makes sense from the team perspective. They’ve upgraded their starting pitching, their lineup, and their manager. The Giants won 79 games a year ago, and they’ve improved significantly, but this is one of the best moves by any team all offseason.

2. Let the Kids Play

The Padres have announced that Jackson Merrill will make the roster as their everyday centerfielder, which is excellent news for those of us who are fans of the idea that the best players should play. Manipulating service time (having a prospect start in the minors to call them up a few weeks into the season so that they don’t have the Major League service time to hit free agency sooner) has become a huge problem across the sport, so this is a bit refreshing. Merrill has never played a game above the AA-level yet, so it’s certainly kind of surprising. The counter is that he has a smooth swing, will make lots of contact, and has earned his spot with a .351 average in 50 plate appearances this spring.

Wyatt Langford (Texas), Jackson Holliday (Baltimore) and Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee) all still have a shot at making the Opening Day roster, though even just one of those would surprise me. Not because they’re not ready or can’t play. They absolutely can – and should. But, greed is powerful. The service manipulation thing is a gimmick that helps the billionaire owners save a little bit of cash down the road. If it was any other profession, it would be referred to as “wage theft”, but MLB is protected from that. The Rays have already sent Junior Caminero back to the minor leagues to start the season, as is the case with Paul Skenes in Pittsburgh, even though both will undoubtedly crack the roster this season. Langford is the Cactus League leader in OPS and RBI. Holliday is the top prospect in baseball, and his team has a need at his position. Skenes has a Major League fastball already, and his team won 76 games last year.

Kudos to the Padres for letting their best players take the field, regardless of age or experience. It’s clear they are still trying to stay in win-now mode, though that may be because the seat of their GM is getting a little warmer. Either way, Merrill is a big leaguer, and I’d expect him to contribute a good deal. I like this move for San Diego. Let the kids play.

3. Bigger Than Baseball

The Dodgers once renewed the contract of Andrew Toles, who hasn’t played a professional baseball game since 2018. He was placed on the restricted list so that he could focus on his mental health issues, and he was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Because he remains “employed” by the Dodgers, he still has full access to his health insurance and has since his playing days ended. The Dodgers have renewed him every year since 2018, but I’ll share it every time I get the chance. Just a classy move all the way around by the Dodgers in an industry that sometimes forgets that the people involved are just that. People.

3 DOWN

1. Go Find Yourself, San Diego

The White Sox traded starter Dylan Cease to the Padres for four prospects, which a lot of people hate because that’s “auctioning the future” or whatever. Prospects are a currency, designed to be bought, sold and traded, and nobody cares how many minor league championships you win. (Ask Oakland.) Anyway, I say that to say this: I’m not mad that the Padres traded away a few dudes who might make the big leagues one day if a lot of things go right. The truth is I’m just not that big on Dylan Cease.

Cease has made 97 starts in the last three seasons, and to me, that’s his best quality. However, he’s never had a 200-inning season despite not missing a start for three years. His ERA by year so far is: 5.79, 4.01, 3.91, 2.20, 4.58, so discovering which one is the anomaly seems pretty easy. Outside of that year, he’s got a career ERA of 4.57, which doesn’t blow me away. Even with his best year, he’s got a career WAR of 11.7. For comparison, Drew Smyly has a career WAR of 12.6. You wanna hand Drew Smyly the ball 30+ times a year? Yeah, me neither.

Cease certainly has more upside with his age and his “stuff”, and he’s under team control for two more years. The potential is there. But in an offseason where the Padres admit to being strapped for cash because their owner died, traded away Juan Soto, let Blake Snell, Josh Hader and their manager walk for nothing, this trade doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense to me. They’ve fielded a team with a natural shortstop in a number of positions (Machado at third, Tatis in right, Bogaerts at second, Profar in left, and Kim actually at short). They look like they are in baseball purgatory – they’re probably not good enough to compete with the top teams, but they aren’t bad enough to tank (yet). As a fan of a team who has been there most of my life, I can tell you that baseball purgatory sucks. It’s the worst place for a team to be. The Padres have an identity crisis on their hands right now, and intentionally trying to get cheaper usually results in losing more games.

2. A (Red)Bird in the Hand…

The Cardinals announced a contract extension for manager Oli Marmol, who massively underachieved in Year 2 as the team’s skipper and led a team with tons of promise to the organization’s worst record in nearly three decades. No, seriously. They won 71 games. The last time they finished that bad was 1995. What was even worse was the reasoning given by GM John Mozeliak. To avoid any confusion or speculation, let me provide an exact quote here.

“What you didn’t want to have happen was if we got off to a rocky start, all of a sudden everybody is calling for someone’s head. So really, it was more of not just a vote of confidence, because he knows we appreciate what he does and how hard he work, but I think it’s something that now no longer will be a distraction, for Oli, staff, players and front office. Coming off the year we just experienced, I think a lot of people would have been happy if we were both gone.”

Uhhh…..what? This fool just said he anticipates a bad start from his team, and he extended his historically bad manager to avoid a distraction. He then tries to justify the extension by saying he knows a lot of people wanted the manager fired after last season. If that load of hot word garbage makes sense to you, please feel free to translate it for me.

I’ve defended Mozeliak after last season time and time again – even to Cardinals fans – based on his reputation in St. Louis. After that move and that explanation, I’d like to personally apologize to those people. I know those folks are hoping 2024 is better, but the highlight just might be Mozeliak getting canned this summer.

3. Is Losing Fun?

Once the Giants acquired the aforementioned Matt Chapman, that left little room for JD Davis, who ended up being released and then signing with Oakland. I guess nobody told him that Oakland is openly trying to lose, fans are boycotting games, and the stadium has rats.

Wait a minute. Just pulled up his stats. Guy sounds like an Oakland A already.

3 UP

1. Holding Steady

The Mariners signed reliever Ryne Stanek last week to help solidify their bullpen, and I’d expect him to play a pretty large role for them. You can’t have too much pitching, and since the beginning of his first big league season, Stanek has been used in over 36% of his team’s games. Translation: people paid to make decisions in baseball trust this dude a lot. I’m not sure why more people aren’t talking about the Mariners having one of the best pitching staffs in the American League, but they really should be. I think those doubters will realize that around June.

Anyway, we’ve already seen injuries to Matt Brash and Gregory Santos, who combined for 138 appearances in 2023. Those may end up not being lengthy injuries but remain noteworthy nonetheless. This spring has also ended the season of Jackson Cowar, who most expected to make the roster after being acquired from Atlanta a few weeks ago. Even without those three injuries, you have to think there’s a place for a guy like Ryne Stanek on this team.

According to MLB’s official release, Stanek “has ranked in the 96th percentile or higher in fastball velocity every season since 2017 per Statcast, sitting at 98.2 mph last season. He pairs the heat with a biting splitter that’s his best secondary pitch, having held hitters to a .189 batting average and .297 slugging percentage while generating whiffs on 46.8% of swings. Compared to Seattle’s top relievers, who primarily lean on two-seam fastballs and sliders, Stanek brings a different look, with the four-seam/split combo, making him a prime candidate for pockets against lefties.”

I’ve previously written about how much I like Seattle’s offseason, and this move adds to that. In a division with the Rangers (reigning champs, potent offense) and the Astros (been to ALCS or better in seven straight seasons), I still contend that the Mariners will hang tough. Houston remains the biggest threat in the AL West, and Stanek should have a pretty good scouting report on them. This move makes all the sense.

2. Views From the Six

As we approach election season, Joey Votto has switched from Red to Blue. (Yes, I know he’s Canadian, folks, and this is a free blog. Miss me with the political takes.) After spending the last 17 seasons in Cincinnati, the former MVP has signed a deal to play for his hometown Blue Jays. It certainly appears he will end his career there, but since he resides there in the offseason anyway, at he’ll be able to Keep the Family Close. As the Reds’ youth movement – Child’s Play if you will – has been accelerated, there simply wasn’t going to be room for Votto on the roster anymore.

The Jays already have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to play first, and they’ve already signed Justin Turner to be the primary DH, so there’s really not a clear path for Votto to be a huge contributor, but they don’t need him to be MVP Votto. Toronto won 89 games last year and have made the playoffs three times in the last four seasons, so there will be some Hype again this year. They are going to take their chances with whatever Votto has left in the tank.

Votto is coming off a season where he hit 14 homers and drove in 38 RBI in just 65 games. My guess is that he and Turner tag-team the DH spot, and Votto being left-handed makes that make some sense. If he really gets going, maybe Vladdy moves back to third for a little while and they just take the bad (the mobility on defense) with the good. It just might end up as a Redemption year for ol’ Joe.

Votto is a guy that has been incredibly hard to root against for the vast majority of his career so far. He won an MVP in the National League during the Albert Pujols era. (In Votto’s MVP year, Pujols hit .312 with 42 homers and 118 RBI. Votto was just Too Good.) He’s always been a fun player for the fans, and he seems like a laid-back-but-still-respected guy in the clubhouse, too. While seeing him wear blue is going to take some getting used to, especially for the Cincinnati Faithful, it’s always cool to get to see guys play for the team closest to home.

3. Another Change of Scenery

Outfielder Eddie Rosario will have a chance to wear the Walgreen’s logo on his hat this season, as he signed a minor league deal with the Nationals last week. If he makes the team, this will be his fourth Major League club. It seems like every time he hits a rhythm somewhere, he has to pivot.

Most recently, Rosario hit 21 homers with 74 RBI, turning in his best regular season stretch as a Brave. He’s always had a huge arm in the outfield, and he’s a career .268 hitter, about average in today’s game. Lane Thomas is really the only guy who figures to be a mainstay in Washington’s outfield this year, though Alex Call served as the team’s primary centerfielder in 2023. The Nationals also still have Stone Garret and signed Joey Gallo, while Victor Robles has never really lived up to the hype he received early in his career.

Don’t know how this one pans out, but have to think Rosario is able to latch on somewhere. Seems like a good move for the Curly W’s.

3 DOWN

1. Caught Red-Handed

Reds infielder Noelvi Marte, the prized return of the Luis Castillo trade with the Mariners, has tested positive for PEDs and is set to serve an 80-game suspension to start the season. He is the top prospect in a system deeply committed to using prospects as a necessity instead of a currency, and this doesn’t help his case much.

The Reds were trying to figure out how to get all their young guys the playing time they think they should, and Marte just made it a lot easier. When Cincinnati brass put together this stable of young talent, this was not what they had in mind. Marte was almost certainly going to be the Opening Day third baseman, but instead, he’ll be working out at the team facility in Arizona. While he is eligible to rejoin the team on June 21, he would not be Postseason eligible should the Reds make it.

The Reds will be fine. Because they aren’t going to compete with the big spenders financially, they’ve placed a premium on clubhouse culture. They’ve just lost their best clubhouse guy in Votto, and now they have to wonder how reliable Marte will be moving forward. This is a test for Marte, and the result so far is a big red X mark.  

2. Angel's On the Backfields

For whatever reason, the biggest ego in the sport continues to be employed, as umpire Angel Hernandez tossed somebody from a Spring Training game a few days ago. The victim this time was Cardinals starter Lance Lynn, and after seeing the video, I'm still not sure why he was ejected other than Angel's Ego. Following the ejection, Lynn went to the bullpen to try to get his work in (the whole purpose of Spring Training), and Hernandez again stopped the game to toss Lynn from the bullpen. Unfortunately for Lynn, Angel's Ego was already in midseason form. 

Hernandez has been the worst umpire in the sport for some time now, and he's the very reason that I've begun clamoring for robo umps. According to Umpire Auditor, Hernandez was (again) the worst rated umpire in baseball in 2023, and he only worked 10 games due to a back injury. In fact, his rating last year was the lowest by any umpire in baseball in more than five years. The guy enjoys baseball about as much as most guys enjoy getting kicked in the nuts, which, ironically enough, is what it feels like to watch this guy umpire your team's game.

Players and managers get fined when they complain about umpires, and I'm seldom a fan of blaming officials, but there's got to be some accountability for a guy who has been this bad this often. It's embarrassing. And yet, we are continuously told that MLB can do nothing despite being the ones that sign the checks for umpires. Angel is among the worst parts of professional baseball, and that's the only area where he's ever been accused of being consistent. 

MLB 

3. Rated E for Egregious

MLB The Show is set to release soon, and they’ve already teased some of the player ratings on social media. If you’re going to be the only MLB game on the market, it’s pretty much expected that you get your player ratings somewhat close to accurate. Upon seeing some of the ratings, I legitimately wondered if the game designers actually watch baseball.

Kyle Schwarber was given a discipline rating of 99. Uhhhhhh…..what? The dude is coming off a career-high 215 strikeouts to lead the league for the second year in a row, and he hit .197. Luis Arraez, who just won the NL batting title a year after winning the AL batting title, who finished eighth in the MVP voting, isn’t a top five rated player on his own team. Somehow Jake Burger is an 83 overall, while Arraez is a 78. For context, Joey Gallo is a 79. Josh Jung, the All-Star starter at third base as a rookie last year, is a laughable 68 overall. Anthony Rendon, who has averaged 50 games per season since joining the Angels because he hates baseball, has a durability rating of 89. Make it make sense.

I remember being excited to get MLBTS in 2013. My college buddies and I would play home run derbies all the time in the dorm, and Miguel Cabrera was coming off a Triple Crown. He was sure to be the first pick in every derby, regardless of who had the pick. As we got deeper into the selections, somebody realized that Franklin Gutierrez, who had a career-high 19 homers four years earlier, had the highest power rating on the game. I remember the commercial with cover boy Dustin Pedroia complaining to the game makers that he couldn’t hit the high inside fastball. It’s like they were joking about their own incompetencies. They’ve been getting it wrong for more than a decade.

I get it’s a video game, but this is the very part that should be based in reality. Maybe it’s the Starbucks Effect. You know, if we get it wrong, you’re more likely to talk about it to your friends. There’s just one problem. Some of us still like boring old black coffee.

3 UP

1. Wheel of Historical Fortune

The Phillies signed starter Zack Wheeler to a three-year extension worth $126 million, making it the highest AAV (average annual value) ever signed on an extension in MLB history. In fact, it’s the fourth AAV ever on any contract, trailing Shohei Ohtani, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. All of that should tell you exactly how bad Philadelphia wanted to keep Wheeler, who was due to be a free agent at the end of 2024.

Wheeler will also have 10-5 rights at the end of the year, giving him the power to veto any future trade as long as he’s a Phillie. There’s all kinds of extra financial reasons the organization did it this way, but it’s always good when a player wants to be part of a club that wants him. No doubt about that here for Wheeler.

Per MLB Trade Rumors, Wheeler “posted excellent swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates, sitting at 13.% and 36.6%, respectively. Those two marks were not only his best as a Phillie but the best single-season marks he’s posted in either category in his entire career to date. When opponents did manage to make contact against Wheeler, it was typically of the feeble variety. Hitters averaged a dismal 86.9 mph exit velocity against Wheeler this past season, placing the right-hander in the 88th percentile of big league pitchers.”

Remember, Aaron Nola kicked off this offseason by re-upping in Philly for seven more years, and Ranger Suarez and Taijuan Walker are both under team control for multiple seasons. The Phillies expect to be playing October baseball yet again, and getting Wheeler’s extension done early will allow them to do that.

2. Back to the Bay

Matt Chapman has finally signed a contract. The four-time Gold Glove winner will take his talents to San Francisco after inking a three-year deal (with opt-outs after each of the first two years) two weeks into Spring Training. He left money on the table, yes, but he reunites with his first big league manager in Bob Melvin and joins a Giants team that should improve on their fourth-place season from a year ago.

Chapman spent five seasons in Oakland before being traded to Toronto, and unless you’re a “batting average still matters” person, he’s been pretty good in both places. His 162 game average has him at 29 homers, 39 doubles, and 80 RBI per year. In 2023, he led the majors with a 56.4 hard-hit percentage. Not a bad spot for a guy that is probably going to bad sixth or seventh in the order.

As we touched on previously when the Giants added Jorge Soler, that lineup should be pretty good and much improved. Jung Ho Lee, Jorge Soler, Michael Conforto, and Matt Chapman will be the biggest names in it, but Lamonte Wade, Thairo Estrada and J.D. Davis each were heavy contributors last season and should still be regulars. Wilmer Flores hit 23 homers, which is a high number at that park. And then there’s his defense. Think Logan Webb – a sinkerballer with a 3-to-1 groundball to flyball rate who finished second in the Cy Young voting last year – might be happy with a Gold Glover at third?

Whether or not they can compete with the high-powered Dodgers or the reigning NL Champion D-back remains to be seen, but I like where the Giants is right now. They are going to have options, and that’s never a bad spot to be.

3. So Much Better Than Pink Bats

MLB The Show announced on Tuesday that female characters will be playable in Road to the Show for the first time on the 2024 edition, which is set to be released next week. Before you hit me with how unrealistic that is, remember that you name your created player Country Breakfast Daddy Hack. He hit 104 home runs as a rookie, and he flies like Superman around the bases.  

Climb down off that high horse and come back to reality. This idea is cool and unique to baseball.

As somebody who constantly roasts MLB for failing to grow the game, I have to admit they actually do quite well when it comes to major milestones set by women. In February, the A’s named Jenny Cavnar as their lead play-by-play announcer, making her the first woman in MLB history to serve as a primary voice for any team. In 2022, Rachel Balkovec was the first woman to manage an affiliated team. A year earlier, Kim Ng became the first female GM in any major sport in the country. You don’t have to like it, but this isn’t medieval baseball anymore.

3 DOWN

1. Overlooking the Problem

According to ESPN baseball reporter Alden Gonzalez in a tweet last week, “MLB twice proposed hard, multi-year-contract deadlines for its offseason” in recent negotiations with the players. I get the effort. It would be designed so that guys like Blake Snell are signed before mid-March, but I’m not sure this would have the desired effect. It doesn’t seem like it was thought through properly. Most years, the market waits on one or two dominoes to fall before the rest of the market picks up. Many years, teams get involved late on a player who ultimately ends up with them. There isn’t a great solution, but rushing offseason signings with a deadline isn’t it.

There’s absolutely no reason for the players to agree to this without MLB and the owners giving up something in return, which explains why the Player’s Association refused both times MLB put this on the table. Lower the amount of service time required to become arbitration eligible, qualify for free agency, or stop manipulating service time altogether. (What a concept!) Those are starters in that conversation if you’re the MLBPA. MLB still doesn’t understand what the NBA, NFL, college football, etc. all have come to terms with, and that is that the players are the product.

2. This Couldn’t Be Any Simpler

Injuries suck. They’re part of the game and unfortunately always a part of Spring Training. Nature of the beast. One would think that teams would anticipate that at some point.

I crushed the Cardinals last week for their signings of old dudes that presumably aren’t going to help a ton. It took five days for the highlight of that class, Sonny Gray, to get injured. He left a spring game with a hamstring injury that looks like it will force him to miss Opening Day. Cardinals Twitter went into a frenzy, realizing that if Gray misses time, they are stuck with a rotation of Miles Mikolas, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Steven Matz, and probably Matthew Liberatore.

The Red Sox saw Lucas Giolito go down on Tuesday, and he might miss the entire year. Who’s going to start Opening Day for them? Nick Pivetta would be my guess. Not how you want that to go, but you can’t change much when you don’t spend money or spend it poorly.

Friendly reminder that former Cardinal Jordan Montgomery is available. Two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell is available. The White Sox have said they want to trade Dylan Cease. Future Hall of Famer Zack Greinke is out there and can give you what the rest of that trash rotation can. There are options if these kind of teams actually want them. From the looks of it, they seem content with last year’s last-place season and have non intent of addressing the current situation.

I’ll keep saying it. Owners that want to win spend money and spend it wisely.

3. Scott Free

I wrote last week about how bad Scott Boras’ offseason is going, and while Chapman has signed since then, it’s not gotten significantly better. Let’s take a deeper look.

Matt Chapman was asking for $150 million, turned down $100 million+ from the Blue Jays, and signed for $54 million with the Giants. He has an opt out after every season of the contract. Cody Bellinger was asking for $200 million and signed a contract for $80 million with the team he was trying to leave. He has an opt out after every season of the contract. Blake Snell reportedly was asking for north of $300 million, declined a $168 million offer from the Yankees, and doesn’t have a job halfway through Spring Training. JD Martinez was asking for $50 million and a multi-year deal. Jordan Montgomery was said to be asking for $150 million after his big second half and October performances. Both Martinez and Montgomery remain unsigned.

He has failed time after time for a while now, and nobody is even trying to hold him accountable for it. He’s still getting his, and that’s all he’s after. Bottom line: This dude is not going to help you get paid anymore. He has lost his fastball. Players need to drop him like a bad habit.

3 UP

1. Grin and Bear It

Cody Bellinger finally got a contract this week, though three years and $80 million was certainly not the deal he was hoping to land. More on that in a minute. The first two years will pay him $30 million per season, and the contract drops to $20 million for 2026. The deal includes an opt-out after each of the first two years, meaning with another productive season, Bellinger could hit free agency and try to land a big contract one more time.

I think this is a decent deal for the player and a great deal for the club. If you’re the Cubs, this is a guy that’s familiar with your clubhouse, has proven he can play in Chicago, and might still have some MVP potential left in the tank. If not, it doesn’t handicap your payroll for a crazy length of time. If you’re Bellinger, you essentially have three years to prove yourself (again) and become one of the most versatile bats around (again), though he admittedly hasn’t done a ton since his MVP season in 2019. It didn’t seem like either side necessarily wanted a reunion, but instead had to take what was available.

Bellinger’s 2023 season showed some glimpses of good things, as he turned in his highest home run total since that 2019 campaign and he hit over .300 for just the second time in his career. He led the Majors in RBI after the All-Star break. The Cubbies have added Craig Counsell, Shota Imanaga, and Hector Neris this offseason after winning 83 games last year. If Bellinger can repeat or improve on last year, the Cubs should have a chance in a wide open NL Central.

2. Spring in Their Step

After having one of the youngest teams in the sport last season, the Reds look like they, too, could make a run at the NL Central title. Everything I’ve seen from them this spring looks like the dudes in this clubhouse are enjoying themselves more than lots of teams. In the last week, we’ve seen a lot of looseness from this group. 

Early on in spring ball, a video surfaced on Reds social that showed catchers attempting to make a sweeping tag on a remote controlled stuffed pig. Can’t say I’ve seen that before. That’s good stuff.

Elly De La Cruz roped a foul ball off of Hunter Greene, hitting the window of Greene’s SUV in the process. When Greene told Elly “You’re paying for it”, Elly responded, “You make more than me.” Greene showed up in a different, much older vehicle the next day.

Barry Larkin – a former MVP, a 9-time Silver Slugger, a 3-time Gold Glove winner, and a Hall of Famer who spent his entire 19-year career with the Reds – has been in camp working primarily with infielders. When De La Cruz struggled with a couple grounders, Larkin tossed him his glove, which made Elly grin big and seemed to fix his fielding issue immediately.

Elly (22), Matt McClain (24), Spencer Steer (26), Will Benson (26), TJ Friedl (28), Tyler Stephenson (27), Christian Encarnacion-Strand (24), Graham Ashcraft (26), Hunter Greene (24), and Andrew Abbott (25) are at the center of what’s going on in Cincy. One thing is clear. The future is Red.  

3. Manny on the Move

The Twins secured a bit of an insurance policy on Monday, acquiring Manuel Margot from the Dodgers, some cash and a throw-in for prospect Noah Miller. Margot is obviously the focus here, and my guess is that the Twins justifiably remain cautious about Byron Buxton’s injury history, who hasn’t played the outfield in nearly two full years. 

The Twins outfield last year consisted primarily of Joey Gallo (left in free agency), Michael Taylor (currently a free agent), and Max Kepler. It was in desperate need of whatever upgrade it could get, and since it’s the Twins, it wasn’t going to be much better than Margot. Manager Rocco Baldelli talked about how Margot would help against lefties and his versatility in the outfield before raving about his character and likeability in the clubhouse.

Margot was acquired by the Dodgers in the Tyler Glasnow deal, but with an outfield that projects to be full with Teoscar Hernandez, James Outman and Jason Heyward, it made sense for them to move on. Margot is a lifetime .255 hitter who averages one more homer per 162 than Madison Bumgarner, but he’s now on his third team since Thanksgiving. Perhaps he’ll be a little extra motivated to join the reigning AL Central champs.

Ok fine. You got me. It was a slow week for Ups. 

3 DOWN

1. An Agent of Chaos

Three of superagent Scott Boras’ four biggest clients of the offseason have yet to sign as of this writing, and the other was Bellinger, who signed once Spring Training was already underway. The other three – Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Matt Chapman – are the latest victims of  “Boras guy” Syndrome. This is a term given to dudes who don’t get the contract their agent (Boras) tells them they will command, and they usually end up settling for much less.

Some of Scott Boras’ most notable deals include: the record-setting A-Rod contract that changed the sport forever, the Stephen Strasburg extension that might well end up as the worst contract in the history of the sport, the Carlos Correa contract saga of 2022, the Xander Bogaerts deal that broke the Padres, and the Max Scherzer deal that made him the highest-paid pitcher in history. Why on earth would teams – who all have owners that cry poverty – want to keep working with this dude?

We mentioned Bellinger already. If he wanted to go back to the Cubs, why ask for an opt out every year? The Yankees allegedly offered Snell 168 million over six years in January. We are on the eve of March, and the reigning Cy Young winner doesn’t have a job. He’s 31, so $28 million a year until he’s 37 kind of seems like the best deal he’s going to get, but, again, Boras. Reminder that Dallas Keuchel – also a Cy Young winner, also 31 years old, also told he’d get huge money on the open market, also a Boras guy – settled for a one-year, $13 million deal back in 2019. He didn’t sign until June. Montgomery has already said he won’t take a “pillow contract” like Bellinger did, and he, like Chapman, both have multiple suitors that appear to be very obvious given the team need.

Boras is doing his clients a disservice at this point simply by being their negotiator, and while he has made a living convincing teams to hand out monster contracts, teams have almost refused to do business with him. Next offseason, Boras again represents the top tier of the free agent market, as Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman and Corbin Burnes are all Boras guys. I’m sure a year from now, we’ll be having the same conversation.

2. Not Getting Any Younger

The St. Louis Cardinals are aging about as well as a bundle of bananas. The recent addition of former Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford gives them yet another player who is closer to the back end of his career than the front. I saw a tweet this week that said Nolan Arenado was the ninth oldest player on the roster when he joined St. Louis three years ago. After the Crawford signing, Arenado is now the tenth oldest player on the roster.

Crawford, who just turned 37, is coming off a dreadful 2023 season where he hit .194 and turned in a WAR of -1.3. (For context, Alek Manoah’s was only -1.1.) Ok, ok, Crawford doesn’t make his money with the bat. You’re right. But consider that he can’t hit AND turned in the worst fielding percentage of his career last season, and this one is gonna be tough for fans to understand. The good news is that shortstops Thomas Saggese, Richie Palacios and Masyn Wynn are all waiting in the minors. The bad news is that Cardinals brass likely won’t start their service clock this year. 

And yet. It gets worse. Crawford joins Lance Lynn, Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Matt Carpenter as offseason “acquisitions” for the Redbirds this winter. Lynn will be 37 and posted a -0.8 WAR last year. Gibson, 35, actually improved his numbers last year and still ended up with a 4.73 ERA. Carpenter is 38 and hit five more homers last year than I did. Gray had one of the best years of his career, but is he going to replicate it at 34? Probably not. The Cardinals have put together the best team of 2015, but if this team gets any older, it’s going to qualify for a discount at Denny’s.

2023 saw the Cardinals ship Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Paul DeJong and Tyler O’Neill out of town via trade. Adam Wainwright retired. Paul Goldschmidt (36 years old) and Nolan Arenado (will be 33 in April) both regressed last year from their MVP form but still put up respectable numbers, so tough to predict how they will play, but have to think at least a little regression will continue. The Cardinals won 71 games and clearly mailed it in at the deadline last year. They finished 21 games out of first, their worst mark since the invention of the flash drive. A new era might be coming in St. Louis, but right now, they’ve just got to let the Cards fall where they may.

3. Buy Me a Drink First

You know that scene in Bull Durham where Nuke dreams he’s playing naked? Apparently Major League Baseball had the same dream. MLB decided, for whatever reason, to let Fanatics manufacture the official uniforms for the players this season. Not only do the new uniforms look incredibly cheap, but the names look squished together, and of course, they’re see-through. When I say see-through, I mean you can see the logo of the underwear in many cases. There’s been some photos that have surfaced on social that leave…uhh….little room for imagination to say the very least. Fans and players alike have complained all spring, and it appears that MLB has to do something to pivot before the year starts. I’m not sure how you whiff that big on something like that, but it’s another one of those things that could never happen in the NFL or NBA. It’s wild that baseball has been around for like 150 years, and it took until 2024 for them to screw up….pants. It’s nuts. 

3 UP

1. Switching to Soler Power

The Giants officially inked Jorge Soler to a three-year deal a few days ago, paying the slugger $14 million a year over the length of the contract. This is actually a very big deal for San Francisco.

Soler is coming off an All-Star year that saw him hit 36 homers in just 137 games, and he averages 32 per 162 games played. He led the league with 48 back in 2019, and he came up with three big homers in the 2021 World Series for Atlanta.

San Francisco hasn’t had a 30-home run hitter since 2004. The team leader last year was Wilmer Flores.

The Giants’ lineup will now feature Soler, former KBO MVP Jung-Hoo Lee, Michael Conforto, and a bunch of young guys with lots of promise. They aren’t catching the Dodgers in talent or wins, but the addition of Soler gives San Francisco a legitimate threat in the heart of their lineup.  Potentially huge move for what really isn’t that much money. 

2. Only Five More Years of Being Rob’d

The good news: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that his current term will be his last one. The bad news: It doesn’t end until 2029.

Look, I’ve not exactly been quiet about my disdain for Manfred since pretty much the day he took office in 2015. I’ve called him ManFraud for a long time. I really thought baseball couldn’t be in worse hands than Bud Selig, but the Hamburger Helper mascot would have been better. No commissioner in the history of any sports league has ever been more out of touch with the league’s fans than Rob Manfred.

Rob Manfred banned the shift and tried to turn baseball into softball (except for the Postseason, of course). Don’t get me started on his role in the Astros’ sign stealing scandal. (Regardless of what you think Houston did or didn’t do, Manfred handled it wrong every step of the way.) He relocated an All-Star Game based solely on politics, and he made sure players didn’t get what they wanted in the shortened 2020 season. The baseball itself has changed multiple times during Manfred’s tenure, which hasn’t been a popular decision among players. He’s not exactly a media darling, either, saying things publicly like “Mike Trout needs to market himself better” and the recent “Oakland fans can just root for San Francisco”. His most notable blunder was when he referred to the sport’s ultimate prize as a “hunk of metal”. The dude doesn’t care about fans, players or baseball in general.

Granted, his job is to work for the owners. Some of it, he can’t help. The things he can change, though, he chooses not to, and that’s where my gripe is. Fans care about if they can watch their team from their house, not if there’s a ghost runner on second in the tenth inning.

For years, I’ve tweeted “Fix Baseball” with whatever year it currently is. We might finally get that in 2029.

3. At Whit’s End

Infielder Whit Merrifield signed a one-year deal worth $8 million with the Phillies this week, and while he will likely be a role player/utility guy, boy, do I like this one. Merrifield, who just turned 35, said he wants to win a World Series and turned down opportunities to play every day (and make more money) in order to sign with the Phillies, who have lost in the NLCS and the World Series in the last two years. This could be his last year in the league, so wanting to spend it on a winner is logical.

Merrifield is a three-time All-Star who has led the league in steals three times, and he has pretty decent career numbers for a guy whose game isn’t based on power. His 162-game average includes the following numbers: .284, 182 hits, 14 HR, 72 RBI, 31 SB. He can play all over the diamond, so the flexibility he will provide is going to be huge.

Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott and Whit Merrifield. That’s a lineup that can hang with the best in the league. This could easily end up being one of the biggest under-the-radar moves of the offseason. Big fan.

3 DOWN

1. Broken Halos

Baseball’s most geographically-challenged team has had a tough week. Well, they’ve had a tough decade, but this week didn’t make things better.

Owner Arte Moreno admitted the team didn’t trade Shohei Ohtani at the deadline because he wanted to make a few extra bucks over the final two months of the season rather than try to compete in the future. We already knew this, but to hear him say that publicly has to be disheartening as an Angels fan. As a fan of a team in their division, I love that Arte is more in love with his cash than he is with a good baseball team. I hope he never sells, but I do feel bad for people that have actual expectations for that club.

Later in the week, third baseman Anthony Rendon made waves by saying that baseball has “never been a top priority”. Full context, the dude said his faith and family come first, which is completely respectable and quite frankly how it should be. It was the rest of the quote that was bad to me. When asked if baseball was a priority at all, Rendon responded with “I’m here, aren’t I?” Then, with one last chance to save it, Rendon was asked if he wanted to be here (meaning at Spring Training), to which he responded with “I don’t want to talk to you guys.” In a different interview, he said he “wouldn’t wish this life upon anybody”. He makes $697,393 per day.

Mike Trout, who never goes public about much of anything, admitted this week that a trade isn’t on his mind right now but that it might be “at some point”. He added that he wants to win a championship with the Angels, as evidenced by the multiple times he has signed extensions to stay there. He also mentioned that he has lobbied ownership and the front office to bring in more free agents, which sounded more like a cry for help than I think was intended.

The Angels are on their fifth manager since the start of the 2018 season. This is the same team who turned Albert Pujols human, fired Joe Maddon for Phil Nevin, gave Josh Hamilton $125 million, and has absolutely nothing to show for Trout’s 13 years in the league. They don’t have a winning season since 2015 and haven’t won a playoff game since 2009.

That giant A outside the stadium might actually stand for “Abysmal”.

2. Panda-ring to Nostalgia

The Giants signed Pablo Sandoval to a contract this week, and when I initially heard this, I figured they’re bringing him in to retire as a Giant the way they did with Sergio Romo a year ago. If that’s the case, I’m in. All I’ve read from Sandoval and the organization alike is that he intends to fight for a roster spot out of camp.

Sandoval was last in the league three years ago, when he hit .178 in 73 at-bats for the Braves, primarily as a pinch hitter. There’s really no reason to think he is going to make the roster. Giants fans can have their nostalgia, but this one is pretty black and white.

3. The Waiting Game

There remains an excessively high amount of pretty good to very good free agents left on the market, and we are already at full squad workouts in Spring Training. I’m not going to preach the “bad for the game” stuff that lots of Twitterheads are because these dudes are all going to end up with a job. It’s just a bit confusing at this point in the year.

The biggest surprise is the top tier guys that are left. Blake Snell has won a Cy Young in both leagues, including one as recently as last season. Jordan Montgomery was a monster once getting traded to Texas, and he’s younger and probably cheaper than Snell. Former MVP Cody Bellinger hit a career-high .307 on a one-year prove-it deal in 2023 where he was fully healthy. Matt Chapman just picked up his fourth Gold Glove in six seasons at third base, and he was second in the league in hard-hit rate behind only Aaron Judge.

Even after that, there are plenty of guys that can still help a Major League team. J.D. Martinez (33 homers in 2023), Michael Lorenzen (career-high 153 innings), and Adam Duvall (21 homers in 92 games) are still out there. There are players left that would fit on contending teams, and there are players left that would be good stopgaps (and potential trade deadline bait) for teams that aren’t planning to contend this year.

Winning is a pretty simple concept, but it revolves around putting good players on the field.

3 UP

1. Staying in the Space City

Right as we were getting ready to publish 3U3D last week, the news broke that the Astros extended Jose Altuve for five years and $125 million, likely keeping the former MVP in Houston for the remainder of his career. He will now make more money than any second baseman in the history of the sport. Baseball leans heavily toward “what have you done for me lately” rather than “look at all this guy has done here”, so this is refreshing. Altuve will be 34 a month into the season, so this should be viewed as a $125 million thank you to a dude who’s been the cornerstone of the franchise for so long that he was a National League All-Star for the same team. Because of the number of layers to the entire thing, let’s look past 2017 for a few minutes here. 

He’s going to decline at some point, but that’s a problem for another day. (The contract breakdown actually makes a good deal of sense from the team standpoint.) As it stands right now, he ranks in the top five in franchise history in offensive WAR (55.9), at-bats (6665), games played (1668), total bases (3136), doubles (400), steals (293), and hits (2047). He’s up there with Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman and Jeff Bagwell in most categories, which is pretty remarkable for a 5’6 guy who was told that he was nothing more than a stopgap. Perhaps what’s most remarkable is that he’s got 27 career homers in the postseason, second only to Manny Ramirez.

He’s got an MVP and won two World Series in Houston. He’s changed postseason series after postseason series by turning pitches outside the strike zone into mistakes. He’s probably already on the Houston Sports Rushmore (sorry, James Harden). He represents the turnaround of a franchise that was largely mediocre before his arrival. By the time he’s done, you’re looking at a retired jersey and a probable Hall of Famer. He is beloved by players and fans alike throughout the city, and seeing him in another uniform would have been strange. Could Houston have gotten him back for cheaper? Maybe. Getting a deal done before the season sends the message that what Altuve has already done there matters, and that’s pretty cool to see.

2. Here Comes the Wain

On Tuesday, MLB Network announced that Adam Wainwright will be joining the network as an on-air analyst just months after retiring from baseball. Waino is a three-time All-Star and a World Series Champion, and he won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2020. We’ve seen him in the broadcast booth a few times previously, including the 2020 NLDS and 2023 ALDS. As somebody who overcritiques most broadcasters, especially most players turned broadcaster, I like this move a lot. Maybe it’s because I’ve only seen him next to A.J. Pierzynski, but Waino seems to be a natural at this so far. He knows the game, but also knows when to chime in and when to let the play-by-play guy have control. Looking forward to seeing him be more involved.

3. Love for the Lids

MLB released the new batting practice hats last week, and you can find the full collection on the Press Box After Dark Twitter page. These are simple and fun and shouldn’t be taken overly seriously since they’ll never be worn in a game that matters. For a league that hated colored uniforms for so long, these bring some needed flavor. My personal favorites are the A’s, D-Backs, Brewers, Phillies and Royals. The Marlins and Giants have a very 90’s feel to them. Tip of the cap on this one.

3 DOWN

1. Sad Times in the Six

So far, the highlight of the offseason for Blue Jays fans has been tracking a flight they thought Shohei Ohtani was on. We’ve heard them linked to nearly every big-time free agent this year, and yet, their most significant signings so far are Justin Turner and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. They’re also only a couple of days away from telling us that Alek Manoah is in the best shape of his life, which….you know what, never mind. The Jays took to Twitter on Monday to announce what “you asked for”….new cupholders in the lower bowl. Yep. You read that right. Go look for yourself if you need to. You thought your team was doing nothing? The Blue Jays will quite literally hold your beer... 

2. Business As Usual….Unfortunately

Certain players qualify for arbitration, and every team has arbitration with some of their players every year. Basically, the player submits a number of what he thinks he should be paid for the next year, and the team submits their number based on what they think of the same player. If they can’t agree to a contract by a certain date, it goes to a “neutral” judge, who sides with either the player or the team, but not in the middle. It’s a common thing, but boy, is it ugly.

Last year, the Astros and Kyle Tucker were $2.5 million apart on their arbitration submissions. They will eventually ask him to take a “hometown” discount to stay in Houston, and then they’ll get upset that he held something like that against them. Many fans will view him as a guy that just didn’t want to be there when that likely isn’t that case at all. Players don’t forget when you mess with their bread. Before Astros fans jump all over me, this is not unique to Houston.

This year, the Rangers and Adolis Garcia were just under $2 million apart. A guy who hit .323 with eight homers and 22 RBI in 15 playoff games, and they finally settled the day of the deadline. Josh Hader gave an interview last week that said his former team told him saves were the lone metric teams looked at for relievers in arbitration, and cited that as his reason for not wanting to go multiple innings at a time or pitch before a save situation.

It’s a system designed to heavily favor the team, and the team picks apart the player that they publicly have this excellent relationship with. Every team does it, and it’s dumb. Certain players, OK, you’re probably right. Their performance maybe doesn’t warrant an extra $2 million (or whatever number) but every year, there’s a handful of guys who are outperforming what they market says they should be paid, and teams try to screw them in arbitration so that owners can keep crying poverty. The system is broken. It’s not business. It’s BS. Pay the players.

3. Wish We Could Watch

News came this week that Diamond Sports (Bally in some areas) will once again carry Major League games after filing for bankruptcy in 2023. The D-Backs and Padres got lucky, as MLB took over their Bally deals and fans won’t have to watch (or not watch in most cases) their team on the network. The Angels, Braves, Reds, Cardinals, Tigers, Marlins, Royals, Brewers, and Rays will all be paid their full contracted rates this season, which is also good news for those nine teams. The Guardians, Twins and Rangers are left with no deal of any kind – meaning they will be stuck on Bally for another year and will only see part of their contracted payment.

MLB brass constantly preaches that players don’t market themselves. They cry about ratings compared to other sports. They talk about wanting to grow the game. How is that possible domestically if you can’t watch your local team? That includes the reigning World Champions, who happen to be in the third biggest media market in the country. You can’t watch established stars like Jose Ramirez, Corey Seager, or Carlos Correa.  You can’t watch up-and-comers like Evan Carter or Tanner Bibee. All three of those teams have expressed how a lack of a TV deal changes the way they would spend toward their payroll. Even the teams that have TV deals are subject to MLB’s blackouts as an effort to “get people to the game”. I live 250 miles from my favorite team. I can’t get to 81 home games a year. Who can?

I can’t even watch my team play road games because of blackout restrictions. It’s a joke. They sure made every World Baseball Classic game available to watch (you know, for all the big Australian baseball fans in the States). If I want to watch the single worst NFL team on any given week, they’ll be on national TV. If I live in the state, I’ll damn sure be able to get it locally. I’m not an NBA guy, but what I know for sure is that the reigning world champions are on TV an awful lot in that league. Some D2 conferences have better TV deals than Major League Baseball. That’s not acceptable. You want people to watch? Make it available.

It's 2024. Miss me with the “grow the game” propaganda. I would trade every stupid rule change, every awful idea, the blatant tanking, the “scandals”, everything that’s wrong with baseball, to be able to actually watch my team play. It’s beyond time to fix this problem. Forget “Let the kids play.” How about “let the kids watch”?

Written by Jordan 

3 UP

1. If Some Is Good, Baltimore Is Better

Man, what an offseason for the Baltimore Orioles, who may have just seen the best move in the franchise’s last 30 years this week with the Angelos family finally selling the organization. A once beloved family on the Beltway, O’s fans have soured on the owners over the last decade or so, and most believe a new ownership group can bring championship baseball (and investments) to Birdland.

The day after the deal was finalized, the Orioles made a monumental move that many have anticipated for a while, landing coveted ace Corbin Burnes in a trade with the Brewers. The 2021 Cy Young winner has struck out 200+ hitters in each of the last three seasons, and he’s averaged 31 starts per season in that time. He’s coming off the worst ERA of any full season in his career, and that’s a still impressive 3.39. Perhaps the biggest impact Burnes may have is in October, where Baltimore severely missed having a true ace last fall. In four career playoff starts, Burnes has a WHIP of 0.90, an ERA of 2.84 and has produced twice as many strikeouts as base hits.

The Orioles already have the top prospect in baseball in Jackson Holliday, who, at some point this year, is expected to join an already solid young core of Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Grayson Rodriguez. Baltimore already added to their bullpen with the free agent signing of Craig Kimbrel this offseason, and given that the O’s won an AL-best 101 games last season, 2023 may have just been a preview to how good the Birds are about to be.

2. Sign of the Times

On Monday, news broke that the Royals, who don’t pay anyone, like ever, finally decided to break the trend, inking shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year, $288.7 million extension that could keep him in Kansas City through 2037. Witt has been in the big leagues for two years, hitting 50 home runs and swiping 79 bags. He’ll be 24 this year, and he’s got a 5.3 WAR so far in just over 300 career games. (Bo Jackson posted a 7.0 WAR in five seasons in Kansas City.) To say this is a big deal for the Royals is an understatement.

The Royals’ previous biggest contract ever signed was a 4-year deal worth $82 million for Salvador Perez, and before that it was 4 years and $72 million for Alex Gordon. Neither of them aged particularly gracefully, but Witt has the tools to move to pretty much any other infield or outfield position at some point down the road if needed.

As a baseball fan, I can’t explain enough how much I love that teams traditionally viewed as “small market” are spending big on their young players. Bobby Witt Jr. (KC), Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD), Julio Rodriguez (SEA), Corbin Carroll (ARI), Jackson Chourio (MIL), Ke’Bryan Hayes (PIT), and Andres Gimenez (CLE) are all signed for seven years or more with their current team. Regardless of what fans of the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers will tell you, this is a great thing for baseball and the future of the game.

3. Blue Blood in the Water

Can’t have a 3 Up 3 Down without mentioning the Dodgers this offseason, and the Blue Crew struck again last week, re-signing reliever Ryan Brasier. I’d mention the terms of the deal, but it doesn’t really matter with this team. Anyway, Brasier pitched in 39 games out of the Dodger bullpen last year, allowing just three earned runs in the process.

The Ohtani and Yamamoto and Glasnow moves will got a lot of attention, as they should, but under-the-radar moves often pay dividends in October. Brasier’s numbers a year ago were the best of his career across the board, so there’s no reason not to like this move.

3 DOWN

1. Desperate Times, Indeed

Atlanta made it a point to address the bullpen this year, but they hit a new low this week, signing headcase Ken Giles to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. In other words, they think he can make the team, which would be a regrettable decision. In Giles’ most recent attempt at pro baseball, he allowed 19 earned runs in 18 innings for the Dodgers AAA affiliate in 2022. (He missed all of the 2023 season because nobody wanted him.) His last big league work was 4.1 scoreless innings for the 2022 Mariners, a season limited by a Tommy John recovery. Prior to that, he racked up an 9.82 ERA in Toronto.

He is best remembered for his time in Houston, which also didn’t end well. Despite having Giles on the roster for the World Series in 2017, the Astros elected not to use him because of how bad he was. Do you know how hard it is to not throw a single pitch in a seven-game World Series where two games went to extra innings? 

Giles used to throw hard, but his best days are long behind him. The Braves are right about one thing. Their pen needs some help. After this move, they still do. 

2. Middle of the Road

The overly desperate Cardinals signed reliever Keynan Middleton this week.

Keynan Middleton sucks.

3. Something Old

I’m not sure when people are going to figure out that the Dodgers can take spare parts and make them All Stars, but other teams can’t do it the same way. Justin Turner and Alex Wood signed contracts this week, reminding most people that they’re still in the league. If the Dodgers, heavily favored to win the World Series, wanted those guys, they’d have had them. Turner, Kike Hernandez, Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, etc. only work for one team, and that team cut them loose and said good riddance – for a reason.

Written by Jordan 

3 UP

1. Surplus in Seattle

On Monday afternoon, the news broke that the Mariners were sending pitchers Anthony DeSclafani, Justin Topa and Darren Bowen along with outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez to the Twins for infielder Jorge Polanco. It seems like Seattle gave up a lot here, but they have pitching depth and were able to use that to their advantage in this trade. They become the second team this offseason to trade DeSclafani, who might actually help Minnesota. He wasn’t making the rotation in Seattle.

Polanco spent 10 years with the Twins, where he hit 33 homers and drove in 98 runs in a career year in 2021. He was the team’s best player by WAR twice in his time in Minnesota, and he saw as many last place finishes as he did division titles. His bat could be a huge advantage for Seattle, but the reality is that they should have plenty of offense. The Mariners now have a surplus of infielders, but they aren’t all going to make the roster. Some combination of Luke Raley, Ty France, Jorge Polanco, J.P Crawford and some role players on the infield is the likely scenario, and that’s a better place than the Mariners were a week ago.

When you look at career WAR against the options Seattle already had, this move becomes a no-brainer. Polanco is at 17.4, Luis Urias is at 7.0, Josh Rojas is at 4.1, and Sam Haggerty is at 2.3. In a division that saw three teams separated by two games a season ago, these under the radar moves could prove to be huge.

2. Something Good is Brewing in Cream City

Former Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins signed a two-year, $34 million deal with the Brewers, giving Milwaukee a legitimate power threat for the heart of their order. The Phillies are committed to Bryce Harper at first base, which makes sense, but Hoskins is a guy that makes a ton of senses for a team like Milwaukee. The 2023 team leader in homers was Willy Adames with 24, and Hoskins averages 36 per 162 games played. He replaces Rowdy Tellez in the 1B/DH role after Tellez hit .215 with 13 homers last season. Hoskins missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL, but the belief is that he will be back at full strength to begin the 2024 campaign.

Think about a scenario where Hoskins hits behind speedy top prospects Jackson Chourio (22 homers, 44 steals in the minors in 2023) and Bryce Turang (26 steals in his first season in the bigs last year). Or maybe he hits behind former MVP Christian Yelich, catcher William Contreras, and provides some cushion for Adames in the three-hole. Perhaps Joey Wiemer takes a step forward in his sophomore season and hits behind Hoskins. The Brewers have a flexibility with their lineup that they haven’t had since the J.J. Hardy days. It will be fun to watch how first-year manager Pat Murphy handles a team who has made the playoffs in five of the last six seasons.

3. Here’s to You, Mr. Robertson

After watching Josh Hader, Jordan Hicks, Robert Stephenson, Matt Moore, and Hector Neris go elsewhere, the Rangers finally decided to make a move for a reliever, signing human fossil David Robertson to a one-year deal that will pay him $5 million this year and a bunch of deferrals later. This is now the eighth team for the soon-to-be 39-year-old Robertson, but he’s pretty much been good everywhere he’s been. A one-year deal helps open the door for potentials like Brock Porter, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. He helps solve the biggest need for the defending World Champs, even if he wasn’t their (or my) first choice.

He’s a guy that will pitch to contact often, and he starts the at-bat with a strike 70.4% of the time for his career. His average exit velocity last year was down to 88%, his lowest mark since 2017. He's coming off a season where he was traded from the Mets to a pennant race, and he posted a 3.03 ERA for the year. He struck out 78 batters in 65.1 innings of relief work, and he totaled 18 saves to go with 10 holds. He isn’t exactly a stopper, but he’s a guy that can stop the bleeding pretty consistently, and he can keep games from getting out of hand. With that offense, that’s all the Rangers can ask for. Just keep it within striking distance.

Closing games was a huge problem for the Rangers last year, and they now have four players – Robertson, Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc, and Josh Sborz – who have closing experience. Sborz and Leclerc was almost unhittable last October, and Yates and Robertson provide depth and experience to the bullpen. At some point when everyone is healthy, Cody Bradford, Brock Burke, Dane Dunning, and Cole Winn project to be the middle inning and long relief guys. Given the absolute shambles where the bullpen started in 2023 (looking at you, Glenn Otto), this is a monster upgrade. Knowing how the Angels and Astros have upgraded their bullpen this winter and how good Seattle’s staff is, the Rangers needed this one in a bad way.

3 DOWN

1. The Name Game

Arizona inked “centerfielder” Joc Pederson to a one-year deal with a mutual option (that will inevitably be declined) for 2025, giving the Diamondbacks that middle-of-the-order hitter they have so desperately been looking for. The guy they thought Tommy Pham could be last year. The guy the missed in October. Joc is one of the best power hitters in baseball, after all. Right? RIGHT?

Well, not exactly. Pederson is a big name, but that’s it at this point. Don’t believe me? Bet you didn’t remember he played for the Cubs AND Braves in between stints with the Dodgers and Giants. He’s hit 30+ home runs exactly once, and that was five years ago. Taking his first Major League season out (because he only got 28 at-bats), he has averaged 20.6 homers in the nine seasons since. Strikeouts made up 21% of his at-bats in 2023, when he hit 15 dingers, his lowest single-season total (excluding the shortened 2020 season) since 2017. His WAR last year was 0.6. For context, that ranked tied for 498th in the league. He doesn’t fit in any lineup as a three- or -four-hole guy anymore. He might help some, but he’s not going to be a reliable top-half-of-the-order hitter. He’s just not the same guy he was.

He’s also a clogger on the bases, which doesn’t play in his favor in the ballparks in that division. He has swiped five bags in three seasons (for three different teams), and he’s got 22 more in his career than I do. His power/speed number last year was measured at a .0. That’s the worst mark of his career by far. Then there’s part that everyone worries about with Joc – the ball being hit in his general direction. He’s got a -30 career total in defensive runs saved as an outfielder, and while it’s better at first base, it’s still not good (-6 in 23 games). You don’t want Joc needing a reason to bring his glove to the yard. And yet….

The Diamondbacks have Christian Walker to play first. Their outfield includes Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel, while Pavin Smith and Alek Thomas combined for 670 at-bats. Jake McCarthy figures to factor in as far as outfielders are concerned, as well. Arziona’s top prospect? Druw Jones. An outfielder. Who may debut this year. Joc Pederson has been resorted to a platoon player, and if he had a different name, you wouldn’t want him on your team, either.

2. Cheesesteak and Pain

I’m not even sure why I’m writing about this other than the dude’s connections with the Rangers, but Kolby Allard is a Philadelphia Phillie. This guy should come with a warning label. In his best year, he had a 4.96 ERA, and he hasn’t come close to being even that “good” since. His ERA by year: 12.38, 4.96, 7.75, 5.41, 7.29, 6.57. He’s what some would call a “20-20 player” – the type of player that you only pitch when you’re up 20 or down 20. (The latter situation will likely get worse.)

No need to dive into much else here. Philadelphia fans are going to crush this dude, but only after the entire league does first. 

3. Maybe Wikipedia Is A Little Bit Reliable 

James Paxton is apparently still playing organized professional baseball. I found that out when the Dodgers signed him last week to eat some innings at the back end of their rotation. There’s just one problem…

Let’s talk about the obvious. A quick Wikipedia search on James Paxton will tell you the following injuries: a left LAT strain in 2014, a minor spring training injury in 2015, a strained finger tendon in May of 2015, a 26-day DL stint in May of 2017 for a left forearm strain, a strained left pectoral muscle in August of 2017, spinal surgery in February of 2020, a left flexor tendon strain in August of 2020, elbow discomfort (that led to Tommy John) 24 pitches in his 2021 season, a LAT tear in a rehab start in 2022, and a hamstring injury to begin 2023.

The Dodgers apparently found this page on Wednesday because they lowered the guaranteed money on his contract from $11 million to $7 million, citing “an unspecified health concern”. *Gasp.*

If the dude actually gets on the field, things haven’t been great in that department in a while, either. For his career, he has a hard hit percentage of 42.0%, meaning that 42% of his pitches that are put in play are hit at 95 miles an hour or harder. His opponent BAbip (batting average on balls in play) is .304 for his career, and he’s coming off a season with a 4.4% home run percentage. His sweet spot percentage is 33.0. He’s the definition of what the college guys call a “barrel finder”. The aforementioned Joc Pederson is licking his chops with this guy on the mound.

The Mariners have given up on him twice, the Yankees let him walk away, and now a Boston team that loved old guys (Corey Kluber, Justin Turner, Chris Sale, Kenley Jansen) has also let him explore other opportunities. His best chance to win a ring so far is undoubtedly with this Dodgers team. It’s just a shame he’s got to steal $7 million from them to do it.

Written by Jordan 

3 UP

1. Betting Big in the Bay

Hard-throwing reliever Jordan Hicks inked a four-year deal worth $44 million to pitch for the Giants, who have publicly thrown around the idea of moving him to the rotation. Hicks has pitched in 212 games in his career and only started eight of those, and with his 100+ MPH arm, so my guess is that’s a short experiment and he ends up going back to the bullpen. Plenty of guys converted well (Jeff Samardzija, Chris Sale, C.J. Wilson), but I’m writing this as if he will be a reliever for the bulk of that contract.

Hicks, a Texas native who the Astros and Rangers both allegedly had interest in, posted a 2.63 ERA after being traded to Toronto in 2023, and his 81 total strikeouts set a new career-high. He’s just 26, so you’ve got to think he’s got plenty of relief bullets left in his arm if his newfound command can cooperate. More importantly, the Giants finally landed a free agent that more than one team wanted. After missing on Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa, Shohei Ohtani, etc. the last couple of years, San Francisco has somebody they can be excited about. Granted, it’s a reliever they’re converting, but if he can turn himself into a quality starter, $11 million a season looks like a steal.

2. A Win for the Windy City

After signing Craig Counsell to one of the biggest manager contracts ever to start the offseason, we’ve been waiting a for the Cubs to make a move for a player, and we finally got it. The Northsiders came to terms with Japanese star Shota Imanaga just before his signing deadline, agreeing to pay the 30-year old $53 million over four seasons. He reportedly never wanted to sign anywhere in MLB but the Cubs. He throws in the low 90’s pretty consistently and can top out around 95 or 96, and he complements that with a changeup, curveball and slider. His changeup is his out pitch and his best attribute is his command.

What I know for sure is this dude strikes out a LOT of people. He racked up 188 whiffs in 159 innings last year, and the year before that he went for 151 in 158.2 innings. He pitched two innings of the final game of last year’s World Baseball Classic against the United States, which Japan held on to win 3-2. He’s a little guy (5-10, 176 pounds), but he’s got a slow leg lift that will undoubtedly throw off some hitters. He won’t be as overpowering as Ohtani or even Yamamoto, but he has everything it takes to be a productive major leaguer. The Cubs have more work to do, but this is a good move for them.

3. Bringing the Boom to the Beltway….Kinda 

After playing for four teams since the start of the 2021 season, Joey Gallo is headed to D.C. on a one-year, $5 million “prove it” deal with the Nationals. Gallo has been a platoon player for the majority of his career, and he’s coming off a season with 21 homers and just 40 RBI in 282 at-bats for the division-winning Minnesota Twins. Those aren’t exactly eye-popping numbers, so why do I like this move? Glad you asked.

That’s less than half of a full season of at-bats. In theory, if you double his at-bats, you should double his home run production, and 42 looks a whole lot better. When you look at his individual seasons, his most games played came in 2021 (38 homers in 153 games), 2018 (40 homers in 148 games), and 2017 (41 homers in 145 games). You can live with that .197 career average for 40 ding dongs. The reality is that Gallo is never going to hit for average. If he hits .220, he may have hit 50 homers. But, it’s 2024. Batting average matters less now than it ever has. There are other ways to produce, and he has the capability to do that.

Now is where it gets fun. Let’s do some comparisons. Gallo’s career average is what Kyle Schwarber hit last year, and Schwarber was viewed as one of the best power hitters out there. Schwarber’s power is certainly more consistent, but Gallo is a better and more versatile defender, a better runner, and given his potential, is one of the cheapest options in the sport. Adam Dunn, who Gallo has been compared to for a huge chunk of his career, was one of the worst fielders of all-time, and he has the same exact number of homers per 162 as Joey Gallo. There was a place for Adam Dunn for 14 years in the bigs, and there will be a place for Kyle Schwarber for several more years. Both of those dudes received MVP votes. If there’s a place for them, there’s a place for Gallo.

The Nats won 71 games last year, so there should to be room for Gallo to get 500+ at-bats. Perhaps he fetches a prospect or two at the deadline with a decent year. I think he could be a pretty good roleplayer in a place like Baltimore or Atlanta. The guy has the potential to one of the biggest power threats in the game because of how far he can hit it when he actually connects. Worst case scenario, he’s terrible and Washington spent five million bucks on him. I think this is great for the Nationals.

3 DOWN

1. Is Anyone Awake in Arlington?

It’s like the Rangers won the World Series and just went into hibernation mode for the rest of the offseason. Given that their GM is a former pitcher who brought in Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, and Jordan Montgomery (among others), how does that happen? This team went forever as the laughing stock of the league when it came to pitching, and after the biggest out in franchise history, they’ve largely done nothing but spectate during free agency. 

The Rangers came into the offseason with the top priority of upgrading the bullpen. Josh Hader is gone, but I really anticipated losing out on him would push the Rangers into a frenzy of moves. They then missed on Jordan Hicks, too, and then the Angels signed Robert Stephenson. Arguably the best three relief arms on the free agent market, the Rangers miss on all of them and watch two of them sign in the division. (Not to mention last year’s DH Mitch Garver heading to Seattle a couple weeks ago.)

Of the bullpen guys on their playoff roster, Will Smith, Aroldis Chapman, Chris Stratton, and Martin Perez are all gone, but so is the $34 million they were paying them. You can certainly make an argument that those guys are all pretty easy to replace, but with what? So far, the Rangers have added 36-year old Kirby Yates to the pen and injured-until-mid-summer Tyler Mahle for the rotation. That’s it. I realize they are new to this winning thing, but man, it sure looks right now like the defending World Series Champions are resting are their laurels. Maybe that World Series hangover is lasting longer than expected.

Wait a second. I’ve just discovered that last week, the Rangers signed Andrew Knizner, a career backup catcher who hits .216 and has 17 more career homers than I do. Never mind. Let the dynasty begin.

2. Houston, We Have a (Potential) Problem

The Astros signed reliever Josh Hader to one of the biggest deals in relief pitcher history last week, agreeing on a 5-year deal worth $95 million. On paper, this gives Houston the best bullpen trio in the sport, as the lefty will now partner with Bryan Abreu (1.75 ERA, 44 holds, 100 K in 72 IP) and incumbent closer Ryan Pressly (3.58 ERA, 31 saves, 74 K in 65.1 IP). I went back and forth on if I liked this move or not, and to be fair, it’s still very close, but I had enough Ups this week and needed another Down, so here we go.

First off, that’s the most money ever given to a reliever with no deferrals involved. In addition to the salary, the Astros forfeit a second-round draft pick and $500,000 in international pool money because Hader rejected the qualifying offer from his former employer. Houston is the same team who couldn’t find $2 million for Kyle Tucker in arbitration (and will later expect him to take a hometown discount in free agency). Pressly and Abreu COMBINED will make less than $16 million this year. Freak hitter Yordan Alvarez, who had 31 homers and 97 RBI in just 114 games last year and is sure to be near the top of the MVP race if healthy, is set to make just under $11 million. Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Kendall Graveman are all free agents after 2024 that will be looking get their big payday. You pay that kind of money for three innings a week, you’re sending messages – good or bad – to everyone involved.

Only two other current relievers have gotten a contract of at least four years: Raisel Iglesias (who is now on a different team than the one that gave him the contract) and Edwin Diaz (who got hurt in the World Baseball Classic and missed all of 2023). (I guess technically Hicks counts, but it does appear that he will begin the season in the rotation.) The Astros previously gave Rafael Montero a 3-year, $34.5 million deal after a career year in 2022, and he responded with a 5.08 ERA in 2023. He’s actually part of the reason the Astros wanted Hader in the first place. 

It’s worth noting that the last time Hader changed teams (he was traded from Milwaukee to San Diego mid-season), his numbers turned bad quickly. He had a 4.24 with the Brewers prior to the trade and a 7.31 in nearly half the innings with the Padres. The Astros will be trotting out a 25-year-old catcher who is in his first full year as the lead catcher for a big-league club, and management has refused to comment on which reliever will be in which role. Combine all of that with having to face the lineups that division will produce, and there’s a lot of question marks around this to me.

3. The Hall is Lame

We do this every year now, but the Hall of Fame is broken. It was great to see Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer get the call last night because all three of them deserve it, but there’s so much of the rest of it that doesn’t make sense. Baseball gave writers the voting power, then years later, added more committees to override the writers when they get it wrong, and then still get it wrong.

Lee Smith is in, but Billy Wagner isn’t, despite having nearly identical numbers. Edgar Martinez, a DH in the Steroid Era, is in despite having less 30-home run seasons than Rougned Odor. Andruw Jones has 10 Gold Gloves and 434 career dingers and isn’t in. The Commissioner who oversaw the entire Steroid Era is in, positionless David Ortiz who failed a test is in, but you’re gonna leave out Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because they allegedly took steroids? C’mon man. Is it about the best players, or is it about politics and who’s friendly with the writers that you don’t trust to vote the right way? Next year’s class includes Ichiro, C.C. Sabathia, Dustin Pedroia, Felix Hernandez, Ian Kinsler, Ben Zobrist, Curtis Granderson, Troy Tulowitzki, Brian McCann, and Hanley Ramirez. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm with how wrong that will inevitably go.

This isn’t how the Hall of Fame – the highest honor in your sport – is supposed to go. It still means something to the players, but it’s become such a joke that it really shouldn’t. It’s starting to look more like the NBA, where Yao Ming is in after just eight seasons simply for being a tall Asian. It might actually be worse than that. Consider that Pete Rose is in the WWE Hall of Fame for appearing less than five times ever, but he can’t get into the Baseball Hall of Fame despite being the game’s all-time leader in hits. I wouldn’t bet on baseball figuring it out soon. 

Written by Jordan 

Due to the lack of moves last week, we haven’t released a 3U3D for a couple weeks. Business has picked up again, so we decided to focus more on teams this time rather than one specific move at a time. Let’s dive in.

3 UP

1. M-Proving

It’s that time of year again in Seattle. You know, the time when general manager Jerry Dipoto starts making moves in bunches. He’s been busy again in the last couple of weeks, making a handful of moves that involve a good portion of the Major League roster. Friendly reminder that the Mariners have won 90 and 88 games in the last two seasons, so they are very much still trying to compete in the short-term.

The M’s signed Mitch Garver to a two-year deal worth $24 million with a mutual option for Year 3. He’s not the sexiest signing out there, but this makes all the sense for Seattle. Garver was a huge part of the Rangers lineup in 2023, hitting 19 homers in 87 games before driving in 15 runs in 14 postseason games. It appears as if Garver was signed to primarily DH and maybe occasionally fill in for Cal Raleigh behind the dish, and that’s the very role he thrived in during his two-year stint in Texas. He averages 30 home runs and 82 RBI per 162 games played, and he’s proven he can be a real threat exclusively as a hitter. He also doesn’t have to play against the Mariners anymore. Win all the way around.

Last Friday, Seattle moved on from former Cy Young winner Robbie Ray, bringing outfielder Mitch Haniger back to the Emerald City while getting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani in the same deal. Robbie Ray missed all but one start last season after tossing the pitch that proved to be the nail in Seattle’s coffin in the 2022 Postseason. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t the guy the M’s thought they were getting, either. On the flip side, Mariners fans already love Mitch Haniger from his previous five-year stint with the club, and it’s the only place he’s really performed well. Injuries are always an issue for him, but in his two seasons of 150+ games, he’s averaged 33 homers, 97 RBI, and hit .269. More pop for the Mariners. DeSclafani will probably round out the rotation, but given Seattle’s depth there, could also become a long relief type of role. His numbers aren’t great, but he turns some heads every few years. Wouldn’t want him to be the highlight of a deal, but as a throw-in, he could be a nice piece. Love this move all the way around for Seattle. 

A few minutes later, Dipoto struck again, sending infielder Jose Caballero to Tampa for outfielder Luke Raley. Caballero made his Major League debut at 26 years old in 2023, hitting .221 with four homers and six errors on the infield. The Mariners are loaded with infielders, but it certainly looks right now as if there simply wasn’t a place for Caballero, making him pretty expendable. Raley, on the other hand, hit 19 homers and swiped 14 bags in just 118 games. He’s not a well-known name because he played in Tampa, this is the third player added in the last two weeks with potential for big pop and might be the best candidate of the three for a real breakout campaign. 

2. Dodgers Giving Everyone The Blues

In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, the Los Angeles Dodgers do not care about your feelings or your tweets. Their big offseason continued on Sunday, signing the former Astro/Blue Jay/Mariner to a one-year deal worth 23.5 million (with 8.5 of that deferred). The Dodgers had been pretty outspoken in recent weeks about adding another bat that can crush left-handed pitching, which Hernandez does. His BAbip was .374 against lefties last year, he actually gets better deeper into the count. Last season, he hit .310 in games where his team won, and he hit just .192 in games where his team lost. In other words, the team often goes as he goes, and he has the potential to be another key piece for another loaded Dodgers squad. He’ll hit in the lower half of the lineup, too, and few other teams in baseball have this caliber of hitter that far down in the order.

3. Prospect For Sale

The Red Sox traded Chris Sale and cash to the Braves for prospect Vaughn Grissom last week, and Boston never even bothered listing him on their prospect list. He is going to be a big league regular for them, but whether it’s in the infield or outfield will probably be sorted out in Spring Training. (The outfield part is pure speculation from me, but he has only played second and short in the bigs.) Either way, that puts a speedy Grissom in a lineup with Triston Casas, Rafael Devers, Bobby Dalbec, Tyler O’Neill, Jarren Duran and maybe even a healthy Trevor Story. That could be a very fun lineup to watch at Fenway.

In 64 career big league games over the last two seasons, Grissom has hit .287 to go with five homers and five bags. If he can cut down the strikeout frequency (he will), I’ve gotta think he’s got some staying power. He’s never going to be a huge power guy, but his speed is going to play at the Major League level, especially with the bigger bases. The Major League average on balls in play during his time in the league is .293, and he has hit .348 in those situations. He’s just 23 years old and is under club control for five more seasons.

3 DOWN

1. There’s Gotta Be a Loser

In an offseason where Blake Snell, Marcus Stroman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Aaron Nola, Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez, Clayton Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani, Shota Imanaga and Michael Wacha available in free agency and potentially Tyler Glasnow, Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease all available via trade, the Atlanta Braves took a look at their roster and thought that 35-year-old Chris Sale could be just the man they need. So much so that they traded Vaughn Grissom, their top hitting prospect, to get him. They then extended him for even more money with a club option for 2026, when he’ll be 38.

Sale spent the last seven seasons in Boston, but in his last four, the decline has been, umm, steep to say the very least. After six straight seasons of top-five Cy Young finishes, Sale has averaged just 74 innings a season (and that’s not including the 2020 season he missed due to Tommy John surgery). He’s won just 17 games in that span (he won 17 the very season before), and, as should be expected, his strikeouts have gone down significantly (400 total K’s since the beginning of 2019). Age and injury have declined his career in a major way. That’s not a knock on him. It’s a way of life – but most teams don’t trade away their best prospect for a player in such a stage of their career. 

I typically am a fan of the proven guy over the prospect, but this one seems like Boston has all the upside. Sale may end up being a very formidable 4 or 5 option in Atlanta’s playoff rotation. It’s worth noting that the Red Sox are sending $17 mil over in the trade, and if anybody can fix Chris Sale, it’s Atlanta. I just don’t see it.

2. The Ex-Ray Machine

I mentioned the Raley trade that saw Tampa Bay come up with a 26-year-old infielder that was very expendable in Seattle. Raley seems like he’s going to be a really nice fit for the Mariners, while Caballero seems like a future Durham Bull. Raley is just the most recent guy the Rays have shipped out of town.

The Rays also got rid of reliever Andrew Kittredge, who has totaled a 3.65 ERA in 181 career games for Tampa Bay. Teams that are trading away good relievers usually aren’t expecting to contend, and considering the Tampa is coming off a 99-win season, that seems discouraging for them. 

All of this comes after sending Tyler Glasnow and Manny Margot to the Dodgers earlier this offseason. In all three cases, the Rays have attempted to get younger and cheaper. It’s their model, but consider this. The Rays went to the World Series in 2020, and since then, they have traded off Blake Snell, Yonny Chirinos, Nathaniel Lowe, Austin Meadows, Andrew Kittredge, Manny Margot, Tyler Glasnow, and Luke Raley. They’ve also seen Kevin Keirmaier bolt in free agency for a team in the same division, and the biggest contract in franchise history is currently in trouble for his relations with minors.

All that said, teams that win it all typically need some consistency. If your employer had that kind of turnover from key people, you’d be questioning what the goal is. With Baltimore about to be loaded for several years, the Yankees and Red Sox improving and the Blue Jays reloading, the Rays shouldn’t get a pass.  

3. How The West Was Lost

There’s a good amount of offseason left, but as it stands as of this writing, the Mariners are the only team in the AL West actively trying to improve their team this offseason. The rest of the division has been slow to act and stagnant for a little while now. Here’s every Major League signing and trade for the other four teams in the division.

Rangers: Tyler Mahle, Kirby Yates

Astros: Victor Caratini, Wander Suero

Angels: Adam Cimber, Zach Plesac

Athletics: Trevor Gott

That’s it. And it’s not a great group overall. The A’s aren’t really expecting to contend, but with the departure of Ohtani, the Halos should at least be trying to bring in some talent to go with what they think is a solid young core. The Rangers and Astros just played in the ALCS, and neither has made a Major League move since December 14, when the Rangers signed Tyler Mahle – who won’t pitch until after the All-Star Break.

3 UP

Death, Taxes and Andrew McCutchen

Remember when Andrew McCutchen became the feel-good story of last offseason by re-upping for his third different stint with the Pirates? (Remember in April when the team went 20-9 and turned heads across the sport?) Well, it’s not quite as feel-good this time around since most people thought he was going to retire and because Pittsburgh is going to be bad once again, but this dude belongs in the Black and Gold. Seeing him with the Giants, Yankees and Phillies was beyond WEIRD, and he’s pretty universally beloved among fans and players alike.

 This is a move you absolutely have to make. He’s a former MVP that was the biggest cog in the wheel during some of the best years the franchise has ever seen. This dude needs 22 games to jump into the top ten in all-time games played in a Pirates uniform, and no Pirates jersey has ever outsold those that say “McCutchen” on the back. He’s a home run shy of 300 for his career, and he’s 46 total bases away from becoming the first centerfielder since Torii Hunter to hit the 3500 mark. Those milestones absolutely SHOULD come in a Pirates uniform, so it’s good to see that they will (pending a trade that I don’t think will happen). At this point, he IS Pittsburgh.

He has said he wants to play two more seasons, which is certainly possible, but my personal hunch is that he knows he is retiring at the end of 2024 and just doesn’t want the extra attention (even though he deserves it). He’s probably not headed for Cooperstown, but he’s one of those players that it’s just so easy to want to see him succeed. If you don’t root for Andrew McCutchen, you probably should do some soul searching.

If Some Is Good…

Just days after landing the biggest free agent in the history of the sport, the Los Angeles Dodgers made waves again, signing Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year deal worth $325 million. It’s important to note that the umm….uniqueness (to put it mildly) of the Shohei Ohtani deal is what enabled the Dodgers to make this move in the first place, but the message has clearly been sent to the rest of baseball. That message is that the Dodgers are not messing around anymore, and they are coming to win championships.

The Dodgers have a pretty good history of international signings, especially in the Asian market. Even before Ohtani and Yamamoto were complete, Kenta Maeda (2016), Hiroki Kuroda (2007), and Hyun-Jin Ryu (2012) were all in the top 20 in the biggest deals in team history. (Some of that is because of the times that they played, but still.) It appears it doesn’t matter where they get players from, and it appears even more so that the good team in the City of Angels has had enough early exits in October. They’ve added so much starting pitching that future first-ballot Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw may legitimately not still have a place in LA. 

After signing Ohtani, trading for Tyler Glasnow, and inking Yamamoto, the Dodgers have committed more than a billion dollars to payroll in the last two weeks – and still aren’t over the luxury tax. (The Mets and Yankees are both still over, which means the Dodgers are unsurprisingly better at spending money.) They also aren’t done making moves to improve for 2024 and beyond, so don’t be surprised next week when the Dodgers are in the headlines again.

The Blue Crew has had this offseason circled for several years….and they have executed it to absolute perfection so far. To be clear, I’m not saying I think they are GOING to win big, but that they have executed THEIR PLAN exactly the way it was envisioned. More than anything, they are trying to win, which is more than half the teams in baseball. Looking at you, Angels. Whether Yamamoto is good or not remains to be seen, but with the way the Dodgers’ scouting department has churned out talent for over a decade, you’ve gotta think they’re not missing on this one.

I’m not sure even a few extra days off to play a Wild Card team can stop the Dodgers now.

The Wins of Change

After shortening the time of the game and expanding the size of the bases in the 2023 season, MLB succeeded in both of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s goals (shorter games and increased interest in offense). We don’t have to dive too deep into the numbers, but what’s important to note is that viewership is up, steals are WAY up, MLB advertising budgets are up, and the average age of MLB fans has dropped for the third straight year. I was admittedly not a fan of these rules initially (we can get into the reasoning for that later), and I’m still not sure I’d say I love them from the baseball side (because I’m admittedly stubborn), but what the facts show is that these are all very good things for the business side of MLB.

Heading into 2024, there are even more rule changes coming. 15 seconds will be shaved off pitching changes, mound visits will be reduced from five to four, and pitchers will no longer be required to be on the mound during a dead ball for the pitch clock to start. This could be going overboard, but it certainly worked better than anyone imagined a year ago. I was hesitant about announcing and implementing rule changes in the same season, but players adapted quickly and fans largely reacted positively. I don’t talk often (maybe ever prior to this) in a positive light about Manfred, but the best way to do a big rule change is to just pull the band-aid off. The shorter games actually became very popular for fans on the East Coast, fans with children, and fans with regular early-morning routines.

Is it great for baseball? Maybe. Maybe not. Time will tell, but signs point to yes. Plus, it’s Christmas time. It was either writing about this or the Blue Jays re-signing Kevin Keirmaier.

3 DOWN

The Truth Must Matter

The rollercoaster free agency pursuit of Ohtani (and even Yamamoto to a lesser extent) has brought in the worst in people who get paid to report facts. Bob Nightengale, known for being wrong, ended up looking like the only truth-teller left after the Ohtani thing. He was going to shift the landscape no matter where he signed, so it’s important that the reputable guys are actually reputable. Last year, we were told that Carlos Correa had signed a contract with the Giants, then the Mets, before he eventually ended up back in Minnesota. “Arson Judge” was definitely headed to the Giants on a deal that was “done”, except for the part where he wasn’t.

 In October, an Astros beat reporter falsely reported on what was going on in another team’s clubhouse, and when the other team’s reporter tried to set the record straight, she received death threats for her and her family. (Yes, I understand fans are stupid and every fan base has them, but these instances are avoidable by simply providing truth instead of speculation.) A Twitter apology is not sufficient in most cases. Jon Heyman, Jeff Passan, Jon Morosi, etc. are lifelines for fans into what’s really going on, so false reporting just can’t happen. It’s not a mistake anymore. It’s carelessness. It’s a matter of professional integrity. MLB, ESPN, Fox, whoever signs the checks for these guys has to demand responsibility. It’s imperative – now more than ever – that the facts become more important than being first.

Enough is Enough!

I joke about the Dodgers, but man, the whiners and haters have been out in FULL force the last couple weeks. There are legitimately people rooting for the Dodgers to fail just because they are putting another competitive team on the field. They spent money on good players to try to get over the hump of losing in October. If the Orioles did that, people would be rushing out to buy an O’s shirsey today and talking about how long they’ve rooted for them despite still having the sticker on their hat. I get the idea of hating the team that’s always favored to win, but the Dodgers have won just one World Series in 34 years. (Most of you discredit that, too, but if the Astros’ 2017 season counts, the Dodgers’ 2020 season absolutely does.) I assure you the Dodgers are not the villain here. (This is how far we’ve fallen. I’m defending Rob Manfred and the Dodgers in the same writing.)

 As I mentioned last week, they still have to play the games. There’s been lots of offseason winners that didn’t win the World Series that everyone expected them to. Two months ago, two teams that didn’t win their division met in the World Series. The sport has produced six different winners in the last six years and 13 different champs in the last 19 years. It is FINE. And, here’s a friendly reminder that literally no Major League club has ever won a playoff game with Shohei Ohtani. If you truly think the Dodgers are “ruining baseball” by trying to be competitive, you probably root for a team that is actually ruining baseball. The Angels and A’s are a bigger problem for baseball than the Dodgers. You know it. You just don’t want to admit it.

The Dodgers put a lot of stock in scouting and development, reward good players with big pay days, and are highly regarded as one of the best player-friendly teams in professional sports. They have good owners, good front office personnel, a beautiful (and recently renovated) ballpark, and yes, a competitive club. If your workplace checked all of those boxes and people told you why you shouldn’t be there, you’d tell them where they could stick it. The Dodgers are not the evil empire you want them to be in your stupid entitled fantasy thing. It’s time to grow up now. You wanna hate somebody, fine. At least have a reason better than “they’re really good”.

The Astros Woke Up

I can’t believe I’m even giving any attention at all to this dude, but, again, pretty slow week this time around. Martin Maldonado signed with the White Sox a couple of days ago, and I didn’t even bother to look up the contract because there’s no way it should be considered “good” for any reason. He doesn’t contribute hardly anything. No, seriously. He’s a career .207 hitter with 111 homers in 13 years. By all accounts except Dusty Baker’s (and by pretty much every metric out there), this dude was outplayed by a rookie in all aspects of the game in 2023, and a managerial change finally forced Maldonado out of Houston. The Astros will absolutely be better at the catching position in 2024.

Now he gets to waste away for a White Sox team that lost 101 games, traded a lot of good pieces, has a slew of clubhouse issues (that he will not improve), and has publicly said that all players are available for trade. It’s a match made in mediocre heaven. Maldonado is a guy that’s been praised for his defense for most of his career, but this notion that he somehow became Yadier Molina is absurd. Catcher is a “defense-first position”. Every catcher not named Gary Sanchez is a “defense-first” guy. This guy is much closer to “awful” than he is to “elite”. Nobody talked about how good his defense was in Anaheim or Milwaukee, so it’s safe to say he’s benefitted from being on good teams, specifically good Astros teams, more than anything else. In Houston’s most recent playoff run, his biggest contribution in the ALCS was saying that a feud (initiated by Maldonado) had “woken up” the Astros after Game 5, only to watch the Rangers take Games 6 and 7 both in Houston to win the series. The Astros woke up, alright. They finally let Maldonado go. And now the nightmare is over.

Written by Jordan 

3 UP

1. The Sho-Time Dynasty Begins

After a wild day of flight tracking and misleading Tweets, the Dodgers finally went out and signed reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani to the biggest deal in the history of the sport, a $10-year deal worth $700 million in total value. There’s a LOT of money deferred so that the Dodgers can continue to bring in good players and be competitive, which was allegedly the idea of Ohtani himself. He’s apparently still recruiting other players to come there, too. I absolutely love that. If I’m a GM, I want good players on my team, but I want good players that are seeking more than a big payday. Ohtani was going to get paid wherever he went, but it was always going to be the Dodgers.

The Dodgers have been the logical fit for Ohtani for some time now, as they have spent two offseasons clearing payroll to make such a move possible. This dude wants to win, and the Dodgers want to erase the stigma of the team that folds like origami when October hits. He was already employed in Anaheim, so he doesn’t even have to buy a new house while moving from an embarrassment of an organization (more on them later) to a perennial powerhouse. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman just finished second and third respectively in the NL MVP race, so that lineup is going to absurd for the next several years. That clubhouse is one that really good players are going to want to be a part of (Tyler Glasnow is a prime example). With Ohtani at the center of all of it, the Dodgers appear to have extended their competitive window even further. 

Is this an overpay? Absolutely. Is it an absurd amount of money? No question. Could it bite the Dodgers? Of course. Will he be the best player in the world ten years from now? Doubtful. But, the reality in the sport is that you have to overpay, often in years and dollars both, in order to get elite players. Another reality that people often overlook is that the Dodgers can afford for this to not work. I’m not sure most other teams in baseball can (or want to take the chance). When you consider what Ohtani will do for your team as far as player recruitment, fan base, marketing, etc., this contract is going to pay for itself and then some. As I wrote last week about Juan Soto, when you have the chance to go get a player like this, you do it, and you ask questions later. There isn’t another player on the planet right now that can give you what Ohtani does, and even without pitching in 2024, he should remain in the MVP race once again. Everyone else is playing for second place for the next 5-7 years. This move rules.

2. Kansas City Shuffle

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the offseason has been the Kansas City Royals, who have already committed more than $105 million to upgrading their roster. This was much-needed, as the Royals closed out 2023 with a payroll around $70 million and a 56-win season that was very much reflective of the payroll effort. The additions so far have included starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, power-hitting outfielder Hunter Renfroe, and relievers Will Smith and Chris Stratton.

Lugo has averaged an ERA of 3.50 over eight big league seasons, and he’s coming off a career-high in starts, innings pitched, and strikeouts. Wacha, 31, is a proven innings-eater, averaging 184.0 per year so far, and he is coming off a 14-win, 3.22 ERA season for an underachieving Padres team. When healthy, Renfroe has the potential to add a lot of thump, as he averages 34 homers and 87 RBI per 162 games played. Stratton got much better after getting traded to Texas at the 2023 deadline, picking up a 22-0 K-to-BB ratio with a 3.41 ERA down the stretch. Smith began his career with the Royals 11 years ago, and he somehow continues to get outs when you need them. He’s also pitched for the last three World Series winners, so maybe the Royals are onto something here. KC has a decent core in place with guys like Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, MJ Melendez, and possibly the emerging Cole Ragans. If these moves don’t pan out, you trade them off at the deadline and try again next year, but you gotta tip your hat to a team that’s trying to win.

The Twins won 87 games in 2023 to win the AL Central, so that division remains as wide open as ever. Two Wild Card teams just met in the World Series, with the Rangers going an unprecedented 11-0 on the road and the Diamondbacks eliminating both the Phillies and Dodgers along the way. There was all kinds of outrage about how much time the top teams had off. Point being, you get in, anything can happen after that, and the Royals are betting on themselves here.

3. Pitching, Pitching and More Pitching

Last week, I talked about how Kirby Yates landing with the Rangers could end up being a good thing, so here’s another name that probably isn’t the ones fans were hoping for. Like Yates, though, I think this has the potential to be one of those low-risk, high-reward scenarios the Rangers have fallen in love with over the last 15 years or so.

The Twins gave up Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Steve Haijar to acquire Mahle from the Reds around the deadline in 2022, and Mahle has been injured for most of his time in Minnesota. In all, the Twins gave up what looks to be two pretty good pieces for a guy that gave them nine total appearances in a year and some change. However, in his last mostly-full season, Mahle made 23 starts. The year before that, he made 33. That’s going to be important for the Rangers.

Since former MLB starter Chris Young took over as GM for Texas, the Rangers have added Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Will Smith, Chris Stratton, Andrew Heaney, Nathan Eovaldi, Jordan Montgomery, Aroldis Chapman, Kirby Yates, and the always-focused-on-arms Bruce Bochy. Last year, he offered Martin Perez a qualifying offer The pattern here is that the Rangers are focusing on pitching (largely because their offense doesn’t need a lot of tweaks right now), and the strategy is quantity over quality. Mahle doesn’t have blow-you-away type of numbers or stuff, but the Rangers didn’t go get him to be that. deGrom and Scherzer are out until after the All-Star Break, and Mahle probably isn’t coming back before then, either. They are trying to simply stay afloat until then.

However, while Blake Snell probably isn’t on the way, the Rangers aren’t done adding to their pitching depth and could have a real playing time problem on their hands at some point. If they re-sign Montgomery as many have speculated, there will come a time in 2024 when they have potentially 10 Major League level starters and only five rotation spots. As a fan of this team, watching pitching be their biggest weakness my entire life is not fun. Too many arms with potential to be quality is a really nice problem to have – especially when you are the defending champs.

3 DOWN

1. Little Brother in LA

While Dodgers fans are ecstatic about Ohtani, the Angels continue to be one of the most embarrassing franchises in professional sports, due in large part to owner Arte Moreno. I said at the deadline the Angels should trade Ohtani because we all knew they weren’t going to be remotely competitive. We were right. The Halos opted to instead to add CJ Cron, Randal Grichuk and Lucas Giolito and call up Nolan Schanuel, who had been drafted just months earlier. When it didn’t work out (because DUH), the Angels released a good chunk of their MLB roster in order to avoid the luxury tax. We were right about that, too.

At the deadline, the Angels allegedly refused to trade him to the Dodgers, but Ohtani ended up with the Dodgers anyway, AND they got to keep the prospects they would have sent to the Angels. Those are prospects that may have been included in the Glasnow deal instead. Not only does it continue the tradition of winning in Dodger Blue, but it continues a sad trajectory for the Angels, as well. Recent news, including an interview with Ohtani’s agent, has reported that two other teams in baseball matched the Dodgers’ offer, while the Angels did not.

To review, the Angels had six years of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani together, and they don’t have a single playoff appearance in that time. The Angels could have gotten an absolute HAUL for Ohtani at the deadline that would help them take major steps toward a real rebuild and chose to go with CJ Cron instead. The Angels had a chance to re-sign perhaps the best free agent in the history of the sport and chose not to do so. They have absolutely nothing to show for Ohtani’s time in red.

This is just the latest in a LONG line of reasons the Angels aren’t competitive, but it starts and ends with Moreno. When he teased that he was selling the team a year ago, Angels fans rejoiced, but then he reneged and decided he enjoys their suffering. My prediction is that the Halos are about to become one of the worst teams in the sport for several years to come, and I don’t think it’s really that farfetched at this point.

2. Long Lost Ace 

Former Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty signed a one-year, $14 million contract with the Detroit Tigers last week on what is known around the sports as a “prove-it deal”. If he can bounce back from a dreadful 2023 campaign, he can hit free agency again next year, potentially signing a much more lucrative deal. The problem is those things only work if you’re good.

Flaherty has averaged just under 19 games a season since he made his debut in 2017, with the majority of those coming as a starter. He is 42-34 in that time, but if you take away his 2019 season that appears more and more to be a fluke, he is 31-26 with a 4.51 ERA for his career. He’s got the capability, but it just isn’t showing up consistently.

After spending parts of seven seasons in St. Louis, Flaherty was traded to Baltimore as an added arm for their playoff run, which I believed to be a sneaky move at the time. What the Orioles got from Flaherty, however, was 27 runs in 34.2 innings, a 1-3 record and a 1.67 WHIP. His hard hit percentage jumped up to a career-worst 45.8%, and his win probability dropped all the way down to -0.8. That means the other team’s chances of winning went UP when he came in the game. He was resorted to the bullpen for the Postseason, where he walked three guys and gave up two hits in his only appearance.

The good news is he’s only 27, won’t have the pressure of contending in Detroit, can beat up on an awful division, and has shown glimpses of being pretty good for most of his career. He should certainly benefit from a change of scenery. Can he improve enough to get a big contract next offseason? Perhaps. Will he? There’s not much to indicate that.

3. It's Fine I Promise 

Man, some of you really jumped all over the Dodgers for that Ohtani contract. I’ve heard how they are ruining the sport, how MLB needs to step in, and how there’s no need in playing games now. If that were true, the Dodgers would have more than one ring in the last 12 years. Teams that are trying to win aren’t the problem. The league doesn’t need a salary cap – it needs a salary MINIMUM. Just tell me your team isn’t trying and that will be an acceptable answer. Crushing the Dodgers is the wrong idea.

Just for fun, here are some “superteams” that were put together in Los Angeles and how they fared.

• 2003-04 Lakers: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton – heavy preseason favorites, lost in the Finals

• 2013 Angels: Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, Mike Trout – went 78-84, missed the playoffs

• 2019-20 Clippers: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Patrick Beverly – lost in the second round

• 2022 Rams: Matt Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, Bobby Wagner – went 5-12, missed the playoffs

• 2023 USC Football: Caleb Williams, Lincoln Riley – preseason #6, went 7-5, lost to biggest rival, in a bowl game typically reserved for Texas Tech

• 2023 Chargers: Justin Herbert, Joey Bosa, Keenan Allen, Austin Ekeler – currently 5-9, just gave up 63 to a 5-win team, fired coach

Those are just in LA and just in recent memory. Why were all of those considered failures? Because they were expected to win. You can’t fault teams for TRYING. That’s the point. Teams that aren’t should be the ones getting all the hate from fans. I don’t like the Dodgers. I will probably enjoy rooting against them in the Postseason again. But, I still respect them for getting good players.

Other teams had their opportunity at Ohtani. We’ve addressed the Angels already. The contract structure is not against any rule, and any other team could have done it the same way. Heaven forbid a team try to win by putting good players on the field instead of tanking to get some picks that might pan out in six years. It’s sports. Winning is supposed to matter. If you don’t think that, you might need a new hobby.

3 UP

Priority Number Juan

The New York Yankees came into the offseason in perhaps more of a desperation mode than they have been in a while. They missed the Postseason for the first time in seven years, with fans once again speculating that General Manager Brian Cashman would be on the hot seat. Perhaps Cashman himself thought, that, too. Whatever the reasoning, the Yankees were able to close a trade for Juan Soto late Wednesday night, and the bottom line is that when you have the chance to trade for a guy like Soto, you do it. Everybody knows what Soto can do with the bat (especially at that park), but perhaps the biggest way he can help the Bombers is simply by staying on the field. Last season, the Yanks’ top three outfielders by games played in the outfield were Oswaldo Cabrera (92), Aaron Judge (67), and Harrison Bader (83). Judge was able to DH a good chunk of the season because of yet another injury to Giancarlo Stanton, and the Yankees placed Bader on release waivers back in August. Judge still went on to hit 37 homers, while Bader was the next-highest ranking outfielder for the Yankees with 7. Juan Soto played the outfield in 154 games last year for the Padres and DH’d in the rest of them. He has never had a stint on the Injured List in his career, and he misses less than 10 games a year since his mid-season debut in 2018. This outfield now includes Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo, and it has a chance to be the most explosive outfield in the American League. Gleyber Torres appears comfortable in New York, and Anthony Volpe is only going to get better in Year 2. If the Yankees get anything at all from Stanton and Anthony Rizzo (missed a combined 114 games in 2023), they certainly have the chance to once again be near the top of the division and potentially make a deep playoff run. Perhaps the most interesting part is that a huge reason Soto is gone from San Diego is because San Diego just had to have former Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts last offseason. So now, the Yankees don’t have to worry about Xander AND land Juan Soto. To get Soto without having to give up Volpe or hyped prospect Jasson Dominguez is a no-brainer, and it may have saved Cashman’s job for the time being.

 The Rich Get Richer

After finishing with an MLB-best 104 wins, the Braves’ season ended quicker than they had hoped after a 3-1 loss in the NLDS to the division rival Phillies. The most significant roster decision this offseason was the $9 million club option on Eddie Rosario, which the Braves chose to decline, making Rosario a free agent. A trade with the Mariners earlier this week saw outfielder Jarred Kelenic head to Atlanta, and I think this will end up as one of the most under-the-radar good moves of the offseason.  A large reason why the Braves got Kelenic was because of their willingness to take on the contract of consistently overrated starting pitcher Marco Gonzales, who was due $12 million in 2024 and has a $15 million club option for 2025. Two days after he was traded to Atlanta, the Braves traded him and some cash for a player to be named later to the Pirates. Look, Gonzales can eat some innings when healthy, but he’s just not helping a contender like Atlanta or Seattle right now. Unless you’re a Mariners fan (and let’s be honest, you aren’t), you probably don’t know much about Kelenic. He’s kind of bounced back and forth between a big leaguer and a minor league so far in his career, but he hasn’t really proven himself to be reliable yet. I think that’s about to change. The Yankees may have the most pop among their outfielders, but I think the Braves are about to have the best all-around (power, speed, defense) outfield in the sport. He’s an above-average defender with good arm strength that could help develop him into a plus-defender (think Kevin Keirmaier level defense). He has the tools to be a middle of the lineup hitter at some point, as he is deceptively quick and can pull the ball with good power. He hit a career-high .253 in 2023 at just 23 years old, and he just got traded to a team that develops young guys better than arguably anyone in the league. Seattle needed him to be a heavy contributor offensively, but the reality was that he was just trying to find some staying power in the show. He absolutely has the potential to give you what Rosario did and might even add in some stolen bases. In a lineup with Acuna, Olson, Ozuna, Riley, Albies and Murphy, there won’t be pressure to produce anywhere but with the glove, and that’s where Kelenic has always been the most comfortable.

 Disaster Relief

It will get overshadowed because the Rangers won the World Series in 2023, but that bullpen was atrocious for the bulk of the season and even most of their playoff run. For context, the Rangers blew the most saves in the league last year (33) and actually blew more chances than they converted (30). Bruce Bochy managed to somehow survive it without the nightly heart attack it gave most Rangers fans, but if Texas wants to make another good run, they knew the bullpen was going to be their most important target this offseason. Reliever Kirby Yates inked a 4.5 million dollar one-year deal with Texas this week after a bounce-back season with the Braves in 2023. He was an All-Star in 2019, missed all of 2021, and pitched seven innings after Tommy John Surgery in 2022. For Atlanta last year, he went 7-2 with five saves and a 3.28 ERA in 61 games. Yes, he’s 36. Yes, he’s had some arm issues. And yes, this could go poorly for the Rangers. But all in all, he’s not signed to be the closer but instead to be a reliable arm in the 7th inning to set things up for some combination of Josh Sborz, Jose Leclerc and potentially Jordan Hicks or Josh Hader. If you ask a Rangers fan how they felt watching Aroldis Chapman, Chris Stratton, Glenn Otto, etc. come into the game in 2023, you’ll quickly understand how desperately Texas needed this one. At just $4.5 million, the Rangers have enough payroll flexibility to keep adding, and if it doesn’t work, that’s not that expensive of an experiment to take a chance on. I’ll say it until I can’t anymore: It’s not how MUCH you spend. It’s HOW you spend it. This is a net win for Texas.

 3 DOWN

WYD, San Diego?

While the Yankees getting Juan Soto is a big deal, it should be viewed as an ever bigger deal for the Padres, who ended up with a bunch of guys they hope can be good in the big leagues in 2-4 years and a 33-year-old catcher named Kyle. These trades hardly ever work for the team getting the prospects, but the Padres got in over their heads financially and panicked. Peter Seidler, who had served as the owner and chairman of the Padres for a decade and seemed to believe a championship in the 619 was not only possible but realistic, passed away a few weeks ago, and it looks as if that has altered the course for the organization. The message is unfortunately clear now to San Diego fans, who are clinging to the Padres more than ever before since the departure of the Chargers. That message is that with Seidler’s death, the Padres are going to leave the big spending to other teams and that they intend to be the same Padres they’ve largely been for two decades…..losers in other words. There’s a clear lack of trying when you trade a player like Soto, and it’s glaringly obvious to fans. Blake Snell (16 mil in 2023) and Josh Hader (14 mil) are both free agents. Soto (23 mil) is gone, as are Nick Martinez (11 mil) and Seth Lugo (8.75 mil). Sure, they still have Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. (for now), but it sure seems like a matter of time for those guys, too. Whatever is next for the Padres doesn’t seem like it’s going to be enjoyable for a while.

Desperate Times in the Desert

Left-handed starter Eduardo Rodriguez agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal with the Diamondbacks a few hours after the Soto deal was finalized, and the NL Champs add another arm to what was already a pretty good rotation. I get that you have to overpay, especially when you think your window is open, but this seems like a big reach. When you check E-Rod’s career highlights, finishing sixth in the Cy Young race in 2019 is pretty much where it begins and ends. He’s coming off a career year in Detroit, where he posted a 13-9 record and a 3.30 ERA while making 26 starts. That sounds like pretty good numbers as a number 3 or 4 in a playoff rotation, but that was the first year his ERA was closer to 3.00 than 5.00 in several years. He’s always been susceptible to the long ball, and to be honest, it’s fairly easy to produce decent numbers for a team that doesn’t care. It’s much harder to do it when you’re in a playoff race.

He’s 30 and has some mileage on his arm, and my rule is you never pay a starting pitcher after a fluke career year. The Rangers did it with Martin Perez after the 2022 season, and in 17 playoff games this year, Perez got two whole outings. They’ve largely been the same guy for most of their career. Does Rodriguez help Arizona? Probably. (Until the last three years of that deal.) Could they have done better for the money? Definitely.

 Bad News on the Beltway?

Craig Kimbrel continues to make himself a stellar Immaculate Grid option, as the announcement that he is signing a one-year, $13 million dollar deal with the Orioles would put him on his fifth team in four years and eighth team overall. Before we dive into that, let’s take a moment to compare these two sets of statistics:

Player A: 3.26 ERA, 69.0 IP, 94 K, 1.8 WAR

Player B: 3.28 ERA, 60.1 IP, 80 K, 1.1 WAR

 Kimbrel was an All-Star with the Phillies last year, posting a 3.26 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 71 appearances. His 2023 season Player A. Player B is Kirby Yates in 2023. They are very similar numbers, Yates is a year older, and he signed for 8.5 million less than Kimbrel. That doesn’t sound like a ton of money, but Baltimore ranked 29th in payroll last year, ahead of only the tanking and relocating Oakland A’s. If Kirby Yates was available (and he was), why get Kimbrel and spend that much more extra cash? That’s a move that could easily limit your flexibility in the middle of your window being open. Ok, forget the salary. Let’s look at the numbers. Those 71 appearances are the second most in Kimbrel’s career (and the most since 2011), and that’s going to be near impossible to replicate. Kimbrel said he wants to be in win-now mode and that’s why he left a team that beat the 104-win Braves in the NLDS for a 101-win team that was swept in the same round. Granted, Baltimore looks more like a contender on paper, but the Phils have certainly surprised a lot of people in the last couple of Postseasons. Speaking of the Postseason, Kimbrel managed to go 0-2 in the 2023 Postseason, wearing half the losses that eliminated the Phillies in the NLCS. In 30 career Postseason games, Kimbrel has allowed 15 earned runs and 23 hits. His career regular season strikeout-to-walk ratio is 3.87, but his career Postseason ratio drops all the way down to 1.60. Ok, so maybe he’s just had a tough time in October. Maybe, but consider this. Kimbrel had five blown saves in 2023, and his 82% save percentage is the second-worst mark of his career. This was a guy who used be the definition of a stopper, but in his last 158 games, he has been trusted with just five inherited runners. Three of them have scored. His percentage of hard hits has gone up every year for the last three, and he just finished 2023 in the worst 1% in that category. He just gave up a career-high in home runs. That’s going to go DOWN in a division that features the two smallest parks in baseball and a lineup that features Juan Soto and Aaron Judge? Probably not. Good luck, Baltimore.

Written by Jordan