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The Rangers and Red Sox rely on their strong… pitching? Ken addresses Pete Alonso’s impending free agency, there’s intrigue in the Central(s), and we discover the locations of the White Whales. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Surprise: Red Sox and Rangers starters jostle for each other
The Texas Rangers have quite a rotation on the IL: Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford and Tyler Mahle. Eovaldi and Bradford have combined for 10 starts, but the other three have yet to see big league action this year.
And yet…before last night’s games, Rangers starters had the second-best batting average against (.209) in baseball, behind Philadelphia (.199).
Bradford (.145) and Eovaldi (.199) have been big contributors to this stat, as has Dane Dunning (.195), who is building on a breakout 2023. Tackle newcomer Michael Lorenzen (.203 ), Jon Gray (.235) and Andrew Heaney (.212 before last night’s game) and it’s going to make for some interesting decisions when five more starters – maybe six, if you count Jack Leiter – are ready to join the big league rotation.
Meanwhile, in Boston… Here, let me talk about myself. This is from my Red Sox season preview:
“… Boston has made just one notable pitching acquisition this offseason: Lucas Giolito, who will now miss the season while recovering from elbow surgery. … I don’t see much that indicates an ability to get ahead of the other four teams in a brutal AL East.»
Ho-hum, the pitching staff just had the best April in Boston in over 100 years. Chad Jennings discusses how unexpected this run has been, given the relative dearth of high draft picks represented. (Figures are through Monday afternoon.)
Top 10 Pitching Teams by ERA
Team | ERA staff | 1st round pick | first 5 rounds | The first 10 rounds | 15th round and more |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2.61 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
9 |
|
2.98 |
4 |
8 |
9 |
4 |
|
2.99 |
4 |
7 |
9 |
5 |
|
3.24 |
8 |
8 |
ten |
1 |
|
3.31 |
2 |
7 |
7 |
3 |
|
3.35 |
3 |
11 |
13 |
4 |
|
3.35 |
5 |
ten |
12 |
3 |
|
3.36 |
5 |
8 |
9 |
1 |
|
3.41 |
2 |
8 |
11 |
4 |
|
3.64 |
2 |
7 |
8 |
4 |
The Red Sox still have a way to go if they want to catch up with the Yankees and Orioles, but they sit in third place in the AL East, ahead of the Rays and Blue Jays.
The Rangers, meanwhile, returned to first place in the AL West with a win over the A’s and a Mariners loss to the Twins.
Ken’s notebook: The Fascinating Dynamics of Pete Alonso’s Free Agency
Pete Alonso’s value to the New York Mets is greater than to any other team. He is from the country. He has proven himself in New York. He is 53 home runs short of becoming the franchise’s all-time home run leader.
But what Alonso’s priority will be for the Mets this offseason — and how much priority his agent, Scott Boras, will place on keeping him in New York — are open questions.
Boras represents a number of other potential free agents the Mets are likely to pursue, including outfielder Juan Soto and right-hander Corbin Burnes. Many in the industry expect Mets owner Steve Cohen to splurge this offseason as his payroll flexibility increases significantly. But the dynamics of Alonso’s pending free agency are fascinating, to say the least.
It’s almost impossible to imagine Cohen making the same type of preemptive move he made with Edwin Díaz in 2022, signing the pitcher to a record $102 million guarantee for a reliever just four days before the market opened free agents.
Oh, Boras might be willing to accept if the Mets offer a deal higher than Miguel Cabrera’s record $248 million contract for a first baseman. But given the way first basemen are valued today, the Mets may not view him as worth more than the $162 million the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman. And Boras, at least initially, will likely want to keep his options open.
Alonso, in an interview Friday, expressed no particular concerns about his future with the Mets, or his free agency in general. At the moment he is dealing with other issues. In the midst of a 1-for-30 slump, he’s hitting just .205 with eight home runs and a .710 OPS this season. With runners in scoring position, his batting average is .138. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza kept him out of the starting lineup Monday for the first time this season.
Asked if he was concerned that Boras could potentially block his return to the Mets by managing, say, Soto and Burnes in New York, Alonso said: “I’m not particularly thinking about that right now.
“I love the city I play in. I consider myself a New Yorker. I obviously have a great relationship with the guys on the team. And I think I have a great relationship with the people in the front office and with Steve as well. We’ll see what happens this winter. That’s a big question mark. For me, right now, I’m just focusing on doing what I can to help us win every day.
The Centrals are interesting, actually
No one can be blamed for having low expectations of the Central Divisions this year. Last year, Minnesota won 87 games and Milwaukee 92, but both won their respective divisions by nine games. Only one other division lacked a 100-game winner, but at least the AL West had the intrigue of Houston and Texas in finishing with the same record (90-72), with Seattle just two games behind.
I expected the same thing this year and I was wrong.
AL Central
• Guardians: They have the third-best record in baseball, even with Shane Bieber out for the year after just two starts. After finishing dead last at home runs last year, they have climbed to 13th so far this year.
• Twins: I recently had a 12 fight winning streak and overcame injuries to the three guys I was worried about getting hurt (Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, Byron Buxton).
• Royals: The roster overhaul worked, and would you believe it: the Royals currently sit in the third wild card spot in the AL.
• Tigers: The Tigers are just 18-17, but being over .500 after going 78-84 last year is always interesting. Tarik Skubal has been a revelation and Riley Greene has bounced back.
• The White Sox: Interesting, but for none of the right reasons.
Central NL
• Brewers: It looked like a sell-off this winter, and I expected a collapse. Instead, the Fightin’ Pat Murphys lead the division again, at 20-14, in a virtual tie with the…
• The cubs: I half expected the Cubs to run away with this division, and that was before Shota Imanaga showed up as the second coming of Hippo Vaughn. Next step: a rapprochement?
• Reds: This point would have been better made last week, before the Reds’ five-game slide. Still, Elly De La Cruz is the kind of player who can almost single-handedly make a team watchable.
•Pirates: They are not GOODbut they are interesting. Jared Jones, Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz — Mitch Keller launched a full game last night. They will probably add Soon Paul Skenes.
• Cardinals: Not even really interesting, even for the wrong reasons.
Neither division will be the best in baseball. But as I flipped through the games every night, I found myself more interested in the Central(s) than I expected.
The terrain they couldn’t master
Every once in a while, I come across a story that makes me wish I’d asked the central question. Today, it’s Andy McCullough and Stephen Nesbitt who have a great premise: Let’s ask a lot of All-Star pitchers if there’s a pitch they’ve never been able to master.
Every year, there are a multitude of stories about each spring training camp – pitchers who spent their winter adding a new pitch (hello Spencer Strider curveball). But as McCullough and Nesbitt illustrate, it really isn’t easy.
The quotes in this story are awesome. Starting pitchers are, by nature, incredibly competitive. And yet, here are a dozen of the game’s best, admitting defeat: Their job is to throw pitches, and yet… here’s a throw I can’t throw.
But while it’s interesting to hear, say, the Giants’ Logan Webb wax nostalgic about a cutter (“I’ve been trying for five years now, and I can’t figure it out“), I wondered how each of their careers would be different if they had. What if Clayton Kershaw had a devastating changeup to go along with his other dominant pitches?
If Shane Bieber is to be believed, the answer is: pretty awesome. Bieber went to Driveline last winter and finally nailed his changeup, throwing the pitch at a 41.7 whiff rate before going down with a UCL injury. (So, maybe not great?)
Others have never even attempted their white whale; Pablo López wanted to throw a screwball, but watching Brent Honeywell with the Rays, he worried the arm action would cause an injury, so he never even tried it.
Handshakes and High Fives
McCullough wrote a book about Clayton Kershaw, and if this excerpt is any indication, it will be a must-read for any baseball fan.
It’s “wish you were here” week for the Power Rankings.
The Phillies are the best team in baseball so far. They could be… awesome?
The Tigers unveiled their City Connect jerseys yesterday. I can get behind the tire tracks and the “313/M1” patches are very cool, but these hats aren’t great.
Luis-Arraez-in-San-Diego didn’t quench Jim Bowden’s thirst for more trades.
Dave Roberts joined Starkville to talk about Ohtani, Mookie, vanilla ice cream and bee delays.
Weird moment in Oakland last night: Ezequiel Durán made a great catch, then tried to throw out JD Davis at home. If you can’t tell from this GIF, the throw hit Davis directly in the helmet (he stayed in the game).
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(Top photo by Dane Dunning: Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images)