Kuzul

Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta has throttled into a sphere of superstardom following a few mundane seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, but the 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner is sick of anonymous claims that he’s been aided by the use of performance-enhancing drugs.    

In an interview with USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale published Tuesday, Arrieta said he’s heard the criticism lobbed his way ever since he started fanning batters like one of the league’s best. 

“I’ve heard players, and I’m talking about some of the best players in the league, question whether I’ve taken steroids or not,” Arrieta said. “Some of the things I hear are pretty funny, and some people are idiots, frankly.

“I’ll see on Twitter, ‘My close source revealed to me he’s on steroids.’ Well, the 10 tests I take a year say otherwise. I eat plants. I eat lean meat. I work out. And I do things the right way.”

After going 20-25 with a 5.46 ERA over the course of three-and-a-half seasons with the Orioles, Arrieta has turned the corner and morphed into one of MLB‘s most dominant pitchers. Steady improvement was evident during the second half of the 2013 season and the 2014 campaign, but his 2015 campaign served as a revelation of sorts. 

Not only did Arrieta win a league-best 22 games while tossing four complete games and three shutouts, but he notched his first career no-hitter before earning Cy Young honors. This season, Arrieta has maintained dominant form with a 4-0 record, 0.87 ERA and the season’s first no-hitter. 

However, the 30-year-old made it clear he hasn’t violated any rules or cut any corners to achieve greatness. 

“If there are guys still on it, I hope they get caught,” Arrieta told Nightengale. “I care about the integrity of the game. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my family, my friends, my fans. That’s a huge motivating factor in doing it the right way.”

Arrieta also discussed his future in the Windy City and made it clear he plans to cash out with the Cubs or another franchise when he hits the open market in 2017.

“If we don’t work out a deal here and I go to free agency, I will get six or seven years,” Arrieta said. “No doubt about that. I’d like to stay in Chicago, but if they don’t want me, somebody will.”

Nightengale added that Arrieta and his agent, Scott Boras, sought a seven-year contract extension during the offseason only to be rebuffed. However, the star pitcher reiterated he’d like to remain with the Cubs if they’re amenable to changing their negotiating tactics. 

“I know the Cubs don’t typically do six- or seven-year deals, but I think there are obviously times when there should be exceptions,” Arrieta added, per Nightengale. “I think I’ve done pretty well here. I would enjoy staying in Chicago. But when the opportunities are out there like they are, I’m going to keep an open mind.” 

If Arrieta can maintain a semblance of his current pace, the Cubs would be wise to seek a long-term partnership with their most prized pitcher.

According to CSN Chicago’s Christopher Kamka, Arrieta is 20-1 with a 0.86 ERA, 173 strikeouts, 33 walks and 0.697 WHIP over his last 24 regular-season starts.

Those numbers may not be sustainable as Arrieta ages into his 30s, but even slight regression would keep him nestled in the league’s elite-pitching tier. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez was removed from Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays with left oblique stiffness. It is uncertain when he will return to action.

Continue for updates.

Rodriguez Out vs. Rangers

Monday, April 25

Marly Rivera of ESPN reported that Rodriguez will not be in the lineup against Texas on Monday.

Rodriguez Undergoes MRI

Sunday, April 24

Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News reported that the results of Rodriguez’s MRI came back negative.

Girardi Comments on Rodriguez’s Injury

Sunday, April 24

“Yeah, I worry,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters. “Hopefully whatever it is is really, really minor.”

Rodriguez Bounced Back in 2015 After Suspension

After missing the 2014 season because of a performance-enhancing drug suspension, Rodriguez wielded impressive power in his return to the Bronx. The 40-year-old posted a slash line of .250/.356/.486 while driving in 86 runs and slamming 33 home runs.

When he bashed his 30th home run on Sept. 8 of last season, A-Rod tied Hank Aaron for the most seasons (15) in MLB history with at least 30 dingers.

This season, however, Rodriguez has gotten off to a slow start and is batting .145 with two home runs and six RBI.

And while that production may not justify the $21 million he will earn in 2016 and 2017 before one of the most infamous contracts in baseball history expires, he’s proved to be serviceable in several other ways.

“He is a veteran presence in the clubhouse that likes to take the new players and young players under his wing,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on the Baseball Tonight podcast, per NJ Advance Media’s Joe Giglio. “He’s really an extra coach. He helped speed up the adjustment process of guys adjusting to New York. He’s impactful in that way.”

The Yankees offense could suffer without Rodriguez, but a lineup with table-setters Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner and power bats like Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira is already struggling. New York entered Sunday ranked 17th in the majors with 4.06 runs per game after it finished second last season with 4.72 runs per contest.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A fan was struck by a foul ball and taken off on a stretcher Friday at Tropicana Field during the seventh inning of the Tampa Bay Rays’ 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

According to the Tampa Bay Times‘ Marc Topkin, “the female fan was sitting in the second row of seats behind the protective netting that was added this season, but the ball, off the bat of Steven Souza Jr., went through a small triangle-shaped opening.”

Following the incident, the Rays added additional netting, per Topkin:

MLB.com’s Mike Nabors added the fan “was conscious and talking.” On Saturday, Topkin reported the fan is in stable condition at an an area hospital.

After fouling the pitch off, Souza went into the stands to check on the fan, per Topkin:

Souza commented on the incident after the game:

Tampa Bay Times photographer Will Vragovic relayed a picture of medical personnel taking the fan out of the stands:

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale, who was on the mound at the time of the incident, commented on the situation following the game, via Nabors:

I feel bad, I really do. That’s tough. It’s part of it. I think Major League Baseball is trying to do what they can to protect fans, but that’s just a tough situation right there. I almost felt that when it happened. I just feel so bad for the individual and the family. I just hope for the best, really.

In December, Major League Baseball issued a recommendation “to add netting, or some sort of protective barrier, to shield fans from balls and bats that sometimes go into the stands in all field-level seats between the near ends of both dugouts and within 70 feet of home plate,” per MLB.com’s Paul Hagen.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish hasn’t pitched in 13 months after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he could return next month.

Continue for updates. 

Brocail Comments on Darvish Recovery

Saturday, April 9

“It’s time to turn him loose a little,” pitching coach Doug Brocail said after Darvish‘s 50-pitch bullpen session Saturday, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. “He’s out of the stable and we’ve got to let him run a little.”

“I don’t feel we should go backwards,” Brocail added, per Grant. “It’s all subject to change, but if all goes well, we’re going to try and stay on schedule.”

Darvish missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right throwing elbow, but he progressed to the point where he was activated off the Rangers’ 60-day disabled list last November. 

However, the time off evidently revitalized Darvish‘s passion for the game. 

“For 10 years I’ve been throwing in my career,” Darvish said, per the Star-Telegram‘s Jeff Wilson. “Sometimes throwing in the 10 years, it’s kind of like it became routine and I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I used to when I first starting my career. Having that time [off], I feel like I’m enjoying throwing the ball more right now.”

Few players are more valuable to the Rangers than the 29-year-old Darvish, but it helps that the Rangers got aggressive and plucked Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies at last season’s trade deadline. With some more stability in the starting rotation, Texas can at least afford to wait a bit for its ace to be completely healthy.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford is battling lower back soreness that will force him to miss extended action.

Continue for updates. 

Crawford Placed on Disabled List

Saturday, April 9

The Dodgers announced Micah Johnson will be recalled and take Crawford’s spot on the roster while he rests on the 15-day DL and aims to get back to 100 percent, according to the Los Angeles Times‘ Andy McCullough.    

Crawford had been serving as the Dodgers’ starting left fielder with Andre Ethier out nursing a leg injury, but those duties will presumably belong to Scott Van Slyke for the time being. 

The 34-year-old appeared in each of the Dodgers’ first three games and batted 3-for-10 during that span while driving in two runs, but he was out of the starting lineup Thursday and Friday due to back pain. 

“It’s been there for a while,” Crawford said of the pain before Friday’s game, per McCullough. “It just finally got to a point where I couldn’t take the pain no more.”

According to McCullough, Crawford missed an average of 80 games per season from 2012-2015 as he battled a litany of injuries. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

To say the San Diego Padres started their 2016 in uninspiring fashion would be an understatement. 

According to Elias Sports Bureau (via SportsCenter on Twitter), the Padres became the first team in Major League Baseball history to get shut out over the course of the first three games of the regular season.

The 1943 St. Louis Browns owned the old record after they opened their season with 26 straight scoreless innings, per STATS (via the Associated Press‘ Bernie Wilson). 

The Padres appeared in line to avoid the futile mark when they had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth inning, but Cory Spangenberg was controversially ruled out on a play at the plate that was upheld upon review, per MLB Replay on Twitter: 

San Diego encountered more bad luck earlier in the sixth inning when Jon Jay was ruled out at second base after initially being deemed safe: 

Not only were the Padres outscored 25-0 during their season-opening three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they mustered a combined total of 11 hits—good for an average 3.7 per game. 

A year after finishing 23rd in total runs scored (650) and last in batting average (.243), San Diego has been even worse. 

If there’s any good news, though, it’s that the scoreless streak should be coming to an end soon. The Padres will open a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, and the series will take place within the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. 

With the ball set to fly in high altitude, the Padres shouldn’t take long to plate a runner or two against a Rockies team that surrendered 19 runs in three games this week against the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Major League Baseball permanently banned New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia in February after he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs for the third time in a year, but Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters Tuesday that the exiled pitcher will receive “fair consideration” if he applies for reinstatement when the 2018 season rolls around, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin. 

“… He has right to file for reinstatement,” Manfred said, per Rubin. “If and when he does that, I’ll give that request for reinstatement fair consideration.”  

Mejia became the first player in MLB history to receive a lifetime ban for three positive PED tests, but he spoke at his lawyer’s office in early March in an attempt to state his case. 

Although Mejia, speaking through an interpreter, told reporters he was “not here to accuse anyone or hurt anyone,” according to the New York Daily News‘ Nathaniel Vinton, Christian Red and Michael O’Keeffe, his lawyer, Vincent White, alleged that the ban was the result of not cooperating in a sting operation. 

“Mr. Mejia was told by league representatives that if he did not provide testimony on a particular player they wanted to investigate they would go out of their way to find him positive a third time,” White said, per Vinton, Red and O’Keeffe. “My client believes he has no choice now but to fight.”

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Manfred adamantly denied those allegations.

“First of all, let me say, the allegations made by Mr. Mejia’s attorney are utterly and completely without factual foundation,” Manfred said, according to Rubin. “I think we’ve been pretty clear about that. And I don’t think it’s ever a positive, in any relationship, when somebody goes out and says things that are not true.”

While Mejia is still years away from being granted a hearing, Rubin noted that the 26-year-old will be able to challenge any future denial of his reinstatement by taking his case to an independent arbitrator. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Count Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa among those who believe baseball isn’t dying.

In a first-person essay for SoleCollector.com published Monday, the 21-year old phenom explained that while a perception regarding the sport’s demise has become a popular narrative of late, the game is simply shifting in a different direction and is better served breaking away from its infamous unwritten rules: 

These unwritten rules are responsible for trying to kill our fans’ favorable perception of the game that we love. They strangle the passion and creativity of some of our sports most exciting athletes, all for the fear of breaking those unwritten rules. We are so enamored by the idea of what we think the game should look like that we fail to see how it could be seen. The past has been glorified so much that we resist any change at all for fear that it will degrade traditions but in doing so we have stopped the game from progressing forward. We are surprised and offended when we hear someone say the game is boring or dying, but we don’t take action to fix it.  

Correa added that while previous generations of baseball players deserve respect for their contributions to the game and how they’ve paved the way for today’s sluggers, he believes an opportunity exists for the current generation to carry the sport into a new realm of popularity. 

“We have the opportunity to drive this game forward and inspire future generations to know that they can do the same,” Correa wrote. “We are a generation of ballplayers who express ourselves through a level of energy, passion and style that we bring every time we step on the field.”  

Correa also touched on his decision to ink an apparel deal with Adidas after previously signing with Nike.

“The decision was simple: because other brands are stuck in the past,” Correa wrote. “My decision to sign with Adidas hinged on the opportunity to define what that future of baseball will look like. They looked for an opportunity to do things in a different way and presented a new way of thinking about baseball, fusing performance and style.”

The reigning American League Rookie of the Year is hardly the first prominent player to speak up on the issue of on-field expression and in-game creativity—although doing so through the prism of his endorsement deal was unique. 

Washington Nationals outfielder and reigning National League MVP Bryce Harper espoused similar opinions in a recent profile by ESPN The Magazine‘s Tim Keown that kick-started a debate regarding proper behavior within the game: 

If a guy pumps his fist at me on the mound, I’m going to go, ‘Yeah, you got me. Good for you. Hopefully I get you next time.’ That’s what makes the game fun. You want kids to play the game, right? What are kids playing these days? Football, basketball. Look at those players — Steph Curry, LeBron James. It’s exciting to see those players in those sports. Cam Newton — I love the way Cam goes about it. He smiles, he laughs. It’s that flair. The dramatic.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred also spoke up regarding in-game theatrics on the heels of Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista coming up with a bat flip to remember during the 2015 American League Division Series. 

“I kinda line up with [Bryce] Harper on this,” Manfred said in an interview on ESPN’s Mike & Mike (via Sporting News’ Jordan Heck). “I think that we’ve got a great generation of young stars coming into the game. And just like Goose (Gossage) and his peers decided certain things were OK, certain things weren’t, this generation is going to define what the game looks like on those topics.”

With Correa, Manfred and Harper all vocal proponents of pushing the limits of how players are allowed to express themselves on the diamond, baseball appears to be headed in a positive direction when it comes to ridding itself of its sentimental attachment to the good old days.  

And with a fresh season upon us, it will be fascinating to see how Major League Baseball’s most prominent superstars embrace the fresh approach. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey was suffering from blood clots and will be off the mound for at least one start. However, he is poised to be ready for Opening Day.

Continue for updates. 

Latest on Harvey’s Playing Status 

Tuesday, March 29

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported that Harvey is probable to get the start on Opening Day against the Kansas City Royals. Adam Rubin of ESPN reported that Harvey could return to the mound on Saturday, but his status is “still up in [the air].”

Harvey Speaks on Blood Clots, Recovery

Tuesday, March 29

Harvey told reporters he will be “completely fine” to pitch against the Royals, adding that the clots were caused by “holding in my urine too long instead of using the restroom.”

The Mets ace also added that he had a bladder infection that prompted the clots but has since been cleared for light activities.

Harvey Has Recovered from Blood Clots

Tuesday, March 29

Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News first reported the news, noting the pitcher had clots in his bladder and has since passed them. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com passed along a report from Ed Coleman of WFAN, who noted Harvey’s condition is not considered serious.

Ackert noted Harvey walked into the clubhouse Tuesday looking “tired and pale” after being discharged.

Collins Comments on Harvey’s Injury  

Monday, March 28

The Mets scratched Harvey from Tuesday’s scheduled start, and manager Terry Collins told reporters he’s “hopeful” Harvey will pitch the team’s season opener but that they’re “waiting for medical results.”

“His arm is fine,” Collins said, adding that Harvey’s injury is a “mystery,” per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

Harvey Poised to Anchor Mets’ Stellar Rotation

Harvey missed the entire 2014 season after he underwent Tommy John surgery on his right (throwing) elbow, but he returned in 2015 to pitch 189.1 innings during the regular season before tossing 26.2 solid innings in the postseason en route to the National League pennant. 

And while Harvey had a minor case of what Collins labeled “dead arm” last May, per Ackert, it proved to be nothing more than a minor hindrance. He finished 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 188 strikeouts.

The Mets have arguably baseball’s most dynamic rotation in Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Bartolo Colon, so losing the Dark Knight for a start or two is hardly be a crippling blow. 

With Harvey facing a speedy recovery, it’s the best news possible for a team hoping to return to the World Series.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Will Smith tore the LCL in his right knee and is expected to miss extended action as he recovers. 

Continue for updates. 

Brewers Exploring Surgery for Smith

Saturday, March 26

According to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), Smith suffered the injury while pulling off his cleats after pitching in a minor league game March 24.  

“I pulled hard [on the shoe] and it stayed on,” Smith said, according to the Associated Press. “My knee just went up and popped. Everyone tells you there is nothing you can do about it, but you still feel like you are letting people down.”

Manager Craig Counsell told reporters the reliever will miss “significant time,” but a firm timetable isn’t currently available since it’s yet to be determined if Smith needs surgery. 

“The recovery is a little longer with surgery,” Counsell said, per the Associated Press. “It’s tough for us; it’s tough for Will. There is going to be somebody in [the clubhouse] that takes this opportunity and makes a lot of it.”

The good news for Milwaukee is that Counsell said the injury will not end Smith’s season. Rather, it’s just a matter of weathering the storm after Smith and Jeremy Jeffress were pegged to split closing responsibilities this year. 

Smith appeared in 76 games and posted a career-best 2.70 ERA last season when he struck out 91 batters and walked just 24. 

Now it will be on Jeffress to shoulder the load a year after going 5-0 with a 2.65 ERA, 67 strikeouts and 22 walks in a career-high 72 appearances.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com