Kuzul

Here come the New York Yankees.

Seriously, they’re in this thing.     

That seemed like an absurd notion when the Yankees went into full-blown sell mode just before the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline, jettisoning veteran pieces such as relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller and outfielder Carlos Beltran. New York was building for the future, the narrative went, waving a white flag and restocking its farm system.

The farm system part was true. After their flurry of late-July deals, the Yankees own the richest stash of minor league talent in either league, per Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter.

But New York is also a legitimate postseason contender here and now. It’s not merely some fancy; it’s the truth.

After besting the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 Wednesday in the Bronx and completing a three-game sweep, the Yankees sit at 73-65, 2.5 games off the wild-card pace and only four games back of the Jays for the American League East lead.

The Yankees have now won four straight and six of their last eight. They’re rolling, in other words, any way you parse it.

“We’ll get there if we continue to play like we’re playing,” infielder Starlin Castro said, per MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm and Bryan Hoch. “Especially now in September, we’re facing the teams in front of us. If we continue winning series like we did today, we’ll be all right.”

Rookie catcher Gary Sanchez has been the shiniest story, bashing 11 home runs with a 1.136 OPS in 30 games.

But the Yanks have enjoyed contributions from all over. Take Wednesday’s starter, right-hander Bryan Mitchell, who underwent surgery on an injured toe this spring and returned to throw five innings of four-hit shutout ball against Toronto.

Much-maligned Luis Severino, who sports a plus-6.00 ERA, chipped in three scoreless frames of his own out of the pen.

That’s how it’s gone for New York. Third baseman Chase Headley is hitting .296 over the past 30 contests. Second baseman Starlin Castro has eight home runs and 20 RBI during the same stretch. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has gone 7-for-23 over his last seven games.

On the pitching side, trade-deadline acquisition Tyler Clippard has allowed just one earned run with 18 strikeouts in 16 innings in relief, softening the loss of Miller and Chapman. And Dellin Betances remains an elite reliever, as his 115 strikeouts in 66.1 innings attest.

The rotation is anchored by Masahiro Tanaka, who has won his last five decisions and struck out 38 hitters in August next to just one walk. 

Thanks to Tanaka, Ryan Hatch of NJ Advance Media opined, “there’s a glimmer of hope, a modicum of optimism because he’s pitching every five days.”

Honestly, modicum is an understatement. 

Yes, FanGraphs puts the Yankees’ chances of nabbing a wild-card slot at 7.6 percent and their chances of winning the division at 0.8 percent. 

But New York opens a four-game set at home against the last-place AL East Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, which should theoretically be an opportunity to make hay. 

In their division, they also have seven games remaining against the first-place Boston Red Sox, four against the Jays and three against the Baltimore Orioles, who own the second wild-card spot.

That stretch, surely, will decide things. The Yankees can either sprint to unexpected glory or head into the offseason with a stacked system and money coming off the books.

It’s win-win. But Yanks fans are used to winning, period, so this house-money playoff run would do a lot to satiate the pinstripe faithful. 

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post put it:

It is turning into that kind of stretch run for the Yankees — inexplicable. Which is totally fitting for a team playing for both tomorrow and today and that somehow has gotten better after trading arguably their three best players.

The Yankees’ chances to make the playoffs remain slim. But that the discussion is still going on speaks to their ability to find a little bit of magic down the stretch.

Magic is a strong word. Probably too strong. There’s something going on here, though, and it’s more than a novelty. 

Here come the Yankees.

Seriously.

All statistics current as of Wednesday and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.   

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A week ago, a popular view among American League East scouts was that the Baltimore Orioles were a lot more likely to finish fourth than first.

They weren’t catching the Toronto Blue Jays or Boston Red Sox. Not with that starting rotation.

They would finish third and would try to sneak into the second wild-card spot. Or they would drop to fourth, with the New York Yankees surpassing them.

One week later, the Orioles are only one game out of first place.

How did that happen?

The same way it has happened all season. The same way it happened Tuesday night, when the Orioles’ starting pitcher departed after five innings—and they won.

Five innings is not a quality start. It’s not a good start. But when an Orioles starter has finished exactly five innings this season, the O’s are an astonishing 20-12.

When an Orioles starter goes five or more innings, the O’s are 69-39.

They don’t need great starting pitching. They don’t need quality starting pitching. They just need their starters to give them a chance, as Yovani Gallardo did when he gave up two runs (one earned) in his five innings Tuesday at Tampa Bay.

Five and fly is fine, because when the Orioles come to bat, the baseballs tend to fly out of the park. They hit another three home runs in Tuesday’s 11-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, giving them a major league-high 218 home runs this season.

No other team has hit more than 200.

It was Chris Davis (35th of the season), Manny Machado (34th) and Adam Jones (26th) Tuesday, and Machado’s home run was his third grand slam of the season. On another night, it will be Mark Trumbo, who leads the majors with 41 home runs.

No other team this season—and no previous Orioles team ever—has had three players with 30 or more. The Orioles have six players with 20 or more.

They play good defense. They have a good bullpen, with the best closer in the game in Zach Britton and a manager in Buck Showalter who knows how to use his relievers.

Give Showalter a 10-man bullpen, as he has with the ridiculous expanded rosters in September, and he can really work some magic.

It still might not be enough to finish ahead of the Blue Jays and Red Sox. It still might not be enough to hold off the Detroit Tigers, who the Orioles now lead by one game for the final wild-card spot.

But it’s as wrong to write off the O’s as it has been all season.

For one thing, their rotation has stabilized some. In a telephone interview Tuesday, general manager Dan Duquette credited 25-year-old Kevin Gausman (no runs allowed in 19 innings over his last three starts, and a 2.73 ERA since the All-Star break) and 23-year-old Dylan Bundy, who has been more inconsistent but pitched 5.2 scoreless innings last Friday night against the Yankees.

The rotation should get a boost this weekend, with 15-game winner Chris Tillman expected to come off the disabled list. Ubaldo Jimenez has pitched well in Tillman’s absence, with a 2.91 ERA in three starts and the Orioles’ first complete game since 2014, but they’ll be happy to have Tillman back.

Tillman is hardly a traditional ace. He hasn’t thrown a pitch in the eighth inning since June 8. His 3.76 ERA is tied for 34th among qualified major league starters, making him more Ian Kennedy than Jake Arrieta (a former Oriole, of course).

He’s not necessarily an ideal candidate for a Wild Card Game start against David Price or Justin Verlander. Then again, the Orioles have won two of the three times Price has started against them this season. And when Tillman and Verlander met in May, it was Tillman and the Orioles who came away with a 1-0 win (thanks to a Jones home run).

The Orioles will see Verlander again Sunday in Detroit, at the end of an important three-game series.

Just about every one of the Orioles’ remaining series look big. They go from Detroit to Boston to face the Red Sox, who they’ll also see a week later at home. The final week of the season, they go to Toronto and New York.

It won’t be easy, but what the Orioles have done so far wasn’t easy, either. It wasn’t easy, but it is fun, as Machado said (via Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com):

It’s fun for them now, and the AL East race is as much fun to watch as ever. And yes, the Orioles are very much still in it.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. 

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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As David Ortiz approaches the end of his Hall of Fame-caliber career, the Boston Red Sox slugger made his feelings known regarding a number of subjects Tuesday, including presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments on Latinos. 

In a Spanish-speaking interview with Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today, Big Papi had the following to say about Trump, who has taken a hard-line immigration stance complete with a plan to build a wall on the United States-Mexico border:

When you speak like that about us, it’s a slap in the face. I walk around sometimes, and I see Mexican people trying to earn a living in an honest way. And to hear somebody make those kinds of comments, it hits you. I think as Latin people we deserve better. Things have gotten much better in that regard. … As Latin people we deserve respect, no matter where you’re from. And especially our Mexican brothers, who come here willing to do all the dirty work.

Latin people here in the United States are the spark plug of the country’s economy. Whoever opposes that is going to lose. And not just Latin people but immigrants. I’m talking about people who come from Africa, from Asia, other places. All those people come here with one goal, to realize the American dream, and you have to include them in our group.

The 40-year-old Ortiz was born in the Dominican Republic, and he has carved out a 20-year MLB career, complete with 10 All-Star appearances, three World Series titles and one World Series MVP award.

Despite everything Ortiz has accomplished on the field—including hitting 534 career home runs—he cares more about leaving a lasting legacy from a character perspective and setting a positive example for his children:

That matters to me more than any home runs I’ve hit. It may inspire some of the young players coming up to try to emulate the things I’ve done right. … If [my kids] ever get up [to Major League Baseball], I want people to say to them, ‘I knew your dad, and he was a guy with huge power. But there was something better about him. He was a good person, a good guy.’ That’s what I care about the most.

The legendary designated hitter is in the midst of one of his best seasons in years, as he enters play Tuesday with a .318 batting average, 31 homers and 107 RBI.

Even though he shows no signs of slowing down, Papi has remained steadfast in his insistence that he intends to retire following the 2016 campaign.

Before he does that, though, a fourth career World Series ring is a real possibility with the Red Sox in playoff position.

Regardless of whether he caps off his career in ideal fashion, however, Ortiz has sealed his legacy as an all-time great slugger and a beloved personality in Boston and across the baseball world.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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The Tampa Bay Rays announced Evan Longoria was suffering from right hand soreness when he exited Monday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Although X-rays were negative, according to Topkin, a return date has yet to be announced.

Continue for updates. 

Duffy Replaces Longoria at Hot Corner

Monday, Sept. 5 

In the first inning, Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez hit Longoria in the hand with a pitch. Longoria was unable to continue, and Matt Duffy entered the game to fill in at third base.

Longoria Would Be Big Loss for Rays Lineup

This season, Longoria has rediscovered his superstar status that made him an MVP candidate early in his career. He previously looked like an injury-prone player, missing 117 total games in 2011 and 2012.

Since 2013, though, Longoria has been durable and reliable. He has played in at least 160 games and hit at least 21 home runs in each of the last three seasons, reaching the 30-homer barrier this season for the first time since 2013.

Longoria‘s power is essential to a Rays team that doesn’t have much of it. Brad Miller is the only other Rays player with more than 20 home runs in 2016. 

With Longoria on the shelf, Duffy may be the replacement in Tampa Bay’s lineup. Richie Shaffer could also be a call-up candidate, though the team has not shown any faith in his ability to be an everyday player in the big leagues through just 36 games. 

The Rays don’t have a lot of depth in the lineup, so losing Longoria will put more pressure on the pitching staff and defense to help them finish an otherwise disappointing season strong. 

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The Boston Red Sox will recall their top prospect, second baseman Yoan Moncada, from Double-A on Friday, according to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on Wednesday. 

The 21-year-old isn’t just the Red Sox’s No. 1 prospect, but he was also rated as the top minor leaguer by MLB.com. 

He agreed to a minor league deal with the Red Sox in February 2015 worth $31.5 million, per MLB.com. 

Viewed as a multitool player with power, speed and above-average fielding ability, MLB.com expected huge things from the Cuban:

Few middle infielders can match Moncada’s huge offensive ceiling, which earns him comparisons to Robinson Cano with more speed. He’s a switch-hitter with outstanding bat speed who makes consistent hard contact from both sides of the plate. Moncada doesn’t have much loft in his swing, which could cap his home run production at 15 annually, though he has the potential for 20-25 per season if he alters his approach.

He exhibited that power at the Futures Game during All-Star weekend, via MLB Network:

In 106 games in the minor leagues this season, Moncada has lived up to the billing, batting .294 with 15 home runs, 62 RBI and 45 stolen bases. 

He’s also displayed solid composure at the plate, with 72 walks contributing to his .407 on-base percentage. 

These kinds of intangibles can provide a huge boost for the Red Sox, who are fighting for their playoff lives heading into September. 

While they hold a two-game lead for the top American League wild-card spot, they are just two games behind the AL East division-leading Toronto Blue Jays. 

Red Sox manager John Farrell told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe that there is a possibility Moncada could see a lot of time at third base given the lack of production from Travis Shaw and Aaron Hill:

We’ve talked about Yoan, and not just as a pinch-runner. That’s an exciting young player, an extremely talented guy, there’s all positive reviews and evaluations of him. When that major league experience will initiate, time will tell that, but in terms of playing the position of third base, yes, that conversation has been had.

The combination of Shaw (.248 batting average) and Hill (.194) is a glaring weak spot in a powerful Boston lineup featuring David Ortiz, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts. 

Bringing in a fresh face with so much promise like Moncada can invigorate the clubhouse for the stretch run of the regular season and, more importantly, make the Red Sox an even more dangerous team. 

Stats courtesy of MLB.com.

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The day the Baltimore Orioles first called up Manny Machado, they were in a three-way tie for the American League wild-card lead, and third base was a problem. Wilson Betemit and Robert Andino were splitting the job, and they weren’t getting the job done.

Machado was a shortstop who was one of the best prospects in baseball. He had just turned 20, but the Orioles arranged for him to play two games at third base in the Double-A Eastern League. And then they called him up and handed him the position in the major leagues.

Machado had two hits that first day and two home runs the next. He ended up hitting just .262, but the Orioles went on a 33-18 run that got them into the playoffs.

Four years later, people are comparing Machado to Brooks Robinson.

“He might be better than Brooks,” said one AL scout who watched Machado last week.

Yoan Moncada doesn’t need to be that good to help the Boston Red Sox. But he might be.

Moncada turned 21 in May. He’s a second baseman who is one of the best prospects in baseball, but the Red Sox just moved him to third base in the Double-A Eastern League. The Red Sox are leading the AL wild-card race, but third base is a problem. Travis Shaw and Aaron Hill are splitting the job, and they’re not getting the job done.

Now, Moncada will have his chance with the Red Sox announcing his promotion late Wednesday night after Boston’s 8-6 win over the Rays. 

I’ll trust the Red Sox are making the right move, because Dombrowski has never been shy about pushing talented young players to the big leagues and giving them a shot. He did it already this month with 22-year-old outfielder Andrew Benintendi, who rewarded the Red Sox’s faith with an .850 OPS and outstanding defense after they promoted him Aug. 2 from Double-A Portland.

The Red Sox needed help in left field, and they needed a spark. Benintendi gave them both, but then he got hurt. He went on the disabled list Aug. 25 with a sprained left knee, and while the injury isn’t as serious as feared, he can’t spark them right now.

Perhaps Moncada can.

An AL scout who has seen Portland quite a bit said in an ideal world, Moncada becomes a major leaguer next year. In the world the Red Sox live in, it’s worth a shot now.

“If I was the Red Sox, I would do it,” the scout said. “Look what the Yankees did with [Gary] Sanchez.”

There are no guarantees, but when Baseball America ranked the top 100 prospects in the game last winter, Moncada was third. He was behind Corey Seager and Byron Buxton but well ahead of Benintendi (15) and Sanchez (36).

Moncada ranked first in the same magazine’s midseason update, ahead of Benintendi, Sanchez and a few other players already having success in the big leagues in Alex Reyes, Alex Bregman and Trea Turner. Moncada was the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Futures Game.

Moncada is younger than all those guys, and the rankings are based on future potential, not instant readiness. But given his speed and baserunning ability—his 45 steals are the most of anyone in the Red Sox organization, including on the big league team—Moncada is an obvious choice for a 40-man September roster.

The question is whether he can be more than that. The Red Sox think there’s a chance, given the recent decision to move him to third base. He wasn’t going to come up and displace Dustin Pedroia at second, but Boston’s third basemen have been among the least productive in the majors.

While the Red Sox have been baseball’s highest-scoring team, their third basemen ranked 27th in the majors with a .712 OPS entering play Tuesday. The recent numbers have been worse than that. Shaw had a .176 batting average and .572 OPS in August; Hill, acquired July 7 from the Milwaukee Brewers for two minor leaguers, had a .194 batting average and .512 OPS in his first 32 games with the Red Sox.

When I wrote about Moncada for Bleacher Report last winter, I reported he wouldn’t be ready for the big leagues this year and might not be ready next year, either. But I also used something Moncada said to reporters then: “I have one goal, and that’s getting to the big leagues.”

Players arrive at their own paces, but they show up faster when they make big progress and their teams have big needs. Both those things appear true now with Moncada, just as they did four years ago with Machado.

“I just wanted to play in the big leagues,” Machado said then, in a story I did for CBSSports.com. “If it would have been catching or playing the outfield, I’d have tried to do the job.”

Machado quickly looked like a natural at third base. Moncada, according to scouts who have seen him, isn’t likely to be as much of a defensive star.

“He’s not going to be a 75-80 fielder [on a 20-80 scouting scale] like Machado is,” the AL scout said. “At second base, he had 60-65 range. But his bat is where his money is.”

The bat and the potential have made Moncada money already, with the Red Sox paying $31.5 million to sign him after he left Cuba. It looks more and more like that investment will pay off.

It might start paying off this week.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz moved up another notch on the all-time home run list in Sunday’s 10-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals, joining former Red Sox slugger Jimmie Foxx in a tie for 18th place at 534 career home runs, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The 40-year-old smacked a 420-foot solo shot to center field off Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura in the fourth inning, cutting an early lead to 2-1 in a game Kansas City would eventually run away with.

Held hitless in his other three at-bats, Ortiz grounded into a pair of double plays that killed rallies in the first and fifth innings.

The aging slugger has recovered nicely from an early-August slump, though, now boasting a .314 batting average, six home runs and 16 RBI in 26 games this month.

Interestingly enough, Ortiz and Foxx are both ahead of Ted Williams (521) on the all-time home runs list, but it’s the latter who owns the franchise record, as Ortiz and Foxx both hit some of their long balls for other teams.

Ortiz, who plans to retire after this season, is second on the franchise list with 476 homers, followed by Carl Yastrzemski (452) in third place, with Foxx (222) all the way down in ninth place.

Though remembered just as well for his seven years in Boston, Foxx hit more home runs (302) in his 11 seasons as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics.

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The Baltimore Orioles‘ starting rotation is a mess bordering on a full-blown garbage fire. That’s no secret, and it’s certainly not hyperbole. 

Kevin Gausman to the rescue?

That sentence contains a question mark for good reason. Gausman’s ERA hovered over 4.00 for most of August, and he’s lost five of his last 10 decisions.

But the hard-throwing right-hander has strung together two strong starts, which counts as a mini-revelation in Baltimore.

On Sunday, Gausman threw seven shutout innings against the New York Yankees, scattering seven hits and striking out nine as Baltimore prevailed, 5-0, in the Bronx.

Those same Yankees pounded the Orioles on Friday and Saturday, scoring a combined 27 runs in a pair of embarrassing blowouts.

So Gausman’s effort Sunday wasn’t merely a notch in the win column; it was salve in a gaping wound.

It was also, incredibly, his first win away from Camden Yards in more than two years, as MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski noted:

Add the six scoreless frames he authored in his previous start Aug. 23 against the Washington Nationals, and you’ve got the makings of a positive trend. At the very least, it’s a glimmer of hope.

The Orioles can hit. They rank fourth in the American League in runs scored (615), second in OPS (.772) and lead the MLB in home runs (204).

That and a stout bullpen anchored by uber-closer Zach Britton have kept Baltimore in the postseason picture. If the season ended Sunday, the O’s (71-59) would own the AL’s second wild-card slot.

But there are multiple challengers nipping at their heels, including the Detroit Tigers (69-61), Houston Astros (68-62) and Seattle Mariners (68-62). The defending champion Kansas City Royals are lurking, as are the youthful, revitalized Yankees.

At the same time, the O’s are locked in a tight AL East race with the first-place Toronto Blue Jays and potent Boston Red Sox.

Entering play Monday, Baltimore is three back of Toronto for the division lead. Closing that gap and avoiding the one-and-done Wild Card Game is possible.

To do it, though, the Orioles need their starting pitchers to give them something. Outside of Gausman, the picture isn’t pretty.

Ostensible No. 1 Chris Tillman is on the shelf with a shoulder injury. He’s expected back in September, but there’s no way to know how reliable he’ll be.

Rookie and 2011 first-round pick Dylan Bundy teased elite potential after moving over from the bullpen in mid-July, but he’s coughed up 12 earned runs and 19 hits in his last 14.1 innings. 

Yovani Gallardo owns a 5.69 ERA, which looks borderline decent next to the 8.18 mark Wade Miley has put up since arriving in Maryland at the trade deadline.

That places the onus squarely on Gausman. 

“It’s just being more consistent,” he said after his Aug. 23 outing, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. “I think that’s the biggest difference between being a two and a three and being an ace. An ace, every time those guys take the mound, you know you’re going to get a quality start out of those guys.”

Raw stuff isn’t the issue. Gausman’s fastball sits in the mid-90s and can touch triple digits. However, as Camden Chat’s Nick Cicere noted in April, “One of the Gaus’ bigger bugaboos throughout his time in the big leagues has been his lack of a go-to breaking ball…”

Opponents are hitting .275 against his fastball and just .212 against his splitter compared to a robust .339 against his slider this season. 

Big league hitters will punish the hard stuff, even the really hard stuff, if they can simply wait for it. 

We’re in small-sample territory, but Gausman threw a handful of nice-looking sliders Sunday. The fastball was crackling. He benefited from some timely defense, but overall, he looked the part of an ace. 

The fourth overall pick in 2012, Gausman has been a mixed bag of potential and inconsistency since he broke into the big leagues in 2013.

Has he turned the corner? It’s only two starts, but it did come against the NL East-leading Nats and the suddenly big-bashing Yanks. 

O’s fans have a right to be skeptical. But if Gausman can build on those 13 scoreless innings and turn in another dominant outing or two, the question mark may turn into an exclamation point.

As in: Kevin Gausman to the rescue!

All statistics current as of Aug. 28 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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We’ve talked plenty about David Ortiz, for reasons that amount to “duh.” We’ve talked about Mookie Betts, who’s an MVP candidate. We’ve had good things to say about Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr., too. And about the entire Boston Red Sox offense, for that matter.

But Dustin Pedroia is the one Red Sox star we really haven’t singled out yet. Let’s change that.

It’s the least we can do after the veteran second baseman came this close to making a bit of baseball history at Fenway Park on Saturday. Pedroia entered the Red Sox’s evening tilt against the Kansas City Royals with seven straight hits dating back to Thursday, and he added four more in his first four at-bats of an eventual 8-3 win. 

If Pedroia could have added one more hit, he would tie the all-time record for consecutive hits. That was not to be. He ended his hit streak (and his evening) by grounding into a double play in the bottom of the eighth.

But judging from how he heard that he was closing in on history, he’s probably not too shaken up about it. From Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal:

OK, so, Pedroia doesn’t hold a record that’s somewhere below 762 home runs and 511 wins on the scale of baseball importance. Boo and/or hoo.

What he does have, though, is a .320 batting average. That ties Pedroia with Betts for tops on the Red Sox, and it puts him behind only Jose Altuve in the entire American League. That’s pretty good company, and it can’t just be me that feels like Pedroia has joined these ranks out of nowhere.

It’s not that he’s been a bad player. Pedroia undeniably peaked with his American League MVP season in 2008, a year in which he was every kind of great. But he’s been consistently good ever since then. Despite a fair number of games missed with injuries, he put up a .294 average and an .803 OPS between 2009 and 2015, adding three more Gold Gloves to his collection in the process. And this year, he’s been a rock-solid presence in an outstanding Red Sox lineup from day one.

Rather, Pedroia‘s under-the-radar act to this point is more a matter of optics. 

He’s surrounded by players who boast both great numbers and great narratives. Big Papi is a larger-than-life character in any year, and he’s making life look especially puny with a farewell season for the ages. Meanwhile, Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley and, recently, Andrew Benintendi have been cementing themselves as the Red Sox’s stars of the future.

Pedroia is neither a legendary slugger in his final season nor a young up-and-comer gearing up for many great seasons still to come. He’s just…well, he’s kinda just Dustin Pedroia. Same as he ever was.

But while it may indeed be difficult to appreciate Pedroia as a story unto himself, it’s as easy as ever to appreciate him as a player.

If nothing else, the fact that he’s been healthy throughout 2016 has allowed him to be his usual self on an everyday basis. That’s been rare in recent years. However, you don’t go from being a .290-ish hitter to a .320 hitter without at least one new trick. Pedroia knew what his was going to be before 2016 even started.

“He told me, ‘I’m going to use the whole field this year. I’m going to be a better hitter this year,'” Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis told John Tomase of WEEI.com, referencing an offseason conversation. “And he stuck with it in practice. He stuck with it in spring training. And he’s sticking with it now.”

The proof is in Pedroia‘s opposite-field hit rate. FanGraphs had it at 32.9 percent heading into Saturday, the highest of his career. Because visual aids are fun, this leads us to a pretty-looking spray chart from Brooks Baseball:

Matt Collins of Baseball Prospectus posited this could be related to how Pedroia has changed his approach against breaking balls. It’s a fine theory, as Pedroia has indeed been hitting more breaking balls the other way.

These aren’t earth-shattering changes, but they’re really all Pedroia needed to go from being a good hitter back to being a great hitter. He could already work pitchers, posting above-average walk rates and below-average strikeout rates. And his swing itself has always been made for line drives and generally harder contact than you’d expect from a guy who would look right at home in the cubicle next to you.

As the Red Sox get closer to what they hope will be a return to the postseason, Pedroia‘s well-rounded hitting is only looming larger. He was doing fine as a No. 2 hitter. He’s been doing a lot better than fine since manager John Farrell moved him to leadoff on August 10, batting .459 in 18 games. Not so coincidentally, the Red Sox’s offense has experienced an uptick in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, what Pedroia is doing on the other side of the ball is not to be overlooked.

The defensive metrics aren’t right all the time, but their poor ratings for Pedroia in 2015 did reflect what was a strangely off year with the glove. But this year, he’s once again looking and rating as arguably the best second baseman in the sport.

With all this in mind, let’s check in on the latest Red Sox wins above replacement rankings from FanGraphs:

1. Mookie Betts: 6.5
2. Dustin Pedroia: 4.6
3. Jackie Bradley Jr.: 4.2
4. Xander Bogaerts: 3.9
5. David Ortiz: 3.8

He’s not on Betts’ level (few are), but Pedroia is the next best thing the Red Sox have. Getting 11 straight hits has sure helped his cause, but getting it done day in, day out and as good as ever is a much greater influence on why he’s there.

It’s been hard to notice until now, but you know what they say about late being better than never.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Fact: New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez went 3-for-5 on Friday, and hit his 10th home run of the season. Joe DiMaggio (39) is the only Yankee ever to have more hits through his first 22 career games than Sanchez (31).

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Source: MLB.com

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