Fact: Max Scherzer struck out 11 batters over eight innings in the Washington Nationals‘ 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. It was Scherzer‘s 12th game this season with 10 or more strikeouts, the most in MLB.
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Yoenis Cespedes is just one guy on a 25-man roster, and he’s still feeling a quadriceps injury that put him on the disabled list Aug. 4. It’s not fair to expect him to carry the New York Mets to October.
But darn it, he’s going to try.
This has been apparent for the week-and-a-half that Cespedes has been off the DL, as he’s come back with his bat ablaze. In Monday’s 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins, a key foe in the National League wild-card race, Cespedes played the hero at Citi Field by slamming a walk-off home run in the 10th inning.
It was a classic Cespedes dinger, so the thing to do is drop your jaw now so as not to be caught off guard by how hard the ball was hit and how far it flew:
With that, Cespedes delivered the Mets’ seventh win in nine games. Their 67-64 record is tied with the Marlins at two-and-a-half games off the pace for the NL’s second wild card. They haven’t won anything yet, but this will do for a sign of life from a club that was under .500 as recently as Aug. 20.
Cue manager Terry Collins with the on-the-nose quote, as he told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com after the game: “Cespedes is one of those guys that people pay to see him play. He’s a special guy.”
More to the point, Cespedes is a special guy New York is paying $27.5 million precisely so he can do things like this. And he’s delivered. With a .949 OPS and 27 home runs, he’s just as good as he was in his 57 games (.942 OPS, 17 home runs) with the Mets last season.
And just as that stretch helped propel them to their first postseason since 2006, the veteran left fielder seems to be trying to do it all over again. After going a quiet 1-for-4 in his first game off the DL in San Francisco on Aug. 19, Cespedes has hit .406 with five home runs in eight games since.
These numbers don’t misrepresent how well he’s swinging the stick. We’re comparing a big sample size to a small one, but it is in the interest of what-the-heckery that we’ll turn to Baseball Savant for a look at Cespedes’ exit velocity before and after his DL stint:
Put another way, Cespedes is on an exit-velocity binge that would make even Nelson Cruz or Giancarlo Stanton blush. To boot, that bolded figure doesn’t even include the rocket he hit to walk it off Monday night. That’ll only increase it, as Cespedes mashed that ball at roughly the speed of sound.
It’s all good for now, but the specter of the Mets plummeting back to mediocrity can’t be ignored. Things are set up to lean one way or another: Either Cespedes’ broad shoulders can bear the weight of the team, or the injury bug will swallow him and the rest of the squad whole.
The latter is a Godzilla-level clear and present danger. Cespedes is part of a lineup that won’t get David Wright or Lucas Duda back, and it’s also feeling nagging injuries to Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker. Cespedes is among the walking wounded, as concern over his tender quad led Collins to sit him Sunday, when the Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Any time you have the expanded rosters, it helps you, it protects you, because you’re banged up,” Collins said, per DiComo. “But let me tell you something: If Yoenis Cespedes goes down, that’s an awful lot to ask for Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto to make up for him. If you don’t have your good players, your best players, and they don’t play good, it’s tough to replace them.”
Monday’s game offered a hint that Cespedes’ quad may render him just as likely to taketh away as giveth. The one run the Marlins scored came on a Xavier Scruggs double that Cespedes was unable to catch up with.
If Cespedes’ defense is compromised, that’s yet another hit to the Mets’ run prevention. With Matt Harvey gone for the season, Jon Niese on the DL and Steven Matz still working his way back from a shoulder problem, a once-heralded pitching staff has grown thin. Hence its 4.69 ERA in August.
So far, though, Cespedes’ hot bat is having a larger impact than his potentially compromised glove. And looking ahead, the Mets aren’t exactly tasked with tracking down the 1927 New York Yankees or, for that matter, the 2016 Chicago Cubs.
As expected, the struggle has been real for the Stanton-less Marlins. The Pittsburgh Pirates, who were a game-and-a-half ahead of the Mets as of this writing, are hot, but they’re facing depth issues reminiscent of what’s going on in Queens, New York. Leading the charge in the NL wild-card race are the San Francisco Giants, who have been terrible since the All-Star break, and the St. Louis Cardinals, who are seemingly immune to any kind of consistency.
This is a winnable race for any of the teams involved. And while it’s not the same as saying it’s the favorite in the bunch, any team with a hot Cespedes is a team with a chance.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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If Max Scherzer‘s American League Cy Young Award is beginning to feel lonely, it could soon have company.
In the wasteland that is the National League Cy Young race without a fully functioning Clayton Kershaw, anyone could claim this year’s award. From Madison Bumgarner to Johnny Cueto to Noah Syndergaard to Jake Arrieta to Jose Fernandez, there’s no shortage of strong-armed dudes vying for it.
But if anyone had forgotten about Scherzer, well, it’s suddenly easy to remember him after what the Washington Nationals ace did to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday at Nationals Park. To stave off a four-game sweep, he paced the Nats to a 4-0 win with eight shutout innings in which he allowed two hits, walked nobody and struck out 10.
The finish was especially strong. Scherzer bore down and retired the final three Orioles he faced in noticeably angry fashion. Apparently, any Orioles fans upset about that have only themselves to blame.
“The O’s fans started making noise there in the eighth and it really kind of ticked me off,” he said afterward, per Ben Standig of CSN Mid-Atlantic.
The madness of this particular Max aside, we’re looking at a season that keeps getting better. Scherzer picked up another win to run his record to 14-7, lowered his ERA to 2.92 and the average against him to .191, and raised his innings to 182.0, his strikeouts to 227 and his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 5.16.
This is obviously Cy Young-caliber material. But whether any of it makes Scherzer an obvious front-runner is anyone’s guess. The only time there was a front-runner for the NL Cy Young this year was when Kershaw was healthy and leading the league in everything. That was a while ago, and now the NL Cy Young race is a different strokes/different folks kind of affair.
Scherzer leads the NL in innings and strikeouts, which are important, but he doesn’t lead other categories that voters gravitate toward. Arrieta leads with 16 wins, two more than Scherzer’s 14. Kyle Hendricks leads with a 2.19 ERA, a category in which Bumgarner (2.44), Syndergaard (2.61), Arrieta (2.62), Cueto (2.86) and Fernandez (2.91) are also ahead of Scherzer.
And keep in mind, there’s still more than a month of baseball left. Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated was right when he wrote that this race could change drastically in September. We’re not here to hand Scherzer anything now, nor to promise with 100 percent certainty that he’ll get something come November.
What can be said now, however, is that Scherzer could be awfully tough to beat.
The veteran right-hander may not have the most wins or the best ERA among his fellow NL aces, but that’s OK. The former isn’t the deal-maker it used to be in Cy Young discussions, and the latter is a stat that doesn’t fully capture the sheer dominance of Scherzer’s 2016 season.
Those league-leading 227 strikeouts are a big reason why the .191 average against him is second behind only Arrieta (.183). There’s no ignoring the 25 home runs Scherzer has given up, but most of the contact that hitters have made against him has been quiet.
He entered Thursday with a 22.5 soft-hit percentage, second only to Hendricks (26.3) and Tanner Roark (24.1). And with a rate of 2.2 walks per nine innings, Scherzer hasn’t issued many free passes when he hasn’t been completely overwhelming hitters.
It’s times like these that nerds like me point to obscure statistics that tie everything up with a neat little bow. In this case, it’s “deserved run average.” It’s a Baseball Prospectus specialty that gets more in depth than metrics like fielding independent pitching (FIP) and expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) to cut through the nonsense that clouds ERA and get to a pitcher’s true performance level.
Here’s how the top of the DRA list looked among starters with at least 150 innings heading into Thursday’s action:
Just two pitchers ahead of Scherzer, neither of whom is in the National League. That, folks, is how you make a guy look good.
Or, you could opt for the much simpler route to appreciating Scherzer’s dominance.
His latest outing was the 15th time all season in which he’s lasted at least seven innings and given up no more than two runs. No other National League pitcher has more than 12 such starts. His 11 starts with at least 10 strikeouts, meanwhile, are two more than anyone else has. One of those, of course, was his record-tying 20-strikeout game against the Detroit Tigers back in May.
Scherzer didn’t peak with that game. He hit a rough patch in his two starts prior to Thursday’s outing, but he still has a 1.94 ERA over his last 11 starts. Rather than slowing down, he’s streaking to the finish.
Washington’s schedule will make it easy for him to continue this. The Nationals have the NL East’s only good offense, and the only non-NL East opponents they face the rest of the way are the Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies have a scary offense, but they’re up next, and Scherzer will get to miss them.
Scherzer was an easy pick when he won the American League Cy Young as a Tiger in 2013, getting 28 of 30 first-place votes. Given the state of the race, it’s unlikely he’ll fare that well in this year’s NL Cy Young voting even if he does take it.
But make no mistake: He can win it.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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The Washington Nationals have placed pitcher Stephen Strasburg on the 15-day disabled list with right elbow soreness. It is uncertain when he will return to the rotation.
Continue for updates.
Nationals manager Dusty Baker told reporters Strasburg first mentioned his injury Saturday, saying he wanted to pitch through it. “But it’s not hero time yet,” Baker added.
The Nationals announced the roster move, noting A.J. Cole was called up in his place. Joel Sherman of the New York Post, citing a source, reported the injury “is not structural” and that the Nationals were being “proactive” to get Strasburg healthy for the stretch run and into the postseason.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today added the Nationals are “cautiously optimistic” Strasburg can return in two weeks.
Physical setbacks have always been a concern during Strasburg’s career, and his latest injury is no different.
The Nationals starter suffered an upper-back strain earlier in the season, was limited to 23 starts in 2015 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2010. Washington also shut him down in early September during the 2012 season when it was firmly in the postseason race. The Nationals still won the National League East that year, but they didn’t have Strasburg for the stretch run.
When healthy, he is one of the most effective pitchers in the National League.
He made the All-Star Game in 2012, finishing with a 3.16 ERA and 197 strikeouts in 159.1 innings before being shut down. He also struck out 242 batters in 2014 and tallied 155-plus strikeouts in four straight years entering the 2016 campaign. Strasburg has yet to post a WHIP higher than 1.155 for an entire season in his career.
Thus far, he is 15-4 with a 3.59 ERA in 2016.
The Nationals will rely on Max Scherzer and Gio Gonzalez if Strasburg misses time. Scherzer won the 2013 American League Cy Young Award, and Gonzalez has finished with an ERA below 3.80 in each of the last four years for Washington.
The Nationals also have depth with Tanner Roark, and Yusmeiro Petit has starting experience and made an emergency start for Strasburg earlier this season.
While Washington has enough pieces in its starting rotation to survive this setback, it is a more dangerous contender when Strasburg is healthy.
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Earlier this year, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were the subjects of an ESPN 30 for 30 that portrayed their downfall from burgeoning superstars to troubled drug addicts. According to the now-clean Strawberry, Gooden’s most recent relapse leaves his life in danger.
“I have to try something before he’s dead,” Strawberry told John Harper of the New York Daily News on Saturday as part of a public plea to get his friend help.
The New York Yankees have offered to pay for Gooden’s treatment if he accepts, Harper reported on Tuesday.
Strawberry previously expressed concern for Gooden after the former ace failed to show up to an appearance the two were scheduled to make last week in New York. Gooden denied Strawberry’s concern for him was merited, calling it “unreal.”
“I am fine, just finishing up some minor health issues,” Gooden said in a text message, per Harper, Peter Botte and Denis Slattery of the Daily News.
Gooden expanded on his health in an appearance on The Joe Piscopo Show on WNYM-AM (via Chuck Schilken of the Los Angeles Times).
“I am healthy,” Gooden said, per Perez. “I do have a drug problem. I’ve been an addict most my life. I am an addict. I don’t hide from anything. Anything I’m doing wrong, I’ll be the first to tell you.”
Gooden denied using cocaine in the last few years in a press release, per Mike Axisa of CBS Sports:
I had never failed to be there for Darryl Strawberry. I don’t do cocaine and have not for years.
Last Thursday night, I was unable to attend an event at WFAN with Darryl. There were plenty of times when Darryl was unable to attend events as well. No one, most of all me, made any big deal out of Darryl’s absence, nor should they have had.
But Darryl has always made our differences personal, going back to our days with the Mets.
I had hoped we could keep these differences between us. But Darryl could not manage to do that. I am sorry for his inability to show more character and strength. While I was there for him, he obviously was never there for me.
Strawberry, who has been sober for more than a decade after years of alcohol and drug addiction, said Gooden is in a state of denial because of his cocaine addiction. Harper wrote Strawberry has “no doubt” Gooden is again battling through a relapse:
He’s a complete junkie-addict. I’ve been trying behind the scenes to talk to him and get him to go for help, but he won’t listen. He thinks he can manipulate and BS his way through everything. His son called me to beg me to help his dad before he dies.
The condition Doc is in, it’s bad, it’s horrible. It’s like cocaine poison. I feel like I’ve got to get it out there because nobody else is doing anything to help him, and it might be the only way to stop him.
Janice Roots, who dated Gooden for four years until leaving him in February, confirmed Strawberry’s account. She categorized Gooden as a “cocaine monster”:
I don’t even know if he realizes what he’s doing. He turns into a different person. He’s a great guy who takes care of his family members, but being around him, there were times when it was just a very toxic, dangerous environment.
I felt helpless to do anything. I finally left because to sit there and watch somebody kill himself was devastating.
Gooden, who turns 52 in November, has dealt with a cocaine problem since his Cy Young-winning heights in the 1980s. He’s had numerous legal problems as a result, including a seven-month prison sentence in 2006 following a probation violation.
Gooden has not been in trouble with the law since a 2010 DWI charge.
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New York Mets pitcher Steven Matz was held out of an Aug. 19 start against the San Francisco Giants due to a shoulder injury that was determined to be tightness. He is on the disabled list and it is unclear when he will return to the mound.
Continue for updates.
The Mets announced the roster move, noting Rob Gsellman was recalled in his place.
James Wagner of the New York Times reported that Matz’s examination showed “no structural damage.” He was diagnosed with a tight shoulder.
According to Adam Rubin of ESPN, Matz will be replaced by Seth Lugo on Friday.
Matz called the injury “discomfort” and said he is not concerned about it being a long-term issue.
Per Rubin, Matz also described how he picked up the ailment that will keep him off the mound Friday:
I was throwing on flat ground and I felt a little twinge in my shoulder. It was bothering me a little bit. And then, next day, I was throwing and I was still feeling it, so I didn’t throw my bullpen, hoping it would get better. I was just kind of taking it day by day. There’s some discomfort in there. I think you go through stuff all the time throughout a season, but it didn’t respond the way I’d like it to.
The 25-year-old lefty is enjoying a strong season with a 9-8 record, 3.40 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 129 strikeouts in 132.1 innings.
Every win is key for the Mets at this point in the season as they attempt to close a considerable gap in the standings, and being without Matz could go a long way toward preventing them from playing postseason baseball in 2016.
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On Wednesday, shortstop Dansby Swanson made his big league debut with the Atlanta Braves, going 2-for-4 in a 10-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
On Monday, right-hander Shelby Miller made a start for the Reno Aces—the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ Triple-A affiliate.
That’s significant, because Swanson was a key piece in the trade that shipped Miller from the Braves to the D-backs this winter.
Swanson is a story unto himself, as we’ll delve into shortly. But his role in the Miller swap can’t be ignored.
Arizona, recall, selected Swanson with the No. 1 overall pick in the June 2015 amateur draft. Roughly six months later, the Diamondbacks sent Swanson—along with outfielder Ender Inciarte and pitching prospect Aaron Blair—to the Braves for Miller.
The trade was widely panned at the time. In May, yours truly asked if it could end up as one of the worst in MLB history.
Now, with Miller and his 7.14 big league ERA flaming out in the desert and Swanson completing his impressively rapid MLB rise, the answer is approaching an unequivocal “yes.”
Atlanta cleared space for Swanson by trading veteran shortstop Erick Aybar to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, per David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The rebuilding Braves plugged the 22-year-old Swanson into the middle of their infield and, presumably, will give him ample rope.
Yes, the 44-76 Braves are a country mile from playoff contention in the National League East, on pace to lose 100-plus games.
More importantly, though, Atlanta is moving into a shiny new stadium in 2017 and is seeking a new face of the franchise to lubricate the transition.
There’s talent on this Braves roster, including resurgent first baseman Freddie Freeman, but arguably no signature player for fans to rally around—a moniker that will grace jerseys and light up talk radio for years to come.
Can Swanson be that guy?
It’s a heavy question to ponder as he takes his first hacks in The Show. History is littered with the husks of touted prospects who failed to live up to the hype, at least initially.
Count Atlanta president of baseball operations John Hart among the believers.
“I think that Dansby is going to be able to handle it mentally,” Hart said, per ESPN.com. “He’s not a kid that if he comes in and really struggles right out of the gate that it’s going to affect him.”
In 21 games with High-A this season, Swanson hit .333 with a .967 OPS. His numbers tailed off after advancing to Double-A Mississippi, where he posted a .261/.342/.402 slash line.
In naming him the Braves’ No. 1 overall prospect, MLB.com noted that with “his quickness, hands and arm strength, Swanson should stay at shortstop long term.”
Still, it’s too early to toss this kid on the heap with the Houston Astros‘ Carlos Correa, the Cleveland Indians‘ Francisco Lindor and the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Corey Seager and anoint him part of baseball’s burgeoning shortstop revolution.
He’s an intriguing talent, however, no argument there. Just 26 months after leading Vanderbilt to a College World Series victory, he’s vaulting past Triple-A and doing his thing on the game’s biggest stage.
If you’re a Braves fan searching for the glass-half-full take, MLB.com’s Richard Justice provided it, noting the team’s improved record and strong bullpen:
Swanson can shove the optimism meter up several notches with a dominant debut. Those two hits he notched Wednesday don’t hurt.
Here’s how Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution summed it up:
Enough waiting. Enough watching a shortstop who was an obvious short-timer [in Aybar]. Enough sitting through this Braves season with one eye on the losingest team in Major League Baseball and one on a long list of prospects working distant fields, longing for a tangible return on our patience. It is time to throw Dansby Swanson into the deep end.
Swanson’s big league career won’t be decided by the next month-plus. That’s not how these things work. The jury, technically, is still out on the Miller trade.
A scalding stretch from Swanson, however, would add salt to Arizona’s wounds. And that same salt would undoubtedly line the margarita glasses of grateful, toasting Atlanta fans.
All statistics current as of Aug. 16 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.
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The future is set to arrive for the Atlanta Braves.
The team announced Tuesday it will call up infielder Dansby Swanson on Wednesday:
The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Swanson out of Vanderbilt with the No. 1 pick in the 2015 MLB draft.
David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted president of baseball operations John Hart said the 22-year-old will be in the starting lineup Wednesday when the Braves take on the Minnesota Twins.
MLB.com ranks Swanson as the fifth-best prospect in baseball and the best in the Braves’ system. It pointed to his overall quickness and arm strength as reasons he will likely serve as a shortstop at the big league level for years to come and called him “a very good hitter with an advanced approach at the plate.”
According to Bill Baer of NBC Sports, the shortstop position opened up following Atlanta’s decision to trade Erick Aybar to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. Swanson slashed an impressive .333/.441/.526 with High-A Carolina and .261/.342/.402 with 45 RBI and 54 runs scored with Double-A Mississippi, per Baer.
The Braves acquired Swanson as part of a return package in the offseason trade that sent pitcher Shelby Miller to Arizona. Miller has been a massive disappointment for Arizona this year after he posted a 3.02 ERA and 1.25 WHIP last season for Atlanta. Miller has a 7.14 ERA and 13 home runs allowed in 14 starts in 2016 and was demoted to the minor leagues for the last-place Diamondbacks.
The Braves also sit in last place in the National League East.
While Swanson gives them a boost, they are not competing for a postseason spot this year. This move indicates the organization has an eye on the future, as the former No. 1 overall pick will have the opportunity to garner valuable major league experience as the potential everyday shortstop as the team rebuilds.
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With Giancarlo Stanton having suffered yet another significant injury, now’s a good time to repurpose the catchphrase for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
This time, it counts.
After placing Stanton on the disabled list with a groin injury early Sunday, per the Miami Herald‘s Andre C. Fernandez, the Miami Marlins earned a brief reprieve from the bad vibes with a 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox. Their 61-56 record ties them with the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League‘s second wild-card spot, giving them a shot at their first postseason berth since 2003.
Immediately after the game, however, the bad vibes came rushing back. Joe Frisaro of MLB.com passed along the crushing Stanton news from Marlins skipper Don Mattingly:
It’s not quite a given that Stanton’s groin injury, which he suffered trying to leg out a double in Saturday’s game against the White Sox, will cost him the rest of the season. But even in leaving the door ajar for the slugging right fielder to return, Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill was careful not to get anyone’s hopes up.
“It’s a Grade 3 strain of his groin,” he said, per Frisaro. “We’re going to rehab it, and best-case scenario is a six-week return. Obviously, there is still opportunity for ‘G’ to be back this season’s end. But obviously, it was a significant injury and we’ll see how rehab goes.”
That sound you hear is a distressingly familiar tune.
With Stanton’s 2016 season likely over after 103 games, this is the fourth season out of the past five in which he’s fallen short of 140 games. He may only be 26, but that track record should spur serious discussions within the Marlins about what can be done to keep him healthy. With the bulk of his injuries afflicting his legs, a move from right field to first base should be on the table.
But that’s something for the Marlins to worry about later. For now, the question that needs answering is more straightforward: How the heck are they going to survive this?
It’s impossible to dress up Stanton’s 2016 season as one of his best. No thanks to an extended slump in May and June that rendered him one of baseball’s worst hitters, his .826 OPS is the worst of his career.
However, this is no excuse to downplay the impact of Stanton’s injury.
He was good before he went into that slump, putting up a 1.023 OPS with 10 homers in 26 games. He was also good after it, with a .943 OPS and 13 home runs in 48 games. Included in the latter sample size is the longest home run ever measured by Statcast, as good a sign as any that his unmatched power was still, well, unmatched.
The thought of being without Stanton’s power in the final six weeks of 2016 is not a happy one for the Marlins.
They’ve had a hard enough time hitting for power with him in the lineup. Their 96 total home runs rank ahead of only the Atlanta Braves in all of baseball. With Stanton and his 25 homers now on the sidelines, 26 percent of Miami’s home run output has suddenly vanished.
To make matters worse, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported Friday that first baseman Justin Bour is unlikely to return from his own injury until September. That’s 15 more homers out of reach, leaving Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich as the only double-digit home run guys still standing.
Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com summed up this not-so-pretty picture succinctly: “Home runs aren’t everything and the Marlins are already proof of that by hanging in the wild-card race. They are game-changers, though, and the Marlins now are mostly stuck trying to manufacture runs or luckily enough to string together lots of singles in a row for big innings.”
This isn’t an entirely hopeless scenario. The Marlins still have a decent collection of good hitters even without Stanton and Bour. Ichiro Suzuki is one of them, and he figures to be a bigger part of Miami’s plans going forward.
But Ichiro isn’t the most secure Band-Aid. It looks great that he’s hitting .316, but the 42-year-old’s age is catching up with him. He’s hit well under .300 since the break. Plus, Stanton has hit more home runs in 2016 than Ichiro has in the last six seasons combined.
As such, this MLB.com report about the Marlins having Alex Rodriguez on their radar was probably inevitable:
“I think we’re going through that process right now,” Hill said about exploring various pick-up options, per Frisaro. “We’re putting our list together of options. [Rodriguez] is available, so he will be on that list. We’ll see where that goes.”
Because A-Rod is a baseball legend with 696 career home runs to his name, the idea of him joining the Marlins is indeed a tantalizing prospect.
But realistic? Not as much.
The Marlins could afford Rodriguez, but he can’t play right field and has no business even playing first base at this point. The best role for the 41-year-old would be as a pinch-hitter. And after putting up a .598 OPS before his release from the New York Yankees, he would probably do more pinching than hitting.
The Marlins would be better off checking in on Carlos Gomez, whom the Houston Astros recently designated for assignment. They could also look into waiver trades for small fish (Ryan Raburn, anyone?) and big fish (Yasiel Puig, anyone?) alike.
But whatever the Marlins do, they’re not going to replace a guy who was one of the best hitters in the game on either side of that nasty slump. They can only hope to mask his absence. A run of red-hot pitching would do the trick there. To that end, Jose Fernandez’s workload concerns and Andrew Cashner’s ongoing mediocrity won’t help.
Put another way: Their quest to end a 13-year playoff drought suddenly doesn’t look so good.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton suffered a left groin strain during Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox. He has been ruled out for the season.
Continue for updates.
After the Marlins received Stanton’s MRI results, manager Don Mattingly revealed the 26-year-old would not be able to return this season, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. President of baseball operations Michael Hill announced the MRI showed a Grade 3 strain, per Sports Illustrated.
“It didn’t look real good,” Mattingly said of the injury Saturday, per Frisaro. “If you’ve seen that replay, it looked like he kind of pulled something. He felt something in his groin area. They’re looking at him now. We’ll see what happens with that.”
Stanton is one of the league’s premier power threats and a cornerstone of the Marlins’ offensive attack. The slugger averaged better than 30 home runs per season across his first six years in the big leagues. His career high is 37, which he’s totaled twice.
Injuries have also been a story throughout his career, though. He’s played more than 130 games only twice. His 2015 season came to a premature end after he suffered a hand injury in June. And he dealt with a knee problem during the early stages of spring training this year.
The Marlins will probably use several different players in an attempt to fill the void. Ichiro Suzuki figures to get the first crack in right field, but Derek Dietrich could also see an uptick in playing time.
With that said, the Miami offense shouldn’t be expected to find much consistent success while its most potent hitter is in recovery.
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