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Like many lists in New York, the IL is one-in, one-out. Plus: Ken gives a post-mortem on the José Abreu era in Houston, Atlanta calls up a decade-long minor-leaguer and I found the strangest pitching season ever. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal, welcome to The Windup!
Yankees regain Cole, lose Rizzo
The IL giveth, and the IL taketh away — but usually not quite with such symmetry.
Yesterday, we learned that Gerrit Cole, last year’s AL Cy Young award winner with the Yankees, will make his season debut on Wednesday against the Orioles. Cole has missed the first two-plus months of the season with elbow inflammation.
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Foresight would (and did) indicate that that was going to be a huge blow to New York’s rotation, but his absence hasn’t slowed them a bit. Yankees starters have the league’s best ERA (2.90), so this is less a sigh of relief than it is a can of hot, hot gasoline thrown onto an already-scorching bonfire.
But that good news came on the same day we found out that Anthony Rizzo has a fracture of the radial neck of his right arm after a collision at first base in Sunday’s game. He’ll miss four to six weeks. This news prompted some immediate questions:
- What is a radial neck? It’s in the elbow! (I only know this because I Googled it.)
- Will he need surgery? No (more details in the story link above).
- What will the Yankees do at first base in the meantime? Manager Aaron Boone didn’t have a media availability on the team’s off-day, but as Ken, Brendan Kuty and Chris Kirschner reported, the most likely option seems to be moving DJ LeMahieu to first base and playing utility man Oswaldo Cabrera at third base.
Speaking of first basemen who won’t be playing big-league games for the foreseeable future …
Ken’s Notebook: Too late for Houston
Often in baseball, teams grow almost obsessed with players they miss out on in the amateur draft or the international market. Such perhaps was the case for the Astros and José Abreu, who nearly came together on a free-agent contract in October 2013, and finally did on an ill-fated deal nine years later.
It’s well-documented that the Red Sox reacted to their initial failure to sign Abreu by spending even more on another Cuban player, Rusney Castillo, the following August. Castillo, who received a seven-year, $72.5 million contract, was a major bust, appearing in only 99 major-league games. The Astros also missed out on Abreu after his defection from Cuba, finishing a close second to the White Sox, according to a source briefed on the discussions. As first reported by the Houston Chronicle, the Astros’ offer was within $4 million of the six-year, $68 million contract the White Sox awarded the first baseman.
Nearly three years later, the Astros finally signed a Cuban star, first baseman Yuli Gurriel, to a five-year, $47.5 million deal. But evidently, they never lost sight of Abreu. Owner Jim Crane, operating between general managers after winning the 2022 World Series, authorized the signing of Abreu for three years and $58.5 million.
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Crane did not reply to a text asking if the Astros striking out on Abreu the first time influenced their pursuit of him a second. But the possibility cannot be ruled out. This is an owner who signed Josh Hader after the team parted with the reliever and pursued Blake Snell during the offseason after trying to acquire him at last year’s trade deadline. Whatever Crane’s motivation, the Abreu deal proved a major mistake. The Astros released Abreu on Friday with more than $30 million left on his contract. As noted by The Athletic’s Chandler Rome, Abreu in 697 plate appearances as an Astro accumulated minus-2.0 wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs. No player with at least 600 plate appearances since the start of last season produced a lower mark.
Abreu was mostly terrific in his nine seasons with the White Sox, winning Rookie of the Year and MVP awards and making three All-Star teams. But by the time the Astros got him, he wasn’t the same. In his final season with the White Sox, he batted .304 with an .824 OPS. His 15 home runs, however, were half as many as he hit the year before.The warning signs were present. The deal the Astros awarded Abreu covered his ages 36, 37 and 38 seasons. Whether the move was an overreaction to the team’s initial failure to land Abreu is an open question. One thing is certain: The player the Astros signed in 2022 was not the same one they pursued in ‘13.
More Abreu: What’s the post-Abreu plan in Houston? Chandler Rome has more.
Braves pitcher debuts after decade in minors
This is my favorite kind of baseball story: The guy who has toiled in the minor leagues for a decade or more, finally getting their shot. (Remember Drew Maggi with the Pirates last year?)
This time, it’s Atlanta’s Grant Holmes, who spent 10 years (or: 250 minor-league games, 735 1/3 innings, 10,961 pitches) in the minors before his big-league debut on Sunday against the Rays; he pitched three scoreless innings. Dave O’Brien has the full story. And look at that hair!
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For Holmes, the day was made a little more special by the fact that it happened on Father’s Day. If you’ll forgive me a throwback companion piece, it reminds me of a story I had the privilege of writing in 2018 when Brandon Mann debuted on an emotional Mother’s Day after 16 years in the minor leagues (he also didn’t allow a run in his debut).
But for Holmes and the Braves, this might be slightly different than the stories of Mann and Maggi, each of whom were in their mid-30s when they got their long-awaited call up, and played just part of one year in the big leagues. Holmes is still just 28, and the Braves have eight pitchers on the IL (and six others with big-league experience currently in the minor leagues). If he can pitch the way he did on Sunday, it’s possible he could extend the big-league dream a bit longer.
Meet Allen Sothoron
Last week, while doing a little research for our section on under-celebrated pitching performances this year, I discovered that Cristopher Sánchez was on pace to break an expansion-era record by only allowing 0.13 home runs per nine innings (it’s 0.12 now, after seven homer-less innings in a 9-2 win over the Padres last night).
I gave you the existing expansion era record (0.16, Reggie Cleveland of the Red Sox, 1976), but I wanted to save the all-time record, because it’s an interesting story!
First of all: remember the Dead Ball Era? Quite a few guys allowed fewer HR/9 in those days, but that’s comparing apples to … really mushy apples. In 1921 — the year after the Dead Ball Era is generally accepted to have ended — Allen Sothoron embarked on the greatest homer-averse season in history.
Sothoron was known for throwing a spitball and using “freak deliveries”, but in 1920, those were outlawed by the sport. Each team was allowed to grandfather in two spitball pitchers, but Sothoron was not on the list for the St. Louis Browns, and had a pretty bad year.
In 1921, after five starts (and with an ERA of 5.53), he was claimed off waivers by the Boston Red Sox. But he made just two starts there before being returned to the Browns, who really seemed determined to be rid of him. Two days later, he found himself in Cleveland.
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Whether he secretly re-employed the spitball or not, nobody seems to know, but he finished by going 12-4 in 22 games (16 starts). Between the three teams, he pitched a total of 178 1/3 innings.
And would you believe it: he’s the only pitcher in the post-deadball era to pitch at least 162 innings (the minimum to qualify for the ERA title) and not give up even one single solitary home run.
Aside from that one remarkable fact, Sothoron’s career was good-but-not-extraordinary. He went 91-99 in 265 games (193 starts). He passed away 85 years ago yesterday, at the age of 46.
Handshakes and High Fives
Dan Hayes is going to be responsible for a few “are you OK?” questions around work spaces today, thanks to this story about Twins assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, whose long-awaited big-league shot last year coincided with his newborn son’s health complications.
This week in Power Rankings: the crew look for each team’s “unsung hero.”
Kyle Schwarber is known for his prodigious home runs. But Matt Gelb’s story today gives us some insight into the well-liked man behind the monster shots.
Royals GM J.J. Picollo joined the Starkville podcast to talk about, among other topics, just how special Bobby Witt Jr. has been.
Jen McCaffrey has a Q&A with Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Katie Woo gives us the lowdown on Ryan Helsley’s transition to a more traditional closer’s role in St. Louis.
Freddie Freeman went 1-for-1 with five walks last night in the Dodgers’ 9-5 win against the Rockies. The last guy to do that? Rougned Odor (career walk rate: 6.1 percent), who had five free passes and a home run on Aug. 2, 2018 against the Orioles.
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(Top photo of Cole: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)