Mining the News (9/10/24)

American League

Angels

• Logan O’Hoppe tries to regain his swing as he works through some fatigue.

“After that game, we hopped in and worked on some things, felt really different,” O’Hoppe said. “So that was a good sign, you know? I mean, it wasn’t beating my head against the wall like it was the past month. So I’m just looking to build on it.”

O’Hoppe wouldn’t get into detail on the changes he made, but he said that both coaches pointed out things that were different with his swing during his recent skid.

“They pointed a lot of things out to me that I didn’t realize had changed over time,” O’Hoppe said. “There was a lot going on, so I don’t want to get into the specifics of it, but I’m grateful for them and kind of keep leaning on them.”
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“We’re supposed to be tired right now in September,” O’Hoppe said. “I didn’t just admit that I am tired. Don’t take it the wrong way, but I really do believe that we’re supposed to be tired right now.”

• Taylor Ward worked on retooling his swing as he puts behind his 2023 season-ending pitch to his face.

Ward, 30, has been productive in the leadoff role and wants to build some momentum going into next year. He remains under team control through 2026 and is a big part of the club’s lineup going forward. He said he’s worked with hitting coaches Johnny Washington and Tim Laker to retool his swing, and he is pleased with where he’s at right now.

“I’ve been feeling really good mechanically,” Ward said. “I think that’s really just the biggest thing. I’m back in a good spot where when I decide to swing, good things happen.”

Angels manager Ron Washington said he believes that Ward had a tough time coming back from getting hit in the face by a pitch from Toronto right-hander Alek Manoah on July 29, 2023, which ended his season. Ward was a bit tentative at the plate early this year, but he seems to have put that hit-by-pitch behind him. Opposing clubs seemed to pitch him inside often early on, but Ward has adjusted.

Astros

• The vertical shape on Justin Verlander’s fastball is off.

Seven of Arizona’s eight hits arrived against a four-seam fastball, including two home runs by outfielder Pavin Smith. Verlander averaged 94.1 mph on the 41 four-seamers he threw but appeared to leave far too many in the middle of the plate.

“It’s more the vertical shape that we’re looking for,” Espada said. “There was some there, but that part of it is not quite there yet and that’s how we know JV is on — when you see the inches of vertical (movement) on his fastball. He’s working through it, man, he’s working through it.”

Teams are 20-for-46 against Verlander’s four-seam fastball across his past four starts. Last year, Verlander allowed a .235 batting average on the pitch. He had not permitted a higher one since 2014, the last season he finished with an ERA north of 3.50.

• Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman will see limited time at DH since the team wants to play Yordan Alvarez there to keep him healthy.

What complicates the matter for Espada is the fact the club wants to limit how much slugger Yordan Alvarez plays in left field. On the days he starts at DH, that’s a spot Tucker and/or Bregman won’t be able to play.

“It requires a lot of discipline because we have [21] games left and I want those guys in there, but at the same time, we want them out there healthy,” Espada said. “The goal is to have them playing back-to-back games … so that’s going to require a little bit of time and patience, and us being smart about how to do it and when to do it.”
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For now, Espada just hopes his middle-of-the-order bats can play more consistently.

“Where I could just write the lineup [with] them on back-to-back days without worrying about how they feel the next day, that’s where we want to be,” the skipper said. “Is that going to happen in the next week? I hope so.

“But that might not be the case until they both feel good postgame and it hasn’t been the case, yet. Hopefully, we get to that point in the near future.”

Blue Jays

• The team still considers Spencer Horwitz to be a second baseman.

Even though he hasn’t started at second since Aug. 18, it was still surprising to hear manager John Schneider say recently that Horwitz is likely to be a first baseman/designated hitter moving forward. Horwitz wasn’t going to win a Gold Glove Award this year, but he looked more comfortable defensively than anyone expected and his offensive profile is far more interesting if he’s able to play some second base. He’s also a great potential platoon match with Martinez. This will be an interesting one to monitor going into camp, because Horwitz’s bat can be valuable in the right situation.

Rangers

• Going into 2025, Leody Taveras will be the backup outfielder.

The Rangers have remained behind Leody Taveras for four years now, hoping for him to reach his full potential. He’s shown flashes of it, no doubt, but he has never quite put it together consistently at the big league level. If Carter, Langford and García are all healthy, it wouldn’t be all that shocking to see Taveras shift into a fourth outfielder role.

National League

Giants

• Grant McCray hits for power from his hips, man.

Where is this power coming from, anyway? How is he putting a charge into balls like he’s Ramos, who is well beyond his weight class?

“Shoot, I don’t know, you tell me, bro,” McCray said. “I’ve never been a power hitter until a couple years ago. It’s all in the hips, man. All in the hips, I guess. I don’t know. Ball just jumps off, man.”

Padres

• Xander Bogaerts doesn’t want to go back to playing shortstop.

Enter Bogaerts. He has settled in nicely at second — and has expressed a preference to remain there. But the Padres might need him at short. That would allow Jake Cronenworth to slide from first to second and Luis Arraez from DH to first, freeing up the DH spot for a potential David Peralta/Donovan Solano platoon. Solano could play first, as well.

“Everything’s pretty fluid right now,” Shildt said. “But the good thing is we’ve got options.”

• Luis Arraez’s thumb is better.

From June 28 through the end of July, Luis Arraez hit .295 with a paltry .315 on-base percentage while playing with a thumb injury that turned out to be a torn ligament. Since then, he has hit .341 with a .378 on-base percentage. Arraez told reporters Friday that his thumb is “way better.”

Perhaps the clearest sign that Arraez, who notched back-to-back three-hit games over the weekend, is back to being the most automatic singles machine in baseball: He has struck out just twice since the All-Star break. And he has not struck out in his past 115 plate appearances, the longest such streak since Juan Pierre went 147 consecutive plate appearances without striking out in 2004.

• Fernando Tatis Jr. is playing through a stress fracture in his leg.

Tatis, who returned last week from a stress fracture in his left leg that is not fully healed, still appears limited at times, especially when he decelerates from a full sprint. He went 0-for-5 Sunday, striking out three times and grounding into an inning-ending double play. Near the start of Musgrove’s nightmarish fourth inning, he lost a fly ball in the sun.

Phillies

• Alec Bohm was fatigued so he will use the time on the IL to rest.

Both team and player remain unconcerned about Bohm’s readiness for October.

“I’m not sure how much time it’s going to take,” Thomson said, “but I’m not concerned about having enough time — if we get to the postseason.”

If Bohm has 10-14 days of action to end the season, Thomson said, “He’d be fine.” Bohm had shown signs of fatigue in August before the hand injury; he saw a sharp dip in his rate of hard-hit balls. The Phillies were concerned about this. A longer-than-expected rest is not the worst thing, as far as the club sees it, but that is predicated on Bohm having enough time to find his swing later this month.

“At this point in the year,” Bohm said, “you’d rather take a couple of extra days and not have to deal with it the rest of the year. Instead of putting Band-Aids on it all year or grinding through it the rest of the year.”

Rockies

• Brenton Doyle jacked up his hand, couldn’t play, and no one is looking into it.

“I landed pretty rough on the warning track, and something kind of flared up along the tendon in my pinkie and the side of my hand,” said Doyle, who had his left hand heavily wrapped after the game. “I was having discomfort squeezing the bat, and it was getting worse and worse as the game went on. Just came to the conclusion to be safe rather than sorry and get treatment on it.”

Doyle said he doesn’t expect the injury to keep him out of the lineup for long.

“We didn’t get imaging done,” he said. “Just going to treat it and see how it feels tomorrow.”