Mining the News (& Jeff’s Thoughts)

• Three teams (Rays, Tigers, and Cardinals) mentioned they will insert starters into their rotation to give guys extra rest. Instead of spending hours trying to find each team’s plan, it can be seen on this Baseball Reference page (promoted the G[ames] column). Here the top and bottom teams in games started.

Even this early into the season, it’s obvious which teams want to rest their pitchers more and those who don’t.

American League

Guardians

• Gabriel Arias’s manager thinks he’s “one of the most talented baseball players in the world”.

“Gabby Arias is one of the most talented baseball players in the world and we’re getting to see it right now,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “His at-bats, his at-bat quality, his defense, baserunning — everything that Gabby’s doing right now is where we want to keep him.

“It’s been really fun to watch Gabby do what he’s doing, and he hit that ball hard tonight.”

I’m not sure about the whole “most talented” part, but if his manager thinks so, Arias might have a longer than expected leash once he struggles.

Orioles

• Jordan Westburg played hurt and struggled because of it.

Jordan Westburg is not in the lineup for Wednesday night’s game against the Cleveland Guardians. He’s 1 for his last 20.

“I just think it’s a little bit of press,” Hyde said. “He got banged up in that Toronto series, early. He’s had some minor things and tried to play through it. I think he feels better now. Trying to see him catch up, I see him pressing through his at-bats a little bit. He also got punched out twice on two balls below the zone. That doesn’t help, either.”

• Brandon Young should make his major league debut on Saturday.

It seems likely that Brandon Young, who was transferred from Triple-A Norfolk to High-A Aberdeen to keep him local while the Tides are playing at Omaha, will start on Saturday.

“He has pitched very well so far in Triple-A, and I think you look at the landscape of guys that we have, and especially being on the 40-man roster, he’s certainly at the forefront of the conversation if and when we need a starter,” Elias said. “And it looks like we might need one pretty soon.”

Rangers

• There has been a ton of breakout hype surrounding Tyler Mahle because of his 0.92 ERA (3.62 xFIP) and 0.86 WHIP. It’s all a mirage. He’s near the top of all three luck factors.

He has not taken a step forward. Currently, he has a 16.0% K%-BB%. For his career, he has a 16.3% K%-BB%. He’s the same guy. Some pitcher starts the season as the luckiest guy out there, and right now, he’s Mahle.

I don’t think he’s a horrible pitcher, like a 4.00 ERA talent (career 4.22 ERA). Nothing close to a 1.00 ERA he is currently posting, no one is.

Rays

• The team brought up Joe Boyle to give their rotation a break.

The Rays had tentatively planned this type of move as a way to give Boyle a shot in the Majors and give their other starters an extra day of rest during a nearly two-week stretch without a day off. They pushed back starter Shane Baz, who had been slated to pitch Sunday, to the series opener against the Red Sox on Monday.

“I want to manage the workload and innings for all the starters,” manager Kevin Cash said prior to Sunday’s game. “Certainly Joe is included in that, but he had a really good showing in Spring Training. We feel really good about him coming up and making his start and giving us a chance to win.”

Tigers

• The team brought up Keider Montero to give their rotation a break.

“We talked about being proactive and making decisions, and we are in a stretch of 23 out of 24 days where we have a game,” Hinch said. “We may do this a couple of times throughout the year to see how much of a benefit we can get out of pitching from a strength, which is yet another good starting pitcher. … We’ve said all along that we’re going to need more than the group that we broke [Spring Training] with. This is a perfect example of that, and a lot of our pitching staff will benefit from that, just given that [Montero] can take a rotation spot and push everybody back.”

National League

Cardinals

• The team started Steven Matz to give their rotation a break.

The Cardinals would like to avoid such circumstances. Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake have been intentional about workload and schedule since before spring training, preferring each starter to pitch on five days’ rest rather than the traditional four. Routinely scheduled off days have facilitated that so far. St. Louis had three off days over the first 15 days of the season. Only one pitcher (Erick Fedde 페디, against Pittsburgh) took the mound on four days’ rest. The Cardinals are now in the middle of a 26-game stretch with just one day off after the 13th game. That’s why the team pinpointed Wednesday as Matz’s first start before the season began — by switching to a six-man rotation, they can effectively ensure each starter still has enough rest days in between outings.

“We were specific with April 16 because it would be the first time we’d go through the rotation and switch to four days of rest,” Marmol said. “When you look at safety in March and April, that’s a big part of it. Being able to ramp up and keep our guys that are on the roster, on the roster, we felt like inserting (Matz) on the 16th and staying on track made the most sense.”
…
The Cardinals will ride a six-man rotation at least until April 24, their lone scheduled day off between April 11 and May 8. Matz will take one more start — April 22 against Atlanta at Truist Park — before the club re-evaluates its plan. The Cardinals could go with it one more time through, but in May the schedule returns to regular off days. The Cardinals will have four straight Thursdays off in May, meaning starters can stay on the five-day rest plan without the need for an extra arm.

Diamondbacks

• Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is struggling at the plate, hitting .145/.176/.304 (29 wRC+) in 18 games. To see if anything is out of the ordinary, I examined his rolling 18-game wRC+ over the last five seasons. Every season, he experienced a stretch worse than the one he is in right now.

I wouldn’t start benching and/or dropping Gurriel just yet.

Giants

• Tyler Fitzgerald is just getting into a “groove” after Barry Bonds helped shorten his swing.

The Giants expected Fitzgerald to be an offensive contributor after he batted .280 with an .831 OPS, 15 home runs and 17 stolen bases during his breakout rookie campaign in 2024, but the 27-year-old infielder struggled to get back into a groove after he missed the beginning of Spring Training with a back injury. His recent chat with Bonds, though, put him back on track and helped him heat up during the club’s current road trip through New York and Philadelphia.

“I just felt like I had some really bad habits from when I hurt my back in Spring Training,” Fitzgerald said. “I just never really got over that. My swing felt super long. I’ve always had real quick hands and real short swings. So the last few days, really ever since we’ve gone to New York, I’ve been doing a lot of high tee and stuff to kind of try to swing downward.

“Barry actually helped me with that a little bit the last homestand. Just trying to get on top of the ball. As you can see, just with that thought, I’m able to backspin balls a little better. I’m trying to stay with it and get rid of some of those bad habits that I had and a lot of swing-and-miss that I had before.”

Mets

• Someone thought, and others agreed, that Jeff McNeil should be considered in center field.

Jeff McNeil, center fielder? It’s about to happen in the Minor Leagues. And it could happen at the highest level, as well.

McNeil is scheduled to play center field on his rehab assignment with Single-A St. Lucie on Thursday, as the Mets look to refresh his versatility — and supplement their outfield options — with Jose Siri about to hit the injured list.

McNeil played three games in center field in 2023, plus another three at the low levels of the Minors from 2013-15. He also appeared in center 21 times in college, but that’s the extent of his experience at the position.

Phillies

• The manager wants to give everyone around 100 to 150 at-bats (~ one month) before making major lineup decisions.

But the manager cannot bench everyone at once. Sixteen games into the season, the Phillies are not looking to shuffle the deck. “I think you got to get to 100 at-bats for sure, maybe closer to 150, before you really think about doing something drastic,” Thomson said. “So we got a lot of time.”

• Jordan Romano has cleaned up his delivery.

It was a concern because the Phillies needed Romano to pitch well in high-leverage situations late in games. They needed him to be one of Rob Thomson’s most trusted right-handed relievers, alongside Orion Kerkering, especially following the offseason departures of Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez.

But Romano thinks he is back on track, following a simple mechanical adjustment to his delivery.

Simply put, his leg lift isn’t as pronounced.

“I feel like my delivery now is similar to 2021-22,” he said. “There’s just a cleaner feel to it. It’s a little cleaner, a little better balanced, a little smoother. That’s how it feels to me now.

• I’m not sure Aaron Nola is startable because he’s too hittable (.377 BABIP, 1.7 HR/9) with his average fastball velocity down 1.4 mph from last year. Also, his per game velo is trending to even lower values.

I wonder if he’s hurt.

Reds

• Nick Martinez is struggling with a 6.00 ERA (4.24 xFIP), 1.43 WHIP, and 8.1 K/9. His projections are all over the place, with ZiPS projecting a 3.78 ERA and THE BAT at 4.85 ERA. Two issues might turn him into just a streamer this season. First, his groundball rate is down from 37% to 28%, thereby doubling his home run rate (0.8 HR/9 to 1.7 HR/9). Additionally, his walk rate has nearly tripled from 1.1 BB/9 to 3.0 BB/9. More walks with more home runs equals bad outcomes.