Mets' gutsy Paul Blackburn decision is latest glimpse of David Stearns' vision flourishing
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What stands out, Jeremy Hefner relates, is how natural the decision felt. The Mets needed an extra starter in the midst of playing 10 straight days to give all the mainstays an extra day's rest, notably Kodai Senga. Paul Blackburn was ready.
So Blackburn was inserted to make his 2025 debut Monday night against the highest-scoring team in the majors at Dodger Stadium.
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'[Facing the Dodgers] didn't even come up in the conversation,' said Hefner, the Mets pitching coach.
There are many reasons that the Mets, with a 5-3 triumph Sunday over the Bad News Rockies, completed a 7-2 homestand and improved to an MLB-best 24-7 at home and at 37-22 were a season-high 15 games over .500 and were tied for the National League's best record. But it begins at the start.
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New York Times
26 minutes ago
- New York Times
Can Braves get a jolt from firing third-base coach? Plus: How Judge's mentality stands out
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. What do the Braves' coaching change, Ryan Yarbrough's delivery and Coby Mayo's base running have in common? It's the word of the day: 'unorthodox.' I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup! When a team struggles, the order of firings usually goes like this: hitting/pitching coach > manager > wholesale changes in the front office. It's usually not … the third-base coach. But in Atlanta, the Braves have reassigned Matt Tuiasosopo. The (now-former) third-base coach will be a minor-league infield coordinator, replaced at the big-league club by a familiar face: Fredi González, who managed the team from 2011-2016 (and was previously the third-base coach from 2003-2006 under Bobby Cox). The quotes from Braves GM and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous were pretty straightforward: The move was the result of some recent bad send decisions. 'There's been some aggressive sends, and that's part of the job,' Anthopoulos said. 'But the results, from my standpoint — and in talking to (manager Brian Snitker) he understood and he ultimately agreed — I felt like we could do better.' González, as David O'Brien reports, was recently working as an umpire evaluator (which should add a very funny dynamic to the next argument he has with an ump). Whether a change at third-base coach will do the job or not, the Braves need something to change. After starting the season 0-7, they battled back to a .500 record at 21-21 by May 13. Alas, since then, they're 6-10, and their 27-31 mark is the fourth-worst record in the NL. Leftover notes from Saturday's Yankees-Dodgers broadcast on Fox: Aaron Judge: New York hitting coach James Rowson worked with Hall of Famers Joe Mauer in Minnesota and Miguel Cabrera in Detroit, yet says Judge stands out even above them in the way he is never satisfied, always looking for an edge. Judge doesn't necessarily view himself the way we do, as one of the best players in the game. He sees it as his responsibility to take nothing for granted, even past success against specific pitchers. As Rowson put it, 'If the story was over today, it would be one of the greatest stories in baseball. And he's still writing the story.' Landon Knack: The Dodgers righty weighed just over 230 pounds at the end of the World Series. In part because as a rookie, he was over-indulging in the high-quality food available to major-leaguers. Knack determined he was too heavy — he wasn't recovering well enough from outings and felt sluggish on the mound. His goal was to get down to about 215 pounds, but he went a little too far, dropping as low as 206. He is now at about 210, and had to readjust to his body now that he is moving differently, quicker than before. He has spent the last six weeks working on his delivery, developing new, simple cues. Paul Goldschmidt: His struggles before the All-Star Game last season now look like an aberration. The 37-year-old's revival after the break and continued dominance against left-handed pitching convinced the Yankees he was still a force, and he has rewarded their faith. His .302 expected batting average is below his actual .333, but still in the top 10 percent of the league. And he has reduced his strikeout rate by more than 10 percent, going from a career-high level last season to a career-low. Trent Grisham: When the Yankees acquired Grisham in the Juan Soto trade, they figured that between injuries and days off for other outfielders, he would play at least three days a week. It turned out that Grisham made only 52 starts and batted .190, leaving the Yankees with a decision on whether to even offer him a contract for 2025. They did, with Grisham accepting a pay cut from $5.5 million to $5 million. Grisham said the lesser salary wasn't difficult to accept. 'If I want more money,' he said, 'play better.' Dalton Rushing/Will Smith: Pretty rare that both of a team's catchers come from the same school, in this case Louisville. The Dodgers took Smith 32nd in 2016, Rushing 40th in 2022. Rushing projects as an offensive weapon from the left side. His defense, while improving, is still below-average. The Dodgers, though, expect to play him more than they did Austin Barnes, enabling Smith to possibly avoid the second-half drop-offs he experienced the past three seasons. Smith BA/OPS 2022-24 Pre-All-Star: .284/.855 Post-All-Star: .234/.704 Ben Rice: Decided in the middle of last season that he had more room to fill out, and that it would only help him to get stronger. To increase his muscle mass, Rice didn't embark upon a more intense weight-lifting program. After consulting with Yankees dietitian Drew Weisberg, he determined that he just needed to eat more. He has since added about 10 pounds, going from the 215-to-220 range to 225-230. On the most recent episode of 'The Roundtable,' the crew did me a favor, talking about a couple of topics from the weekend that I ran out of space for in Monday's Windup. The first: Corbin Burnes is injured. We still don't know exactly how bad, but he isn't joining the Diamondbacks on their six-game road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati. Instead, he stayed back in Arizona for an MRI. We'll know more when manager Torey Lovullo meets with the press later this afternoon in Atlanta. Advertisement Things aren't looking great in Phoenix. Expected to be a playoff contender, the D-Backs now have the same record as the Nationals (28-31). The second: What on earth was Coby Mayo doing with this soccer flop on Saturday afternoon? — Sox On 35th (@VideosOn35th) May 31, 2025 The intent seems clear: try to get an obstruction call and be awarded second base. But if you're gonna do that, you have to be a better actor, because that was pretty flagrant. In the immediate aftermath, there was some yelling, a couple of light shoves, and the benches cleared. After the game, Mayo had this to say: '(I) thought I was in the baseline, just trying to get some contact. I didn't mean for it to escalate, I wasn't trying to do that, it just did.' Well, yeah. More podcasts: The 'Rates & Barrels' crew catch up on what was a very newsy weekend. In 2018, Ryan Yarbrough finished fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting, going 16-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 38 games (six starts) for the Tampa Bay Rays. That's the entirety of the graffiti on the 'awards' column on Yarbrough's Baseball Reference page. He hasn't ever led the league in anything (unless you count the seven hit-by-pitches in 2020). That's not to say Yarbrough hasn't been good for the Yankees, but he has mostly been 'just a guy,' at least from a stats standpoint. His career high in bWAR is 1.4 (2019, when half of his 28 appearances were starts). But seven years later, not only is he still around, the 33-year-old is having a resurgence. After serving mostly in the bullpen for the Rays, Royals, Dodgers and Blue Jays in recent years, Yarbrough is not only starting again, but he's doing it for the reigning AL champs. And he's thriving — after replacing Carlos Carrasco, Yarbrough is 3-0 with a 2.83 ERA in five starts, holding opposing hitters to a .176 ERA. That includes a six-inning success over those Dodgers on Sunday night to help the Yankees avoid a sweep. Advertisement Remember: The Yankees' rotation is already down Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman. So this sort of success from Yarbrough has been a major boost for a team with World Series aspirations. Brendan Kuty has an article on Yarbrough today, telling us more about the success story — and his unorthodox delivery. More Yankees: After tweaking his hamstring on Sunday, Luke Weaver will likely be placed on the IL today. He is expected to miss about four weeks, per reports. Last Wednesday, we talked a little bit about the massive season Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is putting together. He has not slowed down, currently tied for the league lead in home runs with 23. Tyler Kepner dug a little deeper to tell us just what rare company Raleigh is in. Trevor Story is finally healthy, but he hasn't been producing. How much patience will the Red Sox have? Did you know the Cardinals had the league's best record in May? Their depth is about to be put to the test now, as they'll play 28 games in 29 days. Drew Pomeranz hadn't pitched in the big leagues since 2021. He's just one example of how the Cubs are leaving no stone unturned in their search for pitching depth. In this week's Power Rankings, we get the All-Star conversation started by suggesting a worthy candidate on each team. Authorities have identified the person who made threats to Lance McCullers Jr.'s family. It was an 'inebriated bettor.' No charges have yet been filed, and the man was said to be apologetic. Eno Sarris ranks starting pitchers for the rest of the 2025 season, if you're looking for some fantasy baseball help. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The newser on the federal investigation into a group licensing firm created by the MLBPA and other players associations. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
Forbes
30 minutes ago
- Forbes
Mets Continue To Do More With Less As Starting Rotation Flourishes
The prevailing narrative is that the New York Mets, led by owner Steve Cohen, are successful because they are a financial behemoth. And yes, they do have the largest payroll in baseball, and they did steal Juan Soto from the crosstown rival Yankees for a satchel full of money last offseason. But it's been a whole lot more than dollars that has propelled the Mets to the 2024 NLCS and first place in the NL East thus far this season. The overperformance of their relatively inexpensive starting rotation has played a pivotal role as well. Since the departure of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander by the 2023 trading deadline the Mets have taken a different approach to assembling a rotation. Their Plan A has often not quite worked out, primarily due to injury, but they have scrambled to formulate successful backup plans. In 2024, Luis Severino and Sean Manaea were their best starters in terms of both quantity and quality. Behind them Jose Quintana gave them bulk, while Tylor Megill and David Peterson showed flashes of excellence in smaller samples. Adrian Houser also got plenty of run, with far less success. They decided to forego the flash and big dollars at the top of the offseason free agent market, largely running it back, with Frankie Montas slated to replace Severino, who found greener financial pastures with the Athletics. Montas signed for two years, $34 million, Manaea re-signed for three years, $75 million, while Quintana left to join the Brewers. Sure, that's a hefty investment in starting pitching, but it's not exactly at the top of the market in terms of years or dollars. Plan A didn't pan out - both Montas and Manaea are sidelined with significant injuries. And as they did in 2024, the Mets' Plan B is not just working out, it's paying massive dividends. If anything, there's been an even greater windfall of success. Everyone agrees that the Phillies' starting rotation is a huge strength, right? When healthy, a Zack Wheeler/Aaron Nola/Cristopher Sanchez/Jesus Luzardo/Ranger Suarez rotation to absolutely fearsome. Well, the Phils' rotation has a 3.62 ERA this season, 5th best in the NL. That's way behind the Mets' group, which paces the league with an exceptional 2.91 mark. Kodai Senga, Megill, Clay Holmes, Peterson and Griffin Canning are taking the ball every fifth day, giving the club about six innings every time out, and are consistently keeping them in ballgames, or even better than that. The Mets' David Stearns-led front office and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner deserve a ton of credit. Holmes, like Soto, came over as a free agent from the Yankees, where he had been used as a short reliever. Canning was a last minute spring free agent pickup after the Montas/Manaea injuries opened a spot. Both traditional metrics like ERA- and FIP- and my batted ball-based 'Tru' ERA- pronounced Mets' starters as about league average in 2024, with Severino (90 'Tru'-), Manaea (93), Megill (94) and Peterson (99) the best of the lot. What all of those guys have in common are quality fastballs that they use quite often. According to my pitch grades based on bat-missing and contact management relative to the league, Severino had an 'A' four-seamer and a 'B+' sinker last season, while Manaea had an 'A' sinker and a 'B+' four-seamer. It's too early to be tossing around pitch grades this season, but Megill (63.9% fastball usage) and Peterson (52.0%) are having success throwing an awful lot of fastballs. Canning is a very interesting case. Arguably the worst ERA title-qualifying starter in the game in 2024, he's suddenly morphed into a ground ball pitcher in his first year with the Mets. His 52.6% grounder rate is 9.9% higher than his previous career high. He's still the least exciting member of this rotation, but league average is a big step up for him. And the return of Senga has been huge. Limited to 5 1/3 innings by injury in 2024, he's back and throwing his lethal forkball quite often. His strikeout rate is way down, but has throttling contact of all types, emerging as the only truly exceptional contact manager in the Met rotation. Put it all together and the Mets are paying just under a combined $40 million in 2025 for their current rotation, excluding Montas and Manaea. Their pitcher-friendly home park has helped them, as has the relatively cool early season weather, but this group has been one of the under the radar success stories of the 2025 season to date. Adjusted for exit speed/launch angle, all five members have been at least a bit fortunate to date. Each has an actual, Unadjusted Contact Score lower than their adjusted mark (78 to 98 for Holmes, 95 to 105 for Canning, 102 to 110 for Megill, 86 to 102 for Peterson, 73 to 80 for Senga). Add back the Ks and BBs, and their 'Tru' ERA- marks (93 for Holmes, 103 for Canning, 86 for Megill, 95 for Peterson, 80 for Senga) are as high or higher than the worse of each pitcher's ERA- and FIP-. Put another way, there's some regression coming. Canning, as previously stated, is still just OK, Holmes and Peterson's mainstream numbers are most out of whack, and Senga's 13.0% liner rate allowed is going up for sure. And hopefully Senga's arm can withstand a steady diet of forkballs. But one borderline ace (Senga), three #3-ish guys (including one with upside in Megill) and an innings guy (Canning) will do just fine. Money is a big part of the Mets' success, to be sure - heck, even throwing a few more million at Canning after a couple other options didn't pan out is a type of luxury that many other teams can't or won't afford. But getting the best out of what you've got is a big deal too, and this Mets' regime is proving quite adept at that aspect of the game.
Associated Press
37 minutes ago
- Associated Press
This Date in Baseball - Randy Johnson becomes the 24th MLB pitcher to win 300 games
June 4 1940 — The Pirates beat the Boston Bees 14-2 in the first night game at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. 1940 — The St. Louis Cardinals play their first night game at Sportsman's Park, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-1. 1951 — Pittsburgh's Gus Bell hit for the cycle to lead the Pirates to a 12-4 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia. 1964 — Sandy Koufax pitched his third no-hitter, striking out 12, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Phillies 3-0 in Philadelphia. 1968 — Don Drysdale of the Dodgers blanked the Pirates 5-0 for his sixth straight shutout en route to a record 58 2-3 scoreless innings. 1972 — A major league record eight shutouts were pitched in 16 major league games: five in the American League, three in the National League. The Oakland Athletics swept a pair from the Baltimore Orioles by identical 2-0 scores. 1974 — The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium was forfeited to Texas. Umpire Nestor Chylak had problems with fans all night on 10-cent beer night. The crowd got out of control when Cleveland tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth. 1989 — Toronto beats Boston 13-11 in 12 innings after trailing 10-0 after six inngs. Red Sox starter Mike Smithson threw six scoreless innings before leaving in the seventh because of a foot blister. The Jays then scored two in the seventh, four in the eighth and five in the ninth and two more in the 11th on Junior Felix's home run. It was the biggest lead the Red Sox have blown and their 12th consecutive loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park. 1990 — Ramon Martinez struck out 18 and pitched a three-hitter, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers past the Atlanta Braves 6-0. 1996 — Pamela Davis pitched one inning of scoreless relief and got the win in a minor league exhibition game. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current minor league system. The 21-year-old right-hander pitched for the Jacksonville Suns, a Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Australian Olympic team. 2000 — Esteban Yan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays becomes the 77th major league player to hit a home run in his first at bat, but just the fourth American League pitcher and the first since the Angels' Don Rose in 1972, the year before the designated hitter rule took the bat out of AL pitchers' hands. 2005 — Rafael Palmeiro and Melvin Mora each hit grand slams to help Baltimore rally for a 14-7 win over Detroit. 2007 — Mark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez had a two-out homer in the 11th inning to lift Oakland to a 5-4 win over Boston. 2009 — Randy Johnson became the 24th major league pitcher to win 300 games by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader. 2012 — Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels manager became the ninth manager in AL history to manage 2,000 games with one club. The Mariners beat the Angels 8-6. 2018 — In a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge sets a record by striking out eight times. 2019 — San Francisco Giant Manager Bruce Bochy wins his 1,000th game as the manager of the Giants with a 9-3 victory over the New York Mets. 2022 — The rule preventing position players from pitching in a close game is invoked for the first time when Crew chief C.B. Bucknor objects to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts calling on OF Zach McKinstry to pitch the 9th inning gainst the Mets with his team trailing, 9 - 4. The rule, adopted before the 2020 season but not implemented until this year due to the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, states that a team cannot use a position player on the mound unless there is a difference of six or more runs between the two teams. Roberts is thus forced to use a real pitcher, Evan Phillips, to pitch the final inning. In spite of the rule, the practice of using such 'mystery pitchers' is continuing undiminished, with teams even resorting to them when they have built a huge lead late in the game, in order to rest their bullpens, something that was completely unseen before the decade started. _____
