Are the Astros cursed at first base? Plus, Patrick Corbin's spidey senses
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In today's Windup, a cursed base, and we are on very high Spider-Man alert!
Plus: These division leaders are waiting on the trade market, and Ken wonders if Bud Black's days as Rockies manager are numbered. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Before the 2023 season, the Houston Astros signed 1B Jose Abreu to a three-year, $58.5 million deal for his ages 36-38 seasons. Eighteen games into his Houston tenure, he was hitting .253 (.584 OPS) with zero home runs, 19 strikeouts and three walks in 79 plate appearances.
Halfway through the second year of that deal, Abreu was released. It was an abject disaster. Houston is still paying him $19.5 million this year.
This offseason, the Astros signed 1B Christian Walker to a three-year, $60 million deal for his ages 34-36 seasons. Eighteen games into his Houston tenure? He's hitting .154/.267/.215 (.482 OPS) with 23 strikeouts, eight walks and one home run.
As Chandler Rome writes in a recent story, some of Walker's underlying numbers are still OK. His bat speed is still a pretty dark red on this chart. Other numbers, though … check out that Launch Angle Sweet-Spot % percentile (that's batted balls with a launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees). Yikes.
By comparison, here's Abreu's chart from 2024. You'll note that his bat speed was also still above average (but Walker isn't in this territory just yet).
True story: As I was writing this up last night, I had originally planned to compare Walker's slump to that of Tigers outfielder Riley Greene — who entered play with more strikeouts than anyone in the sport — and ask which fan base should be more concerned.
There's no way to prove it, but my conclusion was that Greene would be fine, despite his underlying numbers not looking so great either. Then he went 3-for-5 with a couple of RBIs and may have scooped me on his own breakout.
The ritual sacrifice of a hitting coach is standard operating procedure for a team in crisis. The Colorado Rockies took that half-step yesterday, firing hitting coach Hensley Meulens. The move would merit only a yawn — it's only the Rockies, after all — if not for the person the team chose as Meulens' replacement: former Rockies manager (and hitting coach) Clint Hurdle.
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Changing hitting coaches was justifiable for a team that is 3-15, last in the majors in scoring and first in strikeout rate. Changing managers also would be justifiable, considering the Rockies are a complete wreck as they head for their seventh straight losing season under Bud Black.
Here's my question: If Hurdle, 67, was willing to leave his position as a special assistant to get back in uniform, why wouldn't he want Black's job? Even if he doesn't, the Rockies could have ripped off the Band-Aid yesterday and made the managerial change that seems all but inevitable.
I included Black in my column Monday on managers whose job statuses could be in question. As I wrote, Rockies people think highly of him, and so do people throughout the industry. Hardly anyone seems comfortable posing the question: As the team skews younger, is Black still the right person for the job?
Black cannot be blamed for the team's consistent failures or for its continued irrelevance. The Rockies seem to operate in a separate universe from the rest of baseball. But at some point, it stands to reason the team would benefit from a fresh voice.
Third-base coach Warren Schaeffer, who managed at three levels of the Rockies' organization from 2015 to '22, is the obvious heir apparent. Management previously has seemed disinclined to humiliate Black and dismiss him in-season.
'Buddy's done a good job — it's a tough situation we're going through right now,' general manager Bill Schmidt told MLB.com yesterday. 'I think he's been a positive influence. Our guys come to play hard every day, and that's what I'm looking at. As I said, I'm looking for the growth to continue to develop, and Buddy is the right person for that.'
Fair enough. But with Black's contract expiring at the end of the season, the team will again face a decision. Schaeffer could be the Rockies' version of Brandon Hyde, taking over the organization at a low point and growing with his young players.
Or maybe the Rockies will just recycle Hurdle, who managed them from 2002 to '09, leading them to their only World Series appearance. It would be typical of the game's most insular organization to turn to one of its own. And it would be the latest reflection of the team's lack of long-term vision.
On Wednesday night, Patrick Corbin picked up his first win as a member of the Rangers, going 5 1/3 innings against the Angels and allowing just one run, striking out six. But thanks to Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, we now know there was more to the story.
Corbin was bitten by something — it's still not known exactly what, though manager Bruce Bochy suggested maybe a spider — and could 'hardly walk' when he got to the park before the game.
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'Something bit me, but I still don't know what,' Corbin said the next day. 'They were able to kind of work it out and just kind of maintain it throughout the day. But it's pretty sore.'
That Corbin was in a big-league clubhouse at all was notable. Here's a list of categories he's led the league in lately:
2020: hits allowed
2021: losses, earned runs, home runs
2022: losses, hits allowed, earned runs
2023: losses
2024: hits allowed, earned runs.
But there's more to this story also. Since returning from Tommy John surgery in July 2015, he has been the most reliable — or at least reliably available — starting pitcher in the game. His 277 starts and 6,871 hitters faced since then are most in the league (Aaron Nola is second in both, at 272 and 6,735, respectively). Corbin's 1,586 1/3 innings trail only to Nola (1,643) and Gerrit Cole (1,596 1/3) over that time frame.
So he's had more opportunities to allow hits and runs.
We'll see if that continues. If he is ejected for sticky stuff in coming games, I think we'll all know why (radioactive spider).
When Justin Steele went down with an injury, it seemed like a foregone conclusion the Cubs would attempt to bolster their rotation via trade. One problem: It's April. Teams aren't unloading pitchers just yet.
It makes sense for sellers to be methodical; wait it out and see if there's some other team out there is willing to make a better offer. (Does Mavericks GM Nico Harrison subscribe to The Windup?)
In Patrick Mooney's story about the Cubs successfully breaking even on a very tough West Coast road trip, there are quotes from president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer that essentially confirm: Yeah, the Cubs are looking. But nobody's really selling just yet.
Meanwhile in Queens, the Mets' center-field situation has become somewhat shaky, after news that Jose Siri has a fracture in his leg. One solution, suggests Will Sammon, might find Jeff McNeil in center field once he returns from the IL, with Luisangel Acuña manning second base.
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Or at least until the trade market starts to come into sharper focus.
Thickening the plot: The Mets might find themselves bidding against their division rivals, as the Phillies are also running a little light on productive outfielders.
You ever have one of those weeks where so many crazy things happen, you can't even start? Baseball did that this week. But Jayson Stark knows right where to start: his Weird & Wild column (there's even a musical).
Think you know how many perfect games there have been in the Statcast era? Incorrect: The answer is two. Oh right, we're talking about umpire perfect games. Tyler Kepner has that and more in this week's Sliders.
Garrett Crochet has been about as close to perfect this year as any reasonable person could expect. Apparently, Crochet is not reasonable, and wants to be even better.
Well, you're not allowed to argue balls and strikes, and you're definitely not allowed to tweet about it from the clubhouse. Jazz Chisholm Jr. did both last night.
After a high-and-tight pitch to Andrew McCutchen led to a brief soirée at midfield, Nats pitcher Jorge López has been suspended for three games.
Everyone else is hurt in Minnesota, so it's time to call up Luke Keaschall, who was No. 3 on Aaron Gleeman's list of top 40 Twins prospects (No. 62 in Keith Law's top 100 prospects). The Twins also acquired utility player Jonah Bride from the Marlins for cash considerations.
Patrick Mooney didn't use the words 'calm down' to Cubs fans when writing about Ryan Pressly, but it was sort of implied. The closer has been much better.
We love a good reclamation project. For the Mets, it appears Griffin Canning is their latest.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Our 2025 MLB front office rankings, as voted on by 40 decision-makers throughout the sport.
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New York Times
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- New York Times
THE BAT X fantasy baseball cheat sheet: Add Ben Brown, stream Agustín Ramírez
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Projections are based on a 12-team, mixed-league roto format with 23-player rosters. For a more thorough explanation of THE BAT X, read Carty's explainer. For first-time readers, we compare players' year-to-date value (value to this point in the season) against their projected rest-of-season value (value for the remainder of the season and not including YTD value). Values are expressed as dollars, and $0 represents a starting caliber player in the aforementioned 12-team mixed roto league format. This gives you an idea of which players may be available on your waiver wire, their value for the remainder of the year and why you should grab them before anyone else can. The differential can tell you all you need to know, but because this is a model, you'll want to use the projections alongside knowledge of your league. For example, Colton Cowser has thus far performed at a -$17.10 value, but THE BAT X expects him to have a rest-of-season value of $10.60. 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USA Today
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Former Vols by the numbers in 2025 MLB Week 11
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Axios
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Tampa Bay's MerMandy helps Team USA win Merlympics gold medal
When Mandy Walker first donned a mermaid tail a couple years ago, she never thought she'd end up competing in it, let alone on the world stage. Why it matters: Walker, a mermaid performer and teacher from Riverview, was one of six athletes who represented the U.S. last month at the Official Merlympics 2025 in Wolfsburg, Germany, the Tampa Bay Times first reported. And the results are in: Team USA brought home the gold medal, besting more than a dozen other countries with teams in the competition. "It was a life-changing experience," Walker, who goes by MerMandy, told Axios. "USA blew first place out of the water. It was clear we worked our butts off — or, you could say, our tails off." State of play: For Walker, 44, that meant training five to six times a week for the last six months, building up her strength and endurance in and out of the water. Swimming with a monofin takes serious core strength. She did it all as a single mom of four and master's student, without a competitive swimming background or a coach. In February, her teammates visited from as far away as Indiana and Utah to practice in Florida together. They drilled their synchronization in the chilly waters of Alexander Springs in the Ocala National Forest and in the deep end at High 5, an aquatics center in Brandon. Soon, they were off to Germany, arriving a few days ahead of the May 24 competition to practice together a few more times. How it works: While the Merlympics aren't affiliated with the traditional Olympics, the competition has a similar structure with multiple events for individuals and with the synchronized swim, events included: A 50-meter surface swim testing speed. An underwater rescue emphasizing the merfolk oath of safety. An underwater photoshoot judging poise and appearance ("they do say mermaids are vain," Walker joked). Zoom out: They found time to have some fun, too. Team members stayed in the historic Hotel Alter Wolf, where they snapped photos with their tails hanging out the windows. Down the street was Schloss Wolfsburg, a medieval castle where Walker quipped she was just waiting for the moat to fill. The big picture: Mermaid culture has long had a presence in Florida thanks to the famous Weeki Wachee mermaids. But the professional scene has grown in popularity in recent years thanks to social media and the Netflix docuseries " MerPeople." That popularity shined at the competition, Walker said. Folks kept coming up to her saying they followed her on social media. What she's saying:"To meet friends that are now global — that's just mind-boggling and priceless," she said.
