Is Marcelo Mayer the answer to Boston's quandary? Plus, Shohei Ohtani's progress
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Another third-base conundrum in Boston, Ronald Acuña Jr.'s huge return, Ohtani's step toward a (pitching) return and Ken dives into the Nats' rebuild.
I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
The 27-29 Red Sox have spent most of this season languishing in the middling place, but one bright spot has been their biggest offseason acquisition: When Alex Bregman singled on Friday, it raised his 2025 stat line to .299/.385/.553 (.938).
It also marked the last time that line would change for a while. Bregman suffered a right quad strain that night, landing him on the injured list for the foreseeable future.
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Not to lean too hard into the drama, but Rafael Devers won't be returning to the position. Take that as you will (but he's also hitting .291 with a .944 OPS at DH).
Instead, it was 22-year-old Marcelo Mayer (Keith Law's No. 28 prospect in the sport this year) getting the call. At the time of his promotion, Mayer's professional experience at third base consisted of six games — four in Triple A this year, and two last year in Double A.
He won't play there exclusively, though — a plan that was made evident in his debut, where he started at third base, shifted to shortstop later in the game and then back to third base when more substitutions occurred. He's expected to get some time at second base, too.
The loss of Bregman is another big blow for the Red Sox, who already lost first baseman Triston Casas for the year (ruptured patellar tendon). They certainly hope Mayer can thrive in the big leagues, and soon — they're already in fourth place and seven games back in the AL East.
More Mayer: His chaotic debut included lost keys, a long car ride and a standing ovation.
From my latest column:
When identifying baseball's perennial bottom feeders, the Rockies come immediately to mind, with the Pirates, White Sox and Marlins also in the conversation. The Nationals belong, too.
Since winning the 2019 World Series, the Nationals rank third in the majors in losses, one behind the Pirates, 14 behind the Rockies. At 24-29 this season, they're on pace to avoid their fifth-straight 90-loss campaign — barely.
Ownership's lack of investment is partly to blame. The Nationals opened with a top-10 payroll seven out of eight seasons between 2014 and '21, but the past three years have averaged in the bottom 10.
A perhaps even bigger problem is the team's failures in player development, as well as amateur and international scouting, going back more than a decade — failures that president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo's spectacular return for Juan Soto at the 2022 trade deadline can mask only so much.
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Good teams both spend and develop. The Nationals do neither. So, while the Nats hold the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, selecting in the same spot where they landed Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010, the end of their rebuild is not necessarily in sight.
More here.
It didn't take long for Ronald Acuña Jr. to make an impact upon returning to the big leagues from injury — on Friday, he hit the first pitch he saw 467 feet.
That was the lone run the 25-27 Braves scored in a 2-1 loss to the Padres, but they won 7-1 on Saturday with Acuña homering again. Atlanta has worked hard to get back to the .500 range after a miserable start to the season, and the return of a second superstar — Spencer Strider will start his third game of the season tonight — is a welcome boost, especially as they start an important series against the division-leading (and red-hot) Phillies tonight.
Acuña, you likely remember, became (and remains) the league's first member of the 40/70 club in 2023, but was limited to 49 games last year before a torn ACL ended his season prematurely.
To make room on the roster for Acuña, the Braves released Orlando Arcia, who had been with Atlanta since a 2021 trade. As for playing time, as David O'Brien mentions at the bottom of this notes column, Eli White will slide from right field into a straight right/left platoon in left field with Alex Verdugo.
Acuña wasn't the only big return from injury over the weekend. In Cincinnati, Hunter Greene returned to the mound, while Matt Vierling's return in Detroit will boost a division-leading Tigers team. And in Minnesota, Carlos Correa is back from a short stint on the concussion IL.
It's normally not newsworthy when a pitcher's rehab is to the 'he threw to live hitters' standpoint. But when that pitcher followed that live bullpen session by hitting his league-leading 18th home run that night, well …
You may recall, there was some talk last October that the Dodgers might ramp up Ohtani's UCL surgery rehab to allow him to pitch in the playoffs. Not only did that not happen, but an injury to his left shoulder (sustained while sliding into second base) gave him one more thing from which to recover over the offseason.
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Now, the Dodgers are taking it very slow. Despite facing hitters in practice — and touching 97 mph while doing so — he isn't expected to be back in the rotation until the second half of the season.
Ohtani's not only their best hitter, but his international star power outshines every other player in the game. So they're not going to rush him back. But given the number of Dodgers pitchers on the IL and the workload of the ones who aren't, it should be noted that their restraint is admirable.
Oh, and Ohtani still leads the league in home runs — he hit his 19th last night in a 7-2 win over the Guardians.
More Dodgers:
On Sunday, Tarik Skubal took a perfect game into the sixth, finished with a Maddux (shutout in under 100 pitches) and struck out 13, more than in any other Maddux in history. He's special.
Earlier this month, Zack Meisel told you the remarkable story of Nic Enright, who pitched through chemotherapy treatments. He's a big leaguer now.
Our Power Rankings have a new No. 1. 👀
Weren't we just writing about this guy? Over the weekend, Oneil Cruz hit a home run that left the bat at 122.9 mph. That's the hardest-hit ball in the Statcast era (2015-present), breaking the old record of 122.4, set by … Oneil Cruz.
In one day, the A's optioned three players, added one to the IL and DFA'd Seth Brown, their longest-tenured player. Five moves! It worked … eventually. Two days later, they snapped their 11-game losing streak (and snapped the Phillies' nine-game winning streak).
Once a big question, the Astros bullpen has become one of the team's biggest strengths.
They don't make closers like Kenley Jansen anymore. He might be the last of his kind.
Keith Law makes the argument that college baseball coaches are being irresponsible in their heavy usage of pitchers.
If you missed it in Jayson Stark's Weird & Wild on Friday … please go watch this video of the weirdest baseball play I've ever seen.
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After Stark's All-Quarter Century Team last week, a few of us tried our hands at team-specific versions: Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees, Rangers.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Our staff's grades for this year's eight new City Connect uniforms.
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