Denzel Clarke's catch of the year candidate. Plus: Top prospect Roman Anthony arrives

New York Times

a day ago

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I'm not saying the Red Sox front office reads The Windup, but less than 24 hours after Ken's comments, Roman Anthony was at Fenway Park. Coincidence?
Also: Ken has Yankees-Red Sox notes, former Rockies weigh in on the place they escaped and holy moly, this might be the catch of the year. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Yesterday was a big day for the future of the sport. Neither instance made much of an impact on the immediate present, however.
Anthony, who is 21 years old, joins a pretty exciting group of youngsters in Boston, including Ceddanne Rafaela (24), Kristian Campbell (22) and Marcelo Mayer (22).
Alas, his big-league debut wasn't the most ostentatious entrance. He went 0-for-4 against the Rays and misplayed a ball in right field that put Tampa Bay up 3-0 in the fifth inning. He did get some redemption in the ninth: Anthony's RBI groundout pulled the Red Sox to within a run, and the game eventually went to extra innings. The Red Sox lost 10-8 in 11 innings, though.
Allow me to remind you that a pitcher's first start back from Tommy John is rarely ever dominant. It takes a while to get back to full steam. This was no exception — Pérez lasted just three innings (70 pitches), allowing four runs (all earned) on four hits and two walks.
He also struck out five, though. He hasn't turned the corner, but he might be peering around it.
Leftover notes from Saturday's Red Sox-Yankees broadcast on Fox:
Paul Goldschmidt's resurrection: His frustrations reached the point last season where Goldschmidt, 37, asked the Cardinals to assess whether his physical skills were eroding. The answer came back 'No,' so Goldschmidt determined the problem was with his swing. His timing was off both in trying to get into a good position to hit and in making his forward move. His issues actually dated back to the second half of 2023, but he got hot against San Diego at the end of August, and with his strong finish gained confidence that he could still perform at a high level.
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ASG '23-ASG '24: .236/.706
Post-ASG '24: .271/.799
2025: .312/.833
Trent Grisham's improvement: Grisham's offensive improvement isn't just due to opportunity. As he puts it, 'I'm thinking better.' He said he lost his mental edge in San Diego and needed to rebuild it, eliminating distractions and focusing solely on playing his best. Grisham said, 'That requires constant work, constant reframing, constant everything really, to retrain myself. I just got into a bad spot.'
Marcelo Mayer's adjustments: Off the field, his biggest adjustment — and for many players jumping to the majors — is to the travel. Minor-league teams play six-game series and travel at most once a week. Major-league teams on a lengthy road trip will travel every three or four days. On the field, Mayer's experience at third base prior to joining the Red Sox consisted of only 24 innings in spring training and 31 at Triple A. But he loves playing defense, saying it's probably his favorite part of the game. And he's growing increasingly comfortable at third.
Ceddanne Rafaela's selectivity: The biggest thing he's working on is his swing decisions early in counts. The Red Sox know Rafaela will be aggressive. But if he's going to swing early, hitting coach Pete Fatse wants to make sure he does it on pitches where he could make an impact. Rafaela's getting there. His strikeout rate has dropped from 26.4 percent last season to 19.8 percent entering Monday, in part because he has adopted a better two-strike approach.
Anthony Volpe's hot and cold: His streakiness remains confounding. Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, however, believes Volpe's ability to make adjustments eventually will make him a good hitter, saying, 'He constantly forces you to try a different way to get him out.' While Volpe, whose OPS this year sits at .772, now has over 1,500 plate appearances in the majors, Rowson says that as he gains even more experience, he'll avoid lengthier slumps.
Imagine being Nolan Arenado or Trevor Story — each of whom went to the playoffs with the Colorado Rockies — and seeing what they're up to these days. It has to feel a lot like looking at your ex's social media page and seeing that they've posted about nothing but pyramid schemes for a year.
In case you missed it, the Rockies swept the Marlins last week. Those were their 10th, 11th and 12th wins of the year, and they followed it up with another sweep — this one in favor of the opposing Mets. They're 12-53, and on pace to obliterate the historic futility of the 2024 White Sox.
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If they keep up this pace, they'll finish 30-132. I can give you no better context for that than this most recent Jayson Stark column. 'Ten ways the 2025 Rockies are making history (in all the wrong ways)' the headline reads. It feels like piling on, but what's a columnist supposed to say?
'At least the essential oils do smell pretty good, though'?
Anyway, back to Arenado and Story. They're among the several former Rockies that Andy McCullough spoke to for today's article. The most damning quote came from Troy Tulowitzki, who offered this, via text: 'I don't comment on that organization.'
Perhaps the most insightful comments came from Arenado, who had this to say:
'The only way you get out of this, my opinion, is you have to really start over; trade guys that have value and deal with the restart. But I don't know if that's what (owner Dick) Monfort wants to do. That's not really what they like to do.'
That's a broad stroke, but starting over involves dealing with failures on a number of fronts: bad trades, bad refusals to trade, bad drafting, bad development and bad luck with Kris Bryant's back when they did decide to spend in free agency.
When so many factors are failing, the blame finger can only point up. The Rockies' best chance at relevance might be for Monfort to sell the team. But if Monfort won't even lean into wholesale change at the many levels below him, why would we ever think he'll hold himself accountable first?
Holy moly. This is a nominee for not only the catch of the year, but one of the best home run robberies I've ever seen — ever.
CATCH OF THE YEAR – Denzel Clarke goes wayyyyy over the fence to rob a HR from the Angels' Nolan Shanuel
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— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) June 9, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This happened in the bottom of the first inning last night, as 25-year-old A's rookie Denzel Clarke robbed the Angels' Nolan Schanuel in center field. My favorite part? OK, well, the catch is my favorite part, but also: Look at the reaction by A's opener Grant Holman:
By the way, this wasn't Clarke's first highlight-reel catch, even though it came in just his 16th big-league game. Just a few days prior, he did this against the Orioles. And on May 30, it was this home run robbery against the Blue Jays.
We have a new No. 1 in this week's Power Rankings, as the trio of writers identify one big question each team needs to address before the trade deadline.
The Reds and Guardians started a series last night. The Reds won, 7-4, led by Terry Francona, who was making his first return to Cleveland since stepping down as manager.
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I loved this article by Jon Greenberg, who tells us from a Cubs perspective about the art of the oral history in baseball clubhouses.
Speaking of the Cubs … with injuries to their top two starters, Matthew Boyd has gone from an interesting lotto ticket to a reliable bedrock of the rotation.
Likewise, José Berrios gave the Blue Jays some stability as they kicked off the hot birds series with the Cardinals with a win.
The College World Series bracket is set, with surprise Cinderella Murray State crashing the party.
Sam Blum spoke with Michael Kelly of the A's — I believe it's the first time anyone has spoken to one of the players who were last season suspended for a year for gambling.
Rays shortstop Wander Franco has been charged with gun possession amid his sexual abuse trial.
Keith Law gives us a scouting report on some top Mets and Nats prospects.
On the pods:
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: David O'Brien's newser on the Braves calling up Craig Kimbrel for one game.
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