Marvel at these sweet home run robberies. Plus, are we buying the Twins?

New York Times

15-05-2025

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There's a crime spree: Home runs are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Plus: Pete Rose's daughter speaks, the Dodgers replace a clubhouse 'pillar' with their top prospect and are we buying the Twins' hot streak?
I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
I am really proud of the work our MLB crew here at The Athletic does. Every day in The Windup, I get to highlight some of our best work and keep you, the readers, informed on the fruits of their labor.
But once in a while, we all just get to sit back and marvel at the actual baseball being played. In yesterday's Yankees-Mariners game, the very first play of the game gave us one such moment. Watch this catch by Julio Rodríguez:
JULIOOOOOO!
Julio Rodríguez brings one back! 😤 pic.twitter.com/MVqV1RDZQG
— MLB (@MLB) May 14, 2025
Most days, that's gonna be your play of the day. Not today. Not when the Red Sox's Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela teamed up to do … this.
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK pic.twitter.com/DIgyEzwWfp
— MLB (@MLB) May 15, 2025
Perhaps you prefer the Rodríguez catch — the perfectly timed jump, the classic home run robbery, the slight delay in revealing the ball. Or maybe you're a merchant of chaos and the novelty of the one-in-several-million tip drill is more your style.
Pick one! Or don't! Not everything has to be a competition. They were both fun to watch (assuming you're not a Yankees or Tigers fan).
More single-serving greatness: that of Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., distilled into a single swing.
From my latest column:
Pete Rose's daughter was in the Seattle airport, getting ready to fly to Cincinnati for a night honoring her father, when she learned the news.
'The emotion just kind of came over me,' Fawn Rose, the oldest of Pete's five children, said. 'I didn't think the commissioner's decision was going to affect me as much as it did.'
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Fawn Rose's 17-year-old twins, her son Jude and daughter Eden, saw their mother getting teary and looked at her as if to say, 'Oh my God, what happened?' But quickly, they came to understand that what happened was good.
Fawn said she wasn't shocked Tuesday when commissioner Rob Manfred removed her father and other deceased players from Major League Baseball's permanently ineligible list. But her brother, Pete Jr., 55, and sister Cara, 35, had the same emotional reaction when she phoned them to share Manfred's decision. And they all thought the same thing.
'I wish our dad was here to share this with our family and with all the fans,' Fawn said.
Pete Rose died last Sept. 30 at 83. The very next day, the family's attorney, Jeffrey Lenkov, called Fawn. Referencing his nearly decade-long quest to get Pete reinstated, Lenkov told Fawn, 'We're going to get it done.'
Lenkov originally did not plan to bring Fawn with him to meet in New York with Manfred and MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney on Dec. 17. But before the meeting, Lenkov realized it might be the only opportunity he and the family would have to plead Pete's case.
'It was vital to hear Pete's voice through his children, that Fawn was the proper choice as the oldest,' Lenkov said. 'I didn't prep Fawn. I wanted her to organically express her opinion.' Which Fawn did.
'I didn't sugarcoat anything. It was the good, bad and the ugly,' she said. 'He's at fault. But he's our dad. And he's human.'
Courtney, speaking for Manfred, declined to discuss details of a private meeting and the impact Fawn might have made on the commissioner. But following the league's announcement Tuesday, Fawn said she joked to Pete Jr., 'Dad should have sent me in years ago. I would have closed it quick (with) the commissioner.'
The reality, of course, was more complicated.
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The late commissioner Bart Giamatti banned Rose in 1989 after investigator John Dowd confirmed Rose had violated Rule 21 (d) (2), which states that any player, umpire or club or league official who bets upon a game in which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.
Giamatti told Rose he needed to 'reconfigure' his life as a condition for reinstatement. The next three commissioners, Fay Vincent, Bud Selig and Manfred, kept the ban intact. Manfred twice rejected Rose's petitions for reinstatement, in 2015 and 2020.
More Pete Rose:
MLB's hottest team isn't the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets or even the Padres.
With yesterday's sweep of a doubleheader with the Orioles, the Minnesota Twins have boosted their record from a disappointing 13-20 to 23-20, climbing from fourth place and six games back in the division to … fourth place and 5 1/2 games back in the division.
Ah right. The Tigers are 8-2 in their last 10 games, and the Royals and Guardians are both 'only' 6-4.
So while the 10-win streak has been a lot of fun for Twins fans, it has also been a matter of survival. I remember not so long ago when it seemed like the AL Central title went to the first team to lazily raise their hand and go, 'OK fine, I guess. We'll take it.'
Not any more.
So how do we feel about the Twins? The hole they dug themselves into shouldn't be insurmountable. But they were streaky last year, too (remember the gross sausage?). Is the duo of a healthy Byron Buxton and new arrival Harrison Bader enough to convince you? Is the pitching as good as it has seemed lately?
I'm not ready to say they're my favorites to win the division. I think the Tigers are legitimate World Series contenders, and I think the Royals have some juice. I somehow always underestimate the Guardians. Like I said, it's a rough division.
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But the Twins aren't rolling over.
More Twins: Three under-the-radar Minnesota prospects off to stock-raising starts, led by 'McCrusher.'
It is one thing to announce that a team is calling up a star prospect. Dalton Rushing definitely qualifies as that — Keith Law had the 24-year-old as the Dodgers' top prospect coming into this season, and the No. 16 prospect in the sport.
It's another when that call-up comes at the cost of the team's longest-tenured position player and clubhouse 'pillar.' That's what happened in Los Angeles yesterday, with Austin Barnes on the tough end of a DFA to make room on the 40-man roster for Rushing.
Barnes, 35, has spent his entire big-league career with the Dodgers. He debuted in 2015 after a 2014 trade that is a fun little trip down memory lane:
(Hernández made his Dodgers debut before Barnes, but spent two-plus years with the Red Sox, the last an 86-game stint in 2023, so his tenure counter was reset.)
As for Rushing, he was hitting .308 (.938 OPS) in Triple A and basically forced the issue. But where will he play? After all, he's primarily a catcher (the Dodgers have Will Smith), but also plays first base (Freddie Freeman) and designated hitter (literally Shohei Ohtani). He has also played two games in left field this year (Michael Conforto).
As Fabian Ardaya informs us here, 'That versatility, along with Rushing's left-handed bat, could open up a path to playing time.'
In other words … stay tuned?
Two similar stories: Cubs prospect Moisés Ballesteros was playing MLB The Show when he got the call that he was being called up to the real big leagues. And at Auburn, Andrew Dutton has spent the season as the first-base coach. He finally got his shot at taking an at-bat. Guess what happened?
All is well in Atlanta. Ronald Acuña Jr. has apologized to manager Brian Snitker, and everyone's ready for him to return from his rehab assignment.
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Juan Soto says he's excited to hear the reaction when he returns to the Bronx as a member of the Mets tomorrow. Even the boos? Even the boos.
Two pitchers of note have hit the IL: flame-throwing Angels reliever Ben Joyce (out for the season) and Red Sox starter Tanner Houck (no timetable for a return).
The Giants' hot start has cooled. What's going on?
Three-time All-Star Matt Carpenter announced his retirement at age 39.
Jim Bowden gives us this year's 10 biggest surprises.
On the pods: Chandler Rome joined 'Rates & Barrels' to talk about all things Astros, including a pitching staff that has been surprisingly effective.
Twins Win Streak Counter: The Cardinals lost the first game of a doubleheader against the Phillies, but the Twins now have that 10-game winning streak, so let's change horses mid-stream!
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The 2019 piece correcting some of the myths around the Black Sox, 100 years later.
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