The Mets placed right-hander Jacob deGrom on the MLB bereavement/family medical emergency list Saturday because of “complications” with his newborn son, and manager Terry Collins described it as a “real-life situation.” In an encouraging update, deGrom told Collins last night that the baby, Jaxon, is doing “better” (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post). deGrom, who’s on the mend from a lat issue, is now throwing a 40-pitch bullpen session in Port St. Lucie, per Adam Rubin of ESPN.com.
Here’s more from MLB’s East divisions:
- As a result of the 3-for-30 slump Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez is mired in to start the season, Randy Miller of NJ.com wonders if the 40-year-old has finally hit the wall. If Rodriguez’s issues last into the summer, Miller wouldn’t be shocked to see the Yankees cut ties with the 21st-year man. Easier said than done, of course, as the Yankees would owe A-Rod the remaining $20MM of his contract for this year and a full $20MM in 2017. While writing off Rodriguez based on a small sample of April at-bats wouldn’t be wise after he hit a terrific .250/.356/.486 with 33 home runs last season, it’s at least mildly concerning that he hasn’t been able to catch up with fastballs thus far. Rodriguez has swung and missed on 16 of 81 fastballs this year, a nearly 20 percent rate that’s double his swinging strike percentage from 2015, according to Mark Simon of ESPN.com. For now, the Yankees will drop Rodriguez to sixth in the batting order Sunday, George A. King III of the New York Post tweets. Rodriguez was the Yankees’ No. 3 hitter in his first eight games of the season.
- A couple of anonymous AL executives gave conflicting answers to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe when he asked them to assess beleaguered Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s trade value. “While everyone seems to have a decent third baseman, it’s the depth beyond that that’s hard to come by. So at some point, if a contending team loses a third baseman, then a proven veteran who might be available would be more attractive if the money situation can be worked out,” said the optimistic exec. The other told Cafardo that Sandoval has no value, which isn’t surprising when you consider the Panda’s terrible performance dating back to last season, his well-documented weight problem, current shoulder injury, and anvil of a contract. Sandoval is still owed $75MM on his deal, including a $5MM buyout in 2020, and might need shoulder surgery.
- Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski offered a lengthy explanation Friday on why the club chose to start outfielder Rusney Castillo in the majors instead of simply sending him to Triple-A (where he is now), saying in part, “We didn’t think it would hurt him to come up here, be part of what we had going on, and now we’re in a situation where we think, ’OK, let’s let him go out there and get some at-bats.’” On the contrary, the Red Sox’s handling of Castillo might have been harmful to him and the team, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald argues. Castillo needs at-bats – which he wasn’t getting in Boston – and the team handicapped itself by essentially wasting a roster spot on him, Drellich writes. Castillo, 28, played in only one of the Red Sox’s 10 games before they optioned him to Pawtucket.
Perfect example of the difference between the New York media and the Boston media. ARod is washed up after 30 ab’s but Sandoval has value after losing his job, going on the DL with a phantom injury, and having more money left than ARod.
Except the ARod thing was from New Jersey and the Boston thing was actually said by a baseball executive, but it’s cool if you write your own narrative.
Funny how all the executives that still like Sandoval are anonymous and talk only to Cafardo..
Arod is 40 years old bud. Panda has time to have lap-band surgery and maybe resemble what an actual MLB 3B looks like.
As much as it pains me to say, I don’t think anyone’s picking Sandoval over Rodriguez
Pablo would still be productive if he lost 30 pounds. ARod isn’t going to wake up tomorrow and be 33 years old.
That’s not really accurate Panda was terrible in sf when he lost all the weight. Granted it’s not like there is a direct correlation,but a blanket statement isn’t truly accurate
Damn, I know people don’t like arod but 30 ABs?
As little as I like A-Rod, I wouldn’t write him off quite yet. The speculation in the media is just that. It’s early in the season, they need a narrative to go with, and the Yankees aren’t exactly playing well.
I get what you are saying there. ortiz got to where he wasn’t getting around on FB’s in the 90mph range back around 2009-10, he 1st of all started cheating on his swing a bit sometimes and then over an off season? Kind of remade his entire swing. Problem there, is Ortiz was 34 then and Rodriquez is 40 now. If he’s entirely lost it? Cheating on his swing is a temporary fix that will be shortly exploited by pitchers with him getting many fewer fb’s anyway.
Napoli is another example of a guy who lost his bat speed and figured out how to get it back within a season, tho he was a full 6y younger than Rodriquez also..
Don’t care for him myself, but seeing a guy who has played that long go out like this is sad. If he can get some of it back? The proud way would be to do it like Bench and Yaz & call it quits afterward, tho saying adios to 21m would be hard.
A-Rod could surprise everyone, but I think many great athletes (and, PEDs or not, he’s pretty exceptional) have a hard time knowing when time is up–and all that money, no matter what he’s already banked, is also tough to walk away from. Chipper, Mo, and now Ortiz seemed to know when to call it a day. Jeter’s pride after the injury in 2013 kept him from recognizing that he could no longer do it. Sometimes we also forget that a lot of these guys have had nothing but baseball in their lives since they were in junior high school. This is the only life they have known–and saying goodbye to it–not just the money, but the structure, is difficult.
Pablo’s body type and eating disorder (which is what it is, lets quit beating around the bush here) are a combination that only had a short window of opportunity of success as a pro athlete, he’s lucky he got as far as he did – same thing happened to Andruw Jones, who routinely ate entire boxes of candy bars during games and bragged about his “metabolism” whos career promptly fell off a cliff at 30, the age most people with poor diets and eating habits bodies fall off.
The fact that the Giants had to tell hotels to not serve him room service after 11pm really shows a lack of understanding about eating disorders. MLB should look into this. Jones was certified HOFer (and technically probably should be in anyway if you look at his massive 67.1 career fWAR – 73rd highest all-time – top 100 position player of all-time) but had his career derailed by bad eating habits or a disorder. It’s tricky because pitchers can get away with being overweight due to the mechanics somehow working with the body type but hitters really can’t and the fact that no one’s calling Pablo’s weight losses and gains what they are is frustrating to say the least.