Julio Rodriguez has missed the Mariners’ last two games due to lower back soreness, and the rookie star told The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other reporters that “I feel a few days of rest will be the best thing for it.” There’s a chance Rodriguez could be back as early as Monday’s game with the Angels, though manager Scott Servais noted that the situation is “day to day,” especially since Monday’s contest is an afternoon start.
As much as Seattle needs all hands on deck for its playoff chase, nobody wants to risk a longer-term injury to Rodriguez, who has already emerged as one of baseball’s brightest stars. After a brief slump in August, Rodriguez has a whopping 1.259 OPS over 59 plate appearances in September, even though he said is still getting used to the physical toll of a full Major League season. “I’m not familiar with playing for such a long time,” Rodriguez said. “It’s been teaching me a few things and I’m learning about my body and how to keep it healthy.”
While the Mariners hope Rodriguez’s rookie year will be extending deep into October, here are some more items from around the American League…
- The Tigers will activate Miguel Cabrera from the 10-day injured list on Monday, and infielder Kody Clemens has already been optioned to Triple-A to make room for Cabrera on the active roster. A left biceps strain has kept Cabrera on the shelf since September 2, but he’ll return for some more action in his 20th Major League season. Over 393 PA this year, Cabrera is hitting .256/.305/.317 with four home runs. Since a milestone watch is inevitably attached to Cabrera, the veteran slugger’s 506 career homers is three back of Gary Sheffield for 26th place on the all-time list, and Cabrera’s 3079 career hits put him 10 behind Ichiro Suzuki for 24th all-time.
- Trevor Story has missed five games due to left heel soreness, but he is tentatively slated to return to the Red Sox lineup on Tuesday, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams). In other injury news, Nathan Eovaldi threw 65 pitches during a four-inning simulated game today, and the next step could be a minor league rehab game on Friday. Eovaldi has missed almost a full month due to right shoulder inflammation, but is hoping to get back to the mound at least one more start with the Sox before the season is over.
- The Red Sox designated Kevin Plawecki for assignment after Friday night’s game, and both the late timing of the transaction and the transaction itself didn’t sit well within the clubhouse. Both Eovaldi and Rich Hill spoke to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford about Plawecki’s popularity and the importance of veteran leaders in general on a team, with Eovaldi saying “I think sometimes that goes a little further than productivity or whatever on the field.” After today’s 13-3 victory over the Royals, McWilliams and other reporters noted that the Sox were playing Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” within the clubhouse, a song adopted by Plawecki as both a walkup song and as a team anthem in 2021.
Miguel Cabrera is going to be remembered as the Willie Mays of the early 2020’s. A sad ghost shell of a player hanging around to cash checks…..
For $32 million a year I can’t say that I blame him…
1 more year left for Miguel, maybe they let him go early?
I just love long term contracts….
1st 8 year deal with Cabrera was a bargain. 8/153 and he gave them 46.5 WAR, $300+ million in value, for that contract.
The extension for another 8 years has not turned out well other than the first year. That was predictable when you sign a 33 year old and to me seemed more like a loyalty deal by old man Ilitch.
Jorge
Maybe that is how you choose to remember the Say Hey Kid but most remember Mays as one of the best all-around players ever. Mays was healthy a lot longer than Mike Trout. By the way, Mays was paid $`165,000 for 1973.
Willie Mays final season was 1973. Mays helped the Mets in the post season.
Pete Rose’s final season was 1986. He eclipsed Ty Cobb’s hits by 15 hits in 1985. Rose played lousy in 86 and was ultimately bounced out of MLB.
Gaylord Perry last season was 1983. He played one last terrible season after achieving 300 wins in 1982.
Al Kaline’s final season was 1974. He made it known he was playing for 3000 hits. The difference is that the 74 Tigers were in the down stage and the beginning of their rebuild. Kaline was their best hitter that year.
Randy Johnson’s final season was 2009. He was also open about obtaining 300 wins. Johnson helped the Giants compete for the wild card.
Fergie Jenkins, Bert Blyleven, Tommy John and Jim Kaat unsuccessfully tried to win 300 wins.
I think there are far worse things for a baseball player to be remembered as than as Willie Mays, even the later version.
Most players have a really hard time letting go of the game. You can’t hold it against them
for wanting to continue playing past their expiration date, regardless of the money involved.
Miggy needs three RBIs to tie Yaz for 14th all-time, four to pass him. Seems possible this season.
Ten hits for Miggy to tie Ichiro for 24th (of course only Ichiro’s MLB hits).
Why not? The MLB hits are the only ones that count. We don’t count minor league hits for anyone else, why should we consider counting minor league hits for Ichiro?
Likely referring to the over 1200 hits Ichiro had in Japan before coming to the US, not minor league. If his two professional totals were added, he’d have more than Rose.
“If” is a massive word in sports.
Yeah but it’s usually used to talk about hypotheticals. In this case it is 100% clear cut that Ichiro has more professional hits than Pete Rose
I know what he was referring to. I was considering that Ichiro’s 1200 hits in Japan WAS in the minor leagues. So if you count Ichiro’s hits from Japan which is the equivalent of a AA league, then you should count Rose’s minor league hits also which would put him back ahead of Ichiro. Either/or Rose is still the hit king.
Minor leagues are professional leagues too. Pete Rose had 427 hits in 3 professional minor league seasons. That would bring his total up to 4683 which is still more than Ichiro’s 4367. You are right that it is 100% clear cut, but you are wrong with the conclusion.
Minor league baseball is also professional. They get paid to play. NPB is typically seen as a AAAA league. Better than AAA, but not as good as the majors. For most players that come to the US there is a significant drop off in performance.
Ichiro was an exception. He came to MLB and excelled. Who knows how many hits he would have had if he had played those 9 seasons in MLB instead of NPB. Would he have gotten 1278? I doubt it, but he was such an insanely talented and driven player that I would not count that possibility out.
Having over 3000 in MLB hits is a sign of greatness. Of HOF worthiness, Doing it from your age 27 season on shows that you are one of the pantheon of hitters. Ichiro belongs and it doesn’t matter who has more overall hits.
Pete Rose had 178 hits in Sally League ball in 1962 and was called up in 1963. Certainly not the equivalent level of play as NPB, which is considered higher than AAA, but not MLB caliber play.
NYPL and Florida league of the day were similar to Cape summer league play today. Any hits there are suspect. If would be like including complex league hits today.
Arguing over who is the “Hit King” is stupid. It takes away from the enjoyment we had watching those two incredible players.
We will never know if Ichiro would have gotten 1278 hits in MLB, so any argument is moot. What we do know is that he was a brilliant hitter, one I enjoyed watching lay immensely.
Jorge would you walk away when you were that close. to some major records?
If the Tigers really wanted him to leave they could renegotiate his contract over 10-20 years like B. Bonilla.. I think I would go for another season like Pujols. I don’t think the Cards are sorry they signed him.do you?
Pujols just had age catch up to him. In Miggy’s case, its injuries. While the power is gone, until his knees gave out, he was hitting for average this year. He still hit in the clutch. He has already said his health may not allow him to continue, but I’m sure he would like a farewell season, and to fulfill his contract.
When people wonder why guys hang around when they’re playing like Miggy is, it’s almost certainly because voluntary retirement forfeits the rest of the contract. They’d rather get DFA’d and released, however awkward and ungraceful that would be, since their money is still guaranteed if the team releases them instead of them voluntarily retiring early.
It’s different for guys like Price, who will be lucky to get a minor league deal with a major league split option, etc. something I cannot imagine him tolerating at this point in his career. I get that guys don’t want to admit it’s over and some players do that, have a solid little come back and go on to earn a new salary or multi-year deal in the 7 to low 8 figure range yet again, but I feel like those are the kinds of guys where $10M or $20M extra over another 3-4 seasons in their career will make a huge difference, whereas for a guy like David Price, even an extra $32M, if earned over 3-4 seasons or longer, wouldn’t really be worth the effort, the wear and tear, the conditioning, etc.
Better to retire now when he still has a chance to let his relatively youthful body heal before full on middle age sets in, enjoy the rest of his life wealthy and not worry about an extra $10M-$15M after taxes, at his level.
Willie Mays’ last hit won a World Series game for the Mets.
Cabrera has every right to get paid, but I’ll agree it’s really sad to watch him be at this level, and for such a long period of decline. 2016 he was a 5WAR player, and then it just sort of fell through his fingers. You never know with these guys…Albert hadn’t had an OPS+ of 100 since 2016, and at 42….
But I wonder why, in some future CBA, there couldn’t be a pathway for older players late in their contracts to retire, defer salary over a period of years, lower “cap hit” for the team. Union might go for it because it creates new spending capacity.
That is a frickin great idea. PLEASE email that to Tony Clark.
If you look at the stats of long tenured players, around 35 years old is when the body starts to really give into Father Time.
Other than in the steroid era, that’s been the standard.
Lars MacDonald – This will be an unpopular opinion but your comment is why I think Verlander at 39 years old is beating PED tests. He’s smart and has his hands on some under-the-radar designers. He’s no fool unlike a certain franchise-tagged shortstop with ringworm.
The Plawecki release was a bad optic in the clubhouse. PO’d players have a long memory when it comes time to re-sign contracts. Was it really necessary to let him go at this late stage? At the same time, this is a business, and we’re talking about grown men. It does allow his agent a one up on other backup catchers to begin the negotiating process and perhaps get an idea on who may be interesed in 23. It won’t be Boston.
Plawecki did not loose a penny. The Red Sox are in”try out mode”, so get some players in and see what they have. Players are grownups, and they should certainly understand the business side of the game. If they are too slow than their agent should explain it too then.
Fully agree as I posted when it was officially reported. If the team wanted to see Wong, they should have sent him to the Mets who likely would have grabbed him on 08/02. The time left in the season is too short to learn about Wong.
Actually, it’s never too late to learn when you are Wong. I mean, when you’re Wong, you’re Wong, just admit it, learn from it and move on. Most people have trouble doing that and make the same Wong mistake over and over again. They’re teaching moments. You learn more about yourself when you’re Wong than when you’re White. When you’re always White, you don’t learn nearly as much. So, don’t be afraid to be Wong people! It’s the key to mastery. Knowing this will also make being White so much sweeter!
IMO, once you are getting paid millions, in any industry, you lose the right to be offended. Same with CEOs, actors, musicians, etc. If you are the 1% of the 1%, part of the offset is that you do not get to choose the time and place to retire.
Good points. As Tomase pointed out, had the players played better, we wouldn’t be auditioning guys for 23 in these last couple of weeks. It would have been a dereliction of duty not to DFA the guy. Time to find out how hungry some of these kids are.
Nobody should be surprised Plawecki was DFA’d. His OPS is 0.574 and he was only throwing out 10% of base stealers. I think it may have been a slow news day and Bradford may have been making more out of this than is there.
Optic. Schmoptic. The Red Sox have under performed, they have no shot at the playoffs, and Plawecki had a 61 OPS+ to go along with consistently bad defensive metrics. He would not be returning in 2023.
Give the kids ALL of the at bats he would have received down the stretch. See what they can do instead of keeping a bad defensive backup catcher that can’t hit for a couple more weeks.
Strengthen that core Julio!
I read that the players were unhappy. Playing Plawecki’s intro music in protest. Seems there is discontent in Bean Town. People might take them more seriously if they weren’t a sub .500 team lol.
Tell Rodriguez to try a float therapy session. They do wonders for a sore back.
Found this with a quick search of the Seattle area.
floatseattle.com/
The Tigers need to just offer him the rest of his contract as a non-playing, personal services deal.
Spread the remaining money out for 10 years at 3.2million a year?
On balance, he’s killing them in the middle of that already suspect lineup.
Cabrera is a first ballot Hall of Famer.
In his prime he was the best hitter in baseball.
He passed 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.
The Tigers should offer him a settlement to call it quits after this season.
At this point, he is just blocking the Tigers development of younger players who need playing time to establish themselves as productive major leaguers.
Cabrera is an automatic double play and rally killer on any ground ball with runner(s) on base.
Have his retirement ceremony, retire his number, give him a plaque, a new car or truck and a watch, shake his hand and close the Cabrera era at the end of ’22.