Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History, #8: Nationals Get Everyday Outfielder For Jon Lester
With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player in recent years. We’ve already published some honorable mentions, the #10 entry and the #9 deal. If you disagree with our rankings, let us know! It’s all part of the subjective fun! Onto #8…
The Nationals were consistently competitive in the second decade of the millennium, finishing with a winning record in each season from 2012 to 2019. They qualified for the postseason five times in that stretch and won the World Series in that final year.
The next decade got off to a rough start, as they went 26-34 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Nonetheless, they went into 2021 with some excellent players still on the roster, including Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. They fortified that group by trading for Josh Bell and giving one-year deals to Brad Hand, Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t get things back on track that season and had a record of 48-55 on July 30. They were in fourth place in the National League East, seven games behind the Mets with Philadelphia and Atlanta between them. They were even further back in the Wild Card race, 11 games, as the West featured three excellent clubs in the Giants, Dodgers and Padres.
That put them into sell mode at the deadline and they did plenty of it. Each of Turner, Scherzer, Hand and Schwarber were traded, as were Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Daniel Hudson. The deal that sent Scherzer and Turner to the Dodgers technically wasn’t a rental trade, as Turner had another year of control, so we didn’t consider it for this series. Those other deals mostly yielded players that are still in the minors as of this writing. But in addition to all those, the Nats also made a trade that sent Lester to the Cardinals in exchange for MLB-ready outfielder Lane Thomas, who we will get to in a moment.
Lester had already had a very impressive career that began back in 2006. He had many great seasons with the Red Sox and Cubs and already had three World Series rings. In 2021, he was 37 years old and had naturally fallen off a bit from his peak. His ERA went from 3.32 in 2018 to 4.46 the year after and 5.16 in the shortened 2020 season.
The Nats felt he still had something left in the tank and signed him to a one-year, $5MM deal. Lester made 16 starts for the Nationals with a 5.02 ERA. His 14.9% strikeout rate was a noticeable drop from his peak years but his 8.5% walk rate and 42% ground ball rate were around league average. In short, he was a back-of-the-rotation starter, which is just what the Cardinals needed.
Their rotation had been sliced up by injuries to Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Carlos Martínez, Dakota Hudson and others. Despite that, they were hovering above .500 and in the playoff race. They didn’t go after aces that summer, just guys who could take the ball and give them a chance, figuring that a modest stabilization of the rotation could be enough for them to improve their fortunes. They grabbed 36-year-old Wade LeBlanc, 38-year-old J.A. Happ and the 37-year-old Lester to fortify things alongside 39-year-old Adam Wainwright.
The gambit would pay off for St. Louis as they finished strong. Lester did his job by making 12 starts with a 4.36 ERA. The Cards ended the season at 90-72, securing a playoff spot, though they lost the Wild Card game to the Dodgers.
For the Nats, they weren’t able to make much use of Lester’s services, so it was a logical move to swap him out for a promising outfielder in Thomas. He had made his major league debut with the Cardinals in 2019 and hit an excellent .316/.409/.684 in 44 plate appearances but was nonetheless frequently optioned to the minors. Despite his strong results, he was squeezed out of the St. Louis outfield that also featured the likes of Dexter Fowler, Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, José Martínez, Tyler O’Neill and others.
Thomas would continue to get sporadic playing time in the next couple of seasons. He only got into 18 games in the 2020 season and then 32 more in 2021 prior to the trade. He struggled badly in those two cups of coffee, hitting just .107/.235/.179, but continued showing his promise in the minors. He was slashing .265/.339/.451 in Triple-A at the time of the deal.
The Nationals likely hoped that Thomas would thrive with a better path to playing time, and that has largely proven to be true. He was briefly kept in Triple-A after the deal but was called up after just three games. He hit .270/.364/.489 at the major league level in the final few weeks of 2021, launching seven home runs and stealing four bases in just 45 games.
2022 saw him finally get the everyday gig he didn’t get in St. Louis, as he tallied 548 plate appearances in 146 games. It wasn’t a spectacular showing, but he was serviceable. He hit 17 home runs and stole eight bases, though his 7.5% walk rate and 24.1% strikeout rate were both slightly worse than average. His .241/.301/.404 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 96 and he was worth 1.1 wins above replacement on the year according to FanGraphs, 1.6 at Baseball Reference.
Things are going better here in 2023, as he already has nine home runs and five steals. His plate discipline numbers are fairly similar, but he’s hitting .281/.336/.455 for a wRC+ of 114. His .350 batting average on balls in play is much higher than last year’s .291, but that can’t be entirely dismissed as just good luck since his hard hit rate, barrel rate and average exit velocity have also increased compared to a year ago.
Defensively, Thomas isn’t considered an excellent fielder, which is surprising considering his 95th percentile sprint speed. Nonetheless, he’s capable of holding his own at any of the three outfield slots, which is useful for a rebuilding club that is rotating through various players on a regular basis. He qualified for arbitration for the first time in the most recent offseason and is making $2.2MM this year. He’ll be eligible for two more passes before he’s slated for free agency after 2025.
Whether the Nats can come out of their rebuild in that time frame remains to be seen. But even in the event that they linger outside of contention for a while, they could always market Thomas and his remaining control to other clubs around the league.
In the end, both teams got what they wanted out of the deal. The Cards firmed up their rotation as hoped and were able to make a late charge and earn a playoff spot, while the Nats turned a couple months of a veteran pitcher into four and a half years of a solid outfielder who has stepped into an everyday role.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Red Sox Select Matt Dermody
June 8: Dermody’s contract has now been officially selected, per a club announcement, with Chris Murphy optioned in a corresponding move.
June 7: The Red Sox are calling up left-hander Matt Dermody to start tomorrow night’s matchup with the Guardians, tweets Ian Browne of MLB.com. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe first noted that Dermody had a locker in the Boston clubhouse. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will have to formally select his contract before the game.
Dermody signed a minor league deal with Boston over the winter. He’s worked primarily from the rotation with Triple-A Worcester, starting eight of nine appearances. While the southpaw’s 4.50 ERA isn’t eye-catching, he’s posted solid peripheral marks.
The 32-year-old has punched out just under a quarter of opposing hitters against a meager 4.7% walk rate. He has induced grounders at a decent 45.3% clip. A lofty .346 batting average on balls in play and middling 67.8% left-on-base rate have inflated his run prevention figure despite his other solid numbers.
Of course, Dermody isn’t a lock to carry over those decent rate stats against big league hitters. This will be his first MLB start. Dermody has only ever worked out of the bullpen at the big league level, with virtually all of that experience coming six years ago for the Blue Jays. He carries a 5.60 ERA with an 18.2% strikeout percentage in 27 1/3 MLB frames.
Dermody still has a pair of minor league options remaining. The Red Sox can send him back to Worcester at any point without exposing him to waivers. It’s possible this is just a spot start, although Boston has a rotation vacancy after losing Chris Sale to the injured list last week. The Red Sox turned to swingman Kutter Crawford today, but he was tagged for three runs in as many innings while taking the loss to Cleveland.
Boston already has an opening on the 40-man roster after designating Raimel Tapia for assignment on Monday. They’ll only need to create space on the 26-man active roster to accommodate Dermody’s promotion.
Nationals Claim Joe La Sorsa
The Nationals have claimed left-hander Joe La Sorsa off waivers from the Rays, the team announced Thursday. La Sorsa, who was designated for assignment by Tampa Bay earlier this week, been optioned to Triple-A Rochester. The Nats had multiple 40-man vacancies after this week’s DFAs of Andres Machado and Erasmo Ramirez, so a corresponding move is not necessary. Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 in Houston first reported the move.
La Sorsa, 25, made his big league debut with the Rays this month, pitching 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball with three hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He’s had a nice showing so far between Double-A (three innings) and Triple-A (21 innings) so far in 2023, pitching to a combined 3.38 ERA with a 7.5% walk rate. La Sorsa’s 14.2% strikeout rate is well below average, checking in at less than half the 31.7% clip he showed between High-A and Double-A just last season. It’s a generally small sample, though, and La Sorsa’s 13% swinging-strike rate in Triple-A certainly seems to portend an eventual uptick in the strikeout department.
While La Sorsa has never ranked as a top prospect, he’s a controllable lefty with a nice minor league track record who has all three minor league option years remaining. He’s pitched 203 2/3 innings of minor league ball with a 2.87 ERA, fanning nearly four and a half times as many hitters — about a quarter of his total opponents — as he’s walked in that time. For a Nationals club with little stability in the bullpen, he’s an interesting potential long-term pickup who could eventually carve out a regular role in the relief corps.
Padres, Blake Cederlind Agree To Minor League Deal
The Padres have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Blake Cederlind, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The Pirates released Cederlind in late May after he struggled through six frames with their Class-A affiliate.
Cederlind, 27, was a fifth-round pick by Pittsburgh back in 2016 who pitched his way into prospect status with excellent 2018 and 2019 showings at the minor league level. The Bucs gave him his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season. The 6’3″ flamethrower with a power sinker pitched four solid innings across five games, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
Unfortunately, that’s the last time Cederlind set foot on a big league mound. He underwent Tommy John surgery the following spring, wiping out his entire 2021 season and a portion of his 2022 campaign. During what was supposed to be his comeback year, Cederlind required a second surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. He didn’t throw a pitch in the majors or minors from 2021-22.
Despite Cederlind’s struggles this season — nine runs on six hits, six walks and two hit batters in six innings — the mere fact that he was able to take the mound is a sign of some encouragement. He fanned six of his 31 opponents in A-ball and kept the ball on the ground at a strong 50% clip. Obviously, there are some worrying command issues at play, but that’s not exactly unexpected on the heels of a two-year absence owing to multiple elbow surgeries.
Cederlind has a long road to get back to the Majors, but based on his history when healthy, it’s easy enough to see why the Padres are interested in taking a no-risk flier. Prior to his surgeries, Cederlind sat in the upper 90s with his sinker and was able to reach triple digits. He’s only had six innings of experience in Triple-A thanks to the canceled minor league season in 2020, but he overwhelmed Double-A opponents with a 1.77 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 48.3% ground-ball rate. It’s not yet clear to which affiliate they’ll sign Cederlind.
Yankees Place Nestor Cortes On Injured List
The Yankees announced Thursday that lefty Nestor Cortes has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left rotator cuff. That move is retroactive to June 5. Fellow lefty Matt Krook has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in his place.
Manager Aaron Boone had already suggested earlier in the week that Cortes was likely to be placed on the injured list due to a shoulder strain, so today’s announcement shouldn’t come as a surprise. Boone noted at the time that Cortes has been having difficulty recovering between his starts due to ongoing discomfort in his shoulder. He underwent an MRI this week to determine the severity of the issue, though this is the first time the Yankees have formally disclosed his diagnosis. A concrete timeline has not been provided since Cortes underwent imaging.
Cortes has struggled this season, following up on his 2021-22 breakout with 59 1/3 frames of 5.16 ERA ball. His velocity hasn’t dropped off, but Cortes’s 23.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate are both noticeably worse than his respective 26.9% and 6.4% marks from 2021-22. He’s also seen his ground-ball rate, home-run rate, opponents’ chase rate, swinging-strike rate and average exit velocity all trend in the wrong direction.
Cortes has generally pitched well the first and second time through the batting order, holding opponents to a terrible .176/.242/.264 batting line on the first trip and an only marginally better .231/.286/.341 slash the second time around. He’s been utterly demolished by opponents when turning the lineup over for a third time, however: .447/.500/1.021 in 54 plate appearances. That marks a radical departure from 2022, when Cortes held opponents to a .189/.243/.283 batting line when facing them a third time.
With Cortes’ shoulder issue, the Yankees now have 60% of what they hoped would be their Opening Day rotation on the injured list. Neither Frankie Montas (shoulder surgery) nor Carlos Rodon (forearm strain, lower back injury) have thrown a pitch this season. Ace Gerrit Cole has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, while Domingo German has had a solid year (albeit a controversial one, including a 10-game ban for foreign substance usage).
The rest of the staff has been unable to pick up the slack. Clarke Schmidt is second on the team in innings pitched, but his 4.96 ERA isn’t exactly an impressive mark. He’s been solid over his past four turns, but the nine prior starts were fairly ugly. Rookie Jhony Brito has routinely been hit hard, evidenced by a 6.17 ERA in 35 frames. Luis Severino‘s return brought a much-needed influx of talent, and he’s given the Yankees a pair of good outings but one painful clunker at Dodger Stadium. Severino will get a chance to bounce back in the first game of today’s twin bill, while rookie Randy Vasquez will make his second start of the season in the the second game.
Tigers Acquire Joe Rizzo From Marlins
The Tigers have acquired minor league infielder Joe Rizzo from the Marlins in exchange for cash, per announcements from both clubs. The 25-year-old has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo.
Rizzo was a second-round pick of the Mariners back in 2016 but never advanced beyond the Double-A level in his original organization. He posted a solid .277/.343/.467 with Seattle’s Double-A affiliate last season, but the Mariners would’ve had to add him to add him to the 40-man roster in order to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency, and they opted not to do so. Rizzo signed a minor league deal with the Marlins in December.
The 2023 season hasn’t gone as well for Rizzo as the 2022 campaign. He returned to Double-A and posted a tepid .228/.298/.362 batting line through 142 plate appearances. Despite that below-average offense, he was bumped up to Triple-A Jacksonville, where he’s struggled to a .111/200/.139 output in 40 trips to the plate. Rizzo has primarily been a third baseman in his minor league career, with more than 4000 professional innings logged at the hot corner. He’s still seen notable action at both first base (724 innings) and second base (409 innings).
Baseball America ranked Rizzo 11th, ninth and 23rd among Mariners prospects on their respective 2017-19 rankings, but he’s since fallen off the prospect radar. He’s drawn praise for his bat-to-ball skills, raw power, throwing arm and makeup in those reports, but Rizzo’s on-field results have yet to align with the above-average rating he’s received on several tools and there are questions about his long-term defensive position. For now, he’ll get another change of scenery and fresh set of input from a new coaching and player development staff in hopes of taking his game to a new level and forcing his way into the big leagues.
Royals, Justin Anderson Agree To Minor League Deal
The Royals have agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Justin Anderson, per their transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Omaha.
Now 30 years old, the hard-throwing Anderson debuted with the Angels back in 2018 and spent the bulk of the 2018-19 seasons in a high-leverage role with the Halos. During that two-year stretch, he picked up five saves and 33 holds, pitching to an overall 4.75 ERA in 102 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. Averaging 96 mph with his heater (including 97.5 mph in his debut season), Anderson fanned 27.7% of his opponents but regularly battled command issues, evidenced by a woeful 15.7% walk rate (plus five hit batters and 13 wild pitches).
Despite his command struggles, Anderson had generally carved out a place in the Angels’ bullpen — but a Grade 2 oblique strain early in camp in 2020 followed by a torn ligament in his pitching elbow when ramping up for the shortened 2020 season changed that outlook. Anderson underwent Tommy John surgery in late July of 2020, and the Halos non-tendered him in the offseason rather than giving him a raise in arbitration while knowing he’d likely miss the entire 2021 season.
Anderson signed a two-year minor league contract with the Rangers that offseason — a deal clearly brokered with an eye toward the 2022 season. Anderson had a decent showing in spring training 2022 but didn’t crack the Opening Day roster in Texas. He never got much of a chance to earn a spot in their bullpen, either, as he was placed back on the injured list after just three Triple-A appearances and didn’t return to the mound last year.
Anderson likely has a ways to go before he’s considered a viable option for the Kansas City bullpen, but the Royals ought to be taking all the fliers they can, given the struggles of their relief corps in 2023. The Kansas City bullpen ranks 28th in the Majors with a 5.10 ERA. Aroldis Chapman, Scott Barlow and Taylor Clarke are all having nice seasons, and lefty Amir Garrett is touting a 3.00 ERA (even if he’s unlikely to sustain it thanks to a ghastly 17.7% walk rate).
The Royals have struggled to find solid performers beyond that bunch, and given their status as clear sellers this summer, they could soon be in need of even more bullpen help. Chapman and Barlow will be prime trade candidates, given that Chapman is playing on an affordable one-year deal and Barlow is controlled only through the 2024 season. Clarke could also draw interest, but he has another two seasons of club control remaining beyond the current one, so Kansas City might be a bit more inclined to hang onto him. Garrett, also a free agent at season’s end, could hold appeal as a hard-throwing lefty who can miss bats, but the aforementioned poor command is a longstanding issue that has escalated to new heights in 2023.
Dodgers Place Noah Syndergaard On Injured List
The Dodgers announced Thursday morning that struggling right-hander Noah Syndergaard has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a blister on his right index finger. Fellow righty Tayler Scott has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take Syndergaard’s spot on the roster.
The 2023 season has been an abject nightmare for Syndergaard. The former Mets powerhouse inked a one-year, $13MM contract with the Dodgers in hopes of rebounding from last year’s pedestrian showing between the Angels/Phillies and returning to the market in stronger standing. Instead, the 30-year-old righty has floundered through the worst season of his big league career. In 12 starts, Syndergaard has averaged just 4 2/3 innings per outing, sitting at a total of 55 1/3 frames on the year. In that span, he’s been rocked for a 7.18 ERA with a career-worst 15.4% strikeout rate.
Syndergaard averaged a career-low 94.5 mph on his heater in 2022, and though he voiced confidence in his ability to push that mark toward his pre-Tommy John Surgery levels of 97-99 mph upon signing with the Dodgers, his heater has continued to diminish. He’s sitting at an average of 92.8 mph in 2023 (93.3 mph over his three most recent starts). As that four-seamer has deteriorated, Syndergaard has added a new cutter and increasingly favored his sinker. Neither pitch has been effective, however. Opponents are hitting .366/.381/.537 against that freshly implemented cutter, while plate appearances ended with his sinker have produced a .309/.380/.529 slash. Per Statcast, the only of Syndergaard’s five pitches that has a better-than-average “expected” wOBA is his curveball — his least-used offering (12.2%).
Syndergaard’s walk rate remains elite, checking in at an outstanding 3.7% this season. That’s the fourth-best mark in MLB (min. 50 innings), trailing only George Kirby (2%), Zack Greinke (3.3%) and Zach Eflin (3.5%). However, Syndergaard’s 15.4% strikeout rate is tied for eighth-lowest in that same set of pitchers — a remarkable fall for a pitcher who fanned 26.5% of his hitters through his first five MLB seasons. Compounding the problem is that Syndergaard’s average of 1.95 homers allowed per nine innings pitched is the eighth-worst mark among the 98 pitchers with at least 50 innings in 2023.
Were the Dodgers healthier as a team, perhaps they might’ve already had their hand forced with regard to the struggling Syndergaard. They’ve been hit hard by injuries on the pitching side of the roster, however, with each of Julio Urias, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove requiring notable stints on the injured list. That’s perhaps bought Syndergaard some extra time, but Urias is expected to return this weekend. At that point, the Dodgers will have Clayton Kershaw, Urias and Gonsolin in their top three spots, with impressive rookie Bobby Miller tightening his hold on that fourth spot.
Syndergaard would join Grove and top prospect Gavin Stone as a candidate for that fifth spot, and at least for the time being, neither of those two younger options has seized the job. But with Pepiot and May expected back this summer and the trade deadline now about seven weeks away, there’s no certainty Syndergaard will have a long leash to prove himself as one of the team’s five best options.
Ohtani Struggles To Put Hitters Away, Allows Season-High Hits Against Astros
Shohei Ohtani made his first start in June on Saturday night against the Astros in Minute Maid Park. The Japanese superstar gave up nine hits, which ties a season-high and MLB career-high in hits allowed, and gave up five runs in six innings. Ohtani was once again outdueled by Astros’ ace Framber Valdez, who tossed seven scoreless frames.
Despite solid outings against the Twins and the Marlins in the last two games, this game places Ohtani at a 5.02 ERA in his last seven starts. Ohtani’s ERA for the season is now at 3.42, but he’s maintaining a career-high strikeout rate of 33.8% and holding hitters to a .185 batting average.
Although he recorded six strikeouts, Ohtani struggled to put hitters away. Five of the nine hits came from a two-strike count.
“I feel like if I would’ve gotten more strikeouts, the momentum would’ve gone our way. But that wasn’t the case,” said Ohtani.
Shaky defense in the first inning did not help Ohtani, with third baseman Gio Urshela fumbling a ground ball and throwing it into the dugout to get Jeremy Peña on second base. Ohtani got two strikes on Astros’ star slugger Yordan Alvarez, but hung a sweeper in the heart of the plate, which Alvarez took deep to make it a quick 2-0 game.
Halos skipper Phil Nevin questioned Ohtani’s pitch selection after the game.
“When he [Alvarez] sees a pitch like that in the zone, he usually doesn’t miss them the second time,” Nevin said. “It was just in a bad spot. There are some pitch selection things we’ll need to talk about. His stuff was there.”
Ohtani had pivoted from the sweeper and relied more on his other pitches including the splitter and cutter in recent starts, but the sweeper usage was back up to 36% against the Astros.
Ohtani came back in the second inning and struck out the side, and proceeded to retire the next 10 hitters. He got into trouble in the fourth, giving up three consecutive hits to load the bases. Ohtani escaped the inning on a weak groundball off of a checked swing.
The fifth inning provided more trouble, and this time Ohtani was unable to escape. After a two-out walk, Ohtani gave up back-to-back singles and allowed the third run to score. He gave up two more runs in the sixth inning off of a Corey Julks two-run blast.
Astros skipper Dusty Baker thought that Ohtani wasn’t at his best Saturday night.
“This guy is one of the best around,” said Baker. “But he wasn’t as sharp tonight as we’ve seen him in the past.”
Ohtani will look to bounce back from this tough start against the Mariners at home on Friday, June 9 at 9:38 PM EST/ 6:38 PM PT.
Ohtani Ks 10 For The Fourth Time This Season
Angels ace Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the Marlins in Anaheim Saturday night for his 11th start of the season. The Japanese right-hander tossed six solid innings, allowing six singles and just one earned run while striking out 10 hitters. Ohtani’s season ERA is now at 2.91 and he leads the American League with 90 strikeouts in 65 total innings.
It was not the best start for Ohtani on Saturday, as he made a throwing error to first after making a play on a ground ball to his right. This mistake came back to haunt Ohtani, as Yuli Gurriel drove in the runner with a two-out single.
Ohtani then settled into the game, retiring eight of the next nine hitters faced, fanning four of them. He ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing consecutive singles to open the inning. It seemed like he was going escape the jam after getting Jonathan Davis to ground out into a double play to shortstop, however, he walked the next hitter and gave up a two-out RBI single to Luis Arraez.
“It wasn’t good, wasn’t bad. At least I got through six innings so that was good, but I could’ve done better in the situations that I allowed those runs,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani wrapped up his outing by striking out the final four hitters faced and finished with 109 pitches, his second-highest total on the season. Control issues affected Ohtani, who issued three walks, preventing him from being as efficient as he wanted to be.
“Walking three hitters feels pretty wasteful,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani’s sweeper usage was back up to 39% in this start, compared to the last few starts where he did not throw it more than 30%. He got 12 whiffs from the sweeper, which was back to looking like his best pitch. Seven of his strikeouts came from the sweeper. The splitter was ineffective on Saturday, with both RBI singles coming off of a splitter. Ohtani was unable to get any whiffs from the splitter in eight swings.
“The movement [of the splitter] itself isn’t bad, I think the location is the problem,” Ohtani said.
The average horizontal movement of Ohtani’s splitter was up to 10 inches compared to the season average of seven inches, according to Baseball Savant.
Ohtani’s six innings were not enough for the Angels, however, who lost 8-5 in extra innings. Despite the recent rough patch after his blistering hot start to the season, Ohtani has been a stabilizing presence in an otherwise inconsistent Angels rotation.
Ohtani will face the Astros for an AL West showdown on June 2 at 8:10 PM EST/5:10 PM PT for his next start.