Two weeks into the season and already we can make some definitive assessments:
GERRIT COLE IS NOT A $324M PITCHER
Not that any player is worth that kind of crazy money, but the Yankees broke the bank for Cole because they knew they had to have a dominant No. 1 starter if they were ever going to get back to the World Series. In their minds, the money would be more than worth it if Cole filled the stadium every time he pitched, and pitched deep, and won almost all his big starts that got them both into and through the postseason. Hasn’t happened.
In the pivotal Game 5 of the 2020 division series against Tampa Bay, Cole pitched well but was out of the game (which the Yankees went on to lose) after just 5 1/3 innings. Last year, he was hammered for nine hits and two homers in six innings by the Blue Jays in his last start of the season, and in the AL Wild Card game, the Red Sox kayoed him after just two innings. In his first two starts this year, against the Red Sox and Blue Jays, he was subpar at best (9.2 IP, 6 ER, 3 HR).
Remember, the Yankees are paying Cole roughly $1 million per start and he’s been unable to give them even a whiff of the World Series. Whether or not it’s the absence of the sticky stuff, if you’re Hal Steinbrenner you have to be mighty concerned now about ever getting your bang for the buck from Cole — while also hoping Luis Severino has a strong comeback season this year.
A DIFFERENT FEEL ABOUT THE METS UNDER BUCK
Nothing like having a legitimate proven manager. The fact that so many different players are contributing to the Mets’ fast start, both hitting and pitching, is indicative of how they are buying into Showalter’s “next man up/team first” credo. In their first eight games, they stole seven bases (four of which led to runs) and hit 10 home runs while their Jacob deGrom-less rotation allowed a total of six earned runs over 36 innings (1.50) through their first eight starts. Have to believe Friday’s 10-3 rout of the Diamondbacks, in which the Mets hit four homers, stole two bases that both led to runs and got six strong innings of one-run starting pitching from Chris Bassitt was Showalter’s most satisfying home opener ever.
CBA DID NOTHING TO ADDRESS TANKING
If there was one issue that has made the players see red over all the others, it’s teams deliberately not trying to win — which the Reds and A’s fully admit to this year and the Orioles have been doing for five years. This week, Reds president Phil Castellini, son of the owner Bob Castellini, took a shot at Cincinnati fans in a radio interview in which, in answer to whether the fans should trust the Cincy owners, he weakly tried to justify this winter’s jettisoning of left fielder Jesse Winkler, starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Wade Miley, third baseman Eugenio Suarez and reliever Amir Garrett by saying: “Be careful what you wish for. I think we’re doing the best we can do with the resources we have.” Castellini later had to apologize for his remarks, but he’d already made clear the Reds have no intention of spending a whole lot of their revenue sharing on players.
A’s owner John Fisher, who has pretty much driven frustrated Billy Beane into a front office bystander with his endless frugality, ordered a similar selloff this winter, reducing the active payroll from $51 million to $37M by trading mainstay first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Matt Chapman and their two best starting pitchers Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea for cheap prospects. So don’t put any stock in the A’s fast start.
And then there’s the pathetic Orioles who, under the leadership of the analytics gurus Mike Elias and his henchman Sig Mejdal, are off to a good start on their fourth 100-loss season in five years with the lowest total payroll in baseball. If ever a team was in need of a new owner and a front office that knew what they were doing, it’s the Peter Angelos Orioles. Strangely, however, in the CBA negotiations this winter, the players early on abandoned any discussion of the one surefire solution for tanking: Minimum payrolls with draft pick/revenue sharing penalties to teams that fall short of complying. Why? The players never said.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
Sure nice to see Tom Seaver draw one more capacity crowd, even if it was only his statue and in a parking lot. Especially gratifying was Tom’s widow, Nancy, being able to make the trip from Calistoga to Queens for the Franchise’s statue unveiling. Of course, it shouldn’t have been this way. The Seaver statue should have happened 13 years ago, fully erected for the opening of Citi Field, so they both could have been there to appreciate it together. … All hail the Guardians’ 5-9, 170-pound scrappy dude Steven Kwan, who had one of the most phenomenal starts in baseball history – a record streak of seeing 116 pitches without a swing and miss, and becoming the only player since 1901 to reach base 15 times in his first four games. Kwan, a fifth-round draft pick out of Oregon State in 2018, won a job in the Guardians’ outfield after a torrid spring training (15-for-32, seven runs scored) and went into the weekend hitting .455 with eight walks and a 1.243 OPS. … That was quite a whirlwind couple of days this week for Dereck Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez. Dereck, now 29, was originally drafted by the Twins as in outfielder in 2011, but three years later converted to a relief pitcher and in 2017 became a free agent, signing with the Giants. He made his major league debut with the Giants in 2018, but was waived to the Tigers and later the Rockies in 2020 before signing with the Twins this past January. He then came full cycle with the Twins when they called him up April 13, only to designate him for assignment on Friday after making just one appearance.
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