Cup of Coffee: September 21, 2023

Hi folks, welcome to Free Thursday!

Wednesday had a lot of action, so we have a lot to cover. Nick Castellanos not only had an unforgettable afternoon, a fan made a terrific catch on one of his home runs at Truist Park. Corbin Carroll became the first rookie to join the 25/50 club. The Reds and Orioles suffered crushing defeats. We’ll also talk about a damning report on the Athletics’ leadership, the value of the qualifying offer for the upcoming offseason, and we’ll check out Andrew McCutchen’s terrific impression of former manager Charlie Manuel.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Phillies 6, Braves 5: Nick Castellanos had himself a hell of an afternoon, mashing a pair of home runs and making a game-saving throw home in the bottom of the 9th inning to prevent the winning run from scoring. Starter Aaron Nola was able to pitch beyond the fifth inning for the first time this month, holding the Braves to two runs over six frames. Bryson Stott provided the game-winning hit, poking a two-run single to the opposite field in the top of the 10th.

That Castellanos throw:

You can hear broadcaster John Kruk plead for Castellanos to let the ball drop in foul territory, as the speedy Luke Williams was on third base and seemed to have an easy tag-up opportunity. After the game, Castellanos told reporters, “I thought I was gonna drop it and at the last minute, a voice popped in my head and said, ‘Catch it and throw him out.’”

Mets 8, Marlins 3: Brandon Nimmo finished a triple shy of the cycle, Mark Vientos went deep twice, and Kodai Senga turned in another quality start as the Mets played spoiler to the NL Wild Card hopeful Marlins. Fish second baseman Luis Arraez remained out of the lineup for a second consecutive day due to an ankle injury. Josh Bell doubled and homered in the losing effort.

Nationals 13, White Sox 3: Lane Thomas has quietly had a fantastic season. He blasted a grand slam on Wednesday afternoon, bringing his home run total up to 26 and his RBI total up to 84 on the season. He’s also ripped 34 doubles and stolen 19 bases. Dominic Smith and Joey Meneses also went yard as the Nats clowned the White Sox.

Angels 8, Rays 3: The Halos took a 6-0 lead after two innings and never looked back. Reid Detmers yielded only an unearned run in four innings while Brandon Drury belted two homers and knocked in five runs. Rays starter Aaron Civale has had better outings, on the hook for six runs over only three innings. Overall, Rays pitching struck out 19 batters, tying a franchise record, but it wasn’t enough.

Blue Jays 6, Yankees 1: The Jays took a 1-0 lead into the eighth, but then were gifted some necessary insurance in the eighth as the Yankees’ bullpen issued a pair of bases-loaded walks. Both teams’ starters were brilliant: Michael King fanned 13 and gave up the lone run across seven frames. Kevin Gausman also reached double-digit strikeouts, racking up 10 of them across six shutout innings.

Pirates 13, Cubs 7: Justin Steele suffered a blow to his NL Cy Young hopes as the Pirates took him to the cleaners, scoring six runs over three innings. It was a slugfest. Joshua Palacios, Jared Triolo, and Conor Joe all went deep for the Buccos while the Cubs wasted a solo shot from Christopher Morel and a grand slam from Ian Happ.

Brewers 5, Cardinals 2: The Brewers’ starting pitching continues to impress as Adrian Houser surrendered just a run in six innings of work. Josh Donaldson opened the scoring with a three-run bomb in the first inning and Tyrone Taylor would tack on a pair of solo homers. The Brewers’ magic number to clinch the NL Central is down to four.

Royals 6, Guardians 2: Nelson Velázquez’s first-inning three-run home run off of Lucas Giolito was all the offense the Royals would need. Zack Greinke started for the Royals, but lasted only 3 2/3 innings. Angel Zerpa relieved him, pitching the final 5 1/3 innings of the game without relenting a run. Quite an impressive effort from Zerpa.

Twins 5, Reds 3: A soul-crushing loss for the Reds, who carried a 3-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning. Closer Alexis Díaz gave up an infield single to Willi Castro, who then stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Luke Maile. Kyle Farmer knocked Castro in with a single to tie the game. Díaz would later issue a one-out walk to Christian Vázquez, intentionally walk Sam Moll, then serve up a tie-breaking two-run single to Jorge Polanco. The bullpen woes erased an electric effort from Reds starter Hunter Greene, who fanned 14 Twins while tossing seven innings of one-run ball.

Astros 2, Orioles 1: Speaking of soul-crushing losses, the Astros scored a run in each of the eighth and ninth innings to steal this one from the Orioles. Jeremy Peña doubled in a run to tie the game at one-all in the eighth, and Mauricio Dubon walked the Astros off with an RBI single in the ninth. Despite pitching well, starters Kyle Bradish and Cristian Javier both picked up no-decisions. Javier struck out 11 in five innings of work, while Bradish racked up nine K’s over six shutout frames.

Rangers 15, Red Sox 5: The Red Sox thought they had something when they jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings. The Rangers countered with a six-spot in the bottom half of the second and never looked back. Jonah Heim, Mitch Garver, Josh Jung, and Evan Carter all homered. The AL West and Wild Card races continue to hold great intrigue as the Astros lead both the Mariners and Rangers by a half-game, and both the Mariners and Rangers are tied for the third Wild Card slot.

Padres 3, Rockies 2: The Padres manufactured a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 3-2 lead and ultimately escape Coors Field with a series sweep, running their winning streak to seven games. The Padres have been on the precipice of elimination for a while, but they’re now “only” five games out of the NL Wild Card. Six teams, however, are ahead of them.

Diamondbacks 7, Giants 1: Rookie Corbin Carroll went 4-for-5 with a homer and two stolen bases. (More on him later.) Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno also picked up a trio of hits while Merrill Kelly fired 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball. The Giants are fading fast, having lost six of their last eight games.

Mariners 6, Athletics 3: George Kirby hasn’t been pitching his best down the stretch, but he was solid enough on Wednesday to pick up his 11th win. The right-hander gave up a pair of homers, accounting for all three runs, over seven innings. Dominic Canzone, Julio Rodríguez, and Cal Raleigh backed Kirby up with homers.

Tigers 4, Dodgers 2: Rookie Reese Olson continued to pitch well, holding the high-flying Dodgers offense to one run on two hits and two walks with five strikeouts over six innings. The lone run Olson allowed came on a Max Muncy solo homer. Over his last five starts, spanning 30 innings, the right-hander owns a sparkling 1.50 ERA. Kerry Carpenter also doubled twice and scored both times to help the Tigers avoid a sweep.

The Daily Briefing

Athletics owner John Fisher “blindsided” everyone with move to Las Vegas

Over at ESPN, Tim Keown has a fantastic story with lots of previously unknown details about the path owner John Fisher and president Dave Kaval took to ultimately move the Athletics from Oakland to Las Vegas. Unsurprisingly, Fisher and Kaval don’t come out of it looking good. In fact, they’re even worse than you think.

According to Keown, the A’s and the city of Oakland were $36 million away from getting a deal done for a new stadium — a $12 billion project — that would keep the team in town for the foreseeable future. Negotiations had taken place for quite some time, but at long last, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao felt like they were on the verge of doing something. Then, all of a sudden, Thao got a “blindside” phone call from Kaval informing him that the A’s were moving to Vegas. As Keown writes, the call came after “no breakdown in talks, no stalled process, no contentious back and forth.” Fisher and Kaval just bailed without notice.

Keown goes on to detail how Fisher is just your typical rich guy, throwing his financial weight around with no real concern for who or what he affects. Fisher wanted to build a new, state-of-the-art ballpark at Howard Terminal because he had a vision of changing those 55 acres around the Terminal. Fisher wanted to be a hero; he didn’t want to build a new stadium because it would be good for the fans, or it was simply something the team needed after playing in a decrepit ballpark for so long. He wanted the plaudits. When Fisher didn’t get exactly what he wanted exactly when he wanted it from Oakland, he wasted no time in taking the next-best deal in Vegas.

Hilariously, the Fisher and Kaval’s rush to Vegas has been largely disorganized. Keown notes that in the Athletics’ revenue projections, they assumed an annual attendance of 2.5 million fans, but their proposed new ballpark in Vegas would only seat 30,000. Multiply 30,000 by 81 home games and you get 2.43 million — a mathematical impossibility, even if they sold out every single home game. Furthermore, the Athletics don’t have an actual ballpark design, a financing plan, an interim home for the team until they open the new digs, nor do they even have an architect.

Nevertheless, a vote could take place as soon as November in which the other MLB team owners will vote on allowing the A’s to relocate. A triumvirate of Royals CEO John Sherman, Phillies CEO John Middleton, and Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio will review the Athletics’ application. They will make a recommendation to commissioner Rob Manfred and an eight-member executive council. If the council approves, then it will go to a vote involving all 30 owners where Fisher and Kaval must get at least 75% support.

Complicating matters, Keown reports that Manfred is willing to waive the Athletics’ relocation fee, valued between $300 million and $1 billion. While team owners typically vote in lock-step with one another, losing out on the relocation fee — at least $10 million to each team — might be enough to keep Fisher from gaining unanimous support. The Washington Nationals, the only other MLB to relocate within the last half a century, had their relocation fee waived, so there is precedent for that.

Really good reporting from Keown, absolutely worth the 20-30 minutes it’ll take to read it all the way through. This whole process has been even more of a circus than we thought.

Corbin Carroll becomes first rookie with 25/50 season

Mentioned in the recap above, Diamondbacks rookie outfielder Corbin Carroll homered and swiped two bags in a four-hit effort on Wednesday. The homer was his 25th of the season and he stole his 49th and 50th bases. Carroll is the first rookie in the history of Major League Baseball to notch a 25/50 season.

Carroll is also batting .286/.363/.511 with 27 doubles, 73 RBI, and 109 runs scored. FanGraphs credits him with 5.3 Wins Above Replacement, the top mark among rookies. He would appear to be the runaway favorite to take home the NL Rookie of the Year Award, with the Mets’ Kodai Senga (3.5) and the Dodgers’ Josh Outman (4.0) being his closest competition.

The Diamondbacks have never had a player win the Rookie of the Year Award. Here’s the closest a D-Backs player has gotten since they joined the league as an expansion team in 1998:

• Jake McCarthy (4th), 2022: 4 vote points, 0 first-place votes

• Yoshihisa Hirano (6th), 2018: 1 vote point, 0 first-place votes

• Ender Inciarte (5th), 2014: 4 vote points, 0 first-place votes

• Wade Miley (2nd), 2012: 105 vote points, 12 first-place votes

• Josh Collmenter (5th), 2011: 5 vote points, 0 first-place votes

• Gerardo Parra (8th), 2009: 1 vote point, 0 first-place votes

• Chris Young (4th), 2007: 10 vote points, 0 first-place votes

• Brandon Webb (3rd), 2003: 73 vote points, 7 first-place votes

• Travis Lee (3rd), 1998: 21 vote points, 0 first-place votes

Along with Carroll’s personal achievement, the Diamondbacks are in the driver’s seat in the NL Wild Card race. After earning their fifth consecutive victory on Wednesday against the Giants, they hold a 1.5-game lead over the Cubs for the second Wild Card slot. The D-Backs are also only 2.5 games behind the Phillies for the first slot.

Qualifying offer expected to increase to around $20.5 million

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the value of the qualifying offer for the upcoming offseason is expected to increase to around $20.5 million, a record. The QO value is found by averaging the top-125 salaries, so it almost always increases year over year.

The QO has only decreased twice, in 2020 (from $17.9 million to $17.8 million) and 2022 ($18.9 million to $18.4 million). There was a lot of labor strife in those years and there were even whispers — though nothing substantive was ever proven — that owners were colluding amongst each other to drive down salaries.

For the uninitiated, the qualifying offer is a mechanic intended to help teams losing players to free agency. When a player who receives the QO signs elsewhere, the QO-offering team gets draft pick compensation. The type of draft pick depends on if the team is a revenue-sharing recipient and team’s market size, as well as the value of the value of the next contract the QO’d player signs. Additionally, teams that sign players who rejected their QO lose draft picks.

The QO rules have changed a bit over the years. A player can now only receive a QO once in his career and a team can only make a qualifying offer to him if he spent the entire season on that team’s roster. The previous QO rules were very player-unfriendly, disincentivizing teams from spending on free agents.

The qualifying offer is usually only relevant to 10-15 players each offseason, typically the top free agents. For example, only 14 players received QO’s last offseason. Players likely to receive QO’s in the upcoming offseason include Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Matt Chapman, Josh Hader, and Sonny Gray.

Other Stuff

Update from England

Yesterday was an absolutely thrilling day. One that had me on an adrenaline surge well into the evening. But it was also a pretty harrowing day — there were multiple instances of legitimate danger — and it was completely draining. They say the Coast to Coast, like all long hikes, is just as much if not more of a mental challenge than it is a physical one. I’m definitely feeling that now, in the early morning hours as I write this. I didn’t sleep much last night because I kept having half-waking dreams of crossing swollen rivers and scrambling up and down slick rocks on high ledges. That’s a lot when you’re as born to be mild like I am.

Today was supposed to be another high level route. The weather is better but the water is still high. As I’m typing this at 6AM UK time, I’m strongly considering taking a lower-level alternate route to my next destination. I mean, I can’t die. A lot of you are on annual subscriptions. That wouldn’t be fair to you.

Andrew McCutchen’s homage to Charlie Manuel

Over the weekend, former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had a stroke while undergoing a medical procedure in Florida. Thankfully, Manuel has been improving every day. He tweeted on Tuesday:

Former Phillie Andrew McCutchen paid homage to Manuel, responding to his tweet with a video in which he imitates the former skipper’s Southern drawl and occasional stuttering. If you’ve ever heard Manuel speak, you’ll hear just how spot-on McCutchen’s impression is.

McCutchen played for the Phillies from 2019-21. In Cutch’s first year in Philadelphia, Manuel was serving as the Phillies’ interim hitting coach. After that season, Manuel returned to his advisory role in the club’s front office. While Manuel may not have managed McCutchen, the two were certainly around each other quite a bit, certainly enough for the five-time All-Star to perfect his impression.

Fan protects daughters from Nick Castellanos home run ball

The first of Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos’ two home runs against the Braves at Truist Park on Wednesday afternoon came in the first inning. The blast, to straightaway center field, doubled the Phillies’ lead to 2-0.

If you look closely, you can see a fan in a blue shirt next to the railing catch the homer on the fly with his bare hand. And if you look even closer, you can see he’s holding his daughter in the other hand. What a slowed-down replay shown later revealed was that behind that fan’s hand was his other daughter, so if he doesn’t make the catch, she wears it.

Naturally, the fan then carefully placed his daughter down before firing the ball back onto the field, as is tradition. Let’s all be glad he didn’t mix up which hand had the ball and which hand had his kid.

The fan, in attendance with his wife and four (!) kids, was interviewed by Kelly Crull on the Braves Bally Sports telecast a couple innings later. All in a day’s work.

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Have a great day, everyone.