The Cycle, Issue 46: Awards Watch

Awards Watch is back with a look at the American League contenders, COVID-19 positives impact the Yankees and Padres, Jacob deGrom hits the IL, Jordan Zimmermann retires, and more . . .

This is a free issue of The Cycle. Free issues will happen on occasion, but they won’t be regular, and they won’t be frequent. To read every issue of The Cycle, which publishes three days a week and contains all the news and analysis you need to keep up with the 2021 Major League Baseball season, upgrade to a paid subscription here:

In this issue of The Cycle . . .

• Awards Watch: Early leaders for MVP, Cy Young & Rookie of the Year in the American League

• Newswire: Yankees’ coaching staff has “breakthrough” COVID-19 positives

• Injured List: Padres’ COVID-19 positives, Jacob deGrom, Carlos Martínez, an update on Jordan Hicks, and an Angels infielder has Tommy John surgery

• Transaction Reactions: Jordan Zimmermann retires

• Feedback

• Closing Credits

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Awards Watch

From 2010 through 2016, I wrote a column for SI.com called Awards Watch that followed the races for the three major player awards—Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year—as they developed through the season. I have brought it back several times since, most recently at The Athletic, and I’m happy to be doing so again here at The Cycle. The gist of the column is that I rank the top contenders for each award based not on who I think will eventually win the award in November, but on who I think would be most deserving of it if the season ended today. At SI, I often listed a set number of players (five or ten) for each award. Since leaving SI, I’ve preferred to break off the list where a natural gap occurs among the candidates. Maybe I need to include 12 players to give you the full picture of the MVP race. Maybe three are enough for Rookie of the Year. The numbers may dwindle as the races develop, or they may expand if players on the fringe gets hot later in the year.

I present statistics for every player listed, but it’s important to remember that contributions in fielding and baserunning, which aren’t always captured in those stat lines, are very much factored into my rankings. Also, I believe player value is absolute, so the performance of a player’s team will not factor into these rankings. These are individual awards, and the performance of a player’s teammates should have no bearing on them. I do, however, weigh playing time heavily, particularly for pitchers (you’ll rarely see a reliever in the Cy Young standings, and they have a harder time in my Rookie of the Year rankings than on the actual ballot, which we can discuss further when we get closer to the actual voting in September).

The original SI format was to do MVP one week, Cy Young the next, and Rookie of the Year a third, then repeat, but, given the structure of this newsletter, I think that would consume too many issues. The Athletic had me do all three awards for both leagues in one massive (and I mean massive) column, but my sleep patterns are already taking enough of a beating these days, so I’m going to try a new format for The Cycle. I’ll do all three awards in the AL this week, then all three in the NL next week, then wait until mid-June to check back in.

Also, the Awards Watch issues may arrive in your inbox later than the typical Wednesday issue (as today’s has) because I want to include up-to-date advanced stats, so I have to wait for the relevant sites (Baseball-Reference and Baseball Prospectus, primarily) to update. Just my luck, B-Ref updated at 3:03 am on Tuesday this week. Today, however, it didn’t happen until 8:25 am, and I ultimately decided to publish without updating the deserved run averages of the two pitchers who started Tuesday night.

With that, here’s the usual preamble: All statistics are through the games of Tuesday, May 11. League leaders are on bold, major-league leaders are in bold and italics. Rookies are players who, prior to this year, had not exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major-leagues or had not spent more than 45 days on an active major-league roster (not counting days during expanded rosters).

Rookie of the Year

1. Adolis García, CF, Rangers

.292/.333/.585 (153 OPS+), 9 HR, 6 BB, 35 K, 3/6 SB, 114 PA

The 28-year-old García has had quite a journey to this point. Born in Cuba in 1993, Adolis is eight years younger than his brother Adonis, who defected in 2011 and ultimately played third base for the Braves for three years from 2015-17. Adolis joined Cuba’s Serie Nacional as a teenager after Adonis had already left. He matured into a very good player in his early twenties, and, in 2016, Cuba loaned Adolis to the Yomiuri Giants, with whom the 23-year-old struggled. That August, Adolis also defected, ultimately signing with the Cardinals for a $2.5 million bonus in February 2017.

At 24, García had a solid first year in the minors in Double- and Triple-A, but he was given only a limited major-league opportunity in late 2018 (21 games, 17 plate appearances, just two starts) and left to languish in Triple-A again in 2019. That December, the Cardinals designated him for assignment, and the Rangers purchased him. However, the pandemic erased the 2020 minor-league season, leaving García languishing at the alternate training site. He got a brief big-league look as July rolled into August and went 0-for-6 . In February of this year, the Rangers also designated him for assignment. Three days later, they re-signed him to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training, but he didn’t make the team, which instead opened the year with Leody Taveras in center and Eli White backing him up. García wasn’t called up until Ronald Guzmán tore the meniscus in his right knee and landed on the 60-day IL on April 13.

Initially given some starts in left field against left-handed pitching, García, in just his second game of the year, missed his first home run by mere inches in two ways on the same play, hitting a shot off an in-play railing on the top of right-field wall at Tropicana Field, then getting called out on review trying to slide in head-first with an inside-the-park home run. Still, that counted as a two-RBI triple, and it was an early indication of how exciting a player García could be. He has since swiped Taveras’s job, hit nine actual home runs, one off AL lead, and played an outstanding centerfield, showing off his legs, his glove, and his arm, most recently throwing out the potential tying run to end the Rangers’ win over the Mariners on Saturday. His lack of walks and resultingly poor on-base percentage (which I suspect was the primary reason the Cardinals didn’t give him a better chance), remain a concern, but, to this point in the season, no American League rookie has been better or more valuable.

2. Yermín Mercedes, DH, White Sox

.381/.420/.600 (188 OPS+), 5 HR, 7 BB, 17 K, 0/1 SB, 112 PA

Another 28-year-old, the Dominican Mercedes didn’t do as much globetrotting as García on his way to the majors, but he had his own roundabout route to this list. Originally signed by the Nationals at the age of 18, he was released after three years in the Dominican Sumer League, spent 2014 crushing in independent ball, then signed with the Orioles in December 2014, finally making his affiliated debut in the U.S. at the age of 22 in 2015. Mercedes crushed some more in the upper levels of A-ball in 2016, but was merely good in High-A and Double-A in 2017. That December, he was drafted out of the Orioles’ organization by the White Sox in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 draft.

Back at High-A in 2018, he hit. In Double-A in early 2019, he hit. In Triple-A later that year, he crushed the ball. Then, the pandemic hit. Stranded at the alternate training site, he got just one at-bat with the big club last year. This year, however, a devastating injury to left fielder Eloy Jiménez late in Spring Training opened up a spot in the White Sox lineup. Mercedes didn’t have a great spring, but his track record spoke for itself, and this season’s extra roster spot allowed the Sox to carry a third catcher.

On the second day of the season, Chicago faced a lefty, so the right-handed hitting Mercedes got the start. He went 5-for-5 with a double and four RBI. He then got a hit in his first three at-bats the next day, setting a record by opening the season 8-for-8. He has been the team’s primary designated hitter ever since. Mercedes just keeps hitting. He has started 26 games thus far and failed to hit safely in just three of them. Since starting 8-for-8, he has hit .333. He’s built like a mailbox, but he hit a triple on Sunday. He doesn’t walk much, but he also rarely strikes out, avoiding strike three in a full half of his starts this season. He doesn’t add much value outside the batters box—he hasn’t caught an inning this season, played just four innings at first base, and his lone pitching appearance wasn’t terribly efficient—but the bat will play, and it should sustain him in this race for a while.

3. Randy Arozarena, OF, Rays

.258/.352/.371 (115 OPS+), 3 HR, 13 BB, 46 K, 4/4 SB, 142 PA

Another Cuban outfielder the Cardinals discarded, Arozarena hasn’t shown the power he flashed in last year’s postseason yet this year, but he’s getting on base and adding value on the bases and in the field, playing both outfield corners, as needed. If he finds that power stroke, the 26-year-old Arozarena could very easily leapfrog Mercedes and give García a serious challenge

4. Michael Kopech, RHP, White Sox

1.61 ERA (256 ERA+), 22 1/3 IP (2.5 IP/G), 40.2 K%, 4.38 K/BB, 1.2 HR%, 1.62 FIP, 3.14 DRA, 9 G, 2 GS

A first-round pick by the Red Sox in 2014 and the key piece acquired by Chicago in the Chris Sale trade after the 2016 season, Kopech made four starts for the White Sox in 2018, but Tommy John surgery and the pandemic intervened. He opted out of last season, and, this year, the White Sox’s plan has been to use him as a long reliever and spot starter, sort of a classic swing-man role in preparation for a full-time move to the rotation next year. So far, so good. The 25-year-old Kopech has taken well to long-relief duty and pitched well in two spot starts when Lance Lynn was on the IL, striking out 10 Rangers in five innings on the one occasion this season that he got his pitch count past 45. Most likely, he’ll get more rotation chances as the season progresses, and could even finish the year in the rotation, all of which has the potential to boost his Rookie of the Year candidacy.

Honorable mention: Cleveland RHP Emmanuel Clase, Rangers RHP Dane Dunning, Red Sox RHP Garret Whitlock

Cy Young

1. Gerrit Cole, RHP, Yankees

1.61 ERA (249 ERA+), 44 2/3 IP (6.4 IP/GS), 40.2 K%, 22.00 K/BB, 1.8 HR%, 1.29 FIP, 2.78 DRA, 7 GS

The timing of this list is a bit unfortunate for Cole, as John Means pitched (and pitched well) last night, while Cole takes his next turn tonight. As a result, I’m not penalizing Cole as much as I otherwise might for his innings deficit relative to Means. Instead, I’m looking at their similar average number of innings per start and Cole’s dominance in the peripherals. Cole was two outs shy of a quality start on Opening Day and is 6-for-6 in quality starts since. He has yet to allow more than two earned runs in a game (and has only allowed one unearned run all season). He has walked just three batters all year, the last back on April 12, yet he has struck out 10 or more in a game four times. He has also allowed just three home runs all year (though two were in his last start). He’s the best pitcher in the league doing best-pitcher-in-the-league things. Having him out front is a good starting place for this year’s AL Cy Young race.

2. John Means, LHP, Orioles

1.21 ERA (351 ERA+), 52 IP (6.5 IP/GS), 20.0 K%, 5.30 K/BB, 2.6 HR%, 2.89 FIP, 4.02 DRA, 8 GS

I remember the first time I saw John Means pitch. It was a multi-inning relief appearance against the Yankees in the third game of the 2019 season. Dylan Bundy had burned through 93 pitches in less than four innings and got the hook with two outs and the bases loaded. Means came in and let all three runners score, but then he struck out Giancarlo Stanton on three pitches, and I started to notice that changeup. Means pitched three more innings in that game, and his changeup was mesmerizing. Barely more than a week later, he was in the Baltimore rotation. That July, he was an All-Star.

For whatever reason, the changeup wasn’t as good last year, but this year its better than ever, and it is making Means not just a token All-Star from a bad team but one of the league’s best pitchers. Means held the Red Sox scoreless on one hit over seven innings on Opening Day. He held the Rangers scoreless on three hits over seven innings on April 18. He no-hit the Mariners on May 5, facing the minimum 27 men with the only runner he allowed reaching on a wild third strike, making his no-hitter unique in major-league history. In the follow-up on Tuesday night, he threw six scoreless against the Mets. In his other starts, Means has allowed as many as three runs just once. He hasn’t dominated the strike zone the way Cole has, which is why he’s in second-place here, but he has dominated opposing hitters, leading the AL in fewest hits per nine innings (4.1) and WHIP (0.67).

3. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Rays

2.37 ERA (160 ERA+), 49 1/3 IP (6.2 IP/GS), 39.5 K%, 3.95 K/BB, 3.2 HR%, 2.80 FIP, 3.03 DRA, 8 GS

This is Tyler Glasnow’s sixth major-league season. He has surpassed 62 innings pitched in just one of the previous five, but now, at the age of 27, he appears to be finally throwing off the shackles of injuries and innings limits and pitching like the ace he has always seemed destined to be. I say “appears to,” because we don’t really know if Glasnow can hold up to a full starter’s workload, or, if he can stay healthy, if he can remain effective. Already his season seems bifurcated into his first four starts (0.73 ERA with 7 walks and no home runs in 24 2/3 innings) and his last four (4.01 ERA with 12 walks and six home runs in 24 2/3 innings). He bests Bieber, for now, based on the aggregate run prevention, but his position is already vulnerable.

4. Shane Bieber, RHP, Cleveland

2.95 ERA (146 ERA+), 55 IP (6.9 IP/GS), 37.0 K%, 4.72 K/BB, 3.0 HR%, 2.81 FIP, 2.61 DRA, 8 GS

The defending Cy Young award winner is 8-for-8 in quality starts (by technicality, he allowed four runs but just three earned two turns ago) and has struck out eight or more every time out. He started the season with a record run of strikeouts, only to have Jacob deGrom best his new record within the week. He’s still on pace for a 300-strikeout season, and he would have a complete game and a shutout to his credit if his team hadn’t waited until the 10th inning to score on April 13 (Bieber still got the win).

5. Carlos Rodón, LHP, White Sox

0.58 ERA (707 ERA+), 31 IP (6.2 IP/GS), 37.3 K%, 4.89 K/BB, 0.9 HR%, 1.84 FIP, 3.35 DRA, 5 GS

Non-tendered in December after returning from Tommy John surgery, Rodón made it back to the White Sox’s rotation this spring as a non-roster invitee. As a result, he entered the season as their fifth starter. That put him a full turn behind the staff aces on this list. In addition to that, given his recent return from major surgery, the White Sox have been giving Rodón as many extra days between starts as the schedule will allow. Thus far, he has made one start on five day’s rest, one on seven day’s, and two on eight. His next turn will arrive on Thursday, by which point he’ll again have had five day’s rest. That may be keeping Rodón healthy and effective, but it’s undermining his candidacy here. He has thrown barely more than half as many innings as Bieber.

But, oh, those innings! In his first two starts of the season, Rodón threw a total of 14 scoreless innings while allowing just two hits (the second start was his no-hitter). He has yet to allow multiple earned runs in a start, and has allowed just one unearned run on the season. He has also allowed just one home run. He doesn’t lead the league (or the majors) in ERA or ERA+, etc., because he’s a couple of innings shy of qualifying, but only a couple. If he throws four or more innings on Thursday, and pitches in line with his season to this point, he’ll claim those titles, at least until he slips back below the qualifying cutoff again.

6. Danny Duffy, LHP, Royals

1.26 ERA (344 ERA+), 35 2/3 IP (5.9 IP/GS), 28.0 K%, 4.00 K/BB, 1.4 HR%, 2.43 FIP, 4.78 DRA, 6 GS

Duffy also made his season debut toward the back of his team’s rotation (fourth, in his case) and has had extra days off prior to all but the most recent of his starts (and that most recent was his worst). He allowed just two earned runs through his first five starts (30 IP), both on solo homers, but allowed three in 5 2/3 innings his last time out. He takes his next turn tonight in Detroit against a lineup that should help him sustain his place on this list.

Honorable mention: Rangers RHP Kyle Gibson, Tigers RHP Matthew Boyd, Cleveland RHP Aaron Civale

Most Valuable Player

1. Mike Trout, CF, Angels

.355/.477/.673 (218 OPS+), 8 HR, 23 BB, 37 K, 2/2 SB, 132 PA

You wouldn’t know it from those numbers, but Trout is in a small slump. He’s hitless in his last nine at-bats and hitting .167 over his last 10 games, which just goes to show how hot he was in April. Now 29, Trout’s defensive value is now largely derived from the position he plays, and less so how well he plays it, but he’s still a superlative baserunner and one of the game’s fastest players in addition to its best hitter.

2. Byron Buxton, CF, Twins

.370/.408/.772 (233 OPS+), 9 HR, 4 BB, 23 K, 5/5 SB, 98 PA

Buxton is so good in the field and on the bases that he doesn’t have to lead the world in slugging to rank among the top contenders for MVP, but here we are. Unfortunately, he does have to stay healthy, which continues to be a challenge. Already this year, Buxton missed three games with a mild hamstring issue, one game due to illness, another due to tendonitis in his knee, and he has been on the IL since May 7 with a grade 2 strain in his right hip. His poor attendance is the only thing that is keeping him from the top spot in the early going.

3. Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP, Angels

.265/.312/.591 (145 OPS+), 10 HR, 6 BB, 38 K, 6/8 SB, 141 PA

2.10 ERA (207 ERA+), 25 2/3 IP (5.1 IP/GS), 36.4 K%, 2.00 K/BB, 1.8 HR%, 3.57 FIP, 2.94 DRA, 5 GS

Speaking of players who make massive contributions outside of the batter’s box, Ohtani has made as many starts as Carlos Rodón or Danny Duffy, has a 207 ERA+, and still appears to be rounding into form on the mound (his start Tuesday night was his best yet: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K on just 88 pitches). That is on top of a 145 OPS+ and a share of the league lead in home runs, six stolen bases in eight attempts (he’s roughly as fast as Trout, per Statcast’s sprint speed). He’s even starting to see some time in the outfield. On April 24, Ohtani spent an inning in left field in garbage time while the left fielder pitched. Tuesday night’s game was so close (the Astros led 1–0 after seven) that Joe Maddon didn’t want to lose Ohtani’s bat when the time came to replace him on the mound, so he sent Ohtani to right field for the eighth inning (Ohtani’s only fielding chances in the outfield thus far have come on returning hits to the infield). Evaluating Ohtani relative to the more conventional candidates on this list could pose a challenge as the season progresses, but, for now, I feel safe in saying he has been one of the three most valuable players in the league thus far.

4. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Blue Jays

.322/.453/.576 (190 OPS+), 8 HR, 25 BB, 25 K, 1/1 SB, 146 PA

Vladito is having a proper breakout at the age of 22, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. His hits come in bunches. To wit, he snapped out of a mild slump Tuesday night by going 3-for-5 with a home run. On April 27, he had a three-homer game, including a grand slam, and drove in seven runs. He’s also spending a larger portion of his time in the field. Last year, he started just 34 of 60 games at first base. Thus far this year, it’s 27 of 34, and he even spent a couple of innings at third on April 20. He’s still primarily a bat-only candidate, but simply being out there in the field makes him more valuable than a designated hitter with similar numbers. Speaking of . . .

5. J.D. Martinez, DH, Red Sox

.331/.416/.632 (188 OPS+), 10 HR, 19 BB, 33 K, 154 PA

What Martinez is doing in the early going looks an awful lot like what he did in 2018, when he was an All-Star, won the silver slugger at both DH and in the outfield (he played 57 games in the outfield that year, but that was still a voting quirk that shouldn’t have happened), and finished fourth in the MVP voting, thus far his only top-10 finish. The point there is that Martinez is capable of maintaining this level of production over a full season, which he’ll have to do to be a serious contender in this race given that he’s more of a full-time DH than he was in 2018.

6. Jared Walsh, 1B/RF, Angels

.339/.417/.579 (176 OPS+), 7 HR, 14 BB, 30 K, 2/2 SB, 139 PA

A former 39th-round pick, Walsh impressed as a rookie last year, slugging .646 in 108 plate appearances and finishing seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting. This year, he has been even better, more than doubling his walk rate, hitting for more average, and displaying some valuable defensive versatility via 17 starts in right field during the period in which both Dexter Fowler and Juan Lagares were on the IL. Walsh’s emergence as a legitimate thumper in his age-27 season was one of the motivating factors behind the Angels’ decision to release Albert Pujols. Now the question becomes, will they let him pitch? Walsh has a 3.32 ERA in 21 2/3 innings in the minors and posted a 1.80 ERA in five major league innings in 2019.

7. Xander Bogaerts, SS, Red Sox

.341/.395/.578 (168 OPS+), 7 HR, 10 BB, 24 K, 2/2 SB, 147 PA

Xander Bogaerts is not a good defensive shortstop, but simply being a shortstop who rakes has a ton of value, allowing Bogaerts to out-rank designated-hitter-types who may be out-hitting him in the early going. Bogaerts came up so young, contributing to a championship at the age of 20 before losing his rookie status, that it can be easy for those of us with long memories to forget just how good a hitter he is. Since his age-25 season in 2018, he has hit .304/.374/.539 (139 OPS+), averaging 32 home runs and 50 doubles per 162 games. This year, he’s second in the AL with 11 doubles and leading the majors with 46 hits.

8. Cedric Mullins, CF, Orioles

.308/.367/.524 (151 OPS+), 6 HR, 14 BB, 28 K, 4/6 SB, 158 PA

Look at the Orioles offering up legitimate Cy Young and MVP candidates. It’s like they’re a real team all of a sudden. The 26-year-old Mullins has known the hard times in Baltimore, debuting with a 115-loss team in 2018, and hitting .094 in 74 plate appearances in 2019, but he rebounded with a roughly league-average season last year, and this year he’s emerging as a classic all-around athletic centerfielder, hitting for average, drawing walks, suppressing his strikeouts, stealing bases, and adding value with his glove.

9. Yuli Gurriel, 1B, Astros

.333/.412/.558 (172 OPS+), 6 HR, 18 BB, 19 K, 148 PA

In raw numbers, Gurriel has done roughly as much hitting in 148 plate appearances this year as he did in 230 PA last year. He has 43 hits to 49 from a year ago, has matched his home run total, and is just one shy in both doubles and triples for 72 total bases compared to 81 a year ago. He also has six more walks but eight fewer strikeouts. To this point, Gurriel’s age-37 season has been his best in the majors, by far, but last year was the more obvious fluke.

10. José Ramírez, 3B, Cleveland

.261/.348/.563 (150 OPS+), 10 HR, 15 BB, 17 K, 4/4 SB, 138 PA

Remember 2019, when José Ramírez wasn’t an MVP candidate? That was weird. He finished third in the voting the two seasons prior to that, was second last year, and here he is again, working his way up the list. Ramírez slumped a bit in mid-April, but has hit .305/.400/.695 over his last 17 games, has grabbed a share of the league lead in homers, is perfect in his four stolen base attempts and remains a superlative baserunner and fielder. I fully expect him to move up this list, rather than drop off it.

Honorable mention: Red Sox 3B, Rafael Devers, Astros DH Yordan Alvarez, Blue Jays 2B Marcus Semien, A’s 1B Matt Olson, Yankees DH Giancarlo Stanton, Rangers SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and the top two men on the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young lists above.

Awards Watch will return next Wednesday with a look at the NL races!

Newswire

Yankees’ coaching staff experiences “breakthrough” COVID-19 positives

The Yankees’ base coaches, third base coach Phil Nevin and first base coach Reggie Willits, and a non-uniformed staff member have tested positive for COVID-19 despite all three having been vaccinated in April. This is something that we are going to see. No vaccine is 100 percent effective, so out of every 100 vaccinated people, a handful (or more) could still contract the disease, depending on the efficacy rate of the particular vaccine. However, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which most of the Yankees’ players, coaches, and staff received, was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and death in clinical trials. So, while Nevin and company have tested positive for the virus, they should experience only mild symptoms, if any, and recover quickly and fully, something I could not say with confidence if they were unvaccinated.

Still, this is an important reminder that we, even those of us who are vaccinated, need to remain diligent about using masks and social distancing, etc., when coming in contact with people who are unvaccinated, or whose vaccination status we don’t know (which is to say, the general public). The whole idea of herd immunity is to vaccinate enough people that breakthrough infections don’t have many options as to where to go next. That, as well as the fact that some people are medically unable to receive the vaccine (due to a compromised immune system, for example, or an allergy to the contents of the vaccine) makes it all the more important that every one who can get vaccinated does so.

Again, this is not a case of the vaccine not doing what we were told it would do. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 66.3 percent effective in preventing contraction in clinical trials, meaning 33.7 percent of those who receive it could still contract the disease, but, again, it was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and death. So, Nevin and company are still deriving a very real, potentially life-saving benefit from having been vaccinated, despite their positive tests.

Also, because the Yankees reached the 85 percent vaccine threshold set by the league (a sort of team-level version of herd immunity), these positive tests do not appear likely to interrupt their schedule. The Yankees have had to sideline some other coaches due to contact tracing and call in some replacement coaches (bench coach Carlos Mendoza coached third on Tuesday night, baseball development coordinator Mario Garza coached first, bullpen coach Mike Harkey appeared to be serving as the acting pitching coach), but with most of the team and staff vaccinated, they can trust that these few breakthrough positives will not result in a full outbreak and that the health of their players and staff are not in serious danger.

Injured List

Activated:

• Yankees 1B Luke Voit

• Twins UT Luis Arraez

• Pirates OF Gregory Polanco

• Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela

Updates:

Angels IF Franklin Barreto: Tommy John surgery

Barreto, whom the Angels acquired at last year’s trading deadline for pending free agent Tommy La Stella and intended to be their primary reserve infielder this season, opened the year on the 60-day IL with right elbow inflammation. This surgery knocks Barreto out for all of 2021 and likely some of 2022, as well. He’ll be 26 when he returns to action next year sporting a career 47 OPS+ in 237 major-league plate appearances. He is under team control through 2024.

Cardinals RHP Jordan Hicks: shut down for six weeks

When Hicks was placed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation, the line from the Cardinals was that he’d be shut down for a month then reevaluated. That was a week ago, and the latest update is that Hicks will have an orthobiologic injection (that’s a broader term for a class of therapies that includes the more familiar platelet-rich plasma injections) this week. He will then be shut down for six weeks from that point, meaning a minimum of seven weeks from his original IL date, three weeks longer than originally announced. That means the reevaluation won’t even happen until the end of June, and the best-case scenario from there is that he has to go on a rehab assignment to ramp back up to game speed, putting his earliest return well into July.

Placed on IL:

Padres SS Fernando Tatis Jr.: COVID-19

Padres LF/UT Jurickson Profar and OF Jorge Mateo: contact tracing

Tatis is positive but asymptomatic. Profar and Mateo are in contact tracing. In addition to those three, Wil Myers tested positive and Eric Hosmer has been flagged for contact tracing. Both of those players started Tuesday’s game but were removed when their status was communicated to the team.

The Padres are just shy of the league’s 85 percent vaccine threshold for relaxing COVID protocols, per manager Jayce Tingler, so, to return to the team, Tatis (and one assumes Myers) has to quarantine for 10 days then test negative for the virus, while Profar and Mateo (and most likely Hosmer) have to quarantine for seven days and test negative on or after the fifth day while remaining asymptomatic. Tingler did not reveal if any of those five players were among those on the team who had been vaccinated. Infielder Tucupita Marcano, outfielder John Andreoli, and righty Nabil Crismat were called up to fill the vacant roster spots on Tuesday. Ha-Seong Kim will play shortstop in Tatis’s absence, just as he did when Tatis was out with his shoulder injury earlier in the year. Expect further roster moves on Wednesday.

Mets RHP Jacob deGrom: right side tightness

I wrote about deGrom’s nagging issue in his right side on Wednesday. He skipped a turn, then lasted just five innings on Sunday before coming out due to further discomfort. Now he’ll take another 10 days off and the Mets will see how he’s doing next Thursday. In the meantime, his MRI came back completely clean, so the hope is that this is just a speedbump in yet another great season for the Best Pitcher in Baseball.

Cardinals RHP Carlos Martínez: right ankle

Martínez twisted his ankle celebrating fellow pitcher Jack Flaherty’s home run on Friday night, then made his star the next day and was fairly lousy (5 IP, 5 R, 5 BB, 2 K). This move is retroactive to Sunday, so he’ll be eligible to return a week from today. Johan Oviedo takes his roster spot and his next turn in the rotation on Friday. Martínez had been on a roll previous to the injury, with three runs allowed in 21 1/3 innings over his previous three starts.

Rockies 1B C.J. Cron: lower back strain

Cron had been off to a strong start this season. Matt Adams and Connor Joe have been splitting time at first base in his absence.

Cubs OF Jake Marisnick: right hamstring strain

Fourth outfielder Marisnick was off to a hot start, particularly in the power department. His roster spot, at least in the short term, goes to an extra reliever, lefty Brad Wieck.

Pirates RHP Kyle Crick: triceps strain

The Pirates’ primary set-up man, Krick had made 11 scoreless relief appearances prior to his last appearance on May 9 (though he did allow one of two inherited runners to score). Lefty Chasen Shreve takes his place in the bullpen.

Angels RHP Junior Guerra: right groin strain

The 36-year-old Guerra made the Angels’ bullpen as a non-roster invitee out of camp, but has had a rough time of it, posting a 6.00 ERA and 1.48 WHIP over 21 innings, most recently completely botching an opener assignment on Monday. Jaime Barria takes his place in on the roster.

Transaction Reactions

Jordan Zimmermann retires

A second-round pick by the Nationals out of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point in 2007, Zimmermann spent most of his only full season in the minors in Double-A, then, after just one start in Triple-A in April 2009, made the jump to the majors less than two years after being drafted. Zimmermann held his own as a 23-year-old rookie, but Tommy John surgery slowed down his ascent, so it wasn’t until his age-25 season, in 2011, that he started to establish himself as one of the better pitchers in the majors.

From 2011 through 2015, Zimmermann posted a 123 ERA+ for the Nationals, averaging 194 innings per season and a 4.31 strikeout-to-walk ratio as a pitch-to-contact, command-and-control groundballer. An All-Star in 2013 and 2014, he finished seventh in Cy Young voting in the first of those two seasons, fifth in the latter. That year, 2014, was his best. He posted a 2.66 ERA (141 ERA+) and a 6.28 K/BB in 199 2/3 innings over 32 starts, threw a no-hitter on the final day of the season, then came one out shy of a complete game win over the Giants in Game 2 of the Division Series.

The Nationals were winning that Division Series game 1–0 when Zimmermann issued a two-out walk with his 100th pitch of the game. Manager Matt Williams took Zimmermann out, watched Drew Storen blow the save, then had to endure nine more innings as the Nats ultimately lost 2–1 in a postseason record 18 innings (and lost the series in four games). Little did we know then, that was where things started to turn.

Zimmermann was still good in his walk year of 2015, but he was a little more hittable than usual, his peripherals all headed in the wrong direction, and he lost a tick off his fastball. That offseason, heading into his age-30 season, he signed a five-year, $110 million contract with the Tigers. That deal was largely seen as a modest bargain for the Tigers. I called it “a worthwhile gamble,” praising Zimmermann’s relative youth and “reliability.” It was, in reality, a complete bust.

In the first four years of his Tigers contract, Zimmermann posted a 5.61 ERA (80 ERA+) while averaging just 127 innings per season. Zimmermann battled a laundry list of injuries, the erosion of his stuff, and the unreliability of the fielders behind him to the point where his only real value was his ability to eat innings, and he wasn’t terribly good at that, either. Last year, he was healthy enough to throw just 5 2/3 innings. This year, his contract expired, and he caught on with his hometown Brewers as a non-roster invitee. Failing to make the team, he nearly retired as the minor-league season was about to begin, but an unexpected call-up in reaction to the loss of Corbin Burnes and Zack Godley to the injured list delayed that decision. Zimmermann made just two long-relief appearances for Milwaukee, one bad, one good, both in losses, before realizing he just couldn’t do it anymore. He finishes his career with 95 wins, 20.3 bWAR, and a whole lot of money in the bank.

Incidentally, in January 2015, I wrote an article for SI.com weighing the pros and cons of Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg to decide which of the two the Nationals should sign to an extension. My conclusion was that the Nats should have extended Zimmermann then and traded Strasburg after the 2015 season. I was wrong, but it’s a testament to how good Zimmermann was at his peak that this was not an unpopular opinion. Soon after that article ran, I appeared on “MLB Now,” and the panel, which included host Brian Kenny and Ron Darling, discussed the relative merits of the Nationals’ starting pitchers. At the end of the conversation, Kenny asked the panel, if we could only commit to one, who would we take? We all said Zimmermann, but I misheard the question. Because I had written that article, I had heard BK’s question as “Zimmermann or Strasburg.” He had actually asked “Zimmermann or Scherzer,” who signed with the Nationals that month. Even then, I thought Scherzer was the obvious choice, but the other three experts on the panel still chose Zimmermann. For a moment there, Jordan Zimmermann was that good.

Braves claim RHP Jay Flaa off waivers from the Orioles

The 28-year-old Flaa (whose name is apparently pronounced “flaw,” not, sadly, “flaaaAAAHHHHH”) made his major-league debut in late April with 1 1/3 scoreless innings against the Yankees. A fairly typical righty reliever, with good strikeout rates but the usual control problems, he has an average fastball, an offspeed pitch (alternately reported to be a changeup or a splitter), and a breaking pitch (alternately reported to be a curve or a slider).

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Closing Credits

“Award Tour” was the lead single from A Tribe Called Quest’s third album, Midnight Marauders. Like many tracks from what I consider hip hop’s golden age, it is built from a variety of samples, and it’s a good example of how the best hip-hop producers (in this case, Tribe’s Q-Tip) used a composer’s ear when digging through the crates to find sounds that somehow worked together to make something new, rather than simply reusing an already familiar hook.

On “Award Tour,” the drums are from Sly and the Family Stone’s “Advice,” off that group’s 1967 debut. The baseline is from Jade’s single “Don’t Walk Away” from 1992, the year before Tribe made “Award Tour.” The track opens with the Fender Rhodes from Weldon Irvine’s 1975 funk track “We Getting’ Down,” and that organ continues to play over the chorus and verses. The choruses add a loop from the guitar intro to Charles Earland’s “Lowdown” in 1974, and the second half of each verse replaces those bass and organ samples with the bass and vibes from Milt Jackson’s 1974 version of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Olinga.”

The chorus vocal is performed by Trugoy from Tribe’s Native Tongues cohorts De La Soul. He puts a new spin on the vocal hook from the 1983 Malcolm McLaren B-Side “Hobo Scratch (She’s Lookin’ Like A Hobo)” (“Hobo Scratch” is an extended mix, the vocal comes in around just after the five-minute mark). As originally performed by the World’s Famous Supreme Team, that vocal hook started “we on a world tour with Mr. Malcolm McLaren.” It’s unclear if Trugoy swaps out “a world tour” for “award tour,” or if this song’s title is just playing off the similarity between the two phrases, but he does replace “Mr. Malcolm McLaren” with “Muhammad, my man,” a reference, one assumes, to the non-rapping member of A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, whose interjections are heard behind Trugoy in the chorus.

After the introductory chorus, Q-Tip takes the first verse and mostly brags about his prowess on the mic, concluding with “I learned how to build mics in my workshop class/so give me this award and let’s not make it the last.” After another chorus, Phife takes his turn with similar intent, shrugging off awards (“I never let a statue tell me how nice I am”) and dropping a baseball reference (“coming with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees”).

Midnight Marauders was recorded during the 1993 baseball season. Tribe was a New York City group, Atlanta was something of a second home for Phife, and the reference is timely. The Braves had won the last two National League pennants and were near the start of their record-setting streak of National League East titles. The Yankees, meanwhile, had just turned the corner under 37-year-old manager Buck Showalter, posting their first winning season in five years thanks to the additions of Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key, and Paul O’Neill, and the maturation of 24-year-old centerfielder Bernie Williams. The Yankees would go on to surpass the Braves in the late ‘90s. The Bombers haven’t had a losing season since.

As for A Tribe Called Quest, on the strength of Midnight Marauders, they won Group of the Year at the first-ever Source Awards in April 1994. It was the first major award the group won, but the dominance of gangsta rap in the other categories (winners included Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, and Ice Cube) signaled a changing of the hip hop vanguard. “Award Tour” would be the last Tribe song to crack the top-10 on Billboard’s rap chart.

The Cycle will return on Friday with a recap of the week and a look ahead to the weekend’s action. In the meantime: