The Cycle, Issue 57: AL Awards Watch, Vol. II
Checking in on the races for MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year in the AL, the Cubs' City Connect uniforms, a review of a new book on the Astros scandal, a survey for Cycle readers, and more . . .
In this issue of The Cycle . . .
Reader Survey: which parts of The Cycle do you actually read?
Awards Watch: My latest rankings of the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year candidates in the American League
Rooting for Laundry: The Cubs unveil their City Connect uniforms
The Cycle Book Club: Cheated by Andy Martino
Injured List: Alzolay’s blister, Voth’s nose, and the returns of Joey Votto and Michael Brantley
Transaction Reactions: two notable prospects demoted
Feedback
Closing Credits
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Attention Cyclists!
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Awards Watch: American League
It has been nearly a month since I first checked in on the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year races in the American League. To my surprise, two of those races still have the same leader, though the shape of the race behind them has changed. The AL MVP race, meanwhile, is shaping up to be an all-timer between a blossoming young star having a monster season at the plate, and another young star having a season almost without precedent.
Reminder, these rankings reflect how I would order my ballot if the season ended today. I am a BBWAA member, but do not have an awards vote this year.
All statistics are through the games of Tuesday, June 8 (except deserved run average, which is through Monday, June 7). 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
.276/.313/.548 (135 OPS+), 16 HR, 10 BB, 58 K, 7/10 SB, 211 PA
García is just two off the major-league lead in home runs, but his bat has started to cool over the last week or so. His double Tuesday night was his first extra-base hit in 42 plate appearances, and he is just 5-for-28 (.179) overall in his last eight games, seven of them starts. Curiously, he’s not striking out much during this slump, just twice in his last 21 plate appearances, so this may not be the league catching up to the 28-year-old Cuban as much as a more conventional slump. Still it bears watching, as there is another Garcia in Texas who is gaining quickly in this race.
2. Luis Garcia, RHP, Astros
2.75 ERA (151 ERA+), 59 IP (4.9 IP/G), 28.8 K%, 3.58 K/BB, 3.4 HR%, 3.72 FIP, 3.62 DRA, 12 G, 10 GS
Luis Heibardo Garcia (no accent) opened this season bouncing between the rotation and long relief. He got a longer look in the rotation after Jake Odorizzi returned to the injured list in late April, and in five starts since May 15, he has gone 5–0 with a 1.86 ERA, a 4.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a 0.93 WHIP, holding opponents, including the A’s, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Blue Jays, to a .184/.239/.291 line in 113 plate appearances over that span. This 24-year-old Venezuelan is legit. His cutter is one of the nastiest pitches in baseball, with a 50.5 percent whiff rate, and his slider is similarly effective. In fact all four of his offspeed pitches, adding a changeup and curve, have been so good this season that he threw his fastball just 43 percent of the time in his last start, and that figure could continue to drop as his confidence grows.
3. Nick Madrigal, 2B, White Sox
.305/.349/.421 (117 OPS+), 2 HR, 11 BB, 17 K, 4 3B, 1/3 SB, 212 PA
Nick Madrigal is an undersized second baseman who is above average in the field and on the bases and can reliably slap-hit .300 or better. What has made him a contender in this race has been the introduction of some unexpected power. Madrigal has just two home runs on the season, and he’s hitting doubles at his usual rate, but, prior to this year, he tripled or homered a total of just nine times in 814 plate appearances as a professional. This season, he has six more of those hits in just 212 PA, which means he’s poking a triple or homer two and a half times as often as he had prior to this year. Over his last 19 games it’s four such hits in 78 such plate appearances, or nearly five times his pre-2021 rate. That might be a fluke. Nothing in his batted ball types suggest a chance in approach or that he is actually hitting the ball harder or on a line more often. If so, he’ll likely fade in these standings, but for now, the little 24-year-old is a contender, and a very valuable player on a very good team.
Honorable mention: Casey Mize, Randy Arozarena, Yermín Mercedes, Michael Kopech, Dane Dunning, Emmanuel Clase, Garrett Whitlock
Cy Young
1. Gerrit Cole, RHP, Yankees
2.26 ERA (180 ERA+), 75 2/3 IP (6.3 IP/GS), 36.5 K%, 9.45 K/BB, 2.1 HR%, 1.91 FIP, 2.89 DRA, 12 GS
The bold text above goes a long way toward explaining why Cole remains on the top of this list. Behind those numbers, however, the league’s best pitcher has recently hit what, for him, counts as a rough patch. Cole has allowed five runs in five innings in two of his last four starts for a 4.30 ERA over that stretch and, after walking just three batters through his first 52 2/3 innings this season, has walked eight in 23 frames over host last four outings. Right now it’s just two bad starts out of 12 on the season, but Cole will bear watching as he takes the hill for the 13th time tonight, a start that will even him up with the next two men on this list in terms of appearances.
Meanwhile, the walls appear to be closing in with regard to pitchers’ use of sticky substances on the mound. Cole, whose spin and strikeout rates made a significant jump when he joined the Astros in 2018, was asked point blank on Tuesday if he had ever used a spider tack, one of the controversial sticky substances. Cole, to his credit, did not deny it. The subtext of his response was, I have used what I was taught to use by the previous generation of pitchers who also used it. This isn’t about me, it’s about what has been permitted in this game for decades.
Will Cole’s numbers diminish if MLB cracks down on sticky stuff? Most likely, but he will be far from the only star pitcher affected.
2. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Rays
2.57 ERA (147 ERA+), 84 IP (6.5 IP/GS), 36.1 K%, 4.50 K/BB, 3.1 HR%, 2.84 FIP, 2.98 DRA, 13 GS
Glasnow dominated the Nationals Tuesday night, striking out 11 in seven scoreless innings. That was the fifth of Glasnow’s 13 starts this season in which he went at least seven innings and struck out at least 10, which is the most games of that description in the majors thus far this year. Glasnow has allowed a total of just two runs in 37 2/3 innings in those games, which include two of his last three outings. On the year, he is just one inning behind Shane Bieber for the major-league lead in innings and five strikeouts behind Bieber for the major-league lead in Ks. He bests Bieber here, just barely, because of his advantages in ERA, ERA+, strikeout percentage, K/BB and DRA.
The big question regarding the 27-year-old, 6-foot-8 Glasnow is his durability from this point forward. His 13 starts this season tie his career high, and his 84 innings are his second most, just 27 2/3 frames shy of his major-league high set in 2018. His largest combined workload between the majors and minors was 28 starts and 155 1/3 frames split between Triple-A and the Pirates in 2017.
3. Shane Bieber, RHP, Cleveland
2.96 ERA (146 ERA+), 85 IP (6.5 IP/GS), 34.4 K%, 3.94 K/BB, 2.5 HR%, 2.89 FIP, 3.04 DRA, 13 GS
Unlike Cole and Glasnow, Bieber has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his starts this season (he allowed four runs, with one unearned, just once, back on May 5). The defending AL Cy Young award winner hasn’t been as dominant as he was in roughly the same amount of playing time last year (12 starts, 77 1/3 innings), but he is right back in the thick of this race and asserting his status as one of the league’s elite pitchers.
4. Carlos Rodón, LHP, White Sox [TUE]
1.96 ERA (208 ERA+), 59 2/3 IP (6.0 IP/GS), 37.1 K%, 5.87 K/BB, 2.5 HR%, 2.51 FIP, 3.11 DRA, 10 GS
In terms of rate stats, Rodón belongs right there with the top three men on this list. However, this is his first full season since returning from Tommy John surgery, so the Sox are taking every opportunity to give Rodón extra rest. Eight of his 10 starts thus far have come on extra rest, with five of them coming after six or more days off. Chicago is also giving him a quick hook. Setting aside his April 14 no-hitter, in which he threw 114 pitches, he has not pitched past the sixth inning in any of his other nine starts and has not thrown more than 110 pitches in any of those other games. As a result, he’s roughly 15 innings behind the top men on this list, which is enough to keep him in fourth place.
5. Lance Lynn, RHP, White Sox
1.23 ERA (332 ERA+), 58 2/3 IP (5.9 IP/G), 26. 8 K%, 3.71 K/BB, 2.1 HR%, 3.03 FIP, 3.93 DRA, 10 GS
Lynn has allowed three runs in a game just once all season and is just four outs shy of leading the AL in ERA and ERA+ by a mile, leads he could claim in his start against the Blue Jays Wednesday night. He’s been hit-luck thus far, with a .218 opponent’s average on balls in lay, and doesn’t measure up to the top four men on this list in terms of his peripherals, but when it comes to run prevention, which is a pitcher’s primary goal, no American League starter has been better this season.
6. Kyle Gibson, RHP, Rangers
2.06 ERA (208 ERA+), 65 2/3 IP (6.0 IP/GS), 20.5 K%, 2.79 K/BB, 1.2 HR%, 3.09 FIP, 4.27 DRA, 11 GS
Gibson has been even better than his league-leading ERA suggests, as he was lit up for five runs in just a third of an inning on Opening Day. Since then, he has posted a 1.38 ERA in 65 1/3 innings over 10 starts, which puts him in Lynn’s company in terms of run prevention, and Glasnow, Bieber, and Cole’s company in terms of working deep into games (though he did miss two games with a groin strain). Gibson’s peripherals to compare to the pitchers atop this list, but as an extreme groundballer, he goes about his business a different way, and a sharp decrease in his home-run rate, a drop in walks, and significant luck on balls in play (.225 BABIP) have combined to place him among the best pitchers in the league to this point in the season.
Honorable mentions: John Means, Zack Greinke, Luis Garcia, Chris Bassitt, Aaron Civale
Most Valuable Player
1. Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP, Angels
.261/.346/.606 (155 OPS+), 17 HR, 24 BB, 68 K, 9/12 SB, 231 PA
2.76 ERA (161 ERA+), 42 1/3 IP (5.3 IP/GS), 34.1 K%, 2.31 K/BB, 2.3 HR%, 3.58 FIP, 2.95 DRA, 8 GS
With Mike Trout on the injured list and now roughly 100 plate appearances behind most of the contenders for this award, Shohei Ohtani has been both the Angels’ best hitter and their best pitcher to this point in the season. Leaguewide, Ohtani ranks seventh in the AL in OPS+ among qualified hitters and seventh in ERA+ among pitchers with 40 or more innings pitched. That is to say that, with a small caveat about his availability as a starter (he’s about 20 innings shy of qualifying and roughly four starts shy of pitchers who have stayed on regular rotation all season, due in part due to an early-April blister but also to the Angels’ six-man rotation and some understandable fatigue), he has been equally good on both sides of the ball this year.
With the exception of that blister, which didn’t stop him from hitting, he has been healthy, and, in sharp contrast to his usage patterns in previous years, he has missed just four games all season. He has been in the lineup in five of his eight starts on the mound (all in AL parks where the DH was an option), gone 4-for-13 (.308) with a double, a homer, and two walks in those five games (1.015 OPS), and has even seen a few innings in the outfield (5 1/3 with no fielding chances), both to help his team and keep his bat in the lineup. Did I mention he’s also tied for fifth in the league in stolen bases?
With the possible exception of Babe Ruth’s 1918 season, we’ve never seen a two-way player perform at this level before and it’s difficult to imagine how any player could beat him out for this award if he keeps this up over a full season, though it’s also difficult to image he will be able to do so.
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Blue Jays
.335/.441/.660 (201 OPS+), 18 HR, 36 BB, 37 K, 136 TB, 1/1 SB, 247 PA
Think that slash-stat triple-crown line looks impressive? Since May 11, which just happened to be the cutoff for last month’s Awards Watch, Vladdy has hit .366/.434/.796 with 11 home runs in 25 games. Again, that’s a .796 slugging percentage over his last 106 plate appearances, and he has struck out just 13 times over that span, just twice more than he has homered. By all rights, Guerrero should be running away with this award, but, though he has shown some great field awareness, he is an overall subpar fielder and baserunner. The things Ohtani does outside of the batter’s box more than cover the gap in their production at the plate, in my eyes, but if that gap widens, or Ohtani’s turns in the rotation become more irregular, Guerrero isn’t far behind at all.
3. Cedric Mullins, CF, Orioles
.325/.394/.541 (158 OPS+), 9 HR, 26 BB, 45 K, 75 H, 9/13 SB, 260 PA
Mullins got off to a great start this season, going 9-for-13 in his first three games, and ranked eighth in my AL MVP rankings back on May 12. He cooled off a bit in the second half of May, but he enters Wednesday’s action with an active eight-game hitting streak during which he has gone 17-for-32 (.531) with nine extra-base hits (1.063 slugging) and five walks against just one strikeout. Included in that eight-game stretch are five multi-hit games and a streak of nine consecutive at-bats in which he hit safely and 11 in which he reached base. That all adds up to the AL lead in hits. To that he adds speed on the bases (a net positive despite his sub-par success rate on steals) and superlative play in centerfield, and a look behind the stats suggests that the big leap forward he has made in his age-26 season has been real. His strikeouts and walk rates are both career bests. He’s hitting the ball harder, more often on a line, with an up-the-middle approach, and, despite all those hits dropping in, his batting average on balls in play isn’t unsustainably high.
4. Marcus Semien, 2B, Blue Jays
.292/.362/.524 (143 OPS+), 13 HR, 25 BB, 64 K, 8/8 SB, 260 PA
This year’s Marcus Semien looks an awful lot like the one that finished third in the AL MVP voting for the A’s in 2019. The big differences, other than the uniform, are that his outstanding play in the field is primarily coming on the other side of second base this year, and that he’s having the best season of his career as a basestealer. In 2019, Semien hit .285/.369/.522 (140 OPS+), but his best year on the bases was 2017, when he stole 12 of 13. He already has eight steals this year and hasn’t been caught once.
5. José Ramírez, 3B, Cleveland
.271/.353/.546 (143 OPS+), 14 HR, 25 BB, 32 K, 6/8 SB, 238 PA
Ramírez, who finished second in last year’s AL MVP voting, matches Semien in OPS+ and is also a superlative fielder and baserunner. I slot him in behind Semien here in large part because of his deficit in playing time, but he’s gaining ground, having gone 10-for-24 (.417) with three doubles and two homers in his last six games.
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS, Red Sox
.321/.380/.532 (148 OPS+), 10 HR, 20 BB, 46 K, 4/4 SB, 242 PA
I’ve grown accustomed to Bogaerts being an outstanding hitter but a sub-par defensive shortstop. Thus far this year, however, the defensive metrics like his play in the field. I’m being a bit conservative here, as I’m not ready to trust a mere two months of fielding stats over Bogaerts’ well-established level of play in the field
7. Aaron Judge, RF, Yankees
.289/.394/.529 (159 OPS+), 14 HR, 35 BB, 59 K, 241 PA
I’m taking a similar approach with Judge, who has established himself as an above-average fielder and baserunner, but has received low marks in both categories this season. I’m not trusting those small sample numbers all that much yet, though, even if we assume Bogaerts and Judge have both been exactly average in the field, Bogaerts has the advantage of playing shortstop, a far more valuable position.
8. Yoán Moncada, 3B, White Sox
.292/.419/.426 (141 OPS+), 5 HR, 40 BB, 69 K, 1/1 SB, 248 PA
Moncada’s fielding statistics have been a bit all over the place in his young career, so I’m hedging against the positive numbers he has had in the field thus far. He’s getting it done a bit differently than his fellow 140-odd OPS+ infielders, contributing more by getting on base than hitting for extra bases, but, if those fielding stats are to be believed, he is contributing in all facets of the game despite a lack of steals and a relative dearth of power.
9. Carlos Correa, SS, Astros
.288/.372/.502 (142 OPS+), 11 HR, 29 BB, 38 K, 250 PA
Correa lacks the baserunning value of Semien and Ramírez and falls short of Bogaerts at the plate. Mix in a poor fielding grade from Baseball Prospectus’s Fielding Runs Above Average (a sharp contrast to his good numbers in other metrics), and I’m hedging with him a bit here, as well.
10. Matt Olson, 1B, A’s
.274/.363/.567 (164 OPS+), 15 HR, 26 BB, 39 K, 0/1 SB, 234 PA
Olson is second in the AL with a 164 OPS+. Given his usually outstanding play in the field, that should make him an easy top-five player in these rankings, but the defensive metrics are hating on him in the early going. I find it difficult to believe that Olson’s fielding has fallen so far so suddenly, so I’m keeping him in my top 10, but I’m doing so in defiance of his wins above replacement stats to this point in the season.
Honorable mention: Yuli Gurriel, Rafael Devers, Mark Canha, Jared Walsh, J.D. Martinez, Adolis García, Ramón Laureano, Mike Trout, and the top three pitchers on the Cy Young list
Awards Watch will return next Wednesday with a look at the NL races!
Rooting for Laundry
Cubs Unveil “Wrigleyville” City Connect Uniforms
The Cubs will become the fourth team to don a new City Connect uniform this weekend, joining the Red Sox, Marlins, and White Sox. Those new Cubs unis were revealed on Tuesday, and they are the first in the series to be less interesting than the team’s standard home uniforms.
There’s nothing particularly objectionable about these new Cubs alternates, and, as with all of these City Connect looks, there are some fun details, but the overall look is pretty boring. It’s a navy jersey over navy pants (a combination the Cubs last wore on the road from 1911 to 1913, though I very much doubt these uniforms are intentionally throwing back to that look) with power-blue highlights (one stripe on the sleeves, one stripe down the leg of the pants, powder-blue number on the front of the jersey, powder-blue belt/undershirts/socks), and “Wrigleyville” across the chest in white outlined in powder blue with the word arched to mimic the way the words “Wrigley Field” appear on the ballpark’s famous marquee. Here are Anthony Rizzo, Javier Báez, Jason Heyward, and Joc Pederson modelling the new look:
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Ho-hum. The interesting details, beyond the shape of the wordmark arching, are largely limited to the patch on the left sleeve. Here’s a closeup of that patch and the new cap:
The red stars, as well as the shade of powder blue, are from the excellent and iconic flag of the city of Chicago. The “Y” shape in the circle is what is known as “the municipal device of Chicago,” a symbol used throughout the city inspired by the fork in the Chicago River, which runs through the city and is one of Chicago’s best features. Indeed, the sleeve patch bears a significant resemblance to the seal of the Chicago Public Library. It’s a little frustrating that the inner circle on the patch isn’t divided into even thirds, as on the library seal, but that unequal division does match the version of the device on the Chicago Theater marquee.
A supplemental look that will be seen on warmup jackets, some pairs of spikes, and what I’ve just learned are called the “base jewels” (those graphic elements on the sides of the bases) features the names of all 77 of Chicago’s neighborhoods (the neighborhoods are supposedly the theme of these uniforms, not that you could tell from the actual uniforms) with Lakeview, Wrigley Field’s home, in contrast-colored red. I had to look this up, but apparently those neighborhoods are official designations known, properly, as community areas. Wrigleyville is not one of the 77 community areas, but is one of seven subsections of Lakeview, which is one of the 77.
The Cubs will wear these uniforms against the Cardinals this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Next week, we’ll get a look at the Diamondbacks’ City Connect uniforms, which I feel confident will be much more interesting than these, though it remains to be seen if that will be a good thing or not.
The Cycle Book Club
Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing by Andy Martino
Andy Martino, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Daily News, covers the New York teams for SNY, the Mets’ network. Cheated is, best I can tell, his first book and the first effort anyone has made to wrangle the Astros’ cheating scandal into a coherent narrative and put it between book covers. Martino, who does excellent work in his day job, has largely succeeded in that challenging task, and that is this book’s primary accomplishment. Martino has taken all of the bits and pieces of information that have come out about the Astros and the related sign-stealing scandals of recent years, excavated the history and motivations behind them, nailed down the details and connective tissue, and presented it in a coherent and linear manner that helps to explain exactly what happened, how it happened, who was responsible for what, and why no one stopped it.
There aren’t any great revelations in this book in terms of the mechanics of the scandal itself. Cheated is more clarifying than revealing, and the writing is fairly pedestrian (I should note that I read an uncorrected proof that seemed a bit further away from the final product than those typically are, so there’s a chance that some of the flatter sections were punched up before publication). However, I did find Martino’s tracing of the paths that the major figures in the scandal—Carlos Beltrán, Alex Cora, A.J. Hinch, Jeff Luhnow—took to the now-infamous 2017 season to be revelatory.
Via Beltrán’s teammates on the 2006 and ’07 Mets, Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green, Martino traces Beltrán’s expertise at decoding signs back to Cito Gaston’s insistence that his 1993 Blue Jays, which included Delgado and Green as rookies, learn to decode the opposing catcher’s signs from second base. Martino details the manner in which the light-hitting, hypercompetitive Cora was able to make himself a more valuable teammate via his own ability to decode signs and detect tells. Perhaps most fascinatingly, Martino details the way in which the experience of losing the clubhouse during his first managerial job with the Diamondbacks created an insecurity in Hinch that prevented him from extinguishing the sign-stealing scheme concocted by his players and coaches in Houston.
Those stories, as well as a look behind the scenes at the inner workings of the Astros front office—including widespread objections to the acquisition of accused domestic abuser Roberto Osuna, including, bewilderingly, from assistant general manager Brandon Taubman, whose drunken bragging about Osuna directed toward three female reporters would later derail his career in baseball—add fascinating and necessary context to a contemporary story from which we previously seemed to have only the juicy details but little of the larger picture.
As for the second half of the book’s subtitle, “and a colorful history of sign stealing,” there is less of that in this book that I would have liked. Martino does do an excellent job of fleshing out the story of the 1900 Phillies’ third-base buzzer scheme, which is understood to be the first attempt at electronic sign stealing in major-league history, but he rather quickly skims by the 1951 Giants and the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, despite devoting a chapter to them. Beyond those and a few other anecdotes, he doesn’t really present much else that could be considered a “history of sign stealing.” I say that confidently because I wrote a piece for The Athletic during the 2018 postseason, when the rumors about the Astros sign-stealing were still only rumors, that I believe, with the exception of Martino’s work on the 1900 Phillies, does a better job of detailing the history of sign stealing in 2,500 words than Martino does in three, admittedly brief, chapters here. I mention this only because the subtitle promises more than the book delivers in that regard. While I’m being fussy, I must also note that this book lacks an index, which is an automatic demerit for any work of non-fiction.
None of that detracts from what the book does well, other than perhaps delaying the arrival of the primary narrative by about 20 pages. One does get a sense that we still don’t know the full story about sign-stealing and related cheating in Major League Baseball over the last half decade or so. After all, we’re less than three weeks removed from former catcher Erik Kratz accusing the Rockies and (under a thin veil of deniability) the Dodgers of comparable sign-stealing efforts. So, it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that Cheated will date poorly. At least Martino, and his readers, are clear-eyed about that possibility, unlike my former Sports Illustrated colleague Ben Reiter, who claims to have been blindsided by the scandal, which broke a year and a half after he published Astroball: The New Way to Win It All in July 2018. Cheated works as a corrective to Astroball and succeeds in turning headlines into history with admirable speed, depth, and detail, but my guess is it will prove to be far from the final word on sign-stealing in baseball in the late 2010s.
Injured List
Activated:
Reds 1B Joey Votto
Astros LF Michael Brantley
Pirates UT Phillip Evans and RHP Mitch Keller
Mariners 2B Shed Long Jr.
Cubs OF Jake Marisnick and RHP Alec Mills
Twins UT Rob Refsnyder
Phillies RHPs Chase Anderson and David Hale
Orioles RHP Mac Sceroler
Placed on IL:
Cubs RHP Adbert Alzolay: right middle finger blister
This blister ruined Alzolay’s start against the Padres on Monday night, in which he walked a season-high five batters in a season-low three innings and allowed four runs for the first time since his first start of the year. In between that first start and Monday, the 26-year-old posted a 3.26 ERA in nine starts with a 6.00 strikeout to walk ratio. Kohl Stewart, who had just been demoted on Monday to make room for Jake Marisnick’s return, has been restored to the active-roster and will likely take Alzolay’s spot in the rotation.
Nationals RHP Austin Voth: nose fracture
Making his first start of the season on Sunday, Voth squared to bunt in the top of the third and took a fastball off the schnozz. Voth suffered multiple fractures and needed surgery to repair his nose, so he’ll be out quite a bit longer than Max Scherzer was when he bunted a ball into his own face two years ago and pitched with a black eye the next day. Ryan Harper replaces Voth, who had pitched out of the bullpen this season prior to Sunday.
Blue Jays C Danny Jansen: right hamstring strain
Jansen, who is having a brutal season and is starting to look like a bust given his career 75 OPS+ in 748 plate appearances, suffered this injury sliding into third base on Sunday. Riley Adams, a career .265/.366/.422 hitter in the minors who will turn 25 later this month, was called up to replace Jansen and made his major league debut with a start against the White Sox on Tuesday night.
Phillies RHP Brandon Kintzler: neck strain
Kintzler has had a rough season and cedes his bullpen spot to David Hale’s return from the IL.
Marlins LHP Daniel Castano: left shoulder impingement
Castano made three starts for the Marlins in late April and a spot start in early May, all with underwhelming results. Called back up on Monday to fill the spot of demoted centerfielder Lewis Brinson, Castano felt something in his shoulder during a pregame catch and landed on the IL. Fellow lefty Braxton Garrett takes his roster spot.
Reds RHP Michael Feliz: right elbow
No word on the exact nature of this injury, but the move cleared room for Joey Votto’s return from the IL. Feliz had been lousy in roughly half of his relief appearances since being claimed off waivers from the Pirates in early May.
Transaction Reactions
I typically limit this section to players switching teams, but, in the absence of such moves the last two days, these two demotions of notable prospects seemed worth comment.
Mariners option Jarred Kelenic to Triple-A Tacoma
Since going 3-for-4 with two doubles and a homer in his second game, Kelenic had gone 5-for-75 (.067) with just one more extra-base hit. Thus, in a bizarre twist, the Mariners, who were a game below .500 entering Tuesday’s action, demoted their top prospect to Triple-A because they’re trying to win. That move made room for Shed Long’s return from the IL. As for Kelenic, he won’t turn 22 until mid-July. he’ll be back, possibly by then.
Phillies outright UT Scott Kingery off the 40-man roster
The Phillies had so much confidence in Kingery as a prospect that they signed him to a six-year, $24 million contract in March 2018, before he had ever played a major-league game, and gave him a spot on that year’s Opening Day roster. Kingery posted a 61 OPS+ that year and has hit .229/.280/.387 (75 OPS+) in 1,127 major-league at-bats since singing that deal. Now 27, he was demoted to Triple-A in early May for the first time since signing his contract in early May, has been on the injured list with a concussion since May 26, and has gone 6-for-39 (.154) with no walks and 22 strikeouts in 40 plate appearances split between Triple-A and the majors this year.
Kingery has recovered from his concussion, but rather than activate him, the Phillies have chosen to outright him off the roster. Because of his contract and his dismal performance as a major-leaguer, he sailed through waivers. He’ll now report to Lehigh Valley knowing that, despite being signed through 2026, he’ll have to earn another chance with the big-league club.
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Closing Credits
Sure, I could go with any number of versions of Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart” here, or “The Card Cheat,” the Clash’s attempt at a Wall of Sound, or even Jane’s Addiction’s breakout hit “Been Caught Stealin’.” Instead, I’m going with a more obscure song that conjugates the verb “to cheat” the same way Andy Martino’s book title does.
“Cheated and Lied” sounds like a lost 1960s garage-rock single, but it was actually recorded in 1984 by a New York quintet called The Vipers, not to be confused with the Irish new-wave band the Vipers that broke up in 1980, nor the Brazilian heavy metal band Viper, which formed in 1985. The garage-rock Vipers don’t have much of a digital footprint. They don’t have a Wikipedia page, and you can’t Google the lyrics to “Cheated and Lied,” which, to the extent that I can understand them, appear to be pretty typical relationship stuff.
Best I can tell, the Vipers made two albums, their debut, Outta the Nest!, in 1984, and How About Somemore? four years later in 1988. The debut is apparently a lost garage-rock (or garage-rock-aping) classic, and it is that album that gives us “Cheated and Lied.” I’ll admit that I didn’t get the song from the original album. Rather, I found it on the outstanding 2005 boxed set Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976–1995. Children of Nuggets is the third in the essential Nuggets box set series and a collection that nearly rivals the initial expansion of the classic garage-rock compilation.
That’s hardly an inappropriate source. Vipers lead singer Jon Weiss was instrumental in sustaining interest in that classic garage-rock sound into the current century, launching the short-lived Cavestomp! festival in 1997. Cavestomp! would pair 1960s garage rock acts with revivalist such as the Vipers and their decedents. The year after that festival launched, the first Nuggets box set came out. The combination of the two later inspired Steven Van Zandt’s Underground Garage satellite radio show, which launched in 2003, eventually expanded to an entire channel on Sirius XM, and likely sustained interest in that Nuggets sound long enough for Children of Nuggets to come out in 2005. Its thus entirely possible that, if not for the efforts of Weiss to keep garage rock alive beyond the lifespan of his band, I wouldn’t know of the Vipers to share their music with you today.
The Cycle will return on Friday with the usual recap/preview stuff. In the meantime, don’t forget to take the reader survey, and there’s always these: