The Cycle, Issue 60: NL Awards Watch, Vol. II

Awards Watch updates the NL MVP, CY & ROY races, MLB to crack down on sticky-stuff starting Monday, D'backs' new unis, B-Ref's Negro League project, Mudcat Grant, injured aces, Glasnow's rant & more

In this issue of The Cycle . . .

• Awards Watch: Ranking the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year contenders in the National League

• Rooting for Laundry: The Diamondbacks become Los Serpientes via their City Connect uniforms

• Newswire: MLB’s sticky-stuff crackdown to begin on Monday; Baseball-Reference integrates the Negro Leagues; Jim “Mudcat” Grant (1935–2021)

• Injured List: Three Cy Young contenders hit the shelf, Nick Madrigal is out for the year, plus Cody Bellinger, Andrew Benintendi, and many more

• Transaction Reactions: A’s pick up Bob Melvin’s option plus some minor player moves

• Feedback

• Closing Credits

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Awards Watch: National League

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 15 (except deserved run average, which is through Monday, June 14). 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. Trevor Rogers, LHP, Marlins

1.98 ERA (203 ERA+), 81 2/3 IP (5.8 IP/GS), 29.7 K%, 3.65 K/BB, 1.3 HR%, 2.50 FIP, 3.64 DRA, 14 GS

This one isn’t close. Rogers has allowed three earned runs in just one of his 14 starts on the season and has allowed just two unearned runs all year. The only start in which he failed to complete at least five innings was his first, in which he completed four. Only three times all year has he finished a start to find his ERA for the season above 1.99. The competition for the Cy Young is a little rich for this 23-year-old's blood, but if he keeps this up, the former 13th overall pick will absolutely receive some votes for that award in addition to wining this one unanimously.

2. Ian Anderson, RHP, Braves

3.26 ERA (135 ERA+), 66 1/3 IP (5.5 IP/GS), 25.1 K%, 2.65 K/BB, 2.2 HR%, 3.48 FIP, 3.47 DRA, 12 GS

Anderson seemed to emerged fully formed as the Braves’ ace down the stretch last year, and though he has been pitching more like a number-two or strong three thus far this year, this 23-year-old has been Atlanta’s best starter on the season.

3. Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Marlins

.271/.337/.470 (123 OPS+), 8 HR, 14 BB, 60 K, 9/11 SB, 184 PA

Chisholm hasn’t been as electric since returning from his hamstring in jury in mid-May, hitting just .258/.308/.412 in 104 plate appearances and getting caught in half of his four stolen base attempts. He’s still a lot of fun to watch and, at 23, his future remains bright, but he’s sinking back into the pack in a race for an award most likely to be won by his teammate.

Honorable mention: Dylan Carlson, Ryan Weathers, Pavin Smith, Patrick Wisdom, Tyler Stephenson, and Jonathan India

Cy Young

1. Jacob deGrom, RHP, Mets

0.56 ERA (687 ERA+), 64 IP (6.4 IP/GS), 46.2 K%, 12.88 K/BB, 1.4 HR%, 0.93 FIP, 2.02 DRA, 10 GS

The Best Pitcher in Baseball has missed three starts due to injury, but he still qualifies for the ERA title, and his dominance thus far this season is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Zack Britton posted a 0.54 ERA in 67 innings of relief in 2016. That translated to an 803 ERA+ in that more robust offensive environment, but Britton’s peripherals were on a human scale (29.1 K%, 4.11 K/BB, 1.94 FIP). Jake Arrieta posted a 0.41 ERA over his final 12 starts in 2015. That spanned 88 1/3 innings, but, again, his peripherals were “normal”: 27.8 K%, 6.36 K/BB. In Bob Gibson’s best 10-start stretch in 1968, he allowed just two runs in 90 innings for an 0.20 ERA, completed all 10 games and threw eight shutouts. That’s a different kind of bonkers that even deGrom can’t compete against, but even Gibson’s peripherals were comparatively conventional, as he struck out just 23 percent of the batters he faced, less than half of deGrom’s percentage, and had an, admittedly robust for the time, 6.25 K/BB. Even in the Negro Leagues, Eugene Bremer’s single-season record 0.71 ERA came in just 50 2/3 innings back in 1937, when strikeout rates were miniscule by today’s standard (Bremer’s was 12.8 percent with a 2.78 K/BB and a 2.75 FIP), putting him well shy of deGrom in every category.

The closest we’ve seen to what deGrom is doing in terms of combining run prevention and strike-zone dominance over a comparable sample is probably Dennis Eckersley’s 1990 season or Craig Kimbrel’s 2017. In 1990, Eck posted a 0.61 ERA (603 ERA+) in 73 1/3 innings, walked just four batters and allowed just two home runs. That gave the future Hall of Famer an 18.25 K/BB and a 1.34 FIP, but he still struck out just 27.9 percent of the batters he faced. In 2017 Kimbrel struck out 49.6 percent of the batters he faced with a 9.00 K/BB, a 1.42 FIP and 1.43 ERA (319 ERA+) in 69 innings. However, both were doing it in short relief (though, contrary to reputation, Eck entered a game in the eighth inning 21 times in 1990 and had 23 outings of four or more outs that year). What deGrom has done thus far this season is dominating like the best short relievers the game has ever seen, but doing it as a starting pitcher turning over opposing lineups multiple times. That’s not supposed to happen.

Here’s how deGrom’s opponents have fared each time through the lineup (sOPS+ is OPS+ relative to the league-wide performance in that split):

So, yeah, deGrom is a bit behind some of his competitors in innings pitched. He’s still been the best pitcher in the National League this year, and it’s not close.

2. Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Brewers

1.52 ERA (270 ERA+), 83 IP (6.4 IP/GS), 31.5 K%, 5.71 K/BB, 2.0 HR%, 2.49 FIP, 2.62 DRA, 13 GS

3. Kevin Gausman, RHP, Giants

1.43 ERA (270 ERA+), 81 2/3 (6.3 IP/GS), 31.4 K%, 5.29 K/BB, 1.9 HR%, 2.40 FIP, 3.00 DRA, 13 GS

These two have had astonishingly similar seasons thus far. Woodruff has just the slightest edge in the majority of the categories, and a significant lead in deserved run average, which tells us that, even if their results have been very similar, Woodruff has been pitching better. Thus, the 6-foot-4 28-year-old righty gets the edge over the 6-foot-2 30-year-old righty.

Woodruff hasn’t allowed three runs in a start since he did so on Opening Day, and he has failed to complete six innings just once since then. Gausman has similarly fallen short of six innings just twice and has allowed more multiple earned runs in just two starts all season, but one of those saw him cough up five runs, all earned, which remains more than a third of his season total.

4. Zack Wheeler, RHP, Phillies

2.29 ERA (170 ERA+), 90 1/3 IP (6.9 IP/GS), 32.4 K%, 6.22 K/BB, 2.0 HR%, 2.39 FIP, 2.74 DRA, 13 GS

Wheeler is the big gainer on in this month’s standings. Over his last seven starts, he has posted a 1.39 ERA, struck out 37 percent of the batters he has faced with an 11.83 K/BB and averaged 7.4 innings per start. That run started with a shutout of the Brewers on May 6 and, in his most recent turn, he threw eight scoreless, walk-less innings against the Braves while striking out 12.

5. Trevor Rogers, LHP, Marlins

1.98 ERA (203 ERA+), 81 2/3 IP (5.8 IP/GS), 29.7 K%, 3.65 K/BB, 1.3 HR%, 2.50 FIP, 3.64 DRA, 14 GS

Rogers’s peripherals are weak relative to the men ahead of him on this list, which is why I suspect this is about as high as he is going to get in these rankings barring injury to the pitchers ahead of him (which, given this week’s rash of injuries to Cy Young contenders, I hesitate to even type). Still, his combination of run prevention and workload bests the impressive list of pitchers receiving honorable mention.

Honorable mention: Corbin Burnes, Max Scherzer, Freddy Peralta, Yu Darvish, Walker Buehler, Taijuan Walker, and Marcus Stroman

Most Valuable Player

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., SS, Padres

.273/.346/.647 (178 OPS+), 20 HR, 23 BB, 60 K, 13/15 SB, 214 PA

Two brief injured-list stints have put Tatis 50 plate appearances behind two of his closest competitors, making this a very tight race. However, Tatis’s season is even more remarkable when you remember that he is playing with a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder and having fought off COVID-19. Even without that context, he is an athletic shortstop who is leading his league in home runs and stolen bases, not to mention OPS+ and slugging, and has an 87 percent success rate on steal attempts. Tatis actually grades out a bit below average in the field, but per FanGraph’s Baserunning Runs Above Average, Tatis has been the most valuable baserunner in the majors this year, adding nearly a half a win with his legs alone to this point in the season. Add that to his bat and his position, and this is an insanely valuable player, the most valuable in the league thus far this season, in my opinion.

2. Max Muncy, 1B/2B, Dodgers

.264/.418/.528 (165 OPS+), 14 HR, 46 BB, 50 K, 1/1 SB, 244 PA

Muncy is currently on the IL with an oblique strain, but the Dodgers are hoping he won’t miss much more than the minimum, which would still keep him ahead of Tatis in terms of playing time. Muncy is fascinating and deceptive player. It’s rare that you find a stocky, three-true-outcome hitter who is also extremely valuable in the field and on the bases. Despite his stocky appearance, the 6-foot, 215-pound Muncy has roughly average footspeed, and is an extremely smart baserunner. In the field, he has great hands, reflexes, and instincts, experience at all three bases, and is completely viable at second base, where he has started 101 games in parts of four seasons with the Dodgers, including 15 thus far this year. It’s what he does outside of the batter’s box that puts him ahead of Tatis’s other challengers in this race.

3. Nick Castellanos, RF, Reds

.351/.405/.616 (164 OPS+), 13 HR, 20 BB, 52 K, 2/3 SB, 85 H, 23 2B, 149 TB, 264 PA

4. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves

.285/.390/.597 (159 OPS+), 18 HR, 36 BB, 60 K, 13/17 SB, 264 PA

Generally speaking, I use wins above replacement as a check or a guide when making these rankings. Typically, I will rank the players based on the statistics listed and a consideration of their position, fielding, and baserunning. Only then will I consult the wins above replacement statistics at Baseball-Reference, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs. If there is a significant disagreement between my rankings and those leaderboards, I’ll investigate the reasons behind the difference, but I won’t blindly follow what the WAR stats say, because often (and this is particularly true in for NL hitters this season) the three systems will disagree. When they all agree, however, I have to consider that there really is something I’m missing. That’s the case with the relative values of Castellanos and Acuña.

From the stats above, we can see that they have both had the exact same number of plate appearances. Acuña trails Castellanos by just five points of OPS+, but has significant added value on the bases, as suggested by his stolen base numbers (advanced baserunning stats confirm). They both play the same position and grade out as slightly sub-par in the field, but the advanced defensive statistics favor Acuña over Castellanos in the pastures. To my mind, those advantages on the bases and in the field are enough to overcome that mere five points of OPS+ and should place Acuña ahead of Castellanos.

However, all three WAR stats (bWAR, WARP, and fWAR) place Castellanos ahead of Acuña. I can’t figure out why. WAR can’t see all of that black ink in Castellanos’s stat line, it’s a purely objective statistical formula. Still, given how close the two are and that all three stats agree, I’ll concede and give Castellanos the edge for now.

5. Jacob deGrom, RHP, Mets

0.56 ERA (687 ERA+), 64 IP (6.4 IP/GS), 46.2 K%, 12.88 K/BB, 1.4 HR%, 0.93 FIP, 2.02 DRA, 10 GS

6. Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Brewers

1.52 ERA (270 ERA+), 83 IP (6.4 IP/GS), 31.5 K%, 5.71 K/BB, 2.0 HR%, 2.49 FIP, 2.62 DRA, 13 GS

7. Kevin Gausman, RHP, Giants

1.43 ERA (270 ERA+), 81 2/3 (6.3 IP/GS), 31.4 K%, 5.29 K/BB, 1.9 HR%, 2.40 FIP, 3.00 DRA, 13 GS

8. Zack Wheeler, RHP, Phillies

2.29 ERA (170 ERA+), 90 1/3 IP (6.9 IP/GS), 32.4 K%, 6.22 K/BB, 2.0 HR%, 2.39 FIP, 2.74 DRA, 13 GS

The argument could be made that the top four men in the Cy Young race should be the top four in the MVP race, as well. The pitching in the NL has been that good thus far this year. To be sporting and keep thing interesting, I’m inserting the top four here, instead, separating the four most obvious non-pitcher MVP contenders (assuming a quick return from Muncy) from those whose candidacies have at least one significant strike against them.

9. Buster Posey, C, Giants

.327/.400/.564 (169 OPS+), 11 HR, 19 BB, 32 K, 185 PA

The strike against Posey is playing time. As a 34-year-old catcher, he gets ample days off. As he should, and that appears to be doing an excellent job of keeping his bat and legs fresh. Still, he has had just 70 percent as many plate appearances as Acuña and Castellanos, so while he gets a significant boost from his value both as a hitter who can occupy the catching position and as an outstanding defensive catcher, that is undermined somewhat by his corresponding need for regular rest. Note that while Posey’s hitting stats greatly resemble those of his previous MVP campaign in 2012 (.336/.408/.549, 171 OPS+), he got regular starts at first base that season to keep his bat in the lineup. Thus far this year, he has only started behind the plate, and less frequently, at that.

10. Jesse Winker, LF, Reds

.344/.418/.630 (171 OPS+), 17 HR, 25 BB, 44 K, 256 PA

The strike against Winker is that he’s lousy in the field and on the bases. The former so much so that he would be no less valuable as a full-time designated hitter.

11. Kris Bryant, OF/UT, Cubs

.292/.374/.544 (156 OPS+), 13 HR, 26 BB, 59 K, 3/5 SB, 257 PA

Bryant has started all but six of the Cubs’ games this season, is a good baserunner, and has increased his value with his ability to move around the diamond as an injury replacement, starting at least 10 games at five different positions (in order: left field, right field, third base, centerfield, and first base). The reason he just misses the top 10 is that his bat has gone cold in June. He was just 6-for-41 (.146) with three walks and two extra-base hits on the month before getting hit on the right hand by a pitch in his first at-bat on Tuesday. X-rays on Bryant’s hand were negative, but any lingering discomfort in that hand isn’t going to help him get his groove back at the plate.

Honorable mention: Tyler O’Neill, Brandon Crawford, Bryan Reynolds, Chris Taylor, J.T. Realmuto, Evan Longoria, Trent Grisham, Adam Frazier, Omar Narváez, Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts

Rooting for Laundry

Diamondbacks unveil “Serpientes” City Connect uniforms

The Arizona Diamondbacks became the fifth team to reveal their City Connect uniforms on Sunday. Much like the Marlins, the D’backs’ new uniforms are less about a connection to their home city than to that city’s Hispanic population and the larger region in general. At the impetus of team president and CEO Derrick Hall, who discussed the new look with SportsLogo’s Chris Creamer, the team’s new jerseys rechristen the team the “Serpientes” and will effectively replace the team’s discarded “Los D-backs” jerseys. Here’s the new look, as modelled by Carson Kelly, Eduardo Escobar, and David Peralta:

Image source: @Dbacks

The base color is the same Sonoran Sand that they’ve been using as a subtle highlight color, while the highlight colors here are their standard black and Sedona red, the latter used sparingly.

I love the script “Serpientes,” in which the S and underline are formed by a rattlesnake with diamond shapes in its rattle, but almost everything else about these uniforms leaves me a bit cold. The black-on-sand has a desert-soldier feel, which I find troubling. Beyond that, it feels washed out and sun-bleached. They even sucked the color out of Arizona’s beautiful state flag for the patch on the right sleeve. The team’s diamond-backed “A” logo is in monochrome black on both the left sleeve and the cap, which is sand with a black bill. The only red is in the flag, the Dodgers-like number on the front, and the player name on the back (the numbers on the back are also black).

Beyond the script on the front, the only fun detail on these uniforms won’t even be visible on the field. That’s a Valley of the Sun patch with a V-shaped snake with a head formed from the old “db” logo surrounding a red sun, which will be stitched near the label on the lower part of the jersey and tucked into the players’ pants. That logo does appear on the corresponding Stance socks, but the colors have been reversed, so the sun is tan, and it will only be visible on players who wear their cuffs high. I don’t love that logo, but one thing the first four City Connect jerseys all delivered was compelling little details. This one does not.

These “Serpientes” jerseys are a dramatic upgrade, both visually and linguistically, on the “Los D-backs” abominations, but on their own, they’re quite bland. Also, we have yet to see them paired with pants. Creamer reports that they will be worn with standard home white or road grey pants. I think they might look sharp with white pants at home, but on the road they would have been better off with matching sand pants. I would also like to see the team ditch the sand cap and wear this jersey with their standard black cap with the red “A.” I think that would give them a much-needed injection of color, and the black cap would look much sharper than that washed out sand.

The Diamondbacks will debut this new uniform this Friday, and also has plans to wear it on July 16, July 30, August 13, and during the September 24–26 Dodgers series, which spans Hispanic Heritage Weekend and Roberto Clemente Day. Beyond that, Hall says that he expects this uniform to become part of the team’s regular rotation, as the Los D-backs jerseys had been, so we could be seeing this one a lot, perhaps even often enough for them to try it with a different cap.

Two teams remain on this year’s City Connect schedule. The Giants, who will debut their new uniform on July 9, and the Dodgers, who will do so in late August. All 30 teams will have City Connect uniforms by the end of the 2023 season.

Newswire

MLB to begin cracking down on sticky stuff on Monday

Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday that its long-threatened enforcement of the ban on the use of foreign substances by pitchers will begin on Monday, June 21. That enforcement will require umpires to thoroughly check starting pitchers more than once per game and relievers at least once. Mandatory checks will include, at minimum, inspecting the cap, glove, and fingertips of the pitcher, and will be conducted between innings or during pitching changes so as to avoid delaying the game. Relievers must be checked when they first leave the field, be it at the end of their first inning of work or when they are removed from a game mid-inning.

Umpires are also authorized to perform additional checks of pitchers or other players during the game if their suspicion is aroused by a sticky ball or seeing a pitcher or position player appearing to load up the ball or his fingers. Catchers will also be subject to routine inspections, though the details of those were not provided.

Pitchers found to be loading up the ball will be immediately ejected. If a position player is found to be loading up the ball, both he and the pitcher will be ejected. Position players will not be ejected for having sticky stuff on their person if the umpire does not believe that it was being intentionally applied to the ball. Refusal to cooperate with an inspection will result in automatic ejection. Rosin bags will remain in use, but mixing other substances, such as sunscreen, with rosin will result in an ejection, and pitchers are being advised not to use sunscreen after dark or in closed-roof stadiums.

All ejections for sticky-stuff violations will be followed by a 10-game suspension, a duration that has been on the books for years in rule 3.01. Suspended players cannot be replaced on the active roster.

In addition to all of that, MLB has threatened suspensions, fines, and even placement on the ineligible list for “any club employee who encourages a player to use foreign substances, or otherwise trains a player how to utilize a foreign substance in violation of the rules.”

In anticipation of this crackdown, pitchers have already begun to transition away from their usual sticky-stuff routines. Some of the observed drops in spin rate have not been sufficiently dramatic to indicate a complete cessation of the practice, but we had our first open discussion of that transition on Tuesday when injured Rays ace Tyler Glasnow speculated that the change in his routine contributed to his injury (see Injured List below). Glasnow and Max Scherzer, the latter of whom is on the Players’ Association’s executive board, are just two of the frontline starters who have expressed dismay at the fact that this crackdown is happening mid-season, rather than over the winter, when pitchers would have an opportunity to experiment and make adjustments to their new reality. For its part, MLB says that it intends to “monitor the effect of this policy on competition, and on player health, and may make future modifications.”

B-Ref takes big step forward in integration of Negro League data

Independent of Major League Baseball’s December 2020 decision to recognize the Negro Leagues as major leagues, Baseball-Reference has undertaken a major project to advance the collective understanding of and available information about the Negro Leagues. The project, which B-Ref is calling “The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues” strikes me as baseball’s version of the Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 project.

On Tuesday, Baseball-Reference announced a major advancement in that project, unveiling updated and newly organized Negro League data on their site, a limited-run podcast, and 13 essays on the Negro Leagues, their legacy, and their statistics by authors from Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick to former All-Star Adam Jones, historians and statisticians such as Gary Gillette and Seamheads’ Larry Lester, and even Josh Gibson’s great grandson.

With regard to the statistics, the seven major Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 now have pages the resemble the American and National League pages Baseball-Reference users are familiar with. For example, here’s the 1931 Negro National League, with the usual standings, hitting, pitching, and fielding sections. Here’s the team page for the 1931 St. Louis Stars, complete with color logo from Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net, headshots of the team’s 12-best players per bWAR, and the players’ stat lines organized by position and playing time, complete with advanced stats such as OPS+, ERA+, and wins above replacement. There is no game-level data (no team schedule and results, no game logs or splits for the players), because that information doesn’t exist, but these new pages allow fans and historians to peruse these leagues, teams, and players with an unprecedented ease and familiarity.

Baseball-Reference has also integrated the statistics from those seven leagues into their leaderboards, Stathead search results, and added those statistics to the career totals of players who played in both the segregated Negro Leagues and the integrated major leagues, players such as Minnie Miñoso, Jim Gilliam, Hank Thompson, Monte Irvin, Sam Jethroe, and Satchel Paige, just to name a few whose career numbers have experienced the largest changes.

That last is the one aspect of the acknowledgement of the Negro Leagues’ major-league status that gave me pause when MLB made its announcement in December. There is no question that Negro League players had major-league talent and that, as a result, the level of play in the Negro Leagues was of major-league quality. The Negro Leagues were major leagues, regardless of MLB’s official recognition of that fact.

However, as Baseball-Reference acknowledged in introducing these changes, “While the quality of play in the Negro Leagues was on a major league level, the wages, travel, playing conditions, press coverage, and record-keeping were more varied, primarily due to systemic racism.”

As I wrote in my review of Lonnie Wheeler’s The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bellin March:

The Negro Leagues didn’t have official scorers. Negro League teams were responsible for their own record-keeping, and not everyone charged with keeping the scorebook did so with equal attention to detail. Teams sometimes failed to report information as basic as the final score of a game, as they were often in a rush to pack up and head out to the next contest, be it a league game or a barnstorming exhibition scheduled to keep the team solvent. All of that was complicated by the fact that teams would play a variety of games throughout the season, not all of them against league opponents, sometimes confusing the issue of which games counted and which didn’t.

Using data from Seamheads Negro League Database, Baseball-Reference is including only statistics from scheduled league games, though even that data is incomplete. As a result, the numbers you will see on Baseball-Reference’s Negro League pages are likely to seem underwhelming. There are certainly quibbles one could make with the statistics as reported, such as the fact that Bell, considered one of the greatest defensive centerfielders in the game’s history, grades out as a sub-par fielder according to total zone rating, and thus has correspondingly weak bWAR numbers.

On the other hand, the limitations in the data and the Negro Leagues’ shorter official schedules prevent the integration of these statistics from radically altering the familiar career records. It’s important to note here that Baseball-Reference’s decisions about which statistics to count sometimes differ from MLB’s, so B-Ref’s decision to alter their leaderboards in this way won’t impact the official records. However, MLB’s stated intent was to similarly integrate Negro League statistics, so this could be considered a dry run for that eventuality.

Per B-Ref’s stats, no player who played exclusively in the Negro Leagues is credited with more than Turkey Stearns’s 186 career home runs, Bell’s 1,548 hits, Ray Brown’s 122 wins, or Bill Foster’s 922 strikeouts. As for players who crossed the color line, Willie Mays picks up 10 more hits, which means Albert Pujols needs 24 to catch him instead of 14, but those hits don’t otherwise change Mays’s placement on the all-time hits list, and he didn’t hit any home runs with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, so he is still at 660 for his career. Hank Aaron’s Negro League play occurred after 1948, so his career stats are completely unaltered. No player who had enough Negro League stats added to his career totals to alter his all-time rank in hits, homers, wins or strikeouts climbed above 193rd in that particular category.

Similarly, very few Negro Leaguers accumulated the 3,000 plate appearances or 1,000 innings pitched necessary to alter the career rate-stat leaders, and for those that did, the sample size is large enough that their placement certainly feels earned. The most prominent of those players is Oscar Charleston, who now ranks second all-time with a .364 career batting average and third with a 184 career OPS+. Foster and Bullet Rogan are now second and third in ERA+ (164 and 161, respectively), with Satchel Paige taking his rightful place in the top-10, as well.

The single-season rate stats are another matter entirely. Because qualifying plate-appearance and innings totals are based on the number of games played (3.1 PA per team game, or one inning pitched per team game), the rate-state leader lists have changed dramatically. On the all-time single-season batting-average list, for example, the top three, seven of the top nine, and 16 of the top 22 batting averages now belong to Negro League players.

The problem with that is not the league those players played in but the brevity of their seasons. Many of the players now in the top-10 on the single-season batting average list came to the plate fewer than 200 times in the season in question. Dominican centerfielder Tetelo Vargas now holds the single-season record for hitting .471 in 1943. However, Vargas made just 131 plate appearances across just 30 games that season. Because his New York Cubans only played 34 official games that year (or we only have record of 34 official games), that counts as a qualifying season. By way of comparison, game totals for other teams in the Negro National League in 1943 range from the Homestead Grays’ 67 down to the Harrisburg Stars 16. Given that variability in the schedule, using per-game figures to determine qualifying seasons doesn’t strike me as a viable way to organize the all-time single-season leaders

Similarly, the single-season ERA title now belongs to Eugene Bremer, who posted a 0.71 ERA in 1937, but in just 50 2/3 innings. Bremer made just five starts and one relief appearance that season. In 2016, Zack Britton posted a 0.54 ERA in 67 innings, but because Britton’s team played three times as many games as Bremer’s, Bremer has the all-time record and Britton isn’t even on the list.

I think B-Ref needs to work to find a solution to these small-sample qualifying seasons, and I expect they will. Their introduction makes clear that this is an active project that is likely to see “significant changes and improvements . . . as more research is done and more statistics are compiled.” In the meantime, it’s easy enough for historians to simply establish the qualifications of a record when describing it, something they should already be in the habit of doing.

For example, the record for single-season batting average with a minimum of 300 PA is Josh Gibson’s .466 in 1943. With a minimum 500 PA, it’s Hugh Duffy’s familiar .440 from 1894. The “modern” record with a minimum 500 PA is Nap Lajoie’s .426 from 1901. The record for the integrated major leagues is the less-often acknowledged .394 by Tony Gwynn in 1994, but that was the strike year. If you want to keep that minimum 500 PA, you have to go down to George Brett’s .390 in 1980. Want 600 PA in the integrated majors? That’s Rod Carew’s .388 in 1977.

I just detailed six separate records in a mere 100 words. That’s not difficult to write or read, and having Negro League players integrated into the statistical history of the game helps provide a fuller and richer picture of the history of major-league baseball, just as critical race theory helps provide a more honest and accurate history of the country that birthed both this great game and its tragic faults.

Jim “Mudcat” Grant (1935–2021)

James T. “Mudcat” Grant, a pioneering Black pitcher in the American League, which integrated more slowly than the National League, died on Friday at the age of 85.

Born in a north-Florida lumber town in the heart of the depression, Grant starred in football, basketball, and baseball in high school. He earned an athletic scholarship to Florida A&M, but had to drop out during his sophomore year because, even though his school was paid for, his family needed another wage-earner back home. However, Cleveland scout Fred Merkle had seen Grant play in high school when Grant was too young to sign. Hearing that Grant, who was now of age, had dropped out of school, Merkel brought him to a Daytona Beach tryout, and Grant landed a contract with Cleveland.

Grant got his nickname when a white teammate with Class-C Fargo, Georgia-born Lee Irby, assumed that Grant was from Mississippi. This was in 1954, and there was a derogatory connotation to the nickname, but, over time, Grant came to embrace it, and would come to include it in his signature, at times at the exclusion of his given first name.

Grant would soon be more outspoken about racial slights. On September 16, 1960, while singing along with the National Anthem in the Cleveland bullpen, Grant altered the final couplet to, in his words, “something like ‘this land is not so free/I can’t even go to Mississippi’,” prompting a racist remark from bullpen coach Ted Wilks. Grant was so enraged that he told Wilks off, stormed back to the clubhouse, changed, and left the ballpark. His manager, Jimmy Dykes, suspended Grant for the remainder of the season for leaving the park without first coming to him, but Grant was still in a Cleveland uniform the next year; Wilks was not.

It was actually Dykes who made Grant a regular part of the Cleveland rotation. Grant first made the majors in 1958 at the age of 22. In his first three seasons under managers Bobby Brannigan and Joe Gordon, he served as a swing man with poor results. Dykes took over in August of 1960, and Grant opened the 1961 season as a full-fledged member of the Cleveland rotation, enjoying his best season to that point. That November, he was called into active duty by the U.S. Army and served at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he managed the base’s baseball team. Though he was given furloughs to pitch for Cleveland, his Army duty and a sore arm combined to undermine his 1962 season. In 1963, however, he made his first All-Star team. The next year, he was dealt to the Twins at the trading deadline (then June 15), setting the stage for the season that solidified his major-league legacy.

In 1965, Grant made his second-All-Star team, led the AL with six shutouts, and became the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League (he went 21–7, leading the AL in wins and winning percentage, .750, despite a modest 108 ERA+). The Twins, in just their fifth season since relocating from Washington, won 102 games and the pennant. On October 6, Grant became the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game for an American League team. Taking on Don Drysdale in Game 1, Grant beating the Dodgers soundly with a complete-game in an 8–2 Twins victory, contributing a double and two runs scored himself. Drysdale returned the favor against Grant in Game 4, knotting the series at 2–2. With the Twins facing elimination in Game 6, Grant returned on two-day’s rest and twirled another complete game, limiting the Dodgers to one run (a Ron Fairly homer) on six hits, padding an early lead himself with a three-run home run off Howie Reed in the bottom of the sixth in a 5–1 victory that sent the Series to Game 7, where Sandy Koufax out-dueled Jim Kaat for the championship.

It’s worth taking a moment to reflect on Grant becoming the first Black pitcher in the American League to win 20 games or win a World Series game. Don Newcombe became the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the National League in 1951. The next year, Newcombe’s Dodgers teammate Joe Black became the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game, beating Allie Reynolds and the Yankees in Game 1 of the 1952 Fall Classic. Thirteen years passed before an American League team employed a Black pitcher in a similarly prominent role. At that time, it was not uncommon for teams to move Black pitching prospects off the mound.

Forty years later, Grant wrote a book with Tom Sabellico and Pat O’Brien about the integrated major leagues’ Black 20-game winners called Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners. At the time there were just 13 members: Newcombe, Sam Jones, Grant, Bob Gibson, Earl Wilson, Ferguson Jenkins, Al Downing, Vida Blue, J.R. Richard, Mike Norris, Dwight Gooden, Dave Stewart, and Dontrelle Willis. Only CC Sabathia and David Price have added their names to the list since.

Grant posted a career-best 111 ERA+ in 1966, but that was his last full season as a starter. In 1967, at the age of 31, he fell back into a swing role with the Twins. He was then traded to the Dodgers, initiating an itinerant final stage to his career that saw him bounced from L.A. to the expansion Expos, the Cardinals, the A’s, the Pirates, then back to the A’s over the course of just four seasons. Along the way, he posted a 118 ERA+ in 198 relief appearances and 17 starts and compiled 44 saves. His best season in this stretch came in 1970, when he posted a 1.86 ERA in 135 1/3 innings, led the AL with 80 games pitched, and saved 24 games for the A’s before a mid-September trade to Pittsburgh. His final major-league outing was a scoreless relief appearance for Oakland in the 1971 American League Championship Series.

Off the field, Grant loved to sing the blues and formed a nightclub act called Mudcat and the Kittens, which once appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Grant would later claim that he made more money playing music than he did playing baseball. In retirement, he continued performing, broadcast games for Cleveland and Oakland, served as a minor-league pitching coach in the Braves organization, wrote Black Aces, and was active in the community and as a public speaker.

When Harmon Killebrew died in 2011, Grant sung “What A Wonderful World” at Killebrew’s memorial at Target Field. That seems a fitting tribute to Grant, as well, so here it is:

Injured List

Activated

• Twins UT Luis Arraez and RHP Kenta Maeda

• Astros RHP Lance McCullers Jr. and C Jason Castro

• Tigers 3B Jeimer Candelario and RHP Michael Fulmer

• Rays 1B Ji-Man Choi

• Royals SS Adalberto Mondesi

• Cardinals LHP Kwang Hyun Kim

Updates:

White Sox 2B Nick Madrigal: out for season

Madrigal had surgery to repair the proximal tendon tears in his right hamstring and will miss the remainder of the 2021 season. The pint-sized second baseman has hit .317/.358/.406 (113 OPS+) in 324 palate appearances in parts of two seasons, was tied for the American League lead in triples with four, and was starting to make some noise in the AL Rookie of the Year race before suffering his injury trying to beat out an infield single last Wednesday. He’ll be 25 next season, which he and the White Sox hope will be his first full major-league campaign.

Yankees RHP Luis Severino: grade 2 groin strain

We knew Severino had suffered a groin injury that would delay his return from Tommy John. Now we know roughly how long. This will push him back a month, so don’t expect him back until late July at the earliest.

Phillies SS Didi Gregorius: pseudogout in right elbow

I just learned of a new condition! According to the Mayo Clinic, pseudogout is not gout but arthritis that results in “sudden, painful swelling in one or more of your joints.” Also known as calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD), it stems from crystal deposits in the joint and can last for day or weeks and is most common in the knees. Gregorius hit the IL in mid-May with what was then described as an elbow impingement. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen, the Phillies finally figured out what the actual issue was and now hope they can manage the condition and get him re-started on a rehab assignment.

Blue Jays LHP Steven Matz: positive for COVID-19

Matz has no symptoms, but will have to quarantine for 10 days. No other Blue Jays have tested positive.

Placed on IL:

Rays RHP Tyler Glasnow: partial ulnar collateral ligament tear and flexor strain in right arm

Cleveland RHP Shane Bieber: right shoulder sub scapularis strain

Glasnow and Bieber placed second and third in my AL Cy Young award rankings last week. About Glasnow, I wrote then:

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.

He's now facing a potential Tommy John surgery that would have him out until the 2023 season. Realizing that surgery at this point this season would likely erase his 2022 season, as well, the Rays are going to see if Glasnow’s arm responds to rehab, but even if it does, he’s unlikely to return any time soon, which not only puts an end to his chances in the Cy Young race, but blows a giant hole in the first-place Rays’ starting rotation, which will now have to lean more heavily on young arms such as Shane McClanahan, Josh Fleming, and Luis Patiño.

An added wrinkle to this is that Glasnow believes that the need to make a sudden transition away from using sticky stuff in his latest start contributed to his injury, as he explains in a both measured and emotional way in this video:

Tricia Whitaker @TriciaWhitaker

Here is Tyler Glasnow explaining his frustration. “I am telling you i believe that’s why I got hurt. I’m frustrated they don’t understand. Pitchers need to be able to have some control & grip on the ball. Don’t want this to happen to a anyone else, a fastball to slip away.”

The news isn’t nearly as bad with regard to Bieber, the defending Cy Young award winner in the AL who leads the majors in strikeouts (130) and innings pitched (90 2/3). Bieber will be shut down for two weeks, after which he will be re-evaluated. Bieber joins Zach Plesac on the IL, which means Triston McKenzie, J.C. Mejia, Cal Quantrill, and Sam Hentges will likely have to round out the Cleveland rotation behind Aaron Civale.

Nationals RHP Max Scherzer: right groin inflammation

Scherzer had to leave his start on Friday night in the middle of his second batter due to this injury, and this move is retroactive to Saturday. This is another Cy Young contender hitting the shelf, but it’s not an arm injury, so the expectation is that Scherzer will only miss a couple of weeks, perhaps even less as this is being described as inflammation and not a strain or tear.

Dodgers CF Cody Bellinger: left hamstring tightness

Bellinger continues to struggle to get his season started. He suffered a hairline fracture in his tibia in the fourth game of the season, missed most of April and May, went 0-for-10 in his first three games back and had just one extra-base hit in June despite hitting .303 on the month before this hamstring started acting up on him. He came out of Friday’s game in the fifth inning and this move is retroactive to last Saturday, making Bellinger eligible to return on Tuesday. Given that this is being described as “tightness,” that seems likely, but, that’s the 73rd game of the season for L.A. Here’s hoping he can salvage the second half of the season.

Twins RHP Michael Pineda: right elbow inflammation

Twins CF/UT Rob Refsnyder: left hamstring strain

Just as the Twins get Kenta Maeda back from the IL, they lose Pineda, who has been their second-best starter this year after José Berríos. Given the Twins poor showing in the early going, this injury could be even more problematic if it undermines Pineda’s trade value, as the trading deadline is just a month and a half away, and Pineda is a pending free agent.

Refsnyder, who has been surprisingly valuable as a replacement player in centerfield this season, returned from his concussion last Tuesday and appeared in just two games before injuring his hamstring. Byron Buxton could return to reclaim his position before Refsnyder is eligible to return.

Tigers LHP Matthew Boyd: left arm discomfort

Tigers RHP Alex Lange: right shoulder strain

Boyd came out of his start on Monday in the third inning complaining of discomfort in his triceps. A proper diagnosis is still pending. Boyd was excellent in his first seven starts of the year, but missed his next turn with knee tendonitis and had largely struggled since returning to action.

The 25-year-old rookie Lange has been lousy in both Triple-A and the majors this year.

Royals LF Andrew Benintendi: right rib fracture

Royals RHP Ronald Bolanos: right flexor strain

It’s unclear exactly when Benintendi initially cracked his rib, but it ceased to be something he could play through after he made a throw in Sunday’s game. Benintendi has been shaky in the field and on the bases this year, but since April 23 he had hit .323/.374/.506 with eight home runs and just 28 strikeouts in 174 plate appearances. Edward Olivares replaces him on the roster.

The 24-year-old Bolanos is a minor-league starter who made just three relief appearances for the Royals this year before suffering this injury.

Marlins LF Corey Dickerson: left foot contusion

Marlins IF José Devers: right shoulder impingement

Dickerson, whose power has dropped significantly for the second year in a row, hurt his foot stepping on first base in Sunday’s game. Lewis Brinson has replaced him on the roster, while 23-year-old prospect Jesús Sánchez, who had been destroying Triple-A pitching, will get the first chance to replace Dickerson in left field.

As for Devers, Rafael’s 21-year-old cousin hasn’t provided much value off the Marlins’ bench thus far this season, and this injury could serve as a reminder of just how replaceable he has been.

Braves LHP Tucker Davidson: forearm strain

The 25-year-old Davidson had been excelling as a spot starter for the Braves, posting a 1.53 ERA in his first three starts this season, pitching into the sixth inning in all three, but it all came crashing down on Tuesday night as he gave up five runs in 2 1/3 innings then left with this injury. Bryse Wilson and Kyle Wright are the top candidates to replace him in the rotation.

Diamondbacks RHP Taylor Clarke: right teres major strain

Former swingman Clarke had been establishing himself as a quality set-up man this season, but this injury to a muscle behind his throwing shoulder seems likely to knock him out for at least a month.

Transaction Reactions

Red Sox purchase RHP Yacksel Ríos from Mariners

Ríos, who will turn 28 later this month, spent 10 days as a Mariner, made three relief appearances for the team, and pitched one inning and allowed one run in all three. The hard-throwing Puerto Rican will serve as organizational depth for Boston.

Rangers acquire IF Andres Mesa from Mariners

Mesa is the player to be named later in the December trade that sent reliever Rafael Montero from the Rangers to the Mariners. An 18-year-old Dominican middle infielder, Mesa has yet to play a professional game and has been assigned to the Rangers’ Dominican Summer League team.

A’s pick up MGR Bob Melvin’s 2022 option

This was a no-brainer. Melvin is one of the best managers in baseball and the A’s have consistently won at a 97-win pace under him over the last four years and made the playoffs in six of his first 10 years in Oakland. I think Melvin could have a legitimate case as a Hall of Fame manager, though it would help significantly if he could get even one team to a World Series. Melvin will be 60 next year, and a longer extension should be forthcoming.

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Closing Credits

The Cycle will return tomorrow (in less than 24 hours!) with a recap of the week thus far and a viewer’s guide to the weekend (and beyond). In the meantime: