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The Boston Red Sox have done a lot to improve … the NL West.
Plus: Ken on Rafael Devers’ new home, a wild game in Toronto, and do we have McGwire/Sosa Part II developing? I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to the Windup!
Trend Report: NL West is fueled by Dunkin’
Have you revisited the 2018 Boston Red Sox roster recently?
That was the last time Boston won a World Series. Not a single player is left on the roster — not that unusual — but there’s a remarkable trend:
Mookie Betts: Traded to Dodgers after 2019
Xander Bogaerts: Signed with Padres after 2022
Rafael Devers: Traded to Giants on Sunday
Eduardo Rodriguez: (After two years in Detroit) signed with Diamondbacks after 2023
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Rodriguez has been a non-factor in Arizona, but the first three represent a lot of star power that is fueling an exciting divisional battle in the NL West. As Andy McCullough writes today, it’s another sign that the balance of power has shifted — not just from the AL to the NL, but specifically from Boston to the NL West.
The result: one of the most exciting division races in recent memory, with the Dodgers (45-29), Giants (41-32) and Padres (39-33) all currently inhabiting playoff spots.
As of yesterday, NL West teams held four of the top 12 places in Neil Paine’s World Series odds — no other division has more than two teams in the top 12. (Sorry, Rockies fans — dead last.)
I know. I could bemoan the dissolution of the 2020 Rays just as easily — hello Willy Adames, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell — but I can’t help but wonder how much different the landscape would look if Betts, Devers and Bogaerts — and for that matter, Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi — were still in Boston.
More Neil Paine: Using a set of recent data, Paine suggests one of these five teams should — in theory — win the World Series this year.
Ken’s Corner: Devers’ fresh start with Giants
From my latest column:
One meeting, that’s all it took. One meeting with his new San Francisco Giants superiors, and suddenly Rafael Devers no longer was Rafael Diva. Funny how that works when bosses communicate their wishes and do not simply assume a player with a $313.5 million contract should do whatever they want.
People skills. They might be baseball’s new market inefficiency.
The Boston Red Sox never shared their intentions with Devers when they were trying to sign free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, prompting Devers to initially balk at becoming a DH and then outright refuse to move to first base.
The Giants related to Devers that only four teams entered Tuesday with a worse OPS at first base, or something to that effect. And voila! There was Devers, all smiles at his introductory news conference, saying, “I am here to play wherever they want me to play.” Including first base, where he took grounders before his Giants debut.
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“I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult for him,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “More than anything, the fact he hasn’t played in the field this year, we have to take our time working him in. It’s a new position. We’ll take it day to day.”
Devers is not above reproach for refusing to do the same for the Red Sox, no matter how much he believes they slighted him. But here’s rooting for this trade to work out for Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey, and not simply because he appears to have a better feel for players than Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. Or even his predecessor, Farhan Zaidi, who made the same mistake with Brandon Crawford that Breslow did with Devers, failing to inform his incumbent shortstop that he was agreeing to terms with another, Carlos Correa.
This deal is a referendum on teams that define players more as “dudes” — Posey’s word — than “assets.” A referendum on all the other fancy terms executives use, from flexibility to sustainability to efficiency, while hedging their bets and operating out of fear. A referendum on absorbing contracts that might not age well to do what every team should be trying to do — win.
Devers’ remaining $255 million or so over the next eight-plus years isn’t as onerous as it might appear. Not when accounting for the approximately $32 million the Giants offloaded in the deal by including right-hander Jordan Hicks. And not when Vladimir Guerrero just signed a 14-year, $500 million extension that will begin next season when he is 27, one year younger than Devers is now. Guerrero’s career OPS+ is 136. Devers’ is 129.
Monitor This: Are we seeing a new McGwire/Sosa race?
There’s been something brewing in the American League for a few weeks now.
Home Runs:
Cal Raleigh, SEA: 27
Aaron Judge, NYY: 26
It’s June 19, and each team has played 72 games. That puts the duo on pace for 61 and 59 home runs, respectively.
Just for fun, I went back and looked to see where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were after their teams’ 72nd games in 1998.
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McGwire: 33
Sosa: 27
I’m not suggesting we should be quite so enamored this year. First of all, in 1998, Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61 home runs had held up for 37 years. It has since been broken — first by McGwire (twice) and Sosa (three times), and later by Barry Bonds (73 in 2001) and Judge himself (62 in 2022).
Also, there’s the sport’s recovery from a strike to factor into the ‘98 excitement. And we now know that those numbers were not entirely without some, ahem, assistance.
But maybe that’s further reason to be invested? Neither Raleigh nor Judge has been suspected of PED use. In fact, this is happening in a year when the league has admitted that the ball isn’t flying quite as far.
As I’m sure Yankees fans will make sure to point out: Judge is mired in a 1-for-17 slump, and the Yankees haven’t scored in 29 innings.
Still, it’s been fun to watch these guys go at it. Hopefully they’ll keep this up all summer.
More Yankees:
Musical CFs: Wild night in Toronto
It was quite a game last night in Toronto. The Blue Jays employed four center fielders, then walked it off via back-to-back home runs. What on earth was going on there?
The center-field carousel began when Jonatan Clase was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning. He was replaced in the fifth by Myles Straw, who left the game after crashing into the wall on this play five batters later:
Diamondbacks first baseman Josh Naylor, who was Straw’s teammate in Cleveland, went out to center field to check on Straw, who was replaced by Alan Roden. Later, Davis Schneider pinch-hit for Roden, which meant Will Robertson shifted over from left field to become Toronto’s fourth center fielder of the night. Got that?
In the ninth, with Shelby Miller on the mound and Arizona up by one, Bo Bichette and Addison Barger hit back-to-back home runs to walk it off for the Jays.
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What a night. Mitch Bannon has a full recap of the chaos.
More wild action from last night: Fernando Tatis Jr. and Shohei Ohtani were both hit by pitches, the dugouts were warned and the Dodgers-Padres rivalry has roared back to action in 2025.
Handshakes and High Fives
Love this: Sam Blum helped connect Mike Trout with a family that lost everything — including a Trout autograph — in a house fire.
Nick Castellanos was benched last night, snapping a 236-game streak of games started. The cause? A tiff with his manager.
Tylor Megill’s scans after an elbow sprain showed no structural damage, but the Mets’ rotation will be shorthanded for a while. Meanwhile, the team has lost four straight.
It’s that time of year again: Keith Law goes back 10 years and re-drafts the 2015 class.
Anyone who has watched more than a couple of Reds games knows how fun it is to watch Elly De La Cruz. His new teammates agree.
Pete Crow-Armstrong in the Home Run Derby? Nah, says PCA. “That’s not for me.”
The deadline isn’t for another six weeks or so, but after the Devers trade, it’s time: Here’s version 1.0 of our Trade Deadline Big Board. Plus: Jim Bowden lists six trades he would like to see before this year’s deadline.
I love ice cream in helmets. But there’s a new trend: the collectible snack-receptacle upgrade.
On the pods:
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(Photo: Raj Mehta / USA Today Sports)
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