Bill Madden: Meet baseball’s unlikely breakout stars of the 2021 season
NEW YORK — Of all the injuries inflicting baseball this year — and heaven knows there’s already been an unduly amount of them — perhaps the most devastating and dumbest was the broken hand suffered by Braves rookie right-handed starter Huascar Ynoa last Sunday.
Until venting his frustration over a rare bad outing by punching out a dugout bench and fracturing his right hand, the 22-year-old Ynoa had been among a handful of unlikely breakout stars this young season, carrying the Braves’ rotation — decimated by injuries to Mike Soroka (Achilles, shoulder) and Drew Smyly (forearm) and ineffectiveness of Max Fried — with four wins and a 3.02 ERA through his first seven starts. His fastball regularly registering in the high 90s, Ynoa had 50 strikeouts and only 11 walks in 44 2/3 innings before “punching” out for what is likely to be at least two months. He had also contributed with his bat, hitting a pair of homers, including a grand slam against the Nationals on May 4. Ynoa, who was acquired by the Braves in a 2017 trade deadline deal from the Twins for fading left-hander Jaime Garcia, had to earn his spot in the rotation this spring after it became clear Soroka was going to be lost for a significant period of time.
Only time will tell if Ynoa can regain his dominance when he comes back. He’s been part of a half dozen equally surprising breakout stars — the White Sox’s Yermin Mercedes and Carlos Rodon, Red Sox righty starter Nick Pivetta, Cardinals closer Alex Reyes and Rangers center fielder Adolis Garcia — who have made significant contributions to their teams’ seasons.
The Red Sox went into spring training with no idea what their starting rotation was going to look like after Nathan Eovaldi and hopefully a physically recovered Eduardo Rodriguez. They certainly weren’t sure of what they had in Pivetta, the 28-year-old right-hander who’d struggled mightily in four years with the Phillies before being traded to Boston in August 2020 for relief pitchers Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree. Going into the weekend, Pivetta, who began the season as a back-end rotation guy, has been the Red Sox’s most effective starter (5-0, 3.59 ERA, 47 2/3 IP), a success even he has been hard-pressed to explain other than opportunity, grit and determination. His most impressive outing was April 28 against the Mets when he went toe-to-toe with Jacob deGrom, hurling five one-hit shutout innings, striking out seven. You’d have to say Pivetta has been a main reason the surprising Sox have been in first place in the AL East much of the season.
When the White Sox lost two of their three best hitters, Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert, for what will be most of the season, there was every reason to believe their chances of getting their 85-year-old owner Jerry Reinsdorf to the World Series were doomed. Yet, here they are atop the AL Central with one of the best records in baseball. A lot of that has had to do with Rodon, who came to spring training just hoping to pitch his way onto the team, and Mercedes, who at the end of spring training wasn’t even supposed to be part of the team. Rodon is an especially inspiring success story. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 MLB draft, his career with the White Sox was derailed by injuries, including Tommy John surgery, and it appeared as if he was never going to reach his potential, prompting the Sox to non-tender him last winter. But there were people in the organization who refused give up on him and after re-signing him, he’s been their No. 1 starter. After striking out 13 Yankees over six scoreless innings Friday, Rodon, 5-1, has a 1.27 ERA and 0.80 WHIP, including a no-hitter April 14 against the Indians so far.
As for Mercedes, a 28-year-old career minor leaguer whom the White Sox acquired in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft from the Orioles, he was destined for a return trip to Triple-A until the injuries to Jimenez and Robert and has done his best to make up for a lot of the lost offense, leading the majors in batting (.364 as of Saturday) with six homers and 25 RBIs as the Sox DH. Of course, his most notable offensive contribution to the Sox was the home run he hit, swinging away on a 3-0 count against Minnesota position player Willians Astudillo in the ninth inning of a blowout win, much to the dismay of Tony La Russa.
Down in Texas, nothing has gone very well this season for the rebuilding Rangers, who have been no-hit twice and are very likely to finish last in the AL West for the third time in four years. Their one bright spot, unlikely as it may have seemed in spring training, has been 28-year-old Cuban center fielder Garcia, who as of Saturday was leading the team in batting (.291), OPS (.913), homers (12) and RBIs (35). Though he ranked fifth in the AL in hard hit balls rate, one red flag that the pitchers might eventually start to neutralize him is the fact that he’s struck out 28.1% of the time as opposed to walking just 5.8%. If asked about his sudden success at age 28, Garcia would undoubtedly say this is the first time he’s ever been given a chance to play regularly. After defecting from Cuba in 2016, he signed with the Yomiuri Giants but got into only four games with them. The Cardinals signed him 2018 but he never could crack their roster, and despite hitting 32 homers in Triple-A in 2019, they designated him for assignment.
Despite having only appeared in 32 major league games prior to this season, Cardinals right-hander closer Reyes, who entered the weekend with an 0.39 ERA, 31 K in 23 innings and 13 for 13 in saves, can not exactly be described as a surprise, if only because when he did pitch in brief stints in 2016 and 2020, he was light’s out dominant. Unfortunately, in between, he battled a series of injuries including Tommy John surgery and another surgery for a torn lat muscle. Coming into spring training, the Cardinals did not know who their closer was going to be, especially with Jordan Hicks coming back himself from Tommy John surgery. Though they still envisioned Reyes in a starting role, they threw him into the closer competition with Giovanny Gallegos and lefty Genesis Cabrera and by the end of March he’d taken command. Thrilled as they are with Reyes’ spectacular comeback, however, the Cardinals are wishing he didn’t make things so difficult with his 20 walks.
