Nightengale's notebook: The best and worst of MLB's opening month
Baseball games are lasting 2 ½ hours again, stolen bases are back in vogue and the Pittsburgh Pirates are the best team in the National League.
Why it’s 1979 all over again, with Sister Sledge singing “We Are Family’’ and Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and Bill Madlock celebrating their World Series championship.
It sure has been a strange, wonderous and painful opening month of the season.
Who would ever have imagined that if the season ended today, the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies would all be sitting home during the postseason? The Tampa Bay Rays are on pace to go 132-30, the Chicago White Sox 42-120, Juan Soto is among the worst hitters in baseball, and Luis Arraez could become the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams.
Is everyone ready for that Pittsburgh Pirates-Rays’ World Series, leaving TV executives scrambling to find any network to air it?
There are five months of the regular season still to be played, but let’s pass out the early hardware for the month of April, and see who’ll be around in November to collect the real stuff.
Best team, American League
Tampa Bay Rays: We’ll go on a limb and predict that the Rays won’t keep up their 132-win pace with their 22-5 start, but they are definitely for real. They led the AL in home runs (49), and have given up the fewest (16). It will be a good test in May to see just how good they are with 26 games against teams with winning records, including seven against the Yankees.
Best team, National League
Atlanta: They let Freddie Freeman walk.
They let Dansby Swanson walk.
And they keep on winning, going 96-43 since June 1, 2022. They’re on their way to a sixth consecutive NL East title.
Worst team, AL
Oakland Athletics. As dreadful as the White Sox have been, it’s not even close. The A’s are an absolute embarrassment. They have a legitimate shot to break the 1962 New York Mets’ modern-day record with 120 losses with their 5-22 start. They have been outscored by a whopping 117 runs, and have already given up 10 or more runs in 12 games.
How would you like to be Mark Kotsay, finally waiting for your first managerial opportunity, and have an owner who intentioanly tanks to assure that the franchise gets a one-way ticket out of town?
Worst team, NL
Colorado Rockies. They have already had nine seasons in which they’ve lost 90 or more games in their 31-year history.
This could be the worst of them, off to their worst start since 2005.
They not only have been powerless, hitting the third-fewest home runs (21) with the third-lowest slugging percentage in the National League, but are slow, stealing just five bases, second-fewest behind only the Minnesota Twins.
AL most surprising team
Baltimore Orioles: Sure, they were a huge surprise last year with their first winning season since 2016, but to have the second-best record in the American League this year?
They have already won the most games in the month of April in franchise history.
It’s hard to believe this is the same team that lost a combined 323 games in their last three full seasons until last year.
They’re stealing a page out of the Astros’ playbook with their magnificent rebuild.
NL most surprising team
Pittsburgh Pirates: Realistically, the Pirates still are a year away from contending but they are 20-8 in the weak NL Central, with their starting rotation already producing 17 quality starts and their bullpen leading the league with 12 saves.
They have already stolen 38 bases, including 12 in their three-game series against the Dodgers, and are on pace for 182 stolen bases, their most in 43 years.
It’s hard to believe this is the same team that went 60-102 last season, outscored by a major-league worst 226 runs.
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AL most disappointing team
Chicago White Sox: They went through a massive rebuild for this?
Their window to be a World Series contender lasted less than 12 months.
They have the third-worst record in the major leagues, with the third-worst run differential, and somehow are getting worse, losing nine consecutive games entering Saturday.
They can’t hit. They can’t pitch. And they can’t field.
They may reside in the weak AL Central, but their odds of making the playoffs have plummeted from 30.5% before the season to 4.5%, according to FanGraphs.
NL most disappointing team
St. Louis Cardinals: This is a team that was heavily favored to win the NL Central again, and are off to their worst start since 1986.
Scary stat: The Cardinals have never won their division in a season in which they overcame a seven-game deficit or more since divisional realignment in 1995.
Their starting rotation has yielded a 5.05 ERA, third-worst in the National League, with only four quality starts this year.
AL MVP
Matt Chapman, Toronto Blue Jays: Sure, it would be easy to hand it over to Shohei Ohtani, but he isn’t hitting like Chapman. Not even close.
Chapman sure picked a good time to have a sensational year. The three-time Gold Glove winner has never hit more than .278 in his career, but is leading the AL with a .370 batting average and 61 total bases to go along with his .448 on-base percentage, .663 slugging percentage and OPS-plus 209.
Yes, just like Ohtani, he’ll be a free agent after the season.
NL MVP
Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta: He is back, playing better than ever after recovering from his July 2021 knee surgery, and threatening to become only the fifth 40-40 player in baseball history. He’s hitting .352 and leads the NL with 13 stolen bases, 38 hits, 59 total bases and 23 runs scored.
He has been otherworldly in the first inning this year: 14-for-25 with five doubles and a homer.
AL best pitcher
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees: Cole is the game’s highest-paid pitcher, and certainly is pitching like it. He’s 5-0 with a 1.11 in six starts, pitching a league-leading 40 ⅔ innings with a shutout. The Yankees would be buried in the AL East standings without him.
NL best pitcher
Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks: Gallen, 4-1, 2.15 ERA, barely gets the nod over Atlanta’s Spencer Strider. When you have pitched 28 consecutive shutout innings, with a league-leading 51 strikeouts, you deserve the monthly honor.
It’s unfathomable that he has already been traded twice in his career.
He certainly won’t be traded again.
AL comeback player
Jarred Kelenic, Seattle Mariners: Just when the Mariners were ready to give up on him, Kelenic dramatically changed his mechanics, hired a sports psychologist, and is now hitting .325 with seven home runs, five stolen bases with 198 OPS+.
Yes, he has arrived.
NL comeback player
Cody Bellinger, Chicago Cubs: The Dodgers spent the past three years trying to get Bellinger back to his MVP form, and although he likely will never again contend for the MVP award, he has been quite impressive with his .298 batting average and five homers.
AL top rookie
Hunter Brown, Houston Astros: Now we know why the Astros didn’t bother trying to keep Cy Young winner Justin Verlander.
Brown, 3-0, 2.37, is the 24-year-old version of Verlander.
He has already pitched at least seven shutout innings in three games, leading the major leagues. In his last outing against the Rays, he gave up just two hits in seven shutout innings, with only one ball leaving the infield.
NL top rookie
James Outman, Los Angeles Dodgers: He’s running neck-to-neck with Arizona D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll, but with a slash line of .278/.363/.629 with seven home runs and 20 RBI, and leading all rookies in virtually every offensive category, he gets the nod. Certainly, he is the biggest surprise.
AL best free agent signing
Kenley Jansen, Boston Red Sox: It’s hard to believe he didn’t have a strong free-agent market, signing a two-year, $32 million deal, but he had been absolutely perfect for the Red Sox until Saturday’s blown save.
He didn't give up a run in eight appearances, giving up just four hits and two walks in 7 ⅔ innings with six saves.
AL worst free agent signing
Carlos Rodon, New York Yankees: The Yankees bet $162 million that Rodon’s injury woes were behind him.
Nope.
He still hasn’t thrown a single pitch for the Yankees, sustaining a left forearm strain in his first spring training game, undergoing back problems, and now isn’t scheduled to return until mid-June.
NL best free agent signing
Xander Bogaerts, San Diego Padres: The Padres love to throw around money, but the $280 million investment in Bogaerts has been worth every penny in the first year of his 11-year contract. He has been nothing short of sensational, and certainly the best shortstop in the game in April. He’s the only player in baseball to reach base in every game, hitting .316 with five homers and 12 RBI.
The Boston Red Sox could use a guy like this.
AL worst free agent signing
Jose Ureña, Colorado Rockies: The Rockies figured Ureña would be a nice, cheap, dependable fifth starter when they gave him a one-year, $3.5 million contract.
He lasted four starts.
He was released with an 0-4 record and 9.82 ERA, surrendering 27 hits, 20 runs, 14 walks and nine homers in just 18⅓ innings.
Numbers game
0: The St. Louis Cardinals are 0-9 this season in the first game of a series for the first time in franchise history.
1: In a week in which former prized prospects Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield were released, showing once again that prospects are merely that until they thrive at the major-league level, only one team in baseball has seen all of their No. 1 prospects reach the big leagues in the past six years.
Take a bow, Houston Astros.
3: The only teams who have yet to sign a player to a $100 million contract in their franchise history:
Oakland Athletics
Chicago White Sox.
Their combined record this year entering Saturday: 18-63.
4: The Dodgers have had four different players go on the paternity list the past two weeks for the birth of their kids.
“I guess that’s what you get,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters, “with a young team.”
9: Atlanta ace Spender Strider has a franchise-record nine consecutive games of nine or more strikeouts, just two shy of Nolan Ryan’s all-time record set in 1977.
12: Cubs left-handed starter Justin Steele remains one of the most underrated starters in the game. He has gone 12 consecutive starts yielding two or fewer runs with a 1.08 ERA.
The only starters with a sub-2.00 since June 27 are Justin Verlander, Shohei Ohtani, Max Fried and Steele.
13: Coolest moment of the week: Drew Maggi, baseball’s modern-day Crash Davis, getting his first at-bat in the big leagues this week with the Pittsburgh Pirates after spending 1,1555 games and 13 years in the minors.
He struck out in four pitches and even got a pitch-clock violation.
“I’ve never been more happy for a strikeout in my life,’’ Maggi told reporters. "It was the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
22: So just how many years has it been since the Twins last won a season series against the Yankees?
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe had just been born.
The year was 2001.
The Twins have gone 40-114 against the Yankees since.
24: As if Atlanta ace Max Fried isn’t good enough, he has picked off 24 baserunners since 2017, five more than any other pitcher in baseball.
38: The Dodgers have been watching teams run silly on them this season, giving up a major-league leading 38 stolen bases in 44 attempts this year while stealing only 11 themselves.
“We just don’t have the guys who steal bases,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters. “We’re just not constructed that way. That’s just the fact.’’
.246: The MLB batting average, virtually the same as it has been the past two years, despite the ban of shifts, with the average number of runs actually decreasing from two years ago from 9.1 to 9.0 runs a game.
283: The Cincinnati Reds, despite playing in a bandbox, went eight consecutive games without a homer at Great American Ballpark, spanning 283 at-bats, their longest drought since July 4-11, 1992.
Around the basepaths
– Chicago White Sox vice president Ken Williams’ job is safe, and for the time being, so is GM Rick Hahn’s job. Hahn is in the third year of a four-year, $12 million contract, and Williams must decide whether he wants to continue in the same role after the 2024 season.
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, the most loyal owner in baseball, is hesitant making a move. The last White Sox manager or GM fired during a season was Tony La Russa in 1986. Yet, he also realizes that something must change if the White Sox don’t start winning.
The White Sox have reached the playoffs just three times since their 2005 World Series title, winning three games.
“Put it on me,” Hahn told Chicago reporters this week. “That’s the job. That’s the absolute gig. … It’s the players who play the game, and when they don’t achieve at the level we’ve projected, they certainly bear a level of responsibility for that.
“But at the end of the day, the people who put the players on the roster, put them on the field, are the ones who bear the responsibility if that group doesn’t achieve. That’s me.’’
– White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, hired to replace La Russa with a three-year contract, is not in jeopardy of losing his job, although it’s fair to wonder whether Ozzie Guillen, runner-up for the job, would have made a difference.
– Several executives are predicting that David Stearns, former Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations, will join the Boston Red Sox front office after the season and not the New York Mets. His contract with the Brewers expires after the season.
– GMs are anticipating a rather underwhelming trade deadline considering with precious few players even available on the bad teams.
“There’s nobody you really want of any of those bad teams,’’ one GM said. “Maybe [Aroldis] Chapman from the Royals. That’s about it.’’
Said another GM: “Let’s be honest, we’re not going to see a Max Scherzer-Trea Turner trade.’’
– The White Sox are not expected to shop ace Dylan Cease or shortstop Tim Anderson. They would make starters Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito and Mike Clevinger, along with catcher Yasmani Grandal available if they’re out of the race in late July.
– The Phillies remain open to signing Aaron Nola to a contract extension before he hits free agency, and perhaps his early-season struggles (2-2, 4.46 ERA) will help their case.
– The Los Angeles Angels still remain hopeful of signing Shohei Ohtani to a contract extension before he hits free agency, and have zero interest in trading him unless they have a complete free-fall.
Their best chance to keep him?
Earn a playoff berth.
– The Pittsburgh Pirates are being praised throughout the industry for sticking to their principles by not including an opt-out in their seven-year extension with center fielder Bryan Reynolds. The deal gives him $100 million in new money, which certainly could be a bargain compared to center fielder Brandon Nimmo’s eight-year, $162 million deal with the New York Mets.
– The Cincinnati Reds, who own an equity stake of Bally Sports Ohio, are considering cutting ties with Bally Sports after not getting a payment on April 17. MLB could secure the TV rights to Reds games beginning May 6.
– The city of Oakland and Alameda County took another hit when RingCentral, the software company, said it would be pulling its naming rights for the Coliseum, a $750,000 loss in annual revenue.
– The Texas Rangers are desperately searching for bullpen help and could certainly use closer Aroldis Chapman of the Royals. They blew three games with leads of at least four runs alone this past week.
– Certainly, no one has benefited more from a change of scenery than slugger Joey Gallo and starter Sonny Gray, who melted down in New York and are blossoming hin Minnesota.
Gray is 3-0 with a 0.62 ERA this season, including 11-5 with a 2.60 ERA in 29 starts since joining the Twins. He was 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in two years with the Yankees.
Gallo is hitting .265 with seven homers, 14 RBI and a 1.100 OPS in Minnesota.
He hit .159 with 194 strikeouts in 421 at-bats and a .660 OPS in New York.
“I think it was very tough on him, I think it absolutely wore on him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Gallo’s struggles in New York. “But I respected how he handled it. He never ran from it. He never wanted out of the lineup. As best he could, he faced it and owned it. He had my respect in the way that he always continued to fight.”
Certainly, it gives hope to teams interested in outfielder Aaron Hicks that his career can be resurrected once he leaves the Bronx.
– Bryce Harper could rejoin the Phillies in about two days without taking a single at-bat in spring training or in a minor-league rehab assignment.
It could be quite the adjustment since he has never played with a pitch clock, and has took an average of 20.5 seconds between pitches last season. He took more than 30 seconds between pitches of his game-winning homer in Game 5 of the NLCS last year.
– How much has the new scheduling changed divisional play?
The Red Sox will play 104 games from May 5-Sept. 3
Just 19 games will be against the AL East.
“I think everybody in our division is happy with the new schedule,’’ Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters. “We feel like it’s more fair, honestly, with the way the wild card is now, that we don’t play each other so much.’’
– The Cardinals plan to recall prized prospect Jordan Walker once they can figure out what to do with their outfield after their 9-15 start. They already have Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson battling for playing time.
“Clearly, when you look at it just from what we have done, it hasn’t been working,” John Mozeliak, Cardinals president of baseball operations, told reporters. “We do want to change things up. Hopefully we can get that right mix, guys can get in that rhythm, that regular playing time and see if that works. …
“I think a lot of our outfielders were wondering like when they were going to play, if they were going to play, why they were going to play, and now this will give them a little more certainty as well. Take a lot of the uncertainty out.”
– Life is going so good for the Rays these days that they actually are going to open portions of their Tropicana Field upper deck for the May 5-7 series against the Yankees.
It will be the first time the upper deck will be open for a regular-season game since 2018.
The Rays are averaging 17,042 fans a game, but expect to draw closer to 30,000 for the series.
– Atlanta says it isn't ready to dump outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who is off to an atrocious start with a slash line of .085/.194/.203 with two homers and two RBI. He still is owed $33 million from his original four-year, $65 million contract.
– A U.S. bankruptcy judge has ordered Diamond Sports to at least pay the Cleveland Guardians 50% of what it owes for the first two months of the season. The team is scheduled to receive $55 million annually.
– Just how powerful is the AL East this year?
They were 65-29 (.691) entering Saturday in games outside their division, outscoring the opposition by 158 runs,
It is the only division with a .600 winning percentage.
The AL Central is the weakest, 40-69 (.367), with a run differential of negative 153.
–The silver lining of Houston Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve’s broken thumb is that it gave them a chance to see what Mauricio Dubon could finally do with playing time. His 20-game hitting streak, which ended Friday, had 14 of his 29 hits going to the opposite field. He could be a valuable utilityman when Altuve returns in a month.
– Marlins infielder Luis Arraez, the AL batting champion with the Minnesota Twins, could be making history as the first player to win back-to-back batting titles in different leagues. He’s hitting an incredible .442 through Thursday.
– What’s more alarming: Astros DH Jose Abreu still looking for his first homer of the season or Mariners second baseman Kolten Wong looking for his first extra-base hit while batting .143?
Answer: Abreu. He just signed a three-year, $58.5 million contract. Wong’s one-year, $10 million contract expires after this season.
– New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is pursuing the rights to build a casino in Queens, one of three casinos planned for the New York City area.
– Oakland Athletics rookie pitcher Shintaro Fujinami has already been yanked from the rotation after his disastrous month, going 0-4 with a 14.40 ERA in his first four starts since arrival from Japan. It is turning out to be a $3.25 million waste of money on a team that has a meager $56.9 million payroll.
– RIP Beth Murphy, owner of Murphy’s Bleachers, the greatest baseball bar in the country. She was a saint and it was an absolute honor to know her.
Classy move for Cubs manager David Ross to stop by the bar on the Cubs’ day off Monday to pay his respects and talk to her son and their GM Freddy Fagenholz.
Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB April awards: The best and worst of the month
