Shohei Ohtani is on fire; star MLB pitchers speak on arm injuries

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Shohei Ohtani has awoken, and he (and others) are speaking on the pitching injury trend. Meanwhile, the Padres had a wild comeback, and Ken asks: Can the A’s bring free agents to Sacramento? I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!

Shohei Ohtani is raking

Remember one week ago, when Shohei Ohtani was hitting a pedestrian .242/.297/.333 (.631 OPS)? Well, that’s over. After hitting two doubles and a homer in a 4-2 win over the Twins last night, Ohtani is now hitting .345/.383/.673 (1.056 OPS). He also accomplished something he had never done before in his career: five straight multi-hit games.

Shohei homer? Right on Target. pic.twitter.com/xXwMXV83CC

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 9, 2024

To be clear, this hot streak started on Wednesday against the Giants, the night he hit his first home run as a Dodger. But there’s a much more fun narrative if you’d rather have that.

On Sunday at Wrigley Field, Ohtani was 0-for-2 against Cubs starter Shota Imanaga when the skies opened up and the game was delayed for nearly three hours. As Fabian Ardaya tells us, that rain delay was when Ohtani, fueled by either boredom or curiosity, picked up a modified cricket bat and took a few swings in the batting cages near the dugout.

When the skies cleared, Ohtani returned to hit a triple and a double. He says he plans to keep practicing with the cricket bat.

Call it a baseball version of Dumbo’s crow feather if you must, but the truth is: Ohtani was already beginning his inevitable ascension from just-another-guy purgatory, and now he’s absolutely raking.

Ken’s Notebook: For these players, Sacramento isn’t appealing

From my column today on whether any players will take the Oakland A’s money if the team follows through on plans to ramp up its payroll in Sacramento and then Las Vegas:

Chicago Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger, who can opt out of his contract after this season, was one of several players who professed limited knowledge of the A’s situation. Asked if he would consider joining Fisher’s vagabonds, Bellinger laughed and offered a conditional response based upon the lighting at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, which Kaval has said could be upgraded.

“If the lights are good,” Bellinger said. “Gimme good lights.”

Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner, a 16-year veteran who also is a potential free agent, viewed the Sacramento experience as a potential upgrade over the one in Oakland. But he, too, is not quite hearing the A’s siren call.

“They might play in front of more people. It might feel like a better baseball atmosphere,” Turner said. “Would it be on my top-10 list? Absolutely not. But, I mean, who’s to say it’s not going to be a better situation?”

Turner has a point. The capacity at Sutter Health Park is 14,014 including fixed seats, lawn seating and standing room. The A’s average home attendance the past three seasons was 8,660, 9,849 and 10,276. This season, through seven games, it’s 6,438. When the team was more competitive, the numbers were higher.

“The clubhouse can’t be worse. The visiting clubhouse can’t be worse. The attendance can’t be worse,” Turner said. “And even if the attendance is small, in a smaller venue, it’s not going to look as egregious as it does in the Coliseum, which is massive.”

Still, the clubhouses at Sutter Health Park are in the outfield, not underneath the stands with easy access to the dugouts, the way they are in every major-league park. Perhaps a tour of the facility, courtesy of A’s first baseman Ryan Noda, is in order. Noda, who played games in Sacramento as a minor leaguer, rattled off a list of potential problems to the San Jose Mercury News.

“Concerns? The field, the locker rooms, the dugouts, the surface — making sure all the safety protocols and everything is up to par. That field needs a lot of work, a lot of money put into it in order for it to be a big-league place.”

Even Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins, a native of Sacramento, has his doubts. Hoskins loves his hometown and believes residents will rally behind any team that plays in the city, even temporarily. But if he opts out at the end of the season, don’t expect him to call his agent, Scott Boras, and demand to wear the green and gold.

“I would certainly consider it because the idea of playing at home has always been enticing,” Hoskins said, “but the lack of big-league facilities and the product that that organization is putting out there is not something I’d want to be a part of.”

Trio of pitching stars speak out on injuries

I promise this won’t become the Pitching Injuries Newsletter, but — on the same day that Houston’s Framber Valdez was scratched due to elbow soreness — three big-name pitchers spoke on the epidemic of pitching injuries.

Justin Verlander: Houston TV broadcaster Ari Alexander tweeted a video of Verlander (who underwent Tommy John surgery in Sept. 2020) speaking at length. The part that stuck out to me was when he mentioned how MLB changing the ball roughly a decade ago — which led to more home runs — changed his philosophy on pitching. Gone were the days of pitching to bad contact. The singular goal became swing-and-miss. And how do we get more swing-and-miss? Higher velocity and more spin, of course.

Shohei Ohtani: While Shane Bieber, Spencer Strider and Eury Pérez are the trio that sparked the conversation this week, let’s not forget: The sport’s biggest star is currently limited to DH duties while he recovers from his second UCL surgery. Ohtani reiterated Verlander’s statement that pitchers are motivated now to throw at max effort at all times. “The quality of the pitch, it’s not like I could go into a game and just throw less quality pitches,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, while also suggesting that the pitch clock could have some effect.

Gerrit Cole: Cole is not recovering from Tommy John surgery, but elbow soreness landed him on the IL to start the season. And while Cole also noted the max-effort mindset as a contributing factor, he was more outspoken than the other two about the pitch clock. Specifically, the league’s dismissal of the suggestion that it could be a contributing factor. Cole was very eloquent and even-keel in his response, but left no room for misinterpretation: He finds it irresponsible for MLB not to at least consider it.

Tyler Glasnow: It’s not a new quote, but it has been making the rounds this week. Three years ago, Glasnow suggested that the mid-season crackdown on sticky stuff contributed to his Tommy John surgery that summer.

Eno Sarris has a very insightful article today about the various circumstances at play. The article suggests that sticky substance enforcement probably wasn’t a factor, but it’s a good indication of just how many tentacles this issue has.

Padres stage comeback of the year (so far)

fernando tatis jr. you have to stop!! your drip too hard!! your swag too different!! your style too tough!! pic.twitter.com/bggk0o6idt

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 9, 2024

For a couple of hours, the Mets — who overcame deficits of 4-0 and 5-4 to beat the Braves 8-7 last night — had the best comeback of the young season. But by the time the West Coast games had wrapped, there was a new clear winner.

The Cubs broke out the bats with two outs in the second inning, scoring four runs off Padres starter Yu Darvish, who only lasted three innings. Reliever Pedro Avila allowed four more runs in the fourth inning, but came back out for two more innings in a classic “mop up” role.

But then came the sixth inning. Cubs starter Javier Assad hadn’t allowed a run in 11 innings this season, but after a walk and a Jake Cronenworth home run, his night was over. Three pitches later, the Padres had induced an error and tallied two more hits, including a two-run triple by Ha-Seong Kim.

The Padres would ultimately send 10 men to the plate in the sixth, and seven of them scored. They still trailed 8-7, but at this point, they sorta had to do it, right?

Yes, they did. A two-run home run by Fernando Tatis Jr. in the eighth inning was the deciding blow.

The eight-run deficit matched the largest the Padres have overcome in franchise history; in 2021, they came back in a similarly dramatic fashion when relief pitcher Daniel Camarena hit a grand slam off then-Nats pitcher Max Scherzer.

In case you’re wondering, the biggest comeback in MLB history is 12 runs, done three times. The most recent: Aug. 5, 2001, when the Seattle Mariners (yes, the 116-game winners) led Cleveland 14-2 in the seventh inning, only to lose 15-14 in 11 innings (the Mariners got their revenge, beating Cleveland in five games in the ALDS).

Handshakes and High Fives

Zack Meisel was on hand for the solar eclipse at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Is Matt Olson the most underrated player in baseball?

Andrea Arcadipane digs in on a few intriguing early storylines from a scouting perspective.

Patrick Mooney tells us what Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson learned from his wife Mallory’s return to USWNT.

The Red Sox are moving up in our weekly Power Rankings.

Jim Bowden sifts through some early-season storylines and sorts them into two categories: “overreaction” and “on point.”

On Rates and Barrels, DVR and Eno Sarris dig into the recent rash of injuries and look for solutions.

Elly De La Cruz hit two home runs last night. One was an inside-the-park job, and the other very nearly left it.

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(Photo: Jesse Johnson / USA Today)