With 40% of the 2024 regular season now in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Thorpe to debut:
The White Sox are wasting no time in promoting their centerpiece from the Dylan Cease trade to the majors, as manager Pedro Grifol confirmed over the weekend that right-hander Drew Thorpe will make his MLB debut against the Mariners this evening. The White Sox will need to create space for Thorpe on both the 40-man and active rosters prior to tonight’s game, which is set to start at 6:40pm local time in Seattle. Thorpe will be tasked with taking on Mariners youngster Bryan Woo (1.07 ERA), who has been nothing short of dominant since returning from the injured list last month.
The 23-year-old Thorpe was in the headlines frequently this winter as he was twice included as a key part of the return in blockbuster deals, first headlining the return headed from New York to San Diego for Juan Soto alongside Michael King before the aforementioned Cease deal. Thorpe will be bypassing the Triple-A level entirely to make his way to the majors, but has an excellent 1.39 ERA in 16 starts at the Double-A level with an excellent 29.9% strikeout rate. A consensus top-100 prospect, Thorpe receives consistently high marks for his changeup and command with most services projecting him as a mid-rotation arm in the long term.
2. Rodriguez to debut:
Thorpe isn’t the only starting pitching prospect set to make his MLB debut today, as the Brewers are reportedly expected to promote right-hander Carlos Rodriguez for his major league debut this evening for a game against the Blue Jays in Milwaukee. The game is scheduled for 7:10pm local time and will see Rodriguez face off against veteran lefty Yusei Kikuchi (3.48 ERA) amid what has been a career season for the former NPB hurler. The Brewers will need to make room for Rodriguez on both the active and 40-man rosters prior to tonight’s game.
The 22-year-old has not typically been ranked especially highly by prospect outlets, but after being selected in the sixth round of the 2022 draft he nonetheless made some noise last year by posting a 2.77 ERA with a 29.5% strikeout rate across 25 starts at Double-A last year. Rodriguez received the bump to Triple-A late last year and has now made 13 total appearances at the level, but he’s struggled to a 5.21 ERA with a reduced 24.7% strikeout rate in that time. Still, the Brewers will turn to Rodriguez to take the ball in tonight’s game amid a myriad of starting pitching injuries that have plagued the club in recent weeks.
3. Renfroe injured:
It was a frustrating turn of events for both the Royals and veteran outfielder Hunter Renfroe as he exited yesterday’s loss to the Yankees after fouling two pitches off his left foot amid a 12-pitch duel with lefty Carlos Rodon. Manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (as relayed by Bally Sports Kansas City) that Renfroe suffered a broken toe during the at-bat and that he would be evaluated further before the club decides if a stint on the injured list will be necessary for the veteran. In the short term, any of Nick Pratto, Tyler Gentry, or Drew Waters could feasible replace Renfroe on the roster if he needs a stint on the IL.
The timing is especially unfortunate because Renfroe has been on a hot streak in recent weeks after a dreadful start to the season. The 32-year-old slashed just .150/.218/.263 in 87 trips to the plate prior to May 1 and continued to scuffle early last month but has turned things around in a big way over his last 20 games with an excellent .302/.371/.556 slash line in 70 plate appearances since the middle of May. If Renfroe ends up missing significant time due to the injury, it will only further highlight the need for another bat or two in the club’s outfield mix ahead of the trade deadline this summer; Royals outfielders have posted a collective wRC+ of just 75 this year, third-worst in baseball ahead of only the White Sox and Rockies.
Thorpe gonna K at least 7 batters in his debut, I’ve noticed that the mariners opposing starters always seem to have more K’s than innings pitched
Won’t matter too much. We got Cy Woo on the mound! I’ve noticed he always seems to allow 2 hits over 6 innings.
It won’t matter how well he does. The worst bullpen in WSox history will blow it.
Probably, but this season isn’t really about wins and losses anymore. It’s about trading away everyone they can and testing out guys like Thorpe.
Kopech is such a terrible pitcher
He’s not a horrible pitcher. The problem is no consistency on how he’s being used and the coaching he’s receiving. I would bet almost anything that once he is no longer under this abysmal manager & his coaching staff he will flourish in another organization.
I’m curious to see (and it’ll take a few years to determine) if Thorpe was simply a victim of circumstance in the Soto/Cease trades, or if both the Yankees and San Diego saw something they didn’t like and sold while they could
Thorpe is very talented but the one knock against him is fastball velocity. He usually sits in the low 90s and scouts seem to think that will limit his upside. He should be no worse than a solid mid rotation arm. The Yankees traded him to get a much needed superstar in Soto. The Padres traded him because Preller saw another shiny object he had to have
“Sold while they could”..The Yankees wanted Soto and the Padres wanted Dylan Cease. Those are both top end players that will require moving highly rated prospects to acquire. In recent years the Yankees gave up numerous prospects to acquire a sore armed Frankie Montas, so it’s fairly clear the Yankees have no crystal ball.
@ mlbfan
Those “prospects” traded for Frankie Montas were *checks notes* Ken Waldichuck, JP Sears, Luis Medina, and Cooper Bowman. None of the trades mentioned (so far) disprove the theory that if a prospect really is so great, he wouldn’t have been traded. They didn’t include Volpe in the Soto trade, for example.
Soto and Cease are very far apart on the talent spectrum. Soto is one of the best hitters in the game. Cease is a highly volatile pitcher who is probably no more than a mid rotation arm. Aside from a year of dominating the worst division in the league, he’s been far a top end talent. Cease is also only controlled through next year while Thorpe’s service time is just starting. There’s a good chance this ends of being another case of Preller’s foolish impatience biting him
Ronk325;
Don’t think it’s Preller’s “foolish impatience” at all.
He’s a so-so farm director that drafts/signs a bunch of prospects with attributes that scouts seem to prioritize. The players do well in the minor leagues. The scouts and media evaluators are very high on them and rank a lot as Top 100 prospects.
Preller than bunches a number of them up to get one or two known commodities whose salaries their teams are trying to dump. Just look at the Padres roster – How many players actually came through their system?
The rap is that Preller can’t develop the players. But if you look at guys he trades – the Naylor’s, Renfroe’s, Margot’s, Patiño’s, etc. – some of them turn into decent major leaguers for a few years, but none really blossom into the stars one expects from reading the scouting reports and accolades. Meanwhile, Preller acquires true “stars” for his team – most of whom are unfortunately at their peaks so they begin regressing while their salaries get even higher.
It obviously hasn’t resulted in a championship, but the local fans are happy. They buy tickets and watch the broadcasts of the name players, and the Padres are making money. Like most things in MLB, it’s all about entertainment…..and established names sell.
I say foolish impatience because this dates back to 2019. Preller signed Machado then decided it was time to go all in and start making trades seemingly just for the sake of it. Had he shown some restraint and let some of his prospects develop, the Padres might be in a better spot today. Here we are in 2024 and you could argue the Padres are now better off than they were five years ago and are now saddled with multiple ugly contracts
Somebody tell Samuel that Max Fried and the Comp A draft pick that turned into Austin Riley “blossom(ed) into the stars one expects from reading the scouting reports and accolades.” I’d remind him myself, but I’m one of the thousands Samuel has muted on here (because I disagreed w/his claims that “Kevin Newman is a much better SS than Dansby Swanson.” That was his evaluation during Swanson’s free agency.)
The trade of Cease and the organization that can’t develop minor league players player is the White Sox. With a dismal record of that development the White Sox went ahead and promoted Goetz as their GM.
Renfroe had no choice but to swing at those pitches because the dumpire would likely have called them strikes. When the strike zone is significantly larger than the actual strike zone, you have no choice but to hack away. Robo umps and watch the Yankees drop to last place. But no, the fixamatron must get them to the postseason.
We have digital tools that yesterday’s fan didn’t have, and that helps everyone second-guess calls. Calls get blown against both sides in a game. But it would be interesting if someone analyzed the data to see if certain teams get statistically-meaningful calls out of the zone. MLB and Statcast would probably refer to it as superior pitch-framing. All that means is that umps can be duped. Robo-umps are inevitable.
Love – I look forward to Cora being ejected by Johnny Five.
Umpire Scorecard does that, although they’re not official.
It’s at least interesting to check those out after an especially poorly umped game.
According to them, yesterdays Yanks-Royals game was almost evenly umpired, with a 0.08 run favoring KC.
They didn’t think it was a poorly umped game. FWIW
Umpire scorecards assigns a run value to the missed ball/strike calls by umpires. Its a 29 run difference between the most favored team (Guardians) and the least favored team (A’s).
All those analyses are dead wrong. You can’t just look at the pitches on a micro basis. Bad calls have a cumulative effect on batter behavior which is much more difficult to measure, but it can be done. You need a lot of data on each individual to ascertain their base behavior and understanding of the strike zone. There are also the changing situations, the count, number of outs, men on base, score, inning, which all have an impact on behavior. I doubt any of these analyses have gone into anywhere near the necessary amount of depth to get to a conclusion that is useful.
I suppose there’s enough bandwidth out there to do all that. Then again, we could use our eyes and say, “Hey, that ump sucks!”
Well, one of them did retire …
Felt bad for Renfroe. You know it isn’t good when the opposing catcher Trevino was trying to comfort him after the foul ball.
Only about 94-98 more games left in the season.
If the season ends today, here are the teams that make the playoffs:
#1: Yankees
#2: Indians
Twins @ Mariners
Royals @ Baltimore
#1 Phillies
#2: Dodgers
Giants @ Brewers
Padres @ Braves
Looking good for my prediction of Mariners vs. Padres World Series.
This day in history:
On June 11, 1938, Cincinnati’s Johnny Vander Meer dominated the Boston Braves (then called the Bees), scattering three walks over nine innings for the 106th no-hitter in AL/NL history. Four days later, he recorded the 107th when he held the Brooklyn Dodgers hitless in a 6-0 Cincinnati win, becoming the first pitcher in AL/NL history to toss a no-hitter in consecutive starts, a feat that still stands — and will likely never be broken.
– They don’t make pitchers like they used to…
The pride of Midland Park High School.
Too much relying on speed. Just look at Greg Maddox and Tim Glavin for example, and there are many more.
Old – Boston Beads?
@Fever Pitch Guy
mlb.com/news/featured/boston-braves-brief-life-as-…
Renfroe goes down. Who has an OF glut?
Try out a rental? Why? KC doesn’t have a 2024 OF problem. They have a 2024-27 hole.
Find the phone number for Mike Elias. Hays? Kjerstad? Norby? Mullins? Stowers? Tell me what you’ll part with, starting with a CB pick and I’ll tell you what’s possible.
Brew Crew has a quite a few quality OF defenders with intriguing hit tools…
Fwiw, he’s not a consensus top 100 prospect. Keith Law left him out because of his slower-than-average fastball. Still, I’m looking forward to this game. Sox will probably lose again, but it might be the start of a good career for Thorpe .
Erm… Renfroe broke his toe. What the heck is there to consider when it comes the IL?
I have visions of the coaching medical staff looking at the toe tomorrow like it’s a comic book, “Well, maybe it will heal over night if we just stare at it long enough”
Good Grief!
It depends whether it’s t oe, to e, or t o e.
I had not thought of that.! Good catch lol!