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The Mets do not have an endless supply of starting pitching prospects. But they do have one more on the way.
Plus: Ken on the unlikely start to a lifelong friendship between Salvador Perez and Aroldis Chapman, the Giants are forcing us to pay attention, and the Baseball Card of the Week features some bad photo editing. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Fresh Faces: Sproat is latest Mets prospect call-up
It will be so funny to me if the Mets make the playoffs and their three best starting pitchers have a combined, like … 15 big-league starts. But it’s not that far-fetched. Here are the Mets’ starting pitching stats since Aug. 1:
Kodai Senga (6 starts): 0-3, 6.18 ERA, 27 strikeouts, 14 walks, 27 2/3 innings
Clay Holmes (6 starts): 2-1, 4.25 ERA, 26 strikeouts, 13 walks, 29 2/3 innings
David Peterson (6 starts): 1-1, 6.66 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 17 walks, 31 innings
Sean Manaea (6 starts): 0-1, 7.81 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 5 walks, 27 2/3 innings
Nolan McLean (4 starts): 4-0, 1.37 ERA, 28 strikeouts, 7 walks, 26 1/3 innings
Jonah Tong (1 start): 1-0, 1.80 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks, 5 innings
OK, it’s a little early to anoint Tong as one of the Mets’ two best starters, even if it was a brilliant debut (he’ll get start No. 2 on Saturday against the Reds). But it looks like Tong won’t be the least-experienced member of the rotation for long.
As Will Sammon reports, the Mets are calling up Brandon Sproat to make his big-league debut on Sunday. Sproat, 24, was the Mets’ top pitching prospect coming into the season. He’ll now be the third prospect (behind McLean and Tong) to make a late-season debut as the Mets try to lock down a wild-card spot.
Sproat was Keith Law’s 30th-ranked prospect coming into the year, and while McLean and Tong passed him up on the depth chart, it’s not like any of the other Mets starters have been doing much to keep him in Triple A.
So they might as well find out what he’s got. After all, they might need him in October.
Ken’s Notebook: This scary moment sparked a lifelong bond
From my latest story:
More than 11 years later, the memory remains unsettling. The Cactus League game between the Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds carried virtually no meaning. But anyone who saw the line drive off Salvador Perez’s bat strike Aroldis Chapman above the left eye will never forget the terrifying sight.
“March 20, 2014. Sixth inning, bases loaded. It was a 2-1 count, I believe,” Reds assistant athletic trainer Tomas Vera said, rattling off the details as if they occurred yesterday.
“I felt so guilty,” said Brayan Peña, Chapman’s catcher that night. “So guilty, you can’t even imagine.”
Chapman, then 26, already was a two-time All-Star reliever. He wanted to throw a slider to Perez, an All-Star catcher nearing his 24th birthday. Peña called for a fastball. Chapman shook him off. Peña called for a fastball again. Chapman threw it 99 mph. And then . . .
“I witnessed something so shocking that I cannot even watch the videos anymore,” said Peña, who is now a minor-league catching coordinator with the Detroit Tigers.
Vera rushed to the mound to attend to Chapman, working with the Royals’ trainers to activate an emergency action plan. Chapman was taken off the field on a stretcher and transported to a nearby emergency room in Surprise, Ariz. The managers and umpires decided to cancel the rest of the game.
Ramón Hernández, a former Reds catcher who was in spring training with the Royals, drove Perez, a fellow Venezuelan, to the hospital. A group of Reds players also went to visit Chapman. So did a number of Cubans from other teams in Arizona who wanted to see their fellow countryman. Chapman’s father, Juan Alberto Chapman Bennett, was also present.
“When I saw Chappy in the room,” Perez said, “I started crying.”
More here on the close friendship that developed.
Standings Watch: NL West, continued …
Yesterday, we focused primarily on how the Dodgers and Padres have lately been twin-flame burnouts at the top of the division. That continued last night, as the Dodgers lost 5-3 to the Pirates. It was the first time the Pirates have swept the Dodgers since Aug. 7-9, 2015.
But today, I’d like to check in with a team I had kinda written off weeks ago: the San Francisco Giants.
They’re still seven games out in the division — but only four games behind the Mets for the third and final NL wild-card spot. That means they’re also one game up on the Reds.
Relevant: The Mets and Reds play each other over the weekend, so if the Giants can beat up on the Cardinals, they’re going to gain ground on someone. As we pointed out previously, a late-season power surge has been at the heart of their 10-1 hot streak. Can they keep it up?
Who knows? But as Grant Brisbee points out here, sometimes the getting-close matters. They were five games under .500 as recently as Aug. 16, so … there’s value in just the act of making us all pay attention again.
More NL West: Fabian Ardaya has the latest on the Dodgers’ struggles, including: What’s going on with Roki Sasaki’s rehab assignment issues?
Baseball Card of the Week: 1977 Topps Rookies
As combined rookie cards go, the bottom half of this card contains two great Guys To Be Remembered.
Gantner played for 17 years, all with Milwaukee, and finished his career with 1,696 hits (22.5 bWAR).
But it’s Wills who catches my attention here, and not just because I caught up with “Bumpy” a few years ago to talk about his six-year (16.5 bWAR) career. It’s because — look, I think it is right to make fun of AI at any opportunity, but this card is a reminder of how far photo editing has come since 1977. Wills’ photo looks like a cross between an old west daguerrotype and that one botched painting restoration.
Handshakes and High Fives
Last night’s Yankees-Astros game was fraught with action: Taylor Trammell had his bat confiscated, and Jazz Chisholm suffered contusions on both knees. Oh, and the Yankees won 8-4.
This week’s “Sliders” column by Tyler Kepner starts with Marlins rookie phenom Jakob Marsee, meanders through Victor Robles’ monkeys (no, really) and tells us why Dennis Lamp is responsible for Tom Seaver’s White Sox years.
We love a good baseball goofball. We also love aces. What Guardians starter Gavin Williams presupposes is that perhaps he can be both.
Eno Sarris ranks the starting rotations of the teams currently in playoff spots, from 1-12, while our staff addresses one major concern for each of the contenders.
We have back-to-back days with Cam Schlittler stories. This one is actually about his (impressive) performance on the field.
Keith Law has notes on a few key Guardians and Orioles prospects.
What I’m watching this weekend: All three of these trailing teams are the home teams in series against teams they’re chasing: The Astros lead the Rangers by five in the AL West. The Blue Jays lead the Yankees by three in the AL East. And the Mets are five up on the Reds in the NL wild card.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Jason Lloyd’s piece on elusive former Guardians slugger Albert Belle.
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(Photo: Jim Rassol / USA Today Sports)