The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.
We have a new answer for the trivia question: Which major-league catcher has hit the most homers in a season?
Plus: The Brewers celebrated the life of Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, Ken explains how the Padres make the three-closer thing work, and the Anthony Volpe saga took an interesting turn. I’m Stephen Nesbitt, pinch-hitting for Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal: Welcome to The Windup!
Big Flies: Raleigh homers twice to set catcher HR record
If you lost track of Cal Raleigh after he won the Home Run Derby, well, you hadn’t missed much until yesterday. After hitting 38 homers before the All-Star break, falling one shy of matching Barry Bonds’ first-half record, Raleigh has been comparatively quiet since then.
But he slugged his way back into the headlines yesterday with two moonshots off Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez. Raleigh’s 48th and 49th this season broke Salvador Perez’s record for homers in a single season by a catcher — or, to be terribly specific, for a player playing at least 75 percent of his games at catcher.
Raleigh has hit 40 as a catcher, so he’ll soon come up on another record: the 42 home runs Javy López hit as the Braves’ catcher in 2003.
With Raleigh, 28, on pace for 61 homers this season, let’s map out a few milestones he still has a realistic chance to hit over the final 31 games.
50: 33rd player in the 50-homer club
54: Switch-hitter record: Mickey Mantle, 1961
56: Mariners record: Ken Griffey Jr., 1997 and 1998
60: Seventh player in the 60-homer club
62: American League record: Aaron Judge, 2022
So don’t sleep on Big Dumper. He’s got more history to make in the next month.
Ken’s Notebook: No saves, no problem in San Diego
From my latest notes column, which is full of items about the Padres and Dodgers:
After acquiring Mason Miller, the Padres asked him about the role he envisioned in their bullpen. Miller immediately responded, “I’m here to do anything to help the team.” Great answer, but one that theoretically could hurt him this offseason in his first crack at salary arbitration.
The saves statistic, while perhaps the game’s least important, is still highly valued in arbitration. Postseason performance, however, is also part of the criteria. Which is why Miller is not especially worried about how his salary might be affected now that he no longer pitches exclusively in the ninth inning.
“It is valuable to be part of a winning team,” Miller said. “Had I stayed with the A’s, maybe I end up with another 10 saves. It’s impossible to project it really. Holds don’t quite the same as saves. But they count a little bit.”
Since joining the Padres, Miller is 1-for-2 in save opportunities with four holds. The A’s have had five save opportunities — and are 5-for-5 using four different relievers while going 12-9 since trading Miller and left-hander JP Sears to San Diego on July 31.
Miller said the Padres told him, “Don’t worry about roles going forward. Just worry about performing and helping us win games.” Easy for a team to say, perhaps, particularly when saves are more lucrative for a reliever in arbitration than postseason performance. But since A.J. Preller took over as general manager in August 2014, the Padres have never taken a player to a hearing.
Robert Suarez, a potential free agent, also told the Padres after the acquisition of Miller he would pitch in any role the team desired. He remains the closer, but Jason Adam, heading into his final year of arbitration, is another Padres reliever who has willingly accepted pitching earlier in games.
First baseman/DH Ryan O’Hearn, a potential free agent, has taken the same team-first approach as the relievers, even though he is playing less against left-handers than he did before the Baltimore Orioles traded him to the Padres.
“If I go to the playoffs and World Series, I figure I’ll be fine in free agency,” O’Hearn said. “Teams want to see you perform in the postseason. This team is going to get there.”
In Memoriam: Milwaukee says goodbye to Mr. Baseball
The Brewers’ celebration of life for Bob Uecker yesterday was pitch-perfect, and Andrew Baggarly was there to chronicle every thoughtful detail from a 90-minute pregame tribute that did its best to cover all of the memorable moments Mr. Baseball delivered.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Costas emceed from behind a desk — a recreation of “The Tonight Show” set Uecker visited so many times — and was joined by a number of other Hall of Famers, from Bud Selig to Robin Yount, George Brett and Ted Simmons.
The full ceremony is worth your time, if you’ve got some to spare, but I’ll leave you with this parting thought from Costas. (He visited Uecker last fall to say goodbye. It was two weeks after the Brewers lost the wild-card series in heartbreaking fashion, as the Mets’ Pete Alonso took closer Devin Williams deep from a come-from-behind, three-run, series-flipping home run.)
“I heard the last broadcast when Alonso hit the home run off Devin Williams that broke everybody’s heart. When you hear Ueck signing off, he didn’t always wear his heart on his sleeve, but it was so poignant. He was disappointed for the team, because it was a heartbreaking loss, but he also knew that these were the last words he’d ever speak as the voice of the Brewers.
“His voice was not as strong, and he wasn’t quite as sharp, but it was still Bob Uecker. And when you listen to that, even though he doesn’t frame it this way, that’s about as poignant a valedictory as any broadcaster has ever delivered.”
More: Costas was also a central figure at a memorial service for Ryne Sandberg, the Hall of Fame second baseman, in Anaheim, Calif., on Friday. From Costas’ eulogy: “(He was) the kind of player any dad or youth coach could point to and say, ‘That’s the way you play the game.’”
Benched: Volpe sits as Yankees salvage series finale vs. Red Sox
When asked about sitting shortstop Anthony Volpe yesterday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t commit to it being a one-day absence from the lineup. Maybe it will be. Maybe it won’t. But things are, uh, not going great for Volpe in the Bronx, and it’s worth trying something new.
Boone attributed the benching to Volpe “scuffling a little bit offensively here over the last week or 10 days.” That’s a conservative reading. There’s the 1-for-28 spiral Volpe is currently in, and then there’s his atrocious .121/.171/.242 slash line over the past 20 games. By wRC+, Volpe has been the 10th-worst qualified hitter in the majors this season.
To make matters worse (and boos louder), Volpe has also been alarming defensively. His 17 errors are second-most in the majors, one behind Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Volpe botched a play Friday by trying to throw behind a runner, and he made a throwing error Saturday.
Utility player José Caballero, batting .286/382/.536 since joining the Yankees at the trade deadline, started at shortstop yesterday. Volpe entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning.
With series against the lowly Nationals and White Sox on tap, this might be a good time to give Volpe a few days down before the schedule gets much, much tougher in early September: Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers, Red Sox. The Yankees, 5.5 games behind Toronto, have to get Volpe right for the stretch run.
Handshakes and High Fives
After golfing with Roger Clemens, President Donald Trump called for the former pitcher to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame “NOW.” Trump also claimed credit for persuading commissioner Rob Manfred to reinstate Pete Rose, but criticized Manfred for only doing so posthumously.
Jayson Stark explains why the BBWAA’s newest annual honor — the Relief Pitcher of the Year Award — is outrageously overdue. Stark was making this case (correctly!) over a decade ago.
He’s big. He’s slow. And he’s suddenly stealing bases? It’s time to talk about Josh Naylor. Stay tuned this weekend when he inevitably tries stealing on his little brother, Bo, in Cleveland.
Chinese Taipei won its first Little League World Series in 29 years, defeating Nevada yesterday. Chinese Taipei’s 18 titles are the most of any country besides the United States.
MLB’s Field of Dreams game is coming back, and it’ll be the Phillies and Twins playing in Dyersville, Iowa, sometime next season, sources told Matt Gelb and Dan Hayes.
The Astros are sticking with rookie Cam Smith despite his .388 OPS since the All-Star break. “He’s handled it better than anybody would handle it,” Carlos Correa told Chandler Rome.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Our newser on fans lining up for hours for the Yankees’ napping George Costanza bobblehead.
📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.
(Photo: Stephen Brashear / Imagn Images)