NEWSLETTER
Steve Cohen’s New York Mets are one of the best teams in baseball this season, even despite some significant injury issues, and it’s due in large part to Cohen’s aggressive spending since taking over the club. While Cohen has lived up to many of his promises surrounding the big league club, a New York State Senator is doing her part to hold him to his word regarding the treatment of minor leaguers playing for teams in the Mets organization.
New York Senator Holds Cohen, Mets Feet to the Fire
Last summer Steve Cohen tweeted in response to widespread claims that Mets’ minor leaguers (and minor leaguers elsewhere) were dealing with unlivable compensation and housing conditions that he was going to investigate the way the Mets organization was handling these issues and return with a a “comprehensive response” by the following week.
When that response never came to fruition, New York State Senator Jessica Ramos did her part to hold Cohen and the Mets to their word by drafting a letter outlining the deplorable conditions that minor leaguers within the Mets system have been dealing with and referenced Cohen’s tweet that turned into nothing. Ramos and members of the non-profit Advocates for Minor Leaguers polled Mets minor leaguers and put together a list of seven proposed changes that Ramos included in the letter to Cohen that was delivered in January and copied to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Those changes included basic things like weekly pay year-round, housing, meal assistance, improvement to travel conditions, etc. On Wednesday, Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported that Cohen recently sat down with the non-profit Advocates for Minor Leaguers to discuss potentially improving pay and working conditions for minor leaguers in the Mets system. That meeting made way for future meetings that will include players.
Check out the full story and the letter from New York State Senator Jessica Ramos to Cohen and the Mets:
If Cohen and the Mets make dramatic changes to the pay in their minor league system, it could send out ripples throughout MLB, where other owners may not be interested in doing the same. (And indeed, thanks to MLB’s under-threat antitrust exemption, the league could prevent the Mets or any other organization from bucking “the rules” too aggressively.)
Shane McClanahan Continues to Deal
Shane McClanahan turned in another strong out last night for both my fantasy baseball team and the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run on three hits while striking out seven and walking two against the vaunted Yankees lineup. The Rays fell to New York 4-3 by way of three unearned runs charged to McClanahan in the sixth inning.
McClanahan, however, became the first pitcher in the majors to reach 100 strikeouts this season and owns a 1.87 ERA in his sophomore campaign with Tampa Bay. The former first-rounder out of USF has a pristine 2.45 xERA and is striking out opposing hitters at a 35.5 percent clip through his first 12 starts of the 2022 season.
McClanahan’s 1.87 ERA ranks fifth in baseball behind Sandy Alcántara, Alek Manoah, Joe Musgrove, and Tony Gonsolin. McClanahan’s 12.19 K/9 ranks second in baseball behind only Dylan Cease, who is striking out opposing hitters at a 12.84 K/9 clip.
Another Near No-No
Another night, another near no-no! Just 24 hours after Miles Mikolas saw his no-hit bid slip away with one strike standing between him and history, Tyler Anderson fell to a similar fate last night in Los Angeles.
Anderson lost his no-hitter with one out in the top of the ninth when Shohei Ohtani tripled down the right field line. What’s almost as wild as the back-to-back occurrences are the number of pitches that both pitchers needed to take their no-nos into the final frame. Anderson’s day ended at 123 pitches, and Mikolas threw 129 on Tuesday night.
Manny Reaches Another Milestone
Manny Machado became the sixth third baseman in MLB history to reach 1,500 hits through his age-29 season, joining Adrián Beltré, George Brett, Freddie Lindstrom, Eddie Matthews, and Ron Santo in that elite group of sluggers.
Machado has had his best season since 2018 when he split the season between Baltimore and Los Angeles and earned himself a massive payday with the Padres through 37 home runs and a 7.0 fWAR campaign.
In his first 62 games, Machado is slashing .322/.396/.536 with 11 home runs, a 160 wRC+, and 3.8 fWAR, putting him on pace for a potential 9-10 fWAR season. That’s absurdly good, and he would be smashing his career-best mark from 2017.
