Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal’s Inside Scoop: Mets new pup trio, Jays-Yankees clash, Astros-Rangers battle, Rays alive!

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Ken Rosenthal’s Inside Scoop: Mets new pup trio, Jays-Yankees clash, Astros-Rangers battle, Rays alive! · Foul Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: Let's hit the inside scoop with FT senior insider Ken Rosenthal. Ken,
0:08
Speaker 1: we have gotten this question the most in the past
0:11
Speaker 1: two hours, so I'm like, oh, bring it right to you.
0:13
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen anything like what the New York
0:17
Speaker 1: Mets are doing with their pitching call ups now three
0:21
Speaker 1: in a one month span, and this isn't just back
0:23
Speaker 1: end filler, this is tryout auditions for October.
0:29
Speaker 2: Scott. I don't know that I have ever seen anything
0:30
Speaker 2: like this at this point in the season with a
0:33
Speaker 2: contending team, particularly one in the largest market in the country.
0:38
Speaker 2: But it's where they're at. And credit to them in
0:41
Speaker 2: a way, because one of the things David Stearns was
0:45
Speaker 2: charged with when they named him President Baseball Operations was
0:49
Speaker 2: revamping and revitalizing their farm system, their infrastructure. They're drafting,
0:55
Speaker 2: developing all of these things, and they're doing that and
0:59
Speaker 2: they're getting there with these guys, and I don't know
1:01
Speaker 2: if all of them were drafted under Stearns, I would
1:03
Speaker 2: doubt that. I haven't looked at that. But it's a
1:05
Speaker 2: credit to the development certainly that they're at this point.
1:09
Speaker 2: And you know what, whatever it takes, right guys, if
1:12
Speaker 2: these are the best pictures for them right now and
1:14
Speaker 2: into October, then that is what they're going to do.
1:17
Speaker 2: And the move of Senga to triple a today that
1:21
Speaker 2: is surprising. That Will Simon of the athletics certainly hinted
1:24
Speaker 2: at it and wrote about it a couple of days ago.
1:27
Speaker 2: But again, this time of year, and you guys know this,
1:31
Speaker 2: Todd Nerrik as well as anyone. It's all about performance
1:34
Speaker 2: and all of the other stuff is secondary. This is
1:37
Speaker 2: not tryout time. This is performance time. And what's incredible
1:42
Speaker 2: is that the Mets have three non established pictures giving
1:46
Speaker 2: them this kind of performance.
1:48
Speaker 3: Now.
1:48
Speaker 2: Obviously McLean's the only one who's done under sustained amount
1:52
Speaker 2: of time, and even it's not that sustained. But we'll
1:55
Speaker 2: see how sprot does and how Tong does going.
1:58
Speaker 3: Forward, right Ken, I had to disagree with you. You
2:01
Speaker 3: said they get credit. David Stearns, who's one of my
2:04
Speaker 3: favorite because I worked with him with the Brewers, he
2:07
Speaker 3: gets credit for this and the development staff everybody gets
2:11
Speaker 3: credit for it, but doesn't David Stearns also get a
2:14
Speaker 3: little bit of blame for the fact that they have
2:17
Speaker 3: to bring these guys up. The fact that shan Manyah
2:20
Speaker 3: goes down and he is your best signing in the offseason,
2:23
Speaker 3: and you hope Kodei Sanga, who had a calf injury
2:26
Speaker 3: and didn't pitch last year, like he gets blamed for
2:29
Speaker 3: this too.
2:30
Speaker 2: No, Eric, absolutely right, And don't get me wrong. I
2:33
Speaker 2: was talking specifically about those three guys and the credit
2:37
Speaker 2: for that. But you're the other side of this and
2:40
Speaker 2: you mentioned it, and it's absolutely fair and accurate and
2:44
Speaker 2: right to mention. Mantas Down hasn't contributed it at all.
2:51
Speaker 2: Shawn and Andyah who they thought would be really good,
2:53
Speaker 2: and no one questioned that signing when they made it.
2:56
Speaker 2: Everyone thought it was a great signing by them and
2:58
Speaker 2: their fans. Pretty much run in the industry. Hasn't worked
3:01
Speaker 2: out so well. And I would argue Clay Holmes, as
3:04
Speaker 2: good as he has been, and he really has been
3:06
Speaker 2: in his first year of starting good, he is a
3:09
Speaker 2: guy that you can't necessarily count on to go deep
3:12
Speaker 2: into games at this point of the season. So yes,
3:15
Speaker 2: this plan that Sterns embarked upon last year, it worked
3:19
Speaker 2: extremely well. Remember Severarino, Quintana, Manaia all pitched really well.
3:24
Speaker 2: We're talking about these free agents on short term deals.
3:27
Speaker 2: Did the same thing again hasn't worked so well. And
3:30
Speaker 2: it's such a difficult thing to identify free agent pitching
3:35
Speaker 2: and get the right guys, because if you go long,
3:39
Speaker 2: you're gonna get bit one way, and if you go short,
3:41
Speaker 2: you run the risk of getting bit this way. You're
3:44
Speaker 2: not getting the same caliber of pitcher. At the same time,
3:47
Speaker 2: you're not making the same kind of commitment. And sometimes
3:50
Speaker 2: it's going to work, and sometimes, as we've seen, it's not.
3:53
Speaker 2: And I was one of the people praising Sterns at
3:56
Speaker 2: the start of the year. Oh man, look at the
3:58
Speaker 2: Mets again. They've done this. Remember they're pitching to the
4:01
Speaker 2: first two months. Their starting pitching was I believe the
4:03
Speaker 2: best in baseball hasn't sustained itself.
4:07
Speaker 4: I want to talk a little Al East action right now.
4:09
Speaker 4: We got the Yankees and Blue Jays coming up. Excuse me,
4:14
Speaker 4: looking at the pitching matchups. Cam Schlitter has been absolutely
4:17
Speaker 4: phenomenal with Kevin Gosman has been really good against them.
4:19
Speaker 4: Talk a little bit about what you're expecting to see
4:22
Speaker 4: and how this race is gonna unfold at the end
4:24
Speaker 4: in your opinion, Well, it's.
4:26
Speaker 2: Really interesting tonight. The first games you mentioned Schlitter versus
4:30
Speaker 2: Gossman and Schlitter is the Mets the Yankees version of
4:33
Speaker 2: what the Mets have. And I just read a story
4:36
Speaker 2: about him in The Athletic Day by Chris Kirster. I'm
4:38
Speaker 2: not trying for shameless plugs here, but it was a
4:40
Speaker 2: good story about how Schliler wasn't really a guy they
4:44
Speaker 2: thought was going to be all that much. He was
4:46
Speaker 2: thrown in the low nineties at best, and then this
4:48
Speaker 2: season gained weight, velocity jump and now he looks the part.
4:53
Speaker 2: He looks like a guy who can be included in
4:56
Speaker 2: a playoff rotation. I'm not sure that's going to happen,
4:59
Speaker 2: but we'll see. For the Yankees, that was a really
5:02
Speaker 2: important series in Houston in my mind, as crazy as
5:05
Speaker 2: it was for them to win the series, to show
5:08
Speaker 2: they could beat a good team, and now they have
5:10
Speaker 2: to beat the team that has haunted them the whole year,
5:13
Speaker 2: the team that I believe it's ten errors in twelve
5:16
Speaker 2: games against them were twelve hours and ten games they've made.
5:18
Speaker 2: They've played poorly against Toronto. They've got them at home here,
5:23
Speaker 2: and in my view, this is a critical series for
5:25
Speaker 2: the New York Yankees just to sustain whatever it is
5:29
Speaker 2: they've built over the last couple of weeks. They're still
5:31
Speaker 2: not playing the cleanest brand of baseball we've ever seen,
5:34
Speaker 2: but they're doing some really good things. And Trent Grisham's season,
5:38
Speaker 2: to me, is one of the great surprises and great
5:40
Speaker 2: stories of twenty twenty five.
5:43
Speaker 3: All Right, you have the Rangers Astro series normally in
5:46
Speaker 3: Texas and whatever they call it, the Eyes Eye of Texas,
5:50
Speaker 3: they're on you. I don't know what all the song is,
5:52
Speaker 3: but the Heart, the Heart of Texas. Yeah, is this
5:56
Speaker 3: a series that we should actually be watching? Not just
5:58
Speaker 3: because you're going to be on it and you do
6:01
Speaker 3: it a credible job of being on the sideline for
6:03
Speaker 3: these games, But is this a series that's gonna actually
6:06
Speaker 3: be close? With the Rangers being out with the Astros
6:10
Speaker 3: really not playing great baseball, but they have Jordan Alvarez
6:14
Speaker 3: coming off a bad series with the Yankees, Like, is
6:17
Speaker 3: this something that like it's just gonna be kind of
6:19
Speaker 3: in the wash?
6:20
Speaker 2: No? I don't believe. So I'm not just saying that
6:23
Speaker 2: because I'm doing the games. If you look at the standings,
6:26
Speaker 2: the AL wild card standings, where the Rangers are incredibly
6:29
Speaker 2: right there and even the Al West where the Rangers
6:32
Speaker 2: have a little bit to go. But the Astros Mariners
6:35
Speaker 2: has not totally decided. It's a meaningful series, and it's
6:39
Speaker 2: really more meaningful for the Rangers, who are trying to
6:43
Speaker 2: finally get on a role without some of their best
6:46
Speaker 2: players at Valdi and Seger and Simeon, and yet in
6:49
Speaker 2: the past two weeks or so, they've played much better
6:52
Speaker 2: with some of these scrappy guys that they have. It's
6:55
Speaker 2: kind of incredible what they've done without the players that
6:58
Speaker 2: I just mentioned, so definitely has relevance. And de Gram
7:02
Speaker 2: goes on our broadcast tomorrow night. The Astros aren't quite
7:05
Speaker 2: set on their rotation because of the Arraghetty injury. They've
7:08
Speaker 2: got to figure it out. The original plan was the
7:11
Speaker 2: Graham versus Hunter Brown tomorrow, which would have been amazing
7:14
Speaker 2: and still might be amazing if they go that way,
7:17
Speaker 2: but Hunter Brown might end up pitching tonight.
7:20
Speaker 3: The Rangers with all those main guys, with Seeger and Simeon.
7:25
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it's their fault, but I'm saying we've
7:28
Speaker 3: always questioned since twenty three, where is this offense? And
7:33
Speaker 3: with the new infused energy I don't think you used
7:37
Speaker 3: that word, but I'll use the energy the young guys
7:40
Speaker 3: that are playing, rookies that are coming up plan Does
7:43
Speaker 3: it go to the fact that possibly there has been
7:46
Speaker 3: a little bit of a malaise since winning that with
7:50
Speaker 3: the regulars.
7:52
Speaker 2: I don't think that's an unfair statement, and I don't
7:55
Speaker 2: know that I would call it a malaise due to winning.
7:59
Speaker 2: One of the issue us that this team has is
8:02
Speaker 2: Sieger and Simeon. As great as they are, they are
8:05
Speaker 2: guys who are very low key. Seger is kind of
8:08
Speaker 2: to himself, does his own thing. Simeon is one of
8:10
Speaker 2: the hardest workers in the game, one of the more
8:12
Speaker 2: durable players until this latest injury, but he is not
8:16
Speaker 2: what you'd call necessarily a vocal type. And in the
8:19
Speaker 2: offseason they brought in Jack Peterson and they brought in
8:23
Speaker 2: Jake Berger in part because they wanted the edge that
8:27
Speaker 2: they believe those players would provide. They thought, not unfairly,
8:31
Speaker 2: they had a bunch of nice guys, but they didn't
8:33
Speaker 2: have guys who had that kind of different competitive edge
8:37
Speaker 2: that sometimes you need. You need a different mix of
8:39
Speaker 2: personalities in your clubhouse. So it hasn't worked really to
8:44
Speaker 2: the satisfaction of anyone until lately, and you're absolutely right,
8:49
Speaker 2: or the players that they have been using have brought
8:52
Speaker 2: a lot of energy to what they've been doing, and
8:55
Speaker 2: it's similarly helped. Now. My question is, and I think
8:58
Speaker 2: we'll get somewhat of an answer this week, and are
9:01
Speaker 2: those players good enough? And Seegar's coming back probably next week,
9:05
Speaker 2: it sounds like, and Simeon's less likely and evolved these
9:09
Speaker 2: less likely as well, but Segar alone would make a
9:12
Speaker 2: big difference this series, though it's going to be a
9:15
Speaker 2: challenge just getting enough offense and doing the things that
9:19
Speaker 2: they've been doing to keep this going.
9:22
Speaker 1: Hey, Ken, I didn't think I would ask you about
9:24
Speaker 1: this team at this point in the season based on
9:26
Speaker 1: how they had performed over the last couple months until
9:29
Speaker 1: a week ago. But how surprised are you that the Rays? Yes,
9:34
Speaker 1: the Rays have a chance to make the postseason and
9:37
Speaker 1: make things interesting. And if you can include in your
9:40
Speaker 1: answer their trade deadline, I think it's important because they
9:44
Speaker 1: had a chance to unload some other veterans and it
9:47
Speaker 1: seemed to me like they held back because they're going
9:51
Speaker 1: through a cell process and maybe Stu Sternberg wanted to
9:55
Speaker 1: see the team be competitive down the finish line. It's
9:57
Speaker 1: your team. You're the owner, you can do whatever you want.
10:01
Speaker 2: I am surprised by what they've done, and I will
10:04
Speaker 2: tell you this, Scott, they're surprised. I was talking to
10:07
Speaker 2: one of their people just a few days ago, and
10:10
Speaker 2: this guy was saying, Man, we've got this great run differential,
10:13
Speaker 2: it's right there with Toronto's, and yet our record is
10:16
Speaker 2: this theirs is that we should be better. It's crazy.
10:19
Speaker 2: It's baseball, and it's one of those years we just
10:22
Speaker 2: can't explain. And then they started winning and they had
10:25
Speaker 2: the great sweep of Seattle, and they've really kept it
10:27
Speaker 2: going over the last I don't know, a week to
10:30
Speaker 2: ten days, I would say. Now. As for the deadline,
10:34
Speaker 2: it was kind of an odd deadline for them. Certainly
10:37
Speaker 2: they did bring in Griffin Jacks, and they did do
10:40
Speaker 2: some things, but it wasn't a situation where they were
10:45
Speaker 2: trading Yondi Diaz, trading Brandon Loud, doing anything like that.
10:48
Speaker 2: It seemed to me they didn't want to go and
10:50
Speaker 2: give up on the season and what is almost certainly
10:53
Speaker 2: Stuart Sternberg's last season. I don't know how much that
10:55
Speaker 2: was a factor. As much as necessarily. Perhaps they just thought,
11:01
Speaker 2: you know what, we're not really out of it. We've
11:03
Speaker 2: got a shot here. Let's see what happens. Remember the
11:06
Speaker 2: time they thought Kim was coming back, they thought good
11:09
Speaker 2: things were going pop. Perhaps happened and it didn't play
11:13
Speaker 2: out that way necessarily. But here they are now, and
11:18
Speaker 2: you have to give them a lot of credit, and
11:20
Speaker 2: you have to kind of fear them because they're one
11:22
Speaker 2: of these teams that, while I doubt clubs like Toronto
11:26
Speaker 2: and Seattle, I always say I want to see these
11:28
Speaker 2: guys kind of get there. Tampa is a team. Tampa
11:33
Speaker 2: Bay is a team that has gotten there and that
11:35
Speaker 2: has proven over the years they kind of have a
11:37
Speaker 2: winning way about them. We'll see if they can in
11:40
Speaker 2: this situation catch Seattle, because Seattle at some point has
11:45
Speaker 2: to start playing better. They're not going to lose the
11:47
Speaker 2: rest of the season, I don't believe. But at the
11:49
Speaker 2: same time, what has happened in the last twenty games
11:52
Speaker 2: with them six and fourteen is inexplicable.
11:57
Speaker 4: I want to go the last thing here. I want
11:59
Speaker 4: to talk about the article that you wrote today eleven
12:02
Speaker 4: years ago. I still can't believe it. I was on
12:05
Speaker 4: the field for this with Salvador Perez hitting the line
12:07
Speaker 4: drive off Eraaldis Chapman's head. At the end we could
12:12
Speaker 4: see the stitches that basically went from the top of
12:14
Speaker 4: his head to the back. It was surreal. It was
12:17
Speaker 4: a scary moment for everybody, especially raldus in Salvador and
12:21
Speaker 4: now all of a sudden they have this special bond.
12:24
Speaker 4: Eleven years later. It went like that, can you just
12:26
Speaker 4: talk a little bit about that and what you remember
12:28
Speaker 4: and a little bit about the article.
12:31
Speaker 2: A couple things on this. First of all, Todd, I
12:33
Speaker 2: was in Arizona that night and I was driving from
12:37
Speaker 2: one game perhaps back to my hotel when I got
12:41
Speaker 2: a call saying this had happened. So what I did
12:43
Speaker 2: was I turned around and went right to Goodyear, to
12:46
Speaker 2: the Reds training complex, walked into the clubhouse and figured,
12:49
Speaker 2: you know what, I'll just wait for everyone to come
12:51
Speaker 2: back and then ask whatever questions need to be asked,
12:54
Speaker 2: see what's going on. And the RIDDS PR director at
12:59
Speaker 2: the time, Rob Butcher, one of the great PR guys
13:01
Speaker 2: in the sport, found out about this. He got a
13:03
Speaker 2: call in surprise where the game was being played. It
13:06
Speaker 2: actually was canceled and basically told them get Kenny out
13:10
Speaker 2: of the clubhouse immediately, and I didn't realize. I should
13:15
Speaker 2: have realized, but I didn't realize it was bad, that bad,
13:19
Speaker 2: and my instincts were just go there and see what happens.
13:22
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it was one of these
13:26
Speaker 2: nights where no, it was not appropriate to be there.
13:28
Speaker 2: And when they came back, of course I was not there,
13:32
Speaker 2: but everyone was upset. And I don't know if you
13:34
Speaker 2: were one of the guys that went to the hospital
13:36
Speaker 2: that night, but a lot of players did. And the
13:38
Speaker 2: story is about how even though this happened, Perez was
13:45
Speaker 2: at the hospital that night and for the next two
13:46
Speaker 2: days after Chapman had surgery to repair his face he
13:51
Speaker 2: broke an orbital bow and above his left eyebrow. And
13:55
Speaker 2: from that point on they did become close friends. It's
13:58
Speaker 2: not something that happened suddenly. It happened from that event
14:01
Speaker 2: and over time they really got close and Chapman became
14:06
Speaker 2: Perez's role model in terms of working out. They work
14:09
Speaker 2: out together in the offseason in Miami, where they both live,
14:12
Speaker 2: and it's a cool story in that regard, and the
14:15
Speaker 2: only reason I knew about It was because last weekend
14:17
Speaker 2: in Kansas City, I wanted to sit down with sal
14:21
Speaker 2: just to ask about how long he wanted to play
14:23
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame possibilities, and he started talking about Chapman.
14:27
Speaker 2: He brought it up. He said, I learned my work
14:29
Speaker 2: ethic from Chapman, and that's the seed of that story.
14:34
Speaker 2: And it was kind of a cool one to work
14:36
Speaker 2: on me because the are two very prominent players, opponents
14:39
Speaker 2: really their whole careers, except for that brief time in
14:42
Speaker 2: twenty three or three when they were in Kansas City together,
14:45
Speaker 2: but they have been really the closest of friends ever
14:48
Speaker 2: since that awful incident.
14:53
Speaker 1: You were there, right, Yeah, Yeah, I was.
14:55
Speaker 4: I have flying third base. I remember the ball hit
14:57
Speaker 4: his head, ricocheted off his head and went tour to me,
15:00
Speaker 4: that's my first reaction is going to get the ball,
15:02
Speaker 4: and then I took I looked to my left and
15:04
Speaker 4: I'm like, we darted right there, and you saw Salvador Perez.
15:07
Speaker 4: He stopped, went right to his knees and everybody came out.
15:10
Speaker 4: It was it was. It was a nasty scene, but
15:13
Speaker 4: I'm just glad that he came out, okay from the
15:17
Speaker 4: whole situation.
15:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's scary, that's crazy that you were there. Well,
15:21
Speaker 1: I'll save the rest, obviously for the crowd.
15:24
Speaker 3: To check out.
15:24
Speaker 1: There's a shameless plug on the back end, but it's
15:27
Speaker 1: a good one, uh. In The Athletic Ken's story out
15:30
Speaker 1: this morning. Ken, thanks for the time. Enjoy the weekend
15:32
Speaker 1: in Texas.
15:34
Speaker 2: Thanks guys,