The Tampa Bay Rays have a reputation of getting the best out of previously undervalued pitchers, and Garrett Cleavinger is a prime example. Acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 2022 in exchange for German Tapia, the 30-year-old southpaw was subsequently limited to 12 games in 2023 due to a knee injury, but a breakout was right around the corner. Cleavinger made a career-high 68 appearances last year, logging a 3.75 ERA and a 26.7 strikeout rate over 60 relief innings. His ledger included seven wins and six saves.
A high-octane heater was one of his best weapons; at 96.3 mph, Cleavinger’s four-seamer ranked in the 84th percentile for velocity. With that in mind, I asked the Lawrence, Kansas native if he identifies as a power pitcher.
“It’s a part of my game,” Cleavinger told me at the close of the 2024 campaign. “I’m definitely not a pinpoint command guy like some pitchers are — I wish I was a little bit better in that aspect — but power stuff coming out of the pen does kind of fit the description for me.”
Possessor of a varied arsenal is another accurate description. The erstwhile University of Oregon closer now features five-pitches, only one of which he threw less than 10 percent of the time. Per Baseball Savant, the breakdown was: cutter 26.3%, four-seamer 24.8%, slider 22.0%, sweeper 17.4%, and two-seamer 9.5%. Two of those were recent additions.
“The cutter and sweeper came into the mix this year,” Cleavinger explained. “The sweeper, I picked up in the offseason, the cutter in spring training. [In 2023] it was just a slider, which was kind of a mix of the two. I separated them and created two pitches out of one. It’s nice to have a few more options and looks.”
His telling me that he created a pair pitches out of a single slider necessitated a clarification. Is his arsenal truly five deep, or is he only throwing a quartet of distinct offerings?
“It’s just four-seam, two-seam, sweeper, and cutter,” said Cleavinger. “I scrapped the old slider when, like I said, it became the other two pitches. What probably happens is that when my cutter gets a little depthier, it registers as a slider. I consider my repertoire to be four pitches, but I can see why they show it as five.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Roberto Clemente went 47 for 117 against Johnny Podres.
Tony Gwynn went 39 for 91 against Greg Maddux.
Dave Winfield went 23 for 52 against John Montefusco.
Chase Headley went 13 for 30 against Rick Porcello.
Luis Arraez is 10 for 16 against Brandon Pfaadt.
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Brennan Bernardino was a late bloomer. The Boston reliever spent nearly a decade in the minors before getting a two-game cup of coffee with Seattle in 2022 at age 30. Subsequently signed off the scrap heap by the Red Sox — the Mariners had placed him on waivers — Bernardino has since crafted a pair of statistically similar seasons. In 2023, he made 55 appearances and allowed 48 hits and 18 walks, with 58 strikeouts, over 50-and-two-thirds innings. This past year, he made 57 appearances and allowed 50 hits and 22 walks, with 56 strikeouts, over 51 innings.
As similar as those numbers were, his ERA was another story: it jumped from 3.20 to a far-less-impressive 4.06 (4.37 if you don’t include his three appearances as an opener). His xERA was actually lower, 3.88 as opposed to 4.06 in his 2023 rookie campaign, but that’s of scant consolation to the southpaw.
“I’m not a big fan of the expected numbers,” Bernardino told me on the final day of the season. “The way I look at it, expected is almost like a whole other fantasy world. For me, it’s “Did you get the job done or not?’ Sometimes it’s better to get lucky. I don’t think I got the job done to the best of my ability this year.”
More specifically, he didn’t do the job from July onward. Over the first half, Bernardino held opposing hitters to a .219/.308/.281 slash line. Thereafter, those numbers were .309/.400/.580. In many respects, he had two seasons in one.
“I was better [in 2023], because I was more consistent,” said Bernardino. “This year, I was very pleased with the first half. The second half, I wasn’t pleased with at all. Regardless of what [the overall numbers] were, I didn’t do enough to help the team. I need to pitch better next year.”
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Which of Jackson Jobe or Roki Sasaki — Baseball America’s top-ranked pitching prospects — will go on to have the better MLB career? That’s a tough call, as the results of a Twitter poll I ran earlier this week strongly suggest. Jobe edged Sasaki by the narrowest margins, outpolling him 50.4%, to 49.6%.
Personally, I’d go with Jobe.
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A quiz:
The same pitcher has the most wins, strikeouts, and innings pitched in Florida/Miami Marlins franchise history. Who he is he? (A hint: Originally in the Chicago Cubs organization, he was acquired by the Marlins via trade.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
The Colorado Rockies have hired Charlie Blackmon as a special assistant to the general manager. The 38-year-old veteran of 14 big-league seasons, all with Colorado, announced his retirement in September. Blackmon ranks second in franchise history in several categories, including games played, hits, and total bases.
Jeff Torborg, who caught for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1964-1970, and for the California Angels from 1971-1973, died last Sunday at age 93. Later a manager for five big-league teams, Torborg was behind the plate for no-hitters thrown by Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, and Bill Singer.
Bobby Cuellar, a right-hander made four appearances for the Texas Rangers in 1977 before embarking on a long career as a pitching coach, died earlier this week at age 72. The Alice, Texas native allowed one run in six-and-two-thirds MLB innings, the lone blemish courtesy of a Dave Kingman round-tripper.
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The answer to the quiz is Ricky Nolasco, who won 81 games with the Marlins after being acquired from the Cubs in December 2005. If you guessed Dontrelle Willis, he ranks second to in wins and innings, and fourth in strikeouts. Like Nolasco, he came to Miami from the Cubs via trade (in March 2002).
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Termarr Johnson was featured here at FanGraphs on Friday, with the 20-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates prospect discussing his left-handed stroke, and the approach that goes with it. Drafted fourth overall by the NL Central club in 2022, Johnson is one of the top-rated players in the system.
I asked Pirates general manager Ben Cherington about the young infielder during November’s GM Meetings in San Antonio.
“He’s got clear strengths,” said Cherington. “He knows the strike zone. He’s got bat speed. He hits the ball hard, although we’ve got to tune up the contact rate in a couple of areas. And he’s confident. There are some clear ways forward that he is aware of, and is working on, but it’s a really good foundation.”
Following up, I asked the exec if he could elaborate on “tune up the contact rate in a couple of areas.”
“There are a couple different pieces to it,” Cherington replied. “Some of it is that he is so good at recognizing ball-strike that sometimes he will see strike, think he can get the barrel on it, and it’s maybe not the pitch he should swing at. He’ll be swinging at a strike, but not at his strike.
“There are some timing and mechanical things we’re working with him on, just to get himself in a position to deliver the barrel consistently within the strike zone.” continued Cherington. “There is some swing-and-miss we believe is related to that. There are things that he can improve on — things that are improvable — but again, he’s got that starting point. He knows the strike zone, has the bat speed, and the exit velo for his age is in a good spot. We think the arrow is up.”
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Andruw Jones had 67.0 fWAR (62.7 bWAR), 1,933 hits, 434 home runs, 3,690 total bases, and a 111 wRC+. A five-time All-Star, he was awarded 10 Gold Gloves.
Jim Edmonds had 64.5 fWAR (60.4 bWAR), 1,949 hits, 393 home runs, 3,615 total bases, and a 132 wRC+. A four-time All-Star, he was awarded eight Gold Gloves.
Jones was on a Hall of Fame ballot for the eighth time this year and received 66.2% of support from the BBWAA electorate. With two years remaining and momentum on his side, the chances of him getting a plaque in Cooperstown are reasonably good.
Edmonds received just 2.5% of support in 2016, his lone year on the ballot. There are reasons why that happened, foremost being that a dozen players on that ballot are now in the HoF (a few of them via the veterans committee), as were the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jeff Kent, Mark McGwire, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield, and Sammy Sosa. It is understandable that few voters found room for Edmonds on their ballots.
It is also unfortunate. A good argument can made that Edmonds is at least, if not more, deserving than Jones. Hopefully he gets his due from a committee down the road.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Caribbean Series gets underway on Friday (January 31), with all games broadcast in English on MLB Network. The championship game will be held on February 7.
Willians Astudillo slashed .281/.361/.381 with three home runs in 185 plate appearances for the Venezuelan Winter League’s Caribes de Anzoategui. The 32-year-old former Minnesota Twins and Miami Marlins catcher-infielder last played stateside in 2022. He spent part of 2023 with NPB’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Morgan McCullough has reportedly signed with the German Bundesliga’s Regensburg Legionäre. A Seattle native, the 27-year-old infielder was released by the Mariners last summer after playing five seasons of affiliated ball across three different organizations. McCullough saw action with the Australian Baseball League’s Melbourne Aces earlier this winter.
ABL Rookie of the Year honors went to Sydney Blue Sox infielder/outfielder Jaylin Rae. The 23-year-old Sydney native played collegiately at Charleston Southern and Western Kentucky.
The Canberra Cavalry will face the Perth Heat in a best-of-three championship series beginning on Friday. Perth advanced by defeating two-time defending champion Adelaide Giants, while Canberra beat the Sydney Blue Sox in the other semifinal.
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Which among Albert Belle, Dwight Evans, Kenny Lofton, and Dale Murphy is most Hall-worthy? With the 2026 Contemporary Era ballot in mind — all are candidates to fill the eight-player slate — I posed that question in a poll earlier this week. (The erstwhile outfielders aren’t necessarily the best possible candidates, but they seemed like a good mix for this exercise).
Listing all of the quartet’s respective bona fides would be a tad too cumbersome for this column, but here are their WAR totals, ordered from least to most:
Belle: 41.0 fWAR, 40.1 bWAR.
Murphy: 44.3 fWAR, 46.5 bWAR.
Lofton: 62.4 WAR, 68.4 bWAR.
Evans: 65.1 fWAR, 67.2 bWAR.
Evans and Lofton are neck-and-neck for most deserving in my mind. The poll results differ from that opinion. Lofton came out ahead by a clear margin, garnering 44.1% to Evans’s 23.4%. Moreover, Murphy had the second-highest percentage, at 24.1%. (That Belle finished at the bottom — he had 8.3% — was fairly predictable.) As for why people might prefer Murphy over Evans, he had a 7-3 edge in All-Star berths and has a pair of MVP awards on his résumé. Whether that makes him more Hall-worthy is subjective. Ditto deciding between Evans and Lofton.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Ray Fisher coached at the University of Michigan from 1921-1958, and he did so while banned from professional baseball. A native of Middlebury, Vermont, the right-hander had won 76 games for the New York Highlanders/Yankees from 1910-1917, missed the 1918 season while serving in the Army, then went 14-5 with the Cincinnati Reds in 1919 — a campaign culminating in the club’s World Series conquest of the Chicago “Black Sox”.
Fisher finished 10-11 the following year, after which he was sent a contract that included cut in pay. A salary dispute ensued, and the 33-year-old hurler ultimately decided to take the coaching job, rather than remain with the Reds. Amid a messy situation — a detailed description of the events can be found here — Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis imposed the ban.
Six decades later, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn reinstated Fisher, who by then was not only a nonagenarian — he had led Michigan to 636-295-8 record, 15 Big Ten Conference titles, and the school’s first College World Series title. U of M’s baseball team has played their home games at Ray Fisher Stadium since 1970.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Matt Snyder looked at active players who are on track for the Hall of Fame.
Bill Shaikin wrote about the Dodgers and deferred contracts for The Los Angeles Times.
At Bless You Boys, Brandon Day reported on 21-year-old Detroit Tigers infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee, a native of Taiwan who posted a 141 wRC+ with Double-A Erie in an injury-shortened season.
Federal prosecutors recently disclosed an audio recording that further implicates former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara of defrauding Shohei Ohtani. Evan Drelich and Sam Blum teamed up for the story at The Athletic (subscription required).
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Ichiro Suzuki slashed .207/.276/.253 in 100 plate appearances against the San Francisco Giants. He slashed .419/.443/.500 in 79 plate appearances against the Houston Astros.
Ty Cobb, Ichiro, and Tris Speaker rank second, fifth, and seventh, respectively, on the all-time singles list. Each finished his career with 117 home runs.
Ichiro had 10 seasons with 200 or more hits. He reached base 3,791 times.Ted Williams had no seasons with 200 or more hits. He reached base 4,714 times.
From 2010-2013, Ryan Braun had 118 home runs, 364 RBIs, and was 81-for-102 in stolen base attempts. During that same span, Carlos González had 118 home runs, 364 RBIs, and was 87-for-108 in stolen base attempts.
Kenley Jansen is 7-1 with 58 saves and a 2.50 ERA over 100 appearances comprising 101 innings versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. The wins, saves, appearances, and innings are his most against any team.
CC Sabathia went 15-6 with a 2.67 ERA in 30 starts against the Seattle Mariners. He went 11-12 with a 4.63 ERA in 33 starts against the Oakland Athletics.
The Minnesota Twins signed Jim Thome as a free agent on today’s date in 2010. The Hall of Fame slugger went on hit 37 of his 612 career home runs with the AL Central club.
The Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder as a free agent on today’s date in 2012. The power-hitting first baseman played two seasons in Motown, slugging 55 home runs and logging a 139 wRC+.
Players born on today’s date include Brandon Medders, who went 16-7 with a 3.61 ERA over 210 relief appearances with the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants from 2005-2010. The right-hander’s lone career save came against the D-Backs.
Also born on today’s date was Cesar Gutierrez, a light-hitting shortstop whose claim to fame was going 7-for-7 for the Detroit Tigers in a 12-inning win against the Cleveland Indians on June 21, 1970. All told, the Coro, Venezuela native logged 128 hits — none of them home runs — while playing for the Tigers and San Francisco Giants from 1967-1971.
