A look at MLB Run Differential 8/6/25: NYY +121 LAD +98 PHI +97 KC +91 BALT +89 CLEV +84 MIL +79 MIN +62 ATL +55 SD +48 ARIZ +46 HOU +40 BOS +37 CIN +35 NYM +34 SEA +24 Every other franchise is in the negative
This needs to be the lineup every game until Tucker gets back: 2B Altuve 3B Bregman DH Alvarez C Diaz 1B Dezenzo LF McCormick SS Pena CF Meyers RF Leon
Historically that is what players do. Most players don't fall off a cliff at 29, though it wouldn't be the first time. Jason Lane comes to mind.
I love this. And IMO the only reason you send Cabbage away instead of Aledmys is if 1) Singleton is going to be your LH bench bat moving forward 2) Chas, Meyers, and Leon will be playing nearly every day as there are no other true OF on the roster. Alvarez and Dubon are the only other guys who play OF. The nice thing is Aledmys is still there to DFA in favor of Whitcomb.
He's too messed up to make it back this year. Hopefully this is just a case of Chas resting on his laurels and he can make it back to where he was last year. I've got my doubts.
There has to be something with him that caused all of the pseudo-drama last year.... like they knew this regression would happen at some point, and they were trying to limit his exposure to avoid expediting it? But even if that's remotely the case, there's regression... and then like you said, falling off a cliff. Whatever book is out on him now apparently has been shared and replicated. Still baffling as to why he can't drive the outside pitches from lefties the opposite way, as he was doing his entire career before this year. Until he can get back to doing that with some semblance of consistency (which has a downstream effect, forces pitchers to adjust and throw it inside, and he can turn on those pitches)... not sure what more exposure in the lineup nets the team.
Since he came off the DL in mid/late May, he's has some reasonably steady runs of PT...he's just been completely terrible in them: .191 .237 .336 .574 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=mccorch01&t=b&year=2024
They kept Kessinger on the roster/bench (with barely any starts or even PH opportunities) much the same way. Diaz just replaces him.
3 complete games in May, 9 in June, 9 in July, none so far in August. That's not what I'd call consistent PT. Compare that with April, when he started 21 of 27 games and completed all but one of them. I agree that the production is not there, but it's a real catch-22. Hard for anyone to produce without a consistent role.
Is "completed games" really a thing now? I guarantee you if he was the "best" later inning matchup, or he was having a decent day at the plate, he'd complete those games. He's not a sub-par defensive player or runner... so he's getting replaced because its likely a close game and he's coming up to bat and at least for this year, he's not considered to be the best option. On the flip side, do you now have to go and see the games he came in off the bench... and include that in terms of getting consistent time? This wouldn't be a problem if he was showing signs of hitting consistently. And while everybody wants to say he's not getting enough PT... wasn't he able to "overcome" that last year and still put up production? Tale of two seasons: 2023 - deserves more playing time because of his numbers. 2024 - deserves more playing time despite his numbers?
The link Buck posted has the stat so yeah, it's apparently a thing. Chas has gotten 4 ABs in August, so yes the fact that he's not finishing games does factor into the playing time discussion. No idea who replaced him in each of those games, so I'm sure he wasn't considered the best option when that happened. Maybe he's still hurt, I don't know. But Jake Meyers has been awful at the plate since June 1 and he plays every day. The 2021 - 2023 version of McCormick was better than any batter on this current team outside of Tucker, Yordan, Altuve, or Yainer. We could sure use that guy in the lineup.
2025 Opening Day Lineup: 3B Matthews 2B Altuve DH Alvarez RF Tucker C Diaz 1B Dezenzo LF Whitcomb SS Pena CF Meyers
