March 6
Pregame Pepper
Hall of Famer CC Sabathia will have his No. 52 retired by the Yankees Sept. 26, when he will also be honored with a plaque in Monument Park . . .
He’ll be the 24th Yankee (including managers) to have his number retired but the first since Paul O’Neill in 2022 . . .
Fellow Hall of Fame southpaw Tom Glavine is celebrating the signing of son Peyton, also a left-handed pitcher, by his primary team, the Atlanta Braves . . .
Condolences to the family of ElRoy Face, who won more games in relief (96) than any NL reliever and set Pirates marks for games pitched (802) and saves (188) . . .
His league record for saves lasted until 1982, when Bruce Sutter topped it en route to Cooperstown . . .
This is the first year that two center-fielders (Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran) were voted into the Hall of Fame simultaneously . . .
Hard to believe that the longest-tenured member of the Mets is left-handed pitcher David Peterson, an All-Star last summer . . .
Jayson Stark of The Athletic notes that in the last 65 years, only one team — the 2014-15 Royals — lost a World Series Game 7, then came back and won a ring the next season.
Leading Off
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By Dan Schlossberg
Cleaning Up
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By Dan Schlossberg
Extra Innings: Money Matters
With free agency joining fall foliage in the past-its-peak category, baseball has a $70 million man (Shohei Ohtani), $60 million player (Kyle Tucker), a $51 million guy (Juan Soto), and a new $40 million man (Kyle Tucker) . . .
The new players at the $30 million per year level are Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber, Dylan Cease, Cody Bellinger, and Framber Valdez . . .
USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale writes that the Dodgers have a competitive balance tax payroll of some $413 million — with $2.1 billion of commitments on the books . . .
Bo Bichette was about to sign a Phillies pact for seven years and $200 million when Steve Cohen’s Mets offered him a deal for four less years but $13.5 million more per season — with opt-outs after each year of the deal . . .
Next year’s most likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, Buster Posey, is one of four players with a Gold Glove, batting crown, top rookie and MVP trophies, and multiple World Series rings, joining Pete Rose, Frank Robinson, and Albert Pujols . . .
Jon Lester, also on next year’s ballot for the first time, pitched for nine — count ‘em, nine — playoff teams and started games for three world champions.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [biggentleben@hotmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.