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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Braves have spent a total of $3 million this offseason on free agents (third-fewest in MLB) but are still considered a title contender. The other NL East contenders, by contrast, have spent wildly: the Mets have spent $807 million and the Phillies have spent $397 million . . .
From Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated: “Over the past 13 years, the team with the highest payroll has won the World Series twice (2018 Red Sox and ’20 Dodgers) and lost it once (’17 Dodgers). It missed the postseason twice and was knocked out in the LDS four times and in the LCS four times.” . . .
Former major-league managers Brad Ausmus and Jerry Narron have signed on as coaches for Team Israel, which also has Kevin Yukilis as a coach under manager Ian Kinsler, in the World Baseball Classic . . .
The Houston bullpen remains mostly intact after posting a 0.83 ERA and holding opposing Philadelphia hitters to a .126 batting average and .208 slugging percentage — all post-season records for a minimum of 35 relief innings pitched — in the 2022 World Series . . .
How did Trent Grisham, coming off a .184 regular-season showing for San Diego, manage to homer against Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom on consecutive nights in last year’s NL Wild Card series? . . .
Believe it or not, Scherzer has not picked off a runner since 2016 . . .
With Kodai Senga (Mets) and Masataka Yoshida (Red Sox) coming to the U.S. majors from Japan, one or both could follow in the footsteps of former Japanese Rookies of the Year Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, and Shohei Ohtani . . .
If Dusty Baker retires after this season, he could win instant election to the Hall of Fame in December, when the Contemporary Non-Player Era Committee votes. Jim Leyland, Lou Piniella, or Davey Johnson could also win election, potentially creating the first three-manager class since 2014 (Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, and Bobby Cox).
Leading Off
Ohtani Wasn’t the Most Recent Player To Pitch And Play A Position
By Andrew C. Sharp
A recent Here’s the Pitch offering by Dr. Paul Semendinger, editor of the Yankees-oriented site Start Spreading the News, pointed out that Shohei Ohtani can’t be properly compared to Babe Ruth as someone who frequently pitched and played another position because the Japanese superstar performs as a designated hitter. Ohtani has no need for a glove other than when he pitches.
Back in 2017, I wrote the SABR bio of the man who at that time was the last to have pitched and played a position in the field for 15 or more games in a season. My guess is that few readers have heard of him.
His name was Willie Smith. He reached the majors as a pitcher with the Tigers in 1963 and was traded to the Angels as a pitcher in April 1964. He had been used a bit as a pinch-hitter and outfielder and had hit over .300 in the minors, but pitching was expected to be his route to the majors.
Smith’s ERA after nine appearances in relief in 1964 was 1.80. Given a start, he yielded an earned run in five-and-2/3 innings. Short of bench players on June 8, however, Angels Manager Bill Rigney sent Smith to the outfield in the middle of a game. “The first ball that was hit in the inning was to me” Smith recalled in 1990. “I kept asking the Lord to let me catch [it] …. I made the catch, and I was okay after that.”
Later in the same game, without being able to throw in the bullpen, Smith was summoned to pitch. “I’m not one of these guys who can throw seven or eight pitches and be ready,” Smith said in 1970 about that game. After warming up on the mound, he quickly yielded two homers.
Still, Rigney liked what he saw of Smith at the plate. Smith started in right field in the second game of a doubleheader on June 14 and hit his first major league homer. He pitched in relief the next day, his last time on the mound for the Angels.
The next week, Rigney put him in the lineup as the cleanup hitter. The Angels went on an 11-game winning streak with Smith providing key hits in five games. He played regularly the rest of the season and hit .301. He was a regular in the Angels’ outfield again in 1965. He didn’t get a chance to pitch that season or in 1966.
Traded to Cleveland, a slow start left him back at AAA Portland, but at least he got to pitch in five games, fanning 12 batters in 12 innings. His ERA was 0.75. He also hit 17 homers, mostly as a first-baseman.
Back with Cleveland as a bench player in 1968, Smith pitched in two June games, throwing two shutout innings in the first and three more in the second. After his second pitching performance with the Indians, Smith was traded to the Cubs, where he threw two-and-2/3 innings in a game without allowing a base runner. Why wasn’t this guy given more opportunities on the mound?
On opening day in 1969 at Wrigley Field, the Cubs trailed to Phillies, 6-5, in the bottom of the 11th. As a pinch-hitter, Smith hit the game-winning homer, considered by many as one of the most dramatic in Cubs’ history.
Traded to Cincinnati, Smith was demoted to Indianapolis in May. He tore up the American Association, hitting .351. He pitched once, throwing three shutout innings.
“I’ve sort of got it out of my system,” Smith said of his mound work. “But I still feel I could be a winning pitcher in the big leagues,” he told the Sporting News. He never got the chance.
Although Ohtani made his MLB debut in 2018, he pitched in just 10 games. That left it to Michael Lorenzen of the Cincinnati Reds to outdo Willie Smith. Lorenzen, who lately has exclusively been a pitcher, played in the outfield in 29 games for the Reds in 2019. He started six games in center, pitched in 73 games in relief, and pitched and played the outfield in two games that he didn’t start.
In college at Cal State-Fullerton, Lorenzen had been a power-hitting outfielder who also was the team’s closer his senior year. He showed enough on the mound that he was drafted as a pitcher.
Having signed with the Tigers this fall as a starting pitcher, Lorenzen also played a half-dozen games as an outfielder in 2020 and 2021 but was primarily a pitcher — a position he played exclusively in 2022.
With the universal designated hitter, Lorenzen and Smith – not the DH Ohtani -- are likely to remain the last men in each league to have been a starting player somewhere on the field other than the pitcher’s mound.
Andrew C. Sharp is a retired newspaper journalist and a SABR member who has written for the BioProject and the Games Project. He blogs about D.C. baseball at WashingtonBaseballHistory.com
Cleaning Up
Red Sox Save Face — And Reputation — By Signing Devers Long-Term
By Dan Schlossberg
Fans of the Boston Red Sox, still seething that the team traded Mookie Betts and failed to retain fellow icon Xander Bogaerts from leaving via free agency, heaved a huge sigh of relief this week when slugging third baseman Rafael Devers signed an 11-year, $331 million extension.
Devers would have been eligible for free agency after the 2023 season.
News of the deal came one day after Devers and the ballclub agreed on a $17.5 million contract for 2023. Technically, that makes his extension $313.5 million, spread over 10 years.
The signing also comes a few days after fans at Fenway Park for the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic booed Red Sox owner John Henry.
Neither he nor president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom would win any popularity contests lately, though the Devers signing should help.
A Dominican slugger who just turned 26, Devers has started at third base for the American League All-Stars two years in a row. He’s also averaged 33 homers and 107 runs batted in over a six-year career spent entirely with the Bosox.
A left-handed hitter who should be entering his prime, Devers might see the new contract as reason to relax, perhaps producing a 40-homer season for the first time.
A strong season from Devers could also help Boston escape last place, where the team has resided twice in the last three years. In an effort to close the 21-game gap to first place, the Sox not only extended Devers but also signed starting pitcher Corey Kluber, closer Kenley Jansen, set-up man Chris Martin, infielder Justin Turner, and two-time Japanese Leagues batting champion Masataka Yoshida, a contact-hitting outfielder in the Ichiro mold.
The Sox still need a shortstop to replace Bogaerts, however, and don’t want to move 2021 signee Trevor Story there from second base. They’re already planning to move versatile Justin Turner, who played third base for the Dodgers, to the opposite infield corner.
Boston needs a boost behind the plate and help for Yoshida in the outfield, where Alex Verdugo (acquired from the Dodgers in the Betts salary dump) has been a major disappointment.
For a team that used to pound the Green Monster with regularity, the coming season presents a quandary: can the Sox swat more home runs than they allow?
Devers should help answer that question.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 40 baseball books and thousands of articles about the game. He’s also a popular after-dinner speaker; book him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Joey Meneses, the 6’3” Mexican first baseman who hit .334 with 13 homers and 34 RBI in 222 at-bats for the Washington Nationals, seems to be out of a job in the wake of the team signing ex-Met Dom Smith, who hit .194 with no homers in 134 at-bats last year . . .
This could be a make-or-break year for Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell, who needs to return to the playoffs or suffer the consequences of an expiring contract . . .
When they start the 2023 season at Yankee Stadium March 30, the San Francisco Giants will be making their first visit to the Bronx since 2016 . . .
Willie Mays is the oldest living Hall of Famer.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.