Major League Baseball is packed with electrifying players. Whether you prefer five-star talents, powerful sluggers or pitchers throwing triple-digit heat, there are stars bringing excitement to this 2024 MLB season on a daily basis.
But who is the most exciting player in baseball this year? To find out, we put together a 32-player bracket and asked our MLB experts to vote for a champion.
The process was simple: We chose the most exciting player from each of the 30 teams (by virtue of having the best record in their leagues at the time of our voting, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers each got two entries), seeded them by the standings and let our voters decide each matchup.
The result? One superstar who can proudly wear the crown as MLB’s Mr. Excitement.
Why Judge is here: Judge is the closest player we’ve seen to Barry Bonds since, well, Barry Bonds. His numbers are staggering. His power is immense. His plate discipline is remarkable. Every at-bat is a must-watch. What’s more exciting than that?
Why Crochet is here: The White Sox might be the worst team in MLB history, but Crochet morphing from full-time reliever to All-Star starter has at least been one exciting development on the South Side in 2024.
Winner: Judge
Why Duran is here: Duran is a triple waiting to happen whenever he comes to the plate. This is especially true given the deep center field and unique angles at Fenway Park. His ability to defend that space, whether in center or the corner, doesn’t hurt, either.
Why Skubal is here: The state of starting pitching being what it is, when a pitcher develops into an old-school ace, you have to tune in. Skubal has become the complete package for the Tigers, the kind of pitcher whose turn in the rotation you circle on the calendar when figuring out which game to attend.
Winner: Skubal
Why Ramirez is here: He has provided nearly a decade of consistent quality. He hits for power, steals bases, never strikes out and plays with a crackling sort of energy that makes him feel like he’s far bigger than 5-foot-9.
Why Seager is here: Seager’s version of excitement stems from his excellence. It’s not flashy. It’s not aggressive. He’s just the guy who hits massive home runs in vital moments and goes out and wins World Series MVP trophies. Plural.
Winner: Ramirez
Why Lewis is here: We’re talking about the real-life Roy Hobbs here. No matter how grueling the injury, or how much time he misses, Lewis keeps magic in his bat, consistently providing elite-level production with an absurd knack for belting grand slams. He does it all with a radiant smile, too.
Why Guerrero is here: Blue Jays manager John Schneider calls Guerrero a line-drive hitter with power, a term that has evolved into a cliché but in this case qualifies as the most accurate description. Few players, if any, hit baseballs harder and more frequently.
Winner: Guerrero
Why Soto is here: There might not be a better showman in all of New York City than Juan Soto. He blasts home runs to all fields. He takes balls out of the strike zone with shuffles. He stares pitchers down. He trash-talks catchers. He’s pure entertainment.
Why Joyce is here: Because he throws baseballs very, very hard. Velocity has skyrocketed over the past decade, and Joyce is pushing the boundary to another level. 106 mph? Ridiculous — and exciting.
Winner: Soto
Why Witt is here: Everything Witt does is explosive, whether it’s on the bases, at the plate or in the field. Perhaps more than any player in the majors right now, you walk away from every game Witt plays knowing you have watched someone with transcendent talent and emergent skill.
Why Kirby is here: The major leagues are filled with pitchers who wow you with raw stuff, but Kirby does it with precision and, in this day and age, that makes him special.
Winner: Witt
Why Henderson is here: Henderson does it all. He combines his raw power (36 HRs) and speed (18 SBs) with deft hands while playing the most important position on the diamond outside of pitcher. He has a Rookie of the Year Award and a Silver Slugger Award, and he was an All-Star this year for a reason.
Why Miller is here: With well more than 400 pitches thrown at or over 100 mph this season, it’s not hard to understand why Miller is on this list. On average, nearly every other pitch out of his hand hits the century mark.
Winner: Henderson
Why Alvarez is here: Put it this way: He might be the guy you most want up there in a big moment, especially in the postseason. And if you’re rooting against the Astros, he’s the guy you don’t want up there in a big moment. With his ability to hit for power and average and avoid strikeouts, sometimes he feels impossible to get out, and he’s capable of hitting the ball 450 feet any time he swings the bat.
Why Caminero is here: This is as much about future potential as present ability, but the game’s top prospect is already flashing the skills that should soon make him one of the game’s top hitters, spraying rocket-propelled line drives all over the field.
Winner: Alvarez
Why Ohtani is here: Ohtani has unmatched raw power and has evolved into a complete hitter. He boasts elite speed and is using it to steal bases more frequently than ever. And next year, he’ll resume reeling off triple-digit fastballs and mind-bending splitters from the pitcher’s mound. What more do you want? A cute dog, perhaps? He’s got that too.
Why Doyle is here: Hit the ball practically anywhere in center field, and Doyle will catch it. Try to take an extra base, and there’s a pretty good chance Doyle will throw you out. If you want outfield defense, it doesn’t get any better. Oh, and he can hit too.
Winner: Ohtani
Why Lindor is here: Lindor is a dynamic leadoff hitter, elite shortstop, first-rate base stealer and consummate leader with a magnetic personality. Want to see exciting? Head on over to Citi Field, watch him impact games in every way, and listen to those MVP chants showering Lindor every night.
Why Crow-Armstrong is here: We all knew Crow-Armstrong had the tools to play an excellent center field and wreak havoc on the bases. The question was whether he could hit at the major league level. He’s proving he can, and that has been a big deal on the North Side.
Winner: Lindor
Why Chourio is here: Because he is doing the sorts of things in his rookie season done by only the very best players in MLB. The last 20-year-old as good as Chourio? Fernando Tatis Jr.
Why Skenes is here: In a game that has deemphasized starting pitching to the point that the ace is an endangered species, Skenes is a hulking, sneering strikeout machine with an unmatched ability to create an undeniable buzz around his starts.
Winner: Skenes
Why Merrill is here: Merrill waltzed into a clubhouse filled with exciting players and snatched the bid with a propensity for the dramatic. He’s still only 21, but he is already the guy you want up in clutch moments.
Why De La Cruz is here: He hits tape-measure home runs. He leads MLB in stolen bases. He throws 100 mph across the diamond. His entire tool set is a starter kit for excitement.
Winner: De La Cruz
Why Betts is here: Betts can do just about anything. He can bowl. He can ball. He can podcast. More specific to this exercise, though: He can throw you out from right field or rob you of a hit at shortstop. He can work a count and spray a base hit the other way or he can take you deep on the first pitch. And whatever he does, he’ll look so cool doing it, it seems unfair.
Why Edwards is here: Edwards was called back up by the Marlins in early July and hasn’t stopped hitting. He has elements of Luis Arraez‘s bat-to-ball skills but with significantly more speed. And he has been playing a pretty decent shortstop, too.
Winner: Betts
Why Sale is here:Ronald Acuna Jr. might have won this bracket a year ago, but he’s injured, so we turn to Sale and his funky sidearm delivery that earned him the nickname “The Condor” as Atlanta’s rep. He’s also back to being one of the best starters in the majors, with a chance to win the NL pitching Triple Crown (leading in wins, ERA and strikeouts).
Why Winn is here: With potential future Hall of Famers Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado both on the downslide, Winn feels like the guy to represent the Cardinals. Hey, everybody loves rookies, and Winn’s flashy defense and rocket arm at shortstop make him a regular on highlight reels.
Winner: Sale
Why Harper is here: As beloved as any player is by his hometown fans, Harper’s at-bats remain must-watch TV, and when he hits one out in Philly, there are few moments in the sport as electrifying. Go watch his series-clinching home run against the Padres in the 2022 NLCS.
Why Wood is here: In his short time in the majors, Wood has established himself as an intimidating presence at the plate with top-end exit velocity numbers. At 6-7, 234 pounds, he hasn’t even filled out yet. Dream on that power potential, Nationals fans.
Winner: Harper
Why Carroll is here: The reigning Rookie of the Year has shown he can do everything: He had 25 home runs, hit a league-leading 10 triples and stole 54 bases in his first season, and he is in double digits in all three categories again this year.
Why Snell is here: Snell was having a ho-hum season after winning the 2023 NL Cy Young Award, but after coming off the injured list in July, he showed up in a big way. A no-hitter last month wowed the baseball world, as he has a 1.30 ERA since healing up from a groin ailment. His second-most-thrown pitch — his curveball — has produced a .100 batting average against and is one big reason he’s on this list.
Winner: Carroll
Second round
Aaron Judge vs. Tarik Skubal
Skubal’s dominance on the mound pushed him past Duran in our closest opening-round matchup, but the AL Cy Young favorite was no match for the AL MVP favorite.
Winner: Judge
Aaron Judge (7)
Opponent: Detroit Tigers Pitcher: Tarik Skubal Date: 5/5/24
Five-tool player vs. power-packed slugger is a question our voters had to answer often in our voting. Ramirez’s all-around talent kept this one close, but the Blue Jays’ biggest bat survived.
Winner: Guerrero
Juan Soto vs. Bobby Witt Jr.
The bracket gave us one of the most intriguing early AL showdowns. Soto’s brilliance at the plate couldn’t sway our voters against Kansas City’s five-tool superstar.
Winner: Witt
Gunnar Henderson vs. Yordan Alvarez
Alvarez is the current-day Big Papi, and that was just enough to get him past Baltimore’s do-everything shortstop in our closest matchup of the second round.
Winner: Alvarez
Shohei Ohtani vs. Francisco Lindor
Who has the edge in a meeting of the two NL MVP favorites? When it comes to excitement, Ohtani’s 50/50 quest proved to be the difference.
Expect to see these two compete in our bracket for years to come, but even the game’s most exciting young starting pitcher couldn’t stop De La Cruz here.
Winner: De La Cruz
Mookie Betts vs. Chris Sale
Sale had some supporters in a battle of former Red Sox teammates. Betts had more.
Winner: Betts
Bryce Harper vs. Corbin Carroll
Carroll’s all-around ability garnered him multiple votes, but not enough to take down the face of the Phillies.
Winner: Harper
Third round
Aaron Judge vs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The battle of AL East sluggers belonged to Judge, in unanimous fashion.
Winner: Judge
Bobby Witt Jr. vs. Yordan Alvarez
Two AL semifinal matchups, two unanimous outcomes. Many of our voters circled Witt vs. Judge when our bracket was released — and both players have cruised through to make that AL final a reality.
Winner: Witt
Shohei Ohtani vs. Elly De La Cruz
The excitement De La Cruz brings at shortstop was just enough to get him past the Dodgers’ DH (for 2024) — but this result could look a lot different when Ohtani returns to the mound next season.
Winner: De La Cruz
Here’s my conversation with Cincinnati Reds star Elly De La Cruz, who gave the best answer to a question I’ve heard in a long time.
Betts’ ability to do a little bit of everything, including handle multiple positions, swayed our voters in a meeting of former MVPs.
Winner: Betts
Final Four
Aaron Judge vs. Bobby Witt Jr.
An AL championship matchup so close we had to turn to our emergency tiebreaking panel, which opted for Witt’s dynamic skill set over Judge’s unmatched power.
Winner: Witt
Mookie Betts vs. Elly De La Cruz
The NL final pitted two players who can wow at the plate, on the basepaths and in the field — but only one does it while standing 6-5 at shortstop.
Winner: De La Cruz
Championship
Bobby Witt Jr. vs. Elly De La Cruz
De La Cruz can do everything. Witt can do everything. But Witt’s ability to do it all while hitting .333 put our 2024 MLB Mr. Excitement over the top, according to our voters.
Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.
Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.
“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”
Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.
Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.
On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.
Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.
Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.
Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.
Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.
The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.
“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”
Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.
The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.
Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”
“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.
As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”
Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”
The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.
Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.
However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.
“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”
It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.
“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.
Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.
“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.
Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.
New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.
“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”
Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”
“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”
The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.
“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”
Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.
But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.
“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.
Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”
Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.
“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”
Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.
The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.
Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.
“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”
Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.
“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.
Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.
“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.
The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.
“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”
This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”
Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.
Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.
In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”
In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.
Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.