Mervis singles, lifts struggling Cubs in debut
-
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
CHICAGO — Matt Mervis‘ climb to the big leagues was both meandering and steep. When debut day finally arrived on a lustrous Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, the pinnacle moment almost didn’t happen.
“I was hoping for the fourth at-bat,” Mervis said after his eighth-inning single drove in an insurance run in the Cubs’ 4-1 win over the Marlins at the Friendly Confines.
Mervis joined the club from Triple-A Iowa on Friday upon the Cubs’ returning from a tough road trip through Miami and Washington on which they lost six of seven, with five of the losses coming by a single run.
“It sucks hard,” was how Cubs manager David Ross described the spate of narrow defeats. Still, the mood was lightened by the arrival of Mervis, who was hitting .286/.402/.560 at Triple-A Iowa with six homers and 27 RBIs in 24 games.
That’s what happens with any touted new arrival: a resurgence of hope. Perhaps echoing that notion was the weather itself, warm and flawless on a sunny afternoon on the north side of Chicago.
“They just said, ‘Pack stuff and get to the stadium, and congratulations,'” Mervis said, describing the call he received from the Cubs telling him he was hitting the big-time. He added, “This is all I’ve wanted to do for pretty much my whole life.”
While Mervis’ Triple-A numbers suggested an eventual promotion was inevitable, it wasn’t long ago that it seemed inconceivable. After a four-year career at Duke in which Mervis was as coveted for his pitching arm as his bat, he went undrafted in the 2020 draft, which was truncated to five rounds because of the pandemic.
Mervis signed with the Cubs as a free agent. While he heard many times that he should focus on pitching, he always thought his future would be forged with his still-developing ability with the bat. His insistence on that belief was a big step that led to Friday’s game.
Still, things moved slowly. Mervis hit just .209 during his first season of professional games in 2021 but then leaped to .309 across three levels in 2022 while mashing 36 homers. In fact, that became his nickname: Mash.
“My parents like it,” Mervis said. “We all have T-shirts and my friends jokingly call me that sometimes. It is strange to be a minor leaguer with a nickname, but I don’t mind.”
With the Cubs floundering a bit on offense during the rough road trip, and the Mervis mash in effect at Iowa, the time for his long-awaited call arrived. His parents, who had been en route to watch him play in the minors, had to reroute to Chicago, all while dealing with the emotions of their son realizing his dream.
After meeting with the media and studying the labyrinthine passageways beneath 109-year-old Wrigley Field before the game, Mervis took the field with his teammates, and before he knew it, he was striding to the plate for his first MLB at-bat against Marlins righty Edward Cabrera in the second inning.
The crowd, all too familiar with Mervis’ prospect profile, gave him a rousing, prolonged welcome as he stepped to the plate.
“That was really cool,” Mervis said. “Obviously the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, and for people to cheer for me like that was something I’ve never experienced before.”
Also: Mervis had never faced a big league pitcher in a big league game before, and Cabrera greeted him with a nasty changeup at the knees — at 92.4 mph. He ended up striking out in that first at-bat. He grounded out in the fourth and struck out again in the sixth.
Hey, the big leagues are tough. Meanwhile, the well-pitched game zipped along, and with the Cubs leading 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Mervis was due to be the fifth batter up in the inning.
The first two hitters went down quickly, but Cody Bellinger blooped a double after Marlins right fielder Garrett Hampson fell down. With tough lefty Tanner Scott on the mound, Miami walked righty Trey Mancini intentionally to bring the lefty-swinging Mervis to the plate for another shot at his first hit.
Mervis didn’t waste that fourth at-bat. Instead he very much lived up to his name — he mashed. Mervis’ line shot to right rocketed off the bat at 111 mph and plated Bellinger to give the Cubs an insurance run in the tense contest.
“That was fun,” Mervis said. “I was trying not to overthink it.”
The response was typical on a day that Mervis seemed to handle with the ease of a veteran, even with so much going on and his parents watching from the stands.
“I liked the way he handled the moments,” Ross said. “Didn’t get outside of himself and took some good swings on some nasty pitches.”
With his first game, first hit and first RBI all under his belt, and the ball with which he collected his first big league knock secured, the only question remaining for Mervis was what he would do with the memento.
“It’s going to my dad,” Mervis said. “He was wearing my Fall League jersey today. He gets the bats and gloves and all that stuff. I know he presents that stuff proudly in his office.”
-
Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Willy Adames, Pete Alonso, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried are among the 12 players who opted for free agency instead of signing the qualifying offers extended to them by their teams, leaving Cincinnati Reds right-hander Nick Martinez as the lone player to accept ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
Soto, the crown jewel of this year’s free agent class, spent last season with the New York Yankees team that won the American League pennant and is widely expected to sign a contract worth at least $500 million. Bregman, Adames, Alonso, Burnes and Fried should also net nine-figure deals.
The qualifying offer is a mechanism for teams to receive compensatory draft picks when their best players sign elsewhere. Eligible free agents — those who have not previously been given a qualifying offer and spent the entire prior season on the same team — can be tendered a one-year contract for the mean salary of Major League Baseball’s 125 highest-paid players, a number that has jumped from $13.3 million to $21.05 million over the past dozen years.
If that player signs elsewhere, his prior team will receive an additional draft pick either after the first round or fourth round, with earlier picks going to smaller-market teams and later picks given to those who carried higher payrolls. Teams that sign those players also face penalties. The harshest are levied against those that exceeded the luxury tax threshold, costing them their second- and fifth-highest selections in the upcoming draft and an additional $1 million in international bonus pool money.
Martinez’s agent Scott Boras said Monday that the righty will play next season on a one-year, $21.05 million contract. Since the qualifying offer system began in 2012, only 14 of 144 players have accepted one.
Being tied to a qualifying offer does not typically affect high demand free agents like Soto, Bregman, Adames, Alonso, Burnes or Fried. But the tier below them — a list composed of outfielders Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernandez, first baseman Christian Walker and starting pitchers Nick Pivetta, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino — could have their markets impacted by teams hesitant to absorb the penalties that come with signing them.
-
Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
The New York Mets landed veteran outfielder Jose Siri in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, the team announced Tuesday. In return, the Mets surrendered reliever Eric Orze.
Siri, 29, was tied for the lead among all center fielders in defensive runs saved last season but he struggled offensively, batting .187 with 18 homers, 14 stolen bases and an adjusted OPS+ of 76.
He’ll be eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, meaning he’s likely to get a minor bump over his 2024 salary of $757,800.
Siri had a meandering path to the big leagues, bouncing through five organizations before making his debut with the Astros in September 2021. He has been known for playing with a demonstrative flair that can sometimes bug opponents.
Early in this offseason, some industry sources said they expected the Rays to move on from Siri, who had a staggering 170 strikeouts and just 31 walks in 448 plate appearances last season.
Harrison Bader, who was the Mets’ primary center fielder last season, became a free agent again. Tyrone Taylor played well in 44 games at the position, though he just had hernia and elbow surgery, procedures from which the Mets expect him to recover by the start of spring training.
But Siri gives the Mets some coverage at the spot no matter how the rest of the offseason plays out.
A contingent representing the Mets’ organization, including owner Steve Cohen and head of baseball operations David Stearns, traveled to California in recent days to meet with slugger Juan Soto. But that negotiation could continue for another week or more, with Soto and agent Scott Boras taking information and offers from the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and other teams.
Orze, 27, pitched in two games for the Mets last season, allowing four runs in 1⅔ innings in his first-ever major league outings. He was a fifth-round pick of the Mets in the 2020 draft.
-
Jeff Passan, ESPN
The Cleveland Guardians‘ Stephen Vogt was named American League Manager of the Year on Tuesday after winning the AL Central in his first season on the job.
The 40-year-old Vogt, who had never managed before this year, steered Cleveland to a 92-69 record. The Guardians made it to the AL Championship Series before losing to the New York Yankees.
He is the third AL manager to win the award, given out since 1983, in his rookie season managing.
Despite injuries to starters Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie that left the Guardians short-handed for most of the season, Vogt managed Cleveland’s bullpen brilliantly, with its 2.57 ERA more than half a run better than the next-best team. The Guardians improved by 16 games over the previous season and won Vogt’s first playoff series against Detroit until the Yankees dismissed them in five games.
Over his 10-year playing career, Vogt played for six teams and was twice an All-Star. He took over in Cleveland for the retiring Terry Francona — himself a three-time Manager of the Year — after spending a season as the Seattle Mariners‘ bullpen coach.
Vogt received 27 of 30 first-place votes and finished ahead of two other AL Central managers, Kansas City‘s Matt Quatraro (two first-place votes) and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch (one).
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway