Blue Jays sign former All-Star pitcher in surprise free agent opportunity
They've signed left-handed pitcher Joe Mantiply, according to the team's transaction log.
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Mantiply, with a quirky southpaw delivery, was an NL All-Star for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2022.
He struggled to start this season, allowing 17 runs in 9.2 innings to lead to his release.
Mantiply was a bit of a journeyman early in his career. He made his MLB debut for the Tigers in 2016, then wasn't back in the majors until 2019 for one outing with the Yankees.
He got shelled in four Arizona outings in 2020, but then was great in 2021 with a 3.40 ERA.
His All-Star season in 2022 featured a 2.85 ERA and almost exactly a strikeout per inning.
MORE: Why Nationals chose Eli Willits over Ethan Holliday at No. 1 overall pick
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In 2023 and 2024 (4.62 ERA, 3.92 ERA), Mantiply was still useful if not a star.
But this season, nothing went his way.
The 34-year old will try to work his way up from the Blue Jays' Florida Complex League team.
If all goes well, the 6-foot-4 left-hander could help down the stretch of the season.
If not, it was a low-risk opportunity taken by the Blue Jays.
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CNN
36 minutes ago
- CNN
MLB is putting automated balls and strikes to the test in the All Star Game. Some pitchers aren't exactly thrilled
The hottest topic in Atlanta ahead Tuesday's Major League Baseball isn't a player, a coach or a manager. It's not even human. For the first time, the midsummer classic is going to be using automated technology to allow pitchers, catchers and batters to challenge balls and strikes – a system that's been in use in the minor leagues and in spring training but had never been put in place before at a major league park. It's a technology that has the potential to revolutionize the game, a system that might forever change one of the ficklest parts of an incredibly fickle game: The ever-changing, unpredictable strike zone put in place by all-too-human home plate umpires. Pitchers are largely unfazed – at least before the game gets going. 'I don't plan on using them. I'm probably not going to use them in the future. I'm gonna let the catcher do that,' said Tarik Skubal, the Detroit Tigers star who will start the game for the American League. 'I have this thing where I think everything's a strike until the umpire calls it a ball.' Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates fireballer who will start for the National League, felt much the same way. 'Pitchers think that everything's a strike, then you go back and look at it and it's two, three balls off,' he said Monday. 'So, we should not be the ones that are challenging it. I really do like the human element of the game. I think this is one of those things that you kind of think that umpires are great until they're not, and so I could kind of care less either way, to be honest.' According to MLB, the challenge system will have the same rules as were used in spring training: Each team starts the game with two challenges and they keep their challenge if they are deemed correct. Only the pitcher, catcher and hitter can challenge a call and the system is put into place when one of those players taps the top of his cap or helmet twice. The system was in place during the Futures Game at Truist Park on Saturday between some of the game's top minor league prospect. When a player would challenge a call, the game would pause, and attention would turn to the stadium's massive screen beyond right center field. A virtual simulation of the pitch would be shown along with a strike zone and the technology would rule if the ball fell within or outside the box. Play would then resume after the short break. It's unclear exactly how the league will determine the size of those strike zones for each batter, and that's something Los Angeles Dodgers veteran Clayton Kershaw wants to know. 'I did a few rehab starts with it. I'm OK with it, you know, I think, I mean, it works,' he told reporters on Monday. 'I just don't really understand how they're doing the box for the hitter, because I think every different TV or national streaming service has their own box. I think I just hope that they figure out, because Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve should have different sized boxes, so … know they've obviously thought about that. I haven't talked to MLB about it, but as long as that gets figured out, I think it'd be fun.' The phrase used most on Monday when discussing the technology was an iconic one in baseball lore: The 'human element.' It's one of the things that can make baseball so perfectly imperfect – the ability of umpires to simply get it wrong and make a massive impact on the game. From Jim Joyce ruling a batter safe to ruin Armando Galarraga's perfect game bid to Don Dekinger's World Series-changing call in 1985, ruling Kansas City Royals player Jorge Orta was safe at first base even though replays showed he was out by a step. Instead of being the last out of a St. Louis Cardinals World Series championship, the moment became the spark for the Royals to charge back and win the title. The 'human element' is one of baseball's quirks that give the nation's pastime its identity. But it's also something that many fans would rather see cast off into obscurity. Chris Sale, the Atlanta Braves pitcher and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, said he still wants it to be part of the game. 'Honestly, for me, I kind of like the human element, right? Like I understand why they want to use ABS. And I don't think it's a perfect system yet,' he said. 'I kind of like the old feel, the old way of doing it.'
New York Times
37 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why did it take this long for Francisco Lindor to make the All-Star Game with the Mets?
On Tuesday night in Atlanta, Francisco Lindor will take the field, likely to a chorus of boos from rival fans, to represent the New York Mets at the All-Star Game. Since being acquired from Cleveland in January 2021, Lindor has been one of the very best players in baseball, and yet this is the first time he's made an All-Star team with the Mets. Advertisement 'It's a real honor,' Lindor said, 'to be able to take the field in Atlanta as a Met. I'm looking forward to it. There's a lot of good people in this organization, and to be able to represent them, I'll do that with a lot of pride and utmost respect.' Just look at the league leaders among position players in wins above replacement (according to FanGraphs) from 2021 through 2024, with their number of All-Star appearances: That's 26 players. Seven of them have made the All-Star team all four years, nine have made it three times, seven have made it twice and two have only made it once. Only one player in the top 26, the one who places fourth over that stretch, did not make an All-Star team: Francisco Lindor. (For what it's worth, players 27 through 30 on the list combined for zero All-Star appearances: Alex Bregman, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames and Lindor's teammate Brandon Nimmo.) From the outside, Lindor's continued exclusion from the All-Star Game looks like an inexplicable injustice. But there are a few reasons why it's taken one of the sport's best players this long to be showcased in the Midsummer Classic in blue and orange. Let's explore. By WAR, Lindor was the best shortstop in baseball from 2021 through 2024. But the second-best, Trea Turner, also spent those four years in the NL. So did the fourth-best, Dansby Swanson. And the third-best, Corey Seager, played one of those years in the senior circuit. (Seager made two All-Star teams in five chances with the Dodgers; he's three for four with the Rangers in the AL.) 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Even then, Arcia had more than 1 million more votes than Lindor in the initial phase, or almost three times as many ballots in his favor. It was not a surprise that Arcia won the second phase. Last year, when Lindor ended up finishing second in MVP balloting at the end of the season, he was seventh in fan voting among National League shortstops in the summer. (Lindor was also seventh in 2021.) Why did Lindor do so poorly in fan voting? Maybe it's because even large swaths of his own fan base didn't fully appreciate him until the second half of last season. Mainly, though, it's because … Lindor's seasons with the Mets have generally followed the same track: sluggish starts buoyed by excellent performance from about the middle of May onward. Fan voting begins in early June. Here's what Lindor's numbers have looked like on June 1 in each of his five seasons with the Mets: Compare that to what he's done from June 1 on: A similar dynamic has hurt Lindor's chances in balloting done by his peers, which happens by late June. Slow starts obviously alter the narrative around a player. (It's why Juan Soto, whose numbers made him look like a slam-dunk All-Star by the time the team was announced, didn't make it this year in the National League.) For All-Star purposes, it's much better to slump in June (as Lindor did this year) than in April. Let's use June 20 as an additional cutoff point; by that time, most players probably have an idea of who they're putting on their ballot. Here's how Lindor has fared against the reserves selected for the All-Star Game in the last four years: The most glaring snub there is C.J. Abrams making the club over Lindor in 2024, but that's because Abrams was a league selection to ensure the Nationals had a representative in the game. Last year, when he once again didn't make the team, Lindor quipped, 'I guess I've got to have a better April.' That last chart reveals the way offense is rewarded more than defense at the All-Star Game. In late June of each season, Lindor had done less offensively than every player selected ahead of him. His usually terrific defense sometimes brought his WAR closer to the group, but it couldn't make up the gap entirely. It's ironic, then, that Lindor made the team this year despite having his worst first half defensively while with the Mets. That's the power of having power. (Top photo of Francisco Lindor: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
Yahoo
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Video games used to help NBA champ Isaiah Hartenstein unwind in the offseason. Now it's daddy duty.
It's only been a matter of weeks since star center Isaiah Hartenstein and his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, won the NBA Finals. Cue celebratory champagne sprays in the locker room, a joyous parade with fans and ... early wake-up calls with his kid. 'My wife gave me more daddy duties,' Hartenstein, whose 1-year-old son, Elijah, was seen snoozing on his shoulder during the trophy ceremony, tells me during our conversation for Yahoo's OT Diaries. 'She said, 'You're waking up at 5 a.m. now.'' But the NBA champ is also hoping to make time for chilling out during the offseason. 'You're on such a high in that moment, and probably most excited for a bit of relaxing afterward,' the 27-year-old says about his success. Here's how he keeps himself grounded — and why he won't be on a basketball court for a month. It's such a big high, you feel a little crash after a couple of days. I'm not saying it's a depressed feeling, but you feel your mood going down a bit. For me, it's just been a lot of meditation and getting back to breath work to settle into a normal routine. My post-championship life so far has been waking up early with the baby. Just spending more time with the family is definitely important. There are so many ups and downs and so many emotions you have to deal with in the NBA. It was in my fourth year that I started to get into meditation and focusing on the mental side of the game. It's just me trying not to be on a roller coaster where I'm too high or too low, but staying more centered. I think a lot of people from the outside just see us [NBA athletes] as emotionless robots that just go out there and play. But I mean, all of us are human beings. We all go through different things, and being in a situation where I can regulate those emotions, where I can get back to zero, it's been very helpful. Some days it's not going to be perfect. Some days I can do all those things and I'll still feel a certain emotion. But just being consistent with it, I'll always be getting better. Through meditation, reading books and I use this app called Mastry that's kind of like an AI mental coach. I used it before each game throughout the playoffs. They're all just little tools that help me stay grounded. Just like working your muscles for basketball, I think you really have to work on the mental side. I'm a bit stricter in season. You end up having a routine that you stick with throughout the season, so it gets to a point where it's just a habit and you don't even have to think about it. During the offseason is when I try different things. It's more free-flowing. Not every season is the same. They bring different challenges where some of the same things might help, and some don't. You have to figure out what works for you at that time. Physically, just making sure that my body recovers. It's a superlong season and it takes a big toll on your body. I do massages and stretching. I'm a big ice bath guy, and I like to be in the weight room. Mentally, it's about giving yourself a little break where you can shut off a bit from basketball, but also pushing yourself to stay focused. I won't go on the basketball court for maybe a month to give my body some rest. But now with social media, it's also about turning off your phone and getting away from that [noise]. It's kind of hard to do, but that's where you mentally get away from it all. A big thing that helps me check out is doing charity stuff, 'cause that's where you know it's bigger than basketball. Being around people in need and helping them out humbles you; just seeing what really matters in life. It's changed a lot. No more video games, things that used to be my hobbies during my downtime. I'm gone so much [with basketball] that when I'm home, I try to spend as much time as I can with my family. My wife does an amazing job of taking on the load [of parenting], especially in the season when I need my rest. So now I try to help as much as possible. I love fashion. It's a part of me. It's the kind of avenue where you can express yourself through your tunnel fits, through what you wear. Being my size, it's not always easy to find stuff. ... If I go to 10 stores, probably one store will have something in my size. So I have [stylist Dan Solomon] to help me get clothes and put stuff together. It's been great, and I think it's something cool. Especially on [OKC], we're very into it. You kind of have like a friendly competition each game where you look at the other person and see what he has on. It's cool. My mom. South Park. Cheesecake Factory red velvet cake. That's always something where I have to keep myself from eating that. Something happening to my family. Supertight jeans. Barcode — it's like a sports drink. TikTok. When I start scrolling on TikTok, my wife has to tell me to put the phone down. A journal for my thoughts or manifestations. I write those down. It's German. His name is Billa Joe. I listen to him before every game. Meditation and visualization. Call of Duty. The only time I have right now is with my son, so I guess being a dad. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
