4 MLB pitching feats you might’ve missed; counting down to the Marlins’ fire sale

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We look at some underrated pitching stars, Ken tells us about Kevin Pillar’s last hurrah and we preview the impending fire sale in Miami, plus the Baseball Card of the Week! I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal, welcome to The Windup!

Noteworthy pitching performances

We have three stories today that felt cut from a similar cloth: Pitchers who are succeeding in exceptional ways, and largely doing so under the radar.

• First, from Andrew Baggarly: Giants reliever Tyler Rogers quietly set an impressive record on Wednesday. It was his 35th outing to start the season without issuing an unintentional walk. Nobody else had started a season with more than 34 (Jamie Walker in 2006). Tyler is one of the more unique pitchers in the game, throwing with an extreme submarine delivery, and his average fastball velocity of 82.2 mph is the lowest in the league. But he’s been very good this year — perhaps even an All-Star.

• And from David O’Brien: Do you know who leads the league in ERA? Unless you’re a Braves fan, you probably didn’t guess that it’s Reynaldo López of the Braves, who (very) successfully converted back to starting pitching with Atlanta this year. Until last night’s six shutout innings in Baltimore, the 30-year-old López hadn’t pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA title (and thus didn’t appear on any leaderboards).

• In his “Sliders” column, Tyler Kepner tells us how the relatively unheralded bullpen in Milwaukee has been a huge factor in the team’s success this year, leading baseball in relief innings and wins.

• I’ll add one more: The Phillies’ rotation is hardly under the radar, but while Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and (ERA leader before last night) Ranger Suárez are getting the bulk of the attention, Cristopher Sánchez has allowed just one home run in 70 1/3 innings. That’s a rate of 0.13 HR/9. The expansion-era record is .16, by Reggie Cleveland of the Red Sox in 1976.

More on pitching: Eno Sarris tells us about the pitchers who recently debuted and are most set up for continued success.

Ken’s Notebook: Kevin Pillar is finishing the race

If this is the end for Kevin Pillar, he’s not going quietly. (Joe Sargent / Getty Images)

Earlier this week, I wrote about how Michael Lorenzen was channeling his anger over a difficult free agency. Kevin Pillar has experienced even greater frustrations, signing minor-league contracts the past three years, getting let go in March and again in April by the White Sox, the worst team in the majors. His revenge, if you want to call it that, will likely come in a different form.

Pillar, 35, will simply walk away.

The Athletic’s Sam Blum wrote recently about how a sports psychologist advised Pillar to “finish the race” after his second dismissal from the White Sox. Pillar is doing that in a big way, replacing the injured Mike Trout by, well, playing like Mike Trout. But he doesn’t want to experience another offseason of waiting and wondering which team, if any, will want him.

“The uncertainty of everything weighs on you and weighs on your family,” said Pillar, who is married with a daughter, 6, and son, 4. “I want my kids to be normal. I want them to live a normal life and enjoy the same things I did as a kid, growing up in the neighborhood with friends and family and cousins, not be a traveling circus all the time.”

The Angels are Pillar’s ninth major-league team and eighth in the past six years. He already has reached one goal this season, collecting his 1,000th hit. He will fulfill another on July 5, when he achieves 10 years of major-league service. His performance in 133 plate appearances with the Angels — a .317 batting average, seven home runs, 28 RBIs and .946 OPS — has been nothing short of astounding. And it’s giving him peace.

“I’ve watched a lot of good friends, good teammates who were much better players than me, go out not being very good, maybe holding on a little too long,” Pillar said. “I could have the best year of my career, ride into the sunset, leave the industry maybe wanting more Kevin Pillar. That would be a huge win for me.”

The perfect way to finish the race.

“No matter what anyone tells you, they’re always playing for next year,” Pillar said. “They’re trying to play for the scoreboard and the statistics, trying to be financially compensated and find a job next year. I’m playing for nothing except the pure joy.

“I’m pushing myself to the boundaries of what I can do. I’m not worried about one or two at-bats. Am I going to be in the lineup tomorrow? What’s next year look like? Where am I going to be? Am I going to make money? I’m just playing free.

“I wish I could have learned it younger.”

How long until the Marlins’ fire sale?

In a sense, the dismantling of the Marlins roster has already begun — two-time batting champ Luis Arraez was traded to the Padres on May 4, barely a month into the season.

The Marlins were already 9-25 when that trade happened. They’re 23-45 after J.D. Martinez’s walk-off home run last night, with no turnaround in sight. Today, our MLB trade deadline crew takes a look at the potential trade candidates currently wearing Marlins uniforms: Jesús Luzardo, Josh Bell and Tanner Scott.

• One small problem: Of the three, only Scott is having a particularly good year (despite being the one to give up that walk-off last night). His 1.93 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 28 innings are sure to attract some attention (even if his 20 walks aren’t entirely pretty). But, as noted in the story, Scott will be a free agent at the end of the year.

• Luzardo’s line — 3-5 with a 5.11 ERA — is more indicative of inconsistency than inability. In four starts in May, he went 2-2 with a 1.75 ERA, striking out 23 and walking just three hitters in 25 2/3 innings. But that should give you some indication of how bad April was (0-2, 7.29 ERA).

• Bell, meanwhile, has been inconsistent on a larger scale. After struggling at the end of 2022 when he was traded to the Padres, he performed well last year after the Marlins sent Kahlil Watson and Jean Segura to Cleveland. This year, he’s hitting .242/.312/.379 (.691 OPS) with seven home runs. Of the three, it would make the most sense to me if Bell was traded later, rather than sooner, as teams first try to gauge the Mets’ stomach for trading away franchise icon Pete Alonso as he approaches free agency.

Baseball Card of the Week

When it comes to baseball cards, I’m a collector, not an investor. (I learned that lesson when I was 10 years old and owned a fistful of Kevin Maas cards that never panned out.) As an adult, I tend to buy cards more on “feel,” or if I think the player has an interesting story.

Once in a while, though, I come across one that would be worth hundreds (if not thousands) in pristine condition, but it’s in my price range because someone (in this case) poked a thumbtack through it to hang it on the wall. That’s how I got this 1969 Topps Harmon Killebrew for about a dollar.

Killebrew won the MVP award the year this card was printed, ultimately hitting 573 home runs and making 13 All-Star teams. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.

Do I occasionally look at this card and wish it were a PSA 10? Eh, not really. If it were, it would belong to someone else.

Handshakes and High Fives

A quick correction from yesterday: I mistakenly said the Yankees had swept the Royals. It was a four-game series! The Royals avoided the sweep yesterday by scoring two runs in the ninth to walk it off, 4-3.

It’s a double Weird & Wild day! Jayson Stark dives in on Yusei Kikuchi’s wild collision in Oakland, a blown 15-1 lead in the minors, and so much more. And in a bonus article, he examines how great the Orioles have been against their division foes of late.

It was Prince night in Minnesota last night, and the players got in on the celebration.

Chad Jennings takes a look back at last year’s trade deadline to see what worked and what didn’t.

Brendan Kuty’s story today about Aaron Boone’s tradition of writing personal notes on game balls after every win is a cool insight into the Yankees manager.

Last week marked the 25th anniversary of Bobby Valentine donning a fake mustache and shades in an attempt to sneak back into the dugout after an ejection. Jason Jones spoke to Valentine (and pitcher Orel Hershiser) about the caper.

Keith Law takes his annual look at the draft from 10 years ago, ranking how he’d pick ’em back then, knowing what he knows now. He also looks at the 20 biggest busts.

Trailing the Rangers 3-1, the Dodgers put runners on the corners with no outs in the eighth inning. Then David Robertson struck out Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in succession.

DAVID ROBERTSON STRIKES OUT BETTS, OHTANI AND FREEMAN ON BACK-TO-BACK NIGHTS. UNREAL.
@Rangers | #StraightUpTX | @BallySports 📺 pic.twitter.com/7Ti7R6jUQa

— Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) June 14, 2024

The only other pitcher to do that this year? Robertson, of course — about 24 hours earlier.

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(Top photo of Reynaldo López : Troy Taormina / USA Today)