Jayson Stark

CLEARWATER, Fla. — It’s a perfect day to talk about ’s contract … just not that one. On Monday, the officially announced — the one that starts in 2025: three years, $126 million. It’s the third-largest deal for any starting pitcher in history, by average annual value. And it comes close to paying Wheeler as many dollars for three years as Roy Halladay once made in his whole career, over 15-plus years. But … This isn’t a column about that Zack Wheeler contract. Here’s why … “Because you know wh…

CLEARWATER, Fla. — It’s been 70 years since the headed east from St. Louis to the hardshell-crab capital of the world. One thing they’ve proven in those 70 years is this: They know a Rookie of the Year when they see one. won one of those Rookie of the Year trophies just last season. He’s one of seven Orioles who own one. And four of those seven are infielders. Perhaps you’ve heard of Cal Ripken Jr., your 1982 AL Rookie of the Year … and Eddie Murray, your 1977 AL Rookie of the Year. Advertiseme…

DUNEDIN, Fla. — It was 11:39 on a breezy Sunday morning. And the place to be was Field 5 of what was once, in a previous life, the Cecil P. Englebert minor-league complex. It was in this moment, in this unlikely place, that a Canadian baseball icon named found himself in a back-field batter’s box, taking the first live batting practice of the rest of his baseball life. Sixty feet away, Eric Pardinho, a 23-year-old right-handed reliever from Brazil with a 7.15 ERA in High A last year, rocked, f…

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Here’s the first rule of covering spring training: Don’t just notice what’s happening. Notice what’s not happening. Here’s the second rule of covering spring training: Don’t just pay attention to who’s playing. Pay attention to who’s not playing. So now that we have that out of the way, here’s a “story” that caught the attention of those of us who were paying attention to the lineup card Sunday. … Who wasn’t playing? That would be a guy named . Advertisement And what wasn’t h…

Since spring training is always a time for nostalgia, what do you say we reminisce about the top three topics of last spring training. Which would be … The rules. The rules. And also … the rules. It was quite a time to be alive. An actual big-league game ended on … Daniel Vogelbach starred in . … Wacky innovations like became a thing. … Umpires were calling pitch-clock violations on the bat boys.… We saw bases being swiped at a rate not witnessed in this sport since the days of Ty Cobb. Advert…

The Athletic has live coverage of around the league on . I love numbers. You’ve probably noticed that. But have I ever explained why? In baseball, every number tells a story. That’s why. So this is the column where I let the numbers tell the story of the baseball season that’s about to unfold. You can thank me later — right after you finish this 2024 edition of The Numbers That Define Baseball. The Magic Number: 64 WHAT IT MEANS: Would you believe there were 64 pitchers who threw a pitch at leas…

and his longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, are under scrutiny after Mizuhara’s gambling activity led to his firing by the and sparked multiple investigations. And Joe Maddon has questions. Just like all of us. From 2020 until June 2022, when he was fired by the , Maddon was Ohtani’s manager. He had a front-row seat to witness the close bond between the sport’s most transcendent star and his closest companion. Advertisement “When I read all this, heard all this, I just did not want to believe…

It was just two weeks ago that I had an incredible conversation with about one of his favorite topics: The pursuit of greatness. The hard part was convincing the Braves’ magnetic young ace he could use that word, “great,” to describe himself. Yeah, really. He went 20-5 last season. He led the world in strikeouts. Yet he still didn’t even approach his own definition of greatness. Advertisement Does it seem almost incomprehensible that Strider didn’t get a single first-place Cy Young Award vote a…

Boy, have we seen some weirdness, and also some wildness, lately in the beautiful sport of baseball. This is that column where we tell you about it. An 11-run inning, all against position players? Check! … A game turning on a wild pitch, passed ball and catcher’s interference, all in a span of four pitches? Check! … A nine-inning baseball game beginning and ending in less time than it takes to air “The Masked Singer” season finale? Double check! (.) Advertisement So hey, that was fun. But this j…

Today, Eric Stangel, former head writer for David Letterman, stops by to give trying to make sense of a crazy couple of weeks in the baseball world. Check it out before or after diving into the full column below. Boy, has there been some Weirdness (and Wildness) since this column appeared on this site. . . And the ran out a starting lineup in which everybody on the field hit like Mario Mendoza. Advertisement And that’s not the half of it. So this week in this column, it’s time to remind you…