Common Sense Baseball

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Common sense is not so common in baseball anymore.

That’s why it is always refreshing listening to Angels manager Ron Washington, an easy Baseball Guy to root for these days. The Los Angeles Angels are off to a good start and that is a refreshing change.

“Ron Washington, he ain’t going to take bullshit that everybody else takes,’’ a wise talent evaluator told BallNine on Wednesday, a statement in plain English.

With the World Champion Dodgers always center stage, the Angels have become Second City in the City of Angels, even though they play in Anaheim. Here’s hoping the Angels can at least have a competitive season because the American League and especially the AL West is pretty wide open.

Logan O’Hoppe, 25, hit a home run in four straight games this past week, something no Angel catcher has ever done. Washington was asked about moving O’Hoppe up in the batting order – O’Hoppe has hit fifth and seventh – and Washington did not hesitate to say O’Hoppe will remain in place.

“He’s cleaning up where he is right now,’’ Washington answered. “You see these guys when they’re young and inexperienced and they show you stuff. You gotta ride the wave first. In time they tell you where they belong, but that’s transactional when you see someone do something and then you want to move him and put him in a spot and the kid has never done it before. So, I’m gonna ride where he is and maybe later on in the season if that’s where he needs to be, he will be there. But right now, he is great where he is hitting.’’

Common baseball sense. Ride the wave with a young player and see where it takes you instead of forcing the move.

The Angels have struggled for too long. They haven’t been to the postseason since 2014. They won their only World Series in 2002 and they have been around since 1961.

Last year, in his first year as Angels manager, Washington’s team won only 63 games. But they made progress in other ways. The Halos haven’t finished over .500 since 2015. That’s a long time. Mike Trout has been to the postseason only once, 2014. He’s 33 now. It would be great to see Trout make it back to October because it has been a rough go. Trout has played only 266 of a possible 648 games from 2021 through 2024; he has been the poster child for baseball injuries.

The veteran presence of closer Kenley Jansen has made a difference for the Angels. He picked up his 450^th career save Tuesday night in Tampa against the Rays. Only Mariano Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601) and Lee Smith (478) have more saves than Jansen, a player I first met when he wasn’t even a pitcher, he was the catcher for Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Jansen says that series “showcased’’ his ability to succeed in the clutch, especially with his ability to throw out runners. Here we are in 2025, 450 saves, and a lifetime of cutters, later.

“All of the work we did in ’24 is connected to ’25,’’ Washington said, before adding these words. “You have to go backwards before you can go forward.’’

No. 450 was amazing on several fronts. Jansen got the final three outs in the ninth but somehow the Rays had a runner on third with no outs in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but none of those particular runners scored.

That hasn’t happened since the Dead Ball Era.

Beyond that, Jansen also set up his defense on Tuesday night at Steinbrenner Field, having the first baseman not hold the runner on to be able to have him play the position. Ron Washington, a baseball man, wisely allowed another baseball man, Kenley Jansen, to make that decision in the mound meeting. Jansen didn’t care about giving up the stolen base.

That decision wasn’t made by Nerds upstairs at 2 pm by a guy named Al Gorithm. It was made by a Baseball Man.

Jansen wanted infield coverage in case his legendary cutter was hit that way, saying “Play back.’’ He got the strikeout of Jose Caballero for the final out in the process.

“It was something that I’ve seen before,’’ Washington said of Jansen’s magical inning. “It was something that I’ve been a part of before on the opposite side when he pulled that off. It wasn’t easy but that is why he is who he is.’’

That is a veteran baseball man speaking and it is good to hear. “All of the work we did in ’24 is connected to ’25,’’ Washington said, before adding these words. “You have to go backwards before you can go forward.’’

It would be fun to see the Angels go forward for a change this season.

My old friend Angels veteran catcher Travis d’Arnaud said of the closer, “We all knew what Kenley had, the opportunity to get 450, so we all were ready to lay it on the line for him. These kinds of wins are huge, we have been grinding and getting these wins, one- or two-run wins, these are vital to having a successful season. We are all fighting together.’’

d’Arnaud is happy to be back home in the LA area where he grew up.

A side note: When d’Arnaud was traded to the Mets in December of 2012, I soon after went out to visit him at his Southern California home. It was a great visit for a number of reasons, including the fact that I got to learn that his father was breeding Komodo dragons in the garage. Tip to young writers. Whenever possible take a trip and visit young players at home, you definitely will learn something new.

D’Arnaud is 36 now. Jansen is 37. Ron Washington is 72. The Angels have a talented veteran coaching staff, including catching coach Jerry Narron, who is 69, and is doing great work with O’Hoppe. Having a veteran closer who has been in big markets like Jansen is a big advantage.

Right now, the Yankees are going through growing pains with their new closer Devin Williams. The changeup artist had another rough outing for the Yankees on Wednesday, giving up three runs in the ninth and had to be rescued by Mark Leiter Jr. who got the final out and the save in the 4-3 win over the pesky Tigers. Williams walked two, surrendered two hits and threw a wild pitch while getting only two outs. His ERA this early part of the season is 12.00.

After watching Williams this spring, a scout told me he expected the right-hander to struggle because of the change of address. Williams gave up the home run to Pete Alonso that knocked the Brewers out of the playoffs and sent the Mets to the NLDS last October. Williams is learning life is much different in the big city of New York than in Milwaukee, where the pressure is nothing like New York, New York. It is not just about being able to grow a beard with the Yankees.

Noted the scout,  “I think he thinks that it’s ‘game over’ when he comes to the mound because of pitching in the National League Central all those years against those bad teams, now all of a sudden he is on the big stage and there is a little bit of pressure – and you can’t just flip changeups up there that land in the dirt every pitch. And you never throw enough strikes with your fastball so all of sudden hitters are just spitting on his changeup and if he throws a fastball, they swing at it and usually hit it. There is a lot of pressure to play for the Yankees and playing in New York.’’

Teams that get the big hits win, but one trend that is continuing is the lack of situational hitting throughout the majors. Every year it seems to get worse. Hitters just can’t get runners home like they once did because there is so much emphasis on home runs, no emphasis on strikeouts, and too much emphasis on the individual and not enough emphasis on the value of team play.

Even when Rob Manfred continues to make life easier for the hitters with the annoying extra inning Fake Runner. This continues to be the dumbest rule in all of sports, nothing else comes close. It is everything baseball should not be. The runner did not earn his way on and certainly not to second base. It is only there to end games quickly for people who don’t really like baseball not to end games justly, rewarding the team that gets a man on and gets him over and in, just like the old batting practice drill. Instead, this is free lunch baseball.

Imagine having someone like Ty Cobb transported from the past to an extra innings game of today. “Wait, how did that laddie get to second base,’’ Cobb, who finished fourth on the all-time list with 724 doubles, might say. Tris Speaker was No. 1 with 792 doubles, Pete Rose was next at 746 and then Stan The Man Musial at 725, one more than Cobb. Now there are fake doubles every extra innings game.

To get to second base in extra innings in Manfred’s World, all you have to do is strike out for the last out of the previous inning.

How ridiculous is that? The Pirates and Cardinals slogged along through 13 innings on Wednesday before the Pirates came away with the 2-1 win. All three runs were fake runs. The score was 0-0 after 11 innings. But that’s Manfred Baseball.

“The Mets just won five games in a row not because of a bunch of home runs, but because they strung together hits,’’ one scout noted. “There’s still value in the old saying, ‘Keep the line moving.’ Especially with guys who don’t know how to pitch and are going to pitch behind in counts and make mistakes. You can score runs easily by just being patient.’’

That’s more common-sense baseball.