If Major League Baseball’s slew of rules changes implemented this season were geared toward speeding up the sport and attracting younger fans, an early consequence appears to be that older players are having a harder time adjusting to them.
An “old dog, recent tricks” form of affirmation, if there ever was one.
Just searching for now at one in every of our two ball clubs in Recent York, some aging members of the Mets’ pitching staff — the oldest within the league with a median age of 31.9 — look like having issues adjusting to the brand new pitch clock, as detailed on this interesting column last week by colleague Jon Heyman.
Max Scherzer bounced back nicely from two worrisome starts to open his age-38 campaign, allowing one hit and three walks to the Padres over five shutout innings within the Mets’ 5-0 win Monday night over the Padres at Citi Field.
With highly compensated 40-year-old co-ace Justin Verlander and free-agent signing Jose Quintana opening the 12 months on the injured list, the Mets could sick afford a terrible April by Scherzer and 36-year-old righty Carlos Carrasco. The latter has been torched for 11 earned runs and a bloated 11.42 ERA without getting through the fifth inning in either of his first two starts.
Carrasco acknowledged after his first start of the season last week that the pitch clock has affected him, eliminating some breather time between offerings.
The Mets also began play Monday with essentially the most pitch-clock violations — offensively and defensively — of any MLB team with 10.
Meanwhile, the Rays — the team with the fifth-youngest pitching staff (28.3 average age) and second-youngest overall roster (27.5) — have opened the season 10-0 through Monday’s 1-0 win over the Red Sox. Their oldest pitcher is 31-year-old reliever Jason Adam, who has tossed just 3 ⅓ innings this season.
While the Mets boast the oldest overall roster in baseball at 30.7 years on average, even with the call-up of catching prospect Francisco Alvarez, the Yankees are in the course of the pack at 28.9.
Their oldest player — 37-year-old former AL MVP Josh Donaldson — landed on the IL on Saturday with a hamstring injury following a rough start (.125 with a .489 OPS).
But their oldest pitcher, Gerrit Cole (32), has been implausible in his first two starts with a 0.73 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 12 ⅓ innings. Cole gets the ball Tuesday night because the Yankees look to rebound from a walk-filled 3-2 loss to the Guardians.
The Yankees are also skewing younger of their on a regular basis lineup, with 24-year-old Oswaldo Cabrera properly receiving nearly all of corner outfield starts over Aaron Hicks and 21-year-old rookie Anthony Volpe winning the starting shortstop job despite a slow offensive start.
Adjustment issues or not, the pitch clock and other rule changes designed to spice up the pace of play largely have had the specified effect with the typical nine-inning game time reduced by 31 minutes to 2 hours and 39 minutes through Sunday.
That may mark the bottom within the league in nearly 40 years, since 1984.
The marginally larger bases and the bounds on infield shifts even have worked to generate more offense, with batting averages across MLB up 16 points from the identical point last season, from .233 to .249.
Stolen bases even have risen by 30 percent, from 1.0 per game to 1.3 per game, with success rates on attempts up from 74 percent to 79.6 percent.
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What did they pay OBJ?
The Jets were rightly fascinated with taking a likelihood on Odell Beckham Jr., at the very least until the previous Giants star received a large one-year deal from the Ravens on Sunday night.
As Jets beat author Brian Costello reported, the Jets weren’t going to approach the $15 million guarantee that Baltimore gave Beckham, with a likelihood for a number of million more with incentives.
Nor should they’ve, at the same time as their pursuit of Aaron Rodgers drags out into the spring.
After missing all of last season recovering from a knee injury suffered within the Super Bowl in early 2022, OBJ’s value to the Ravens is clearly higher and definitely worth the short-term gamble because the organization attempts to entice star quarterback Lamar Jackson to sign a long-term extension.
The Jets and other NFL teams all the time can revisit Beckham next 12 months if he stays healthy and puts up big numbers alongside the previous league MVP.
Gobert, go home
While we await the Knicks’ first-round opener Saturday against Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs, let’s address one other former All-Star jettisoned by the Jazz during their fire sale last summer.
The Timberwolves mortgaged much of their future to pry center Rudy Gobert away from Utah, but that they had no alternative but to suspend him for Tuesday’s 7-8 play-in game against LeBron James and the Lakers for punching teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout in Sunday’s regular-season finale.
Gobert publicly apologized to Anderson and his team following the incident, and he’s eligible to return after serving the one-game ban.
With a win over the Lakers, the Timberwolves would turn into the No. 7 seed within the West and face the second-seeded Grizzlies in the primary round. With a loss to the Lakers, they’d face the winner of the 9-10 game between the Pelicans and the Thunder on Friday night in Minnesota.
Gobert punched Anderson within the chest after his teammate called him a “b-tch” during Sunday’s game, in line with ESPN.
Incredibly, the T-Wolves also will likely be without one other punch-thrower from Sunday’s game, against the Lakers and beyond.
Starting forward Jaden McDaniels is out indefinitely after fracturing two bones in his right hand while punching a wall after picking up a foul in the primary quarter.
