MLB Bullets has suffered a setback

Good morning. It’s always a good morning the day after a Cubs win.

• It’s always bad news when a sports story ends up on the front pages of the news sites. But former major league reliever Octavio Dotel has been arrested and former MLB infielder Luis Castillo has been linked in connection to a major drug-trafficking and money-laundering operation in the Dominican Republic. Castillo, who has not as of yet been arrested, has denied any involvement. Dotel has made no comment.
• Over to current players. The Red Sox got some good news and bad news. The good news is that pitcher Chris Sale will not need Tommy John surgery. The bad news is Sale is out for the rest of the regular season. His return for the playoffs, if Boston somehow sneaks in, is also highly unlikely.
• Zach Kram examines Boston’s playoff chances with Sale gone and it’s not good. It wasn’t good before Sale went down, and now it’s worse. Kram notes that while it’s not that unusual for a team that won the World Series to miss the playoffs the next season, it’s very unusual for a team that won 108 games to miss the playoffs the next year.
• Joon Lee agrees. With Sale’s season over, the Red Sox season is likely over as well.
• Buster Olney writes that even if this season is gone for the year, the future of the Red Sox over the next few seasons is tied to the future of Chris Sale. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Bob Nightengale reports that even coming off a World Series title last season, Red Sox team president Dave Dombrowski is on the hot seat and may not return for the 2020 season.
• The Indians also got some bad news as pitcher Corey Kluber suffered a setback in his rehab efforts. Kluber hasn’t pitched since May 1 and now may not pitch again this season.
• Bob Nightengale also writes a chestnut of an article in which he gets old ballplayers to talk about how awful the game is today.
• However, while Dayn Perry and Craig Calcaterra agree that old-timers criticizing the current game is a cliché, both writers wonder if they don’t have a point this time about the aesthetics of the game today. Here’s Perry’s article and here’s Calcaterra’s piece.
• For example, Jay Jaffe notes that the number of position players pitching in games has gotten out of hand, and what used to be a special treat is now just boring and ordinary. Jaffe welcomes the new rules limiting position players pitching next season.
• Still, Jon Tayler has a list of five position players he’d like to see pitch, starting with Mike Trout and Yasiel Puig.
• Nationals reliever Hunter Strickland was injured in a weight room accident. Accident? Or murder? Oh wait. Wrong blog. Also, Strickland’s not dead. He just has a broken nose.
• Mets pitcher Robert Gsellman has a partial lat tear. That’s never good news.
• Andrew Simon has seven players who have broken out in 2019.
• Graham McAree writes that even while the rookie season of Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. has been cut short, it was still a thing to behold.
• There have been many stories on how bad relief pitching has been this season and Ken Rosenthal believes that is going to lead to a wild postseason. (The Athletic sub. req.) Rosenthal’s also got a lot of other stuff in that piece, including the future of the Reds and Diamondbacks.
• Matt Ehalt examines how Mets closer Edwin Diaz went from the best closer in the game last season with Seattle to a mess in Queens. Beyond some physical issues, a lot of observers think Diaz is not mentally coping with all the booing in Flushing very well.
• Mike Petriello notes that the best reliever acquired at the trade deadline is Rays rookie pitcher Nick Anderson, whom you may have not heard of if you live outside of Florida. (And if you do live in Florida, why? With alligators climbing the fences of our military bases? Get out while you still can!)
• Relief pitching is so bad that the Yankees just signed Trevor Rosenthal.
• Sam Miller argues that the Yankees, with all their injuries, have been the “plucky underdogs” of 2019.
• Jay Jaffe writes that if the Phillies don’t make the playoffs in 2019, they can blame pitching injuries and a lack of pitching depth, not their offense.
• David Schoenfield has the top all-time home run feat of each MLB team.
• Devan Fink notes that Braves pitcher Julio Teheran has found success this season by relying on his sinker, a pitch that is becoming rare in today’s game.
• The Braves claimed outfielder Billy Hamilton off of waivers. Hamilton is thrilled.
• Neil Paine went looking for the most average players to build the most average team possible.
• Roger Clemens is not running for Congress in Texas, or anywhere else. There were attempts to recruit him to run by the Texas Republican Party.
• Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay returned to work after vocal cord surgery, but he’s worried that his voice has not returned to what it has been.
• Target Field in Minneapolis has been invaded by an angry squirrel. Not ideal, but better than an angry alligator any day.
• And finally, Indians outfielder Yasiel Puig can be a controversial figure, but there was nothing controversial about him spending his off-day at a kosher camp in the Catskills for kids with cancer. Puig, being a big kid himself, had the time of his life and so did the actual kids. Puig called it a life-changing experience for him.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.