Outside the Confines: Making a comeback

So my wife got her first vaccination over the weekend and my daughter’s school announced they’re going to in-person learning for four hours a day five days a week starting in April. (She’s been going to school for 2½ hours a day four days a week since after Thanksgiving.) We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But please, do not let your guard down yet. Keep social distancing. Keep wearing a mask. Get your vaccine as soon as we can. We’re so close at the moment. Don’t blow it now.

• More allegations have come out concerning Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway. Brittany Ghiroli and Katie Strang report that despite the Indians claiming that there had been no complaints about Callaway during his time as Cleveland’s pitching coach, Callaway’s “sexual indiscretions permeated the workplace to such an extent that it would have been difficult for top officials to not be aware of his behavior” and that “It was the worst-kept secret in the organization” according to interviews with 22 people who worked in the Indians organization at the time. (The Athletic sub. req., but there’s a summary of the story here for free.)
• Indians manager Terry Francona once again denied that there was any coverup of Callaway’s behavior, although Francona’s son Nick issued a statement that he “confronted” his father about the allegations and that the Cleveland manager “simply doesn’t get it.”
• Although Callaway was suspended following the charges, almost a month later he is still officially the pitching coach for the Angels. Nancy Armour writes that it’s not surprising that MLB is dragging their feet on punishing Callaway and despite words to the contrary, MLB’s actions do not indicate that they’re trying to fix the way their culture encourages the abuse of women.
• Mets president Sandy Alderson has admitted the team was “shortsighted” when they hired Callaway as manager back in 2017.
• There will be a full story on this at 9 am, but MLB has delayed the start of the Triple-A season until May 4 and there will be a return of MLB’s “alternate site” squads in 2021.
• Trey Mancini is back playing with the Orioles after missing all of last season after being diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. Dan Connelly has the story of Mancini’s career, the cancer diagnosis and the road back. (The Athletic sub. req.) Mancini is now cancer-free.
• Andy McCullough has a great profile of the career of Royals catcher Salvador Perez. (The Athletic sub. req.) Perez, along with Danny Duffy, is one of the last players still on the Royals from their 2015 World Series championship team. (A few more guys have returned this year.) McCullough makes the case that Perez was always the heart and soul of the Royals and that he’ll go down as one the greatest Royals of all time.
• Speaking of returning to the Royals, outfielder Jarrod Dyson, who was on that 2015 team, has inked a one-year, $1.5 million deal to play for KC this year.
• Michael Baumann looks at the chances that Mike Trout and the Angels will finally have a long playoff run in 2021.
• Jayson Stark compares Trout to NFL quarterback Tom Brady and how being the greatest player in football is different from being the greatest player in baseball. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mike Axisa ranks every MLB team by the pressure they are under to win in 2021.
• Orioles pitcher John Means got pulled in the first inning and then came out to pitch the second inning under MLB’s Spring Training pitch count rules.
• White Sox manager Tony LaRussa spoke out against this new pitch count rules, (The Athletic sub. req.) arguing that they deny paying fans the action they want. James Fagan notes that MLB is unlikely to change them.
• Buster Olney blasted MLB’s “noncompetitive behavior issues” (ESPN+ sub. req.) although bizarrely, Olney seems to suggest that it’s up to the union to force the owners to try to put the best team they can on the field.
• Kevin Goldstein writes that the issues surrounding the service time of Mariners prospect Jarred Kelenic are the sign of a broken system.
• Anthony DiComo looks at the chances of the Mets signing Francisco Lindor, Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto to long-term extensions.
• R.J. Anderson has one “breakout” candidate for each MLB team. He picks Nico Hoerner for the Cubs, which I’d love to see.
• Sam Dykstra takes note of 11 prospects who he feels have something to prove this Spring.
• Several top hitters had crummy 2020 seasons. Tom Verducci lists several of them and estimates the odds of them having a bounce-back season in 2021.
• Astros outfielder Yordan Alvarez missed most of 2020 after being one of the best hitters in baseball in 2019. Ben Clemens thinks you’ve probably forgotten how good Alvarez was in 2019.
• The best two players left on the free agent are pitcher Jake Odorizzi and outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. Jay Jaffe tries to find homes for both players: first looking at which teams could use Odorizzi and then which teams could use a player of Bradley’s talents.
• A roundtable discussion about the AL East.
• Red Sox prospect Rio Gomez remembers his father, sportswriter Pedro Gomez, who died suddenly last month.
• I know this doesn’t apply to any of you, but Will Leitch notes that if you’re having trouble getting enthusiastic about your favorite MLB team, here are seven other teams you may want to jump on the bandwagon now. But as I said, this better not apply to any of you.
• James Wagner looks at how Rangers coach Don Wakamatsu used his background in farming to come up with a solution to use drones to sanitize Spring Training stadiums.
• Matt Monagan remembers Tigers player “Fatty” Fothergill, the man who “outdrank Babe Ruth and outhit Ty Cobb.”
• Toni Stone was promising baseball player who was banned from the All-American Girls Baseball League because of her color. So she became the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues in 1953, taking Hank Aaron’s spot on the team roster. Jason Owens has a profile of this remarkable woman. (No, she will not become a “major leaguer” now that the Negro Leagues have been designated “major” leagues. That designation only applies to players from 1948 and earlier.)
• And finally, who hit the longest home run of all-time? We will probably never know for sure, but Matt Monagan points out that the longest verified home run of all time was hit by Denver Zephyrs slugger Joey Meyer at Mile High Stadium in 1987: 582 feet. You may remember Meyer playing for the Brewers in the late eighties. Or you may not. But Monagan has video of the home run and finds Meyer in Hawaii to talk about the blast.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Stay safe out there.