Danny Jansen's MLB time travel, explained, plus Aaron Judge's outfield magic

The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s daily MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.

Good morning! It’s another great day for baseball. Aaron Judge committed robbery, and Danny Jansen committed an act of time travel to make baseball history. Plus: Corbin Carroll and the Arizona Diamondbacks have awakened. I’m Stephen Nesbitt, pinch-hitting for Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!

Trading Places: Jansen plays for both sides in same game

For a brief moment Monday, Danny Jansen was on two teams at once.

He was, on paper, in the batter’s box as the Toronto Blue Jays’ hitter with one on, one out and an 0-1 count in the second inning. He was, in reality, crouched behind home plate warming up Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta. Then …

Pinch-hitting for Danny Jansen: No. 25 Daulton Varsho.

Now catching: Danny Jansen.

It was a lineup substitution like no other in baseball, as Jansen became the first player in recorded major-league history to play for both teams in the same game. Not only that: He played both hitter and catcher in the same plate appearance. Jansen had been at bat June 26 when severe weather suspended the Blue Jays-Red Sox game. In the two months before the game resumed, Jansen was traded to the Red Sox, setting up this extremely Jayson Stark event.

The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey was on the scene at Fenway Park to chronicle Jansen’s day. The at-bat at the center of it all ended 62 days after it began, with Varsho swinging through a breaking ball. Though the first strike belonged to Jansen, the strikeout will go on Varsho’s ledger — just another K in one of the wonkiest box scores you’ll ever see.

Jansen also swapped out jerseys yesterday so he’d have one to keep and one to send to the Hall of Fame. “Leaving a stamp like that on the game,” he said, “it’s strange, and it’s interesting.”

Also strange and interesting: Blue Jays outfielder Joey Loperfido, acquired in the Yusei Kikuchi deal last month, entered as a defensive replacement on Monday and will now be on the books as having played two games in the same day — for different teams, against different opponents, in different cities. Loperfido started an Astros home game June 26 against the Rockies. Then he finished up the Blue Jays’ June 26 game in Boston … on Aug. 26.

To borrow Stark’s trademark line: Baseball!

Ken’s Notebook: Arrighetti’s adjustment period

Last Wednesday, on the eve of Astros rookie right-hander Spencer Arrighetti’s outing against the Baltimore Orioles, I asked him how he rebounded from a 6.13 ERA in his first 15 starts.

“I think generally I’ve taken my scouting-report time a little bit more seriously and gotten a little more in-depth,” Arrighetti said. “Or at least I feel like I’ve gotten some good direction from guys in the clubhouse on what numbers really matter when we’re looking at scouting reports.”

The Athletic’s Chandler Rome detailed in a story last month how third baseman Alex Bregman showed Arrighetti the error of his ways after he gave up a run-scoring double to the Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. Arrighetti had thrown Robert a slider in the strike zone. Bregman relayed to the pitcher data revealing that Robert crushes such pitches.

Arrighetti’s acknowledgment that he initially relied more on his own feel than the Astros’ scouting reports struck me as a bit odd. The Astros are renowned for their game-planning. Why would a 24-year-old pitcher in his first major-league season try to do it his way?

I posed the question to Astros manager Joe Espada, and he offered a perfectly rational explanation. Upon reaching the majors, Espada said, young pitchers often employ the same methods that made them successful as minor leaguers. The problem they face is that major-league hitters are the best in the world. Only after getting hit around do the young pitchers recognize that they need to alter their approach.

Arrighetti made the adjustment, becoming a significant contributor the Astros’ rise to the top of the AL West standings. His ERA in his last eight starts is 3.21. He next pitches on Wednesday in Philadelphia, coming off six shutout innings against the Orioles last Thursday night.

“The approach for me has kind of shifted toward trying to pitch to hitters’ weaknesses. I’ve seen obviously a little bit of a change in the results because of it,” Arrighetti said. “I’ve kind of taken that confidence I have from looking at the numbers into the game with me and trusting the stuff is good enough as it is. Worry more about executing pitches than I do about how nasty it was or how hard I’m throwing that day. That shift in focus to being more of a pitcher than a thrower has helped me a lot.”

Here’s more with Arrighetti from my interview with him on Fox after his stellar performance against the Orioles last Thursday night.

Snakes Alive … Again: D-backs ready to run it back

In June, Corbin Carroll sat down with Arizona skipper Torey Lovullo and admitted his slump was getting to him. After winning NL Rookie of the Year last year and finishing fifth in MVP voting, Carroll was batting below the Mendoza line, and the Diamondbacks were under .500.

From my story with Chad Jennings:

“(Carroll) said, ‘If I do better, we win,’” Lovullo recalled. “And I said, ‘Don’t worry about that. Just be yourself.’”

For the past two months, that’s exactly who Carroll has been. He’s hitting walk-off homers, swiping bags and making game-saving snags while the Diamondbacks surge into contention. They have been one of the best teams in baseball this summer. They entered June with 20.5 percent playoff odds. After sweeping the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park over the weekend, extending their winning streak to six games, the Diamondbacks are a virtual lock to return to the postseason — 96.8 percent — and trail the Los Angeles Dodgers by three games for the NL’s best record.

chart 2

And how about this for timing? Lovullo is this week’s guest on Starkville, so pop on over to The Windup podcast feed to hear about how the Diamondbacks got over their World Series runner-up hangover this summer. There’s much more to the story than just Carroll finding his way at the plate. The D-Backs are legit good — and legit scary for the rest of the playoff field.

All Rise: Judge steals a hit, then smacks his 1,000th

Aaron Judge isn’t just out here hitting home runs. He’s robbing ‘em, too.

✅ Rob a home run
✅ Turn a double play

Aaron Judge is pretty good at fielding too 🔥

🎥 @MLB pic.twitter.com/wUVca9jgFh

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 27, 2024

Judge didn’t homer Monday night — he’s still at 51 — so he settled for turning that sweet double play on defense and then knocking another hitting milestone off his hit list. In the ninth inning, Judge roped a single into the right-field corner for his 1,000th career hit. He’ll wind up with many more important hits than this one, but it’s a reminder to zoom out on his career.

By the time he reached 1,000 hits, Judge had:

50.8 WAR
308 homers(!)
480 extra-base hits
.288/.405/.606 career slash line
1.012 OPS, 173 OPS+
Rookie of the Year and MVP award

Judge is headed for his second MVP, and he’s chasing his own AL home run record (62). The only thing that has stopped him these past three years is an outfield wall. (Now he just reaches over those.) I don’t know how many more times we’ll see the 6-foot-7 center fielder stealing homers like he did Monday night, but we’ll surely see him hit a whole lot more.

Handshakes and High Fives

Left on left? Good night. Bryce Harper hit a walk-off single off Astros closer Josh Hader as the Phillies climbed within one game of the Dodgers for the best record in baseball.

This week’s Power Rankings takes stock of each team’s most important move in August. The Diamondbacks, Royals and Mets all made nice jumps.

Dylan Crews’ debut against Juan Soto and the Yankees was a symbolic moment for the Nationals, David Aldridge writes, and a reminder of what must come next for ownership.

No one covered Joey Votto like C. Trent Rosecrans did in Cincinnati. That’s why Trent’s statistical deep dive into Votto’s career is a fascinating read for any baseball fan.

Javier Báez will undergo season-ending hip surgery, reports Cody Stavenhagen, ending a(nother) disappointing season for him in Detroit. Halfway through his six-year, $140 million contract, Báez has been worth 1.8 fWAR. He is still owed $73 million.

Ryan Pepiot reflected on the trade that sent him from the Dodgers to the Rays last offseason, telling Fabian Ardaya he’s thankful he landed in such a good spot.

Most-clicked in yesterday’s newsletter: Rustin Dodd’s heart-warming piece on Salvador Perez stopping by a neighborhood wiffle ball game.