Rosenthal: What Mookie Betts told Willy Adames; are the Red Sox for real?; All-Star thoughts; more notes

It was quite a sight, two opponents hugging on the field in Game 1 of last year’s World Series. The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts, after stealing second base in the fifth inning, embraced Rays shortstop Willy Adames, a former division rival from Betts’ days with the Red Sox.

“Hey, come here little brother,” Betts said, according to what Adames told reporters in a later Zoom session. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

As it turned out, the conversation didn’t end there. Betts had something he wanted to share.

Adames thanking Betts for all of us. pic.twitter.com/pbc5rFiOc4

— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) October 21, 2020

“It was crazy,” Adames said Monday in a phone interview. “When Mookie got to second, we said hi to each other. He was like, ‘Bro, you’re only missing just one little thing to become a superstar. You’ve got everything to be one of the best in the game. But you have to make just a little adjustment in your hitting. And I think I have the right guy for you.’

“If somebody like Mookie comes to me and tells me he has a guy who is going to help me out, I’m going to listen to him.”

Betts was talking about a private hitting instructor, and he joked with Adames that he would not connect the two until after the Series, the better to protect the Dodgers from an opposing hitter breaking out of his October slump. But during the offseason, Adames indeed visited with the instructor Lorenzo Garmendia, 56, in Miami. And while escaping the Rays’ home park, Tropicana Field, is clearly a factor in Adames’ surge with the Brewers, he said he also benefited from the coaching he received from Garmendia, and keeps in touch with him.

Betts did not recall the conversation at second base as vividly as Adames, but he confirmed the exchange took place and continued with later text messages. He had worked with Garmendia every day for a two-month period in 2019, his final season with the Red Sox.

“He got me back to some basics,” Betts said. “Some things, I was overthinking. And I was able to use that to get back on track. He definitely did help me.”

In addition to Betts, Garmendia has worked with the Red Sox’s Christian Vazquez, the Mets’ Tomás Nido and others. Garmendia advocates something he calls the “G” swing, which is consistent with modern hitting techniques that emphasize catching the ball out front, hitting it hard and getting it in the air.

Private swing instructors such as Garmendia can be a sensitive topic with clubs, most of which employ at least two major-league hitting coaches of their own. Teams sometimes perceive the private instructors as self-promoters who do not always give the best advice, but they generally do not discourage players from seeking outside help in an effort to improve.

Some major-league hitting coaches will speak with the private instructors, trying to ensure players receive a consistent message. Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines called Garmendia after the team acquired Adames from the Rays on May 21. Garmendia also works with Brewers catcher Omar Narváez, so Haines was familiar with him.

Adames, who turns 26 on Sept. 2, was awful this season with the Rays, batting .197 with a .625 OPS and 35.9 percent strikeout rate. He has been a different hitter in a slightly higher number of plate appearances since joining the Brewers, batting .298 with a .930 OPS and 22.8 strikeout rate. The way he tells it, the changes he made with Garmendia were mostly positive, but also created a hole for him at the top of the strike zone, forcing him to adjust.

“It was good, but he also had some things that weren’t good for me, too,” Adames said. “He helped me out with my swing. I eliminated a lot of things I was doing bad, a lot of rollovers (groundballs). But he also created a little hole because of the launch angle. I had to do some adjustments during the season. It was something new for me, too. I was learning the swing, learning how to balance it out, not go too far with my barrel going down.”

Said Garmendia, “Every great hitter gets his hands above the pitch. If your hands can’t get above the pitch, the pitch is too high and it’s a ball. Willy was not getting his hands above the pitch. That’s why the high pitch was giving him trouble.”

Adames said he did not change much once he joined the Brewers, but gained confidence from the encouragement he received from the coaching staff. The change in home ballparks also provided a boost. Adames made no secret of his frustration hitting at the Trop during his three-plus seasons with the Rays, and his home-road splits supported his point: He batted .217 with a .616 at home with Tampa Bay, .293 with an .864 OPS on the road.

“A lot of people, they were thinking that I was lying about it, making an excuse because I couldn’t hit,” Adames said. “People don’t understand, if you don’t recognize the pitch, see the ball good, the spin, you’re not going to be able to recognize if it’s a slider, a changeup. I wasn’t able to do that in the Trop. I was just guessing all the time because I couldn’t pick it up.

“In the beginning, when I got called up in ’18, it was good (Adames batted .293 with a .795 OPS at home that season). Then they changed the lights in ’19 and after that, I couldn’t hit. I just feel good now that I’m out of the Trop.”

The Brewers hosted the Dodgers before Adames’ arrival, and do not face them again until the final weekend of the season at Dodger Stadium. It’s possible both teams will have clinched playoff berths by then. In any case, Adames plans to thank Betts for recommending Garmendia.

“Maybe I’ll buy him a bottle of wine,” Adames said.

Red Sox for real?

The question might not seem fair, considering the Red Sox’s 54-32 record is the best in the majors. But some rival executives point to FanGraphs’ Base Runs metric as an indication that the Sox are not quite as strong as they appear.

Base Runs projects how many runs a team should score or allow based on the outcomes of individual plate appearances. According to the FanGraphs formula, the Red Sox should be 45-41, nine games worse than their current mark, and only 15th best in the majors.

Such calculations are useful in assessing a team’s underlying performance, but the reality is that the Red Sox already have banked their 54 wins, and hold a 4 1/2-game lead over the Rays in the AL East. What also cannot be measured is the confidence they have gained from their strong play in the first half.

Using another formula, FanGraphs projects the Sox to go 41-35 the rest of the way and win the division with a 95-67 record. And that’s before factoring in any possible benefit from trades and the expected return of left-hander Chris Sale from Tommy John surgery.

There’s no place like home

People inside and outside the game speculate frequently at this time of year about the best additions a team could make at the trade deadline. Well, the Blue Jays could receive a lift unlike any team previously experienced — permission to return to the Rogers Centre in Toronto, where they have not played since Sept. 29, 2019.

The Blue Jays have made a request to the Canadian government to play at Rogers starting July 30, which just happens to be the day of the deadline. A second relocation this season would be one more inconvenience for the Jays stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. But imagine the energy boost that playing in front of their home fans might provide, and the peace of mind the players would get from settling back into their permanent home.

The Jays qualified for the expanded postseason field in 2020 after playing all of their home games in Buffalo. They are four games out in the wild-card race this season after playing their first 21 home games at their spring facility in Dunedin, Fla., (where they were 10-11), then moving to Buffalo (where they are 9-9).

No team has traveled as difficult a path. And the Jays have done it without complaint.

All-Star thoughts

It’s difficult to get too worked up over All-Star snubs when almost every player who is deserving ultimately gets chosen because of injuries and withdrawals. By the time all of the participation trophies were distributed in 2019, the last time the game was played, the number of All-Stars had grown from 64 to 75.

Still, some omissions are more glaring than others. Based on my own selections — and yes, in the case of Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta, some revisionist thinking — here is a list of players who should be first on the standby lists for the AL and NL.

• Max Scherzer, Nationals. Fifth in the NL in ERA, second in strikeout percentage.

• Peralta. Seventh in the NL in ERA, third in strikeout percentage.

• Tyler Rogers, Giants. Most valuable reliever for best team in NL, sixth among NL relievers in ERA.

• Justin Turner, Dodgers. Higher OPS than three elected NL starters — Freddie Freeman, Adam Frazier and Nolan Arenado (though he is not nearly as strong a defender as Arenado at third base).

• Chris Bassitt/Sean Manaea, Athletics. Both top six in AL in ERA, top nine in opponents’ OPS.

An emotional moment, an unlikely return

Veteran infielder Alcides Escobar was in St. Paul, Minn., with the Royals’ Triple-A Omaha affiliate on Friday when he received a call from his agent, Chris Leible, of Rep1 Baseball.

Leible informed Escobar that the Nationals were acquiring him for cash considerations and that he was heading straight to Washington. Escobar, who had not been in the majors since 2018, was emotional on the phone, Leible said.

“What?” he asked Leible. “Really?”

Escobar, 34, spent 2019 with the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate before getting released in August, and 2020 with the Yakult Swallows in Japan. He struggled to find a job last offseason and finally agreed to a minor-league deal with the Royals on May 4. In 2015 in Kansas City, he was an All-Star, a Gold Glove winner, an ALCS MVP and World Series champion. His history with the team not only led to the reunion, but also made the club open to helping him find a better opportunity.

Escobar’s contract enabled him to opt out on July 1. Leible checked with the team on Escobar’s status leading up to that date, as is customary in such situations. The Royals said they could not guarantee a promotion, so Leible asked them to send a notice to the other 29 clubs, informing them of Escobar’s availability. The Royals, wanting to do right by Escobar, agreed.

Sure enough, the Nationals needed a shortstop after Trea Turner jammed his left middle finger last Wednesday. Backup shortstop Jordy Mercer already was on the injured list with a strained right quad, and several of the team’s minor-league infielders were hurt as well. Escobar joined the Nats on Saturday and went 4-for-8 in his first two games. He then went 3-for-4 batting leadoff and playing second base Monday night after Turner rejoined the lineup in San Diego.

A longtime connection between player and GM

The Nationals’ signing of utility man Josh Harrison on July 27, 2020, was two decades in the making. Nats general manager Mike Rizzo first became aware of Harrison in 2000, when the future major leaguer was only 13.

Rizzo was the Diamondbacks’ scouting director then, and his eighth-round pick that year was the University of Kentucky right-hander Brandon Webb, who would go on to make three All-Star teams and win the 2006 NL Cy Young Award. The third baseman on that Kentucky team was Josh’s older brother, Vince Harrison, who would become the Devil Rays’ 13th-round pick in 2001.

Jonathan Maurer, who represented Webb and would go on to represent both Harrisons, mentioned to Rizzo at some point that Vince thought the 13-year-old Josh might be the best athlete in the family. It was no small compliment, considering that Vince’s and Josh’s uncle, John Shelby, was a major-league outfielder from 1981 to ’91.

Fast-forward 20 years to last July. Josh asked for his release from the Phillies shortly before the start of the shortened season. Rizzo called immediately, and finally signed that 13-year-old kid, who turns 34 on Thursday. Vince Harrison, by the way, played seven seasons in the affiliated minors and four in independent ball, and is now manager of the Diamondbacks’ High-A affiliate, the Hillsboro Hops.

Around the Horn

Information according to major-league sources:

• The Brewers’ internal options at the corner-infield spots are more promising than they were a month ago, but still might not be good enough. At first base, Keston Hiura has batted .244 with an .848 OPS since returning from his second minor-league demotion on June 23, and Daniel Vogelbach could return from his strained left hamstring in mid-August. At third, Luis Urías is in a 1-for-19 slump, but prior to that had batted .300 with an .865 OPS in his previous 101 plate appearances.

The seeming revivals of Hiura and Urías and potential return of Vogelbach, however, will not stop the Brewers from seeking upgrades at the deadline. Club officials also could pursue bullpen help and a backup catcher, recognizing the team is capable of making a deep run in the postseason if the front of the rotation and back of the bullpen stay healthy.

• Another team to watch at the deadline: the surging Reds, who have won five straight and eight of 12 to move within six games of the Brewers in the NL Central. The teams soon will face each other seven straight times — four in Milwaukee leading to the All-Star break, and three in Cincinnati immediately after.

The biggest need for the Reds remains a shortstop, and the team has at least some financial flexibility. The turnaround of the bullpen, which has allowed one unearned run in 16 innings during the winning streak, has been nothing short of stunning, and the group could go stronger in the days ahead. Michael Lorenzen is expected to be activated from the IL on Saturday, while Tejay Antone and Lucas Sims, the team’s two best relievers, could be back by late July.

• An issue for the Yankees that goes beyond their current performance at the major-league level: From 2010 to ’18, they had 11 first-round picks. Only three of the 11 — Aaron Judge in 2013; James Kaprielian in ’15 and Clarke Schmidt in ’17 — have reached the majors (it’s too early to judge their ’19 and ’20 drafts).

Kaprielian and Schmidt were the highest of those first-rounders, both going at No. 16 overall. But the Yankees found Judge at No. 32. And the Dodgers, who also have picked toward the bottom of the first round during the past decade, selected Corey Seager at No. 18 in 2012, Walker Buehler at No. 24 in ’15 and Gavin Lux and Will Smith at Nos. 20 and 32, respectively, in ’16.

• As The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli recently wrote, the cancelation of the All-Star Game last season prevented Nationals manager Dave Martinez and his staff from reaping one of the benefits of winning the 2019 World Series — the honor of managing the NL All-Stars the following year.

Dave Roberts and his staff will enjoy that privilege instead, and Martinez will not be the one additional invite each All-Star manager is given. The home team manager, in this case the Rockies’ Bud Black, is an automatic selection, just as Martinez was under Roberts when the game was held in Washington in 2018. Roberts’ choice, according to a source, will be one of his mentors, and the announcement will be made this week.

• One club official suggests a possible way to address some player concerns in the next collective-bargaining agreement: eliminate the luxury tax and raise the minimum salary to a more substantial figure — say, $1.5 million from the current $570,500.

Under such a system, high-revenue teams could spend freely without fear of penalty and the salary scale would start at a much higher level, potentially enabling the players to realize additional gains in arbitration and free agency.

Low-revenue teams might hate both ideas, which speaks to the challenges commissioner Rob Manfred will face trying to unify the owners (and the union will face different challenges getting players on the same page.)

Based upon past experience, representatives from both the commissioner’s office and union likely will reach out to me after reading this to tell me that the club official’s idea is unworkable and just plain dumb.

OK, come up with something better. Talk amongst yourselves!

(Photo of Willy Adames, left, and Mookie Betts: Rob Carr / Getty Images)