Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of baseball.
Durability and dominance are the twin pillars of pitching greatness. Prevent runs for a long time while humbling the world’s greatest hitters: Few have ever done it better than Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Sometime soon, Kershaw will record his 3,000th career strikeout. On Wednesday, in his third start of the season, Kershaw fanned three Cleveland Guardians to push his total to 2,974. His career earned run average is 2.51.
Only one pitcher in history has that many strikeouts with a better ERA: Walter Johnson, who was born 100 years before Kershaw and last pitched in 1927. Johnson had a 2.17 ERA and 3,509 strikeouts — and if he had whiffed batters at Kershaw’s rate, he would have fanned almost 6,400.
In my colleague Andy McCullough’s engrossing Kershaw biography, “The Last of His Kind,” Kershaw said flatly that he did not care about 3,000 strikeouts.
He does.
“Yeah, I’d be lying if I didn’t want to do it,” Kershaw said last week. “But I think the coolest part is the company you get to be a part of. You know what I mean? There’s just some really special names.”
He laughed and continued: “I try not to think about it, because honestly, at this rate 30 strikeouts seems like a lot. A lot can happen. But if I ever do get to do it, the guys that I came up with, Scherz and Verlander, I want to be in that group, too.”
Justin Verlander (3,457 strikeouts), 42, is on the San Francisco Giants’ injured list with a pectoral injury, and 40-year-old Max Scherzer (3,408), now with the Toronto Blue Jays, has been out since March with right thumb inflammation. Kershaw, 37, is coming off knee and toe surgeries. What a drag it is getting old.
The three aces, of course, have a lot to show for their hardship. Each has earned more than 200 victories (262 for Verlander, 216 for Scherzer, 212 for Kershaw), which is very hard to do without a lot of success before age 30. When Kershaw turned 30, he had 144 wins. Verlander had 124 at that age, Scherzer 85.
The active under-30 leader in victories? The Giants’ Logan Webb, 28, with 60 — fewer than half of what either Kershaw and Verlander totaled by 30. If there’s a certain successor to Kershaw, he hasn’t revealed himself.
“It is weird to not see young guys figure it out,” Kershaw said. “I wish there was a simple solution. Maybe (Paul) Skenes is that. Maybe 100 (miles an hour) is just too fast, maybe that’s what it is. I don’t know.”
Nobody who started his career after 1988 has 300 career wins. But after this generation, is 200 also doomed? The master has thoughts.
“I hope starting pitching has a resurgence,” Kershaw said. “I think it’s better for the game to have starters throw 200 plus innings (and go) 115, 120 pitches. Seeing those matchups in the seventh inning, that’s what fans like. I think it’s better for baseball, I think it’s better for health, I think it’s better for relievers. It’s good for a lot of things.
“Now, how can we get back to that in an age where we have to have incredible stuff (and) be able to maintain it? I don’t know how you get back to that, because I do think it is harder now. I think hitting is better. I think the strike zone’s smaller. Even from 10 years ago, I think everybody’s just better. I think the talent is just so much better.
“So unless you’re like the few guys like (Tarik) Skubal or Zack Wheeler or (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto — you can kind of count them on one hand, the guys that have the ability to go seven every (start) — it’s just hard.”
No MLB pitcher has reached 115 pitches in a start this season. The Dodgers have had only two seven-inning starts (both by Yamamoto), the same as the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets. The Chicago White Sox have had one.
The Miami Marlins haven’t had a starter go seven all year, and their nominal ace, Sandy Alcantara, hasn’t been right since 2022, when he won the National League Cy Young Award as a model of sturdiness. Alcantara led the majors with 228 2/3 innings that season, had Tommy John surgery the next October and now has the majors’ highest ERA (min. 50 innings) at 8.47.
In spring training, after the New York Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery, teammate Carlos Rodón noted that every throw is tracked for shape and spin, even in the bullpen. It’s max effort with every pitch, every time.
“I agree with that, but at the same time, that’s how you get drafted, that’s how you make it through the minor leagues,” Kershaw said. “So that’s what you do, because teams value that over learning how to pitch.”
Kershaw, a father of four, drew an apt analogy: In farm systems, he said, it’s as if teams build fleets of Ferraris without making any minivans. Sometimes, he said, a minivan gets the job done.
“So there needs to be some blend of it to a point where you can do both,” he said, referring to power and durability. “I know everybody’s starting to think about how to keep guys healthier and how to get (more from) starters, because we use our whole bullpen more than anybody, and as good as our bullpen is, it’s a hard thing to sustain.
“I have tons of thoughts on it. Nobody knows if they’re right. (We won’t know) until somebody radical makes huge changes, until a team tries to flip everything on its head and find guys that can sustain it and just go for pitchability — other than just pure metrics and stats — and have success. You have to have success, or nothing’s going to change.”
It’s unfair to demand that baseball produce more Kershaws. He is an outlier, after all, one of the greatest ever to do it. But it shouldn’t be impossible. And as Kershaw approaches another milestone, it’s worth studying his species to ensure its survival.
A Cub’s comeback: After 3 years out of MLB, Drew Pomeranz is thriving
Four teams signed Drew Pomeranz to a contract in 2024. He logged four days of major-league service, never got into a game, and spent months rediscovering something called summer.
“It was amazing — like, summer?” Pomeranz said recently. “Most of us haven’t had summer since we were I don’t know how old. It’s a different life. I played a lot of golf. Took my kids to school. We did the whole south of France thing. It was fun. I didn’t know where I was.”
Now, at 36, Pomeranz is back to a place he wasn’t sure he’d ever visit again: a major-league mound. He didn’t get there with the Los Angeles Angels, Dodgers, Giants or Seattle Mariners, who all held his rights last year. But the Chicago Cubs are glad they found him: In 14 appearances, Pomeranz has worked 12 2/3 scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts, three walks and no runs allowed.
“The guy’s throwing fastballs by people right now, and his breaking ball is something that’s always stood out to me,” starter Matthew Boyd said. “It’s just really cool that he continues to do his thing and get outs, and he’s so valued on our team.”
Drew Pomeranz pitches the eighth inning against the Rockies earlier this week. (Patrick Gorski / Imagn Images)
Pomeranz had flexor tendon surgery in August 2021, a month before Boyd. But while Boyd has appeared in the majors in every year since — even mixing in Tommy John surgery in 2023 — Pomeranz’s record shows three blank seasons in a row: 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Each year he pitched a handful of innings in the minors, which only increased his frustration.
“It just felt like no matter what you do, nothing’s working,” said Pomeranz, who had another surgery, in 2023, to remove a bone spur. “I’ve always been a player who’s like: ‘I need to get back, I need to get back,’ instead of probably being a little selfish and taking more time. You feel like a jerk when you’re not with your teammates — not playing, just hurt all the time. It’s not fun.”
Pomeranz, an All-Star starter for San Diego in 2016, returned to the Padres as a reliever with a four-year, $34 million contract in November 2019. He pitched well in 2020, tore his flexor tendon the next spring and tried pitching through it until August, when the pain became unbearable.
“I threw a pitch and felt it rip more,” Pomeranz said. “It hurt to throw my fastball so I was just flipping curve balls, trying to get out of the inning. I had two outs and the guy rolled over one. It just dribbled through the four hole and I was like, ‘OK, I can’t do this.’ I gave it all I had.”
Pomeranz never made it back with San Diego, but got through a healthy spring training with the Angels in 2024. From there he pitched in Triple A for the Dodgers, then left when the Giants offered a spot in the majors.
It would last just four days, they told him, and Pomeranz warmed up once, at Citi Field last May 24. The Giants were trailing the Mets in the top of the eighth, and if it stayed that way, he would pitch the bottom of the inning. When a three-run homer by Patrick Bailey gave the Giants the lead, Ryan Walker was summoned instead.
By the end of May Pomeranz was a free agent again, waiting for another call to the majors. It never came, and returning to the minors held no appeal. That left Pomeranz in a strange kind of purgatory. When you reach the majors as a phantom, fulfillment is elusive.
“I made it back but I didn’t pitch,” Pomeranz said. “There was a little bit in me that was like, ‘I’d like to pitch one more time and just give it everything I got’ — and that would be good. Just go out there and throw as hard as I can.”
The summer was fun, Pomeranz said, but also boring at times. He figured he should work out “just to be a healthy human being,”and gravitated to a baseball training facility in Irvine, Calif., near his home. The Mariners signed him in early December, but Pomeranz was still conflicted.
“Before spring training,” he said, “I was literally like, ‘I just might not go.’”
He went, pitched well and kept at it with Triple-A Tacoma, knowing he could leave if another team offered a job in the majors. The Cubs did, and when Pomeranz debuted against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 25, he lived out his vision: fastballs, as hard as he could. Bryce Harper swung through the first two, fouled off another, then swung and missed again.
Pomeranz was back, this time for real.
“I don’t care when I pitch, I don’t care who I face, just tell me and I’m gonna do whatever I’ve got to do,” Pomeranz said. “I have a very different perspective on baseball — and playing in general — than I did when I was younger. After not having baseball, I’m just happy to be here every day now. I don’t care what happens. I’m just gonna enjoy it.
Gimme Five
The Mets’ Francisco Lindor on switch hitting
The Mets’ Francisco Lindor is already one of the most accomplished all-around switch hitters in major league history. With five more stolen bases, he will join Carlos Beltrán and former Cleveland teammate José Ramírez as the only switch hitters with 1,500 hits, 250 homers and 200 steals. And at 31 years old, he has lots of time to add to his resume.
Lindor is a natural right-handed hitter. He’s been essentially the same threat from both sides over his 11 MLB seasons: .286/.350/.488 as a righty and .269/.339/.469 as a lefty. Not only do most breaking pitches move into him, he said, but being a switch hitter also affords a clearer view of every pitcher’s release point. That is, he never faces a pitch delivered from behind his head.
Lindor — who modeled his style after a fellow infielder from Puerto Rico who was traded from Cleveland to the Mets — offered some insights before a recent game at Citi Field.
Why did you decide to switch hit? “My favorite player, Roberto Alomar, and my brother and my cousin, they switch hit. I always wanted to be like them, so I did it. I always did it as a kid, but when I was 14, 15 years old, that’s when I first took it seriously.”
Did you struggle as you learned your left-handed swing? “There’s still struggles from the left side, still struggles on the right side. And I plan on it to be like that my whole career.”
Why did you stay with it? “I’m stubborn, and my dad always said, ‘If you can hit .500 from one side, why would you switch and make it harder on yourself?’ So I used it as a motivation to prove to him that I can hit from both sides.”
What advice would you give to aspiring switch hitters? “To stick to it — and if you take 200 swings from one side, you’ve got to take 200 from the other side as well. You’ve got to make sure you give the same amount of love to each side.”
When you’re hot (or cold) on one side, are you also hot (or cold) from the other? “Most times, yes, because it’s the same brain. When you’re feeling good, you’re feeling good. So you kind of bounce back from one side to another. But sometimes it doesn’t work like that, and vice versa — if you’re struggling from one side, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna struggle from the other side. So having two swings, when I’m struggling from one side I try to imitate myself from the other side, and that helps.”
Off the Grid
Norm Cash, 40 WAR, All-Star
Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich has been playing in the majors for 13 seasons. He’s dug his cleats into the batter’s box more than 6,500 times. And yet until this week, Yelich had somehow never come to bat at home in the ninth inning (or later) with the score tied.
Since baseball is utterly ridiculous, Yelich came up in that situation on both Tuesday and Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox. On Tuesday, he belted a grand slam for his first career walk-off home run. He didn’t quite repeat the feat on Wednesday, but he did hit a single.
Anyway, the game-ender was the 214th home run of Yelich’s career, and it removed him from the list of players to never end a game with a homer. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Yelich had trailed only these five players for most career regular-season homers with zero walk-offs:
| Player |
Career HRs with zero walk-offs |
|
Norm Cash
|
377
|
|
Danny Tartabull
|
262
|
|
Goose Goslin
|
248
|
|
Ken Caminiti
|
239
|
|
Troy Tulowitzki
|
225
|
That brings us to Cash, who fit into Tuesday’s Grid as an All-Star with at least 40 career wins above replacement. A five-time All-Star with 52 bWAR, Cash played from 1958 through 1974, mostly for the Detroit Tigers, and was known for unusual bats.
In 1981, Cash told Sports Illustrated that he always hollowed out the top of his bat, drilling a hole eight inches deep and half an inch wide and stuffing the top two inches with cork, glue and sawdust. It seemed to help most in 1961, when Cash hit 41 homers and led the majors with a .361 average.
“I owe my success to expansion pitching, a short right-field fence and my hollow bats,” Cash told SI.
Cash’s other unorthodox bat was uncorked, but disallowed. On July 15, 1973, at Tiger Stadium, Cash came up in the ninth inning against the Angels’ Nolan Ryan, who was one out away from a no-hitter. Figuring his bats were pretty much useless, Cash brought a table leg to the box.
“I told Ron Luciano, the umpire, ‘He can’t hit with that,’” Ryan said in the 2022 documentary, “Facing Nolan,” “and (Cash) says, ‘It doesn’t matter, Ron, I can’t hit him anyway.’”
Cash popped to shortstop to end the game.
Classic clip
Juan Samuel: “I am the fastest,” 1985
The return last week of Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., who missed nearly a year after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament, is a reminder of his place in an all-time great trivia question. As featured on a recent episode of the “Starkville” podcast, with The Athletic’s Jayson Stark and former major leaguer Doug Glanville, Acuña is one of only three players to have 70 extra-base hits and 70 stolen bases in the same season.
The first was Ty Cobb, who had 79 extra-base hits and 83 steals for the 1911 Tigers. Acuña did it most recently, with 80 extra-base hits and 73 steals for the 2023 Braves. The other is a bit more obscure: Juan Samuel, with 70 extra-base hits and 72 steals as a Phillies rookie in 1984. As Richie Ashburn might have said: “Hard to believe, Harry.”
Ashburn, the Hall of Famer who shared the Phillies’ broadcast booth with Harry Kalas for decades, appears in this 1985 commercial with Samuel, Kevin Gross and Glenn Wilson. It’s a time capsule from the bygone days when ballplayers loved to unwind with sandwiches and Trivial Pursuit.
(Top photo of Clayton Kershaw: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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