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

We have yet another big extension going to a rookie, but the established stars have also been putting on a show. I also found quite the story about an MLB umpire, and Ken says the A’s are no longer going under the radar. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!

Big Deals: McGonigle lands latest rookie extension

2026 has already seen a slew of extensions for young players who have yet to establish themselves as effective big leaguers. Consider these from just the last month:

Then yesterday, the biggest one of all: 21-year-old Kevin McGonigle of the Detroit Tigers signed an eight-year deal worth $150 million. It sort of makes sense that his contract would be bigger — he had more big-league experience than the other three prospects combined (all of 17 games).

Jokes aside, McGonigle has not looked overmatched since making the Tigers’ Opening Day roster. He’s hitting .313 with a .905 OPS and more walks (12) than strikeouts (10). His extension means three out of Keith Law’s top four prospects have now signed extensions (Griffin and Emerson are the other two, with Milwaukee’s Jesús Made the lone exception).

Ken wrote a few weeks ago about the trend of extending prospects and why it’s a practice that benefits both sides. With the signing of McGonigle, it’s clear that trend isn’t slowing down yet.

More rookies: Could Sal Stewart be next? The electric Reds rookie hit home runs Nos. 6-7 last night against the Giants.

📝 Ken’s Notebook: A’s could keep things interesting in AL West

From my latest notes column: 

A National League general manager, granted anonymity for his candor, recently offered this bold prediction: The Athletics will win the AL West.

It’s too early for fans to start making travel plans for West Sacramento in October — and for Major League Baseball, ahem, to start panicking about the logistics of playing postseason games in a minor-league park. But the GM reasoned that the Athletics’ offense will be among the game’s best. So, he figured, if the A’s could just manage league-average pitching, they would stand a chance.

The Seattle Mariners, despite their slow start, remain the division favorite. Entering Wednesday, Fangraphs gave them a 49.4 percent chance of winning the West, with the Texas Rangers at 31.4 percent and the Athletics at only 8.8 percent. The A’s, though, have yet to start hitting, ranking near the bottom of the league in runs. Their pitching, meanwhile, has been close to league average, at least in terms of expected weighted on-base average.

It’s a long season. In both areas, the Athletics seem likely to perform to expectations. They’re going to hit, that much seems fairly certain. Their pitching probably isn’t as good as it looked when the A’s went 5-1 in New York last week against the Yankees and Mets, winning three of those games by shutouts. But the early indications, at least, are encouraging.

Signing free-agent starters is difficult for the A’s, unless they overpay the way they did with Luis Severino (three years, $67 million) or take advantage of a soft market the way they did with Aaron Civale (one year, $6 million). But two trades president of baseball operations David Forst made for starters — which netted Jeffrey Springs, Jacob Lopez and J.T. Ginn — are looking good. — Ken Rosenthal, with more MLB notes here

More A’s: Shea Langeliers’ 467-foot home run last night was the longest in baseball this year.

Dingers: Judge and Trout putting on a show

It’s not often I find it necessary to write about the same series twice in a week. But what Mike Trout and Aaron Judge have done over the last three games has been pretty remarkable.

We told you after Monday night’s wild 11-10 result that it was only the fourth time in MLB history that multiple-time MVPs had hit multiple home runs in the same game.

But then Tuesday night, Trout homered again. Then last night, Judge and Trout each homered again. That’s four for Trout and three for Judge over the last three games against each other. 

As Judge mentioned in his postgame comments Monday, Trout has tended to perform well at Yankee Stadium. Going into last night’s game (chaotic in its own right, by the way), Trout was hitting .339 with a .694 slugging percentage and 1.112 OPS at Yankee Stadium. That’s better than any other stadium*, if you set the minimum to 50 at-bats.

(*OK, it’s his second best, but the first is Coors Field.)

But it’s one thing to go back to a place where you’ve had success and take a slow, cap-tipping victory lap. This doesn’t appear to be that, for Trout. After last night, his OPS this year is .945, and he has six home runs in 18 games.

The sport is better when Mike Trout is good. And by good, I really just mean healthy. Seeing the 34-year-old trading blows with Judge has been a lot of fun.

Fortunately for all of us, there’s one more game in this series, today at 1:35 p.m. ET.

More Yankees: Last night’s walk-off highlighted José Caballero’s needed bravado in the Bronx.

Caught Stealing: The one ump justified in throwing a punch

I’ve written before in this space about how umpires — and police officers, teachers, parents and anyone else in a position of authority — are necessarily held to a higher standard in heated situations.

I’ve found one potential exception (though it was still a bad idea).

According to this story from CBS News, MLB umpire Brock Ballou was the victim of an alleged attempted robbery while he was in Philadelphia to work a Diamondbacks-Phillies series earlier this month. According to the story, the perpetrator “approached Ballou from behind in the 1600 block of Walnut Street, stole Ballou’s phone while the umpire was looking at directions and then ran off.”

At this point, Ballou could have shrugged it off, but opted to give chase, which was certainly a decision. Once he caught the suspect (!!!), there was a physical altercation, and it sounds like it didn’t go particularly well for Ballou. From the article:

“Investigators said when Ballou tried to take his phone back, the suspect punched him several times in the head. … ‘They ended up on the ground, at which time the victim struck his head, causing injury,’ (Capt. Jason) Smith said. “The male continued his assault, violently punching him.”

Fortunately, the injuries weren’t too serious — Ballou worked the game the next night and was behind home plate two nights later. Further, the suspect left the phone behind when he fled. So … success?

Handshakes and High Fives

A few more notes on Jackie Robinson Day yesterday …

Jason Jones spoke to Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, about how the MLB’s celebration helps bridge conversations between the two leagues.
Some of yesterday’s uniform combos were just not great. Feels like we could honor Robinson in each team’s usual color, no?
I had never heard this story before, but on the first Jackie Robinson Day, back in 1997, the Secret Service apparently threatened to shoot Mr. Met. So that’s … something.

The ABS strike zone is proving to be smaller. Walks are way up. Will MLB make adjustments to the system?

The Cubs’ pitching situation means they had better be right about Edward Cabrera, says Patrick Mooney.

Eno Sarris has an updated starting pitcher ranking for all you fantasy baseball folks.

Tatsuya Imai might not be adjusting to life in Houston all that well, but Toronto hasn’t been a problem for Kazuma Okamoto.

What a night for Jackson Merrill vs. the Mariners. Not only did he rob Julio Rodríguez of a home run, but his RBI single capped a five-run ninth inning, as the Padres walked it off, 7-6.

I need you to see this slide by Javy Báez:

For the first time since 2021, Shohei Ohtani pitched but didn’t take any at-bats as the DH. The Dodgers might wanna try that again; Ohtani gave up one run on two hits, striking out 10 in 6 innings, and erstwhile DH Dalton Rushing hit a grand slam to put the game out of reach as the 14-4 Dodgers beat the Mets 8-2.

Two months after firing union head Tony Clark, the MLBPA has fired two more officials following an internal investigation.

Did not intend to reference lobbying on consecutive days, but you’ll be very unsurprised to hear how much gambling companies are spending to influence elections.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: A lot of you were curious about Brad Lidge’s new career — he’s an archaeologist.

📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.