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We’re just about 10 percent of the way through the season. Too early to call it, but maybe not too early to ask if a few favorites are in trouble. Plus: Jayson Stark investigates if Jo Adell’s triple-homer-robbery game was the greatest defensive performance of all time, and we have our baseball card of the week! I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!

Panic Button: Which underachievers are in trouble?

Yesterday, we took a look at the AL West, since the presumptive favorite (Seattle) was just swept into last place by a division rival (Texas). We could do the same for the AL Central today, after Minnesota’s sweep of Detroit, but let’s broaden the scope a bit:

I count six teams who were supposed to be legitimate contenders in 2026 who have thus far been, to varying degrees, Pretty Not Great.

But which ones are really in trouble? Here are my best guesses. If the scores seem low, just remember … it’s April 10th. Nothing is insurmountable just yet, but these games do count.

Philadelphia Phillies: 6-6, fourth place in NL East. Panic level: 1/10. Charlotte Varnes has a more detailed account — some good, some bad — but they haven’t scored in 20 innings, and they’re not hitting left-handed pitching. Do we think they’re this bad? I don’t. I still think this is a playoff team, and they’re still giving their youngsters space to learn.
Seattle Mariners: 4-9, last place in AL West. Panic level: 2.5/10. Over on the Baseball Savant leaderboard, the top four teams in any stat are highlighted in red, while the bottom four are highlighted in blue. The Mariners offense, at time of writing, has five blues and no reds.Of note, their pitching staff has five reds and no blues. We’ve seen this movie before, in 2024 when Seattle went 85-77 and missed the playoffs by one game. They need the 2025 versions.
Detroit Tigers: 4-9, last place in AL Central. Panic level: 4/10. They just got swept by the Twins, their center fielder is in the hospital after a scary collision, and the duo of Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson has been frustrating. Don’t forget: This team blew an unblowable division lead last year. With Tarik Skubal approaching free agency, it probably has a little over two months to solve this.
Boston Red Sox: 4-8, last place in AL East. Panic level: 4.5/10. The problem in Boston is twofold. First, the bats haven’t been very good. But two: The division is stacked, with four teams that should be good and another — the Rays — who usually find a way to outperform expectations. Boston has to row upstream to to get back on track, and I’m not sure it has the bats to do that.
Chicago Cubs: 6-6, last place in NL Central. Panic Level 5/10. Like the Blue Jays, the Cubs are dealing with injury issues, primarily in the rotation, where three starters are on the IL. Matthew Boyd should be back soon, but Cade Horton’s season is over, and who knows how Justin Steele will look after returning from Tommy John surgery. Seiya Suzuki’s return is imminent, but even the healthy players have struggled: Alex Bregman, Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch are all hitting under .200. It’s encouraging that Nico Hoerner is discovering some pop.
Toronto Blue Jays: 5-7, fourth place in AL East. Panic level: 6/10. If you thought the Cubs had some injury issues … Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, José Berrios, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce, Bowden Francis and Yimi García are all on the IL. It’s so dire that the reigning AL champs have signed 36-year-old Patrick Corbin (who hasn’t had an ERA under 4.40 since 2019) to a one-year deal.The Blue Jays were mere inches from winning the World Series last year, then invested heavily in their roster, trying to make up for the loss of Bo Bichette in free agency. So far, they’re one Boston Red Sox Offense from being in last place in the division.

Honorable mention: The also-injured and just-swept-by-the-Rockies Houston Astros (6-7), and the also-also-injured Padres (7-6), who avoided this list thanks to Xander Bogaerts’ 12th-inning walk-off grand slam to beat the Rockies.

Over to Stark for that investigative report.

Stark Observations: Jo Adell, greatest defensive game ever?

From my latest article, digging into whether or not Angels outfielder Jo Adell’s three-HR-stealing performance in a 1-0 victory is the greatest defensive game of all time:

When nights like that come along in baseball, America turns its longing eyes toward us, here at Weird and Wild World Headquarters. So … (America asks) … How rare was that? … How historic was that? … How Weird (and Wild) was that?

Thanks for asking. After nearly a week of people saying that might have been the greatest defensive game of all time, I was no longer just wondering about that. I decided: I had to know.

So, the Weird and Wild column tried to answer that question. Spoiler alert: We’re going with yes on that! But here’s how hard it was to get there.

What do the record books say? Ho-ho-ho. Now that’s hilarious. The record books are absolutely no help on stuff like this. You want to know which right fielder holds the record for most putouts in a game? Oh, you can find that in your dusty old record book. But most home run robberies in a game? Good luck, pal.

What do the number crunchers say? Fortunately, our favorite researchers could at least dish out some fun facts on this feat. Here are my four favorites:

He’s a one-man team: The wild-card era is more than three decades old. In all that time, according to STATS Perform, only one team has robbed three home runs in a game. It was (yup) Team Jo Adell.
Even two is an event: You should know that home-run robbery data goes back only a little over 20 years. But in all that time, according to Sports Info Solutions, there have been only two other outfielders who even stole two home runs in a game: Nook Logan in 2005 and Jesús Sánchez last year.
A game for all seasons: How hard is three in one game? Only five outfielders in the sport had three (or more) all season last year; Fernando Tatis Jr. had four. Cedric Mullins, Ramón Laureano, Bryce Teodosio and Jacob Young had three apiece. (Hat tip: Sports Info Solutions.)
Once (maybe thrice) in a lifetime: Just for fun, want to hear a couple of names of famous active players who never even robbed three home runs in their outfielding careers? How about Andrew McCutchen … and Bryce Harper (with two each). Of course, it doesn’t help if you play in a park where the fence is 30 feet high. But whatever!

I enjoyed all those meaty tidbits. But they don’t really tell us if this was the greatest defensive game ever. So I kept plowing forward. It was time to find out …

For the full story, click here.

Back to you, Levi.

Baseball Card of the Week: 1958 Topps Bill Mazeroski

The backs of old baseball cards are occasionally really funny to me. No card today would list stats under “YEAR” without telling you what year (1957, if you’re wondering). Nor would they tell you that a guy lived in the state of “O” (Maz lived in Ohio — not Oregon or Oklahoma).

But my favorite part of this card is the guy who appears to be … holding Mazeroski (???) asking “Who are you?” Why did they choose this pose?

Handshakes and High Fives

I told you yesterday I’d let you know if the caps changed my mind on any of the City Connects. I don’t love the Royals’ gradient cap, but otherwise, no major changes. Here, our three-member panel ranks the new releases.

Do you know which uniform number is retired in St. Louis, despite no player ever having worn it in a regular-season game? You will after you read Tyler Kepner’s “Sliders” column this week.

When Tyler Samaniego debuted earlier this week, he became the first Red Sox pitcher in almost 50 years to register his first three outs on strikeouts. After the game, he talked about his dad, who passed away in 2022.

Has your favorite pitcher looked a bit different this year? Maybe he’s on Eno Sarris’ list of pitchers who have made the biggest changes.

New Giants manager Tony Vitello has gotten a significant amount of criticism in his first year. Grant Brisbee goes over the critiques and tells us what’s warranted, and what’s not.

We did not write about White Sox pitcher Duncan Davitt being called up. That’s OK, because his hometown paper has a good write-up by … sports columnist Duncan Davitt.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The Pirates’ City Connect 2.0 jersey reveal.

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