The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner Talks Skubal, Misiorowski & More

Tyler Kepner of The Athletic joined the show, with Andrew Siciliano in for Rich, and the conversation opened on the two superhumans of the moment. Shohei Ohtani, who homered Tuesday and cut a finger in the "bloody pants game," will be fine, Kepner figured, because if anyone can overcome a bloody finger it's Ohtani.

The bigger marvel is Jacob Misiorowski and the 104.5 mph that's lit up radar guns. Asked whether the numbers are inflated for television, Kepner pointed to the only evidence that matters: the hitters can't touch it. The measurement point has shifted from past generations but has been consistent for about 15 years, so he doesn't buy the tin-foil-hat theory. On pure arm talent, he put Misiorowski way up there with a caveat about sample size, reaching back to Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game, which Kepner covered as a young reporter in Chicago, and to the all-time velocity arrivals like Aroldis Chapman. What makes Misiorowski more impressive, he said, is doing it as a starter, with the only worry being health, since most arms eventually break down. He noted Mason Miller is a contender in the velocity-and-dominance conversation, striking out around half the batters he faces the way a young Craig Kimbrel once did, almost breaking the game.

On Tarik Skubal's comment that the outlook for a lot of people in the room could look very different in two months, Kepner read it as a message to the clubhouse: prove you deserve reinforcements, or the Tigers start trading. At 30-44 and nine and a half games back of the White Sox and Guardians, Detroit probably should and will trade Skubal unless it heats up fast, because the way to keep him is simply to be the highest bidder in free agency anyway. His $32 million salary, Kepner said, is negotiable depending on the prospects involved, and any team could slot a healthy Skubal atop its rotation, so everyone's a fit even if some have greater needs.

Siciliano raised the Guardians' brutal weekend, losing Jose Ramirez, Chase DeLauter, and Angel Martinez to the injured list out of one game. Kepner couldn't recall anything like it short of a collision, comparing it to the Mets' luck the day Juan Soto returned and Francisco Lindor went down with the same calf injury. Cleveland simply isn't deep enough to absorb losing a player like Ramirez, and while Kepner thinks the White Sox are legitimately good and could hang around with a little more pitching, he'd be disappointed if the Guardians' front office didn't add a bat. The catch, as ever, is that Cleveland won't spend much and prefers not to block its young players, a philosophy that's served their pitching development well, given they're the only team to use just five starters all year.

The segment that had the whole office talking was MLB's proposal to remove high school players from the draft. Kepner called it radical, noting players have been drafted out of high school since 1965 and that forcing elite teenagers to college in the name of efficiency would erase the late-bloomer stories and overlook that Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Mike Trout were all high school signs. He defended the minor leagues as the dream worth preserving, and afterward Siciliano and Chris Brockman piled on, arguing college baseball is thriving on its own, producing a stacked rookie class of college stars like JJ Wetherholt, Travis Bazana, Charlie Condon, and Jake Cronenworth, and doesn't need the help.