Bases Covered is a daily roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
Who’s buying Chris Sale?
Chris Sale, suspended by the White Sox for five games for chopping up the team’s collared throwback jerseys returns to the big club on Thursday. He’s scheduled to make his next start on Saturday.
Just whether Sale will be dealt before the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline is still a hot topic of discussion. Sale recently gave an interview to MLB.com, apologizing to the fans who’d paid to see him pitch last Saturday (though he didn’t exactly back down, saying: “Do I regret standing up for what I believe in? Absolutely not. Do I regret saying business should not be first before winning? Absolutely not.”).
According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, the Yankees, despite being sellers of late, just might be in on Sale. The other teams thought to be most likely to land the pitcher, if the White Sox do decide to deal him, include the Rangers, the Red Sox and the Dodgers.
What to do with Dee
Dee Gordon returns to the Miami Marlins on Thursday following his 80-game suspension, the result of testing positive for PEDs. The second baseman apologized to fans via Twitter ahead of his return to the big club.
With Gordon back in the mix, one writer looks at the potential challenges manager Don Mattingly will face with the speedster’s return.
Birthday bunt
Raul Mondesi celebrated his 21st birthday on Wednesday, and it was pretty decent as far as birthdays go. The kid recorded his first ever big-league hit, and then put up another for good measure.
The Royals’ rookie infielder was making just his second big-league appearance. In the seventh inning, he put up a bunt single, which caused Angels hurler Matt Shoemaker to make a bad throw to first. With the wild throw, two Kansas City runners found the time to score—and Angels manager Mike Scioscia was livid.
Scioscia claimed that Mondesi had interfered in his run en route to first base, and the Angels, who lost 7–5, played the remainder of the game under protest.
Ugly debut, ugly loss
The Mariners got crushed on Wednesday, losing 10–1 to the Pirates. Drew Storen, whom the Toronto Blue Jays dealt to Seattle in exchange for reliever Joaquin Benoit, made his debut in an M’s jersey and it was not great.
The right-hander lasted just 1.1 innings; he pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, but came back in the seventh and promptly allowed four runs, raising his ERA to 7.01.
Slowing down the pace of play
Last season, after a set of new rules were put in place to speed up the pace of play in MLB, baseball games sped up. This year, though, the pace has slowed down—mostly because batters are once again taking their time before seeing a pitch. According to an article on FiveThirtyEight, the guys benefiting the most are the old-timers like Big Papi.