The Buzz — Friday, July 24

José Caballero

The take MLB crackdown on Caballero pitch-clock routine causes violation, coach ejection

MLB didn't rewrite the rule — it aimed the existing circumvention clause at one batter. Crew chief Adrian Johnson said umpires were instructed not to warn Caballero, just to call the violation. That came after Pirates reliever Dennis Santana and both benches cleared over the same routine in the series opener. Caballero had been warned June 14 and told his approach was legal; now the same approach costs him an automatic strike three with a runner on in a game New York lost 5-3 in 10 innings.

Yankees hitting coach James Rowson got ejected arguing it. The Yankees say they had no advance notice, and they're right that this is sudden. But the routine was always designed to bait pitchers into clock violations, and one bench-clearing incident was enough to end the grace period. The loophole was real, and the league just closed it.

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Shohei Ohtani

The take Ohtani at White House with Trump coins plus bullpen progress

The ceremony was standard championship-visit pageantry — Trump compared him to Babe Ruth and handed out challenge coins. The bullpen matters more: about 30 pitches, full mix, first mound work since a left-knee Orthovisc injection, with Dave Roberts calling it a big sign. His last mound appearance was July 3, he's ruled out vs the Mets this weekend, and the return is still build-up. The knee is trending the right direction — encouraging and incomplete, which is where a rehab should be.

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Tarik Skubal

The take Deadline focal point; MRI regret clarified, wants stay

The number that settles it: 2.83 ERA, 98 strikeouts, 0.93 WHIP over 82.2 innings in 14 starts, with seven shutout innings and nine strikeouts on July 18. That is an ace back at full force after arthroscopic elbow surgery. He has said plainly he wants to stay and win a World Series in Detroit, the team that drafted him in 2018.

The MRI story sounded worse than it is. He told The Athletic on July 22 he knew something was wrong in January and wished he'd gotten imaging then, noting the arbitration fight probably had some impact subconsciously. By the next day he was walking it back — just hindsight, common sense, blown out of proportion, a lot of it not true and not factual. The timeline says he pitched effectively until symptoms worsened enough for surgery in May, and the procedure removed loose bodies, not a rebuilt ligament. Pitchers manage vague soreness every spring; this one didn't resolve, and he got it fixed.

The arbitration tension is real — $32 million vs. the Tigers' $19 million filing — but it lives in the front office, not the clubhouse. The guess here is the Tigers keep him, because trading an ace at 2.83 ERA at the deadline is how you lose the room. If they stumble before Aug. 3, the calculus flips.

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Chris Sale

The take Sale's 11-K start fuels age-37 Cy Young buzz

Sale is 37 years old, and that fact matters more than any single start. He gave up three runs in the second against the Padres on July 23, then struck out 11 over six innings — matching his season high — in a 6-5 Braves win. His ERA stands at 2.19, second in the majors behind Jacob Misiorowski's 1.57.

He won the NL Cy Young in 2024, and injuries limited him to 151 innings total from 2020-23. Now he is 11-6 and pitching like a man getting back what was taken. The crowd wants to call it a Cy Young chase, and it is — but the real number is those 151 innings across four lost years, and everything since is the answer to them.

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Luis Arraez

The take Arraez hot trade chip with many contender suitors

The Giants are 42-60, and Arraez is batting .326 with an .821 OPS and a 130 OPS+ while ranking second among second basemen in outs above average at plus-10. He's a pending free agent on a team going nowhere, ESPN gives him a 95% chance of being traded, and he has said plainly he'll be ready to play baseball wherever he lands. The defensive leap is the sleeper — he was a liability for years, and now he's a plus glove at second. That makes him the best rental bat on the market.

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