Culture

Meet the guy who has pitched for five MLB teams in 2024: Sliders

Published

3 months ago

September 7, 2024

Meet the guy who has pitched for five MLB teams in 2024: Sliders

For Mike Baumann, it started the same way as his first seven seasons in professional baseball. He was, as always, employed by the Baltimore Orioles, the team that drafted him in the third round in 2017. He wanted to help a familiar organization while advancing his own career.

“My expectation was to take a step forward with the Orioles and to be a part of the bullpen,” Baumann said this week. “I was really excited. I was really looking forward to it. I didn’t perform like I wanted to, things just didn’t go my way and that’s the nature of the business.”

The business, though, has treated Baumann in a way that only one other player in the history of the sport has been treated. Baumann has appeared for five major league teams in 2024: the Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels and Miami Marlins. He’s made so many stops, he should have his own concert-tour T-shirt:

Baltimore, March 28-May 17

Baumann played his entire career with the Orioles until he was traded to the Mariners on May 17. (Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)

Seattle, May 23-July 11

His stint with the Mariners only lasted seven weeks. (D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)

San Francisco (One Night Only!) – July 26

Baumann gave up two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning for the Giants against the Rockies. (Stan Szeto / USA Today)

Los Angeles, July 31-August 22

His tenure with the Angels consisted of 10 appearances. (Mark Goldman / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Miami, August 27-present

Baumann has now been with the Marlins for 10 days. (John Hefti / USA Today)

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Baumann’s busy itinerary ties him with pitcher Oliver Drake (2018) for most MLB teams in a single season. Twenty others have played for four teams in a season, including relievers Yohan Ramirez and Matt Bowman this year. But only Drake and Baumann have made it to five.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, going from highs to lows, but every time I’ve been claimed, I’ve been grateful,” Baumann said. “I’ve been given a ton of opportunities, and I’ve been fortunate for that.”

Zipping through five teams in one season takes several converging factors. Typically, the player needs a skill that teams want; a minimal salary; success in the past and less success in the present.

Baumann fits every category. He throws 96 mph and earns $749,000. He was 10-1 with a 3.76 ERA in 60 games for Baltimore last season, but has a 7.26 ERA since leaving the Orioles in May.

Most importantly, Baumann is out of minor-league options, meaning he cannot be sent to the minors without passing through waivers. Appearances aside, that made the stakes much different for him this season, especially with a strong team.

“I knew I was out of options, and I knew the Orioles had a ton of good depth,” Baumann said. “So going into the season, I told myself I’ve got to perform if I want to be a part of it.”

After a shaky start to the season, Baumann pitched well in his final six outings for Baltimore. But he was designated for assignment when starter Grayson Rodriguez returned from the injured list in mid-May, and the Orioles worked out a trade with the Mariners to send him on his way.

“I wasn’t too surprised,” Baumann said. “I knew I was kind of the last guy in the bullpen. They had a lot of good arms in Triple A and some guys coming back from injury. So it was bittersweet; I loved the Orioles. But when I found out it was Seattle, they were a first-place team at the time and I was really looking forward to the opportunity.”

In his second game as a Mariner, Baumann worked a scoreless 10th inning to beat the rival Houston Astros. But with a 5.51 ERA for Seattle in 18 games, he lost his roster spot again and was traded to the Giants for cash.

With San Francisco, Baumann reunited with pitcher Sean Hjelle, a former teammate at Mahtomedi (Minn.) High School. The fun lasted for two-thirds of an inning against Colorado on July 26, and then it was onto the Angels, who acquired Baumann for cash.

“That one happened so fast,” he said of his Giants tenure. “I didn’t get time to settle in or even get to know a lot of people’s names.”

Five days after facing the Colorado Rockies in his Giants debut, Baumann faced them again in his first game with the Angels. After 10 games with the Angels (and a 6.75 ERA), he joined the Marlins and debuted on Aug. 27 against — who else? — the Rockies.

If they didn’t know better, they’d think he was stalking them. But Baumann just goes where teams tell him to go, without getting too attached.

“I’ve been living in hotels, checking in and out,” he said. “It’s been the easiest way rather than actually getting apartment leases. I’ve kind of been narrowing down my suitcases. I’ve been traveling really light.”

If he’s looking for a higher meaning to all this, Baumann got it with the waiver claim by the Marlins on August 25. When he found out, he was home in Jacksonville, Fla., with his wife, Nicole, who was eight months pregnant with their first child and due this month. To join a team in the same state — albeit a five-hour drive from home — was an ideal fit.

“When we were out West, it was kind of like, ‘Am I going to be able to make the birth of my own child?’” Baumann said. “I remember I was so excited because after going back and forth across the country, I could just go down to Miami.”

The Marlins liked Baumann’s velocity (not just on the fastball, but also his 92 mph slider) and his knuckle curve. With better control, they believe Baumann could be a keeper. He’s had four outings for Miami through Thursday, two scoreless and two in which he allowed three runs.

It’s a fitting performance for an historically uneven season that began on one coast, traversed another and wound up close to home.

Everyday Willy A

Adames, on a power surge, eyes 162

Willy Adames celebrated his 29th birthday on Monday by homering in his fifth game in a row, tying a Milwaukee Brewers club record. The five-game stretch included 11 RBIs, and even when the streak ended on Tuesday, Adames drove in another run to make him the first National Leaguer with 100 RBIs this season.

For Adames — who is positioning himself for a lucrative winter in free agency — another number might matter more: 162 games played. Adames has started every Brewers game at shortstop since Sept. 27, and he hopes to make it all the way this season.

“It’s fun to be out there every day, competing with the boys and just having fun,” Adames said. “I’ve never done it, so I want to do it. I keep fighting with the guys here that want to give me an off-day, but we’re trying to do it this year — and hopefully we can continue to play all the games in the postseason.”

Adames led the National League in RBIs with 100 heading into Thursday’s games. (Katie Stratman / USA Today)

Adames, whose career high in games is 152, is one of seven players who have played every game this season, with the Atlanta Braves’ Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna, the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Nick Castellanos and the Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr.

Players sometimes take a break once playoff spots are decided, but it’s worth watching to see how many get to 162. The last time seven players appeared in all 162 games was 2007, with Jeff Francoeur, Carlos Lee, Juan Pierre, Jimmy Rollins, Grady Sizemore, Delmon Young and Ryan Zimmerman.

The majors’ longest active streak belongs to Olson, Atlanta’s first baseman, at 598 games. It appears that Cal Ripken Jr.’s record of 2,632, which stretched from 1982 to 1998, is safe.

“I think that’s going to be forever there,” Adames said. “I mean, playing two seasons (of consecutive games) is impressive. Imagine playing 2,000-plus.”

Gimme Five

Five bits of ballpark wisdom

Braves catching coach Sal Fasano on the masters of the position

For most of Sal Fasano’s formative years, a baseball team in his hometown sent a catcher to the All-Star Game. He was a Chicago kid in the 1980s, and if the White Sox’ Carlton Fisk didn’t make it, the Cubs’ Jody Davis usually did. Fasano paid attention to them and other standouts, especially Bob Boone, who made the punishing position seem alluring.

“I always had an affinity for catching,” Fasano said. “It’s like in football, I was an offensive lineman. Nobody loves offensive linemen. I do, and I love catching. I love the backbone. And that’s what we call them: the backbone.”

Fasano, 53, served nine teams as a backbone backup from 1996 through 2008. His finest contemporaries, he said, were Jorge Posada, Jason Varitek and Bengie Molina. They combined for just three Gold Gloves, but invariably led their teams to the World Series.

“Some guys always win,” Fasano said, “and there’s a reason.”

Fasano (left) with Braves catcher Sean Murphy (right) in June. (David Butler II / USA Today)

The Braves have always won since Fasano joined their staff in 2018, the start of their six-year reign atop the National League East. Fasano, who also managed and coached in the Toronto Blue Jays’ and Angels’ farm systems, is the catching coach for the Braves, who are now chasing the Phillies in the East.

Both teams’ success, Fasano said, has a lot to do with catchers coaxing the best from their pitchers.

“Look at what (J.T.) Realmuto’s done with their pitching staff, and look at what our guys have done with our pitchers,” Fasano said. “You’ve got to have guys who know how to control the pitching staff — because it all revolves around that dude in the middle.”

Here are some of Fasano’s insights about five aspects of catching, and who has done it best.

Receiving: “The way we did it in our day, it was treated differently. You didn’t want to move the ball very much, you wanted to keep your body still. It was a different technique, and I think Tyler Flowers became revolutionary. I mean, people caught on one knee before; Manny Sanguillen, Tony Peña, they did their thing and basically made it unique, so it was almost like their art form. … But Tyler Flowers came in and decided to say, ‘Hey, I might be able to create value for myself by stealing strikes.’ So when he went onto one knee, he basically revolutionized the whole system of catcher, because everybody does it now. Teams were studying what he was doing, so when I got hired over here, I was like, ‘You do your mechanic, I’ll learn what you’re doing.’ And then we tried to implement it throughout the system, and we’ve had a lot of success doing it.”

Quick release: “When you watch Realmuto, he’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen, (with) probably the best exchange I’ve ever seen in my life. Last year we broke him down for the playoffs and he’s averaging 1.78 to second base. Nobody’s doing that. Pudge (Rodriguez) might have been closest to that. Pudge was the best thrower in my era, like a 1.8. It’s just a math equation. And J.T., in this era, there’s not too many guys like that.”

Balls in the dirt: “If blocking was at zero when I played, blocking is at, like, plus-20 now. Guys block way better. I think Sean Murphy does a tremendous job. He’s one of my favorites when it comes to blocking. In the old days, when we had two knees up, it was really hard to get your knees down at the same time. That’s why being on one knee is actually easier. If both knees hit (the ground) off-time, it stiffens your body. Think about it: if you jump and land one foot at a time, your body’s actually going to vibrate, your eyes are going to vibrate, it’s chaos for your body. On one knee, it’s a slide, so you’re calmer. You can absorb the ball better, you can do a lot of things. But blocking is really a state of mind. I don’t care what technique you have, guys who love blocking are really good at blocking.”

Plays at the plate: “I watched Mike Macfarlane take beatings at home plate — but guys were out. You’ve gotta protect yourself, catch the ball, put the tag on, and if all else fails, complete the play. Those are my rules. Mike was really, really good at protecting home plate. I saw him get crushed by so many people. It was really difficult to watch. I’d say, ‘Mike, man, how do you do that?’ He said, ‘I just want to get into a turtleback. You know you’re gonna get hit and you’re gonna roll.’ It’s against the rules now if you’re in the lane, so we’ve had to make amendments to how we (protect) home plate, because we have to give them a lane. How can we put our left knee down and still create a lane? Or if it’s done early enough, I can take away the lane? And that’s what a lot of people don’t understand. So the little idiosyncrasies of what we can do behind the plate, a lot of people don’t know the rules. There’s a lot of practice and a lot of technique, and that’s what spring training is for.”

Communicating with pitchers: “I was doing catching (instruction) for the Blue Jays, and I remember seeing Dan Jansen, he’s 18 years old at the time and he’s walking to the clubhouse and surrounded by three pitchers, and they’re just having a nice conversation. And I’m like, ‘Oooh, that guy’s born to be a catcher.’ We had just drafted him, he was raw, we didn’t know he was going to be a big league catcher. But once you realize, ‘Oh my gosh, his gift is communication,’ then I don’t care how he catches, I don’t care how he throws it, let’s nurture that. When you give him information, is he able to make the pitchers better? Because that’s really what our position is: can you make the people around you better? That’s the sign of greatness. It’s like Travis (d’Arnaud). We were in Double A, and Travis isn’t the most rah-rah, pump-your-fist kind of guy. He’s kind of like a comedian on the field, he has a good time. But when he has a man-to-man conversation, it’s always in the clubhouse, and he’s always talking to them on a personal level. So his personal relationships with pitchers are huge. Think about when he took the Mets to the World Series with all those young pitchers, and then he did it with us, too. I mean, does he throw the best? No. Does he catch the best? No. Does he block the best? No. But does he call a great game? Yes, and he’s able to get the most out of his pitchers.”

Off the Grid

A historical detour from the Immaculate Grid

Cliff Dapper – Dodgers catcher

In the long and lively history of the Dodgers’ franchise — from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, as the Bridegrooms, Superbas, Robins and Dodgers — 209 players have suited up as catcher. The one with the highest batting average (minimum 10 plate appearances) is also the only one to have been traded for a broadcaster. Cliff Dapper, then, made for a really fun answer on Monday’s grid.

After three seasons with his hometown Hollywood Stars in the old Pacific Coast League, Dapper dazzled with Brooklyn for eight games near the start of the 1942 season, going 7-for-18 (.471) with a homer and nine RBIs in eight games. He spent the next three years in military service and never returned to the majors.

In 1948, though, Dapper was still a Dodger farmhand when a need arose in the Brooklyn broadcast booth. The venerable voice of the team, Red Barber, had a bleeding ulcer and the Dodgers — always shrewd judges of talent — fixed their ears on Ernie Harwell, who was working for the minor-league Atlanta Crackers on WSB, a station with a powerful signal.

The Dodgers wanted Harwell but the Crackers needed something in return. That something turned out to be Dapper, who would spend 1949 as player-manager for the Crackers. Harwell, meanwhile, went on to a Hall of Fame career in the booth, spending most of his 55 major league seasons with the Detroit Tigers.

To mark Harwell’s retirement in 2002, the Tigers invited Dapper to a ceremony at Comerica Park. It was the first time the two had ever met.

“It was the biggest thrill I have ever had in baseball,” Dapper, then 82, told his local paper, the North County Times in Escondido, Calif., after the event. “I still feel honored that I was traded for a great radio announcer. I’m just some rinky-dink.”

Dapper explained that Branch Rickey, the celebrated Dodgers general manager, was concerned that the trade would be embarrassing for him. In fact, Dapper said, he was eager to get a chance to manage, and thrilled to finally meet Harwell so many years later.

“He said to me, ‘I really appreciate you coming back here, Cliff,’” Dapper said. “He is such a gracious man.”

Harwell died in 2010 at age 92, a year before Dapper died at 91. The Tigers honored Harwell with a statue at the ceremony when the two met.

“When I see a statue, I think of history, of Washington and Lincoln, generals Grant and Lee,” Harwell said that day, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t deserve a statue or part of history. But let me tell you, from my heart, I’m proud this statue is me.”

Classic clip

Mark McGwire on “The Simpsons”

Monday marks the 26th anniversary of Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run in 1998, which made him the first player to break Roger Maris’ single-season record. It’s a moment viewed much differently now, but at the time — when we really should have known better — it was hailed as a soaring triumph.

With that, naturally, came television appearances for McGwire. In 1999, he appeared in Helen Hunt’s bedroom on “Mad About You,” wearing only a pillow. He was also on “The Simpsons” that year, distracting the ever-gullible citizens of Springfield with his home run prowess.

McGwire — dispatched by MLB to recover evidence that it was monitoring the town — utters a truly remarkable line, given everything that would surface about his use of steroids. It’s another celebrated instance of “The Simpsons” supposedly predicting the future.

In 1998, when the league and the media should have aggressively challenged the players’ association on the necessity of drug testing (“privacy” was the union’s rationale), we instead built up McGwire and Sammy Sosa into larger-than-life Greek Gods.

As it turned out, McGwire’s big line on “The Simpsons” said it all: “Do you want to know the terrifying truth,” he asked, “or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?”

(Top photo of Mike Baumann: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)

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Culture

At the Bellagio, a gathering of chefs (and Mark Wahlberg) highlights F1’s spectacle

Published

1 hour ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

At the Bellagio, a gathering of chefs (and Mark Wahlberg) highlights F1’s spectacle

This article is part of the “Beyond the Track” series, a dive on the surrounding scene, glamour and culture that makes a Grand Prix.

LAS VEGAS — A dash of dancing fountains, a sprinkle of star power supplied by a collection of celebrity chefs, and even something to chase it all down with champagne. Welcome to the Bellagio Fountain Club, a perfect recipe of the trappings the Las Vegas Grand Prix offers that makes it the most unique race on the Formula One calendar.

At first taste, a who’s who of chefs coming together just hours before qualifying might be hard to swallow. Ah, not so, says Wolfgang Puck, explaining there are parallels between performing at a high level on the track and concocting a gourmet meal in the kitchen.

“A restaurant is exactly the same as a Formula One team. Both are like an orchestra,” Puck told The Athletic. “It’s exactly the same. Because everybody has to work together and everybody has to help each other. You have to really bring it on because it is also all about timing. In a restaurant, if you have three or four different stations and one order has this or that and you have five different dishes coming out for one table, you can’t have them all coming at the same time. So it’s organization and a lot of training.”

Puck is no F1 novice; he closely followed the European-centric sport as a boy in Austria. Naturally, his favorite driver was fellow Austrian Niki Lauda, who later became a good friend. The mere mention of the three-time world champion’s name causes Puck to smile, with him immediately reminiscing about watching Lauda race whenever F1 visited the street circuit in Long Beach, Calif.

Back then, Puck was a rising chef, on the precipice of becoming one of the first chefs to crossover into the mainstream culture, while Lauda was already recognized as an F1 legend. A friendship was formed, and each time Puck attends a grand prix, it brings back a flood of memories of watching races around the globe.

“A restaurant is exactly the same as a Formula One team. Both are like an orchestra,” celebrity chef and F1 fan Wolfgang Puck says. (Christopher Trim / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

Puck was also here a year ago attending the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, and he is wowed by how this race became an event, a word he emphasizes because how can a setting like this — the famed Bellagio fountains behind him, and a purposely constructed street circuit that winds through Las Vegas’ famous landmarks — be a mere race.

“I think (the grand prix) shows Las Vegas really in a good way because they race at night,” Puck said. “I really think it’s really an amazing thing to finally have it here. People can come from all over the world. There are more hotel rooms so close by, like I go to the Formula One in Budapest and they have very few hotel rooms, you have to stay 50 miles away in a little donkey hotel. Then, you need to get out of the parking lot. Like this year, we waited two-and-a-half hours to get out of the parking lot. That doesn’t happen here.”

Although champagne toasts and caviar dishes have always been synonymous with the globetrotting sport that races in exotic locales, there is no denying that F1 is presented much differently than it was even five years ago.

Propelled by the “Drive to Survive” effect, the boost in U.S. interest in the sport often credited to the Netflix docuseries, races have become such a spectacle that a gathering like this one featuring nearly 20 name chefs doesn’t feel out of place on a grand prix weekend.

And just as Puck is an example of a more traditional F1 fan, another attendee here represents the other side of the spectrum.

“My daughter. All my daughter,” Mark Wahlberg said, explaining how he discovered F1.

Like so many, “Drive to Survive” was the entry point for Grace Wahlberg becoming infatuated with the sport. In particular, she was drawn to McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Before too long, her newfound interest piqued her father’s own curiosity, eventually leading to Mark, the famed actor, pulling some strings so that Grace could get the chance to sit inside one of Norris’ older cars.

“She has a big crush on two of the guys, Oscar and Lando, and so she wanted to meet them,” Mark Wahlberg told The Athletic. “So me being a dad who likes to make things happen for my kids, I figured out how I could track Lando down and get a car sent to the house. It was cool for us to be able to spend some time together and enjoy something.”

How did actor Mark Wahlberg get into F1? “All my daughter,” he says. Daughter Grace is a fan of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. (Christopher Trim / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

Donnie Wahlberg nods his head and smiles as his younger brother describes how he got into F1. It’s the kind of nod that implies, “I told you so,” because Donnie has long been a fan, discovering the sport and learning its intricacies when they toured Europe during the heyday of the boy band New Kids on the Block.

Donnie has lots of opinions on F1 but little time now to express them all. He has to jet to meet his wife. But before he departs, he wants to make one thing known: He loves Michael Schumacher. And while the debate among fans of who is better often centers on Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton, Donnie leans in a different direction. His vote: Max Verstappen is the GOAT.

Mark gives his own smile as Donnie makes his point, though he prefers not to wade into the debate. Maybe Mark’s devotion to McLaren isn’t quite yet to the level of Grace’s or Donnie’s, though it doesn’t appear far off. Nor is his support mere lip service, instead it comes from a genuine place. He may be here at the Bellagio supporting his other brother Paul, a chef who’s worked in the restaurant industry since he was a teenager, but he’s also here because he’s a fan happy to be immersing himself in the event.

And here on a Friday afternoon atop a structure purposely built so fans could watch cars speed down Las Vegas Boulevard, F1 fans old and new intermingle. The event is all anyone is talking about.

“It’s a global event now,” Puck said. “Back then, Americans didn’t know Formula One. It wasn’t that popular. It’s not like today.”

The Beyond the Track series is part of a partnership with Chanel.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

GO DEEPER

‘Perfect marriage of speed and glamour’: How Vegas becomes F1’s celebrity magnet

(Top photo: Jordan Bianchi / The Athletic)

Culture

NFL Week 12 roundtable: Giants’ QB plan post-Jones, NFC West race, is Bo Nix legit OROY contender?

Published

10 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

NFL Week 12 roundtable: Giants’ QB plan post-Jones, NFC West race, is Bo Nix legit OROY contender?

You can officially count the New York Giants among the teams whose offseason will be built around finding its next franchise quarterback.

Daniel Jones’ being benched and then released is just one development highlighting league happenings leading up to Sunday’s Week 12 action. The Giants host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with fan favorite Tommy DeVito in line to start.

Elsewhere in this week’s roundtable, our NFL writers Mike Sando, Zak Keefer and Jeff Howe discuss the NFC West. Could it be the league’s most fascinating division title race?

What about the Offensive Rookie of the Year race? Is the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix (or another rookie quarterback) closing in on the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels? Though Anthony Richardson has redeemed himself in Indianapolis, how will he and the Colts fare against the buzz saw that is the Detroit Lions? The 11-point favorite Kansas City Chiefs — sans Taylor Swift — visit Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers for the first time in eight years. The Harbaugh Bowl caps off Week 12 on Monday night, too.

Read more on what’s catching our writers’ attention this week.

The Daniel Jones era is over as the Giants host the Bucs. What’s next for Jones? What does the Giants’ plan at quarterback look like this offseason?

Howe: They tried to move up for a top QB in April, and I’d expect a similar effort — if not a more concerted one — this spring. The Giants are still in contention for the No. 1 pick, so they might get their choice of QBs, but the race has primarily been focusing on Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. There isn’t a marquee prospect in this class, though, and there are personnel executives who have already said they wouldn’t rank any of the 2025 QBs ahead of the six first-rounders from April. The Giants, like every QB-desperate team, should be aggressive, but they can’t force it. As for Jones, he’ll enter the camp competition vortex for teams that aren’t able to find a starting-caliber QB in the draft. It’s recently worked for the likes of Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Russell Wilson, so I’d highly recommend a friendly offensive system.

GO DEEPER

2025 NFL Draft order projections: Cowboys, Bears tumbling toward top-10 picks

Sando: Jones projects as a backup somewhere, possibly with a team that has playoff aspirations and could stand to upgrade behind its starter. The Miami Dolphins are only 4-6, but they could use an upgrade behind Tua Tagovailoa. The Arizona Cardinals have Clayton Tune. Tampa Bay has Kyle Trask. The Minnesota Vikings have Nick Mullens. Maybe those teams love their backups, but I could see teams in their situations considering Jones.

As for the Giants, who will be making the decisions there? How high will their draft choice be? Which veterans might be available? It’s just way too early to know what the Giants are going to do, based on all the important unknown variables. They need to find a veteran able to start and possibly develop so they aren’t too dependent on their next drafted QB — especially in 2025, which doesn’t look like the best year for drafting at the position.

Keefer: Jones is going to make a lot of money in this league as a capable backup somewhere, removed from the expectations that come with being a franchise guy. I can’t see a team — barring an unforeseen injury — rolling with him as the starter in Week 1 next season. Not after what he’s put on tape the last two seasons. And the Giants will find themselves this spring backed into one of the worst corners in football: needing a quarterback in a draft that doesn’t feature a lot of quarterback talent. That’s caused teams to reach in the past, and it’s burned them for decades. New York would be wise to go the veteran route before the draft just to be safe. I wonder whether the prospect of Justin Fields taking over would get Giants fans excited.

Daniel Jones was benched Monday after the New York Giants’ 2-8 start to the season, during which he completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,070 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions through 10 games. (Mario Hommes / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

The Broncos, on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, are in the thick of the AFC playoff hunt. Is Bo Nix (or another rookie QB) a legitimate Offensive Rookie of the Year contender or is it still Jayden Daniels’ award to lose?

Howe: It’s Daniels’ award to lose, and Drake Maye is playing better than Nix. If Daniels and the Commanders tumble while the Broncos snag a playoff spot, there’s absolutely an avenue for Nix to claim the award, but I would still take Daniels over the field.

Sando: It’s Daniels’ award to lose, but there is some uncertainty about how strongly he and that offense will finish. Nix is definitely gaining on him from a production standpoint. We can see that in the table below, which shows production for Daniels, Nix and Maye over their past six games. That’s a big change from early in the season.

Rookie QB comp: Last six games

QB	Daniels	Nix	Maye
W-L Advertisement	3-3	3-3	2-4
Cmp-Att	101-163 Advertisement	132-192	122-181
Cmp%	62.0%	68.8% Advertisement	67.4%
Yards	1,203	1,409	1,214 Advertisement
Yds/Att	7.4	7.3	6.7
TD-INT Advertisement	6-1	11-2	9-6
Rating	94.2 Advertisement	104.7	89.0
Sacked	11	11 Advertisement	15
QB EPA	13.0	31.2	10.4 Advertisement
EPA/Pass Play	+0.11	+0.13	+0.05

Keefer: Mike is right — it’s not only Bo Nix entering the conversation but Drake Maye as well, although he won’t be able to boast the relative team success Daniels is enjoying in Washington and Nix is enjoying in Denver. Voters for these types of awards often lean on turnaround stories, and for a while this season, Daniels was scripting the best one in football. He’s still in front, but how he responds to consecutive losses might very well end up deciding this award.

The Chiefs are 11-point favorites on the road against the Panthers and, presumably, they’ll bounce back Sunday. Does the loss in Buffalo combined with the Lions’ continued rise change how you feel about Kansas City?

Howe: A bit, yes. If the Chiefs managed to beat the Buffalo Bills with a subpar performance, that might have been a wrap, but the Lions and Bills are decisively better right now. And though everyone is waiting for the Chiefs to get significantly better as Patrick Mahomes gains experience with his skill players, we shouldn’t overlook the fact Josh Allen and the Bills will do the same. No one who has watched the playoffs for the past half-decade is ever going to write off the Chiefs, but they’re objectively behind Detroit and Buffalo entering the most pivotal stretch of the season.

Sando: The way the Bills offense handled the Chiefs defense should be concerning for Kansas City. Kansas City can improve as the season progresses because it is well coached and it will be developing key players as Isaiah Pacheco returns, Xavier Worthy gains experience, etc. But it feels like a good year to be Detroit or Buffalo, all things considered. The Chiefs are very good but less dominant than their record indicates.

Keefer: I learned my lesson last year. The regular season simply does not matter for the Chiefs. They’ve come to transcend football norms during their dynastic run. It doesn’t matter that plenty of their wins this season have been unconvincing. Doesn’t matter that Travis Kelce has taken a step back. Doesn’t matter that Patrick Mahomes has looked mediocre — or worse — for stretches. Doesn’t matter that they couldn’t close out the Bills last week. They absolutely remain a legitimate Super Bowl contender and can beat anyone in the playoffs. Remember, as Kansas City proved last year, it’s not the team that looks the best in November and December, it’s the one that gets hot in January. More than any team out there, it knows how to do that.

The Harbaugh Bowl takes place Monday night. The Baltimore Ravens trail in the AFC North title race. The 7-3 Los Angeles Chargers escaped the Cincinnati Bengals last week. There are plenty of storylines in this one. Which one intrigues you the most?

Howe: Before the season, coaches and executives around the league predicted Justin Herbert would make a jump with Jim Harbaugh, who would prioritize the ground game and a high-level defense to complement his quarterback. Harbaugh proceeded to run a conservative offense, but he’s given Herbert more of a chance to let it rip as of late. If Herbert topples the Ravens, he’s going to earn serious MVP consideration.

Sando: I’m interested in seeing whether the Chargers’ much-improved defense can slow Lamar Jackson with the benefit of whatever inside info they have from coordinators Jesse Minter and Greg Roman, who spent significant time on the Ravens’ staff. Is this a game the Chargers can play on their terms? What happens if this game picks up where Chargers-Bengals left off? Will Justin Herbert keep pace with Jackson in that case?

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Keefer: The Chargers-Bengals game was one of the best of the season — Herbert went wild in the first half, then Joe Burrow put together some of the best football I’ve ever seen him play in the second. The intriguing layer of the Harbaugh matchup Monday night is how Lamar Jackson bounces back from last week’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (his -0.21 EPA per dropback and 66.1 passer rating were season lows). Jackson typically torches teams outside the AFC North, and a statement win Monday against an elite defense — the Chargers lead the league in scoring defense at 14.2 allowed per game — would push him right back in front of the MVP race.

It’s time for the biweekly NFC West temperature check. The Los Angeles Rams (5-5) host a hot Philadelphia Eagles team Sunday night. The San Francisco 49ers (5-5) are on the road against the Green Bay Packers. The Cardinals (6-4) and Seattle Seahawks (5-5) meet. Which team is in the best position to win the division?

Howe: I liked the Cardinals as a fun surprise team this season, but I didn’t anticipate they’d be a serious division threat, even if injuries among their opponents are a big reason. I’ll stick with the Cardinals because they’re playing the best and continue to get better. I do like the Seahawks and think they’re neck and neck with Arizona, so their two meetings in the next three weeks could very well tell the story in this division race. Seattle needs to focus more on the run game, though, and the O-line injuries have been problematic. The Niners still have the highest ceiling in the division, but they’ve been giving away too many games and I’m not ready to assume that pattern is about to magically break. The Rams have been too inconsistent, although I can’t rule out Matthew Stafford’s flipping a switch and keeping them in the mix.

Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals could be one of the league’s surprise teams at 6-4 and atop the NFC West. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

Sando: The Athletic’s model gives the Cardinals a 58 percent chance of winning the division, followed by the Rams (23 percent), the 49ers (12 percent) and the Seahawks (8 percent). Is it really that lopsided? I see this division coming down to the final week, when San Francisco visits Arizona and the Rams visit Seattle. All four teams could have a shot at 9-8. Any team getting to 10-7 probably will win the division. I don’t see any team with a big advantage, but I question whether the 49ers can stay healthy enough to prevail.

Keefer: The Cardinals are playing the best of any team in the division, and as Jeff noted, these two meetings with the Seahawks could end up deciding the NFC West title. (San Francisco and L.A. have been too inconsistent.) But critical this time of year are the teams that are showing tangible signs of improvement, and the Cardinals fit the bill: Arizona has won four straight, including its last two by a combined 45 points. In three of those wins the defense allowed less than 16 points. On offense, Kyler Murray has been lighting it up. By mid-January, I like the Cardinals to win their first division title since 2015.

(Top photo of Bo Nix: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)

Culture

NWSL infrastructure is the ‘hardest problem to solve’. Here’s how things stand around the league

Published

18 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Press Room

NWSL infrastructure is the ‘hardest problem to solve’. Here’s how things stand around the league

All eyes will be on Kansas City, Missouri this weekend when the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit face off in the NWSL championship on Sunday. In a way, it will bring the season full circle with CPKC Stadium hosting an action-packed finale.

The stadium’s opening in March marked a historic moment for the NWSL, raising the standard for a club’s stadium experience. With its 11,500-seat capacity, the Current became the first NWSL club to sell out every home game in the regular season.

Although privately financing a stadium might be an unrealistic goal for some clubs, or even an unnecessary one, what the Current has accomplished with CPKC Stadium makes room for a larger conversation about infrastructure in the NWSL. Last year, league commissioner Jessica Berman described that as “probably the hardest problem to solve long-term, and one of the most important problems for us to solve as soon as possible”.

That being the case, The Athletic has taken stock of some of the biggest infrastructure-related wins and losses of the 2024 season.

Most teams are using shared facilities

Nine NWSL clubs in the 2024 season shared a venue with an MLS club. That will increase to 10 teams next year as a new MLS team comes to San Diego. Four teams share training facilities, too. Some teams also share space with a lower-division men’s team, from MLS Next Pro or USL for example.

The only team not to share its venue was the Kansas City Current, which largely used private financing to build its own stadium and training facilities.

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While sharing resources has its upsides, there can also be friction between teams. Take the disagreement between DC United and the Spirit over their long-term deal in 2021, forcing the Spirit to train at a local high school while the matter was resolved.

Three years later, the Spirit is now in a very different place, heading to another NWSL championship after winning its first title in 2021. It now has American businesswoman Michele Kang as majority owner, and Audi Field is its full-time home venue after splitting time between multiple stadiums in previous seasons. This year the Spirit sold out three matches, with its semi-final win against NJ/NY Gotham drawing 19,365 fans.

Rodman celebrates during the 2024 NWSL Playoffs semi-final match at a sold-out Audi Field (Amber Searls / Imagn Images)

Kang has not been shy about expressing her goal of Spirit one day having its own facility. This seems especially pressing now, given that USL Super League’s DC Power, partly owned by DC United, also calls Audi Field home.

In other instances, as for Racing Louisville and USL club Louisville City, having a shared facility means also sharing ownership, which makes it easier to make last-minute decisions, like when deciding to offer your venue as an alternate with only a few days’ notice.

Issues of being a tenant, and not an owner

Earlier this month, San Diego Wave FC was forced to move its final home match of the regular season across the U.S. to the aforementioned Louisville at Lynn Family Stadium because of poor playing conditions at its home, Snapdragon Stadium.

“The safety and wellbeing of all players is our top priority, and the current field conditions at Snapdragon Stadium, which are the responsibility of a third party, have not met the standards required for a safe playing environment,” the club said in a statement.

The Wave had a series of planned celebrations, including a fan appreciation night, a ceremony for Emily Van Egmond’s 100th NWSL appearance and a ceremony for Alex Morgan’s retirement. All of which had to be moved following the venue switch. Morgan’s celebration will happen next year. The venue also will host two games in the SheBelieves Cup in February.

Megan Rapinoe sustained an ACL injury during the first half of the 2023 NWSL Championship match at Snapdragon Stadium (Orlando Ramirez / Imagn Images)

Field issues in San Diego are not new, with multiple season-ending injuries for NWSL players happening at Snapdragon last year, including Megan Rapinoe’s injury in the early moments of the 2023 NWSL championship. These issues extended into the 2024 season, with former interim coach Landon Donovan saying that “outside of replacing the whole field” there was little to be done to remedy the issue.

Because the Wave is only a tenant, it has limited say over what San Diego State University does and soon cedes next priority to MLS expansion team San Diego FC.

The MLS team will have priority in scheduling, despite the Wave having a loyal fanbase and averaging 19,575 fans per game. Only one other women’s team in the world averages higher attendance, according to the club: Arsenal Women in the Women’s Super League. The university’s contract with the MLS club, though, specifies there will be an annual meeting at the start of each contract year to discuss topics such as “stadium maintenance and capital improvement plans” and “field of play quality”.

The crowding at Snapdragon has led at least one team, the professional rugby team San Diego Legion, to relocate in the new year. The team announced Tuesday it would move to the 6,000-seat Torero Stadium to make way for more weekend home matches.

Public land and public funds – or private financing?

A similar availability snafu happened in Chicago, when the punk rock festival Riot Fest announced it would be held at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, on the same day as a home game for the Chicago Red Stars. The stadium is publicly owned by the Village of Bridgeview, and the hope was that both events would happen concurrently.

“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports,” Red Stars president Karen Leetzow said at the time.

The problem resolved when Riot Fest announced the festival would be relocating to Chicago proper, bringing an anticlimactic end to the months-long drama. The timing of this dilemma unraveled just after the Red Stars had packed Wrigley Field in a historic game against Bay FC on June 8.

Chicago hosted Bay FC at Wrigley Field in front of a record-breaking crowd. (Daniel Bartel / Imagn Images)

While the Red Stars have been tenants of SeatGeek Stadium since 2016, and are contracted through the 2025 season, club leadership has been outspoken about wanting to find a home closer to Chicago.

“Every week, we’re meeting with influential people here in the city who can help us get this done,” Leetzow said in August. “I have a whole series of talking points I’ve been refining and honing throughout the summer and into the fall as the (state) legislators go back into session.”

The hope is for city officials to commit public funding to a women’s soccer stadium like they did to renovate Soldier Field, where MLS side Chicago Fire FC currently competes. That might be a tall ask, though, as the Chicago Bears and White Sox are also bidding for public funding for stadium projects.

The Chicago Fire said last month they are considering building a privately financed, soccer-specific stadium in the city, and had already toured three sites for the project. The MLS team left SeatGeek Stadium, which is 30 minutes outside the city, by paying $60.5 million to get the Fire out of its lease with the venue early in 2019 after Joe Mansueto acquired a controlling stake in the team.

What about training facilities?

Investing in better infrastructure also means investing in training facilities that will help develop and prepare players.

Last year, the Utah Royals unveiled multi-million-dollar expansion and remodelling plans for an NWSL-specific training site at their Zions Bank Real Academy, a 42-acre campus with several grass and indoor fields that houses the franchise’s clubs, including Real Salt Lake in MLS. The Pride and Houston Dash have similar, dedicated spaces with their MLS counterparts.

NWSL expansion club Bay FC announced in September plans to build a training facility in San Francisco’s Treasure Island neighborhood, slated to open in 2027.

“Having a permanent dedicated space that is built specifically for our players and football operations staff will allow us to continue to attract the best national and international talent and continue our Club’s mission of being a catalyst for innovation and change for our athletes and the community,” Bay FC chief executive Brady Stewart said at the time.

The news drew criticism, though, for the decision to develop an area with a history of hazardous waste.

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More recently, Angel City Football Club unveiled plans to relocate to a nine-acre site on the campus of California Lutheran University, where they plan to upgrade and remodel a 50,000-square-foot training center. The center was previously home of the Los Angeles Rams and will undergo a multimillion-dollar remodel entirely financed by the club, serving as the team’s home for up to four years.

“The size of this performance center is incredibly important, because not only can we provide the resources and staffing and tools that they need today, but we have enough room to grow and evolve,” Julie Uhrman, president and co-founder of Angel City told The Athletic. “So, if we extend beyond from a first team to a second team to Academy, we have the ability to grow.”

The new facility will be exclusively for Angel City and feature custom lockers for players, coaches and staff. Other custom features include a dedicated locker room for players under 18, a children’s playroom to support players and staff, an onsite studio for content creation, a custom boot wall and a private outdoor relaxation lounge.

“Our commitment is that we are going to build a permanent Performance Center for our players, and we’ve actively been working on that since 2020,” Uhrman said. “Wanting something that’s 10-plus acres is challenging and takes time, and while we’re doing that, we wanted to build the best temporary training facility that we could.”

That search for a permanent home remains a “work in progress”, she added. So far, the club has “identified a couple of locations that we’re really excited about.”

Where do things stand for expansion clubs?

The NWSL is growing, with plans to announce a 16th team before the end of the year. The latest expansion club is expected to begin playing in 2026 alongside Boston. While the league isn’t hinting at which direction it will go, it’s safe to assume that having a concrete plan for a team’s facilities and infrastructure could be a deciding factor.

The ownership group in Boston proposed renovating George R. White Stadium in Franklin Park for the team’s home venue, where BOS Nation FC will play. This would be secured through equity and involve a public-private partnership with Boston Public Schools, which would retain ownership of the stadium for its own use.

As for a potential 16th expansion team, one ownership group in Cleveland recently announced the joint purchase of 13.6 acres of state land to build a $150 million, 12,500-seat stadium on what is currently undeveloped land in the city’s downtown. Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) plans to pursue a public-private partnership, similar to Boston’s thinking.

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“I think it’s really important because most stadiums in this country have had some public financing element to them,” Murphy said. “If you look back in the state of Ohio even, maybe over the past 30 years, there’s been about $2 billion spent in this state across Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, (and) other cities on men’s professional (sports), and over the same periods it’s been $0 for women.”

Big step forward for soccer in The Land! ⚽️
The Cleveland Metroparks just approved a 13.6-acre land deal for a proposed stadium, part of Cleveland Soccer Group’s efforts to secure an NWSL expansion team.
Team bid results expected later this year! pic.twitter.com/h5ukBVHtQI
— I’m From Cleveland (@ImFromCle) September 19, 2024

Cleveland Metroparks purchased the roughly $4.2 million state-owned property, where the stadium will sit, from the Ohio Department of Transportation. CSG will fund the purchase, with the stadium remaining publicly owned. The purchase of this property, though, is contingent on CSG being awarded the NWSL expansion bid.

Some other potential expansion groups, such as a campaign that launched in Nashville last month, have not shared specific details on their own facilities plans. The local MLS club, Nashville SC, has however expressed interest in potentially sharing their stadium, Geodis Park.

(Top photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)