When two No. 1 seeds meet in the World Series, you can be confident you’re going to see some of baseball’s biggest stars fight for the sport’s ultimate prize.
This Fall Classic is no different as it includes former Cy Young winners (Clayton Kershaw and Blake Snell), two former MVPs (Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger) and two former Rookie of the Year winners (Corey Seager and Bellinger again). And yet, for all the star power, the top performer between these two teams over the course of the playoffs has been 25-year-old rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena.
Arozarena has a .362/.422/.810 line, a playoff-best seven home runs, and almost twice as many hits (21) as the next best Ray in that category — Manuel Margot, who’s managed 11. The left fielder has been nothing short of a sensation, which caused his manager Kevin Cash to call him the ‘Cuban Mookie Betts’ during the ALDS.
That felt like an off-hand remark at the time, but not only has the moniker caught on, we are now witnessing a World Series where Arozarena and Betts are arguably the best and most important position players on opposing teams. Betts certainly showed his worth in Game 1 with a two-hit, two-steal performance that drove his club’s offence. As we wait to see if Arozarena has a counter-punch, it’s worth pondering on the validity of the comparison between the two.
First off, let’s get some context out of the way. Betts is a former MVP who was both a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards at his position in three of the four seasons prior to 2020 — and he could add to that collection of hardware in the off-season. His low point in recent years was a 2017 when he only won the Gold Glove and was worth 5.3 WAR. He just signed an extension worth $365 million dollars, and has a good chance to be an inner-circle Hall of Famer. It’s ludicrous to project Arozarena to reach those heights, no matter how good he looks right now — and to be clear, he looks outstanding.
With that said, it is fair to look at the Rays outfielder and try to tease out the Betts-like characteristics. Those characteristics can be found particularly in the pair’s athletic traits:
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Arozarena vs. Betts as athletes
The Rays outfielder (five-foot-11, 185 pounds) and his Dodgers counterpart (five-foot-nine, 180 pounds) both have relatively similar frames that come with elite speed. Arozarena’s Sprint Speed is in the 93rd percentile whereas Betts clocks in as an 87-percentile runner. The difference between the two comes in how that speed manifests itself on the field.
Betts is an outstanding right fielder, as we’ve seen throughout the playoffs, and the fact he doesn’t play centre every day is a function of the guys he’s played alongside — Jackie Bradley Jr. rightly gets a lot of recognition here, but Bellinger’s Outs Above Average was 99th percentile in 2020 and 94th in 2019.
Arozarena, on the other hand, is a bit of an unknown quantity in the field at this point. He’s been relegated to left by the Rays, but that’s not a scathing indictment of his abilities on a team with Margot and Kevin Kiermaier. In Game 1 the Rays opted to DH him in order to put Hunter Renfroe in the field, which indicates they don’t see him as a defensive ace at this point. Most of his scouting reports see him as a plus in the corner and someone who can handle centre. He looks like someone who will contribute in this area, but maybe not a defensive game breaker like Betts.
On the bases, Arozarena shows a lot of potential — the St. Louis Cardinals even used him in a pinch-running role in the 2019 playoffs — but he has yet to produce significant base-stealing numbers. His highest stolen-base total in a pro season was the 26 he managed in 2018 and his career minor-league success rate is just 69.3 percent. Betts, on the other hand, has 136 MLB steals and has only been caught 27 times — a success rate of 83.4 percent at the highest level. His 10 stolen bases this season were tied for seventh in the majors, and his BsR was fourth. He gave a very vivid demonstration of his capabilities on the bases with two steals on Tuesday night.
The overall takeaway here is that Arozarena has similar explosiveness and athleticism to Betts, but he has yet to convert them into tangible production. Although he can improve on the bases and in the field, matching Betts in those areas is almost certainly unattainable.
Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior writer. Together, they bring you the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast in the league, covering off all the latest news with opinion and analysis, as well as interviews with other insiders and team members.
Arozarena vs. Betts as hitters
This is where the two players diverge, although not in a way that is 100 per cent negative for Arozarena.
Between the 2020 season and the playoffs, Arozarena has slugged .786 in 35 games, a number Betts has only matched during one such span in his career, during his MVP season. The rookie’s home run total in those games (14) almost matches the total Betts managed (17) in 68 contests. Arozarena’s max exit velocity of 113.1 m.p.h. during the regular season is one that Betts has only topped once in his 3,662 plate appearances since the beginning of the Statcast era — and it was a groundout to third.
The ball explodes off Arozarena’s bat, and it would not be a shock to see him exceed Betts’s career high of 32 home runs in a season some day. It’s also worth noting that 50 per cent of the flyballs he’s hit in 2020 have cleared the fence — a wildly unsustainable rate — so his power probably isn’t as world-beating as it looks right now. For context, since 2002, when batted ball stats started to be publicly tracked, the highest home run rate on flyballs in a full season is 39.5 percent, a feat Ryan Howard managed in his 2006 MVP season.
Where the biggest separation between these two lies isn’t raw power, it’s discipline. Betts knows the strike zone inside and out. He has no objection to taking a base and his ability to restrain himself from swinging at bad pitches also helps drive down his strikeout rate, which has been exceptional for his entire career.
In these playoffs, Betts has done a particularly good job of getting on base for his teammates, drawing nine walks against 10 strikeouts, good for a 0.90 ratio that’s even better than his career average of 0.79. Although Betts possesses good power, he has a leadoff hitter’s approach and profile.
Arozarena looks more like a typical power hitter at the dish. Although he’s not a wild hacker, there’s plenty of swing-and-miss in his game — even on pitches in the zone — which has driven up his strikeout rate. His BB/K ratio during the season was a below-average 0.27, and it sits at 0.31 during the playoffs.
That doesn’t mean he’s doomed to fall off a cliff at the plate. There are plenty of hitters who put up similar K/BB numbers in 2020 like Luke Voit (0.31), Jose Abreu (0.31), and A.J. Pollock (0.27) who had outstanding years. The issue with profiles like these is that they put a ton of pressure on a hitter’s power tool. If they’re not hitting balls over the fence, they struggle to create value offensively. Betts has hit just one home run during the playoffs, but he’s still been extremely effective for the Dodgers. It’s hard to imagine we’d be talking about Arozarena without the long balls.
Drawing a direct parallel between Arozarena and Betts was probably not a wise move on Cash’s part. The Cuban outfielder is winding down his age-25 season with 62 MLB games played between the regular season and playoffs on his resume. In Betts’s age-25 season, he won the MVP and put up 10.4 WAR. The bar is simply too high.
Even so, there’s every reason to be excited about what Arozarena is doing right now, and in the short term he may well go hit-for-hit with Betts in the World Series. That’s the kind of heater he’s on right now. Should he rise to that challenge — a proposition that got even tougher after Game 1 — it will mean that he’s had a playoff run for the ages. It won’t make him the ‘Cuban Mookie Betts’.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins will bring in another quarterback while starter Tua Tagovailoa deals with his latest concussion, coach Mike McDaniel said Friday.
For now, Skylar Thompson will be considered the Dolphins’ starter while Tagovailoa is sidelined. Tagovailoa left Thursday night’s 31-10 loss to Buffalo in the third quarter with the third known concussion of his NFL career, all of them coming in the last 24 months.
“The team and the organization are very confident in Skylar,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the team has not made any decision about whether to place Tagovailoa on injured reserve. Tagovailoa was expected at the team facility on Friday to start the process of being evaluated in earnest.
“We just have to operate in the unknown and be prepared for every situation,” McDaniel said, noting that the only opinions that will matter to the team will be the ones from Tagovailoa and the medical staff.
McDaniel added that he doesn’t see Tagovailoa playing in Miami’s next game at Seattle on Sept. 22.
“I have no idea and I’m not going to all of a sudden start making decisions that I don’t even see myself involved in the most important parts of,” McDaniel added. “All I’m telling Tua is everyone is counting on you to be a dad and be a dad this weekend. And then we’ll move from there. There won’t be any talk about where we’re going in that regard … none of that will happen without doctors’ expertise and the actual player.”
Tagovailoa was 17 for 25 passing for 145 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions — one of which was returned for a Buffalo score — when he got hurt. Thompson completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.
Thompson said he feels “fully equipped” to run the Dolphins’ offense.
“What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though,” Thompson said after Thursday’s game. “I feel like I’m ready for whatever’s to come. I’m going to prepare and work hard and do everything I can to lead this team and do my job.”
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
TORSBY, Sweden (AP) — David Beckham and former England coach Roy Hodgson were among the soccer dignitaries who attended the funeral of Sven-Goran Eriksson on Friday in the Swedish manager’s small hometown of Torsby.
Eriksson’s wooden coffin was covered in white flowers and surrounded by six tall candles and other floral wreaths as the ceremony began inside the 600-seat Fryksande church.
“It is a day of grief but also a day of thankfulness,” the priest, Ingela Älvskog, told those in attendance.
Beckham, who arrived by private jet on Thursday, greeted Eriksson’s 95-year-old father Sven and other family members with hugs inside the church before the funeral started.
Eriksson became England’s first foreign-born coach when he led the national team from 2001-06, and made Beckham his captain.
Eriksson, who also won trophies at club level in Italy, Portugal and Sweden, died on Aug. 26 at the age of 76, eight months after he revealed he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had at most one year to live.
Some 200 seats in the neo-Gothic church from 1898 were reserved for his family, friends and players from his career in the football world, according to his agent. The remaining seats were open for the public, according to Eriksson’s wish, with a big screen set up outside the church where hundreds more gathered to watch the ceremony. The funeral was also broadcast live on some Swedish media websites.
The wooden coffin was wheeled in by pallbearers at the church Friday morning as fog wrapped Torsby — a town of about 4,000 people located about 310 kilometers (193 miles) west of Stockholm. Next to the casket was a photo of Eriksson on a small table. The floral wreaths included ones sent by FIFA and Lazio, the Italian team that Eriksson led to the Serie A title in 2000.
The ceremony began with somber piano and organ music, but later took on a more upbeat note with Swedish singer Charlotta Birgersson performing Elton John’s song “Candle In The Wind” and then “My Way” in a duet with Johan Birgersson, who later intoned the popular Italian song “Volare” after the family had gathered around the casket to lay flowers.
Beckham also visited Eriksson in Sweden in June to say goodbye. Others attending the funeral included the Swedish coach’s longtime partner Nancy Dell’Olio. Eriksson’s agent had said that guests from England, Italy and Spain were expected.
After the funeral, the casket was carried out of the church by eight men to the hearse. The guests then walked in a procession accompanying the coffin to a nearby museum where speeches and eulogies to the coach fondly known as “Svennis” were planned on an outdoor stage. A brass band played during the procession through Torsby, including the tune “You never walk alone” from the musical “Carousel” which has become the anthem of Liverpool, the club Eriksson supported since childhood.
The local soccer club Torsby IF, where Eriksson started his career in the 1960s, wrote on its webpage that “you also showed your greatness by always being yourself, the caring Svennis who talked to everyone and took the time, for big and small, asking how things were and how the football was going. We will miss you.”
