Cup of Coffee: April 16, 2026

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

And away we go.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Yankees 5, Angels 4: New York trailed from the fifth until the bottom of the ninth, which began with the Angels up 4-3. Part of that lead was because Mike Trout homered again, making it four bombs in three games. The Yankees rally began with a one-out Jazz Chisholm Jr. single. Which, if I was the King of Baseball, would've been an error on someone because Chisholm had no business reaching. The way it went down: Chisholm popped up to the left side of the infield and shortstop Zach Neto and third baseman Oswald Peraza let the ball dropped right between them on the infield dirt. Since no one touched it or bobbled it or air-mailed it it had to be ruled a hit, but there really should be a place in the scorebook for brain farts.

After Chisholm stole second base Austin Wells walked to bring up José Caballero who smacked a 1-2 slider to center for a two-run double and a walkoff win. That came against Jordan Romano who the Yankees lit the hell up on Monday night too. There's one more game left in this series but I have a feeling that Romano will merely be a spectator.

Diamondbacks 8, Orioles 5: Adrian Del Castillo had a big game, going 2-for-5 with a triple, a home run, and five RBI. Despite those heroics the Orioles led a couple of times and managed to tie things up at five in the seventh inning to force extras. But that homer Del Castillo hit came in the top of the tenth, after which Nolan Arenado singled home an insurance run. Jeremiah Jackson remained hot, going 2-for-5 with a two-run home run, albeit in a losing cause. The Snakes take two of three.

Cardinals 5, Guardians 3: Dustin May allowed one run on six hits in six innings while rookie Nathan Church went 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, an RBI, and a stolen base. Alec Burleson had two RBI. The Cards take two of three.

Red Sox 9, Twins 5: Sox starter Connelly Early limited the Twins to one run and just two hits over six innings. One of those hits came on a first inning homer but the Twins couldn't get to him after that. His counterpart, Simeon Woods Richardson, had no such luck. He surrendered seven runs — six earned — on ten hits in five innings. Trevor Story knocked in five via a three-run homer and a two-run double. Boston avoids a three-game sweep.

Pirates 2, Nationals 0: A three-hit shutout for the Pirates staff, which on this night consisted of an opening inning from Mason Montgomery, six two-hit shutout innings from Carmen Mlodzinski, and then an inning each from Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana. The runs both came in the first via RBI singles from Marcell Ozuna and Nick Gonzales. Ryan O'Hearn had three hits for the Pirates who, after a slow start, have won 10 of 14.

Reds 8, Giants 3: The Reds knocked Giants starter – and former Red – Tyler Mahle around to the tune of eight runs on eight hits in four innings, all on homers. Six of those runs came via a pair of three-run homers from Sal Stewart. Smart move not to do this on Monday when everyone else was doing it, Sal. You stand out more. Eugenio Suárez and Elly De La Cruz hit solo shots. Rhett Lowder tossed six and two thirds of more or less solid ball for the win.

Tigers 2, Royals 1: A decent duel between Seth Lugo (6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 7K) and Jack Flaherty (6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 7K) had it tied at one into the eighth. Wenceel Pérez broke that tie with a solo homer off of Eli Morgan. Pérez was just a defensive replacement – he wasn't even supposed to be here today – but the offense was welcome. Since getting swept by the Twins the Tigers have won five in a row.

Cubs 11, Phillies 2: The Throwing Philosopher, Shōta Imanaga, gave up just one run on three hits over six while striking out 11. He could've been way worse and still got the win given that Jesús Luzardo went tilt, allowing nine runs – eight earned – on 12 hits in five and a third. Nico Hoerner was responsible for a lot of that damage as he went 3-for-5 with a homer and five driven in. Dansby Swanson hit a solo homer and drove in two. Matt Shaw went 3-for-4 – all three of his hits were doubles – with two knocked in and three runs scored.

Atlanta 6, Marlins 3: Bryce Elder pitched scoreless ball into the sixth and Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and Matt Olson went deep to give the series to Atlanta. Elder has made four starts. His ERA is 0.77.

Brewers 2, Blue Jays 1: Another nice duel in the mode of the Tigers-Royals game. Chad Patrick went six and two-thirds allowing just one. Dylan Cease tossed six shutout innings. That had Milwaukee down 2-1 heading into the eighth when William Contreras singled in one and Brice Turang knocked in another on a groundout. That rally was weird, beginning with David Hamilton reaching on a ball that barely made it to the pitcher's mound and Sal Frelick reaching and advancing Hamilton on a chopper that landed right in front of the damn plate but which Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela couldn't handle. Turang's groundout was a chopper as well, bouncing over the pitcher's head. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Brewers snap a six-game losing streak.

Rays 8, White Sox 3: Jonny DeLuca hit a three-run homer while Junior Caminero and Jake Fraley hit solo shots. Chicago was held scoreless by three Rays pitchers until the ninth but by the time they got their three runs they needed eight or nine.

Astros 3, Rockies 1: Yordan Alvarez maintained his torrid pace to start this season, hitting his seventh homer on the year, doubling and walking. Spencer Arrighetti made his first start of the year, working around some walks and striking out 10 while limiting the Rockies to one run on two hits in six innings. The Rockies have ceased defying gravity and have now lost six straight.

Padres 7, Mariners 6: Big game for Jackson Merrill, who robbed Julio Rodríguez of a two-run homer in the third inning and later hit a walkoff two-run double as the capstone to the Padres' five-run ninth inning. Before that walkoff Fernando Tatis Jr. drove one in with a sac fly to make it 6-3 and Luis Campusano and Ramón Laureano then each singled in a runs to set up Merrill's game-winner. All five of those runs were charged to M's reliever Andrés Muñoz who I hate to see anything bad happen to because that's a man who loves kitties, but it's baseball, man, and baseball doesn't care about cute stuff. Seven in a row for the Padres, who have the second-best record in the game and are at least keeping the Dodgers within hailing distance.

Athletics 6, Rangers 5: Jacob Wilson went 2-for-4 and hit a two-run homer in the seventh that gave the A's a late four-run lead. It was a lead that proved to be necessary as the Rangers plated three runs in the eighth via a Jake Burger homer that, absent Wilson's heroics, would've been enough to win. Earlier Shea Langeliers hit a two-run shot for Sacramento while Tyler Soderstrom and Denzel Clarke each had RBI base knocks. The A's will go for the series win this afternoon.

Dodgers 8, Mets 2: Yesterday Mets owner Steve Cohen took to social media after Tuesday night's loss to offer some rah-rah talk which ended with "Hang in there fans, we will turn this around!" Maybe he intended that turnaround to start this weekend in Chicago because last night was business as usual as the Mets lost their eighth straight game. Kyle Tucker, Teoscar Hernández, Dalton Rushing, and Hyeseong Kim each homered for Los Angeles.

Shohei Ohtani, getting a rare night off from DH duties and just taking the mound here, fanned ten New York batters while allowing just one run on two hits in six innings. Which for all of the accolades he has received and all of the greatness he has displayed over these past nine seasons is still sorta crazy when you think about it. I mean, he's an ace pitcher who hits 50 homers a year! I'll never not be amazed at that! I'll certainly never take that for granted. I'll never forget that for the first 45 years of my life, there were pitchers not as good as Ohtani who would hit, like, .240 with a .298 on-base percentage in 70 plate appearances a year who would be talked-up as "dual-threats" and who would confidently talk about how they took hitting very, very seriously. We've never seen anything like this dude and it's extraordinarily possible that we never will.

The Daily Briefing

Tigers, Kevin McGonigle agree to a $150 million extension

The young infielder Kevin McGonigle has just 18 games under his belt, but he's now set for life: he and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to an eight-year, $150 million deal. There is another potential $10 million at play as well, via a series of escalators and incentives. The deal won't take effect until 2027, so it runs through 2034.

As for the breakdown: McGonigle will get a $14 million signing bonus now, tiding him over a year while he still makes the league minimum. He’ll then earn $1 million in 2027, $7 million in 2028, $16 million in 2029, $21 million in 2030, $22 million in 2031 and $23 million a year for the 2032-34 seasons. There is no no-trade clause, but he will get a $5 million bonus if the Tigers deal him at any time during the period the contract covers. Through this deal Detroit has locked up McGonigle's arbitration years and gives the team control over his first three free agent seasons. 

McGonigle, 21, was a first-round pick in the 2023 draft. He hit .309/.401/.452 with more walks than strikeouts as a 19-year-old across two Class-A levels in 2024. In 2025 he hit 19 homers and posted an OPS of .991 in just 88 minor league games across three levels. That catapulted him to the status of the consensus number two prospect in all of baseball behind the Pirates' Konnor Griffin, who recently signed a $140 million extension of his own. McGonigle's dominance of minor league pitching gave the Tigers enough confidence to put him on the big league roster to start this season without any service time shenanigans or anything. So far that decision has paid off as, though Tuesday, McGonigle was hitting .311/.417/.492 (162 OPS+) with a homer, a triple, six doubles, and eight runs driven in.

McGonigle has played both short and third base this season, but evaluators are torn on where he'll land defensively over the long haul, with some suggesting he might be a second baseman by the time it's all said and done. Given that that the fellas on the Tigers roster who also play those positions – Javy Báez, Gleyber Torres, and Zach McKinstry – aren't spring chickens and don't have any untapped upside at this point in their careers, the field is more or less wide open for him.

Nick Pivetta may be out months

Last night we learned that Padres starter Nick Pivetta has been diagnosed with a right elbow flexor strain. Pivetta, 33, left Sunday’s win over Colorado after three perfect innings due to elbow stiffness. Turns out it was more than that.

Indeed, Padres manager Craig Stammen told reporters yesterday that the club believes it’ll be weeks, and possibly months before Pivetta returns to San Diego’s rotation. Also: flexor strains can be precursors to UCL tears so there will be no telling where Pivetta stands until he's able to ramp up and start throwing again, likely in the summer months. Which is to say that the Padres probably cannot count on him for a very, very long time, if indeed he's able to pitch again this year.

Pivetta has made four starts in 2026, posting a 4.50 ERA.

Soler, López have their suspensions reduced

Angels outfielder Jorge Soler's suspension stemming from last week's brawl with Atlanta pitcher Reynaldo López hswqas been reduced from seven to four games. I had somehow missed the fact that López's had been reduced from seven games to five games, but the article I saw talking about Soler passed that info along as though it was old news. Must've happened over the weekend when I was powered down for recharging.

Let that be a lesson to you two young men. Now shake on it or whatever.

The Texas Rangers are super proud of their racist statue

Last month I wrote about the “One Riot, One Ranger” statue that the Texas Rangers unveiled on the concourse of their ballpark on March 2. The statue, which had long been inside the terminal at Love Field, had been in storage for over five years before the team got it. The reason: the statue was modeled on a Texas Ranger officer named Jay Banks who, in the 1950s, forcibly prevented the integration of a nearby high school in violation of federal law. The statue had been removed from Love Field in the wake of the George Floyd protests which led to a nationwide reckoning regarding Confederate, segregationist, and otherwise racist memorials and iconography.

Yesterday Sam Blum of The Athletic wrote about the Rangers' decision to put the statue up at Globe Life Field and the fallout it has caused in the community. The decision, quite obviously, has alienated a large number of people who are perplexed at the Rangers' choice to conspicuously honor a well-documented racist cop who, in a famous photo, passively sat by an effigy of a Black man hanging from a noose above the entrance of the high school which he illegally prevented Black students from entering.

Blum, quite logically, wanted to get the Rangers' side of the story. He wanted to know what went into their decision making process. He also wanted to know why the team chose to do it during spring training, with almost no heads up to anyone, when almost all reporters who cover the team were in Arizona. So he started to ask people. Here are the results of his queries:

• Major League Baseball declined to make commissioner Rob Manfred available for an interview;
• Longtime MLB spokesman Pat Courtney issued a statement saying that stadium statues are team decisions but would not answer when Blum asked if anything would supersede that policy, and why this statue doesn’t meet that standard;
• Rangers owner Ray Davis declined an interview request;
• Rangers minority owner Neil Leibman — who once chaired MLB’s diversity committee before it was disbanded last year and who the previous keepers of the statue say was the team's point person on getting the statue moved to the ballpark — did not respond to an interview request;
• Rangers Executive VP of public affairs Rob Matwick did not respond to an interview request;
• Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young declined an interview request;
• Rangers team historian and longtime VP for communications John Blake declined to comment;
• Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker declined comment;
• Rangers senior VP for community impact Karin Morris declined to comment.

In the month and a half since that statue went up Blum, Friend of the Newsletter and Independent Journalist Bradford William Davis, and I have all made repeated efforts to get someone from Major League Baseball or the Texas Rangers on the record about this. I'm sure other baseball and non-baseball journalists have attempted to do so as well, but they have been stonewalled as well.

In the law there's an evidentiary rule which holds that, if a party to a civil matter refuses to answer a question or produce requested evidence, that the finder-of-fact is permitted or, in some cases, obligated to draw an adverse inference from that silence. They're allowed to draw the least charitable conclusions because, hey, the other side had the chance to tell their side of things but wouldn't, and there's probably a good reason for that that does not reflect well upon them.

We're obviously not in a legal context here, but in the case of the One Riot, One Ranger statue at Globe Life Field I think it's fair at this point to infer that the silence of everyone from Rob Manfred and Ray Davis on down is because they're happy or even proud to have a racist statue in a major league ballpark and don't feel the need to explain themselves to anyone. Or, at the very least, that they feel that the display of a racist statue at a major league ballpark for millions of fans to see each year is far preferable to whatever controversy speaking out against it – or in Manfred's case ordering its removal – might cause.

And I think we can all make some inferences about what a person who feels that way thinks about the world.

Other Stuff

Spain knows what it's doing

With Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it both "an act of justice" and a necessity, yesterday's Spain's government approved plans to give legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants. From the BBC:

In a letter to Spaniards posted on social media, Sánchez, a socialist, said the mass legalisation sought "to acknowledge the reality of nearly half a million people who already form part of our everyday lives" . . . The government's plan will offer a one-year, renewable residence permit to undocumented migrants. In order to be eligible, applicants must prove that they have already spent five months living in Spain and have a clean criminal record. They have between 16 April and the end of June to apply.

Sánchez said migrants helped "build the rich, open and diverse Spain that we are and to which we aspire".

In what I would say is related news, late last month the International Monetary Fund predicted that Spain will have highest economic growth in Europe for the fifth consecutive year, "significantly outpacing" other EU countries. The IMF report says that "private consumption accelerated due to solid employment underpinned by continued net migration inflows" which led to steady real wage gains. This despite a decline in goods exports due largely to U.S. tariffs.

It's almost as if setting aside racism when making public policy and fighting declining birthrates by welcoming immigrants to the workforce and tax base is good policy. Maybe some other countries could try that.

Popesplaining

J.D. Vance is a man unqualified to do absolutely anything.

He wrote a book but it was bad. He went to law school but only practiced for two years before taking make-work V.C. jobs from Peter Thiel, who immediately embarked on a project of turning Vance into a political asset. Vance's political career would've ended in utter failure if Donald Trump had not, on two separate occasions, thrown him lifelines. He has not accomplished a single thing on his own that is of any merit whatsoever.

He has some pretty strong opinions, however, about the job being done by a person his own religion says is infallible. Here's Vance, at a sparsely attended rally on Tuesday night, saying that that Pope Leo XIV should “be careful” when he talks about theology, rebuking Leo over his criticisms of U.S. foreign policy.

“Now we can, of course, have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just, but I think in the way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said.

“But I think one of the issues here is that if you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth, and that’s one of the things that I try to do, and it’s certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they’re Catholic or Protestant,” he added.

Scientists would have to spend decades to develop tools to measure this extreme a degree of mansplaining on display here. Or maybe it's Popesplaining. Political scientists will be driven to madness trying to reconcile a guy who is the second in command of a what has become a functional theocracy lecturing the Vicar of Christ about how religious leaders need to keep their noses out of politics.

These comments, by the way, came at a Turning Point USA rally at the University of Georgia that drew less than 25% capacity and was met with protests and hecklers and which TPUSA's own director, Erika Kirk, bailed on at the last minute. She did so citing "security concerns" but it was almost certainly because she did not want to be a part of those bad optics. Which is a hell of thing given how little regard for optics she's shown over the past seven months.

So yeah, things are going great for my boy JD these days.

More and more people are noting that Trump is batshit crazy

You have long known that Trump is a sundowning loon. I have long known that Trump is a sundowning loon. And I strongly suspect that each and every member of the Washington press corps has long known that Trump is a sundowning loon. It's just that the latter group has generally refused to acknowledge that reality either because they are afraid to do so, because they like Trump, or because it's better for business to pretend that everything is functioning normally despite the fact that it manifestly is not. Or maybe they have book deals and don't want to mess them up to, you know, report that the president's brain is missing.

So I think it's pretty notable that perhaps the most influential member of that Washington press corps, Peter Baker of the New York Times, finally acknowledged bleedin' reality on Tuesday when he wrote this:

President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.

There's nothing really new in there, as it's been clear that Trump has been losing it for many, many years. Now he's pretty clearly detached from reality and, much of the time, basic coherence. But the fact that the New York Times is, finally, giving it voice, likely signals the end of the press corps' denial of reality on that score. Which, as we saw when they began to seize on Joe Biden's decline in 2024, can create its own momentum and come to dominate the discourse about the president. At least here's hoping.

Live Nation/Ticketmaster ruled an illegal monopoly

Two years ago the DOJ and 39 states and the District of Columbia sued Live Nation Entertainment, the owner of Ticketmaster and scads of concert venues in the country, asserting that the company illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry which resulted in higher ticket prices for consumers and stifled innovation and competition. 

Last month Donald Trump's DOJ, which LOVES illegality and corruption as long as rich white people are the ones breaking the law, settled the federal case with Live Nation. This despite the fact that the trial had already gotten underway and the government had already put forth some absolutely damning evidence against the defendant. I assume, given Trump's track record, that the settlement was itself a function of a corrupt deal but if that wasn't the case it was probably because of Trump's simple love of the corruption game.

The problem for Live Nation was that, while the DOJ and a handful of the states settled their claims, 30 states continued the case. And yesterday the jury reached its verdict:

. . . jurors ruled on Wednesday that Live Nation functions as a monopoly that has squashed competitors and driven up ticket costs for fans. The bulk of the claims jurors focused on were related to requirements for artists at Live Nation's amphitheaters, as well as claims that Live Nation strong-armed concert venues to use Ticketmaster if they wanted access to Live Nation's concerts. 

The lawsuit originally sought the breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and that remedy remains on the table even without the federal government party to the action given that the Clayton Act allows for state enforcement of antitrust claims. Whether that happens is an open question. A different penalty could be leveled (if it's a fine I hope the court characterizes it as a "convenience fee"). The parties could still settle now too, prior to a damages determination, though obviously a settlement at this juncture would heavily favor the side of the states. Of course Live Nation could just appeal in an effort to kick this can down the road a year or two. We'll have to wait and see.

But for once we get some good news. For once someone has done something to tell a big corporation that seemingly exists to take advantage of people that it's being held to account. It feels pretty damn good.

Have a great day everyone.