Romy and Michelle’s High Score Reunion
Romy González (BOS): 2-2, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI.
The Red Sox have gone from Roman to Romy, and it doesn’t seem to be much of a downgrade. After losing their OBP monster Roman Anthony to a season-ending injury, the Sox decided to plug in González at the top of the order last night (he’d started there in five previous games, usually against lefties), and it paid early dividends.
After being DFA’ed by the White Sox in January 2024, Romy’s been up and down with the big club the last two seasons, but sees a lot of playing time against lefties where he’s hitting an impressive .336 in 132 plate appearances, with a .597 SLG and .983 OPS. With the soft-throwing southpaw Jeffrey Springs on the hill for the Athletics, Romy got the nod to lead things off.
And sure enough, on a 2-0 count, Romy mashed one over the wall at 106.8 mph. And two innings later, he smacked an RBI double for a pair of XBHs in his first two at-bats.
Unfortunately for the lefty-crushing González, the A’s gave Springs an early hook—which meant Romy did, too, getting subbed in for Nathaniel Lowe once a righty took the hill. The two Red Sox 1B’s appear to be aligning into a platoon, but Romy’s overall numbers might win out once Lowe’s hot streak with his new team subsides. Overall, Romy’s got an xBA of .287, a barrel rate of 12.7%, and an average exit velo of 93.2 mph—all metrics that are 80th-percentile or above. And in his 29 September at-bats, he’s now hitting .464 with a 1.055 OPS.
So, despite last night’s in-game platoon, Romy might see more chances. If you have an extra roster spot and can afford to platoon a corner infielder, he can help you.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Tuesday:
José Ramírez (CLE): 3-3, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI.
Given some of the landmines that were in the first couple of rounds, drafters who took Ramirez in the mid-to-late first round (or got lucky and took him in the second) have gotten a nice reward. JoRam’s lowest monthly OPS came in August at .716—by no means is that bad—and he still chipped in five homers and five steals. Ramírez has shown that his mediocre stretches give way to something better: he connected on his second dinger of September last night and added two more hits, to bring this month’s slash line to .353/.405/.676. Fun fact: Ramírez has batted .306 in both the last two Septembers, so he has a history of finishing out strong. His 28 homers and 37 steals have probably carried you to the playoffs, and last night’s performance should help keep you there.
Kyle Schwarber (PHI): 1-5, HR, R, 3 RBI.
Remember the Spring debate on which DH bat to take first between Ozuna, Rooker, and Schwarber? Well, the player who typically went last of the three just whalloped his 50th home run. He’d actually been in a mini-slump since his historic four-homer game on August 28th and was hitting just .107 in September. His 10-game homerless streak was his longest of the season (he had a seven-game streak in April), but he put an end to it with a 437-foot blast to center field in the seventh inning. All is right in Schwarber-land, who hit ten homers last September with a 1.012 OPS on the month.
Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC): 1-2, R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 SB.
PCA’s OPS dipped below .800 for the first time since April 22nd last week, and he closed out a miserable August with a .446 OPS. But he had a nice game last night and has shown signs of a September turnaround. He was shooting up draft boards in the Spring mainly due to his strong finish last year, so there might be a resurgence here. He’s already up to three steals on the month, which is more than his total for all of last month, and he’s sporting a .357 batting average in September compared to hitting just .160 in August. He’s shown that lefties have his number (.186/.220/.385) but faced Spencer Strider and a parade of RHPs in this one. In addition to the walk, he had a sac fly and an HBP, and this was his first multi-steal game since June 3rd.
Sal Stewart (CIN): 1-4, HR, R, RBI.
In an interesting lineup change, the Reds sat Noelvi Marte and went with Stewart at first (Spencer Steer also took a seat), batting him second in the lineup. It’s his first time hitting anywhere above the six-spot, and Stewart hasn’t exactly lit things up in his first five games, but he rewarded Terry Francona with a solo shot in the first inning off Michael King, hacking away at the first pitch he saw. The sample size is small, but he’s got a pair of dingers in twenty plate appearances, has an average EV of 94.2 mph and an 18.2% barrel rate, and a .560 xSLG. Yeah, I’m buying next year.
CJ Abrams (WSN): 2-4, 2B, 2 R, BB, SB.
Abrams hasn’t historically had great Septembers, including last year, when he got demoted to AAA after hanging out at a casino after hours on a game day. But even with the Nationals a long way out of any playoff race, he showed out with a multi-hit night and is now batting .296 in his last seven games. Abrams has been more selective on the basepaths this year (he was caught 12 times last year, second in the majors), and while he won’t get close to 2023’s 47 swipe,s he’s having a sneaky breakout season, setting career highs in doubles, batting average, and OPS (his on-base skills have inched a bit higher overall). He’s got a shot to score 100 runs and have a strong finish for the first time in his career.
Otto Kemp (PHI): 2-3, HR, R, RBI, BB, SB.
Kemp was brought up yesterday with injuries to the Phillies’ infield (both Trea Turner and Alec Bohm went on the IL), and he showed he could do some damage batting out of the nine-hole. Kemp spent some time with the big club earlier in the year without making a serious impression, but he’s gone 16/13 in AAA this season in just 74 games, so he’s shown he could both hit for power and run. He did a little of each last night, taking Sean Manaea deep in the third inning and swiping a bag in the fifth. Kemp probably won’t win you a championship, but if you lost Turner and need a power/speed combo, he might be worth a look.
Teoscar Hernández (LAD): 3-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
It’s mostly been a down year for Teoscar, to the point where he’s been dropped in some leagues, but last night he came through in a big way with two solo shots at home against the Rockies. His metrics had been slipping along with his performance—an Average Exit Velocity below 90 mph for the first time since 2017, a sub-5% walk rate, to name a couple—but he had a monster September in 2024 (.329 BA, 1.012 OPS), so good things might be incoming.
Randy Arozarena (SEA): 1-4, HR, R, 4 RBI.
That’s now a career-high 27 homers for Arozarena, who’s been having 20/20 seasons on repeat for a while but might now be knocking on a 30/30. He’s just three away on both the homers and steals side with three weeks to go. After struggling much of last season with a ~.200 Batting Average, Arozarena is enjoying (along with the rest of the M’s) an offensive Renaissance, with a career-best 51.2% hard-hit rate. He still whiffs a lot—he’ll probably top 180 Ks this year, also a career high—but the .244 average hasn’t hurt you at least. And while Arozarena hasn’t historically been a September stand-out (he limped down the homestretch last year with a .690 OPS), this year just feels different.
