What was umpire Nic Lentz thinking? Plus: Ex-teammates beef

What was umpire Nic Lentz thinking? Plus: Ex-teammates beef

Willson Contreras' ejection against the Nationals was an embarrassing call on behalf of umpire Nic Lentz. Jaiden Tripi / Getty Images

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Nobody move; the umpires are at it again.

Plus: Beef between former teammates, a continued defensive outage in New York and a Power Rankings look at some second-half storylines. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!

Ump Show: Contreras was ejected? For what?

At the risk of becoming the “boo umps” newsletter, what on earth was Nic Lentz thinking?

In last night’s 6-3 win over the Nationals, Willson Contreras hit a home run in the bottom of the first. After rounding the bases, he could later be seen in the dugout openly weeping.

Contreras’ home country, Venezuela, was struck by two massive earthquakes last week. The death toll is over 1,700, and it’s still rising. Understandably, he is a bit emotional.

You might think, with that prelude, that Contreras had an outburst, snapped at an umpire or gesticulated wildly to get himself ejected.

Nope.

After a check swing in the second inning (ruled a strike by Lentz at first base), Contreras silently walked toward the dugout, hardly showing any reaction until he finally grimaced, shook his head and — looking toward the dugout, not the umpire — casually tapped his helmet, as if to imply that a review would have acquitted him.

Eagle-eyed Lentz saw the motion and tossed Contreras from the game, tapping his own head in explanation for the reaction.

Look, Contreras isn’t without his moments of over-emoting. For a guy who does perhaps crowd the plate a little bit, I’ve found his reactions to being hit by a pitch a little over the top. But in this case, the ejection was absolutely unnecessary and, frankly, embarrassing for Lentz. 

Contreras, to his credit, came out and pleaded his case politely after interim manager Chad Tracy had a conversation with the umpire. (He was way more chill than Taylor Walls last year — when Lentz ejected him for the exact same thing.)

So, kudos to the Red Sox first baseman for keeping his cool, particularly on a night when his emotions were otherwise pretty evident. Hopefully Lentz can find some zen.

Middle Relief: Midseason storylines

This week’s Power Rankings crew zooms out to look at storylines worth watching as teams embark on the second half of the season. Here are the sections on our Nos. 4 and 5 teams, the Braves and Rays, respectively. 

Atlanta Braves

Record: 49-33

Last Power Ranking: 2

Something to watch for: The search for starting pitching

The Braves are still firmly in first place and given 94.5 percent odds by FanGraphs to make the playoffs. So, why does it feel like the sky is falling?

In the past three weeks, Atlanta has gone 4-12. Baseball’s best record no more. The lineup has lacked consistency in Ronald Acuña Jr.’s absence, yet the team’s glaring need is front-line starting pitching. Chris Sale is still compiling ace results — 2.10 ERA in 90 innings — but can’t do this alone. Bryce Elder is fading. Spencer Strider was shut down. Spencer Schwellenbach is slowly ramping up. Reynaldo López is on a pitch count after returning to the rotation. Alex Anthopoulos has worked miracles at trade deadlines past. This may be the time for him to make a splash and land an(other) ace. — Stephen Nesbitt

Tampa Bay Rays

Record: 48-33

Last Power Ranking: 5

Something to watch for: Junior Caminero’s historic heater

In the past calendar year, the 22-year-old Caminero has four more homers than any other American League hitter (47). He entered this week with seven homers in his last six games, tying Bryce Harper, Willie Horton and Boog Powell for most homers in a six-game span for a hitter aged 22 or younger in the Modern Era.

At the season’s midpoint, Caminero is right on track for a second consecutive 45-homer, 100-RBI season. But he’s been considerably better this year than last, as a newfound selectivity at the plate has led to a doubled walk rate and a .292/.384/.548 slash line that has Caminero improving by almost 100 points of OPS year over year.

And he’s not even the best hitter on his team. — Nesbitt

For the rest of our rankings, click here.

Hedges to Naylor: ‘Nobody likes you’

This popped up on my feed when it happened, but without further context, I decided I didn’t know enough about the relationship between Austin Hedges and Josh Naylor to say anything.

Fortunately, we have Zack Meisel, and he has more context for us on the moment that unfolded Sunday, when we saw the Guardians catcher yell at the Mariners’ Naylor (assuming the lip-readers are correct): “Nobody likes you. Literally, nobody likes you. Your own f—ing teammates don’t like you.”

The optimists among you might be thinking it’s just playful banter between former teammates.

Perhaps not.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt called it “right on par.” Meisel also notes that the relationship between Naylor and Cleveland, where Naylor played for four-plus seasons, soured a bit before he was dealt to Arizona after the 2024 season:

“(2024) was uncomfortable, as Naylor was at odds with the organization about his future. The Guardians didn’t convey interest in signing him long-term, which didn’t sit well with him, team sources granted anonymity to discuss internal matters told The Athletic. Cleveland didn’t care to commit to him into his 30s at a non-premium position. Naylor dropped a few not-so-subtle hints during postgame news conferences, urging the front office to lock up him and certain teammates to long-term deals.”

There are hardly two bigger personalities in the game than Hedges and Naylor, who were not only teammates with the Guardians but also with the Padres. (They were even once part of the same trade, when San Diego sent them to Cleveland at the deadline in 2020 as part of a package for Mike Clevinger and others.)

Amazingly Bad: New York teams … y’all OK?

After last week’s six-error Mets game was followed by the Yankees’ four-error effort, there were dueling chaotic misplays last night, one of which might have resulted in an injury.

The Mets allowed a Little League home run. I guess recently fired manager Carlos Mendoza wasn’t the problem. Facing the Blue Jays last night, Juan Soto let a routine George Springer single get under his glove and go to the wall. No worry, center fielder A.J. Ewing was backing Soto up, aaaand …

By the time Soto picked up the ball, he didn’t even bother trying to throw out Springer at the plate. It was too late, a phrase that feels emblematic of the Mets as a whole.

To make matters worse, the Mets lost by just one run, 2-1.

Yankees — you gotta call for the ball. Meanwhile in The Bronx, a no-man’s-land pop up took Jazz Chisholm into the outfield grass, while Jasson Domínguez broke in on the ball. The result:

Chisholm stayed down for a few minutes before departing the game. It’s been a painful June for him; he left a game on June 18 after fouling a pitch off his nether regions.

That play wasn’t the sole reason the Yankees lost 7-3 to the Tigers — the two preceding errors were more damaging — but it sure didn’t help.

While it has been a very bad week for defense among the New York teams, this isn’t entirely indicative. Going into last night’s action, the Mets actually ranked eighth in the sport in DRS (Defensive Runs Saved). The Yankees, uh … ranked 21st, so that’s not great.

Handshakes and High Fives

Batting seventh: Max Muncy, third baseman, born Aug. 25. This was the case for both teams as the Dodgers faced the A’s last night. And what happened when (A’s) Max Muncy took his first at-bat? He hit it to (Dodgers) Max Muncy, of course. (Dodgers Max Muncy later homered.)

Hitting the ball twice in one swing? It’s more common than you think. In fact, it happened twice last night. (Nobody I’m aware of has topped Hunter Pence’s three-in-one-swing hit, though.)

Raisel Iglesias has converted each of his 16 save opportunities this year in Atlanta. In fact, he’s up to fourth on the all-time franchise saves list.

Our Andrea Arcadipane dug into some fruitful adjustments made by the Orioles’ Blaze Alexander and other youngsters.

Dane Myers collides hard with the wall, so watch at your own risk, but man — what a catch by the Reds outfielder, who was carted off after the collision.

The Phillies comeback is in full swing. Not so much for Aaron Nola.

AL West breakdown: It looks like Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña is headed for the IL with a calf strain, while the A’s placed both Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson on the IL yesterday.

Streak watch: Royals catcher Carter Jensen’s hit streak is 19 games. That might not sound particularly noteworthy, but it’s a Royals franchise record, and it’s 15 games short of the all-time rookie hit streak (Benito Santiago, Padres, 1987). We’ll keep you posted!

Off the Wall: This Instagram reel of some Dutch folks trying to break a Shure SM-58 microphone. Geen kans, fellas.

Most-clicked in our last Windup: Mr. Met dancing on Carlos Mendoza’s grave.

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