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What’s Happening in Baseball Today
The First Pitch: April 3, 2025
Extensions rule the day, as two very young, talented ballplayers and an established veteran each have their financial future highly enhanced.
San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill, a week away from turning 22, is given a nine-year, $135 million extension from the Padres. The contract includes a $30 million team option for 2035, which would revert to a player option should Merrill finish in the top five of the MVP vote in any season before then. Merrill becomes the fifth active member of the Padres to be given a contract over $100 million—and thanks the Padres with two hits including his second homer of the young season in a 5-2 home win over Cleveland, improving the team’s record to 7-0.
The Boston Red Sox ink Kristian Campbell, who made his major league debut on Opening Day, for eight years and $60 million. Club options for a ninth and 10th season would total an additional $40 million for the 22-year-old second baseman, who drills two doubles and raises his early season average to an even .400 in a 3-0 win at Baltimore.
Finally, the Arizona Diamondbacks tear up their existing contract with veteran second baseman Ketel Marte and grace him with a six-year, $116 million extension. Incentives could give Marte’s deal a total value of $149 million. Marte has a single and two walks in Arizona’s 4-3 win at New York over the Yankees, with Zac Gallen striking out 13 over 6.2 shutout innings to earn the win.
Back to the Red Sox and the sagas of Rafael Devers and Garrett Crochet. In that 3-0 win over Baltimore, Devers snaps out a horrible season-opening slump, lacing an RBI double in the fifth to bring home the Sox’ final run; it’s his first hit after starting the year 0-for-21 with 15 strikeouts. (He’ll add a second hit, a single, in his final at-bat of the day.) On the mound, Crochet—fresh off signing his own extension worth $170 million, proves his value by allowing no runs on four hits and a walk over a career-high eight innings, striking out eight. His 102 pitches are one short of a personal high.
At St. Louis, Ivan Herrera becomes the first catcher in Cardinals history to launch three homers, going deep in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings to help the Redbirds to a 12-5 pounding of the Los Angeles Angels. Herrera is the fifth Panama-born player to turn the hat trick, following Carlos Lee, Hector Lopez, Adolfo Phillips and Ben Oglivie—who did it three times for Milwaukee.
The Dodgers surpass the 1933 Yankees and become the defending champions with the longest winning streak to begin a season. It takes a comeback, as Los Angeles scores two runs in the eighth to tie, and then a one-out solo homer from Shohei Ohtani in the ninth to walk it off, 6-5. The thrilling win on the first Ohtani bobblehead night of the year (before over 50,000 at Dodger Stadium) gives the Dodgers am 8-0 record; the Braves are now 0-7.
With the Dodgers’ win, the top four teams in the NL West (Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks and Giants) are a combined 24-3. The last-place Colorado Rockies, who have so far managed to avoid the other four teams on the schedule, are nevertheless off to a poor 1-4 start.
For the first time ever, the average MLB salary checks in at over $5 million, according to data collected prior to Opening Day from the Associated Press. It represents a 3.6% increase from 2024 figures. However, the median salary—the point at which half the players make more, the other half less—decreases to $1.35 million; the all-time high still remains $1.65 million from 10 years ago, thus continuing the trend of higher-priced players taking a higher percentage of the overall money.
Team-wise, the Mets start the year with the highest payroll at $322 million, followed closely by the Dodgers at $319 million. Seven other teams have payrolls over $200 million, with five under $100 million—bottomed out by the Miami Marlins at $64 million.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
4-3-3-6—Ivan Herrera, St. Louis
With Willson Contreras converted to a first baseman, expect to see more of the 24-year-old Panamanian (who early on is splitting duty with Pedro Pages), especially after his eye-opening three-homer performance in the Cardinals’ 12-5 home win over the Angels. His hat trick leaves him just two homers short of the five he hit over 72 games for the Cardinals last year.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-4-0-0-1-8—Garrett Crochet, Boston
Late last year, the White Sox were so sensitive to Crochet’s workload that he averaged 3.4 innings per outing in his last 13 starts, with no appearance lasting longer than four frames. The Red Sox, by comparison, have released this Kraken; after a five-inning start in his Boston debut, he went a career-high eight in keeping the Orioles shut down at Baltimore in a 3-0 win.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
2005: Borderline major leaguer Alex Sanchez is the first player suspended by MLB for steroids. He will serve a lightweight 10-game sentence; just a month earlier, MLB was grilled by the U.S. Congress in front of a nationally televised audience for doing little on the anti-PED front.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn is 27; 2010s slugger Jay Bruce is 38; two-time All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis is 38; second baseman of 1,124 hits Mike Lansing is 57; speedy 1980s outfielder Gary Pettis is 67. Born on this date is 1954 Rookie of the Year Wally Moon (1930), and winner of 52 games in 1884 Guy Hecker (1856).
Shameless Link of the Day
The March Comebacker is now live, the daily look back at the news, notes and numbers from the past month. Check it out!
And Now For Something Completely Different From TGG Co-Founder Eric Gouldsberry
From 1975-78, my father, Ray Gouldsberry, took photographs of the original San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, an ingeniously marketed collection of colorful players embraced by a growing, sports-starved community which constantly sold out ancient, cozy Spartan Stadium. Shortly after my father’s passing in 2019, I took the negatives of all the precious, invaluable photos he snapped, scanned them, and put together Our Life & Times with the Earthquakes: Images and Memories from the Glory Days of San Jose’s Original Pro Soccer Team. It’s not only a tribute to the Earthquakes and the North American Soccer League, but to my father for capturing all the wonderful memories we shared during our time as season ticket holders of the team through its entire existence (1974-84).
Much like baseball’s Deadball Era, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes looks at a similar era in soccer history when the game in America was boldly attempting to blaze its own trail clad in flamboyance and imperfection, giving the NASL vivid character. As with those early times of baseball, historical images from the NASL remain scarce and elusive, making Ray Gouldsberry’s photographic collection of the Earthquakes and other star NASL players all the more cherished.
Although the Earthquakes are the primary focus of Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes, the book also spotlights the vibrant and turbulent history of the NASL and its legendary list of stars such as Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia and George Best (who briefly played for the Earthquakes), all through my father’s photos and the treasure trove of memorabilia I collected during those years.
Formatted at 8.25” x 8.25”, running 200 pages plus cover and containing over 200 photos, 100 images of memorabilia, and a foreword by former Quake and U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Johnny Moore, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes is available for purchase on Amazon. Read and enjoy!
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To Whom It May Concern
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