The Boston Red Sox award a special T-shirt to pitchers who throw especially hard. It’s a limited-release item courtesy of Justin Willard, the team’s director of pitching, with FUEGO on the front and 100 on the back. Fire, at 100 miles an hour.
Garrett Crochet wore it in the clubhouse after his final start of spring training and said Aroldis Chapman had one, too. The lefty newcomers now bring their 100-mph fastballs to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox have finally turned on the heat.
Before Opening Day, the Red Sox had gone 336 games without a pitcher breaking 100 miles an hour. Every other team has done it since the last time a Boston pitcher did so, on Sept. 23, 2022, by Kaleb Ort. After trading for Crochet to be their ace and signing Chapman to be their closer, the Red Sox have finally caught up.
“Let’s be honest, we’re trying to avoid contact late in games,” Manager Alex Cora said. “(When hitters) put the ball in play late in games, sometimes bad things happen. Swing-and-miss is important. And I’m excited about the first part of the game with Garrett. What I’ve seen is fun to watch.”
Chapman, 37, has been a flamethrowing sensation since arriving in the majors in 2010; he has “105.1” tattooed on his left wrist and flung 222 pitches at 100 mph or higher for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. He maxed out at 98.5 mph in his Red Sox debut on Opening Day.
Crochet, who threw 88 pitches in Thursday’s 5-2 win at Texas, hit the mark 49 times in his Chicago White Sox career, mostly as a reliever for parts of three seasons. Last year, his first as a starter, he averaged 97 mph with his fastball and touched 100 four times, racking up 209 strikeouts in 146 innings.
At 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds with an angled delivery, Crochet, 25, said hard throwing comes naturally.
“I don’t really have to conjure anything up,” he said. “When guys mimic my mechanics, they always joke about me diving down the mound. But it kind of just lets my arm play catch-up. I’m able to time it up well, and I think with just my overall mass, I’m able to produce velocity — because when I’m on time, I’ve got a lot behind it.”
The Red Sox’s stretch without a 100 mph pitch is just one of many hidden droughts in MLB. The season debut of Sliders — a weekly tribute to the timely and the timeless — feels like a good time to highlight some of our favorites.
We’ll be back here next Friday with our usual array of interviews, Immaculate Grid tidbits, classic video clips and other goodies. For now, enjoy this trip around the majors for something each team has been missing.
Baltimore Orioles: 200-strikeout season
Last: Erik Bedard, 2007
Late in spring training, Orioles general manager Mike Elias said he was optimistic about the “pitchability” of his starting rotation. To underscore the point, he then signed Kyle Gibson, adding to Baltimore’s stable of veterans with moxie.
What they don’t have is strikeout stuff, continuing a trend. Even in this power pitching era, the Orioles haven’t had a 200-strikeout season from the mound since Erik Bedard in 2007. They’ve actually had two 200-strikeout seasons by hitters (both by Chris Davis) since then.
New York Yankees: Walk-off home run
Last: Giancarlo Stanton, Sept. 20, 2022
It was spine-tingling September theater: with the Yankees down by four runs to Pittsburgh, Aaron Judge led off the ninth with his 60th home run, tying Babe Ruth’s career high. After the next three hitters reached base, Giancarlo Stanton sent them all home with a walk-off grand slam.
That was the Yankees’ seventh walk-off blast of the 2022 season. Since then, every other team has hit at least one — except the Yankees. Somehow, the mighty Bronx Bombers have gone deep 499 times since Stanton’s slam but never ended a game with a homer.
Tampa Bay Rays: Complete-game shutout
Last: Matt Andriese, 2016
We get it: the shutout is a relic. But it’s hardly extinct. Major-league pitchers have tossed 149 complete-game, nine-inning shutouts in the past eight seasons, from Sandy Alcantara to Brandon Woodruff, with some unexpected names (Brian Johnson, Daniel Mengden, Chris Stratton) in between. One thing they all have in common: none of them were Tampa Bay Rays. The team that invented the opener hasn’t authored a nine-inning shutout since Matt Andriese spun a two-hitter against the A’s on May 14, 2016 — a streak of 1,322 games.
Toronto Blue Jays: Manager of the Year
Last: Bobby Cox, 1985
Hall of Famer Bobby Cox managed the Blue Jays to their best regular season ever in 1985, a 99-win effort that earned him the AL Manager of the Year award. No Blue Jays skipper has won it since, not even Cito Gaston, who consistently outmaneuvered Cox and the Braves in the 1992 World Series. That was the second postseason appearance — and the first of two titles — for Gaston, but the voters never recognized him as the league’s best. The Jays have since reached the playoffs under John Gibbons, Charlie Montoyo and their current leader, John Schneider, but still haven’t won a Manager of the Year award in four decades.
Chicago White Sox: Contract over $75 million
Last: never (club record: Andrew Benintendi, $75 million)
Ten years ago, the White Sox wanted Andrew Benintendi with the eighth overall pick in the draft. They missed him by one spot — Benintendi went seventh to the Boston Red Sox — but retained their affection and gave him the richest contract in club history when he hit free agency after the 2022 season.
Benintendi was an All-Star that year and a Gold Glove winner the year before, and the White Sox set a new club standard with a five-year, $75 million deal. Alas, Benintendi has been a bust with Chicago, hitting .246/.309/.374 in two seasons as the team lost 222 games. Every other team in the majors except the A’s has given out a contract worth more than $75 million.
Cleveland Guardians: Batting champion
Last: Bobby Avila, 1954
The first batting champion for Cleveland’s AL franchise was so popular that they named the team after him. Napoleon “Nap” Lajoie won the crown in 1903 and 1904, and fans voted to call the team the Naps in his honor. And while the Naps, Indians and Guardians have had plenty of great hitters, it’s been 71 years since their last batting title.
That was in 1954, when Bobby Avila hit .341 — but the story’s not that simple. Boston’s Ted Williams actually hit .345 that season and came to bat 526 times. The problem for Williams was that he walked too much. To qualify for a batting title in 1954, a player needed 2.6 at-bats per game, or 400 at-bats for a 154-game schedule. Williams led the majors in walks with 136, leaving him with only 386 “at-bats” and giving Avila the crown. The standards changed in 1957 to the current 3.1 plate appearances per game.
Detroit Tigers: 460-foot home run
Last: Jeimer Candelario, July 15, 2019
What in the name of Hank Greenberg, Cecil Fielder and Miguel Cabrera happened to the Tigers’ prodigious power? Only two teams — Washington and Pittsburgh — have hit fewer homers than Detroit in the 2020s, and none of the Tigers’ 678 home runs have sent a surge through the Statcast database. No Tiger has blasted a ball 460 feet since Jeimer Candelario launched a 467-foot rocket off Adam Plutko in Cleveland nearly six years ago.
Kansas City Royals: Retired number
Last: 1995 (Frank White’s No. 20)
The Royals list 30 people as members of their Hall of Fame, but they’ve bestowed their highest recognition, a retired number, on a precious few: manager Dick Howser (No. 10), third baseman George Brett (No. 5) and second baseman Frank White (No. 20). Brett and White spent their entire careers with Kansas City and helped lead the team to its first title in 1985. Two other career Royals who steered the team to its second crown, in 2015, figure to be honored eventually: current catcher Sal Perez (No. 13) and left fielder Alex Gordon, whose No. 4 has been out of circulation since his retirement in 2020.
Minnesota Twins: 200-hit season
Last: Paul Molitor, 1996
The Twins’ Jose Miranda tied a major-league record last season by getting a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances. Hitting’s not that easy, of course, and Miranda wound up with only 114 hits, far from the 200 mark that’s been elusive for decades in Minnesota. The last Twin to do it was Paul Molitor in 1996; every other AL team that existed then has done it since. Only five Minnesota hitters have reached 200 hits in a season, and it’s quite a list: Cesar Tovar and Hall of Famers Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett and Molitor.
Athletics: Inside-the-park home run
Last: Mark Kotsay, 2006 playoffs
You’d think that in a ballpark like the Oakland Coliseum, with all that foul territory and the bullpens in play, some A’s player would have circled the bases on a ball that took a wacky hop and rolled untouched for a while. Yet, as the A’s head to Sacramento, their last inside-the-park home run is now old enough to vote. Mark Kotsay did it more than 18 years ago, in the 2006 playoffs at the old Metrodome. Kotsay, now the A’s manager, hit a sinking liner that skipped past a diving Torii Hunter and turned into a pivotal play in Oakland’s last best-of-five playoff series win.
Houston Astros: Perfect game
Last: Never
Only 14 of the 30 teams have ever had a pitcher toss a perfect game. But it’s reasonable to guess that the Astros would be among those 14, because no-hitters are their specialty. Since Houston joined the major leagues in 1962, no team has as many no-hitters. The Colt .45s/Astros have spun 17 of them, from Don Nottebart in 1963 to Ronel Blanco last April 1 — but in all of those games, at least one opponent has reached base.
Los Angeles Angels: 100-loss season
Last: Never
The Angels last reached the playoffs in 2014, giving them the majors’ longest postseason drought. They staggered to the finish last September, dropping their final six games to bottom out at 63-99. Yet as bleak as things have been, the Angels remain the only major-league franchise without a 100-loss season. Now, it’s true some teams haven’t had a 100-loss campaign in the expansion era, which began with the Angels and Senators/Rangers in 1961. But all of their ancestors did — and while the Angels aren’t exactly a model of winning, they still never have.
Seattle Mariners: 3-homer game in Seattle
Last: Edgar Martinez, May 18, 1999
Less than two months after Edgar Martinez terrorized the Twins at the cozy Kingdome — with dingers to right, left and center — the Mariners moved to an open-air jewel box then known as Safeco Field. They quickly found that fly balls don’t carry quite as well on the other side of Royal Brougham Way, and haven’t had a three-homer game in Seattle since. Fun fact from Mariners PR wiz Alex Mayer: the team has actually had a four-homer game on the road, by Mike Cameron in Chicago in 2002, since its last three-homer game at home.
Texas Rangers: Cy Young Award
Last: Never
Two of the greatest pitchers to never win a Cy Young Award — Bert Blyleven and Nolan Ryan — fired no-hitters for the Rangers. Plenty of Rangers pitchers have won the award elsewhere: Bartolo Colon, Jacob deGrom, R.A. Dickey, Fergie Jenkins, Dallas Keuchel, Corey Kluber, Cliff Lee, Sparky Lyle, Gaylord Perry and Max Scherzer. But in 65 seasons, going back to their beginnings in Washington, this franchise still cannot claim a Cy Young Award winner as its own.
Atlanta Braves: No-hitter
Last: Kent Mercker, April 8, 1994
Two teams have gone longer than Atlanta without a no-hitter — Cleveland (Len Barker’s perfect game, 1981) and Toronto (Dave Stieb, 1990) — but few teams are as synonymous with pitching excellence as the Braves, who thrived for years with the ace trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. All of those pitchers were Cy Young Award winners who sailed into Cooperstown on the first ballot, yet none of them ever pitched a no-hitter. Mercker pitched just one career shutout in an 18-year career, but he sure made it count.
Miami Marlins: Triple play
Last: Mike Lowell and Derrek Lee, 2002
The Marlins have played more than 5,000 games across three decades in the major leagues. But they’ve turned a triple play in only one of them — way back on July 28, 2002, when they were known as the Florida Marlins. In the third inning that day in Montreal, the Expos’ Vladimir Guerrero (Sr., of course) ripped a liner to Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell. With the runners on the move from first and second, Lowell tagged the oncoming Brad Wilkerson for the second out and tossed across the diamond to first baseman Derrek Lee, retiring Jose Vidro to complete the trifecta.
New York Mets: Most Valuable Player
Last: Never
Francisco Lindor was the MVP runner-up last season, but the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani collected every first-place vote, so there wasn’t much suspense. Even so, Lindor was just the fourth Met to finish second in the MVP race, after Darryl Strawberry in 1988, Keith Hernandez in 1984 and Tom Seaver in 1969. Seaver came the closest, matching Willie McCovey in first-place votes but losing on overall points. As for Juan Soto, the new $765 million man is still seeking his first MVP — he placed second to Bryce Harper in 2021 and third behind Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. last season.
Philadelphia Phillies: 6-hit game
Last: Connie Ryan, April 16, 1953
Mike Benjamin, John Briggs, Jose Cardenal and Joe Lefebvre did it. So did Raul Ibanez, Joe Morgan, Jean Segura and Chase Utley. All of those folks played for the Phillies, and they’ve all had six-hit games for other teams since Connie Ryan did it for Philadelphia in 1953. A six-hit game is not common, but it’s happened 72 times since Ryan’s big day — and every other team that existed before the 1993 expansion has done it.
Washington Nationals: Trade with the Baltimore Orioles
Last: Never
On October 3, 2001, the Montreal Expos traded Tim Raines to the Baltimore Orioles for cash, allowing Raines to briefly be teammates with his son, Tim Jr. Three years later, the Expos played their final game in Montreal and moved to Washington, D.C., beginning a turf war with the Orioles that raged for two decades. The dispute was over TV rights, but apparently it extended to the front offices, who have never worked out a trade as uneasy mid-Atlantic neighbors. Maybe the long-awaited resolution of their MASN conflict, which was finally settled in early March, will signal an end to baseball’s cold war.
Chicago Cubs: 3 million fans
Last: 2019
The Cubs kicked away a pennant in 2003, but the fans were hooked. The Cubs drew at least 3 million fans to Wrigley Field in each of the next eight seasons, and after a brief lull, they started up another four-year streak en route to a title in 2016. Then came the pandemic, and in the four seasons since, the turnstiles have clicked less often. The 2025 Cubs are off to a good start, though: They set a spring training attendance record (Grapefruit and Cactus League only) with 16,161 for a game against Seattle on March 8.
Cincinnati Reds: Home playoff victory
Last: October 6, 1995
Every MLB team has won a home playoff game since the last time the Reds pulled it off, in a 1995 division series clincher against the Dodgers. This shouldn’t be surprising, because when the Reds play in October, they tend to do their best work on the road. Three visiting teams have clinched the World Series in the Queen City (the 1939 and 1961 Yankees and the 1972 A’s), but the Reds themselves have done it only once. Their current home losing streak is six: two losses to the Braves (1995), one to the Phillies (2010) and three to the Giants (2012).
Milwaukee Brewers: Home run in first MLB at-bat
Last: Never
The names are all there, arranged neatly in nine floor-to-ceiling columns on a hallway wall of the Brewers’ spring training complex in Phoenix. Every player who made his major-league debut for the franchise is listed, from Federico Velazquez in 1969 to Isaac Collins in 2024 — with Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Gary Sheffield, Prince Fielder and other luminaries in between. And there’s one thing all those players have in common from their debut: None of them went deep in their first at-bat.
Pittsburgh Pirates: 30-game hitting streak within a season
Last: Never
Eleven different Pirates have won batting titles since 1900, including five Hall of Famers, but nobody has gotten even halfway to Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak. The Pirates are still waiting for their first 30-game streak within a season, with the longest in club history (27) belonging to Jimmy Williams, a rookie third baseman in 1899.
St. Louis Cardinals: 40-steal season
Last: Delino DeShields, 1997
Once upon a time, nobody ran like the Cardinals. From 1970-1995, when old Busch Stadium had artificial turf, the runnin’ Redbirds dashed off 25 different 40-steal seasons. They’ve played home games on grass ever since, however, and haven’t had a 40-steal season since Delino DeShields swiped 55 in 1997.
Arizona Diamondbacks: 100 career saves
Last: Never
Their expansion brothers, the Tampa Bay Rays, took care of this early by signing All-Star Roberto Hernandez before they’d even played a game. Hernandez went on to notch 101 saves for the then-Devil Rays. Other recent expansion teams have two 100-save guys apiece: Brian Fuentes and José Jiménez for the Colorado Rockies, Robb Nen and Antonio Alfonseca for the Miami Marlins. The Diamondbacks’ leader: José “Papa Grande” Valverde, with 98. He led the majors in saves in 2007, with 47, and Arizona promptly traded him to Houston.
Colorado Rockies: 5-WAR player
Last: Nolan Arenado, 2019
The Rockies won 91 games in 2018 to reach the playoffs for the second season in a row. Since then, they’ve been a combined 151 games under .500, with few individual performances to celebrate, either. The last Rockies player to collect 5 bWAR in a season was Nolan Arenado, with 7.1 in 2019. Every other team has had at least one 5-WAR season in the 2020s — but the Rockies could get there with offensive breakouts from center fielder Brenton Doyle or shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who won Gold Gloves last season at premium positions.
Los Angeles Dodgers: Consecutive World Series titles
Last: Never
Only seven franchises have ever won back-to-back World Series: The Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, A’s, Cubs, Reds and Giants. For a franchise steeped in history, then, these Dodgers have a rare chance to do something that Jackie, Sandy, Fernando and Gibby never did. And maybe they’ll hoist a trophy at home for a change — seven of the Dodgers’ eight championships (all but 1963) have been clinched at another team’s park.
San Diego Padres: 20-win season
Last: Gaylord Perry, 1978
Whatever you think of the win stat, it’s pretty cool to see a 20 in that column. And it’s not impossible, either. Before 2024, each of the previous five full seasons included at least one 20-game winner.
Across the past four decades, all but two teams have had a pitcher reach the mark: the mile-high Rockies, naturally, and the sea-level Padres — which stands to reason, given the team’s history. Since the well-traveled Gaylord Perry stopped by for a 21-6 Cy Young Award campaign in 1978, nobody has gotten to 20 in a season. In fact, no pitcher has ever won more than 100 games in a Padres uniform. The career leader, Eric Show, had 100 exactly.
San Francisco Giants: 30-homer season
Last: Barry Bonds, 2004
The Giants just invested $182 million in a free-agent shortstop who twice enjoyed 30-homer seasons for Milwaukee. Can he do it in the forbidding climes of San Francisco? The Giants’ home park is the majors’ stingiest for home runs, and the team’s single-season high across the past two decades is 29, by Brandon Belt in 2021. Godspeed, Willy Adames.
(Top photo of Garrett Crochet: Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
