To start the MLBbro season off strong, MLBbro.com featured Kyle Lewis’ new start with the Arizona Diamondbacks after being traded from the Seattle Mariners in the offseason.
After headlining “Can MLBbro Kyle Lewis Regain His NL Rookie of the Year Swagger in Arizona?”, It did not take long for Lewis to warn the baseball world about hitting the snooze button on what he can accomplish going forward…
Now that Kyle Lewis is establishing himself well in his new surroundings, his departure ends a potentially historical era in Seattle.
Lewis One Of The Original Mariners’ Black Pack
A few seasons back, the Mariners stood out as having a number of upcoming MLBbros in a day and age where MLB is noticeably lacking in Black and brown players. This subject was heightened during last season’s World Series that didn’t feature one MLBbro player on either team.
MLBbro manager Dusty Baker made it clear that this situation is unacceptable to the point of embarrassment.
“What hurts is that I don’t know how much hope that it gives some of the young African-American kids,” Baker told The Associated Press at the time “Because when I was their age, I had a bunch of guys. [Willie] Mays, [Hank] Aaron, Frank Robinson, Tommy Davis – my hero– Maury Wills. We need to do something before we lose them.”
For the first time since Jackie Robinson’s early days as a big leaguer, no U.S.-born Black players are expected to play in the World Series.
"It looks bad," Astros manager Dusty Baker said today. "But there is help on the way."
“I don’t think that’s something that baseball should be proud of,” said Baker, “It looks bad. It lets people know that it didn’t take a tear or even a decade to get to this point.”
What Happened To All The Black Talent In Seattle Mariners Organization?
In 2020, the Mariners had 10 MLBbros on their 40 man roster. This was such a big deal the four of them (Dee Gordon, J.P. Crawford, Shed Long Jr. and Kyle Lewis) sat down with broadcaster Dave Sims, an MLBbro broadcaster to discuss life in baseball as a Black man.
This time was special, something these guys mentioned in the
“We definitely don’t take this for granted. It’s probably something that’s nerve been done since the Negro Leagues. I’m proud to be a part of this. I’m proud to be playing alongside each and every one of my teammates right now. Coming up we were one of the two brothers on the team. If that, so being a part of this has been something special,” said Crawford.
Now those days are over. After having the honor of having the highest ratio of MLBbros in baseball, only J.P. Crawford is left as the only MLBbro representative. What happened to some of the others other than Kyle Lewis?
After the New York Mets traded the MLBbro pitcher to Seattle, the Mariners brought him to the main roster in September of 2019. After an uneventful 2020, His time on the field was short when he was placed on the 60-day injured list with a shoulder strain that led to the Mariners decision to shut him down.
The Mariners traded Dunn to the Cincinnati Reds in 2022.
In 2018, the New York Yankees traded Sheffield to Seattle in an offseason trade. In 2019, the melanated mound marauder struck out 37 batters in 36 innings in eight games. In 2020, Sheffield had a record of 4-3 in 10 starts with an era of 3.58.
In 2021, our MLBbro appeared in 21 games (15 starts) with a 7-8 record with an era of 6.58.
In 2022, Sheffield was designated for assignment in 2023.
Shed Long:
After coming to Seattle in a trade from the New York Yankees in 2019, Shed hit .263 with five homers in 2020. After that leg injuries derailed our MLBbro’s tenure. Surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right shin ended his 2020 season and it carried over into the 2021 season before he was released after long bouts on the injured list.
After coming over in a trade from the San Diego Padres, He played 51 games as a rookie with a hitting slash of .160/.256/.359 with eight home runs and 18 RBI. After struggling in 43 games the next season, Trammel broke his right hand in an offseason workout that sidelined him for up to two months.
He is not on the current 2023 Mariners roster.
Taijuan Walker:
This MLBbro pitcher played for the team twice. After being drafted in the 2010 MLB Draft and playing six seasons, he returned on a one-year deal in February of 2020. He was traded in August to the Mets where he went on to become one of two Bros to win more than 10 games in 2022. He signed with the Philadelphia Phillies this past offseason.
In the offseason before the 2020 season, Edwards signed a one-year deal with the team. He pitched in 5 games and collected six strikeouts before opting for free agency at the end of the season.
Declining Black MLB players on rosters bottomed out to 7.2 percent of opening rosters last year which is the lowest percentage since 1991 at 18 percent according to Richard Lapchick, the director for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida. Compared to the fact that a quarter of the Seattle Mariners roster were made of MLBbros in 2020, this could be one of the more amazing diversity achievements by an MLB team in decades.
Jordan Sheffield is having an impressive rookie season with the Colorado Rockies. The right-handed pitcher is following along in his brother’s footsteps.
His older brother, Justus, is currently in the Seattle Mariners’ minor league system, but he spent part of the 2021 season with the Mariners and spent the 2019 and 2020 season with them.
Sheffield is making the most of his opportunity with the Rockies.
The rookie has appeared in 22 games this season out of the bullpen and has a 2.82 ERA. Sheffield has thrown 22.1 innings and has struck out 16.
During the month of September he has made three appearances and has not given up a run in three combined innings of work.
In June, Sheffield went on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. But he’s made a full recovery and is back in action.
Our MLBbro had some motivation watching his brother’s path to the league.
“It just made me a little more hungry,” Jordan said of watching Justus make it to the big leagues first. “A little more motivated to get up here. I always tune into his games and love watching him perform. I always want the best for him.”
Jordan has quickly adjusted to working out of the bullpen and it’s something he enjoys doing.
“I think it just fits my personality,” he said. “I like to go out and pitch with emotion. I think it works better as a reliever.”
Throughout the season, Sheffield has shown a lot of improvement on the mound and Rockies manager Bud Black has shown a lot of trust in the rookie.
“With a rookie, you don’t want to throw him into the fire too early,” Black said during the season. “He’s definitely earning more of these types of games based on how he’s throwing the ball.”
On the mound, Sheffield features a fastball that averages 96 mph and he can come close to 100 as well.
There’s no doubt that the fastball has been his most effective pitch, but he also features a slider and a changeup.
While he has a strong command of the fastball, he’s constantly working on his secondary pitches which will make him more effective on the mound.
In his first season, Sheffield knows that he has to get better each day and there’re no days off.
“Just trying to stay focused,” he said. “Come to the field every day and be the same guy. I’m not trying to do too much. Whenever I’m out there, just compete and give it all I got.”
This brother has been grinding ever since he came into the league. In 2016, the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him in the first round of the Major League Draft.
After spending a few seasons in the Dodgers’ farm system, the Rockies selected him in the 2020 Rule Five Draft.
Now his dreams of playing in the big league have come true and as the 2021 season is coming to a close, Sheffield will continue to make a name for himself in Colorado.
If you haven’t seen this brother pitch yet, you are missing out. This guy has an electric arm.
If you love pitching, there was an exciting matchup on Saturday night in Seattle between two MLBbros who are the future of baseball in a position that is not dominated by “The Culture.”
The Cleveland Indians featured their 23-year-old right-hander Triston “T Eazy” McKenzie and the Seattle Mariners, who won the game 7-3, countered with another melanated mound marauder in southpaw Justus “Topsheff” Sheffield.
Both pitchers started in the Indians organization and are important parts of their respective rotations this season and have shown signs of brilliance and also laid some stinkers, which is a natural progression for young arms. Sheffield is just 25.
"See you in the big leagues!"
Both Triston McKenzie and Justus Sheffield got their starts in the @Indians farm system, and now they're pitching opposite of each other tonight.#OurCLEpic.twitter.com/npu0Y81eHY
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) May 16, 2021
Sheffield got the best of McKenzie in this matchup as Triston surrendered five runs in four innings and left trailing 5-0. He did strike out six batters which suggests that he had good stuff but was just missing on certain pitches.
Justus Sheffield hailing from Tullahoma, TN has baseball DNA in the blood. He is the brother of Jordan Sheffield, a right-handed pitcher with the Colorado Rockies, and is also the cousin to former MLB player Tony Sheffield.
He was in command through six innings against the Cleveland Indians lineup, allowing just two runs on five hits and striking out two.
T-Eazy Is On The Come Up
Triston is the fifth starter on what is arguably one of the best pitching rotations in baseball. The Brooklyn, NY native was drafted by the Indians in 2015. He was deemed one of the best pitching prospects by MLB Pipeline in 2019 but was unable to pitch that season due to injury.
McKenzie stands at 6’5″ 170 pounds and generated a lot of buzz in his major league debut in 2020 against the Detroit Tigers, striking out 10 batters in his first six innings.
He entered Cleveland’s record books with the second-most strikeouts in his first major league start. He finished the shortened and unprecedented 2020 MLB season with a record of 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA over 33.1 innings pitched.
This season, T Eazy is off to a slow start, with an ERA close to five. The electric stuff is there, he’s just got to learn how to put it all together. How to pitch.
He made one bad pitch to Dylan Moore in the fourth inning on Saturday, which resulted in a three-run homer.
He met a similar fate against the Chicago White Sox on May 1st, 2021. McKenzie struck out six batters and gave up only one hit, the one hit was a Grand Slam to Tim Anderson. McKenzie was pulled after two innings after he threw 57 pitches and walked four.
Justus Sheffield Puts The Clamps On Cleveland
Sheffield was the 31st pick in the first round, of the Cleveland Indians in 2015, one year before Triston McKenzie was drafted by the same organization. Justus spent time in the Yankees organization for a season but has found a home with the Seattle Mariners.
The 25-year-old stands at 5’10”, and weighs 195 lbs. He is the third man in a six-man pitching rotation that features another black hurler, Justin Dunn.
Justus had a successful rookie campaign in 2020 finishing 4-3, with a 3.58 ERA over 55.1 innings pitched. Seattle is excited about their pitcher who is finding his stride after Covid ravaged the 2020 season and hampered the development of many major leaguers.
Justus came into the season with some personal goals for the 2021 season. The goals for Topsheff were perfecting his changeup and to last six innings of every start, a goal that he reached six times out of 10 outings in 2020.
He reached that goal on Saturday night.
Baseball is known for its stats and two black starting pitchers facing each other is a rare one indeed. This isn’t the last time these two bruthas will clash. Tristan and Justus will once again have the opportunity to make the ancestors proud by putting on a show and allowing the world to see what these Black arms can do.
I can assure you that little Black boys will watch tonight’s game and see “Black Excellence” on display and know that one day, they can be a pitcher in Major League Baseball too.
MLbbro.com told you early in the season to keep an eye on the New York Mets rotation and the squad’s melanated mound marauders; Taijuan Walker and Marcus Stroman. The team from Queens is one of just two MLB rotations with two Black starting pitchers.
(Seattle Mariners pitchers Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn comprise the other Black starter tandem)
On Tuesday, both pitchers carried their whole weight in leading the Mets to a sweep of NL East rival Philadelphia.
It was exactly the kind of performance that Mets brass hoped for when they decided to bring these two potential Black aces into the fold to round out what could eventually be the best pitching staff in baseball.
Both pitchers have basically been lights out. Stroman has a 0.37 ERA and in 12.1 innings pitched he’s given up just 1 run on a homer and eight hits.
He wants all the smoke. At 5-foot-7 he’s a walking billboard for his branded HDMH slogan: “Heart Don’t Measure Height.” Let’s not forget he’s doing all this while fighting social justice causes and responding to idiots all day long on Twitter,
That heart was on full display. After getting his start cut short during a nine-pitch rainout on Sunday, instead of waiting his normal five days to start again, Stroman went Rough Ryder DMX on em’ and came back on one day’s rest to hurl 6 innings of no-run, four-hit ball, in a performance fit for framing.
He was efficient, throwing 86 pitches to lead the Mets to a 4-0 shutout win over the Phillies.
Stroman’s outing followed a spicy effort by Walker, who set the day off like Queen Latifah with the semi-auto, hurling 4.1 innings of 1-run, 3-hit ball with a whopping 8 strikeout. Yeah, he was throwing ched,
This short, but masterful outing follows Walker’s first Citifield start in which he surrendered just two runs in 6 innings. Both of Walker’s efforts ended in a no-decision, but he pitched more than well enough to win.
Walker’s a live arm that the Mets signed to shore up the rotation. At just 28 years of age and having pitched for some pretty average to bad teams in his career, there was much optimism that Walker could really turn up this season on a Mets team that has the pieces to make a lot of noise in the playoffs.
These Black Knights are what we would call X-factors for the Mets this season. How far the Mets advance will strongly depend on the performance of their bros in arms. Both are playing on the best team of their career and if they pitched to their abilities, both could easily have career campaigns. It really comes down to staying healthy.
Walker’s durability is always in question. Entering the season the 6-foot-4 heat hurler had started just 15 MLB games since 2018.
There were skeptics who suggested that Stroman was more bark than bite based on the fact that he hasn’t had a winning record since 2017 and his ERA has fluctuated dramatically. Stroman knew better and entered the season healthy, confident and anxiously waiting for a team to explode on.
The Mets already have a formidable staff with the best pitcher in the game (Jacob DeGrom) leading the way, To have two other pitchers capable of dominating at times comes in handy for the Mets, who currently have two key starters missing. Noah Syndergaard is on the shelf and No. 2 starter Carlos Carrasco is on the IL with a bad hammy.
Give it up for these brothers who continue to dismiss the myth that Black men don’t pitch…anymore.
Taijuan Walker earned every penny of his two-year, $20 million dollar deal he inked with the Mets in February. The 6-foot-4 Walker was dominant for 6 innings in his Citifield debut.
He didn’t get the decision, but his energy and quality start paced the Mets to a controversial walk-off win in their home opener.
The lights are always brighter in New York, especially when fans haven’t seen baseball live since 2019 when Walker’s teammate and fellow MLB Bro Dominic Smith hit a walk-off homer in the team’s season finale.
The 28-year-old native of Shreveport, Louisiana wasted no time as he attacked the zone from the first pitch. He threw three fastballs at 96, 96, and 97 to strike out the leadoff batter on consecutive pitches. He then fielded a comebacker and picked off Starling Marte after walking him.
You knew from the gitty that he didn’t lace up cleats this morning to mess around.
Walker went 4 ⅓ innings without allowing a hit in his first game in a Mets uniform. It was the second-longest a Mets pitcher has gone without allowing a hit in their team debut. He finished his day going six innings, striking out four and allowing four hits.
He had a 1-0 lead for a majority of the game but ended up giving up two runs in the 6th, putting him in line for the loss. His teammate Jeff McNeil hit a 9th inning home run to get Walker off the hook. The Mets ended up winning the game with a walk-off, hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.
The former 43rd pick of the 2010 draft has bounced around a few times in his young career, but the team remains excited by his potential. He began in Seattle and was sent to the Diamondbacks in 2016. After having Tommy John surgery, he ended up back with Seattle for a second time before being traded to the Blue Jays last season.
Walker became a key part of a rotation that bolstered a late Blue Jays playoff push in the American League last season. He had a 1.37 ERA in six games with Toronto striking out 25 in over 26 innings pitched, easily the best stretch of his career.
Walker is a part of only two pitching rotations with multiple black starters in the Major Leagues, the other being his former team the Seattle Mariners (Justus Sheffield & Justin Dunn).
Walker and No. 2 starter Marcus Stroman have been lights out in consecutive wins for the Mets. They have combined to go 12 innings allowing 3 runs and striking out 7.
It looks like Walker is ready to piggyback off his strong 2020 campaign and be a golden-armed force in the Mets owner’s promise to bring a World Series Championship back to the city.
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