Mariners Moose Tracks, 4/28/23: Justus Sheffield, Aaron Judge, and Shohei Ohtani

The Mariners’ east coast road swing continues as we enter the weekend. Let’s kick things off with the latest from around baseball.

In Mariners news...

• Justus Sheffield has officially been cut from the organization. The left-hander was sporting an 14.04 ERA with 11.88 BB/9 in 8.1 innings in Tacoma this season.

• Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs wonders how Robbie Ray’s absence will impact the Mariners this season.
• Ahead of the M’s return to Toronto, Corey Brock and Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic reminisce about the crazy Wild Card series finale from last fall. ($)

Around the league...

• Mike Petriello introduced a new Statcast metric that can track how effective catchers are at preventing steals.
• Anthony Franco at MLB Trade Rumors dives into the struggles the Angels starting rotation is having and what the team can do about it.
• Aaron Judge exited a game against the Rangers yesterday due to hip discomfort.
• Infielder Daniel Murphy, who had previously announced his retirement three years ago, is attempting a comeback with the Independent Long Island Ducks.
• Ben Clemens at Fangraphs tries to figure out what the heck is going on with Jays starter José Berríos.
• Shohei Ohtani came up just short of becoming the first-ever player to hit for the cycle while serving as the game’s starting pitcher.
• Justice delos Santos reports that Carlos Santana’s and Andrew McCutchen’s leadership helped fuel the Pirates’ unlikely run to the top of the NL Central.