Rodón, Devers, Buxton, Stanton highlight MLB opening weekend

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Three or four games in? Sounds like enough of a sample to me.

I kid, I kid. Baseball is an Iron Man, not a walk around the block. There are 150-something games to go. Only time, repetition and the heat of summer can reveal the truth.

But there are still things to glean from the first few games of the year. These games matter just like the ones in September. So here are some takeaways, overreactions and regular-amounts-of-reaction to some of the best performances and debuts across opening weekend in MLB.

CARLOS RODÓN LOOKS BETTER THAN EVER

The San Francisco Giants really know what they’re doing, huh? After a shocking, 107-win campaign that caught the entire baseball world by surprise, the Giants went out and signed Carlos Rodón, the sometimes spectacular, often injured lefty hurler formerly of the Chicago White Sox.

Once the No. 3 overall draft pick, Rodón spent years in Chicago struggling with arm troubles before breaking out in the first half of 2021. He made the All-Star team, threw a no-hitter and was in the mix for the AL Cy Young. Then the arm troubles reemerged, and Rodón threw sparingly down the stretch.

But in his first start of the season, against Miami on Saturday, Rodón looked healthy and then some. The lefty struck out 12 Marlins in five innings, allowing just a single run on a passed ball. Rodón sat comfortably in the high 90s, displaying the same heat that allowed him to dominate before the arm issues ruined his second half last season. Whether he can stay healthy throughout the summer remains to be seen, but the Giants might have gotten the steal of the offseason.

RAFAEL DEVERS A GOLD GLOVER?

This would probably require a Matt Chapman "Space Jam" situation, but there’s no question that Devers looked more nimble and confident defensively in Boston’s opening series. Red Sox manager Alex Cora spoke at length before the game Saturday about the improvements the 25-year-old third baseman has made with the glove, likening him to future Hall of Famer Adrián Beltré.

Take those comparisons with a grain of salt and pinch of manager-bias garlic powder, but Devers made a series of nifty plays at the hot corner, including a lurching snag on a 113 mph laser beam off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton. 

This is all particularly notable for two reasons.

First, Devers was one of the worst defensive third basemen in the league last year. If he has improved at all, that’s huge for Boston’s run prevention in 2022. The second reason is more about the team’s long-term plans. It appears, per an ESPN report Friday, that the Red Sox are prioritizing a Devers extension (free agent after 2023) over a Xander Bogaerts extension (free agent after this season). 

Devers is a generationally talented hitter worthy of extending even if he provides subpar defense at third or has to move to first/DH, but an uptick in his glovework would make the Red Sox more comfortable locking him up with a lengthy deal.

The "improvement" so far is just praise from his manager and my eye-test from the Yankee Stadium press box, but Devers certainly impressed in the first few games.

BYRON BUXTON IS BREAKING OUT

The Twins spent the winter capital-G "going for it." They traded for Sonny Gray, Gary Sánchez, Gio Urshela and Chris Paddack and landed the biggest free agent on the market, Carlos Correa. But the front office’s decision to push in the chips had more to do with Byron Buxton, whom the club extended before the lockout, than anyone else.

Buxton has tantalized with his talent and frustrated with his injuries. He has played more than 100 games just once in his career, but he still deserved every cent of the seven-year, $100 million extension he got from the Twins in December.

Over the weekend, he showed exactly why he’s legitimately in the conversation for "Best Baseballer Alive (When Healthy)." On Saturday, he launched the home run of the season so far, taking an elevated, 101 mph fastball from Seattle’s Andrés Muñoz and redistributing it to the third deck at Target Field. On Sunday, he dingered twice more in Minnesota’s first win of the year.

Buxton’s magnificence was not a surprise but a reminder. If he can stay healthy — which so far has been an "if" the size of U.S. Bank Stadium — he has the ability to move mountains. We’re talking another Gold Glove, a 40/40 season, an AL MVP, a 10-WAR season. The field is Buxton’s oyster. Let’s hope he can stay on it.

STEVEN KWAN FOR AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Sure, it’s just three games, but Kwan was 8-for-10 with three walks and some nice glovework in center over the weekend. The Oregon State product is a spark plug, a fire-starter and all the other clichés you can dream up about an undersized hitter with elite bat control. The dude literally had the lowest K rate in the minor leagues last season, so his contact-heavy debut is not a huge surprise. But Kwan was also easily the Guardians' best player in their series against Kansas City, racking up five hits in Sunday’s blowout win and catching the attention of casual fans across the country.

His journey to the bigs has been remarkable, and while Kwan probably won’t hit .800 forever, he’s a dynamic player who should be in the Rookie of the Year race and could be in the majors for the next decade. Hop aboard the hype train.

THE BLUE JAYS WILL BE A HELL OF A ROLLER-COASTER RIDE

Nobody allowed more runs over the weekend than the Toronto Blue Jays. Nobody had more fun over the weekend than the Toronto Blue Jays. These two seemingly incongruent facts could define Toronto’s 2022 season.

First, the good. On Friday, the Jays came back from a 7-0 deficit with a relentless and electrifying barrage of home-run power to beat Texas 10-8, sending Rogers Centre into a frenzy. It was an incredible opening salvo for Toronto and a great reminder of why this team received so much preseason hype. 

Then on Saturday, more good, as Bo Bichette launched a game-tying blast in the fifth inning before a Santiago Espinal RBI double in the sixth gave the Jays the lead. The bullpen held strong for a 4-3 win. 

Also, Rogers Centre has an unbelievably cool new video board.

Now, the bad. On Sunday, Toronto was up 6-1 in the third, Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit the longest home run of his career, and the Jays lost, with the bullpen dispensing dingers to Rangers hitters like a broken vending machine. Toronto spent a great deal of effort and money revitalizing its starting rotation over the winter but spent precious little on a mediocre bullpen. Closer Jordan Romano is dynamite, Yimi García is an adult reliever, I’m an unapologetic Trevor Richards fan, and the side-winding Adam Cimber had a superb 2021. But beyond that, it’s slim pickings. 

The Blue Jays' thrilling offense should be good enough to overcome the pitching shortcomings, but this club might give Canada a few heart attacks along the way. This is the most entertaining team in baseball right now, for reasons good and bad, and it’s not close.

GIMME MATT OLSON OVER FREDDIE FREEMAN

Olson was one of a handful of new Braves who smiled and clapped from the sideline while the members of the 2021 team received their World Series rings in a pregame ceremony Saturday. But while the hometown kid was a bystander during the ring festivities, nobody will play a bigger role in Atlanta’s attempt to repeat.

Olson has some pretty big shoes to fill, so it's a good thing he has big feet. The first baseman was 8-for-14 over the weekend, with two doubles and a home run, his first in a Braves uniform. And while there’s still a bit of lingering disappointment within the fan base about Freeman’s departure, Truist Park gave Olson a standing ovation prior to his first plate appearance Thursday.

While it’s weird to see Freeman in Dodger blue and it would have been nice to see him play out his career in Atlanta, Matt Olson might already be the better player.

HUNTER GREENE IS ALREADY ONE OF THE HARDEST-THROWING STARTERS EVER 

The single-game record for pitches thrown 99 mph or faster belongs to Noah Syndergaard, who hurled 47 of ‘em in a 2016 start. Tied for second on that list with 45 heaters 99 or harder is Hunter Greene, who did that Sunday — in his big-league debut.

The 22-year-old Californian was the second overall pick by the Reds in the 2017 MLB Draft because, well, he could throw really hard. Then he predictably had Tommy John surgery after his first minor-league season, but he somehow came back throwing even harder. On Sunday against the defending champion Braves, Greene showed the world just how stinky his cheese is, notching seven punchouts in five innings of work with just three runs allowed.

He threw five pitches faster than 101 mph, making him the first starter to do that since Jacob deGrom last June. Greene is not deGrom — at least not yet. He still needs to improve his command and his sequencing and his offspeed stuff and all the other non-velocity things that make a Cy Young winner a Cy Young winner, but the raw stuff is there. Make sure you tune in to Greene’s next start, and bring some crackers and wine to go with the cheese.

GIANCARLO STANTON COULD HIT 65 HOME RUNS

OK, maybe that’s a bit ambitious, but the Yankees' outfielder was absolutely locked in against the Red Sox on opening weekend, going 5-for-13 with two homers and three doubles. Five of those outs were strikeouts, but that’s just what Giancarlo does: swing hard, miss hard.

Since he hit 59 homers and won the NL MVP as a Marlin in 2017, Stanton hasn’t replicated the same level of dominance over a full season. He has shown it in spurts, of course — remember that outrageous, six-home-run performance in the 2020 postseason — but as a Yankee, he has been closer to borderline All-Star than MVP candidate.

The Yankees' lackluster offense last season (19th in runs scored) was more the result of secondary pieces such as DJ LeMahieu, Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres disappointing, but a fully operational Giancarlo Stanton would go a long way toward rejuvenating the lineup. It’s early, but a locked-in Stanton makes you believe in spectacular things.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.