Would the White Sox trade Liam Hendriks? How is Elly De La Cruz doing this?

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It is Elly’s world, and we’re doing our best to make sense of it. Meanwhile, we have some early-midseason MVPs and Ken explores a White-Sox-as-sellers scenario. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!

Now you make me cool

In “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes attempts to demystify an enormous hound that roams the moor, with flames coming from its fur. Is it the work of a criminal mastermind? Or is it a supernatural apparition? After just two days in the big leagues, baseball analysts are attempting to answer a similar question. One thing is for certain: Elly De La Cruz has got that dog in him.

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• In his first at-bat, he launched his first home run, a 458-foot blast that landed in the last row of Great American Ballpark. The exit velocity was 114.8 mph, the hardest ball hit by a member of the Reds this year, topping … his own double from the night before (112 mph).

• In his second at-bat, he hit a ball to the gap in right center field, and arrived at third base in just 10.83 seconds. That’s the fastest home-to-third time in the major leagues this year, and the second-fastest in the last four years.

• His top sprint speed on Tuesday’s double was 30.4 ft./sec., which is exactly the average sprint speed of league leaders Bobby Witt Jr. and Bubba Thompson. On last night’s triple, he hit a top speed of 30.9 ft./sec. That’s not the fastest bolt in the league this year (per league source, Bobby Witt Jr. has touched the 32 ft.-threshold at one point) but still, as a great man once said: great googly moogly.

• He struck out in his third and fourth at-bats, which is also not out of character — he has 333 of those in 1,041 minor-league at-bats (31.9 percent). But he still has a career batting average of .298 in the minor leagues. Basically, if he makes contact, he doesn’t get out much.

• For the second night in a row, there were comeback walk-off heroics by another young non-De-La-Cruz player. This time it was Will Benson, who hit a walk-off two-run home run — also his first in the big leagues — to give the Reds an 8-6 win in a game they had once trailed 6-2.

Things were bleak in Cincinnati just 14 months ago, but the vibes have improved. With that win, the Reds are still just 29-33, but in baseball’s version of the Grimpen Mire (the NL Central), that’s good enough for third place, just 5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.

The White Sox are only four games out of first place in the pathetic AL Central, a division currently led by a .500 club, the Twins. Even if the Sox remain on a 71-win pace, a pace, by the way, they achieved only by winning their last four games, I’m not convinced owner Jerry Reinsdorf, 87, will allow his front office to sell at the trade deadline.

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But if the White Sox ultimately conclude they are a longshot to win the Central, not to mention the World Series, their most interesting trade chip will not necessarily be right-hander Lucas Giolito, shortstop Tim Anderson or even righty Dylan Cease. Their player most in demand, if he returns to form, might be the season’s best comeback story, closer Liam Hendriks.

Think the Dodgers wouldn’t want Hendriks after blowing two straight ninth-inning leads to the Reds? How about the Rays and Rangers, whose biggest weaknesses are their bullpens? Heck, virtually every contender, even those with established closers, could use Hendriks if he is right.

Hendriks, 34, rejoined the White Sox last week, approximately six months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After undergoing chemotherapy, he told The Athletic’s James Fegan he believes he will regain his command and velocity as he works back into pitching shape.

To this point, Hendriks has pitched four times, allowing two runs in his first outing against the Angels, pitching scoreless innings on back-to-back days against the Tigers, then earning his first save despite giving up a solo homer to the Yankees’ Josh Donaldson on Monday. Per Statcast, his average four-seam fastball velocity is 95.7 mph, down from 97.6 last season.

The terms of Hendriks’ contract complicate his status as a trade candidate, but not necessarily for the worse. Hendriks is earning $14 million this season. If traded, his $15 million club option for next season would become guaranteed. However, he only would be dealt if he was pitching well, and if he was pitching well a team might not view the option price as prohibitive. Hendriks’ contract also enables him to veto trades to five clubs, the identities of which are not known.

The Aug. 1 deadline is still nearly two months away. The White Sox, if they even would be willing to sell, probably would not make such a concession until the final days of July. Hendriks, though, is a fascinating name to consider. At this point, would anyone bet against the three-time All-Star transforming himself back into a hot commodity?

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Each Team’s MVP (So Far)

It’s time for another All-30! This time, we made a case for each team’s MVP as we round out the first third of the season. Some of the entries were what you would expect (Shohei Ohtani? You don’t say.) But baseball is nothing without a few surprises.

• Philadelphia Phillies: On a team that features Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper, it’s Matt Strahm who gets the nod from Matt Gelb. He makes a compelling case, though: Strahm’s ability to chameleon between starting and relief roles has been essential as the Phils try to hang on in the NL East.

• San Francisco Giants: Before the season, I would have gone with Joey Bart, but he’s injured. The Giants’ MVP isn’t starting pitcher (Logan Webb, Alex Cobb) or an outfielder (Mike Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto, Joc Pederson, Mitch Haniger) either. Nope, it’s first baseman Lamonte Wade Jr., who leads the team in bWAR (and a number of other categories) as the Giants try to stay afloat in the NL wild-card chase.

• Cleveland Guardians: The fact that it isn’t Jose Ramirez is a surprise, but the fact that it’s not any other offensive player isn’t. Instead, two rookie pitchers — Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen — have emerged to keep Cleveland in contention in the AL Central.

The Braves waited almost three full calendar years to get Michael Soroka back from the injured list after a torn achilles’ tendon in August 2020 that was torn again before he could get back to the big leagues.

After just two starts — and nine runs allowed in 9 2/3 innings — they’ve decided to live without him again, at least for a while. He was demoted to Triple-A Gwinett, and the Braves are going to give A.J. Smith-Shawver a shot to stick in the rotation for a bit.

Atlanta is already down a few starters. Max Fried is on the injured list. So is Kyle Wright. Ian Anderson is both in the minor leagues and injured, having undergone Tommy John surgery in April.

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So for now, it’s Smith-Shawver, joining Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, Bryce Elder, and some combination of Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster. There’s hope that Wright, at least, will be back this year.

But while an injury list of this depth would have tanked lesser teams, the Braves just keep rolling. They beat the Mets 7-5 last night to maintain a three-game lead in the division over the Marlins.

Handshakes and High Fives

• Games in New York and Philadelphia were canceled when smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed the northeast in an eerie orange haze, creating hazardous breathing conditions. Both games are currently expected to be made up as doubleheaders on Thursday. According to forecasts, the smoke shouldn’t be as bad tomorrow, but isn’t expected to be fully cleared, either.

• Pete Alonso left last night’s game after being hit in the wrist with a 97 mph pitch from Charlie Morton. With the Mets already 7.5 games back in the division, the loss of the league’s top home run hitter would be a major blow.

• What, did we think an A’s move to Vegas would go off without a hitch? Yesterday’s special legislative session was a little messy.

• Baseball’s new rules have changed the game, but strikeouts are still soaring. Eno Sarris attempts to figure out why.

• Jamey Newberg takes a look at a decade of butterfly-effect moves that brought the Rangers from contenders — through a lengthy rebuild — to where they are now: leading the AL West.

• Last night, according to Jason Catania of MLB.com, Jon Gray of the Rangers became just the third pitcher in MLB history to pitch nine innings, strike out 10+, walk none, and give up just one run… and lose. The others? James Shields in 2012 and Cy Young in 1904.

• Stephen Nesbitt and I preview this weekend’s action, focusing on a matchup between the league’s top two teams: the Rangers and Rays.

(Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)

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