Sunday Notes: A Burdened Backstop No More, Ike Irish Aims to Bash in Baltimore

Ike Irish is among the more intriguing prospects currently playing in the Arizona Fall League — and not just because of a promising bat that produced a .286/.388/.528 slash line with 15 home runs and a 135 wRC+ over 343 plate appearances with High-A Frederick. Ranked seventh in the Baltimore Orioles system with a 45 FV, the 23-year-old outfielder/first baseman got a new lease on life when he moved out from behind the dish. The story behind Irish’s positional change isn’t as simple as his not possessing the requisite skills to one day catch at the highest level. He had already begun transitioning by the time the Orioles drafted him 19th overall in 2025 out of Auburn University, and one of the reasons was an issue that is clinically defined as a psycho-neuromuscular impediment affecting the execution of fine motor skills during sport performance. More on that in moment. “It was always in the back of my head,” said Irish, who is in the AFL partly to make up at-bats lost due to a torn meniscus suffered in late July. “In college, we had conversations after my sophomore year: Is catching what we really want to do? At the end of the day, I believe in my bat, and I didn’t really believe in my defense. I want my bat to perform, so I think the decision for me was a no-brainer. I play this game because I love to hit.” It reached the point where he hated to catch. Struggling to master mechanical intricacies played a part, but as he went on to explain, it wasn’t the main reason. “With catching, it never felt like I could play the game with freedom,” Irish told me. “As soon as I got away from that position, the game felt free again. Wherever they want to play me, I can just go balls to the wall, because I have the freedom.” He can now also throw a baseball without experiencing anxiety.You Aren't a FanGraphs MemberIt looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed. We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member. 1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other. 2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off. 3. Dark mode and Classic mode! 4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them. 5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects. 6. Remove the photos on the home page! 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Membership includes:✓Ad-free browsing✓Unlimited FanGraphs & RotoGraphs articles✓Historical & platoon projections✓Leaderboard & player-page stat heatmaps✓One-click data exports✓Customizable player-page dashboards✓Dark & Classic site modes✓Weekly Members-only mailbag✓FanGraphs Walk-Off, your year in review✓Optional homepage photo removal✓Gift articles to non-Members✓Full postseason coverage “I’ve dealt with — not a lot of people know this — the yips, catching, since I was a junior in high school,” Irish admitted. “Junior year I had them. Senior year I had them. Freshman year of college. They would come off and on. The stress of dealing with that… I was talking to mental performance coaches. I was doing brainspotting. I was doing everything I could to try to get rid of them. And I couldn’t. This was only when I caught. Playing the outfield or at first base, I was totally fine. It was just this mental block I had, and the game wasn’t fun anymore. “Throwing a baseball became the biggest part of my day,” he went on to say. “Now it’s, ‘OK, I can go play catch,’ whereas when I was catching it was ‘How the hell am I going to get this ball back to the pitcher?’ I mean, last year in Low-A I was throwing three-finger changeups back to the pitcher. I was throwing cutters. I was trying anything. It was awful. Now that I’ve moved on, I don’t deal with any of that anymore. The game has opened up and I can just have fun. I can go out there and hit.” ——— RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS Paddy O’Connor went 3 for 6 against George McConnell. Danny O’Connell went 9 for 14 against Preacher Rowe. Charlie O’Leary went 6 for 12 against Dolly Gray. Lefty O’Doul went 10 for 21 against Allyn Stout. Tim Ireland went 1 for 1 against Jamie Easterly. ——— Reid Easterly isn’t one of the higher-profile prospects on an Arizona Fall League roster. Unranked in the Seattle Mariners system, the 24-year-old left-hander was signed as a non-drafted free agent a year ago, and he spent this season pitching out of the bullpen in the Northwest League. His educational background is another story. In that respect, he stands out among his AFL peers. “Out of high school, I went to Yale,” Easterly explained. “My freshman year our season got cancelled because of Covid, so I graduated with an extra year of eligibility. Yale doesn’t let you go back for grad school and play baseball, so I went into the portal and transferred to Duke. I got a master’s degree there and was able to sign after that season.” Easterly’s degrees weren’t your common fare for a collegiate athlete. He double-majored in mechanical engineering and economics at the Ivy League institution, then got his advanced degree from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. While a job in the financial field could be in his post-playing-days future, might a job in a baseball front office be just as appealing? “That would be awesome,” Easterly said. “I would love that. I’ve always loved baseball, so that’s something I would be interested in, for sure. I have those degrees — whatever they might mean — so having both sides, playing and knowing the metrics, would definitely be helpful in that type of role.” As for his current endeavor, Easterly profiles as a dark horse. The Mariners were the only team that expressed interest when he finished school, and he fully understands that he lacks elite raw talent. As he put it, “I don’t throw all that hard, but I did get outs in college — I had a really good season — so it was a matter of whether anyone was going to count that as valuable enough.” Easterly went 9-3 with a 3.04 ERA over 74 innings at Duke. This past season’s ledger included going 5-1 with a 3.39 ERA over 66-and-a-third innings with High-A Everett. Repertoire-wise, his tool set is sinker, cutter, curveball, sweeper, splitter. ——— A quiz: Mike Trout (90.6) has the highest WAR in Angels franchise history. Who ranks second? (A hint: he made five All-Star teams, four with the Angels and one with another team.) The answer can be found below. ——— NEWS NOTES The finalists for the 2027 Ford C. Frick Award were announced earlier this week. Information on the 10 candidates for the prestigious honor can be found here. Early registration is now open for the 2027 SABR Analytics Conference, which will be held from March 12–14, 2027, at Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix Campus. More information can be found here. Jeoff Long, an outfielder/first baseman who went 16-for-83 while suiting up for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox across the 1963-1964 seasons, died on September 25 at age 84. The Covington, Kentucky native took Milwaukee’s Bobby Tiefenauer deep for his lone big-league tater. ——— The answer to the quiz is Chuck Finley, who amassed 46.0 WAR while pitching for the Angels from 1986-1999. Nolan Ryan ranks third with 44.8, Jim Fregosi fourth with 42.6. ——— As Eric Longenhagen stated in Friday’s Guardians-White Sox preview, “Cleveland’s pitching was the most excellent component of the team during the regular season.” Eric went on to cite how good Parker Messick has been in his first full season, then opined that Gavin Williams might be even better. Guardians GM Mike Chernoff pointed to the pair when I asked how this year’s team compares to the one that lost a Wild Card series 12 months ago — more specifically, what it could mean in terms of the postseason. “This year we’ve seen two starters emerge as really top-of-the-rotation, top-of-the-game aces,” Chernoff told me during the final week of the regular season. ”That would be Parker and Gavin. In a postseason run, that should situate us really well. It obviously helped us in the regular season, and we’re hoping it helps us in the postseason. If we can get to the ALDS, there is the extra off-day built in this year, so having two really strong starters could be a huge boost for our team.” Messick’s first October outing fell short of “huge boost,” largely because he gave up a big fly to Munetaka Murakami. The slugger’s fourth-inning two-run homer gave the ChiSox all the offense required in a 3-0 Game 1 blanking of the home side. Messick needed 87 pitches to toss four-and-a-third frames, in which he fanned six and surrendered four hits. ——— Bryan Hudson threw just six pitches in yesterday’s White Sox win, the last of them being especially important. In the bottom of the fourth frame, the 29-year-old southpaw came on to retire Brayan Rocchio to strand the bases loaded. Despite facing just the one batter, Hudson was awarded a W by the official scorer. His regular-season numbers were solid. Over 70 appearances, including nine as an opener, he logged a 3.74 ERA and a 3.29 FIP across 67-and-a-third innings. Along the way, he earned eight saves and counted five wins among his nine decisions. Back in August, I asked Hudson about his M.O. on the mound. In other words, what makes him effective? “My extension is part of it,” replied the 6-foot-8 hurler, who at 7.4-feet ranked in the 98th percentile for that attribute. “My ability to locate, and how I hide the ball, as well. I also think my fastball plays up. I’m a lower-slot guy who tries to work up in the zone with my heater.” Drafted out of high school by the Cubs in 2015, Hudson toiled in the minors until finally making his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 2023. He subsequently excelled with the Brewers in 2024, only to hit bumps in the road and ultimately be placed on waivers.The White Sox signed him off the scrap heap in August of last year. Ups and downs are commonplace in professional baseball, and that includes what can happen with a game, or even a single inning. Hudson brought that up when we spoke. “What do you do whenever everything feels off and you’re not syncing up on a given day?” he said. “I think all pitchers have one or two things they do to reset themselves. One of mine is being really stiff through my back leg to feel that weight on my backside. It helps me stay back. When things aren’t feeling the best, your mind can start going a million miles an hour, and you have to be able to control that. Having things to go back to can help you feel confident and get in sync.” ——— FOREIGN AFFAIRS The teams with the best and worst records in NPB play in the Pacific League. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are 91-47-3, a whopping 35.5 games in front of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles who are 58-83-1. The regular season comes to a close later this week, after which the Hawks will be looking to defend last year’s title. The KT Wiz have the best record in the 10-team KBO at 85-49-4, while the Kiwoom Heroes hold down the bottom at 48-88-4. The regular season is slated to end on October 12. The LG Twins are the defending campions. ——— How has Zyhir Hope changed since I first spoke to him two years ago? In terms of personality, seemingly very little. As I discovered back in October 2024, the then-teenage Los Angeles Dodgers prospect is unfailingly polite, yet a man of few words. A famous Teddy Roosevelt quote came to mind when I caught up to him earlier this week: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Hope certainly carries a big stick, which is why the Detroit Tigers acquired him in the blockbuster deal that sent Tarik Skubal to the defending world champions. A 50 FV with a No. 55 ranking on The Board, the stockily-built lefty swinger is coming off a season where he left the yard 29 time while putting up a 127 wRC+ at the Double-A level. According to the now-21-year-old, his approach to hitting is another thing that hasn’t changed. In our previous conversation he told me that he doesn’t really think about mechanics, but rather just goes up to the plate and swings. “Yes sir, I’m the same way with everything,” Hope said when reminded of his earlier words. “I’m just out here playing ball, getting my looks. For me, it’s still see-ball-hit-ball and try not to think too much.” Fair enough — if it ain’t broke, why fix it? — yet he now has two more years of professional baseball under his belt. There have to have been adjustments along the way. Right? “There are always adjustments, man,” replied Hope, who somewhat surprisingly is playing in the Fall League for a second time (our initial interview took place in the desert). “But yeah, I just continue to be me, to be athletic. I don’t really know too much about my game. I’m just out there playing my game and trying to have fun. I’m letting the game be the game.” ——— A random obscure former player snapshot: Kennie Steenstra’s MLB career comprised four relief appearances for a 1998 Chicago Cubs team that went on to lose to the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. A 12th-round pick in 1992 out of Wichita State University, the right-hander bookended his brief big-league stint with extremes, fanning the first batter he faced (Todd Hollandsworth) and surrendering a gopher to the last batter he faced (Magglio Ordonez). All told, he allowed seven hits and four runs over three-and-a-third frames, with four strikeouts. He went on to become a longtime pitching coach in the Baltimore Orioles organization. Steenestra tutored arms on down on the farm from 2005-2021, working at various levels, including Triple-A. His son Logan played at the University of Tennessee. ——— LINKS YOU’LL LIKE Baseball America’s Matt Eddy gave us park factors for all 120 full-season venues in the minors. At CBS Sports, Matt Snyder wrote about how Fernando Tatis Jr. is the engine driving the San Diego Padres, who have been baseball’s hottest team. At The Riverdale (NY) Press, Olivia Young looked at how Robert Fitts turned his fascination with Japanese baseball into an award-winning writing career. Seventy-five years ago, Bobby Thomson hit The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. MLB.com’s Michael Clair tracked down members of the Glasgow native’s extended Scottish family to get their perspectives on the famous blast. ——— RANDOM FACTS AND STATS The save became an official MLB statistic in 1969, with Bill Singer having the distinction of recording the first. That season saw 145 different pitchers credited with at least one save. This year, 257 different pitchers notched at least one save. Tarik Skubal has a 31.1% strikeout rate and a 4.5% walk rate over the past four seasons. Minnesota Twins right-hander Carlos Silva had a 1.2% walk rate over 188-and-a-third innings in 2005. He issued nine free passes across his 27 starts, never more than one in a single game. Starling Marte faced Aroldis Chapman 20 times and only made one out on a ball in play. He went 7-for-18 with a walk, a HPB, and 10 strikeouts versus the Cuban flamethrower. The Brooklyn Dodgers won their only World Series title on today’s date in 1955. Johnny Podres went the distance and Gil Hodges drove in both runs as the Walter Alston-managed club beat Casey Stengel’s New York Yankees 2-0 in Game 7. On today’s date in 1987, Frank Tanana tossed a six-hitter and Larry Herndon took Jimmy Key deep for the game’s only run as the Detroit Tigers topped the Toronto Blue Jays to capture the American League East on the final day of the season. It was the seventh straight loss by the Jays, who’d led the division by three-and-half games eight days earlier. Players born on today’s date include Bobby Scales, an infielder/outfielder who logged 34 hits while appearing in 61 games for the Chicago Cubs across the 2009-2010 seasons. A University of Michigan product, Scales subsequently spent two seasons in Japan, then served as director of player development for the Los Angeles Angels. He is now a broadcast analyst for the Detroit Tigers. Also born on today’s date was Rip Repulski, a slugging outfielder from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota who swatted 106 home runs while playing for four teams, primarily the St. Louis Cardinals, across the 1953-1961 seasons. An All-Star with the Cardinals in 1956 and a World Series-winner with the Dodgers in 1959, Repulski is one of 10 St. Cloud State University products in big-league history.