meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball

Making Sense of April Surprises

Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball

The Athletic

Sports, Mlb, Fantasy Baseball, Baseball

4.7874 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Eno, Trevor, and DVR are full of surprises for Thursday's episode as they discuss the comebacker that disappeared in Mariners' starter Logan Gilbert's jersey, the upstart Cincinnati Reds, and Juan Soto's baffling comments on not texting with his Mets teammates during their recent road trip. The guys close out the show by highlighting three players who they didn't expect to have so much success this season: Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker, Cardinals reliever Riley O'Brien, and Padres starter Randy Vásquez.

Rundown:

:35 Logan Gilbert Makes A Ball Disappear

6:30 Counsell on “Ohtani Rule’

11:45 More Two-Way Players?

16:30 April Standings Surprises: Cincinnati Reds

25:21 Who Gets Back on Track: Red Sox, Royals, Astros, Phillies, Mets

32:43 Juan Soto’s Lack of ‘Contact’

39:55 Jordan Walker’s Fast Start

49:03 Riley O’Brien is Rolling

54:48 Randy Vásquez is Missing More Bats Than Ever

Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social

Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social

Follow Trevor on Bluesky: @iamtrevormay.bsky.social

e-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.com

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe

Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels

Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris

With: Trevor May

Editor: Jason Potere


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Today on Rates and Barrels, we discuss a few surprises in the standings and make our picks for teams that can bounce back from really slow starts.

0:07.9

And we dig into some surprising April performances, including the resurgence of Jordan Walker. Let's go. Let's go. I Well, great's Barrel.

0:26.0

It's Thursday, April 23rd.

0:27.7

Derek Van Riper, Enoceris, and Trevor May here with you.

0:30.7

Trevor, I have a question for you right off the jump.

0:34.3

Have you ever caught a baseball inside of your jersey at any phase of your life uh no uh not even

0:45.0

i'm trying to think if i ever even tried it to do it on purpose i don't think i've ever

0:48.0

executed that especially as pitching as a pitcher usually i just wore it off the off the butt that's that was

0:55.5

always the goal like that was a W for me so yeah um the chances that I fielded at a ball was it almost

1:00.7

zero so that's the only time I ever probably do it cleanly is if I caught it in my jersey frankly

1:05.8

if it just hit you or just went directly into your glove I saw a few of those I, I think I saw one of those as far back, maybe as Little League, where someone hit a liner up the middle and just went into the kid's glove. And it's like, well, it's a good thing he didn't hit him in the face because he didn't move the glove. It just went exactly what we're supposed to do. Happened it yesterday, though, to Logan Gilbert. we saw Carlos Cortez smoke a line drive off him in the first inning.

1:29.3

It went into his jersey. A little bit of confusion on the field. It's a dead ball as soon as it gets stuck to a player. That's the actual rule.

1:38.2

Bumps actually called it correctly. They have to place the runners. In that situation, the runner on third did not get home plate.

1:45.3

They later scored in the inning. But it was one of those like chaotic moments for us

1:48.9

watching where I think some people are like, why isn't that just an out? Like he technically

1:53.0

caught it, right? I mean, what was your instinct when you saw that, you know?

1:56.6

I know the rule. And I know the rule not because of anything a pitcher has ever done or anything

2:04.6

out in the field. I remember this rule because a catcher, and I think it was in a Giants game,

2:11.0

a catcher caught a foul tip, but not with his glove. And the rule is using a cap, mask, pocket, or any other uniform

2:22.1

part to secure a ball is invalid and not considered a catch. So that batter was not out because the

2:30.1

catcher did not catch the ball. He had sort of jammed it, I think, between two parts of his equipment.

2:35.7

You know, he just sort of caught it, but not with his glove.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.