The life of a baseball wife

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There’s a good story in the Washington Post today about Ian Desmond’s wife Chelsey and their two young children and the challenges faced by wives and family members of baseball players.

It’ll likely inspire some mixed feelings in you. The Desmonds are, after all, rich, and however logistically difficult it is to keep a family together during a major league baseball season, they don’t have it tough like military families (as Ian Desmond notes) or people who have to struggle to put food on the table, often moving great distances or being away from their families for extended periods do.

But that’s not the point here. The Desmonds aren’t complaining about their lot. The story is more about relaying what it is ballplayers and their families go through to get as much quality family time they can during the season and to show how much of the burden of all of that falls on the wives given the players’ commitments. While this may not inspire sympathy or anything from you, it is an interesting look at a part of the game that we don’t often see.

Cardinals sign pitcher Miles Mikolas to 3-year, $55.75M deal

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Rhona Wise/USA TODAY Sports
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ST. LOUIS — Miles Mikolas is sticking with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The right-hander signed a three-year, $55.75 million contract on Friday that will carry through the 2025 season.

The new deal replaces a $68 million, four-year contract signed in February 2019 that covered the 2020-23 seasons and was set to pay $15.75 million this year.

Mikolas will receive a $5 million signing bonus payable July 1 and will make $18.75 million in 2023 and $16 million in each of the following two seasons. Mikolas can earn a $250,000 bonus for winning a Cy Young Award, $50,000 for All-Star election or selection or winning a Gold Glove, $100,000 for League Championship Series MVP and $150,000 for World Series MVP.

Mikolas is scheduled to make the second opening-day start of his big league career next Thursday when the Cardinals host Toronto. Mikolas went 12-13 with a 3.29 ERA last season while helping St. Louis to the NL Central title.

“Miles stands among the top pitchers in the game today, and has continued to provide a steady presence for us both in the rotation and inside the clubhouse,” St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement.

Mikolas is 45-40 with a 3.79 in 143 games with San Diego, Texas and St. Louis. He recently pitched six shutout innings in two appearances for the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic.