Jose Abreu is the seventh player ever with 14 homers in his first 40 games - MLB

White Sox rookie first baseman Jose Abreu continued his power show yesterday, smacking his 14th homer of the season. Not only does that lead all of MLB this year, Abreu is just the seventh player in baseball history with at least 14 homers through his first 40 career games.

Here’s the complete list, via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index:

Wally Joyner      15
Wally Berger      15
Albert Pujols     14
Mike Jacobs       14
Kevin Maas        14
Sam Horn          14
JOSE ABREU        14

That’s a pretty weird list, actually. Albert Pujols is amazing, Wally Berger was a great hitter in the 1930s, and Wally Joyner was a good hitter for a long time, although he never really showed a ton of power after that fast start. And then Sam Horn, Kevin Maas, and Mike Jacobs combined to hit 227 career homers.

Abreu is already 27 years old, but even then I’d certainly feel safer grouping him closer to Pujols than to, say, Maas and Jacobs. But then again once upon a time people felt the same way about Maas too.

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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.