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Box Score SP: Taj Badley - 7 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (114 pitches, 73 strikes (64% strikes)) Home Runs: None Bottom 3 WPA: Eric Orze (-0.70), Josh Bell (-0.18), Matt Wallner (-0.13) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Taj Bradley entered Wednesday's game looking to get back to his dominant ways. Bradley surrendered four monster home runs, his first of the season, last weekend against the Rays—two each to former teammates Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda. But this game was different, Bradley had control, and marched through seven innings in which he allowed two runs on just four hits and two walks, while striking out seven. Derek Shelton trusted his newfound workhorse, letting him throw more pitches than any Twins pitcher had since Kenta Maeda was chasing a no-hitter during the 2020 pandemic season. Arguably, that trust tipped over from admirably old-school to inadvisable passivity in the seventh. With the Twins nursing a 2-1 lead, Bradley gave up back-to-back doubles to left-handed batters to tie the game with two outs in the inning, already having passed 100 pitches—even though lefty Anthony Banda was warming in the pen. Banda came out in the eighth to relieve Bradley and took care of business, setting the stage for the Twins to take the lead again. A Little Life The Twins offense was virtually non-existent Tuesday night, making their Monday outburst feel a bit like a mirage. Lately, they seem unable to muster the consistency of approach and production that characterized their hot streak earlier this month. They did get something going in the fourth inning, though. Ryan Jeffers singled with one out and advanced to second on a walk by Kody Clemens. Luke Keaschall blooped a single into center, and although Jeffers couldn't score after holding up to make sure the ball fell in, both he and Clemens scored when Brooks Lee followed with a flared single of his own. Jeffers (.409 OBP) and Clemens (who got on base three times Wednesday and is hitting his stride as the team starts seeing more righty hurlers) have become quietly vital to the team's offense, especially with some of the others in the group beginning to struggle. Those two runs didn't prove decisive, but briefly, it looked like their late tally could. Another Jeffers single set the wheels in motion, and James Outman (pinch-running for the catcher) stole second base. After two strikeout, Victor Caratini pinch-hit for Matt Wallner and came up huge: The Twins threatened to score some insurance runs, too, loading the bases for Byron Buxton, but the Twins' star slugger flied out to end the frame. And a Painful Death Those insurance runs, as it turned out, were much-needed, and because they didn't get them, the Twins lost. Eric Orze couldn't find the strike zone, walking Randy Arozarena to lead off the inning. He fell behind most of the hitters he saw, and though he came back to strike out one of them, he surrendered back-to-back singles and a walk to give Seattle the lead and left Taylor Rogers in a jam, to boot. Rogers minimized the damage reasonably well, but another run scored on a sacrifice fly. The Twins went down with barely a whimper in the bottom of the ninth. What’s Next? The Twins take on the Toronto Blue Jays at home for a four-game series. The Twins will send Bailey Ober to the mound (2-1, 3.94 ERA) in Thursday's series opener, facing Toronto ace Kevin Gausman (2-1, 2.57 ERA). Postgame Interviews Coming soon. Bullpen Availability Chart View the full article

The Milwaukee Brewers are losing a key member of their bullpen. Left-handed reliever Angel Zerpa was placed on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with left forearm tightness. Left-handed reliever Brian Fitzpatrick had his contract selected from Triple-A Nashville and will be making his MLB debut. The Brewers had an open spot following outfielder Luis Matos being designated for assignment. Following a strong performance for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, Zerpa emerged as another late-inning weapon out of the Brewers' bullpen. He started the season with four scoreless outings, but has allowed runs in six of his last eight appearances for a 6.39 ERA in 12 games. In his most recent outing, Saturday vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates, he allowed three runs (one earned) on one hit and a walk with a strikeout in two-thirds of an inning. It was the third consecutive outing Zerpa allowed a run. Fitzpatrick was a 10th-round selection by the Brewers in the 2022 draft out of Rutgers. In 10 appearances at Nashville this year, Fitzpatrick had a 1.74 ERA with two walks and 11 strikeouts in 10⅓ innings. In his five minor-league seasons, Fitzpatrick has appeared in 81 games, including 15 starts, and posted a 3.49 ERA with 3.6 walks and 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings. The Brewers also formally sent outfielder Jackson Chourio and first baseman Andrew Vaughn to Nashville to begin their rehab assignments. Also, Matos went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Nashville. View the full article

I spent a lot of time this offseason thinking about the players who were supposed to make the Toronto Blue Jays' Opening Day roster. Here at Jays Centre, we put out roster predictions. We wrote about the rotation, the bullpen, the lineup, and the bench, considering projected performance, positional logjams, and possible platoons. We wrote about guys like Eric Lauer, Davis Schneider, and Nathan Lukes until there was absolutely nothing left to say. That's what the offseason is for. Then the season started, and, well... fans plan. The baseball gods laugh. You don't need to know much about baseball to know it takes more than 26 guys to get through a season. At least one player you'd never even heard of in March will have made an impact for your favourite team before October. Right now, the Blue Jays have six five (I started this before Eloy Jiménez was DFA'd) players on their active roster who weren't around on Opening Day, not including Trey Yesavage, who returned from the injured list on Tuesday. Since we didn't spend much, if any, time thinking about these players over the winter, I thought it would be a good idea to give them all a little attention right now. Starting with the pitchers (I'll get to the hitters tomorrow), let's take a quick look at what each of them has done for Toronto in 2026. Patrick Corbin, SP 2026 Stats: 4 GS, 19.1 IP, 3.72 ERA, 16 K, 6 BB, 2 HR Signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Blue Jays on April 3, shortly after Cody Ponce tore his ACL. Recalled from the Dunedin Blue Jays on April 7. Patrick Corbin has been everything the Blue Jays could have hoped for (and more). The 36-year-old signed with Toronto on April 3, and despite missing spring training, he was already pitching for the major league team a week later. The rubber-armed veteran has since thrown 19.1 innings over four starts, and the team is 3-1 in his outings. The Jays signed Corbin out of desperation for innings, and so far, the lefty has delivered with quality on top of quantity. He's been so steady that Eric Lauer is now the likely candidate to move to the bullpen when José Berríos returns from the IL. None of this is to say Corbin will stick in Toronto's rotation all year. We're still talking about a guy with a 5.47 ERA and a 5.65 xERA from 2021-25 (and a 5.84 xERA in 2026). Ideally, he gets bumped out for a healthy Shane Bieber before long. However, that doesn't take away from what Corbin has done for the Jays to this point, and it's nice to know that for as long as they need him, he'll be there. Joe Mantiply, RP 2026 Stats: 9 G, 10.2 IP, 3.38 ERA, 15 K, 3 BB, 1 HR Re-signed with the Blue Jays on a minor league contract on March 3. Selected to the roster when Brendon Little was optioned to Triple-A. From 2021-24, Joe Mantiply made 236 appearances for the Diamondbacks with a 3.63 ERA, a 3.49 xERA, and 3.2 fWAR. Yet, amidst a disastrous 2025, he found himself left on the scrap heap, and the Blue Jays were able to pick him up for nothing. So far in 2026, the lefty looks like his old self. Wait, scratch that. He looks better. Yes, it's early – really early – but Mantiply's stuff looks great. He has struck out one-third of the batters he's faced and induced grounders on more than half the balls his opponents have hit into play. If he keeps pitching this well, he has a good case to stick around even if another lefty (i.e., Lauer or Corbin) eventually moves to the bullpen. That's the optimistic take. As much as I want to focus on the positives, I need to point out that John Schneider has largely limited Mantiply to lower-leverage opportunities as a lefty specialist. The realist in me knows that the 35-year-old soft-tosser will remain on the roster bubble until he proves he can hold his own against opposite-handed hitters with the game on the line. The Others These four pitchers weren't on the Blue Jays' Opening Day roster, nor are they currently on the team's active roster. They did, however, spend time with the big league club at some point this year. Lazaro Estrada: 1 G, 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K (15-day IL, shoulder impingement) Josh Fleming: 1 G, 3.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 K (DFA'd, re-signed to new minor league deal, assigned to Triple-A Buffalo) Chase Lee: 1 G, 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 K (Optioned to Triple-A Buffalo) Austin Voth: 1 G, 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 K (DFA'd, re-signed to new minor league deal, assigned to Triple-A Buffalo) View the full article

The Toronto Blue Jays are getting healthier. A day after welcoming back Trey Yesavage, the Blue Jays announced that George Springer has been activated off the 10-day injured list. While Springer will not be in the starting lineup during the Blue Jays’ series finale against the Boston Red Sox, he will be available off the bench. Springer originally fractured his left big toe on April 11 after following a pitch off his foot. The 36-year-old exited the contest and has missed the past 15 games after being placed on the IL on April 12. Through 14 games, Springer is batting .185 with two home runs and six RBIs. During his absence, the Blue Jays have gone 7-8, and have been rotating Myles Straw, Nathan Lukes, and Ernie Clement through the leadoff spot. In a corresponding move, the Blue Jays designated Eloy Jiménez for assignment. The 29-year-old appeared in 12 games with the Blue Jays, batting .290 with three RBIs and a .343 on-base percentage. With Springer set to return to the DH role, and Jiménez offering no real positional flexibility, the Blue Jays were forced to make this move. First pitch on Wednesday is set for 3:07 p.m. at the Rogers Centre. View the full article

The Cubs' pitching depth has been annihilated by injuries. The bullpen has lost its projected closer and top three setup options. Cade Horton is done for the year, and Justin Steele just had a setback. The rotation in Iowa is so thin that they only have one traditional starter. This isn't luck. This is a risky plan gone awry. Let's look at the injuries one by one. You'll see the common thread: not randomness, but identifiable durability concerns. Cade Horton: Elbow; previous Tommy John surgery and shoulder issues Caleb Thielbar: Hamstring; 39 years old Hunter Harvey: Tricepts; pitched 15 innings combined the past two years Daniel Palencia: Lat strain; battled shoulder issues last year and throws a million miles an hour Ethan Roberts: Attacked by a falling vent; is not rich enough to have others do routine housework or to buy fancy no-slice vents Riley Martin: Elbow inflammation; is a pitcher Phil Maton: Knee, also older pitcher (now back on the roster) Matthew Boyd: Bicep strain; has been hurt more than healthy in career spanning over a decade (now back on the roster) Let's look at the bullpen first. Relying on two pitchers over age 35 as your high-leverage adds is always going to carry added risk. Their arms are sound, but the aches and pains and strains come fast and furious as you age. With Maton's knee and Thielbar's hamstring, this struck. Soft tissue and joint injuries become more common for older players. Added to the risk inherent in the pitchers' arms, this was always a gamble. The younger pitchers were also risky. Any contribution by Harvey was always going to be a bonus; that's why spending so much on him felt peculiar in the first place. Palencia is battling recurring shoulder issues, and even top-100 prospect Jaxon Wiggins is injured, taking away a possibility for help. Jed Hoyer tried to build a bullpen, but each player took a significant durability concern into the season. The Cubs put a huge amount of faith in Horton this year. That, too, was always a gamble. Horton came into his pro career having pitched 53 2/3 innings in college and coming off Tommy John surgery. He was then babied through a year in the minors, averaging barely four innings per start, only to injure his shoulder the next year. Horton is a prime example of the axiom that the best predictor of future injury is past injury, particularly when the injuries are all to the same pitching arm. The team babied him again in late 2025, and he still went down, again. The rest of the rotation has a similar risk. Edward Cabrera has been injured for parts of every year of his career. Boyd is 35 and has his own injury demons to counter. Colin Rea is 35, and Javier Assad had a lost season last year with an oblique issue. Shota Imanaga had a hamstring issue last year. Jameson Taillon had a calf strain and a groin strain. The Cubs didn't spend on Dylan Cease, who cost a premium because he never misses a start. Instead, they chose to spread their resources more evenly (and, of course, to spend less than the Blue Jays are spending on their roster, overall). This could work if arms are available to call up, but to this point, there are no reliable options in the minor leagues. Instead, they now have a cheaper but thinner rotation, and it's backfired. They'll have to spend either money or farm-system talent (the latter, at least, being in short supply at the moment) to reinforce this stuff before the trade deadline. This can all still work, given the Cubs' elite defense and deep offense. The Cubs should remain in contention this summer. But against good teams, both in the regular season and the playoffs, pitching reigns supreme. The Cubs, at this point, are lacking in that department, with few internal options to supplement. It's probably more a failure of the scouting and development side than anything else, but that's Hoyer's responsibility, just as his choices with regard to trades and free agency are. View the full article

The Boston Red Sox will be without their ace for a while. Left-handed starter Garrett Crochet went on the 15-day injured list Wednesday due to inflammation in his left shoulder. Third baseman-outfielder Nate Eaton was called up from Triple-A Worcester to take Crochet's roster spot. Crochet had been slated to start Friday, with left-hander Jake Bennett a likely candidate. Crochet hadn't displayed the same form that led to his brilliant 2025 season, when he finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting and went 18-5 with a 2.89 FIP with an 5.7% walk rate and 31.3% strikeout rate, leading MLB with 255 strikeouts. In six starts this year, Crochet had a 4.33 FIP and 6.30 ERA, having allowed five runs twice and 11 in another. He has a 8% walk rate and 26.8% strikeout rate. Surprisingly, this move comes after perhaps his best start of the season. In Saturday's 17-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, Crochet went six shutout innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out seven. Eaton played in 41 games for the Red Sox last year, putting up a .296/.348/.383 slash line with one homer, four RBIs and nine stolen bases. In 27 games for Worcester this year, Eaton's slash line is .292/.373/.458 with three homers, 12 RBIs and six stolen bases. View the full article

To say the beginning of the season has been an absolute disaster for Brayan Bello could almost be considered an understatement. The 26-year old righty was hoping to build off a solid 2025 while positioning himself as a crucial piece of the Boston Red Sox’s rotation behind Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suarez. Unfortunately for him, he’s currently sitting on a 9.00 ERA after his blow-up start against the Orioles with a measly 13.0% strikeout rate to go along with an 11.3% walk percentage. His FIP has shot up to 8.27 to pair with a -0.6 fWAR. As a long time Bello Believer (trademark pending), I wanted to take a look under the hood and see if we could explain what’s going on with the young, former Opening Day starter. Maybe the most glaring thing is that Bello has all but scrapped his four-seam fastball. While it was never a pitch he favored, it’s taken a significant step back behind his other options, including a new curveball, so far in 2026. In 2025, he threw the four-seamer 15% of the time and averaged 95.1 MPH on it. Now, that percentage has dipped to 3% and it’s lost some gas at 93.7 MPH. This could be, in part, due to pitching coach Andrew Bailey’s preferred use of off-speed and breaking pitches, but the last time that happened in 2024 Bello was vocal about reintroducing the pitch back into his mix and it helped to turn his season around. From the outside looking in, it seems more like Bello no longer trusts the pitch and that has taken away a lot of his grip-it-and-rip-it style of pitching. That style though, is what his career has been built on. He’s been at his best when he just pitches. Now, he seems to be trying to nibble on the edges of the plate too much and he’s being crushed as a result. That’s not the only reason for concern, though. Bello has raised his arm angle a staggering 10 degrees, from 33 degrees in 2025 to 43 degrees this season. If you compare pictures or videos from previous seasons to now, it’s fairly noticeable. While there are merits to raising the arm slot, none of them have really panned out for Bello. It is likely what has contributed most to his massive uptick in generating whiffs, up from 20.1% last season to 31.6% now, but it’s also leaving him vulnerable to his sinker playing a lot higher in the zone than intended. We saw the results of that against the Orioles, when Adley Rutschman took a 95 mph sinker that hung out high and inside to deep right field. To be fair, Bello gave up home runs on his cutter and four-seam fastball as well, but the sinker got crushed all night because it failed to sink at all. That flat action on all of his pitches is a direct result of his raised arm angle as well. While the raised arm slot would work, or should work, for a four-seam fastball because the angle causes it to ride more, it has the opposite impact on the sinker. As we know, Bello is a sinker-heavy pitcher so such a drastic, upward change in his arm angle makes the pitch less effective. It also takes the sweeping motion away from his sweeper and forces him to rely on that new curveball as a snappier breaking ball. We can see an obvious difference if we look at his movement profiles from 2025 and 2026 side-by-side. His changeup and sinker are living in the same zone again this season, but when the velocity is down on the sinker, almost a full mile per hour from 95.3 to 94.4, then the pitches don’t play off each other nearly as well as they did last season. His four-seamer gave hitters a different look last season but now, when he does throw it, it’s cheating into the same movement profile as his sinker. Flattening out his arm angle could do wonders for him, and there’s been some tinkering from start to start recently, but we’ve yet to see it pay any true dividends. Also contributing to the issue is that Bello has lost spin rates on each of his pitches, and some have a fairly significant drop-off. His sinker is down from 2,121 RPM to 2,036 RPM, his cutter from 2,479 RPM to 2,333 RPM, the four-seamer from 2,161 RPM to 2,056 RPM, the sweeper from 2,476 RPM to 2,335 RPM, and his changeup is down from 1,842 RPM to 1,696 RPM. Yes, he’s working with a much smaller sample size so far this season, but the decrease in revolutions per minute is concerning. That spin allows the ball to break how it’s supposed to. It helps aid in the “ride” the four-seam is supposed to have and is what forces a sinker to dive as it’s reaching the plate so the hitter swings over the top of it. Now though, a lot of his pitches are living in the same RPM realm and it’s causing them to bleed into one another as they approach the plate. The sweeping action is less on his sweeper, down from 9.9” of glove-side break to 7.2” of glove-side break, and his cutter is almost running completely flat in 2026 as it has dropped from 0.9” of glove-side break to a measly 0.2”. Without the spin on each pitch, likely due to the increased arm slot, Bello goes from a groundball-inducing sinkerballer to someone who can't aggressively attack the bottom of the zone. This makes every other pitch in his arsenal far less effective as a result. I won’t go so far as to say that the Brayan Bello we got in the second half of 2024 and most of 2025 is gone, but it’s looking like that version of him is very lost right now. Might he benefit from a stint in Worcester to get his mechanics back on track> If the rotation were completely healthy, that’d be an easy enough decision. With Johan Oviedo on the 60-day IL and Sonny Gray on the 15-day IL, though, it’s a bit easier said than done. Once Gray comes back (Alex Cora gave a positive update on him before being ousted), then a much tougher conversation is likely going to happen than what happened on the mound during Bello’s start. Rookie Payton Tolle looked absolutely dominant against the Yankees in his season debut. He was electric and brought an energy to the team that they’ve needed since the season started. Perhaps he (and fellow rookie Connelly Early) can keep pitching well enough to buy Bello a little time to get his A-game back. View the full article

Riley Quick came with his fair share of question marks when the Twins drafted him last summer, but his early performance has been otherworldly. It's too early to say definitely, but the Twins may have something special here. View the full article

Francisco Lindor has been at the center of reported teammate conflicts during his time with the New York Mets, most notably with Jeff McNeil and Juan Soto. Lindor and his teammates have consistently downplayed them as minor disagreements fueled by the stresses of losing seasons. During the 2026 off-season, the Mets cleaned house with hopes these issues were gone and the team would excel, but so far the Mets have not met expectations, which leads to the question of whether Lindor is the leader the Mets clubhouse needs? View the full article

Asbel Gonzalez homered in a 3-for-4 night with three RBI as Quad Cities pounded Wisconsin 14-7, with Blake Mitchell adding a homer and Emmanuel Reyes earning the win over five innings. Columbia fell 7-6 in a walk-off, with Josh Hammond's two-run double building a lead the bullpen could not hold. Omaha lost 5-1 to Louisville despite Aaron Sanchez's five strong innings, with Kameron Misner's RBI double providing the lone run. Northwest Arkansas was postponed. Royals Transactions Kansas City Royals signed free agent LHP Anthony Gose to a minor league contract. Kansas City Royals recalled RHP Luinder Avila from Omaha Storm Chasers. Kansas City Royals optioned RHP Eli Morgan to Omaha Storm Chasers. Misner Double Provides Omaha's Only Run In 5-1 Loss Aaron Sanchez gave the Storm Chasers five innings on the mound, allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out four and walking one in a 5-1 loss to Louisville. Two hits with two outs in the third inning, an RBI single and an RBI double, gave the Bats a 2-1 lead they never relinquished. Omaha had jumped on top in the bottom of the first. Tyler Tolbert led off with a single, advanced on a groundout, and scored on Kameron Misner's RBI double for a 1-0 lead. The lineup never threatened again, finishing with four hits and stranding only four runners. Out of the bullpen, Jose Cuas covered two innings and gave up only a solo home run while striking out three. Steven Cruz worked one inning and allowed three hits and two earned runs. Helcris Olivárez closed the night with a scoreless inning, two walks, and a strikeout. Misner went 1-for-4 with the run-scoring double. Drew Waters and Luca Tresh added singles, while Tolbert reached and scored from the leadoff spot. Gavin Cross drew a walk. Beyond Misner's first-inning extra-base hit, Omaha could not move another runner into scoring position. Louisville padded the lead with a sixth-inning solo home run and a two-run single in the eighth to push the margin to four. Player AB R H RBI BB K Tyler Tolbert (2B) 4 1 1 0 0 0 John Rave (CF) 4 0 0 0 0 1 Kameron Misner (DH) 4 0 1 1 0 0 Drew Waters (RF) 4 0 1 0 0 1 Luca Tresh (C) 4 0 1 0 0 2 Josh Rojas (3B) 3 0 0 0 0 0 Abraham Toro (1B) 3 0 0 0 0 0 Gavin Cross (LF) 2 0 0 0 1 1 Dustin Dickerson (SS) 3 0 0 0 0 3 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Aaron Sanchez (L) 5 5 2 2 1 4 0 Jose Cuas 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 Steven Cruz 1 3 2 2 0 0 0 Helcris Olivárez 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 Northwest Arkansas: Postponed The Naturals' game was postponed. Gonzalez Homer And Three RBI Power Bandits' 14-7 Romp At Wisconsin Asbel Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI as the Quad Cities River Bandits ran past the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 14-7. Gonzalez delivered run-scoring singles in the fourth and fifth innings, then capped his night with a solo home run to left center in the seventh. Blake Mitchell added a two-run home run in the fifth and finished 1-for-4 with two RBI, three runs scored, and a walk. Emmanuel Reyes earned the win with five innings of work, surrendering two hits and one earned run while striking out three and walking two. Jacob Widener walked four and gave up two earned runs without finishing the sixth. L.P. Langevin steadied things with 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief, four strikeouts, and one walk. Ryan Ure was charged with four runs without recording an out in the eighth, allowing four hits and a walk. Dash Albus closed with two scoreless innings, three strikeouts, and one walk. The Bandits broke the game open in the fifth, scoring four runs to take a 10-1 lead. Gonzalez's two-run single put it at 8-1, and Mitchell followed with a two-run home run. Luke Pelzer drove in four on an RBI groundout in the third, a two-run single in the fourth, and a ninth-inning sacrifice fly. Nolan Sailors reached four times from the leadoff spot with a triple and three walks. Derlin Figueroa added a double, two hits, two runs scored, and an RBI. Quad Cities collected 13 hits and stranded 10 runners. Player AB R H RBI BB K Nolan Sailors (RF) 3 2 1 0 3 2 Asbel Gonzalez (CF) 4 3 3 3 1 1 Blake Mitchell (DH) 4 3 1 2 1 3 Ramon Ramirez (C) 4 1 2 0 2 0 Luke Pelzer (LF) 4 1 1 4 1 1 Austin Charles (SS) 6 1 1 0 0 1 Derlin Figueroa (3B) 4 2 2 1 1 1 Jose Cerice (1B) 5 0 1 1 0 1 Tyriq Kemp (2B) 4 1 1 1 1 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Emmanuel Reyes (W) 5 2 1 1 2 3 0 Jacob Widener 0 1/3 0 2 2 4 1 0 L.P. Langevin 1 2/3 0 0 0 1 4 0 Ryan Ure 0 4 4 4 1 0 0 Dash Albus 2 0 0 0 1 3 0 Hammond Double Wasted As Fireflies Fall 7-6 In Walk-Off The Columbia Fireflies took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but a four-run rally over the next two frames sent Myrtle Beach to a 7-6 walk-off victory. Columbia had pushed across four runs in the top of the seventh, two on a Pelicans throwing error and two more on Josh Hammond's run-scoring double, to overturn a one-run deficit and take command. The lead did not last. In the home seventh, Jhon Reyes gave up two hits, walked three, and allowed three earned runs as the Pelicans tied the game at six on a two-run single. Brandon Herbold yielded the eventual winner an inning later on a one-out double that scored a runner from first. Jordan Woods opened with four innings of three-hit work, surrendering two earned runs on a pair of solo home runs in the second and striking out six. Randy Ramnarace allowed one earned run on a fifth-inning solo home run across two innings, walking four. Reyes was charged with three earned runs over his one inning. Herbold took the loss with one inning, two hits, two walks, two strikeouts, and one earned run. Hammond finished 1-for-4 with two RBI and a walk. Henry Ramos went 1-for-5 from the leadoff spot, scoring twice. Hyungchan Um drove in a run with a third-inning single. Daniel Lopez reached three times with a double, a walk, and a stolen base. Roni Cabrera added a double. Columbia stranded eight runners. Player AB R H RBI BB K Henry Ramos (LF) 5 2 1 0 0 1 Sean Gamble (CF) 4 1 0 0 0 2 Josh Hammond (SS) 4 0 1 2 1 1 Hyungchan Um (C) 4 0 1 1 0 3 Yandel Ricardo (2B) 5 0 0 0 0 1 JC Vanek (1B) 3 0 1 0 1 1 Stone Russell (3B) 4 0 1 0 0 1 Roni Cabrera (DH) 3 1 1 0 1 0 Daniel Lopez (RF) 3 2 2 0 1 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Jordan Woods 4 3 2 2 0 6 2 Randy Ramnarace 2 1 1 1 4 3 1 Jhon Reyes 1 2 3 3 3 1 0 Brandon Herbold (L) 1 2 1 1 2 2 0 Top-20 Prospect Performance Carter Jensen: DNP Blake Mitchell: 1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K, 3 R David Shields: DNP Kendry Chourio: DNP Ben Kudrna: DNP Sean Gamble: 0-for-4, 2 K, 1 R Josh Hammond: 1-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K Ramon Ramirez: 2-for-4, 2 BB, 1 R Drew Beam: DNP Asbel Gonzalez: 3-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 3 R Yandel Ricardo: 0-for-5, 1 K Felix Arronde: DNP Luinder Avila: DNP Daniel Vazquez: DNP Steven Zobac: DNP Carson Roccaforte: DNP Blake Wolters: DNP Michael Lombardi: DNP Warren Calcaño: DNP Frank Mozzicato: DNP View the full article

Stats in this article were updated prior to games on April 27. The question being asked by the Blue Jays as April turns to May isn’t whether Brendon Little can find the strike zone, it’s whether the organization realistically has a place for him anymore. Buffalo has done exactly what a Triple-A assignment is supposed to do for a broken reliever: It slowed the world down and stripped away the daily urgency of the major league bullpen carousel. Through eight games and 8.0 innings with the Bisons, Little has been statistically perfect where it counts most, posting a 4-0 record and a 0.00 ERA with 13 strikeouts. On paper, it is the "come and get me" performance fans expected. But the front office isn't just looking at the zeroes on the scoreboard. They’re looking at why those numbers didn't materialize with the big league squad. Little isn't a prospect anymore. At 29, the book on him is a manual on how to hit him. The Blue Jays did not option him lightly on April 5. They did it because the same problems that began in 2025 recreated themselves almost immediately in 2026. In his brief major league stint this year, the sinker didn't sink. It leaked back toward the middle of the plate. Statcast data from the Chicago series wasn’t great. His hard-hit rate was north of 50 percent, and his expected ERA over 7.00. When batters don’t bite on the knuckle curve, Little is forced to challenge with a fastball that, currently, is a magnet for barrels. Thirteen strikeouts in eight innings is dominant, sure, but the 1.25 WHIP in Buffalo tells a different story. He is still playing with fire. In Triple A, you can get away with a curveball that starts in the zone and tumbles out. Minor league hitters tend to flail. At the major league level, batters simply won’t offer at it. To understand why the Jays aren't rushing to call Little back, you just have to check fellow southpaw Joe Mantiply’s stat line so far. While Little dominates Triple-A hitters, Mantiply is providing the predictability the Jays need and crave. In 9 games at the MLB level this season, Mantiply has posted a 3.38 ERA over 10.2 innings with 15 strikeouts and a 1.22 WHIP. Mantiply’s two most recent outings, 1.2 scoreless innings against Cleveland on April 24 and another scoreless frame against Boston on April 27, are exactly the kind of stabilizing performances Little failed to provide during his difficult first week in Toronto, in which he allowed 10 earned runs in 3.2 innings. The path back for Little will get even narrower as more pitchers return from the injured list. Trey Yesavage’s return on Tuesday was initially set to push Eric Lauer back to the bullpen, until the Jays placed Max Scherzer on the IL. Lauer's rotation spot seems safe for now, but likely not forever. Lauer has been struggling a bit as a starter this season, posting a 6.75 ERA and 1.54 WHIP over five games. However, the club is banking on his 2025 success. He excelled as a reliever last season, particularly in September. His ERA over that final month was 3.00. If Lauer can be Toronto's left-handed innings eater in the 'pen, the structural need for Little will vanish. The roster math is even colder. Little has one minor league option year left. With the bullpen getting healthy and teams starting to contemplate the trade deadline, the Jays need predictability. His remaining years of team control make him an asset (he's eligible for arbitration through 2030), but it also makes him the path of least resistance when a roster spot is needed for a fresh arm. For Little to force his way back, he needs to do more than post zeroes against Triple-A hitters. He needs to prove he can finish righties without relying on a sinker they have already timed. Until the quality of contact metrics catch up to the strikeout totals, he remains a depth piece, valuable for an injury crisis, but no longer a pillar of the late-inning plan. He doesn't just need to be successful in Buffalo, he needs to be different. The internal debate regarding Little is not merely about a singular performance or a single missed location, but the makeup of the Jays’ bullpen. For a team that struggled with consistency in the early weeks of 2026, the arrival of stability is a welcome shift. Little’s performance in Buffalo is a testament to his resilience and stuff, yet it simultaneously highlights the ceiling he faces within the team's current roster setup. The team has clearly prioritized the reliability of Mantiply. His game is less about eye-popping strikeout numbers and more about pitch efficiency and tactical command. The Jays also have Mason Fluharty if they’re looking for someone to strike out the side every time they take the mound. Little is no longer a work in progress. At this stage, he is expected to be a finished product. Every pitch thrown, whether in the International League or the American League, is a data point in the ongoing assessment of his viability as a big league contributor. The Blue Jays' front office must be evaluating whether they can trust him to execute his game plan, or if they are simply hoping that he might defy the evidence of his own recent track record. There are just as many examples of pitchers who have lost their “stuff” to never find it as there are pitchers who found it again. Ultimately, the decision to keep Little in Triple A is not about his potential, but a reflection of the team’s current reality. His path back is not paved with pure statistical dominance against competition that is less equipped to punish his mistakes. Instead, it is a path that requires him to demonstrate an understanding of why his previous attempts failed and to make the necessary adjustments to prevent those same patterns from recurring. Until such time that the "eye test" matches the "stat sheet" in a way that suggests a return to his former confident self, he will continue to serve as the organization's high-ceiling depth piece. It is simply the business of baseball, where teams are constantly asking, what have you done for me lately? As May approaches, the spotlight on Little will intensify within the organization. His results and performance will need to speak for themselves. He needs to find the necessary adjustments to get back to the pitcher he was. Otherwise, his future might not be in a Jays uniform. View the full article

Syracuse pounded out 11 hits in a 10-4 rout of Lehigh Valley, with Cristian Pache and A.J. Ewing each going 3-for-4 and Christian Arroyo crushing a three-run homer in the first. Carlos Guzman earned the win with two and two-thirds scoreless innings. Binghamton was held hitless in a 6-0 shutout at New Hampshire. Brooklyn fell 6-2 at home to Frederick, with Antonio Jimenez stealing a base and Gregori Louis fanning one in a scoreless ninth. Mets Transactions New York Mets sent RHP Joey Gerber on a rehab assignment to Syracuse Mets. New York Mets placed RHP Kodai Senga on the 15-day injured list retroactive to April 27, 2026. Lumbar spine inflammation. New York Mets recalled RHP Christian Scott from Syracuse Mets. Arroyo's First-Inning Blast Powers Syracuse Past Lehigh Valley Syracuse jumped on Lehigh Valley early and never looked back, rolling to a 10-4 win behind an attack that produced 11 hits and three home runs. The Mets set the tone in the bottom of the first, when A.J. Ewing tripled to lead off, Nick Morabito reached on a hit-by-pitch, and Christian Arroyo drove a three-run homer to center field that staked Syracuse to a 3-0 lead. The IronPigs answered with a pair in the second and chipped away in the third and fourth, but Syracuse responded with single tallies in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to keep the lead. Starter Carlos Guzman set the tone on the mound, working two and two-thirds innings in which he allowed one hit, no runs, and one walk while striking out two to earn the win. Brandon Waddell took the longest turn but was tagged for three earned runs on five hits over three and one-third innings, surrendering a solo home run, walking one, and striking out three. Anderson Severino and Daniel Duarte finished the job with a clean inning apiece, fanning two between them. Cristian Pache stamped the night with a 3-for-4, three-run, one-RBI line that included a solo home run, while Ewing finished 3-for-4 with a double, a triple, two RBI, two runs scored, and a walk. Ryan Clifford added a solo homer and two RBI. Syracuse blew it open in the eighth on a two-run double by Ewing that scored Pache and Ben Rortvedt. Syracuse Hitting Player AB R H RBI BB K A.J. Ewing 4 2 3 2 1 0 Nick Morabito 2 1 0 0 2 0 Ryan Clifford 5 1 1 2 0 2 Christian Arroyo 4 1 2 3 0 1 Ji Hwan Bae 4 0 0 0 0 1 Vidal Bruján 4 0 1 0 0 0 Cristian Pache 4 3 3 1 0 0 Ben Rortvedt 3 1 1 0 1 0 Yonny Hernández 2 1 0 1 0 1 Syracuse Pitching Player IP H R ER BB K HR Carlos Guzman (W) 2 2/3 1 0 0 1 2 0 Joey Gerber 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 Brandon Waddell 3 1/3 5 4 3 1 3 1 Anderson Severino 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 Daniel Duarte 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Binghamton Held Hitless In Loss At New Hampshire Binghamton's bats were silenced in a 6-0 no-hitter at New Hampshire, with the Rumble Ponies failing to record a single hit while drawing six walks and stranding 10 runners. The Fisher Cats broke a scoreless game open in the bottom of the fourth, when starter Zach Thornton surrendered five hits and a walk that produced four runs, including a two-run double that put the home club ahead for good. Binghamton's best chance to that point had come in the top of the fourth, when Eli Serrano III, Jacob Reimer, and Chris Suero drew consecutive walks to load the bases with one out, only for Jose Ramos to fly out and Kevin Parada to strike out swinging. Thornton was tagged with the loss after four and two-thirds innings, allowing seven hits, five earned runs, three walks, and one home run while striking out four. He surrendered a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth before being lifted. Gabriel Rodriguez followed with a clean one and one-third innings, walking one and striking out two. Kevin Gowdy was charged with an unearned run in the seventh on a fielding error of his own, and Ben Simon worked a clean eighth with a strikeout. Binghamton Hitting Player AB R H RBI BB K Eli Serrano III 4 0 0 0 1 1 Jacob Reimer 2 0 0 0 2 0 Chris Suero 2 0 0 0 2 2 Jose Ramos 3 0 0 0 1 0 Kevin Parada 3 0 0 0 1 2 JT Schwartz 3 0 0 0 1 2 Nick Lorusso 3 0 0 0 1 1 Matt Rudick 4 0 0 0 0 1 Wyatt Young 3 0 0 0 1 0 Binghamton Pitching Player IP H R ER BB K HR Zach Thornton (L) 4 2/3 7 5 5 3 4 1 Gabriel Rodriguez 1 1/3 0 0 0 1 2 0 Kevin Gowdy 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 Ben Simon 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Brooklyn Falters In Fifth As Frederick Pulls Away Brooklyn jumped ahead in the bottom of the first when Mitch Voit was hit by a pitch, advanced on a Corey Collins single to right, and scored on a Ronald Hernandez sacrifice fly. Frederick answered with a run in the third before breaking the game open in the fifth, when starter Noah Hall surrendered an RBI single, walked a batter, and was lifted with runners on first and second. Reliever Garrett Stratton entered and immediately gave up a three-run home run, ballooning the deficit to 5-1 and effectively ending the Cyclones' chances. Hall finished his outing with four and two-thirds innings, seven hits, four earned runs, two walks, and four strikeouts. Stratton went one and one-third innings, walking one, fanning three, and surrendering the lone homer charged to him. Nate Lavender allowed a run on two hits while striking out three in his inning, Parker Carlson tossed a clean frame, and Gregori Louis closed it out with a scoreless ninth that included a strikeout. Brooklyn's only response after the first came in the bottom of the eighth, when Antonio Jimenez led off with a single, swiped second base on a strikeout, and scored on a Daiverson Gutierrez single up the middle. Jimenez paced the offense at 1-for-4 with a stolen base, while Collins, Gutierrez, and Colin Houck added the team's other base hits in a four-hit, 6-2 loss. Houck's double in the seventh was the only Cyclones extra-base knock of the night. Brooklyn Hitting Player AB R H RBI BB K Antonio Jimenez 4 1 1 0 0 0 Mitch Voit 3 1 0 0 0 2 Corey Collins 4 0 1 0 0 2 Daiverson Gutierrez 3 0 1 1 0 0 Ronald Hernandez 3 0 0 1 0 1 John Bay 3 0 0 0 1 2 Colin Houck 3 0 1 0 1 1 Sam Biller 4 0 0 0 0 2 Vincent Perozo 4 0 0 0 0 0 Brooklyn Pitching Player IP H R ER BB K HR Noah Hall (L) 4 2/3 7 4 4 2 4 0 Garrett Stratton 1 1/3 1 1 1 1 3 1 Nate Lavender 1 2 1 1 0 3 0 Parker Carlson 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Gregori Louis 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 Top-20 Prospect Performance Nolan McLean: DNP Carson Benge: DNP A.J. Ewing: 3-for-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, BB Jonah Tong: DNP Ryan Clifford: 1-for-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 K Jacob Reimer: 0-for-2, 2 BB Jack Wenninger: DNP Elian Pena: DNP Mitch Voit: 0-for-3, 2 K Nick Morabito: 0-for-2, 2 BB, SB Jonathan Santucci: DNP Chris Suero: 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 K Zach Thornton: 4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, HR Wandy Asigen: DNP Will Watson: DNP Eli Serrano III: 0-for-4, BB, K Ryan Lambert: DNP Dylan Ross: DNP Antonio Jimenez: 1-for-4, SB R.J. Gordon: DNP View the full article

Kansas City Royals rookie Carter Jensen is among a myriad of talented rookies vying for the AL Rookie of the Year award. What has contributed to Jensen's strong start to the season? In this video, we take a peek at his exit velocity, barrel percentage, and how he is hitting against each pitch selection. View the full article

Luis Lara is the Brewers' 11th-ranked prospect per our rankings. In this video, we will go over his speed, promising power spike, and what he needs to do to take the next step in his professional baseball career. Enjoy! View the full article

Trades involving teenage pitching prospects rarely feel significant in the moment. They exist more as footnotes than headlines, small transactions made to solve immediate roster problems. But every so often, one of those deals circles back years later and demands a second look. That is exactly what happened when the Minnesota Twins acquired Jake Cave from the New York Yankees in March 2018, for a 19-year-old pitcher named Luis Gil. At the time, it felt like a classic roster crunch move. New York had more big league-capable players than available spots on its 40-man roster, while Minnesota was searching for outfield depth. The cost was a teenage arm in the minors' lowest levels, a profile that represents one of the biggest wild cards any organization can trade. These players are years away from the majors, often volatile in both performance and health, and just as likely to disappear as they are to develop. For the Twins, that risk was worth taking. Cave: A Useful Role Player in Minnesota Cave quickly justified Minnesota’s interest by carving out a role as a capable fourth outfielder. Across parts of five seasons, he accumulated over 1,000 plate appearances and posted a .235 average with a .297 on-base percentage and a .411 slugging percentage, good for a 93 OPS+. Early in his Twins tenure, Cave looked like more than just depth. From 2018 through 2019, he produced a 112 OPS+ while showing legitimate pop, with double-digit home runs and doubles. He became a frequent fill-in when injuries sidelined Byron Buxton, offering a left-handed bat that could take advantage of right-handed pitching. That platoon advantage defined much of his value. Cave’s OPS was significantly higher against righties, which made him a natural fit in a complementary role. Defensively, he moved around all three outfield spots. While center field often pushed his range to its limits, he provided steady play in the corners. There were stretches where the production dipped, especially from 2020 through 2022, when his offensive numbers declined, and he shuttled between Triple-A and the majors. Still, the Twins received what they initially sought. Cave delivered multiple seasons of usable depth and finished his time in Minnesota with 2.1 rWAR. For a team seeking stability at the margins, the Twins’ evaluation of Cave proved accurate. He helped them win the AL Central in 2019 and 2020. Gil: The High Variance Path While Cave provided immediate value, Gil represented the long game for New York. At the time of the trade, he was a teenage arm in rookie ball who had already dealt with injuries. His profile fit the definition of volatility. Big arm, limited experience, and years away from contributing. That volatility showed up throughout his development. Gil’s career has been shaped as much by injuries as by flashes of top-end talent. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022, delaying his progress and forcing the Yankees to remain patient. When he returned, the upside was still there, and in 2024, it all came together. Gil emerged as one of the Yankees’ best starters that season, posting a 3.50 ERA with 171 strikeouts across 151 2/3 innings. He accumulated 2.9 rWAR and captured the American League Rookie of the Year Award, seemingly turning the trade into a clear win for New York. But the story did not end there. Injuries again interrupted his momentum, as a right lat strain limited him for much of 2025. Since then, his performance has been less consistent. A declining strikeout rate and persistent control issues have raised questions about sustainability. Even at his peak, walks have been a major concern, highlighted by an MLB-leading 77 free passes in 2024. Through 261 1/3 career innings, Gil has issued 142 walks. That lack of command has prevented him from fully stabilizing as a frontline starter. After a rough start to 2026, the Yankees demoted him to Triple-A. There is still time for him to adjust. At 27, the raw ability remains, and his past success shows what he can be when everything clicks. But the combination of injuries, declining strikeouts, and control problems suggests that his 2024 breakout may represent his peak rather than a new baseline. A Trade That Refuses to Settle Looking back, this trade resists a simple winner-or-loser label. The Twins acquired exactly what they needed at the time. Cave provided multiple seasons of competent outfield depth and helped bridge gaps during injury absences. For a team trying to stay competitive, that kind of reliability has value. The Yankees, meanwhile, captured the upside play. Gil reached heights that Cave never approached, including an award-winning season that briefly made the deal look lopsided. Yet, his inconsistency and health concerns have complicated that narrative. This is the reality of trading teenage pitching. The outcomes stretch across years, often shifting with each season. What once looked like a decisive victory can soften over time, just as a seemingly minor move can quietly deliver steady returns. In the end, the Cave for Gil trade stands as a reminder that player development is rarely linear and that even the smallest deals can leave a lasting imprint on both organizations. Who won the trade between the Twins and Yankees? Leave a comment and start the discussion. View the full article

Sean Keys is the Toronto Blue Jays' no. 17 prospect, per our rankings. After breaking the High-A Vancouver Canadians' home run record with 19, Keys is outdoing himself. The 2024 fourth-round draft pick currently has 9 home runs in just 17 games, the highest tally of any Double-A prospect through the first three weeks of the season. View the full article

Twins System Recap: Both Kaelen Culpepper and Emmanuel Rodriguez slugged a pair of homers today for the Saints. Rodriguez has quite the feather in his cap now, hitting the hardest tracked ball in the minor leagues this season. Also tonight, Danny De Andrade hit a walk-off homer for the Kernels after Dasan Hill turned in an impressive start for Cedar Rapids. View the full article

Craig Counsell had bad news for fans hoping Justin Steele could return soon and bolster the beleaguered pitching staff on 104.3 The Score. Brutal news all around. Steele, eligible to come off the 60-day injured list at the end of May, has a flexor strain in his left arm. He will be shut down for at least two weeks while the Cubs and his medical team determine the injury severity and next steps. Realistically, this takes Steele out of the rotation mix for most of this season, and at least the majority of the first half. Even a best-case scenario at this point would mean he starts a lengthy rehab assignment toward the end of June, which could maybe position him for a post-All-Star-Break season debut. View the full article

The San Diego Padres have gotten off to a hot start, owning a 19-9 record and sitting second in the National League standings. While the narrative surrounding their offseason focused on them losing key arms with Dylan Cease and Robert Suárez both leaving the team in free agency, their pitchers have actually been the catalyst for their early season success. As a unit, San Diego’s pitchers have produced the second-best 3.56 FIP in the league, anchored by closer Mason Miller, who has only allowed two runs in 14.1 innings. While the pitching staff has delivered, the Padres are still waiting for their offense to catch up. Despite their strong record, they rank below league average in both batting average (.240) and OPS (.693), due in large part to slow starts from key contributors. Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill hold three of the four largest contracts in the lineup, yet Tatis has been the most productive of the group with only a .257 batting average and no home runs. While Machado has struggled, batting .232, Merrill has experienced the steepest drop-off, posting the fourth-lowest wRC+ on the team at 79 and showing significant regression in this third season. Merrill has consistently hit in the heart of the Padres lineup, batting third or fourth, yet has produced a -4 batting run value while slashing .213/.280/.352 with a .632 OPS. However, despite the slow start, his underlying metrics suggest his raw ability remains intact. Merrill still produces a 11.3% barrel rate and 45.0% hard-hit rate that both rank well above average. The power hasn't disappeared; the difference lies in his approach. Merrill has always been aggressive at the plate. Last season, he led the team with a 45% first-pitch swing rate and that has carried over to this year at 47.4%. A slight increase, but it is notable when looking at the balls he's swinging at. While his in-zone swing rate has increased to 82.9%, the highest on the team, his chase rate also sits at 37.9%, the second-highest on the roster. While this aggression isn’t anything new, his lack of contact is. This season, Merrill ranks near the bottom of the team with a 78.3% in-zone contact rate and owns a 28.5% whiff rate, placing him in the bottom-third of all qualified MLB hitters. The significance of the drop-off becomes even clearer in the context of the pitches he's seeing. Four-seam fastballs account for 36.1% of the pitches he faces, and they'e starting to eat him up. After posting a +7 run value against four-seamers last season, he has dropped to a -3 mark, a sharp decline that points to timing issues and may explain why his aggressive approach has been so inefficient. However, Merrill isn’t completely broken. While he has struggled against four-seamers, he has fixed a big gray area in his game and that is his production against sinkers. After posting a -3 run value against sinkers last season, he has turned it into one of his strengths, improving to a +2 mark. Perhaps, then, even more than a velocity issue, this comes down to where he's being attacked. Four-seamers have more perceived rise, hence why they're so effective up the in zone; sinkers, meanwhile, are often used to target hitters low. That's a lot of high fastballs. Even with a faster swing speed this year, it'll be hard for Merrill to do damage on those pitches if his timing is off. I'll repeat: Merrill isn’t broken. In many ways, he isn’t far off from the hitter he’s been in recent seasons. The power remains, and the underlying metrics suggest a correction is possible. But a change in his approach will be needed, lest he continue to get eaten alive by fastballs. View the full article

Justin Steele suffers a setback. The Chicago Cubs' offense has been taking off, and two players, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch, are starting to heat up after slow starts! Let's talk about it all! Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-north-side-baseball-podcast/id1798599313 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75wMGhBwlrDDYPt3kaF453 Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-north-side-baseball-po-268998437/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/eey7h6ih Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@northsidebaseball View the full article

Pete Crow-Armstrong had, arguably, the two biggest at-bats of the night in the Cubs' 8-3 win over the Padres Tuesday. The impact of one was obvious: he slammed a three-run homer that broke open the game in the top of the seventh inning. The other was a subtler achievement, but a vital one in itself—for the team, in that moment; for Crow-Armstrong, individually; and for the team, again, because of just how important Crow-Armstrong is to them. Let's start at the end, for once. In the seventh inning, the Cubs were clinging to a 4-3 lead. 'Clinging' is the cliche word for such a game state, but for the current Cubs, it's no exaggeration. A one-run lead, for this team at this time, is no lead at all—especially in San Diego, where the hosts have made a habit of revealing the Cubs' frailties each time they visit over the past few years. However, with runners on the corners and two outs, Craig Counsell pinch-hit Alex Bregman (who'd had the night off, to that point) and got the payoff he needed: an opposite-field single to double the team's cushion. That also gave Crow-Armstrong a chance to do bigger damage. Wandy Peralta started Crow-Armstrong with a slider below the zone. Crow-Armstrong took it for ball one. That, alone, was noteworthy. Crow-Armstrong is, famously, the league's most swing-happy star, and sometimes its most swing-happy player of any quality. For his career, he's offered at the first pitch over half the time (51.6%); the league averages about 30%. This year, though—to his credit, though not (yet) to his consistent actual benefit—he's swinging a little bit less. On the first pitch, it's down to 48.6%. Overall, it's down from 60% to 58%, which doesn't sound like much. It's not much, in a vacuum. For Crow-Armstrong, though, maybe it could be enough. At any rate, he's making an adjustment, which is important and valuable. The strike zone is smaller. Most players are swinging less. Certainly, the guy who swings more than anyone should be following that particular trend. He is. Anyway (and it might seem like this nullifies some of the above; I think it just reminds us to place it in context), Peralta came back with a changeup below the zone, and this time, Crow-Armstrong obliged him with a chase. That drew the count level at 1-1, and it gave Peralta and Padres catcher Luis Campusano the confidence to try the left-on-left changeup again. Big mistake. The pitch wasn't nearly as well-executed as its older sibling, and Crow-Armstrong punished it. Fool a hitter once, and you can reasonably hope to fool them again with the same trick, the data says. They don't tell you that if you throw a meatball the second time, the success rate of running it back goes through the floor, while the ball tends to go over the wall. That home run was crucial for the Cubs. It took much of the pressure and worry out of the final nine outs of the game. Hoby Milner had come on in the bottom of the sixth (more on that later); he pitched a smooth seventh. Lefty Ryan Rolison closed out the Padres with two strong, scoreless innings. That's the formula for this team to win games right now: blow teams out, so whoever's available in relief that night can pitch with as little pressure as possible. When Cade Horton was lost for the season to elbow surgery in early April, Cubs fans had little with which to console themselves. Horton was one of the joys of last season's run back to the playoffs, but his fragility was always at issue. The team handled him very carefully in the second half, but he still broke and missed the tail end of the regular season, plus the team's brief appearance in the playoffs. Injuries have never been far from the center of the discussion around Horton, and in the wake of this latest major one, his career prospects are somewhat muddied. It's bad, bad news. One of the ways the team hoped to weather the loss of Horton, though, was the impending return of fellow two-time elbow surgery survivor Justin Steele. For a long period from mid-January through the time of Horton's injury, Steele appeared to be ahead of schedule and sailing toward a return to the rotation around Memorial Day. If he could be back around then, the team might just be able to swat away the injury bugs, despite all the bites they were inflicting. Several relievers hit the injured list throughout the first half of the month, making everything harder, but Steele's return would ease some of that trouble, too. Getting him back could push Colin Rea back into a relief role, lightening the burden on the rest of the pen. On Tuesday, the Cubs announced that they've shut down Steele's throwing program, just when a rehab assignment should have been coming into view on the horizon. This isn't some galloping surprise; setbacks are normal for pitchers trying to return from a second elbow reconstruction. Then again, failing to return at all is also normal for pitchers in that situation. It's impossible to know, now, when the team might get Steele back, but it would be foolish to assume he'll pitch for the major-league team any time before the Fourth of July. Meanwhile, the hits keep coming in the bullpen. The team was just beginning to feel they'd found something nice in homegrown lefty Riley Martin, when he had to return to Chicago in the early part of this road trip and was shelved by elbow inflammation. For a long while, this team will have to survive with a patchwork pen, because they won't be back to full strength for some time—if ever. Daniel Palencia's return is on the horizon, and Phil Maton is already back, but Hunter Harvey and Caleb Thielbar are not as close. Nor will it feel safe to say Palencia has dodged a bigger problem until he actually returns and strings together some healthy outings; lat injuries can be very tricky. Thus, the team needs the likes of Corbin Martin (who earned a save Friday against the Dodgers) and Rolison (who got the win in that same game over the weekend and now has six scoreless innings across three appearances) to keep delivering solid outings. We talked about the good reasons for optimism about Martin when he signed a minor-league deal late in the offseason, and about how good Rolison looked early in spring training, but still, these are little-known journeymen. As Maton gets his legs back under him (literally) and Palencia once again shoulders the load (literally) in the ninth inning, the roles of these spare pieces will become less vital, but right now, this is how Counsell has to live. That makes every insurance run count double, for the foreseeable future. It also made the sixth inning Tuesday night an exhilarating, painful sequence. The Cubs took the lead in the top half of the frame, 4-2 (more on that, again, later), and Edward Cabrera got the first two Padres batters of the bottom half with no trouble at all. It looked like Cabrera, who had only thrown 85 pitches and was past the dangerous top four in the San Diego lineup for the third time already, should be able to get them through the sixth, and maybe even start the seventh. Then, Ty France happened. France is not a great overall hitter or a good defender anywhere but first base, but he's beloved by every team he joins. Part of that is his personality, which is jocular and energetic and good for the dugout vibes. Another part, though, is the fact that he's a great clutch hitter. With two outs, the Padres needed a baserunner and a tone change, and France delivered. On a 2-2 count, he fouled off a sinker that was running way in on him. France is an expert at getting hit by pitches, and he probably should have withheld his swing and let that pitch do so, but he'd already committed—and besides, the thing came in at 98 MPH. Cabrera had been trying to end the inning with an exclamation point. Feeling (perhaps rightly) that they now had France set up for a breaking ball away, Cabrera and Carson Kelly chose to go with the big righty's slider on the second 2-2 offering. That pitch takes on some extra importance for Cabrera this season, especially against righties; more on that another time. But he missed with this one, leaving it in the middle of the zone. France scalded a single to left field, extending the inning—and the frustration of that at-bat got into Cabrera's head. He threw three straight non-competitive pitches to Gavin Sheets, the third of which hit him. He got Campusano into a 2-2 count, too, but left a changeup up and in. The Padres catcher expertly scooped a liner into left field to score France, and the inning had officially gotten away from the Cubs. It looked like the game would surely follow. Cabrera, furious with himself, went down the tunnel behind the dugout and slammed his glove after Counsel removed him from the game. Milner came on to clean up the mess, but the Cubs were into their bullpen before they'd wanted to be—and you can see, now, why that's going to be a bigger problem for this team than for most good ones, over the next few months. Now, let's complete our journey backward in time, because I still have one more promise to fulfill. We said we would talk about two Crow-Armstrong at-bats, and all of the above informs the importance of this second (well, first, in that it came before the one we talked about first; third, in that it came after two other at-bats in the game; are you having fun with this game of non-sequential storytelling?) one. If the Cubs are going to win during this stretch in which their pitching is thin, they'll have to get more from Crow-Armstrong than they got from (give or take) the start of last August through the beginning of last week. Crow-Armstrong's offensive struggles got a lot of media attention early this year—probably too much, given that most of his value will always reside in his incredible defensive work, but you can understand why he came under some scrutiny. The Cubs, after all, bet $115 million on him this spring, and he had a long stretch there in which his OPS was well under .600. Although he's hit near the bottom of the order for some time now and isn't the linchpin of the offense, Crow-Armstrong has to give them some offensive value, too, because they're going to have to win some games 8-6, in addition to the ones they win 8-3. They need to score a lot, to make up for the fact that their injury-depleted staff will inevitably give up runs in bunches at times over the coming weeks and months. That means getting something substantial from every player who has a regular job—even their defensive ace. Crow-Armstrong is actually trending the right way, and again, the concerns might have been exaggerated a bit, all along. He's digging himself out of an early hole a bit later than he did last year, but he did have to do it last year, too. He might not be a hitter who can find his swing and hit his stride on Opening Day; he might be one of those who warms with the weather. At any rate, Crow-Armstrong is already coming out of his early funk, and mere competence from him will do. When he delivers in clutch moments, the team will win, because they're built to need just one or two such unexpected contributions to win on a given day. On Tuesday, the first such contribution he made came not with the decisive homer, but in setting up the scoreboard-flipping rally the inning before. Kelly had led off the frame with a single, but Nicky Lopez (in for Dansby Swanson, who was removed with glute tightness) laid down a dreadful would-be sacrifice bunt, allowing the Padres to easily take down the lead runner, instead. That brought up Crow-Armstrong with a runner on first and one out. Padres starter Walker Buehler had abused him earlier in the game, working him into deep counts and then getting hopeless-looking chases with curveballs in the dirt for a pair of strikeouts. It looked like another bad night in the annals of Crow-Armstrong's spring, especially because he now had to face his kryptonite: any left-handed pitcher. Reliever Kyle Hart might have thought his job would be easy. He might just have failed to execute. Whatever the case, though, he didn't get the same obliging chases from Crow-Armstrong. On five pitches, he got just one swing, on a sweeper. The other four missed the zone, and Crow-Armstrong took his hase. That seems like a small moment, in which the pitcher did most of the work. In truth, though, there have been plenty of times over the last several months when pitchers' plans were clearly to keep throwing junk below the zone and let Crow-Armstrong get himself out. This time, he didn't do it, and that's becoming a bit of a pattern. He's walked and gotten a hit in three straight games, and four out of five on this tough West Coast swing. Since April 7, he's batting .257/.337/.392; that's all the Cubs really need from him. His walk in the sixth forced the Padres to go to their third pitcher of the night, David Morgan. With two outs, Nico Hoerner laced a hustle double to right-center, scoring both Lopez and Crow-Armstrong to give the Cubs the lead, 4-2. It was a huge hit by Hoerner, who has been the team's offensive hero all year, but it was made possible by a good at-bat from Crow-Armstrong. The Cubs are trying to prove they're robust enough to withstand all these pitching injuries. They've done so admirably so far. Tuesday night was a great win for them, not just because they needed to snap a sudden three-game losing skein, but because of the way they won. If this team is going to achieve its goals for the year, it needs Crow-Armstrong to string together good at-bats. Not all of them have to be as electrifying as the homer in the seventh, though. The quieter wins matter, too. View the full article

On Friday, Royals manager Matt Quatraro submitted an extreme platoon lineup that included resting regulars Vinnie Pasquantino, Jac Caglianone, and Kyle Isbel against left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. While Pasquantino is off to a slow start this season, Caglianone has been around league average, and Isbel boasts the team’s second-highest wRC+ at 125. However, all three have had significant trouble hitting against left-handed pitching. Given that the Royals held the worst record in the American League entering that game, Quatraro turned to a platoon approach in an effort to spark a turnaround. When examining their splits against lefties, all three players exhibit significant drops in wRC+. Even Carter Jensen and Michael Massey (who probably wouldn’t have started at second base if Maikel Garcia or Jonathan India were fully healthy) both see significant drops in wRC+ when facing lefties. With the exception of Pasquantino, all of these players have performed well against right-handed pitchers. Against lefties, only Jensen is producing near league average, with the median wRC+ for left-handed hitters facing left-handed pitching sitting at 85. Massey stands out in particular, posting an extremely poor -33 wRC+ against lefties despite his success against right-handers. Given this level of production, it makes sense that Quatraro would lean toward a more right-handed lineup. Unfortunately, the Royals as a team have struggled against left-handed pitching regardless of who is batting. Following Saturday’s games, the Royals ranked fifth-worst in baseball against left-handed pitching with a 69 wRC+. If you look at just right-handed hitters, their rank is 17th overall with a 95 wRC+. This lack of run production has impacted the standings, with the Royals winning only two of their eight games against left-handed starters, the Friday and Sunday matchups against the Angels this weekend. Considering the Royals had not defeated a left-handed starter prior to this weekend, Quatraro’s extreme platoon usage is understandable. However, a less aggressive version of the platoon was deployed in Sunday’s lineup against left-hander Reid Detmers with Pasquantino keeping his place at first base. Extreme platoons come with drawbacks. Some players thrive on the consistency of everyday playing time. Pasquantino, for example, appeared in 160 games last season and is not accustomed to frequent rest. Then there’s Caglianone, who is in his first full major-league season, and gaining experience against left-handed pitching will be critical to his long-term development. There is also the question of keeping your best players in the lineup. Pasquantino and Caglianone are foundational pieces of the roster, and ideally, they would be producing across a full 162-game season. Giving them rest definitely signals that struggling players are not fully guaranteed to start every day, even if they represent the foundation of the lineup. In the offseason, the Royals’ front office attempted to address this issue, particularly in the outfield. The Royals specifically targeted an everyday outfielder and someone who could platoon in right field. Isaac Collins, a switch-hitter, was brought in to be the everyday left fielder, and Starling Marte and Lane Thomas were signed to provide right-handed depth behind Isbel and Caglianone. How have those players fared so far against lefties? Of the acquired players, only Thomas is providing above-average run creation against left-handed pitching. Collins, despite being a switch hitter, has had more success in his career batting from the left-handed side of the plate. Marte, meanwhile, has done better against right-handed pitching (though only nine PAs against righties). If Marte’s performance against lefties continues to lag, the Royals might consider starting Caglianone full-time if he continues to outpace his platoon partner in wRC+. Caglianone also showed his potential against left-handed pitching with a game-tying home run against Drew Pomeranz in the ninth inning. On April 19th, the Royals called up veteran catcher Elías to help bolster the production against lefties. This move allows Salvador Perez to shift to first base and adds another right-handed bat to the lineup. Díaz has started strong, going 3-for-6 with a walk and two doubles in his first two starts against left-handed pitching. Ideally, this platoon option serves as a short-term solution while Pasquantino works through his struggles. If Díaz continues to produce, he could provide valuable roster flexibility. Nick Loftin has also been a welcome addition to the lineup after Jonathan India was placed on the injured list on April 20. In his 10 plate appearances against lefties so far this season, his 136 wRC+ is outpacing India’s 67. Going forward, how should the Royals proceed? Quatraro has certainly signaled that he will continue to platoon his lineup. As long as the left-handed hitters continue to struggle offensively, he might feel like there are few alternatives. However, he will need to balance short-term optimization with long-term development and lineup consistency. After a sweep of the Angels last weekend, the offense might finally be starting to turn a corner. Even at 11–17, the Royals sit just three games out of a Wild Card spot and 3.5 games back in the division. The season is far from over, but if this surge is temporary, the Royals may need to explore additional, potentially external, solutions to remain in the playoff picture. View the full article

Pat Murphy has not been one to quickly trust unproven relievers. That made it notable when Shane Drohan, with two big-league appearances with mixed results to his name, warmed up for the sixth inning with the Brewers leading 3-2 on Tuesday night. Milwaukee added a few more runs to give him some breathing room, but Drohan was still tasked with protecting a three-run lead in the middle innings in his third MLB appearance. He worked a perfect inning, striking out one and generating three whiffs out of his 10 pitches. “I really like him, man,” Murphy said. “He was locked in. I don’t know how many pitches he threw in that inning, but it was 1-2-3, and it was crisp.” Drohan’s second stint with the team this month has been more successful than the first, but that doesn’t mean much in two small sample sizes. What matters is that the 27-year-old left-hander, who already learned plenty about himself throughout the past couple of seasons, has continued tinkering and polishing his game. That work has shown up in improved stuff and execution his past two times out. When Drohan debuted in Boston on April 8, he was using the full wind-up he reintroduced last season, which he felt improved the tempo and explosiveness of his delivery. drohan1.mp4 After that outing, Drohan reverted to a hybrid wind-up. In his last two outings, he’s been starting with his back leg parallel to and against the rubber, eliminating the extra movement of stepping back and repositioning his body as he begins his delivery. drohan2.mp4 “I just kind of went back to that preset back leg,” Drohan said. “It just felt like it synced everything up a lot better.” Because it’s closer to pitching fully out of the stretch with runners on, a reduced wind-up would always be best for Drohan to repeat his delivery consistently. Now that he feels it’s his best starting position, it should serve him well. The early results have been encouraging: more strikes and improved velocity, with his four-seamer averaging nearly 96 mph in that shortened outing on Tuesday. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Game Date Pitches 4FB Velo Zone% 4/8 63 93.4 46.0% 4/24 71 94.6 46.5% 4/28 10 95.9 60.0% “It just allows me to really step on the gas at the right time in my delivery,” he said. “Sometimes, it can be a little early, so I feel like that preset foot just allows me to get into the back leg and go down the mound and then really finish the throw at the right time.” With a six-pitch arsenal that includes two great breaking balls and a solid changeup, Drohan has the tools to start. That’s been his role in Triple-A, and the Brewers figure to keep him stretched out as depth for as long as possible. He could be optioned back down in the coming days for a fresher long relief arm. “We’re always trying to get as many starters as we can,” Murphy said. “I think there’s a length role there for him, for sure. He’s built up already.” However, Drohan flashed his upside as a reliever on Tuesday by letting his two best pitches – his four-seamer and slider – play at a higher speed in a shortened stint. That might be his more immediate path to impacting the big-league club in 2026. “It’s a cool, nice adrenaline rush when the phone rings and they say your name,” Drohan said of pitching in relief. “But other than that, it’s not much different. Just get guys out, whether it’s the beginning of the game or whenever they call you.” Whatever role he fills, the Brewers acquired him to contribute at times throughout the season. He hasn’t gotten the same opportunities as Kyle Harrison, whom they acquired alongside him from the Boston Red Sox a few months ago, but Drohan is showing glimpses of how effective he can be. “I think he can help us,” Murphy said. View the full article

It's not always a well-received observation. When the fact that Byron Buxton's defensive metrics have gotten steadily worse over the years—indeed, that he's now roughly an average center fielder, and maybe not even that—came up on the Twins TV broadcast on Opening Day, Cory Provus, Glen Perkins and Justin Morneau practically rolled their eyes out loud. For many people who watch Buxton play every day, it's nigh unfathomable that he's no longer an elite defender. The very notion does more to dent their confidence in the endeavor of quantifying defensive performance than to diminish their faith in Buxton. I think some of that is simple allegiance, and an unwillingness to see what's really going on. Some of it, too, lies in the fact that even at his best, Buxton was not the same kind of great center fielder as (say) Pete Crow-Armstrong or Kevin Kiermaier. Those two are exemplars of a version of center field defense that relies on an extraordinarily good first step and read of the baseball. Crow-Armstrong sometimes makes near-miraculous catches, but they don't look like the ones Buxton made at his peak. They tend to look a lot like this one. NHlLcTZfWGw0TUFRPT1fVlFGV0JRVlhBd01BQUZKV1ZnQUhCUUpTQUFNQ1ZBQUFBVlVBQ0FkVUExQlJDRlFF.mp4 That line drive was only in the air for 3.5 seconds. Getting to it required anticipation, exceptionally quick acceleration, and the ability to keep moving fast all the way through the point where his arrow-straight route intercepted the ball. At his very best, Buxton sometimes made that kind of play, but his highlights have always tended to look more like this. QlhSTzlfWGw0TUFRPT1fVWdFQUFBSU5WRmNBQ1ZzTFZRQUFWd1JVQUFNRFZWUUFCMTBOQXdJSEF3Y0dVUWRW.mp4 This play is from June 30, 2019, when Buxton was 25 years old. He played, back then, like a man furious at any barrier that might dare impede him. He had the speed and the strength and the skills to make plays like this one; it seemed arbitrary and capricious to erect walls and permit hamstring strains. He played defense like a man fighting for his very way of life, because he sort of was. Buxton's ethos, back then, was that you have to be willing to run through a wall to earn your place on a big-league field. Being unable to do that is one thing; being unwilling to is another. It wasn't all that uncommon to see Buxton take on a wall at full speed. He did it a few times a year. Here's an especially bone-crunching instance, from 2017. Vk0wWHZfWGw0TUFRPT1fQkFCWFUxY0hWQVVBWEZvRlhnQUFBZ05VQUFOVFdsVUFBMU1GVVZCUkJ3c0FDQUlD.mp4 It didn't always end that happily, of course. Here's another ball Buxton chased fearlessly into a fence in 2017, but in vain. eDkxWktfWGw0TUFRPT1fVWdRQ0FWTUVVUUlBQ0FZTEJ3QUFCQUZTQUFBTlV3VUFWd1lBQmdBTkFsSldDVkVE.mp4 As we all know, collisions like that one also contributed to Buxton's major injury issues throughout those early years of his career. Yet, he kept doing it. As late as 2022, he would still tear across the ground like the Road Runner, leaving clouds of dust and throwing himself into walls when needed. dnpBRFdfWGw0TUFRPT1fVXdCWVhBY0JCRmNBV1ZGUUF3QUFBQVVGQUZsWFVBSUFCd2RUQVFOUlV3dFFWZ2NI (1).mp4 Since a nagging knee injury forced him to spend all of 2023 as a designated hitter, though, that version of Buxton has been gone. Since the start of 2024, Buxton has only caught one (1) of the 40 batted balls on which Statcast estimated the catch probability between 0% and 25%. Here's that one catch, from last May. ZU44NmJfWGw0TUFRPT1fQTFOWFZsWUZWRmNBQVZkUkJ3QUhCZ01FQUFNTldnTUFWRlFFQkFvRUIxSlZBQU5W.mp4 That's in the spirit of his old specialties, but it came with a bit less risk—and, again, it was in the air forever. It rated so well because Buxton ran nearly 120 feet to intercept it, rather than because he was extraordinarily quick in breaking for it or showed superhuman acceleration. Buxton has, in fact, never gotten especially good jumps, by Statcast's measurement. Even in 2017, at the peak of his elite athleticism and in what remained the most complete season of his career for a long time, he covered 0.4 feet less than an average center fielder in the first 1.5 seconds after contact. That's a difference so small as to be nearly meaningless, so we can call him average, but bsck then, that was the only average thing about Buxton's defensive game, so it's notable, anyway. He had the speed, explosiveness and acceleration ability to cover a foot or two more than a typical cetner fielder, even in such a short amount of time. He didn't do it, though. Instead, strategically, Buxton has always been a read-and-react fielder. Knowing that he has some of the best pure speed in the game, he prefers to wait a hair longer before embarking on his pursuit of the ball than most fielders would. He only graded out as essentially average, at his peak, because he made up for that partial beat of assessment within that teeny window. That's how quick and long his strides were. That's no longer true, though. Buxton can still get up to nearly an elite spring speed, but it takes longer than it used to. Both his knee and his hip have taken enough damage over the years that he now gets underway a bit more slowly, and turns a bit less easily. Last season, Buxton lost 1.6 feet relative to an average center fielder in that first 1.5 seconds of a ball's flight. This year, it's 1.9 feet. He's become one of the slowest center fielders in baseball off the metaphorical block. In fact, only two outfielders have lost more ground in that crucial first instant: Phillies rookie Justin Crawford, and Buxton's teammate, Twins right fielder Matt Wallner. Crucially, this doesn't mean Buxton is actually a bad center fielder. Part of his defensive decline is a conscious choice. He's been less daring, but another way to say that is, he's been less reckless. He's still presented with the occasional opportunity to plow into the wall; he still has the speed and the sense of how to adjust his body to secure a catch like that if he needs to. He just doesn't do it. bmJsMTlfWGw0TUFRPT1fQVZJRVUxd0hBRkFBREZjRVZ3QUhCMUpXQUZoVUFnTUFVQUJUQkZZRkExWmNBUVFG.mp4 That was a relatively important play in the game, back on the first weekend of the season. The Orioles already led, but catching that ball would have significantly reduced the likelihood of an extra insurance run scoring in the frame. Buston pulled up near the wall, though, choosing to position himself to play the ricochet. He's done this several times over the last two-plus seasons, and make no mistake: it's a matter of self-preservation. However, that doesn't mean it's selfish. Buxton has recognized that he's more valuable to the team on the field than on the injured list, and he's adjusting his risk management accordingly when he gets close to the wall. Here's another instance of the same calculation at work. He used to hurl himself into the wall on such plays; those days are gone. WU9rdzlfWGw0TUFRPT1fQmxBSFVnQUdWbEVBWGxFSFVBQUhBRlJmQUZnQVcxSUFCd01GQjFBRENBZFhCVkVI.mp4 Some of Buxton's lost value as a fly chaser, then, is a result of a conscious choice that helps the team in one way, even as it costs them in another. That makes it easy to forgive those non-catches. Even if you're predisposed to demand that a player leave it all on the field, we spent a solid half-decade watching Buxton actually break himself on the ground and against the fenses, and at a certain point, he's earned the right to stop doing so—especially because the team needs him on the field, and he can be on the field more often if he eschews those headlong collisions. What's left is to understand what makes Buxton good, in some ways, even at this relatively late stage of his career—and, in the same moment, to grapple with the real ways in which he's now much less than an elite defender. No one in baseball is better than Buxton at catching everything within the range he can reach. He's been above-average in getting to balls with a Catch Probability of 90% or lower in every season of his career, save 2025, in which he was exactly average. Meanwhile, he hasn't failed to come up with a ball that had a catch probability over 90% in almost exactly NINE YEARS, since getting turned around on this ball on May 4, 2017. ZHpiR0tfWGw0TUFRPT1fRGdCVFVnRU5VMU1BQVFCUUF3QUFWRkJYQUZnR0J3VUFVVndHVkZFQVZ3QlFBbEJU.mp4 However, there are balls elite defenders can get to in center that Buxton simply doesn't. Often, they look utterly innocuous. Even the seasoned eyes of ex-players in the broadcast booth don't see them as opportunities, because they (depending on the nature of their experience in the game, or on their relationship with Buxton, or some of each) forgive the slightly late breaks he gets toward the ball, and don't see that if he'd gotten a better one, he could have turned what looks like an inevitable single into a spectacular out. Here, for instance, is a standard-issue hit to center from last April. It looks like nothign could possibly have been done. M3k0b3ZfWGw0TUFRPT1fVWdSVUJ3VURVbFlBQ1ZSV1VRQUhWRmRmQUZnQldsQUFCd2NBVlFZQkNBZFFVUVZX.mp4 However, that play was essentially identical—in terms of the hang time on the ball and the distance Buxton needed to cover, and even in terms of the angle he would have had to diagnose and take—to this play by Crow-Armstrong over the weekend. WnhxWkRfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0J3TUVCUUlCVTFFQUNGWUJVZ0FIQ0FCV0FGZ0hWMU1BQlZFRkJGQUVCVmRUVmdNRg==.mp4 There are wrinkles Statcast doesn't perfectly account for, like wind and field conditions and whether the ball left the hitter's bat with funky spin or was hit much harder or softer than it looked based on the swing, and they might explain the differences between any two given plays. However, there are lots of examples like there. Here's Buxton not quite flagging down a sinking liner in the gap in Kansas City. WU9rM0RfWGw0TUFRPT1fRGxSVUFRVU5CQXNBV1FaVFhnQUhCZ0FIQUFNQ1cxSUFDZ2RSVVFaVFZRWlNVbEZR.mp4 Here's Kyle Isbel making (as nearly as you'll ever replicate such a thing) the same catch in the same stadium. Both even came off the bat of a left-handed hitter. RDFBMnlfWGw0TUFRPT1fQlZRRlZWTlhCVkFBWGxvRUJBQUhBUVZUQUFNQlZnY0FBMVVHQUZVRlV3ZFNWQWNE.mp4 The difference is the same in almost any pair of examples you can pull for study: Buxton doesn't get the elite jump off the bat that Crow-Armstrong, Isbel, and several other outfielders do. In fact, he's about as slow to break for the ball as anyone in the league. His routes are better; his body control is better; and he's more sure-handed. Those guys are all, however infinitesimally, more likely to botch a routine play or drop a ball even after they flag it down than Buxton is. It turns out, though, that what they do well is more valuable than what Buxton does well, and when their respective strengths and weaknesses are weighed, the game's top center fielders all come out ahead of Buxton. One reason, I think, why this has proved hard to accept is that it practically inverts our instinctive experience of Buxton as a defender. When we think of him in the outfield, we see in our minds the grace and the surety and the intelligence in his eyes, his gait and his glove. We see the blazing speed. We think, then, that he must be able to stretch the boundaries of a center fielder's range as well as anyone—that whatever he can't get to was ungettable. But it isn't so. As it turns out, Buxton—the guy who got famous by plastering himself on walls and flying like Super-Man to spear liners in alleys throughout the league—is an average-plus defender, but he derives all of his fielding value from his incredibly sound fundamentals. He's gone nearly a decade without missing a must-have ball, but it's been almost that long since he consistently demonstrated excellent range. He shores up his area gorgeously, but he doesn't extend it. He doesn't turn near-certain hits into outs; he just never turns near-certain outs into hits. Things might be different if this older, wiser Buxton were a bit less bruised. He might be better at flipping his hips to chase the ball laterally, especially to his right. He might be more willing to run into a wall now and then, and thus take away one or two doubles per year that he's allowed to fall since coming back to the spot in 2024. Because he's doing everything he can to keep his superb bat in the lineup and be there for his teammates more consistently, though, he lets that bit of value leak away, and because he's aging and was never great at off-the-bat reaction, anyway, he can't make up for that value as well as he might like. This revelation (some of which is new to me, too; I sat a long time with numbers and watched dozens upon dozens of clips to get a sense of how the data and reality interacted) does change some things. I've advocated moving Buxton to a corner spot, in the past. Barring the arrival of a player who shows that remarkable knack for stretching the range of the spot, I no longer feel that's necessary, or even prudent. There's much to be said for a generationally sure-handed center fielder who almost never even takes a shaky route. There's also some reason to doubt that a player who does his best work under high-arcing flies hit a long distance from him will be as good if moved to the corners, where the plays that separate good fielders from bad ones are more often sharp liners. It's a joy to watch Buxton in center field. He's no longer elite, or even close to it, but he's an extremely dignified presence in the center of the Twins outfield. At this and all times, dignity counts for something. So do all of those plays between the routine and the spectacular, where Buxton still does great work and finds his own joy in the game. View the full article

In perhaps the most shocking bit of news since his tenure in Boston began, Alex Cora has been fired as the manager of the Red Sox. While it was clear there were some divisions between him and the front office, very few expected the team to part ways with almost the entire coaching staff a mere 27 games into the season. The front office, correctly, promoted Triple-A manager Chad Tracy to interim manager of the Red Sox to help guide the young team, many of whom he has coached as recently as last season, through this brand-new chapter in their lives. What remains to be seen, though, is what happens after the final pitch of the 2026 season has been thrown. With that in mind, let’s look at three potential names who could be next in line to lead the Red Sox from the dugout. 3 Alex Cora Replacement Options for Red Sox Chad Tracy Current Role: Red Sox Interim Manager We’ll start with the most obvious one first. Tracy has already been promoted to the big-league club and in his first game in Baltimore, he showed some new wrinkles to an offense that struggled to get going throughout the start of the season. They were far more active on the basepaths, something he indicated in the post-game presser that he wants to continue, and he allowed youngest Marcelo Mayer to stay in the game against left-handed pitching. Mayer rewarded Tracy’s faith in him with an RBI single to put the team up 5-1. Tracy will likely get the rest of the season as an extended audition for the full-time manager role in 2027. If the team responds well to him, and there’s evidence that may be the case, then he should have the inside track for the position over anyone else. Make no mistake, Tracy has been viewed as the manager in waiting by some for quite some time. There will be a lot of people behind the scenes hoping he succeeds. He likely has his future in his own hands right now. No pressure or anything. David Ross Current Role: ESPN Analyst Rossy is going to be a very popular name fans think of most when they start to ponder who will replace Cora in a full-time role next season. He’s a World Series champion, fan-favorite, and semi-recent MLB manager who was only relieved of his duties because the Cubs' dream candidate became available. Ross also has a couple of different connections to President of Baseball Operations Craig Breslow. The two played for the Red Sox together and Ross was the manager of the Cubs when Breslow was brought into Chicago to head up their pitching department. He went 262-284 overall in Chicago, good for a .480 winning percentage. That won’t inspire a ton of confidence right away, but he’s likely to get an interview simply because of the good PR and his history with Breslow. Rocco Baldelli Current Role: Working in the Dodgers’ Front Office Would Baldelli consider leaving the cushy L.A. lifestyle and make the move to Beantown as the manager of the Red Sox? It’s possible. Baldelli’s tenure in Minnesota ended with a whimper — he was relieved of his duties after posting a 70-92 record in 2025 that can largely be attributed to the Twins having a fire sale at the trade deadline. He posted a 527-505 managerial record during his seven-year tenure with the Twins and for all intents and purposes, his teams apparently enjoyed playing for him. He has one 100+ win season under his belt and likely would be a solid bridge between the front office and the players. He’s seen his way through semi-rebuilds and coached teams that have won their division. While Sox fans likely will look to his last season with the Twins as a sign that he’s maybe not the right man for the job, he’s going to land a job back in the dugout sooner than later. While we likely won’t have any kind of answers until the offseason about who will lead the charge in 2027 for the Boston Red Sox, the three names above likely will garner the most interest early in the process. There has been some speculation that Dustin Pedroia could be viewed as a candidate, especially if the front office is trying to soothe troubled waters with the fans at the end of the season, but that just feels too far-fetched with the current state of the front office. There will likely be other managers who move on from their teams and vice versa as the season unfolds, so expect the potential list of candidates to grow as we march on to the dog days of summer. View the full article