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There's no easy way to spin the numbers, because they're as stark as they come. The Minnesota Twins currently have 36 players on their 40-man roster who were born in the United States or Puerto Rico. Even more telling, until they called up Kendry Rojas, their 26-man roster did not feature a single player born outside those areas. That's not just unusual. It's the most extreme concentration of American-born talent for any team in Major League Baseball, and it points directly to an organizational blind spot that has been years in the making. For a sport that has become increasingly global, Minnesota's lack of international presence stands out. Around the league, teams consistently rely on talent pipelines from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and beyond to fill out both their rosters and farm systems. The Twins, at least right now, are not doing that at the same level. When looking deeper into the roster construction, the issue becomes even clearer. The Twins do have a handful of foreign-born players on the 40-man roster, including Emmanuel Rodriguez, Gabriel Gonzalez, Rojas, and Hendry Mendez. But only Rodriguez was originally signed by the organization. The rest were acquired through trades, which undercuts the idea of a strong, homegrown international pipeline. That distinction matters. Gonzalez arrived in the Jorge Polanco deal. Rojas came over in a swap involving Louis Varland. Mendez was part of the return for Harrison Bader. The Twins are finding international talent, but they're not developing enough of it themselves. Beyond Rodriguez, the cupboard is not exactly overflowing with elite international prospects close to the majors. Eduardo Tait is the next notable name, and is the only foreign-born player on Twins Daily’s top 20 prospects list who is not already on the 40-man roster. He joined the system in last summer’s deal involving Jhoan Duran, reinforcing the same pattern. There are, however, signs of life in the lower levels. Adrian Bohorquez turned heads with a dominant stretch run last season, posting a 2.47 ERA and holding opponents to a .185 average after July 1. His ability to miss bats stands out, backed by a strong strikeout profile that suggests legitimate upside if his development continues on this path. Similarly, Santiago Castellanos made an immediate impression in the Dominican Summer League. His 2.79 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and eye-catching strikeout rate over a limited sample created early buzz—the kind the organization has not consistently generated from its international classes in recent years. Another intriguing addition is Enrique Jimenez, who was once a top-50 international prospect and came over from Detroit in the trade involving Chris Paddack. Jimenez responded with a .982 OPS in a brief stint after joining the organization, offering a glimpse of what a higher-ceiling international bat could look like in this system. Still, those names represent projection more than certainty. The Twins’ recent international signing classes, including players like Daiber De Los Santos, Eduardo Beltre, Victor Leal Jr., Santiago Leon, Haritzon Castillo, and Teilon Serrano, are filled with lottery tickets rather than near-term impact players. That's par for the course for international markets, but the Twins have lacked the volume of hits needed to balance that risk. Part of the explanation lies in organizational change. In 2024, longtime international scouting leader Fred Guerrero departed after nearly two decades with the club. Minnesota brought in Roman Barinas from the Los Angeles Dodgers and shifted oversight to assistant general manager Daniel Adler, while also adding Kevin Goldstein as a special assistant following his time with the Houston Astros. Those are meaningful changes, but they come with a built-in delay. International prospects are often signed at 16 years old, and development timelines can stretch six or more years before a player is ready to impact the major-league roster. Even Rodriguez, one of the system’s success stories, signed back in 2019 and is only now knocking on the door of the majors after navigating multiple injuries. That timeline explains the current roster imbalance. It's both understandable and (nonetheless) concerning. The Twins may very well be in the early stages of correcting their international approach, but the major-league roster is a snapshot of what came before. Right now, that snapshot reveals an organization that has not produced enough international talent internally to keep pace with the rest of the league. The hope is that the next wave changes that narrative. Prospects like Bohorquez, Castellanos, and Jimenez offer reasons for optimism, while the revamped scouting infrastructure could yield stronger classes moving forward. But until those players develop into legitimate major-league contributors, the Twins will continue to feel the effects of a system that has lagged behind in one of baseball’s most important talent pipelines. The current roster didn't blink into existence overnight. It reflects past strategy, past results, and a gap the organization is still working to close. The club's failures over the last two seasons can be partially traced to this shortcoming. Hopefully, this and future years will be defined by the way the team addresses it. Should fans be concerned with the lack of international players on the Twins’ roster? Leave a comment and start the discussion. View the full article

Have you seen the new Peacock show "The Miniature Wife"? Yeah, me neither. It's baseball season. The NBA playoffs are here. My nephew played the lead in his high school's production of Anastasia last weekend, and I have a new niece and a new nephew to fawn over, and I really should clean out the garden beds now that it's finally warming up. And did I mention that it's baseball season? There's a lot going on! I feel a little (no pun intended) (ok, pun intended, don't pretend you didn't see that one coming) like I've seen the show, though, because I've been watching so much of this season's baseball. Elizabeth Banks plays a shrunken person in the show, but if she were a strike zone instead of a wife, the show would be exactly like an MLB game in 2026. I assume so, at least. You know what? Actually, I don't know enough about the show to make any further meaningful assumptions. Let's all agree to binge "The Miniature Wife" together in November. Until then, it's time to focus on The Miniature Strike Zone. This season brought the implementation of the ABS challenge system, and with it has come a smaller strike zone. The change actually began in 2025, when the league informed umpires they would be evaluated based on a smaller margin for error in advance of the onset of the computerized zone. Tightening tolerances at the edges and corners created a slightly smaller zone. This year, with the zone still called by humans but now actually, tangibly reinforced by computers, the effect has run in the same direction, but even more markedly. For several years, now, the league has trended toward filling up the strike zone more. Fastballs are harder and livelier than ever; pitchers have better command of their non-fastballs than ever; and fielders are better-positioned than ever. You have to pitch more carefully, because hitters are also more powerful and more focused on hitting for power than ever, but on balance, the league has found the incentives favor throwing more pitches in the zone, so that's what they've been doing. This year, that trend has been stopped cold. It's not that the league has stopped trying to fill up the zone, though. It's that the zone itself has gotten smaller. Hitters have noticed, too. The league's average swing rate is down. Twice as many batters have substantially reduced their swing rate so far this year (at least two percentage points lower than last year, with a qualifying number of plate appearances in each campaign) as have substantially increased it. Dansby Swanson isn't just participating in that trend; he's one of the foremost drivers of it. In fact, only two batters (Ceddanne Rafaela and Royce Lewis) have lowered their swing rates more than Swanson has in 2026. Last year, he swung at 50.3% of the pitches he saw. This spring, that number is down to 38.6%. He's being radically patient, in response to the shrinking of a zone he already understood well, but couldn't always cover. Though umpires aren't perfect (and neither batters nor catchers challenge often enough to make them so by correcting their mistakes), theoretically, the top of Swanson's strike zone now is about 38.52 inches above the ground. (I say "about", here, not because two places after the decimal is too few to have the precision right, but because we only have Swanson's reported height of 6 feet to work with; the league has his height down to the millimeter.) The bottom of his zone is now roughly 19.44 inches above the ground. The first thing you should notice is that that's only 19 inches from high to low. Traditionally, we've thought about the strike zone as being taller than that, even for batters around Swanson's height. When you picture the zone in your head, you probably think of a rectangle taller than it is wide, by a noticeable margin. Well, it's now more like a square. Because any pitch that touches even the edge of the zone is called a strike if challenged, we can say that Swanson's zone is now basically 22.8 inches (the 17-inch width of home plate, plus the diameter of a baseball on each side) by 24.9 inches (19.1 inches, or a hair less, plus the same ball's width high and low). That's a lot like a square. It leaves Swanson needing to cover as much as he always has from east to west, but less from north to south. He's taking full advantage of that, too. I looked at pitches in each of the zones about two balls' width wide along the top and bottom of Swanson's newly concretized zone, and at the pitches in between those railings. Swanson is swinging less in each of the three locales, but especially down at the bottom of the zone—and he's benefiting from the new shape of his zone, especially at the top. 2025 Pitch Height Swing Rate Swings RV/100 Take Rate Takes RV/100 1.4-1.9 ft. 48.0 -5.8 52.0 1.2 1.9-3.4 ft. 64.1 -1.3 35.9 -0.2 3.4-3.9 ft. 63.8 -1.7 36.2 0.0 2026 Pitch Height Swing Rate Swings RV/100 Take Rate Takes RV/100 1.4-1.9 ft. 25.7 0.0 74.3 1.0 1.9-3.4 ft. 54.1 -2.2 45.9 1.1 3.4-3.9 ft. 50.0 -13.6 50.0 2.6 At his best, Swanson is a guy who wants to see the ball up and attack it there. He has a relatively steep swing for a high-ball hitter, with plenty of tilt in his bat path and a combination of contact point and attack angle that says he's always trying to launch the ball. He's a low-average, high-power hitter. However, he often gets himself in trouble because (in the process of trying to see the ball up) he chases too many pitches above the zone. His zone now stops much lower than it used to, which makes it easier for him to be more selective up there, even as he maintains the aggressive mindset of seeing it up to make the high-value contact he seeks. Setting the pitches at which he didn't swing along the top of his new zone side-by-side really shows how the altered zone is making his life easier. He's gotten a handful of calls, already, on pitches up and in that would have been—were—strikes last year. That takes a lot of pressure off him, as he looks for that belt-high pitch he can belt. Along the bottom rail of the zone, it's harder to see the clear benefit in terms of extra calls, but Swanson can afford to let a few more called strikes accumulate there than he used to be able to. Not having to sweat the top of the zone makes the bottom edge of the zone less important. He's ahead in counts more often. He can be more selective, then aggressive on the pitches that enter his happy zone. I've talked to Dansby Swanson a couple of times. Based on those conversations, I don't think this is quite how he's thinking about the changes to his approach this season. Whether you conceptualize it this way or not, though, this is what's happening. Swanson doesn't have exceptionally good feel for the barrel, like teammates Nico Hoerner and Alex Bregman do. He's still going to swing and miss quite a bit, and he's never likely to run a very high BABIP. Some younger versions of him could do that, but this one can't. Instead, Swanson's upside at the plate lies in his ability to hit the ball over the wall, without losing contact with all of his other skills. He has a well-engineered power hitter's swing, even though he's a fairly fast, glove-first shortstop and has never had elite bat speed. With this change in the league's rules and the shape of the strike zone, the best version of Swanson can emerge. It's just not the version you might have thought would be the best form of him. Right now, Swanson is batting .187/.337/.400. He probably won't finish the season with such an extreme-looking line, but yes: Dansby Swanson really is a little bit like Rob Deer and Carlos Peña. Those guys swung for the fences, and they knew they would strike out a lot. By also walking a lot, though, they kept themselves viable even when the ball wasn't clearing the fences. When it did, they became star-caliber sluggers. A smaller zone means Swanson can focus that unique swing on pitches in a smaller space, and he's been very smart about doing so. If he continues to, he can still produce the 25-homer power that first made him a star in Atlanta, and he can walk enough to be a plus OBP guy, too. It might come with an ugly batting average, because the called strikes and the whiffs will add up to a rising strikeout rate, but that might be the best version of this late-career Swanson. I'm not sure we want ABS to turn many players into peak Rob Deer. It might be a sign of something troubling, just as "The Miniature Wife" leaves me with an inarticulable unease. There might need to be tweaks to this new, robot-influenced zone. For now, though, it's allowed Swanson to draw 18 walks and hit 5 homers in just 23 games. Well-utilized by a savvy veteran, the system is turning out to be a boon to the patient power hitter. View the full article

When the Boston Red Sox signed Ranger Suárez over the offseason, the plan was simple: pair him alongside Garrett Crochet to form one of the strongest one-two punches in all of baseball. After failing to acquire a true number two at the trade deadline, the Red Sox managed to get their guy in Suárez. However, things did not go as planned right out of the gates. Making three starts in spring training, Suárez only lasted nine innings while allowing 11 runs on 14 hits, three of them being home runs. While it was a batch of exhibition contests and you can’t put too much stock into those numbers, it worried fans. The last time the team spent big on a free-agent pitcher, they had to use Mookie Betts to offload the contract. The last thing anyone wanted was for Suárez to be a bust. Then came the news that, due to the World Baseball Classic, Suárez was lagging behind and continuing to ramp. For your new $130 million pitcher, that wasn’t ideal. How his season debut against the Houston Astros went was even less ideal. Failing to get out of the fifth inning, Suárez allowed four runs on a walk and seven hits including two home runs. His pitches lacked their usual sharpness, as the left-hander allowed seven hard-hit balls into play and struggled to get coax batters into chasing outside the zone. His second start against San Diego may have been worse. Given a 4-0 lead heading entering the fourth inning, Suárez promptly surrendered it, allowing four earned on six hits and two walks in four-plus innings. Not what you wanted from the man who was supposed to be your number two starter. His plan of attack appeared to change completely as well. Whereas in his first start he relied heavily on his cutter, against the Padres he led with his changeup. And yet, just like against Houston, he was pummeled, allowing seven hard-hit balls to a middling lineup. After two rough starts, people wondered if Suárez was entering his decline phase. A 30-year-old with subpar velocity is hardly working with a big margin for error; perhaps the Red Sox had simply bought in at the wrong time. Fortunately, Suárez managed to squash those qualms the next time out. Pitching in St. Louis, Suárez dominated a better-than-expected Cardinals team. With six shutout innings, Suárez kept the Redbirds at bay until the offense finally woke up. Much like his first two starts, his pitch usage changed against the Cardinals as well. This time the sinker was his go-to pitch, tossing it a whopping 46% of the time. For comparison, he had thrown it just 16% of the time in his previous outing. The pitch worked, generating a chase rate of 35% by itself and only allowing two hard-hit balls. Batters were just 1-for-9 against the pitch, and it allowed him to use the rest of his repertoire to keep opposing batters off balance. But it wasn’t until his latest start where Suárez truly showed what he can do. Finding himself in a pitcher’s duel with Casey Mize of the Detroit Tigers, Suárez out-pitched the former No. 1 overall pick by tossing eight shutout innings. He really set the tone in the first inning, as he allowed two hits and had a runner on third base. Once he settled down and got out of it, the game was on. Following the first inning, the Tigers only had one more baserunner via a walk in the fourth inning; after that, Detroit would not have another batter reach base until after Suárez left. Saying it was a dominant performance would be an understatement, as Suárez yet again continued to hold the opponent down while giving his team plenty of attempts to score. The story behind that start was the same as the others: a change in pitch usage. Suárez relied on a mix of his sinker and changeup, using the two pitches 28% and 27% of the time, respectively. The two pitches worked well, as opponents hit just 1-for-12 against them while whiffing 32% of the time they swung. As someone who has never won with velocity or elite stuff, Suárez will continue to tinker with his game plan depending on the opponent. Should he continue to pitch as he did against St. Louis and Detroit, the rotation will be in good hands until it can get back to full strength. The Red Sox were missing someone like Suárez last season when injuries struck the rotation, and the team was forced to rely on rookies to help get them into the playoffs. Now, the team has a veteran with ample experience to help guide the pitching staff through this treacherous stretch. View the full article

A filthy, lockdown starting pitcher changes the fortunes and the perception of a Major League Baseball team. He can make a fringe club competitive and a contender close to unstoppable. Look no further than the likes of the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, or even Garrett Crochet for proof of this concept. The Chicago Cubs' lethal new starter, Edward Cabrera, with his poised control and nasty arsenal, is the next in this line of game-changing starting pitchers. Lucky for us, he plays on the North Side of Chicago. Winding the clock back to March 30 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Cabrera toed the rubber for the first time in the squad's iconic blue pinstripes. Right out of the gate, he looked the part of everything this franchise wanted when they signed him in the offseason. With a virtually unhittable changeup that touches the mid-90s, Cabrera burst onto the Wrigleyville scene, going six innings, allowing one hit, striking out five, and issuing just one free pass. In his second start, the first of a traditional doubleheader at Progressive Field opposite the Cleveland Guardians, Cabrera went another 5 2/3 innings. Though he didn't exactly pound the strike zone in this outing, he once again allowed only one hit in a 1-0 victory for this ball club. Nothing comes easy for the opposition when he's scheduled to start, and the team's adversaries are already keenly aware of that. In the early going, the Chicago Cubs were a ball club that appeared trapped in a perpetual search for offensive production. While at the time present, they seem to have orchestrated a bit of a rhythm, the lineup's shortcomings often left the starter with little to no margin for error, called upon from the outset to be a hero. Approaching his fifth start with the Chicago Cubs, Edward Cabrera's steady performances have not only kept his club moving in the right direction, but also helped buy some time for this offense to come around. Frontline pitchers like Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd hold down the front end of this rotation. Cabrera may not have attained that status yet, but what he has done is serve as the stabilizer for this rotation and this team. He's a pitcher that each opponent must plan for, knowing that the 28-year-old hurler has what it takes to greatly limit their scoring opportunities. Call it fortuitous, or call it opportunistic, but after kicking the tires on Cabrera a year ago, the Cubs finally swallowed their medicine and paid the hefty price of his services. As the season nears the completion of its first full month, the former Marlin has been more than worth it. The buzz around him at first centered around his ability to make batters swing and miss. With seventeen punchouts tallied thus far, he's done just that. Cabrera mows down batters because he often frustrates them. When the opposing lineup does, in fact, make contact, it hasn't yielded the best results. According to Baseball Savant, Cubs' opponents are whiffing with incredible frequency when facing the right-hander, swinging through more than 27% of their hacks. You might not know it yet, but Edward Cabrera is the next big thing at Wrigley Field. He might not have arrived in town with the type of "brand-name" recognition other have, but what he possesses is the same: talent, confidence, and untapped potential. He's armed Tommy Hottovy and his staff with an exciting young competitor who embodies everything it means to be a Chicago Cub. View the full article

Already on a roll, the Chicago Cubs now have their best pitcher back on the roster. Left-hander Matthew Boyd was activated from the 15-day injured list Wednesday in time to start against the Philadelphia Phillies. Left-handed reliever Luke Little was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. The Cubs have won seven in a row. Boyd, the Cubs' Opening Day starter, went on the IL April 6 with a strained left biceps after making two starts. He has a 6.75 ERA in 9⅓ innings with three walks and 17 strikeouts. Boyd had one rehab appearance at Iowa, setting him up for Wednesday's return. Despite a slew of injuries, including Tommy John surgery for right-hander Cade Horton, starting pitching has been a recent strength. Now, that rotation gets even better with Boyd's return. The Cubs are also waiting for left-hander Justin Steele to come back from his UCL revision surgery. He is expected to return sometime before the All-Star break. Little was called up April 14, but made only one appearance, allowing a run in one inning on April 15 in an 11-2 win over the Phillies. View the full article

Juan Soto is back. And it couldn't come at a better time. The New York Mets, mired in a 12-game losing streak, activated their superstar left fielder from the 10-day injured list Wednesday and optioned third-string catcher Hayden Senger to Triple-A Syracuse. Soto injured his right calf April 3 and went on the IL three days later. Since Soto's injury, things have turned ugly for the Mets. They enter Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Twins with the worst record in the National League at 7-16, thanks to a 12-game skid that hit a new level Tuesday in a 5-3 loss to the Twins as closer Devin Williams entered a tie game and gave up two runs without recording an out. Soto has missed a total of 15 games. He is in Wednesday's lineup as the No. 2 hitter as the designated hitter. The left-handed hitter was slashing .355/.412/.516 and had hit safely in all eight games at the time of the injury. Senger was called up Saturday, but did not appear in a game. View the full article

Even hitting records tell the story of how the game has changed at the plate, but pitching records show that evolution more clearly. The modern pitcher is handled carefully, protected from overuse, and often asked to dominate in shorter bursts, rather than grind through entire games. That shift has left a collection of Minnesota Twins pitching records standing tall, with little reason to believe they will ever be seriously threatened. Santana at His Absolute Peak When Johan Santana was at his best, there may not have been a more dominant arm in baseball. His single-game team record of 17 strikeouts still feels attainable on the surface, but it requires a perfect blend of efficiency, dominance, and managerial trust that is rarely seen now. His 33 consecutive scoreless innings during the stretch from late August into September of 2004 might be even more impressive. Pitchers today are often limited by pitch counts before they can string together outings long enough to threaten a streak like that. It takes not only dominance, but durability and consistency over multiple starts. One might be more likely to leave before tiring and giving up a run, but that's easily offset by having to string together five or six straight starts with your 'A' stuff, rather than four or five. Santana did it in, basically, four starts, plus small pieces of the outings on either end. Then there are the 17 consecutive wins spanning the 2004 and 2005 seasons. With starters now often removed earlier in games and bullpens playing a larger role in decisions, stacking wins in that fashion has become increasingly unlikely. Even elite pitchers struggle to control that stat in the modern era. When Starters Carried Everything Looking back at the workloads of past generations almost feels like reading fiction. Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat were asked to do things that simply are not part of today’s game plan. Blyleven’s 325 innings pitched in 1973 stands as a staggering total. In a time when 180 innings is often viewed as a benchmark of durability, adding another 145 frames feels nearly impossible. That same season included 25 complete games by Blyleven; the entire league had 29 in 2025. Kaat’s 42 starts in 1965 is another mark that reflects a completely different era. With five-man rotations now standard and teams occasionally using six, the opportunity to even approach that total no longer exists—unless, of course, another usage revolution is around the corner. A designated opener could "start" 50 times in a season, but that feels unlikely. Blyleven’s 2,035 career strikeouts with the Twins reflect both longevity and consistency. Players change teams more frequently now, and maintaining that level of production with a single organization is increasingly rare. A pitcher might pile up more punchouts in one year than Blyleven ever did, but avoiding the scalpel and sticking around long enough before free agency beckons feels like a tall order. The Records That Sneak Up on You Some of the most unbreakable records are not the flashiest ones. They're the totals that quietly pile up over time or exist because the game no longer creates the same opportunities. Eddie Guardado appeared in 648 games as a left-hander for the Twins. Relievers today are often used in more specialized roles, and careers are less likely to stay anchored with one franchise long enough to build that kind of total. Then there's Jim Merritt, throwing 13 innings in a single game on July 26, 1967. It's difficult to imagine any modern pitcher even being allowed to attempt such a feat. Between pitch counts, bullpen depth, and injury prevention, that record feels completely untouchable. That season, pitchers went at least 10 innings in a game 54 times. The post-World War II peak for that total came in 1976, when there were 85 10-inning appearances. Since the league expanded to 30 teams in 1998, however, there have only been eight total instances of this. The last was by Cliff Lee, in 2012. What stands out most about these pitching records is how clearly they highlight the evolution of baseball. Santana’s dominance represents the bridge between eras, while Blyleven and Kaat belong to a time when pitchers were expected to carry a workload that would be unthinkable today. The modern game values efficiency, health, and longevity in a different way. That's not criticism; it's just reality. But it does mean that many of these records are protected not just by greatness, but by philosophy. That combination is what makes them feel permanent. What other pitching records are unbreakable for the Twins? Leave a comment and start the discussion. View the full article

The Blue Jays have something special in Louis Varland. The 28-year-old has been, almost certainly, the AL's best reliever so far in 2026. Of the 49 AL arms with at least 10 innings pitched in relief this season, Varland is one of just two who have yet to allow an earned run, and one of just nine who have yet to give up a barrelled ball. His 19 strikeouts rank second, trailing only his teammate Jeff Hoffman, while his 58.3% groundball rate is tied for third (min. 10 IP). He pitches with equal parts power and precision, leading with a fastball that sits 98 (and feels even faster thanks to his elite extension) and mixing in four more weapons with diverse shapes, all of which have a case to be called plus pitches. Today, however, I only want to talk about one pitch. Literally one pitch: The final pitch from yesterday's 4-2 win against the Angels. Late last night, the Blue Jays found themselves three outs away from sealing their first series victory since they swept the Athletics in March. Despite all his struggles this year, Hoffman took the ball for the bottom of the ninth, looking for his second save in as many days. Instead, a single, back-to-back hit-by-pitches, and another single put the winning run on first base. After 11 minutes, 18 pitches, and just one out, Hoffman's day was done. That's when John Schneider called on Varland. A week earlier, Varland replaced Hoffman with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth against the Brewers. At the time, it was the highest-pressure entrance of his career, according to FanGraphs' leverage index. Not anymore. Yesterday, Varland came on with one out instead of two and the chance to secure a win, not just maintain a tie. The leverage index when he entered against the Brewers was 6.39. Last night, it was 7.37. Keep in mind, an average situation has a leverage index of 1.0. Anything over 2.0 is considered high. With the stakes dialled up to 11, Varland took the mound. The criteria for success were clear. The runner on third didn’t matter, but Varland needed to record two outs before any more Angels made it across the plate. It only took him one pitch to pull it off. Facing the lefty-batting Nolan Schanuel, Varland delivered a changeup. It was the second time all season he started an at-bat with his change. But the unusual decision paid off. Varland located his offering perfectly. It was a strike, so Schanuel swung, but it wasn't a pitch he could punish. It just barely grazed the lower outside corner of the zone, and Schanuel sent it bouncing to Ernie Clement at second base. Here's what happened next: Clement to Andrés Giménez for one. Easy. The second out was going to be much closer, but Giménez sent a laser into Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s glove. A replay review confirmed what we already knew. The game was over. The Blue Jays had won. And Varland only needed one pitch. One-pitch saves are rare. Varland's was the first of the season, and it very well could be the last. There was only one in 2025. There were four the year before, but once again, only one in 2023. Since saves became an official stat in 1969, one-pitch saves make up roughly one-third of one percent of all saves. The last Blue Jay to record a one-pitch save was Casey Janssen in 2014. Indeed, Janssen is responsible for two of the eight one-pitch saves in team history. He's one of 30 pitchers to have had multiple one-pitch saves in his career. (Trevor Hoffman tops that list with five one-pitch saves to his name.) Here is the complete list of Toronto Blue Jays one-pitch saves: Pitcher Date Louis Varland 2026-04-21 Casey Janssen 2014-06-05 Steve Delabar 2013-07-10 Casey Janssen 2007-08-28 Jason Frasor 2004-05-27 Randy Myers 1998-08-01 Tony Castillo 1996-07-11 Al Leiter 1993-08-03 Of course, Varland's effort wasn't merely a one-pitch save. It was a one-pitch, two-out save. No Blue Jays pitcher had ever done that before. It was also a one-pitch, two-out, bases-loaded save – only the eighth such save in recorded major league history. If you still aren't impressed, you can think of it like this. A one-pitch save is about as rare as a no-hitter. A one-pitch, two-out save is about as rare as a perfect game. A one-pitch, two-out, bases-loaded save is about as rare as an unassisted triple play. The cherry on top is that this was the first save of Varland's professional career. He joins Chris Holt as the second-ever pitcher to earn his first MLB save in such dramatic fashion, and even Holt had previously saved a professional game in the independent Frontier League. The last time Varland recorded a save was his sophomore year of college. With a single pitch on Tuesday night, Louis Varland made personal history, team history, and professional baseball history. And the best part is, he's only just getting started. View the full article

The Boston Red Sox feel Eduardo Rivera is ready for a big jump. A day after promoting the left-handed starter from Double-A Portland to Triple-A Worcester, the Red Sox called up Rivera on Wednesday to make his MLB debut. So Rivera is basically going straight from Double-A to the majors. Right-handed reliever Jack Anderson was optioned back to Triple-A. What role the 6-foot-7 Rivera will fill is another question as the rotation currently has a hole due to right-hander Sonny Gray going on the 15-day injured list Tuesday with a strained right hamstring. But the bullpen has also been overworked in recent days and left-hander Payton Tolle, Talk Sox's No. 1 prospect, is primed to be called up to fill Gray's spot. The 22-year-old Rivera had made two starts at Double-A Portland this year, pitching 10 innings with three walks and 16 strikeouts. In 2025, splitting time between High-A and Double-A, Rivera made 15 starts and five relief appearances, walking 46 and striking out 108 in 87 innings. Rivera pitched for Puerto Rico this spring in the World Baseball Classic. Anderson was called up April 14 to make his MLB debut and has pitched three times covering eight innings, which could be the role for Rivera. Anderson allowed one run in each of those outings, while giving up eight hits and two walks while striking out six. View the full article

It's only been 72 plate appearances. On the other hand, Garrett Mitchell made his big-league debut 1,334 days ago, and even with the 72 plate appearances he has this season, he's only amassed a totla of 515 in the regular season for the Brewers, so let's not look a gift 72 plate appearances in the mouth. We have to allow ourselves to be pleased that Mitchell isn't hurt, but we can be even more excited about this: In 72 plate appearances, Mitchell is batting .273/.437/.436. That's a strange-looking batting line, because it's still early and the season stays strange into May, no matter how early it begins these days. In fact, it's extra strange this year, because the ABS challenge system has altered the game, in obvious ways—the challenges themselves—and in subtler ones. It's one of the subtler but important impacts of the system's implementation that might just make Mitchell viable for the long haul, in multiple ways. Firstly, as you might guess from the huge gap between his batting average and his OBP, Mitchell is swinging rarely and walking often so far this season. He's only offered at 39.4% of the pitches he's seen, down from a career norm (to whatever extent he's been able to establish a norm, given all the injury disruptions to his career) over 44%. That's allowed him to walk 16 times in 72 trips, an extraordinary 22.2% clip that is (obviously) unsustainable. Even if he walks 13% or 15% of the time, though, he'll be a darn good player. The question is whether he can sustain that lower but still robust kind of rate, and the answer is affected by the presence of the ABS system. It's not just about the ability to challenge, though. Mitchell has only challenged once this year, and he lost that appeal. Instead, the effect here is the fact that the strike zone is smaller now. With the implementation of the computerized zone, there are (perhaps imperfect, but) objective upper and lower boundaries of the zone based on each player's height, rather than idiosyncrasies of their stance or the umpire's interpretation of the rule book's definitions of the hollow of the knee. Starting last year, the league informed umpires they would be graded on a stricter standard as ball-strike callers, and the shrinking of the margin for error produced a slightly smaller zone. This season, that's only been more true; it turns out that this way of structuring the zone compresses it vertically. The plate is still the same width, but the zone is shorter and blockier. That's true in theory; it wouldn't have to be true in practice. In practice, though, umpires are responding to the league's training and feedback by giving the smaller zone now prescribed by altered rules and the input of computers. Mitchell isn't alone in responding to this by swinging less often. Of the 199 batters who had a qualifying number of plate appearances last year and are qualifying so far this year, 123 have either kept their swing rates flat or reduced them. Only 43 batters have increased their swing rate by at least two percentage points; a whopping 86 have reduced it by at least that much. The percentage of pitches marked as being within the strike zone is down this spring. So is the rate at which pitches taken by the batter are called strikes. Throwing out all challenges by either side, the percentage of taken pitches called a strike so far this season is 30.1%. It was 31.7% in both 2023 and 2024, and 31.1% in 2025. That difference sounds small, but around the edges of the zone, it gets big in a hurry. The league, as a whole, is walking 9.9% of the time. The last time the global walk rate was this high in April was in 2009 (9.8%, essentially tied). Except for 2019, the league walked less than 9% of the time each April from 2011 through 2024. Now, it's nearly 10%. The arrival of ABS has made swinging a less valuable thing to do. That brings us back to Mitchell. There are two very good reasons why not swinging as much (and being rewarded for that patience) is good for Mitchell. The first, obviously, is that he whiffs at a calamitous rate, when he does swing. He's seen 325 pitches this year, and swung at 128 of them. Fifty-eight of those swings have resulted in whiffs—an almost unfathomable 45.3% rate. You can't swing and miss that much and be a good hitter, unless you do everything else well as an offensive player. That was obvious and ineluctable before the ABS change. Now, it still feels obvious, but maybe it's a bit more negotiable. If you minimize the number of times you swing and the league rewards that approach because of a small strike zone, that's one step in the direction of permitting production amid a choking cloud of swing-and-miss. Part of doing everything else well is having a swing that produces damage when one does make contact. The good news is, as we get a longer look at the healthy version of Mitchell and his swing, it's increasingly clear that he checks that box. His average bat speed of 76.4 MPH is borderline elite. Add to that one number the fact that he has a relatively short stroke with average-plus tilt and a deep contact point, and the company he keeps gets interesting. We've talked a lot about the interaction of those numbers recently, in the contexts of Brice Turang's successes and Joey Ortiz's failures, so hopefully, it's already becoming clear to you that having a fast, steep swing with a deep contact point is a good thing. If not, though, here's the list of players (besides Mitchell) who have average or better tilt and a contact point at least 1 inch closer to their body than the average, on swings that average 74 MPH or higher. Nick Kurtz Jo Adell Jake Bauers Luis Robert Jr. Mike Trout Shohei Ohtani Yes, this kind of swing usually leads to plenty of whiffs. Mitchell is at the extreme end, even in this cohort. But he also swings considerably faster than the older Trout and Ohtani, and his plate discipline (augmented this year, but always solid) is far better than that of Adell or Robert. He belongs to a group of hitters who blister the ball when they do put the bat on it. He's doing a better job of working uphill and lifting the ball this year. Yes, it's possible to be highly productive with an atrocious whiff rate, if you're a patient hitter in the ABS Era who can also generate elite power. The other reason why a lessened need to swing is good news for Mitchell might sound callous, but it's legitimate: fewer swings means less risk of an injury. Mitchell has twice wrecked his shoulder on wild slides into bases, but some of his injury issues throughout his career stemmed from the violence of his swing and the vulnerability of his hands early in the motion. Swinging less often and being less primed to swing means less chance of an oblique strain or a sports hernia injury. It means less chance of a broken hamate bone. It puts less strain on the back. We've talked endlessly about Mitchell's potential over the years, but also about all the things mitigating it. Would he ever make enough contact to access his talent in full? Could he stay on the field long enough to prove himself either capable or incapable of that? This season, the league is different, and the changes germane to Mitchell's game are all good news for him, on both fronts. That doesn't mean he'll keep hitting this way all season, or that this year will more than double the number of MLB plate appearances he's had in his career. The chances of that kind of thriving, healthy campaign are better than ever, though, because Mitchell is responding correctly to the environmental shifts around him—and because the talent unlocked by those shifts is so loud, in the first place. View the full article

There was a brief moment of concern surrounding Mick Abel this week, but the Minnesota Twins appear to have avoided a worst-case scenario. When Abel experienced soreness following a bullpen session, the organization opted for caution, and the MRI results delivered encouraging news. “We felt like if we aggressively treat it, get him on some anti-inflammatories and play it safe on the front end, it’ll be something that will be relatively quick and short,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “We didn’t want to try to chase it and then make it potentially worse later by trying to prolong this.” That measured approach reflects both the Twins' current pitching depth and the importance of Abel to the organization’s long-term plans. Originally selected 15th overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020, Abel arrived in Minnesota with plenty of intrigue. He was part of last summer’s headline-grabbing deal that sent Jhoan Duran to Philadelphia, with catching prospect Eduardo Tait also coming back in return. At the time, the move signaled a shift toward reshaping the Twins' pitching pipeline. Now 24 years old, Abel’s development path has not been perfectly linear. Once a staple on top 100 prospect lists, his stock dipped entering 2025 before rebounding in a big way. He reached the majors with Philadelphia and pitched well enough to reestablish himself as a meaningful trade asset. Abel did not enter spring training with a guaranteed role, but he forced the Twins’ hand with a dominant showing in the Grapefruit League. Across 22 innings, he posted a 2.05 ERA with a 32.9% strikeout rate and just a 4.9% walk rate, looking every bit like a pitcher ready to contribute at the major league level. The regular season has brought some ups and downs, which is to be expected for a young arm finding his footing. After being hit hard in his first two outings, Abel responded with authority. He delivered 13 consecutive shutout innings across starts against Detroit and Boston, compiling a 16-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the process. Through 20 1/3 innings, Abel owns a 3.98 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate. Underlying metrics paint an even more encouraging picture. His 2.79 FIP suggests better days ahead, while a 3.93 SIERA reinforces the idea that he has been a steady contributor. For the Twins, the decision to pause rather than push reflects both confidence and caution. Elbow inflammation is not something to ignore, especially for a pitcher with Abel’s workload trajectory, but it is far from a devastating diagnosis. The focus now shifts to recovery and timing. If the inflammation responds well to treatment, Abel could return without missing significant time and continue building on what has been a promising start. In a season where pitching depth is already being tested, keeping Abel healthy matters. The early signs suggest the Twins have navigated this situation correctly, giving themselves a chance to have one of their most intriguing young arms back on the mound sooner rather than later. View the full article

In this week's episode, Nick talks about the current state of injuries going through the minor leagues, especially Juan Valera and his elbow issue. Discussion is also had about Payton Tolle and how either he or Jake Bennett is a prime candidate to take Sonny Gray's spot in the rotation temporarily. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-talk-sox-podcast/id1783204104 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qPrPXEngu0CxgTmlf0ynm Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-talk-sox-podcast-244591331/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/4tmd121v Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talksox View the full article

The San Diego Padres have a new weapon in the starting rotation. Right-handed starter Lucas Giolito, one of the top free agents entering the offseason, has signed a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027, the team announced Wednesday. MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reported the deal was worth $3 million for 2026. Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in 2024 and remained a free agent because he didn't want to take a bargain deal. Right-handed reliever Bryan Hoeing, who is out for the season following elbow surgery, was transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL to make room on the Padres' 40-man roster. The 31-year-old Southern California native is likely to take over the rotation spot vacated by Opening Day starter Nick Pivetta, who is on the 15-day injured list with a strained right flexor. Pivetta is expected to miss a significant amount of time this season. Giolito had said recently that he had been staying in shape with 75-pitch bullpen sessions, but it is likely that he will need at least a couple of starts in the minors to get into game shape. Right-hander Matt Waldron is currently occupying Pivetta's spot in the rotation, but he got rocked in his season debut Friday. Waldron's next start is Thursday against the Colorado Rockies. Born in Santa Monica and an alum of Harvard-Westlake High School, Giolito had three straight top-11 finishes in AL Cy Young Award (2019-21). In 2025 with the Boston Red Sox, Giolito made 26 starts and had a 4.17 FIP (3.41 ERA) with a 9.1% walk rate and 19.7% strikeout rate. That came after missing all of 2024 with UCL surgery on his right elbow, a good bounce back in his first season back. Eventually, Giolito will join a rotation of all right-handers: Michael King, Randy Vasquez, Walker Buehler, German Marquez and Waldron. Giolito will provide another experienced arm, possibly putting Waldron's roster spot in jeopardy. While the rotation is in good shape, there is little depth behind this group. Right-hander Griffin Canning is currently on a rehab assignment following last year's Achilles injury and will need to be activated in the next couple weeks. The signing also comes less than a week after the Padres' reported sale agreement with Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones for a record $3.9 billion. How the prospective new owners played a role in this transaction is not known, but the Padres have been tied to Giolito since the offseason. View the full article

One of the biggest breakout prospects in baseball in 2025, Connelly Early improved every time you checked in. His combination of quality stuff and a deep arsenal with a good feel to command it makes it easy to envision a quality big league starter for a long time. View the full article

If you want to play with some selective endpoints, you can end up pretty deeply impressed by Nico Hoerner these days. He blasted his fourth home run of the season in the Cubs' seventh straight win on Tuesday night, and since last August 24—I did warn you the endpoints would be selective—he's batting .327/.384/.505 in 245 regular-season plate appearances. Kick in a tremendous postseason showing, you're up to .339/.388/.510 in 278 trips to the dish. He has 26 extra-base hits in that span. He's hit 8 homers. The topic of Hoerner's power potential has been an almost constant point of discussion over the last few years. I wrote about the very low apparent ceiling for it in May 2024, based on his inability to reach high-end exit velocities and the way defenses have evolved to cut off balls better as they head for the gaps. I also wrote about the way Hoerner's hands work (relative to one another and to the bat) in the context of his bat control and contact skills in early 2023, which included a discussion of how that style of swing consciously trades power for contact and opposite-field value. By last September, however, it was clear Hoerner had made some adjustments. He'd locked into a new approach that, without sacrificing the ability to go the other way or to make good swing decisions and draw the occasional walk, produced many more line drives to left field. It boosted his batting average more than his isolated power, but once you're pulling the ball in the air a bit more, power increases almost on its own. Back at the beginning of spring training, Randy Holt wrote about the questions posed by Hoerner's late-season power surge, and tried to assess the likelihood that it would carry over. About a week into the season, I followed up with a partial answer, based on some changes Hoerner brought into this campaign: a slightly wider stance and a shorter stride, giving him more early stability and the capacity to hit the ball hard down the lines, rather than toward center field. Now, it's time to synthesize all that into a firm answer to an increasingly pressing question: Is Hoerner a full-fledged power hitter now? He is, and he isn't. Oh, man. That's not the satisfying answer we all wanted, is it? Ok, let me try again. Yes, Hoerner has found the best way to unlock power in his game. Those adjustments we saw last year did quite a bit of the work; his stance adjustments this spring have completed the job. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the batted balls over 88 MPH in exit velocity Hoerner produced from the start of last season through August 15, and the ones hit at least that hard that he's produced since, by launch angle. To spot the differences, note that he's not hitting balls hard into the ground or popping them up. Next, note the right edge of the curve described by the chart. He's hitting it slightly harder, at the high end, and he's clustering his hard contact in a productive launch-angle band. Now, here's his spray chart heatmap for those same batted balls, with the same dividing dateline. Fewer of these well-hit balls are going to right field. More are going deeper into left, left-center, and center. That larger, brighter blob blooming in shallower left field on the right is the surest sign of his overall progress; those are the balls his approach is now focused on generating. He'll always be better at producing hard-hit singles to left field than at slugging; it's what he does best. His bat speed is below-average, and that's not going to change. He's not going to hit 30 home runs; he very well might never even hit 20. A couple years ago, though, it looked like Horner was destined to hit anywhere from .280 to .310 and slug anywhere from .350 to .390. Now, I think, you can safely bump the latter number up to .420, and maybe even .450. He's gotten a bit of good fortune over these 280ish plate appearances; he's hit a couple of wall-scrapers that just barely carried out of the park. However, Hoerner's power surge is real. Why? Because he's dedicated himself to the pulled line drive. Lock in on that outcome, and the rest of what's needed falls into place. Most line-drive hitters like to hit it right back where it came from, and that's what Hoerner used to do, too. The guys with low bat speed who still hit for good power (including recent ex-Cubs Cody Bellinger and Isaac Paredes) aren't line-drive guys; they focus on pulling fly balls. The pulled line drive is not a popular approach, because it takes a special kind of hitter—and a particular set of constraints eliminating the chances of being other ones—to execute it. Hoerner is that special a hitter, though, and as he's embraced that, he's become more dangerous, in multiple facets. He's hit four home runs this year. Could he hit 10 or 12 more, before the year is out, without trading in the other things he's doing well? At long last, that answer is "yes". It might not make him a full-fledged MVP candidate, but this power boost does make Hoerner a legitimate All-Star, and it's already making the contract extension he and the team signed feel like a huge win for the Cubs. View the full article

This is the day Connor Prielipp has been waiting for. The Minnesota Twins called up the left-hander to make his MLB debut by starting Wednesday's game against the New York Mets. Outfielder Ryan Kreidler was sent back to Triple-A St. Paul. For the 25-year-old Prielipp, Twins Daily's No. 5 prospect, the path to his debut has been a rocky road. The Tomah, Wis., native had Tommy John surgery in college at Alabama, but the Twins still took a chance on him with their second-round pick in the 2022 draft. Unfortunately, Prielipp needed an internal brace procedure on the same elbow after two appearances in 2023. In 2024, Prielipp returned to make nine starts with a 2.70 ERA in 23⅓ innings, walking seven and striking out 41. He made 23 starts and one relief appearance in 2025 between Double-A Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul, with a combined 4.03 ERA, with 31 walks and 98 strikeouts in 82⅔ innings. At St. Paul this season, Prielipp appeared in four games, three starts, pitching 15⅔ innings and posting a 2.30 ERA with eight walks and 22 strikeouts. Kreidler was called up from St. Paul on April 11 and appeared in five games, going 3-for-14 with two homers and four RBIs. His demotion puts an even split on the 26-man roster of 13 position players and 13 pitchers after a one-day imbalance. View the full article

Simeon Woods Richardson looked to have found a missing piece of the puzzle in 2025: a new splitter that looked like a legitimate plus offering to round out his repertoire. So far in 2026, however, he’s been the most disappointing member of the rotation results-wise. What’s holding him back? The Splitter Is Different Woods Richardson’s splitter looked like a weapon in 2025. It led all of his pitches with a 32.5% whiff rate and completely disarmed opposing hitters when they made contact. The pitch was a big proponent of the strong stretch to end the season, in which he posted a 2.33 ERA and struck out 36 of the 104 batters faced over his last five starts. After he integrated the pitch midseason, it had a slow buildup, and the splitter finished as his fourth-most-used pitch. With an offseason ahead of him, we expected to see him turn to his new weapon much more often in 2026. The splitter has been the second-most used pitch for him so far this season, but it’s not seeing the same success. He’s throwing it 27.7% of the time, as opposed to 10% in 2025. It’s down to a 22.6% whiff rate and is allowing an expected batting average of .285 and expected slugging of .519. He’s throwing the pitch about half a mile per hour faster, and it’s getting about an inch less of vertical and horizontal movement. If this is an active change Woods Richardson and the Twins made to this pitch that was so successful in 2025, it may be time to rethink things. It's more likely, though, that the pitch just isn't doing what he wants it to do. The Whiffs Are Gone The splitter may have been Woods Richardson’s best pitch in 2025, but he had other successful offerings to turn to. That has certainly not been the case in 2026. His slider has dropped from a whiff rate of 27.4% to 20% so far, and the xwOBA allowed has increased from .261 to a crippling .377. His fastball has been his only acceptable offering so far, but even with decent expected numbers with the heater, it’s dropped from a 21.8% whiff rate to 12.4% in 2026. This all culminates in an untenable 11.4% strikeout rate overall so far this season. A lack of swing and miss leaves Woods Richardson exposed to the Twins’ poor defense, and we’ve already seen that come back to bite him on multiple occasions. He’s not pitching well, but even when he coaxes batted balls that should help bail him out of his frequent jams, his defense hasn’t made the plays for him. Any pitcher would have trouble with this little swing and miss, but this problem is magnified even further by how bad the Twins' defense is. Some Bad Luck In addition to the poor defense, Woods Richardson has experienced some bad luck. His 66.7% strand rate of opposing baserunners is a notable change from his 75.9% mark in 2025 and 73.6% mark in 2024. He’s putting plenty of runners on base, and those runners are scoring at an unexpectedly high rate. His batting average on balls in play allowed is also a career high of .291, which is particularly painful given how many batted balls he’s allowing. His fastball has been his best pitch so far, and he’s gotten unlucky with it in several ways. The pitch has yielded a .284 batting average, which conflicts with an expected mark of .224. It’s allowed a .345 wOBA, compared to a strong .296 expected wOBA. To be fair, the rest of his pitches have actually gotten lucky in these metrics, but it doesn’t help that the one offering he can turn to has been unlucky in addition to everything else going on. The heater also isn't setting up the rest of the arsenal as well as it has in the past. In 2024, his fastball was in the upper third of the zone or above it over 46% of the time. Last year, that number fell to 40%. This season, it's 33%. With the fastball coming in lower, there's less space to let his splitter or slider separate from that pitch. It means fewer whiffs when the non-fastballs are close to or in the zone. To create the differential you want to achieve a whiff, now, he often has to throw the slider and the splitter in non-competitive locations. Batters chased 30.9% of his sliders and splitters outside the zone last year. So far, in 2026, it's 24.8%. There isn’t much going right for Woods Richardson right now. Either intentionally or unintentionally, changes were made to several of his pitches that were successful in 2025, and the results have been disastrous. His strikeout rate looks like something out of the 1990s, and he’s pitching in front of one of the worst defenses in the league to count on for turning contact into outs. Given the injuries in the rotation, Woods Richardson has some time to right the ship, but the clock is ticking, with the Twins showing a newfound aggressiveness in calling up pitching prospects. Woods Richardson has a ton to fix if he wants to hold onto his rotation spot for the entire 2026 season. Can he pull it off? View the full article

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough speaks with Fish Unfiltered about how his team's aggressive baserunning has repeatedly come back to bite them in recent games. View the full article

This piece was written prior to the Blue Jays' game on Tuesday, April 21. It was only three years ago that the Toronto Blue Jays had an unheralded prospect who came out of nowhere to put on a show for his major league debut. That prospect, of course, was Davis Schneider, who was selected in the 28th round of the 2017 MLB Draft. Schneider would record two home runs on nine hits during a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox, becoming the first player to do so in the first three games of his MLB career. In the end, Schneider would finish off the 2023 season with a .278 average, a 1.008 OPS, and 1.8 bWAR, along with eight home runs and 20 RBIs in just 35 total games played. With that, he appeared to be the next big thing out of Toronto. However, Schneider hasn’t been able to follow it up in his subsequent two seasons with the Jays, including seeing time back down in the minors to find his game at times. In 2024, he compiled a .191/.282/.343/.625 slash line, along with a -0.1 bWAR, 13 home runs and 46 RBIs in 135 games played. In 2025, Schneider fared a bit better but still left something to be desired, with a .234 batting average and 1.3 bWAR, along with 11 home runs and 31 RBIs in just 82 total games. Nevertheless, his versatility in being able to play both the outfield and infield has helped to keep him a major part of the Blue Jays lineup despite his up-and-down performance. Now we are in 2026. With this being his age-27 season, will Schneider finally break through as a full-time player for the Jays this year? He certainly didn’t look like he was on track to do so after a disappointing spring training, in which he posted a dismal .132 average and a 409 OPS with 12 strikeouts in 47 total plate appearances. But once the regular season commenced, Schneider started providing some significant impact, helping his team to victories. He came through with several key hits for the Blue Jays in the early going, registering a solid .294 average, a 1.008 OPS, and 0.494 WPA, together with seven runs scored, one home run and five RBIs in his first nine games of the year. That certainly gave him a lot of confidence and put to rest any doubters after his less-than-stellar spring. However, as the Blue Jays began their recent struggles, so too would Schneider and his bat. In his past seven contests, he has amassed an abysmal .063/.167/.125/.292 slash line with zero home runs and RBIs to go along with seven strikeouts in 18 plate appearances. So, can Schneider eventually break out of his mini-slump and make this season count? Taking a look at some of his advanced statistical metrics from Baseball Savant, one would see that he certainly has breakout potential. He has an average exit velocity of an elite 93.3 mph, along with a sea of red in the barrel % (20.0%), squared-up % (31.4%), chase % (15.0%), and walk % (19.5%) categories. With all that, it is actually quite surprising that Schneider hasn’t been posting big numbers to date. His .316 xwOBA could probably tell part of the story; he's striking out too much (31.7%), and he isn't pairing his hard-hit balls with optimal launch angles often enough. However, we could see things start turning around once his numbers normalize in due time. Having seen a glimpse of his power potential back in 2023 and at times in 2025, we all know that he has the ability to be productive if he can put everything together. Perhaps the Blue Jays should consider where Schneider should be deployed in the batting order to maximize his effectiveness. That, along with determining the most strategic matchups against opposing pitchers, could ultimately unlock his potential for good. Once he has established his confidence to produce in all situations, then Toronto would finally have another much-needed offensive weapon to help them to success going forward. Until then, we will be rooting for Schneider to overcome his struggles and finally get it done on a consistent basis in 2026. View the full article

Here's a fun throwback to the legendary 1982 Brewers, including Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, and Harvey Kuenn. View the full article

Starlyn Caba, Fish on First's eighth-ranked prospect, was acquired by the Miami Marlins in the December 2024 trade which sent Jesús Luzardo to the Philadelphia Phillies. One season later, the Phillies looked like they got the better end of the deal, as Luzardo was a crucial piece of their division-winning starting rotation and the left-hander was signed to a five-year contract extension. Meanwhile, Caba struggled with injuries and the stick during his age-19 season. The shortstop played his whole 2025 with the Jupiter Hammerheads. He had a .613 OPS and .284 wOBA, unable to hit the ball with much authority. Fortunately for the Fish, Caba fared much better in the Arizona Fall League. Among the youngest prospects who participated in the AFL, he recorded a 105 mph max exit velocity, .363 wOBA and 42.6% hard-hit rate overall, and continued his strong swing decisions and 70-grade defense at short. He reached base safely in all 18 games he played and earned a Fall Stars Game selection. Three weeks into his 2026 season, Caba has made even more progress in the batter's box. Through 13 games with High-A Beloit, he has a .327/.424/.531 slash line with a .436 wOBA and 153 wRC+. The lack of public batted-ball data from the Midwest League prevents us from speaking on his EVs, but he appears to be mostly deserving of these results. The glove on its own may have given Caba a future MLB role, but this positive development to his hitting profile from a damage perspective mixed with his great plate approach makes him a viable potential building block for the Marlins. While we're at least a full year away from seeing the Dominican switch-hitter in the majors, he has undeniable similarities to some longtime big leaguers. Using them as reference points, I'll lay out three plausible career outcomes for Caba. Low-end outcome: Alcides Escobar MLB seasons: 14 Peak fWAR/career fWAR: 3.5/13.3 Alcides Escobar was an All-Star, Gold Glove award winner, and World Series champion, though all of those accolades came during the same 2015 season. He had an extremely up-and-down career overall. At his peak, Escobar was the spark at the top of the Kansas City Royals lineup. The majority of the time, he was best suited for the bottom of the order, earning his keep with defense and speed. cv_516191283_1200K.mp4 Escobar had a single-season high of only seven home runs and didn't get on base consistently. It wouldn't be unfair to expect Caba to fare better in one or both of those areas in the future. That being said, this kind of stability at shortstop has considerable value. Likely outcome: Jose Iglesias MLB seasons: 13 Peak fWAR/career fWAR: 2.5/16.8 Caba's remarkably smooth actions up the middle are reminiscent of Jose Iglesias. The former top prospect with the Boston Red Sox saw major league time with eight different franchises, making flashy plays every place he went. Iglesias hit for an elite average in several seasons, too. However, like Escobar, his production was limited in terms of homers and walks. Caba's patient approach could elevate him above this tier of player. High-end outcome: Andrés Giménez MLB seasons: seven Peak fWAR/career fWAR: 6.1/16.2 Andrés Giménez is not only still active, but should be for at least another half-decade. The Toronto Blue Jays shortstop is in the midst of his age-27 season. Even with many years of baseball ahead of him, it's safe to say that 2022 will go down as his career year, when he finished sixth in American League MVP voting. Most often utilized at second base in the past, Giménez has been one of the best infield defenders in baseball. He already has three Gold Gloves as well as the 2023 AL Platinum Glove. SzQ3QUJfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0JnQldBUWNDWGxZQUMxVlJYZ0FBQ0FGU0FBQlhXd2NBVkZJRkJBSlFBRkZkVmxaVA==.mp4 If Caba grows into a Giménez-like combination of speed, elite defense and nearly league-average hitting, I believe this would be a fantastic outcome. In an absolute best-case scenario, Caba could maintain even higher OBPs than him. View the full article

Ronny Mauricio hit three home runs and drove in five as Syracuse pummeled Worcester 12-3, with Jonah Tong striking out nine over 5 1/3 innings and Ryan Clifford adding a grand slam. Zach Thornton tossed a quality start with six strikeouts in Binghamton's 3-2 loss. Channing Austin fanned eight in five scoreless frames before Brooklyn blew a 3-1 lead, falling 5-3. Nicolas Carreno pitched five innings over four in St. Lucie's 17-2 defeat. Mets Transactions No Roster Moves Mauricio Launches Three Homers, Clifford Slams Grand In Syracuse Rout The Syracuse Mets piled up 12 runs on 12 hits to beat the Worcester Red Sox 12-3 at Polar Park. Ronny Mauricio led the offense with three home runs, finishing 3-for-4 with five RBIs, four runs scored, and a walk. Cleanup hitter Ryan Clifford added a grand slam, going 2-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Cristian Pache had four hits in five at-bats and drove in two runs, while leadoff man Nick Morabito also homered, and Ji Hwan Bae drew two walks and scored three times. Starter Jonah Tong turned in a strong outing, going 5 1/3 innings while allowing four hits, one earned run, two walks, and striking out nine. Dan Hammer and Anderson Severino combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, with Hammer striking out four. Ofreidy Gómez gave up two runs in the ninth. Syracuse broke the game open in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Morabito lined a solo home run with one out, Bae walked, and Mauricio followed with a two-run blast. Pache capped the four-run frame with a two-out RBI single that scored Clifford. In the sixth, Clifford hit a two-out grand slam to push the lead to 10-0. Mauricio added his third home run of the night in the eighth, a two-run shot that pushed the score to 12-1. Player AB R H RBI BB K Nick Morabito 5 2 1 1 1 2 Ji Hwan Bae 3 3 1 0 2 1 Ronny Mauricio 4 4 3 5 1 1 Ryan Clifford 5 2 2 4 0 2 Vidal Bruján 5 1 1 0 0 1 Cristian Pache 5 0 4 2 0 1 Jackson Cluff 3 0 0 0 2 1 Yonny Hernández 4 0 0 0 1 3 Onix Vega 5 0 0 0 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Jonah Tong 5 1/3 4 1 1 2 9 0 Dan Hammer 1 2/3 2 0 0 0 4 0 Anderson Severino 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 Ofreidy Gómez 1 4 2 2 0 2 0 Thornton's Quality Start Not Enough For Rumble Ponies The Binghamton Rumble Ponies dropped a 3-2 decision to the Erie SeaWolves at Mirabito Stadium despite a quality start from Zach Thornton. Thornton went six innings, allowing seven hits, two earned runs, one walk, and six strikeouts. At the plate, Marco Vargas led the offense with a 2-for-3 effort that included a double, two walks, and two stolen bases. Leadoff hitter A.J. Ewing reached three times with a hit and two walks. Eli Serrano III tripled and walked twice. Kevin Parada and Matt Rudick each drove in a run. Binghamton's offense came in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Erie scratched out a 1-0 lead in the top half on a sacrifice fly, Parada singled home Serrano, and Rudick followed with an RBI single that scored Jose Ramos, giving the Rumble Ponies a 2-1 lead. Erie tied the game in the fifth on an RBI double off Thornton, then took a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Jordan Geber surrendered an RBI single. Geber took the loss, going 1 1/3 innings with three hits and two strikeouts. Gabriel Rodriguez worked 2/3 of an inning with a walk and a strikeout, and Ben Simon added a scoreless ninth. The Rumble Ponies struck out 13 times as a team, with cleanup hitter Chris Suero fanning twice and Jacob Reimer accounting for five of the strikeouts. Player AB R H RBI BB K A.J. Ewing 3 0 1 0 2 1 Marco Vargas 3 0 2 0 2 1 Jacob Reimer 5 0 0 0 0 5 Chris Suero 5 0 0 0 0 2 Eli Serrano III 2 1 1 0 2 0 Jose Ramos 3 1 0 0 1 1 Kevin Parada 4 0 1 1 0 0 Matt Rudick 4 0 1 1 0 1 Wyatt Young 3 0 0 0 1 2 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Zach Thornton 6 7 2 2 1 6 0 Jordan Geber 1 1/3 3 0 0 0 2 0 Gabriel Rodriguez 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 Ben Simon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cyclones Cough Up Late Lead In Walk-Off Loss The Brooklyn Cyclones squandered a 3-1 ninth-inning lead and fell 5-3 to the Hudson Valley Renegades at Heritage Financial Park. Ronald Hernandez reached base three times, going 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, a stolen base, and two runs scored. John Bay added a hit, a walk, an RBI, and two stolen bases. Leadoff hitter Mitch Voit singled, walked, scored, and swiped a bag. Starter Channing Austin was superb, going five scoreless innings while allowing three hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. Garrett Stratton worked two innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts, and Hunter Hodges pitched a scoreless eighth with a strikeout. Brooklyn opened the scoring in the second inning. Hernandez drew a walk, stole second, and came home on Bay's single. In the sixth, the Cyclones pushed across two more runs. Cleanup hitter Corey Collins walked, advanced to third, and scored on a wild pitch. Hernandez doubled later in the inning and scored on a throwing error, making it 3-0. The ninth inning was a disaster. Hoss Brewer came on with a 3-1 lead and recorded only two outs while surrendering four hits and four earned runs, including a walk-off three-run home run that capped the blown save. The Cyclones struck out eight times and left 13 runners on base. Player AB R H RBI BB K Mitch Voit 4 0 1 0 1 1 Antonio Jimenez 4 0 1 0 0 0 Daiverson Gutierrez 4 0 0 0 0 1 Corey Collins 3 1 0 0 1 0 Ronald Hernandez 3 2 1 0 1 1 John Bay 2 0 1 1 1 1 Colin Houck 4 0 0 0 0 3 Heriberto Rincon 4 0 0 0 0 1 Diego Mosquera 4 0 0 0 0 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Channing Austin 5 3 0 0 1 8 0 Garrett Stratton 2 1 1 1 0 4 0 Hunter Hodges 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Hoss Brewer 2/3 4 4 4 0 0 1 Big Innings Doom St. Lucie In 17-2 Setback The St. Lucie Mets were overwhelmed by the Palm Beach Cardinals 17-2 at Clover Park. The offense was held to three hits and five runners left on base. Randy Guzman, Julio Zayas, and Sam Biller each collected one hit, with Guzman adding a walk and scoring a run. Biller also scored. JT Benson and Sam Robertson each drove in a run. Right-hander Nicolas Carreno kept St. Lucie in the game with four innings of one-run ball, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out five and giving up one home run. Starter Omar Victorino took the loss, falling to 0-3 after lasting only 1 1/3 innings. He allowed two hits, seven runs, four walks, and struck out one. The second inning unraveled quickly. With Victorino on the mound, Palm Beach drew several walks, loaded the bases, and plated seven runs capped by a bases-clearing double, ending the frame ahead 7-0. St. Lucie answered in the third when Biller scored on a Robertson groundout, and in the fourth when Guzman was driven in by a Benson groundout. The Cardinals broke the game further open in the eighth with an eight-run inning off Jorge De Leon and Ryan Dollar. De Leon did not record an out while allowing five runs, and Dollar gave up three runs in an inning of work. Benson, who moved from left field to the mound, worked a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts. The Mets struck out 16 times as a team. Player AB R H RBI BB K Elian Peña 2 0 0 0 2 1 Chase Meggers 4 0 0 0 0 3 Randy Guzman 3 1 1 0 1 1 Julio Zayas 3 0 1 0 0 1 AJ Salgado 4 0 0 0 0 2 JT Benson 4 0 0 1 0 1 Sam Robertson 3 0 0 1 0 2 Sam Biller 2 1 1 0 0 1 Vladi Gomez 3 0 0 0 0 3 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Omar Victorino 1 1/3 2 7 7 4 1 0 Caden Wooster 1 2/3 3 1 1 1 1 0 Nicolas Carreno 4 1 1 1 1 5 1 Jorge De Leon 0 2 5 5 3 0 1 Ryan Dollar 1 2 3 3 1 1 1 JT Benson 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 View the full article

Twins System Recap: Walker Jenkins hit his first home run of the 2026 season tonight. Gabriel Gonzalez and Kyler Fedko also homered, but the Saints still lost anyway. Wichita's Ryan Gallagher was the standout pitcher this evening, as he continued a solid start to the season, and Garrett Spain filled up the box score for the Wind Surge. Here's info on those performances and much more. View the full article

Jason and Mitch discuss the latest week of Cubs baseball as they get back over .500, and look to push up the NLC standings. 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

The Brewers leaned heavily on their top relievers last season, but in a bullpen that covered the fourth-most regular-season innings in baseball, Grant Anderson was one of the hardest workers. The sidewinding right-hander logged 69 2/3 innings in relief, trailing only Abner Uribe. Once again, Anderson has quietly been an unsung workhorse. His 12 appearances thus far in 2026 tie him with Aaron Ashby for the club lead. In 13 1/3 innings, he’s posted a 2.70 ERA and 2.98 FIP. Anderson’s strikeout rate has decreased from last year, but he has paired a decent 10.5% swinging strike rate with an excellent 57.6% ground ball rate. “He’s been sharp,” Pat Murphy said. “He had the hiccup there in extra innings [against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 14], and then he’s been really good ever since.” Anderson has quickly become a Swiss Army knife for Murphy in the early weeks of the season, particularly as other relievers like Trevor Megill and Ángel Zerpa have struggled. He’s appeared in every inning from the third through the 10th. He’s kept the Brewers in games when trailing, protected close leads, and even entered jams as a fireman, collecting four holds along the way. He entered a fire on Tuesday evening in Detroit, before the Brewers’ offense broke through late in a 12-4 blowout win over the Tigers. Anderson inherited a bases-loaded, no-out situation from Kyle Harrison, who lost his fastball command in the fourth inning when the lead was still just 3-0. He promptly induced a double-play grounder from Javier Báez and struck out Kerry Carpenter to escape trouble with just one run scoring. “That was awesome,” Harrison said of Anderson’s effort. Anderson then returned to throw a scoreless fifth, giving the Brewers six crucial outs of middle relief before the momentum swung their way. “It was huge today for him to come in when he did,” Murphy said. “Bases loaded, no outs, get the ground ball, get a number of ground balls in the game. That was huge.” Anderson’s 20.4% strikeout rate is a touch below the league average, but the whiffs he had last year could soon return. His stuff is arguably better in his second season in Milwaukee. By slightly raising his arm slot (for a second straight season) from 4° to 8°, Anderson has added an extra inch of induced vertical break to his four-seamer, meaning what was already his top swing-and-miss pitch a year ago now has even more carry at the top of the strike zone. Stuff models grade it as an even better pitch than it was in 2025, even without its best velocity. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Season 4FB Velocity 4FB IVB 4FB Stuff+ 4FB StuffPro 2025 93.5 12.2 114 -0.2 2026 92.8 13.2 118 -0.5 He’ll need those strikeouts moving forward, particularly because he’s always been prone to walks and occasional home runs. But for now, Anderson is once again playing a pivotal role in the Brewers’ relief corps, even if he’s neither the flashiest nor the most conventionally effective member. View the full article