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Kevin Gausman just checked off the 2,000 career strikeouts milestone, and at the age of 36, he's still one of the most reliable arms in Major League Baseball. In this video, we dive into the varying factors that contribute to the right-handed veteran's long-term success. View the full article

Before the 2026 season began, Payton Tolle was considered a prime candidate for a contract extension. Since being called up in late April, Tolle has cemented himself in the Red Sox rotation. In this video, we revisit a possible Tolle extension, due to not only what he brings on the mound, but the clubhouse as well. View the full article

There are dominant pitching performances, and then there are outings that feel almost impossible in the modern game. Bailey Ober’s complete-game shutout against the Marlins somehow managed to be both. At a time when pitchers are judged by velocity, strikeout rates, and wipeout stuff, Ober carved through Miami with precision and efficiency instead. He needed only 89 pitches to complete nine scoreless innings. The performance also came at the perfect time with questions swirling about other parts of the Twins’ starting staff. Instead, he responded with one of the most memorable starts by a Twins pitcher in years. Here are the most amazing facts from Ober’s historic night. It was the first shutout of Ober’s career Ober had thrown complete games before, but Tuesday marked the first time he finished all nine innings without allowing a run. It instantly became the signature outing of his major league career. He threw the first Twins Maddux since 2017 Ober’s outing qualified as a Maddux, the baseball term for a complete game shutout thrown on fewer than 100 pitches. The Twins had not seen one since Ervin Santana shut out the Giants on June 9, 2017. The term is named after Hall of Famer Greg Maddux and was coined by baseball writer Jason Lukehart. Ober only needed 89 pitches Not 99. Not 95. Just 89 pitches to complete nine shutout innings. That level of efficiency feels almost impossible in today’s game, especially with teams working deep counts and prioritizing patience at the plate. “We were talking if under 100 is a Maddux, we’re going to have to name under 90 an Ober,” Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “He was just under control. He was executing pitches.” His fastball averaged just 88.8 mph That might be the most shocking part of the outing. Velocity has become one of the defining conversations around modern pitching, and Ober dominated an entire lineup while sitting below 89 mph with his fastball. He threw only three fastballs above 90 mph all night and totaled only nine pitches faster than 89 mph. He snapped a recent strikeout slump Coming into Tuesday, Ober had gone three straight starts with three strikeouts or fewer, leading to questions about whether his low velocity was starting to catch up to him. Instead, he struck out seven Marlins hitters. That total tied for his second-highest strikeout game of the season, behind only his 10 strikeouts against Cincinnati on April 19. It also matched his seven strikeouts against Boston on April 13. The 89-pitch total was somehow familiar Oddly enough, the last time Ober threw a nine-inning complete game, he also threw exactly 89 pitches. That outing came on June 22, 2024, against Oakland in a 10 to 2 Twins win over the A’s. Ober joined an exclusive group in Twins history Ober now has two of the six complete games by a Twins pitcher since 1988 thrown on 90 pitches or fewer. The other names on that list include Carlos Silva, John Smiley, Bill Krueger, and Rick Aguilera. Before Tuesday night, Krueger had been the only pitcher in that group to record a complete game shutout. Ober finished stronger than he started Ober never lost command late in the game. He struck out the final two batters in the eighth inning, then needed only eight pitches to complete the ninth inning and finish off the shutout. Complete games barely exist in modern baseball. Complete game shutouts are even rarer. A complete game shutout in fewer than 90 pitches almost feels impossible in today’s version of the sport. What makes Ober’s performance even more memorable is how rare this style of pitching has become across baseball. Modern starters are often trained to chase velocity and strikeouts above all else. Teams monitor pitch counts aggressively, complete games have nearly disappeared, and many pitchers are pulled before even reaching the seventh inning. Ober not only finished the game himself, but he did it with a level of efficiency that feels pulled from another era of baseball. There was no overpowering 98 mph fastball or unhittable wipeout pitch carrying him through the night. Instead, Ober relied on command, sequencing, confidence, and an ability to consistently stay one step ahead of hitters. Every inning seemed to move faster than the last as Miami struggled to square anything up against him. By the end of the game, the crowd at Target Field understood they were watching something special. The outing also served as an important reminder about Ober’s value to the Twins rotation. Even when the velocity readings spark concern or the strikeout totals dip for a few starts, Ober continues finding ways to succeed against major league hitters. His margin for error may look smaller than many modern pitchers, but Tuesday showed just how effective he can still be when everything is working together. For Twins fans, it was the type of performance that will be remembered for years because of how unusual it felt. A complete game shutout on 89 pitches almost sounds impossible in today’s game. Bailey Ober made it look effortless. What stood out about Ober on Tuesday night? Leave a comment and start the discussion. View the full article

The Brewers' farm system continues to impress despite several big-time graduations over the last few years. Some trades have brought new names in, and one of them is currently helping the big-league team out of the bullpen, which led to our lone brand-new addition to the list. You can find the full list here! #17 LHP Shane Drohan Milwaukee acquired Drohan in the Caleb Durbin trade after spending most of his time in the Red Sox organization, as well as a spring with the White Sox. Injuries have impacted much of his professional career, including a 2024 Rule 5 stint with Chicago that resulted in his return to Boston. When healthy, however, he features a polished, deep pitch mix that seems scalable between the bullpen and the rotation. In Nashville, Drohan was being stretched out as a starter, and he made his MLB debut against Boston as a starter as well. After being sent down, he made one more start in Nashville before injury forced Drohan back up to the big-league club. Since then, he's pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, both in single-inning and multi-inning roles. His fastball typically sits 92-94 MPH as a starter and plays effectively enough to support the rest of the arsenal, though the secondary pitches are the foundation of the profile. Since moving into the bullpen role with the Brewers' big-league team, the fastball has averaged 95.3 MPH, and he has touched 97 at times. He also mixes in a cutter in the low-90s, and a sinker thrown about a tick slower than his four-seam. They both are best used against left-handed hitters, but the cutter can work as a bridge pitch for him against righties as well. The slider is Drohan's best pitch and his primary swing-and-miss weapon. Since his move to the bullpen, the pitch has averaged 86 MPH, with a spin rate of nearly 2900, and a 33.3% whiff rate. He also mixes in a solid curveball in the 78-80 MPH range, also spinning around 2900 RPM as a reliever, and also with a 33.3% whiff rate against it. His changeup has always been a reliable option against right-handed hitters with roughly 8-10 MPH of separation off the fastball. However, he seems to have switched to a splitter lately, as the spin rate has gone from ~1500 to ~990 on average. Drohan's command showed improvement in 2025, and since his move to the bullpen, he's only walked 3.2% of batters he's faced. There is still legitimate rotation upside if he can stay healthy enough, though the arsenal and bat-missing ability are showing that they can translate very well in the bullpen right now. Drohan appears firmly entrenched in the Brewers' future pitching plans right now, though the role beyond 2026 is still up for debate. Biggest Risers #6 OF Luis Lara -- Up five spots from #11 Lara has shown some improvements in the power department, already nearly doubling his career high of four home runs, with seven at the time of this article. There is some reason to doubt the power output as of this moment, playing in some of the bandbox ballparks Nashville plays at and posting a wOBA of .409, compared to an xwOBA of .313. Despite that, there does still appear to be real growth in the power department as well, as evidenced by his 109 MPH max exit velocity. His 13.9% whiff rate is elite, and he’s limited strikeouts extremely well, while walking at a high rate as well. Lara is 15 of 18 on stolen base attempts, and he’s a plus defender who could be elite in center field at the big league level. Lara looks like a player who will make his MLB debut at some point this season. #16 Coleman Crow -- Previously Not Ranked (#19 in 2025) Crow made his big-league debut in April and immediately put his ability to spin the ball on display. His spin rates rank among the highest in MLB on all of his offerings. The breaking balls are his best pitches, but his cutter has made nice strides from where it was in 2025 and is now a strong offering for him. Neither his four-seam nor sinker is a great pitch on its own, but they work well with the cutter to create enough hesitation for batters to struggle to square them up regularly. Crow is a big-league arm that is waiting for his chance in Triple-A right now. Much like the next guy on this list had to do in 2025. #3 RHP Logan Henderson -- Up three spots from #6 Henderson worked his way up to number three by significantly improving what has always been the biggest question mark in his game, his glove-side secondaries, this offseason. His slider is now thrown more like a slurve, and it has played pretty well in MLB games so far. The cutter has been inconsistent, but as a “bridge pitch,” it has fared pretty well against right-handed batters. Henderson has the look of a pitcher who may have graduated from this list next time the voting takes place, because he appears to have grabbed hold of a rotation spot, with Chad Patrick moving into more of a bullpen role. #9 OF Josh Adamczewski -- Up three spots from #12 Adamczewski has been destroying Midwest League pitching this season. After a slow start at the level in a small sample to close out the 2025 season, Adamczewski has returned with a vengeance. He’s currently posting a .992 OPS and a 150 wRC+. He has already surpassed his career high in home runs with seven (previously five in 2025), and he’s also kept his strikeout rate under 20%. His move to left field has also gone well, showing instincts that are better than expected, given his relative inexperience out there. Having just been added to Baseball America’s Top 100 this week, Adamczewski could continue his climb up this list over the course of this season. He could also continue his climb through the system, as a Double-A call-up feels like it can’t be too far away if he keeps up this production for much longer. #13 OF Braylon Payne -- Up three spots from #16 Payne got off to a really hot start this season. He’s cooled off a bit over the last couple of weeks, but has still settled into an .863 OPS and a 118 wRC+ for the Timber Rattlers. His season has been highlighted by his ability to tap into even more raw power, both in terms of his exit velocities and his ability to hit the ball in the air. His PullAir% of 20.0% is in the 85th percentile for High-A hitters. One of his home runs left the bat at 115 MPH earlier this season. He’s also a plus-plus runner, though his 8/11 success rate on stolen bases leaves something to be desired. The defense has taken a step forward in center, where his athleticism is always on display. The reads and jumps still need some work, but they are better than in 2025. Payne has the tools to be a power and speed threat, though he will still need to curb his whiffs (33.2%) and limit his strikeouts (27.4%) as much as possible. Biggest Fallers #18 3B Brock Wilken -- Down three spots from #15 Wilken got off to a very slow start in 2026, though he is currently in the midst of a 28-game on-base streak. During that stretch, he is posting a 118 wRC+ and has walked almost as much as he has struck out. The overall numbers are far less encouraging, though, as evidenced by his 77 wRC+ and his 28.5% strikeout rate. We will likely find out which version of Wilken is closest to the real version over the next couple of months. #11 RHP Bishop Letson -- Down two spots from #9 Letson has gotten off to a tough start in Double-A this season. The walks have skyrocketed this season, rising from 7.5% in 2025 to 15.7% in 2026. The ERA is at 6.75, and the FIP is over 6 as well. The strikeouts are down nearly 10% as well. All that said, Letson’s stuff looks to be in a similar spot to where it was in the past, even getting the velocity up a bit higher than in the past. Letson’s drop is likely due more to the players below him forcing their way up the list, but he will need to rein in the command moving forward and limit walks at a much higher level to reach his full potential. Thank you to all of you who voted! View the full article

It's difficult to overstate the value that Michael Conforto has brought to the Chicago Cubs early in 2026. A minor-league signing coming off a brutal season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the original perception of Conforto's role was, at best, as temporary depth while Seiya Suzuki worked his way back to full health. Instead, he's gained an increased role in recent weeks on the heels of a torrid stretch of play. As of the series in Atlanta, Conforto is carrying a slash of .340/.448/.617 with a gaudy 198 wRC+. He's striking out more than the Cubs would probably like (25.9 percent), but he's also walking more than 17 percent of the time. Add it all up, and he has been worth 0.6 fWAR for the Cubs in barely 60 plate appearances. It's all a far cry from where he sat last year with the Dodgers when his line read .199/.305/.333 with a wRC+ of just 83 (-0.6 fWAR) across more than 480 PA. What's particularly important in the case of Conforto is that this isn't a player merely flashing despite questionable peripherals. Sure, he's due for some regression on the merit of his .452 batting average on balls in play by itself, but he's also driving the baseball. His 54.5 percent hard-hit rate exceeds his career average by about 13 percent while his 15.2 Barrel% is nearly five full percent better than his career mark. We know good things happen when hitters pull the ball in the air, and Conforto is deploying those contact metrics to the tune of a 30.3 PullAIR%. In short, it's not blind luck driving the start. He's been legitimately good. In general, this performance seems to be driven by his approach. Conforto's swing rate is down, with a 40.2 percent number that would be the lowest of his career if it holds up over the full season. What's more is that his chase rate has fallen to just 20.5 percent (also the lowest of his career). Perhaps most importantly, as the chase rate has plummeted, the in-zone swing rate has remained steady. He's working with a 64.2 percent swing rate on pitches inside the zone that represents just a two percent decrease from last season. It's not solely about the eye, though. There are also mechanical tweaks at play. Conforto's attack angle is up to 13 degrees in 2026 after falling to 10 degrees last season. It's a steeper swing and one that reads around league average (10 degrees), but when you combine the improved approach with a swing generating fly ball contact, you're able to find the type of early results that Conforto is producing. Of course, it's important to note the managerial component within all of this as well. While a recent scuffling from the Cubs' offense at large has forced Craig Counsell to insert Conforto into the lineup with greater regularity, he's also shielding him entirely from left-handed pitching. Conforto isn't as drastically bad against pitchers of the same handedness as some lefty hitters may be, but he did go for a wRC+ of just 76 against them last year. As such, Counsell has sent Conforto to the plate against a left-handed pitcher just a single time this season. That's certainly something not to be overlooked in matters of his early run. As impressive as Michael Conforto has been, the regression monster is something that's going to continue to loom, especially in the case of a player that hasn't experienced sustained offensive success since, realistically, 2019. In short, that regression is going to come at some point. The batted ball fortune alone is indicative of that inevitability. However, the trends which Conforto has demonstrated to date do offer some encouragement that he can continue to be a regular contributor to the offensive output. When you put a player in a position to succeed, as Counsell has, while said player demonstrates a command of the strike zone and uses that command toward making meaningful contact with the baseball, it's going to yield positive results. Given those two factors, it isn't a surprise that Conforto has good; it's merely a pleasant turn of events that he's been such an uplifting force in the lineup. View the full article

On Tuesday night at Target Field, Bailey Ober threw a complete shutout on just 89 pitches against the Miami Marlins. It was a rarity in its own right — Twins starters don't complete a game very often — but the efficiency of his performance was almost unheard of in these times. The only starter in Twins history to throw a shutout on fewer pitches, per Aaron Gleeman, was Bill Krueger (85) back in 1992. It was around that time, the first of Greg Maddux's four consecutive Cy Young seasons, that the term "Maddux" was being coined in reference to a shutout recorded on a double-digit pitch total. The Hall of Famer would also gain repute for his ability to dominate with relatively sub-par velocity. Coincidentally, earlier in the day on Tuesday I happened to be dinking around on Baseball Reference and looking through Carlos Silva's 2005 game log. The backstory is that I've been piecing together a list of my most vivid personal memory from each of the past 25 Twins seasons, and for '05 it was Silva's 74-pitch shutout against the Brewers in May. This was the pinnacle outing from Silva's career — a perfect encapsulation of the strike-throwing groundballer at his best — and the epitome of Twins pitching philosophy from that era. Silva debuted in the majors in 2002, the same year as Rick Anderson became Minnesota's pitching coach, and two years later he was acquired by the Twins alongside Punto in the Eric Milton trade. Silva's stylistic alignment to Anderson's "pitch-to-contact" prototype undoubtedly played a role in the Twins targeting him. And sure enough, the right-hander mostly served as a proof point for the wisdom of such an approach at the time. With the exception of his ugly 2006 campaign, Silva was mostly a reliable, ultra-efficient innings eater with above-average ERAs for the Twins. That 2005 season was his best: he posted a 3.44 ERA (130 ERA+) in 188 ⅓ innings while issuing just nine walks all year. Silva achieved this success with a 9.5% strikeout rate (3.4 K/9) — just 71 strikeouts in 27 starts. The lowest strikeout rate in baseball today belongs to Adrian Houser at 12.2%. To look back through his game log now is almost incomprehensible up against the context of modern-day pitching. Deep counts just really didn't exist against Carlos Silva. He threw it over the plate and said, "Come get it," knowing that the movement on his middling 90ish-MPH fastball and oft-used changeup would succeed in inducing weak contact most of the time. As a result, his pitch counts were shockingly low. In 2005, Silva completed seven or more innings in 21 of his 27 starts, but surpassed 100 pitches in an outing only twice all year. You contrast that with the current environment, where starters rarely venture into the seventh or eighth because their pitch counts have already piled up on longer, strikeout-chasing ABs, and it feels like almost a different game. And in many respects, it was. Baseball has changed in fundamental ways over the past 21 years. A pitcher like Silva probably could not succeed in 2026, and would likely be unable to even tread water. Ober is doing it though. Granted, his traits are not as extreme as Silva or some of the other standard-bearers from the pitch-to-contact era like Brad Radke and Nick Blackburn, but Ober leverages similar ingredients in his recipe. Throw strikes, hit your spots, induce ground balls, lean on the offspeeds. "The lost art of pitching," as Ober calls it. Ober's 35.5% GB rate is not conventionally high but it's the highest of his career. He's attacking the fringes of the zone with the highest called-strike rate of his career (17.3%). And he's throwing more (better) changeups than ever before: 36.2% of the time, with a .167 batting average allowed. The economical pitch usage enables Ober to routinely pitch deeper into games than other starters, which has ancillary positive effects on the bullpen. The Twins as a team have had three complete games thrown over the past three seasons and Ober was behind all of them. This year, he's gotten through at least six innings in five of his past six starts, and he's on pace to reach 200 innings. A throwback, indeed. Time will tell if Ober can keep rolling like this, especially given the quality of the defense backing up all this contact — he definitely has his skeptics — but it's already gone on long enough that it's difficult to characterize his success is a total fluke. As long as he can stay on track, I'm just going to enjoy the ride and bask in the nostalgia. View the full article

The Florida/Miami Marlins have won a franchise-record nine straight games on five separate occasions. It was first achieved on this day 30 years ago. Against the St. Louis Cardinals at Joe Robbie Stadium on May 14, 1996, the Florida Marlins used a six-run eighth to break the tie and cruise to victory, 11-5. The Marlins had taken a 5-4 lead with three runs in the bottom of the seventh. In the top of the eighth, however, Ray Lankford drew the Cardinals even with a solo home run off Florida’s Terry Mathews. Jeff Parrett remained on the hill for St. Louis in the bottom of the inning. After getting Jeff Conine to line out to open the inning, Parrett issued three straight walks to load the bases and end his night. The Cardinals turned to Rick Honeycutt, but the left-hander fared no better in getting outs. Joe Orsulak rolled Honeycutt’s second pitch of the night up the middle for a two-run single. Devon White followed with an RBI double on the seventh pitch of the at-bat to extend the lead to 8-5. Alex Arias followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 9-5 before Greg Colbrunn was safe on a fielder’s choice to extend the lead to 10-5. Conine made two of the three outs in the inning for Florida, but his second plated White to cap the scoring. Yorkis Pérez retired the Cardinals in order in the ninth to end the contest and run Florida’s winning streak to nine. White and Arias each finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Colbrunn went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Lankford and Ozzie Smith each had two hits for St. Louis. With the victory, Florida improved to 20-21 but missed the opportunity to get to .500 for the first time that season as it fell to the Cardinals the following day, 6-0. The Marlins would briefly get over .500 in 1996 before finishing 80-82 – their best season ever at the time. Although they’ve never hit double digits, the Marlins also won nine straight games in 2004, twice in 2006 and in 2008. It was first achieved, thanks in part to a six-run eighth inning, on this day three decades ago. View the full article

Fresh out of jail, Mark Lemongello went looking for work. After a year out of baseball, Lemongello called Toronto Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick and asked for another shot with the organization. He had last pitched in the majors with the Blue Jays in 1979, and it was a disaster. The general manager told Lemongello they would talk once his legal issues were resolved, but Gillick must’ve known that the Pinellas County District Attorney’s case was pretty strong. There was no way Lemongello was going to pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays again. Lemongello couldn’t handle losing. He didn’t hate to lose like the average ballplayer; no, defeat turned Lemongello into a different being. He tore up clubhouses and destroyed their vending machines. He once took scissors to his uniform, shredding it to pieces. Following a particularly painful loss, he threw french fries at a waitress when he received them instead of a baked potato with his post-game steak. “If a little thing happens on the mound, he’ll go crazy,” said his former minor league teammate Frank MacCormack. “I’ve had to hold him down on the bed in hotel rooms so he wouldn’t tear sinks off the wall, smash the TVs, and rip the lamps apart. Even then, he managed to smash a few.” The stories grew, and they were mostly true. One scouting report took the myth of Lemongello to another level, but it contained one of the few allegations he denied. After a bad outing on the mound, he was said to have dove headfirst into the food table and, quote, “JUST LAY THERE in hot dogs, burritos, mustard, ketchup.” After another, he was said to have bit into his shoulder so hard it bled. Not so, said Lemongello, and he had a scarless torso to prove it. “I’m a colourful personality, and I’ve done some things that I wish I hadn’t done, but I’m not nuts, and I’m not crazy,” he said. If there was anything that rivaled how much Lemongello hated losing, it was finding out he had been traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. It had been over a month since the Blue Jays brought in Lemongello in an offseason trade with Houston, and the team had yet to speak with him. One of the three players acquired for catcher Alan Ashby, Toronto hoped Lemongello would slot third in their rotation behind Tom Underwood and Jim Clancy for the upcoming ‘79 season. Now, they were hoping that he would just show up to camp. “All we can do is send a registered letter to his home,” said personnel man Elliot Wahle. It stood little chance of being answered. Lemongello was in the wind, not thrilled with the idea of being a Blue Jay and having to live in Canada. Describing a move north as “10 steps backwards for me,” the Arizona-born Lemongello told the Ottawa Journal that he was not reporting to the organization and vanished. He took a long trip to the Grand Canyon, then took an even longer drive cross-country to New Jersey, unreachable the entire time. Scrambling, the Blue Jays tried reaching out to Lemongello’s mother, who said she had no idea where her son was, but he did have a question, one that was relayed to the team and no doubt gave them their next sign of the trouble ahead. “What’s a Toronto?” Undeterred, team president Peter Bavasi dug deep. He heard that Lemongello worked at Coca-Cola bottling plants in the offseason and tried to get word to the pitcher that, hey, lifting crates in a cool climate might be better than the sweltering heat in Phoenix. As the end of January closed in, Bavasi was able to make contact with Lemongello’s agent, Gary Walker, who had also received a call from his client. Earning his dues, Walker brought the sides together. There was only one problem: Lemongello didn’t work at the soda plants. Either way, the pitcher was touched by Bavasi’s efforts to comfort him, and any fears of playing in Toronto had been run off, for now. Lemongello signed a two-year deal as spring training closed in. Saying he heard nothing but good things about the city, Lemongello explained he had been reeling and in shock after the trade. After all, no one wants to find out they are unwanted by their previous team. And everything about Canada? Simple geographic confusion. “It would have been different if I was traded to Montreal because I would still be in the same league as I had been (in Houston),” he said. “I didn’t even know where Toronto was.” Pitcher that hates losing, meet the team that loses most of all. Toronto lost over 100 games in each of its first two seasons, and the ‘79 season would turn out no different. The Blue Jays started the season 0-3 when Lemongello failed to make it out of the fifth inning in his first turn through the rotation, an 8-3 loss to Kansas City. By the end of April, the Blue Jays were 7-15, with three of those losses on the winless Lemongello. The anger inside the pitcher was building. “Any time he had a bad outing, he’d blame it on Canada,” said teammate Bob Bailor. The potential flashed, then the rage. Lemongello earned his first win of the year on May 13, a complete game effort in a 3-1 win over Texas on 108 pitches. The success was short-lived. In his next start, Lemongello fell victim to the long ball and then himself. Having already been taken deep by Andre Thornton and Dave Rosello, Lemongello was taken out in the sixth inning after another home run, this by Toby Harrah. What he did next in the dugout, in the wonderfully descriptive words of Alison Gordon in the Toronto Star, was "alarmingly self-destructive in nature." Now 10-27 on the season, the Blue Jays and the self-battered Lemongello got a shot at Cleveland the next week at Exhibition Stadium. With one away in the third inning of Lemongello’s start, manager Roy Hartsfield ordered an intentional walk to load the bases for Thornton. A high fastball to the Cleveland slugger ended in the same fate as the last week’s pitch, the first ever grand slam surrendered by Lemongello in the majors. When Cleveland went ahead 7-5 on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, Hartsfield had seen enough. So had Lemongello. As the manager approached the mound to remove him from the game, Lemongello showed Hartsfield ultimate disrespect, flipping the ball past his outstretched hand on his way to the dugout. No one talked about the incident afterwards, but the crime committed was clear in the eyes of Hartsfield. The punishment was severe. When it came time for Lemongello to start again, he didn’t. Lemongello wasn’t pitching anywhere good enough (1-6, 6.46 ERA) to warrant more starts, but his outburst was the final straw. He was now the final man on the depth chart, pitching mop-up innings from the ‘pen or taking reluctantly-given spot starts around doubleheaders. He was supposed to start the first game of a double dip against Baltimore on June 29, but instead, Toronto called up Dave Stieb from Triple-A to make his first career start. Stieb would start 407 more games in his career for the Blue Jays; Lemongello would only pitch in another three. Lemongello pitched in relief later in the series, and six Orioles’ hitters got him for two runs on three hits. He wouldn’t pitch again until his birthday, 20 days later. He recorded eight outs against the Twins, and the outing was his final good major league appearance. The frustration over his non-existent role was reaching an apex. “I know I can pitch,” he said. “I was a regular starter on one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, and here I am not pitching on one of the worst.” Two nights later, on July 23, Lemongello would exit the majors in a way befitting him. With under 8,000 in attendance at Metropolitan Stadium, Lemongello entered a tied ballgame in the eighth inning and retired 9-1-2 in the Twins’ lineup. The Jays were held scoreless in the top half of the ninth, and Hartsfield left his pitcher in the game. After he got the first out, Bombo Rivera tripled off Lemongello to deep center. The winning run was 90 feet away, and Lemongello and Hartsfield would have their final disagreement on how to deal with it. Hartsfield intended to walk the next two hitters to set up a force at every base and signaled his pitcher to do so. When he saw the sign, Lemongello started shaking his head in disagreement towards the skipper in the dugout. He was already mad at Hartsfield for having him warm up on multiple occasions during the game, but when the phone rang in the bullpen, it was for Tom Buskey to enter and then for Tom Underwood. Each call down from the skipper for someone other than him felt like a slap in the face. Despite being tasked with a high-leverage situation, Lemongello entered the game pissed. With catcher Rick Cerone standing up for the first intentional pass, Lemongello sailed the first pitch well over his catcher’s head. Rivera couldn’t score from third, so the game continued, and Hartsfield had to be restrained from running onto the field after his pitcher. The next seven balls were uneventful, and the bases were now loaded. On the third pitch of the at-bat to Minnesota pinch-hitter Mike Cubbage, Lemongello uncorked a wild pitch, this time allowing Rivera to score, giving the Twins the walk-off victory. A few days later, the job of telling Lemongello he was being demoted fell on Gillick. As Bavasi sat outside of the meeting, Lemongello stormed out, shouting he would take vengeance. When Bavasi went into the room, he saw a shaken general manager. On his way out, Lemongello hurled one last one high and wide – an ashtray that would firmly implant itself into an interior wall at Exhibition Stadium. Verbal threats accompanied his tirade, and Bavasi reported the altercation to major league officials, who had a word with Lemongello before he reported to Triple-A Syracuse. Lemongello turned his season around in the minors. He won three of his four starts, threw a three-hit shutout in the first game of the playoffs, and started a crucial game five in the International League championship. Steve Grilli would get the win in relief, and Syracuse moved a game away from the title before losing the next two to Columbus, including a walk-off in 12 innings in game seven. Sadly, there is no record of how Lemongello took that loss, but his performance in the minors would keep him in the Blue Jays’ plans for 1980. Not in Toronto’s plans was Hartsfield, who was fired, and where most of the blame for the Lemongello situation was laid in the offseason. Sure, the guy punches himself in the face, but the manager was his downfall. Hartsfield was no peach, but that line of thought was cope for a front office hoping new manager Bobby Mattick would turn a new leaf with Lemongello, who entered spring training in competition for a roster spot. It didn’t go well. He was middling in some appearances at best and hit hard in others. Mattick rarely mentioned his name while talking about the Opening Day roster. In a last-chance game against the Twins, Lemongello was smacked around again, and his ERA for the spring ballooned over 10. In the press box, Twins public relations man Tom Mee joked that Lemongello’s line for the day was “one inning pitched, two hits, two runs, both earned, two hit batters, and a one-way ticket to Syracuse." A week later, Lemongello was gone, his contract unceremoniously sold to the Chicago Cubs organization. Gillick’s headache was a thing of the past. Lemongello reported to Double-A Wichita and sucked in his final professional season. He surrendered 11.1 hits per nine innings, pitching for the Aeros, where he met another wayward pitcher on the staff. Manny Seoane had pitched briefly in the majors a few years prior, and with neither him nor Lemongello headed back to the bigs, the duo looked for their next payday. Sources are linked throughout as usual, but I wanted to shout out two pieces in particular: Malcolm Allen and his Lemongello biography from the invaluable SABR, as well as the late Earl McRae and his feature on the pitcher in the May 12, 1979 edition of the Toronto Star and their invaluable archives. (photo credit: Toronto Star) One has to wonder what Joe Sambito was thinking. One of the best lefty relievers in the National League in the late 70s, Sambito was once roommates with Lemongello while the two were on the Astros. Despite intimate knowledge of his former teammate's erraticness, when it came to building a new home, Sambito entrusted Lemongello. After all we have read about Lemongello, why would you invest with him? But Sambito did. And now Sambito found himself on the wrong end of a gun being pointed by none other than Lemongello himself. The shadiness of the situation wasn’t entirely on Lemongello. It was, in fact, a family business. Lemongello’s cousins – Peter, a professional crooner, and Mike, a professional bowler – were building houses under Heron Development Corp. in Florida, and the ex-Wichita teammates joined the scheme. Lemongello had connected Sambito with his cousins, and now, neither party was happy. Cost overruns and shoddy worksmanship plagued Sambito’s property. On this day, he was meeting with the cousins at the construction site to discuss a few things. Sambito’s future home was also where Lemongello and Seoane were headed. They were feeling slighted as well, having not received a cent in commission for the referral of Sambito. Deciding to take it for themselves, they took the cousins at gunpoint. When Sambito tried to intervene, Lemongello aimed his revolver at him. Sambito wasn’t playing hero, and off the cousins went, forced into a bank to hand over $50,000 from a security box to Lemongello and Seoane, before they were dropped off in a wooded area. Lemongello would turn himself in, and before he made the call to Gillick, he blabbed to authorities. Based on what Lemongello said, Peter was arrested for arson and insurance fraud and ended up with 10 years’ probation. For the robbery, Lemongello received seven years’ probation, and by the time his sentence was over, the Blue Jays were on their way to their ‘90s successes. They were a long way from the organization that once employed Lemongello. View the full article

Following the 2024 Rule 5 Draft, there was little hope for Angel Bastardo to return to the Boston Red Sox organization. Despite having Tommy John surgery in June of 2024 and expected to miss all of 2025, the Blue Jays still took a flier on the right-hander. It was a surprise to some, as Bastardo had struggled since being promoted to Portland near the end of the 2023 season, having gone 0-6 with a 5.28 ERA in 13 starts between 2023 and 2024. The Blue Jays planned to have him potentially be in the bullpen for 2026, but after a spring training where he flashed potential but couldn’t quite put it all together for the defending American League champions, the team decided to return him to the Red Sox on April 1 after designating him for assignment. On April 21, he finally made his return to the mound as a member of the Red Sox. The right-hander tossed one inning out of the bullpen, walking two while striking out three batters. There were some moments of wildness from the pitcher, and by the end of the outing he had thrown 27 pitches. “The ball just jumps out of his hand, so I was pretty excited,” former Worcester manager Chad Tracy explained when asked if anything really stood out during Bastardo’s Triple-A debut. “The first hitter I was seeing a bunch of 97 [miles per hour]. I’m like, this is a great looking arm.” It wasn’t all positives for Bastardo, however, as rust was prevalent for the pitcher as noted by Tracy. Of the 27 pitches he threw, 12 of them were balls and he did end up throwing some non-competitive pitches. “He did lose some balls, like up arm side for some non-competitive fastballs. I mostly attribute that to it being his first outing, so we got to keep an eye on that as we go forward,” Tracy continued to explain about the young pitcher. In the outing, there were multiple opportunities to get out of the inning sooner than he did, but the young pitcher still managed to escape the frame without allowing a run to score. The Worcester manager was overall impressed with the outing, especially from a stuff standpoint along with the way the ball. If Bastardo can consistently throw strikes and have his stuff look as it did in his debut on a regular basis, there is a real shot he could make it to the major leagues one day. Despite it being over a year since he had his surgery, the team will be cautious with Bastardo. “He threw one inning [on Tuesday], Saturday we got him scheduled for a couple innings. I don’t think it’s gonna be 45 pitches or anything, but he will. We’re looking for multiple ups. I don’t have the full thing but I know initially a lot of his outings will be picked and scripted out, rather than like most of my bullpen where if they’re up we can use them whenever. We’ll lay out his [Bastardo’s] days right now,” Tracy detailed on April 24 when asked what the plan might be for Bastardo as he builds up his pitch count and gets stretched out. Don't expect him to immediately go back to starting, as Tracy turned down the idea. At least for right now. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to our front office about that like, I think that could be possible, but I don’t think it’s in the immediate plans right now. It’s mostly just stretching out outings as a reliever and getting built up appropriately before we say now you can just be used as a normal reliever." Overall on the season, the young right-hander has appeared in five games, tossing 8 2/3 innings while allowing four earned runs. Over that span, he's struck out 13 batters while walking six. As a pitcher, Bastardo relies on a four-pitch mix with his four-seam fastball making up over half of his pitch usage at 52.3%. His changeup is used 32.6% of the time while the slider is used 12.8% and his curveball makes up the remaining 2.3%. Of the four pitches, his changeup may be his best pitch; through his first few outings this year, batters had a .187 xwOBA and a .150 xSLG against it. Despite making just a few appearances thus far while working back to full strength, Bastardo could be a valuable piece for the Worcester bullpen as they deal with a fluctuating roster. Should Bastardo continue to thrive in Triple-A while rediscovering the form that made him a Rule 5 pick in the first place, he could quickly be on the radar of Tracy in Boston. View the full article

Transactions: DSL Brewers Gold released RHP Linbel Jimenez. Game Action: Nashville pre-game media notes Nashville 4, Iowa (Cubs) 1 Box Score As always, you are encouraged to read the official round-up from the team’s site: Vihuelas Exercise Demonios with 4-1 Final The Nashville Sounds secured a 4-1 victory over the Iowa Cubs at First Horizon Park, propelled by a dominant collective effort on the mound and a balanced offensive effort. Offensively, the Sounds found their spark in the third inning when Ramon Rodríguez launched a solo home run to right-center, erasing an early Iowa lead. Highlight here courtesy of the Sounds X Account: The momentum stayed with Nashville in the fifth, as the team played some small ball to break the game open. A single, steal, walk, and hit by pitch loaded the bases for Cooper Pratt. Pratt drove in a run on a ground out, before Luis Lara socked a single to center (video) to make it 3-1 Nashville. Lara was once again the standout at the plate for Nashville, finishing with three hits and a run scored. Lara’s 50 hits on the season are second-most in the International League. Brock Wilken added some late-inning insurance in the eighth with a funky triple to plate a run (video), finishing the night with two hits and providing the pitching staff with more than enough cushion to close out the win. On the mound, Thomas Pannone delivered with a season-high four innings and four strikeouts. Easton McGee earned his fourth win of the season with two scoreless frames, followed by Peter Strzelecki and Blake Holub, who combined to allow just two hits over the final three innings. Holub’s clean ninth inning earned him his first save of the year, punctuated by a strikeout to end the contest. Coleman Crow takes the mound on Thursday for the Sounds, who now sit three games above .500. Biloxi pre-game media notes Biloxi 11, Montgomery (Rays) 3 Box Score Shuckers Burn Biscuits 11-3 The Shuckers picked up where they left off after Tuesday's late rally by toasting the Biscuits in a convincing 11-3 victory. The scoring started early with a and RBI ground out from Matthew Wood in the second. In the third, Damon Keith and Mike Boeve provided run scoring singles to pad the lead to 4-0. You can check out both singles here, courtesy of the Biloxi X account: The middle innings proved to be the breaking point for Montgomery, as Biloxi, aided by some defensive miscues, put up four runs in the sixth to effectively put the game out of reach. Blake Burke had an RBI single: While O’Rae and Jesus Made plated runs on a sac fly (video) and ground out. Boeve was once again the straw stirring the drink for the Shuckers, a night after his clutch two-run home run in the 9th inning. Boeve turned in a stellar 3-for-5 performance with two RBIs and a double. In the month of May, Boeve has a .355/.429/.613 (1.042 OPS) slash line with 11 RBI in nine games. Maybe more impressively, Boeve has cut down both on his whiff rate (32.6% in April to 16.4% in May) as well as his strikeout rate (27.5% in April to just 6.7% in May). Wood provided the finishing touches with a solo home run in the eighth inning, his third home run in his last six games: Nearly every starter contributed, with seven different Shuckers recording at least one RBI, showing the depth of this Biloxi roster. The Shuckers’ speed was also on full display as O’Rae, Made, Keith, and Boeve all swiped bases, On the mound, Manuel Rodriguez earned his third win of the season, delivering five solid innings and navigating through six hits to allow only two earned runs. The Shuckers’ bullpen was equally impressive as Jesus Broca, Cameron Wagoner, and Nick Merkel combined to shut the door over the final four frames, racking up four strikeouts and allowing just one run. With the win, Biloxi moves within two wins of the .500 mark. Tanner Gillis is slated to make his first start (eighth appearance) of the season on Thursday. Oh, and yes, with Konnor Griffin "graduating", this is now official (article link): Wisconsin pre-game media notes Wisconsin 11, South Bend (Cubs) 6 Box Score Wisconsin Outlasts South Bend Wisconsin put on an offensive clinic at Neuroscience Group Field, racking up 14 hits to overpower South Bend in an 11-6 victory. The Rattlers wasted no time asserting their dominance, erupting for five runs in the second inning to chase the Cubs' starter early. In total, five Rattlers starters had multi-hit days. Tayden Hall led the charge with a four RBI performance, including two doubles, while Josh Adamczewski stayed hot with a three-hit game and a steal. Braylon Payne doubled twice, walked twice, scored twice and stole a base. Eric Bitonti had two hits, two walks, three runs scored and a steal. Bitonti now has a .961 OPS in the month of May despite striking out 18 times in 36 at-bats, Juan Baez provided the exclamation point in the eighth, launching a two-run home run to left to put the game out of reach. You can check out all the highlights here: On the mound, Yorman Galindez (2IP 5H 4R 4ER 3BB 2) once again labored through a short start. The newly promoted Garrett Hodges earned his first win of the season despite walking four and hitting a batter in two innings in his first appearance for Wisconsin. However, it was Braylon Owens who stole the show in relief. Owens tossed five dominant frames, striking out six and allowing just one run to earn the rare five-inning save. Owens, a 10th round pick last year, now has 46 strikeouts in 31.1 IP at Wisconsin this season. With this win, the Timber Rattlers improve to 20-13, maintaining their hold on first place in the Midwest West division. Another 2025 draft pick, lefty J.D. Thompson will take the mound for Appleton on Thursday. Wilson pre-game media notes Hill City (Guardians) 7, Wilson 3 Box Score Warbirds Use Rally to Extend Game, Fall in Extras Despite a resilient late-inning comeback to force extra innings, Wilson ultimately fell 7-3 to Hill City in a 10-inning heartbreaker at Wilson Ballpark. Jayden Dubanewicz was a bright spot in his 2026 Carolina League debut. The 20-year-old righty threw three scoreless innings allowing just two singles while striking out five. The game was scoreless until the fifth, when a throwing error on a potential double play brought in the first run of the game off Tyler Renz (4.2 IP 3H 4R 3ER 4BB 1K). Renz has now issued 22 free passes in 31.1 IP on the season. Hill City added two more in the sixth inning to give them a 3-0 lead. The Warbirds finally got on the board in the seventh when Jose Anderson doubled, stole third, and scored on a Juan Ortuno single (video). The Anderson steal was the Warbirds’ only successful base thievery on a day that saw the team caught stealing three times. The score remained 3-1 until the bottom of the ninth. Brady Ebel started the rally by taking one for the team on an HBP. With one out, Frederi Montero doubled to put the tying runs into scoring position for Ortuno. After an Ortuno RBI ground out put Wilson on the brink of defeat, Pedro Ibarguen snuck a single through the infield to tie the game (video). Unfortunately, Hill City struck for four runs in the extra frame to squash any notion of a walk-off win for Wilson. With the loss, Wilson falls to 15-20 on the season. 2025 3rd round pick Jacob Morrison will look to snap the Warbirds’ three game losing streak when he takes the mound on Thursday. Morrison (7 IP 0 ER) will look to continue his scoreless streak to start his professional career in his third start. Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Batting Stats and Depth Current Milwaukee Brewers Organization Pitching Stats and Depth View the full article

Jesus A. Castro struck out a career-high nine as Lake Elsinore beat Rancho Cucamonga 4-0. The San Antonio Missions got a ninth-inning sacrifice fly for a 4-3 walk-off victory. The Fort Wayne TinCaps gave up a lated lead for a 4-3 walk-off loss to the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The El Paso Chihuahuas gave up seven runs in the sixth inning en route to a 12-4 loss. Chihuahuas Surrender 7-Spot In Setback To Bees Box score Two errors contributed to another huge inning by the opposition as the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas gave up 11 runs over the last four innings in a 12-4 loss to the Salt Lake Bees. The Chihuahuas led 4-2 before coughing up a seven-run sixth inning that featured three consecutive doubles. Anthony Vilar went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a run scored, while Pablo Reyes extended his on-base streak to 29 games by going 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. The Chihuahuas scored all their runs in the fifth inning. Trailing 1-0, Nick Schnell had a leadoff single and Vilar doubled him to third. Jase Bowen plated the first run with a sacrifice fly to tie it. After a strikeout for the second out, Will Wagner hit an opposite-field RBI single to left for a 2-1 lead. Nick Solak walked and Reyes grounded a single to left to bring in Wagner. Reyes and Solak pulled off a double steal, with Solak swiping home to cap the four-run rally. Salt Lake scored once in the fifth before erupting for seven in the sixth and three in the eighth. EP_0513.mp4 Missions Manufacture Walk-Off Victory Over Wind Surge Box score A walk, a steal and two sacrifices, including Francisco Acuna's fly to center field, produced the winning run as the Double-A San Antonio Missions rallied past the Wichita Wind Surge 4-3 for their fifth consecutive victory. Left-handed starter Jagger Haynes struck out seven in 6⅔ innings, the longest outing by a Missions pitcher this year. Haynes had gone a season-high six innings in each of his last two starts and fell one out shy of his career best, set in 2024 with Lake Elsinore. Haynes gave up three runs on five hits and didn't issue a walk. Haynes gave up a pair of runs in the top of the third on a homer, but the Missions came back to tie the game in the bottom half. Acuna singled, Carson Tucker had a one-out single and Kair Murphy reached on a throwing error by the catcher to load the bases. Leandro Cedeno hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Acuna and Tucker came home when the catcher threw wildly to second to tie it 2-2. Wichita took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh on a single off Haynes and three straight walks by Missions right-hander Francis Pena. The Missions tied it in the bottom of the eighth when Kai Murphy doubled, went to third on a groundout and scored on Tirso Ornelas' sac fly to right. In the bottom of the ninth, Braedon Karpathios walked and was replaced by pinch-runner Kai Roberts, who stole second. Luis Verdugo bunted Roberts to third and Acuna hit his walk-off sac fly to center. Romeo Sanabria went 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, while Tucker went 2-for-4 with a run scored. SA_0513.mp4 TinCaps Have All The Hits, But Not The Win In Walk-Off Loss Box score A standout start by High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps right-hander Maikel Mirrales was undone by a late rally by the host Cedar Rapids Kernels, who earned a 4-3 walk-off victory against closer Clay Edmondson. The TinCaps outhit the Kernels 13-5 and drew seven walks to Cedar Rapids' 1, which led to Fort Wayne stranding 17 runners on base, one shy of a club record. Miralles went a season-best five innings, allowing two hits on four hits and a walk while striking out six, including the final three batters he faced. Miralles, in fact, set down the final seven Kernels in a row. But he left the game trailing 2-1 after the Kernels scored twice in the second and the TinCaps once in the top of the fifth on a Zach Evans triple and Jack Costello's RBI single. Fort Wayne grabbed the lead in the top of the eighth as Lamar King Jr. hit his first triple of the season and Alex McCoy cranked his sixth homer of the season, an opposite-field two-run shot to right for a 3-2 edge. The TinCaps had an opportunity to tack on a run in the top of the ninth after Jack Costello had a leadoff double, but the next three batters were retired. Edmondson entered the game not having allowed a run in 14⅓ innings this season, notching seven saves. An error by Evans, the third baseman, opened the inning and the runner moved to second on a groundout. The next batter hit an RBI double to tie the game. A passed ball by King on a strikeout put runners on the corners, then a sacrifice fly won for the Kernels. King, Padres Mission's No. 10 prospect, did extend his on-base streak to 24 games, while McCoy—Padres Mission's No. 12 prospect—had his second three-hit game of the year. FW_0513.mp4 Jesus Castro Strikes Out 9 As Storm Blank Quakes Box score Right-handed starter Jesus A. Castro struck out a career-high nine and combined with three relievers on a nine-hit shutout as the host Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm blanked the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 4-0. It was the second shutout of the season for the Storm, who had a 21-0 win over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on April 9. The 18-year-old Castro went 5⅔ innings, matching his last outing, giving up seven hits and a walk while surpassing his previous high of eight strikeouts in a game set last year in the Dominican Summer League. He has struck out 16 in his last two games. Castro's nine-strikeout performance came a day after right-hander Winyer Chourio struck out 10 in a 4-3 win over the Quakes. Right-hander Carson Swilling got four outs, striking out three, while left-hander Joseph Herrera and right-hander Vicarte Domingo each pitched a scoreless inning. It was a 0-0 game until the Storm scored in the sixth. Luke Cantwell drew a one-out walk and Ryan Wideman singled to center. Ty Harvey grounded to the third base, who got the forceout at second, but an errant throw by the second baseman trying to complete the double play allowed Cantwell to score. In the seventh, the Storm broke it open. With two outs, George Bilecki singled and Dylan Grego and Bradley Frye walked to load the bases. Cantwell lined a single to center to score Bilecki and Grego for a 3-0 lead and Wideman singled to right to bring in Frye for a 4-0 advantage. LE_0513.mp4 View the full article

TRANSACTIONS RHP Sam Armstrong activated from 7-day IL (AA Wichita) Saints Sentinel St. Paul 3, Columbus 8 Box Score Trent Baker: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Ryan Kre5dler (2-for-5, 2B, RBI), Orlando Arcia (2-for-4, R), Hendry Mendez (3-for-4, 2B, R, RBI) The Saints let one slip by them on Wednesday. Everything began wonderfully. Starter Trent Baker was in a deep groove, allowing just one hit in his three innings—a knock that was later erased by a double play. He struck out four. St. Paul also found three runs. Hendry Mendrez drove a double to center to plate the game’s first run, and Aaron Sabato quickly singled in his friend to push the lead to two. A Ryan Kreidler screaming double in the following frame brought in a third score. Unfortunately, the Saints' bullpen struggled in the matchup, as the three hurlers following Baker all allowed multiple runs. That successive—or, rather, unsuccessful—streak turned what was a 3-0 advantage into an 8-3 deficit the Saints could never recover from. Daniel Espino pitched in relief for the Clippers on Wednesday. Some of you more avid prospect followers may remember Espino as Cleveland’s first-round pick in the 2019 draft. He was the One With the Golden Arm: the type of talented youngster apparently blessed by the gods with the ability to throw a baseball unlike anyone his age. He struck out 152 across 91 2/3 innings in 2021. That was his final remotely full season: Espino suffered chronic shoulder problems not long after 2022 started and missed all of 2023 and 2024. He’s back, but the magic is gone. A tragedy of the limitations of the human body. Clippers shortstop Angel Genoa ranks as the 47th-best prospect in MLB. He singled once in four trips to the plate. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 3, San Antonio 4 Box Score Eli Jones: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K HR: Billy Amick (10) Multi-hit games: Maddux Houghton (2-for-4, 2B, R) The Wind Surge were walked off on Wednesday. Tough luck for Eli Jones. The righty was excellent, striking out four in a hyper-efficient outing. Yet, his catcher—someone he’s supposed to be in cahoots with—committed a throwing error on back-to-back plays in the third, turning what could have been a ho-hum frame into a two-run quagmire that soiled an otherwise outstanding start. Wichita matched the runs with a gargantuan blast off Billy Amick’s bat in the bottom of the third. Good luck trying to see where the ball lands. Amick earned another RBI with a bases-loaded walk in the seventh, but San Antonio tied the game in the eighth. The ninth went no better. A walk begat a stolen base, which begat a sacrifice bunt, which begat a sacrifice fly to cap the rare no-hit run. Once again, this author is urging the good readers of this report to take notice of Alejandro Hidalgo. Yes, his ERA on the season is 6.75. So what. He now has 33 strikeouts in just 18 2/3 innings. That’s Hader-ish. There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. But it sure is fascinating. Though the Missions are the team of uber-prospect Ethan Salas, the best youngster in this match was outfielder Braedon Karpathios, ranked 10th in the system. He walked once in four plate appearances. Kernels Nuggets Cedar Rapids 4, Fort Wayne 3 Box Score Miguelangel Boadas: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K HR: None Multi-hit games: None The Kernels inexplicably won on Wednesday. Inexplicable in that the team was thoroughly outhit; struck out 11 times while taking just one walk; and only enjoyed six opportunities with runners in scoring position while their opponent had 19 such tries. In all likelihood, they should have lost. Yet, runs aren’t theoretical, and the nerds with their algorithms and abacuses sometimes suffer while watching the chaos of competition overrule the conceptual. Cedar Rapids scored their first two runs off a Jay Thomason double in the second. Fort Wayne answered with a run in the fifth, then struck again in the eighth to plate a pair and take the lead. Khadim Diaw reached on an error to start the ninth, which ushered in the frame that would win the game for the Kernels. Yasser Mercedes hit a mild grounder beyond the grasp of the TinCaps first baseman—an RBI single for all players, a two-bagger for the electric Mercedes. Then, a bizzarity. TinCaps pitcher Clay Edmonson, a sidewinder, fooled two people with his pitch: the batter, Rayne Doncon, who struck out looking; and his catcher, Lamar King Jr., who expected a different pitch, and whose attempt to adjust to the unexpected offering resulted in a ricochet into no man’s land. And that’s how a backwards K results in a man standing on first (Mercedes also advanced to third.) Miguel Briceno sent a sacrifice fly to right to win the game. The aforementioned King Jr. ranks as the 14th-best prospect in the Padres system; he collected two hits in five at-bats, tripling once. Mussel Matters Fort Myers 10, Bradenton 6 Box Score Merit Jones: 4 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K HR: Quentin Young (4), Quinn McDaniel (1) Multi-hit games: Quinn McDaniel (3-for-5, HR, 2 3B, 3 R, 5 RBI), Jayson Bass (2-for-4, 2B, R, RBI, BB), Bryan Acuña (2-for-4, 2B, R, RBI, BB) The Mighty Mussels smothered the Murauders on Wednesday. The Twins added Quinn McDaniel to their organization on Sunday; on Wednesday, he authored one of the finest hitting performances we’re likely to see from a player this season. He tripled in the third off the wall (and the center fielder’s head). Then he tripled again in the sixth. And, finally, he homered in the ninth (albeit off a position player). That’s one way to make an impression on your new teammates. Though McDaniel enjoyed the better night, perhaps the single best swing came from Quentin Young, who obliterated a 111 MPH liner off the beer stand in center field. You don’t see many 23-degree launch angle shots to that part of any ballpark. Fort Myers pitchers struck out 14 in the game. Merit Jones whiffed five, then Jake Murray K’d two, Mitch Mueller beguiled four, and Mike McKenna ended matters by mowing down the side in the ninth. The Murauders are members of the Pirates system. Though Seth Hernandez sits one level higher, the team nonetheless offered their 17th-ranked prospect on Wednesday, third baseman Murf Gray. He singled once in five at-bats. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Eli Jones Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Quinn McDaniel PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #2 – Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-3, R, 2 BB, 2 K #5 – Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, 2B, 3 K #10 – Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-5, 3 K #13 – Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 3-4, 2B, R, RBI #14 – Quentin Young (Fort Myers) - 1-5, HR, R, 2 RBI, 2 K #15 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, 3 K #17 – C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K #18 – James Ellwanger (Fort Myers) - DNP #19 – Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, R, K #20 – Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-3, K THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Columbus (6:37 PM) - LHP Aaron Rozek (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM) - RHP Sam Armstrong Fort Wayne @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - RHP Ivran Romero Fort Myers @ Bradenton (5:30 PM) - Ramiro Villanueva (0-0, 0.90 ERA) FCL Rays @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM) - TBD View the full article

On the night when they learned they were likely to be without top pitching prospect Robby Snelling , the Marlins were in desperate need of a feel-good game to get back on the winning path. Snelling, currently the club's second-ranked prospect, would be placed on the injured list with a UCL sprain. It is yet to be determined whether he will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Thanks to a nine-run outburst from the bats and a voluminous outing from Max Meyer, the Marlins got just that in their 9-5 win over the Minnesota Twins, a much-needed reprieve after being two-hit by Bailey Ober in the series opener. Making his first career Major League start in his home state and with Byron Buxton at his craw, Meyer gutted it through 5.2 innings of four-run ball in the winning effort. Now 3-0 to begin the season, Meyer has matched his previous career high in wins. "He grinded through this one a bit...he's come so far as a starter and now has many weapons in his arsenal," noted manager Clayton McCullough. On the evening, Meyer generated 22 whiffs on the 46 swings against him (48%), 11 of which came on behalf of his slider. As a result, the former first-round pick netted a season-high nine strikeouts. Four of Meyer's whiffs came on a retooled changeup, a pitch Meyer noted he and pitching coach Daniel Moskos were tinkering with pitch grips. "Felt like any other game this year, honestly," reflected Meyer on his first start in his home state. Facing the aforementioned Buxton, the first pitch Meyer threw in his home state landed in the left field stands of Target Field for Buxton's fourteenth home run of the season. Two innings later, again sitting on the first pitch, Buxton doubled up on Meyer for his fifteenth on the year, blasting his second home run in as many trips to the plate. At the plate, the Marlins got off to a fast start, with each of the first five Miami hitters reaching base against Simeon Woods-Richardson (3+ IP, 8 R). Of the 91 pitchers to throw at least 40 innings to this point in the season, none have a higher ERA than Woods-Richardson's 7.71, Following a two-run top of the first, Owen Caissie would break the game open for Miami when he sent his third home run of the season into the Twins bullpen in left-center in the top of the second. However, it would be the team's four-run fourth inning that proved the difference, as Joe Mack, Xavier Edwards, and Liam Hicks all authored run-scoring hits. Hicks became the fourth player in franchise history to collect at least 38 RBI in his first 40 games of the season. With the win, the Marlins improve to 20-23, even record-wise with third-place Philadelphia in the NL East. Notables - Pete Fairbanks, the club's closer and big-ticket free agent addition for the Marlins, was activated off the injured list (right thumb). - Leo Jiménez had three hits in the win on Wednesday, marking the second time in his career he's done so, Looking Ahead The Marlins will bid farewell to the Twins in 2026 in Thursday's season finale. Braxton Garrett (4.03 ERA) will make his first Major League appearance since June 17, 2024. First pitch from Target Field is slated for 1:40 EST. View the full article

Box Score SP: Simeon Woods-Richardson - 3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K (88 pitches, 48 strikes (49% strikes) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (15), Kody Clemens (4) 3 WPA: Simeon Woods-Richardson (-0.47), Luke Keaschall (-0.12), Matt Wallner (-0.07) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) We’re in Our ‘Fix the Starter’ Era After an absolute gem from Bailey Ober on Tuesday, the Twins handed the ball to Simeon Woods-Richardson heading into the night, still searching for his first win. Almost immediately, you could tell this would not be that night. He issued a walk to Xavier Edwards, and an error by Luke Keaschall on a ground ball by Liam Hicks doubled the trouble. Otto Lopez followed with an RBI single that should also have produced an out, and Kyle Stowers walked to load the bases. Connor Norby then hit into a double play that still brought in a run, giving Miami an early 2–0 lead. Victor Caratini threw out Jakob Marsee on an attempted steal to end the inning, but the defense had let Woods Richardson down—and he had done nothing to help himself. Minnesota answered right away. Byron Buxton led off the bottom of the first with a first-pitch solo home run, cutting the deficit to 2-1. It was a skyscraper, a high pitch Buxton hit very hard but clipped the bottom half of, but which still easily carried into the bleachers down the left-field line. But Miami kept applying pressure in the second inning, breaking through again with a two-run homer that stretched the lead to 4-1. Woods Richardson never really found a groove, and in fact, he hasn't found one all season. While the pitching struggled to settle in, Buxton kept the Twins alive. He struck again in the third inning, launching another first-pitch home run, giving the Twins their second run. After being burned on a high four-seamer, Max Meyer tried a low sinker. The result was different, in that Buxton hit a screaming liner this time. It was the same, in that he circled the bases with his 15th dinger of the year. Could he hit 40 before 2026 is over? It's absolutely in play. New Pitchers, Same Old Problems The first four batters of the top of the fourth inning reached against Woods Richardson, with two more scoring. Derek Shelton turned to his much-rested bullpen, but not the way he'd hoped he might be able to. Travis Adams entered in relief, but could do little damage control. A single through the drawn-in infield scored two more runs. Adams closed the barn door, but the horses were long gone. The Twins scored twice in the bottom of the fifth, on a well-placed double by Josh Bell, but Adams couldn't keep the game within slam range. Edwards tripled past the hopelessly immobile Matt Wallner in the sixth and came home on a fielder's choice, stretching the lead to 9-4 Miami. Justin Topa took over and minimized damage, though he hardly looked dominant in his first outing since having his own doors blown off a week ago. So It Goes… By the time the game reached the later innings, what had been a long, grinding contest finally began to settle into a quicker rhythm as both sides cycled through the bullpen. Luis García came out in the eighth inning and mopped up the mess. Tristan Gray made the second of two good catches on pop-ups behind third base; he looks more like the team's short-term regular third baseman every day. Kody Clemens offered one last jolt of life in the bottom of the eighth with a garbage-time home run. If he and Bell can get going again at the plate, the team will have a moral victory to take away from the loss. What’s Next? The Twins will close out against the interleague series with a rubber match tomorrow in an afternoon game at 12:40 PM CT, before the Brewers come over to continue the nine-game homestand. The Twins are expected to promote Triple-A starter Zebby Matthews for his first outing of the year. After rookie Robbie Snelling landed on the injured list, the Marlins will also reach into their farm system, for Braxton Garrett. Postgame Interviews Coming soon. Bullpen Availability Chart View the full article

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Robby Snelling was placed on the injured list due to a left elbow UCL sprain, the team announced prior to Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Twins. The corresponding move was to activate closer Pete Fairbanks off the IL. Manager Clayton McCullough announced that Braxton Garrett, who was in Triple-A, will get the start for the series finale on Thursday in Snelling's place. Fish On First's No. 2 prospect, Snelling made just one start at the big league level, going five innings allowing three runs on five hits, four walks and one strikeout. All three runs came in the first inning, then proceeded to throw four shutout innings. Snelling threw his pitch design on Tuesday and reported discomfort, per McCullough. "You work your entire life for the opportunity to become a Major League player, you come up, make your Major League debut and then for something to pop up like this very shortly after, it's disappointing," McCullough told reporters in Minnesota. "Robby is a very hard and tough young man, and whichever way this goes, he'll come back for it." Someone who went through a similar sequence of events was Max Meyer in 2022. Meyer made his Major League debut against the Philadelphia Phillies and after facing just one hitter in his second start, landed on the injured due to a right elbow sprain, later resulting in undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing the 2023 season. Fairbanks, who landed on the injured list due to right nerve irritation, is activated as the corresponding move for Snelling. In 10 appearances this season, he has a 10.00 ERA, 3.34 FIP, 13.00 K/9, 4.00 BB/9 and five saves. He is just five saves away from reaching 100 in his career. Starting on Thursday will be Braxton Garrett, who was supposed to start for Triple-A Jacksonville on Wednesday, but was scratched. No corresponding move has been made and the move to call-up Garrett has not been made official yet. Garrett, who's 2024 season was cut short due to left elbow UCL surgery, competed for a spot in the Marlins rotation during spring training, but lost out on the final spot to Janson Junk. In six Triple-A starts this season, Garrett has a 2.30 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 9.19 K/9 and 4.31 BB/9. He also threw a no-hitter in his fourth start of the season. In his most recent start, he allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits, three walks and six strikeouts. Five of his six strikeouts were swinging. "Just kept his head down, continued to throw and get built up after a lengthy absence of his own," McCullough said. "Was throwing the ball well in Jacksonville and he certainly is no stranger to performing at the Major League level. While disappointed for Robby, Brax has certainly pitched well here in the past and earned the chance to come back up here and be part of our our rotation. Expect Brax to fill it up, compete very well. He knows how to pitch. He knows how to change speeds, move the ball around, so he'll get to start tomorrow." Overall, his fastball is averaging 91.7 mph, generating a 10.5% whiff rate. His breaking pitches on the other hand, have been great. The slider, which he is throwing 22.8% of the time, is generating 41.9% whiff and has the highest psStuff+ amongst his pitches, per Prospect Savant. For Garrett, this will mark his first start in the big leagues since June of 2024. Expect a Marlins reliever to be optioned on Thursday morning to make room for him on the active roster. View the full article

It was like A.J. Ewing reminded the Mets how to play last night — working counts, laying off sliders out of the strikezone, not overswinging, an in the end, letting the Tigers beat themselves. But all the rookie centerfielders in the world can't stop flesh from tearing, and that's what happened to the Mets catcher. Transactions, 5/6/2026 GOING COMING Placed on 10-Day Injured List with Torn Right Meniscus Promoted from Syracuse Catchers Francisco Alvarez Hayden Senger R/R DoB: 2001-11-01 High Level: MLB (2026) R/R DoB: 1997-04-03 High Level: MLB (2026) Francisco Álvarez overswings. He's a hell of a talent and you hate to boil down his lack of breakthrough performances to one problem, but man does he overswing. It makes him start early, it keeps him from breaking his swings on bad pitches, it leads him to top the ball, it slows his exit from the box, and now it has wounded his knee. The good news is he's a crazy fast healer and that he tends to return from injury refocused and on his game. Those are way too rubbery a set of patterns to rely on, but let's help they hold true nonetheless. Hayden Senger is his designated replacement during his IL stints the last few years, and while his defense has been rock solid, nobody is missing his .484 career OPS. That said, while his Syracuse performance this season has produced a typically low batting average and on-base percentage, he's somehow found his power bat, and his six homers in Salt City are already a career high, and they are more than any Met (the Flushing kind) has hit this season. Meanwhile, we wish 2022 #11 overall draft pick Kevin Parada our best as his struggles continue in Binghamton. It's a tough game to figure out. Your 2026 New York Mets Starting Pitchers Clay Holmes Nolan McLean Freddy Peralta David Peterson Christian Scott R/R DoB: 1993-03-27 R/R DoB: 2001-07-24 R/R DoB: 2996-06-04 L/L DoB: 1995-09-03 R/R DoB: 1999-06-15 Relief Pitchers Huascar Brazobán Craig Kimbrel Sean Manaea Tobias Myers Brooks Raley Austin Warren Luke Weaver R/R DoB: 1989-10-15 R/R DoB: 32291 R/L DoB: 1992-02-01 R/R DoB: 1998-08-05 L/L DoB: 1988-06-29 R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 R/R DoB: 1993-08-21 Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders Devin Williams Hayden Senger Luís Torrens Bo Bichette Brett Baty Vidal Brujan MJ Melendez R/R DoB: 1994-09-21 R/R DoB: 1997-04-03 R/R DoB: 1996-05-02 R/R DoB: 1998-03-05 L/R DoB: 1999-11-13 S/R DoB: 1998-02-09 L/R DoB: 1993-11-29 Infielders Outfielders Marcus Semien Mark Vientos Carson Benge A.J. Ewing Austin Slater Juan Soto Tyrone Taylor R/R DoB: 1990-09-17 R/R DoB: 1993-12-11 L/R DoB: 2003-01-20 L/R DoB: 38209 R/R DoB: 33951 L/L DoB: 1998-10-25 R/R DoB: 34356 Also on 40-Player Roster Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Tylor Megill Kodai Senga Jonah Tong Alex Carrillo Reed Garrett Joey Gerber Justin Hagenman R/R DoB: 1995-07-28 L/R DoB: 1993-01-30 R/R DoB: 2003-06-19 R/R DoB: 1997-06-06 R/R DoB: 1993-01-02 R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 R/R DoB: 1996-10-07 On 60-Day Injured List with torn right UCL. On 15-Day Injured List with Lumbar Spine Inflammation With Syracuse With Syracuse On 60-Day Injured List — right UCL surgery and nerve relocation surgery. With Syracuse On 60 Day Injured List with fractured rib. Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders A.J. Minter Dedniel Núñez Jonathan Pintaro Dylan Ross Francisco Alvarez Francisco Lindor Ronny Mauricio L/L DoB: 1993-09-02 R/R DoB: 1996-06-05 R/R DoB: 1997-11-07 R/R DoB: 2000-09-01 R/R DoB: 2001-11-01 S/R DoB: 1993-11-14 S/R DoB: 2001-04-04 With Syracuse on Rehab Assignment On 60-Day Injured List — right UCL surgery. With Syracuse With Syracuse On 10-Dayl IL with Torn Right Meniscus On 10-Day Injured List with Strained Left Calf On 10-Day Injured List with fractured right thumb. Infielders Outfielders Jorge Polanco Nick Morabito Luis Robert, Jr. Jared Young S/R DoB: 1999-11-13 R/R DoB: 2003-05-07 R/R DoB: 1997-08-03 L/R DoB: 1995-07-09 On 10-Day Injured List with right wrist contusion. With Syracuse On 10-Day Injured List with Lumbar Spine Disc Hernitaion On 10-Day Injured List with torn left meniscus. Designagted for Assignment Infielders Andy Ibáñez R/R DoB: 1993-04-03 DFA'd, 2026-05-12. View the full article

There are starts where a pitcher simply gets lucky. Others where hard contact goes directly into gloves. And then there are the starts where something genuinely changes — where the pitching itself starts to look different even before you check the box score. Such was the case when Freddy Peralta led the way in the Mets’ 10-2 win over the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field. The Mets had not scored at least 10 runs at home since April 23, when they beat the Minnesota Twins 10-8. Peralta delivered six strong innings on 100 pitches, struck out seven, and allowed two runs, including a solo homer by Dillon Dingler. His only shaky moment came in the second inning, when Dingler demolished a hanging curveball on an 0-2 count. That didn't stop Peralta's ruthless attack on the strike zone. Wenceel Pérez slapped a single while flailing at an 0-1 fastball, and Gage Workman doubled on a low-inside changeup. Spencer Torkelson capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field, giving Detroit a 2-0 lead. The only barrel Freddy allowed in the inning was Dingler’s 101.8 mph home run. The Mets responded quickly against the vulnerable mix of right-hander Jack Flaherty. Mark Vientos tied the game 2-2 with a single in the third, and Carson Benge gave New York a 3-2 lead with an RBI single to left in the fourth. The knockout blow came with a six-run fifth inning, followed by two more runs in the seventh, including a triple and top prospect A.J. Ewing’s first major-league RBI in his debut. The offensive support mattered for Peralta who regained his dominance while producing his best start of the season. Where did the difference show up? The adjustment in his pitch mix generated 13 whiffs, allowed just a 17.6% HardHit rate, and only a .118 expected batting average. He had not allowed a hard-hit rate below 20% in a start since September 4, 2025, when he was still pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers. That night, he faced 20 Philadelphia Phillies hitters — an elite lineup — striking out eight and generating 14 whiffs. From a pure dominance standpoint, the stuff looked sharp. But here’s the interesting difference: only six of those 14 whiffs in that 2025 outing came on his fastball. Last night at Citi Field, the story changed completely. Peralta generated 11 whiffs with his four-seamer alone. It was not about velocity. It was about command. His fastball touched 97.2 mph, but averaged 94.4. Peralta had not generated double-digit whiffs with his fastball since September 16, 2025. Across his previous 11 starts, including last night, his highest combined total of fastball whiffs over back-to-back outings had been only 12. He threw the fastball 69% of the time against Detroit’s lineup, mixing in his changeup (15%), slider (12%), and curveball (4%). The key detail here is that the veteran right-hander established the fastball without depending exclusively on the changeup or slider to finish hitters in two-strike counts. After the second inning, the Tigers never adjusted at the plate. Peralta was still averaging 94.8 mph on the fastball by the sixth inning. That is what makes this recent stretch from Freddy Peralta so interesting: the return of his confidence in the fastball. The reduction in command mistakes. The way his secondary pitches once again complement the entire arsenal by generating chase. These last four starts are not simply telling the story of a lower ERA. They are telling something more important: the gradual return of the dominant Freddy Peralta profile we saw in 2025. Not exactly the same pitcher, mind you. But the same identity. It's the same arm that generated weak contact in key moments. The same fastball that hitters struggled to elevate. Through nine starts this season, Peralta is generating ground balls at a rate 3.5% higher than last season (36.8%), while allowing his lowest hard-hit percentage (36.2%) since 2021. The same disappearing changeup underneath barrels has returned. And above all, the same feeling that opposing swings arrive late even when hitters know what is coming. For the Mets, that is encouraging news, especially after watching Peralta battle through his first five starts of the season. Dec IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO BF ERA SO% HR% XBH% GB% W-L:1-2 26.2 19 12 12 4 10 0 28 112 4.05 25.0% 3.6% 5.4% 34.1% W-L:2-1 22.2 22 7 5 1 9 0 22 98 1.99 22.4% 1.0% 5.1% 33.3% So, what stands out here? First, the innings are leaning more toward durability over these last four outings. Peralta has been resolving plate appearances more efficiently. The strikeout rate has dipped slightly, but he is dramatically reducing power damage and extra-base hits with runners on base. The extra-base-hit rate is nearly identical, yet he has allowed only one home run while maintaining a similar ground-ball profile. The other area where his season could truly turn is in his adjustments during two-strike counts. Last night, three of the seven hits he allowed came with two strikes: Kevin McGonigle single, 90 mph exit velocity (first inning, leadoff hitter, nine-pitch at-bat with seven pitches after two strikes). Dillon Dingler solo homer, 102 mph EV (second inning, leadoff hitter). Colt Keith double, 89 mph EV (third inning, leadoff hitter). Each situation came against the first hitter of the inning, which limited the overall damage somewhat. Still, it leaves an interesting question. Split Year G GS SO ERA SO/9 SO/BB Two Strikes 2018 16 14 96 2.67 16.0 4.4 Two Strikes 2019 39 8 115 4.03 17.8 4.3 Two Strikes 2020 15 1 47 1.99 18.7 6.7 Two Strikes 2021 28 27 195 1.62 18.5 7.2 Two Strikes 2022 18 17 86 1.50 16.1 4.5 Two Strikes 2023 30 30 210 3.10 18.1 6.8 Two Strikes 2024 32 32 200 2.10 16.8 4.9 Two Strikes 2025 33 33 204 1.72 16.0 5.2 Two Strikes 2026 9 9 50 3.07 15.3 3.6 This season, Peralta has posted the lowest SO/BB ratio (3.6) of his career in two-strike counts. His strikeout rate in those situations has also dipped to a career-low 15.3 K/9. Opponents’ on-base percentage (.252) in two-strike counts is his highest since 2019 (.267). But that could begin to change if these recent adjustments continue expanding. The 2025 Version of Freddy Peralta: Velocity, Elevation, and Broken Contact The Freddy Peralta of 2025 built one of the best seasons of his career around a relatively simple idea: never allow hitters to square up the fastball. His four-seamer was devastating: .209 batting average allowed .381 slugging percentage allowed 22.8% whiff rate Just a .239 BABIP But the real key was the quality of contact. Hitters produced hard contact only 41.6% of the time against the fastball. In isolation, that number may not sound elite, but compared to the rest of his recent arsenal, it represented near-total damage control. The changeup complemented the formula perfectly: .173 batting average allowed .271 slugging percentage allowed .242 wOBA 35.2% whiff rate And the slider quietly became one of the nastiest pitches in his arsenal: .176 batting average allowed .235 slugging percentage allowed 51.5% whiff rate Everything in the repertoire worked around the same principle: uncomfortable swings and harmless contact. That is exactly what disappeared early this season. The First Five Starts: Too Much Damage on Contact Peralta’s early numbers were not disastrous. He was still striking hitters out. He was still generating whiffs. But something underneath was broken. The fastball was getting hit far too hard: 52.9% hard-hit rate .428 xSLG .349 xwOBA The changeup, historically one of his best secondary pitches, looked even worse: 77% hard-hit rate .412 average distance allowed Only a 24.5% whiff rate And the slider lived in complete chaos: 100% hard-hit rate 50% barrels per batted ball event 1.416 xSLG That was not the Freddy Peralta of 2025. That was a pitcher surviving more on raw talent than execution. The velocity remained. The spin remained. Even the strikeouts remained. But the bad swings disappeared; opponents were arriving at the baseball with far too much authority. The Last Four Starts: The Return of Weak Contact This is where the analysis becomes fascinating. Peralta did not suddenly reinvent himself. He did not show up throwing 97 mph every inning. He did not overhaul his mechanics. What changed was subtler — and probably far more sustainable. The contact started dying again. The clearest evidence is the fastball: Hard-hit rate dropped from 52.9% to 36.8% xSLG dropped from .428 to .296 Slugging allowed dropped from .311 to .208 And all of it happened with virtually identical velocity: 93.6 mph over the first five starts, 93.9 mph over the last four. That usually points to one thing: location. Peralta's fastball is living above the zone again. It is getting on barrels late again. It is generating swings underneath the baseball instead of loud contact. The changeup has also started resembling the 2025 version of himself. Even though the batting average allowed remains elevated in the small sample, almost every underlying indicator improved: Hard-hit rate dropped from 77% to 23.5% Whiff rate climbed from 24.5% to 31% Contact quality collapsed dramatically That matters far more than an inflated .412 BABIP. In fact, it may be the clearest sign that Peralta is pitching better than some of the surface-level numbers suggest. The Most Important Detail: Peralta Looks Like Himself Again The surface numbers are not identical, but the profile is becoming familiar again. The dominant Peralta of 2025 was a pitcher who: Avoided barrels Limited dangerous launch angles Generated late swings Turned the fastball into the centerpiece of everything That is exactly what is reappearing now. His recent fastball is allowing even less slugging (.208) than it did in 2025 (.381). The changeup is generating empty swings again. And the slider, while still inconsistent, has stopped giving away catastrophic contact. The difference between April and May does not look physical. It looks like precision, execution, and command. And when a pitcher keeps the same stuff but suddenly slashes hard contact this aggressively, it usually means he has rediscovered the exact point where the entire arsenal starts working together again. Freddy Peralta has not fully returned to his 2025 form yet. But for the first time this season, the road back is finally starting to appear. View the full article

There are a few bigger changes to take a look at: specifically, who is moving up the rankings, who is moving down, and why that may be. The top three prospects, Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper, and Emmanuel Rodriguez, remain unchanged. The first change in the rankings is that Connor Prielipp and Eduardo Tait flipped spots from the first ranking of the season. Prielipp was previously ranked #5 and is now ranked #4, and Tait was previously #4 and is now ranked #5. This change is slight, and might mostly be because Prielipp has made his major league debut, and looked pretty good doing it. This does not mean Tait is not as good a prospect. He still has a very high ceiling, but is still a couple of years away from being seen at Target Field. There are some other changes to the top 20 list, but let’s take a look at the biggest risers, who may have dropped in the rankings, and who is on the outskirts of the list, but could make an appearance by years end, due to one of the guys losing their prospect status, or because they play their way into being ranked higher based on their performance. Biggest Risers The first riser that someone will notice on the list is 2025 first round pick Marek Houston. Houston has played this year at High-A Cedar Rapids and hit .306/.371/.441 so far this year. The biggest question about Houston as a prospect was whether his offense would be good enough since he is said to be ready for the majors defensively. If he can continue to develop offensively, he will continue to rise on these lists until he makes his major league debut. Another riser on the list is the other first-round pick from 2025, pitcher Riley Quick. At 22 years old, Quick started the year at Single-A and was called up to High-A after having three starts and giving up no runs. He threw eight innings and had 13 strikeouts at Single-A and was deemed ready to be called up to High-A Cedar Rapids. Quick has thrown eight more innings and struck out 11 hitters, so he has continued to look the part. Because of this strong start, Quick rose from the #11-ranked prospect to #8. He has the potential to continue moving up the minor league ladder, and moving up quickly, no pun intended. The last riser to highlight is pitcher Ryan Gallagher, who was not ranked in the top 20 when the year started and is now ranked #16. Gallagher was one of two prospects that came from the Cubs in the Willi Castro trade at last year’s trade deadline. Gallagher is currently with Double-A Wichita and has had a solid start to the season. He threw 18 innings over four starts, with a 3.50 ERA and 20 strikeouts, which earned him a call-up to Triple-A, where he has made two starts so far. He’s an intriguing arm and someone who fans could see at Target Field in the next year or so. Biggest Falls With Gallagher previously not being ranked, that means someone had to drop out. The unlucky prospect to drop off the list was Marco Raya. Previously a top pitching prospect in the system, Raya has struggled mightily in his transition to the bullpen this year. He has thrown 19.1 innings and struck out 20 hitters, but has an ERA of 7.91, with a decently high walk rate (12.6%), and has also given up five home runs. Another prospect that has slid on this list is outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez. As you may or may not remember, Gonzalez was acquired along with Justin Topa in the trade that sent Jorge Polanco to Seattle. Gonzalez has a slash line of .183/.255/.380 to start the year, which is not what he, or the Twins, hoped for. Still just 22 years old, Gonzalez is playing at Triple-A, so there is no reason to give up on him yet, but he will have to turn around offensively to not continue sliding on this list. The third player who slid on the list is second baseman Kyle DeBarge. Playing at Double-A, DeBarge has four home runs on the year, but his overall offensive numbers have been underwhelming, with a .593 OPS. Soon to be 23, DeBarge will look to turn his year around. One promising aspect of DeBarge’s season thus far is his 11 stolen bases over his first 29 games, so that’s something to keep an eye on if he is able to get on base at a higher clip. View the full article

Visit Garrett Mitchell's Baseball Savant player card, and you'll see an impressive number next to Arm Strength. On competitive throws, Mitchell averages a velocity of nearly 94 miles per hour, according to Statcast. Outfielders can sometimes top 100 MPH when the circumstances are conducive, because they often get the luxury of a crow hop as they load up for the throw. On the other hand, they have to get off the throw under time pressure, so throws that hard are rare. Mitchell's average velocity on the throws Statcast uses for its measurements is in the 97th percentile, the way the system counts these things. Yet, Mitchell doesn't actually deliver positive value with his arm. On the contrary, runners take more bases against him on hits and flyouts than against an average outfielder. Ditto for Sal Frelick, whose arm is much less trong on average but who flashes the ability to make exceptionally accurate, strong pegs. He throws well, but he doesn't control the running game on balls in play well. As a team, the Brewers have lost 3 runs via opponent extra bases taken, relative to an average club. Only the Reds and Rockies have been worse this season. It's a rare detail-oriented aspect of the game in which the Crew do not excel, and it's worth asking: why do Mitchell and Frelick (the two most consistent pieces of the team's outfield firmament so far) lose value with their arms, despite throwing relatively well? The obvious answer, of course, is that some of Mitchell's throws look like this: NXk5VjBfVjBZQUhRPT1fRGxCWkJnQlhCRkFBRDFNRFhnQUhCVlZUQUFNRFVWTUFBMVZRVVFRRkJnUURBUVFG.mp4 Quantifying arm accuracy isn't easy, but occasionally, a glaring mistake like that one makes obvious the disconnect between sheer arm strength and arm value. Whether Mitchell should have thrown to the plate at all is an interesting call. As the 3D reconstruction of the play available on the MLB Gameday page for the game shows, Mitchell fielded the ball almost exactly as Jacob Young hit third base. When an outfielder with a strong arm is coming in on a ball with a head of steam and they field it just as the runner reaches third, a throw home is appropriate. The batter-runner, catcher Keibert Ruiz, is slow enough to make that throw relatively cost-free most of the time, and there's a real chance to get an out at the plate. On the other hand, Young has plus speed, so getting him was unlikely, even for the strong-armed Mitchell. The biggest problem, though, was how wide the throw went, leaving Young unthreatened as he scored and pulling William Contreras far up the line. It sailed, too, so that it couldn't even be cut off along the way. That was a lost opportunity to prevent one run, and it made another one slightly more likely. Ruiz didn't come around to score, as it turned out, but Mitchell hurt the Brewers' chances with that bad throw. Inaccurate pegs are just part of the problem, though, and not the biggest part, by any means. Much more often, arm utility comes down to the subtler aspects of playing the ball: positioning, how quickly you get to the ball, and the footwork you use when you do. Here's one example. d2VvcWxfVjBZQUhRPT1fRHdGWlVsY01Yd0FBRFFjRFVRQUhDQUFEQUFNTUFnSUFWRmNIVWxGVUFndFFDRmRW.mp4 On a long drive by the Nationals' Jose Tena, Mitchell got too close to the wall and had it bounce over his head. There was never a chance of catching the ball, and by chasing it too ardently, Mitchell ended up out of position to play the carom off the fence. That meant both that it took longer for him to corral it and that he couldn't even get off a strong throw once he did so. The way he played it turned a double into a triple. Here's another play where what was possible—what Mitchell didn't prevent—isn't immediately obvious, and where the reasons why he was unable to prevent the extra base is hard to see at first. bmJ3V3ZfVjBZQUhRPT1fQXdSVUFnVUVWRmNBV2xvR0FBQUhBQUpSQUFBQUFBTUFVRjBCQ0ZZREJBQlNVMWRm.mp4 Positioning was a huge piece of the equation here. Mitchell started the play 322 feet from home plate, which is about the average depth for a center fielder these days. Against Victor Scott II, though, you usually don't have to play that deep. Mitchell was there because, with two outs and an above-average runner aboard, the Brewers wanted to prevent a double, more than they wanted to thwart a single or stop Masyn Winn from taking third on one. In that sense, the fact that Winn did advance on this play is not a huge loss, and it's certainly not all on Mitchell. That's a team decision, made for strategic reasons. However, Mitchell still could have done more to prevent Winn from reaching third. Look at the way he fields the ball. Getting down on the ball well in that situation is critical. Letting it get past you turns a single into more and allows that run the team is hoping to forestall to score, needlessly. However, Mitchell got behind the ball, only to slow down and drop into a boxy infielder's crouch as he played what was a sharply hit ball. He might have read it as being hit more slowly than it really was. Had he read it right and taken a more aggressive tack with his charge, he could have been getting into a throwing position by the moment we see above, and there could have been more behind his throw to third. As you can see, Winn had just passed second base at this moment; there was a play to be made on him. Mitchell's failure to get into an aggressive throwing position early squandered the chance. One more play in which we'll pick on Mitchell a bit, before moving on. akR3ZGdfVjBZQUhRPT1fQkZRSEFnWUdWQVFBQ1FjSFh3QUhBMUJlQUZnQ0JsVUFVd1lOQkZJRVVsVldDVlpW (1).mp4 A portion of arm utility is simply knowing when to use it. Here, Mitchell conceded the run too easily. He doesn't charge the ball as aggressively as he could have, but even so, he gets to the ball just as Liam Hicks rounds third. Here, again, is the 3D rendering of the moment when Mitchell fields the ball. Hicks is a catcher by trade and a slow runner. With a player like him at this spot and a center fielder who can throw well holding the ball, it's worth a throw to the plate. Mitchell plays it safe—too much so. Now, let's talk about Sal Frelick. He's not working with the same kind of hose Mitchell has. He needs to use his speed and his footwork to get off the strongest throws of which he's capable, and he has to be on the money. Generally speaking, he does so. So why does he still come in below average when it comes to actually preventing runners from taking the extra base? Firstly, there's positioning. A bit too often, this year, the Brewers have had Frelick shaded toward the gap, only to see the ball go down the right-field line. The extra 20 feet Frelick has to run in such situations can often make the difference between a runner taking an extra 90 feet or not, and it's got little to do with Frelick himself. Depending on your mood, this can be construed as bad luck, poor implementation of the plan by the battery, or mistaken advance scouting by the coaches aligning the defense, but whatever the cause, the value leaks away. b0d3bERfWGw0TUFRPT1fQXdCVVVnWlJVbEVBQVFCVEFBQUhDQUFDQUZoVFUxTUFBRllGVkFSVEF3SlJCZ2NF.mp4 Frelick has been caught playing a bit too deep at times, too. Here's one hit on which he could have stopped a runner from reaching third, if he'd been in a better starting position or taken a better initial route when it left the bat. TUFYMjFfWGw0TUFRPT1fQUZJQ1hGTlFWUWNBQ2xjSEJBQUhDUTllQUZoV0FBY0FVRkZVQ0FZTlV3UUJBbGRS.mp4 In fairness to Frelick, this is another case wherein the Brewers' top priorities are not to prevent the runner from going first to third. Still, because he was playing deep and initially gave ground on the ball, the trailing runner was able to do just that. Here's the moment at which Frelick fielded the ball, in 3D rendering. You won't throw out even an average runner from this depth in right field to third base, if they're already up to speed and reaching second as you field the ball—not, at least, unless you have a Mitchell-caliber cannon. Frelick doesn't, so the play was over by the time he fielded the ball. Had he gotten a better read, though, Frelick could have met the ball earlier and shallower, with a pretty good angle to throw and an extra step's worth of time to get it to third. Here's where he might have intercepted the ball, had he not initially thought Konnor Griffin's slicing drive would force him to defend the corner. The animated version of Frelick here is the real one, and as you can see, he's about 15 feet from where the ball is, still running away from it a bit. That's only because he was playing so deep and took a banana route to the ball, though: first in, then over and back, bending into position. If his first step had been better or he'd been a step shallower in the first place, he could have had the ball at this point, changing the math of the play. There are lots of little things like this happening when the opponent finds grass in the outfield against the Brewers this year. Frelick and Mitchell don't communicate well on gappers; they've repeatedly gotten too close together and been in each other's way as one tried to quickly get off a strong throw after fielding the ball. Frelick and Brandon Lockridge each took their turns getting too close to the wall and having the ball squirt past them, just as we watched Mitchell do above. Lockridge has been more aggressive and more accurate with charges and throws, but has a weak spot down the left-field line where he made multiple mistakes of creating an angle or throwing to a target that led to an opponent getting an extra base. It's still early, and there have been an unusual number of disruptions to the team's plans for the outfield already. By the end of the season, Milwaukee's phalanx is likely to be restored, with coaches getting their players into better positions and communication improving. Still, Mitchell will have to be more aware and more accurate, and the team will have to be more on the ball down the stretch. Extra bases turn into extra runs, and the extra runs the Brewers don't allow are how they've been able to win three straight National League Central titles. View the full article

The New York Mets' season took another body blow Wednesdsay. Star catcher Francisco Alvarez was diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his right knee. Alvarez was placed on the 10-day injured list, with catcher Hayden Senger called up from Triple-A Syracuse. Luis Torrens is likely to see a bulk of the time behind the plate now. Alvarez was injured while hitting in the sixth inning of Tuesday's 10-2 win over the Detroit Tigers. Alvarez took a big swing at a 2-2 pitch when he got hurt. He did not finish the at-bat, with Torrens taking over. An MRI exam Wednesday revealed the scope of the injury. If he chooses not to have surgery, Alvarez could miss one or two months. If surgery is required, he could return in as few as three months or miss the rest of the season. The 24-year-old Alvarez has had a number of ailments since making his MLB debut in 2022, including torn ligaments in his thumb and a broken left hamate bone. He had a slash line of .241/.317/.393 this season with four homers and 10 RBIs in 37 games. Senger is up for the second time this season after a brief stint in April in which he did not play. In 22 games at Syracuse this year, Senger has a slash line of .209/.274/.507 with six homers and 15 RBIs. The Mets have one of the worst records in baseball at 16-25 entering play Wednesday. View the full article

Chicago Cubs Minor League Report - May 12 Affiliate Overview Triple-A Iowa Cubs Series at Nashville Sounds (Milwaukee Brewers): Sounds lead, 1-0 Season Record: 18–21 Double-A Knoxville Smokies Series at Columbus Clingstones (Atlanta Braves): Smokies lead, 1-0 Season Record: 19–15 High-A South Bend Cubs Series at Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Milwaukee Brewers): Cubs lead, 1-0 Season Record: 17–14 Single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans Series vs. Augusta GreenJackets (Atlanta Braves): GreenJackets lead, 1-0 Season Record: 16–16 Affiliate Highlights Triple-A: Iowa Cubs Season Record: 18–21 Series Opponent: Nashville Sounds (21–19) Series Standing: Trail, 1-0 May 12: The Iowa Cubs opened their series at the Nashville Sounds with a 9-3 defeat on Tuesday night at First Horizon Park. Pedro Ramírez (0-for-3) got the Cubs on the board in the first when he scored on a passed ball but the Sounds would even the score at 1-1 with a run in the second. Nashville went ahead with two runs in the third but James Triantos (1-for-3) would get Iowa back within one with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. The hosts plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up 5-2 and then would break the game open with four in the fifth to take a 9-2 lead. Justin Dean (1-for-5) tallied an RBI-single in the seventh but that was all for the I-Cubs offense in the contest, falling 9-3. Paul Campbell took the loss in the start, allowing five runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings of work, striking out four and issuing four walks. BJ Murray went 3-for-3 on the night to raise his batting average to .314 (11-for-35) in the month of May. Double-A: Knoxville Smokies Season Record: 19–15 Series Opponent: Columbus Clingstones (16–17) Series Standing: Lead, 1-0 May 12: The Knoxville Smokies opened their series at the Columbus Clingstones with an 8-2 victory on Tuesday night at Synovus Park. Karson Simas (1-for-4) led off the game with a solo blast, his fourth of the season, but the Clingstones evened the score with a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Alex Ramírez (2-for-4) went yard for the second time of the campaign, a solo shot, to give the Smokies a 2-1 lead. Knoxville scored again in third through a sacrifice fly from Ramírez but Columbus would get that run back later in the inning to make it 3-2. Andy Garriola’s (2-for-5) eighth home run of the year in the eighth made it 4-2 and the Smokies would put the game out of reach with four in the ninth. Ramírez would pick up RBI No.'s 3 and 4 with a single and Jordon Nwogu (1-for-4) would later swipe home. Edgar Alvarez’ (2-for-5) RBI-double would cap the scoring in the inning as Knoxville cruised to the 8-2 win. Yenrri Rojas started for Knoxville but did not factor into the decision. He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits over 3 1/3 innings of work, striking out four. Tyler Ras picked up the win in relief to improve to 3-0 on the season. He retired all five of his batters faced, striking out two. Vince Reilly earned his third save of the season by tossing two scoreless frames to end the ballgame, whiffing four batters. High-A: South Bend Cubs Season Record: 17–14 Series Opponent: Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (19–13) Series Standing: Lead, 1-0 May 12: The South Bend Cubs opened their series at the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with a dominant 10-1 victory on Tuesday night at Neuroscience Group Field. The two teams traded runs in their first trips to the plate, with Cole Mathis’ (3-for-5) RBI-double getting the Cubs on the board. Kane Kepley (2-for-5) gave South Bend the lead for good with a three-run blast in the second, his first of the season, to make it 4-1. Koen Moreno turned in another solid start but did not factor into the decision. He turned in four hitless innings, allowing one run, to go along with six strikeouts. Grayson Moore earned the win in relief to improve to 2-0 of the season. Moore worked two scoreless frames, allowing just one hit and striking out two. The Cubs used a six-spot in the seventh to put the game out of reach, thanks to a sacrifice fly from Cameron Sisneros (2-for-5), a bases-loaded walk drawn by Kade Snell (1-for-4), productive RBI-outs from Matt Halbach (0-for-5) and Leonel Espinoza (1-for-5), and Christian Olivo (1-for-3) getting plunked with the bases loaded. The South Bend pitching staff held Wisconsin to just three hits on the night while the Cubs’ offense had four batters record multi-hit efforts. Single-A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans Season Record: 16–16 Series Opponent: Augusta GreenJackets (18–16) Series Standing: Trail, 0-1 May 12: The Myrtle Beach Pelicans, back in action for the first time since Friday, dropped their series opener to the Augusta GreenJackets, 4-3. The Pelicans took a 2-0 lead in their first trip to the plate thanks to RBI-singles from Michael Carico (2-for-4) and Jose Escobar (1-for-4). The two teams traded runs in the second, with Myrtle Beach restoring their two-run advantage through Alexey Lumpuy’s (1-for-5) RBI-single in the home half of the inning. Augusta would plate a run in the fifth and later tie the game at 3-3 with another run in the seventh. The GreenJackets would score the go-ahead run in the ninth and keep the Pelicans off the board to earn the 4-3 win. David Bracho got the start for Myrtle Beach but did not factor into the decision. Bracho allowed one run, unearned, on two hits over four innings of work to go along with five strikeouts. Bracho recorded an immaculate inning in the third, marking the first time a Pelican has recorded such a feat, according to the team’s record book. View the full article

The Minnesota Twins have spent much of the early portion of the 2026 season trying to survive wave after wave of pitching injuries. From key starters to important bullpen contributors, the organization has rarely had its preferred staff intact for more than a few days at a time. Tuesday finally brought some encouraging news. Both Taj Bradley and Cole Sands made progress in their recoveries, offering some hope that reinforcements may not be too far away for a pitching staff that desperately needs stability. Bradley, who landed on the injured list Saturday with right pectoralis muscle inflammation, resumed throwing and played catch out to 90 feet. The 25-year-old also sought a second opinion from noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister after an MRI came back clean. That clean MRI result was already an encouraging development. Seeing Bradley begin throwing again only adds to the optimism surrounding his recovery timeline. “He played catch up to 90 feet today,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “So I think from there we’ll make sure we appropriately put the program together.” The Twins can hardly afford to lose him for an extended period. Bradley has been nothing short of electric in his first season with Minnesota, posting a 2.87 ERA and 52 strikeouts across 47 innings through his first eight starts. More importantly, he has brought a level of swing-and-miss dominance that the Twins' rotation has largely lacked in recent years. His raw stuff has consistently jumped off the screen. Earlier this season against the Kansas City Royals, Bradley became the first Twins starting pitcher to hit 100 mph since pitch tracking began in 2008. That type of velocity is rare anywhere in baseball, but especially within Minnesota’s pitching history. While any pectoral injury raises concern for a pitcher, there is at least some precedent for optimism. Bradley dealt with a similar injury while pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2024. That strain sidelined him for roughly a month before he returned to make 25 starts and throw 138 innings by season’s end. The Twins will likely proceed cautiously this time as well, especially considering how valuable Bradley has become to the rotation almost immediately after arriving in Minnesota. The encouraging updates did not stop there. Sands also took an important step forward Tuesday by throwing a bullpen session as he works his way back from a right forearm strain. Sands has been sidelined since late April and could soon progress to facing live hitters if everything continues moving in the right direction. Even though Sands’ traditional numbers do not immediately stand out, the Twins' bullpen has clearly missed him. The right-hander owns a 4.63 ERA in 11 2/3 innings this season, but some of the underlying metrics paint a more favorable picture. Sands has posted a solid strikeout rate while carrying a 3.65 SIERA, suggesting he has pitched better than his ERA indicates. His final appearance before going on the injured list may have offered a clue that something was physically wrong. Sands allowed two runs against Seattle on April 28 in an outing where his stuff appeared noticeably diminished. Perhaps most concerning was the drop in velocity. After averaging roughly 95 mph on his fastball in 2025, Sands sat closer to 93.1 mph this season before landing on the injured list. Any time a pitcher experiences declining velocity alongside forearm discomfort, alarms naturally go off. That is why simply getting back on a mound for a bullpen session qualifies as meaningful progress. The Twins currently have eight pitchers on the injured list, including starters Bradley, Mick Abel, David Festa, and Pablo López. That level of attrition would challenge any organization’s depth, even one that had eight or more starting pitchers on their depth chart to start the year. For now, there is still no official timetable for either Bradley or Sands to return. The Twins will almost certainly remain cautious, particularly with Bradley, given both his importance to the rotation and the nature of his injury. Still, after weeks of increasingly discouraging injury news, Tuesday finally gave the organization something it has not had much of lately: optimism. If Bradley can continue to progress without setbacks and Sands can build toward live batting practice soon, the Twins may finally begin to see light at the end of what has been a brutally difficult stretch for their pitching staff. View the full article

According to Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic, the Chicago Cubs are signing Liam Hendriks to a minor-league deal. Hendricks, now 37, has been a free agent since the Minnesota Twins granted his release. The righty pitcher's velocity was down to 93.4 miles per hour; it peaked in 2022 at 97. For Boston last year, he tallied a 6.59 ERA in 13.2 innings. It's purely an upside play that Hendricks has one more year to squeeze out of his arm. Since 2022, injuries and health have dominated Hendricks' story. He overcame cancer, only to succumb to Tommy John surgery in his return season. With numerous relievers on the shelf, the Cubs will look to catch lightning in a bottle with Liam Hendricks. He was one of the most dominant relievers in the sport from 2018-2022 and the Cubs will look to unlock some more magic for their late innings. View the full article

Royce Lewis was supposed to be one of the central figures of the Twins' season. Even after years of injuries and interrupted development, the organization still believed the former first overall pick was ready to take another step toward stardom. Throughout the winter, the Twins made that confidence public. Derek Shelton and multiple members of the front office openly discussed their expectations for Lewis entering 2026, presenting him as a foundational piece of the lineup and one of the players capable of carrying the offense. Instead, the season has turned into something far more uncomfortable. Lewis opened the year by engendering a bit of optimism, but the production disappeared almost immediately. The struggles became severe enough that the Twins dropped him to the ninth spot in the order, and more concerningly, he has regularly found himself losing playing time to Tristan Gray, a waiver claim who was never supposed to be part of this conversation. Since returning from the injured list on April 21, Lewis is hitting .130/.186/.204, with 19 strikeouts in 59 plate appearances. The numbers themselves are alarming, but the larger concern is how lost he has looked against velocity. “It can be really hard when you feel like your career is going in a different direction,” Lewis said. “It’s been tougher because obviously we know there’s always someone on your tail. There’s always someone ready to take your next job. Every day I’m here fighting and working as hard as I can to show that I’m giving it my all to keep my job because I love what I do. I’ve been smiling. I feel fine leaving the game. But I think what scares me most is like, ‘Oh, they might try to get me out of here.’ When I leave the field, that thought does creep into my head.” The Twins are attempting to slow things down for him. Derek Shelton recently described Lewis’s absence from the lineup similarly to the brief reset Matt Wallner received earlier this season. The organization wants Lewis to work on his swing mechanics without the pressure of immediate game results, while also allowing him a chance to mentally regroup. From the outside, the biggest issue is becoming impossible to ignore. Fastballs are beating Lewis consistently, especially in the upper part of the zone. During his electric rookie season, Lewis demolished four-seam fastballs to the tune of an .842 slugging percentage. Last season, that number cratered to .332, while his whiff rate against four-seamers climbed to 25.5%. The decline produced a -8 Run Value against fastballs and forced pitchers to attack him differently. The problem has continued into 2026. Lewis currently owns just a .349 slugging percentage against four seamers, with a 30.5% whiff rate. Perhaps even more concerning, his pulled air percentage has dropped from 31.4% during his rookie campaign to 24.1% this season. The explosive damage on pitches he once turned around with authority has largely vanished. When Lewis first arrived, his combination of bat speed and aggressiveness allowed him to punish velocity before pitchers could exploit weaknesses. Now the timing looks inconsistent, the swing decisions appear hesitant, and pitchers know they can challenge him in ways they could not just a few years ago. The Twins still believe the talent is there. “His work every day has been really consistent,” new Twins hitting coach Keith Beauregard said. “He’s focused with everything that he does. From a swing standpoint, as an athlete, we’re always trying to focus on getting guys into athletic positions and to feel flowy as a hitter. That’s always been the work with him.” The difficult reality is that patience becomes harder to maintain when the struggles continue for this long. Lewis has battled injuries throughout nearly every stage of his professional career, which have complicated his development timeline. At some point, though, the Twins need production instead of projection. Lewis understands that pressure better than anyone. “It feels like people around here sometimes are waiting for me to struggle so that they can write me off officially or get me out of here,” Lewis said. “It’s the first time in my career where it’s become a business instead of playing the game that I love.” That quote probably says more about Lewis's current state than any statistic can. For years, he was viewed almost entirely through the lens of potential. The injuries created sympathy and patience because everyone could still picture the superstar version of Lewis waiting on the other side. Now the conversation is changing. The Twins are trying to win games in the middle of a season that already feels fragile, and Lewis is no longer being judged on what he might become someday. He is being evaluated on whether he can help a major league lineup right now. The encouraging part is that fastball issues can sometimes be corrected quickly once timing and mechanics return. A small adjustment in posture, bat path, or swing decision-making can dramatically change how a hitter handles velocity. The discouraging part is that pitchers have clearly identified the weakness and will continue attacking it until Lewis proves he can beat it again. The Twins have invested years of belief in Lewis because the upside remains undeniable. But belief alone eventually stops mattering. This season was supposed to be about Lewis cementing himself as one of the faces of the franchise. Instead, he is fighting to hold onto everyday playing time. For both Lewis and the Twins, the clock is starting to feel much louder. Can the Twins fix Lewis’ swing? Leave a comment and start the discussion. View the full article

When the Brewers activated Christian Yelich from the injured list on Tuesday, it was not surprising that they optioned Tyler Black back to Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move. If anything, it was expected. Black was effectively the Yelich replacement: a left-handed-hitting DH and occasional left fielder. He was going to lose most of his at-bats with the former NL MVP back in the fold. Furthermore, despite his productive .333/.357/.481 slash line, Black was not actually having quality plate appearances or putting good swings on the ball. His .369 wOBA was nearly double his .192 xwOBA, which was so low because he struck out 25% of the time and had just a 15% hard-hit rate. Baseball Prospectus evaluated his performance less harshly but still credited him with just an 86 DRC+, meaning he deserved to perform 14% worse than the average hitter based on the process of his plate appearances and the quality of pitching he faced. Black did, however, show a change that could make him a more viable hitter down the line. He's changed his bat path this year, decreasing his swing tilt from 37 degrees in 2024 and 39 degrees in 2025 to 35 degrees this year. Pat Murphy teased that modified swing when Black was recalled, saying he and the Brewers had worked on making his bat path less choppy to help him make more consistent contact. "He had that small margin for error this way in his swing," Murphy said last month, referring to Black's inability to get his barrel to pitches at different heights in the strike zone. "We're helping him try to [get] a little more on plane a little bit. Because it's hard to hit that other way, with that 'V,' you know? A lot of guys did, but you're going to mishit a lot of balls." With a swing tilt nearing 40 degrees, Black had one of the steeper, more vertical swings in baseball. Such a swing travels downward more before working its way back up as it makes contact with the pitch. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh has a similar 37-degree swing tilt this year as a left-handed hitter. Notice how his swing path forms a "U" shape as it travels through the hitting zone. marsh.mp4 There's no one right swing path for success – every hitter is different, and there's more to a swing than just its tilt – but a naturally steeper path can often put hitters in a better position to make the best kind of contact with different pitches, provided there's some adaptability to the swing based on pitch height. Murphy himself considers more vertical swings to be the most productive. Black's bat path didn't have that "U" shape, though. Instead of traveling in an arc, his bat often came straight down and then straight up. He makes contact very deep in the hitting zone – about 21 inches toward the pitcher from his center of mass, according to Statcast. With such a steep swing, you would expect his bat to still be coming down when he makes that deep contact, producing a negative attack angle. Instead, his attack angle last season was 9 degrees, meaning his bat was already coming back up by that time. That's the choppy "V" shape Murphy is referencing. If all of that sounds like a mouthful, here's what it looked like in real life back in 2024. You can see Black chop at a fastball down the middle, with his bat quickly traveling straight down and then straight up. It was a very hittable pitch, yet he was late on it and underneath it, producing a 77.6-mph bloop single to left-center. It was a hit, but it wasn't the kind of contact any hitter would hope to make with such a fastball. black 2024.mp4 In addition to lowering his swing tilt, Black's attack angle also decreased to 5 degrees in his brief time with the Brewers this year. His swing path is still pretty steep, but it's far less choppy. You can see how it's a more normal-looking path in one of Black's few hard-hit balls this year, a fastball he pulled off the right-field wall for a double against the Arizona Diamondbacks. black 2026.mp4 It's worth noting that those two swings occurred in different situations. One was a middle fastball, and the other was closer to the outside corner. The first was also a defensive two-strike swing, while the second came in a 1-1 count, where a hitter will usually look to do more damage with an in-zone pitch. Still, those two cuts illustrate the problem with Black's previous swing and how he and the Brewers are trying to correct it. The payoff hasn't come yet, though, with Black still looking overmatched by big-league pitching. His timing was still too late during his latest stint, and he chased too much and rarely made solid contact. Those mishit balls would have eventually found more gloves. Black is best off in Nashville for now, where he'll continue getting at-bats to grow more comfortable with that revamped swing. "Tyler knows that he's good enough to play in the big leagues," Murphy said. "He knows that he's wanted, and his time will come again." View the full article