DiamondCentric

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jason and Mitch discuss the latest week of Cubs baseball as they get back over .500, and look to push up the NLC standings. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-north-side-baseball-podcast/id1798599313 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75wMGhBwlrDDYPt3kaF453 Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-north-side-baseball-po-268998437/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/eey7h6ih Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@northsidebaseball View the full article

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

Welcome to the 2026 MLB Consensus Draft Board. This is the fifth version of the board, which started in 2022 as a top thirty. Since then, it’s expanded to around 150 players on an annual basis, featuring at eight different team sites. So what is the Consensus Board? How is it made? How should it be used? The concept is loosely based on Arif Hasan’s NFL Consensus Board. It’s meant to be a tool for folks getting interested in the MLB Draft. As I was learning about the draft, I struggled to navigate wildly varied rankings and evaluations of players. The Consensus Board takes every major publicly available board and combines them into a consensus ranking, eliminating some of the noise and variance of an extremely challenging evaluation process. We’ve found this process to be useful in ranking players in appropriate ranges through around the first five rounds of the draft. On the board, you’ll find player names, handedness, listed height and weight, age, and a write-up, walking through their strengths and opportunities as a prospect. As we go through the cycle, these will be updated with tweaks, final college stats, etc. Every time a major outlet (Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic, etc.) releases an updated list, the consensus ranking shifts. As such, the board is a lagging reflection of what the industry thinks of the class and its key players. The final Consensus Board will incorporate at least 10 other boards as inputs. New MLB Mock Draft Board Features There are a few important features to point out to help you navigate the board. There’s a search bar to help you find players of interest. If you click ‘expand’ the board will focus on the writeup you are engaged with, in addition to one immediately above it and one immediately below it. Additionally, you’ll find the logo of your team next to their draft slots to help understand where they are picking. There will be a player slotted there, based on their consensus ranking. Rather than using that ranking as an indicator of who they might actually pick, it’s more useful to use it as a proxy for what caliber of talent is available at that slot. We’ll dig in deeper to team-specific mock drafts later in the cycle. The last important note is that this year the board features ‘push’ updates. It updates automatically every hour. The board is typically updated with new write-ups five days per week, so check back regularly for updates. At #6, The Kansas City Royals Select: Cam Flukey, RHP, Coastal Carolina Flukey is a lean right-handed starter who led Coastal Carolina to a College World Series appearance in 2025, managing a 2.68 FIP in 101.2 innings pitched in the process. Flukey has a bit of a messy delivery, with a long arm stroke and some head whack from a three-quarter slot, but the results are inarguable, as he struck out 28.5% of hitters faced in 2025, while walking just 5.8%. It's a deep, diverse arsenal, too. Flukey's fastball sits at 95 mph with good ride, and he can reach back to grab 98 mph. Flukey has two different breaking pitches, a gyro-type slider and a slider, a high-70s curveball. He's been effective throwing strikes and generating whiffs with both. Finally, there's a mid-80s changeup he throws sparingly. Flukey was sidelined for 8 weeks with a stress fracture after just one start in 2026. He looks when he returns from injury will determine if he's still in the mix for SP1 in the class. View the full article

Carlos Narváez was expected to serve as a placeholder for the Boston Red Sox after catcher Connor Wong fractured his pinky finger last season. Acquired from the New York Yankees for minor-league pitcher Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Narváez emerged as a defensive specialist and a solid bat in the lineup. Last season, the rookie backstop hit .241/.306/.419 with a .726 OPS, eventually taking the starting role from Wong in the process. However, in his first season as the primary option, Narváez has struggled to replicate his production from his breakout year, starting 2026 by hitting .234/.265/.277, good for a .542 OPS. Due to his lack of offensive production, Narváez has produced a -0.4 bWAR and a 49 wRC+, leading to a move to the ninth spot in the lineup. While his defensive value still ranks toward the top of the league, Wong has had his own strong start to the season and puts more pressure on Narváez each day to figure out his swing. So, what going on? To put it simply: Narvaez's regression can be tied to his struggles against fastballs. Against fastballs this season, Narváez has produced -3 run value (zero is average) with a .192 wOBA, all while whiffing at one in every four he swings at. His batting average and slugging percentage against fastballs sit at just .172 each, a drop off from his expected figures of .221 and .358. With fastballs accounting for nearly 60% of the pitches he sees, Narváez needs to figure out a way to fix his approach immediately. However, the issue may not be mechanical, but rather related to timing and the contact point. This season, his average launch angle has dropped from 13.2 degrees to 6.9, indicating a downward trend in his swing path. That observation is supported by a sharp increase in his topped-ball rate, which has risen from 29.1% to 35.3%, along with a decrease in balls that he gets underneath (falling from 26.7% to 14.3%). Narváez has yet to record a single pull-side ball in the air against fastballs, further indicating he is failing to hit the ball out front. Instead, his batted-ball distribution suggests that he is consistently letting pitches travel too deep. Nevertheless, the Red Sox can take some relief in knowing Narváez’s underlying tools haven’t disappeared. While much of his offensive profile has declined, he still ranks among the league's top percentiles in average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. This data backs the claim that his raw abilities haven’t diminished, but rather they are being watered down by poor timing, leading to hard contact at unfavorable launch angles. Although his production against fastballs has been poor, he has been producing against off-speed pitching, though those results may be due to a bit of good luck rather than a better approach. As it stands, Narváez's delayed timing at the plate is limiting his ability to execute against the pitch he sees the most, even as it occasionally puts him in better positions against off-speed options. The tools are still there, but the margin for error is shrinking. If Narváez can make the necessary timing adjustments against fastballs, his production should follow. If not, pitchers will continue to exploit the gap. View the full article

Carlos Narváez was expected to serve as a placeholder for the Boston Red Sox after catcher Connor Wong fractured his pinky finger last season. Acquired from the New York Yankees for minor-league pitcher Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Narváez emerged as a defensive specialist and a solid bat in the lineup. Last season, the rookie backstop hit .241/.306/.419 with a .726 OPS, eventually taking the starting role from Wong in the process. However, in his first season as the primary option, Narváez has struggled to replicate his production from his breakout year, starting 2026 by hitting .234/.265/.277, good for a .542 OPS. Due to his lack of offensive production, Narváez has produced a -0.4 bWAR and a 49 wRC+, leading to a move to the ninth spot in the lineup. While his defensive value still ranks toward the top of the league, Wong has had his own strong start to the season and puts more pressure on Narváez each day to figure out his swing. So, what going on? To put it simply: Narvaez's regression can be tied to his struggles against fastballs. Against fastballs this season, Narváez has produced -3 run value (zero is average) with a .192 wOBA, all while whiffing at one in every four he swings at. His batting average and slugging percentage against fastballs sit at just .172 each, a drop off from his expected figures of .221 and .358. With fastballs accounting for nearly 60% of the pitches he sees, Narváez needs to figure out a way to fix his approach immediately. However, the issue may not be mechanical, but rather related to timing and the contact point. This season, his average launch angle has dropped from 13.2 degrees to 6.9, indicating a downward trend in his swing path. That observation is supported by a sharp increase in his topped-ball rate, which has risen from 29.1% to 35.3%, along with a decrease in balls that he gets underneath (falling from 26.7% to 14.3%). Narváez has yet to record a single pull-side ball in the air against fastballs, further indicating he is failing to hit the ball out front. Instead, his batted-ball distribution suggests that he is consistently letting pitches travel too deep. Nevertheless, the Red Sox can take some relief in knowing Narváez’s underlying tools haven’t disappeared. While much of his offensive profile has declined, he still ranks among the league's top percentiles in average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. This data backs the claim that his raw abilities haven’t diminished, but rather they are being watered down by poor timing, leading to hard contact at unfavorable launch angles. Although his production against fastballs has been poor, he has been producing against off-speed pitching, though those results may be due to a bit of good luck rather than a better approach. As it stands, Narváez's delayed timing at the plate is limiting his ability to execute against the pitch he sees the most, even as it occasionally puts him in better positions against off-speed options. The tools are still there, but the margin for error is shrinking. If Narváez can make the necessary timing adjustments against fastballs, his production should follow. If not, pitchers will continue to exploit the gap. View the full article

Every month, Fish Unfiltered takes Miami Marlins fans "Inside the Dugout," bringing you an extended, exclusive interview with Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. During our April sitdown, McCullough speaks with Isaac Azout, AJ Ramos and Kevin Barral about his first ejection of 2026, getting Kyle Stowers back from the injured list, how he uses closer Pete Fairbanks and assesses top starters Sandy Alcantara and Eury Pérez thus far, his philosophy on baserunning, relationship with Agustín Ramírez and much more. You can find Fish Unfiltered and Fish On First LIVE on the Fish On First YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your pods. Entering play on Wednesday, the Marlins have an 11-13 record (tied for second in the National League East) with a minus-1 run differential. The only series they've won have been at home against the rebuilding Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. The Marlins offense has been mainly carried by Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez and Liam Hicks. Of some concern, Miami leads Major League Baseball in stolen bases allowed (35) and outs made on the bases (15). Expect us to have another sitdown with McCullough shortly before Memorial Day. View the full article

Eric Lauer wanted to prove he could start full-time in 2026. He hasn't had the results he was hoping for yet. Much like the rest of the Blue Jays, Lauer looked sharp in the season's opening series against the Athletics. Then the floor fell out from under him. Battling through the flu, he lasted just two innings against the White Sox. Six days later, perhaps still suffering the aftereffects of his illness, he gave up seven runs to the Twins. To his credit, he gave up all seven in the third inning and stuck it out into the sixth, but his final line was hardly inspiring: two home runs, five walks, and just three strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Judging by the box score, Lauer's most recent outing last week against the Diamondbacks was a return to form. In five innings, he struck out four, walked just one, and limited Arizona to three runs. Yet, he expressed frustration that he entered after an opener, telling reporters after the game: "To be real blunt, I hate it. I can't stand it." Lauer's response wasn't surprising. He has made it very clear he wants to be a regular starter. And while it's easy to understand the logic behind the opener – Lauer pitched through the sixth inning and only had to face Arizona's dangerous top three twice – it's just as easy to understand why he didn't like it. He's a competitor. He doesn't want to avoid opponents like Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, and Geraldo Perdomo. He wants to face them head-on. That's precisely the attitude you want in a pitcher, especially if that pitcher also understands that he ultimately has to do what's best for the team. As Lauer put it, "You work with what you got... We're trying to find ways to win." The early part of Lauer's 2026 has been characterized by ups and downs, by jerks and tugs, by ebbs and flows. He spent the winter watching his chances of an Opening Day rotation slot dwindle. First, Shane Bieber picked up his player option. Then the Jays signed Dylan Cease. And Cody Ponce. And Max Scherzer. Like Schrödinger's pitcher, Lauer came into spring training as both a starter and a reliever simultaneously. He saw himself as a starter. The Blue Jays had him stretch out as a starter. Yet, the fans, the team, and Lauer himself all knew he was more likely to end up in the bullpen. Until he didn't. That's a tough way to prepare for the season, and the past few weeks haven't exactly helped him settle into a routine. So, when I say the 2026 season hasn't started the way Lauer was hoping it would, I don't mean that as an all-out criticism. It's just as much a justification. I'm not ready to judge Lauer for his 7.13 ERA or his -0.1 fWAR. Instead, I'm happy to let each new start be a blank slate, at least for the time being. With that in mind, I'm not going to draw any serious conclusions about Lauer today. But I do want to examine the way he's deploying his arsenal this season and, in particular, one pitch. Fittingly, in a year that has already been marked by changes, that pitch is his changeup. Lauer threw 134 changeups last year, accounting for 8.0% of his total pitches. However, since he almost never throws the pitch against same-handed opponents, it's more meaningful to say he used it 10.3% of the time against righties. It was his quaternary weapon against right-handers, behind his four-seam fastball (45.2%), his cutter (20.2%), and his curveball (15.8%), and just ahead of his slider (8.3%). Four starts into 2026, he's more than doubled his changeup usage. Lauer has already thrown 58 changeups to righties this year, almost half as many as he threw in all of 2025. With a 21.9% usage rate, it's become his secondary pitch against opposite-handed hitters. When he's ahead in the count, he's throwing it almost as often as his fastball. In two-strike counts, he's thrown as many changeups as all his other secondaries combined. The reason I find this adjustment so surprising is that, well, Lauer's changeup wasn't very good in 2025. Honestly, it kind of sucked. Right-handed opponents crushed the pitch, posting a 55.6% hard-hit rate, a .430 wOBA, and .544 xwOBA. By Statcast's run value per 100 pitches (RV/100), it was one of the 10 least effective changeups in the league. Of course, sometimes good pitches see bad results. But I don't think that's what this was. According to the pitch models PitchingBot and Stuff+, Lauer's changeup was well below average in terms of both stuff and location. There just wasn't anything to love about it. That's not to say it had no role in his arsenal; it came in at a similar speed to his cutter but broke in the opposite direction, giving him a way to get righties to chase outside. The problem was that it wasn't particularly good at accomplishing that goal. The classic advice is to throw your best pitch more often, not your worst. I'm not sure what Lauer's up to. Clearly, he thinks his changeup can be better this year. He's also throwing it a little differently, in pursuit of that goal. For one thing, he's getting more arm-side movement on the pitch this year. The result is an offering that's further differentiated from the rest of his arsenal. That's what you want from a changeup: change. Lauer is also locating his changeup in the zone more often, without sacrificing chase. That means more strikes. Indeed, he's already recorded two strikeouts on his changeup this year. That may not sound like much, but consider that he didn't strike out any right-handed batters with his changeup last season. Despite those adjustments, PitchingBot and Stuff+ remain unenthused by Lauer's changeup. It's also far too early to draw any meaningful conclusions from the results. So, over Lauer's next handful of outings, I'll be paying attention to when, where, and how often he throws his changeup. I'm happy to give him and Pete Walker the benefit of the doubt for now, but if he continues to underwhelm, eventually I'll start wondering why he changed an approach that worked pretty darn well in 2025. View the full article

To put it mildly, the New York Mets' offense has been a dumpster fire on top of a tribal burial ground. They don’t get on base, they can’t hit for average, and when they do connect, they barely put a charge in the ball. As with any early-season slump, a lot of things have to go unexpectedly wrong all at once for a team this talented to sport a wRC+ of 80 over 22 games. First, Juan Soto went down with a calf injury, and then everyone this side of Francisco Alvarez and Luis Robert Jr. decided that letting go of the slack would be a great idea. The Mets’ bats will turn it around in some capacity. Soto is a metronome of consistency, and Francisco Lindor, Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, and Jorge Polanco have track records I trust far more than their current production. However, that probably won’t be enough for the Mets to get where they want to go. They’ll need more, which means they need Mark Vientos to break out… again. Only 18 months ago, Vientos was viewed as a future building block for the Mets. Hot on the heels of his explosive 2024 season, where he belted 27 home runs in 111 games, good for a wRC+ of 132, Vientos and his plus-raw power were poised to solidify their spot in the middle of the Mets lineup. Unfortunately, nearly everything has gone south since. Vientos’ 2025 was as underwhelming as the entire team's season. He slumped to 17 home runs in 127 games and posted a wRC+ of 97. That’d be fine for a catcher, but not for a corner infielder who isn’t an elite third-base defender; that’s replacement level. However, the whiplash between his 2024 and 2025 was more extreme than his underlying performance. In 2024, Vientos was one of the luckier hitters in baseball. His wOBA of .356 far outstripped his xwOBA of .333, and the 32 home runs he hit between the regular season and playoffs exceeded his expected total of 25.8. Now, for a 24-year-old, it was fair to dream he could continue to improve, but instead, he mostly stayed the same and got far less favorable results. His xwOBA in 2025 was .320, but his actual wOBA came in at .303. So, while Vientos, under the hood, only shed .013 points of wOBA between seasons, in reality, his wOBA dropped by a gargantuan .053. The Mets, realistically, don’t need the 2024 version of Vientos to be real challengers, but they desperately do need something approaching the 2025 version, just with a bit more batted ball luck. Unfortunately, the 2026 version of Vientos has looked absolutely lost at the plate, but there are a few promising developments that could portend a second breakout. Normally, you don’t highlight a player with a wRC+ of 71 and an xwOBA of .271. Those are dreadful figures, and as the expected data suggests, Vientos has earned those numbers. However, just because your batted balls have been lackluster doesn’t mean the foundation of the operation is totally kaput. The basis of Vientos’ operation is power. In 2024, he struck out in 29.7% of his plate appearances and walked in 7.3%. Both of those figures were below the league average, but it didn’t matter because he slugged .516 against the league average of .399. In the seasons since, Vientos has dramatically improved his K%, but at the cost of his walk rate and power. On the surface, the answer seems pretty simple for a player who has seen his K% drop from 29.7% to 23.4% and isolated power drop from .249 to .114. But Vientos isn’t really trading contact for power, even if that’s what the results have been. The best underlying metric for power-intention is swing speed. While a bunch of factors go into how hard you hit a ball, the most fundamental one is how fast you swing the bat. According to physics, the faster you swing a bat, the faster the ball should come off it, and Vientos has never swung harder than this season. In 2024, the season Vientos slugged his way into the heart of the Mets’ order, he averaged a swing speed of 71.8 MPH, with a fast swing rate (the percentage of swings above 75 MPH) of 20.6%. He followed that up in 2025 by cutting his swing speed to 71.2 MPH with a fast swing rate of 14.8%. The result, unsurprisingly, was less power but also fewer strikeouts, as he cut his K% from 29.7% to 24.8%. Now, in the early going of 2026, his average swing speed is a career best 73.7 MPH with a fast swing rate of 28.7%. Vientos, based on his swing speed, is going up to the plate looking to slug, but his hard-hit rate (the percentage of batted balls hit 95 MPH or harder) has plummeted to a career low 41%, compared to 50.5% in 2025 and 46.6% in 2024. So, what exactly is going on here? Well, swing speed is necessary for high-end exit velocities, but it isn’t the only factor. To really put a charge in the ball, you need to square up the ball while also swinging fast, and it’s here where Vientos has fallen off. In 2024, Vientos' blast rate (a fast swing that also results in squared-up contact) was 19.3% on contact and 13% on all swings. In 2025, he saw that decline to 16.9% on contact and 11.7% on all swings, and in 2026, those figures have eroded further to 16.4% and 10.6%, respectively. While the results for Vientos in 2026 have been more or less atrocious, he may be on the cusp of turning it around. His contact and swing decision metrics are almost identical to 2024, and he’s striking out at a career-low rate, while also swinging harder than ever. The only issue has been converting all of those hard swings into well-struck balls. This could simply be a timing issue, which all hitters go through at some point during a long season, but I also think Vientos could benefit from getting his stance back to where it was in 2024. Over the past two seasons, Vientos has slowly crept closer to the plate. In 2024, he stood 29.7 inches off the plate, but in 2026, he measures in at 27 inches off the plate. Now, 2.7 inches is not much in the real world, but in the high-stakes reality of Major League Baseball hitters, it might as well be a mile. The benefit of getting closer to the plate is that it increases your plate coverage, but a drawback is that it can make impacting pitches on the inner and middle third more difficult, and if your timing is off, it can make turning on fastballs all but impossible. Based on the change in Vientos slugging percentage on fastballs between 2024 and 2026, it's clear something is off. In 2024, Vientos absolutely crushed middle-in fastballs to the tune of a .500 slugging. In 2026, that figure has halved to .250. Needless to say, that’s not a good development. Obviously, we're in small-sample-size territory, but it's pretty easy to see the through line between the decline in production and an inability to crush inside pitches. There’s a chance that Mark Vientos has completely lost it at the plate. That, in his quest to cut down on strikeouts, he muted his one carrying trait. However, I think the fact that he is swinging as hard as ever suggests he’s just a small adjustment away from getting back to his best. Whether it’s backing off the plate an inch, getting his timing down, or simply just starting to see the ball a bit better, Vientos is still swinging as hard as ever and putting the ball in play as often as ever. Those two things should be a potent combination. The Mets just need to survive long enough for the results to match the data. View the full article