Category: Sports News

After a backbreaking loss to the Reds on Wednesday, the Mariners head into this huge series against the Rangers still searching for answers to their woes. The trade deadline is quickly approaching and this series in Texas along with next week’s series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers will have a lot of bearing on how the team approaches upgrading the roster. There are clear areas of need on the roster, and the team is firmly in win-now territory, but dropping well below .500 during this road trip should force the team to ask some really tough questions.

For their part, the Rangers aren’t exactly running away with the AL West right now despite the Mariners’ struggles. Texas lost its series to the White Sox earlier this week and maintains a slim half game lead over Seattle in the division. More importantly, the Rangers lead the season series 4-2; anything more than a split in this series would guarantee they hold the tiebreaker if the division race comes down to the wire in September.

The offensive woes that plagued this roster last year haven’t really improved; they’re 22nd in runs scored this year, same as they were last season. The big difference is that their pitching staff isn’t leading the majors in run prevention, sliding down to 14th thanks to a shakier starting rotation and a poorer bullpen. They finished last year at .500 and they’re sitting at that exact record this season. Nothing has really changed except for the league context around them.

The Rangers have gotten almost nothing out of Corey Seager this year; he’s only played in 51 games, has an 86 wRC+, and is currently on the IL with a recurring back issue. Luckily, Wyatt Langford has stepped up to lead the lineup, though he’s dealt with his own injury issues this year too. The young outfielder is displaying a lot more power even though his contact quality has taken a bit of a step back this year. The Rangers are also enjoying bounce back seasons from Josh Jung and Joc Pederson. The former is finally healthy and has significantly improved his plate discipline and the latter is simply back to crushing right-handed pitching like he has throughout his career. 

The back half of the lineup is pretty messy. Ezequiel Duran is doing his best to cover for Seager’s absence and Nicky Lopez and Elias Díaz have been pressed into full-time roles thanks to a number of other injuries. 

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

From a previous series preview:

MacKenzie Gore was the Rangers’ big offseason acquisition in January. After being included in the blockbuster Juan Soto trade (the first one from Washington to San Diego), Gore has established himself as a solid frontline starter over the last few years. His secondary weapons are all fantastic — he’s the only pitcher in baseball to feature four pitches with whiff rates north of 35% — but he’s often let down by an inconsistent fastball. When he’s locating his heater well, it can give opposing batters fits. But too often — and particularly during the second half of the season when he’s worn down significantly — his locations will leak into the middle of the zone and batters will punish the pitch.

Gore was pretty solid through the first three months of the season, running a 4.05 ERA and a 3.43 FIP through the end of June. July hasn’t been kind to him, however — he’s allowed 18 runs in 19.2 innings this month — and it looks like he’s about to stumble through another second-half slide like he has every season before this. In his two starts against the Mariners this year, he held them scoreless at home in five innings and then gave up five runs in five innings in Seattle the next time around.

From a previous series preview:

Nathan Eovaldi has been forced to figure out how to do more with less (fastball velocity). Last year, he dropped the usage of his four-seam fastball by nearly 15 points, added a sinker to his repertoire, and increased the usage of his cutter and curveball. The result was a pitch mix that was a lot less predictable and a lot less dependent on his deteriorating velocity. Unfortunately, elbow and shoulder injuries derailed the success he was seeing with his new approach, and he spent most of the second half of the season on the shelf.

Eovaldi has dramatically shifted away from his fastball this year, dropping its usage to just 13%. He’s now throwing his splitter and curveball more than half the time, though that shift in pitch mix hasn’t exactly resulted in great topline results. He’s been pretty inconsistent throughout the year despite leaning on his two big swing-and-miss pitches. Previously against the Mariners, he allowed two runs in six innings in Arlington and then four runs in five innings back in Seattle. 

From a previous series preview:

Last year, Jacob deGrom made 30 starts for the first time since 2019 and crossed the 150 IP threshold for just the fifth time in his career. That health was the result of a conscious effort to pitch with a little less intensity. His fastball velocity was down about a tick from where it was at his peak, though it still averaged 97.5 mph. From a results standpoint, he ran his lowest strikeout rate since 2016 and the highest FIP of his career. Even in his diminished form, he was still one of the better pitchers in baseball, and as they say, the best ability is availability.

deGrom has continued to pitch excellently in his age-38 season, and more importantly, he’s stayed mostly healthy. In his two previous starts against the Mariners, he’s allowed a single run across nine innings.

Kumar Rocker has taken a big step forward this year, not because he’s improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio in any meaningful way, but simply because he isn’t allowing as much hard contact. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is essentially unchanged from where it’s been during his first two seasons in the big leagues, but his hard hit and barrel rates allowed have dropped significantly. The biggest change in his profile is a greater emphasis on his death ball slider; he’s throwing it 38% of the time, is running a 41% whiff rate with it, and opposing batters have produced a .211 wOBA against it. His other pitches don’t stand out in any meaningful way, so it really seems like his improvement stems from leaning on his best pitch a lot more often.

The Big Picture:

The Astros bounced back from being swept last weekend by sweeping the Marlins this week; they’ll head to Chicago to face the White Sox this weekend. We’re fans of the Athletics this weekend as they take on the Twins in Minnesota. The Red Sox finally had their win streak snapped at 15 games on Wednesday, but they’ve opened up a two-game lead in the Wild Card race. Boston hosts the Blue Jays this weekend.

A strange thing is happening in the American League.

Despite capturing the All-Star Game, the American League has struggled this year compared to its National League brethren. For example, nine National League teams enter the day with winning records compared to just six American League clubs. Four of the top five winning percentages belong to N.L. teams while three of the five worst winning percentages belong to A.L. teams, the Kansas City Royals among them.

In the National League, there is a clear front-runner for the Most Valuable Player award, that being one of the greatest ballplayers to ever live, certainly the apex of the sport today: Shohei Ohtani.

The downturn in American League records, coupled with the unfortunate injury and long absence of the league’s biggest star, Aaron Judge, means that the race for MVP is far more volatile than usual. While this is not, and should not, be the sole indicator of the award, the top three American League players in bWAR are Bobby Witt Jr. (4.9), Kevin McGonigle (4.8), and Yordan Alvarez (4.7).

What’s one thing shared by Witt, McGonigle, and Alvarez?

Each of their teams has a losing record.

Bob, of course, plays for the Royals, who have, to put it mildly, struggled in 2026. At the time of this writing, after winning two straight against the Giants, the Royals are now 42-60, a smooth dozen games behind the White Sox and Guardians in the Central while 10.5 out of the final Wild Card spot.

McGonigle, a rookie for the Tigers, has been a highlight of a down year in the Motor City. After yesterday’s 11-2 clobbering at the hands of the Cubs, Detroit is 47-54, ahead of only the Royals in the Central while five back of the last playoff spot.

Alvarez’s Houston Astros are in the best shape of the trio. Having won two in a row, and despite still being five games below .500, the Astros are only three games back of the Rangers in the West while four back of Boston in the Wild Card race.

According to odds over at ESPN from yesterday, before Bob’s placement on the Injured List, Alvarez was the favorite to win the AL MVP with Witt coming in third behind Tampa’s Junior Caminero (4.1 bWAR). McGonigle didn’t crack this particular Top 10, but his teammate, catcher Dillon Dingler (3.7 bWAR), did.

That means that three of the top ten listed, including two of the top three, the frontrunner among them, play for teams with losing records.

Major League Baseball hands out the MVP to players from teams with losing records more than any other professional league in North America—MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL.

While Bobby Witt Jr.’s injury may set him back in joining this, um, select group, Yordan Alvarez has a real shot at it. Here are the fifteen others he’d be joining with notes on four others.

Al Rollins, Chicago Black Hawks, 1953-54

We begin with perhaps the most perplexing instance. It’s so weird because a) a goalie won the Hart trophy, which is always strange, and b) a goalie won the Hart trophy as his team (note that “Black” and “Hawks” are two different words, so this is some time ago) finished 12-51-7, good for 31 points. The Black Hawks finished sixth in the NHL that year.

Of course, there were only six teams in the NHL that year. The fifth-place team, the New York Rangers, finished with more than twice as many points as the Black Hawks earned. And yet, Chicago’s goalie, who himself finished 12-47-7, took home the MVP.

Bob Pettit, St. Louis Hawks, 1955-56

Another Hawk, this time in basketball and from St. Louis. Pettit led the league in scoring with 25.7 points per game as St. Louis finished 33-39 in their first year in Missouri after moving from Milwaukee, this all under legendary coach Red Holzman, who, until this year, was the most recent coach to lead the Knicks to a championship.

Despite the losing record, the Hawks reached the postseason, even winning a round over the Minneapolis Lakers before falling to the Fort Wayne Pistons in the conference finals.

Two years later, the Hawks won it all. Pettit followed that up in 1958-59 with his second MVP. In 1971, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs, 1958

Lemme tell you something: the fifties loved it some losing MVPs. Banks became the first baseball player to achieve the feat as the Cubs finished 72-82, 20 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Braves. Mr. Cub, though, certainly delivered, as he posted 9.3 bWAR, taking home 2/3 of the Triple Crown with a league-leading 47 homers and 129 RBIs. He slashed .313/.366/.614.

Andy Bathgate, New York Rangers, 1958-59

Our second, and penultimate, hockey entry, Bathgate put up 88 points (40 goals, 48 assists) on his way to the Hart trophy for a Rangers team that ended the season 26-32-12, fifth in the six-team NHL. For some reason, voters named him the MVP over two players on the first-place, eventual champion Montreal Canadiens: Jean Béliveau finished third in voting after posting 91 points (45, 46) and his teammate, Dickie Moore, finished fifth after collecting 96 points (41, 55), which led the league.

Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs, 1959

Evidently, Banks loved baseball so much, he said, “Let’s play two!” He loved winning the MVP for a bad team so much he immediately did it again in 1959: 10.2 bWAR, 45 home runs, 143 RBIs, .304/.374/.596.

Cubs final record: 74-80-1.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Lakers, 1975-76

Big time jump as no North American professional athlete won the MVP as part of a losing team during all of the sixties and the first half of the seventies. Abdul-Jabbar ended up being the only one to achieve the feat in the seventies, doing so at the midway point for a Lakers team that finished just under .500, 40-42.

This was Abdul-Jabbar’s fourth MVP trophy, and it just so happened to occur during his first year with the Lakers. Los Angeles finished fourth in the Pacific, two games back of the Suns for a playoff spot.

That season, Abdul-Jabbar led the NBA in total rebounds per game (16.9) and blocks per game (4.1) while averaging 27.7 and 5 assists. He’d again win the MVP the following year, then once more in 1979-1980.

The 1975-76 season is the only time Abdul-Jabbar missed the playoffs in his career.

Andre Dawson, Chicago Cubs, 1987

For those keeping track, this was the third time a baseball player won the MVP while part of a losing team, and all of them were Cubs. Gee, I wonder if any baseball team will top that.

Andre “The Hawk” Dawson—another Hawk!—posted only 4.0 bWAR in 1987, which tied for 18th among NL batters, but he did lead the league in home runs with 49 and RBIs with 137, both of which were career highs for the Hall of Famer. He slashed .287/.328/.568. The Cubs finished 76-85, last in the National League East.

Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins, 1987-88

Just 22, Mario Lemieux paced the National Hockey League in points in 1987-88 with 168, including a league-leading 70 goals and a staggering 98 assists. Lemieux posted even better numbers the following season, but came in second in voting for the Hart behind some guy named Wayne Gretzky.

Serious question: would you rather have a healthy Lemieux or Gretzky at his peak? I’m not so sure there’s an easy answer. Sure, one’s nicknamed “The Great One,” but if Lemieux didn’t miss so much time, it might be No. 66, not No. 99, retired across the NHL.

The Penguins finished 36-35-9, which is under .500 in hockey terms. Three years later, they lifted Lord Stanley’s Cup for the first time ever.

Cal Ripken Jr., Baltimore Orioles, 1991

To this day, Ripken’s Iron Man streak overshadows how good of a ballplayer he was. Sure, he wouldn’t have started so many games in a row if he were a bum. But fans today forget that he posted nearly 100 bWAR while winning two Most Valuable Player awards, one when he was 22 in 1983, and this one, when he was 30.

For an awful Orioles team, one that finished 67-95, 24 games back of Toronto, Ripken, pardon the pun, ripped. He posted a career-high 11.5 bWAR while setting other career highs in home runs (34), RBIs (114), on-base percentage (.374), total bases (368, which led the league), and OPS+ (162). He also earned his first Gold Glove.

Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers, 2003

Another bit of a time-jump before Alex Rodriguez joins the club. A-Rod spent three years with the Rangers, who posted losing seasons all three years, with 2001 being the high mark with 73 wins.

In 2003, his last season not as a Yankee, Rodriguez won the first of three MVP awards. Rodriguez led the AL in bWAR (8.4), runs (124), home runs (47), and slugging percentage (.600) while capturing his second straight Gold Glove.

Oddly, 2003 looks like Rodriguez’s worst statistical season in Texas. I mean, dig it:

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 2016

The Angels finished 74-88 when Mike Trout won his second MVP. Trout led the league in bWAR (10.4), runs (123), walks (116), on-base percentage (.441), and OPS+ (173).

As you’re about to see, this sort of thing is about to become a trend in Anaheim.

Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins, 2017

Stanton had a season for the ages in his last year with the Marlins. He just missed 60 home runs on the year, still leading the Majors with 59. He added 132 RBIs, scored 123 runs, and slugged .631 for a Marlins team that finished 77-85, second in the National League East, but a full 10 games back of the final Wild Card.

The following offseason, Stanton forced his way out of Florida, choosing the Yankees as his next team. Injuries have hampered him during his time in the Bronx, though he did capture the ALCS MVP in 2024. He could very well become the first non-steroid tainted member of the 500-homer club to not make the Hall of Fame, but I doubt he gets there.

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 2019

Trout again. He won the MVP this time despite finishing behind others in bWAR, such as Houston’s Alex Bregman and Oakland’s Marcus Semien.

This was Trout’s third and, in all likelihood, final Most Valuable Player award. He has never won a postseason game.

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels, 2021

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels, 2023

Grouping these last two together as it’s the same dude with the same team. Man, Arte Moreno is a bad owner. Ten times has a player won the MVP in baseball while playing for a team with a losing record, and four of those have happened in the past decade with the Angels.

While Trout remains, Ohtani bolted in free agency for the Dodgers, where he’s enjoyed enormous success, individually and, more importantly, as a member of the team.

Before that, though, Ohtani languished with the Angels. The two-way star won his first MVP in 2021 as the Angels finished 77-85. At the plate, Ohtani scored 103 runs while smoking 46 home runs and driving in 100 RBIs. He slashed .257/.372/.592. On the mound, Ohtani started 23 games, going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA, 1.090 WHIP, and 3.52 FIP. In total, he posted 9.0 bWAR—4.9 at the plate and 4.1 on the mound.

Two years later, as the Angels finished 73-89, Ohtani posted even better numbers at the plate as he slashed .304/.412/.654 with 44 homers and 95 RBIs. Pitching, he went 10-5 over 132 innings with 167 strikeouts, a 3.14 ERA and a 4.00 FIP.

Final Note

As you probably noticed, no NFL player has ever won the MVP while playing for a losing team. Since the AP started voting on the MVP in 1957, the closest a player has come to this is Barry Sanders in 1997, when the Lions finished 9-7.

From 1938 to 1946, the MVP equivalent was called the Joe F. Carr Trophy. Twice did a player win that hardware while playing for a team that finished 5-5-1. Cleveland Rams halfback Parker Hall did so in 1939 followed by Pittsburgh Steelers halfback Bill Dudley in 1946.

Finally, as far as I can tell, only one Major League Baseball player has won the MVP for a team that finished exactly .500—Robin Yount for the 1989 Milwaukee Brewers.

So now that we are firmly in the sell camp, let’s have a contest to guess which players will be traded away.

The problem the Jays have is that they don’t have that guy who will net them top prospects. They don’t have Tarik Skubal, who will be the one that everyone will be bidding on, and the price will be very high.

I think Kevin Gausman will likely bring the biggest return, but he hasn’t looked great lately. He has a 7.85 ERA in his last six starts. Only one of them was a good start. I don’t know how other teams will view him.

On the other hand, Shane Bieber has had a couple of great starts in a row. Small sample and all, but he might be a bigger draw for a contending team at the moment. But he’s only had 6 starts, and I’d worry about his injury history.

George Springer? He’s having a poor season, but there have been some good signs of late. He’s hitting .286/.342/.514 in July. He’s been in the playoffs a bunch. He’s clearly well-liked in the clubhouse. On the other side of it, he’s really only a DH now. I think the Jays played him in the outfield to try to suggest to other teams ‘he can do this’ if they needed.

Daulton Varsho? Well, he hasn’t helped his trade value. I don’t think you take on a project at the deadline. But, who knows. Yimi Garcia? I don’t think there is another time to prove he can pitch before the deadline, but maybe?

Someone who isn’t in their final contract year? I don’t see it. Varland won’t be traded unless someone really overbids, and I can’t imagine it. Same with Rogers. Any other reliever? Hoffman? I don’t think it will happen. Maybe one of the lefties?

Nathan Lukes? He’s not a free agent until 2031, so I don’t see that there is a reason for the Jays to deal him. And I don’t see him as a guy a team would overpay to get.

Jesus Sanchez? I don’t think there is enough time to prove he’s healthy and, even if he could, he’d have to prove he can hit the ball.

Anyway, tell us who the Jays will trade before the deadline. We’ll give a point for each one you get right and subtract one for each one you get wrong.

No reason to be cute with the headline or insightful with the commentary. These are two bad teams beyond redemption. The Giants have had just 2 winning seasons since 2016 (2016 & 2021), but the Angels haven’t had any — 2026 will mark their 11th consecutive losing season… basically, they’ve been losers since they fully dropped Anaheim from their name (Anaheim Angels —> Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim —> The Los Angeles Angels (since 2016). What’s the Giants’ excuse? Um, well…

The Giants are bad in some heartbreaking ways. Whether it’s coming up short despite efficiency gains from Farhan Zaidi’s process or Buster Posey’s “What if we took computers out of the game, and experience, and focused on batting average and pitchers who remind me of when I won championships?” strategy, the Giants have managed to squander the talent they’ve been able to assemble.

Outside of Mike Trout, the Angels don’t really “do” talent. Since the start of the 2016 season, their position player group has been worth a total of 139.5 fWAR (23rd in MLB) and their pitching group 107.1 (28th). They’re 731-890, record-wise (23rd). Now, before you get too cocky as a Giants fan, their 164.5 fWAR is just 20th over this same span and their pitching value of 143.2 fWAR is just 13th. Their 800-820 record is 15th. Yes, the Giants have been better and still might be better in this series, but we’re very much about to watch a slap fight between two very stupid and untalented teams.

The Angels have a rotten owner situation as well, though its not a consortium of interests like the Giants, it’s one just Arte Moreno, whose whimsy and caprice has taken a team that embarrassed the Giants in the 2002 World Series and made them into one of the heartiest laughingstocks in professional sports. Their most recent headline?

They had to fire The Baseball Spy.

The scout, Justin “Boomer” Prinstein, had only been hired by the Angels in December. He was let go shortly after the team was alerted to the incident by Major League Baseball, according to team and league sources briefed on the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.

Prinstein had been scouting the Rockies ahead of the Angels’ home series against Colorado from June 1-3. While seated in a section at Coors Field designated for scouts, he was spotted filming coaches on his phone during a game by a member of the Rockies organization. While scouts filming is generally considered a legal practice, using technology to steal or decode signs is not allowed.

[…]

The Rockies won the series between the two clubs, which own the worst records in their respective leagues. 

Ohhhh, but… Humm Baby, here come the Giants! They’re just 1 win better than either team as of this morning. Does this mean that the Giants are as bad as the Rockies and Angels? Well, I would say yes. Regardless of how the on-paper talent might stack up, didn’t the Giants’ fanbase just spend 6 years waging a war against process to assert the dominance of results? For all their efforts, the Giants are as bad as these Angels.

But it’s good that the Giants are on a 5-game losing streak because the Angels serve as the best chance to snap a losing streak. The Angels are 5-11 in July with a -13 run differential. They’re 17-34 on the road this season. Their starting pitching has been slightly more valuable than the Giants’ (7.2 fWAR to 6.0), and their bullpen has been better, too (1.1 fWAR to 0.0) — their relievers strikeout nearly 2 batters per 9 more than the Giants, though walk slightly more. Offensively, they’ve been about as good as the Royals (96 wRC+ to KC’s 97). But their position player group is just dreadful, defensively. -24.1 Defensive Runs Above Average, the worst in the sport. This is why they’re just slightly worse than the Giants.

Let’s circle back to The Baseball Spy story to close out here because I want to give this post a little personality. The Spy has two nicknames? He’s both “Boomer” and The Baseball Spy? And he’s 42 years old? Oof. Here’s another example of Millenial Incompetence. We really are a failed generation, aren’t we? See other examples of failed Millenials: Mike Trout himself. Zack Minasian. Buster Posey. Most ICE agents are Millenials. Angels manager Kurt Suzuki willingly took a 1-year contract just to get the chance to manage a major league team. Have some self respect! My generation hasn’t risen to meet our moment, have we?

Well, I guess Millenials did help bring the Giants their first championships in San Francisco history. But, you know, except for that… don’t count on us to be in charge of anything important.

Series Overview

Who: San Francisco Giants (42-60) vs. Los Angeles Angels (41-62)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday & Sunday at 1:05pm PT
National broadcasts: None

Projected starters
Friday: Logan Webb (RHP 5-7, 3.87 ERA) vs. Grayson Rodriguez (RHP 3-3, 8.23 ERA)
Saturday: Robbie Ray (LHP 8-6, 3.33 ERA) vs. Ryan Johnson (RHP 2-4, 6.10 ERA)
Sunday: TBD vs. Jose Soriano (RHP 8-6, 3.43 ERA)

Players to watch

Angels

Mike Trout: Last year, he played 130 games for the first time since 2019 and managed to hit 20% better than the league average. This year, he’s had a hamstring issue that caused him to miss nearly a month, but he has a 136 wRC+ in 379 PA, so, he’s good and back, right, even at 34 years old? In 10 games off the IL, he’s slashing just .237/.341/.368, so, he could start to get hot in this series or maybe he’s in decline. What’s fun about the Giants being bad is that we won’t know for sure.

Jorge Soler: This is the final year of the 3-year deal Farhan Zaidi signed him to in the 2023-2024 offseason. It was great that he was able to move the contract as soon as he did. It’s not as though Soler was a total flameout of a contract, but the results were entirely predictable. He was great for Atlanta right after the trade (.243/.356/.493), but since they traded him to the Angels after 2024, he’s hit just .210/.293/.381 over his last 161 games. In July, he’s 8-for-52 with just 4 doubles as extra base hits. 4 walks against 23 strikeouts.

Grayson Rodriguez: The first starter of the series was the return for a curious trade Zack Minasian’s brother Perry made in the offseason, when the Angels shipped Taylor Ward to the Orioles for the talented, but injured Rodriguez. He had a bit of a breakout in 2024, and in his first two seasons was 20-8 in 43 starts with a 4.11 ERA and 3.9 fWAR in value. Then, he had elbow surgery. Since returning, he’s been shaky. He’s made 8 starts for the Angels and on top of an 8.23 ERA he has a 5.22 FIP. After averaging around 10 K/9 in those first two seasons, he’s down to 6.9 and his 2.9 BB/9 is up to 4.4. Still, he throws 96.

Wade Meckler: Okay, but like, the former Giant has a .798 OPS in 147 plate appearances. He’s 9-for-his-last-19 and has just 3 strikeouts. He’s like their own Luis Arraez!

Giants

Logan Webb: For his career, he has a 2.92 ERA at Oracle Park, but this season it’s 3.74 thanks to three notable blowups: Opening Night against the Yankees, against the Padres, and against the Blue Jays. The Angels don’t hit a lot of groundballs and strikeout a lot, but they have such an eclectic mix of power and free swingers that one bad defensive inning could lead to an easy win for them/loss for the Giants.

Robbie Ray: Will this be his final start in a Giants uniform?

Luis Arraez: The Angels have a pretty funny split against left-handed hitting. They have a .747 OPS against them, compared to .684 from righties. I expect him to feast, boosting his trade value.

Willy Adames: He was just 4-for-22 on this road trip, but 3 of those hits were homers. Then again, on the last homestand, he was just 5-for-25. Is he good? Is he actually heating up in the second half as he usually does, or are we all drunk off dingers?

Prediction time

The countdown to the 2026 trade deadline keeps ticking, and all 30 teams will need to decide whether to buy or sell.

For a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers, buying at the deadline has become an annual expectation, even with a relatively weaker deadline spree last year. While the team currently boasts the best record in the sport, they’ve done so despite the numerous injuries to several big name players.

With gaps to fill at every facet of the team, here are three players that the Dodgers need to acquire before the trade deadline expires.

Offense— Mitch Garver, C, SEA

Looking at the overall numbers, Seattle Mariners catcher Mitch Garver has had a season to forget. The 35-year-old is slashing just .184/.311/.316 across 135 plate appearances, and with Cal Raleigh having recently returned from injury, Garver is once again relegated to backup duties behind home plate.

Despite the poor numbers, Garver fills the Dodgers’ most crucial offensive hole. Will Smith has been on the injured list since early June, and with him being transferred to the 60-day IL, they are in need of a catcher to hit against left-handed pitching.

Dalton Rushing has received the lion’s share of opportunities in Smith’s absence, and although he has great numbers against southpaws on the year (.255/.345/.412), he has mired in an 2-23 slump since July 6. The Dodgers backup options behind Rushing, both Chuckie Robinson and Eliézer Alfonzo, have combined to hit .114 (4-35) in that time.

Garver has been successful in his sparse opportunities against left-handers (.229/.351/.333), and he has championship pedigree after winning it all with the Texas Rangers in 2023. If and when Smith returns in the regular season, Garver can be a platoon option at first base or designated hitter if Freddie Freeman or Shohei Ohtani deal with ailments.

Rotation— Clay Holmes, RHP, NYM

The Dodgers starting rotation has been one of the best in baseball, even with injuries to both Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell and youngsters Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan struggling to find their footing.

The only consistent right-handed arm in the rotation is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and with Shohei Ohtani being shut down for the mean time, another right-handed starter fills the rotation’s needs. For a New York Mets team that is free falling, right-hander Clay Holmes would help fortify the pitching staff.

Holmes has been out since May due to a right fibula fracture, but he began a rehab assignment on July 18. When healthy, he has put up a 2.39 ERA with 45 strikeouts and 18 walks over 52 2/3 innings. The 33-year-old has a combined 3.26 ERA across his last 42 appearances (40 starts) since joining the Mets, and he adds some much needed flexibility for the overall pitching staff once the injured starters make their returns.

Bullpen— Daniel Lynch VI, LHP, KC

The Dodgers bullpen has had a remarkable turnaround this season, and that includes relievers such as Tanner Scott having a bounce back season in his second year with the club. Injuries to Evan Phillips, Edwin Díaz and Blake Treinen have limited their options at the back end of the bullpen, but the front end is the bigger issue to highlight.

Daniel Lynch VI of the Kansas City Royals has put himself in a prime position to be moved at the deadline. He currently leads all Royals relievers in both bWAR and fWAR, sporting a 2.13 ERA and a 0.921 WHIP on the season. His strikeout numbers are slightly up from last year (7.2 strikeouts per nine innings), but he has found success by limiting the long ball and keeping the ball on the ground.

Lynch also has experience in the rotation, as he has made 56 starts over his first five seasons before transitioning to the bullpen full-time. The Dodgers could use another flex option beside Eric Lauer, who could face a demotion from the rotation once Snell and Glasnow return, and Lynch would provide more than serviceable work at the front end of the bullpen while also adding needed length if the rest of the bullpen gets taxed early. Lynch won’t turn 30-years-old until Nov. 17, and he is eligible for arbitration this offseason.

As we continue through the summer months of our illuminating Yankees birthday series, we are taken to every corner of baseball history. In the case of a day like today, we may dive into a career that was solid in one way or another, but only features a brief chapter with the Yankees. Joe Oliver played in over 1,000 big league games over the course of a 13-year career, won a World Series, and of course, made a brief stop with the New York Yankees as it was winding down. Today, the former world champ turns 61.

Joe Oliver
Born: July 24, 1965 (Memphis, TN)
Yankees Tenure: 2001

Born in Tennessee in July of 1965, Joseph Melton Oliver developed his game in Florida, attending Boone High School in Orlando as a standout behind home plate. His time there was convincing enough for the Cincinnati Reds to select him in the second round of the 1983 draft.

Although Oliver first became a professional when he was just 17, it was a longer road through the minors, but he would finally make his big league debut in the 1989 season. Oliver registered a hit in his very first MLB at-bat, and his career was off and running. He’d play in 49 mostly fine games during the ‘89 season, but would begin to make a much bigger mark in the following year.

Oliver played in 121 games in 1990 for the Reds, coming to the plate more than 400 times as their primary catcher during the regular season as Cincinnati went wire-to-wire under new manager Lou Piniella to claim the NL West division title, their first since 1979. Most notably, the young catcher helped propel his club to a World Series upset over a stacked Oakland club led by the likes of Rickey Henderson and the Bash Brothers. In the Fall Classic, Oliver went an impressive 6-for-18, with no hit bigger than his walk-off knock down the left-field line against Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley, securing Game 2 for the Reds. They soon swept away the shocked A’s.

It was the last World Series game ever played at Riverfront Stadium, the home of the “Big Red Machine,” which closed in 2002. To date, the Red have never made it back to host another Fall Classic.

Oliver continued to play a significant role with the Reds through the strike-shortened 1994 season, with perhaps the finest year of his career coming in ‘92, when he posted a 92 OPS+ in 143 games, part of a three-year stretch with double-digit homers as well.

From that point on, the veteran catcher followed a journeyman’s path over the next seven seasons. He made a one-year stop with the Brewers in ‘95 before returning to a fairly prominent role role with the Reds in the next two seasons, playing at roughly the same level the club was likely accustomed to. Oliver then spent the 1998 season splitting time between Detroit and Seattle (reuniting with his old Reds skipper Piniella), before spending ‘99 with the Pirates. Each of those stops were mostly a disappointment relative to the rest of his career, as he had a cumulative 51 OPS+ during the final two seasons of the 20th century.

Piniella brought Oliver back to the Mariners for a second time for the 2000 campaign, and he actually put up solid numbers in 69 games, posting a career-best 105 OPS+ with 10 homers in his limited time — though Piniella gave him a little more down the stretch due to the offensive struggles of longtime starter (and future M’s manager) Dan Wilson. Seattle won a Wild Card spot, and Oliver was finally back in the postseason for the second time in his career. Appearing in his first playoff game in a decade, Oliver celebrated with a homer off Jim Parque in the ALDS opener against the White Sox, the beginning of a sweep over the team that finished 2000 with the American League’s best record.

Oliver and the Mariners fell to the Yankees in a six-game ALCS after the sweep, but that slight renaissance in his age-34 season likely helped to keep him around for a bit longer. In fact, in the early stages of that offseason, Oliver joined those same now-three-time defending champions who had just eliminated his team.

Signed as one of Jorge Posada’s many backups during the 2000s and donning his pal Piniella’s old No. 14, Oliver’s time in pinstripes ended up being largely unremarkable. Posada was in his prime and manager Joe Torre put him behind the plate as much as possible. Oliver mustered only a 62 OPS+ across 12 games and 40 plate appearances with the Yankees. One of those games led to a Yankees loss as well, as Oliver’s passed ball in extra innings on May 10th led to the Twins beating Mariano Rivera.

Posada suffered a minor thumb injury in early June that limited him to DH duty, and the Yankees had to call up another catcher to make sure they had a backup to Oliver in that time. That turned out to be Todd Greene, who was six years younger and hit the ground running with a 4-for-7 series in Baltimore. So when Posada returned to health and the Yankees made a trade to acquire infielder/future Pedro Martinez frenemy Enrique Wilson from Pittsburgh on June 13th, they had a decision to make on Posada’s backup. Although Oliver had hit his first Yankees homer on June 10th (a rare old Yankee Stadium “black seats” homer against Greg Maddux, no less), New York elected to keep Greene and designate Oliver for assignment.

As far as fill-in backup catchers go, teams could have gone far worse than with Oliver, even late in his career. And honestly, Greene didn’t really hit at all for the remainder of 2001. To put it lightly, Torre had good reason to lean on Posada.

Oliver got picked up by the Red Sox but only made it into five MLB games. That split-season would ultimately prove to be his final action on a big league field, but just as he started it, Oliver managed to tally a hit in his final career at-bat.

After a hiatus from the game, Oliver once again became involved in affiliated ball, this time as a manger in the Red Sox minor league system. He served as a manager at various levels in the system from 2014-19.

On his 61st, we wish the former, albeit brief, Yankees backstop a happy birthday.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

After back to back series wins on the road, the Nats set up one of their most important matchups in years. They come home to square off against a Diamondbacks team that currently holds the third Wild Card spot. The Snakes are two games ahead of the Nats, which makes this series a massive one.

For new President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni, this series will probably be the one where he decides his direction for the trade deadline. If the Nats drop this series, selling the likes of Foster Griffin and Luis Garcia Jr. will become inevitable. It could even pave the way for a CJ Abrams trade if the right offer comes. 

However, if the Nats win the series, it could be time to buy. Our guy Paul Cubbage put together a good list of candidates if the Nats were to buy. Controllable pitching will be what the Nats would likely go after. The likes of Jose Soriano, Reid Detmers and Joe Ryan could be on the table.

They still need to go out and perform in this series though. The pitching matchups this weekend point to some potentially high scoring games. Today, Carson Palmquist will open for Zack Littell. Foster Griffin pitches Saturday, which is good for the Nats. However, Miles Mikolas will get the ball on Sunday.

On the other side of things, the D-Backs are calling upon three lefties. The experienced Eduardo Rodriguez will take the ball tonight. He is having a great season with a 2.62 ERA, but is outperforming his underlying numbers by a lot. On Saturday and Sunday, the D-Backs have the rookie duo of Mitch Bratt and Kohl Drake on the mound.

Those guys have made a combined 4 MLB starts in their careers. On paper, this should be a good matchup for the Nats high powered offense. One player we will see a lot of this weekend is Andres Chaparro, who is flying high after a massive road trip. The burly first baseman hit three homers including a 467 foot blast in Sacramento. 

Chaparro staying productive this weekend will be a major key in this series. Other lefty mashers like Curtis Mead and Dylan Crews will also be important players to watch. The Nats have a well rested bullpen that performed well on the road trip, but as we all know, they remain a massive question mark.

The clubhouse knows how important this series will be. Blake Butera talked about the importance of this stretch in a presser the other day. He knows that these players are aware of what the standings look like and that the trade deadline is looming. Now these guys have a chance to force the front office into buying.

There have been a lot of times this season where the vibes are very high after a successful road trip. However, a lot of times the home stand that follows brings those vibes down. The Nats are going to need to perform at home this weekend, and reverse a season long trend.

They are 20-31 at Nationals Park this year. That is the worst home record in all of baseball. This team will have to change that if they want to go on a real playoff push, and it has to start right now. The Washington Nationals are starting their most important series of the 2020’s, and I am fired up!

Worcester: W, 15-1 (BOX SCORE)

Many will love the Franklin Arias move to Triple-A so he can showcase his power and contact tools at the next level, facing guys who have pitched in the Majors before. On Thursday, while their old manager (and current Major League manager) Chad Tracy was inducted into the WooSox Hall of Fame Class of 2026, the team didn’t even need the 20-year-old infielder to pop off against guys who have made their debut in the Show, such as Braxton Garrett and Amos Willingham. Behind Raymond Burgos’ best start of the year (in which he retired eleven batters in a row at one point), all they did was collect 18 hits, 9 with runners in scoring position, and six extra-base hits. Andrew Knizner got on base six times, Allan Castro hit a home run in the seventh that put an exclamation mark on the game, Braiden Ward had three hits at the bottom of the lineup, and simply put, the WooSox dominated the Jumbo Shrimp. (Marlins AAA)

Portland: W, 3-2 (BOX SCORE)

John Holobetz had a fantastic performance along with the rest of the pitching staff; the staff as a whole held Binghamton (Mets AA) scoreless all the way until the ninth, but Holobetz was the clear standout, striking out ten and keeping the Sea Dogs in the contest. Which leads us to the biggest story of the minor league system right now: in Franklin Arias’ final game in Portland, all he did was hit his 19th home run of 2026, which, in a one-run game, made all the difference. The team announced on Thursday night that he’d be joining the Triple-A roster, as the promising prospect will be taking the trip down 95 south… or, since I guess they’re in Binghamton, he’ll be going 88 to the Thruway to the Pike. Anyway! This is big news. Many in the 2025 Mikey Romero camp have departed it for reasons not entirely his fault, so this gives them another infielder to watch until Jack Winnay inevitably tears the cover off the ball next year. I do not see Arias getting promoted again at his young age, and I also don’t see him being any part of a trade to bolster this year’s roster; he seems untouchable and really a piece the team wants to make sure develops correctly (however arbitrary “correctly” is)… but baseball is baseball and we’ll have to see.

Greenville: PPD, Rain (Make-Up Today)

Rain, rain, go away. The Drive play two against Spartanburg (Astros High-A) today. (Rhyme intentional)

Salem: W, 8-7 (BOX SCORE)

The pitching wasn’t exactly at the top of their game in hosting Greensboro (Braves A), but they didn’t have to be. They did strike fourteen out despite allowing seven runs on ten hits and walking nine, and those strikeouts played a part in the Green Jackets stranding a dozen, which Salem took full advantage of. Kleyvar Salazar had his second consecutive home run with a game (I’m still convinced he was about to hit one when Tuesday’s game was rained out) and due to three consecutive innings with runs, the RidgeYaks were able to hold off a ninth inning rally to narrowly escape with a W.