Category: MLB

When Cooper Pratt reportedly agreed to an eight-year extension (with two additional option years) with the Brewers earlier this week, it came as quite a shock. These types of deals aren’t completely unheard of, even within the organization; when Jackson Chourio signed his big extension before the 2024 season, he’d played a grand total of six games above Double-A, which is three more than the number of games Pratt had played at Triple-A when news of the extension broke. Colt Emerson of the Mariners signed a Chourio-like extension this week: he has not debuted yet, and may not for some time.

But there’s a difference. When Chourio signed his extension, he was baseball’s No. 2 prospect. Emerson, via Baseball America, is No. 7. Pratt, on the other hand, is ranked No. 50 by Baseball America, No. 64 via MLB Pipeline, and he is not in the top 100 on Baseball Prospectus. Pratt is a good prospect, but he’s not exactly a great one, and as BA’s JJ Cooper points out, the expected outcomes for a player in Pratt’s range do not exactly suggest “this guy will definitely be a star.”

Based on Cooper’s chart, the most likely outcome for Pratt is that he’ll have a career WAR value between 3 and 10 WAR. The Brewers, a team without a ton of financial resources, just promised him a minimum of $50 million; I do not think that’s the outcome they’re looking for.

But not all prospects are the same. Pratt is an outstanding defensive player, so even if he never really learns to hit major league pitching, it’s not the same as if a corner outfielder never learns how to hit. Joey Ortiz earned 1.4 fWAR in 2025 while having an atrocious offensive season; that’s more WAR than Luis Arraez earned (via FanGraphs or Baseball Reference) in 2024 when he won a batting title.

Offensive Outlook

This deal probably signals that the Brewers think Pratt will figure it out at the plate. His track record is a little mixed; he looked great in Low-A and High-A in his first full pro season in 2024, but hit just .238/.343/.348 in 2025 at Double-A. There are a couple of caveats to that line, though: first, that wasn’t that bad for the pitcher-friendly Southern League, and translated to an above-average 107 wRC+. The other thing is that Pratt was very young; as a 20-year-old at Double-A, Pratt was nearly four years younger than the average player in that league, so the fact that he was above average offensively (while playing defense that won him a Minor League Gold Glove in 2024) is actually quite encouraging.

Pratt’s power hasn’t shown up yet, and it may never be a major strength. He’s hit only 16 homers across nearly 1,000 plate appearances as a minor leaguer. But he’s not a small guy (listed on FanGraphs at 6’4” and 210 pounds) and the Brewers may be banking that he’ll grow into it a bit. He’s also shown good patience (a 12.7% walk rate in 2025), and he cut his strikeout rate drastically in 2025 (from 20% to 15.2%), another encouraging sign for a young player who moved up a level.

It won’t take a ton of offense for Pratt to live up to the value of this contract over its lifetime. The average annual value is only a little more than $6 million, which, by popular estimates, means he needs only about 0.75 WAR per season to justify that value (even if this isn’t a perfect one-to-one comparison). Based purely on defense, Pratt should outperform that, and if he hits even a little, he could outperform it by a lot.

Logjammin’

But the arguably bigger question that this deal raises has to do with fit. Ever since it was clear that the Brewers had several high-level middle-infield prospects, we knew this question would need to be addressed eventually, but this commitment to Pratt — the third- or fourth-best infield prospect in the system, with Andrew Fischer charging up from behind and two controlled, relatively young established players in the big leagues — makes that question a little more urgent.

Jesús Made is the obvious pearl of the organization, and is a more-or-less consensus top-three prospect. He has a good chance at being the No. 1 overall prospect league-wide heading into next season, as the two players ahead of him — shortstops Konnor Griffin and Kevin McGonigle — will likely both have graduated by mid-summer (McGonigle is already playing for the Tigers, while Griffin is expected in the big leagues as soon as the Pirates secure the extra year of service time they’ll gain by keeping him in the minors to start the season, or they agree to an extension not totally unlike Pratt’s, if more lucrative). Jett Williams has played a lot of middle infield and is a little further along than Pratt. Luis Peña sometimes almost feels like a forgotten man, but he actually outperformed Made in the Dominican Summer League when they were both 17 and had a 139 wRC+ at Single-A Carolina as an 18-year-old. Fischer, who looks like he’ll keep playing third base for now, looked ready for primetime this spring, when he posted a 1.429 OPS in five Cactus League games and hit .357/.438/.714 in four games with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

Add Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz to the mix — both still have three years of team control remaining after this one — and you can see the problem, even if that problem is a good one: there are too many guys.

The first thought is that this is a big year for Ortiz. His offensive approach has been better early this season, but there are no questions about his defense. If he hits even a little, he’s a useful player; if he can get close to the league-average offensive player he was in 2024, he could produce at a borderline All-Star level. Maybe the ship has sailed on Ortiz as a good offensive player, but he was a consistently above-average minor league hitter, and as we’ve seen with Turang, we shouldn’t necessarily write these guys off after one or two tough years in the big leagues.

However, Ortiz’s spot is also probably the most precarious. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on his way out with the Brewers, and he could become quite a luxury as a utility player. But he’ll also get a bit more expensive when he gets to arbitration next season, and his defense should hold value throughout the league. Whether he bounces back offensively or not, the Brewers are likely to check on Ortiz’s market after the season. If no deal that the front office likes comes to the fore and the Brewers are ready to move on from Ortiz as the everyday shortstop, I’m sure they’ll consider using him as a right-handed backup to all three infield positions.

It might be a little early to make this proclamation, but Turang is a star. He’s also likely to be very expensive in a few years; as a Super Two player, he’s already making over $4 million and has three more arbitration years after this one, and he’ll hit the market when the 2029 season ends as a soon-to-be-30-year-old free agent. While we don’t necessarily want to start thinking about the end of Turang’s tenure in Milwaukee, for the purposes of this exercise, we should at least acknowledge the possibility that Turang might play three more seasons in Milwaukee and then gets traded a year before he hits free agency.

Even still, that clogs up one of the Brewers’ three infield spots for the next three years, limiting opportunities for others. Third base is another question: it’s likely spoken for this season, with Luis Rengifo and David Hamilton (though a later-season opportunity for a younger player there, particularly if there are any injuries, does seem possible), but there’s a likely opening there beyond 2026.

So what are some options?

The first step is to build a defensive hierarchy. Turang is at the top of the heap at second base and should stay there as long as he’s on the team. Ortiz, Pratt, Made, Williams, and Peña all play shortstop, though the writing has been on the wall for Peña for a while, and basically as soon as Williams was traded to Milwaukee, people started speculating about where he’d move. Made’s defensive reputation is pretty good, but his added weight this season might precipitate a move to third base. Ortiz, as a proven defensive stud, is ahead of Pratt, but it doesn’t seem like the Brewers think there will be much of a step down defensively if and when Pratt takes over at the position. Fischer seems like a capable third baseman, but probably not as good as any of these other options, and first base may be in his future.

So even if we shift Made to third base and Fischer to first, we have to consider alternatives. Williams has played way more shortstop than anything else as a minor leaguer, but he also doesn’t have quite the same defensive reputation that these others do, and he did play a decent amount of center field last season. Peña has never played the outfield, but he’s a 70-grade runner, and probably could play the outfield. The Brewers don’t have the same organizational depth in the outfield as they do in the infield, and switches for Williams and Peña might benefit all parties. That’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Looking down the road, then, it requires a lot of projection (and here’s where I’ll remind you that it’s unlikely that all of these players work out as useful big leaguers, no matter how promising they are now), but you could see some sort of alignment in a couple years like this:

1B: Fischer
2B: Turang
3B: Made
SS: Pratt/Ortiz
OF: Jackson Chourio
OF: Sal Frelick
OF: Williams/Peña

That would get all of these prized prospects into the lineup — and who knows, the Brewers may not have to worry about squeezing all of these guys in at once, as Peña, for instance, will still only be 21 in two years, and he’d still be a young debutant if Milwaukee just waited three years, traded Turang, and then installed Peña as the starting second baseman heading into 2029.

These questions don’t all need to get answered today, but the guarantee of money to Pratt makes his arrival in the big leagues feel closer than ever. We know that Williams is already on the doorstep. We probably won’t see Made, Peña, or Fischer this season, but if Made really is on the Chourio track, that would line him up for the beginning of 2027.

To reiterate, this is not a bad problem. But at some point, decisions will need to be made, both by those closer to the field and those further away from it. Will positional changes provide the necessary relief, and will those changes go smoothly? Could a blockbuster trade be in the cards? (A related question: Does the eight-to-ten-year extension the Brewers just gave Pratt increase his trade value?) There are a lot of different ways that things could still be addressed, but the Pratt extension makes the future of this team feel just a little bit closer.

On the night of February 13th, 2025, John Henry lit up a victory cigar to celebrate what would ultimately turn into one year of Alex Bregman’s services. Today, nearly 14 months later, Alex Bregman is gone, but the ashes from that cigar continue to catch fire and create new destructive flames on a seemingly daily basis.

Here’s where it all started:

Fast-forward to today and the 2026 Red Sox are out of a gate with an abysmal 1-5 record. Worse yet, the fingerprints of the failed Bregman negotiations can be found plastered all over it. Now, of course, there are many, many reasons for the Sox’ shameful start, but at least two of them are a pair of players who are on this roster specifically because the club didn’t want to commit to Bregman long-term at anything other than their price this past winter. And that’s really the point I want to get at here: The Red Sox need Ranger Suarez and Caleb Durbin to have solid seasons to have any chance of putting the Bregman fire out. They don’t need them to be MVP or Cy Young candidates, but they do (at minimum) need them to come close to replicating their 2025 campaigns.

To cement why this is the case, let’s take a look at the timeline since the start of the new year. At noon on January 14, less than 100 hours after the news broke on social media, the Chicago Cubs officially announced the signing of Bregman, which he also personally retweeted.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO… pic.twitter.com/7lvHSERXQQ

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 14, 2026

Less than three hours later, the Red Sox made their push to shift the narrative. Jeff Passan broke the story of how Boston decided to spend the money originally allocated for Bregman:

The Red Sox's first signing of the winter is a big one — $130 million for Ranger Suárez — and gives them a ton of rotation depth with Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello and others. Boston now will turn to adding another bat to its lineup, but that rotation is excellent.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 14, 2026

So now the money was spent, but not on the hitter they desperately needed. And the reason for all of this is of course because they decided play footsie with Bregman for so long that by the time mid January rolled around, all of the other big, right-handed, infield bats that might have been worth a damn to sign like — Pete Alonso and Bo Bichette — were already off the board. (For comparison, Alonso got five years at $155 million, and Bichette got three years at $126 million.)

So, instead, the Red Sox decided to use the money that was supposed to go to one of those bats on Ranger Suarez, and the whole thing just became this perfect encapsulation of what happens when you try to work it backwards and make the roster fit the budget instead of bending the budget to fit the roster’s needs.

But we still weren’t done, because despite most of the money being spent, there was still a gigantic hole left at third base. This meant the Red Sox had to trade from their new found “excess” of starting pitching to get the right-handed infield bat they still lacked. Not surprisingly, they probably couldn’t get through a conversation for any of the bats they really wanted without Connelly Early, Payton Tolle or Marcelo Mayer’s name coming up, so they eventually had to set their sights lower on Caleb Durbin as part of a perplexing trade that went down like this on February 9:

The Red Sox traded Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton and Shane Drohan to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, and Anthony Seigler.

And of course the cherry on top of it all is that Harrison is both one of the guys who came over in the Devers trade and the arm the front office deemed expendable after they used the Alex Bregman money to sign another starting pitcher. That’s the guy they used to acquire a young third baseman after they managed to fumble away both Devers and Bregman.

So make no mistake, these transactions are all connected, and this entire season is going to be a referendum on the radical reconstruction of the irregular roster left behind when the Bregman negotiations fell apart. Oh, and in almost poetic fashion, Alex Bregman and the Cubs will visit Fenway for the very last series of the season on September 25th through the 27th. The atmosphere for that three game set going to feel like a jury releasing their verdict at a murder trial.

But let’s get back to Suarez and Durbin specifically. They have to be good to prevent this Bregman thing from becoming radioactive. Not just because their presence here is so obviously connected to Bregman’s departure in 2026, but because literally everything else connected to Bregman’s arrival in 2025 has already turned into a flaming trainwreck.

There’s losing the second round pick of the 2025 draft for just one year of Bregman’s services. There’s Rafael Devers throwing himself a pity party after Bregman took over at third base. And then, of course, there’s the ensuing salary dump trade that’s left the Red Sox lineup with a noticeable lack of thump ever since.

But you know what’s crazy? Even at that point in the proceedings, this whole odyssey was still very salvageable. All they had to do was pay Bregman a fraction of the money they dumped in the Devers deal and hang onto the young guys they got back. Instead, they never met the moment when it came to a long-term Bregman contract, and have since traded away both James Tibbs and Kyle Harrison in highly questionable moves.

So far in the very early output of the 2026 season, James Tibbs has an 1.827 OPS in Triple-A, and Kyle Harrison looked great in his one start with the Brewers, which included eight strike outs in five innings of work.

And just to be complete here, the Red Sox are also paying $4 million for each of the next two years for Jordan Hicks, who was so bad in Boston after coming back as part of the Devers trade last year that they had to move him to Chicago over the winter in a deal where the White Sox will only pay for part of his salary.

So once again, as far as this front office is concerned, Ranger Suarez and Caleb Durbin have to be good! Because so far, literally everything else connected to Alex Bregman’s tenure here has turned toxic, and with both Suarez and Durbin being under team control for at least the next five years, the only way this story has a happy ending for the folks who set the wheels in motion is if these two guys end up being useful contributors to a winning baseball team. (No pressure though!)

And to be clear, these guys just have to be good, not great. The Red Sox don’t need Suarez to be a Cy Young candidate, they have Garrett Crochet for that. They just need him to be the guy that posted a 3.25 ERA over the last five years before he got his big payday. The Red Sox don’t need Caleb Durbin to fully replace Alex Bregman, they just need him to look like the guy who finished third in rookie of the year voting last season.

But so far out of the gate, Suarez and Durbin look a lot more like guys turning to stone in the continued curse of everything that touches the Alex Bregman web as opposed to guys who are ready to make a meaningful contribution to the 2026 Red Sox.

Now the flip side of this is Suarez has made just one bad start in a Red Sox uniform so far, Durbin is only 18 at-bats into his Red Sox tenure, and baseball has a habit of making anybody who says anything about the first week of any season look like a fool. But man, something about this feels ominous. Suarez was also terrible in his outing for Team Venezuela against Japan in the World Baseball Classic in which he gave up five runs in just 2.2 innings of work. And worse yet, this is a guy who is known for pitching well in big games and carries a 1.48 ERA in 42.2 innings of postseason work. When you consider how bad he was against Japan and that he was facing off against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it’s minor miracle Venezuela got through that game and winning the tournament. Suarez was one of the big headline names on the team, and he played almost no role in helping them win.

Then there’s Durbin, who feels like he got the absolute most out of his ability in 2025. If he can replicate that, fantastic! But he also might be one of those guys who turns into a pumpkin as quickly as he showed signs of promise and can never replicate that near-3.0 WAR season again.

Either way, these are the stakes for Suarez, Durbin, the front office, and this entire 2026 Red Sox season. Both the team and most of its main characters have gotten off to about as bad of a start imaginable, but I don’t want to start shoveling dirt on them quite yet. Baseball has a funny way of sometimes making the first week nothing more than a mirage and dealing out the exact opposite hand for the rest of the summer. For instance, just last season the Brewers (Durbin’s old team), gave up 46 runs in their first four games en route to an 0-4 start. They then of course went on to win 97 games and had the lowest ERA of any team in the National League.

This is classic baseball! It will scare you with fake monsters while hiding the real ones for later in the proceedings. Who knows, two weeks from now we might be singing the praises of both Suarez and Durbin and talking about how bad Bregman looks in Chicago. But until or unless that happens, we’re going to be left to confront the fallout from those fateful winter nights when Alex Bregman came into and left the Red Sox organization.

Triple-A: Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals) 4, Norfolk Tides 3 – F/10

The Tides dropped their third straight game on Wednesday afternoon in Memphis. The pitching staff coughed up two different leads, the offense left 10 runners on base, and it was a mixed bag of results for the Orioles’ pair of rehabbing big leaguers.

Jackson Holliday led off, played second base, and went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. The former first overall pick is now 4-for-13 with an .862 OPS during his rehab. Creed Willems drove in two of Norfolk’s runs with a seventh-inning home run as part of his 1-for-4 game. Their other run came in on a Memphis error in the fourth frame. There was plenty of traffic on the bases for the Tides. They collected eight hits, four walks, and a pair of errors from the home team. But they wasted most of those chances, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Brandon Young made his first start of the year. He was good, holding Memphis to one run on five hits, no walks, and four strikeouts over five innings. The short-term performances of Young and Cade Povich now hold added importance due to the injury to Zach Eflin, so it’s good to see a strong 2026 debut for Young.

The results from the bullpen were not as favorable. Andrew Kittredge made his first rehab appearance as he works through right shoulder inflammation. The veteran recorded just two outs, threw 19 pitches (nine strikes), struck out one, walked one, and gave up two hits. Cameron Foster impressed, striking out two over 1.1 perfect frames. Jackson Kowar allowed a run in his lone inning. And Enoli Paredes was handed the loss by allowing the extra-inning “ghost runner” to score after he walked the bases loaded, and then hit the next batter with a pitch to drive in the winning run.

Thursday’s Scheduled Games

Norfolk: at Memphis, 7:45 p.m. Starter: TBD

Chesapeake: at Hartford (Rockies), 7:10 p.m. Starter: Trace Bright (first start of the year)

Delmarva: at Salem (Red Sox), 6:35 p.m. Starter: Kiefer Lord (first start of the year)

Triple-A: Syracuse Mets (3-2)

SYRACUSE 4, TOLEDO 2 (BOX)

Jack Wenninger made the first Triple-A start of his career, and things went very well, as he didn’t lalow any runs, struck out five, walked one, and gave up five hits in four-and-two-thirds innings. Joey Gerber was the only Syracuse pitcher to give up any runs in the win, as Anderson Severino, Jonathan Pintaro, and Austin Warren all made scoreless appearances.

At the plate, Christian Arroyo had the best day with a couple of hits and a pair of runs batted in. The majority of Syracuse’s hitters had at least one hit on the day, as well.

• CF Nick Morabito: 1-4, R, SB
• DH Ronny Mauricio: 0-3, R, BB, K
• RF-1B Ryan Clifford: 1-4, K
• 3B Christian Arroyo: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI
• 1B Jose Rojas: 1-3, BB, K
• PR-2B Jackson Cluff: 0-0, R
• SS Vidal Bruján: 1-3, BB, K, SB
• C Ben Rortvedt: 1-3, R, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 K
• LF Cristian Pache: 1-3, RBI, BB, K
• 2B-RF Ji Hwan Bae: 0-3, 2 K
• P Jack Wenninger: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• P Joey Gerber: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
• P Anderson Severino: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• P Jonathan Pintaro: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
• P Austin Warren: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Double-A: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

High-A: Brooklyn Cyclones (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Single-A: St. Lucie Mets (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Rookie: FCL Mets (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

STAR OF THE NIGHT

Jack Wenninger

GOAT OF THE NIGHT

Ji Hwan Bae

Good morning! I have some positive news: The Red Sox will not lose today. That’s of course because they don’t play again until tomorrow’s home opener, but hey, they can’t get any worse after a reset … right?

In the meantime, we’ve gotten a good whiff of the stink emanating from this lineup over the first six games of the season, and I’m completely underwhelmed by how weak the right handed bats look. So this got me wondering, if you were to compile a list of the best right-handed hitters in baseball, how far down it would you need to go to find the find the first Red Sox right-handed bat? 50 guys? 75 guys? It’s really quite depressing if you dive into the exercise.

The first step we need to figure out to get there though is identify which right-handed bat is Boston’s best. Trevor Story has been handed the keys to the No. 2 slot, so it should be him if he’s there on merit, but Willson Contreras probably has the better case as the best right-handed stick right now. Either way, that’s an incredibly weak headliner for the category.

Talk about this and whatever else you’d like, and as always, be good to one another!

1900
The White Sox played their first-ever game, an exhibition win over the University of Illinois baseball team in Champaign, 10-9. Roy Patterson got the win.

That season, the American League wasn’t considered a major league (the AL would band together with the National League to form MLB in 1901). However, the White Sox would win the AL’s first pennant on September 12, when they beat the Cleveland Blues. 12-4 and 9-1.

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1907
The best player in White Sox history (at least per his 77.5 career WAR), Luke Appling, was born in High Point, N.C. Exactly 20 years later, in Detroit, Billy Pierce was born. With their combined 127.3 WAR for the White Sox and universally beloved status, it’s safe to say there is no more important birthday on the franchise calendar than April 2.

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1982
The White Sox traded outfielder Wayne Nordhagen to Toronto for third baseman Aurelio Rodríguez. Over six years with the White Sox, Nordhagen was the epitome of a replacement player, earning just 0.4 WAR over 406 career games.

Still, the White Sox got the better end of this trade: Rodríguez spent all of 1982 with the White Sox, then signed with Baltimore for the 1983 season before returning to the White Sox after his release from Baltimore in August. The defensive whiz put up 0.5 WAR over the course of essentially one entire season (140 games) in 1982-83.

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1997
For the first time ever in Major League Baseball, one player’s salary is more than an entireteam’s salary.

OK, cool factoid. Why is that a part of White Sox History?

The reason — you may want to sit down for this — is that the player was on the Chicago White Sox. Yes, Albert Belle made $10 million in the first year of his free-agent deal with the South Siders, while the entire Pittsburgh Pirates payroll totaled just $9,071,667.

The 1997 season represented the last time the White Sox fielded the highest-paid player in baseball on their roster.

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2006
On Opening Night, the White Sox unfurled their 2005 World Champion banner at Sox Park. The night game was a concession for an ESPN national broadcast, and the South Siders set down their division rivals, 10-4. Jim Thome hit his first White Sox home run, through a driving rain in the fourth inning, putting the home team ahead to stay.

Overall, the game was delayed for three hours by rain.

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2021
Now THIS is how you make a debut!

White Sox DH Yermín Mercedes had more than 2,000 minor league at-bats before finally making an Opening Day roster in the majors. On this night in Anaheim, he had a sensational start, going 5-for-5, with four RBIs in a 12-8 win. Mercedes had four singles and a double in the game. Chrystal O’Keefe had the next-day South Side Sox feature about Yermín’s 5-for-5 outing.

The last time a rookie had five hits in his first game in the big leagues was 1933, when Cecil Travis of the Senators did it. Before Travis, Fred Clarke had gotten five hits in his first game as well — but Mercedes became the only player in history to go a perfect 5-for-5 in his debut.

Mercedes would go on to have 12 hits in his first four games — setting a modern major league record — and be named American League Player of the Week.

On this day just three years later, with a nod to how difficult it is to maintain a foothold in the majors, Mercedes signed a free agent contract … with the Kansas City Monarchs, an independent minor league team.

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2024
White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet wrote his name in the team record book after throwing seven innings allowing one run and striking out eight in beating Atlanta, 3-2, on a raw night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

This came off his start against Detroit on Opening Day where he allowed a single run in six innings, striking out eight. It was his first two major league starts, and the 16 total strikeouts were the most ever for a Sox pitcher in the first two starts of his career.

He also joined Jack McDowell (1991) and Juan Pizarro (1963) as throwing at least six innings with one or fewer runs and at least six strikeouts in their first two starts of the season.

Hello, friends.

It only felt for a couple of days there like the Orioles were going to lose every game they ever play again. Thanks to Trevor Rogers and a breakout day from the offense, they were able to avoid a sweep by the Rangers with an 8-3 victory yesterday. Check out my recap of the game for more of the lovely totals.

After yesterday’s win, the Orioles are 3-3 through their first six games. That’s the same record that they had through six games a year ago. Only 3.7% of the season has been played. Lots of baseball remains. Coming up next for the Orioles is a three-game set against the Pirates, but that doesn’t start until Friday. Both they and the Pirates have the day off today.

Wednesday brought a couple of roster developments that may well have an impact on the whole rest of the season. The Orioles placed Zach Eflin on the 15-day injured list. That was no surprise. There’s still no diagnosis for his injury. I don’t think the MRI will bring good news. The other thing was that, in order to get Albert Suárez onto the roster, they transferred Jordan Westburg to the 60-day injured list. That means that the earliest that Westburg can play is the end of May.

I’ve been thinking that if we don’t see Westburg by May 1, that means we’re not going to see him at all this year. If I’m right in my guess, then this means we won’t see him. At some point, the Orioles will announce he needs the surgery and he’ll get it and he’ll be done for the year. I could be wrong. I often am when it comes to predicting the Orioles. My reasoning is that, if Westburg’s recovery was on pace that the platelet-rich plasma was working, then we’d be hearing by now about when he’ll start a rehab assignment. Instead, he’s heading the other direction.

Another open question is who will replace Eflin in the rotation. My assumption here – again, this could be wrong – is that it’s going to be Dean Kremer. The challenge with that is that the Orioles can’t recall Kremer until April 9 unless someone goes on the injured list at the same time. I think they’ll need someone to start on Monday or Tuesday, and there’s no guarantee that there will be an injured pitcher by then. That’s a problem for Monday or Tuesday, though. Yesterday, Elias solved his “we need long relief to save the rest of the bullpen” problem and it paid off with Suárez pitching three innings.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

We can say with certainty, no MLB game has ever ended like this before (Orioles.com)
The Orioles made a little fun history yesterday by having their win end from an ABS challenge turning a pitch into a third strike for the third out.

An early, nerdy look at the challenge system (FanGraphs)
And speaking of ABS challenges, the folks at FG are on top of figuring out how players seem to be using the challenges early on. It’ll be interesting to see how usage evolves over time, since after all it’s only been less than a week now.

It’s barely April, and it already feels like the Orioles are in the grind (The Baltimore Banner)
The Orioles, thankfully, dispelled a little bit of this with yesterday’s victory. It is, however, going to take sustained effort to avoid recurrences of some of their early problems.

Albernaz on Suárez joining Orioles (School of Roch)
The manager has a connection to Suárez from back when they were both minor leaguers in the Rays organization.

For Anthony Nunez, the best part of his MLB debut was sharing it with his mom (Steve on Baseball)
I am an absolute sucker for all “player’s family members there for the MLB debut” stories. This one on Nunez does not disappoint.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1976, the Orioles and Athletics made a six-player trade that brought future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson to Baltimore for one season.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1996-97 outfielder Pete Incaviglia, 1957 pitcher Art Ceccarelli, 1960-61 pitcher Gordon Jones, and 1959 infielder Bobby Ávila.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Frankish king Charlemagne (747), fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805), playwright Émile Zola (1840), and baseball Hall of Famers Hughie Jennings (1869), Luke Appling (1907), and Don Sutton (1945).

On this day in history…

In 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León landed on the mainland of what are now the United States for the first time. The first landing took place between the mouth of the St. John’s River and modern-day St. Augustine, Florida.

In 1800, composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s First Symphony had its premiere in Vienna, conducted by the man himself.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, which brought the country into the conflict that today we call World War I.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a random book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask one of the questions each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions. Since I’ve been skipping stupid questions (I suspect this book was churned out by AI with minimal human oversight,) today is the penultimate question for this exercise. Here’s today’s question:

Who was the first Orioles pitcher to lead the American League in strikeouts for a season?

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on April 2. Have a safe Thursday.

What a great couple of days for the Phillies rookies. First, Andrew Painter dazzled in his first start and stopped a three-game losing streak, and then less than 24 hours later, Justin Crawford collected his first walk-off hit and RBI in the tenth inning to cap off a memorable comeback. There will surely be growing pains, but the Phillies’ infusion of youth has already brought a spark to the 2026 season.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Andrew Painter had a small village of friends and family in tow for his MLB debut, and they all joined him to bask in the glow of a long journey to the majors finally finished. ($)
• An injury update on Zack Wheeler and Orion Kerkering, with the former set to pitch on Friday and the latter making his second appearance yesterday.
• A check in on where each of the Phillies top 30 prospects will begin their 2026 season.

MLB News:

• There aren’t many people off to a worse start in 2026 than umpire C.B Bucknor, who on the heels of a genuinely shocking missed call had to exit yesterday’s game after a foul tip hit him in the mask.
• Speaking of umpires, some of those who have retired are feeling for what their brethren are going through with the new ABS system. ($)
• Old friend and current Kansas City Royal Carlos Estévez is headed to the injured list with a foot contusion.

It’s hard to demand a better start to the Yankees’ 2026 campaign than this 5-1 season-opening West Coast road trip. It’s tempting to be greedy and wish that they hadn’t been walked off in Seattle on Monday, but they lost a tough game in an opposing ballpark to a team that fell a win shy of the World Series in 2025 on a walk-off hit by the AL MVP runner-up. It happens. No one’s undefeated, anyway, and only the Brewers and Marlins have matched the Yanks’ 5-1 start; note that both of them got to play the White Sox.

The Yankees will face those Fish on Friday in the Bronx for the Yankee Stadium home opener. Until then, we wait. In the meantime, what do you think was the best moment from this strong start? There’s no shortage of contenders, as it’s been a well-rounded attack. Is it Max Fried’s Opening Night gem by the Bay? David Bednar’s great escape last night in Seattle to secure the series win? Cam Schlittler’s dazzling work? Aaron Judge sparking the offense with homers in the last two San Francisco games? Ben Rice blistering doubles?

Because I am nothing if not a Giancarlo Stanton enthusiast, I will lean toward him going 414 feet at Oracle Park on Friday shortly after Judge’s tank. Stanton’s been scorching hot with multi-hit games in each of his first five contests (before resting yesterday) and his approach hasn’t exclusively been long-ball reliant … but boy those dingers are still fun. Great developments from 36-year-old Big G.

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Today on the site, Peter breaks down his Sequence of the Week, Madison runs through the Rivalry Roundup, and Nick celebrates the birthday of a great one-year Yankee in righty Jon Lieber. Later, Michael previews Double-A Somerset’s season, Andrés examines a few small tweaks that have helped Jake Bird get off to a much better (early) start in pinstripes than he did after coming over from the Rockies in 2025, and Sam chips in some thoughts of his own

Today’s Matchup

Offday

NJ.com | Randy Miller: Yesterday, it was reported that Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, who began the year on the injured list due to offseason surgery, was dealing with right hamstring tightness. Although the left-hander did throw a bullpen session yesterday, it appears that, although the Yankees believe the injury is a “minor thing,” the start of Rodón’s rehab assignment has been pushed back slightly.

ESPN | Associated Press: Yankees No. 5 starter Luis Gil, who was not named to the Opening Day roster because the Yankees only need a four-man rotation until April 11th, reported to Triple-A Scranton yesterday. According to manager Aaron Boone, Gil will have his next bullpen day and make his next start with the RailRiders, before making his season debut with the big league club at Tampa Bay next Saturday.

MLB.com | Jim Callis: MLB has officially informed all of its teams about each respective slot values and combined available bonus pool money for the upcoming 2026 draft. The pick values are up by 2.5 percent from 2025. The Yankees will have a total of $7,342,800 at their disposal for draft bonuses this July, with their top pick (35th overall) worth $2,826,700. As a reminder for those unfamiliar, teams can choose to distribute the combined bonus pool money however they want and are not obligated to go by each pick’s official designation. They can also outspend their total pool by zero to five percent and only be taxed an extra 75-percent on the overage. Outspending beyond that carries future draft pick penalties, which have never been incurred in the 14-year history of this system.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: It’s only been a week, but early indications suggest that the Yankees will be both one of the most aggressive and one of the most successful teams when it comes to challenging balls and strikes via the new ABS challenge system. Heading into action yesterday afternoon, New York led the league in challenges with 10, including eight successful, and the team’s catching tandem of Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra had been a perfect four-for-four. According to the players, this has been a deliberate strategy, as the team had what Aaron Judge jokingly called “too many meetings” to gameplan for the new wrinkle.

Front Office Sports | Ryan Glasspiegel: Former Yankee reliever Adam Ottavino continues to build his post-playing media career, adding a gig with ESPN as an MLB analyst to a busy schedule that includes work as a studio analyst with the YES Network, Sunday Night Baseball with NBC Sports, and his own YouTube channel. Ottavino joins an analyst team that has undergone extensive turnover this winter.

If you look at the current Diamondbacks’ win-loss record, you could say that the season is going according to expectations, although, all truth told, the Diamondbacks do not necessarily have an easy start of the season with the World Series champions in our first series, a 2025 play-off team in our second series and a traditional contender like the Braves, who missed out on the play-offs in 2025 for the first time in 7 years, in our third series of the season.

Not entering April until just yesterday, the season is still very young, but sweeping the Tigers is a mighty statement from our side. What is there to say about our opponent beside the fact that we had their number last year, going 4-2?

Familiar faces.

The Braves have an okay start of the season, nothing spectacular. They beat the Royals in their opening series of the season at home and had a similar kind of matchup with the Athletics in their second series, winning both series 2-1. They will arrive at Arizona going 4-2.

They do so with quite a familiar team and lineup: Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley are familiar faces on the dirt. So are the now healthy Ronald Acuña Jr and Michael Harris II in the outfield. Former Giant Mike Yastrzemski is nowadays manning left field, after being signed to a 2-year $23MM contract, while Mauricio Dubón, a utility gold glover whom the Braves acquired from the Astros for Nick Allen, is currently the fixed name at short stop.

Dubón should have lost that position to Ha-Seong Kim, were it not that the former Korean Padre injured his hand in Korea during the off-season and will be out until May-June. It puts another remarkable note to Kim’s career thus far in the major leagues. Injured during the final months of the 2024 season, he missed the play-offs with the Padres and surprisingly decided to decline an $8MM player option. Boras got him signed by the Rays, who stepped out of their comfort zone by offering $29MM over 2 years. He was injured for most of the year and only played from July to August, before getting injured again. The Rays put him on waivers and the Braves claimed. After a good showing in a small sample size in September, once again Kim surprised and decided to opt out of his final year and $16MM. Many jaws dropped when the Braves signed him again to a 1-year contract worth $20MM, supposedly declining a 4-year $48MM offer from the Athletics. That signing, right now, might have cost the Braves more than just money, because they could have allocated funds to areas that are in more need of improvement.

Have the Braves improved?

While we won’t see Kim, and apart from former foe Yastrzemski, there are a couple of other notable free agent signings: hard throwing Robert Suarez, well known from the Padres, was signed to a three year deal worth $45MM. Relievers Raisel Iglesias and Tyler Kinley also returned, respectively on 1 year $16MM and $4.25MM deals. Former friend Joel Payamps and veteran Martin Perez were also added to deals, the latter one as swingman between bullpen and starting rotation. On the depth chart we can find known names as Kyle Farmer (with the Rockies in 2025), Jorge Mateo, catcher Jonah Heim, and Dominic Smith (with the Giants in 2025).

On paper they seem to have become better, with Marcell Ozuno being the only 1+ fWAR player to have left the organization. As we probably know, former Padre and “Koninkrijk” buddy of mine Jurickson Profar is suspended for the entire season after testing positive again for PEDs, forfeiting around $15MM.

In 2025, the Braves’ offence and starting rotation were middle of the pack. Atlanta is surely banking on better production from Ozzie Albies (89 OPS+ in 2025), Michael Harris II (88 OPS+ in 2025) and Austin Riley (106 OPS+ in 2025 compared to 130 OPS+ in 2023) and a full season of Ronald Acuña Jr (95 games in 2025).

The rotation is lead by ace Chris Sale, who seems unstoppable ever since joining Atlanta, and we might be lucky he won’t pitch in this series. Spencer Schwellenbach makes for a fine 2nd, though is currently injured, he too is out for this series. Spencer Strider struggled in 2025, his first full season after returning from TJ, and also sustained an injury recently and is ruled out for this series too, so the number 2-3 now looks to be Reynaldo López. After him the starting rotation looks cloudy for the moment with Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes, though the first had a good start of the season. Prospects JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes might be on the lookout for showing off what they have on the highest level in the first months of the season.

The weakest link in 2025 for Atlanta was the bullpen. They were better than Arizona’s, which isn’t that hard you’d say, but FanGraphs rated it as one of the worst in the league. Understandable that they went hard for Robert Suarez and were keen on bringing back valuable 2025 pieces Kinley and Iglesias. Together with lefties Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer and new acquisitions Martin Perez and Joel Payamps, they should make for a stable relief corps, and thus could aspire a play-off spot once again.

All of that is lead by a new manager. After years of Brian Snitker, the manager wasn’t keen to commit and doubts about the 2025 performance by both sides resulted to bench manager Walt Weiss to be promoted to head coach. Weiss was the head coach of the Colorado Rockies from 2013 to 2016 and will look to improve on his highest total of 75 wins in that final season.

As normal, the Braves arrive with a team that will be tough to beat.

Matchups.

No confirmed starters as of writing.

Game #1 Thu 04/02 6:40 PM MST, Ryne Nelson (ARI) vs Reynaldo López (ATL).

• Ryne Nelson. 1 GS, 4.2 IP, 0 W-1 L, 7.71 ERA, 8.98 FIP, 1.07 WHIP, 4/3 K/BB.
• Reynaldo López. 1 GS, 6.0 IP, 0 W-0 L, 1.50 ERA, 5.36 FIP, 0.83 WHIP, 3/2 K/BB.

He deserves to be the Opening Day starter! That was what many of us said, including me, about Ryne Nelson. After that disappointing first performance we might be a bit less vocal now, and above all hope Nelson bounces back as soon as possible.

Opposite is Reynaldo López, who surfaced as an interesting bullpen piece in 2022 on the Chicago White Sox, after some anonymous years on that same team the years before. He followed that up with a good 2023 season in relief for White Sox, Angels and Guardians only to become an All Star as a starting pitcher on the 2024 Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury after that and didn’t return until the end of the 2025 season. The hopes are high again in 2026, though it remains to be seen if Lopez can reach his 2024 heights. The righty, if fully healthy, normally sports a 95 mph fastball, a slider, changeup and curve.

López never faced the Diamondbacks as a starter, Nelson faced the Braves for the last time as a starter two years ago.

Game #2 Fri 04/03 6:45 PM MST, Eduardo Rodriguez (ARI) vs Grant Holmes (ATL).

• Eduardo Rodriguez. 1 GS, 5.0 IP, 1 W-0 L, 0.00 ERA, 2.40 FIP, 1.20 WHIP, 5/2 K/BB.
• Grant Holmes. 1 GS, 5.0 IP, 0 W-1 L, 5.40 ERA, 5.40 FIP, 1.40 WHIP, 4/2 K/BB.

E-Rod was lights out in his first appearance and we all hope he continues to perform that way in his second appearance of the season, opposite Grant Holmes.

Holmes debuted in 2024 and pitched in 22 games last season, providing 115.0 valuable innings with a 3.99 ERA until he went down late July with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament and was done for the year. Instead of undergoing TJ, he opted to rehab the elbow and thus far has ducked surgery and avoided a long absence. Holmes had a great Spring, and had two good opening innings against Kansas before giving up a run in each of the next 3 innings. The righty has a good slider and curve, but his 94 mph fastball is one of the weakest in the league.

Holmes faced the Diamondbacks twice in his career, both of the times last season. It were two no-decisions, though he gave up 3 runs in 3.1 innings on June 5 and 6 runs in 5.2 innings on April 26. In the April matchup the Diamondbacks blew a 6-2 lead and lost after 10 innings (8-7). In the June outing the Diamondbacks rallied for 7 runs in the 9th inning, beating the Braves 11-10.

Rodriguez faced the Braves twice in his career, the last time in 2021, when he was still with the Red Sox.

Game #3 Sat 04/04 4:15 PM MST, Michael Soroka (ARI) vs Bryce Elder (ATL).

• Michael Soroka. 1 GS, 5.0 IP, 1 W-0 L, 0.00 ERA, -0.20 FIP, 1.00 WHIP, 10/1 K/BB.
• Bryce Elder. 1 GS, 6.0 IP, 1 W-0 L, 0.00 ERA, 2.03 FIP, 1.00 WHIP, 5/1 K/BB.

We surely hope the Canadian will continue his good work in his second outing, where he will face Bryce Elder, who wasn’t as good as Soroka was in his first matchup, but completed 6 innings without giving up a run. Bryce Elder was an All Star in 2023, but has lost his shine ever since that 2023 All Star break, last season pitching to a 5.30 ERA. The league seems to have adjusted to him, though he kept the Royals off the board in his first serious outing of 2026. Elder is a soft-tosser with a 91 mph sinker and needs his off-speed pitches to work, but his changeup was his worst pitch in 2025.

Soroka has faced the Braves just once in his career, in 2024, and got a no-decision. No-decisions were also the outcome for Elder’s starts against the Diamondbacks, one in 2024 and the first one in 2023.

Game #4 Sun 04/05 1:10 PM MST, Brandon Pfaadt (ARI) vs TBD (ATL).

• Brandon Pfaadt. 1 GS, 6.0 IP, 0 W-0 L, 7.50 ERA, 2.70 FIP, 1.17 WHIP, 3/1 K/BB.
• TBD.

Atlanta’s starter is a question mark. This spot in the rotation was given to Jose Suarez but the Venezuelan had a short start of 3.2 innings, giving up 4 runs. He could get another start, but the odds are good that the Braves might give the starting job for this matchup to veteran Martin Perez or one of the rookies, like Didier Fuentes. That might give Pfaadt the chance to get his first win of the season and forget about his tough 3rd inning against Detroit.

At home, Pfaadt has faced the Braves twice in his career, getting two wins, the last time on April 27 in 2025. The last time he faced the Braves, he gave up 6 runs in 3 innings in Atlanta, but it was that June game where the Diamondbacks went on to rally for 7 runs, so he got to avoid a loss.

Maybe Jeff McNeil was trying to exorcise his early-season demons. 

The former Met let out an expletive into a hot mic after he struck out in the top of the ninth that was so loud that the astronauts on the Artemis II could have heard it in space. 

McNeil let out a massive “F–k!” after he tipped the ball into the glove of the Braves catcher Drake Baldwin who held on to the catch with his bare hand after it popped up during the Athletics’ 5-1 loss in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Warning: Adult language

Come for the Drake Baldwin highlight, stay for the McNeil hot mic https://t.co/kKpIYtF7T3pic.twitter.com/54Q6RRb70J

— jxke. (@cantguardjake) April 1, 2026

The A’s second baseman had been taking a swing at a 2-2 slider from Braves closer Raisel Iglesias, which led to the ball getting clipped and landing in the glove of the catcher.

After that, McNeil made the outburst that was clearly picked up on the broadcast. 

It’s a safe bet that the expletive was directed beyond just the lone out, as he’s struggled in the first few games with his new team since the 2026 season began. 

McNeill is batting .077 through his first five games of the season and has just one hit in 13 at-bats. He went hitless in two at-bats as a pinch hitter on Wednesday.

Additionally, the club has struggled out of the gate, winning just one of its first six games, with the lone victory coming against the Braves on March 31. 

McNeill is known for playing with fiery passion, and Wednesday was not the first time he was caught using an expletive after being struck out. 

Last September, while still with the Mets, McNeil was caught on the field mic shouting, “F-K YOU, GOD DAMNIT!”

That incident occurred during a game against the Rangers at Citi Field when he struck out in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

The comment was directed toward the home plate umpire and McNeil was quickly ejected from the game. 

McNeil, a two-time MLB All-Star, was traded to the Athletics during the offseason in a deal that sent pitching prospect Yordan Rodríguez to Queens.