Category: MLB

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made several roster moves this week, particularly with their bullpen, which has been off to a not-so-perfect start. First, they DFA’d righty Ryan Harbin to make room for righty Chris Devenski. The Bucs had to make room for Devenski on the 26 and the 40-man, so it was Harbin who took the red ticket.

Harbin has been injured and wasn’t expected back until late May at the earliest, and that sadly meant bye-bye, and unfortunate reality of sports injuries for non-stars.

Cam Sanders was also brought up a few days ago, replacing Braxton Ashcraft who is out on family bereavement. Again, they exchanged a righty for a righty. But they also called up lefty Hunter Barco, while optioning righty Wilber Dotel this week.

They then sent down Barco when Devenski got called up. Barco allowed 5 runs in 4.2 innings versus the St. Louis Cardinals and now has an ERA of 7.71 in just five appearances. Devenski, who is a 10-year veteran, gave up two hits and a run in last night’s loss to the Cards. Not a good start for Devenski, as the Bucs look to tighten up a bullpen that currently has more blown saves than actual saves.

Don’t expect too much roster action at the top of the pen, where Dennis Santana, Gregory Soto, Isaac Mattson and Yohan Ramirez have gotten the bulk of the work, but the Bucs need some help in the long and middle relief category and on the edges of the bullpen, where we’re likely to see guys bouncing in and out as the Bucs look for a better combination to help solidify what has been, to this point, a team weakness on the season.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Jasson Domínguez took a pitch off his left elbow Wednesday afternoon and left the game shortly after. X-rays taken at the stadium were inconclusive so the Yankees are sending Jasson for a CT scan. For his part, he doesn’t sound too concerned, publicly at least. When asked, Domínguez commented, “As of right now, I don’t feel any concern.”

Aaron Boone meanwhile is hoping it’s just bruising but it’s too early to know much of anything, though it’s hard to not be a little worried about the vague results of the X-rays. Regardless, it’s safe to expect that The Martian will be out of the lineup for at least a couple days.

MLB.com | Jared Greenspan: Speaking of injury, ace Gerrit Cole is working his way back from Tommy John surgery. Wednesday, he made his third rehab start, pitching for Double-A Somerset. Cole went 5.2 innings on Wednesday, throwing 60 pitches. He has gone from 44 pitches to 52 to 60. At those increments, Cole could perhaps have four more rehab starts, building his pitch count into the low 90s. But that’s just speculation. The Yankees have long looked at a late-May/early-June debut for Cole and that seems to be where he is trending.

The Athletic | Rustin Dodd ($): As part of a series where they look at sports duos handle high pressure, The Athletic talked to former Yankees and current YES booth mates David Cone and Joe Girardi. The latter caught more of Coney’s starts than any other catcher, most famously Cone’s perfect game. And that’s what Dodd asks them about. How they handled the pressure that day. There’s a lot of fun stuff behind the paywall but two things in particular jumped out. First, the two were so synced that Cone did not shake off Giradi until the ninth inning and only did so once. Second, you get a real sense from Girardi that he really wanted Cone to get that perfect game to the finish line.

MLB.com | Jason Foster: Somehow, we’re already 20-percent of the way through the season. As the calendar is about to turn to May, MLB surveyed 39 people to get their thoughts on the Cy Young races in each league. In both leagues, they’ve gone chalk, with Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes favored to win their respective leagues. But the Yankees are very well represented. Cam Schlittler and Max Fried place third and fourth in the ballot, with Cam’s strikeout numbers and Fried’s innings total jumping out in the early going.

How Don Mattingly is beginning to put his stamp on Phillies originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Coming up with a ton of differences between former Phillies manager Rob Thomson and Don Mattingly might be a challenge.

They come from similar baseball roots. They combined for nearly a half-century in the Yankees’ organization. They crossed paths on Joe Torre’s staff in 2007. And like Torre, they are even-keeled guys, and neither is prone to theatrics.

But as Phillies interim manager, Mattingly has already hinted at a few tweaks. And if you looked on the field before Wednesday’s postponed game, you could see one of them.

Bunting.

It was another day the Phillies worked on bunting, and both of those sessions have come in the all-new Mattingly Era.

That does not mean the Phillies are suddenly going to bunt all over the place once the umpire says play ball. But it does show the type of fundamentals Mattingly, and the rest of the coaching staff, believes can help them climb out of a 10-19 start.

“Bunting really is going to be part of the process,” Mattingly said. “We’ve already done it — this is the second time this season. It’s making that a regular thing.”

That does not mean longer or harder pregame work every day.

“I don’t think we’re doing extreme amounts or anything,” Mattingly said. “If a guy’s beat up or tired, you don’t have to take ground balls. I’d rather have quality work than just work.”

Mattingly understands the value of routine. He is a former MVP, six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove winner and Manager of the Year. He’s qualified for just about any role in a major league organization.

That background gives Mattingly a unique voice in the Phillies’ clubhouse. Thomson had plenty of perspective after 42 years in baseball, but Mattingly brings a different style.

“I feel like I’m authentic in what I do,” Mattingly said. “Nothing really changes who I am and what I believe in. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to get better and evolve with the game. But I’ve got to be myself and do it.”

That shows up in how he thinks about the lineup.

There are a number of Phillies position players who do not exactly carry the “everyday” tag, including Brandon Marsh. The 28-year-old has been a bright spot, batting .298 with a .788 OPS in the heart of the order. More recently, he has also found more success against left-handed pitching, which has long been a challenge for him.

That has made him harder to sit.

“Brandon is having great at-bats, and he’s having them against everybody,” Mattingly said. “So basically he pushes you to play me, right?”

Matchups matter to Mattingly, but so does rhythm — similar to Thomson.

“We still want to use our guys, but we can’t just have guys sitting here all the time and never play and expect them to be OK when they do play,” he said. “That being said, I want to try to put our best lineup out there that gives us the best chance to win.”

Now managing his third team and coaching in his fifth organization, Mattingly has worked in different environments and seen how clubs use information to build lineups. He is not dismissive of that. He also wants a lineup that can stress the opposing dugout.

“What you really want is your best nine,” Mattingly said. “You can kind of put them in any order and it changes the run value so slightly over the course of the year.”

The larger point is avoiding a lineup that makes bullpen decisions too easy for the opponent.

“If you put all — let’s say our lefties are our best guys and we put five in a row up there — we’re just begging you to bring lefties in that spot,” Mattingly said. “So you try to set the lineup up in a way that puts a little pressure on the other manager.”

Through his managerial experience, Mattingly has also had time to reflect on what he would handle differently. One lesson came from his time in Miami.

“I should have included my staff more, made those guys more inclusive,” Mattingly said. “I didn’t do that as much as I should have. That’s not a mistake I want to make again.”

Mattingly played in a much different era, but he made clear that he does not ignore the numbers.

“If I’m going to sit here and go, ‘Oh hey, I don’t believe in the numbers, all that analytics stuff,’ that’s just crazy thinking,” Mattingly said. “That tells you that you’re not growing and you’re not evolving.

“That doesn’t mean that I go away from things that I believe in also about playing solid baseball. I hope I’m a blend of understanding how to use the information.”

With Thomson gone and Mattingly, who joined the organization in January, moving over from the bench coach role, he is still learning parts of the Phillies’ staff. The group also went through some shuffling Tuesday, with Dusty Wathan moving from third-base coach into the dugout and Anthony Contreras taking over at third.

The early dialogue has given Mattingly comfort.

“For me, from the standpoint of Dusty, we’ve had really good baseball conversations through spring, in the season,” Mattingly said. “I watch how he works, how he prepares. He’s managed a lot in the minor leagues, so I know he’s been there.”

Communication will be central, especially with the bullpen. When the Phillies originally hired Mattingly, part of the idea was to aid in-game decisions. Now he is making them, and that starts before first pitch.

“You meet before the game, you kind of go through your pockets,” he said. “You have some kind of semi-plan. You kind of know who you want to go to in certain pockets of their lineup.”

Mattingly also knows what it is like to be down and out. He pointed to the 2013 Dodgers, a club that was 9 1/2 games out in the NL West on June 22 and ended the season 11 games up in first place. That brought out a runner’s analogy he used to explain how he views any campaign.

“This is a long season,” Mattingly said. “It’s marathon-ish, from the standpoint of the length of it. But those marathoners aren’t running six-minute miles. They’re getting up to speed and they’re keeping their pace.”

The Phillies are not there yet. Mattingly is trying to keep them from chasing too much at once.

“I don’t want panic coming from the coaching staff or myself,” he said. “I want them to feel like we trust them. We know they’re going to get better.”

His approach remains narrow. Game by game.

“I think about winning every night,” Mattingly said. “Honestly, that’s my approach, because we can win every night. And there’s no reason we shouldn’t think in terms that we win every day.”

That does not mean he’s ignoring what has gone wrong this season. And Mattingly is not claiming one bunt drill, one lineup tweak or one staff meeting will solve everything. He is trying to push the Phillies back toward the version of themselves they still believe is in there.

“Hopefully, what’s visible is our baseball is better,” Mattingly said. “That’s really what we’re after.”

Columbus Clippers 1, Toledo Mud Hens 3

It was a slow day for the Clippers offensively, as they recorded just four hits. Kahlil Watson went 1-3 with an RBI single hit 107.4 off the bat. Nolan Jones and Dayan Frias both went 1-3 with a walk.

Ryan Webb allowed two runs in four innings while striking out three batters and walking two. Daniel Espino and Franco Aleman continue to look good. Espino had a scoreless inning of relief despite two walks. Aleman went two full innings tonight and struck out two without allowing a single hit. He has yet to give up a single run this season, he is more than ready to be called up, and we know this bullpen needs all the help they can get.

Akron RubberDucks 8, Harrisburg Senators 3

Angel Genao continues to have an awesome bounce back season. He went 1-1 today with three walks and an RBI. He is up to a .288 average and an .854 OPS on the season. Ralphy Velazquez went 1-4 with a walk. Jacob Cozart had a bases loaded double that knocked everyone in. Nick Mitchell hit a two run home and increased his OPS to .734 on the season.

Caden Favors had a bit off an odd start. He somehow limited the damage to just one run in 4.2 innings pitched despite walking 7 batters. His ERA is down to 2.45 on the season. Carter Rustad continues to have a good season as he struck out three batters in a scoreless 1.1 innings of relief. His ERA is downt o 1.59 on the season.

Hill City Howlers 4, Delmarva Shorebirds 0

This Hill City team might be the most fun of all the affiliates to watch right now. Dauri Fernandez, Robert Arias, Juneiker Caceres, Anthony Martinez, and Luis De La Cruz are all raking. Dauri Fernandez went 2-5 with an opposite field double tonight, Juneiker Caceres went 1-3 with an RBI single and a walk.

I mentioned above some of the young exciting hitters on the team, but this pitching staff has been awesome as well. Nelson Keljo continues to impress in his first season of pro ball. His ERA is down to 1.26 after tossing three more scoreless innings tonight with three strikeouts and just one walk. Jervis Alfaro and Luke Fernandez combined for 8 strikeouts in 5 scoreless innings of relief.

Elmer Rodriguez only issued seven free passes over his first four Triple-A outings this season, but the young righty was a bit erratic making his MLB debut on Wednesday. 

Rodriguez walked four batters and hit another as he worked his way through four up-and-down innings in the Yankees’ series finale loss to the Rangers. 

The 22-year-old was able to work around his shakiness at first, putting up a clean opening inning around two walks, then escaping a bases loaded jam in the second.

He retired the next six batters he faced, but Texas jumped on him in the fifth. 

Rodriguez hit the leadoff man with a pitch then issued a seven-pitch walk, before giving up back-to-back singles to allow the Rangers to take a 2-0 lead.

The youngster was pulled after that, handing things over to Brent Headrick, who limited the damage to close his line with just the two runs allowed on four hits and four walks in as many innings. 

While the youngster wasn’t as sharp as usual, Aaron Boone thought his stuff was good. 

“There was a lot of good,” the skipper said. “We saw his stuff play, I thought his mix and spinning it was good, just a little better on the strike-throwing part and it’s a better line, but he still kept us in the game and gave us a chance.”

Rodriguez agreed that he could’ve executed a bit better, and he’ll look to grow from his mistakes in this outing before taking the ball again his next time out. 

“It’s a good experience being here,” he said. “Obviously it’s my first time around, now I’m just trying to learn from all of the good and the bad and just go forward and continue to work.”

The first inning was a little wild in this one. First, the Royals scored a run on an unusual play. Bobby singled because he is really fast though not his most impressive work with the bat. Then Carter Jensen singled and Witt went first to third. Then this happened:

Salvador’s little flare was not caught by Jacob Wilson because he did not close his glove on purpose? It is hard to say definitively. He throws to second for the out at which point Bobby takes off for home. McNeil threw home rather than try to double off Perez at first, which was not a for sure out, but seemed the safer play. Then in the bottom of the first, Oakland had their hitting coach ejected. It was hard to tell exactly why, but whatever he said did not sit well with John Libka who was behind home plate tonight.

Unfortunately, the Royals could not get any more runs off of Luis Severino. He looked very good and the KC bats just could not get much going. Severino finished with 7IP, 4h, 2BB, and 8Ks by hitting his spots and staying on the edges of the strike zone. Meanwhile, the Oakland offense scored a run on back-to-back doubles from Jacob Wilson and Jeff McNeil to begin the bottom of the second to tie it up. Then in the 4th Wilson and McNeil started it again with a pair of singles, only this time Lawrence Butler brought them both in as part of a 3-run Home Run and take a 4-1 lead. A 5th run almost scored later that inning, but Lane Thomas gunned Kurtz down at home:

He was called safe initially, but the Royals challenged and won. Oakland had to wait until the 6th to get that fifth run in. Nick Kurtz was prevented from scoring it himself, but he hit a gapper to score Darrell Hernaiz against Luinder Avila who took over after Wacha racked up 105 pitches through his five frames. There was also a long rehashing of Hud calling the moon a planet there in the 6th, so at least the booth is in midseason form. Alex Lange and Mason Black put up clean innings in the 7th and 8th to hopefully keep it in reach.

The Royals would try to stage a comeback for the third game in a row. Joel Kuhnel had taken over for Severino to start the 8th and got through that inning unscathed. Then in the 9th it got a little more interesting. Bobby Witt Jr. singled to begin the inning and then then two batters later Slavador Perez had an infield single to short by hitting it slow enough and far enough away from Wilson to buy time for his sprint down the base path. Kuhnel then spiked a pitch to Michael Massey that moved them up to 2nd and 3rd base. Massey hit a deep fly to center to get Bobby home and Salby to third on the sacrifice. Mark Leiter Jr. came in to take over from the Athletic’s bullpen. He walked Isaac Collins and brough the potential tying run to the plate in the form of Jac Caglianone. Jac did not tie it up and struck out to end the game. The series will be decided tomorrow.

And so, Kansas City’s four game win streak is over as the team falls to 12-18 on the season. Thursday will see Noah Cameron on the mound for an afternoon game to wrap up the club’s time in Sacramento.

The Athletics and Royals were back at it tonight at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento after an extra-inning victory by the Royals last night. Luis Severino got the start for the Athletics against Michael Wacha for the Royals.

Bobby Witt Jr. got things started in the first with a base hit and moved to third on a Carter Jensen single. He scored on a funky line drive to Jacob Wilson that he mishandled, allowing Witt to score, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, the A’s got on the board after back-to-back doubles by Jacob Wilson and Jeff McNeil.

In the bottom of the fourth, Wilson and McNeil went back-to-back again, this time singles. Lawrence Butler followed with his third homer to deep right-center field.

The A’s were not done though. Nick Kurtz walked and Shea Langeliers singled. Carlos Cortes singled, apparently scoring Kurtz, but the Royals challenged the call at the plate and the run was overturned, ending the inning. When the dust settled, the A’s held the lead 4-1.

Skipping ahead to the bottom of the sixth, Darell Hernaiz singled, and Nick Kurtz ripped a double to center field to score Hernaiz.

That increased the A’s lead to 5-1. Severino came out to pitch the seventh and was dominant, striking out two of the three batters he faced. That would be all for Seve tonight.

Joel Kuhnel replaced Luis Severino with a final line of 7.0 innings, one earned run, four hits, with eight strikeouts. Kuhnel walked Lane Thomas. That was the first leadoff hitter to reach for the Royals tonight. One batter later a 4-6-3 DP sent the A’s back into the dugout.

Kuhnel returned for the ninth inning, to face the heart of the Royals order. Witt and Salvador Perez each singled. Kuhnel bounced one to the plate allowing both runners to advance still with one out. Michael Massey hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to score Bobby Witt Jr. That would be all for Kuhnel. Kotsay replaced him with Mark Leiter Jr. to get the final out of the game. Leiter walked Isaac Collins to bring the potential tying run to the plate in Jac Caglianone. Leiter punched him out to close out the game. The A’s win this one 5-2.

Francisco Alvarez was one of the Mets’ most productive hitters early-on this season, but the young backstop has cooled off tremendously of late. 

Alvarez’s struggles continued with another hitless showing in Wednesday's loss. 

He failed to deliver in some pretty big spots as well -- first striking out looking with two men on and just one out trailing by a pair in the bottom of the first. 

After going down looking for a second time two innings later, he came up with two on again in the fifth, and this time put the ball in play but rolled into a rally-killing double play. 

It was Alvarez’s sixth double play of the season, tying his total from all of last year. 

He completed the hat-trick of backwards K’s leading off the bottom of the eighth, working the count full before striking out looking with the game well out of reach. 

The 24-year-old is now 0-for-his-last-12, and he’s just 3-for-23 in his last seven games. 

“He’s a little bit in between here,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s going out of the zone but then taking good pitches to hit -- he started off good for us, and then the past week or so it’s been a battle for him.”

Alvarez is down to a .217 average with two doubles, four homers, 21 strikeouts, and .691 OPS on the season. 

Manaea going through it in relief

David Peterson was knocked around in his return to the rotation, lasting just 3.2 innings on Wednesday, and things really spiraled out of control when he left. 

The left-hander's night came to a close after forcing in a run with a bases loaded walk of James Wood with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.

Sean Manaea came on to try and limit the damage, but he ended up hitting the first batter he faced then gave up a grand slam to put this one away for good. 

Manaea ate the next two innings, stretching out to 73 pitches, but he continued to be knocked around from there. 

He was pulled after giving up a two-run double two Wood in the seventh. 

“He comes in, hit by pitch on a sweeper and then he’s trying to go with a fastball up in the zone and just leaves it right there for the grand slam,” Mendoza said. “Then he just got hit today.”

This continues what’s been a rough stretch for Manaea working out of the bullpen. 

His ERA is up to an ugly 6.55 for the year as he's allowed runs in all but one of his five April appearances. 

Positives from Edwards Jr. 

Though the game was long out of reach at that point, the Mets did see another encouraging outing from Carl Edwards Jr. behind Manaea.

The veteran provided length again and was very effective, striking out six batters across 2.2 innings of work. 

His lone run came on a homer in the top of the ninth. 

Edwards Jr. has now struck out 11, through his first two appearances as a Met. 

The Braves secured a nother series win Wednesday in a game pitched by Tarik Skubal and that really is a symbol of how things have gone for Atlanta so far this season. Atlanta comfortably has the best record in baseball and the best run differential in baseball to back it up. Franchise player Ronald Acuna’s production hasn’t really hit it’s expected level, even as he’s been hitting the ball well, and Austin Riley continues to struggle, but Atlanta has an MVP candidate in Matt Olson, has gotten tremendous seasons from a number of star position-players so far, has gotten good if perhaps lucky production from the rotation, and seems to have a dominant bullpen. To make matters even better, they have a host of reinforcements incoming, as Sean Murphy and Spencer Strider are expected back in the next week or so, Ha-Seong Kim seems to be a few weeks away from his return, and some of Atlanta’s young pitching seems to be progressing well from their surgical procedures. This has been a special and exceedingly fun start to the season and there are plenty of reasons to think that this Braves team can carry something resembling this success forward as the season goes on.

Braves News

Spencer Strider will return from injury and make his 2026 debut on Sunday at Coors Field.

Dylan Lee returned from the paternity list (and dominated Detroit hitters), as the Braves opted to keep Didier Fuentes on the active roster and DFA’d Carlos Carrasco.

Matt Olson crushed a two run walk-off homer, turning a 1-run deficit into a 1-run win on Wednesday night.

MLB News

The Tigers hired former Cubs’ starter Kyle Hendricks to their baseball operations team.

Following Tuesday night’s game against Atlanta, the Tigers placed Casey Mize on the 15-day IL with an abductor strain and Javier Baez on the 10-day IL with an ankle sprain.

The Red Sox placed star pitcher Garrett Crochet on the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation, never a reassuring diagnosis for a pitcher.

Former Brave Jarred Kelenic is joining the White Sox, as he replaces an injured Everson Pereira.

I don’t think it’s a particularly hot take to say that I hate blackouts. They inherently limit the number of fans who can view their team and forces those fans to subscribe to a dizzying number of broadcast services just to watch the games. It’s one of the reasons why I listed their elimination as my number one priority if I were magically granted the role of baseball commissioner for a day. I think it would fundamentally improve the game’s accessibility and by extension its popularity. This is a long-winded qualifier that I didn’t get to actually watch any of tonight’s game and instead had to piece it together by the Gameday feed and the Arizona radio. It was still a fun game regardless of how it was consumed though as the D-Backs marched onto the same field on which they were shellacked last night and played a crisp team win that was badly needed to set up a rubber match tomorrow afternoon.

To put it mildly, last night’s game was not a shining moment for the Arizona pitching staff, giving up 13 runs on 15 hits and walking an additional six batters. But with the new and improved Eduardo Rodriguez starting tonight and surprise staff ace Michael Soroka starting tomorrow, I felt pretty good coming into the game. Unfortunately, Rodriguez continued his slide of reversion back towards his mean of the last two seasons in the desert rather than the excellent form he showed in the World Baseball Classic and the first three starts of this season. Once again, the veteran lefty struggled with his command, walking four batters and striking out just four while throwing a middling 55% of his 87 pitches for strikes and generating only five whiffs. Those kinds of numbers rarely equate to a good pitching performance and tonight was no exception as he had his shortest outing of the year, but was able to limit the damage from Milwaukee to just two runs. The Brew Crew opened the scoring with a pair of doubles from Brice Turang and Jake Bauers in the opening frame and plated another in the third when Turang doubled home Brandon Lockridge. Outside of those two plays, the home team created plenty of traffic on six hits and four walks, but failed to capitalize on any scoring opportunity – combining for a miserable 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranding 8 runners on the game.

I’m fairly convinced that Milwaukee’s American Family Field (which still feels wrong to write out) sits on top of a magical pitching fount that’s able to turn reclamation projects into dominant relievers that the front office can then flip for more prospects from unsuspecting franchises. But for the first time in a hot minute, the Brewers have multiple exciting young pitching prospects in Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, and Brandon Sproat all of whom have had uneven starts to their careers but still have plenty of talent upside. We got to see both sides of Sproat tonight as he completely shut down the D-Backs through the first three innings, allowing just three baserunners, but lost his command and hit a wall in the fourth that significantly curtailed his outing. After collecting his fifth strikeout of Corbin Carroll to open the fourth inning, he gave up a solo home run to Adrian Del Castillo, singles to Ildemaro Vargas and Lourdes Gurriel Jr, and an absolute moonshot of a three-run blast to Nolan Arenado that gave the D-Backs the lead for good. The offense mostly shut down again thanks to the Milwaukee bullpen until the visiting half of the ninth when Ketel Marte and Carroll jacked consecutive homers to pad the lead and make it a much more comfortable outing for Paul Sewald to earn the save.

Sewald’s 13-pitch dramaless save was simply the cherry on the cake for an Arizona bullpen that was absolutely lights out tonight. The unit ended the night by retiring 13 batters in a row and allowed just one baserunner across the final 4.1 innings of the game after Rodriguez exited in the fifth. It’s part of a maddeningly inconsistent pattern for the relief corps that could just as easily be incredible or one of the worst in the entire major leagues. Optimistically though, this period could just as easily be seen as an evaluation period before some of the team’s higher-leverage relief arms return from injury later this season – namely AJ Puk and Justin Martinez – that can further bolster and stabilize the entire unit. If the team can correctly identify which relievers can be the most consistent and find their appropriate roles, the bullpen could be a genuine strength for the team for the first time in a long time.

Every time the Mets appear to take one step forward lately, they respond by taking two steps back.

That was again the case on Wednesday night. 

After their offense finally broke through with one of their best showings of the season Tuesday, they came back and got blown out by the Nationals in the middle of a three-game set. 

David Peterson had the matchup the Mets were looking for, but his struggles continued, as he lasted just 3.2 innings and allowed seven runs in his return to the starting rotation. 

And things only spiraled after he was pulled, as Sean Manaea entered with the bases loaded and hit the first batter he faced, then gave up a grand slam to officially put this one out of reach.

The two combined to allowed 13 of Washington's 14 runs on five walks and 12 hits. 

New York's offense did have opportunities to show some sign of life, but other than the locked in Juan Soto,theycouldn’t deliver the big hit needed against Washington's pitching staff. 

So with the Phillies having the night off due to rain, the Mets’ loss now puts them in sole possession of the worst record in baseball through their first 30 games (10-20). 

Having dropped 16 of their last 19, Carlos Mendoza isn’t looking for excuses. 

“We have to be better,” he said. “It’s been a long period of time where we’re not playing well, we have to fix it.”

With the opening month of the season set to come to a close on Thursday, New York certainly must get things fixed sooner rather than later. 

They’ll look to end the brutal month on a high note with Freddy Peralta on the mound. 

“It’s easy to let things compound, it’s easy to get caught up in it,” Peterson said. “But the only way we’re going to get out of it is by taking things one day at a time, trying to attack, and just trying to win tomorrows game.”

David Peterson’s return to the rotation went about as well as the rest of this cursed Mets season.

The left-hander allowed seven runs — all earned — in just 3 ²/₃ innings in Wednesday’s 14-2 loss to the Nationals at Citi Field.

And because the state of their pitching staff is so bad, Peterson will almost certainly remain either in the rotation or used behind an opener the next time through the rotation.

“He’s a big part of this team,’’ Carlos Mendoza said.

Peterson said his issues stemmed from falling behind in counts.

He also walked three batters, but insisted he could right himself.

“I’ve done it before,’’ Peterson said. “And I believe in myself and I know I have the stuff to do it.”

Mendoza also expressed belief that Peterson has the ability to be effective.

“We’ve seen flashes of it,’’ Mendoza said. “He’s got more than enough to compete in the strike zone.”

Peterson’s ERA in five starts this season is 8.10, compared to his success out of the bullpen, where he’s allowed one run in seven innings in two appearances.

And he’s also allowed six earned runs in the first inning of his five starts.

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“Out of the bullpen in his last couple of outings, he comes in aggressive and attacking,’’ Mendoza said. “He uses all his pitches and is competing in the strike zone.”

In the rotation, though, it’s a different story, but with so many pitchers struggling, the Mets have little choice but to keep going to the lefty.

Sean Manaea was as bad in relief as Peterson, allowing six runs in 2 ²/₃ innings.

Luis Robert Jr. remained sidelined by lower back tightness.

The center fielder had an MRI exam Wednesday, and Mendoza said they were awaiting the results following the latest loss.

The Mets have limited Robert’s playing time in an attempt to prevent the injuries that have plagued him the previous two seasons.

It’s not off to a great start.

“[His back] didn’t improve much after treatment,” Mendoza said before the game. “We’re doing everything in our power to keep him on the field.”

With Robert out and Juan Soto limited to DH duties as he deals with left forearm tightness, the Mets are willing to take advantage of Carson Benge’s ability to play all three outfield spots.

Soto, who went 3-for-5 with a solo homer in the Mets’ loss on Wednesday, entered the day swinging at the highest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone of his career (23.1 percent).

His career mark is a more selective 17 percent.

With Francisco Lindor out and much of the rest of the offense not hitting, Mendoza was asked if opposing teams will avoid giving Soto good pitches.

“Regardless of who’s in the lineup, a lot of teams pitch around him,’’ the manager said. “I feel like he continues to get, maybe not as many, [but] pitches to hit. If not, he’s got to trust his teammates.”

Francisco Alvarez went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and is now hitless in his last 12 at-bats, with Mendoza saying the catcher is “in-between” in his at-bats.

A.J. Minter, rehabbing from last year’s lat surgery, is expected to pitch in two more minor league rehab games Friday and Sunday.

If all goes well, Mendoza didn’t rule out the possibility of the left-hander being activated at some point next week.

“We’ll see,’’ the manager said. “We said we’d take it slowly.”

Tommy Pham, designated for assignment by the Mets, cleared waivers and elected free agency. The veteran outfielder went 0-for-13 in his second stint in Queens.

He was replaced on the roster by another right-handed hitting outfielder, Austin Slater.

The Mets signed shortstop Jamari Baylor to a minor league deal.

The 25-year-old spent last season in the independent Atlantic League and has never played above High-A in the minors after being selected in the third round in 2019 by the Phillies.

Introduction

While it is still early in the season, I can’t help but notice that while the team is struggling at the MLB level, there’s several of the Dbacks top prospects playing very well for the D’Backs AAA level affiliate, the Reno Aces. There are also a couple veteran relief pitchers that have been pitching very well, who merit discussion, but who I won’t be discussing in this article. (NOTE: We’re just just under a full month into the Minor League Baseball season, so small samples abound, especially with the relief pitchers. Just a few good/bad outings and games can turn these numbers upside down, so this is just a fun exercise. It’ll be another month before any Minor League stats should be taken seriously. All stats in this article through 28th April, 2026.)

The Hot Hitting Prospects

Top 100 overall prospect Ryan Waldschmidt (Fangraphs |B-Ref player pages) has unsurprisingly been one of the Reno Aces best hitters. The 23 year old right handed hitting outfielder has played mostly center field in the 2026, but is capable of playing all three outfield positions competently. Through his first 131 plate appearences, he’s hit .303/.400/.505 with a 122 wRC+ and a .408 wOBA.

Tommy Troy ( Fangraphs|B-Ref), the 12th overall pick in the 2023, in his first 122 plate appearences is hitting .317/.405/.481 with a 120 WRC+ and .404 wOBA. Troy has seen the majority (60%) of his starts at second base, but surprisingly has spent a good chunk of time in left field and couple games worth of innings in center.

LuJames ‘Gino’ Groover III ( Fangraphs|B-Ref) through his first 127 plate appearances is hitting .340/.440/.427, with a 123 wRC+ and a .410 wOBA. He’s spent slightly more than half his time in the field this season at third base with the rest spent across the diamond at first.

Kristian Robinson’s ( Fangraphs | B-Ref ) history has been discussed so much that I’m not going to discuss it here other than the very short version. Once a top prospect, legal issues that came as a result of cannabis induced psychiatric episode along with pandemic kept him away from baseball for three years. Robinson is probably not the star outfielder we thought he was, but he is a perfectly servicable outfielder with an intriguing mix of power and speed. In his first 110 plate appearences in 2026, Robinson is hitting .286/.400/.484 with a 119 wRC+ and a .402 wOBA. Robinson is capable of playing all three outfield position as well, with a better throwing arm than any of the other outfielder on the MLB roster.

The biggest reason to not call up any of these four players is finding regular playing time, along with service time and roster considerations. Ryan Waldschmidt and Kristian Robinson are (arguably) an across the board upgrade over current Dback OFer Jorge Barrosa, but if they’re only on the roster as the fourth outfielder, they won’t get as much playing time as needed to further develop as hitters. With his .524 OPS and 46 wRC+, Tim Tawa has been a below average hitter in 2026, so bad that he’s been worth -0.3 WAR. Lourdes Gurriel may only have recently been activated of the Injury List, but he’s already matched Tawa in negative WAR despite having played in 10 fewer games. The aforementioned Barrosa’s job is arguably pretty safe, despite the 79 wRC+, he’s an above average outfielder who’s put up .2 WAR thanks to his defense. In a similar vein, the defensively gifted Alek Thomas is once again struggling offensively, and while he still is putting up positive value, his defense isn’t that much of an upgrade over Waldschmidt’s to make his job safe either. Theoretically Waldschmidt and Robinson could replace Barrosa and Thomas , and while there would almost certainly be a drop off defensively, the potential for a massive offensive upgrade could might very well be worth it.

Tommy Troy, who has the most defensive versatility thanks to his ability to play both infield and outfield, is an obvious choice to replace Tim Tawa on the roster. As long as the Ildemaro Vargas/Nolan Arenado experiment continues to be successful, and Jose Fernandez continues to rake, I can’t imagine we’ll see Groover anytime soon, unless Adrian Del Castillo just completely fails to provide any offense at DH. Which is unfortunate, as Groover statistically has been the best hitter on the Aces, while also having the exit velocity and batted ball data that legitimizes his production as more than a PCL induced fluke.

Pitching Prospects Having Success Shutting Down A Punishing PCL

Amongst the actual ranked pitching prospects on the Aces, Mitch Bratt (Fangraphs|B-Ref) has been the most effective of the starting pitchers in the Aces rotation so far. In his first five starts, he’s put up a 2.84 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, with a 50 ERA-. His 4.35 FIP and 4.64 xFIP aren’t exactly inspiring but overall those are very solid numbers for a starting pitcher in hitters haven that is the Pacific Coast League.

Yilber Diaz (Fangraphs|B-Ref) and Brandyn Garcia (Fangraphs|B-Ref) have combined to form a very effective relief duo. In his 10 relief appearances, he’s put up 13 ⅔ IP while striking out 20 batters (a 34% SO%) and walking just five batters (9.3BB%) His 1.32 ERA and 24 ERA- are absolutely stellar, though his 3.11 FIP and 2.90 xFIP do suggest his ERA won’t stay that low forever. Brandynn Garcia has also appeared in 10 games, putting up 12⅓ IP with 18 strikeouts and 10 walks. His 2.19 ERA works out to a 39 ERA-, though his stats do seem like they’re do for some regression, as indicated by the 4.58 FIP and 4.35 xFIP.

It’s almost certainly a matter of when, not if Yilber Diaz and Brandyn Garcia get called up in 2026, and there are already candidates in the bullpen for them to replace. The most obvious would be Paul Sewald, but arguements could be made for Ryan Thompson as well. Originally I was going to mention Andrew Hoffman, but the latter was sent down for Philip Abner whilst writing this article.

It’s actually somewhat fitting that the most obvious candidate in the starting rotation that Mitch Bratt could potentially replace is the pitcher the Dbacks traded away last summer to acquire him (along with Hagaman and Kohl Drake), Merrill Kelly. To be as blunt as possible, Merrill Kelly has not been good at all so far this season, and his performance so far has been troubling. In his first start back in a 4-3 win against the baltimore Orioles, Kelly pitched 5 ⅓ innings, allowing a pair of earned runs on five hits and four walks. It doesn’t sound that bad, but it was a messy outing saved thanks to Ildemaro Vargas and Jose Fernandez’s offense, though he does deserve some extra credit for a successful pickoff throw of a runner on third. Kelly’s 2nd outing was a disaster: 4⅓ innings, 8 earned runs allowed on 10 hits ans 3 walks. Of those ten hits, half of them went for extra base hits, three of which were homeruns. His most recent outing wasn’t any better. He pitched 5 ⅓ innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits and five walks, with another homerun allowed. All that adds up to a 9.20 ERA with 8.78 FIP, which has cost the Diamondbacks -0.5/-0.6 fWAR/bWAR. It’s still early and he can turn it around, but if his season continues like this, then I would think that eventually a move will have to be made. Alternatively, Ryne Nelson and his 7.71 ERA or Brandon Pfaadt and his 5.54 ERA aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire either.

Conclusion

Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen has quite a few options in AAA that could potentially bolster the Major League roster. Which of these players do you think is most likely to be able to contribute to an MLB roster right now? Is there a prospect on the AAA or even AA roster that you feel is more deserving of a call up?Which player on the MLB roster do you think will be the next to go after Andrew Hoffman? Who do you expect to be called up first? Let me know in the comments down below!

Next Week: We wrap up the Top Prospect series by finally ranking the Dbacks top pitching prospects.

The Rockies’ new pitching philosophy is no longer a secret. They promised to leave no stone unturned, and one month in, the results have been genuinely impressive. Depending on your preferred WAR metric, Colorado has had one of baseball’s most valuable pitching staffs — at altitude, no less. 

That story has been covered well, including here at Purple Row. So here’s the next question: When does experimentation become refinement? 

I started thinking about that while watching Tanner Gordon on Tuesday. The shapes of his fastball, changeup and sinker all looked…. similar. So, naturally, I spent my Tuesday night in a Baseball Savant rabbit hole. 

While looking at Gordon’s movement profile, the arm angle caught my eye: He is up from 43° last year to 46° this year.

The slot and the sinker 

That arm-angle change makes the curveball experiment logical. A higher slot can help create a more vertical breaking ball, giving Gordon a different plane from the fastball/changeup/slider foundation. 

The sinker, though, is harder to defend. 

Gordon has not been given a start yet, so this is an imperfect evaluation. He has mostly worked out of the bullpen, and the sample sizes are tiny. His sinker has made up only 12% of his pitches — 23 total. 

Still, in that tiny sample, hitters are batting .667 against it with a 2.000 slugging percentage, 100.4 mph average exit velocity, and no putaways. Hitters are not just seeing the sinker; they are ordering it off the menu. 

The concern is not only the results. It is the shape. The sinker visually lives too close to the fastball/changeup lane. If it is not creating grounders, weak contact, or a different plane, it risks becoming another version of a pitch family Gordon already has. 

Fewer pitches, better fit? 

The Rockies have had early success letting pitchers find footing in the bullpen, and Gordon can still offer rotation value because his command is legitimately excellent. He does not need overwhelming stuff to survive, but the pitch mix has to be coherent. 

Of course, pitches take time. Michael Lorenzen is a useful reminder. His curveball was barely part of his mix in 2023 at 1%, then grew to 8% in 2024, 11% in 2025, and 15% this season. That is what refinement can look like: not instant reinvention, but gradual trust. 

Still, patience and commitment are not the same thing. 

The Rockies may not need Gordon to throw more pitches. They may need him to throw fewer pitches that make more sense. 

So, After Dark: keep developing the sinker, reduce it, or lean harder into the curveball/changeup path? 

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