Category: MLB

As part of the current collective bargaining agreement talks, Major League Baseball has proposed a radical overhaul of the MLB Draft. The changes include not only the introduction of an international draft (which MLB has been advocating for a while) but the end of draft eligibility for high school players and the ability to trade picks. The proposal would also reduce the number of rounds in the draft from 20 to 12 and come with major restrictions on the amount of money teams could give out in amateur bonuses.

J.J. Cooper at Baseball America has an excellent overview of the changes and the effects that it would have. Unfortunately, much of that article is behind a paywall. Bob Nightengale at USA Today has a piece on the proposed draft changes as does Mike Axisa at CBS Sports for those of you who don’t have a BA subscription. Evan Drellich also has a piece on the changes at The Athletic for those of you with a subscription to that.

Let’s go through the changes one by one to see what MLB is proposing.

Reducing the number of rounds in the draft

MLB has been slowly chipping away at the number of rounds in the draft for years. Up until 1986, there were two separate drafts, one in June and one in January. Then for years the draft in June would continue as long as teams still wanted to make picks. Then it became a 50-round draft, which was reduced to a 40-round draft that was once again reduced to the current 20 rounds in 2021.

MLB is now proposing that the draft be reduced to 12 rounds. They are also proposing that any undrafted player be limited to a $10,000 signing bonus. Currently, MLB teams are allowed to give up to $125,000 to any undrafted amateur without it counting against their bonus pool. They can even give a player more if they have leftover bonus pool money.

The obvious impact of this is that it would disincentivize marginal prospects from starting a professional career. While most baseball players don’t get the kinds of NIL money in college that football and basketball players get and sometimes they don’t even get full scholarships, ten thousand dollars is not much of an incentive to give up the chance to play in college.

I think it’s a fair question as to how many rounds the draft should last, but the hard cap of $10,000 on amateur free agents is clearly punitive. You can argue that players not taken in the first 12 rounds don’t have much of a chance at making the majors anyway, but Cubs catching prospect Owen Ayers was a 19th-round pick in 2024 and signed for $50,000. He’s now listed on several Top 100 prospect lists. Would Ayers have signed if he hadn’t been drafted and only offered 10k? Who knows? But this system would certainly save the owners a lot of money, even if it might cost MLB some talented players.

International Draft

This one is the least surprising because MLB has been proposing it for a long time. The last CBA had an agreement that the owners and the players would discuss adopting an international draft, but they were unable to come to an agreement. To be fair, everyone agrees that the current system of talent acquisition in (mostly) Latin America is broken. Teams are coming to “handshake” agreements for millions of dollars with 12- and 13-year-old kids from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. No one thinks that’s a good thing. The question has always been whether an international draft is a cure worse than the disease.

So MLB is proposing two 12-round drafts, one for players from the US and Canada and one for international players. There would be an equal bonus pool for both the international and domestic draft.

The argument in favor of the international draft is that everyone realizes that it’s insane to offer 12-year-olds a million dollars (to be paid, maybe, in four years) under the table. The argument against it is that under the current system, the buscones who identify and train Latin American players and the teams that offer them money under the table have a real incentive to develop those players into the best players they can be. Those incentives would go away (or at least greatly lessen) under a draft, where any team could scoop up another team’s hard work with an earlier pick.

Bonus pool money

With this draft, the owners are proposing a massive reduction in the amount of money that could be offered in amateur bonuses. Currently, the 30 MLB teams spend around a collective $600 million a year on player signing bonuses. Under this proposal, there would be $200 million (split 30 ways) for domestic bonuses and $200 million (again split) for international bonuses. This money would also count against any salary cap that would be agreed to in the collective bargaining talks.

Hard draft slot

No longer would teams negotiate with players over what their signing bonus would be. Players would be required to accept the MLB mandates slot bonus for their pick. This would end some players holding out for more money and teams drafting several players who agree to sign for cheap in the later rounds to even things out. Since most players who want overslot bonuses are high school players, this might not have a big impact because of the next proposal.

Age restrictions

Here’s the big one. Currently, there are several points where players become eligible to sign with a major league team. International players become eligible at 16. An American player becomes eligible when they graduate from high school, which is usually at age 18 but sometimes as young as 17. If they don’t sign out of high school and enroll in a four-year college, they they have to wait until after their junior year until they are eligible to be drafted again. Which is usually at age 21. There are a few draft-eligible sophomores, which we don’t need to go into here.

However, if they sign with a junior college out of high school, they become eligible for the draft after every season. So a player can be eligible to be signed at 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 or 21 years old, depending on their circumstances.

What MLB is proposing is that international players become eligible for the draft at 18 and US/Canada players become eligible at 20. So high school players would no longer be eligible to be drafted and almost all college players could be drafted after their sophomore seasons.

This move would be a major boon for college baseball. Instead of Pete Crow-Armstrong being drafted by the Mets in the first round, he would have gone to Vanderbilt for two years. Current Cubs top prospect Josiah Hartshorn would have just finished up his freshman season at Texas A&M.

For MLB, this would push a lot of the costs of development onto the NCAA. It would also mean an end to elite players making their major-league debut at 19 and 20 and then becoming free agents at 26 or 27, when they get the massive contracts. The Pirates’ Konnor Griffith, rather than being a Rookie-of-the-Year candidate, would have just finished up his sophomore year at LSU and would be a likely candidate for the first pick in the draft this July.

But the goal of NCAA programs isn’t to develop players. It’s to win ballgames. As one unnamed scouting director was quoted as saying in Nightengale’s article, most college freshmen don’t even play. Sure, they get training and coaching outside of games, but for all but the most elite prospects, such a proposal would mean players missing at least a year of development. MLB probably doesn’t have a problem with the elite players being drafted at 20, the solid prospects drafted at 21 and the rest at 22. The union likely does.

It’s also been noted that it seems unfair that international players can sign at 18 and US/Canada players have to wait until they’re 20. International players could still make the majors at 20 and 21 while American players could not.

Trading draft picks

Currently, only competitive balance picks are eligible to be traded. MLB is proposing that all draft picks are eligible to be dealt with some limitations.

• A pick could not be traded more than a year in advance. So a team could not trade a 2027 draft pick until after the 2026 draft was concluded.
• Teams could “trade up” or “down” during the first round, and first round only, of the draft as it is underway. It wouldn’t have to be only first-round picks involved in deals, but the ability to trade picks would end after the first round ended.
• No team could trade away their first-round pick two years in a row, and no team could acquire more than three extra picks in the first three rounds of any draft.
• Competitive balance picks would be eliminated.
• The draft lottery, established in the last CBA, would be reduced from the first six picks to the first four picks.
• No team could get a lottery (top four) pick three years in a row. Other current restrictions would be eliminated.
• Medical evaluations at the MLB Draft combines would go from optional to mandatory for all draft-eligible players. Currently a player can opt out of a physical, but then the team that drafts him is not required to make them a minimum bonus offer.

There’s also a weird rule designed to increased the watchability of the MLB Draft on television. Ten players designated by MLB would be required to attend the draft in person. They would be paid $50,000 for their troubles.

These rules aren’t really pro or anti-player. They seem mostly designed to increase interest in the draft. Should interest in college baseball increase because of MLB’s new age limits, that could have a positive impact on public interest in the draft as well.

The Minor Leagues?

With the draft dropping back to 12 rounds and severe restrictions on the non-drafted players that often fill out every minor league roster, there is some suspicion that MLB would like to eliminate yet another level of minor league baseball in this provision. They insist that they will keep the number of teams in affiliated baseball at 120, at least through 2040. MLB feels confident that they can fill out their 165 minor league roster spots under this new system.

There’s a lot to digest here. Pretty much all of it is, other than trading draft picks, beneficial to the owners and against the players’ interests. There is no way the union accepts this proposal as offered and the owners likely know that. It’s an opening bid. But it is a sign that the owners want to radically restructure the way baseball talent is identified, signed and developed in the years to come.

PHILADELPHIA – Mets slugger Juan Soto muttered and looked away in disgust when he hit a fly ball to right field in the third inning of Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He had just missed Aaron Nola’s middle-middle sinker, or so he thought. When a hearty wind nudged the ball over the right field fence, he could not help but smile. Somehow, he had hit it just enough.

As lucky as that gust might have been, Soto does not leave much to chance when it comes to his swings. He is as attuned with his swing as he is with the strike zone, which is why, when he wanted to feel a little quicker to the ball with two strikes in late May, he started experimenting with a small change to his bat.

Against the Marlins in Miami last month, Soto tested a bat with a thicker, more prominent nob that pushed his bottom hand up from the bottom more than a traditional one. The result is a more evenly weighted bat with the mass spread more from top to bottom, as opposed to the end-weighted one Soto used early in the season.

“I feel like I can be quicker, especially on two strikes,” Soto said, punching his left hand in the air to an imagined inside pitch, pitch up the middle, then pitch away.

Even though he feels he can swing it more quickly, Soto said this new bat is actually “a tick heavier” than his previous model; though somewhat counterintuitive, players sometimes find end-weighted bats actually drag more than more evenly weighted bats, in which more of the mass is closer to their hands.

When he first started using the bat regularly on May 22, Soto was hitting .301 with a .965 OPS. At the end of Thursday’s two-homer night, he is hitting .300 with a .980 OPS and has seven home runs in those 22 games after hitting 10 in his first 36. 

Who knows whether an end-weighted bat would have given Soto’s windswept homer a few more feet of wiggle room Thursday. With the fourth-highest OPS in baseball, after his two-homer performance, Soto seems to be calibrated just fine.

IT'S GONE!

A 2-homer game for Juan Soto! pic.twitter.com/VC3022KU88

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2026

Given that the Mets are in last place in the National League East and their roster is brutalized with injuries, the biggest story of this series will be about Bo Bichette’s free agent decision from January. The Phillies offered Bo Bichette a seven year deal, worth $200 million but the New York Mets swooped in at the last hour with a three-year deal at over $40 million a season and two opt-outs.

As Bichette stepped into the right-handed batter’s box at Citizens Bank Park, the fans rained boos for each of his five hitless at-bats.

For the Mets offense, who entered Thursday night’s game ranked third worst in wRC+ at 89 and have the third worst on-base percentage in the sport at .298. Like the Phillies, they have not been able to score consistent runs but haven’t had the pitching health and results to go on a run.

None of that mattered when Juan Soto took a down-the-middle cutter to the right-field seats to give the Mets an early lead.

Two out damage followed when Jared Young hit a dribbler that Nola could not handle. AJ Ewing, one of the Mets best prospects heading into the season, then followed by taking a fastball to the right-center field gap to them a two-nothing lead.

In the bottom of the first, more shenanigans began as Trea Turner got hit by a backfoot sweeper that hit his well… backfoot. Turner had to exit the game with a right calf contusion.

Kyle Schwarber singled then Bryce Harper grounded into a forceout that put runners on first and third with one out. Alec Bohm then lined a sharp single into center field to cut the Mets lead in half.

In the third, Nola had to face Soto again and threw another fastball down the middle. And once again, the same result happened, a solo home run to give the Mets a three-one lead.

In the bottom of the third, every fan was reminded that this is a Phillies-Mets series and the weirdest was yet to come. Schwarber struck out on a sweeper but landed on first because Francisco Alvarez couldn’t handle the pitch. He threw the ball right through Jared Young at first base that went into foul territory in right field, allowing Schwarber to take second base.

Bohm then crushed a line-drive down the right field line that Carson Benge could not handle, once again cutting the Mets lead down to one.

In the fourth, the Phillies once again got to Manaea with a Bryson Stott single and stole second base before a JT Realmuto lineout. Derek Hill then slapped a single into center field and Ewing’s throw hit the mound and the game was tied.

Fast forward to the seventh inning, José Alvarado entered to face the top of the Mets order. Carson Benge, another one of the Mets top outfield prospects, lined a sinker into center field for a leadoff single. After a Bichette lineout and Soto pop out, Carlos Mendoza went to his bench to bring out Mark Vientos. After a Vientos walk, Mendoza then hit for Ewing with Eric Wagaman, who smacked a hard single into right field to drive in a run and give the Mets the lead.

Marcus Semien stepped in with two outs and two runners on against the hard-throwing Alvarado. He initially looked overmatched on Alvarado’s fastball but then finally got one he liked on the eighth pitch of the at bat, crushing a ball to Monty’s Angle that brought two more runs home to give the Mets a three-run lead.

The Phillies and Mets offenses slogged into Devin Williams entered for New York. The shaky closer was in to protect a three run ninth inning lead but nearly blew it.

After an Edmundo Sosa strikeout, Stott worked a walk and then Realmuto hit into a forceout. Gabriel Rincones jr stepped up to the plate and looked overmatched on the first two Williams fastballs but was able to poke an infield hit to put the tying run on base.

Justin Crawford had looked overmatched all night against tough left-handed pitching but against a right hander, was able to poke a changeup into center field that he probably shouldn’t be swinging at consistently.

Kyle Schwarber then stepped into the left-handed batters box with the game on the line. Williams got ahead nothing-and-two on fastball but couldn’t put him away. Schwarber didn’t offer at the down-and-away changeup and Williams threw an uncompetitive fastball for ball two.

Not looking to make the count full, Williams gives Schwarber a fastball he’s looking for and Schwarber crushed it, 104.6 mph off the bat but the line drive ended in the glove of Carson Benge in right field and the game was over.

There is an off-day Friday because of some little thing called the World Cup and apparently there is a game in Philadelphia. No one said anything until now!

So, Cristopher Sánchez will get the ball Saturday night against Freddy Peralta when the two teams resume their three-game series. Weird to have an off-day on Friday. Really weird.

Earlier this week, we asked you to vote on one of four position players to keep and build a team around: OF Jordan Beck, OF Brenton Doyle, C Hunter Goodman and SS Ezequiel Tovar. And the results were not very surprising.

The overwhelming majority of folks voted that Goodman should be the one retained to build a team around:

Ezequiel Tovar received the second-highest vote total — likely because he is at a premium position like Goodman — while Doyle and Beck split the remaining 6% of votes.

Do you agree with the results? Do you still agree with your vote? Let us know in the comments!

Brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.

It’s never fun when a former Yankee comes back and punishes you in the Bronx, even if there wasn’t bad blood or anything that would cause a sort of “revenge game”.

Andrew Benintendi opened this series with a solo shot with a homer off Gerrit Cole on Tuesday, but started tonight’s game on the bench against the lefty Ryan Weathers. Unfortunately, he got a lane to pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the eighth and absolutely punished a ball for a go-ahead grand slam, lifting the White Sox to a 5-1 win over the Yankees on Thursday to deny them the series sweep.

Much earlier on, Ryan Weathers got the ball to start and went right to work, striking out the top of the White Sox’s lineup in order. Chicago’s opener, Bryan Hudson, put up a sharp 1-2-3 inning of his own in the bottom half.

That strong first inning for Weathers was quickly erased on his first pitch of the second, as Colson Montgomery clobbered a sinker at the bottom of the zone for a long home run into the Yankees’ bullpen for his third home run of the series and 20th of the season to make it 1-0 White Sox.

Hudson got two quick outs in the bottom half before being chased by a bloop double to Spencer Jones. Sean Burke, the bulk reliever, struck out José Caballero to end the inning.

Weathers pitched around a two-out single in the third and would be quickly picked up by his offense, as Ryan McMahon led off the third with a booming, 430-foot opposite-field shot into the White Sox bullpen to tie the game at one. Not often you’ll see a lefty at Yankee Stadium hit more bombs to the opposite field, but that’s what we’re getting in McMahon, I guess.

Chicago went down in order in the fourth on a bunch of soft contact. With two outs and two strikes in the bottom half, Jazz Chisholm Jr. fouled a ball off his… groin. While we’re used to these just temporarily taking the wind out of players, this one actually resulted in the second baseman leaving the game. Anthony Volpe took the remainder of the at-bat and walked before being thrown out trying to steal second by Edgar Quero.

Luisangel Acuña beat out a lackadaisical effort from Caballero at second base for an infield single with one out in the fifth, but he was quickly erased on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the inning. Caballero atoned for his sins with a single in the bottom half, but then got picked off. Not the best inning for the fundies.

It was more of the same in the sixth for both Weathers and Burke, with the latter only giving up a one-out single to Ben Rice. Two batters into the seventh, one of them finally blinked, as Weathers was removed after walking Colson Montgomery. Fernando Cruz came on and did what he does best, getting out of the inning to preserve a 1-1 tie.

That concluded a terrific outing for Weathers after three consecutive poor ones, going 6.1 innings of efficient one-run ball. Aaron Boone elected to be rather aggressive with the hook, pulling him on just 88 pitches with a relatively rested bullpen off two blowouts, which might not be a bad idea with how Weathers has struggled third time through of late. It’s a no-decision, but a step in the right direction.

Burke stayed out there after the seventh-inning stretch and gave up a laced one-out double to Volpe, but got an assist from some overaggressive baserunning and the first major league outfield assist by Junior Perez as Volpe was gunned out at third base. Jones struck out to end the inning.

The bullpen’s recent effectiveness came to a sudden end in the eighth. Cruz allowed a leadoff double to Sam Antonacci, prompting Boone to utilize Tim Hill with two soft-hitting lefties due up. Naturally, the team’s best lefty neutralizer plunked both of them to load the bases. After he struck out Chase Meidroth, Boone inserted Camilo Doval to force Will Venable to his bench, successfully deploying the former Yankee Benintendi. The lefty promptly blasted Doval’s first pitch deep in the right-field seats.

That was a certifiable no-win scenario for Boone and the Yankees. With one out and the bases loaded, your options were Hill vs. Randal Grichuk, which is possibly the worst platoon matchup possible in this game, or hoping that Doval’s propensity to groove pitches didn’t show up. The latter was chosen, and it was immediately punished.

Doval mopped up the ninth, but on the other side, Burke chugged all the way through 7.2 very strong innings, finishing the game without needing to deploy another reliever. He was two ticks up on his fastball all night long and put together one of the best starts of his young career against a team that, while hitting a lot in the last few days, finished the day without four Opening Day starters due to injury.

The Yankees will welcome the Cincinnati Reds to town tomorrow night for just the team’s third interleague series of the year, with the opener kicking off at 7:05 pm. It’ll be Cam Schlittler up against Rhett Lowder.

Box Score

Juan Soto launched two home runs and the Mets used a three-run seventh to hold on and defeat the Phillies, 6-4, on Thursday night in Philadelphia. 

Here are the takeaways...

-New York got off to a fast start against Aaron Nola with Soto launching a solo shot with two outs in the opening frame. Jared Young reached on a fielding error by Nolan and A.J. Ewing made the Phillies starter pay with an RBI double.

Soto would launch his second homer of the game to lead off the third. The Mets slugger thought he flew out, but the wind carried it over the wall. 

-Sean Manaea, making his second start this season, had a tough start, allowing one run on two hits and a hit batter, but got out of it, allowing just the one run, thanks to a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play when Francisco Alvarez caught Bryce Harper trying to steal third base. After allowing a leadoff triple in the second, the southpaw escaped without allowing that run to score thanks to a groundout from Bryson Stott, a pop-up by J.T. Realmuto, and a groundout by Derek Hill -- pinch-hitting for Trea Turner after the shortstop was hit in the calf by a Manaea pitch in the first. 

In the third, Manaea was betrayed by his defense. Kyle Schwarber struck out, but a passed ball allowed him to reach first and an Alvarez throwing error allowed the slugger to reach second. Then, after a tremendous sliding catch by Soto to rob Harper of a double, Carson Benge tried to do the same to Alec Bohm's flyball in right field, but the ball hit the heel of his glove as he slid toward the foul line, allowing Schwarber to score on the double. 

Manaea allowed a run on a two-out single from Hill in the fourth but otherwise gutted through five innings for the Mets. He's get one out into the sixth before being pulled. The final line for the lefty saw him toss 95 pitches (63 balls), allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits and one walk while striking out five batters.

-The Mets would get to the Phillies bullpen. In the seventh, Eric Wagaman broke the 3-3 tie with a pinch-hit single, scoring Benge before Marcus Semien tripled to drive in two more. 

The Mets bullpen did its job, allowing just one base runner (one walk) in their 2.2 innings pitched. Here's how the bullpen broke down:

• Huascar Brazoban: 1.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
• AJ Minter: 0.2 IP
• Luke Weaver: 1.0 IP, 3 K

But it got interesting in the ninth. Devin Williams allowed a one-out walk, but picked up two outs when the pinch-hitting Gabriel Rincones Jr. hit a chopper to Bo Bichette at third. Bichette threw the ball offline to allow the infield hit. Justin Crawford looped a single to push across the Phillies' fourth run and bringing up Kyle Schwarber as the winning run.

Schwarber hit a missile to right, but right at Brett Baty as Williams got the save. 

-Bichette, who was booed in every at-bat he took after choosing the Mets over the Phillies this offseason, finished 0-for-5.

Game MVP: Marcus Semien

Semien's two-run triple proved to be the difference in this one.

Highlights

JUAN SOTO LIFTOFF IN PHILLY! pic.twitter.com/f4lax4KjCP

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2026

An RBI double for A.J. Ewing makes it 2-0 Mets in the first! pic.twitter.com/092420Dp7F

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2026

A strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play at third base!

Francisco Alvarez gets Bryce Harper trying to steal third as Brandon Marsh strikes out! pic.twitter.com/X1rvgjgjcK

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2026

IT'S GONE!

A 2-homer game for Juan Soto! pic.twitter.com/VC3022KU88

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2026

A pinch-hit single for Eric Wagaman off of Jose Alvarado to give the Mets the lead! pic.twitter.com/oP3Sdad7Je

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 19, 2026

2-RUN TRIPLE MARCUS SEMIEN!

The Mets lead 6-3! pic.twitter.com/eoGwlkQqiW

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 19, 2026

What's next

The Mets have an off day on Friday before resuming their three-game set with the Phillies on Saturday evening. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m.

Freddy Peralta (5-5, 3.90 ERA) will take the mound against Cristopher Sanchez (8-3, 1.82 ERA). 

The Phillies will be without one of their major offseason acquisitions for the rest of the year.

Outfielder Adolis Garcia will undergo right latissimus dorsi repair surgery on June 24, which comes with a six-to-eight-month recovery, the team announced Thursday.

Garcia, 33, initially suffered the injury on a throw from right field in a game versus the Blue Jays in Toronto on June 10.

After third baseman Kazuma Okamoto lifted a fly ball toward Garcia, the right fielder unleashed a strong throw in an attempt to nab George Springer at home plate, hurting his shoulder in the process.

He was immediately removed from the game and later placed on the 60-day injured list with a torn right lat, but the team did not immediately rule him out for the season.

“We have not finalized his plans moving forward,” Phillies interim skipper Don Mattingly told reporters last week. “It’s an important one for him and his career, so everybody wants to get it right.”

The procedure marks the end of a disappointing 2026 for Garcia, who was brought on a one-year, $10 million deal in an attempt to recapture his prior All-Star form after the team moved on from the mercurial Nick Castellanos.

While Garcia provided solid defense, his offense left much to be desired as he posted a .195/.270/.329 slash line with seven home runs in 21 RBIs across 67 games.

Three of those homers had come in the week before the injury, but Garcia nonetheless registered a -0.8 WAR on the season.

Garcia spent time in Japan and with the Cardinals during his career before enjoying a breakout season with the Rangers in 2021.

The Cuban slugger hit 31 homers and made his first All-Star team that season, solidifying himself in the middle of Texas’ lineup.

He enjoyed an even better 2023 with the Rangers, making his second All-Star team, winning a Gold Glove and playing a pivotal role in the organization’s first World Series championship.

The Rangers non-tendered Garcia after a pair of subpar offensive campaigns from 2024-25.

After Garcia’s injury, the Phillies acquired speedster Derek Hill from the White Sox to add outfield depth.

ATLANTA — Here, a new number for all the statheads out there: innings pitched per hour of sleep.

In Carson Whisenhunt’s case, the ratio on Wednesday was something like 5:2. Even counting the short nap after his crack-of-dawn flight to make it on time for his spot start, Whisenhunt barely cracked four hours of shuteye.

He didn’t look bleary-eyed in his first major-league start of the season, keeping the Braves off the scoreboard for five innings and finishing with two earned runs over five-plus.

His reward: one full night’s sleep in the posh team hotel before boarding another flight back to rough it in Triple-A. Whisenhunt, the 27th man for the second game of the Giants’ doubleheader against the Braves, was sent back out after the 7-5 win. 

But he showed enough to convince manager Tony Vitello he’ll be back.

“He’s got the ability to be at this level,” Vitello said. “It wasn’t just about what he did today. You see the incline of improvement. He’ll have more days like this.”

For now, though, the Giants will continue to roll with Adrian Houser, Landen Roupp and Trevor McDonald behind Logan Webb and Robbie Ray. Tyler Mahle is also on a rehab assignment, though he was shaky in his first outing Tuesday, walking five in three innings.

There should be more opportunities following the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Ray, on the last year of his contract, is one of the likeliest candidates to be dealt if the Giants maintain their posture as sellers. Mahle, with a few strong starts under his belt, could also give a contender a low-cost option to boost their pitching depth.

The Giants aren’t exactly swimming in major-league arms themselves, but without much hope of making the playoffs, trading from the relative position of weakness would at least give them a chance to see if they can count on any of their internal options heading into next season.

Whisenhunt, as Vitello declared two weeks ago, would be the “next man up.”

“I just meant he’s doing well enough to get the call-up if circumstances come up,” Vitello said before Wednesday’s game. “Circumstances have come up, so here we are.”

Whisenhunt was with Triple-A Sacramento in Oklahoma City when he got word that he was getting the call late in their game Tuesday night. He packed his things and got to bed around 1 or 2 a.m. for a 7 a.m. flight to Atlanta, where he started on short rest about 12 hours later.

His evaluation: “Not the best it could have been, but for what I had to work with, I felt pretty solid.” 

It went better than just about any of the five starts Whisenhunt made in his big-league debut last summer, when he struggled with his command and batters punished him for lacking a second offspeed pitch. For the most part, it’s why he has been stuck at Triple-A for three years after rising quickly through the Giants’ system with a major league-ready changeup.

This time around, Whisenhunt still struggled to put away hitters, finishing with only two strikeouts, but settled in to retire 11 of 12 until allowing the first three batters of the sixth to reach. He issued two walks but left them both stranded on first base.

“He put on a clinic for how to handle traffic,” Vitello said. “Because there weren’t very many moments in the game where it was easy, or he just breezed. …

“To come in on a flight and all that stuff, I think it’s pretty commendable how well he pitched on the road against a great team, and then you add in all the circumstances, too.”

Vitello noticed a difference from the pitcher he watched for the first time in spring training.

“I thought [his] composure was at a high level,” Vitello said. “Whereas in spring training … composure got away and he kind of just went harder and madder and faster. There was a lot of poise out there today.”

At Triple-A, he has been working on a slider that he admitted was “still a work in progress,” particularly against right-handed hitters. Still, he said having the breaking ball to go with a fastball that sits 92-94 mph and his signature changeup is “definitely a lot of help.”

He gave a different explanation for what allowed him to earn the Pacific Coast League’s Pitcher of the Month award for May and post a 2.76 ERA in 10 starts since April 28.

“Just trusting my stuff in the zone,” he said. “Not trying to punch everybody out. If it happens, it happens. But just trying to get early contact and go further into the game.”

Now, on his way back to Triple-A, he knows that mindset can translate to The Show.

“It definitely makes it mentally better,” he said.

It was Bryan Woo’s world and we were all living in it Thursday afternoon. He spun an absolute gem as the M’s take both the rubber game and the season series from the Orioles, 3-0.

Woo faltered against the same team in Baltimore last Thursday, allowing seven runs over five innings. This time, though, he frustrated Orioles hitters all afternoon — he went seven-plus innings, striking out nine and allowing only three hits and a walk.

“Conditions were different, didn’t have a great feel for the ball in Baltimore, just fell into a lot of hitters counts,” Woo said when asked about adjustments between last week and now. “So I wanted to make sure that I came out and got ahead, was in the spots that I wanted to be in, and do what I wanted to do from there.”

Woo got ahead in the count early and often Thursday. He threw first pitch strikes to 16 of the 25 hitters he faced. He was also incredibly efficient despite nearly touching double digits in strikeouts — through seven innings, he was at only 80 pitches.

Though some other factors were likely at play, the last week further encapsulates a Tale of Two Seasons for Woo that has shown a major divergence between his home and road splits. Entering today, Woo was posting a 2.07 FIP at home, a much more productive figure than his 4.28 on the road. That discrepancy only figures to get larger after you factor in today’s outing.

The Mariners mounted a two-out rally to take the lead in the bottom of the first. Josh Naylor drove a single into right-center and was able to advance to second on an ill-fated decision by Leody Taveras to field the ball with his bare hand. After Dominic Canzone drew a walk, Cole Young scored Naylor with an opposite-field double down the left field line.

That wasn’t all for the M’s in the first. With both Canzone and Young in scoring position, Colt Emerson snuck a base hit through the right side to score two more runs and give Woo a comfortable lead in the early going.

Woo said he’s been impressed by both Emerson and Young’s consistency. “But they’re still kids. They’re still goofballs, they’re still idiots in the clubhouse.”

In the bottom of the second, the Mariners got the first two runners aboard, but couldn’t push across any runs. After getting tagged a bit in the early going, Orioles righty Shane Baz settled in. Neither team got much of anything going after the Mariners jumped out in front. Over the course of the afternoon, Baz also racked up nine strikeouts of his own over seven innings.

It wasn’t until the top of the eighth that a true threat materialized for the Orioles. Woo allowed a Taveras single to center field, then walked Colton Cowser to put two runners on with nobody out. With Woo at 89 pitches, manager Dan Wilson didn’t take any chances and brought in Eduard Bazardo to put out the fire.

Bazardo got the job done. After inducing a ground-ball fielder’s choice and a flyout that nearly gave me a heart attack, he froze Taylor Ward with a 97-mph sinker on the corner to end the threat.

The Mariners weren’t able to add any insurance in the bottom of the eighth, so Andrés Muñoz was called upon for a save opportunity in the ninth. Though he’d allow a couple of baserunners, including a walk to Gunnar Henderson to lead off the inning, Muñoz was able to shut the door. Taveras, representing the tying run with two outs, struck out on a quality slider to end it.

The win marks the Mariners’ first series win over the Orioles since 2022, and today was also Baltimore’s first time being shut out all season — the final team in the majors to be shut out for the first time.

At the end of the day, much like their climb through the farm system, it was Colt following in Cole’s footsteps in the first inning that’d ultimately be the difference in the game. Their combined three RBI were the only runs on the afternoon for either team.

“He’s another guy I look up to,” Emerson said on Young, his middle-infield counterpart. “He’s been here a year before me. He was my comp out of high school. He’s always been somebody that’s been ahead of me, that I look up to, and as even-keeled as he is, I know that he’s had a lot of success. So I know to have success, you gotta do the same thing.”

The Mariners will begin a three-game set against the Red Sox tomorrow at T-Mobile Park.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was forced out of the Yankees’ 5-1 loss to the White Sox on Thursday night at the Stadium in one of the most painful ways imaginable.

During an at-bat in the bottom of the fourth, Chisholm fouled a ball straight off the ground near the plate, and the ball took an unfortunate bounce and hit Chisholm near the groin area.

The second baseman crumbled to the ground and remained there for several moments before Aaron Boone and the training staff came out to check on Chisholm, who eventually got to his feet but was clearly still in discomfort.

Unable to continue, Chisholm was removed from the game, and Anthony Volpe entered to finish the at-bat.

Volpe ended up drawing a walk against Chicago right-hander Sean Burke but was thrown out trying to steal second to end the inning.

Volpe remained in the game at shortstop, while José Caballero, who started the game at short, moved to second.

Boone said after the game the Yankees were still waiting to find out the severity of the injury, but the manager was “hoping” Chisholm was OK.

Austin Wells’ comeback from the cervical headaches that landed him on the IL on June 6 took a step forward Thursday, as the catcher hit a pair of homers during a minor league rehab game with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Prior to the Yankees closing out their series against the White Sox in The Bronx, Boone said the organization hadn’t made a decision as to whether Wells would come back for Friday’s game against the Reds, but they were “leaning” towards keeping him with SWB, especially since they were rained out Wednesday, robbing Wells of a day on the field, and they have a doubleheader Friday.

Boone said Wells, now over the headaches that sent him to the IL and kept J.C. Escarra in The Bronx, has worked with Jarret DeHart, the organization’s director of hitting, while with SWB.

“He’s had some good days of work,’’ Boone said of Wells, who went hitless in his first rehab game on Tuesday. “He’s getting some results. We want to keep building on that.”

Whether that translates to the majors is a different story, and as The Post’s Joel Sherman has reported, they could be in the market for a right-handed-hitting backstop to go along with Wells, with Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers a potential target.

Also at SWB, top prospect George Lombard Jr. was placed on the seven-day IL with what the Yankees termed “sprained fingers” in his left hand after he was slid into while covering second base on a stolen-base attempt Tuesday.

Despite the IL stint, Boone said there were “good initial signs on testing” and nothing else showed up, so the Yankees hope it’s a short absence for the shortstop.

The 21-year-old has played almost exclusively at short since Anthony Volpe has been back in the majors and is considered major league ready at the position.

José Caballero got the start at short Thursday.

On the bullpen front, Carlos Lagrange made his fourth relief appearance with SWB, and while he nearly touched 100 mph, the right-hander had mixed results over his 1 ²/₃-inning outing.

He allowed four runs — none earned — but gave up two hits and walked a pair without recording a strikeout.

The Yankees are in the process of transitioning him from the rotation, so the 23-year-old is pitching more frequently, including on three days’ rest Thursday. He is expected to join the Yankees bullpen at some point next month.

Angels superstar center fielder Mike Trout is headed to the team’s injured list due to a hamstring injury, as reported by The Athletic’s Sam Blum and Ken Rosenthal on Thursday afternoon.

In a corresponding move, Blum reported that the Angels are calling up former top prospect Christian Moore to take his place on the roster.

Trout, 34, was in the midst of a comeback season, as he was finally playing healthy baseball again.

This year, he’s certainly started to look like his old self and has been one of the best comeback stories in baseball, having 17 home runs and an .866 OPS.

At the beginning of June, Trout was in a cold stretch but once again started to find life in his bat. Over his last seven games, Trout had three home runs, five RBIs and two stolen bases.

Trout was on his way to earning his 12th nod as an All-Star and was set to appear in his first All-Star Game since 2019. He ranks second among American League outfielders in votes (926,601) behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge.

From 2021-2024, Trout spent significant time on the IL, dealing with a calf injury, back injury, broken hamate bone and a torn meniscus on his left knee. The knee injury in 2024 affected his play in 2025.

Last season, the Angels decided to move Trout from center field to right field to try to keep him healthy.

He appeared in 130 games but didn’t look like the three-time AL MVP that he’s been in the past, hitting .232 and striking out 178 times, his second-highest total in a season.

During spring training this year, the Angels and Trout agreed to move him back to center because he finds it more comfortable and less taxing on his body.

With Trout going on the IL, Moore is slated to fill his place.

Moore was drafted as a second baseman with the eighth pick of the 2024 MLB Draft by the Angels and has struggled against MLB pitching.

In the minors this season, Moore has bounced around various positions, spending time at second base, third base and left field.

On May 3, Moore was placed on the IL while playing for Triple-A Salt Lake. Before the injury, he was struggling in the minors, hitting .213 with 24 strikeouts.

Since he’s returned to the Bees, he’s been on a tear, hitting six home runs, batting .474 and recording a 1.423 OPS in June.

New series set to start! The Athletics’ super long homestand finally enters its final series as the A’s play host to the Los Angeles Angels for the first time this season.

The

Taking the mound for the home team will be rookie Gage Jump. The left-hander has looked as good as advertised since joining the big league rotation. He’s already

Here’s how the A’s will line up behind their rookie starting pitcher tonight:

The hottest hitter on the team will bat leadoff tonight as Zack Gelof man the hot corner and hitting first tonight. Kurtz and Langeliers are right behind him in the order followed by Soderstrom and Wilson, the same middle of the order the A’s have been using recently.

Jonah Heim is back in the lineup tonight but he’ll swap places with Langeliers, taking over the DH role this evening. Outfielder Carlos Cortes, who is 11th in AL All-Star voting among outfielders draws the start in right field against a right-handed starter. Henry Bolte and Jeff McNeil round things out, playing center field and second base respectively.

Los Angeles will counter Jump with righty Ryan Johnson, who will be making his second career start tonight. It’s not likely to be an extended outing as he’s only made six starts split at three levels this season. His big league numbers aren’t all that inspiring for the Angels so the A’s need to take advantage of Johnson tonight.

And the Los Angeles lineup tonight:

No Mike Trout for the Angels tonight or for the rest of the series. He landed on the IL this afternoon thanks to a hamstring strain. They’ll rely on Jose Siri in center instead. Bad news for the Angels but great news for the A’s as Trout had been in the midst of a resurgent season.

Let’s go A’s!

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Is Shohei Ohtani pushing himself a little bit too hard now?

That’s what California Post baseball writers Dylan Hernandez and Jack Harris are discussing on the latest episode of the Dodgers Post podcast, coming off Ohtani’s six-inning, four-run start against the Rays on Wednesday.

After Ohtani pitched through a knee injury and a blister in the outing, Jack wonders whether the two-way star could use a more extended break between outings now, while Dylan counters by noting the value of his innings and his ability to manage a grueling workload.

Later, the two analyze Mookie Betts’ season, what has made him the unluckiest hitter in baseball and why they remain bullish on him turning things around.

Finally, they look ahead to the Dodgers’ upcoming series against the Orioles, which will include a pivotal start from Roki Sasaki.

As always, they wrap with predictions and trivia. Dylan also remembers the time he learned of Manny Ramirez’s PED suspension.

All that and more, on the latest episode of Dodgers Post.

Major League Baseball could be about to change the entire landscape of college baseball. A new proposal from the MLB on Thursday would remove high school players from the draft entirely, while allowing college players to declare after their sophomore seasons.

The new rules, if passed, would obviously change the entire look of college baseball. 96 high school prospects were selected and signed in the 2025 MLB Draft, for reference. That number has been on the decline in recent years, due to a number of different factors. This proposal would force top-level talent to participate at the college level, which would elevate the game to even new heights.

This season, 140 high schoolers have been invited to participate in the MLB Combine. 334 players total will compete in the event. Imagine the difference in the game if all 140 of those elite level athletes hit the college baseball scene.

“Over the last several years, college baseball has undergone a remarkable transformation,” MLB said in a statement. “Expanded scholarships, NIL opportunities, revenue sharing and significant investments in facilities and player development have made college baseball an increasingly important pathway that is producing major league-ready talent at an accelerated rate.”

For a program like Tennessee, this is a potentially major development. The Volunteers hold the nation’s No. 3 ranked recruiting class in the 2026 cycle, according to Perfect Game. Tennessee has been a mainstay in the top five since Tony Vitello revitalized the program, although several of those top commitments never made it to campus.

MLB’s current CBA expires on December 1st. This proposal is part of the negotiation to come to a new agreement. The outcome of that deal could end up bringing in an entirely new era to college baseball. This will definitely be something worth monitoring over the next few months.