Category: MLB

Most MLB teams, including the Cubs, have gone to all-digital ticketing. You can get a paper Cubs ticket… sometimes… depending on the circumstances.

This began after the pandemic shut ballparks to fans in 2020. The last year the Cubs issued paper season tickets to fans was 2019, and Wrigley Field — plus most other MLB parks — went cashless in 2021 when parks re-opened to fans.

This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Cashless was better for teams, who didn’t have to handle cash (and anecdotally, I heard reports that some rogue employees were stealing cash), and for fans, as long as you have your phone, you can’t forget your ticket.

There have been some glitches. Last September, as I reported here, the MLB Ballpark app got hacked and quite a number of fans, including Cubs fans, lost tickets as a result. Most, though not all, of those tickets were recovered, but as I suggested in that September 2025 article, MLB revamped the Ballpark app and began 2-factor authentication. That’s a must when you have apps with payment information and potentially thousands of dollars worth of tickets stored (as a season ticket holder would).

But here’s the thing. A game ticket isn’t just something that admits you to a stadium. It’s a tangible souvenir of your visit to the ballpark. I have literally thousands of game ticket stubs (and beginning in 2005, when the Cubs put barcodes on the tickets, full tickets) which create memories. Many Cubs season tickets over the years had really nice artistic designs, such as these from the Wrigley Field centennial year in 2014. Those are art, and well worth keeping.

Instead, your digital ticket disappears from the app after the game, so all you have is a record within the Ballpark app that you attended the game. True, you can put photos in the app for each game, but to me at least, a digital record isn’t quite the same as having an actual piece of paper, issued by the team, that you can keep in a scrapbook (people still do those, right?) or elsewhere. I actually had someone suggest that I “print a screenshot” of my digital ticket and… well, no, that’s not the same thing at all.

I bring all this up because of this article on this topic in The Athletic today. The article cites Montreal Expos fan Josée Tellier, who has kept binders of tickets from Expos games she attended, many from decades ago. One of them is from her first game, signed by Andre Dawson:

“Today, when people go to shows or games or whatever, they use their phones to take pictures and to get a memory of that moment, but at the time, who is going to the stadium with that camera? It wasn’t something we were doing at the time,” Tellier said. “So the ticket was the proof that you were there, that you felt the moment, that you saw that magic play.”

That 1986 ticket is her most cherished — not because it was from a championship or record-breaking game, but because it was her first. In 2022, she met Dawson, who signed the card.

“At the time, we didn’t have any money, and this ticket was proof that we were there,” Tellier said. “This little booklet with the ticket inside and my mom’s picture is my most prized possession.”

That’s exactly what I am talking about. These aren’t just pieces of paper that get you into a game, they create memories that can last a lifetime.

The Cubs will sell you a commemorative paper “ticket” for any game you want for $9, which is not unreasonable. I bought one for the combined no-hitter thrown by Shōta Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge in 2024. Here’s what that looks like:

It’s a tangible souvenir, but not quite the same thing as if I had an actual paper ticket that I had used to get into the game.

I was also fortunate enough to get a printed ticket at the Tokyo Dome last year. This one is for the exhibition game the Cubs played against the Yomiuri Giants. (There are two times listed — one is for the gates opening, the other for the start of the game.) This is a great souvenir of my trip to Japan last year.

Teams are getting really stingy about printing souvenir tickets for games now. I did manage to get one in Milwaukee for Game 5 of the Division Series last year — the Brewers will do it for $10.

But the Dodgers wouldn’t even do it for a 50-year season ticket holder:

Errol Segal, who’s been a Dodger fan for 50 years, said he received a notice before the season began that he can no longer get printed tickets.

Segal, 81, owns a recycling center in South LA and said he’ll likely be spending more time there now that the Dodgers have gone fully digital.

“I enjoy working,” Segal said. “I don’t feel my age.”

He said he went to Dodger Stadium Thursday and was able to buy paper tickets, but the team won’t let him get them for the entire season.

“If I had the tickets one year, five years, 10 years, that’s another story,” Segal said. “50 years I’ve had these tickets. They threw me under the bus.”

Segal doesn’t use a smartphone, and I would think you wouldn’t have to buy a smartphone just to go to a sporting event. Apparently the Dodgers disagree.

I get why teams want to do this. Saves printing costs. Makes it easy to have tickets in one place. Oh, and by putting them in the Ballpark app, where you have to log in, teams now know exactly who is using every ticket to every game — data that is useful to them when (for example) setting dynamic pricing.

Incidentally, there is one way for you to create memories for yourself within the Ballpark app, if you don’t mind those memories being digital. The app has a database of games going back to 1901. To find this, click on “Profile” at the bottom of the app, it should show “My History,” all the games you have checked into via the app. Click on the arrow at the right, it will take you to a page showing all your games. Hit the + and you’ll see a screen where you can “Add Past Games.” It took me a while, but I got all my past games in there. Fun and interesting… but still not quite the same as having a paper ticket.

As for Josée Tellier?

In Montreal, with no Expos tickets, print or digital, Tellier goes to Montreal Canadiens games, QR code in hand.

“I really wish we would go back to paper tickets,” she said. Tellier recalled how once, she asked a stadium for the printed version.

They gave her an 8 x 11 printed sheet of paper of her digital ticket.

Like I said… that’s not quite the same. How do you feel about all-electronic ticketing?

Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet is the true definition of an ace: dependable, dominant, and downright terrifying to step into the box against.

So… what the hell is going on?

Crochet has been unusually shaky to kickstart the season, allowing nearly as many runs (18) as strikeouts recorded (22) — with those aggressively poor numbers being fueled by an all-time poor outing against the Minnesota Twins on Monday.

Crochet got absolutely rocked by one of the least intimidating yet surprisingly productive lineups in baseball, allowing 11 runs in only 1 2/3 innings pitched at Target Field. The Red Sox — who have been around for as long as crayons, airplanes, cellophane, and Australia — have never had someone give up as many runs in so few innings.

It’s not like he’s going to ever be this bad again, but check out his pitching summaries on the season:

March 26 @ CIN
6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 R, 8 K
April 1 @ HOU
5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 5 R, 7 K
April 7 vs. MIL
6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 R, 7 K
April 13 @ MIN
1.2 IP, 9 H, 10 ER, 11 R, 0 K

Good. Eh. Good. Nuked.

So… back to our original question. What the hell is going on?

I’ve decided to look at this start through two lenses, which will hopefully tell us whether or not we should be freaking out.

“It’s just a bad start, man. Paul Skenes biffed one a couple of weeks ago!”

Paul Skenes did, indeed, biff one a couple of weeks back, allowing five earned runs in 2/3 inning back on Opening Day against the New York Mets. Randy Johnson gave up 11 in 2 1/3 back in 1994. Greg Maddux allowed eight in the same amount of time in 1988. Roger Clemens allowed eight in 1 1/3 in 1995.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora came out after the game and shut down the idea that his ace was injured:

“He’s healthy, and that’s the most important thing,” he said, as seen on NESN.

Crochet backed that statement up:

“I don’t think there’s anything to fret over,” he said.

It’s just something that happens, even to the best of us.

“I don’t care what you say! I just bought a panic button and intend on using it in four days!”

If you take a closer look at the stuff, you would know that everything was down… across the board.

Crochet threw one of the slowest four-seam fastballs of his career (92.7 MPH) and gave up some of the hardest exit velocities of his career (108.9 MPH, 106.5 MPH, 106.0 MPH) — with those three hits coming in the form of two home runs and a terrifying single. Crochet couldn’t even pinpoint exactly why this particular start went so poorly, as he gave away more free passes (four) than whiffs induced (three).

“It’s tough to say,” Crochet said. “I mean, command as a whole has been spotty. I’d gotten away with it a little this early in the year, but tonight they made me pay. It was weak contact, hard contact, walks, hit by pitch, a little bit of everything.”

If he can’t see what went wrong, how is he going to fix it?

We have never seen him pitch this poorly, and with two of his last four starts being among the four worst he has ever had…

Conclusion:

It’s probably fine.

The Red Sox have seen something like this before, with one very important statistic coming from our pal Jake Roy: Crochet threw 102 pitches in his second start of 2025, leading to his average velocity dipping 1.5 mph in his third start. It’s the same thing here, as the velocity drop came after his 107 pitch performance against the Milwaukee Brewers.

If he can’t get the velocity back to normal on regular rest, there’s no reason to think the results won’t follow.

If he can’t, we’ll revisit this conversation.

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Daulton Varsho is finding a rhythm at the plate, and with a hard-throwing right-hander taking the mound for the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, this is a great matchup for the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder to stay hot. 

Read on to see why Varsho is the featured player in my Blue Jays vs. Brewers predictions and MLB picks for Tuesday, April 14.

Blue Jays vs Brewers predictions

Blue Jays vs Brewers best bet: Daulton Varsho Over 0.5 hits (-125)

Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski sits around 98 mph on his four-seamer, which he uses at a 62% rate.

Despite the early-season struggles, the Toronto Blue Jays have fared well against the fastball and should match up well against the youngster.

Daulton Varsho leads the Blue Jays in hits against the four-seamer with a .365 average and a 60% hard-hit rate.

Varsho has recorded a knock in four straight games while batting .412 over that span.

COVERS INTEL: Jacob Misiorowski gives up a lot of big contact, ranking in the 36th percentile for hard-hit rate against. 

Blue Jays vs Brewers same-game parlay (SGP)

Kevin Gausman has had a lot of success against this lineup throughout his career, with the Brewers hitting just .177 with a .505 OPS against him. The last time the right-hander saw Milwaukee, he went seven complete innings, allowing just four hits. 

William Contreras is 0-for-6 against Gausman with five strikeouts. The Brewers catcher also has a 40% K-rate against the splitter over the last two seasons.

Blue Jays vs Brewers SGP

• Daulton Varsho Over 0.5 hits
• Kevin Gausman Under 4.5 hits
• William Contreras Over 0.5 strikeouts

Blue Jays vs Brewers home run pick: Daulton Varsho (+425)

Varsho has handled fastballs extremely well to begin the season, and Misiorowski has shown a tendency to give up hard contact when he utilizes the heater. 

That could set up the Jays outfielder for his third home run in four games.

Blue Jays vs Brewers odds

• Moneyline: Toronto +110 | Milwaukee -130
• Run line: Toronto +1.5 (-210) | Milwaukee -1.5 (+170)
• Over/Under: Over 7 (-110) | Under 7 (-110)

Blue Jays vs Brewers trend

Toronto has hit the F5 team total Under in 12 of its last 15 games (+8.75 Units / 46% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Blue Jays vs. Brewers.

How to watch Blue Jays vs Brewers and game info

Blue Jays vs Brewers latest injuries

Blue Jays vs Brewers weather

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The hits just keep coming for the Brewers, and not in a good way. Christian Yelich, who left Sunday’s game early with a hamstring issue, has landed on the injured list, which was not unexpected after manager Pat Murphy’s comments after the game. He’s been diagnosed with an adductor strain. Outfielder Greg Jones, who has been playing for Triple-A Nashville, has been added to the active roster. To make room on the 40-man roster for Jones, reliever Rob Zastryzny, who had a setback in his recovery last week, has been moved to the 60-day injured list.

It’s a blow for Yelich, a productive-when-healthy hitter whose ability to stay on the field is one of the major uncertainties around the modern iterations of the Brewers. The good news is that it’s not his back, which has been the issue that has been giving Yelich so much trouble over the past few seasons. Murphy has been quoted as saying he expects him to be out “for a while.” A little bit of research on past adductor strains suggests that in mild cases, a player can miss as little as two weeks, but in more serious cases, it’s a 4–6-week injury. Given Yelich’s age and relative frailty, the early juncture of the season, and Murphy’s comments, I would expect Yelich to be out closer to the long end of that estimate.

Jones, 28, has appeared briefly in the big leagues with the Rockies and White Sox in the past two years. He was a 2019 first-round pick of the Orioles and even worked his way into the back end of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects prior to the 2022 season, but he has struggled offensively since then and hasn’t been able to catch on in a big-league role. In 13 games with Triple-A Nashville this year, Jones is hitting .317/.462/.390. Jones has the outline of a player who the Brewers like — he is athletic, speedy (he stole 46 bases in just 89 games for Colorado’s Triple-A team in 2024), and a reliable defensive outfielder — but he’s struck out way too much in his minor league career, and I have my doubts that he’ll be able to hit major league pitching.

This probably isn’t the move that Brewers fans were clamoring for. Milwaukee is in a deep offensive funk and are now without three of their best hitters. A move with more upside would certainly have been more popular — Jett Williams, Luis Lara (who doesn’t profile as a plus hitter but has been very good to start the season), even Eddys Leonard, who is right-handed (unlike Yelich) but offers more upside offensively. This is especially unfortunate timing for Tyler Black, who would’ve been the most interesting and sensible move here. But Black, like Chourio and Vaughn, fractured a bone in his hand in late March.

It’s possible that Williams (who has not exactly been lighting it up with Nashville) is still in the Brewers’ short-term plans, but that the team wants to get past the service-time deadline in which they’d secure an extra year before promoting him. We don’t know exactly when that would be, but it would probably come sometime in the last week or so of April.

For now, the Brewers will have to make do with what they have, which increasingly seems like not much. Chourio remains the player nearest to a comeback, but is probably, at minimum, two weeks away. Vaughn is likely out until mid-May, and we’ll wait on an update for Yelich but I’d expect that mid-May would be an optimistic scenario for him.

Update: Yelich’s timeline is mid-to-late May, right in line with the 4-6 weeks outlined above. Jackson Chourio’s expected return has also been pushed back to early May.

Afforded the third overall pick in last year’s draft, the Seattle Mariners entered draft day with long odds of selecting Kade Anderson. The player many considered the best of the 2025 talent pool, Anderson was undoubtedly the best pitcher in college baseball last year and dominated opposing hitters all season long. In one of the more shocking draft day happenings of recent memory, both the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels passed on Anderson in favor of money saving options, sliding the left hander down to the number three spot for the Mariners to capitalize and secure a premium talent. A series of incredibly unlikely events needed to occur in order for Anderson to end up in the PNW, but fortunately for Mariners fans, that improbability became reality.

Anderson possesses a level of polish most 21 year olds will never have on the mound, defining his success as a pitcher through deception, pitchability, and tunneling. His fastball, typically sitting around 93-94 mph, gets solid carry through the zone and is a perfectly fine offering, though its primary utility is to set up his excellent secondary offerings. His changeup kills velocity well and gets good fade to his arm side, serving as a weapon he can deploy against righties to get swing and miss. His slider, a sweeping breaker that’s in the mid to upper 80’s, is hellish on lefties and is probably his best overall pitch considering its raw metrics. Finally, Anderson has a curveball at his disposal, a pitch he can both bury for whiffs or sneak in early to steal a strike. The velocity isn’t going to jump off the page, but it’s enticing stuff nonetheless.

Raw “stuff plus” models anyone can seemingly screenshot and share are probably not going to like Anderson very much, but these numbers lack full context of what makes a pitcher good, and punishing a player that’s done nothing but dominate because of that would be foolish. How an arsenal works together, how deceptively it’s deployed, and where these offerings are located are just a few of the many factors that raw “stuff” models don’t account for, and they’re a big part of why Anderson is so dominant on the mound. Models can be helpful tools, but it doesn’t make them gospel.

Plus command with above average stuff from the left side is always going to play, and he’s proven that thus far in his brief introduction to professional baseball. Over his first two games for Double-A Arkansas, Anderson has pitched to a line of 9 IP/ 5 H/ 0 ER/ 17 K/ 3 BB, a truly ridiculous start to a career at a level where he’s ~3.5 years younger than the average player. Having already been the best pitcher in the SEC for a full season and now mowing through the Texas League, perhaps the likelihood we see a 2026 major league debut for Mr. Anderson is far more likely than it was six months ago. The organization doesn’t have to (nor should they) rush him to the majors, but if he forces their hand, Anderson would provide the team yet another home grown arm that could contribute to this team’s success for years to come.

On April 14, 1910, William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, made history, as he became the first US President to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. While attending Opening Day alongside his wife, Nellie, and Vice President James S. Sherman, the President threw the ball from the stands to Washington Senators starter Walter Johnson, officially opening the 1910 season. While this was an important moment in the history of baseball, affirming the importance of baseball to American culture and unofficially christening the game as America’s pastime, the attention that this act draws covers up the fact that Opening Day in 1910 was a weird and wacky day of baseball.

And so, 116 years later, let us dive deep into the New York Times and Baseball Reference archives and showcase what has been long been hidden by the Presidential first pitch.

Washington Senators 3, Philadelphia Athletics 0

Entering his age-22 season, Washington Senators ace Walter Johnson took the mound for his first of 14 Opening Day starts, and to say that his performance was worth the price of admission all by itself would be an understatement. The future Hall of Famer tossed nine scoreless innings, striking out nine, walking three, and allowing just one hit. According to most discussions of the game, albeit unreported in the Times recap from the next day, that one hit occurred when a fan fell onto the field in the seventh, causing right fielder Doc Gessler to trip.

I’m going to be honest, as a historian, this is where the Baseball Reference archives can be a tad frustrating, as they don’t do a great job citing their sources on their “This Day in History” pages. From what I can gather, pretty much every single reference to this event cites this page directly, as they tend to use the same verbiage — “Doc Gessler tripping over a fan who had spilled out of overflow seating,” but since the site does not cite its sources here, I can’t go any further back. Unfortunately, the New York Times appeared more focused on President Taft’s reactions during the game than it did on this one now-infamous event.

Fortunately, this is a prime example of why it’s important to collaborate in your research. While the primary sources I have access to did not discuss this event — my school libraries have access only to NYC-based newspapers — Andrew sent me the Washington Post article from that day, which not only confirmed the historicity of the event, but got us a quote from a disappointed Gessler: “Walter, I’m awfully sorry I could not get that fly, for I wanted you to let them down without a hit, but I couldn’t make it because I fell.”

For his part, “The Big Train” took it in stride, satisfied with the win; though it would take another decade for him to get his no-no.

Chicago White Sox 3, St. Louis Browns 0

Walter Johnson was not the only starter to flirt with an Opening Day no-no. At South Side Park in Chicago—in its final half-season before the yard that would be named Comiskey Park opened its doors—Frank Smith of the White Sox spun a complete-game shutout of his own. He struck out five, walked two, and allowed a singular, solitary hit: a leadoff single in the third off the bat of Ray Demmitt.

How did the White Sox score those three runs, you might ask? Well, the first came in the bottom of the fifth, courtesy of a Fred Payne single thorugh the left side of the infield. The second, meanwhile, was the result of a bases loaded hit batter, a situation which presented itself after a walk, single, and an E1 on a sac bunt attempt loaded the bases with nobody out. And the last, in the ninth, when Patsy Dougherty laced a two-out double to right and Billy Purtell drove a single up the middle.

Cincinnati Reds 1, Chicago Cubs 0 (10 innings)

Fred Beebe of the Reds and Orval Overall of the Cubs traded zeroes for 10 innings at the Palace of the Fans in Cincy, as the two pitchers combined for eight hits, eight strikeouts, and three walks. Frank Schulte was the only Chicago batter worth anything, as he recorded all three of his team’s hits; the rest of the lineup combined for just two walks.

The game, mercifully, came to an end in the 10th, as Mike Mitchell singled to center, reached second on an E5, advanced to third on a fly ball to right field, and scored on a Tom Downey single to left.

New York Highlanders 4, Boston Red Sox 4 (14 innings)

Twenty-five thousand people descended upon Washington Heights in what the Times described as “the largest and noisiest crowd that ever set aside all earthly cares to attend a ball game at American League Park.” And boy, was that crowd in for a treat. The Red Sox got the scoring going early, as Tris Speaker doubled in Amby McConnell, who had reached on an E5, in the top of the first, then tacked on two more in the third courtesy of a Harry Lord triple and a Speaker fielder’s choice. But down 4-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Highlanders put together a rally that drove Eddie Cicotte from the game and tied things up at four apiece.

And there the score would stay, forever. Boston reliever Smoky Joe Wood and Highlander starter Hippo Vaughn—who wound up pitching all 14 innings for the not-yet-Yankees traded zeroes—with the Red Sox in fact managing to get just one run into scoring position in total after the fifth inning. Eventually, when “it was so dark that a ball sent into the air could hardly be seen, then Mr. Connolly, he’s the umpire, turned to the crowd and called the game on account of darkness.”

And so the game sits in the Baseball Reference archive, forever a tie. According to the BR Bullpen, this game saw the Red Sox wear “laced collars,” becoming the final team in baseball history to wear a collared uniform on a normal, not-throwback basis. It would also not be Vaughn’s last memorable extra-inning pitching performance, as his most famous game came in 1917 with the Cubs, when he and Cincinnati’s Fred Toney had dueling no-hitters through nine.

New York Giants 3, Boston Doves 2 (11)

The future Rivalry was not the only the matchup between New York and Boston that day. Up in Beantown, the Giants took on the Doves (the future Braves), in a game that went 11 innings. Giants starter Red Ames allowed just two baserunners — a hit-by-pitch in the first and a walk in the third, both of which put leadoff hitter Herbie Moran on first, and which was immediately followed up with Moran stealing second — until Bill Sweeney led off the bottom of the eight with a single. The Giants rapidly tied the game at two apiece, first by plating Sweeney when Fred Liese grounded into an E6-turned double play in the eighth, then stringing together a walk and two singles in the ninth. Dave Shean, however, stopped that rally in its tracks, by trying, and failing, to steal home.

The game then went into extras, with Herbie Moran working a walk to lead off the bottom of the 11th, then being advanced to second on a Peaches Graham bunt, to third on a Fred Beck groundout, and finally scoring on a Dave Shean single, as the he made up for his boneheaded attempt to steal home in his previous at bat.

Rather interestingly, the New York Times article on this game was written by Fred Tenney, identified as the “First Baseman of the Giants.” That was, technically speaking, true, as Tenney was with the team at the time, and had been the Giants’ first baseman the previous two seasons. However, he would never take the field with the team, wound up released in early May, and spent the majority of the season as the player-manager of the Lowell Tigers. According to SABR’s biograpy of Tenney, the first baseman was an avid writer, regularly penning articles for Baseball Magazine, the Sunday Post, and the Times.

There you have it! April 14, 1910: three extra-inning games, three shutouts, two one-hitters, a failed attempt at a walk-off steal of home, laced collars, and, assuming we believe the stories, a fan falling into the stands. Talk about a crazy day of baseball!

The latest news on the Houston Astros and from around MLB:

Carlos Correa is not making excuses for a 1-9 road trip:

Colton Gordon, recently recalled from Triple-A, will get the start tonight against Colorado:

Astros top prospect Kevin Alvarez has already moved into the Top 100:

Ten games, nine losses, five injuries (Pena, Imai, Brown, Javier, Meyers) – it’s been rough

Today is April 14th.

Latest on Jeremy Pena and Tatsuya Imai injuries:

Despite the losing streak, Cam Smith has shown tremendous growth thus far:

Angels-Yankees gave us something not seen in 70 years:

This is an ugly situation, and the worst part of it is that he has to sue his own parents:

The way baseball conversations with free agents gets started is often quite interesting:

It seemed like a great idea until it was revealed to be a big con job:

First time I’ve seen this happen:

A White Sox prospect is making his BIG debut:

I don’t know who bet on this to happen, but I bet they cashed in HARD:

Your current MLB HR Leader:

The San Francisco Giants have finally run into a team they’re hitting better than here through the season’s first couple of weeks. If you ignore the Yankees series, the Giants are actually around a league average offense (96 wRC+) in their last 13 games. Meanwhile, the Reds are the worst in the National League (76 wRC+). According to FanGraphs’ measure of WAR, they’ve been exactly replacement level (0.0) over their last 14 games. Does this mean the Giants have a great shot in this 3-game series at the Great American Ball Park?

Sure. Anything’s possible.

They’ve also been a medicore pitching team, with a 4.10 ERA and 5.09 xERA. That’s because they have been walking hitters like crazy, to the tune of 5.04 per 9 innings over their last 125 innings. That’s the worst in the NL and fourth-worst in MLB. And yet, they’re 9-7 overall, with 5 of those wins coming on the road in Texas and Miami. They have a -16 run differential compared to the Giants -21. The Giants staff has walked hitters at too-high a rate as well, with a 4.18 BB/9 over their last 114 innings. That’s 21st in MLB and 10th in the NL.

On the full season — so, if we go back and include the Yankees series — the Reds have only outscored the Giants by 3 runs (54 to 51). They’re hitting as a team just .205/.298/.325 compared to the Giants’ .243/.288/.357. Their offensive leaders have been Elly De La Cruz (152 wRC+) and rookie Sal Stewart (178 wRC+). The only other player who comes close to league average (100 wRC+) is platoon bat Nathaniel Lowe (92 wRC+ in 23 PA).It’s a rough lineup here in the early going. The Giants counter that with Casey Schmitt (186 wRC+), Willy Adames (127), Matt Chapman (118), and Luis Arraez (106).

Rather than silo him in the players to watch section, I’ll talk about the Reds’ dynamic Elly De La Cruz right here, because he’s just 24 years old and is once again playing like an MVP-caliber player. He has 5 stolen based in his first 16 games of the season, an 11.1% walk rate and 27.8 strikeout rate. It’s doubtful he’ll sustain those rates through the season, but they’d both be career bests (his career averages: 9.5 BB% and 29.7 K%). He was projected to be a 4-to-5-WAR player and has already been worth 1.0 fWAR through the first 16 games of the season. That’s a 10-WAR pace. Also probably not sustainable, but worth mentioning here because he’s white hot right now.

The Great American Ball Park has been less a house of horrors here in the 2020s than it was in the 2010s when the Giants went 12-21. They’re 11-6 here in the 2020s and, as you’ll recall, the Giants got off to such a scintillating start last season because of the opening series in Cincinnati. A year later and the team feels considerably less surprising and brimming with possibilities, but who knows? Maybe another series win here will kick off a nice run of success. This series is a battle of old (the Giants) versus young (the Reds), with the Giants’ older lineup (28.9 on average) battling the Reds’ younger pitching staff (28.4) while the Reds’ young hitters (27.8) take on the Giants’ more veteran (30.2) staff.

Series overview

Who: San Francisco Giants (6-10) at Cincinnati Reds (9-7)
Where: Great American Ball Park| Cincinnati, Ohio
When: Monday & Tuesday at 3:40pm PT, Wednesday at 9:40am PT
National broadcasts: None.

Projected starters
Tuesday: Robbie Ray (LHP 2-1, 2.08 ERA) vs. Brady Singer (RHP 0-1, 7.71 ERA)
Wednesday: Tyler Mahle (RHP 0-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Rhett Lowder (RHP 1-1, 3.31 ERA)
Thursday: Landen Roupp (RHP 2-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Chase Burns (RHP 1-1, 3.31 ERA)

Players to watch

Reds

Sal Stewart: The 22-year old first baseman ended last season as the #3 prospect in the Reds’ system, according to MLB Pipeline. Indeed, the top three prospects from their system at the end of 2025 will be featured in this series, with Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder both scheduled to pitch.

He was a high school bat drafted in 2022 and, per Pipeline’s writeup:

Stewart’s advanced approach has been apparent from day one of his pro career. He carried a miniscule 15.7 percent career strikeout rate into the 2025 season and he’s walked as often as he’s struck out (138 BB vs. 139 Ks). He makes a lot of hard contact and can send line drives to all fields consistently against all kinds of pitching. Just 21 for all of this season [2025], he’s still learning to tap into his considerable raw power, with confidence it will come without him losing any of his hitability.

He hit 5 home runs in an 18-game cup of coffee last season (58) and slashed .255/.293/.545. He’s hitting .309/.435/.600 in the first 16 games and 69 plate appearances of this season. That includes 4 home runs, 4 doubles, and 13 walks against 10 strikeouts. No wonder Eno Sarris giddily selected his future over Bryce Eldridge’s when asked about it during the offseason.

Rhett Lowder: A sinker-slider-changeup guy whose fastball velocity (he does have a four-seamer, too) that sits in the 92-94 range. I’m thinking the right-handed Cade Povich, if you want a recent comparison to a Giants’ opponent. I’m interested to see how his 6.1 K/9 (though 3.74 FIP) plays against this Giants lineup. He missed all of 2025 with some elbow issues, but in 2024, he had a 1.17 ERA (3.10 FIP) in 6 starts (30.2 IP).

Eugenio Suarez: The veteran has yet to get it going in the early season with a .642 OPS through his first 16 games. He was a Red from 2015-2021 and since 2021 he’s his 163 home runs for 3 teams in 774 games. He has a career line of .244/.331/.516 with 15 home runs in 59 games and 245 PA against the Giants.

Giants

Jung Hoo Lee: Lee, like a lot of the Giants, got off to a fast start in Cincinnati last season, with a 3-for-10, a double, a stolen base, and a pair of walks in that season-opening series. He’s had a dismal start to 2026 (.185/.246/.315) and could really use a good series. Three right-handed starters in a park that favors hitters is a nice pairing of ingredients for a hitter.

Tyler Mahle: He was drafted by the Reds in the 7th round of the 2013 draft and spent his first 5 1/2 seasons with them, posting a 4.34 ERA in 117 starts. This will be the first time he’s ever faced his former team?! That seems impossible, so maybe I’m reading his Baseball Reference page wrong. Anyway, he has a career 5.02 ERA in 285.1 IP at the Great American Ball Park.

Patrick Bailey: Speaking of performance at GABP, the Giants catcher is just 1-for-27 in his career. That’s just 9 games, but it’s another strike against a backstop who certainly racks up strikes whenever he steps to the plate. There’s probably not a starting catcher controversy just yet, but we almost certainly figure to see Daniel Susac more often should Bailey’s bat maintain its sub zero temperature.

Tony Vitello watch

He’ll be going up against the legend Terry Francona, which might be interesting if the Giants are able to keep games close late. It’s not that the Great American Ball Park is Coors Field, but bullpen decisions will be important. Also, I wonder how much time Vitello has spent in Ohio. The Volunteers played Cincinnati, so maybe he’ll have a couple of old college stories to share during the media scrum.

Prediction time

The Giants might win a game in this series.

The San Francisco Giants have, somewhat unconventionally, only used 27 players this year, which means they’ve only made one move involving the Major League roster. That move was forced on them, after reliever José Buttó was placed on the Injured List, and replaced by Blade Tidwell.

It’s the time of the year where teams start to tinker with their rosters. Like the Giants, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers have also used just one additional player; but the Colorado Rockies have used three, and the Arizona Diamondbacks four.

The Giants will likely make another pitching move before long, as relievers Sam Hentges (a lefty) and Joel Peguero (a righty) have both started rehab assignments after beginning the year on the IL. But where they really could use a move is on the offensive front. The Giants are, somewhat surprisingly, ninth in the Majors in batting average, but that’s where the good times end. San Francisco is 28th in on-base percentage, 24th in slugging percentage, dead last in walk rate, dead last in home runs, dead last in stolen bases, 29th in runs, 27th in OPS, and 27th in wRC+.

But the issue, of course, is that the Giants don’t have any quick fixes. The obvious solution to boost the offense would be to promote their top prospect, Bryce Eldridge, but even if the Giants thought he were ready (which I doubt they do), it still doesn’t really help things. Their best hitter this year has been Casey Schmitt, who has primarily been used as the DH, which is where Eldridge would need to slot in. Schmitt’s not going to displace Matt Chapman or Rafael Devers for obvious reasons, and Luis Arráez has been one of the team’s only good hitters this year, so he’s not getting displaced, either. Which means there’s no place for Eldridge.

Jesús Rodríguez is the other bat who could help the team, but similar concerns arise. The contact-heavy utility player is not going to take starts from Patrick Bailey or Arráez, and replacing Daniel “greatest hitter of all time” Susac isn’t something that needs doing.

The outfield is where the Giants really need some help, but it probably needs to come from Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, and Harrison Bader remembering how to hit. The reinforcements there don’t seem likely to do much better: AAA Sacramento’s outfield is Grant McCray (who is in an awful slump), Will Brennan (a veteran with a large track record of being a below-average hitter in the Majors), Drew Gilbert (who isn’t lighting up the box scores and has been a very bad hitter in the Majors) and Victor Bericoto (who is still adjusting to the level).

So while most people are likely hoping for a move to come soon, it’s probably still a ways away for the Giants. But that won’t stop me from asking for your prediction of when it will occur, and who it will be.

Craig Kimbrel is still working out the kinks with his new team.

In his second appearance with the Mets, Kimbrel and catcher Francisco Alvarez got their wires crossed during the sixth inning with two outs on a 2-2 pitch to Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers leading 4-0.

Alvarez called for time while Kimbrel was mid-windup and the veteran reliever nearly threw the ball at the Mets catcher, who was about five steps across home plate toward the pitcher’s mound.

Francisco Alvarez calls time and Craig Kimbrel stops his pitching motion just before throwing the ball pic.twitter.com/v7GuyJcg1B

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 14, 2026

Ohtani and home plate umpire Nic Lentz immediately ducked to avoid what looked like a potentially dangerous situation if the ball was released.

Alvarez did not get out of the way and instead stood his ground and tried to quickly get into a stance to catch the pitch, despite the distance between him and the pitcher closing.

Kimbrel was able to hold himself back from throwing the pitch and looked away as Alvarez came to the mound — and Ohtani took a sigh of relief.

“Whoa,” the Mets broadcast of Ron Darling and Gary Cohen said in unison.

“Alvarez was running out to try and beat the pitch clock, and Kimbrel was ready to throw the pitch,” Cohen said. “That could have been a disaster.”

“That was almost going to be a little league distance pitch,” Darling added. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before. Alvarez gets time from the umpire, but Kimbrel doesn’t know that. Wow.”

Kimbrel wound up getting Ohtani to fly out to right field to end the inning, though four runs was more than enough for LA as right-hander Justin Wrobleski shut the Mets offense down.

It’s been a brutal stretch for the Mets, who have now lost six straight with Juan Soto sidelined with a calif strain.

They will try to break free when they send ace Nolan McLean to the mound opposite Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday night.

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Gunnar Henderson and Yordan Alvarez were two of the best hitters in the majors in 2024 before underperforming last season. 

Both have rediscovered that form to start the year, creating strong value on their props in favorable matchups tonight.

Here are my best free MLB player props for Tuesday, April 14. 

Best MLB player props today

Player	Pick	Odds
Gunnar Henderson	Over 1.5 total bases	+100
Drake Baldwin	Over 0.5 RBI	+165
Yordan Alvarez	Over 1.5 total bases	-105

Gunnar Henderson Over 1.5 total bases [+100]

After finishing fourth in the AL MVP race in 2024, Gunnar Henderson took a step back in 2025.

However, the Baltimore Orioles shortstop is swinging the bat well again, which is why my MLB picks are hammering his total bases prop. Henderson ranks in the 97th percentile in overall offensive talent according to THE BAT X, and he is slugging .691 over the last two weeks.

Henderson will have the platoon advantage at home against Arizona Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly, with a stiff 13 mph breeze blowing out to the outfield at hitter-friendly Camden Yards.

Kelly is making his season debut after dealing with a back ailment, and he logged a 4.16 xERA across 32 starts last year. The D-backs also have one of the worst bullpens in the majors waiting in the wings.

• Time: 6:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: DBacks.TV | MASN

Drake Baldwin Over 0.5 RBI [+165]

Drake Baldwin won the NL Rookie of the Year Award last season and has been even better this year. 

The Atlanta Braves catcher ranks in the 95th percentile in xSLG (.586) and the 88th percentile in barrel rate. Baldwin leads the Braves with 17 RBI, and he’s driven in a run in nine of his last 14 games.

Baldwin will have the platoon advantage against Miami Marlins right-hander Max Meyer tonight.

Meyer owns a 3.68 ERA through three starts, though his xERA sits significantly higher at 5.42. The right-hander posted a 4.73 ERA with a 1.42 WHIP in 12 starts last season, struggling particularly on the road.

• Time: 7:15 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: BravesVision | Marlins.TV

Yordan Alvarez Over 1.5 total bases [-105]

After an injury-plagued campaign in 2025, Yordan Alvarez is healthy and playing like an MVP candidate. The Houston Astros slugger is fourth in the majors in slugging percentage (.714), and his expected xSLG is even higher at an incredible .821.

He'll have the platoon advantage against struggling Colorado Rockies hurler Michael Lorenzen, who sports an ugly 6.09 xERA through three starts, ranking in the 11th percentile in hard-hit rate and the sixth percentile in xBA (.323).

Alvarez will also benefit from 15 mph winds blowing out to the outfield at Daikin Park.

• Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Rockies.TV | Space City Home Network

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Justin Wrobleski had the best start of the Dodgers season to date and the best outing of his career in Monday night’s win over the New York Mets.

Wrobleski was so efficient in his eight scoreless innings that some of the talk afterwards was about why he didn’t get a chance to finish the game. After all, he was only at 90 pitches through eight innings, during which he allowed only two singles and nothing else.

“He certainly earned the opportunity to go back out for the ninth. He pitched a heck of a ballgame,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters Monday night at Dodger Stadium. “The decision was, he hasn’t more than five innings in a long time, so now you’re talking about the health of the player. There’s more to that than pitch counts.”

In his first two outings this season, Wrobleski pitched four innings in bulk relief on March 30 against the Cleveland Guardians, then pitched five innings in a start and win over the Toronto Blue Jays last week. He last pitched more than five innings last July 19, with Triple-A Oklahoma City, and his professional career high was seven innings, done on June 16, 2024 with Double-A Tulsa and again on May 10, 2025 with Oklahoma City.

The top three in the Dodgers rotation — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani — have pitched six innings in every start so far, and Emmet Sheehan pitched six in his last start as well. Yamamoto faced two batters in the seventh inning last week in Toronto but didn’t retire either one. No Dodgers starter had gotten an out beyond the sixth inning before Monday night, when Wrobleski completed eight innings.

Jorge Polanco broke up the perfect game bid with a single in the fifth inning, but was erased on a double play. Francisco Alvarez singled in the eighth inning, the only other Met to reach base against Wrobleski. None reached scoring position.

Wrobleski got an 80 game score for his effort, the best by a Dodgers starter this season, topping Shohei Ohtani’s 73 game score on March 31 against Cleveland, with six strikeouts over six scoreless innings.

With only two strikeouts, Wrobleski wasn’t dominant, but he was efficient, getting 10 outs on two or fewer pitches. He gave up some hard-hit balls but almost all were on the ground. Most notably, shortstop Miguel Rojas robbed Bo Bichette of a hit with a diving stab and throw up the middle in the second inning.

“Those guys are very, very aggressive. If they’re going to put the ball in play, there’s only so much a pitcher can do outside of trying to get behind and make them chase out of the strike zone,” Roberts told reporters. “We want outs. He’ll get his strikeouts. With two strikeouts and no walks, I love the no walks. The two strikeouts isn’t a second thought. It was a great, great major league outing.”

Wrobleski faced only 25 batters to get through his eight innings, one over the minimum. He’s the first Dodgers starter to complete eight innings in 25 or fewer batters since Clayton Kershaw on July 15, 2022 in Anaheim, the second of his two flirtations with perfection that season.

Tanner Scott relieved Wrobleski and needed only eight pitches to finish the game, putting the Dodgers total at 98 pitches. It’s only the second MLB game this season with a team throwing fewer than 100 pitches. Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara needed only 93 pitches to shut out the Chicago White Sox on April 1. The previous time the Dodgers threw fewer than 100 pitches was September 12, 2021, when Max Scherzer threw 92 pitches in eight innings, followed by Justin Bruihl’s six-pitch ninth to finish off the San Diego Padres.

It was great to see the Mariners finally play up to their potential for an entire weekend. That it came at the expense of the Astros makes it all the more sweet. Between the odd fourth game against Houston on Monday, the quick three-game road trip to San Diego in the middle of this week, and a quick second series against the Rangers back at home this weekend, I’m not sure what the MLB schedule makers were thinking with this week. 

The Mariners won the inaugural “official” version of the Vedder Cup last year, taking five of six games against the Padres. The last time San Diego won this regional rivalry was back in 2021.

The Padres have been one of the most entertaining teams over the last few years. They’ve got tons of superstar talent on the big league roster and haven’t been afraid to make aggressive moves to stay competitive. Years of those win-now moves have depleted the depth in San Diego’s organization, which makes this roster pretty top heavy and potentially very fragile. When everyone is healthy and things are working as they should be, this team is as good as any other in the National League. 

While the Padres’ pitching staff isn’t currently at full strength, the lineup is firing on all cylinders. Built around a quartet of stars, the offense mirrors the construction of the entire roster: extremely top heavy. Fernando Tatis Jr. hasn’t been able to replicate the MVP-type production from earlier in his career before his motorcycle accident in 2021, but he’s still been one of the best players in baseball over the last three years. Manny Machado is the iron man of the group; he’s played in less than 150 games in a season just three times in his 12-year career and one of those times was his rookie year when he was called up midseason. He’s been one of the most consistent producers in baseball as well, the metronome in the heart of the Padres lineup. I’m not sure Xander Bogaerts will ever get back to the level of production he enjoyed in Boston, but he plays excellent defense at a premium position. The star with the biggest question marks is Jackson Merrill; he took a step back last year after a fantastic debut in 2024, though he’s still only 23 years old and still has an extremely high ceiling.

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

Michael King looked like an ace in his one lone full season in the starting rotation back in 2024. He had made the switch from the bullpen during the year prior, but his follow up campaign after his breakout was filled with injuries. He missed about two and half months of the season last year with a shoulder injury and another two weeks in August with knee inflammation. He never really looked settled last year and his ERA and FIP really suffered. He’s got a couple of solid pitch pairs to attack batters on both sides of the plate; four-seam-changeup against left-handers and sinker-sweeper against right-handers. With his low-slot delivery, he gets a ton of horizontal movement on his secondary pitches, while still staying pretty vertical with his fastballs. 

Randy Vásquez has spent the last few seasons as a reliable, innings-eating back-end starter for the Padres. Between 2023 and ‘24, he had the lowest strikeout rate among all qualified starters, though his ERA was a decent 4.27. All of a sudden, he’s throwing two ticks harder this year and he’s more than doubled his strikeout rate. The extra oomph on his pitches is obviously great, but it’s particularly helpful for Vásquez because of his seven-pitch repertoire. Discerning which of those seven pitches is heading towards the plate is a lot easier when you only have to worry about a 93 mph fastball rather than 95 mph heat. With the threat of a true, bat-missing heater in his back pocket, his entire arsenal becomes more effective because he has so many looks he can present to the batter.

I can only assume that Walker Buehler’s 2019 and ‘21 seasons are doing a lot of heavy lifting for his reputation as he’s bounced between three different teams over the last two seasons. He put up 5.1 and 5.6 fWAR in those two campaigns but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022. He hasn’t been the same since and he was legitimately one of the worst pitchers in baseball last year. His four-seam fastball was one of the best in baseball at his peak but it’s lost a ton of its carry and just isn’t an effective pitch anymore. He’s tried to adjust by deepening his repertoire and mixing in all of his secondary pitches a lot more often. It didn’t work in Boston last year, but the Padres desperately needed starting pitchers this spring, so they’re giving Buehler another shot to see if he can figure things out.

The Big Picture:

Haha, Lastros.

Managers are hired to be fired. This is not news to anyone who has watched baseball for a significant period of time. It is exceedingly rare for a baseball manager to ever retire on his own terms. Heck, even some recent Hall of Fame-caliber managers who retired found themselves managing other teams in relatively short order, suggesting that their retirement may not have been entirely voluntary.

Some day, Matt Quatraro’s term as the Royals manager will come to an end. It will almost certainly be because he has been fired. Not because he’s a bad manager, though, but because that’s a fate that awaits almost everyone who has ever taken on the role. That day is hopefully a long way off, though, because he’s one of the very best managers in the league.

It’s actually pretty rare to see a manager fired just because his team is losing. Usually, a managerial firing is accompanied by one of three other criteria. First, if a general manager feels like he’s on the hot seat. He can attempt to keep his job by persuading the people above him, whether that’s the owner or the president of baseball operations or whatever, that the problem isn’t the players he acquired, but how they’re being managed. Second, if a team severely underperforms their expectations, this often goes hand-in-hand with the first one. Third, a manager can be fired if he loses the support of the clubhouse.

One of the surest signs a manager is about to be fired is when you see a lack of effort from the players on the field or you start hearing about discontent in the clubhouse. The manager role is named that because they manage the game, but in modern MLB, it’s about managing the people in the clubhouse as much as it is about deciding on-field strategy.

It’s easy for all of us sitting on our couches to see that John Schreiber shouldn’t be pitching in high-leverage situations anymore. Not only has his ability seemed to decline since last season, but the bullpen has added arms and seen other arms improve since last season, too. If it’s easy for us to see, you have to know Q has seen it, too. However, if Q summarily dropped a respected veteran reliever from his position without cause, it would make everyone wonder how safe their own roles on the team were.

Think about your own job for a moment. I know that playing baseball is different, but this part isn’t. If you knew someone who had been with the company for a while and had done a pretty good job for years, suddenly demoted or laid off after the company hired some more people, you’d wonder about your own job security, too, wouldn’t you? It might motivate some people, but other people – especially high performers who know they have options elsewhere if things don’t work out here – could very well decide it isn’t worth trying to please a manager who seemingly can’t be pleased and start job hunting.

So, in the name of giving people a sense of security, knowing they won’t be demoted or cut for a bad performance or two, Quatraro has given Schreiber multiple opportunities to get the job done. This also applies to Carlos Estévez getting the first save opportunity at the start of the year. The difference between the two, even beyond Estévez’s injury, is that Schreiber’s struggles haven’t obviously affected games until this week.

That brings us to the flip side of that loyalty coin. If you leave low-performers in prestigious positions while people who are playing better are relegated to less important roles, you run the risk of demoralizing the team that way, too. That was something previous leaders such as Dayton Moore and Mike Matheny struggled with and at least partially led to their dismissal. The good news is that we have years of evidence that Matt Quatraro can handle those situations pretty well.

In 2024, he entered the season with Will Smith, the respected veteran, as his closer. It didn’t take him long to remove Smith from the position and promote James McArthur to the role when the former faltered while the latter pitched well. By April 5, Quatraro gave Smith a save situation but had McArthur warmed up and replaced him before he could blow the game. Later that year, when McArthur struggled, Quatraro removed him and promoted the newly acquired Lucas Erceg to the role instead.

Also in 2024, when MJ Melendez was being counted on to keep getting better, and Hunter Renfroe was added to the team, they started the year batting fifth and sixth, respectively. A week into the season, Renfroe was batting eighth more often. By the end of April, Melendez had been demoted to batting seventh. Renfroe was easier to demote with Nelson Velázquez hitting well to start the year, and Melendez was moved down when Michael Massey got hot.

It’s very en vogue to criticize how Quatraro has handled the bullpen and lineup, but the truth of the matter is, he rapidly makes changes when he has options. One of the reasons I was so optimistic about this season is that I felt like the Royals had given him more options to work with than ever before. And, to that end, I expect him to make changes soon. He’s given Schreiber, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Perez 10% of the season to show they can do better than they have. They earned that with their veteran performance in years prior. But they didn’t do it, and so change has to come.

To that end, I would be very surprised if we see Schreiber pitching in high leverage again for a while, at least. And if we get to the end of the week and Vinnie and Salvy are still killing rallies while batting third and fourth, I’ll be both amazed and upset. Changes are coming, not drastic ones, we’re not cutting guys after 16 games, but significant changes all the same.

Running a team means remembering that players are people. That means that some deference to veterans is not just warranted, but required. I know many of you are snake-bitten by how Ned Yost, Mike Matheny, and Dayton Moore seemed to constantly defer to veterans for weeks, months, and even years after they had shown they couldn’t get the job done anymore. But the team has operated differently under J.J. Picollo and Quatraro. Veterans get chances to keep their old jobs, but they aren’t unlimited anymore. And that’s just good people management.