Category: MLB

Thanks mostly to dominant pitching, especially from the bullpen, the Mets squeezed out a 2-1 win over the Nationals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

With the win, the Mets split the series 2-2 with the Nationals.

Here are the takeaways...

-Devin Williams finished off an excellent day for the bullpen, pitching out of trouble in the ninth inning to get his seventh save of the season.

The inning became dicey when rookie center fielder AJ Ewing misplayed a shallow fly ball by Daylen Lile into a wind-blown double, charging hard after getting a late start as the ball hit off the heel of his glove.

Lile advanced to third on a ground ball, but Williams then struck out Jose Tena swinging at a change-up and got Keibert Ruiz on a routine groundout to end the game.

The Mets’ bullpen, which has been outstanding lately, delivered dominance on this day as four relievers pitched four near-perfect innings, allowing only one walk and one hit, all while holding a 2-1 lead.  

-Prior to Williams in the ninth, Huascar Brazoban and Brooks Raley were perfect in the sixth and seventh innings, before Luke Weaver allowed a two-out walk in the eighth, the only blemish for the bullpen.

Weaver now has a streak of eight straight scoreless innings.

-Bo Bichette’s bases-loaded single in the third inning gave the Mets their only two runs of the afternoon.

They loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth inning but failed to score as MJ Melendez struck out swinging, Luis Torrens’ soft liner was caught by second baseman Nasim Nunez, and Carson Benge flied out to deep right-center – a 101 mph shot that may have been knocked down by a fairly strong wind.  

With a solid five-inning outing in his first start in three weeks, Peterson offered the Mets hope that he can again be a reliable piece in their starting rotation.

After early-season struggles, Peterson has been more effective recently, being used as a bulk reliever, following an opener. But because the Nationals feature key left-handed hitters at the top of the lineup, Peterson got the start.

And after a shaky first inning, in which he walked three straight hitters with two outs but escaped unscathed, the Mets’ lefty put together a strong outing. He had a shutout through four innings, then gave up a run in the fifth and escaped further damage when Mark Vientos made a nice, diving grab to his left of a hard one-hopper, stranding a Nationals’ runner at third base.

Peterson was pulled after five innings, his pitch count at 82. He lowered his ERA to a still-high 5.03, but he has been much better lately, with a 2.50 ERA to show for his four outings in May, spanning 18 innings.

-Bichette continued his recent productive streak at the plate. His hard, ground-ball single up the middle off Cade Cavalli with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning delivered two runs to give the Mets a 2-0 lead at the time.

The two RBI gave Bichette nine for the series. He hit three home runs and drove in seven runs in the first two games of the series. Bichette’s overall numbers remain well below expectations: he’s hitting .227 with a .607 OPS and 11 extra-base hits.

-Despite his wind-blown misplay in center, Ewing continues to do the little things well, dropping down a sacrifice bunt in the ninth inning that moved two runners into scoring position.

Ewing was actually safe on his bunt when the throw to first was dropped by second baseman Nasim Nunez. But more to the point, he has now delivered twice in late-inning sacrifice situations since his call-up on May 12. He had never bunted for a sacrifice successfully in the minors.

Game MVP: Devin Williams

Williams had to overcome the wind-blown double in the ninth, but he got a huge strikeout to prevent the Nationals from scoring with a runner on third base and one out. Williams now has 10 straight scoreless outings. 

Highlights

David Peterson strikes out Daylen Lile to end the first after walking the bases loaded pic.twitter.com/3jUfpFTdwk

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 21, 2026

The Nationals attempt the double steal, but Luis Torrens throws out Keibert Ruiz at second! pic.twitter.com/JhiW7wI9Nh

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 21, 2026

A 2-run single for Bo Bichette to open the scoring!

9 RBIs for Bichette in this series against the Nationals! pic.twitter.com/AQJAEOgsSY

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 21, 2026

Devin Williams gets out of the jam and locks down his 7th save of the season!

The Mets win and split the series with the Nationals pic.twitter.com/HkSMY6ryVl

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 21, 2026

What's next

The Mets' road trip continues with a three-game series in Miami as they take on the Marlins on Friday night. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m.

The Mets have yet to announce their starter, while the Marlins will send Eury Perez (2-6, 5.33 ERA) to the mound.

Though the Yankees and Blue Jays remain 7.5 games apart in the AL East standings, the first three games of this four-game set between them have each been decided by a single run. Last night, the Yankees failed to support Cam Schlittler’s strong start as their nemesis Trey Yesavage dominated them again. Thanks to the wins on Monday and Tuesday, though, the worst the Bombers can do is split with the Jays. Carlos Rodón has other plans—he’ll look to get right in his third start of the season and bring the Yanks a much-needed series victory.

Rodón himself had harsh words for his first two outings of the year, but as I mentioned in the series preview, his woes have been almost entirely limited to getting the last out of a given inning. While velocity has been solid, his command has been spotty. Again, pay close attention to how he approaches Toronto with two outs. They’re a team that was famously pesky in 2025 with no margin for error, but they haven’t been quite at the same level this year.

The Blue Jays’ rotation only goes four deep right now; Eric Lauer was recently DFA’d, Shane Bieber is working his way back, and José Berrios just underwent Tommy John surgery, so John Schneider has no choice but to turn to a bullpen game. Righty reliever Braydon Fisher, who has a 3.08 ERA in 24 games this year, will get the opener assignment.

As far as the bulk innings, that will be handled by 25-year old Spencer Miles, who has pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 24.2 innings. Miles started a game against the Angels back on May 10th but only went three innings—scoreless innings, though. He pitched from the second to the fifth his last time against Detroit, so look for a similar strategy today.

Trent Grisham is out today after having to leave early in last night’s contest, so Spencer Jones stays in tonight. Aside from J.C. Escarra filling in for the badly struggling Austin Wells, it’s the same lineup as yesterday.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium – Bronx, NY

First pitch: 7:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, SN1

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280, SN590 THE FAN

Streaming: Gotham Sports App, MLB.tv (out-of-market only)

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Shohei Ohtani could've been a Tampa Bay Ray.

The Los Angeles Angels' biggest misstep in franchise history — their refusal to trade Ohtani — has been harped on ever since they ultimately lost him for nothing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency after the 2023 season. And now, one more what-if from that time has come to light.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported Thursday morning that the Rays offered the Halos a package centered around two of their top five prospects at the time according to MLB Pipeline: Junior Caminero, then a 19-year-old in Double-A and now one of the most exciting young sluggers in baseball, and Carson Williams, then a 20-year-old in High A.

Angels front office personnel not able to speak publicly confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that they were in talks with the Rays and Caminero's name was floated around. According to Rosenthal, the Angels would have wanted additional talent, which the Rays were reportedly willing to offer.

Tampa Bay, however, was just one of the teams they had been involved with. According to the staffer, front office brass were all in a room taking calls for Ohtani when they looked over to the TV and saw reports that owner Arte Moreno shut down the possibility of any trade involving the two-way phenom.

Hello, Mr. Future Hall of Famer, sir, Mr. Buster Posey Man. I am but a lowly sports blogger doing that thing that bad baseball columnists do and writing you an open letter. Here’s why.

It’s unfathomable that there’s just 17 months or so remaining on your deal to be the Giants’ President of Baseball Operations. It seems like you just got here and it feels too soon to run away from the scene of a potential crime. That three-year deal you signed up for has always felt like hedging at best and at worst the length of a deal, say, The Music Man might’ve signed. Yes, you’ve got trouble! Trouble with a capital T!

I wouldn’t blame you or the rest of ownership and especially Tony Vitello if y’all were having second thoughts about this embarrassing 20-30 situation. That doesn’t mean I think the President of Baseball Operations and his manager hire should be able to walk away after accidentally burning down the house. Oh no. Everyone involved in the fire should be made to smoke the entire pack of cigarettes that led to it. Tony Vitello might just have to lose 300 games before returning to the NCAA and you might have to create even more negative history with the team failing to record a winning season for 5+ seasons.

The state of the major league team might be dire, but that doesn’t mean anyone should be on a hot seat. You shoved aside Farhan Zaidi because you wanted the responsibility of setting the course for the future of the Giants. It was the right call in one respect (Zaidi is no longer in the baseball industry) but with the easy part out of the way, it’s time to see if your vision can survive the harsh elements thrown at you by reality. You took the keys away and now you’ve stalled the engine. It’s time to see if you can recover.

The team is losing. The fans are booing. Industry types have seen the San Francisco Giants and now wonder aloud, “What are they doing?” Yes, the sensationalism has begun, as the Giants — an irrelevant franchise for a decade now — finally has some good grist for the content mill. Not history-defining losing a la the White Sox or Rockies of recent years, but cataclysmically awful performance from an organization that has blithely turned away from some tenets of the modern game like scouting and stats to reimagine itself as a team from your championship days or whatever.

At least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. I’m sure the organization still does scouting reports and provides them to the players, but when I watch the team play, I don’t see much in the way of understanding what the opponent is doing or anticipation of what they might do. It’s true that I could live 10,000 years and still not accumulate .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the baseball knowledge that you possess, Good Sir, my obvious better in every way imaginable, but as a mouth-breathing consumer of your product, it’s a very dumb team you’ve put together. As in, they play dumb and look dumb while doing so. I doubt that’s your vision! But also, there’s no chance you’re going to turn things around in the next 17 months. It’s not a rebuild, as you suggest, but it’s more of the same that we’ve seen since 2020.

I’ll close with two much stronger points. In your recent KNBR hit, you talked up how much talent there is brewing in the farm system right now, which you hope to add to with the upcoming draft. This is an unassailable fact at the moment and you yourself are the evidence that the Giants have at some point in their San Francisco history been able to draft and develop All-Star talent. You might be the one who breaks the curse of the franchise’s overall track record on that front, however. In the San Francisco era, it really has happened so few times that the farm system has been as reliable as luck. You ought to be around to see those prospects develop and graduate to reap the full reward of your work. That usually doesn’t happen in three years!

You also owe it to yourself to stick around so you can master how to manage a bench and 40-man roster!

Your “we’re in the memory making business” line needn’t be repeated back to you mockingly because it was a great line; but right now, the memory would be that you made a mess and walked away from the business. Why not stick around and setup the Giants to be relevant again in the 2030s?

Rays pitcher Chase Solesky threw his first-ever MLB strike this week, and nobody was more excited to see it than his fiancée, golf influencer Averee Dovsek.

In a video the social media personality shared with her 36,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday, Dovsek could be seen getting emotional as she watched her future husband live out his dream while she was on a work trip in Maryland.

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Solesky got into Tampa Bay’s game against the Orioles in the top of the sixth inning, and as broadcasters were going over his pitching resume, Dovsek, who was taking in the action on a TV inside a restaurant, jumped up and down repeatedly with a big smile on her face.

“POV,” she wrote in a caption on the footage. “You are on a work trip in Maryland but your fiancé makes his MLB debut.”

Solesky went three innings, recorded four strikeouts, gave up six hits, walked one and allowed two earned runs. He was awarded his first-career hold after the Rays ultimately locked things up, 16-6,

In the afterglow of the big game, Solesky made time to drop by Dovsek’s comment section to shout her out for all her support.

“I love you more than anything,” he wrote. “I can’t wait to give you the biggest squeeze in the world! I couldn’t do it without you! I cannot wait for you to be my wife!”

The milestone moment was a long time coming for Solesky, who had toiled in the minor leagues since 2019, when the White Sox took him in the 21st round of the MLB draft.

And for Dovsek — who got engaged to Solesky in March — it’s clearly an evening she’ll never forget.

Braves go for another series win. Worst they can do is a split in this four-game set.

The Los Angeles Angels have been a chaotic mess lately. First, owner Arte Moreno was going to sell the team, then he wasn’t, then fans showed up shirtless and started demanding he sell it. Earlier this year, they had a rat infestation. Over the weekend, a Dodgers fan wrangled an opossum. Now, they might have to change their name … again. 

Let’s start at the beginning. 

The “Angels” nickname was never random. It traces back more than a century to the old Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. A powerhouse club that played near downtown LA from the early 1900s until the Dodgers arrived from Brooklyn in late 1957 and began playing here in 1958. 

The name itself is pretty straightforward. It’s the English translation of “Los Angeles,” which literally means “The Angels.” Coincidentally, the franchise has deeper historical roots to Southern California long before MLB and the Dodgers moved West. 

Did you know that when they played at Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965, the Angels were the ones to call it Chavez Ravine? A name that is still used to this day.

In 1961, famous cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry, who had been living in Los Angeles making movies since the 1930s, secured an MLB expansion franchise.

He wanted to keep the continuity from the PCL team, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley held the rights to the Angels’ name. He ultimately sold it to Autry for $350,000, and the Los Angeles Angels were reborn.

Then came all the rebrands. 

The team became the California Angels after moving to Anaheim in 1966 with the purpose of marketing itself statewide. The name remained until Disney bought the team in 1997 and changed the name to the Anaheim Angels after raising public funds to help renovate the stadium. 

When Moreno bought the team in 2005, he wanted to chase the lucrative Los Angeles media market. That’s when the most awkward name in sports was created, “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.” Thankfully, the name was shortened to its current iteration — the Los Angeles Angels — in 2016. 

Now, nearly two decades later, California lawmakers are trying to drag the franchise back toward Anaheim Angels again. If Assembly Bill 2512 passes, the Angels could once again be forced to go back to the Anaheim Angels, whether Moreno likes it or not. 

So, that’s the strange history behind the franchise that was born in Los Angeles, raised in Anaheim, marketed to all of California and forever caught in an identity crisis between Hollywood and Orange County.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are promoting one of the biggest power-hitting bats in the organization to the Major Leagues.

First baseman/outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez is expected to join the Pirates in Toronto on Friday before the Pirates begin a three-game series against the Blue Jays. BBWAA member Francys Romero was first to report the promotion.

Regarded as the 9th-best prospect in the system by MLB Pipeline, Valdez crushed Triple-A pitching.

In 46 games, Valdez hit .253 with 10 doubles and 10 home runs during his first season at the highest level of the minor leagues.

Valdez totaled 29 runs driven in and held an impressive 33 walks compared to 41 strikeouts. 

Valdez, 22, has combined to hit 58 home runs over the last three seasons, including 22 in Single-A Bradenton during the 2024 campaign and 26 between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona last year.

Regarded by MLB Pipeline as owning a 60-grade power tool, Valdez signed as an international free agent during the 2020-21 signing period.

The right-handed batter rocketed through the minors over the last three seasons and adds another power threat to an offense that has hit 50 home runs after only 117 all of last season.

The Pirates demoted outfielder Billy Cook to Triple-A Indianapolis as a corresponding move, according to Jośe Negron of DK Pittsburgh Sports. 

The Pirates promoted No. 4 prospect, outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia at the start of the Cardinals series after Ryan O’Hearn injured his quadriceps.

Garcia recorded three hits in his first nine at-bats and his first-career RBI in Wednesday’s victory. 

Pittsburgh will send Bubba Chandler, Paul Skenes, and Bubba Chandler to the mound against the Blue Jays.

The Crosstown Classic is not for the faint of heart. It doesn’t matter which team is winning more coming into the games, or which team has the better roster on the field. There is something about the North Side v. Southside that just inspires a whole other level of competition between the Cubs and White Sox, to say nothing of the fans. So it’s really not all that surprising that Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong found himself in the middle of an ill-advised interaction with a fan from the Southside after failing to make a very difficult catch during the series.

Al already wrote up the kerfuffle from a “right vs. wrong” standpoint. You should read the whole thing, and the comments. I’ll just say upfront I agree with Al that it was a teachable moment for a player who often wears his heart on his sleeve (and y’all know I have a soft spot for guys who wear their heart on their sleeves). But today’s short porch is devoted to a different question, specifically, what should MLB’s penalty for PCA have been in the aftermath of the altercation? MLB landed on a $5,000 fine for “comments made to a fan” after Sunday’s Crosstown Classic loss at Rate Field, but every baseball group chat and DM I’m in was much more torn. Half the fans of other teams thought he should have been suspended for at least a game. To be clear, I personally think MLB’s penalty was the correct result, but it did get me thinking about the threshold for suspending a player.

The video of the exchange is uncomfortable viewing and it seemed like an ill-advised engagement with a fan from my vantage point. The full picture matters here: a female White Sox fan began booing Crow-Armstrong and yelling “you suck” when he was just feet away after he missed a potential highlight-reel catch, and PCA responded with a profane and frankly crude verbal comeback that he acknowledged immediately was indefensible in terms of word choice. Crow-Armstrong apologized Monday for his language, saying he didn’t think “any of the women in my life would think I would say those kinds of words regularly” and adding that he was bothered by the idea of young kids seeing the exchange on social media. That’s a start, but honestly, it’s pretty clear he does use those words to at least some women who aren’t in his life, and that’s a double standard that is more than a little troubling.

Additionally, there’s the being a role model of it all. PCA is an electric player who has a lot of young fans. Two of my dear friends celebrated their son’s fourth birthday recently. They are huge Cubs fans and I may or may not have bought that kiddo his first Cubs jersey before he was born. He proudly wore a hyphenated last name No. 4 jersey to celebrate his big day. I admit I wondered what his parents thought of that interaction and MLB’s response. To PCA’s credit, he seems to understand and appreciate the weight of that responsibility, but I wonder if a $5,000 fine for someone who recently signed a six-year contract extension to be the face of the Cubs in center field through 2032.

In terms of the MLB history here, the suspension threshold in MLB player-fan altercations has historically been anchored to physical contact or escalating aggression. Anthony Rendon received a four-game suspension in 2023 after grabbing an Oakland Athletics fan by the shirt through the guardrail and taking a swipe at his cap. Dennis Santana was ultimately suspended three games last season after actually leaping up and taking a swing at a fan near the Pirates’ bullpen during a doubleheader in Detroit. PCA’s interaction with the White Sox fan is obviously in a different category than either of those instances. That said, Tim Anderson received a one-game suspension in 2022 for an obscene gesture towards a fan, which doesn’t seem all that far off from what happened with PCA.

So I ask you, BCB, should PCA have been suspended for his altercation on the South Side or was a fine with no suspension the right answer?

Tigers fans were given hope that injured ace Tarik Skubal could be back as soon as next week. 

The reigning American League Cy Young winner threw a bullpen session on Thursday, the third of his rehab schedule, leading to speculation he could return from elbow surgery well ahead of schedule.

However, Skubal himself quickly debunked those theories.

If you’re not in those conversation, I wouldn’t trust anything you see,” he said, per The Athletic. “Now, I get it. I want to be back as fast as I can, too. What’s going on right now is kind of unprecedented. I don’t know in the history of the game if there’s been a surgery 15 days ago and I’m throwing a one-inning hypothetical start.

“So I get it. I want to be back as fast as possible. I also want to be healthy. It does me no good to come back fast, and then something happens, and I go back on the shelf again. But it is kind of day by day. It is how I feel and how I bounce back. Tomorrow, how I wake up, how I feel is going to be important.”  

The surgery — a non-invasive procedure to remove a loose body from his left elbow on May 6 — has a recovery time of around 2-3 months. Skubal seems to be way ahead of schedule, with the bullpen session jumpstarting hope for fans and pundits.

One possible reason for the quick recovery time was that Skubal underwent a new procedure called the “NanoNeedle Scope 2.0,” with Dr. Neal ElAttrache using a microscopic needle that would result in less scarring and inflammation. 

“This is really almost like receiving a shot,” Skubal’s agent, Scott Boras told the “Baseball Tonight” podcast. “We think that’s going to be a much shorter period (of rehabilitation).”

Skubal has pitched seven games this season with a 3-2 record and a 2.70 ERA. The Tigers would like to have an arm of his quality back as soon as possible.

The Tigers are struggling in the AL Central, sitting ten games behind .500. The start of the season has been a disaster for the playoff-hopeful squad.

There is no timetable for his return — at least nothing official.

“There are little hurdles to clear along the way when you come back from a procedure,” manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday. “As much as we described it as simple, it’s still a procedure.”

After an incredibly stable stretch of 13 game days in a row in April, the Dodgers just completed a much more chaotic 13-day span with pitching turnover more than every other day.

In the previous long stretch of games, from April 17-29, the Dodgers only made one pitching roster move during the 13 days, calling up Jake Eder when closer Edwin Díaz was placed on the injured list to undergo elbow surgery. That was abnormal, as during the 2025 season the Dodgers in stretches of at least 10 game days in a row before September roster expansion added three, nine, three, and four pitchers to the active roster.

This most-recent span, which just ended on Wednesday, was quite prolific for the Dodgers, who added a pitcher eight times to the roster in 13 days, three of which weren’t even in the organization two weeks ago:

• May 8: Paul Gervase called up, Tyler Glasnow to injured list
• May 9: Blake Snell activated from injured list, Brock Stewart placed on injured list
• May 10: Wyatt Mills called up, Gervase optioned
• May 15: Charlie Barnes, who was claimed off waivers May 9, called up, Blake Snell placed on injured list
• May 17: Gervase called back up, Jack Dreyer to injured list
• May 17: Chayce McDermott called up, Barnes optioned
• May 18: Jonathan Hernández signed and joined the bullpen, McDermott optioned
• May 19: Eric Lauer, who was acquired by trade on Sunday, was activated, Mills optioned

The Dodgers were seemingly playing catchup for the last two weeks, starting with Wednesday, May 6 in Houston, when Glasnow left his start with back spasms after just one inning. That necessitated the bullpen to cover the final eight innings of that game, before the off day that predated this 13-game stretch. Snell returning from his rehab assignment a week early further complicated things, as he lasted only three innings in his start and has since landed back on the injured list and had elbow surgery this Tuesday.

The Dodgers needed a bullpen game to fill in for Snell’s scheduled Friday start, using eight pitchers in the opener in Anaheim. In the other 12 games during this stretch Dodgers starting pitchers did their best, averaging 5.81 innings per start with a 3.88 ERA, compared to 6.05 innings per start with a 2.40 ERA from April 17-29. But the bullpen in that first 13-day stretch had to cover 34 1/3 innings compared to 46 1/3 innings in this most-recent span.

That means a lot of scrambling to cover innings, which necessitated many of these moves, some of them stacking on each other. For instance, Barnes was called up Friday and pitched in both games he was active before getting optioned on Sunday for McDermott, who pitched in his one game active before getting sent down for Hernández on Monday.

To the bullpen’s credit, they thrived even with the heavy workload and turnover. After the seventh inning on Tuesday, May 12 against the San Francisco Giants, Dodgers relievers pitched 29 scoreless innings over the last eight-plus games, helping to underwrite a 7-1 stretch.

The schedule eases a bit with respect to off days, with the Dodgers playing six games in a row before another off day next Thursday, and they won’t have to play more than 10 days in a row for the next month. Their next stretch of 13 days in a row comes from June 26-July 8.

The Yankees initially decided to bring in Paul Goldschmidt ahead of the 2025 campaign to be their first baseman. Throughout the first couple months, the signing was a coup, as he hit a scalding .338/.394/.495 with a 148 wRC+. Plenty of folks in the Yankees’ orbit thought that he had found the Fountain of Youth. Come June, the worm turned, and it got ugly. Goldschmidt hit just .226/.277/.333 with a 69 wRC+ from that point on, ceding time at first to the emerging Ben Rice after manager Aaron Boone had to concede that the veteran was no longer an everyday bat.

Then, New York opted to bring back Goldschmidt for 2026, but this time, he came with a manual: Don’t play him absolutely every day, generally stick to southpaws, and the 38-year-old might actually remain a useful player all year. It’s obviously too early to tell whether that strategy will actually work, since it’s May, but the early returns are promising. The former MVP is enjoying an amazing start to the season.

As of now, Goldschmidt is slashing an excellent .284/.391/.581 with five home runs and a 172 wRC+ in 87 plate appearances. The sample is still very small, yes, but Goldy is absolutely locked in. He is even hitting holding his own against righties with a 93 wRC+ (compared to 74 last year), in addition to absolutely murdering lefties (231 wRC+).

Goldschmidt didn’t overhaul his swing or mechanics, but he is showing some elite underlying stats that suggest he can remain a productive offensive player for the Yankees as long as he is being used properly. His .631 expected slugging percentage is actually higher than his .581 SLG, and his xwOBA is a cool .448, even better than his .422 wOBA. His 19.3-percent barrel rate would actually be among the very best in the league if he were a qualified hitter.

Part of his success this year can be explained by the fact that Goldschmidt is swinging more often, particularly at the first pitch. His career first-pitch swing rate is 25.6 percent, and entering yesterday, it was at 38.6 this year, which would be a career-high. His swing percentage has gone from 47.8 percent last year (and 43 percent in his career as a whole) to 49.2 percent in 2026 through the start of play of Wednesday.

The extra aggressiveness has resulted in some loud and productive contact. Remember, some of the best pitches to hit are often the first few ones in an at-bat. Twice in the past couple weeks, the Yankees started him at leadoff against a southpaw, and he took the first pitch of the ballgame out, first against Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers and then off Toronto’s Patrick Corbin.

Additionally, a whopping 22.6 percent of Goldschmidt’s batted balls have been pulled in the air, by far a career-best and significantly higher than his 16.6 percent mark over his entire MLB tenure. It’s not a secret that pulling the ball in the air is directly correlated with power production, especially coupled with an elite 56.6 percent hard-hit rate. Now, will these trends last all of 2026? Probably not, but they’re more encouraging signals of future success than the out-of-character .382 BABIP that powered his sensational start to 2025.

More importantly, with Rice blossoming into a truly elite hitter and multiple All-Star-caliber outfielders, the Yankees can afford to keep Goldschmidt fresh while also giving him relevant playing time. It seems like the perfect formula to try and get the best out of him for the entire season. They might have to use him a little more in certain situations—like amid the current crunch with Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez out while Trent Grisham also nurses a leg injury—but for the most part, they should be able to be selective. The man has played more games than anyone in baseball since the start of 2012 and could use the extra time off his feet.

At this moment in time, Goldschmidt deserves a lot of credit for being a key component of the Yankees’ offense. A 172 wRC+ approaching his 39th birthday in September is nothing to sneeze at, and while 83 plate appearances aren’t a whole lot, they are definitely not insignificant.

For whatever it’s worth—more so I suppose to roster construction under Hal Steinbrenner’s balance sheet than anyone else—the Yankees are getting considerable value for their buck, as Goldschmidt is playing on a $4 million salary in 2026. It’s not even June, and the veteran infielder has already been worth $8 million this year, according to FanGraphs. It’s not an exact science, but it’s already a good deal.

Again, Goldschmidt’s biggest challenge will be maintaining this production over the course of the entire year, or at least something close to this level. He is one of the most durable major leaguers in recent history, a pro’s pro with an impeccable work ethic and a desire to remain at the top, so he definitely has a chance to be a key contributor at very least.

Blisters might not seem like much from the outside, and to be clear those have a much better prognosis than, say, forearm or tricep soreness. That said, Edward Cabrera’s latest injury is a frustrating reminder that even something as small as a blister can have a big impact on a rotation held together with tape and prayers. One pitch into the fourth inning on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, Edward Cabrera’s start was over, and more questions about the Cubs depleted pitching ranks are sure to follow.

A blister. On his right middle finger. Again.

Cabrera has a documented history of blister issues, including a spring training blister in 2025 that cost him the first two turns through the Marlins rotation last season. The Cubs knew this was part of the package when they traded for Cabrera in January.

Blisters are relatively minor issues. They’re not rotator cuffs. They’re not UCLs. They usually don’t require surgery or six-to-18 month timelines. However, for a pitcher, the blister is the exact point of contact between a finger and a baseball. It’s in a location that determines any number of things like spin rate, grip, and command. A blister on a pitcher’s middle finger, especially a pitcher like Cabrera, fundamentally alters the ability to execute pitches.

Manager Craig Counsell indicated it was an issue Cabrera has dealt with before:

“It’s something that he’s dealt with a little bit,” Counsell said. “It just got worse tonight — to the point where it was clearly affecting his command, as much as anything. We tried to do something after the third inning and it just didn’t work. You could tell. The first pitch could have told you he wasn’t going to be able to continue.”

Wednesday’s start against the Brewers was not Cabrera’s finest outing this season. He threw 3.0 innings giving up four runs (only one earned) on four hits while walking and striking out two batters. It’s possible something was off even before Cabrera left the game. He was talking with pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and the training staff in the bottom of the third, retreating to the dugout and then heading back out, which confirms that the Cubs were working on the issue before Cabrera left the game.

The glass half full read here is that Cabrera sounds confident about making his next start. Blisters can heal faster than structural injuries, and Cabrera has navigated this before.

However, the glass-half-empty read is that nothing feels good about the state of the Cubs rotation right now. Cade Horton is gone for the season following elbow surgery. Justin Steele suffered setback in his return from elbow surgery. Matthew Boyd is working his way back from knee surgery. Colin Rea and Ben Brown are already in the rotation, and if Cabrera were to miss any meaningful time the Cubs would need to look to Javier Assad or perhaps Doug Nikhazy, who the Cubs claimed off waivers from the White Sox in April, to make starts in the interim.

Blisters aren’t elbows. But on a rotation this depleted, even a minor detour feels like a five-alarm fire. The Cubs need Cabrera to be healthy and make as many starts as possible this season. That probably means taking the time to ensure this blister issue is dealt with in a way that won’t return later in the season.

They also need the baseball gods to stop testing them, just for a little while.

After a couple of feel-good wins in Miami, the Braves can take the four-game set with another victory on Thursday night. Ha-Seong Kim returns to the lineup, and Chadwick Tromp will make his first start of the year as the Braves take aim at Sandy Alcantara.

For the Marlins, it’s mostly a familiar set of faces at this point. Owen Caissie is still in the lineup after getting shaken up on Dominic Smith’s “triple” last night, so that’s good to see. This lineup is somewhat similar to the one the Marlins used when clobbering the Braves on Monday, though it features Christopher Morel over Connor Norby at first base, and has Caissie dropped down to seventh.

For both the Marlins (44 batting orders in 50 games coming into this one) and the Braves (37 in 50), this will be a novel lineup.

Only the first five guys in Miami’s order have ever faced Spencer Strider, and all have either two or three PAs against him. The combined line is a .212 wOBA and .287 xwOBA in 14 PAs, with all the good stuff coming from Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez, and everyone else not having anything positive to speak of yet.

For the Braves, it’s a completely different story given Alcantara’s durability and tenure. Everyone but Tromp has faced him at least once, with the head-to-head matchups ranging from 16 (Kim) to 51 (Ozzie Albies). It’s definitely kind of a mixed bag of performances, led by Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris, without a lot of other positives (though at least Albies has good results). Collectively, it’s a whopping 243 career PAs between this octet and Alcantara, with a collective .317 wOBA (eh) but a .281 xwOBA (bleh).

We’ll see what happens.