Category: MLB

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Fresh off an opening-game victory, the Chicago White Sox look to protect home field once again on Saturday afternoon at Rate Field.

Standing in their way is a massive pitching mismatch, as the Los Angeles Dodgers hand the ball to the stellar Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Given the clear edge on the mound for L.A., my Dodgers vs. White Sox predictions favor the road favorites to cover the spread.

Read on for more analysis and to get my free MLB picks for Saturday, June 13.

Who will win Dodgers vs White Sox today: Dodgers -1.5 (-117)

Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto is getting batters to chase on 34.3% of their swings while maintaining a walk rate of just 5.1%. He’s also generating a 47.3% ground ball rate, which plays well against a Chicago White Sox lineup that hits grounders 44.2% of the time.

White Sox starter Sean Burke has a 5.40 ERA over his last six starts, and will have trouble turning things around against a Dodgers lineup leading the majors with a .345 wOBA. The Dodgers are the pick to cover the run line, and I’d take them to do so at -130 or better.

COVERS INTEL: The White Sox lead the majors in whiff rate at 27.9%, a troubling number against Yamamoto, who is getting batters to whiff on 29.5% of their swings.

Dodgers vs White Sox Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-113)

With two teams that have powerful offenses, the total is a bit high at 8.5 runs today. Yamamoto has only allowed a total of three runs over his last four starts (spanning 27.1 innings), and Burke should at least compete against the Dodgers thanks to his arsenal of pitches.

Burke relies on his four-seam fastball and curveball, throwing them a combined 59% of the time. Los Angeles only pulls those pitches in the air 17.2% of the time against righties, which will limit the damage their lineup can do. I’m taking the Under today at -120 or better.

Dodgers vs White Sox odds

• Moneyline: Dodgers -186 | White Sox +178
• Run line: Dodgers -1.5 (-117) | White Sox +1.5 (+113)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (+108) | Under 8.5 (-113)

Dodgers vs White Sox trend

The Dodgers are 3-0 in Yamamoto’s last three starts, winning each game by at least four runs. Find more MLB betting trends for Dodgers vs. White Sox.

How to watch Dodgers vs White Sox and game info

Dodgers vs White Sox latest injuries

Dodgers vs White Sox weather

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You are still singularly focused on Cincinnati Reds baseball, and for that I applaud you (to a degree).

They’ve lost key player after key player to injuries. They’ve nosedived from first place to dead last in the National League Central. They’ve found ways to lose that will make you absolutely rip out every hair on your head that you haven’t ripped out while watching them over previous years.

Yet here you are, loyal Reds fan. Here you are reading about a Saturday afternoon game between the Reds and the Arizona Diamondbacks that’s taking place during the first weekend of the world’s biggest sporting event.

That’s fandom.

The Reds, to their limited credit, appear to have shaken the lineup a little bit after last night’s frustration. Not anything super serious – there were no promotions or demotions – just a handful of tinkers that manager Terry Francona surely hopes can light a fire under this underperforming group.

Edwin Arroyo will hit leadoff tonight and play shortstop, as Matt McLain – who’s still hitting 9th – swaps over to 2B for the game. Noelvi Marte, who homered last night, will get a start in CF this afernoon. Spencer Steer will slide out to RF, and Blake Dunn will start on the pine tonight after last night’s unbelievably forgettable 9th inning.

All that will be behind Rhett Lowder, who’ll start having allowed 13 BB and 11 ER across 7.1 IP over his last three starts combined. Woof!

First pitch is set for 4:10 PM ET, and it’s back on Reds.tv after Friday’s Apple TV coverage.

Here’s how the Reds will line up to start:

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The Kansas City Royals are short favorites against the Houston Astros on Saturday night, and I’m laying the small moneyline price.

Noah Cameron gives Kansas City the cleaner starting-pitching profile, while Mike Burrows’ low-strikeout, contact-heavy profile gives the Royals enough scoring upside. 

Here are my Astros vs. Royals predictions and MLB picks for June 13.

Who will win Astros vs Royals today: Royals moneyline (-125)

This is a matchup of two pitchers that are trending in different directions. I'm backing the Kansas City Royals, who have the better pitcher by a sizable gap in this matchup. I'd play them to -135.

Houston Astros SP Mike Burrows has a4.72 xERA and a .338 xwOBA, which creates too many balls in play against a lineup with real top-end damage from Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone.

Royals SP Noah Cameron is not dominant, but his 3.98 xERA and 6.2% walk rate are cleaner than Burrows’ profile.

COVERS INTEL:Burrows is bottom-fourth percentile in fastball run value, and Kansas City’s two best bats both own 52%+ hard-hit rates.

Astros vs Royals Over/Under pick: Over 9.5 (+100)

I have slightly more conviction on the Over than a side and would play to 10 at even money.

Although I expect Kansas City to eventually get the win, it won't come without trouble. Cameron has allowed a 41.0% hard-hit rate and 9.3% barrel rate, which is dangerous against an Astros lineup with plenty of power, particularly considering the current form of Yordan Alvarez. 

Burrows is the bigger trigger for a variety of reasons, the most pressing being his bottom 20th percentile of most hard-hit metrics paired with looming negative regression.

Astros vs Royals odds

• Moneyline: Astros +105 | Royals -125
• Run line: Astros +1.5 | Royals -1.5 
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 | Under 9.5

Astros vs Royals trend

The Royals have covered the F5 Run Line in 7 of their last 11 games (+2.85 Units / 22% ROI)

How to watch Astros vs Royals and game info

Astros vs Royals latest injuries

Astros vs Royals weather

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By now, it’s safe to say that third baseman Ryan McMahon has met expectations on the defensive end since landing in New York via trade last year. The offense, however, has been a big problem so far, as Sam Chapman recently pointed out. Last year, the third baseman posted an 84 wRC+ with the Bombers, and he was at 79 before Friday’s game against the Blue Jays. That’s actually not that far from his career mark of 88, but New York always expects more from its players.

There might be some light at the end of the tunnel, though. From May 19th until Wednesday, McMahon has turned things around to some extent, and the numbers show it. Over that span, the infielder is hitting .304/.319/.587 with four home runs and a 150 wRC+ in 47 plate appearances. Has he turned a corner? Is that kind of performance sustainable? Let’s examine his profile and what’s under the hood.

The short answer is no, because McMahon is definitely not a 150-wRC+ player. Life, however, is full of grays, as things don’t always have to be black or white. So the answer to the original question could be that some of his gains could be sustained over time. For example, McMahon boasts an 89th percentile hard-hit rate this year, at 50 percent. That means half of his batted balls leave his bat at a minimum of 95 mph, which makes them much harder to field cleanly. We don’t need to tell you that hitting the ball hard leads to success.

However, even if he hits the ball hard consistently, McMahon is in the 19th percentile in launch angle sweet spot, which are batted balls hit with launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees. If he could live between those two numbers more often, we would be more inclined to believe in a full-on breakout.

Another roadblock to continued success is plate discipline. Even during his hot stretch in the aforementioned span, McMahon is walking just 2.1 percent of the time and striking out at a 34 percent clip (last night’s game not included). That’s hard to stomach and doesn’t bode well for the future.

If you want to know whether what he’s currently doing can be sustainable or not, the wOBA and xwOBA gap might give us an idea. It’s not the be-all, end-all, but it helps us understand where we are. Since May 19th, the lefty hitter boasts a .389 wOBA, but a .349 xwOBA. It means that he is overperforming a bit, but the newfound power has made a difference for the better. The .040 gap says that he’s playing a bit over his head, but the xwOBA on itself isn’t bad at all.

McMahon can hit the ball over the fence, and it’s not just short-porch cheapies to right field at home:

To sum up, McMahon is still wildly inconsistent and keeps striking out a lot, but at least he has shown much more power since May 19th. There’s still a lot of work to do in the plate discipline department, but if you ask the Yankees, they would probably take the over-the-fence power even if it comes with precious few walks and lots of whiffs. The Yankees sure would be happy if McMahon could be an 85-95 wRC+ hitter with elite third base defense and consistent 20-25-homer power. Heck, you can even throw the ‘consistent’ part away, because it might be unrealistic.

Rangers making a move for Hearts boss Derek McInnes if Danny Rohl leaves for Red Bull Salzburg would be a "no-brainer", according to BBC Scotland chief sports writer Tom English.

The Ibrox club have reportedly asked Hearts for permission to speak to McInnes as Rohl seemingly edges closer to an Ibrox exit.

Speaking on BBC Sportsound, English said: "If Rangers are looking for a manager, Derek McInnes is a no-brainer. I think it's an obvious call.

"He moved to Hearts and almost won the league in his first season. He's very experienced, a gnarled pro in Scotland, there's nothing he doesn't know about this league. His worth ethic is through the roof.

"He would be a very good fit for Rangers. They will spend money this summer and I just think it makes sense.

"I don't think Jamestown Analytics - who are obviously hugely influential at Hearts - would shed any tears because they're quite a clinical operation. If a player or manager leaves it's, right, who's next? They're very focused and don't dwell on people coming and going."

Former Hearts captain and manager Craig Levein believes an approach from Rangers would leave McInnes with a "very difficult decision".

"I think the fact Hearts have been elevated by Tony Bloom's arrival - and the manager has that backing - it would be a very difficult decision for Derek to leave and go to Ibrox," Levein said.

"He's building a really good team at Hearts and last season was the closest any non-Old Firm team has come to winning the league in 40 years.

"He seems happy where he is and that's quite an important thing. For me, this isn't as cut and dried as it might have been two or three years ago. I think there's more for Derek to mull over."

Former Hearts striker Darren Jackson has questioned whether McInnes would reject Rangers again, having turned down the job in 2017 when at Aberdeen.

"He's obviously a Rangers man and that pull got Lawrence Shankland, who wanted to play for his boyhood heroes," said Jackson.

"The expectations next season at Hearts are through the roof. Third won't be good enough - because of what's happened this year - so the pressure becomes a lot more."

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The Chicago Cubs took the first game of the three-game weekend series against the San Francisco Giants and have their unlikely ace on the mound as they try to clinch a series win on Saturday.

Ben Brown has been one of the top pitchers in MLB since joining the starting rotation.

The Giants have not been producing against regular pitchers and got the short end of this starter matchup. My Cubs vs. Giants predictions and MLB picks call for a Chicago win.

Who will win Cubs vs Giants today: Cubs -1.5 (+138)

The Chicago Cubs' moneyline is too lopsided to bet. If it gets down to -110, it might be worth taking back those 1.5 runs. However, lately the San Francisco Giants have only won when they score 10+ runs, and you'll lose either way if that happens.

It's not likely to happen against Ben Brown, who has led Chicago to wins in four of his six starts and posted an ERA on par with Ohtani, the Miz, and Cristopher Sanchez.

His underlying metrics are even better. Brown's breaking stuff is in the 100th percentile in MLB, thanks to a knuckle curve with a 44.8 whiff rate.

COVERS INTEL: Brown's four-seamer is the only pitch he throws with an average against over .200 and a put-away rate under 20%, and yet it's also one of the 318 pitches thrown in MLB with a positive run value.

Cubs vs Giants Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (+102)

They've shaved a run off the Over/Under cutoff, but that just helps give you positive odds. This one should go way Under. The Giants have scored 3 or fewer in five of six. The Cubs snapped a streak of five such games on Thursday.

Giants starter Trevor McDonald has whiff rates of 40% on two of his four pitches and is in the top 10% in missing barrels and inducing grounders. He shut the Cubs down for five innings last weekend.

Seeing him a second time so soon should help Chicago produce enough to win and cover, but it won't be a slugfest.

Cubs vs Giants odds

• Moneyline: Cubs -122 | Giants +117
• Run line: Cubs -1.5 (+138) | Giants +1.5 (-144)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-113) | Under 7.5 (+108)

Cubs vs Giants trend

The Chicago Cubs have hit the Team Total Under in 20 of their last 30 games and the Game Total Under in five of six. Find more MLB betting trends for Cubs vs. Giants.

How to watch Cubs vs Giants and game info

Cubs vs Giants latest injuries

Cubs vs Giants weather

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Despite getting out to an early lead in the first inning, the San Diego Padres couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole that starter Griffin Canning put them in. Canning was tagged for seven runs on six hits and five walks, greatly struggling to command his pitches.

The offense managed to put up three runs (which might have been enough under typical circumstances), but the Friars dropped the series opener. They’ll have to battle back in Game 2 against the Baltimore Orioles this afternoon.

Taking the mound

Trey Gibson (BAL) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

The rookie Gibson has only started three games this year for the O’s, authoring a 4.24 ERA and 1.53 WHIP in that time. That’s mostly due to his most recent start where Gibson surrendered three runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Seattle Mariners.

Prior to that, he had looked solid. Gibson gave up five runs across 12 1/3 innings. The right-hander has struggled to command his pitches, walking eight batters through four games. San Diego will need to have discipline at the plate in order to get runners aboard.

Vásquez has struggled lately after his otherworldly start to the season. He’s been saddled with a 4.29 ERA across his last seven starts, and the righty surrendered 10 runs in his last 14 2/3 innings.

That said, the stuff that made him so electric in the first two months of the year is still there. Vásquez’s biggest problem has been missing bats. He’s not generating whiffs at the same level he was before. If he can start to rediscover that against the Orioles, it will help San Diego immensely.

Batter up!

Despite only scratching three runs across, the lineup hit surprisingly well — they just left too many runners on the bases. Manny Machado had two doubles. Gavin Sheets went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Xander Bogaerts went 1-for-3 with a walk in his return from the paternity list. But the club went a lousy 4-for-14 with RISP, failing to capitalize in big moments.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., 2B
2. Jackson Merrill, CF
3. Manny Machado, 3B
4. Xander Bogaerts, SS
5. Gavin Sheets, RF
6. Samad Taylor, LF
7. Ty France, 1B
8. Miguel Andujar, DH
9. Freddy Fermin, C

Since Gibson is a rookie, none of the Padres have faced him. The lineup will have to figure the righty out fast if they want to force the rubber match against Baltimore on Sunday.

Relief corps

Thankfully, in spite of his lousy outing, Canning was at least able to get through five innings of work. That meant that only Wandy Peralta and David Morgan would be used to cover the final three innings of the game. They each pitched well, giving up one hit each and no runs.

That leaves the beleaguered bullpen fresh for this afternoon’s game. Manager Craig Stammen will have plenty of arms to turn to. Jason Adam, Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui, Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon and Bradgley Rodriguez will all be readily available to come into the game once Vásquez exits.

This mostly has nothing to do with the subject of this article, but humor me for a few seconds.

You’re not a real sports fan unless there’s this one player that you irrationally believe can be something special. It can be in any sport, but it’s usually someone who just never gets to that certain level. For me, as a young Knicks fan who couldn’t have fathomed a world where they’re on the verge of greatness tonight, that was Willy Hernangomez. He never did much in the league, but his impressive rookie year as a beacon of light on a terrible team gave me hope.

It doesn’t have to be like that, though. My Yankees version of this is Albert Abreu. I saw that high-90s velocity and solid slider and changeup and thought this was the new Jonathan Loáisiga. Of course, that wasn’t too a high a bar due to ol’ Johnny Lasagna’s inconsistency, but I thought he had the stuff to be something special. As is the case with a lot of pitchers though, he never put it together and fizzled out. That’s not at risk to happening to Camilo Doval, who’s much more accomplished than any of the three players I’ve talked about so far, but there is some level of connection that he has.

Picture a reliever who can throw triple digits effortlessly with his cutter and sinker. He has an elite walk rate, almost never giving up a free pass. He gives up very few barrels. Most of the balls in play against him are pounded into the infield dirt. You’d imagine this reliever would be a tremendous high-leverage option, one that you would trust to hold a lead by not handing out free baserunners and frequently rolling double play balls when in trouble. While relievers are noticeably volatile and prone to small-sample variance (ahem Jeff Hoffman), more often than not, this is a winning archetype.

And then you look at Doval’s stats. In 29 appearances and 24.2 innings, his ERA is 5.47. He opened the season as the team’s primary set-up man, but has repeatedly been yo-yo’d into lower leverage, medium leverage, and back into big situations. He’s frequently on a short leash from Aaron Boone, something that’s problematic in a shallow bullpen.

So how is this possible? Well, it’s based on a few things.

Some of it is luck. While he doesn’t run an exceptionally high BABIP, he’s still allowing opponents to hit .260 off him, the highest rate of his career. Batters are hitting .261 on ground balls against him compared to the .246 league average, but all of this is within the regular realm of possibility.

The real culprit, in terms of luck, is his ridiculously high HR/FB%. A whopping 20 percent of his fly balls allowed have gone over the fence, a rate far above the major league average of 11.2 percent. Now, it’s not quite the highest in baseball, but he has by far the highest ground ball rate of any pitcher in the top 30 (min. 20 innings pitched). Well, except for his teammate, Tim Hill.

That’s not all bad luck, as sometimes you just get absolutely tagged, so let’s look at the four home runs he’s allowed this season.

A 3-2 slider at the knees that’s obliterated by a future Hall of Famer. This wasn’t a cheapie, this was a legend of the game getting exactly what pitch he wanted.

It was pretty chilly in the Bronx in mid-April, so Doval’s sinker was down a few ticks here. Vinnie Pasquantino grooves a ball in a similar spot, but it barely sneaks out over the short porch. This is something that, with better luck, is only a double. Instead, it’s a blown save.

Another slider at the bottom of the zone crushed to center field, this time by Joc Pederson.

Yet another slider that ends right down Broadway to a perennial Yankee killer.

Only one of these pitches I’d describe as truly terrible, but only one of these would also be classified as a wall-scraper. The clear trend here is just how flat and hittable his slider has been, which has been, by far, the worst pitch in his arsenal this season. Batters are 9-for-25 with three home runs and five extra-base hits against the pitch. He’s surrendering an average exit velocity of 92.6 mph and a .493 wOBA, but interestingly enough, the xwOBA is just .322. As a whole, Doval’s differential of 40 points between his xwOBA and wOBA makes him the second-unluckiest pitcher on the roster behind David Bednar (42 points).

Reliever sample sizes are so small that this stuff might never even out. 2024 Clay Holmes and 2025 Mark Leiter Jr. similarly suffered from bad luck, but theirs were more concentrated in grueling misfortune on ground balls and soft contact, while also suffering from bad defense. Defenders do have a -3 Fielding Run Value behind Doval this season, the worst on the team, but it isn’t Leiter-esque… yet.

While sometimes it just feels like a reliever’s struggles are something that feels unnecessarily cruel from the baseball gods, Doval can absolutely improve some things. For one, here’s a heat map of his pitches:

He’s been throwing his slider less and less lately after how much it got pounded in April, but his struggles have remained because of both location and his inability to change speeds. Some pitchers can make throwing almost exclusively fastballs work (hello Cam Schlittler), but when a hitter can equally time up an entire arsenal because of how close they are in velocity and spin, location becomes paramount.

And as you can see, you can probably gear up for 100 at the bottom of the zone when facing Doval. When it’s not at the bottom of the zone, his sinker creeps too much towards the belt, while his cutter spins towards the top. Being too predictable is the vice of every major league pitcher, and Doval isn’t exempt. His inability to properly locate or sequence has plummeted his strikeout rate, putting him at the whim of the defense behind him and Lady Luck herself.

I’m confident he’ll eventually stabilize as one of the better relievers in this bullpen, but the results aren’t there right now. I don’t really see a world where he gets to where he needs to be without that slider becoming a real weapon again, so until that happens, it’ll continue to be a maddening work in progress.

Worcester: L, 3-6 (BOX SCORE)

Twin Red Wings (Nationals AAA) home runs late in the game made the WooSox the only loser in the organization on Friday, and it’s also a shame that the first of those home runs was a direct response to a long ball Jason Delay hit in the top of the frame to pull the WooSox within one. The bottom of the WooSox lineup each reached base twice and Vinny Capra went 3-for-5, but earlier in the game, Raymond Burgos, who’s turned into a multi-inning work horse, kind of wore a tough start and was pulled in the fourth inning. Overall, the WooSox were peppered when they really couldn’t have afforded to be and it cost them.

Portland: W, 13-12 (F/10) (BOX SCORE)

The Sea Dogs almost had it locked up in Lehigh Valley (Phillies AA) especially after adding an insurance run to go up 12-9 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but the Phils locked it back up at 12 when Cooper Adams let a home run up. From the jump, both teams had the pitching figured out: Hayden Mullins and Cade Feeney combined for nine runs allowed and three home runs, and the game had thirty-one total hits. The good news: Portland didn’t have to wait long to stave the Phils off after blowing that save, and they had eighteen of those thirty one hits. Johanfran Garcia continues raking with another home run and Miguel Bleis reintroduced himself, if only for a night, with two doubles and a home run. That home run was thought to be the first turning point in the game, moving Portland’s expected winning percentage from just over 35 percent to 85 percent. Of course, the result had to wait, but Portland won nonetheless, thanks in large part to a prospect who simply hasn’t had the year many expected him to in 2026. I’m not about to say one night of nine total bases will turn the whole season around for the 22-year-old outfielder, who’s still batting just north of .200 with a 29% strikeout rate, but here’s hoping it’s the beginning of a second wind of sorts.

Greenville: W, 10-5 (BOX SCORE)

Greenville also didn’t pull any punches at the plate, as through two innings, they already had taken Winston-Salem (White Sox High-A) for a six-run ride. This didn’t keep Kyson Witherspoon from letting the Dash partially back into it, but he kept his own for the remainder of five satisfactory innings. Enddy Azocar is quietly (or not so quietly) proving that he is a bat to watch in the next couple of years: with a 3-for-4 night including a double Friday, he is now slashing .365/.411/.635 in 12 games since being called up from Salem. Azocar is quickly building onto his resume, spending the last year or so adding a bunch of muscle and adding onto that power tool. He’s still quick and has a nice arm, too. Azocar is just 19 still, so I’d expect him to stay in Greenville the rest of the season or enjoy a short call-up to Portland near the end before starting 2027 there, but right now, the sky is the limit if developed right.

Salem: Cancelled

Never to be made up, ending the Minor Lines abruptly just like the week seemingly did. Have a great Saturday!

The tension built steadily over a two and a half day window. That’s how long we had to wait to see the Cincinnati Reds blow a game on Friday night in a way so uniquely their own after the last time they blew a game in a way so uniquely their own.

There’s blowing a late 2-run lead only to then serve up a walk-off homer to a guy who forgot to hit homers all year. There’s doing that with a newly-promoted starting pitcher on in a relief role in the Bottom of the 9th inning, doing so in the most packed-house road stadium he’ll ever see.

Then, there’s simply dropping the ball. That’s what happened on Friday night in Great American Ball Park, and it happened to the guy who’s perhaps the best defender the Reds have on the field most nights.

Blake Dunn’s 9th inning foible got most all of the headlines from last night’s 5-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, because that’s the easy way to do it. It was the oh no play in a big spot, and that’s when the 2-2 score on the scoreboard changed.

But the way the Cincinnati Reds lost on Friday night cannot at all be simply defined by that drop.

They walked 9 times on the night and scored just twice. Nine times.

They forced the opposing starter to throw 40 pitches in a single inning…and still managed to not score a single run that inning. Meanwhile, the guy on their roster who’d faced that starter more than anyone else (and was 5 for 10 with a walk and a double against him) didn’t even get put in the starting lineup to face him.

As a team, they own the 12th most PA on the season with runners in scoring position. Their collective 81 wRC+ in those situations is the worst among all MLB clubs. Their .295 wOBA in those positions is the worst among the 30 teams, too.

Today, they’re going to willingly roll out a starting pitcher whose last three outings have seen him throw just 7.1 IP combined. In that time he has walked 13 batters and allowed 11 earned runs.

The bullpen blew the game in San Diego when Fernando Tatis, Jr.’s bat woke up. Lack of any sort of timely hitting and a horror show bit of defense at the worst of times last them last night’s game. So often with this bruised and broken starting rotation, it’s been the starting pitching that’s put this team in a hole from the very beginning of games.

That’s just about every facet of the game right there. Add in keeping Nate Lowe on the bench last night despite his history against Eduardo Rodriguez, and you get to add managing to the list, too.

The Cincinnati Reds are simply running out of ways they can lose games this year. That they’re in last place again cannot come as any surprise.

When Jasson Domínguez and Giancarlo Stanton began to take major steps towards their return to the starting lineup this week, people began to wonder how the Yankees were going to solve the roster crunch. Would the struggling Anthony Volpe be returned to Triple-A, handing the shortstop position back in its totality to José Caballero? Would Spencer Jones, who only made his debut because of an injury to Domínguez and returned because of an injury to Aaron Judge, make the trek back to Scranton? Maybe it would be Max Schuemann, the utilityman who has hit well in a very small sample size this season? Perhaps the Martian himself would remain in the minors, getting everyday reps in right field, in order that Cody Bellinger could stay in left?

As Joe Torre always said, the baseball gods have a way of making these decisions for us, and in the end, the answer would be, “None of the above.”

During last night’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Trent Grisham pulled up limping on the basepaths and had to be removed from the game. Now, he’s headed to the injured list with a right hamstring strain, swapping places with Domínguez, who is returning from the shelf.

The injury comes at a particularly inopportune time, as Grisham has really been heating up over the last couple weeks, and the team has needed his bat in the lineup with Judge on the shelf with a stress fracture. Hopefully, Domínguez recaptures his hot start to the season and is able to make up at least some of that difference; for what it’s worth, he was 5-for-18 with two homers and two stolen bases during his five-day rehab assignment. (Oh, and that earlier aside about Stanton? He suffered a setback. So.)

At the moment, it remains to be seen how the Yankees will line up their outfield in the near future. Last night, the team opted to shift Jones from right to center, rather than move Cody Bellinger, who has arguably been the best defensive left fielder in baseball this season. It’s clear to me that they want to keep Bellinger there if at all possible, as evidenced by the fact that Domínguez spent the last three days in Scranton playing right field, a position he had exactly one game of professional experience at prior to this week. Will the Yankees decide to let him learn the position on the fly, or will they put him back in left field? Only time will tell.

Update

The Yankees will indeed put Domínguez in right today, with Bellinger in left and Jones in center. Here goes nothing!

Despite the loss last night, Nationals fans still got to see the James Wood show up close and personal. The Nats 23 year old slugger hit one of his majestic shots off of Bryce Miller. Unlike most of his home runs, this ball was pulled and got out of Nationals Park in a hurry.

As you can see, James Wood has been one of the best players in all of baseball this year. It is only June 13th, and Wood has already matched his WAR total from last season. Despite Wood’s insane power and freakish size, it still does not feel like he gets talked about enough around the league.

Once the Nats climb up the standings over the next few years, I am sure that will change. When Wood is at his best, he is a truly breathtaking player. That elite version of Wood is exactly what we have gotten for most of this season. He looked all out of sorts the first week and a half of the season, but since then he has been consistently dominant.

In his last 30 games, Wood is hitting .316 with a .996 OPS. We all know that the 6’6 slugger has crazy power, but he has been a truly elite all around hitter lately. There will always be strikeouts in his game, but similarly to Aaron Judge, the quality of contact is so good that he can also hit for average. 

Aaron Judge is not a name to throw around lightly, but I think Wood is the closest thing we have seen to Judge. As we know, Judge has been the most dominant hitter of the 2020’s, with an OPS over 1.100 from 2022 to 2025. Reaching those heights could be a tough ask, but I think Wood can be a guy who posts OPS marks over 1.000 in his prime.

A big reason for that is how often he barrels up baseballs. Right now, Wood has a barrel rate of 25.3%. That is comfortably the best mark in the league, with Judge being the closest with a 21.7% barrel rate. In the statcast era, Wood currently has the 4th highest barrel rate of all time, only trailing 3 Judge seasons.

For context, a barrel is a ball hit at least 98 MPH at a certain launch angle threshold. The harder the ball is hit, the wider the threshold is. Here is a link to MLB’s definition of a barrel. It is a somewhat weird definition, but the point is that barrels are the best contact a hitter can make. The batting average on a barrel tends to be in the .700 range and those hits tend to go for extra bases as well.

In an era where power is as important as ever, being the best at finding barrels is incredibly valuable. James Wood finds the most barrels in all of baseball. Among players 25 or younger, the barrel gap is enormous. Wood has 42 and the next closest players have 28. This just shows you why Wood has the highest offensive ceiling of any young player in the game.

There were times last season and to start this year where I was tough on Wood. The strikeouts were worrying, and he did not look like the same guy we saw in the first half of last year. However, as I probably need to remind myself more, patience is required for these young players. This version of Wood is the best we have seen yet. I think he is at a higher level than he was in the first half of last year.

A big reason for that is his batted ball profile. Even when Wood was rolling last season, he was hitting a lot of ground balls. In the first half of 2025, Wood’s ground ball rate was 50.2%. This year that number has been cut to 38.5%, which is a massive cut. Fewer ground balls means more barrels and more damage.

The fact Wood is hitting more balls in the air makes me less concerned about him having a power drop off in the second half again. Even if he goes through some stretches where the strikeouts pile up, he will have more chances to go deep when he does hit the ball.

Watching Wood hit all these line drives and flyballs is a glorious thing. He has the best opposite field power I have ever seen in a player. Over half of his home runs go to left center, with many of them being in near identical locations. Here is a video of all his home runs, at least through May 26th, and I loved watching it.

From Bryce Harper to Juan Soto to James Wood, Nationals fans have been blessed to have some of the best left handed bats of the 21st century on their team. While Wood still has work to do to get into that category, he certainly has the ability to do it. At just 23 years old, Wood has a .953 OPS and is underperforming his xwOBA by 25 points.

The last thing Wood has to do before he can truly be anointed as one of the game’s best is to keep this up for a full season. Last year he hit a wall, but I think Wood will have learned from that. There is only one way to find out for sure though. For now, let’s just sit back, relax and watch the big man hit.

After exiting Friday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays early, the Yankees have placed OF Trent Grisham on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, the team announced Saturday.

In a corresponding move, the team returned Jasson Dominguez (AC joint sprain) from his rehab assignment and reinstated him from the 10-day injured list.

Grisham left the game with hamstring tightness in the sixth inning, appearing to injure himself while rounding first base and making an awkward slide into second on a throw home after hitting a two-run single.

New York replaced Grisham on defense with Max Schuemann, who moved to right field with Spencer Jones shifting to center field.

Dominguez, who has been out since May 7, was scheduled to play in another rehab game in Triple-A on Saturday before Grisham's injury forced the team to bring him back sooner than planned. He will start in right field for the first time on Saturday, joining Jones and Cody Bellinger in the outfield.

Over 66 games this season, Grisham is hitting .232 with eight home runs and 35 RBI while manning CF on a daily basis. On the other hand, Dominguez has played in just nine big league games this year (30 at-bats) and owns a .200 batting average with one home run and four RBI.

Stanton suffers minor setback

Aaron Boone told reporters Saturday ahead of their game against the Blue Jays that DH Giancarlo Stanton felt a tweak in his calf while running bases this week and may get more imaging.

Stanton was expected to return to the team during their upcoming homestand, but that is now up in the air.

The veteran slugger has been sidelined since April 24 with a right calf strain.

In their return to the baseball field after mounting a historic comeback against the Nationals on Wednesday, the San Francisco Giants — you guessed it! — were nearly shut-out by the Chicago Cubs.  

You know how when you come back from the store and you want to speed-up the cool-down process on some room-temperature beverages because you’re throwing a party, so you pop a couple cans into the freezer…and then inevitably forget about them. That’s what happened here: the offense forgot to take their bats out of the freezer. Their heads were lost in the clouds after the walk-off grand slam. They were buzzin’. The off-day on Thursday turned into a weekend — two days where no real baseball happened. The lineup managed just four baserunners over 6 innings against Cubs starter Javier Assad, who has thrown 12.1 scoreless frames against the Giants within the past five days.  

When the rest of the line-up went 1-for-26, Bryce Eldridge, batting second, went 3-for-4 — the only who reached scoring position, made it to third base, and finally touched home after his solo shot in the 9th inning.

Luis Arraez led off the game with a single, extending his hitting streak to a dozen games, but Jung Hoo Lee’s 18-game tear was unfortunately wrapped with him standing in the on-deck circle as Rafael Devers went down looking to end the night. 

Lee didn’t go down quietly. With two-outs and Eldridge standing on third, he pulled a 96 MPH grounder that chased after a single between first and second, but Gold Glover Nico Hoerner closed the hole. In the 7th, turned on an inside fastball from southpaw-slinger Hoby Milner that off the bat looked like it could be a double in the right-center gap — but the extra-bases liner was easily run down by Seiya Suzuki patrolling the alley. 

Thus ends a remarkable streak dating back to May 14th in which Lee transformed into the hottest hitter in the league. In 78 at-bats, Lee bagged 36 knocks (29 singles), good for a .480 average, as he saw his season batting average balloon from .265 to .333, currently the second highest in MLB. Perhaps if there was a little more pep in his teammates’ steps, Lee might’ve got another crack at keeping the streak alive. 

And then there’s the pitching. If you look at this game in a vacuum, you can’t blame the SF arms for a loss in which zero runs were produced by the bats until one-out in the 9th inning. Fair — but this game does not exist in a vacuum. Fans dragged their feet into this game knowing, feeling in their gut the facts that Bryan Murphy spelled out for us. The 2026 Giants pitching staff is historically bad, and their weaknesses were on full display Friday night: self-inflicted stress and fatigue, the inability to close out innings, or have one reliable fireman able to throw a wet-blanket on a fire. Starter Landen Roupp worked his way into 8 full counts, threw 100+ pitches, and didn’t complete the 5th inning. The Cubs scratched their first run across in the 4th after Roupp walked leadoff man, Michael Busch, and scored from first on a hit-and-run double by Suzuki. Roupp walked another to start the 5th and was pulled after Alex Bregman’s two-out double put runners at second and third. Tony Vitello went to lefty Erik Miller to face the lefty Busch, who spit a hanging slider out into the cove for a three-run homer.   

Life is all about context. It’s about relationships and interactions that get so haphazardly colored and re-colored by one’s actions and decisions. The dominant emotions felt by fans towards the Giants pitching staff right now is distrust and dread. Those emotions have been earned and reaffirmed many times over the season so far, and reached a new low for many after some of the pitching staff’s pointed protest of Pride Night. The choices made by Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker to chalk a Bible reference onto to their SF Giants Pride logo hat, or in the case of Sam Hentges, not wear the hat at all, will have a much, much longer shelf-life in the community’s collective memory than their pitching performances on Friday night, or throughout the year. 

Some were quick to praise those players’ choice. Some have mourned it, wishing that God changed their God mind, scrapped the covenant made with Noah and sent the rains again. Throw Logan Webb on the new ark and let the rest of the pitching staff be swept up in a flood. That’s kinda how I’m feeling this Saturday morning as I frustratingly and bitterly turn my Bible to Genesis 9 and read the words: “I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” (NRSV) 

Hmmm… Every living creature… All flesh… A big ol’ rainbow splashed across the sky… Sounds like Pride Night to me. 

Perhaps, for the pitching staff specifically, a new covenant is needed. Let’s plop a massive Ten Commandments-like statue right in the middle of the bullpen at Oracle and chisel some reminders into the stone tablets: Thou shalt not walk the lead-off hitter in an inning.Thou shalt control the running game. Thou shalt maintain count leverage and be efficient with thou pitch count. Thou shalt not become predictable with your pitch selections. Thou shalt not hang sliders. And most importantly: Thou shalt love others because if God is anything worthwhile, then God has to be love, and thou shalt think about how love is not just an emotion you feel, but the emotion you make other people feel by your actions.

In a bit of a rough patch of play and missing two of their best bats in Ronald Acuna and Drake Baldwin, the Braves are hoping to be able to beat the Mets in game 2 of their series behind Martin Perez.

It appears likely that Sean Manaea will get some bulk innings for the Mets, though he came in after an opener in his last appearance before eating 4.0 innings. Manaea has been pretty good in this non-starting bulk innings role, with an xERA, FIP, and xFIP right around 4.00. He’s working with a pretty low-velocity arsenal at this point, but does have some pretty good extension. He’s working with some very horizontally moving stuff, primarily pitching off of his four-seamer, sinker, and sweeper, with a cutter and changeup sprinkled in on occasion. His walk and strikeout rates have been quite average, with a below average ground ball rate. Manaea is pretty average but not bad and a rough equivalent in quality to what Martin Perez has been this season. The hope is that the Braves’ offense can make something happen in the absence of a few of their stars.

Martin Perez will look to continue his relative success this season, as he has a great 3.00 ERA but an xERA, xFIP, and FIP all around 4.00, much like Manaea, but as a totally acceptable number for the fifth starter. He’s been getting it done with his changeup, using his sinker and cutter with a few four-seamers and curves mixed in. This feels like advantage Mets on paper, without Acuna or Baldwin and with roughly equivalent pitchers on the mound. Here’s hoping that some combination of a good/lucky Perez start and some real offense can make it happen.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, June 13, 4:10 p.m. EDT

Location: Citi Field, Queens, NY

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLBTV

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan