Category: MLB

Round Rock express pitcher Cal Quantrill has been named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week, it was announced today.

Quantrill, 31, was one of the Rangers’ final cuts this spring, but agreed to stay with the team rather than exercise his right to opt out of his minor league deal. His first start of the season for Round Rock went poorly, as he made it just two innings while giving up seven runs and, uncharacteristically, walking four batters. He followed that up with a five inning, three hit, no walk, four K shutout appearance, and then last week went seven innings while allowing just two hits, one run (on a solo homer), and no walks, striking out six.

Quantrill was signed as rotation depth for the Rangers, though so far, the team has not had to dip down to AAA for rotation reinforcements as of yet. He would probably be the top candidate to be called up if the Rangers needed to fill a spot in the minors, though the presence of Jacob Latz in the bullpen currently makes it less likely the Rangers would have to go that way for a rotation filler.

Quantrill was once a top prospect, taken 8th overall by the San Diego Padres out of Stanford in 2016 despite recovering from Tommy John surgery. He went to Cleveland in the nine-player trade at the 2020 trade deadline that sent Mike Clevinger to San Diego. Quantrill had a couple of good seasons for Cleveland, in 2021 and 2022, but even in those seasons his peripherals were weaker than his ERA would suggest.

Quantrill was traded to Colorado after the 2023 season for minor league catcher Kody Huff — who is not, incidentally, related to Sam Huff, though both went to high school in Arizona — and had a decent year for the Rockies. He made 24 starts for Miami in 2025 and two for Atlanta, combining for a 6.04 ERA and 5.76 xERA, which helps explain why he had to settle for a minor league contract this year.

Quantrill does not have the sort of stuff you’d expect to play as a short reliever, so if he were to come up at some point in a role other than as a spot starter, he’d likely be a long reliever — you could see him getting the nod to replace Latz in the bullpen if a Ranger starter were to go on the injured list and Latz was filling in for more than a one-off start. Otherwise, given the state of arms around the majors, if Quantrill continues to have the sort of success he’s had the last couple of times out, I imagine some team in need of a body for their rotation may look to sign him to eat some innings.

Last week, we got the news that Sean Murphy would be beginning his rehab assignment on Friday with the Gwinnett Stripers. That rehab stint ended up getting postponed for a while after Murphy had some family matters to attend to before he could focus on baseball.

The good news is that things appear to have settled down for Murphy now, which means that he now has the opportunity to get things going when it comes to his rehab assignment. As it turns out, he won’t be heading to Gwinnett after all. Plans have changed and now Murphy will be starting his rehab assignment with the High-A Rome Emperors.

Rome Emperors broadcaster Gavin Brooks went on to report that the tentative plan for Murphy is to start on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday — all against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws of the Phillies organization. If you’re a fan in the Rome area, Thursday night appears to be the night to go since you’ll be getting to see Sean Murphy in action while the Emperors wear those sweet ‘70s-inspired throwback-style uniforms.

That’s a digression on my part, though. The most important part is that Sean Murphy will be beginning his rehab stint shortly and that things appear to be on track for him to make a return in the near future. Here’s hoping that things go well in the rehab stint so that we’ll see Murphy get back to action and hopefully form a very formidable and dynamic catching duo with Drake Baldwin behind the plate for the big league Braves.

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Let's try to get the home run train moving this week by picking on some struggling pitchers in settings with good-to-great hitting conditions and spots to target MLB player props. 

Ryne Nelson, Yusei Kikuchi, and Nathan Eovaldi are solid pitching targets to find some dingers today, as they're struggling and their visiting parks are looking hitter-friendly. There are plenty of names on the Orioles, Yankees, and Athletics to target on Monday for four-baggers. 

These are my favorite home run props for Monday, April 13.

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Gunnar Henderson	+440
Jose Caballero	+1040
Shea Langeliers	+470

Gunnar Henderson (+440)

• Time: 6:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MASN, Dbacks.TV

Jose Caballero (+1040)

I'm taking a big shot at the Yankees' shortstop at the highest price I've hit in this article for a homer.

Jose Caballero might not have much time left with the club, as Anthony Volpe is beginning his rehab assignment tomorrow. Still, he has a great opportunity to showcase tonight at Yankee Stadium with 16-mph winds blowing out and a matchup vs. Yusei Kikuchi. 

The Angels' starter gives up a lot of flyballs, and only five other starters have given up hard-hit balls at a higher rate than the lefty at 48%. He has avoided giving up a lot of home runs this season (just one allowed), but the dingers are coming, and Caballero has already taken him deep in his career.

He also handles lefties better than righties. It's a giant price with a lot of checkmarks. 

• Time: 7:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: YES, FanDuel Sports Network West

Shea Langeliers (+470)

The Athletics are back at their Minor League diamond, where pitchers seem to struggle at a high frequency.

Nathan Eovaldi has yet to have a game where he keeps the ball in the park, and Shea Langeliers is a hitter I’ve watched go deep five times this season without my money on him. That changes today.

The middle-of-the-order bat is +470 to go long, with a break-even price around +390/+400. He’s gone eight games without a homer but still owns an OPS north of .900 to start the year, and he has solid history against Eovaldi, going 4-for-12 with a home run.

It checks all the boxes — setting, matchup, and most importantly, price. The Texas Rangers also have four left-handers in the bullpen that Langeliers can take advantage of, as he crushes lefties.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: RSN, NBCS-California

Today’s HR parlay

Gunnar Henderson	Bet Now +34,989
Jose Caballero
Shea Langeliers

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The Cincinnati Reds have every intention of trying to win as many games as possible in 2026. That was the plan when they first hired future Hall of Famer Terry Francona to be their manager before 2025. That was certainly the plan after the 2025 club snuck into the playoffs and gave fans the thrill of real postseason baseball for the first time in a decade.

It was the plan, though it seemed farfetched, when they tore things down in 2022. It’s been the plan as they sat patiently with a youthful core, watching it slowly but surely turn into the nucleus of a decently rostered baseball franchise.

Those plans don’t come without bumps in the road, however. The Reds were jettisoned from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers in just two (non-home) games last fall. The Reds waived goodbye to a number of good players in free agency, yet came to define themselves over the last nine months by a pair of deals that added a few square pegs to a roster full of otherwise round holes.

First, they committed big to Ke’Bryan Hayes in a deal with Pittsburgh. He came over with a long-term deal guaranteeing him a minimum of $36 million through the 2029 season, and was immediately established as the team’s 3B of the present and future. Despite 3B Sal Stewart knocking on the door, the Reds then swung big on AAV to reunite with 3B Eugenio Suárez this winter, doing so to bring in his much needed power even though he’d be forced to DH more than he’d ever done in his life.

In the process, they up and moved Noelvi Marte to RF – a position he’d literally never played before in his life. The former shortstop had his issues as the team’s 3B before the Hayes deal, but the thought was that his athleticism would translate well out there quickly despite the team, y’know, having every intention to win as many games as possible in 2025. For a hot minute it looked brilliant, and his home-run robbery in the season’s final week earned its own bobblehead giveaway, but Marte was abysmal at the plate over the final 25 games of the season (.186/.215/.275 in 107 PA).

He backed that up with a .138/.194/.138 start to the 2026 season across 31 PA, and the Reds officially sent him back to AAA on Monday because of it.

The expectation, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, is that the Reds will call up Rece Hinds prior to Tuesday’s game to take Marte’s place. It’s the rational call as Hinds has mauled AAA pitching this year after he mauled Cactus League pitching this spring after he mauled AAA pitching all last year, too.

What that move underscores, though, is the lack of rationality the Reds used to get themselves here in the first place. In shoveling so many square pegs into their infield mix heading into 2026, they pooled almost all of their minuscule resources into that part of their project, and it left them with an outfield mix that was mis-matched at best. Marte’d never played RF for 95% of his life. TJ Friedl, who’s struggling almost as badly right now, is being used in LF more after being exclusively a CF for more than two years. Spencer Steer, a Gold Glove finalist at 1B, is now being tasked with LF more often than not.

The outfield, which the Reds chose to patch instead of truly fix, simply hasn’t worked.

That brings us to Hinds, who hit just .116/.136/.279 in 44 PA at the big league level last year. I’m saying that the Reds owe it to themselves to let that guy play almost every single game in RF going forward.

One big part of that is that Hinds, a former 2nd round pick who has a superstar grade in terms of power and plus speed and arm grades, is a supremely talented individual. He’s still just 25 years old, an age where plenty of players who have struggled before can still very much have a breakout year (see: Will Benson in 2023, among many others). He’s also shaved off over 10% of his once atmospheric strikeout rate at the AAA level dating back to early 2025, and his walk rate so far this year has spiked accordingly, too.

He’s been maturing slowly, but surely. He’s also a guy who hit right-handed pitching much better last year (.914 OPS) than left-handed pitching (.769) at the AAA level, something that has continued in a much smaller sample there in 2026.

Most importantly, though, is that he’s been a corner outfielder for over five years since moving off the diamond as a 20 year old, with the overwhelming amount of that work coming as a RF. He’s a guy you put out there and know that while he may not be Roberto Clemente, he’s experienced with reads, with where his throws will go, and how to read the spin of the ball off the bat. He’s consistency in an area where there’s been turmoil, and provides that with pretty much the same type of star-caliber upside offensively that we’ve heaped on Marte for years, too.

If the Reds aren’t truly going to go out and address their outfield situation appropriately – which they didn’t do last summer or last winter – the least they should do to try to fix it now is roll out something there that they can at least count on in one aspect. No more counting on just throwing someone out there and assuming it will work out despite red flags waving wildly, no more daily rotation in hopes that miraculously kicks all players into gear despite choppy reps. Give Hinds his glove and tell him to go be the RF going forward, and see if just a little bit of well-earned stability there helps the rest of the jumble fall into place.

On top of everything else, Hinds deserves it. He went right back to AAA after his electric first week in the bigs two years ago and kept working, kept refining his game so that his best assets can more adequately shine. The Reds slow-played him and did a poor job trying to render him redundant, and now he’s more than ready at a time when the club needs him now more than ever.

The last instalment in the Top 40 series on this off-day is my list of prospects I was somewhat higher on and would have either had on or in the mix for the back of my list alone. As Tom noted on his list, these are deep(er) sleepers, generally low probability, but usually they’re be a name or two who pops up the list the next year (like Gage Stanifer had I got around to publishing a list last year, alas).

Nolan Perry was the Jays’ 12th rounder in 2022 out of high school in New Mexico, signed for a $200,000 (of which just $75,000 counted against the pool). I’m always intrigued by this type of draftee (player strongly motivated to pro ball over college, upside at a modest opportunity cost), so he’s been a name to follow for me. He had an uneven 2023 on the complex (7.28 ERA but 51 strikeouts in 38.1 innings), and got the bump to Dunedin early in 2024 to backfill the rotation spot when Landon Maroudis was injured and there was a chance to see him.

His 14 starts would best be characterized as effectively wild, with a 2.93 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 46 innings, but 39 free passes. Many outings he’d had dominant stretches and then an inning would suddenly go sideways. The stuff was quite promising, his fastball up to the mid-90s and the ability to spin two breaking balls that drew swings-and-misses. He mixed in a odd show-me changeup, but it and the command/control lagged as Perry largely “out-stuffed” low-A hitters. Then he too required Tommy John, missing 2025.

In two starts so far in 2026, the stuff is clearly back and that alone would likely have put him on the main list. Barring major steps forward in the control, he probably ends up short reliever, but with some higher end possibility.

Daniel Guerra was an 18 year old international free agent out of Venezuela in 2022, and slowly moving rung-by-ring to reach high-A in now his 5th season. He’s a big guy at a listed 6’6” and 230 pounds, and his fastball touches the mid-90s (sitting low-90s in longer outings) with a decent slider. There’s no viable third pitch, and command/control can be iffy, so this would be purely a relief projection. But if the velo ticks up in short outings, he could be viable as a middle reliver.

If there’s a guy I can’t quit, it’s 2022 2nd rounder Cade Doughty. It’s been an interesting progression for what was considered a power-over-hit, bat-first infielder out of LSU. To that end, in 2023 he slugged 18 homeruns in Vancouver but struck out 30% of the time. Then he was on-and-off the IL in 2024 in what largely ended up a lost season. In 2025 at AA, e cut the strikeout rate back to 22% but the power evaporated (4 HR and .085 ISO). He was also pressed into service at shortstop and while certainly not gifted was surprisingly decent. It’s probably time to move on, but if he can get some of the power back….

The Jays’ Mr. Irrelevant (20th rounder) in the 2023 Draft, Kai Peterson’s strikeout rate proved to be anything but. Using almost exclusively low-90s fastballs from a very low sidearm slot (he should be nicknamed SLingshot for the way he literally would sling fastball after fastball after fastball), Peterson ate up low-A hitters in posting comical peripherals (18 K/9 with almost a walk and inning; 60% of batters striking out or walking). He kept up a ~30% strikeout rate in high-A and AA but struggles to throw enough strikes for basic viability and more experienced hitters had had (more) success laying out to let him beat him himself. He’s increasingly mixed in a sweeping slider, but controlling it is even more of an issue. It’s probably too much to overcome, especially in a post-LOOGY world, but he’s enough of a funky lefty that it wouldn’t surprise me if made the majors at some point.

Carson Pierce was an undrafted FA in 2023 from Oklahoma. While most of the stuff is just okay and unremarkable, he’s got a heck of an offspeed weapon in his change-up that just dives down to the arm side. With a ton of vertical break, it piles up swings and misses and moved him quickly up to Vancouver where he had a very effective run as a bulk/piggyback reliever before leaving a start with an obviously significant arm injury that caused him to miss 2023. Pierce is effectively a one trick pony. but a heck of a trick representing a potential carrying tool.

In the same vein of one-trick offspeed pitch, I’ll at least mention Nate Garkow, 5’11” 28 year old signed two years ago who tops out in the high-80s on his fastball. What makes him effective (1.22 ERA for New Hampshire last year) is this super low-spin screwball that almost knuckles. It’s so befuddling that it vexed not just hitters, but flummoxed tracking systems into labelling it a slider for most of last year. Is it enough to get him the majors? Probably not, but worth keeping an eye on and it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Jackson Hornung was drafted as a catcher in 2023’s 16th round out of D-III Skidmore College in upstate New York. His work behind the plate could charitably de described as very rough, and by the beginning of last year he was moved out to a first base/outfield/DH mix. Frankly, his best position by far is at the plate, where he has a god feel for squaring balls up and driving them for some power (.287/.367/.452 split in Vancouver and NH). There’s a fair bit of swing-and-miss and given the heavy pressure on the bat that’s probably too much to overcome, but if more power comes through there’s potentially something in the bat.

This week’s minor league roundup will only feature the numbers accumulated prior to the start of play on Monday.

This was the 1st a week of full minor league play.

According to FanGraphs (which factors in age and proximity to the big leagues), newcomer Austin Overn the top hitter in the Rays system; the Rays acquired the 22-year old outfielder from Baltimore for Shane Baz this past offseason.

Meanwhile, Santiago Suarez is the team’s top minor league pitcher.

RUMBLINGS

• Tre’ Morgan has been placed on the Injured List. Watching video of his last game, it appears he may have injured his ankle while after hitting a double.
• T.J. Nichols has also been placed on the Injured List for a thus far non-disclosed reason
• Ty Johnson is dealing with a lower back strain
• Minor league signing Edward Olivares has been granted his release.
• Theo Gillen ranked 2nd on Baseball America’s hot sheet, he has four homeruns over a five at-bat stretch last weekend; Daniel Pierece ranked 4th on that list

TEAM LEADERS

• Must currently be assigned to that team
• Baseball America’s top ten prospects are featured below each team they’re currently assigned to.
• (minimum of 20 TBF for pitchers)

Tampa Bay Rays

Top 10 Prospects

• None currently on active roster

Durham Bulls

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .340, Victor Mesa Jr
OBP: .435, Victor Mesa Jr
SLG: .585, Victor Mesa Jr
HR: 2, four tied
wRC+: 173, Victor Mesa Jr
SB: 10, Jacob Melton

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 0.00, Evan Reifert
FIP: 1.23, Andrew Wantz
K%: 30.0%, Cam Booser
BB%: 3.4%, Andrew Wantz
WHIP: 1.17, Kodi Whitley and Evan Reifert
AVG: .105, Evan Reifert
WHIFF%: 19.8%, Kodi Whitley

Top 10 Prospects

• #1 Brody Hopkins
  • AAA: 1.93 ERA | 5.04 FIP | 22.0 K% | 20.3 BB% | .191 AVG | 11.5 WHIFF% | 14 IP
• #3 Jacob Melton
  • AAA: .175/.320/.325 | 42.0 K% | 18.0 BB% | 1 HR | 10 SB | 79 wRC+ | 50 PA

Montgomery Biscuits

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .379, Austin Overn
OBP: .471, Austin Over
SLG: .563, Kenny Piper
HR: 1, six tied
wRC+: 165, Austin Overn
SB: 12, Austin Overn

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.80, TJ Nichols
FIP: 2.12, TJ Nichols
K%: 32.6%, Santiago Suarez
BB%: 0.0%, TJ Nichols
WHIP: 1.00, Santiago Suarez
AVG: .205, Santiago Suarez
WHIFF%: 16.7%, Santiago Suarez

Top 10 Prospects

• #4 T.J. Nichols
  • AA: 1.80 ERA | 2.12 FIP | 25.0 K% | 0.0 BB% | .300 AVG | 12.3 WHIFF% | 5 IP
    • 4/7: Placed on Injured List
• #6 Santiago Suarez
  • AA: 4.09 ERA | 4.31 FIP | 32.6 K% | 4.3 BB% | .205 AVG | 16.7 WHIFF% | 11 IP
• #8 Michael Forret
  • AA: 4.50 ERA | 11.62 FIP | 23.5 K% | 23.5 BB% | .231 AVG | 12.3 WHIFF% | 4 IP

Bowling Green Hot Rods

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .333, Theo Gillen
OBP: .419, Theo Gillen
SLG: .889, Theo Gillen
HR: 4, Theo Gillen
wRC+: 251, Theo Gillen
SB: 3, Theo Gillen

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 0.00, Andres Galan
FIP: 1.44, Jacob Kisting
K%: 36.4%, Jacob Kisting
BB%: 4.5%, Jacob Kisting
WHIP: 0.67, Jacob Kisting
AVG: .105, Andres Galan
WHIFF%: 14.1%, Jacob Kisting

Top 10 Prospects

• #2 Theo Gillen
  • A+: .333/.419/.889 | 22.6 K% | 6.5 BB% | 4 HR | 3 SB | 251 wRC+ | 31 PA
• #5 Anderson Brito
  • A+: 6.00 ERA | 0.60 FIP | 35.3 K% | 5.9 BB% | .375 AVG | 19.4 WHIFF% | 3 IP
• #10 Aidan Smith
  • A+: Hasn’t played in 2026
    • 4/2: Placed on the Injured List

Charleston River Dogs

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .370, Taitn Gray
OBP: .500, Brody Donay
SLG: .704, Taitn Gray
HR: 3, Brendan Summerhill and Daniel Pierce
wRC+: 204, Daniel Pierce
SB: 2, Brailer Guerrero and Daniel Pierce

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.50, Trey Pooser
FIP: 2.25, Dominic Niman
K%: 36.4%, Ethan Storm
BB%: 2.6%, Aidan Haugh
WHIP: 1.15, Ethan Storm
AVG: .179, Ethan Storm
WHIFF%: 21.6%, Dominic Niman

Top 10 Prospects

• #7 Daniel Pierce
  • A: .355/.459/.677 | 29.7 K% | 10.8 BB% | 3 HR | 2 SB | 204 wRC+ | 37 PA
• #9 Brendan Summerhill
  • A: .176/.222/.441 | 25.0 K% | 2.8 BB% | 3 HR | 0 SB | 74 wRC+ | 36 PA

A 1-7 skid entering Milwaukee on Friday had the Nats’ fanbase looking for answers, and the team gave them exactly that with a major 3-game weekend sweep of the Brewers.

Gritty baseball powered Washington to a Game 1 win, with 2 RBI bunts flipping a 3-3 game on its head in the 9th inning as they secured a 7-3 win in the series opener. Foster Griffin was once again as advertised in Game 2, with a 5th inning 2-run double by Jacob Young the difference in a comfortable 3-1 win. The bullpen reared its ugly head in the finale, but timely hitting from Keibert Ruiz in the 8th inning broke a 6-6 tie and got the brooms out to begin the Nats’ road trip.

Washington has quickly gotten itself back within a game of the .500 mark, and now has to take on the NL Central leader Pittsburgh Pirates in a 4-game series. The Pirates, winners of 7 of their last 10 games, have lost just 2 series to this point in 2026. They fell just short of sweeping the Cubs on Sunday in a 7-6 loss, but are emerging as a formidable opponent with a stable pitching staff and much-improved lineup.

Monday – 6:40 PM EST

PIT: RHP Paul Skenes (2-1, 5.25 ERA)

WSH: RHP Cade Cavalli (0-0, 2.51 ERA)

Seeing a 5 at the start of Skenes’ ERA is certainly not a common occurrence, as he’s still attempting to work past his dreadful season debut against the New York Mets. He’s looked much more like his 2025 Cy Young winner self in his 2 recent outings, throwing a combined 11.1 innings with just 2 earned runs allowed. It’s never an easy task facing a pitcher as good as Skenes, and the Nats will have to capitalize on every opportunity they can create.

Cavalli wasn’t able to match the length of his 2nd start, but he still turned in a solid 4.2 innings of work against the St. Louis Cardinals in his last appearance. An error by CJ Abrams extended his 1st inning, leading to the early hook, although he was able to bear down and deliver an adequate line. Holding down the Pirates’ hitters will be pivotal with Skenes as the opposing pitcher, and continuing his streak of sub-3 earned run outings would go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

Tuesday – 6:40 PM EST

PIT: RHP Mitch Keller (1-0, 1.00 ERA)

WSH: RHP Miles Mikolas (0-3, 12.41 ERA)

Keller has yet to eclipse 5 strikeouts in a game this season, but that hasn’t damaged his effectiveness whatsoever. The righty has only allowed 2 earned runs in 18 innings, with 3 straight quality starts to kick off his 2026 campaign. Hitters have rarely been able to make any hard contact against him, especially in the air, and the Nats will look to be the first team to get to the 30-year-old this season.

It has to get better at some point, right? Mikolas’ time in the rotation could be coming to an end if he can’t turn things around, and there aren’t many under-the-hood metrics that point to improvement being on the horizon. Something has to give, whether it’s the veteran figuring it out or manager Blake Butera making a rotation change, but this could be a pivotal game toward deciding Mikolas’ role with the team.

Wednesday – 6:40 PM EST

PIT: RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (0-0, 2.51 ERA)

WSH: RHP Jake Irvin (1-1, 7.07 ERA)

Mlodzinski has been a consistent swing starter for the Pirates since his debut in 2023, and has continued that trend through his first 3 starts in 2026. He’s yet to go 6 innings, which is to be expected, but opposing batters haven’t been able to lift the ball with authority, allowing him to put together 3 solid outings. He’s dealt with considerable traffic in each of his appearances, something the Nats jumped all over in Milwaukee and would benefit from replicating on Wednesday night.

The veteran right-hander settled in against the Brewers after getting hit around by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but had issues with his command throughout. With how the Pirates have been swinging the bat so far this season, walking another 5 hitters might not be a hole he can dig his way out of again. Relying on his offspeed is a probable game plan for Irvin, who has shown flashes this season but needs to put it all together.

Thursday – 12:35 PM EST

PIT: RHP Braxton Ashcraft (1-1, 2.12 ERA)

WSH: LHP Foster Griffin (2-0, 1.76 ERA)

Ashcraft transitioned into a full-time starter to begin this season after bouncing between the rotation and bullpen in 2025, and early returns have been fantastic. With 4 offerings sitting above 90 MPH and all of which grading out as above average pitches, he’s cruised to a 2.12 ERA with an impressive 30.3% strikeout rate. His arsenal during his last start versus the Chicago Cubs was lethal, generating 16 total whiffs in just 5 innings. The one crack in his armor so far has been his 21st percentile average exit velocity, something that could play into the hands of the Nationals’ power bats.

Griffin just keeps getting better and better. He registered his best start of 2026 against the Brewers, relinquishing just 1 hit and 0 runs in 5.1 innings en route to his 2nd win of the season. He’s beaten teams both by the way of the strikeout and by limiting hard contact, forming a return to MLB that has already surpassed most preseason expectations. Offenses can’t seem to get a beat on him, and Washington will hope to keep that pattern alive in the series finale.

Keep the good times rolling

The Nats walked into Milwaukee and took down one of the top teams in baseball in 3 straight games, and are now right in the thick of the early NL East race. Sitting just 2.5 games back of the 1st place Atlanta Braves, they are now given a prime opportunity to take advantage of a division that has gotten off to an incredibly slow start. Pittsburgh is playing some great baseball so far, but as shown during their last series, the Nats can match up with anyone when they play their style of game.

When the Yankees improved to 8-2 on the season with their comeback, series-opening win against the A’s last Tuesday, all was well in the world. There were problems with a shaky bullpen and an unproductive bottom of the order, but the team was winning, and that’s all that matters. But the thing is, over the course of a 162-game season, those faults eventually show up and cost you games.

One of the faults that hadn’t reared its ugly head through 10 games was that, aside from Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton (whose production has been very un-Stantonlike), pretty much everyone in the offense was underachieving to start the year. While some players are hitting into bad luck, the peripherals aren’t encouraging for several others, including noted slow starter Aaron Judge himself.

While some of this can just be chalked up to small sample sizes and some early-season timing issues, there’s one glaring issue with the offense as a whole that, if not corrected, could lead to genuine long-term struggles.

The Yankees have historically been a very disciplined team at the plate, routinely finishing at the top of leaguewide walk rates and pitches per plate appearance. They’ve had a reputation for wearing down pitchers and putting traffic on the bases by being patient, and it’s powered their yearly wRC+ totals, but there is such a thing as being too passive.

And too passive is what the Yankees currently are.

In 2025, the Yankees led baseball with a 119 wRC+, powered by a league-best 10.2 BB% and the second-lowest swing rate in baseball. They also posted a below-average 67.4 Z-Swing% (zone swing), indicating they allowed a lot of pitches to go past them in pursuit of driving up pitch counts.

Compare that to the 2026 Yankees, who are second in walk rate and 28th in Z-Swing%, it might not seem like there’s a big difference. So what’s behind the team’s drastic offensive slump?

There’s a lot of things that you can nitpick and break down, but there’s one partciular area where the Yankees are letting opposing pitchers off the hook: pitches down the heart of the plate.

On pitches classified as “meatballs”, or pitches in the center-middle part of the plate, in 2025, the Yankees swung at 76 percent, which came in almost exactly at the league average of 76.3% What do those numbers look like in 2026?

Yankees meatball Swing%: 68.8 percent
MLB Average meatball Swing%: 73.1 percent

The average is down across the MLB, but the Yankees have absolutely collapsed in this regard. While their in-zone swing rates were at least close to league average last year, they’re considerably below it this year. On a player-by-player level, the difference is jarring:

2025-26 Meatball Swing%:
Aaron Judge: 78.6% to 55.6% (-23%)
Austin Wells: 82.7% to 62.5% (-20.2%)
Trent Grisham: 71.6% to 55.0% (-16.6%)
Ryan McMahon: 74.7% to 66.7% (-8%)
Cody Bellinger: 77.7% to 71.4% (-6.3%)
Ben Rice: 74.8% to 69.2% (-5.6%)
Jazz Chisholm Jr.: 80.5% to 81% (+0.5%)
Giancarlo Stanton: 59% to 69.2% (+10.2%)

Is there a clear and conclusive trend? Not necessarily, considering the team’s biggest overachieving bat and most underachieving bat are next to each other, but you can overall see a massive decline across the board except for Giancarlo Stanton.

Additionally, the Yankees have gone from 18th in First-Pitch Swing% at 31.5 percent to T-20th at 29.1 percent. Why are these two stats important? Here are league-wide stats on both meatballs and first-pitch swings in 2025:

Meatball: .328 BA, .601 SLG%, .389 wOBA, 55.8 HardHit%
First-Pitch: .335 BA, .580 SLG%, .391 wOBA, 45.0 HardHit%

So, clearly, you want to swing at pitches down the middle and attack early to get the best pitches, but it’s especially important for the Yankees, who are running back the exact same offense that did this to these categories in 2025 and what they’re currently doing in 202

2025 Yankees:
Meatball: .324 BA, .680 SLG%, .413 wOBA, 57.7 HardHit%
First-Pitch: .367 BA, .700 SLG%, .449 wOBA, 49.2 HardHit%

2026 Yankees:
Meatball: .313 BA, .453 SLG%, .340 wOBA, 56.6 HardHit%
First-Pitch: .288 BA, .462 SLG%, .346 wOBA, 55.8 HardHit%

If you hang it, the Yankees will bang it, or at least they’re supposed to. They put up video game numbers in these situations and need to get back to that.

The one player who needs to get back to being aggressive, specifically, is the captain. He’s swinging at pitches in the heart of the zone 20 percent less, but only swinging at first pitches slightly less. He’s not doing nearly enough damage on those first pitches right now, but the bigger concern is the massive reduction in swinging at these “meatballs”.

Since Judge ascended into Bonds territory in 2022, he has absolutely feasted on pitches over the heart of the plate. Has it led to some affectionate nicknames in certain sections of social media? Sure, but every MLB player will see a lot of bad pitches; it’s what you do with them that counts. Judge went from swinging at more meatballs than almost anyone in baseball to being extremely passive, and that’s hurt his production:

2025 Judge vs meatballs:
.465 BA, 1.113 SLG%, .631 wOBA, 78.3 HardHit%, 78.6 Swing%

2026 Judge vs meatballs:
1-for-5, .182 wOBA

He’s swinging at less and doing less damage. Getting Judge going is the first step towards turning things around. When you lose eight games by a total of seven runs, you’re talking about multiple games that could’ve been swung by one swing. The entire roster needs to be more aggressive, and problem is best exemplified by their captain, who can lift a lineup by himself.

In case you may have enjoyed seeing the Atlanta Braves take a sojourn into the American League by taking on four AL opponents across their first 16 games, I regret to inform you that the interleague tour is coming to an end. As a matter of fact, the next 13 games will not only be nothing but National League games for the Braves — they’ll be NL East games as well. This week will see the Braves take on the Marlins and the Phillies for a pair of three-game series and that’ll be a prelude to Atlanta visiting D.C. for four games next week and then returning home to face the Phillies for the second weekend in a row.

Atlanta’s divisional rivals may be annoying in their own unique and various ways but where some may see annoyance, others may see oportunity. This week (and this 13-game NL East gauntlet) serves as a golden opportunity for the Braves to make some early hay in the division. If they can keep their series-winning streak going against their closest foes in baseball then that could send an early statement to the rest of the division that this Braves team is not to be trifled with in the least bit.

It’s not going to be easy, though — it rarely is when it comes to this particular division. Now it’s time to see just what’s in store for Atlanta for the next six games.

April 13-15: Miami Marlins

Current Record: 8-8 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 76-86

You can only play who’s on your schedule and as far as the first six games of the season go, the Marlins couldn’t have asked for a better pair of foes to deal with to get the season going. They swept the Rockies out of Miami in exciting fashion and then wrapped up their season-opening homestand with a series win over the White Sox. A win over the Rockies counts just as much in the standings as a win over the Dodgers so the Marlins deserve credit for taking care of business to get the season started.

Ever since then, it’s been tough sailing for Miami. They dropped a series against the Yankees in the Bronx, split a four-game home series against the Reds and then got swept out of Detroit on their way to the Atlanta metro area to face the Braves. During this 3-7 10-game stretch, the Marlins have been the third-worst hitting team in the National League with a team wRC+ of 83 and they’ve struggled on the mound as well with a bottom-five rating in ERA- in the NL and bottom-three rating in FIP- on the Senior Circuit as well.

So yeah, the Marlins are coming into this series limping and this is likely a bad time for them to be limping into Cobb County in particular. Over the past two seasons, the Braves are 16-4 at home against the Marlins and are 53-22 against Miami at Truist Park across the 75 games that these two teams have played against each other at the friendly confines within The Battery. The Marlins also won’t be able to trot out Sandy Alcantara out for this series, either. Meanwhile, starter Eury Pérez has had nearly nothing but bad times against the Braves, Chris Paddack has been inconsistent to start the season and that means that Max Meyer is looking like their best option during this series.

Meanwhile, the trio of Grant Holmes, Reynaldo López and Bryce Elder will be tasked with making sure that the Marlins continue to collectively scuffle at the plate. Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards, Owen Caissie and Liam Hicks have each been swinging the bat pretty well to start off but again, they’ve collectively fallen into a bit of a funk as of late and hopefully Atlanta’s pitching staff will make sure that this funk lasts for at least the next few days.

April 17-19: Philadelphia Phillies

Current Record: 7-8 Projected Record: 87-74

Once the Braves get done with the Marlins, it’s time for a trip to Peter Moylan’s f a v o r i t e ballpark: Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia! That’s right, it’s time to renew hostilities with the ever-present Phillies and their totally-calm-and-reasonable fans. If there’s anything to look forward to, it’s that this seems like a decent enough time for the Braves to be running into the Phillies. Depending on how their midweek series against the Cubs goes, they could be entering the weekend series with Atlanta either bereft of confidence and desperate to get the season on track or feeling like they could be in position to make a statement of their own against the Braves.

If the Phillies are going to be a real threat then their lineup will have to get going. They’re 2-5 in their last seven games and this includes three losses where they scored one or fewer runs. In fact, they got shut out twice in a row by the Giants and that was wild considering that San Francisco has struggled to keep everybody else they’ve played quiet at the plate. Of course, the usual suspects like J.T Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper are going to show up for this series and Justin Crawford is smacking the ball around as well. However, they haven’t gotten a lot from guys like Adolis Garcia, Brandon Marsh, Alec Bohm and Trea Turner. It would be huge if those guys continued to remain cold at the plate once the Braves get a hold of them.

The one thing that’s been keeping the Phillies afloat so far is their pitching staff. Cristopher Sánchez has been lights-out for Philadelphia so far and the Braves will likely have to figure out a way to deal with him in the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball. Atlanta will get to avoid Aaron Nola and Jesús Luzardo, though as I’d imagine that they’d much rather take their chances against Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter — though Painter has also been on a bit of a roll to start this season.

The Phillies could also be due for some type of regression or progression to the mean when it comes to their ERA-/FIP- split. Philadelphia’s pitching staff has an ERA- of 105 but a FIP- of 66. The Braves can actually relate to this in the opposite direction, as their pitching staff has a collective ERA- of 61 with a FIP- of 90. It’ll be very interesting to see which of these numbers offers the true vision of what these two pitching staffs are but for now, I wouldn’t be shocked if this series in Philadelphia came down to whoever can come up with the biggest hits in the high-leverage moments that are sure to come between these two divisional foes.

With the loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday, the Phillies fell to a game under .500. They’ll now welcome another would-be contender who is off to an uneven start to the season that has left them a game under .500.

Chicago Cubs

Record: 7-8, Fifth place in National League Central (Two games back)

The last time they met

The Phillies hosted the Cubs in early June 2025 and won the first game on an eleventh inning RBI by Brandon Marsh. Poor pitching doomed them in the middle game, but a strong start by Jesus Luzardo carried them to victory in the finale.

What’s the deal with the Cubs?

The Cubs made the playoffs as a Wild Card in 2025, and after winning their first-round playoff series, fell to the Brewers in the NLDS. The Cubs tried to build on that in the offseason by signing Alex Bregman and Edward Cabrera, though they did lose Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers. They also remade their bullpen by bringing in Phil Maton and Hunter Harvey.

The new additions have been a mixed bag. Cabrera has been excellent in the early going, but Bregman has disappointed (more on him next). And both Harvey and Maton are on the IL.

The Cubs’ offense hasn’t been where they expected it to be. In addition to Bregman, both Dansby “thoroughly stupid name” Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong are off to slow starts at the plate. Both are excellent fielders, but in the past, they’ve been much better hitters than they’ve shown so far this season.

Featured Cub: Alex Bregman

There’s no denying that Alec Bohm is playing poorly this season, and vindicating those who thought the team needed to move on from him. However, the two big names that most people wanted to replace him with are also playing poorly on their new teams. Bo Bichette has the Mets experiencing buyer’s remorse, and Alex Bregman hasn’t been much better.

It was unlikely that Bregman would ever regain the highs he hit in Houston where he was the MVP runner-up in 2019. But after he had an OPS of .821 and made the All-Star team for the Red Sox in 2025, the Cubs surely expected more than they’ve seen from him early on. He’s batting .213 with two home runs, and perhaps most surprisingly, his defense has not graded out well either.

As I’ve mentioned when talking about the slumping Phillies players, it is still very early in the season. Given Bregman’s track record, there’s a good chance that the next time we see him, his numbers will be around where we expect. Let’s just hope that his early season struggles can continue for at least three more games.

What about the Phillies?

Is it more frustrating when your team loses because they’re getting beat by a superior team, or because they’re just playing poorly? Looking at the rosters, it’s difficult to say that the Arizona Diamondbacks have a superior roster than the Phillies. but the Phillies lost the series because they made a lot of mistakes.

And no, I don’t think Rob Thomson needs to bench Bryce Harper for his poor decision to try to stretch a single into a double. Harper was clearly trying too hard in that situation, and he needs to be smarter. On the other hand, I’d rather see mistakes like that rather than a team that looks moribund. Mistakes of aggression are usually better than mistakes of passivity.

Pennant year song battle

Everybody Wants You by Billy Squier defeated Take the Long Way Home to hold on to the title for another series.

The next contender comes from 1983. In honor of the Phillies’ many mistakes on Sunday, we have It’s a Mistake by Men at Work:

Vote now:

Closing thought

Neither of these teams are playing great baseball at the moment. The series might come down to which team plays the less not great.

Toledo Mud Hens 11, St. Paul Saints 8 (box)

Toledo took the series, 4-3, against the St. Paul Saints on Sunday with an 11-8 win that ended on a walk-off grand slam.

The Mud Hens scored seven runs in the ninth to rally back from a four-run deficit. Ben Malgeri led off with a solo home run, Max Clark walked and Gage Workman hit a double to bring the tying run to the plate. Workman had two home runs earlier in the game — a solo shot in the fourth and a two-run bomb in the fifth — giving him 11 total bases on the day.

Eduardo Valencia singled in Clark and Workman, bringing the go-ahead run to the dish. Jace Jung walked, and Trei Cruz tried to move the runners into scoring position with a bunt. He ended up sending it back to the pitcher, Marco Raya, who got the lead runner at third, but Tomas Nido walked to load the bases.

St. Paul brought in Dan Altavilla to try to stop the bleeding, but Cal Stevenson ended the game with one swing. (Also, the admin who runs the Mud Hens Twitter account was having a blast using Justin Bieber lyrics.)

Outside of the ninth, Toledo was 0-7 with runners in scoring position. Workman’s first homer got the Mud Hens on the board after falling behind 6-0 over the first four innings, and Stevenson grounded into an out for the second run of the fourth. Workman’s second homer came with Malgeri on first in the next frame.

Lael Lockhart got the start for Toledo. Things started fine for him with six outs in a row, but things spiraled in the third for a five-run frame. St. Paul started squaring things up for some hard contact, including three balls that came off the bat over 101 mph. Kyler Fedko homered off him twice, both with a 106-mph exit velocity. His sinker and four-seam were extremely hittable today, but Lockhart had some good numbers with the splitter (54% CSW).

Jack Little relieved Lockhart in the fifth. He got through two innings with little trouble, but Fedko went yard for a third time on the day in the sixth. Sometimes, a guy is just locked in at the plate. Fedko also tripled in the eighth, giving him 15 total bases, five RBIs and four hits on the day. Little didn’t record a strikeout in his outing.

Drew Sommers threw a clean seventh for Toledo. He came back out for the eighth and got two quick outs, but Fedko’s RBI triple knocked him out of the game. Tyler Mattison closed out the inning and worked around two walks in the ninth. Mattison ended up earning the win, thanks to Stevenson’s heroics.

Malgeri: 3-4, HR (1), BB, K

Clark: 0-4, R, BB

Workman: 4-5, 2 HR (3), 2B (4), 3 R, 3 RBI,

Lockhart: 4.0 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

Coming Up Next: Toledo is in Louisville next week. The series starts on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. ET.

Chesapeake Baysox 4, Erie SeaWolves 1 (box)

Erie dropped the final game of the series against Chesapeake, 4-1, on Sunday, finishing the week with a 1-5 record.

It was another five-hit day for the SeaWolves, two of which came in the first inning to score Erie’s only run. Seth Stephenson led off the game with a double down the left-field line, and John Peck singled him. Izaac Pacheco led off the second with a bloop single to left, but he was tagged out at third after taking off on a grounder to the left side.

Erie didn’t record another hit until the sixth, when Peck singled to right with two outs. Sebastian Gongora was really good for the Baysox. He needed just 66 pitches to get through 5 2/3 innings. Erie was chasing his heater and secondary stuff all day. Peck’s second hit came off Eric Torres, but that’s all he’d give up. Stephenson got a single off Jeisson Cabrera in the eighth, but nothing came of it.

Dariel Fregio was effective despite allowing five walks in his second start of the season. He gave up just one hit over 3 1/3 shutout innings. That lone hit was a blooper into left that Justice Bigbie probably could have gotten to with a better jump. It was a windy day, though. Fregio got nicked by a comebacker in the third, but he stayed in the game after a couple of throws to check his mobility.

Trevin Michael took over for Fregio with one out and one on in the fourth. He struck out all five batters he faced. The slider worked really well today, drawing plenty of checked swings that went too far. Luke Taggart was not nearly as good in the sixth. He walked four batters, giving up a free run, and recorded just one out before turning things over to Johan Simon.

Simon couldn’t hold the 1-1 tie through the seventh. He was on his way to working around a pair of singles, but a balk with a man on third gave Chesapeake the lead. Wandisson Charles gave up two runs in the eighth before ending the inning with a double play.

Stephenson: 2-4, 2B (3), R, K

Peck: 2-4, RBI, 2 K

Michael: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K

Coming Up Next: Erie is back at home next week for a series with Harrisburg, starting on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. ET.

West Michigan Whitecaps 4, Great Lakes Loons 3 (box)

West Michigan finished the six-game series against Great Lakes with a victory, holding off a ninth-inning rally to win 4-3. The Loons took the series 4-2.

The Whitecaps were outhit 9-6, but both teams went 2-6 with runners in scoring position. West Michigan scored three in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead and added a very important insurance run in the following frame.

Five of the nine Whitecaps baserunners on the day reached in the fourth. Roberto Campos, Garrett Pennington and Andrew Sojka singled, with Sojka driving in the other runners. Ricardo Hurtado walked and scored on a balk, and Cristian Santana walked as well.

Woody Hadeen led off the bottom of the fifth with a double and scored on a throwing error after Jackson Strong legged out a single. Hurtado was hit by a pitch later in the inning, and Campos walked in the seventh. It wasn’t a strong day for the offense, but it was enough.

Gabriel Reyes got the start for West Michigan, giving up one run on six hits and a walk over three innings. He got double plays to end the first two frames, but three consecutive singles in the second gave Great Lakes a brief lead.

Seth Chavez earned the win, taking over for Reyes in the fourth. He threw two innings of one-hit ball, but nothing was too exciting there. Ryan Harvey held the lead over the next two frames. He didn’t give up any hits and walked just one batter while striking out three.

Zack Lee closed out the win over the final two frames, but there was some trouble in the ninth. A leadoff error led to a run being doubled in, and a one-out single made it a one-run game. Lee finished things off, though, striking out four along the way.

Kind of a boring game, but it’s a good win to send the crowd home happy.

Sojka: 1-4, 2 RBI, 2 K

Hadeen: 1-4, 2B (2), R, 2 K

Reyes: 3.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, BB, 2 K

Harvey (H, 1): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 3 K

Coming Up Next: West Michigan is in Lansing next week. The series starts at 6:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Daytona Tortugas 14, Lakeland Flying Tigers 0 (box)

Lakeland lost its second game of the season on Sunday, and this one was much uglier than the first day before. The Dayton Tortugas shut out the Flying Tigers, 14-0. Woof. Lakeland still won the series, however, 4-2.

Cincinnati’s No. 10 prospect, Sheng-En Lin, threw five no-hit innings for the Tortugas, and the bullpen allowed just one hit. Jack Goodman was the only one who saw the ball well for Lakeland. He had three hard-hit balls (95 mph exit velocity or higher), including the lone Flying Tigers hit of the day, a single to right.

Alistair Tanner got the start after impressing through 3 2/3 innings last week. He only recorded two outs this time around. The mid-90s fastball still drew five whiffs on 11 swings (45%), but he left in the first inning after hitting 35 pitches. It was a bit odd to see him get pulled with two outs and a full count, but that’s Single-A ball (I guess).

Xiomer Guacache didn’t help Tanner out. He threw a ball to give Tanner a walk and an earned run. Guacache walked in another run before getting out of the inning. A leadoff walk in the second got the bullpen active, and Jatnk Diaz took over with one out.

Diaz pitched through the fourth, but he gave up four runs on six hits while striking out just one batter. His stuff wasn’t particularly good, and Daytona put a lot of balls in play. Yendy Gomez was next. He was solid, going two scoreless innings with just one hit allowed. The sinker-slider combo worked well.

Andrew Pogue got the seventh and started the eighth. It didn’t go well. He gave up six runs (four earned) on six hits, two walks and an error. Five straight batters reached off him in the eighth, including four consecutive hits. Outfielder Nolan McCarthy finished up the game, as it was already 14-0. McCarthy didn’t give up a hit, though!

Rainer: 0-3, 2 K

Goodman: 1-4, HR (2), R, 2 RBI, 2 K

Gomez: 2.0 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

McCarthy: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K (POSTION PLAYER PITCHING!)

Coming Up Next: Lakeland is in Fort Myers next week, starting on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. ET.

In order to make room on the active roster for Tommy Pham, the Mets are optioning Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A Syracuse. 

The move is not surprising, given how open manager Carlos Mendoza was about the situation when Mauricio was called up to replace the IL'd Juan Soto.

"Coming off the bench, lefty bat, the versatility, defensively, pinch-running if we need to," Mendoza said about Mauricio. "But also understanding that the playing time part is gonna be limited. But we're not talking about having a case here like last year, where he kind of sat on the bench for a long time."

With regular at-bats not available at the big league level, Mauricio -- who delivered a walk-off hit during the Mets' most recent win -- will be able to play nearly every day for Syracuse.

As far as Pham, he gives the Mets another outfield option.

Luis Robert Jr. and Carson Benge have been starting most days, with Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor, and Jared Young also getting time in the outfield with Soto out.

On days when Pham doesn't start, he'll be a valuable bat off the bench.

Pham, who signed a minor league deal on Opening Day, had been getting into game shape in the minors.

In 449 plate appearances over 120 games for the Pirates last season, Pham slashed .245/.330/.370 with 10 homers and 17 doubles.