Category: MLB

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• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Brown takes on larger role as Cubs navigate injuries to ‘pen. “Given the recent rash of injuries, Brown’s role has been expanded. The circumstances have forced the Cubs to carry five lefties in the bullpen.”
• Michael Brauner (Chicago Cubs on SI): Cubs Flashy Young Prospect is Biggest Trade Deadline Candidate to be Moved. “Beyond just the difficult path to playing time, Jefferson Rojas is thought highly enough of in prospect circles that he could be the centerpiece of a big-time deal to bring another ace to Chicago. Slashing .294/.351/.618 over 10 Double-A games at the age of just 20 this season, his status could continue to climb.”
• Field Level Media (Deadspin): On 5-game win streak, Cubs aim to add to Phillies’ woes. “Both teams continued going in opposite directions while completing a home series Sunday. The Cubs closed out a three-game sweep of the New York Mets with a 2-1, 10-inning win, while the Phillies suffered their fifth consecutive loss as the Atlanta Braves finished a three-game sweep with a 4-2 victory.”
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Alex Bregman knows what he wants his swing to look like, but he’s not there yet. “A lot of what Bregman is currently doing at the plate normally leads to success. He’s not chasing or swinging and missing, both at an elite rate. He’s squaring the ball up frequently, and his hard-hit rate is the highest it’s ever been. Still, the results just aren’t coming. It’s not hard to find the culprit. Bregman’s groundball rate of 47.8 percent is nearly a dozen points higher than his career average.”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib): Jordan Wicks returns to the mound and could be a critical piece of the Cubs’ puzzle, “Wicks spent the offseason tweaking some things and the hope is he can pitch meaningful innings for the Cubs this year. On Saturday, he took the first step toward achieving that goal, making his first start of the year. Wicks fired three scoreless frames for the Iowa Cubs, filling up the strike zone before calling it a day. It was a strong first step back after working his way back from nerve irritation that delayed his start to the season. Given the injuries that have ravaged the pitching staff, this team isn’t in a position to be overly picky.”
• Jared Wyllys (Allchgo.com): Craig Counsell juggling hitter development with winning. “In moments like the sixth inning of Saturday’s game, Counsell’s focus is on getting runs on the board and winning a ballgame. That is going to mean pinch-hitting for guys like Ballesteros later in games. A part of a team’s long-term success comes from every guy understanding his role and being willing to put the group above the self.”
• Joey Mistretta (ClutchPoints.com): Pete Crow-Armstrong’s favorite MLB player is his Cubs teammate. “”We got the best bat to ball guy in baseball and my favorite player in baseball as our leadoff hitter,” Crow-Armstrong said of Nico Hoerner. “So getting on third base with one out and having Nico up, you’re pretty confident that you’re gonna find home plate somehow.”“
• Billy Heyen (Sporting News): Mark McGwire’s son is climbing the ladder toward the Chicago Cubs.“Mason McGwire made his first start of the 2026 season on Sunday, and he threw two perfect innings before allowing a double and a hit batter in the third. A double play allowed him to escape there, and he went 1-2-3 in the fourth. He had five strikeouts in the outing, as well.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Hey, a Cubs Pitching Prospect Won Weekly Honors for All of Minor League Baseball! “The system is heavier on the positional side right now in any case, and Jaxon Wiggins has been hurt (sigh), but we’re still hoping there will be some big pitching breakouts over the course of the season. The system really, really needs it. That’s why, even if only for one appearance, it was very good to see Mason McGwire nab a lot of positive attention today”
• Mike Sullivan (Sporting News): Pete Crow-Armstrong’s offense is a concerning problem for Cubs. “The struggles from mid-July on in 2025 have returned in 2026. His offense has become a major issue for the Cubs and is something to be worried about this season. If it weren’t for his stellar defense in the outfield, the $115 million outfielder would be someone the team would have a lot greater concerns over. Crow-Armstrong is hitting .222 this season with just one homer and a .585 OPS. Last season, he had a .768 OPS and 119 OPS+. He’s down to a 72 OPS+ this year. Another concerning part of his game that hopefully will get better is his base-stealing ability. He’s stolen four bases this year, but he’s been caught three times, the most in MLB so far.”
• Brian Sandalow (Chicago Sun-Times {$}): Injuries to Cubs’ bullpen forcing manager Craig Counsell to be flexible. ‘‘When the names are changing quickly, then your plans are a little more flexible and they’re going to change a little quicker,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘We’ve got enough new bodies down there that, day-to-day, roles can change a little bit.’’
• Steve Adams (MLB Trade Rumors): Cubs Re-Sign Dylan Carlson To Minor League Deal. “Back with the Cubs now, Carlson will provide some depth in the upper minors. Chicago’s roster has been decimated by injury, but nearly all of the health problems for the Cubs have been on the pitching side of things.”
• Daryl Van Schouwen (Chicago Sun-Times {$}): Jameson Taillon doesn’t discount struggling Mets, then holds them to one run in six innings. “It would have been easy to think silly thoughts and let the Mets’ losing streak get into his head. But Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon wouldn’t allow it on his drive Saturday to Wrigley Field. ‘‘I wasn’t going to fall into the trap of thinking this was a bad team or a struggling team,’’ Taillon said. ‘‘You look at the names up and down the lineup, I came in here not wanting to be the reason they got hot. I had that conversation with myself.’’”
• Jared Bloom (Sporting News): Strong pitching and high-scoring offense have the Cubs surging despite injuries. “Pitching was especially big for the club over the weekend. Jameson Taillon went six strong innings on Saturday, while Javier Assad went 5.2 innings, giving up just one run on three hits in the 2-1 extra-inning win on Sunday. On top of solid pitching, the Cubs have gotten good offensive production last week. Nico Hoerner has really stepped up lately, hitting two home runs and having 11 runs batted in over the last five games.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Cubs manager Craig Counsell makes point with Carson Kelly’s pinch-hit, game-winning homer. ““Sometimes it works,” Counsell said.“

Food For Thought

A highly accomplished guitarist and singer/songwriter with a strong musical point of view grounded in the very best blues traditions. Combine those talents with original blues-based material and you begin to understand Daniel Castro’s strengths as an artist. After cutting his teeth in South Central L.A. blues clubs with “Mighty Mouth” Delmar Evans, who worked with the Johnny Otis Show, Castro backed other great artists from Otis’ band, including Pee Wee Crayton and Little Ester Phillips. He also recorded and toured with many other artists including legendary Small Faces singer-bassist Ronnie Lane. A Daniel Castro Band performance is soulful, polished, and intense as the group shifts from one scintillating groove to the next. Daniel covers lead vocals and rhythm and lead guitar with amazing dexterity. Musical chemistry is obvious from the first note the band plays and it never lets up.

A group of students from a Kansas high school rode to prom in style when they were able to enlist the services of an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

“People take limos,” student Cooper Lietz said. “This is basically just a big hot dog limo.”

50 Best Places to Visit in the USA

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series.

With eleven games under rookie Juan Brito’s major league belt, he is entering a stretch where it will be important for him to prove he can make some needed adjustments to continue top-side with Cleveland.

For Brito’s first 24 plate appearances, things could not have gone much better for the young hitter. He had a 102 wRC+ with a 20.8/8.3 K/BB%. He saw 21% four-seamers, 16% cutters, 10% sinkers, 24% sliders, 22% changeups, and 6% curveballs. In the following 21 plate appearances, Brito has put up a -20 wRC+ with a 42.9/4.8 K/BB%. From promise to disappointment… such is the life of many a baseball player. But, will Brito return to the promise we saw at first?

Well, have opposing pitchers begun attacking him differently? Nothing stands out when we look at pitch mix… Brito has seen a 10% increase in four-seamers (the decline coming from fewer changeups) in the past 21 plate appearances. Have pitchers begun going to different plans in locating those pitches? Aha… yes. During the first half of his 45 major league plate appearances, Brito saw 23.6% of the pitches thrown his way land outside the strike zone. During the second half, that number has increased to 31%. So far in the bigs, Brito has chased 38% of the time (36% in that first 24 PA’s and 39% in the following 21 PA’s), and only made contact outside of the zone 53% of the time. In looking at his chase rates, this doesn’t seem to be a pitch-specific issue; he’s chasing both fastballs and offspeed and breaking pitches outside the zone.

This is the big issue for Brito at the plate. If he is chasing pitches at anything near the rate he is right now, he will not be able to take his walks (obviously) and he will not consistently get pitches he can pull in the air. Brito does not have elite raw power to compensate for any of those losses in value by doing maximum damage on the few pitches he does see in the zone. He is not fast (34% sprint speed), so he will not be stealing bases when he does take a walk. He has to learn to chase less often, take his walks, and force pitchers to bring the ball into the zone where his 86% zone-contact can allow him to pull the ball in the air and be a dangerous offensive presence.

He can’t do what he did tonight as I was writing this article, for example. This is Brito against a fastball outside, a cutter in the zone, and three changeups to end the at-bat out of the zone from Astros’ pitcher Spencer Arrighetti:

Plaster this all over your locker, Juan. Opposing pitchers are going to do this to you until you force them to bring the ball into the zone.

Most folks reading this article are more concerned with Brito’s defense, I suspect. He has -2 Defensive Runs Saved so far and 0 Outs Above Average. It’s hard to tell much from small sample sizes of fielding stats, of course, but he also has looked in over his head at several points, and cost the Guardians a game in Atlanta by muffing a 91 mph grounder hit right at him. Brito can’t be making a notable error every week and costing the team games. There is no surer way to find himself hopping a bus back to the state’s capital.

It’s a critical time for Brito to begin to adjust back, because the team has two options to play second base who are performing quite well. In the majors, Daniel Schneemann has a 153 wRC+ with a 27.6/8.3 K/BB%. and he’s also been an average-good fielder all over the field, including 3 DRS and 5 OAA at second base for his career. In the minors… you guessed it… in 168 plate appearances at Triple-A, Travis Bazzana has a 134 wRC+ and a 22.6/19.3 K/BB% there. Getting Bazzana up soon and getting his feet wet to let him work through the usual struggles he has experience at each new level he reaches could be extremely helpful for a potential playoff run later in the year. Finally, Gabriel Arias is beginning baseball activities, and, while I suspect Rocchio has Wally Pipped his partner at short, I do think the team would promote Arias and demote Brito, rather than risk losing Arias’s glove in a DFA (I leave no comment on whether this is risk worth respecting).

I have been saying for a while that I think Brito’s best position is in the corner outfield. I still believe that’s the case, but, it will rely on him being able to get to his plate discipline and pull-air power on a somewhat consistent basis. I suspect that is what we will see him get the chance to do over the next 2-4 weeks… at which point, we will probably see either Arias OR Bazzana. Meanwhile, I would continue to give Schneemann 2-3 starts a week vs. RHP, at least until he shows signs of cooling off (as Angel Martinez has done).

I have long been a believer in Brito’s plate discipline and pull-fly ball ability. It certainly won’t be the worst or the last time I am wrong if he can’t quite reach his potential in the major leagues, but it would definitely be a tough pill to swallow for a young guy finally reaching his lifelong dream of being a big leaguer, and on a good team. We will keep rooting for you, Juan, even if the arrival of Bazzana is what’s going to drive media attention when it happens.

Sonny Gray exited Monday’s game early with a hamstring injury. While the injury isn’t believed to be serious, Gray is spending at least 15 days on the injured list to recover. The Red Sox play 14 games over the next 15 games, so they’ll need someone to fill in. Gray’s turn in the rotation won’t come back around until Friday, and Tyler Samaniego will replace him for now, but they could turn to a traditional starter when the time comes. So, who should replace him?

Payton Tolle has a 3.00 ERA in three minor league starts. Tyler Uberstine is also on the 40-man roster and can provide bulk innings; he’ll come off the IL in three days. Jake Bennett has been impressive in his short stint in the organization as well. My vote would be for Tolle, but any of the three have a solid case. Lucas Giolito is a free agent as well — that could be fun, but it’s unlikely. Is there someone I’m forgetting? Let me know in the comments.

The past two weeks have been adventurous for the Yankees since their 8-2 start to the season. A lengthy losing skid obliterated their fledgling division lead, then a perplexing four-game set with the Angels showed their greatest strengths and greatest flaws in equal measure. Consequently, it was a relief to watch the Bombers dispose of the Royals in convincing fashion over the weekend to complete the homestand. That gives them a good dose of momentum ahead of the first Rivalry Series of 2026.

The Red Sox are, to the pity of nobody on this pages, struggling. They sit tied for last place in the AL East with an 9-13 record, unable to rely on either a slumping lineup or a scuffling pitching staff. They game saw their ace Garrett Crochet get hammered around for the second consecutive outing over the weekend, and hitters they’re relying on to have big seasons have not answered the call. Roman Anthony is off to a slow start. Trevor Story and Caleb Durbin have been frightful. Marcelo Mayer still hasn’t found his footing in the majors.

How-evah, as John Sterling would say, the Red Sox are still a very talented team the Yankees cannot afford to take lightly. The struggling Crochet will not appear in the series, but three strong starters—including one who always seems to elevate his game against New York—will take the home hill at Fenway Park.

Tuesday: Luis Gil vs. Connelly Early (6:45 pm ET)

This is a bit of a rough draw for the opener. Luis Gil has not looked great through his first two starts—he at least made it through five innings last time, but has allowed seven runs across nine frames. Gil has issued five walks and surrendered four homers, including three against the Angels in an eventual come-from-behind win. It remains to be seen if Gil can reattain his Rookie of the Year vintage, but if he can handle a sleepy Red Sox offense, maybe that can spark a turnaround.

Connelly Early opposed Cam Schlittler in his unforgettable Wild Card Game 3 performance, and was matching Schlittler’s dominance until losing his footing in the fourth inning. And hey, it’s still early, but the 24-year old lefty is looking good. Through four starts he has a 2.29 ERA with 20 strikeouts counterbalancing 10 walks. For what it’s worth, the Yankees feasted on Royals southpaws over the weekend, dispatching both Noah Cameron and Cole Ragans with ease. Will Early be another victim of a suddenly hot New York lineup?

Wednesday: Max Fried vs. Ranger Suárez (6:45 pm ET)

Speaking of left-handed pitching, we have a doozy in the middle game (airing on Prime Video) between two very good lefty starters. Max Fried had a substandard performance against the Angels last time, with Oswald Peraza of all people beating him twice. But he still has a 2.97 ERA through his first five starts and has been particularly strong on the road. Fried pitched great against Boston last year, including a strong Wild Card performance and six scoreless innings in a game at the Stadium in which he had an interesting encounter with a squirrel.

Ranger Suárez was the Red Sox’ big signing to make up for Alex Bregman’s departure to the Cubs. His first four turns through the rotation have been the definition of a mixed bag—two clunkers against Houston and San Diego followed by a pair of scoreless outings against the Cardinals and Tigers. That last game was an eight-inning two-hit masterpiece—Boston ultimately won that game 1-0 in 10 innings. Suárez is at his best when he keeps opposing lineups on the ground; he grabbed 10 of them in that start.

Thursday: Cam Schlittler vs. Brayan Bello (6:10 pm ET)

Schlittler is due to receive a positively venomous reception from the Boston crowd thanks to that aforementioned utter domination of the Sox to eliminate them in the Wild Card Series. It’s hard to believe the Walpole native will be pitching at Fenway Park for the first time—Schlittler’s meteoric rise has come that quickly. He and fellow Massachusetts native Ben Rice are quickly turning New England against them, and that suits Schlittler just fine.

Brayan Bello, of course, is a Yankee-killer. He’s never really been an exceptional starting pitcher, but he routinely elevates his game against the Bombers. Given his 6.75 ERA through four starts, he’s certainly hoping that trendline can continue. Bello threw over 30 pitches in a rocky first inning and exited after four innings with four runs allowed—so the key to the Yankees will be to get after him early.

Phillies News:

• Rob Thomson remains committed to Alec Bohm, should he?
• Gearing up for the TDL in April? Some predict Adolis Garcia might be there already
• The media is already salivating on the manager hot seat with Rob Thomson
• Phillies’ prospect Matthew Ferrara made MLB.com prospect team of the week

MLB News:

• Craig Counsel finds the Dodgers roster advantage “bizarre”
• Small market MLB teams are outperforming big payrolls, undermining owners’ push to cancel 2027 season
• Former Phillie Mick Abel hits the IL with elbow inflammation (uh oh)
• Edwin Diaz still has a bit of NY Met in him still, goes on IL with scheduled elbow surgery

In a season-long search for answers, the Cardinals appear to have some offensive pieces emerging. Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson, rookie JJ Wetherholt, and (hopefully) Jordan Walker can continue to do what he’s done through the first 3 weeks of the season. Between Walker, Nolan Gorman, and Victor Scott II, there existed the biggest questions about their offensive futures on this team. Walker, undoubtedly, has earned himself a lot longer leash with his start. Gorman is doing his Gorman thing, showing flashes of offensive upside, and then stretches where he can’t even touch the baseball.

The St. Louis Centerfielder Victor Scott II spent the offseason with a biomechanical specialist at West Virginia (his alma mater), and he worked to make his swing more efficient. The results early on this season have not shown a tangible improvement.

According to Statcast, Scott’s swing path still appears to be mostly unchanged, if only a minor tweak that Scott is trying to take the ball back up the middle more often than pulling it, which could allow him to leg out of a few more infield hits.

Victor Scott has also moved back in the box slightly on his setup and the stance he has closed himself off more, likely in an effort to keep himself more direct and up the middle with his approach.

What about when he’s putting the ball in play? Looking at his batted ball profile, it appears he is still struggling with pulled groundballs. Scott has cut his “AIR%” in half from 56% down to 33.3%, which is an okay trade-off for a player of Scott’s skill set. The problem is that Scott is not able to do any damage; he is not pulling the ball in the air, only at a putrid 2.4% so far in 2026.

When you look at what Scott has done against individual pitches to try to understand what has given him the most trouble, it’s pretty much everything that’s not a Sinker or Cutter.

Oddly enough, when you go over to Fangraphs, Victor Scott has a 123 wRC+ against LHP. Normally, you don’t see a player perform that well against same-handed pitching. The other unfortunate end of that is that his wRC+ against RHP is 10.

The bottom of the zone with those offspeed/breaking balls is the area of greatest need. Ordinarily, players will have a tough time if there is a spot or two that is tough to cover. When it’s the entire bottom 1/3 of the zone and underneath the zone that can be exploited by the opposition, especially the best in the world at that, it can almost be untenable.

Okay, what about his speed and defense?

Scott is a little bit slower in his reads, but he seems to process the flight of the ball really well, and has above-average to plus closing speed, and is great with closing speed and getting to the baseball once he has an idea of where it might land.

Scott’s 29.6 ft/s is in the 98th percentile in all of baseball. These are the two things that Scott does best. Impacting the baseball and providing any kind of offensive value is not. Which is unfortunate, with nearly 700 MLB PA in his career already, it doesn’t seem like, projecting forward at least, that Scott will be anything more than a 4th OF in MLB long term. Which would prove my initial evaluation of him wrong. I thought he could be someone with 10-15 HR power annually and play gold glove defense in CF, and that could be a nice above-average player on a competitive team.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel recently posted his first 2026 MLB mock draft, and included in that piece was the Cardinals at number 13. For that spot, one name that McDaniel talked about was Trevor Condon, who is a prep outfielder from the state of Georgia. McDaniel mentioned that some evaluators around the game whisper the name “McGonigle” when talking about Condon, and that caught my attention QUICKLY. MLB dot com drew comparisons to Brett Gardner or Sal Frelick, which are definitely different profiles, but that was released back in December, and we now have this spring’s results and performance to include in that evaluation. The overall purpose of this blurb in this article is that this years draft class is particularly loaded with some young exciting outfield prospects and while you dont draft for need, if the evaluations are close, position could be a tie breaker, lest we not forget the lurking emergence of Tai Peete or Ryan Mitchell, both of whom could project to play CF long term if their development continue in a positve way, both with considerable more offensive upside than Scott has displayed in his 2+ seasons at the big league level thus far.

Could Scott change something and unlock more offensive ability down the road? Sure. But, at this point, he hasn’t shown anything to convince us otherwise, and those asking the question about what Scott is long-term. It would be hard to argue anything other than a 4th outfielder at this point.

What are your thoughts on Victor Scott? Let me know, and let’s talk about it!

-Thanks for reading

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

You know, over the course of a six-month season, you’ll see every kind of baseball game. Sometimes you’ll see a heavyweight clash between two tenacious clubs, battling with every fiber of their being as they put on a clinic of intense, well-played baseball.

And then other times you’ll see what can only be described as a frenetic slap fight between two mediocre opponents, each apparently trying to give the game away but neither one willing to take it.

You can probably guess which of these descriptions applies to last night’s ridiculous Orioles vs. Royals contest. Somehow, some way, the O’s ended up with a 7-5, 12-inning win in a game that they trailed 1-0 with two outs in the ninth. For 8.2 innings, it was shaping up to be one of the Birds’ most embarrassing losses, one in which they managed a single hit — from the second batter of the game, no less — before the O’s offense vanished for eight innings. Gunnar Henderson got picked off twice. Kyle Bradish allowed 13 baserunners in 5.1 innings to a terrible Royals offense and somehow only one run, owing to the aforementioned terrible Royals offense.

In the end, Samuel Basallo saved the day with the game-tying, two-out, two-strike hit in the ninth and the go-ahead RBI single in the 12th, and Leody Taveras added the cherry on top with his first career grand slam. And still the Orioles almost blew a five-run lead in the bottom of the 12th. That was the game in a nutshell. An O’s victory both thrilling and maddening, equal parts exciting and exasperating. Against any other team it probably wouldn’t have been a win, but the Orioles took full advantage of the worst team in the AL. Mark Brown recapped all the ridiculous action.

I’m not going to go so far as to say that this is a win that will give the Orioles some momentum, because all of their season-long warts were on full display for most of it. Their problems aren’t exactly fixed. Still, it was nice to see Basallo’s bat start to come around and unexpected 2026 stalwarts like Taveras, Rico Garcia, and Anthony Nunez continue to contribute. The O’s need their star players to return to form, but in the meantime they’ve had lesser-known players keeping them afloat so far.

What the Orioles did last night sure wasn’t the way you’d script it, and it’s not a sustainable way to win. But let’s take the victories now and sort the rest out later.

Links

Updates on Holliday, Hiraldo and other injured Orioles – School of Roch

A bunch of injured Orioles appear close to returning, but we probably won’t see Yaramil Hiraldo again this season. My apologies to all the Yaramil Hiraldo stans out there.

Has Jeremiah Jackson solidified his place on the Orioles? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com

By being basically the best hitter on the team? I should think so!

Kyle Goon: Jeremiah Jackson’s fiery start for the Orioles merits a serious look at his long-term lineup spot – The Baltimore Banner

What he said. Jeremiah has been a great story for a 2026 Orioles team sorely lacking in them.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy birthday to an Orioles Hall of Famer and the 1973 AL Rookie of the Year, Al Bumbry. “The Bee” spent 13 of his 14 MLB seasons in Baltimore, racking up 252 stolen bases, third-most in O’s history. Enjoy your day, Al! Other former Orioles born on April 21 include lefty Cionel Pérez (30), infielder Ryan Adams (39), catcher Ronny Paulino (45), and MLB’s all-time leader in games pitched, Jesse Orosco (69), who made 336 of his 1,252 career appearances as an Oriole.

On this day in 1996, Brady Anderson set an MLB record by hitting a leadoff homer for the fourth consecutive game. He accomplished the feat in all three games of a series against the Rangers and a game in Boston before that. The kicker? The Orioles lost all four games.

Random Orioles game of the day

On April 21, 2005, the Orioles suffered a 1-0 shutout loss to the Red Sox at Camden Yards. The game’s only run came in the second inning on a Ramón Vázquez RBI groundout that plated future Oriole Kevin Millar. Birds starter Rodrigo López pitched brilliantly, going eight innings while allowing only that one (unearned) run, but the O’s offense had no answer for Red Sox righty Matt Clement, who worked eight scoreless of his own before Keith Foulke nailed down the save in the ninth. The O’s had eight hits in the game, including three by Melvin Mora, but couldn’t get any when it mattered.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are off to a good start so far this season, with the starting rotation and some improved hitting playing major roles. However, there’s still one important piece of the rotation still to add, and that is starting pitcher Jared Jones. He was injured last season and given a 10-12 month recovery time, and with Jones placed on the 60-day to start the season, the earliest he could be back on May 25. According to reports, that looks like it still might be possible.

Jones was throwing heaters this past week, according to 93.7 The Fan, and according to Ben Cherington, Jones has also been doing some in-game situation sims, throwing in both Pittsburgh and back in Bradenton. Cherington called it an “extended Spring Training type game sim” and is expecting a more formalized rehab stint soon.

Jones had his surgery last May, and with him still targeting this May as a return date, we’re still squarely in the original timeline and will keep an eye on his official rehab assignment.

Jones went 6-8 in 2024, finishing with a 4.14 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP and 132 strikeouts in 121 innings pitched against 39 walks. The Pirates had high hopes for Jones, and it was a disappointing injury, but it will be nice to have him back into the mix with the team playing so well.

The only question left would be how does he fit into the rotation? The entire group is pitching well. It’s certainly not going to be in place of Paul Skenes or Mitch Keller. Original logic would say he jumps in for Carmen Mlodzinksi, but he’s off to a good start too. It’s possible that Jones becomes a sixth starter, fitting in where he can until he’s back to full game strength, but that’s an absolutely good problem to have.

The NCAA softball season is hitting the homestretch.

Conference tournaments will be held in early May with 31 automatic bids the NCAA Tournament at stake. Similar to basketball, 64 teams will qualify for the tournament, which culminates with the Women's College World Series, which begins May 29 in Oklahoma City.

So who are the players and teams to keep on our radar heading into the tournament? The Athletes Unlimited Softball League has given us a pretty good idea by handing out golden tickets − delivered by softball legends or AUSL league leadership in front of teammates, coaches and family members − to the best college players, soon to be pros, in the country. Getting a ticket means the athlete will be drafted to AUSL on May 4 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Fifteen golden tickets have been handed out so far, all but two of the players are on teams ranked in the top 25. Here are the athletes who have received them:

The Yankees are in Boston today, as they’ll take on their archrivals for the first time in 2026. It’s just the second time the Yankees have faced a divisional foe this season, their three-game set at the Trop against the Rays this month the only AL East matchup on a slate that’s otherwise been populated by teams like the Royals, Mariners, and Athletics.

It wasn’t so long ago that these divisional meetings were more frequent. In 2023, MLB smoothed out their schedule, reducing the number of games divisional rivals played against each other from 19 to 13. Gone were the long summers of seemingly playing only AL East foes, those drawn-out battles fomenting familiarity and resentment in equal amounts.

The schedule MLB has gone to has plenty of logic to it. It’s more balanced, and it allows every team to play every other team at least once, giving fans a regular chance to see all the other teams and stars the league has to offer. Yet the question still begs to be asked: do you miss the days of playing nearly half the schedule against division rivals?

Again, there’s a lot of logic to the new schedule, if only from the perspective of competitive balance. Teams in perennially strong divisions get the short end of the stick with unbalanced schedules, forced to beat up on each other all year while some team in the AL Central strolls to 87 wins and a division title. And there’s real benefit to the emergence of interleague play, setting up great annual matchups that we previously would have had to wait years to see. From a Yankees perspective, it’s been pretty cool to see them clash yearly with teams like the Dodgers, the Phillies, and the Brewers, top NL teams that they wouldn’t always have had the chance to face barring a World Series appearance.

But I’m sure some fans are nostalgic for the old days, where you really got to know your divisional rivals over the course of a season. At the cost of some spare interleague series against the Pirates and Marlins and the Diamondbacks, the Yankees would become deeply acquainted with the Red Sox, and the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays. There was something quaint to it, coming to revile these foes that we saw so often, but also finding some comfort in the familiarity, in the steady drumbeat that such consistent divisional matchups provided.

How do you feel? Do you miss the old days of playing the Sox and Jays over and over again? Or are you glad to see a schedule with more logic to it?

This morning, Kevin will recap what happened on the Yankees’ offday, while Jeremy will look ahead to the three-game set in Boston. Also, Michael delivers his review of the week that was down on the farm, and Nick writes up Joe McCarthy as part of our Yankees Birthday series. And in the afternoon, Josh discusses Aaron Judge, and being clutch in the first inning, while Peter’s At-bat of the Week gives some kudos to Ryan McMahon.

Today’s Matchup

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

Time: 6:45 p.m. EST

Video: YES Network, TBS, NESN+

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

MLB.com | Max Ralph: Your New York Yankees return to play on Tuesday at Fenway Park, visiting the Boston Red Sox in the first series between the two archrivals since the Bombers eliminated the Sox from the 2025 Postseason in the Wild Card round. Luis Gil and his 7.00 ERA in two starts will take the mound for New York, facing the talented Connelly Early starting at 6:45 pm ET. The 13-9 Yanks lead the AL, and Boston is fourth with a 9-13 record.

Newsday ($) | David Lennon The Yankees used the red-hot Ben Rice at the top of the lineup in Sunday’s 7-0 win over the Kansas City Royals, and the experiment was a resounding success. Lennon, however, believes Aaron Judge should be deployed as the leadoff hitter more often. “Judge has hit 90 first-inning homers in his career, including five this season, giving him the third-most in franchise history behind Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. The Yankees’ captain is the definition of instant offense, and with Rice now red-hot, having homered in four straight games, manager Aaron Boone should dip his toe in those Judge leadoff waters again, as he did during the 2022 season,” he wrote.

NY Post | Mark W. Sánchez: Randal Grichuk is 2-for-20 to open the season. Those are the cold, hard numbers. Under the hood, however, he knows he deserves better. His .334 xwOBA is much, much more decent than his horrible .150 wOBA, and he also has a 61.5 percent hard-hit rate. He knows that with Anthony Volpe potentially returning soon, his place on the roster could be in jeopardy, but hopes that the work he has put in and the hard contact are enough to give him a chance, whether it happens on the Yankees or elsewhere.

“With Volpe coming back — it’s something you think about,” he said. “You’re not not thinking about it. You just got to hope that, if it doesn’t all work out here — and hopefully it does — somebody else is interested due to the fact that they see the underlying stuff, not the baseball-card numbers.”

MLB.com | Mike Lupica: Most baseball fans are familiar with the Yankees’ 1927 Murderers’ Row, an extraordinarily talented and deep offense that took baseball by storm back then. Lupica says that perhaps the modern edition of the Murderers’ Row can be the Yanks’ 2026 rotation. Cam Schlittler is sporting a 1.95 ERA, Will Warren is at 2.49, Max Fried at 2.97, and Ryan Weathers at 3.18. There is still a chance that Luis Gil, the owner of a 7.00 ERA, rebounds, and Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón should return within weeks from now. It’s certainly an impressive collection of talent.

The heart of the Mariners showed up early, but the heart of the A’s order showed up late.

The Mariners lost 6-4 in Monday’s series opener against the Athletics. Emerson Hancock continued to look like the new-and-improved version of himself, but he also threw a few bad pitches and was eventually burned. Cal Raleigh and Dominic Canzone each homered, and Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor combined for five hits. But the Mariners ultimately could not overcome a 13-hit day for the Athletics.

Hancock entered the day as perhaps the story of the early season. Through four starts, he had a 2.75 FIP, 24.2% walk rate, and a top 20 WAR among qualified starting pitchers. It’s been a pleasant surprise for the Mariners, who have been desperate for some depth beyond their top-five starters. In fact, Hancock so far in 2026 has looked like much more than depth. He made a ton of changes over the offseason, as Michael Rosen pointed out for FanGraphs last week, including tweaking his repertoire and fundamentally changing how he throws the ball.

For the most part, Hancock looked like the new-and-improved version of himself on Monday. He continued to pound the zone with fastballs at 95 mph, issuing zero walks. And he continued to expand the zone with sweepers to righties and the changeups to lefties. He racked up 11 whiffs on 51 swings and three strikeouts. Again, for the most part, it worked. Hancock scattered a few singles, stranding a couple early, generating a double play in the fourth, and even picking off Lawrence Butler in the fifth. Again, with no walks, those were the only runners who reached base against him.

Unfortunately, three others reached base and just kept running. In the fourth, Hancock threw an up and in fastball to Carlos Cortes leading off the inning — the pitch didn’t even catch the zone — but Cortes was sitting on it and turned it into the right field seats.

In the sixth, Hancock threw a middle-middle fastball to slugger Nick Kurtz, who crushed it out to center. Hancock threw the same pitch to the next batter, slugger Shea Langeliers, who also crushed it to center. The back-to-back homers tied the game at 3-3 and ended Hancock’s day.

Here’s the locations of those homers:

In the end, the stat line for Hancock was five innings, seven hits, three strikeouts, no walks, and three homers. That’s not a good line. And it could have been worse. He also gave up a lot of hard contact in addition to the homers. Here’s an out he was fortunate to get: Kurtz hit a sharp liner to center to leadoff the game that seemed to knuckle and forced Julio to make an acrobatic play:

Still, this looked like the “good” version of Hancock we’ve seen so far from this year. The velocity was there. The movement was there. And the whiffs were there. Is it good to throw a pair of middle-middle fastballs to two of the best sluggers in the league? No. But this was a lot different from Hancock’s poor outings from the past three years.

Jose Ferrer was next in line in the sixth after the back-to-back homers. He immediately gave up a hard single against the shift to Cortes. He got the next two batters to fly out, but a broken bat single and a hit by pitch loaded the bases. Ferrer then got Lawrence Butler to hit a hard chopper right back to the mound. Ferrer reached up and snagged it over his head, and after a bit of scampering to find the ball for a moment, he realized it was in his glove, tossed it to first, and escaped the inning.

Matt Brash worked an uneventful seventh inning against the top of the order to keep the game tied at 3-3.

By the eighth, however, Dan Wilson seemed to be out of relievers. Andrés Muñoz and Gabe Speier had each pitched on back-to-back days, and Eduard Bazardo had thrown a lot of pitches recently as well. Wilson instead went with Casey Legumina, who wasn’t very good. He gave up a leadoff double, followed by a single and a walk to load the bases. For a moment, it looked like he might escape with minimal damage after a sac fly to make the game 4-3. But a single from Butler plated the remaining runners to give the A’s a 6-3 lead, and eventually, the win.

It was overall a good day for the Mariners offense. In the bottom of the first, Raleigh flipped a homer the other way to open the scoring. Julio followed with a rocket single up the middle, and Naylor doubled him home to make it 2-0.

Naylor continued to swing at just about every pitch he saw Monday and this time picked up three hits, including his first two doubles of the season. He’s now up to a 54 wRC+ in 2026, which isn’t good but still about five-times higher than his 15 wRC+ from before the Rangers series. It’d be nice to see him start working the count again, but the results are starting to come around. He also picked up his first stolen base of the season and was back to being a pitcher’s pest on the bases, flinging his arms around at second base and earning a scolding from A’s start JT Ginn on his way to dugout in the first inning; Naylor was undeterred and continued to gesture wildly the rest of the game.

Dominic Canzone also had a nice day. He plopped a homer to right in the second inning to make it 3-0, and later lasered a double off the right field wall at 111.8 mph. Both pitches were elevated on the inner part of the plate — the pitches he’s the very best in the world at hitting.

The Mariners made things interesting late. In the eighth, down 6-3, Julio and Naylor each hit one-out singles. But Randy Arozarena flew out, as did Rob Refsnyder, who was still in the game after pinch-hitting for Luke Raley in the sixth.

Now, I defended Wilson’s bullpen management in my last recap on Saturday, and I stand by that today (even with the unfortunate circumstances that lead to Legumina in a late-leverage spot). But pulling Raley with one out and nobody on in the sixth to get a handedness matchup for Refsnyder seemed to come back to bite Wilson in the eighth when Refsnyder had to face a righty.

“Both (Canzone and Raley) have swung the bat very well and it’s tough to take them out of any game. And the same is true when (Refsnyder) in there and he’s swinging the bat well, it’s tough to take him out,” Wilson said on the decision after the game. “These are hard decisions…but it just felt like tonight, that was the decision to go with.”

I’m generally not a fan of doing an “um actually” to quotes like this. And Wilson is notoriously reluctant to say anything bad about his players for the sake of answering questions — I might even say that’s a good quality in a manger overall. But Refsnyder entered the day with one hit on the season, and Raley entered the day with 21 hits on the season. They are not swinging the bat equally “well.”

Again, I’m not really taking Wilson’s quote at face value here. I’m sure he knows Raley is hot and Refsnyder is not. I think the rationale here is that this is simply the Mariners’ process, and they’re not going to abandon that process for a hot hand in a small sample. Raley is hitting well, but he doesn’t have even 100 plate appearances, and he’s not won the full-time job quite yet. It’s also hard to do counterfactuals like this. Perhaps the A’s would have used a different pitcher if Raley was still in the game, and certainly handedness is not the only consideration in pitcher-hitter matchups.

Still, I’m just not a fan of the platoon-and-pinch process in general. I said as much last season when the Mariners were pinch hitting at historic rates, and I’m sure I’ll write a similar story this year if the trend continues. Hitters are simply much worse off the bench, and when you go for the handedness advantage early, you’ll often give back that handedness advantage later. That was the case Monday, even if it’s a bit of a stretch to blame the loss on that directly — the Mariners still gave up six runs.

The Mariners nearly clawed back anyways. In the ninth, Cole Young picked up a one-out single, and scored on a double from Rivas to make it 6-4. But J.P. Crawford popped out, and Raleigh flew out, and the game was over.

A good all around win. Dylan Cease was effectively wild, as they say, the bullpen was terrific, and while the offence wasn’t explosive the did enough in key moments (very much out of character).

Toronto loaded the bases with two outs in the first, on singles by Vladimir Guerrero jr. and Eloy Jimenez and a Kazuma Okamoto grounder that might have ticked off Vlad’s toe, causing Angels shortstop Zach Neto to bobbke it, but Lenyn Sosa struck out to prevent them from capitalizing. In the second, Daulton Varsho was hit by a pitch (on his elbow guard, it looked like, and he didn’t appear to be in significant pain) but again they could not bring him home. They got on the board in the third. Davis Schneider lead off with a walk and one batter later Vlad clubbed a two run homer to straightaway centre, putting the Jays on top 2-1. The bats went quiet at that point, though, with Reid Detmers sitting down the next eight batters to get through the fifth. Vlad and Jimenez each singled again to open the sixth. Okamoto hit a ground ball into the hole that Neto made a beautiful play on to turn and throw Jimenez out at second, putting men on the corners with one out. Sosa hit a sac fly to left that pushed Vlad across to give them a 3-2 lead. Detmers returned for one batter in the seventh, walking Myles Straw. Tyler Heineman laid down a sact bunt against reliever Chase Silseth to advance Straw, and a Nathan Lukes, hitting for Schneider, singled to extend the lead to 4-2.

Dylan Cease looked good, but the Angels got a run off him on the first on a pair of ground balls. The first, by Nolan Schanuel, went for a double, and the second, by Jorge Soler just ticked off a diving Ernie Clement’s glove and into left to score the runner. He got through the second with just a line single, but more trouble loomed in the third. Neto walked and Mike Trout reached on an infield single, then the two executed a perfect double steal to put two in scoring position with none out. A Schanuel sac fly tied the game at two. Cease walked Yoan Moncada but got out of it without giving up a lead with a strikeout. He had his first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, picking up his eighth and ninth strikeouts on the way. Following a Neto single, his 10th, 11th, and 12th got him through the fifth. That would be the end, though. It took him 110 pitches to get there, allowing two runs on five hits and a pair of walks.

Braydon Fisher was the first guy out of the pen, getting a double play to erase a walk in a scoreless bottom of six. Louis Varland did him one better, retiring the side in order with a pair of strikeouts in the seventh.

Okamoto walked off Shaun Anderson in the eighth, but that was it. Varland returned to strike out Trout before giving way to Tyler Rogers. Andres Gimenez, who’d hit for Sosa in the top half of the inning, booted a routine grounder to allow Schanuel to reach, but Rogers recovered by getting the next two innings.

Straw singled to open the ninth. A passed ball allowed him to go to second, and Heineman sac bunted him over to third. That allowed him to come home on a Lukes grounder off Anderson’s leg, expanding the gap to three runs. Jeff Hoffman wasn’t his sharpest, but after a Jo Adell single he struck out the next three Angels to lock down the win.

Jays of the Day: Vlad (0.25), Lukes (0.12), Varland (0.13)

Less So: Heineman just qualifies, but he got hit by about a dozen foul balls today so I’ll give a reprieve and say nobody.

It’s another 9:38pm ET start tomorrow. Jack Kochanowicz (2-0, 3.47) takes the mound for the Angels, while Patrick Corbin (0-0, 4.66) will hopefully look more like his second Blue Jays start than his first.

The A’s came into Seattle on Monday evening and used some late-game offense to take the first of this three-game set. Back in the win column, and back atop the AL West with sole possession of the division lead.

Ginn struggles early, settles in

On the mound tonight starting for the A’s was right-hander J.T. Ginn. He came into tonight on a mini roll, having put up two quality outings since getting inserted into the starting rotation.

Facing the Mariners for the very first time, Seattle greeted Ginn with two runs in the first, a solo homer off the bat of Cal Raleigh and an RBI double from first baseman Josh Naylor. They’d get Ginn for one more run in the second as well off another homer, this one coming courtesy of Dominic Canzone.

Those early-game struggles weren’t great, but Ginn was sent out for the third and finally had a shutdown inning, collecting three strikeouts in the third. The 26-year-old would go on to pitch all the way into the sixth without allowing another run and leaving with one out in the inning. He ended his night on a high note as well, getting Randy Arozarena to strike out swinging for his sixth K of the night.

• J.T. Ginn: 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2 HR, 92 pitches

Well it was a little dicey in the first two frames but Ginn did good to buckle himself down and provide his team with some extra innings. Mark Kotsay made a good call letting Ginn work his way back into this one, and his offense would pick him up later tonight.

Offense struggles early, comes on strong late

On the other side of the ball, the A’s lineup was facing M’s righty Emerson Hancock. For the first few innings the A’s did have much of an answer for the former top prospect, collecting just a pair of singles the first time through the order.

The second time through the order the A’s batters were able to start getting a better read on Hancock. Leading off the top of the fourth, tonight’s DH Carlos Cortes connected on a fastball high and in and drove it over the wall in right field to get the A’s on the board for the first time tonight:

That was #2 on the year for Cortes, who came through with a massive night while hitting in the #3 spot of the order. Mark Kotsay was right again tonight about batting him in such a big spot in the lineup.

The A’s were starting to make better contact but it took a couple more innings for the big ones to come. Now into the sixth and with the top of the lineup at the plate this was about as good an opportunity as the team could hope for. Well first baseman Nick Kurtz strode to the plate and connected on a fastball right down the middle for another solo shot to cut the lead to one:

The A’s didn’t have to wait long for that next run either. Shea Langeliers came up right behind Kurtz and blasted his own solo shot, swatting another hanging fastball down the pipe and depositing it over the wall in center:

Tie game. That was his 7th of the year. The A’s had Hancock’s number and the Mariners knew it. That third homer of the night chased Hancock from this contest. The Athletics kept up the pressure against the bullpen, loading the bases that very same frame but weren’t able to cash in and take the lead. And with Ginn soon departing as well, it was going to be down to the bullpens to determine who would win tonight.

Late-game heroics

Left-hander Hogan Harris relieved Ginn in the sixth and not only finished the frame but handled the seventh as well. It was a perfect outing for Harris; no hits, no walks, plus a pair of punchouts to boot. Tonight was his team-leading 13th appearance and he’s been everything the A’s could have hoped for in the early going.

Now into the eighth, the A’s finally broke through in a big way. A double, single, and walk loaded the bases with no outs and the team was cooking. Third baseman Max Muncy made sure to drive in at least one with a productive sac fly that gave the A’s their first lead of the night.

After that it was Lawrence Butler’s turn at the plate and he came through with the biggest hit of the game, a two-run single to push the A’s lead to three runs:

Now with a lead and some extra breathing room A’s fans could relax and enjoy the rest of the game. Or so we thought. The Mariners did not go down quietly in this one. Mark Leiter Jr. took over for the eighth and gave up a pair of hits with both reaching scoring position and just one out. He managed to pull a Houdini with a massive strikeout of Arozarena and a flyout to end the threat, but that was a close one.

Then it was Joel Kuhnel on for the ninth for his fourth save opportunity. The right-hander, who did not start the season with the big league club, got the first out but then a single and RBI double cut into the lead and woke us all back up. Now with the tying run at the plate Kuhnel needed to be nails. And he was, getting J.P. Crawford to pop out and Raleigh to fly out to end the game.

A’s win! A solid performance all around. The bats took some time to get going but they came through in a big way late. Three homers. Four players getting multiple hits. Carlos Cortes going 4-for-4. Then Ginn had some early struggles but did a good job of not letting it snowball and get out of hand. He really saved the bullpen by being able to pitch into the sixth. Speaking of the ‘pen, the three arms combined pitched nearly four innings, and while it got a little dicey at times they bent but didn’t break. Kuhnel is now 4-for-4 in save opportunities which leads the team. Do we finally have our closer? And who would have seen this coming?

We’re back in first place and we’ll have an opportunity to add to that lead tomorrow evening when these teams meet back up for the second game of the series. For the A’s they’ll send left-hander Jacob Lopez to the bump. It hasn’t been a smooth start to the season for the lefty and he’ll need to show more than he has up to this point if he wants to keep ahold of his spot in the rotation. Walks especially have been a major problem for him so far as he has 17 in 18 innings of work. Overall he’ll bring a 6.38 ERA into tomorrow’s contest.

As for Seattle, they’ll have veteran Luis Castillo getting the ball for them for the middle game. The 33-year-old right-hander has had a so-so start to his year. He had a disaster performance a couple starts ago, when he got shelled for seven runs. Before that he pitched six shutout innings in his first appearance, 3 2/3 with three runs allowed in his second, the blowup game, and most recently he tossed 5 1/3 with just one run allowed against the Padres. Hard to know which version of Castillo will show up tomorrow but the A’s will be ready. In his career against the Athletics he has a nice 3.02 ERA in nine starts, so we’ll be hoping to boost that number a bit tomorrow night.