Category: MLB

Major League Baseball (MLB) and the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA) have begun the process of negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that will take effect with the next baseball season.

The current CBA runs out on Dec. 1 of this year. The two sides began their preliminary groundwork for negotiations earlier this month. The MLBPA submitted its first proposal on Wednesday, with its lead negotiator, Bruce Meyer, releasing a statement outlining the goal for their efforts.

“Today, the MLBPA presented a comprehensive set of economic proposals designed to advance the rights and benefits of players at all levels,” MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer said in a statement. “Our goal is to preserve and improve baseball’s market system, rewarding competition on and off the field.”

MLBPA proposal

Following is a synopsis of the major proposals for the MLBPA’s initial effort:

• A boost in the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1.5 million beginning in 2027.
• A Competitive Integrity Tax that penalizes a team that fails to reach a minimum $150 million payroll.
• Luxury Tax changes that would increase the Competitive Balance Tax threshold from $244 million to $300 million for 2027 and then incrementally increase to $360 million by 2031.
• Free Agency changes that would give a player who is 30-years-old and has a minimum of 5 years of service, the ability to become a free agent instead of the current required 6 years of service time.
• Revenue-sharing changes that would increase the amount shared from locally based revenues among all teams, but less sharing from local revenue generated from stadium-based revenues. Teams share the first $50 million in local revenue and then two-thirds of every dollar beyond that.
• Each team would get a certain amount from the central revenue each season, starting at $240 million the first year, and paired with a provision that requires spending the revenue on payroll.
• Increased revenue sharing to low-revenue teams that make the postseason or have winning records.
• Penalties to teams that don’t spend their revenue-sharing income on team payroll. 
• Draft picks and incentives for low-revenue teams that are active in signing free agents.
• Expand the draft lottery from 6 teams to 8 teams for first pick in the draft.
• Expand the Prospect Promotion Incentive program.
• Eliminate the Qualifying Offer for free agents and eliminate the non-financial CBT penalties.
• Increase the compensation to lower-revenue teams losing a player to free agency.
• Enlarge the pre-arbitration bonus pool from $50 million to $180 million. There would be annual increases added to that amount.

MLB made an official response to the MLBPA proposal.

“We appreciate the union making a set of proposals and we look forward to continuing the bargaining process and working towards solving the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us needs to be addressed,” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. “We understand their proposals are designed to benefit players. Unfortunately, they do not address and in fact exacerbate the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us we must address.”

MLB counterproposal

Today, MLB released the highlights of its proposal and Glen Caplin, MLB spokesperson, made the following statement.

“Fans overwhelmingly support a salary cap and floor like in the other leagues because they don’t believe a $446 million spending gap from top to bottom is a fair fight,” league spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement. “Our salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 as we grow the game together.”

Here are the major proposal highlights for the MLB:

• Payroll floor of $171.2 million and a payroll cap of $245.3 million for every team, starting in 2027. That includes player benefits, just like the current contract.
• 50-50 split of league revenues with the players. As the revenues increase, the salary cap and salary floor would also increase.
• Centralized fund for all local media revenues, with the money distributed equally among all the teams.

The issues of free agency, draft lottery, and arbitration were not addressed in their initial proposal. The league is proposing a seven-year term for the contract.

What’s at stake

This process promises to be a drawn-out battle with both sides determined to hold the course with their bottom lines. The players have repeatedly stated they will never agree to a salary cap, and the owners have repeatedly said the organizational revenue and payroll disparities are not good for baseball, and they are representing the demands of the fans with their proposals.

Some points that both sides will undoubtedly bring out during the course of this negotiation

1. A top 10 payroll team has won six of the last seven World Series.
2. A bottom 15 payroll team hasn’t won a World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
3. The payroll disparity from the top five teams to the bottom five is almost five times (4.7 exactly), the most on record. The Dodgers’ payroll, including luxury tax, is $407 million in 2026. The Miami Marlins payroll is $74 million in 2026.
4. MLB formed a Fan Council in 2025, requesting the input of fans regarding issues important to them. Competitive balance was reported as the most important topic discussed. 
5. Baseball is at its most popular and financially lucrative status in history. Both sides should be motivated to reach an agreement to maintain this momentum. The fans were alienated significantly with the labor dispute of 1994, when the World Series and a lot of the season were cancelled. It is everyone’s best interest not to have that happen again. 

How this affects the Padres

Under the current proposal, the Padres would be one of the teams required to reduce payroll. It is not likely that this proposal will resemble the final proposal. These are the ideal terms the two sides would want to have for their contract. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement it is likely a owner “lock out” will ensue and the season could be compromised significantly.  

For any given baseball game, there are dozens or hundreds of little things that could have gone just a little differently to change a win to a loss or a loss to a win. Nearly every time, one of those things looms larger than the rest. On Thursday night as the Orioles opened up their series against the Blue Jays, the one that looms largest was this: Rookie reliever Anthony Nunez couldn’t stop walking guys in the eighth inning and he walked in what turned into the game-losing run as the O’s went on to lose, 2-1.

After impressing with some early-season outings, Nunez played himself into a late-inning high-leverage role. Things have not gone well for him in that capacity through May, with this blown game just the latest problem. If you turn to a guy with a 5 ERA in a tie game in late innings, is it really a surprise if it goes badly? On the other hand, it’s not like the Orioles are flush with better bullpen options, especially with Yennier Cano having hurt his hamstring yesterday.

Nunez’s outing began with a leadoff double given up to George Springer. After the Jays risked a sacrifice bunt to move Springer to third base, the Orioles intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to set up a possible ground ball double play. Nunez instead walked the next guy, Daulton Varsho, loading the bases. Nunez picked up a strikeout for the second out and he just needed one more out to escape this situation.

He could not do it. Facing a fellow rookie, Yohendrick Piñango, Nunez tried to get the Jays pinch hitter to bite on pitches outside of the strike zone. Two of them were nowhere near. Two were much closer, close enough that when they were called balls, Adley Rutschman challenged to try to get them overturned. He was wrong both times, including on ball four outside to force in the second Jays run.

There were chances to come back even after this. In classic 2026 Orioles fashion, they managed to find failure in the most inexplicably stupid ways. Right after the deflating bases-loaded walk, Taylor Ward led off the bottom of the eighth for the Orioles by hitting a single. Two batters later, Gunnar Henderson had struck out and Rutschman replaced Ward at first base.

This brought up Pete Alonso, who smashed a ball along the ground that deflected off of Jays pitcher Tyler Rogers. The ball bounced high up into the air before being fielded at second base by Ernie Clement, who threw to first to try to get the Polar Bear. Alonso is not a fast man. He did, however, beat this throw. The first base umpire somehow missed this call even with a great view of the situation. These injustices are why replay is important, even if it is often stupid.

Speaking of stupid: Alonso got picked off first base to end the inning. What else can you even say about it? That’s the one thing that can’t happen and the team’s $31 million veteran leader went and did it. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference. Weston Wilson was the batter. He hasn’t hit much in May. Fine, sure. Let him be the one who fails, so the response is, “Well, that’s what happens when Weston Wilson comes up in clutch situations because you already used Samuel Basallo to pinch hit earlier on.” Instead, the response is, come on, man.

In the ninth inning, Leody Taveras hit a one-out single to get the tying run on base. Recently-heroic Colton Cowser could not continue his streak of dramatic positive outcomes. Jackson Holliday could do nothing, either. The game was over and so was the winning streak the Orioles built up in sweeping the Rays.

Much earlier in the game, there was a starting pitching matchup that was, according to the MASN broadcast, the one with the oldest combined age of any game so far in the 2026 MLB season. 37-year-old Chris Bassitt has been good or at least okay for the past several years and has been bad so far this year. 36-year-old Patrick Corbin has been terrible for the past several years and has been decent so far this year.

These veteran guys were fine on Thursday night. Bassitt gave up a run in six innings, allowing only a third inning solo homer to Andrés Giménez. Corbin gave up a run in five innings, allowing only a fourth inning game-tying homer to Coby Mayo. Neither factored in the game’s decision.

The Orioles did threaten Corbin in the first inning. Ward led off the game with a single. Henderson hit a grounder that might have been a double play ball except it was bungled by Okamoto at third base. Because you can’t assume the double play, this was merely a fielder’s choice – at least until Ward kept racing around second base with the ball loose and Okamoto compounded the mistake by being slow to retreat back to third base. He was not in position to catch the ball and tag Ward, and in fact he did not catch the ball.

Somehow, even though the ball was never at any point in time in Okamoto’s glove, the third base umpire called Ward out on the play. MLB’s replay center took an embarrassingly long time to arrive at the obvious correction. Replay is great when it’s not stupid. The Orioles had second and third with no one out in the first inning.

Nothing happened. Rutschman lined out, then Alonso and Mayo struck out. One of these guys scoring would have been awfully nice. The Orioles couldn’t do it. Good games from Bassitt have been rare in his tenure so far and they just couldn’t capitalize on that.

This was game one of a four-game series. The season is not heading back into the toilet just because they lost one game. The Orioles just have to play better and do this until they’re back where we want them to be. They could even do it for the remainder of this series. At least, assuming they’re able to overcome the handicap of a 2026 vintage Trevor Rogers start as the set continues on Friday at 7:05. The Blue Jays, as of this writing, do not have a starting pitcher listed. Perhaps they’re trying to unearth any lefty they can find. Not a bad strategy when facing this Orioles team.

With just a few days left in May, the Colorado Rockies find themselves in a bit of a conundrum. With a record of 6-19 for the month and a run differential of -70, the Rockies are looking much more like the bad and rebuilding team we expected them to be compared to a relatively successful April.

On top of that, the team’s depth has started to be tested. The Rockies have lost multiple pitchers and position players to injury this month. Jordan Beck, Mickey Moniak, and Brenton Doyle, Chase Dollander, Victor Vodnik, José Quintana, and Jimmy Herget have all landed on the injured list in May. While there have been a few call-ups like Sterlin Thompson, Chad Stevens, and Welinton Herrera, the Rockies seem unlikely to call up any of their top prospects like Charlie Condon or Cole Carrigg.

With that being said, the team might need some reinforcements from outside the organization to help find their footing. Here are some options that might be worth considering:

Andrew McCutchen

They say Father Time is undefeated, and the beginning of Andrew McCutchen’s age 39 season hasn’t been a great one. After playing fairly well with his Pittsburgh Pirates last season, McCutchen was allowed to walk as the Pirates aimed to get younger. McCutchen signed on with the Texas Rangers and made their Opening Day Roster, but has struggled in limited playing time. In 83 plate appearances he has hit just .192/.277/.260 with one home run and a 62 OPS+ before being designated for assignment earlier this week.

McCutchen is by no means a permanent or long-term solution, but if the storied veteran has any gas left in the tank, he could be a low-risk move for a right-handed designated hitter on a team that has been struggling to score runs.

Bailey Falter

No matter how you feel about Kyle Freeland, I think everyone can agree that something isn’t right with the veteran lefty since he returned from the injured list. Since being activated from the 15-day IL with a sore left shoulder, Freeland has struggled immensely in 26.2 innings of work. He has an ERA of 11.48, a FIP of 7.73—which indicates that although his ERA is inflated during that time, he is still pitching poorly.

Freeland is struggling to get velocity in his four-seam fastball and struggling to place his other offerings. While he does have 26 strikeouts since returning, he also has ten walks and has given up 11 home runs. Before his injury he had a 2.30 ERA and had given up just one home run.

I would argue Freeland needs to return to the injured list, and with José Quintana out of commission with an elbow injury, the Rockies suddenly find themselves lacking for left-handed starting pitchers.

Enter Baily Falter, who was designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals.

Falter, a lefty, started last season strong with a 3.73 ERA over 22 starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates before being traded to the Royals. Since landing in Kansas City he has struggled as the Royals have used him both as a starter and reliever. In nine appearances with the Royals since last season he has a 12.46 ERA over 21.2 innings.

While certainly a reclamation project for Alon Leichman and the Rockies coaching staff, Falter fits into a similar mold as Freeland. A deceptive left-handed pitcher with a low 90s four-seam fastball and a handful of breaking pitches. If the Rockies could help Falter find his form from Pittsburgh, he could be a valuable piece of depth.

Final Thoughts

Who, if anyone, do you think the Rockies should pursue as reinforcement options from outside the organization? Let us know in the comments!

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Blue Jays 2 Orioles 1

I guess we scored some runs yesterday, so it was too much to ask for us to get more than two today.

We scored:

• One in the third: Andrés Giménez homered.
• And one in the eighth: George Springer doubled. Nathan Lukes bunted him to third. I hate bunts when the runner is already in scoring position. And Nathan had already had a hit tonight. Oh well. Then the Orioles intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero. Daulton Varsho also walked, loading the bases. Kazuma Okamoto struck out, he chased strike three, but the other pitches were strikes. Yohendrick Piñango, pinch-hitting for Myles Straw, took a walk to drive in the run. A couple of the pinches were close, but Yohendrick showed a good eye. Unfortunately, Ernie Clement struck out, swinging at a pitch well off the plate. Ernie’s going to Ernie.

We had 6 hits and 5 walks, so you would have hoped for more runs. But such is life. No one had two hits. Okamoto was the only one in the starting lineup not to reach base.

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Patrict Corbin threw an excellent five innings, with four hits, one earned (a Coby Mayo home run. I’ve never liked Mayo, it’s white stuff that tastes like white stuff.), He’s been nice in what I would have called a fifth starter role, if we had four other starters.

And the bullpen did well:

• Braydon Fisher had a clean sixth, with a strikeout.
• Jeff Hoffman allowed a hit, but had two strikeouts. He got the win.
• Tyler Rogers had a tough time, giving up a couple of hits, with a strikeout and came out with two on.
• Louis Varland got out of the inning, though he had little to do with it, Brandon Valenzuela made a great throw to first, to pick off the runner. Vlad played well off the line but ran to first on the pitch, and made a nice tag. He did give up a ground ball single in the ninth, but got out of the inning.

Jays of the Day: Varland (0.31 WPA, but some of that is owed to Valenzuela and Vlad), Piñango (0.24 WPA, all for the RBI walk), Fisher (0.12), Corbin (0.09) and Hoffman (0.09)

The Other Award: Okamoto (-.017, for his 0 for 3).

Tomorrow, is a 7:00 start. I thought today’s would be at 7, so I was a little late with the GameThread. Someone will start for the Jays. Connor Seabold? Someone from Buffalo? You? Me? Trevor Rogers (2-6, 6.96 ERA).

The Jays are 28-29. It would be nice to get back to .500 tomorrow.

Redshirt junior third baseman Mikey Bell is leaving the Gonzaga Bulldogs program after two seasons and will enter the NCAA transfer portal, per D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers.

The back-to-back West Coast Conference Player of the Year right away becomes one of the most coveted bats available across college baseball when the portal officially opens on June 1. It will be open for a 30-day window and close on June 30.

PORTAL NEWS: 2-time @WCCsports Player of the Year, @ZagBaseball 3B Mikey Bell is entering the Transfer Portal, I'm told. Bell, 6-2, 200, hit .379 this past season with 24 doubles, nine homers and 47 RBIs + 1.063 OPS. Should be a hot commodity.

Profile: https://t.co/3dtgUrp5aVpic.twitter.com/DevhRqVW9o

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 28, 2026

The 6-2, 200-pound infielder hit .369 with 24 doubles, 20 home runs, 92 runs batted in, and 51 walks during his time in Spokane, Washington. Bell finished with a .448 on-base percentage, .610 slugging percentage, and 1.057 on-base plus slugging percentage across 107 games.

The Fresno, California, native started his college career on the junior college level with Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. The Slipper Still Fits spoke with the 22-year-old before the start of the 2026 season, and what a treat it was. Best of luck to Bell in his future endeavors.

EXCLUSIVE: Reigning POY Mikey Bell Prepared for Gonzaga Baseball’s Chase at Final WCC Title

Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on X @a_cravalho

After a rare disappointing series (against the Washington Nationals, no less), the Atlanta Braves had no choice but to lick their wounds and keep it pushing against their traditional (league-mandated) interleague rivals in the form of the Boston Red Sox. Considering that the top of the rotation was going to be in action, there was at least some hope that this meant that the pitching could at least keep Boston quiet over the course of the three games at Fenway Park.

The big question was whether or not the Braves could get over the funk that their lineup was in. It’s one thing to only score one run over two games — both losses. It’s another to do so against a Nationals pitching staff that had performed very poorly up until that date. It was now time to see if that was just an inevitable blip that all teams will have to deal with over the course of a long baseball season or if the Braves had what it took to bust out and get back to smacking the ball all over the place. In the end, we got a mixture of results but one that ended up being an ultimately successful one for the Braves. Let’s get into it, y’all.

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Tuesday, May 26

Braves 7, Red Sox 6

This one started very inauspiciously in the first inning for the Braves as they went down in order very quickly against Ranger Suárez while Spencer Strider gave up back-to-back homers to start things off. Atlanta would be forced to come from behind yet again and while it took a while for things to get really interesting as far as the Braves were concerned, the road team appeared to be up for the task of making it happen.

Suárez was seemingly cruising until the fifth inning, which is when he was suddenly jarred out of that false sense of security by Matt Olson hitting a lightning bolt of a two-run homer that tied things up. The Braves went on to run Suárez out of the game in the next frame, as an Austin Riley triple off of the Monster and an RBI ground rule double from Michael Harris II gave the Braves the lead and Suárez the hook. They made sure that it was a bad day for him after a productive out from Dominic Smith and an RBI single from Ronald Acuña Jr. gave the Braves some breathing room and put all five runs on Suárez’s line for the night.

The sixth inning was also the end of the line for Strider, as he eventually ended up with five innings pitched and three runs allowed after his leadoff walk in the sixth eventually made it home while he was in the dugout. From that point forward, things got topsy turvy to the point where the Braves were in clear survival mode once this game ended. Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a solo shot in the seventh inning to cut the deficit but Michael Harris II’s fourth hit of the night was a two-run dinger in the eighth that gave the Braves some vital insurance runs. They ended up needing those insurance runs because Raisel Iglesias had a rare rough outing where he got dinged for two runs while trying to close out the game. He eventually did so and the Braves escaped with a series-opening victory.

Wednesday, May 27

Red Sox 8, Braves 0

All due respect to the lovely TV production that BravesVision brings to us fans for nearly every game but also, you know it’s bad when C.J. Nitkowski catching a foul ball was the highlight of the night for the Braves.

For the second time in four games (and the third time in about a week-and-a-half), the Braves got shut out. A six-run fourth inning for the Red Sox (aided by two costly errors from Matt Olson and Chadwick Tromp) ended up being the turning point since Atlanta had little to offer against Connelly Early and Ryan Watson on the mound for the Red Sox. Boston added two more runs late and this ended up being a pretty lame one after the Braves went down in extremely short order following the big fourth inning for the Red Sox.

Thursday, May 28

Braves 10, Red Sox 2

The pitching matchup between Chris Sale and Payton Tolle promised to be a good one and as it turned out, both pitchers kept their promise. While both pitchers “only” made it into the fifth inning in this one, Chris Sale got the slight edge as he ended up actually completing five innings while Tolle got pulled following 4.2 innings of work.

It came down to which team would be able to put in the work after the starting pitchers exited the game and boy, oh boy, the Braves certainly put in the work once Tolle was gone. The game turned Atlanta’s way in the sixth inning, which is when the Braves took the lead on a bases-loaded walk from Mike Yastrzemski and then broke the game wide open after Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his first dinger since April 24 (!!!) in grand fashion. Acuña’s grand slam put Atlanta up by five runs and thanks to the bullpen clamping down from that point forward, the Braves ended up cruising for the rest of the way.

Michael Harris II added another home run for good measure in the seventh inning to put a cap on a lovely series for Money Mike and then Ozzie Alies bopped one out in the ninth inning for two runs that pushed the Braves into double digits on the day. I’d say that avenging an eight-run loss with an eight-run win is a pretty solid way to clinch a series, right? Their 15th series win in 57 games, no less. Pretty good, huh!

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For this to be a series win, there wasn’t really a ton of time where it felt comfortable for the Braves — or a least that’s how I felt watching this series. The only times I really felt completely relaxed while watching this series was after Raisel Iglesias got the final out of the first game and after Acuña’s grand slam in the series finale. Outside of that, Boston was tough to deal with and it’s hard to believe that they have such a poor record at Fenway Park.

Still, it speaks to the resiliency of this Atlanta squad that they were able to turn this into a series win. It got really hairy in that first game and the second game was tight for a bit as well but ultimately the Braves did themselves a lot of credit by proving themselves as the better team and taking the series.

Seeing Michael Harris II rake over the course of this three-game series was certainly encouraging and it was truly a sight for sore eyes to see Acuña send one flying over the Green Monster in order to put Atlanta well ahead in the rubber match. While it’s obvious that this lineup is missing Drake Baldwin a little bit, it sure would be nice to see the current face of the franchise start to get hot at the plate, himself. Hopefully this’ll be the start of seeing Acuña get on a heater, which is something that pretty much everybody across Braves Country would love to see. Jorge Mateo even did some serious work when he was called upon, so that was lovely to see in what ended up being a pretty positive series for the Braves.

Now, the focus turns to Cincinnati where the Braves will hopefully be able to keep things going in Cincinnati against the Reds. It’s always a bit concerning going into that ballpark with the bottom part of the rotation set to take on all the challenges that come along with playing against the Reds in that stadium. At the same time, the Reds have struggled against teams who are over .500 and the Braves lineup will also get to hopefully benefit from those dimensions as well. Hopefully we’ll continue to see the version of Atlanta’s lineup that did some serious work in the two wins in this series at Fenway Park rather than the one that has been intermittently showing up and getting shut out. We’ll see what happens.

Mets starting pitcher Kodai Senga made his first start for the organization's Triple-A ballclub, the Syracuse Mets, on Thursday night.

Senga took the mound against the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Senga's workload saw a massive boost tonight, though his effectiveness and efficiency left a lot on the table.

He came out of the gates firing, beginning his start against the top of the Red Wings order by striking out the side, all swinging.

However, he ran into some trouble during the rest of his start, losing control of the strike zone on multiple occasions. 

He threw 80 pitches through 3.2 innings, allowing three runs on four hits and two walks.

Just two of those runs were earned, as in the fourth inning, the baserunner who eventually scored (Robert Hassell III) reached base on a fielding error by highly touted first base prospect Ryan Clifford.

Senga was removed from the game, having recorded five strikeouts with Syracuse leading 6-3. His signature forkball was his best pitch all night, especially when it came to generating whiffs.

While the Mets are clearly ramping up Senga's workload at a rapid pace, it remains unclear as to what role he will have on the team's pitching staff, as well as when he will return to the big league roster.

Senga made his first rehab start last Friday, completing 4.1 innings and throwing 58 pitches at Single-A St. Lucie.

The righty was placed on the IL on April 28 with lumbar spine inflammation.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball now. But is he the greatest baseball player of all time?

Former National League MVP Joey Votto went on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday morning and voiced his opinion about the two-way superstar.

“I really think we might be in the middle of one of, if not the greatest, season in the history of baseball,” Votto said.

"I really think we might be in the middle of one of, if not the greatest, season in the history of baseball."

– @JoeyVotto on Shohei Ohtani pic.twitter.com/YyAxOxJNvz

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) May 28, 2026

After making his MLB debut with the Angels in 2018, Ohtani has done plenty of incredible things. He’s the first player to collect more than 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season, he’s a four-time MVP, five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger and two-time World Series champion.

But it seems the best is yet to come.

After returning to the mound last season and collecting 62 strikeouts with a 2.87 ERA, Ohtani is the front-runner to be the NL Cy Young Award winner this year.

Through nine starts, he’s nearly replicated last season’s strikeout production by collecting 61, has a 0.82 ERA and has pitched five or more innings in each start.

Ohtani is second in WAR (4.1) behind the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez.

When May began, Ohtani’s bat went cold, and his average dropped to .233. Through his last 15 games, Ohtani started to heat up, hitting .321 with three home runs and 14 RBIs.

Votto, who earned the NL MVP Award in 2010 with the Reds, believes the Dodgers superstar is on his way to winning his fifth MVP and is putting himself in the conversation as the greatest baseball player of all time.

“It’s gonna be five in six years if he wins it. It’s gonna be unanimous if he wins it,” Votto said. “We’re talking about one of the great athletes of the 21st century.”

Mets right-hander Clay Holmes has seemingly avoided a worst-case scenario. 

The Post's Jon Heyman reports that the Mets starter will not need surgery on his fractured fibula. It remained unclear what Holmes would need to recover from the injury, but even the right-hander believed he would avoid surgery when asked, although he could not rule it out. If Heyman's report is correct, then it's good news for Holmes and the Mets.

However, Heyman points out that the latest guess for Holmes' return is early August. 

If the Mets can right the ship, getting Holmes back for the home stretch would be a bonus. When he went on the IL, Holmes was arguably the Mets' best pitcher. 

In nine starts, Holmes pitched to a 2.39 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP while consistently going deep into games. 

His shortest outing was the May 15 game against the Yankees when he pitched 4.1 innings. That was the same night he fractured his fibula.

Holmes suffered the injury when he took a 111.1 mph liner from Yankees prospectSpencer Jones.

The San Francisco Giants are dead. Long live the San Francisco Giants. They were killed by one of the funniest cases of oversteering in the history of professional sports when a former jock bound for the Hall of Fame roundhouse kicked an overhyped nerd into baseball oblivion to make sure the team stopped letting computers make decisions for them. The team instead became a creation sprung from Buster Posey’s memory of what his championship teams were like. Last season was rocky and this season has been an unmitigated disaster, another losing season (their 7th of the last 10 seasons) locked in before June! With the franchise firmly rebranded as a loser, what can we look forward to these next four months?

Just how bad can this bad team be?

Yesterday afternoon’s loss was certainly a microcosm of the season, but going 0-6 against the Diamondbacks over the past week has really started to create some separation from the early season and as the weather changes and other teams improve, it stands to reason that as bad as the Giants have been… it can be a lot worse.

With 56 games played, we can look at the current season in 14-game chunks.

Games 1-14: 6-8 (.429)
Games 15-28: 7-7 (.500)
Games 29-42: 5-9 (.357)
Games 43-56: 4-10 (.286)

So, the Giants scuffled when teams were still trying to get their bearing after launching from Spring Training and then once they did, the Giants were relegated to batting practice for the opposition. There are 106 games remaining in this season, which on the one hand is quite sad because the Giants are so bad, but on the other hand… well… I suppose there’s a chance we could see some improved play. That’ll be the tension opposing the “Yeah, but they’ve been so, so stinky to start the season that it would make sense if the stench was unwashable.”

Let’s just look at their schedule through the end of June. Tomorrow kicks off a 3-game series in Colorado. Then they play 4 in Milwaukee, then 3 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Host the Nats and Cubs then travel to Atlanta for 3 and Miami for 3. Host the Athletics for 3 and Atlanta for 3 before traveling to Arizona for more Diamondbacks. That’s 18 on the road and 12 at home. If you just apply their current winning percentages for their home/road split to this schedule (.357 road / .429 home), that’s 11-19 or 12-18, which would put the Giants at either 33-53 or 34-52 entering July. Here are the ten worst records in Giants history through the team’s first 86 games:

10. 2005 SF Giants: 37-49
9. 1900 NY Giants: 35-50
8. 1994 SF Giants: 36-50
7. 1943 NY Giants: 34-51-1
6. 1976 SF Giants: 34-52
5. 2017 SF Giants: 34-52
4. 1984 SF Giants: 33-53
3. 1956 NY Giants: 32-54
2. 1985 SF Giants: 31-55
1. 1902 NY Giants: 28-57

So, 16-14 just to stay out of the top 10 worst starts to a season and 13-17 to avoid paralleling the 2017 or 1985 seasons. But we’ve seen how these jabronis play and, well, when they’re not being overmatched talent-wise, they are impossibly stupid in the field. It’s your right as a fan to hope they turn things around, but there is no evidence to suggest that a turnaround is in progress and based on aging curves for the core hitters plus the current results about the same amount of evidence to start building a case that one might be possible. That schedule doesn’t obviously present the pathway to a nice winning streak, either.

The Giants have told us for 56 games that they’re a bad team out to dispense bad times. We should believe them.

The trade deadline.

Obviously. It’ll be like an organ donation, right? Which parts of the Giants’ corpse can help another team thrive down the stretch or even beyond? Buster Posey’s moves at last year’s deadline shows that he’s not afraid to purge a roster when he feels it’s due for improvement. The problem is, he’s running out of the previous guy’s guys to move… unless Logan Webb miraculously returns to form this season; and then, there might be an opportunity for a big move.

Robbie Ray, it feels like we hardly knew ya, but appreciate watching you pitch most of the time. Luis Arraez, way to play your way into being the Giants’ lone All-Star representative. Tyler Mahle, Harrison Bader, Adrian Houser… you think they’ll be sticking around? I have never understood the compulsion by some fans to do a Rain Manesque “Trade Chapman. Trade Chapman. Trade Chapman.” every day and I can’t understand why the Giants would try to convince Chapman to waive his no trade clause in order to facilitate a deal, but that might be the move a lot of people want to see and will really be paying attention to as the calendar turns to July.

The Giants can’t formally “rebuild,” but watching them remodel this termite-infested, water damaged house that was once the centerpiece of China Basin will be at the very least interesting to watch as the summer goes on.

The farm system’s success.

Winning is good, even when it’s just in the minor leagues. That all of the levels are finding success with age appropriate prospects is heartening to see, too. There aren’t a lot of Chase d’Arnauds leading the groups. Pick some players or pick a team to follow the rest of the year and you probably won’t be disappointed. Personally, I’ve staked my mental health to Jhonny Level’s success.

When I wrote up the Chicago White Sox series preview, I learned that the White Sox’s GM Chris Getz was previously their Director of Player Development (2017-2020), and it got me wondering if maybe Randy Winn, VP of Player Development, might take over as President of Baseball Operations once Buster Posey moved on. If most of the minor league teams win championships this year, I’d think that’d be a pretty big plus on his resume, and it’d be hard to argue against him being a pivotal part of the front office.

The palace “intrigue.”

Recently, I had to change a baby in an airplane bathroom. The changing table was more like a bowl in that it had a divot in it, presumably to make laying the baby down easier. It was not easier. The changing table was also very smooth, so the baby — who likes to stand when being changed — kept sliding around… along with all the items needed to facilitate the diaper change. This led to the following sequence: diaper off, baby steps then slides into discarded pajama pants, bringing them back underneath baby just as baby urinates, soaking the pajamas. While cleaning all that up, baby poops and while trying to hold the baby in one arm to clean up with the other, the baby keeps trying to move and slides around, stepping in the poop, stepping back onto the pajamas. The baby peed again. It was 15 minutes of pee-pee-poo-poo nightmares in a 3 ft by 5 ft space and once I left I felt like Buster Posey must feel every day trying to run a baseball team: confused, angry, annoyed at having to jettison stuff that cost a decent amount of money, and covered in human waste.

Each change he has made has led to more pee, more poo, and more stepping in both. Should he have boarded this particular plane? Probably not. For most of us who suspected we’d be seeing him learn on the job, all we get is the satisfaction of knowing that there’s no use getting worked up about the team’s record anymore. It’s going to take him a long time with many lessons learned the hard way in order to turn the franchise around. Which is why I advocated for him sticking around longer than 3 years. It’s why it’s worth keeping tabs on the minor leagues. This could be very painful for a long time but then turn around overnight.

But already we’re seeing discontent seeping onto the floor of this Dilettantes’ Ball. Posey’s slightly tense conversation with Brian Murphy on KNBR the other week was interesting in that he repeated “baseball is hard” more than I’d like to hear from an exec whose team isn’t so much losing to other teams as being embarrassed by them. Farhan Zaidi was a notoriously poor interview, too, and that Buster Posey has wound up sounding like him more often than not in such a brief time is funny and troubling. But Andrew Baggarly has pivoted to questioning the wisdom in hiring Hector Borg to the coaching staff. Tony Vitello has put it out there that he wasn’t as involved in the staff hiring as we were led to believe in the offseason. Buster Posey takes the blame for the team’s performance to this point and so this effort to hang some of that on the third base coach stinks, too.

Unrelated to the coaching stuff, but related to the Giants being bad, I enjoyed this posting from the other day:

It has all been amateur hour, and in an organization where Larry Baer won out over Peter Magowan and Bill Neukom, it’s pretty clear that things aren’t going to be getting “better” behind the scenes anytime soon, either. If the Giants were playing better, it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but with everything on the field able to be safely ignored, this front office and ownership group will probably get more stories written about them than they expected heading into the season.

---

You’re probably screaming at me for leaving out something about the young players developing. What of Bryce Eldridge? Or Jesus Rodriguez? Is Landen Roupp the Logan Webb replacement the Giants didn’t know they had until this year? Is Trevor McDonald? Will the bullpen be able to evolve into something above average? These are the obvious questions that should feel very heartening to see because it means the Giants have developed some potential major leaguers alongside all the failure and that’s before considering the players at the lower levels who are generating most of the excitement about what Randy Winn and the player development group have been doing (all of which you can track through Brady’s reporting here or at Roger Munter’s excellent There R Giants site). But I can’t help but think about the past 10+ years of Giants player development and conclude that while it’s nice to imagine a world in which the Giants draft and develop their own players who can serve as more than 20th to 26th on their depth chart, the reality is that we should keep our expectations low until proven otherwise.

That goes for everything related to the team. The championship era ended a long time ago, but now we’re past those era re-definining teams of the 80s/90s/00s/10s, too. You could maybe characterize those decades this way: Prospects/Bonds/Ballpark/Championships. What are the 20s? Disappointing? Disaster? Forgettable? Skip? Bust? Whatever it winds up being considered, what’s clear is that the Giants as we knew them are dead and gone. Nobody wanted to be in this situation on May 28th. I was hoping for a disappointing season that unraveled in August or September, as has been the custom for many years now. Was looking forward to sneaking away to catch a game and spend that time in Schrödinger Stadium, where the team could be either good or bad. But we know they’re just bad.

What’s next for the franchise is anyone’s guess, but a rebirth during this season is the only thing certain to be out of the question.

After exciting rookie Kendry Rojas got scratched from his start with elbow soreness (sigh), Simeon Woods Richardson (sigh, again) stepped in for a spot start which went about as well as expected. Also bad for the Twins, they were facing current AL Cy Young candidate Davis Martin (triple sigh). Let’s get into it.

Woods Richardson got some hopes up, but almost immediately lost the faith of Twins fans and coaches alike. He struck out the first two batters of the game before walking Miguel Vargas, allowing him to steal second, and then scoring on a Colson Montgomery single. SWR then allowed a double to start the second inning, but escaped scoreless thanks to a nice throw home from Tristan Gray with the contact play on. Then, things really fell apart.

With two outs and a runner on in the third inning, Sim allowed the next five batters to reach base, culminating in a bases-clearing double from 4,000 year old (pretty sure, don’t fact check me) Randal Grichuk to put the White Sox up 5-0. Wanting to limit the damage, the Twins turned to Andrew Morris who finally ended the inning and allowed everyone to move on with their day.

I would now like to gripe about the worst scoring rule in baseball. The concept of runs being earned vs unearned is, in essence, completely up to the official scorer. It’s what makes ERA less predictive of future performance compared to FIP or xERA, and is somewhat a relic of a past era. However, ERA is still important given it’s historical significance and as such, these rules do carry a lot of weight. A pitcher shouldn’t be punished for a bad defense, but what if the bad defense was from the pitcher himself?

All this is to say that the run Andrew Morris allowed should have been an earned run because the error was committed by Morris. If he didn’t earn that run, then who did? Pete Maki? Tom Pohlad? God? Please get back to me soon, Mr. Manfred. My family is starving and I cannot rest until this quandary is resolved. I’m just a man standing in front of an MLB commissioner asking him to artificially raise Andrew Morris’ ERA.

Anyway, the bullpen was actually nails the whole way, which was nice to see after Woods Richardson’s awful start. Morris, Travis Adams, Taylor Rogers, Anthony Banda, and Yoendrys Gomez combined to throw 5.1 innings while allowing no earned runs (though an unholy unearned one) and just four baserunners, and two of those from Morris.

Unfortunately for Adams, he was optioned after this game with Minnesota in need of a fresh arm. The Twins will likely need two pitchers with Rojas likely ending up on the IL as well. A corresponding move has yet to be announced, but Kody Funderburk and John Klein are healthy and on the 40-man, though neither has been particularly sharp of late. Cody Laweryson appears to be near the end of a rehab assignment, though his results have been less than encouraging as well. We could be in line for Marco Raya’s debut as he has been very good in May.

And, as you know by now, we’re taking detours to bad relief options and inane scoring rules because the Twins offense didn’t have almost anything to give this afternoon. The Twins finally got a second run after Martin left the game in the seventh inning, but were never able to get a big inning in this game or really any point this series. Minnesota never had more than one hit in an inning in this game, which simply won’t cut it.

The Twins lost the series 1-3, with two of those losses being very winnable. The non-SWR pitchers stepped up in a tough spot, but the lineup is missing some juice with Ryan Jeffers’ injury and Royce Lewis’ and Matt Wallner’s overdue demotions. The Twins need someone to step up alongside Buxton and there’s lots of talent to do that still.

STUDS

• The bullpen (Morris, Adams, Rogers, Banda, Gomez): 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R (o ER), 1 BB, 6 K
• Tristan Gray: 2-4, 2B, SB

DUDS

• Simeon Woods Richardson: 2.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 4 K; moves to 0-7 with a 7.74 ERA on the season
• Middle of the lineup (Lee, Larnach, Clemens): 0-12
• Every hitter: 0-6 RISP

The campaign to bring professional baseball to West Sacramento is officially underway.

Days after, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero revealed there would be an announcement regarding the future of professional baseball to the city of Sacramento, she introduced “The Sacramento Pitch.”

The Sacramento Pitch is a campaign led by minority Kings owner Mark Friedman, who played a vital part in the development of downtown Sacramento and the Golden 1 Center sports and entertainment complex.

Joining Friedman are 11 other members that include Guerrero and Sacramento mayor Kevin McCarty, as well as former San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker, and former MLB player and Sacramento native Derek Lee.

“This is a defining moment for West Sacramento, and we’re ready,” Said Guerrero. “Major League Baseball is already seeing firsthand the passion, energy, and civic pride that exists here.”

The website breaks down the case into four different reasons as to why Sacramento is deserving of an MLB expansion team. “The site, the investment, the economic case, the market.”

The potential home of a future MLB ballpark in Sacramento is set to be placed on a 50-acre site in West Sacramento’s Bridge district, near Sutter Health Park, home of the minor league baseball team, the Sacramento River Cats, and the temporary home of the Athletics.

The renderings of the ballpark show the stadium facing along the Sacramento River, with the cities skyline view as the backdrop.

Followed by the view is a $1.8 billion privately funded investment in the campaign committee. The committee expects the project to generate $1.77 billion in revenue for West Sacramento. The market side of the campaign focuses on how Sacramento is one of the largest media markets in the country, with only one big 5 sports team.

“The region has grown roughly 10% over the past decade, outpacing both California and the nation,” According to the campaign’s website. “It has added more than 200,000 jobs since pandemic lows.”

They had balloons, baseball caps and a splashy video. They even had Dusty Baker, because any day with Dusty Baker is a good day.

And, as a campaign called “The Sacramento Pitch” unveiled its plan to lure a Major League Baseball expansion team to the state capital, the mayor made his pitch a blunt one.

“This region has earned its place in the majors,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said Thursday. “And, frankly, MLB could use Sacramento.”

We’ll see. But, as McCarty and other dignitaries rallied in Sacramento, a more important gathering was happening in New York, at which MLB owners formally proposed the salary cap players have vowed to resist.

Read more:Shaikin: For Dodgers, getting to playoffs is not good enough for Mark Walter. For Lakers?

Whether owners can get a cap — either by persuasion through the fall and winter, or more likely by canceling games next spring so players go unpaid — remains to be seen. For Sacramento and the other American and Canadian cities pursuing two expansion teams, the outcome of collective bargaining could determine the fee MLB would charge for each one.

On Thursday, Sacramento unveiled a $4-billion proposal to land a team, build a riverfront ballpark and surround it with an entertainment district. By the time MLB is ready to expand — after collective bargaining, and most likely after new media rights deals in 2028 — baseball insiders suggest the expansion fee itself could be around $4 billion.

Said Barry Broome, president of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council: “If it’s a $4-billion fee, I’ll be surprised if there are too many people that would pay that.”

MLB never has had a salary cap. In 1994, the last time MLB proposed one, the players went on strike, and the World Series was not played.

Now, the league argues, payroll disparities are so great that only a cap can solve them. In its presentation Thursday, MLB noted the Dodgers paid more in luxury taxes last season than 16 teams paid in player salaries and cited a $446-million payroll gap between the Dodgers ($515 million) and the lowest-paying team, the Miami Marlins ($69 million).

The league also said fans in a large market have a 50% chance of seeing their team win the World Series by age 12, while fans in a small market have a 50% chance of seeing their team win by the World Series by age 73.

“Ultimately, the game is about hope and competition, and too many fans in too many markets have too little hope their team has a fair chance to win,” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement.

The MLB proposal: a cap with a maximum payroll of $235 million and a minimum payroll of $171 million, with those figures including $23 million per team in player benefits. The Dodgers’ payroll would be cut roughly in half, although the league and the union would discuss ways to phase in such cuts over time.

Those savings help explain why the Dodgers — at least for now — would support a proposal that includes every team throwing their local television rights into a pool that would be marketed as one national package — one place to see every game, with no blackouts, and with revenue shared equally among teams.

The Dodgers’ SportsNet LA deal — $8.35 billion over 25 years — has provided the team with a massive financial edge in funding back-to-back World Series champions.

The MLB Players’ Assn. believes the owners can share all that revenue — from local television and other sources — and thus resolve financial disparities without capping player salaries.

“Billionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries,” MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer said in a statement. “This isn’t out of generosity or a desire to protect the game’s well-being. It’s a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values — all at the expense of players past, present and future.”

MLB owners have been distressed as franchise values — ultimately, sale prices — have not appreciated as rapidly as they have in other sports. A salary cap would offer owners the cost certainty — 50% of industry revenue, however that might be defined, would go to players — that limits financial risk in ownership.

In the NBA, which has a salary cap and media deals more lucrative than in MLB, the league reportedly anticipates bids in the range of $7 billion to $10 billion for proposed expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle.

In MLB, a prominent official with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly told me the expansion fee could range from $3 billion to $5 billion — on the lower end without a salary cap, on the higher end with a cap and the greater media revenues that could come with it.

That could leave Sacramento and the other MLB suitors — including Salt Lake City, Montreal, Nashville, Raleigh, Charlotte, Orlando, Vancouver and Portland — scrambling for more funding at a time the surprisingly common thought is an expansion fee would be about $2 billion.

In 2021, when Sportico estimated the average MLB franchise value at $2.2 billion, Commissioner Rob Manfred said that figure could be “where you would start” in evaluating an expansion fee. Sportico this year put the average franchise value at $3.2 billion, and the San Diego Padres sold last month for a league-record $3.9 billion.

In Sacramento, campaign chairman Mark Friedman said his group has lined up $1.8 billion in private and public funding and is in search of a lead investor, with the stadium site and tax rebates already arranged with local governments.

“We’ve set the table,” Friedman said. “All of the guests are in attendance. We’re simply waiting for the guest of honor.”

Broome said he spoke with representatives from two runners-up in the Padres bidding as well as “a group of billionaires from Texas.” It’s all tire-kicking for now, he said.

Read more:Travis Kelce buys stake in Cleveland Guardians, continuing trend of athletes becoming owners

For $4 billion, Friedman said, Sacramento can get a team, put up a stadium and surround it with places to eat, shop and play.

“We’re targeting being able to be competitive up to $4 billion,” he said. “If it turns out to be more than that, we’ll need to look at the numbers again.”

In the meantime, Baker was there to tell a few stories and put everyone in his hometown at ease, as he did for decades as one of baseball’s most acclaimed managers.

In his remarks, Baker celebrated the dozens of major leaguers who that come out of Sacramento.

“We had some of the baddest dudes in baseball — not only in Sacramento, but in baseball. We were proud of that,” Baker said.

“If you weren’t hitting — if you were hitting now like some of these guys are hitting now, .217 — man, we’d talk about you. Because, if you were from Sacramento, you gotta ball.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Welcome to the first Futures on the Corner. This will become a weekly piece where I, Matt Seese, will examine the ins and outs of Cleveland’s ever developing farm system. I currently do work as a prospects scout and evaluator for Prospects Live and have thoroughly enjoyed covering our farm system here on Covering The Corner.

Today, I wanted to throw out more of a blanket piece to kick this off: what promotions are coming?

We’ll start down in Hill City.

A-BALL

OF JUNEIKER CACERES | 18 | L/L
Caceres is not the 168 pounds MiLB.com lists him at. With a noticeable physical development, Caceres has seen his added muscle shrink areas of concern up in the zone. Combine that with some of the better plate discipline in the Guardians’ system, above average bat speed and EVs as well as a walk rate pushing 4% north of his strikeout rate, and Caceres is tailor made for a promotion to Lake County sooner rather than later. Caceres continues to be among the younger players at his level, and though the power numbers are slowly starting to come around, this kind of an approach is beyond his years.

LHP NELSON KELJO | 22
Keljo was a sixth round pick in last year’s draft out of Oregon State. At 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, Keljo is physically built to handle a starter’s workload, and he’s done exactly that thus far. A concern of mine with Keljo would be his command sustaining being stretched out from reliever to starter from college to the pros. Thus far, it’s largely not been an issue. Keljo has been efficient and at times dominant, largely carried by his fastball that sports some capable ride.

LHP HARRISON BODENDORF | 22
Bodendorf was also part of the ‘25 Draft class for the Guards, selected in the 10th round at pick 312. Drafted at 6-foot-5, 180 pounds, there’s some physical projecting to do here. Bodendorf is not going to overwhelm anyone, but up to this point, it hasn’t mattered. His upper 80s, occasionally low 90s heater is paired with a devastating changeup that’s currently inducing an incredible whiff rate and drawing weak contact when batters are lucky enough to get the bat to it. There’s definitely upside here despite the lack of velo. I think if any org finds that extra life here, it’s Cleveland, but some glove-side secondaries need to come along here for this profile to work long-term.

HIGH-A

AARON WALTON | 22 | R/R
Matt Dallas, you genius. Walton has cleaned up some lower half mechanical issues and is now getting his whole body in sync with his swing. It has resulted in a tremendous start to the ‘26 season that’s seen Walton produce some high end power. Walton is lifting the ball pull-side at a tremendous rate, and though there’s still some swing and miss here and the overall passivity within the zone concerns me, he’s damaging the ball better than just about anyone else in the Midwest League with an EV90 north of 107.

RHP BRAYLON DOUGHTY | 20
How’s this for aggressive? At just 20 years old, Doughty would become among the youngest arms in Double-A if what I’m asking for here happened this season. That being said, I believe if anyone is ready for it, it’s him. Doughty is the most polished prep arm the Guardians have had in their system since I started tracking prospects. His fastball continues to improve and find a stable velocity in the low-90s band, and should it find that next tick up in velo, he goes from mid to back-end rotation arm to SP2 ceiling. Should this happen, I’d anticipate him getting touched up a bit as he begins facing 24+ year olds with consistency, but it will further develop his sequencing, and that can only be a positive.

IF LUKE HILL | 22 | R/R
Besides Walton, there’s a few Lake County bats worthy of this, but none more than Luke Hill. Hill has been a bit of a revelation to the farm system. Drafted primarily off of his keen eye and quality swing decisions, Hill has seen that translate into a very real ability to do damage. Hill’s nine home runs at the moment of this typing is more than he ever hit at Ole Miss, he’s running an EV90 north of 105, and above all else, he doesn’t possess the ever concerning passivity that is currently at a ground swell in this system. Hill is selectively aggressive, attacks pitches in the zone, and is now driving them with legit pop. Not only should Hill get promoted, but he should be pushing for the top 10 of Guards prospects lists.

DOUBLE-A

RP CARTER RUSTAD | 25 | R/R
Rustad was acquired from the Orioles for Johnathan Rodriguez back in late March, and some of the best stuff of his career thus far has come in Akron. Rustad throws from a sub-25 degree slot with great extension. A three-pitch pitcher, he generates capable iVB on his fastball, typically around 17 inches, and ~8 inches of arm-side run while sitting 93-95 with the heater. He’ll work a solid slider off of that against righties and a changeup to lefties that gets over a foot of arm-side tail. At 25 and not R5 eligible for another year, a promotion to Columbus where Cleveland can get a clean look at him without any 40-man issues should he pitch well feels ideal.

On Thursday, Mets DH/1B Jorge Polanco spoke to the media from the Binghamton Rumble Ponies dugout.

The switch-hitter is working his way back from Achilles bursitis and a wrist issue, and is currently playing with the Mets' Double-A affiliate.

When asked about his current condition, Polanco smiled and responded that he is "feeling way better."

The Rumble Ponies began a four-game home stand against the Portland Sea Dogs tonight, but Polanco has the night off. However, he emphasized that he is ready to play tomorrow night.

"There is no rush, I want to get back when I feel good," Polanco stressed. "The main thing is to get better and to get healthy so I can help the team."

Polanco also revealed a potential timeline for his return to the Mets lineup, declaring that it should only be "two or three more games and I should be ready to go up [to the majors]."

He also reflected on New York's poor start to the season in his absence while also expressing hope for a future turnaround. 

"It hasn't gone the way we want; we want to win," Polanco said. "But I know that things are going to get better."

Polanco was asked about the impact that rookie outfielders Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing have made since entering the fray in Queens. He gave the greenhorns his vote of confidence, affirming that "it's great to have those kids... It's a plus for us, the energy they bring."