Category: Baseball

Good morning, baseball fans!

Every once in a while, a San Francisco Giants player gets to be both the hero San Francisco deserves, and the one they need right now. On Tuesday night, that hero was Willy Adames.

Not only did he crush a leadoff home run on the second pitch of Tuesday night’s game, but he kept that spirit going throughout the night, finishing the game with four hits, two runs, and two RBI, leading the Giants to their 9-3 win over the San Diego Padres.

After the painful lack of offense in the prior series, Tuesday’s victory was a much needed shot of adrenaline for the offense, and Adames deserves some appreciation for leading the way.

So enjoy his home run once more if you didn’t get a chance to see it! And share your own appreciation for Adames down in the comments!

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants head back home to welcome the New York Mets to Oracle Park tonight at 6:45 p.m. PT.

Everyone in the Rockies 2026 Opening Day starting rotation has had a chance to take the mound at least once. Kyle Freeland has had a second start but for comparison sake, let’s look at everyone’s first time taking the ball this season.

Process

The Rockies message to their pitchers this offseason couldn’t have been clearer: Make it difficult for hitters to guess which pitch you are going to throw, and then throw it in the zone.

Have they done so far?

• Kyle Freeland:
  • Most used pitch: 27.2% Four Seamers
  • Zone Percentage: 45.7%
• Michael Lorenzen:
  • Most used pitch: 26.9% Changeups
  • Zone Percentage: 44.1%
• José Quintana:
  • Most used pitch: 37.2% Four Seamers
  • Zone Percentage: 33.3%
• Tomoyuki Sugano:
  • Most used pitch: 30.6% Four Seamers
  • Zone Percentage: 48.6%
• Ryan Feltner:
  • Most used pitch: 27.7% Four Seamers
  • Zone Percentage: 51.1%

(Note: Zone% is simply the percentage of pitches in the strike zone regardless of batter swings. The league average for zone% fluctuates a little year to year but usually sits in the low 40’s.)

In terms of not relying on any one pitch, the Rockies do seem to be adhering to that rule. None of the starters used any pitch more than roughly a third of the time. The exact mix that they use will vary from start to start, and we won’t have a large enough sample size to know overall usage percentages for a while, but initial returns are promising.

In terms of filling up the zone, the only one who clearly didn’t meet the brief was Quintana. Historically, he’s been at or slightly above league average in Zone%, so I wouldn’t worry too much, but it is worth keeping an eye on as he gets more starts. Everyone else exceeded league average in terms of purely getting the ball in the strike zone.

Results

Going into the season, the hope for the new look rotation was just that they could be steady major league quality pitchers that didn’t let most games spiral.

Here’s how they fared the first time out:

• Kyle Freeland: 4.1 Innings, 5 Hits, 2 Walks, 2 Strikeouts, 2 Runs/2 Earned
• Michael Lorenzen:4.1 Innings, 7 Hits, 0 Walks, 4 Strikeouts, 3 Runs/3 Earned
• José Quintana: 4.1 Innings, 4 Hits, 4 Walks, 2 Strikeouts, 2 Runs/2 Earned
• Tomoyuki Sugano: 4.2 Innings, 2 Hits, 2 Walks, 4 Strikeouts, 1 Runs/1 Earned
• Ryan Feltner:3 Innings, 1 Hit, 1 Walk, 4 Strikeouts, 0 Runs/0 Earned

The first thing that stands out? These are all pretty similar lines. There were a few more hits against Lorenzen, a few more walks against Quintana, fewer pitches from Feltner (because he got injured), but overall they saw pretty similar results.

No one got blown away.

No one blew away the competition.

Feltner looked like he was on his way to a notably good start before being hit on the hip by a comebacker, but we can’t know whether he would have been able to keep that up to stand out if he hadn’t been pulled. It’ll be exciting to see if he can pick up where he left off in his next start.

What has been a little low is the innings totals. No one surpassed 4.2 innings, but that isn’t surprising for the first time out after spring training. Considering the disruption of the normal spring routine that the WBC presented for many of these players, I don’t think the limited innings are a long-term worry. This is not a rotation that is ever going to throw seven innings very often but, once fully stretched out, five to six innings most nights (like Freeland on Wednesday) is a perfectly reasonable expectation.

Conclusions

As with everything else this early in the season, there’s not actually enough data yet to make any meaningful conclusions. What can be said is that, so far, this looks like what the front office was aiming for: a professional on the mound each night that can avoid letting the game get out of hand by mixing pitches and filling up the zone.

The next challenge for this crew will be the same one that has faced every Rockies pitching staff since 1993: Will their process be able to withstand the thin air in Denver?

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Feltner expected to make next start after ’26 debut curtailed by comebacker | MLB.com

Some encouraging news after Feltner had to get pulled from his first start of the season on Tuesday evening. As expected, it’s nowhere near as serious as the comebacker that fractured his skull in 2022 and Feltner is expected to make his next start.

TJ Rumfield Could Change the Narrative Surrounding the Rockies | SI.com

A quick look through what we’ve all been noticing since he came over from the Yankees this spring: Rumfield has looked great.

Here’s 1 must-visit Minor League spot from every farm system for 2026 | MLB.com

Benjamin Hill and Josh Jackson highlight a minor league affiliate for each MLB team that has fun amenities or general experience. I go to more Hartford Yard Goats games than anything else these days so it does not shock me in the slightest that they were called out as the Rockies affiliate folks should check out. A day at Dunkin’ Park is always a good time.

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Today and tomorrow could be called the true start of the minor leagues. Yes, yes, I know the Memphis Redbirds’ season has already been underway for a week. But later today, the Palm Beach Cardinals have their first game of the season and tomorrow sees the first game for both Peoria and Springfield. I am not sure why Palm Beach is a day early. From Friday onwards, for most days of the year for the next five months and change, there will be an additional four games within the Cardinal organization to follow. If you want. It’s a lot.

So because of that (and because I didn’t really want to transcribe interviews right now!), I thought it would be a fun idea to have a sort of minor league preview. At its most basic intent, here are names worth following throughout the season, some of whom we may see in the major leagues later this season and a lot of whom we may never see in the majors period. I have tried to separate the players according to how much of a sicko you are, and don’t worry, we’re all sickos when it comes to baseball.

Memphis

Watch if they’re starting

There are four healthy pitchers who fit here and even within those four, they fit into two separate categories. The first category is MLB ready now, more or less. It would not be in the least bit surprising if they had entered the MLB rotation by the end of May, by whatever circumstances led them there.

Hunter Dobbins (4.13 ERA/3.87 FIP/4.11 xFIP)

Richard Fitts (3.97 ERA/5.02 FIP/4.66 xFIP)

Quinn Mathews (#4 VEB prospect)

Dobbins and Fitts already have experience in the majors leagues. Their MLB stats are in parentheses. Dobbins is technically on the MLB injured list and made his first rehab appearance on Tuesday (it went okay). Fitts has made 15 appearances in two separate seasons. He is making his second start today actually! So check that one out. And Mathews, who made 22 starts at the AAA level and is trying to conquer his control issues. He walked four in the first inning yesterday, so he’s not quite there yet.

If one of the categories has three pitchers who are clearly the plan to step in for a doubleheader or because of an injury, you can probably guess the other category is “maybe after the deadline.” Unless things perfectly line up. Brycen Mautz (#13 VEB prospect) is on the 40 man roster, which helps a lot, but he’s kind of fourth on the depth chart right now. If we have a surprise doubleheader and he’s the pitcher who lines up, he’ll probably get a start, but that’s about it for now.

Guys to pay attention to eventually are Ixan Henderson (#16 VEB prospect), on the 60 day injured list, Pete Hansen, mysteriously injured, Cooper Hjerpe (#15 VEB prospect) and Sem Robberse, both recovering from Tommy John. You’ll have ample warning on all of these guys who will throw rehab appearances at a lower level before they pitch in Memphis.

Stop what you’re doing to watch them bat

If you follow the minor leagues like I follow the minor leagues, you mostly ignore the game. That is until a player you’re really interested in steps up to the plate. Might as well not even have the game on if you miss these players. Truly.

OF Joshua Baez (VEB #6 prospect)

C Jimmy Crooks (VEB #8 prospect)

C Leonardo Bernal (VEB #7 prospect)

Yes, the Cardinals have two top ten catching prospects in Memphis right now. We will see Jimmy Crooks soon enough if he keeps playing the way he’s playing. Bernal just got to Memphis, so I’d expect a longer wait. Both of them are potentially starting caliber catchers and how they do offensively in Memphis is actually very relevant because defense won’t be the issue with either. Obviously, what they do in St. Louis is ultimately what matters but if they hit well enough in Memphis, we can probably expect them to hit in St. Louis too!

And Baez is certainly in potential star territory. But he’s only flashed that for one season. How he does in Memphis is directly relevant to the future of the Cardinals. He hasn’t come out guns blazing, but he also isn’t striking out a bunch again. He picked up his first walk and first extra base hit yesterday, and only has three strikeouts in his first 19 plate appearances.

Prospect sicko

Blaze Jordan

Colton Ledbetter

Nelson Velazquez

Tink Hence (VEB #10 prospect)

Velazquez isn’t a prospect, but he fits this category. He has yet to get a hit yet. Four games played, not a single hit yet. Seven strikeouts though. The outrage over him not making the team is not going to age well I suspect. Ledbetter, well, he went 0 for 5 with five strikeouts yesterday so he’s had better days. Jordan is off to a…. blazing hot start. These three made the list because they are probable role players if things work out but they have just enough potential to maybe be more. Hence is currently in the bullpen and he’s worth monitoring for sure, but he’s a little less interesting than when he had a guaranteed start.

Get Some Help

Luis Gastelum

Packy Naughton

Skyler Hales

If you’re watching Memphis Redbirds games to watch relief pitchers who are not on the 40 man roster, you’re in the wrong spot. Clearly you do not need a casual’s guide to the minor leagues. I like all three of these guys, I am not watching Memphis Redbird games to watch them pitch however. I will stick to looking at stats and watching them when they get promoted.

Springfield

Watch if they’re starting

Liam Doyle (VEB #2 prospect)

Jurrangelo Cjintje (VEB #5 prospect)

These are nationally relevant pitching prospects, so while I have more names to give you, it feels like they should be singled out. These are the kinds of pitching prospects that national folks will watch though, not just dedicated Cardinals fans. I like Dobbins, I like Fitts, I like Mathews, but if you just want to wait for them to make MLB starts, that makes sense. These two you want to go out of your way to watch.

Also special shot-out to #9 VEB prospect Brandon Clarke, who is out until June, and I’m putting him in the Springfield section, but he could very well be in the Peoria section. But he won’t be seen for a good while for now.

Chen-Wei Lin

Braden Davis

Mason Molina

Hancel Rincon

Rincon, Lin and Davis are top 20 prospects somewhere – Rincon is by Fangraphs, Davis is by The Cardinal Nation, and Lin is by both sites. Molina isn’t quite there, but he might be the most interesting arm the Cardinals received at the deadline, and for Phil Maton no less. At the very least, he’s interesting just to see if that deadline bears fruit. Also besides Rincon, all of these guys had an argument to starting in Peoria, so it’s a good sign that the Cardinals are putting them in Springfield.

Stop what you are doing to watch them bat

Deniel Ortiz (VEB #18 prospect)

Yeah that’s kind of it. Ortiz isn’t really that kind of prospect either, but with the way he hit the ball last year, he could be soon enough. If anyone is going to follow in the footsteps of the previous 13th rounders who shall not be named, it’s this guy. Who just destroyed baseballs and is getting a rather aggressive promotion to Springfield might I add!

Prospect Sickos

Zach Levenson

Chase Davis

Travis Honeyman

In other words, the Springfield outfield. Davis is a former 1st round pick, Honeyman has rarely been healthy, and Levenson neglected to hit for a year. Not appointment viewing, but one of these guys will probably make the majors leagues at least.

Get some help

Jeremy Rivas

Michael Watson

Austin Love

Rivas is an all-defense, no hit shortstop. He got to Springfield rather fast, but he’s been stuck there trying to gain some much needed power. Watson and Love are relievers who honestly could be in St. Louis later this year.

Peoria

Watch if they’re starting

Tanner Franklin (VEB #12 prospect)

Yhoiker Fajardo (VEB #19 prospect)

I’m not automatically listing top 20 prospects in this section, but you best believe I was going to list Fajardo considering he landed on my top 10. Fajardo is a teenager and will be a teenager all season and he’s already in High A. Franklin goes without saying. He has the stuff to start, he just hasn’t actually thrown more than a couple innings per appearance to prove it. Both players have one thing in common: they may be way higher on next year’s list if they have a great season. Both are the “see them before they were big prospects” hipster picks.

Stop what you’re doing to watch them bat

Rainiel Rodriguez (VEB #3 prospect)

I’m taking my description of this category quite literally. So apologies to Jesus Baez, who I believe in, but I’m not going to stop what I’m doing to watch him. So very into prospects Cubs fan will stop what they are doing to watch Raniel Rodriguez bat, that’s how big of a deal he is. Watching Rainiel Rodriguez bat is why you get MiLB, or in my case, happen to have T-Mobile (you guys want to throw me a few bucks for the free publicity?)

Prospect Sickos

Jesus Baez

Won-Bin Cho

Tai Peete

Blake Aita

Nate Dohm

For the record, Frank Ellisalt would be here, but he also appears to be injured. And good note in general: if there’s a name that I don’t mention and you’re confused as to why, they probably are injured, because I am using the official press release of the rosters through the minor league teams Twitter accounts. I think Baez is closer to stop what you’re doing than being a prospect sicko, but you guys did not rank him in the top 20, so clearly you don’t agree with me.

Peete and Cho, at least in theory, have actual upside. They could always find themselves on a stronger level, and being a few levels away from the majors and quite young, they do have time. I find Aita interesting because he was in the Willson Contreras trade and I find Nate Dohm interesting because he was in the Ryan Helsley trade. And so was Jesus Baez actually.

Get some help

Zack Showalter

Jack Findlay

Josh Kross

Yes, Showalter appears to be healthy right now. He is listed on the active Peoria Chiefs roster. He has landed on a top 20 VEB list before and he’s only 22. He threw 31 innings last season, so I imagine they’d be pretty happy if he could throw 50-60 innings. But it’ll probably be in the bullpen. Findlay was one of those draft picks selected when he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Last year, he spent most of the year struggling, but finished extremely strong and dominated at this level to finish his season. I’ll be curious if they’ll transition him at starter at all. Kross was the catcher/DH prospect who exploded in Palm Beach with a bunch of homers, but he didn’t hit so much at Peoria.

Palm Beach

Watch if they’re starting

Cade Crossland

They seemed to have promoted a lot of the interesting pitchers, and both Andrew Dutkanych and Payton Graham are injured. Graham is expectedly injured, he was drafted injured as is becoming a bit of a tradition. Dutkanych not so much. That was an unfortunate development. Anyway, Crossland is probably the favorite of the recent draft to become Braden Davis or more optimistically Quinn Mathews, the college pitching prospect who has very little trouble missing bats. I also don’t know what happened to Brian Holiday, he’s not listed on the official Palm Beach website (their twitter account did not post a roster)

Stop what you’re doing to watch them bat

Yairo Padilla (VEB #17 prospect)

Ryan Mitchell (VEB #20 prospect)

While we were running the voting for the top 20 prospects as judged by the VEB readers, I made it a point many times to note that I wish I knew where Mitchell was being posted because it would impact where I put him. Well, he got put in full season ball immediately. No messing around with rookie ball. That is a fantastic sign. He’s definitely worth watching. Padilla is still, for the most part, all potential, but wouldn’t you want to be watching when he realizes that? When suddenly he has power. Again I won’t automatically put a top 20 guy here, but I will if I feel they may become one of the big prospects in the system before they reach the majors. These two absolutely qualify.

Prospect Sickos

Ty Van Dyke

Jack Gurevitch

Gurevitch was once upon a time ranked 15th by Fangraphs in their system. Then he played games and they dropped him down to 48 this past year. Which… I think is dumb, like things didn’t change that much. He might still become an actual prospect. Van Dyke got off to a great start, being one of the few pitchers to pitch after his draft year. He’ll get a chance to build off that.

Get some help

Jonathan Mejia

Jack Martinez

Jacob Odle

Martinez is noteworthy just because it’d be funny if the return for Nolan Arenado became something. So I’ll be following his progress for that reason alone. Odle’s 2025 was him returning from injury and he had a classic return from injury season, with a bunch of walks, but he also missed a lot of bats. He’s intriguing. Mejia didn’t have a very good 2025, but he doesn’t turn 21 for another 10 days, which sounds absurd for how long I’ve known of his existence.

Fans have been wondering where Royals color commentator Rex Hudler is, he will be back, but maybe not as much as you would’ve hoped.

For the most part, the reviews for Major League Baseball’s production of Royals games have been positive. It’s a small sample size (three games), but the picture seems clearer, the graphics are sharper and even the commercials are a vast improvement. The Royals also made changes to their broadcast team. Bridget Howard is a new sideline reporter, and Eric Hosmer is one of the analysts who will be working with play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre. Although the Royals never announced it, Hosmer, Jeremy Guthrie and Rex Hudler will each work roughly one-third of the broadcasts this season, with Jeff Montgomery filling that role at some points, too.

In case you missed it, Carlos Estevez is officially on the IL, Steven Cruz has been called up to fill his spot.

If you went to bed after the Royals got up 12-1 last night, the game got interesting, but Anne Rogers talked about how the bottom of the Royals order dominated.

Manager Matt Quatraro likes to say he’ll take the production wherever it comes in the lineup, and he’s not wrong about that. But Wednesday’s offense was fueled not by the star hitters, but by the bottom of the lineup — and the Royals will definitely take that.

The Nos. 6-9 hitters went 10-for-16 and drove in eight runs, including Jonathan India’s grand slam in the sixth inning and Kyle Isbel’s solo shot in the seventh.

But it’s what happened early that stood out. Jac Caglianone, hitting seventh, got it started in the second inning by hitting a two-out double. No. 8 hitter Isaac Collins followed with an RBI double, and Isbel, the No. 9 hitter, kept it going with an RBI single. Isbel then stole second, allowing him to score on Maikel Garcia’s single as the lineup turned over.

Kevin O’Brien of Royals Keep wrote about early takeaways of the Royals offense.

Michael Massey played in Omaha yesterday and had a solid day.

Michael Massey went 2-for-4 with a HR today in a rehab game with Triple-A Omaha. Sounds like he'll get tomorrow off, play another game or two and then be evaluated for a return. #Royals want to make sure he can be 100% running-wise on the bases, in the field, etc.

— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) April 1, 2026

MLB.com wrote the biggest takeaway from each team’s first week.

Athletics outfielder Denzel Clarke made another ridiculous catch yesterday.

Fittingly, today’s song is Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival

With yesterday being April Fools’ Day, it is a bit difficult to trust any news posted. However, here is some good news from yesterday:

Chase DeLauter was still sore, but available as a pinch hitter last night. Yesterday’s game was a pre-scheduled day off and with the off day, today it is looking hopeful that CDL will be available for tomorrow’s home opener.

The Guards took the series against the Dodgers, nearly shutting out the reigning champs. Nick will have the Game Recap!

The Columbus Clippers were looking great last night with Kahlil Watson hitting a home run and Stuart Fairchild hitting two home runs.

Kahlil Watson sends his first one of the season💣 pic.twitter.com/2Gwe64Au4a

— GuardsInsider (@GuardsInsider) April 1, 2026

Don’t forget, now that MiLB is getting into full swing this week, we have Minor League Recaps posted here at Covering the Corner. If you are interested in the affiliates, Brian Hemminger has season previews for the teams. Yesterday the Lake County Captains and Hill City Howlers were featured.

José Ramírez continues to climbs various franchise leader boards. He is closing in on the #1 spot for All-Time Games Played.

Chasing history.#GuardsBallpic.twitter.com/w5d0Po5AEd

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) April 2, 2026

Quincy Wheeler and Mike Mahoney released an episode of Disgusting Baseball last night to be found here. (Deborah (Nicole) and I will be recording another episode tonight! – editor’s note).

Matthew Boyd started against Yusei Kikuchi . The Cubs went hitless until the third, when they batted around and scored five runs. Jeimer Candelario did not have his best day at first base. Nico Hoerner lined a couple of tw0-baggers, scored, stole a base, and singled to boot.

Boyd had it going on. Ten strikeouts in 5.2 innings. He faltered a bit late. Hunter Harvey gave up a couple of hard-hit balls that probably should have been caught, and the Angels had the chance to make a game of it. They didn’t — the bullpen had it together. The team is 3-3, back to .500. Onward and upward.

Cubs 6, Angels 2. Leftover meatloaf makes great sandwiches.

Every page these days has some form of advertising. {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Edward Cabrera gives Cubs a taste of what they have long desired in team debut. “I keep thinking about the curveball he threw to Trout,” catcher Carson Kelly said. “Once you do that in the first inning, you’re setting the tone.” More from Jordan Bastian.
• Kyle Williams (Chicago Sun-Times {$}): How the Cubs lured right-hander Hunter Harvey to Chicago. “The Cubs targeted Harvey for their bullpen because of his velocity and experience.”
• Max Ralph (MLB.com): Brown dazzles in relief, shows signs of potential 2026 breakout for Cubs. “He has allowed just two runs (on a home run), struck out eight and walked only two.”
• Randy Holt (North Side Baseball*): Craig Counsell has unlocked a special tandem in the middle of the Cubs’ lineup. “… the concept of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner hitting next to each other may be Craig Counsell’s best iteration yet.
• Matt Ostrowski (North Side Baseball): Alex Bregman is making himself at home in unexpected ways. “What can we glean from his stellar start?”
• Tony Andracki (Bleacher Nation*): Who should Cubs extend next? Evaluating the most intriguing candidates. “To be clear, most players don’t like negotiating in-season.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Where does Ian Happ fit after Cubs’ recent push for contract extensions? “… the Cubs are still positioned to shed an enormous amount of money from their payroll after this season.”
• AP: Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki to go on a minor-league rehab stint during Cubs’ upcoming trip. “… manager Craig Counsell said Tuesday.”

Food For Thought:

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. Thanks for reading. Ne mai vedem.

When Cooper Pratt reportedly agreed to an eight-year extension (with two additional option years) with the Brewers earlier this week, it came as quite a shock. These types of deals aren’t completely unheard of, even within the organization; when Jackson Chourio signed his big extension before the 2024 season, he’d played a grand total of six games above Double-A, which is three more than the number of games Pratt had played at Triple-A when news of the extension broke. Colt Emerson of the Mariners signed a Chourio-like extension this week: he has not debuted yet, and may not for some time.

But there’s a difference. When Chourio signed his extension, he was baseball’s No. 2 prospect. Emerson, via Baseball America, is No. 7. Pratt, on the other hand, is ranked No. 50 by Baseball America, No. 64 via MLB Pipeline, and he is not in the top 100 on Baseball Prospectus. Pratt is a good prospect, but he’s not exactly a great one, and as BA’s JJ Cooper points out, the expected outcomes for a player in Pratt’s range do not exactly suggest “this guy will definitely be a star.”

Based on Cooper’s chart, the most likely outcome for Pratt is that he’ll have a career WAR value between 3 and 10 WAR. The Brewers, a team without a ton of financial resources, just promised him a minimum of $50 million; I do not think that’s the outcome they’re looking for.

But not all prospects are the same. Pratt is an outstanding defensive player, so even if he never really learns to hit major league pitching, it’s not the same as if a corner outfielder never learns how to hit. Joey Ortiz earned 1.4 fWAR in 2025 while having an atrocious offensive season; that’s more WAR than Luis Arraez earned (via FanGraphs or Baseball Reference) in 2024 when he won a batting title.

Offensive Outlook

This deal probably signals that the Brewers think Pratt will figure it out at the plate. His track record is a little mixed; he looked great in Low-A and High-A in his first full pro season in 2024, but hit just .238/.343/.348 in 2025 at Double-A. There are a couple of caveats to that line, though: first, that wasn’t that bad for the pitcher-friendly Southern League, and translated to an above-average 107 wRC+. The other thing is that Pratt was very young; as a 20-year-old at Double-A, Pratt was nearly four years younger than the average player in that league, so the fact that he was above average offensively (while playing defense that won him a Minor League Gold Glove in 2024) is actually quite encouraging.

Pratt’s power hasn’t shown up yet, and it may never be a major strength. He’s hit only 16 homers across nearly 1,000 plate appearances as a minor leaguer. But he’s not a small guy (listed on FanGraphs at 6’4” and 210 pounds) and the Brewers may be banking that he’ll grow into it a bit. He’s also shown good patience (a 12.7% walk rate in 2025), and he cut his strikeout rate drastically in 2025 (from 20% to 15.2%), another encouraging sign for a young player who moved up a level.

It won’t take a ton of offense for Pratt to live up to the value of this contract over its lifetime. The average annual value is only a little more than $6 million, which, by popular estimates, means he needs only about 0.75 WAR per season to justify that value (even if this isn’t a perfect one-to-one comparison). Based purely on defense, Pratt should outperform that, and if he hits even a little, he could outperform it by a lot.

Logjammin’

But the arguably bigger question that this deal raises has to do with fit. Ever since it was clear that the Brewers had several high-level middle-infield prospects, we knew this question would need to be addressed eventually, but this commitment to Pratt — the third- or fourth-best infield prospect in the system, with Andrew Fischer charging up from behind and two controlled, relatively young established players in the big leagues — makes that question a little more urgent.

Jesús Made is the obvious pearl of the organization, and is a more-or-less consensus top-three prospect. He has a good chance at being the No. 1 overall prospect league-wide heading into next season, as the two players ahead of him — shortstops Konnor Griffin and Kevin McGonigle — will likely both have graduated by mid-summer (McGonigle is already playing for the Tigers, while Griffin is expected in the big leagues as soon as the Pirates secure the extra year of service time they’ll gain by keeping him in the minors to start the season, or they agree to an extension not totally unlike Pratt’s, if more lucrative). Jett Williams has played a lot of middle infield and is a little further along than Pratt. Luis Peña sometimes almost feels like a forgotten man, but he actually outperformed Made in the Dominican Summer League when they were both 17 and had a 139 wRC+ at Single-A Carolina as an 18-year-old. Fischer, who looks like he’ll keep playing third base for now, looked ready for primetime this spring, when he posted a 1.429 OPS in five Cactus League games and hit .357/.438/.714 in four games with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

Add Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz to the mix — both still have three years of team control remaining after this one — and you can see the problem, even if that problem is a good one: there are too many guys.

The first thought is that this is a big year for Ortiz. His offensive approach has been better early this season, but there are no questions about his defense. If he hits even a little, he’s a useful player; if he can get close to the league-average offensive player he was in 2024, he could produce at a borderline All-Star level. Maybe the ship has sailed on Ortiz as a good offensive player, but he was a consistently above-average minor league hitter, and as we’ve seen with Turang, we shouldn’t necessarily write these guys off after one or two tough years in the big leagues.

However, Ortiz’s spot is also probably the most precarious. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on his way out with the Brewers, and he could become quite a luxury as a utility player. But he’ll also get a bit more expensive when he gets to arbitration next season, and his defense should hold value throughout the league. Whether he bounces back offensively or not, the Brewers are likely to check on Ortiz’s market after the season. If no deal that the front office likes comes to the fore and the Brewers are ready to move on from Ortiz as the everyday shortstop, I’m sure they’ll consider using him as a right-handed backup to all three infield positions.

It might be a little early to make this proclamation, but Turang is a star. He’s also likely to be very expensive in a few years; as a Super Two player, he’s already making over $4 million and has three more arbitration years after this one, and he’ll hit the market when the 2029 season ends as a soon-to-be-30-year-old free agent. While we don’t necessarily want to start thinking about the end of Turang’s tenure in Milwaukee, for the purposes of this exercise, we should at least acknowledge the possibility that Turang might play three more seasons in Milwaukee and then gets traded a year before he hits free agency.

Even still, that clogs up one of the Brewers’ three infield spots for the next three years, limiting opportunities for others. Third base is another question: it’s likely spoken for this season, with Luis Rengifo and David Hamilton (though a later-season opportunity for a younger player there, particularly if there are any injuries, does seem possible), but there’s a likely opening there beyond 2026.

So what are some options?

The first step is to build a defensive hierarchy. Turang is at the top of the heap at second base and should stay there as long as he’s on the team. Ortiz, Pratt, Made, Williams, and Peña all play shortstop, though the writing has been on the wall for Peña for a while, and basically as soon as Williams was traded to Milwaukee, people started speculating about where he’d move. Made’s defensive reputation is pretty good, but his added weight this season might precipitate a move to third base. Ortiz, as a proven defensive stud, is ahead of Pratt, but it doesn’t seem like the Brewers think there will be much of a step down defensively if and when Pratt takes over at the position. Fischer seems like a capable third baseman, but probably not as good as any of these other options, and first base may be in his future.

So even if we shift Made to third base and Fischer to first, we have to consider alternatives. Williams has played way more shortstop than anything else as a minor leaguer, but he also doesn’t have quite the same defensive reputation that these others do, and he did play a decent amount of center field last season. Peña has never played the outfield, but he’s a 70-grade runner, and probably could play the outfield. The Brewers don’t have the same organizational depth in the outfield as they do in the infield, and switches for Williams and Peña might benefit all parties. That’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Looking down the road, then, it requires a lot of projection (and here’s where I’ll remind you that it’s unlikely that all of these players work out as useful big leaguers, no matter how promising they are now), but you could see some sort of alignment in a couple years like this:

1B: Fischer
2B: Turang
3B: Made
SS: Pratt/Ortiz
OF: Jackson Chourio
OF: Sal Frelick
OF: Williams/Peña

That would get all of these prized prospects into the lineup — and who knows, the Brewers may not have to worry about squeezing all of these guys in at once, as Peña, for instance, will still only be 21 in two years, and he’d still be a young debutant if Milwaukee just waited three years, traded Turang, and then installed Peña as the starting second baseman heading into 2029.

These questions don’t all need to get answered today, but the guarantee of money to Pratt makes his arrival in the big leagues feel closer than ever. We know that Williams is already on the doorstep. We probably won’t see Made, Peña, or Fischer this season, but if Made really is on the Chourio track, that would line him up for the beginning of 2027.

To reiterate, this is not a bad problem. But at some point, decisions will need to be made, both by those closer to the field and those further away from it. Will positional changes provide the necessary relief, and will those changes go smoothly? Could a blockbuster trade be in the cards? (A related question: Does the eight-to-ten-year extension the Brewers just gave Pratt increase his trade value?) There are a lot of different ways that things could still be addressed, but the Pratt extension makes the future of this team feel just a little bit closer.

On the night of February 13th, 2025, John Henry lit up a victory cigar to celebrate what would ultimately turn into one year of Alex Bregman’s services. Today, nearly 14 months later, Alex Bregman is gone, but the ashes from that cigar continue to catch fire and create new destructive flames on a seemingly daily basis.

Here’s where it all started:

Fast-forward to today and the 2026 Red Sox are out of a gate with an abysmal 1-5 record. Worse yet, the fingerprints of the failed Bregman negotiations can be found plastered all over it. Now, of course, there are many, many reasons for the Sox’ shameful start, but at least two of them are a pair of players who are on this roster specifically because the club didn’t want to commit to Bregman long-term at anything other than their price this past winter. And that’s really the point I want to get at here: The Red Sox need Ranger Suarez and Caleb Durbin to have solid seasons to have any chance of putting the Bregman fire out. They don’t need them to be MVP or Cy Young candidates, but they do (at minimum) need them to come close to replicating their 2025 campaigns.

To cement why this is the case, let’s take a look at the timeline since the start of the new year. At noon on January 14, less than 100 hours after the news broke on social media, the Chicago Cubs officially announced the signing of Bregman, which he also personally retweeted.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO… pic.twitter.com/7lvHSERXQQ

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) January 14, 2026

Less than three hours later, the Red Sox made their push to shift the narrative. Jeff Passan broke the story of how Boston decided to spend the money originally allocated for Bregman:

The Red Sox's first signing of the winter is a big one — $130 million for Ranger Suárez — and gives them a ton of rotation depth with Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello and others. Boston now will turn to adding another bat to its lineup, but that rotation is excellent.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 14, 2026

So now the money was spent, but not on the hitter they desperately needed. And the reason for all of this is of course because they decided play footsie with Bregman for so long that by the time mid January rolled around, all of the other big, right-handed, infield bats that might have been worth a damn to sign like — Pete Alonso and Bo Bichette — were already off the board. (For comparison, Alonso got five years at $155 million, and Bichette got three years at $126 million.)

So, instead, the Red Sox decided to use the money that was supposed to go to one of those bats on Ranger Suarez, and the whole thing just became this perfect encapsulation of what happens when you try to work it backwards and make the roster fit the budget instead of bending the budget to fit the roster’s needs.

But we still weren’t done, because despite most of the money being spent, there was still a gigantic hole left at third base. This meant the Red Sox had to trade from their new found “excess” of starting pitching to get the right-handed infield bat they still lacked. Not surprisingly, they probably couldn’t get through a conversation for any of the bats they really wanted without Connelly Early, Payton Tolle or Marcelo Mayer’s name coming up, so they eventually had to set their sights lower on Caleb Durbin as part of a perplexing trade that went down like this on February 9:

The Red Sox traded Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton and Shane Drohan to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, and Anthony Seigler.

And of course the cherry on top of it all is that Harrison is both one of the guys who came over in the Devers trade and the arm the front office deemed expendable after they used the Alex Bregman money to sign another starting pitcher. That’s the guy they used to acquire a young third baseman after they managed to fumble away both Devers and Bregman.

So make no mistake, these transactions are all connected, and this entire season is going to be a referendum on the radical reconstruction of the irregular roster left behind when the Bregman negotiations fell apart. Oh, and in almost poetic fashion, Alex Bregman and the Cubs will visit Fenway for the very last series of the season on September 25th through the 27th. The atmosphere for that three game set going to feel like a jury releasing their verdict at a murder trial.

But let’s get back to Suarez and Durbin specifically. They have to be good to prevent this Bregman thing from becoming radioactive. Not just because their presence here is so obviously connected to Bregman’s departure in 2026, but because literally everything else connected to Bregman’s arrival in 2025 has already turned into a flaming trainwreck.

There’s losing the second round pick of the 2025 draft for just one year of Bregman’s services. There’s Rafael Devers throwing himself a pity party after Bregman took over at third base. And then, of course, there’s the ensuing salary dump trade that’s left the Red Sox lineup with a noticeable lack of thump ever since.

But you know what’s crazy? Even at that point in the proceedings, this whole odyssey was still very salvageable. All they had to do was pay Bregman a fraction of the money they dumped in the Devers deal and hang onto the young guys they got back. Instead, they never met the moment when it came to a long-term Bregman contract, and have since traded away both James Tibbs and Kyle Harrison in highly questionable moves.

So far in the very early output of the 2026 season, James Tibbs has an 1.827 OPS in Triple-A, and Kyle Harrison looked great in his one start with the Brewers, which included eight strike outs in five innings of work.

And just to be complete here, the Red Sox are also paying $4 million for each of the next two years for Jordan Hicks, who was so bad in Boston after coming back as part of the Devers trade last year that they had to move him to Chicago over the winter in a deal where the White Sox will only pay for part of his salary.

So once again, as far as this front office is concerned, Ranger Suarez and Caleb Durbin have to be good! Because so far, literally everything else connected to Alex Bregman’s tenure here has turned toxic, and with both Suarez and Durbin being under team control for at least the next five years, the only way this story has a happy ending for the folks who set the wheels in motion is if these two guys end up being useful contributors to a winning baseball team. (No pressure though!)

And to be clear, these guys just have to be good, not great. The Red Sox don’t need Suarez to be a Cy Young candidate, they have Garrett Crochet for that. They just need him to be the guy that posted a 3.25 ERA over the last five years before he got his big payday. The Red Sox don’t need Caleb Durbin to fully replace Alex Bregman, they just need him to look like the guy who finished third in rookie of the year voting last season.

But so far out of the gate, Suarez and Durbin look a lot more like guys turning to stone in the continued curse of everything that touches the Alex Bregman web as opposed to guys who are ready to make a meaningful contribution to the 2026 Red Sox.

Now the flip side of this is Suarez has made just one bad start in a Red Sox uniform so far, Durbin is only 18 at-bats into his Red Sox tenure, and baseball has a habit of making anybody who says anything about the first week of any season look like a fool. But man, something about this feels ominous. Suarez was also terrible in his outing for Team Venezuela against Japan in the World Baseball Classic in which he gave up five runs in just 2.2 innings of work. And worse yet, this is a guy who is known for pitching well in big games and carries a 1.48 ERA in 42.2 innings of postseason work. When you consider how bad he was against Japan and that he was facing off against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it’s minor miracle Venezuela got through that game and winning the tournament. Suarez was one of the big headline names on the team, and he played almost no role in helping them win.

Then there’s Durbin, who feels like he got the absolute most out of his ability in 2025. If he can replicate that, fantastic! But he also might be one of those guys who turns into a pumpkin as quickly as he showed signs of promise and can never replicate that near-3.0 WAR season again.

Either way, these are the stakes for Suarez, Durbin, the front office, and this entire 2026 Red Sox season. Both the team and most of its main characters have gotten off to about as bad of a start imaginable, but I don’t want to start shoveling dirt on them quite yet. Baseball has a funny way of sometimes making the first week nothing more than a mirage and dealing out the exact opposite hand for the rest of the summer. For instance, just last season the Brewers (Durbin’s old team), gave up 46 runs in their first four games en route to an 0-4 start. They then of course went on to win 97 games and had the lowest ERA of any team in the National League.

This is classic baseball! It will scare you with fake monsters while hiding the real ones for later in the proceedings. Who knows, two weeks from now we might be singing the praises of both Suarez and Durbin and talking about how bad Bregman looks in Chicago. But until or unless that happens, we’re going to be left to confront the fallout from those fateful winter nights when Alex Bregman came into and left the Red Sox organization.

Triple-A: Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals) 4, Norfolk Tides 3 – F/10

The Tides dropped their third straight game on Wednesday afternoon in Memphis. The pitching staff coughed up two different leads, the offense left 10 runners on base, and it was a mixed bag of results for the Orioles’ pair of rehabbing big leaguers.

Jackson Holliday led off, played second base, and went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. The former first overall pick is now 4-for-13 with an .862 OPS during his rehab. Creed Willems drove in two of Norfolk’s runs with a seventh-inning home run as part of his 1-for-4 game. Their other run came in on a Memphis error in the fourth frame. There was plenty of traffic on the bases for the Tides. They collected eight hits, four walks, and a pair of errors from the home team. But they wasted most of those chances, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Brandon Young made his first start of the year. He was good, holding Memphis to one run on five hits, no walks, and four strikeouts over five innings. The short-term performances of Young and Cade Povich now hold added importance due to the injury to Zach Eflin, so it’s good to see a strong 2026 debut for Young.

The results from the bullpen were not as favorable. Andrew Kittredge made his first rehab appearance as he works through right shoulder inflammation. The veteran recorded just two outs, threw 19 pitches (nine strikes), struck out one, walked one, and gave up two hits. Cameron Foster impressed, striking out two over 1.1 perfect frames. Jackson Kowar allowed a run in his lone inning. And Enoli Paredes was handed the loss by allowing the extra-inning “ghost runner” to score after he walked the bases loaded, and then hit the next batter with a pitch to drive in the winning run.

Thursday’s Scheduled Games

Norfolk: at Memphis, 7:45 p.m. Starter: TBD

Chesapeake: at Hartford (Rockies), 7:10 p.m. Starter: Trace Bright (first start of the year)

Delmarva: at Salem (Red Sox), 6:35 p.m. Starter: Kiefer Lord (first start of the year)

Triple-A: Syracuse Mets (3-2)

SYRACUSE 4, TOLEDO 2 (BOX)

Jack Wenninger made the first Triple-A start of his career, and things went very well, as he didn’t lalow any runs, struck out five, walked one, and gave up five hits in four-and-two-thirds innings. Joey Gerber was the only Syracuse pitcher to give up any runs in the win, as Anderson Severino, Jonathan Pintaro, and Austin Warren all made scoreless appearances.

At the plate, Christian Arroyo had the best day with a couple of hits and a pair of runs batted in. The majority of Syracuse’s hitters had at least one hit on the day, as well.

• CF Nick Morabito: 1-4, R, SB
• DH Ronny Mauricio: 0-3, R, BB, K
• RF-1B Ryan Clifford: 1-4, K
• 3B Christian Arroyo: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI
• 1B Jose Rojas: 1-3, BB, K
• PR-2B Jackson Cluff: 0-0, R
• SS Vidal Bruján: 1-3, BB, K, SB
• C Ben Rortvedt: 1-3, R, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 K
• LF Cristian Pache: 1-3, RBI, BB, K
• 2B-RF Ji Hwan Bae: 0-3, 2 K
• P Jack Wenninger: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• P Joey Gerber: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
• P Anderson Severino: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• P Jonathan Pintaro: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
• P Austin Warren: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Double-A: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

High-A: Brooklyn Cyclones (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Single-A: St. Lucie Mets (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Rookie: FCL Mets (0-0)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

STAR OF THE NIGHT

Jack Wenninger

GOAT OF THE NIGHT

Ji Hwan Bae

Good morning! I have some positive news: The Red Sox will not lose today. That’s of course because they don’t play again until tomorrow’s home opener, but hey, they can’t get any worse after a reset … right?

In the meantime, we’ve gotten a good whiff of the stink emanating from this lineup over the first six games of the season, and I’m completely underwhelmed by how weak the right handed bats look. So this got me wondering, if you were to compile a list of the best right-handed hitters in baseball, how far down it would you need to go to find the find the first Red Sox right-handed bat? 50 guys? 75 guys? It’s really quite depressing if you dive into the exercise.

The first step we need to figure out to get there though is identify which right-handed bat is Boston’s best. Trevor Story has been handed the keys to the No. 2 slot, so it should be him if he’s there on merit, but Willson Contreras probably has the better case as the best right-handed stick right now. Either way, that’s an incredibly weak headliner for the category.

Talk about this and whatever else you’d like, and as always, be good to one another!

1900
The White Sox played their first-ever game, an exhibition win over the University of Illinois baseball team in Champaign, 10-9. Roy Patterson got the win.

That season, the American League wasn’t considered a major league (the AL would band together with the National League to form MLB in 1901). However, the White Sox would win the AL’s first pennant on September 12, when they beat the Cleveland Blues. 12-4 and 9-1.

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1907
The best player in White Sox history (at least per his 77.5 career WAR), Luke Appling, was born in High Point, N.C. Exactly 20 years later, in Detroit, Billy Pierce was born. With their combined 127.3 WAR for the White Sox and universally beloved status, it’s safe to say there is no more important birthday on the franchise calendar than April 2.

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1982
The White Sox traded outfielder Wayne Nordhagen to Toronto for third baseman Aurelio Rodríguez. Over six years with the White Sox, Nordhagen was the epitome of a replacement player, earning just 0.4 WAR over 406 career games.

Still, the White Sox got the better end of this trade: Rodríguez spent all of 1982 with the White Sox, then signed with Baltimore for the 1983 season before returning to the White Sox after his release from Baltimore in August. The defensive whiz put up 0.5 WAR over the course of essentially one entire season (140 games) in 1982-83.

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1997
For the first time ever in Major League Baseball, one player’s salary is more than an entireteam’s salary.

OK, cool factoid. Why is that a part of White Sox History?

The reason — you may want to sit down for this — is that the player was on the Chicago White Sox. Yes, Albert Belle made $10 million in the first year of his free-agent deal with the South Siders, while the entire Pittsburgh Pirates payroll totaled just $9,071,667.

The 1997 season represented the last time the White Sox fielded the highest-paid player in baseball on their roster.

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2006
On Opening Night, the White Sox unfurled their 2005 World Champion banner at Sox Park. The night game was a concession for an ESPN national broadcast, and the South Siders set down their division rivals, 10-4. Jim Thome hit his first White Sox home run, through a driving rain in the fourth inning, putting the home team ahead to stay.

Overall, the game was delayed for three hours by rain.

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2021
Now THIS is how you make a debut!

White Sox DH Yermín Mercedes had more than 2,000 minor league at-bats before finally making an Opening Day roster in the majors. On this night in Anaheim, he had a sensational start, going 5-for-5, with four RBIs in a 12-8 win. Mercedes had four singles and a double in the game. Chrystal O’Keefe had the next-day South Side Sox feature about Yermín’s 5-for-5 outing.

The last time a rookie had five hits in his first game in the big leagues was 1933, when Cecil Travis of the Senators did it. Before Travis, Fred Clarke had gotten five hits in his first game as well — but Mercedes became the only player in history to go a perfect 5-for-5 in his debut.

Mercedes would go on to have 12 hits in his first four games — setting a modern major league record — and be named American League Player of the Week.

On this day just three years later, with a nod to how difficult it is to maintain a foothold in the majors, Mercedes signed a free agent contract … with the Kansas City Monarchs, an independent minor league team.

---

2024
White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet wrote his name in the team record book after throwing seven innings allowing one run and striking out eight in beating Atlanta, 3-2, on a raw night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

This came off his start against Detroit on Opening Day where he allowed a single run in six innings, striking out eight. It was his first two major league starts, and the 16 total strikeouts were the most ever for a Sox pitcher in the first two starts of his career.

He also joined Jack McDowell (1991) and Juan Pizarro (1963) as throwing at least six innings with one or fewer runs and at least six strikeouts in their first two starts of the season.

Hello, friends.

It only felt for a couple of days there like the Orioles were going to lose every game they ever play again. Thanks to Trevor Rogers and a breakout day from the offense, they were able to avoid a sweep by the Rangers with an 8-3 victory yesterday. Check out my recap of the game for more of the lovely totals.

After yesterday’s win, the Orioles are 3-3 through their first six games. That’s the same record that they had through six games a year ago. Only 3.7% of the season has been played. Lots of baseball remains. Coming up next for the Orioles is a three-game set against the Pirates, but that doesn’t start until Friday. Both they and the Pirates have the day off today.

Wednesday brought a couple of roster developments that may well have an impact on the whole rest of the season. The Orioles placed Zach Eflin on the 15-day injured list. That was no surprise. There’s still no diagnosis for his injury. I don’t think the MRI will bring good news. The other thing was that, in order to get Albert Suárez onto the roster, they transferred Jordan Westburg to the 60-day injured list. That means that the earliest that Westburg can play is the end of May.

I’ve been thinking that if we don’t see Westburg by May 1, that means we’re not going to see him at all this year. If I’m right in my guess, then this means we won’t see him. At some point, the Orioles will announce he needs the surgery and he’ll get it and he’ll be done for the year. I could be wrong. I often am when it comes to predicting the Orioles. My reasoning is that, if Westburg’s recovery was on pace that the platelet-rich plasma was working, then we’d be hearing by now about when he’ll start a rehab assignment. Instead, he’s heading the other direction.

Another open question is who will replace Eflin in the rotation. My assumption here – again, this could be wrong – is that it’s going to be Dean Kremer. The challenge with that is that the Orioles can’t recall Kremer until April 9 unless someone goes on the injured list at the same time. I think they’ll need someone to start on Monday or Tuesday, and there’s no guarantee that there will be an injured pitcher by then. That’s a problem for Monday or Tuesday, though. Yesterday, Elias solved his “we need long relief to save the rest of the bullpen” problem and it paid off with Suárez pitching three innings.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

We can say with certainty, no MLB game has ever ended like this before (Orioles.com)
The Orioles made a little fun history yesterday by having their win end from an ABS challenge turning a pitch into a third strike for the third out.

An early, nerdy look at the challenge system (FanGraphs)
And speaking of ABS challenges, the folks at FG are on top of figuring out how players seem to be using the challenges early on. It’ll be interesting to see how usage evolves over time, since after all it’s only been less than a week now.

It’s barely April, and it already feels like the Orioles are in the grind (The Baltimore Banner)
The Orioles, thankfully, dispelled a little bit of this with yesterday’s victory. It is, however, going to take sustained effort to avoid recurrences of some of their early problems.

Albernaz on Suárez joining Orioles (School of Roch)
The manager has a connection to Suárez from back when they were both minor leaguers in the Rays organization.

For Anthony Nunez, the best part of his MLB debut was sharing it with his mom (Steve on Baseball)
I am an absolute sucker for all “player’s family members there for the MLB debut” stories. This one on Nunez does not disappoint.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1976, the Orioles and Athletics made a six-player trade that brought future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson to Baltimore for one season.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1996-97 outfielder Pete Incaviglia, 1957 pitcher Art Ceccarelli, 1960-61 pitcher Gordon Jones, and 1959 infielder Bobby Ávila.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Frankish king Charlemagne (747), fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805), playwright Émile Zola (1840), and baseball Hall of Famers Hughie Jennings (1869), Luke Appling (1907), and Don Sutton (1945).

On this day in history…

In 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León landed on the mainland of what are now the United States for the first time. The first landing took place between the mouth of the St. John’s River and modern-day St. Augustine, Florida.

In 1800, composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s First Symphony had its premiere in Vienna, conducted by the man himself.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, which brought the country into the conflict that today we call World War I.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a random book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask one of the questions each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions. Since I’ve been skipping stupid questions (I suspect this book was churned out by AI with minimal human oversight,) today is the penultimate question for this exercise. Here’s today’s question:

Who was the first Orioles pitcher to lead the American League in strikeouts for a season?

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on April 2. Have a safe Thursday.

What a great couple of days for the Phillies rookies. First, Andrew Painter dazzled in his first start and stopped a three-game losing streak, and then less than 24 hours later, Justin Crawford collected his first walk-off hit and RBI in the tenth inning to cap off a memorable comeback. There will surely be growing pains, but the Phillies’ infusion of youth has already brought a spark to the 2026 season.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Andrew Painter had a small village of friends and family in tow for his MLB debut, and they all joined him to bask in the glow of a long journey to the majors finally finished. ($)
• An injury update on Zack Wheeler and Orion Kerkering, with the former set to pitch on Friday and the latter making his second appearance yesterday.
• A check in on where each of the Phillies top 30 prospects will begin their 2026 season.

MLB News:

• There aren’t many people off to a worse start in 2026 than umpire C.B Bucknor, who on the heels of a genuinely shocking missed call had to exit yesterday’s game after a foul tip hit him in the mask.
• Speaking of umpires, some of those who have retired are feeling for what their brethren are going through with the new ABS system. ($)
• Old friend and current Kansas City Royal Carlos Estévez is headed to the injured list with a foot contusion.