Category: Baseball

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A marathon run of games continues for the New York Yankees, who are looking to snap a three-game losing streak as they start a series against the Baltimore Orioles.

New York has owned the O’s for a decent stretch, going 9-1 over the last 10 head-to-head matchups. My Yankees vs. Orioles predictions and MLB picks for Monday, May 11 expect this trend to continue.

Who will win Yankees vs Orioles today: Yankees -1.5 (+102)

This looks like a "get right spot" for the New York Yankees, and I’d play the run line to -120 with an obvious pitching advantage. 

Baltimore Orioles hurler Brandon Young has a lot of room to grow. When he’s not inducing chase, he’s finding a lot of bats with a 42% hard-hit rate and slightly above average barrel rate. The Yankees enter this game with the fourth-lowest chase rate in baseball.

A pitcher who cannot generate swing-and-miss against a lineup that won't expand the zone has no path to surviving against a team with so much power. 

COVERS INTEL: Young has no pitch outside of the fastball that is competitive, that’s best indicated by his Bottom 6th percentile off-speed run value.

Yankees vs Orioles Over/Under pick: Over 8.5 (-122)

The ball could be flying tonight. 

Young is a chase-reliant pitcher who won’t get much chase. This will cause him to throw competitive pitches, and his Bottom 30th percentile hard-hit rate will be exposed against one of the best power lineups in baseball.

That should do the heavy lifting for this total. I suspect the O’s can chip in some, too.

Ryan Weathers' 94th percentile breaking ball is a genuine weapon, but his 14th percentile barrel rate is a real liability against a Baltimore lineup that has enough pop. Play to 9.

Yankees vs Orioles odds

• Moneyline: Yankees -155 | Orioles +140
• Run line: Yankees -1.5 | Orioles +1.5
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 | Under 9.5

Yankees vs Orioles trend

The Yankees have covered the run line in 15 of their last 22 games (+10.55 Units / 45% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Orioles.

How to watch Yankees vs Orioles and game info

Yankees vs Orioles latest injuries

Yankees vs Orioles weather

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Yesterday’s loss to the Minnesota Twins looks like an inflection point for the Cleveland Guardians’ leadoff hitter, Steven Kwan.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, with the Guardians trailing 5-3, David Fry and Brayan Rocchio singled to leadoff an inning against right-handed reliever Luis Garcia. For his career, Garcia has been a very serviceable relief pitcher with a 4.20 ERA. However, he is 39 years old and, as of today, has an ERA of 10.50 and an FIP of 6.12. So, to be clear, while potentially a competent middle reliever, not someone that an all-star hitter hitting leadoff should feel anything less than fully confident to get a hit or a walk.

Enter Steven Kwan. As of today, he has a 67 wRC+. He is having an awful year, no doubt. But, it’s May and he has a career wRC+ of 109. He also has a career 117 wRC+ vs. RHP. He also has a 213 wRC+ for his career in 3-1 counts. And, guess what? Steven Kwan worked a 3-1 count.

NOW enter Tony Arnerich, acting manager of the Guardians yesterday as Stephen Vogt dealt with what I hope is simply a nasty cold (he sounded TERRIBLE in interviews on Saturday). Arnerich put the sacrifice bunt sign on for Steven Kwan. He clarified this was the case after the game, as reported by Cade Cracas of Sports Illustrated on Twitter:

Are you curious how often a team’s leadoff hitter has been asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt in a 3-1 count with his team down 2 runs late in the game and at least one runner in scoring position? Well, I can tell you that from 2023 until yesterday, it did not happen one time. Let’s look further back… oh, ok, in the past decade prior to yesterday, it happened exactly ONE time… for the Chicago Cubs in 2022.

Here’s the thing… I don’t even know that having Kwan bunt was 100% the wrong call. I mean, aside from the fact that I am fundamentally opposed to sacrifice bunts except in situations where one run wins the game and the sacrifice bunt is with no outs to get a runner to third by an offensively-challenged hitter who knows how to execute a bunt, I think I understand why Arnerich decided his best hope was sacrificing Kwan’s chances for a hit and punting things to Chase DeLauter and Jose Ramirez. It’s because Arnerich recognizes that Kwan is nowhere near a 109 wRC+ or 117 wRC+ hitter as he currently exists.

We can’t say “Oh, Arnerich is new to the team, he doesn’t know about good Kwan.” Arnerich has to know these players inside and out, their present and their past and projected future. He knows Kwan has traditionally handled RBI opportunities well and has been very effective in 3-1 counts. If he didn’t know that, well, to be honest, he should be fired for lack of preparation. But, I think he did know that. I think he made the very pragmatic assessment that Kwan was more likely to provide a 67 wRC+ output in that situation which would make advancing the runners to get to actual good hitters a much riskier proposition.

Last night needs to be the flare fired off by the Guardians’ bench coach to the team to say “Hey, it’s time to move Steven Kwan from the leadoff spot.” It’s time to platoon Kwan vs. LHP. It’s time to let Kwan have more room to breath to figure out if he can get back to the hitter he was before June 2025. From June 2025 until now, Kwan has a 77 wRC+. He’s still walking at a good rate and striking out at a low rate. He’s just simply not hitting the ball well at all with a 15.6% hard-hit rate and an average exit velocity of 85 mph, and a 1.4% barrel rate. He is Austin Hedges (well, prior to this season) who strikes out a lot less. And, yes, that is the kind of player you can justify asking to sacrifice bunt to give your actual good hitters a chance to win you the game, even though a sacrifice bunt down two STILL seems insane.

After last night, the Guardians cannot have it both ways. Either Kwan is a leadoff hitter and should be trusted to figure it out and HIT. OR, he is what Arnerich told us last night… a bottom of the order hitter who should only be looking to flip the order over to hitters who can actually imapct the baseball. I know it’s a hard conversation and I know Kwan is a selfless player who volunteered to switch to centerfield to help the team, even having won four consecutive gold gloves in his previous position. You hate showing any lack of confidence in him, Vogter. But, there is absolutely nothing wrong with telling a struggling veteran, “We are taking some pressure off you and batting you 7th for a while. We’d love to have you back in the leadoff spot as soon as possible. We are going to give you more days off to try to fix what’s wrong and work with our supposedly competent hitting staff. We believe in you and this is a chance to take a deep breath and get back to being you.”

Will moving Steven Kwan down in the order solve the Guardians’ hitting issues? Of course not. But, it’s a simple, straight-forward way to try to help solve KWAN’S hitting issues, who remains a key to getting this offense humming. I would immediately install Travis Bazzana as the leadoff hitter and let him, DeLauter and Ramirez do their absolute best to drive pitchers insane for three batters for a while. But, after the message your bench coach sent last night, you simply cannot continue to bat Kwan leadoff and hope things magically change.

The Twins had a 3-3 week, dropping two to the Nats, taking two from the Guardians, and currently sit last in the AL Central with an 18-23 record. First, the good news: after a slow start to the season, Byron Buxton is back to being a menace at the plate. Since April 13, Buxton has hit 13 homers, with 21 runs and 20 RBI, slashing .299/.342/.701. The bad news: the bullpen has been a revolving door of pitchers, and ranks second-to-last in the league in ERA (6.05), second-to-last in strikeout rate (17.9%), and second-to-last in WHIP (1.61). But more good news: the bullpen didn’t completely suck against the Guardians. Eric Orze picked up the save on Saturday, and new Twin Yoendrys Gómez got the save on Sunday. But more bad news: Taj Bradley has now hit the 15-day IL with pec inflammation. So y’know, a very normal Twins week. The Twins now have a nine-game homestand against the Marlins (19-22), Brewers (22-16), and Astros (16-25).

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

• Check out The Feed, where you can add your discussions about the Twins!
• We’re starting a new segment called Daily Questions! Provide your opinion on the Twins and debate with the community!
• Game threads and recaps are back! Commiserate with your fellow fans as we experience the season together.
• Zach Koenig gives his early thoughts on the ABS challenge system.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Aaron Gleeman, formerly of The Athletic, has announced his departure from the news organization and is starting a new independent site to cover the Twins.
• Bobby Nightengale at the Star Tribune looks at how Trevor Larnach has become one of the better hitters for the Twins this season.
• Chris Schad at Zone Coverage offers an interesting player comparison for Byron Buxton – Kirby Puckett.

In the World of Baseball:

• We have a new leader in the American League, with the Rays having two fewer losses than the Yankees (in two fewer games). These two teams have slowly pulled away, as there’s a 4.5-game gap to the next best team, the A’s.
• Atlanta has a 1.0-game gap over the Cubs, and then the Dodgers, Padres, Brewers, and Cardinals are all within 3.5 games of the Cubs.
• Bobby Witt Jr. had a slow start to the season, not hitting his first homer until April 26th. However, on Saturday, Witt hit an inside-the-park homer on a grounder for his fifth of the season.
• Kiley McDaniel at ESPN looks ahead to the 2026-2027 free agency landscape.
• Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs evaluates the Giants’ trade to send Patrick Bailey to the Guardians.

MONDAY

Carson Benge’s 436-foot homer off Tomoyuki Sugano is the Mets’ longest homer of the season thus far.

The Mets only recorded four hits at Coors Field in their win. It was just the Mets’ third nine-inning game at Coors Field in which they’ve mustered four hits or fewer, with the other two both coming in 2008.

WEDNESDAY

The Mets saw six different players record multi-hit performances for the first time since September 2, 2025 in Detroit. Brett Baty is the only player who contributed multiple hits to both games, and only one of the other players with multiple hits on Wednesday (Francisco Alvarez) was on the 2025 Mets at all.

Marcus Semien recorded 4 hits including a home run, becoming the first Mets second baseman to do so since Javier Báez in Washington on September 5, 2021.

Freddy Peralta became the ninth Met to put up a scoreless start of at least five innings at Coors Field. Only one Met, Mike Pelfrey, did it twice (June 22, 2008 and April 15, 2010).

The Mets won their seventh consecutive game at Coors Field, a streak dating back to August 7, 2024. The Mets have also won six of their last seven series at Coors Field, dating back to 2019.

The Mets scored 10+ runs on 15+ hits at Coors Field for the fifth time since 2015. That’s tied for the most such games the Mets have had at any road ballpark in that span, matching their total at Citizens Bank Park and Truist Field.

THURSDAY

Christian Scott generated eight whiffs on his four-seam fastball, tying a pair of Freddy Peralta outings for the most whiffs via four-seam fastball by a Met in a game this season.

The Mets surrendered their fourth grand slam of the season when Jake McCarthy took Craig Kimbrel deep. That’s the most any MLB team has allowed so far this season. 

It was also the third grand slam the Mets have given up in the eighth inning this season. Since 1969, only one MLB team has given up more eighth-inning grand slams in a single season: the 2024 Mets, who gave up 4. In the past three seasons, the Mets have now given up a fitting total of eight eighth-inning grand slams. No other MLB team has allowed more than three in that span.

FRIDAY

THE WEEKLY MCLEAN UPDATE: Nolan McLean now has a 2.41 ERA and 114 strikeouts through his first 16 career games. The only other pitchers with that low an ERA and that many strikeouts through their first 16 games are: Hideo Nomo (2.10 ERA, 139 K), Matt Harvey (2.26 ERA, 116 K), Masahiro Tanaka (2.10 ERA, 127 K), and Paul Skenes (2.30 ERA, 121 K).

The Mets played their seventh extra-inning game of the season. The Pirates (7) are the only other team to have played that many extra-inning games this year.

The Mets won their seventh straight series opener at Chase Field, a streak dating back to May 31, 2019.

SATURDAY

Clay Holmes allowed two runs or fewer for the eighth straight start this year, overtaking Nolan Ryan (7 starts in 1971) and Johan Santana (7 starts in 2009) for the most consecutive starts allowing two runs or fewer to begin a season in Mets history. (source: MLB.com)

The Mets lost while hitting four balls with an exit velocity of 105 mph or higher for outs. This was their second loss of the season in which they hit four balls for outs at 105+ mph, and no other National League team has more than one such loss.

SUNDAY

Since April 23, Carson Benge has 15 hits, a .352 OBP, and a .500 SLG. All 3 of those marks lead the Mets’ offense during that span.

Eduardo Rodríguez racked up his second start of at least six innings pitched without allowing more than one run against the Metsthis season. The only player to have multiple starts of that variety against the Mets in 2025 was Rodríguez’s teammate, Zac Gallen.

The Mets recorded five hits or fewer for the 13th time this season, tying them with the Reds for the most such games in 2026. The 1963 Mets are the only team in franchise history with more games of five hits or fewer (14) through their first 40 games of a season.

The Mets scored two runs or fewer through nine innings for the 21st time this season, leading MLB in 2026 and tying an unfortunate franchise mark set by the 1967 Mets for the most such performances through 40 games of a season.

Miscellaneous Mets stat of the week:
The last Mets player to steal three bases in a game was Juan Lagares, who did so on September 7, 2014 in Cincinnati. Four of the first six batters in the Reds’ lineup that day would go on to play for the Mets in the following six seasons: Billy Hamilton, Todd Frazier, Devin Mesoraco, and Jay Bruce.

No Met has stolen three bases in a game yet at Citi Field. But Jon Berti has done it on three separate occasions.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers’ struggling offense will get a spark this week as the rival San Francisco Giants come to town.

Mookie Betts, who has been out since April 4 with a strained oblique, is scheduled to come off the injured list and be in the No. 2 or 3 spot in the lineup. 

My Giants vs Dodgers predictions and MLB picks have the Dodgers getting a home win with Mookie back in the fold on Monday, May 11.

Who will win Giants vs Dodgers today: Dodgers moneyline (-177)

The Los Angeles Dodgers have missed Mookie Betts’ presence near the top of the order.

Shohei Ohtani is hitting .241, had more strikeouts (four) than hits (two) in the last series, and has one homer in the last 22 games. The top half of the lineup has struggled, and Betts allows everyone to return to their usual spot in the order.

The San Francisco Giants took two of three from L.A. last month but are 5-10 since. They traded MLB’s top defensive catcher in what looks like a restart. The lineup has scored fewer than two runs four times in the last nine games.

COVERS INTEL: With Betts out, Freddie Freeman had a 58 OPS+ (100 is league average) in the No. 2 spot. Kyle Tucker had a 73 OPS+ in that spot. Will Smith can also move out of the three hole, where he was at 86.

Giants vs Dodgers Over/Under pick: Over 9.5 (+100)

In addition to Betts’ return, the Dodgers’ offense will get a boost from playing the fourth-place Giants.

They’ll face Giants rookie starter Trevor McDonald, making just his sixth major-league start. He relies heavily on a slider, which plays into the Dodgers' hands. Freeman, Ohtani, and Teoscar Hernandez all have a hard-hit rate over 60% against that pitch.

The Dodgers start Roki Sasaki, who has struggled with control (27th percentile walk rate) and hard contact (12th percentile in barrel rate and 23rd in hard-hit rate) this year. The Giants scored 15 runs in the last three games and are getting hot just as they face the struggling Sasaki.

Giants vs Dodgers odds

• Moneyline: Giants +163 | Dodgers -170
• Run line: Giants +1.5 (-140) | Dodgers -1.5 (+115)
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 (+100) | Under 9.5 (-120)

Giants vs Dodgers trend

The San Francisco Giants have only hit the Moneyline in 8 of their last 25 away games (-9.05 Units / -34% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Giants vs. Dodgers.

How to watch Giants vs Dodgers and game info

Giants vs Dodgers latest injuries

Giants vs Dodgers weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Yariel Rodriguez will be with the team for tonight’s game. The team had an open spot on the 40-man roster, but there is no word on how they will free up a spot on the active roster. Rodriguez has thrown 13.2 innings, with 9 walks, 25 strikeouts and 7 hits, with a 2.63 ERA.

I’m guessing that Eric Lauer will either go on the IL (he is throwing a couple of miles per hour lower than last year, the excuse might be to find out if there is a physical reason for that) or they DFA him and put him on waivers. If a team picked him up, they would owe him about $3.1 million, which isn’t all that much for a guy who had a 3.18 ERA last year. Or other teams could wait to see if he elects free agency after the waiver period.

Batters are hitting .264/.335/.542 against him. He’s handed out 16 walks in 36.1 innings, when he had just 26 in 104.2 innings last year. And he leads baseball with 11 home runs allowed.

Of course I’m guessing at stuff. Giving up on a guy, who was very good last year, on just 36 innings is not a great way to do business. But Lauer has had an up and down career. The unfortunate thing for Lauer is that last year he was throwing just hard enough to keep batters honest. When you lose a little from ‘just hard enough’, bad things happened. We saw that a few years ago with Marco Estrada. He never threw upper 90s but when he went from lower 90s to upper 80s, he wasn’t quite the same guy.

But without Lauer, they’d need someone in five days.

Spencer Miles could be used in that spot. He three innings yesterday and likely could go a bit more next time out. And Yariel Rodriguez can do more than one inning, he’s done two or more a couple of times in Buffalo.

Of course it is possible it isn’t Lauer who’s coming off the roster.

I totally reject the idea that Lauer’s problems are because of them bouncing him back and forth between bulk man and starter. He’s not throwing softer because he’s changing roles (or if he is, it is a lousy way of showing he should be a full time starter).

And I’m not buying the ‘he’s sulking because of the opener thing’. He was asked if he likes the opener thing, and he answered honestly. I bet if you asked every starting pitcher in the league….well…..most of them wouldn’t actually answer, because if you answer people will twist it. Fans complain about players give stock answers to questions, but when someone gives a real answer they read more into it than just an answer to a question. No starting pitcher wants to go to the bulk man role. But then, if they want out of that role, PITCH BETTER.

I also dislike reading body language. Players can’t win that game. If a player smiles and is happy, while struggling, we complain (Jerry Howarth ran Jose Reyes for being his usual happy self, even though he wasn’t playing well). If they look serious, they are sulking. The players can’t win.

Addison Barger is off to get an MRI on his right elbow. To me, it is very likely a direct line from this (one amazing throw):

There is this:

Now I don’t know if any of that is true. I don’t know how Addison felt right after the throw. I don’t know if there was immediate pain or anything. I do know that someone twittered that Addison grimaced in the dugout when he was high-fiving after the throw. I don’t know that he had another throw in from right that game.

Hopefully it is just soreness. I think we’ve all thrown a ball a little too hard and then had pain after. But Barger likely knows the difference between a little soreness and something that needs an MRI. They say he woke up with ‘limited range of motion’ in the arm. That doesn’t sound good.

I don’t want him to be out another month.

It would be nice if there was something fun to write about.

2026 MLB Draft: Baseball America has released their latest mock draft — V.3.0 if you’re keeping track at home — and they have the Texas Rangers, at #16, selecting righthanded pitcher Cameron Flukey out of Coastal Carolina.

Flukey is not someone who, coming into the season, would generally have been seen up to this point as being available when the Rangers pick. BA currently has him at #7 on their draft board, while MLB Pipeline slots him at #13. However, Flukey was sidelined earlier this year with a rib issue (BA says rib strain, MLB Pipeline says rib stress fracture), and has struggled in the few outings he has had since his return.

Interestingly, Keith Law has the Rangers taking University of Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron in his latest mock draft, which came out last week, but also mentions Flukey as a possibility for Texas at #16, ultimately mocking Flukey to the Astros at #17 (and marveling that Flukey might drop that far).

Jim Callis, in his mock draft that dropped on Friday, also has the Rangers taking Lebron at #16. Lebron profiles as a toolsy, true shortstop with four potential plus tools, and is currently #5 on the MLB Pipeline board. However, there are real questions about Lebron’s hit tool, and he’s slashing just .266/.386/.516 this seasonl albeit with an impressive 36 stolen bases in 37 attempts.

The Rangers have gotten away from the tool sheds with questionable hit tools in recent years, so Lebron would be a bit of a surprise. College pitchers with injury issues, though, have been the Rangers’ jam of late. Flukey is a guy with a four pitch mix and a quality fastball that he throws for strikes, and could move quickly. If he drops because of the rib injury, he would seem to be a fit with the Rangers at #16.

It’s out of the frying pan and into the fire for the Atlanta Braves. Despite today being an off-day, they’ll have little time to come down from their big statement series-win in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. They’ll be coming home to welcome in the high-flying Cubs who have also gotten off to a very hot start, themselves.

Following their second high-caliber showdown in as many series, the Braves will enter into a stretch where it’s possible that they won’t be facing a team that’s over .500 until the weekend after Memorial Day. The Braves could have a direct say in that since they’ll be facing the Red Sox twice during that span — the first series of which will be taking place this weekend as the Braves end their brief six-game homestand against Boston. It’ll be a test nonetheless, as the Braves will be looking to keep on rolling with Memorial Day getting closer and closer.

Now it’s time to take a look at what lies ahead for Atlanta as far as the action this week is concerned.

May 12-14: Chicago Cubs

Current Record: 27-14 Projected Record(via FanGraphs): 90-72

Thank goodness for today being an off day, since that means that Chris Sale will be able to pitch in the series finale against the Cubs on regular rest. That’ll be huge for the Braves considering that Grant Holmes, JR Ritchie and the rest of Atlanta’s pitching staff is going to have a serious test on their hands with this Cubs lineup. The good news is that we now know that they can indeed be stopped, as Chicago will be entering this game having dropped a series on the road against the Rangers where they got shut out twice in the final two games.

That only came after the Cubs rattled off their second 10-game winning streak of the season so far. It could just be that the Cubs are monsters at Wrigley Field while being somewhat normal away from home but up until their power outage in Arlington, the Cubs did have one of the best team wRC+ marks on the road. Obviously, we’re all hoping that the Braves can keep the Cubs mired in this current mini-slump that they’re on but it’ll still be a very tough task for this lineup to keep guys like Nico Hoener, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Pete Crow-Armstrong and old friend Dansby Swanson quiet over the course of this series. Hopefully these guys continue to slumber through their visit to Cobb County.

Meanwhile, Chicago’s pitching staff has done enough to make sure that whatever the offense does doesn’t go up in smoke on any given night. While they’re only just outside of the top 10 of all teams in ERA- and actually pretty low down baseball’s order in terms of FIP-, the Cubs are going to be sending some tough customers to the mound to start for them during this series. Shota Imanaga has mostly been very tough to deal with so far this season and his last outing in particular was a very impressive one where he went six innings with just one run allowed with 10 strikeouts. That was after he pitched seven innings of shutout ball against the Diamondbacks.

With that being said, he has had his occasional blow-ups. The Dodgers got him for five runs (four earned) over 5.1 innings on April 26 and then the Nationals tagged him for four runs over five innings all the way back on March 29. If the Braves can get to Imanaga then maybe that’ll be a good sign for them — even if Ben Brown could be frustratingly effective for the Cubs and Colin Rea could also deliver a solid performance of his own as well.

The Braves are going to have a lot on their plate to pull off another series win but at least this time, they’ll be playing in front of their home fans (though there will surely be plenty of folks clad in Cubbie Blue, like usual) in their own ballpark and maybe that’ll be enough to give the Braves the edge in what’ll surely be a hard-fought series.

Tuesday, May 12 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision, TBS (out-of-market only))
Wednesday, May 13 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Thursday, May 14 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)

May 15-17: Boston Red Sox

Current Record: 17-23 Projected Record: 79-83

Speaking of plenty of folks being clad in the other team’s colors, we’ll probably see that as well once the Red Sox come to town. They won’t be cheering for a team with a winning record once they do arrive, as Boston is currently stuck at the bottom of the AL East and looking to find some sort of way to get things going in the right direction. The good news for Boston is that they are very close to Toronto and Baltimore in the standings, so they could very well be in third place by the time they make it to Atlanta. The bad news for them is that they’re already way behind both the Yankees and the Rays who are currently duking it out at the top of the AL East, so they’ve got a long road to go before they become relevant in the division again this season.

Pitching-wise, the Red Sox have actually been performing at around the same level as the Cubs have — at least according to ERA- and FIP-. Ranger Suarez has been very solid for them so far and they’ve also gotten encouraging results from Payton Tolle and Connelly Early to start the season so far. Arodlis Chapman has once again continued to defy Father Time with his production out of the ‘pen as well, so the Braves will be doing well to make sure that they don’t have to see him too much during this series. This is a perfectly fine pitching staff that’ll be coming to town this weekend and while the Braves may be avoiding Suarez, whoever Boston puts out there won’t be a pushover.

The main problem for Boston has been their hitting (or lack therof). Heading into this week, the Red Sox have a grand total of four (4) regular contributors who have a wRC+ over 100 — Wilyer Abreu (133), Willson Contreras (134), Cedanne Rafaela (104) and Masataka Yoshida (109). That’s it. For comparison’s sake, the Braves have eight regulars with a wRC+ over 100 and if you count Jonah Heim and his 12 games of work while he was with the Braves, it’s nine. If this series turns into a situation where it comes down who can get the most consistent plate production then this should be a series that goes well for the Braves. If it comes down to pitching then things could be much tougher for Atlanta during this series. We’ll see what happens!

Friday, May 15 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)
Saturday, May 16 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)
Sunday, May 17 at 1:35 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)

Former Nationals southpaw Mackenzie Gore certainly hasn’t gotten off to the greatest start in Texas. The 27-year-old who was long considered the future of the Washington rotation was dealt to the Rangers during the 2026 offseason, and the next step that so many analysts and fans believed he could take simply hasn’t come. He has a 5.18 ERA through 40.0 innings, with a concerningly high walk rate and consistent struggles effectively working deeper into games.

Infielder Gavin Fien, the Rangers 1st-round selection in the 2025 draft, was seen as the central piece in the return for Gore, and he remains firmly in the organization’s Top-5 prospect rankings. However, he might not be the prospect that could yield the greatest results.

20-year-old shortstop Devin Fitz-Gerald, a main part, but not the headliner in the deal, has been a man on a mission through the first part of the 2026 season. Starting the year with the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks, he’s been an absolute nightmare for pitchers to face.

The counting numbers fly off the page, with a slash line of .310/.439/.593 through 113 at-bats, including a 15-for-42 stretch with 4 HR and 10 XBH in the last 14 days. What’s even more impressive is how he’s doing it. A shoulder injury prematurely ended his 2025 campaign with the Single-A Hickory Crawdads, and there were legitimate concerns about how his power tool would rebound moving forward. With almost a 30-game sample size under his belt so far in his return to action, those questions have been silenced.

Looking at Fitz-Gerald’s profile, it’s difficult to find even the smallest weakness in his 2026 performance to this point. He’s hitting the ball hard, he’s beginning to elevate with intent, and boasts equally impressive walk and strikeout rates, both sitting at 15.7%. Everything about his start screams sustainability, and his bat-to-ball skills have looked as good as any prospect in the minors.

Fellow shortstop Ronny Cruz’s exponential rise into MLB Pipeline’s Top-100, preceded by a promotion to Wilmington just a few short weeks ago, has infused an impressive amount of talent into Washington’s lower MiLB levels. With 6 prospects now on the list, and no signs of the switch-hitting Fitz-Gerald slowing down any time soon, his insertion onto the national rankings and a swift advancement to Double-A could be on the horizon.

Gore’s slow start and lack of immediate developmental strides have certainly made the trade easier to swallow for Nats fans, albeit Washington’s own pitching woes have made usable arms even more of a commodity than when he was still in the organization.

With that being said, the Nationals have made it abundantly clear that their eyes are pointed to the future. As they continue their focus on finding projectable assets who can evolve into MLB players capable of fueling an eventual playoff push, the high-flying Fitz-Gerald looks like a major win for the new front office’s talent evaluation and player development programs.

When the Kansas City Royals hit the 2025/2026 offseason, they had a few items on their wish list. Generally, they were looking to shore up their outfield, which was a significant weakness for them. Specifically, they were on the hunt for three things: a right-handed bat to play against lefties, a starting left fielder, and a middle-of-the-order type bat to lengthen the lineup.

To fill the right-handed platoon bat, the Royals signed Lane Thomas on a one-year, $5 million deal. Kansas City traded for Isaac Collins to fill the left field spot. And the middle-of-the-order bat never materialized, as the Royals didn’t find a player in free agency or a trading partner that they were comfortable with.

Should the Royals have done more? That was one of the questions us Royals Review staff discussed in the very first roundtable of the year. Fortunately, though, we can take a look at what some of the players with whom the Royals were linked in the offseason and see what they have been up to. And the results are…mostly underwhelming.

This list of players includes a variety of free agents in the Royals’ price range as well as the players the Royals were rumored to be targeting in a trade:

There is one clear winner in this list: Ward, who has been both very good and healthy for the Baltimore Orioles. Two more players are also clear success stories: Garcia, who has been perfectly serviceable on his one-year deal, and Frazier, who is darn near playing at the league minimum but hitting well and generally doing his thing.

Outside those three players, though, there’s a lot to cringe at. Donovan has been good when healthy, but he’s already missed three weeks with an injury this year. Kim hasn’t played at all yet after a freak injury in Korea. Bader and Hays have also been hurt, and they’ve been bad when they’ve played. Yastrzemski and Mullins have simply been bad.

The year isn’t yet done, and it’s only May. There’s plenty of time for this group of players to succeed. Still, you acquire free agents or make trades to impact your club quickly—if teams didn’t need that, they could simply wait until the trade deadline. And the group of players in the Royals’ price range have been largely disappointing.

Kansas City’s offseason wasn’t perfect. Giving $8 million to Jonathan India was eyebrow-raising at the time, and his season-ending shoulder injury makes that more frustrating. And was Lane Thomas worth $5 million? He hasn’t been as bad as many others who got more years and dollars, so that’s a win at least.

But the Royals don’t do their offseason in a vacuum; they have to acquire real players with real money or talent, and have to do so with what’s available. And for the second consecutive offseason, it looks like Kansas City’s reluctance to make splurge on a big free agent or trade acquisition has been smart.

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We're going East-to-West with our MLB picks tonight, finding value in a pair of moneylines (plus a total bet) based on prices available at Polymarket.

Read on to see why our MLB experts like a pair of AL West teams to win, while an AL East clash should produce plenty of runs. 

MLB expert picks for today

Pick	Odds
Josh Inglis: TB/TOR o7.5	+102
Jon Metler: SEA ML	-133
Neil Parker: TEX ML	-117

Prices courtesy of Polymarket.

Josh Inglis' expert pick: Rays/Blue Jays Over 7.5

Price: 49¢ (+102) at Polymarket

Let’s put the familiarity angle to the test today. Both starters faced these same lineups in their previous outings, with Drew Rasmussen allowing seven hits and three runs, while Kevin Gausman gave up two runs. Now, we get a controlled environment (inside the dome at the Rogers Centre), the Toronto Blue Jays lineup is getting healthier, and the Tampa Bay Rays can put up runs. Per THE BAT, the fair price on this over is closer to -115.

Jon Metler's expert pick: Mariners moneyline

Price: 57¢ (-133) at Polymarket

George Kirby has been surgical this season, allowing just 2.08 BB/9, which is not a good matchup for the Houston Astros lineup. Kirby isn’t going to hand out free passes and then leave pitches over the heart of the plate for aggressive, mistake-hitting batters like Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker to launch into the seats. Instead, Kirby is going to force Houston to string together multiple hits: A challenge for an Astros offense that lacks depth and has struggled to consistently turn the lineup over. The Seattle Mariners are trading around 57-cent favorites, but I think they should be closer to 62 cents (-163).

Neil Parker's expert pick: Rangers moneyline

Price: 54¢ (-117) at Polymarket

The Diamondbacks have hit the skids at the dish, with a 28th-ranked xwOBA across their past 12 games, while the Texas Rangers check in sixth. Additionally, Texas ranks 11th in wOBA against righties for the year, while Arizona sits 27th — that's a monstrous gap that isn’t priced into these odds enough... and I also give Texas a pitching edge. Rangers righty Nathan Eovaldi has outpitched his surface numbers for the year, with his 3.29 xFIP well below his 4.15 ERA, and Diamondbacks starter Mike Soroka has been beat around (to the tune of a .472 wOBA and 1.082 OPS) in his two road starts.

More MLB best bets for today

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The 1989 Yankees were a mostly forgettable squad. Situated squarely within the late-80s decline that came before the dynasty years of the late ‘90s, the ‘89 team combined lengthy winning and losing streaks to reach the All-Star Break with a 43-43 record — good for second in the AL East, 5.5 games behind the division-leading Baltimore Orioles. A late-July swoon, however, prompted the Bombers to swing some deals at the deadline, bringing today’s birthday boy to the Bronx: 11-year big-league pitcher Walt Terrell, who had a 13-start Yankees career.

Charles Walter Terrell
Born: May 11, 1958 (Jeffersonville, IN)
Yankees Tenure: 1989

Born to a factory worker and seamstress in rural Indiana, Walt Terrell grew up without either indoor plumbing or a telephone for a good chunk of his childhood, receiving the former in 1965 and the latter in 1967. Despite this, the 6-foot-7 Terrell proved to be a remarkable athlete from a young age, playing high school baseball, football, and basketball. Off the back of a strong senior season, in which he threw a no-hitter and posted a batting average above .300, he went on to attend Morehead State University in Kentucky, where he learned a changeup — and how to truly pitch, not simply throw the ball — from coach Steve Hamilton, a 12-year Major Leaguer who spent eight seasons with the Yankees.

Originally drafted in the 15th round of the 1979 draft by the New York Mets, Terrell returned to college for his senior season. In the short term, this cost him draft stock, as he wound up going to the Texas Rangers in the 33rd round the following year. In the long term, however, this turned out to be the right move: when he finally took ta professional mound that summer, he hit the ground running, steadily climbing through the system. When he was traded, along with Ron Darling, to the Mets in April 1982 for Lee Mazzilli, he was immediately added to the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, and made his debut that September when rosters expanded.

Terrell started the 1983 season back in the minors, but returned to The Show for good that June. For the next year and a half, he was a mainstay in the rotation in Queens. At that point, though, his time with the Mets came to an end, as he was traded to the Detroit Tigers on December 7, 1984. He would go on to spend four seasons there. Across the first three, he was one of Detroit’s most reliable pitchers, averaging 34 starts per season while posting a perfectly league average 4.14 ERA. An ankle injury and underperformance ruined his 1988 campaign, however, prompting the Tigers to trade him to the San Diego Padres a few weeks after the season ended.

Terrell was an effective middle-of-the-rotation starter in San Diego, going 5-13 with a 4.01 ERA (88 ERA+) in 19 starts as a member of the Padres. With the Padres in fourth place and 9.5 games behind the first place Giants in the NL West, San Diego opted to flip the impending free agent at the deadline for struggling Yankees third baseman Mike Pagliarulo and pitcher Don Schulze.

The Yankees undoubtedly hoped Terrell would provide a jolt to the middle of their rotation as they tried to battle back in the division. That, unfortunately, did not happen. He allowed four runs or more in six of his first seven starts, getting tagged with the loss in four of them. Below is one such blow-up, when the “Why Not” Orioles—stunning contenders in ’89 after record-setting misery in ’88—got to him for five runs on eleven hits in six innings of work on August 26th:

In truth, Terrell only had one major highlight with the Yankees, a five-hit complete-game shutout at Fenway Park against Wade Boggs and the Boston Red Sox. That ended his season on a high note at the very least.

That offseason, Terrell was interested in a return to the Bronx, but ultimately signed a three-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates for $3.6 million. That contract lasted all of 16 starts, as the Pirates released him in the middle of July after he started his Pirates career with a 2-7 record and a 5.88 ERA. The Tigers picked him up, and he spent the last two and a half years of his career with them. He signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays ahead of the 1993 season, but failed to make the team out of spring training and, when it was clear that the team had no interest in bringing him up, retired in July.

After his career, Terrell moved to Kentucky and, according to SABR, worked for Pepsi and coached high school and travel baseball. In 2005, he was inducted into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

The San Francisco Giants, ranked fourth in the NL West with a 16-24 record, face the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are tied for first in the NL West with a 24-16 record. The Los Angeles Dodgers are favored with a -185 moneyline compared to the San Francisco Giants' +150. Starting pitchers are Trevor McDonald for San Francisco, with a 1.29 ERA, and Roki Sasaki for Los Angeles, with a 5.97 ERA.

How to watch San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

• Date: Monday, May 11

• Time: 10:10 p.m. ET / 7:10 p.m. PT

• Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA

• TV Channels: SportsNet LA, NBCS BA

• Live Stream:ESPN+, MLB.TV | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• San Francisco Giants: 16-24 (fourth in NL West)

• Los Angeles Dodgers: 24-16 (tied for first in NL West)

Odds

• Spread: Los Angeles Dodgers -1.5

• Moneyline: Los Angeles Dodgers -185 / San Francisco Giants +150

• Over/Under: 9.5

Starting pitchers

San Francisco Giants: Trevor McDonald (1-0, ERA: 1.29, K: 8, WHIP: 0.29)

Los Angeles Dodgers: Roki Sasaki (1-3, ERA: 5.97, K: 26, WHIP: 1.67)

Weather: 74°F at first pitch