Category: Baseball

Wednesday was a rough day at the park for Francisco Lindor. 

The Mets’ usually fundamentally sound veteran shortstop committed not one, but two costly mental mistakes in what ended as a frustrating walk-off loss to the Cardinals. 

First Lindor forgot how many outs there were, calmly jogging to second for the force and turning to the dugout on what should’ve been a routine inning-ending double play in the first.

Freddy Peralta easily escaped after, but it cost the starter five more pitches. 

Lindor would hurt the Mets a bit more a few innings later, though, as he was picked off first a few pitches before Juan Soto broke a scoreless tie with a solo homer in the sixth. 

New York, of course, ended up losing the game 2-1 in extras. 

Lindor did draw a walk for the fourth consecutive game, but he went hitless on the afternoon, leaving him with just one knock in 10 at-bats during the series in St. Louis. 

Despite the tough day, former Mets shortstop Jose Reyes says fans need to relax about the five-time All-Star. 

Relax everybody… my guy Francisco Lindor gonna be good. Bad days happen — that’s baseball. Could happen to anyone. He’s human just like all of us. Watch how he responds… this gonna be good for him and for the organization 🧡💙

— Jose Reyes (@lamelaza_7) April 2, 2026

Lindor’s first opportunity to respond will come in Thursday’s series opener against the Giants.

The Colorado Rockies have their first day off of the 2026 regular season following their surprise series victory over the defending American League champion Toronto Blue Jays. It took the Rockies until June to secure their first series victory in 2025. Does this portend the Rockies are indeed an improved unit?

With the Rockies traveling back home to Denver for their home opener tomorrow, we can tune into some minor league baseball as the Double-A season begins this week! All High-A and Low-A will kick off their season tomorrow to mark the minor league season as fully started!

Check out the Weekly Pebble Report for a story on Charlie Condon as he nears the precipice of a potential Major League debut this season, and for our prospect report for last week!

All MiLB games today are listed in order of start time. Lineups will be added if/as they become available on team social media feeds.

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Triple-A: Reno Aces (3-2) vs Albuquerque Isotopes (1-4)

Despite some excellent pitching from Tanner Gordon, Sean Sullivan, and Gabriel Hughes, the Isotopes have just one win in their young season thus far as the offense has struggled to launch. Gordon will toe the rubber again today while Blaine Crim and Zac Veen continue their rehab assignments in an early afternoon affair against the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate.

First Pitch: 12:05 p.m. MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

Lineups:

Double-A: Chesapeake Baysox (0-0) vs Hartford Yard Goats (0-0)

The Double-A season starts today with an Eastern League match-up. The Yard Goats clinched a postseason berth in 2024 for the first time in franchise history, only to miss the dance in 2025. What does this season have in store for them? Right-handed Jake Brooks—obtained from the Miami Marlins in exchange for Bradley Blalock this off-season—will start for the Yard Goats.

First Pitch: 7:10 p.m. MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

Lineups:

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Jonny Farmelo’s professional career has unfortunately been defined by his absence. First battling a torn ACL, Farmelo missed the bulk of his debut season, cooling some of the momentum he’d built after a hot start had him rapidly ascending up prospect rankings. Opening last season late due to an oblique injury, he would again return to the injured list with a stress fracture in his ribs that sidelined him until early August, limiting his season AB total to just over 100. Having notched just 350 PA’s in the minor leagues, Farmelo is still a bit of a mystery at this point, but with the immense upside his tools provide him, he remains within our system top five and is primed to be a “breakout” prospect that’s entering his third minor league season.

For a 6’2/205lb. guy, Jonny Farmelo kinda moves 💨 pic.twitter.com/sZWRdpG3Sy

— Baseball Unstitched (@BaseUnstitched) March 5, 2026

Farmelo is in a strange spot right now. A twitchy athlete with a unique swing that’s direct to the ball, Farmelo has the look of a high contact centerfielder that uses his borderline elite speed to make up for a lack of juice, but in reality, it’s kind of the opposite. Farmelo’s power is real, and coupling it with his speed/centerfield skills makes him an unbelievably exciting prospect, but Farmelo saw his contact numbers take a step back last season after his injury-plagued year. It’s natural to see some rust when a player misses considerable amounts of time, and Farmelo having been sidelined for nearly half of his time as a professional only compounds that issue, but the uptick in whiff is certainly something to be cognizant of.

Jonny Farmelo has been one of the best bats out of the Mariners top prospect core to start this spring.

3 hits in his first 8 AB's, his a prime candidate for a 2026 breakout. After playing just 29 games in 2025, this start is very encouraging to watch.

2028 ETA pic.twitter.com/wLsxvibfCu

— Tobey Schulman (@tschulmanreport) February 25, 2026

The ideal version of Farmelo has a blend of this power uptick mixed into his “old” offensive approach from his first year as a professional. Farmelo, an excellent base stealer, is capable of being a dynamic threat atop a lineup, but that profile is a bit tougher to justify if he’s running K rates just south of 30%. With his routinely robust walk rates and track record of displaying better K rates in the past, there’s less of a concern Farmelo has turned into a TTO slugger than his numbers might suggest, but it’s something fans should absolutely monitor this season. His first healthy opening day since his debut in 2024, this season will be a massive year for Farmelo, hopefully providing our first full season sample of the kind of player Farmelo actually is.

Thank you for the warm reception from my debut article. I’m sure I’ll have missteps along the way, but I’m aiming to live up to the high standard VEB has set. Expect to see me weekly going forward. I’ll see you in the comments!

This season is the year of reckoning for Jordan Walker. He comes from a seemingly endless line of Cardinals prospects over the years to never live up to the expectations put on them from a “draft and develop franchise.” Let’s rip the bandaid off and mention some names: Carlson, Reyes, Luke Weaver, Delvin Perez, even Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty to a certain extent. The Cardinals lost their way in prospect development in the same way if Walmart turned into a real estate company – you have to nail the stated mission if it’s going to be your stated mission.

This leads me to ask the ultimate existential question about the career of Jordan Walker: on this Easter weekend, is the resurrection of his career that we all want so bad even possible? Is there any historical precedent for becoming a productive hitter after essentially being the worst hitter in Major League Baseball? Or, have Jordan Walker and the Cardinals tag teamed this like Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber and wrung the head off a career that had so much promise?

Before I get into the historical precedents (kind of sounds like a journey through important Supreme Court cases – honestly it’s approaching that level of importance for the Cardinals), Jordan Walker deserves some praise for the early, early, early, early, (yes it’s early!) returns from this season. After struggling mightily in spring training and being banished to the hitting lab to adjust, Jordan Walker seems to have, well, adjusted. At the time of this writing, Walker is running a cool .294/.400/.538 line, good for a 180 wRC+. I can’t remember the last time he had a five game stretch that was this awesome. Here’s the kicker though, despite a recent rash of strikeouts, Walker is running a 15% K rate with a 15% walk rate. Those are Wetherholtian numbers (wow does that guy look electric!).

Yes it’s early, early, early, early, early (yes I’m still aware), but he has talked about his approach changing and simplifying the mental game. The Cardinals tried to change his launch angle (which did need to be fixed), and like a golf swing that needs work, opened up 2-3 other crisis level issues which combined to make him The Worst Hitter in Baseball (the capitals felt right for that distinction). If he can maintain this performance on a simplified track, perhaps there is hope. We discussed this further on our last episode of Redbird Rundown If you’d like more coverage and audio/visual is your thing. (Apple and Spotify links!)

Now, to tackle the original question of the article. Can we have an Easter resurrection of Jordan Walker’s career? Yes, it’s mostly been a crown of thorns so far, but is there any hope? I went searching for players in their age 21 to 23 seasons with an OPS+ between 60 and 80 and at least 500 PA. The results came back with 118 players – a ton of guys have struggled in their first attempts at Major League Baseball!

Let’s not pull any punches. Jordan Walker is dancing on a knife’s edge. The list is littered with guys that never made it offensively. In fact, from the list of players who met those statistical measures, a vast majority of them never made it. You didn’t need me to tell you that Jordan Walker’s career is on life support, but the historical record helped check him right into the ICU. But, we’re simply looking for what’s possible here, so where’s the resurrection hope? It exists on this list, too.

There are several hall of fame players (and hall of very good players!) populating the early-struggler list: Ron Santo, Carlos Gomez, Carlon Beltran, and Pete Rose among them. But a few specific results really stood out to me if we’re interested in rolling away the stone from the tomb of Jordan Walker’s career.

Mike Schmidt put together a .196/.324/.373 line as a 23 year old with a 30.7% K rate and no power to speak of – we all know how his career turned out. Aaron Judge didn’t even play in the MLB from age 21 to 23, and at age 24 came up for a cup of coffee and struck out 44.7% of the time. Byron Buxton appeared to be a spectacular failure as the number one prospect in baseball and then ran wRC+ lower than Walker in his first two partial season before it came together for him.

I want to make sure and drive home an important point here though: The last two paragraphs were me cherry picking the absolute best case scenarios for the resurrection of Jordan Walker. It’s possible, but it’s not likely. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for him to finally figure it out. With apologies to cleanup hitter Masyn Winn, we could use another power bat right in the middle of the lineup for years to come. The extremely early returns are encouraging thus far in 2026, but the hole that has been dug is quite deep. It turns out though, there is still hope for a resurrection from the historical record.

Let me know what you think in the comments! It was interesting to do this deep dive on Walker. If you’re interested in more thoughts and analysis live during games you can find me on twitter @mksmith86 or tons more in-game analysis and commentary from our podcast twitter @redbirdrundown2. 

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

We’ve now had the chance to see every starting pitcher take the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks – twice, in the case of Zac Gallen. The results have been somewhat mixed. On Opening Day, Gallen was undone by the prototypical “one bad inning,” but rebounded yesterday against Detroit, with six shutout frames. Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt also caught a severe case of OBI-itis. But Eduardo Rodriguez and, even more of a surprise, Michael Soroka (top) were both excellent. Soroka’s outing was, arguably, the best ever by any starting pitcher making their debut in a D-backs uniform. Did not see that coming.

The team should get Merrill Kelly back shortly, and it’s then going to be an interesting decision as to who gets booted to work long relief out of the bullpen. While Soroka would have been the man in that role, if Kelly was healthy for his planned Opening Day start, his dominant first outing throws that into some doubt. Pfaadt is probably the one on the shortest leash immediately, but we will certainly have another turn around the rotation before anything has to be decided. Kelly could be activated as early as next Wednesday, but that’ll depend on how he gets through his rehab start with Reno on Friday .

Further down the pipe, we will be getting theoretical staff ace, Corbin Burnes back. If he returns to the form he showed before getting injured last year, that will certainly be a significant boost to the rotation. All told, there are a lot of moving parts, and we are still very much in the part of the season where it’s a very small sample size. But who do you think will be the team’s most valuable pitcher this year? I’d probably suggest going with the average of bWAR and fWAR, since they do measure things in slightly different ways. But it’s really up to you, how to define the term. Of course, please explain your choice in the comments.

As Kyle Schwarber began to round the bases on Opening Day, the Rangers TV broadcasters griped that the moonshot that sent him on that short but joyous journey hadn’t quite been earned. A left-handed hitter, they said, can get “cheapies” by sending the ball over Citizens Bank Park’s friendly left-field fence, as Schwarber had. The ball in question, however, was no cheapie: per Statcast, it would’ve been a goner in 25 of 30 parks. To their credit, the broadcasters noticed that statistic as soon as it came through, and corrected themselves on-air. But while they were wrong on that particular homer, the larger point is valid: Citizens Bank Park is a very friendly ballpark for homers, and particularly so for lefties. There is no question that Kyle Schwarber is a legitimate slugger; his power is as genuine as a quarter fresh off the line at the United States Mint. But it is fair to ask: how much has playing in CBP’s affable dimensions aided him?

By Statcast’s Park Factors (looking at 2023-2025), CBP was the fourth most homer-prone park in the bigs, behind only UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium (I’m using the full name less out of respect for the defending champs, and more out of respect for the sponsor, from which I purchased my favorite pair of pants), Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark, and Yankee Stadium. But if we look at left-handed hitters only, no park in MLB is more conducive to four-baggers than CBP. Batters of the sinister sort hit 28% more homers in Philly than they did elsewhere. It stands to reason that Schwarber, being a lefty, would benefit from that. And we can take a look at that via Statcast’s Expected Home Runs by Park metric, which tell us how many homers a player would have expected to have hit (xHR) if all of his batted balls were at a given park.

In 2025, Schwarber would’ve had 58 homers if all of his plate appearances were at home; only putting all of his batted balls in the A’s temporary digs in Sacramento would’ve given him more. In 2024, only Great American Ballpark would’ve allowed him to smash more dingers, and in 2023, no park would’ve been better for him than home, sweet home. So it’s clear that hitting at CBP really does help Schwarber hit more dingers.

There is something a little strange, though. You’d expect putting all of Schwarber’s batted balls in CBP to result in more homers than the actual Schwarber hit, given that no park in baseball is friendlier to lefty batters. But that’s not what we see. Here’s Schwarber’s actual homers (including postseason), vs. what Statcast says he’d have if we lived in a perfect world where every game were played at CBP, and every seventh inning featured a Phanatic Dance:

Year	Actual Homers	Adjusted xHR at CBP
2022	52	50
2023	52	52
2024	39	46
2025	58	58

During his Phillies tenure, Schwarber has had only one season in which he’d have hit more homers if all of his batted balls were in Philly. That’s unusual, given how homer-friendly CBP is. Granted, half of Schwarber’s games really are played at CBP, meaning some of the benefits of putting all of his batted balls there are already baked in to his actual stats. But since all of the parks he plays in on the road are less conducive to lefty homers than CBP, you’d still expect moving all of those road batted balls to CBP to result in more hypothetical homers.

And as an example of this, if you look at some of the Phillies’ other lefties over the same time period, you’ll see that their xHR with all of their batted balls in CBP surpass their actual HR totals. Bryce Harper’s xHR totals in a CBP-only world were higher than his actual HR totals in each of the past four seasons. Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh would’ve had more homers in said world in three of the past four. Why is Schwarber different?

If you looked closely at the table above (and I’m not offended if you didn’t), you may have noticed that the rightmost column is labeled Adjusted xHR. Specifically, Statcast adjusts for environmental effects. Wind, temperature, so on and so forth. Statcast also provides Standard xHR, which does not take environmental effects into account— just the dimensions of the park. And if we look at that…

Year	Actual Homers	Adjusted xHR at CBP	Standard xHR at CBP
2022	52	50	55
2023	52	52	51
2024	39	46	46
2025	56	58	60

…we see that, absent the effects of wind and weather, our hypothetical Oops! All CBP! Schwarber would’ve hit more homers than the actual Schwarber did in three of the past four seasons. We know that batters at Citizens Bank Park are particularly likely to lose homers to the wind, so that makes sense. But it can’t entirely explain what we’re seeing here. After all, Harper, Stott, and Marsh are all playing with the same wind, and they still benefited, homer-wise, by putting all of their batted balls in CBP even when adjusting for the impact of the wind. The left-handed hitters that stepped into CBP presumably lost some homers to the wind, but not enough to stop it from being the best park for hitting left-handed four-baggers by Park Factors . There isn’t any immediate reason to think Schwarber would be more impacted by wind than other lefties. So while the wind is clearly taking a few homers from his already lofty totals, it can’t provide the entirety of the explanation we’re looking for.

There’s two things you need for a cheapie homer: a park that offers an easier path to homer-dom to batted balls hit in a particular direction, and a ball that’s borderline enough to benefit from that benevolence. No matter what the park dimensions are, a ball that’s hammered deep into the cheap seats isn’t a cheapie. It’s just a regular homer. You know what Kyle Schwarber does? Hit the ball so damn hard that the dimensions of the stadium don’t seem to matter much. Maybe he’s not getting too many cheapie homers at CBP, actual or expected, because he’s just hitting the ball so hard.

Statcast divides any batted ball that would’ve been a homer in at least one stadium into three categories: Doubters (homers in 1 to 7 parks), Mostly Gone (homers in 8 to 29 parks), and No Doubters (gone in every park, and also fans of Gwen Stefani’s earlier work). In 2025, Schwarber’s No Doubter rate was 51.7%. Contrast with Harper’s, 29.6%, Stott’s 30.8%, or Marsh’s 27.3%. That suggests that part of the reason why that trio benefitted more from CBP’s dimensions than Schwarber over the past four seasons is that Schwarber is smacking the ball so hard that the lefty-friendly wall depth just isn’t as meaningful for him. He’s not putting as many balls in that borderline range where the helping hand of the bandbox-style park makes the difference. Not much in baseball can be explained by a single factor; there are certainly other things going on here as well. Pure variance is probably part of it. After all, the dimensions of the ballpark are still helping him; he’d have fewer homers if he called most other parks home.

We can conclude with the following Phacts about Schwarber:

1. Playing his home games at CBP really does help Schwarber hit more home runs.
2. But the benefit of CBP’s dimensions is somewhat blunted by the park’s strong winds.
3. He hits the ball so hard and so far that the dimensions of the park may not be quite as impactful on his homer totals as they are for other lefties.

Everyone loves a discount. But Kyle won’t be clipping coupons for BOGO blasts anytime soon.

Last week, the Yankees’ minor-league season officially began in Buffalo, where the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders opened their season with a shutout victory over the Bisons. The RailRiders will be priority viewing all season for those who like to keep up with the minor leagues for multiple reasons.

But there are still intriguing prospects that aren’t quite on the cusp of debuting in the major leagues and are looking to put one foot in front of the other to get noticed and put on the pinstripes in the future. That’s what brings us to Double-A Somerset, entering its sixth season as a Yankees affiliate. Occasionally, you’ll even see some players in Double-A who become polished enough that they spend minimal time at the next level — Cam Schlittler notably only had five starts at Triple-A last year after getting the first bump up from Somerset. The ticket to The Show could be closer than you think.

Some of last year’s biggest names are out the door, whether traded or up in Triple-A, but the headliner remains. Who joins him?

The catching will be done in a split between arguably the organization’s best remaining homegrown backstop and a non-roster invitee. Manuel Palencia was playing in the FCL just 10 months ago, but was aggressively promoted as several midseason trades cleaned out the farm’s catching depth with Rafael Flores Jr., Jesus Rodriguez, and Edgleen Perez all going out the door. Palencia’s bat was predictably poor in 37 combined games in High-A and Double-A, but the 23-year-old gets a clean slate here. Miguel Palma, signed from the Astros’ organization in December, is also not known for his bat, so don’t expect a ton of offense here.

On the infield, the star attraction is the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect, George Lombard Jr., who figures to be the everyday shortstop. Lombard got off to a strong start to 2025 in High-A Hudson Valley, but predictably encountered growing pains when he was promoted in May, enduring arguably the minors’ most challenging jump for prospects to make. There’s a seismic difference between the quality of play in High-A and Double-A. Still, Lombard registered a respectable 111 wRC+ with good plate discipline, but they’d like for him to make more contact and tap into his power. Of course, his most mature trait has been picture-esque: his defense.

The rest of the infield features all-or-nothing thumper Tyler Hardman, Coby Morales, and Owen Cobb. Hardman and Morales have experience at this level, but Cobb is new after just nine games in High-A last season. He was Low-A Tampa’s most consistent hitter for much of 2025, hitting .310 in 40 games. The 24-year-old Stanford graduate will be tested. Also down here is former Giants top prospect Marco Luciano, who should play a few different positions.

There are a few interesting names in the outfield. Fans saw a lot of Kenedy Corona in spring training, a normally light-hitting defensive specialist who was signed out of the Astros’ organization. Jace Avina—once acquired from Milwaukee for Jake Bauers—tore up A-ball with impressive game power, but struggled with consistency. Mexican League MVP Nick Torres will look to restart his MLB journey. Garrett Martin hasn’t quite figured it all out yet, but the former undrafted free agent puts up some startling exit velocity numbers, and we saw as much in spring training.

The rotation is headlined by one of the team’s best pitching prospects in former first-round pick Ben Hess, who will start on Opening Day.

A project arm out of Alabama, the Yankees have cleaned up Hess’ command and turned him into a viable starting pitching prospect, but good upside as a reliever with some filthy secondaries. Due to long-term injuries to Chase Hampton (eyeing a midseason return from Tommy John surgery last year) and Brock Selvidge (who just went under the knife himself), the rotation after that lacks star power but has several reliable arms. Xavier Rivas finished 2025 extremely well in High-A and was promoted. Cade Smith missed much of 2025, but the former sixth-round pick has turned heads when healthy, recently recording a 2.13 ERA in the Arizona Fall League. And 26-year-old undrafted free agent Trent Sellers was a reliable mainstay in last year’s rotation.

The bullpen will feature some A-ball stars and some holdovers from the upper minors last year. Eric Reyzelman was once on the fast track to the majors, but the LSU product couldn’t find the strike zone in Scranton last year, so expect him to move back up if he starts strong. Bailey Dees and Michael Arias also come down from Scranton to join the likes of Will Brian, Chris Kean, Geoffrey Gilbert, Matt Keating, and Hayden Merda. Last year’s best MiLB reliever, Hueston Morrill, is on the shelf to start the year after a sub-1 ERA in 2025.

Pitching injuries limit the potential of this rotation to be as good as some of the ones in the past, but it’s not ridiculous to say we could see the currently injured Hampton and Bryce Cunningham up here with Hess, Smith, and Rivas by the summer. The hitting depth in the system beneath Scranton is pretty shallow, especially after the recent Ryan Weathers trade saw 2024 draft reinforcements Dillon Lewis and Brendan Jones go to Miami. There’s ample reason to get out to Somerset for a game if you’re in the area, particularly at the shortstop position.

First Pitch: 1:10 PM CST

TV: Twins.TV

Radio: TIBN, WCCO 830, The Wolf 102.9, Audacy App

Know thine enemy:Royals Review

The Twins are up against their worst enemy once again, a left-handed pitcher. Cole Ragans is a formidable foe, garnering Cy Young votes a couple of years ago but battled injuries in 2025. However, he is coming off a start in which he walked 4 and allowed 6 hits, including 3 home runs. Hopefully the Twins can catch him in a bad stretch and take advantage, and not actually be the lineup that gets him on track.

Meanwhile, Taj Bradley is on the mound for the Twins and is coming off a 9 strikeout start against the Orioles. He flashed some great stuff, touching 100 on the radar gun at times.

Lineups

Twins	Royals
SP: Taj Bradley	SP: Cole Ragans (LHP)
1. Austin Martin, LF	1. Maikel Garcia, 3B
2. Byron Buxton, CF	2. Bobby Witt Jr., SS
3. Luke Keaschall, 2B	3. Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B
4. Matt Wallner, RF	4. Salvador Perez, DH
5. Victor Caratini, C	5. Carter Jensen, C
6. Kody Clemens, 1B	6. Jonathan India, 2B
7. Josh Bell, DH	7. Jac Caglianone, RF
8. Royce Lewis, 3B	8. Isaac Collins, LF
9. Tristan Gray, SS	9. Kyle Isbel, CF

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It’s a light slate on the diamond with just three games gracing the MLB schedule, but there's still plenty of value to uncover in today's MLB player props.

My top picks include a pair of RBI props: one for a batter riding a hot start, and another for a hitter looking to break out of an early-season slump.

Find out more in my MLB picks for Thursday, April 2.

Best MLB player props today

Taj Bradley Over 15.5 outs recorded (-108)

Minnesota Twins starter Taj Bradley struck out nine batters in his first start of the season against Baltimore, but he lasted just 4 1/3 innings. He walked three and quickly drove up his pitch count, leading to an early hook.

Today, the hard-throwing righty faces the Kansas City Royals, who don’t strike out as often — something that could result in quicker outs.

With an above-average leash on pitch count, a few more efficient innings should help him clear this prop.

• Time: 2:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MLB Network

Corbin Carroll Over 0.5 RBI (+170)

Corbin Carroll is off to a great start for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and I’m betting that continues when he digs into the batter’s box against the Atlanta Braves. 

The two-time All-Star enters this game hitting .333 with a 1.162 OPS through the early part of the season. He’s also been productive as hell, driving in eight runs, all coming in the D-backs' last four games.

Although Reynaldo Lopez is coming off a strong start where he allowed just one run on six hits against Kansas City, Carroll was very dangerous against righties last season, getting to them for a .918 OPS.

Lopez also struggled a bit with his command in his first start of the season, so I love Carroll to drive in another run at this price.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: ESPN Unlimited

Heliot Ramos Over 0.5 RBI (+200)

It’s been a slow start to the season for Heliot Ramos, but the San Francisco Giants outfielder is a strong hitter who consistently makes hard contact, and tonight’s matchup with the New York Mets should help him get back on track.

The Mets will start David Peterson. The lefty didn’t allow a run in his first outing of the season, but he got a bit lucky, giving up six hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings.

Ramos also has solid career numbers vs. Peterson, going 3-for-8 with a .376 expected batting average and a .624 expected slugging.

• Time: 9:45 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: SNY, NBC Sports Bay Area

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.

As we close in on the second Opening Day in the minor leagues, the one where all of the full season levels beyond Triple-A get started, the Augusta GreenJackets have released their first roster of the season. There are a few surprises, but none too big. Let’s take a closer look at this exciting young roster for the Atlanta Braves Low-A affiliate.

Now Spinning: Our Opening Day Roster 🎶

Your first chance to see these GreenJackets take the field at SRP Park is April 14th, we'll see y'all there!
🎟️ https://t.co/TllHgaBQQVpic.twitter.com/wARdkWWoRj

— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) April 2, 2026

Pitchers

The pitching staff doesn’t have any of the Braves biggest prospects, but Landon Beidelschies, Ethan Bagwell, and Luis Arestigueta are among the intriguing prospects on the roster. Beyond them there are guys like Davis Polo, Aiven Cabral, Zach Royse, Cristobal Abreu, and Logan Forsythe who are among the arms of note on a pitching staff that is filled with prospects, even if there isn’t a true premium prospect here for the first time in what feels like forever.

Bagwell may be the biggest surprise of the pitching staff, as he was excellent here last year. Injury limited him to just 10 starts, but he posted a 2.88 ERA and 0.98 WHIP over 50 innings, though with only 30 strikeouts. Beidelschies is also a bit of a surprise, as the sixth round pick out of Arkansas is used to facing tough competition in the SEC. He made two starts here after signing last year. Arestigueta made 12 decent appearances here last year, though saw his season end in early-July. Those three are easy bets to be in the starting rotation, with Aiven Cabral, an 18th round pick from Northeastern who is yet to make his pro debut, and potentially Davis Polo as the other two. Polo has received some attention as a prospect, but due to injury hasn’t pitched since 2024. He was up and down here that year in 15 appearances, but was just 19 at that time. Kendy Richard will also be a candidate after splitting last year between Augusta and the FCL, and making six starts among his 10 appearances with the GreenJackets a year ago.

Among the other options are Cristobal Abreu, a talented arm who hasn’t pitched since 2024 due to injury. Abreu has flashed big stuff, but his results in 35.2 innings in the DSL and FCL for his career don’t match the stuff. Logan Forstyhe was the team’s 13th rounder out of Louisiana Tech last year, and the former Mississippi State reliever has huge stuff, but still needs to improve his feel for command. Zach Royse (7th), Carter Lovasz (8th), Mathieu Curtis (14th), and Ryan Heppner (19th) were all drafted last year, and made little to no appearances after signing. Royse and Heppner in particular were starters in college, and could be candidates to start here.

Two undrafted free agents from last year, who were once thought of as bigger prospects earlier in their careers, Drew Christo and Jaylen Paden, are also here. Christo passed up big money out of high school, but never quite developed at his hometown school in Nebraska. Paden was once thought to be a big arm at Georgia Southern, but after a series of injuries and a transfer to Georgia Tech, has seen his stock fade a bit. Derek Vartanian was also an undrafted free agent, though he signed in 2024 and hasn’t pitched since due to injury. Lewis Sifontes is back after closing his 2025 season here with three appearances out of the pen late in the year. Styven Paez is making a full season roster for the first time, and returned last year after missing all of 2024.

Catchers

The headliner here is Nick Montgomery, as the overslot pick from 2024 tries to rebound from a disappointing 2025 season where he posted a .524 OPS. Manuel Dos Passos and Tanner Smith are also here. Dos Passos may sound familiar because he was just included on the Spring Breakout roster, after the now 19-year-old posted a .687 OPS in the FCL last year. Smith signed as an undrafted free agent out of Miami last year, formerly Oregon State, and hit two homers in five games before a quick three game stint in Rome at the end of the year.

Infielders

This is maybe the most exciting group on the team with Tate Southisene, Alex Lodise, and Jose Perdomo, leading the way, plus Luis Sanchez, Cooper McMurray, and Joe Olsavsky. Lodise is the biggest surprise, as the second round pick from Florida State went right to Rome for 25 games last year. It’s likely the Braves want him to work on his approach with the Augusta coaching staff before a quick promotion back to Rome. Southisene was the team’s first round pick last year, and spent 15 games here posting a .539 OPS – though he did look better in spring action, including the Spring Breakout. Perdomo was the team’s big international signee two years ago, but injuries have limited his time and performance in his first two years of pro ball. He showed up to camp in great shape, and we can only hope to see the guy who drew strong reviews from scouts two and a half years ago.

McMurray was also an undrafted free agent last year, and the former Auburn slugger is starting off here after struggling in a 21 game look with Rome last season. Sanchez is back after splitting last year between Augusta and Rome, plus one game for Gwinnett, posting a combined .580 OPS. Olsavsky is a versatile infielder who split last year between Augusta and Rome, and he posted a .797 OPS in 49 games with the GreenJackets.

Outfielders

The bigger story is the fact Diego Tornes is not here. He wasn’t really expected to open in full season ball, but it was seen as an outside possibility based on his skill set. Conor Essenburg, Luis Guanipa, Junior Garcia, Dallas Macias, and Caden Merritt are here however. Essenburg was the overslot fifth round pick last year, and the former prep two-way star has impressed after signing despite not yet making his pro debut. Guanipa is back here for the third year in a row, as injuries have really kept him from seeing the field much in each of the past two seasons. Garcia is back after seeing 40 games here last year, then spending all of last year in the FCL. He is still just 20-years-old, and is hoping for a better run in Augusta than what we saw in 2024. Macias was the 15th round pick out of Oregon State last year. He had been seen as a guy capable of going about ten rounds higher, but struggled his way through the season in both college and after signing with the Braves. Merritt is a speedy outfielder who signed as an undrafted free agent out of high school last year, following a stint in the MLB Draft League.

Stay tuned for the Rome Opening Day roster release and also check out the Columbus Clingstones roster release as well.

Trevor Bauer will pitch in the United States again this month.

The 35-year-old former Cy Young winner, who hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2021 after a lengthy suspension stemming from sexual assault allegations he has consistently denied, has signed with the Long Island Ducks, the team announced Thursday.

Bauer will start on opening night for the independent team on April 21 at its home park in Central Islip.

“I’m looking forward to competing in front of U.S. fans again this season,” Bauer said in a release.

“The Ducks have had some incredible players come through their organization, and I’m excited to be part of that tradition.”

Bauer spent the last three years pitching in Japan and Mexico.

“We are excited to welcome Trevor to Long Island,” Ducks president Michael Pfaff said in the release.

“His talent and knowledge will be important additions to our ballclub, and we are happy to offer him this opportunity to showcase his talents to MLB clubs while giving fans unprecedented access to Ducks baseball.”

While he was pitching for the Dodgers during the 2021 season, Bauer was placed on administrative leave after a woman accused Bauer punching and choking her during sex.

Bauer said that his encounters with the woman were “wholly consensual.”

Though he never faced charges, Bauer was suspended a record 324 games by MLB in April 2022 under its domestic violence policy.

After Bauer appealed, the suspension was reduced to 194 games in December 2022.

One week into the MLB season, the ABS challenge system is proving effective and adding drama while quietly fixing missed calls.

Baseball has spent the better part of the last decade trying to drag itself into the present. Pace-of-play tweaks, pitch clocks, bigger bases – all necessary, all debated, all eventually accepted in a sport known for honoring tradition. And now, just one week into a new season, the sport may have stumbled into its most polarizing change yet.

The new automated ball-strike system is here in MLB. And whether you love it, hate it, or just don’t fully trust it yet, it’s already doing exactly what it was designed to do. It’s working.

Let me explain.

Through the opening stretch of the season, ABS hasn’t turned games into some robotic, soulless version of baseball. It hasn’t slowed things down to a crawl. It hasn’t sparked chaos the way traditionalists feared. Instead, it’s slipped into the background while quietly fixing one of the sport’s most persistent problems – getting calls right when it matters most.

And here’s the part that might surprise you: It’s barely being used. Across MLB through Monday, there were 227 challenges in 62 games played for an average of just 3.7 per game. We’re talking about a system that players can tap into at any moment – a quick signal, a split-second decision – and yet, they’re showing restraint. That alone tells you something. This isn’t being abused; it’s being respected.

But when it is used, it’s impactful.

ABSOLUTELY EMBARRASSING: Eugenio Suarez uses ABS on CB Bucknor on back-to-back pitches 😂 #Redspic.twitter.com/K6wbsRGrAV

— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) March 28, 2026

There have already been games where multiple calls behind the plate were overturned, flipping counts, changing at-bats, and forcing everyone involved — pitchers, hitters, and yes, umpires — to adjust on the fly. The Orioles even made history with it, too, when catcher Samuel Basallo became the first player to end a game on a successful ABS challenge, overturning a ninth-inning ball call into a strike to seal Baltimore’s win.

And that’s kind of the point. For years, the strike zone has lived in a gray area, shaped as much by reputation and framing as it was by the rulebook. Now, there’s a safety net, a correction button, accountability in real time.

That doesn’t humiliate umpires; it modernizes the job.

Because here’s the reality: No one turns on a game hoping the conversation afterward is about a missed call in the seventh inning. ABS doesn’t eliminate the human element; it just raises the floor. Umpires still call the game; they still manage it. But now, the most egregious misses don’t linger. They get fixed, instantly, in front of everyone.

And the ripple effects are already showing up in strategy. Take the following from MLB’s Senior Data Scientist, Tom Tango, for example.

“On average, an overturn run for a random bases empty situation is 0.08 runs … On average, an overturn run for a random bases loaded situation is 0.60 runs. In other words, you can get over SEVEN times the payoff on a flipped 3-2 pitch as you would from flipping a first pitch. When you have that kind of a payoff, you need to be very careful on challenging first pitches and very aggressive on challenging 3-2 pitches.”

Catchers can’t rely solely on elite framing to steal strikes that aren’t there. Pitchers can’t live on the edges and hope for generosity. Hitters, meanwhile, have a layer of protection they’ve never truly had: the ability to challenge a moment that could define their at-bat. It’s subtle, but it matters. Over time, it’s going to reshape how the game is played on a pitch-by-pitch level.

Perhaps above all else, though, fans are into it.

There’s a jolt of energy every time a challenge is initiated. A pause, a collective lean-in, then the reveal. It’s quick, definitive, and adds a layer of drama that baseball doesn’t always naturally produce in the middle of a random Tuesday night game in April.

Of course, there will be pushback. There always is. Baseball, more than any other sport, clings to its traditions, sometimes to its own detriment. The idea of “robot umps” has been a lightning rod for years, a symbol of everything purists fear about the game losing its soul.

But here’s the thing: This isn’t replacing the human element; it’s refining it. The same way that replay reviews didn’t ruin the game. The same way the pitch clock didn’t destroy it. If anything, both made baseball sharper, cleaner, and more watchable, and ABS is trending down that same path.

Early returns don’t guarantee long-term success. There will be tweaks, moments where the system isn’t perfect. But one week in, the early signal is clear – this isn’t a gimmick. It’s an upgrade.

And if baseball is serious about balancing its history with its future, that’s exactly the kind of change it needs.

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If I were to say the words “October baseball” to you, you would instantly be able to picture it in your imagination. You know exactly how October baseball looks, feels, and sounds. You see the bundled-up fans in the stands, you see the FOX score bug on the screen, you hear the crowd roar for a two-out double that plates a run in the bottom of the first.

If I were to say the words “August baseball” to you, you’d be able to picture that, too. And that’s the case even though October baseball and August baseball are near polar opposites — the former cold, tense, loud, urgent; the latter hot and languid, pleasant background noise to the dog days of summer.

The baseball season has its own unique rhythm. And each phase it passes through is integral to the composition as a whole. You wouldn’t want every game to feel like October — that would be far too stressful. Nor would you want every game to feel like August — you need to get the blood flowing every now and then. But the two months complement each other. You need them both. The baseball season is a story that unfolds in a familiar and necessary pattern.

You need May baseball, which is what I would call Settling-In Season. May is when you finally get used to the new faces on the team and when the team starts to define itself. You need June baseball, aka Porch Season, when summer kicks on and the fireflies flutter at dusk and the novelty of the new season wears off, allowing baseball to assume its rightful place as part of everyday life. You need July baseball, when, thanks to the All-Star Game and the increased trade chatter, you start to focus a little bit more on the rest of the league — which superstar is on pace for a historic season, which slow-starting team is revealing itself to be merely a bad team, and which surprising team is going to make itself a fixture of your MLB.TV routine for the rest of the summer. And, of course, you need September baseball, Pennant Chase Season, the aficionado’s October, when scoreboard-watching becomes as intense as watching the game itself.

This brings us to the current month, to April baseball. And there’s no question what April Baseball is. It’s Freak-Out Season. These are the days when everything is magnified beyond all reason or rationality. Luxuriating in the euphoria of baseball’s return, we hang onto every pitch in a way that will seem obsessive and weird in just a few weeks time. We marvel at some hot-shot rookie and wonder if he’s going to single-handedly change the complexion of the playoff race. (What’s up, Chase DeLauter!) We wonder whether a team we assumed would be dominant is actually fatally flawed. (Hello, 2018 Dodgers!) We can’t believe that a young and unpedigreed reliever-turned-starter has thrust himself into the Cy Young race. (I haven’t forgotten you, 2024 Tanner Houck!)

And here’s the thing about Freak-Out Season: it’s fun as hell! Even if we know that Chase DeLauter will not shatter the single-season home run record, that the Dodgers will not finish several games under .500, that Tanner Houck will come back down to Earth, it’s fun to imagine the most extreme possibilities. And this applies to both the good and the bad.

These April freak-outs become the things we remember and laugh about a few months or even years later. Remember the closer-by-committee disaster of April 2003? Remember when the Yankees opened up a launching pad of a ballpark that would prove to be even worse than Coors Field in April 2009? Remember the hilarious torpedo bat freak-out of just last year?? Twelve months ago I was freaking out because I was genuinely convinced that the delicate balance between hitter and pitcher had been forever altered. What a silly, naive fool I was! Thanks a lot, Anthony Volpe!

April baseball is novelty — new players, new ballparks, new rules — and we don’t always know how to handle it. And that’s fine. Freaking out is what the calendar demands of us. And even if you yourself don’t want to freak out, let other fans enjoy this time in their own way. You may be correct that Garrett Crochet will not throw a dud in fifty percent of his starts this year and that Caleb Durbin will not go 0-for-the-next-six-months. But you don’t actually get anything for being right about baseball on the internet and policing other fans’ behavior is lame as hell.

So go ahead and enjoy the extremes of Freak-Out Season, just as you enjoy the extremes of winter. Call for Alex Cora to be fired for failing to properly prepare the team for the ABS era. Demand Caleb Durbin be sent down to AAA. Declare Ranger Suárez to be the worst free agent signing in team history, non-Sandovalian division. Do these things not because you will be proven right (you probably won’t) but because fandom demands and emotion and because the calendar calls on you to do so.

There is a time and a place for taking a measured and considered view of baseball, for reminding yourself of just how long a baseball season is and for staying calm. That time is called August and we don’t need another one. This is April. And in its own, chaotic, fevered way, it’s great. Embrace it.

The Pirates’ home opener Friday has some extra buzz.

Pittsburgh is promoting MLB.com’s No. 1 overall prospect, 19-year-old shortstop Konnor Griffin, for Friday’s contest against the Orioles, the team announced Thursday via a video tweet.

Griffin’s arrival provides a jolt to a franchise in need of a spark in its attempt to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2015, and perhaps provides an offensive star to complement ace Paul Skenes.

This is a meteoric rise for the No. 9 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft since Pittsburgh drafted him out of Jackson Preparatory School in Mississippi.

Prep prospects are not usually fast-risers due to their age, but Griffin stood out last year in the minors while spending time in Single-A and Double-A.

He slashed a combined .333/.415/.527 with 21 homers, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases across 122 games.

Griffin did not perform to those capabilities in spring training, although he still managed a .749 OPS and four homers in 20 games, and started the year in the minors.

After hitting .438 with a 1.196 OPS in five Triple-A games, the Pirates deemed him ready.

The franchise hopes he can become the offensive cornerstone and perhaps help eventually end what is now a 10-season drought without playoff baseball.

The Pirates have a solid if not good rotation headlined by perhaps the sport’s best pitcher in Skenes, but their offense lacks young talent that can anchor a lineup.

Bryan Reynolds is a capable veteran, but former Giants top pick Joey Bart hasn’t developed as expected and 2021 No. 1 pick Henry Davis has a career .555 OPS.

By promoting Griffin early in the year, the Pirates possibly can possibly gain a premium draft pick due to the league’s newish promotion rules.

Should Griffin spend 172 days on the active roster, Pittsburgh has a three-year window to benefit.

Griffin would need to finish in the top three in the NL Rookie of the Year voting this season or in the NL MVP race from 2026-28 to gain an extra pick.

The Pirates (3-3) started the season losing two of three to the Mets at Citi Field before taking two of three form the rival Reds.

Friday starts a six-game homestand that includes three with the Padres next Monday through Wednesday.