Category: Baseball

The Seattle Mariners announced Friday that they have activated UTIL Brendan Donovan from the 10-day injured list. Correspondingly, they’ve optioned C Jhonny Pereda back to Triple-A Tacoma. One sharp game in Double-Arkansas was proof enough on his rehab stint for the Mariners to activate Donovan, who should immediately slot back in atop the M’s lineup for their series against the Chicago White Sox.

Donovan’s return also should have an impact on the defensive woes of the Mariners, albeit not clearly a dramatic one. Leo Rivas can recede into his bench role once more, hopefully smoothing some of the overexposure he’d suffered in recent weeks. Donovan has been an adept defender in his career as a utility man, but will likely handle everyday work at third base once more. He’s been historically sat against tough lefty arms, but the M’s aren’t flush enough to easily shelve him for their existing righty bats.

Pereda’s demotion suggests Seattle expects Cal Raleigh to return behind the dish imminently. Raleigh has not hit with any acumen in the past few days since a side issue sidelined him for a few days. While his MRI appeared clean, it’s been tough sledding for the Big Dumper. Mitch Garver has also caught consecutive games for the first time since early August of 2023 as a member of the Texas Rangers.

The Royals announced they have placed pitcher Cole Ragans on the 15-day Injured List with left elbow impingement. Ragans exited his start on Wednesday after four innings with what was reported as soreness and tightness in tricep and the back of his elbow. Anne Rogers reported he had “valgus extension overload”, also known as “pitcher’s elbow” that can result from repetitive throwing. Yordano Ventura suffered a similar injury in 2014 and missed one start. Bailey Falter is also suffering from the same injury and has been out since April 3.

Ragans had twice had Tommy John surgery in his career – in 2018 and 2019, when he was with the Rangers. He told reporters on Wednesday, “I know what I’ve been through, the elbow stuff. I know it’s not what I’ve been through before.” Ragans has battled injuries throughout much of his career so far, missing half of last season with a rotator cuff strain.

To replace Ragans in the rotation, the Royals recalled pitcher Stephen Kolek, who gave the Royals six innings on Tuesday, allowing just three runs. In six starts with the Royals over the last two seasons Kolek has given them six Quality Starts, defined as outings with six or more innings, with three or fewer runs allowed.

The Royals also recalled pitcher Steven Cruz from Triple-A Omaha and returned Eric Cerantola to the Storm Chasers. Cerantola made his Major League debut on Wednesday, and appeared in two games this week, allowing three runs in three innings. Cruz has given up eight runs with seven strikeouts and four walks in five innings in a previous stint with the Royals this season.

There are five San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball teams in-season right now — the Dominican Summer League season doesn’t start for a few more weeks — and all five were in action on Thursday. It was a fun, fun day, so let’s jump straight into it.

Link to the 2026 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the position played in that particular game.

News

A bit of a catcher carousel on the farm. Major Leaguer Daniel Susac (No. 20 CPL) began a rehab assignment with AAA Sacramento and, in return, Sacramento returned Ty Hanchey to High-A Eugene. Eugene also activated Jancel Villarroel (No. 42 CPL) off the Injured List and, with those 2 returning, released Luke Shliger, their 6th-round pick in 2023. Completing the carousel was Zach Morgan, who was moved from AA Richmond to Sacramento.

Richmond also placed RHP Brad Deppermann on the 7-Day IL, while welcoming in LHP Dale Stanavich, who was moved up from the Arizona Complex League as he looks to get his season actually started.

AAA Sacramento (19-15)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) 6-3
Box score

The Giants offense is catastrophically awful. You know the things I’m about to tell you, but I’m telling you them anyway, for emphasis: the Giants are below league average in batting average; the Giants are dead last in on-base percentage; the Giants are 28th in slugging percentage; the Giants are dead last in runs per game by more than half a run; the Giants are dead last in home runs hit, with 7 different teams at least doubling their total.

They’ve already called on their reinforcements in Sacramento when they called up Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) and Jesús Rodríguez (No. 16 CPL) on Monday. But now there are new reinforcements on the way, as Daniel Susac (No. 20 CPL) began his rehab assignment on Thursday. Playing at designated hitter, Susac picked up right where he left off in the Majors before getting injured: he came to the plate 4 times, he left with a hit 3 times, and he cleared the fence 2 times.

Suffice to say, Susac’s rehab isn’t going to last very long if it looks like that, and the Giants offense stands to benefit from his return. I don’t envy Tony Vitello figuring out how to make the Susac/Rodríguez/Patrick Bailey catcher triad work, but sadly I’m not getting paid millions of dollars to make those decisions. Either way, it will be great seeing Susac back in San Francisco, and my guess is he’ll be activated by the time the Giants start their series with the Dodgers on Monday.

He wasn’t the only reinforcement to go deep, either, as center fielder Harrison Bader led off the first inning with a big fly, which was great to see. Bader, who finished 1-4 with a strikeout, is deeper into his rehab than Susac — this was his 3rd game with the River Cats — but is probably further away from getting activated. He professed a desire to have a lengthy rehab stint to make up for the time he lost in Spring Training, and given how bad he was before hitting the IL this year, I’m guessing the Giants are more than inclined to accommodate that.

It wasn’t just the Major Leaguers who did work, though, as third baseman Buddy Kennedy had yet another delightful game, hitting 2-4 with both a home run and a double, giving him dingers on back-to-back days.

Kennedy has been consistently excellent all year, and now has a .920 OPS, a 147 wRC+, and just a 13.7% strikeout rate. What a nice emergency depth piece he is to have around.

On the pitching front, LHP John Michael Bertrand did something you very rarely see in this era: he pitched deep into a game and didn’t record a strikeout. Bertrand went a whole 6.1 innings in this one, and didn’t strike out any of the 27 batters that he faced. He had strong control all game, with just 1 walk issued, but allowed 7 hits (including a home run), which tagged him for 3 earned runs.

A 28-year old who was taken in the 10th round in 2022, Bertrand has the funkiness and ground ball rate (50.9%) to potentially get outs at the next level, but it still is jarring seeing someone strike out so few people. On the year, he’s struck out just 17 of 152 batters, en route to a 4.64 ERA and a 6.18 FIP.

RHP Dylan Smith continued his strong season, as he tossed 1.2 no-hit innings with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. The 2021 3rd-round pick by the Tigers, who was acquired at the start of the season, is down to a 2.13 ERA and a 3.40 FIP. He’s walking way too many batters (5.7 per 9 innings), but striking out quite a few as well (10.7 per 9), while running a 53.8% ground ball rate. That underscores how good he’s been, as all of the damage against him came in 1 blow up performance; he hasn’t allowed a run in his other 8 appearances. He’s on the 40-man roster, so could be an option in the MLB bullpen soon.

AA Richmond (23-6)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Akron RubberDucks (Guardians) 5-4
Box score

A day after beating Akron 5-4 thanks to a magical 9th inning rally, Richmond again beat Akron 5-4 …. this time while withstanding a nearly-magical 9th inning rally by their opponent.

Fresh off of being named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Month for April, RHP Darien Smith had his worst start of the year … which highlighted just how great his season has been, because it was a pretty nice start!

Smith allowed 2 runs in 4.2 innings, which marked the 1st time this year he’s ceded multiple runs in a game. But he did a decent job throwing strikes, and had a delightful 6 strikeouts against just 1 walk. The damage came on the hit front, where he only gave up 4, but that included both a home run and a double.

That was a change of pace for Smith, a 26-year old undrafted free agent in his 2nd season. He’s had some issues with walks this year, but has mostly done his damage by limiting hits: in 29.2 innings this season, the Southeastern alum had allowed just 18 hits. He’s only ceded 4 extra-base hits all year, though 3 of them have been home runs, which is part of why his FIP (4.18) is so dramatically behind his majestic ERA (1.52).

Smith gave way to LHP Dale Stanavich, who made his Richmond debut. Stanavich, a 26-year old who was taken in the 8th round in 2022 by the Marlins, signed a Minor League deal with the Giants at the start of the season, and took a few weeks to debut. He made a pair of appearances in the ACL, before getting sent up to AA, a level he excelled at last year before running into troubles in AAA.

It was strikeouts that led Stanavich to success in AA: between stints there in 2024 and 2025, he had a stunning 100 strikeouts in just 68 innings. And the switch from the Southern League to the Eastern League didn’t seem to change that: in Stanavich’s Squirrels debut he faced 5 batters and struck out 4 of them, with the other being a walk. That’ll play!

Also nice relief outings from RHPs Manuel Mercedes and Dylan Hecht, who have been having tough seasons, while RHP Cameron Pferrer had another difficult outing that ballooned his ERA to double digits.

No crazy days on offense, but a lot of good ones. There were 5 different players in the lineup who reached base multiple times, including a trio of hitters who had multi-hit games: designated hitter Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL), shortstop Aeverson Arteaga, and catcher Adrián Sugastey.

Harber hit 2-4 with a double and 2 strikeouts, as he continues to get up to speed following a lengthy injury absence to start the season. Not surprisingly, Harber has been striking out quite a bit — a predictable situation given his tardiness to start the season, and the fact that swing-and-miss has always been a little bit of a struggle for him. He’s rocking a 32.7% strikeout rate to start the year, and that will certainly need to come down at some point. But the strikeouts aren’t keeping him from racking up the hits: he has a .327 batting average, and in 11 games already has 7 doubles (though he’s still looking for his 1st AA home run).

Arteaga hit 2-3 with a double, though he also committed his 4th error of the season. The stunning renaissance continues for the 23-year old, who has raised his year-over-year OPS by more than 400 points, from .508 to .929, and his wRC+ by nearly 100 points, from 49 to 144. What a recovery!

As for Sugastey, he hit 2-4 as he continues to show great bat-to-ball skills. That’s never been a question for the 23-year old from Panama, but his struggles to hit for power and draw walks have been. Those issues remain this year, which is how he has just a .669 OPS and a 72 wRC+ despite a .267 batting average.

High-A Eugene (22-7)

Eugene Emeralds lost to the Vancouver Canadians (Blue Jays) 3-2
Box score

Eugene has been an exciting team this year, but this was a boring game. Not a lot to highlight or talk about. The best performance came from the piggy-backing starter, RHP Niko Mazza, who continues to show off dramatic improvements with his strikeout stuff. Mazza struck out a whopping 7 batters in just 3.2 innings, and now has 12.7 Ks per 9 innings … after having just 8.7 in his debut last year at a lower level. Where did that come from?!

Some of it has come from just committing to being more wild, it seems, as Mazza has taken a step backwards in the control department, where he already wasn’t good. That was certainly the case on Thursday, when he walked 4 batters, which brought his walks per 9 up to a staggering 7.4. He is certainly living on the extremes of not putting the ball in play, for better and for worse!

If Mazza can control the walks, he’ll become very, very good, as the 2024 8th-round pick has been nearly unhittable this season. He allowed just 1 hit in his 3.2 scoreless innings, and has now allowed just 12 hits in 22 innings. That’s resulted in a stellar 2.86 ERA, though the walks have pushed his FIP to 4.12.

Things weren’t so good for the 1st starter, LHP Tyler Switalski. The 22-year old struck out 5 batters in just 3.2 innings, but that’s where the good news ended, as he also allowed 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 runs. After being virtually unhittable to start the year, the 2024 16th-round selection has fallen on some hard times. Check the dramatic splits:

First 3 games: 12 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 22 strikeouts
Next 3 games: 14.1 innings, 17 hits, 10 runs, 14 strikeouts

Most notably, Switalski has now given up 4 home runs, after allowing just 3 all of last year, which was his debut season. Still and all, it’s been a very encouraging year for the West Virginia alum, who has a 3.42 ERA and a 4.14 FIP. After striking out just 7.6 batters per 9 innings last year (in Low and High-A), Switalski has pumped that number all the way up to 12.3 … while also lowering his walks per 9 from 3.7 to 3.1.

Not much on offense, where the Ems only had 5 hits on the day. First baseman Jakob Christian (No. 40 CPL) had the only extra-base hit, as he went 1-4 with a double and a strikeout, as he continues to hit the ground running. Christian missed the 1st month of the year with an injury, but has had no rust to shake off: through 5 games, he’s hitting 7-14 with 4 doubles, 2 walks, and just 3 strikeouts. The strikeouts are the thing to keep an eye on: the 2024 5th-round pick can do serious damage with his right-handed bat, but has had a huge strikeout issue so far in his career.

Third baseman Walker Martin had a nice game, hitting 1-3 with a walk and his 8th stolen base of the year, though he also struck out once and committed his 10th error of the season. After a nice start to the season, his numbers have started to head in the wrong direction, as he has a .722 OPS, a 106 wRC+, and a 31.6% strikeout rate.

Low-A San Jose (18-12)

San Jose Giants lost to the Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies) 12-8
Box score

Thursday was a mixed bag for the Baby Giants, as it was a game where one of their stars shone very, very, very brightly …. while one of their other stars almost single-handedly lost them the game.

Let’s start with the bad, which transpired on the mound: in his 1st start since an 8-strikeout masterpiece, RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL) was unable to make it out of the 1st inning. He gave up a single on his very 1st pitch, and that was a sign of what was to come: the next batter homered, the next batter doubled, the next batter homered, the next batter singled, and then Cayama walked 2 to load the bases. He finally settled in with a pair of ground outs — both of which scored runs — before allowing another walk, throwing a wild pitch, issuing another walk, and getting yanked from the game.

In all, Cayama gave up 6 hits, 3 walks, and 7 runs in just 0.2 innings, didn’t record a strikeout, and threw just 20 of 35 pitches for strikes. And with that, his ERA nearly doubled in 1 game. Bad games happen, though, and if you want to know how much of an outlier this one was, Cayama entered the contest with 30 strikeouts against just 1 walk. Time to shake it off.

But the great performance was nearly as great as Cayama’s blow up was bad, and it came from the predictable player: shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL). Level continued his assault on Cal League pitchers, going 2-3 with a 3-run home run, 2 walks, and 1 strikeout.

The 19-year old switch-hitter has now had multiple hits in 13 of the 25 games he’s played in this year, and is at or near the top of the Cal League ranks in nearly every statistical category. A .997 OPS and a 147 wRC+ are blissful as is, but they only get better when you add in the 16.7% strikeout rate, the strong defense at shortstop, and the whole being more than 2 years younger than his average peer thing.

You really couldn’t ask for a better start to the season than the one Level has had, and his 16 extra-base hits have left no doubt that his lack of height does not mean a lack of power. I’m guessing the Giants will be plenty patient with him, but I’m also guessing the “when do we promote this guy?” discussions have already commenced.

The other star was someone who is heating up in a huge way: third baseman Dario Reynoso, who hit 1-2 with a solo home run and 2 walks. After failing to go deep in his 1st 30 games with San Jose, Reynoso has now put the ball over the fence 4 times in the last 6 games, including 3 days in a row. He’s on fire!

The recently-turned 21-year old is rocking a 1.011 OPS and a 157 wRC+, with a hilarious 22.1% walk rate (high walk rates have always been a part of his profile). His strikeout rate is a still-concerning 29.5%, though it’s worth noting that that figure represents a notable improvement over last year at both Low-A and the ACL.

Right fielder Jose Astudillo, on the other hand, has never had a strikeout issue, and that continued on Thursday, when he went 2-3 with a hit by pitch. A recently-turned 22-year old from Venezuela, Astudillo started the season late but has hit the ground running: in 5 games, he’s 7-18 with 2 walks and just 1 strikeout, though he’s still searching for his 1st extra-base hit.

Those were the stars, as no one really had a great game on the mound after Cayama’s brutal start. RHP Ben Bybee had a nice game though, in his 2nd career outing. It wasn’t as good as his professional debut — 3 no-hit innings is hard to top — but last year’s 8th-round selection showed off some nice stuff by striking out 4 batters in 3.1 innings. The 22-year old from Arkansas also allowed 3 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run, and threw 29 of 43 pitches for strikes.

Arizona Complex League (1-3)

ACL Giants beat the ACL Reds 7-6 (11 innings)
Box score

It has taken no time at all for shortstop Luis Hernández (No. 6 CPL) to prove that he is the real deal. The real deal who deserved to be the No. 1 ranked international signee this year. The real deal who deserved to skip the Dominican Summer League and come to the states as a 17-year old. The real deal who is worth dreaming on.

Hernández’s 4th professional game was his best, as he hit 3-5, drew a walk, and smashed a solo home run. He’s 5-16 with 3 home runs, 2 walks, and just 2 strikeouts to start his career. That seems …. really good. Really good for a 19-year old first baseman, but really good for a defensively-gifted shortstop who turned 17 in December. As with Jhonny Level’s hot opening weeks, we’re going to need to see this maintain for a while before we start dreaming about early promotions, but … my goodness. You just don’t see this often at all.

Hernández was far and away the bright spot in this game, as he was the only player with an extra-base hit. But there were other good performances as well. Catcher Yohendry Sanchez hit 2-5 with a walk and a strikeout, as the 19-year old is 5-9 to start his stateside career. Third baseman Yulian Barreto went 1-4 with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a strikeout (though he also had an error), and is 5-12 with 2 walks and 2 hit by pitches as the 18-year old begins his 2nd season, and his first in the US.

Second baseman Josuar González (No. 2 CPL) hit 1-4 with a strikeout as he tries to shake off the rust of missing a chunk of the spring with a hamstring injury. The 18-year old switch-hitter has been slow-played to start the year due to that injury, as he’s yet to play a full game. This was the 1st time in his career that he played a defensive position other than shortstop, as he and Hernández are going to split time at the six, though it’s worth noting that González is probably the strongest defensive shortstop in the system.

Only 1 pitching day that stood out, but it sure did stand out, as RHP Chen-Hsun Lee was dynamic. A 24-year old from Taiwan, Lee is finally healthy: the Giants signed him in 2023, but he appeared in just 4 games before being shut down, and missed all of 2024 and 2025. He struggled in his 2026 debut, but not in his follow-up on Thursday, when he allowed just 1 hit in 3 scoreless innings, while striking out 6 batters. Yup, that works!

Home run tracker

5 — Jhonny Level — [Low-A]
4 — Dario Reynoso — [Low-A]
3 — Buddy Kennedy — [AAA]
3 — Luis Hernández — [ACL]
2 — Daniel Susac x2 — [AAA]
1 — Harrison Bader — [AAA]

Friday schedule

Sacramento: 6:45 p.m. PT vs. Reno (SP: Carson Whisenhunt)
Richmond: 4:05 p.m. PT vs. Akron (SP: Cesar Perdomo)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Vancouver (SP: Luis De La Torre)
San Jose: 7:00 p.m. PT vs. Fresno (SP: Braydon Risley)

Reminder that almost all MiLB games can be watched on MLB TV

After an uneven .500 road trip, the Dodgers return home to Chavez Ravine to welcome one of the best teams in MLB, the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are tied with the surging Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees for the best record in baseball.

The Dodgers offense, who has been hot and cold, will start off with a tough challenge right off the bat. The Braves will send Chris Sale to the mound on Friday night. Sale is 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA and has allowed one run or fewer over at least six innings in six of his seven starts this season, including his last outing in Colorado when he allowed one run on three hits with a season high 11 strikeouts. Over his last four starts, Sale is 4-0 with 33 strikeouts and just seven walks. It will be a real test for the offense which is coming off a game in which they scored 12 runs but still isn’t quite firing on all cylinders.

Emmet Sheehan will take the mound for the Dodgers and is coming off a start in which he allowed three earned runs in the first inning against St. Louis. He has one career start against the Braves which was in 2023 where he allowed one run on three hits over four innings.

Braves first baseman Matt Olson is leading the National League in homers, with four of his 13 coming in the last six games. Second baseman Ozzie Albies has been hot as of late, owning a .386 BA with a 1.115 OPS over his last 15 games. The Braves as a team lead the NL in home runs with 55.

Some things could be in the Dodgers’ favor. The Braves are coming off their first series loss of the season to the Mariners in Seattle this week. Atlanta also hasn’t fared well at Dodger Stadium in recent years, with the Dodgers taking 21 of 27 games, including playoffs. The Braves swept the Dodgers in 2023 at Dodger Stadium but have lost their last seven games there. Chris Sale also hasn’t historically performed well against the Dodgers, having a 1-2 record with a 6.65 ERA lifetime, and in his two starts in L.A. he’s 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA.

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Braves
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

What a week for the Cincinnati Reds, eh?

They got trounced by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the series opener at PNC Park last Friday only to wake up Saturday, walk seven batters in a row, and allow 17 runs in a loss. They wrapped up getting swept in that three-game series on Sunday only to head to Chicago and get walked-off in three straight games to begin that series.

In the process, they lost closer Emilio Pagan to a hamstring injury that’ll keep him out for up to two months. Brandon Williamson’s shoulder issue turned out to be significant enough that he was moved to the 60-day IL. Then, on Thursday, Rhett Lowder exited early from his start after feeling ‘clicking’ in his right shoulder, and the Reds wrapped that game with a loss to secure a winless seven-game road trip.

Woof!

Friday, finally, brings a bit of welcome good news. The Reds officially got Nick Lodolo back off the injured list after clearing all his blister hurdles, and he’ll make his first start of the year in Great American Ball Park against the Houston Astros on Friday evening.

Jose Franco was optioned to AAA to make way for Lodolo, the Reds announced.

Getting Lodolo back is obviously welcome news on any level. The 28 year old had a career year (so far) in 2025, logging 156.2 IP of 3.33 ERA, 3.81 FIP ball while posting a career-best 5.03 K/BB. Baseball Reference valued that work at 4.7 bWAR, and that’s the kind of pitcher that can almost singlehandedly turn around a pitching staff – something the Reds desperately need right now as they battle through this cascade of injuries.

If there’s another silver lining here, it’s that Lowder – who was set for an MRI today – was not the arm that was optioned to make way for Lodolo. Fingers crossed that’s an indication that whatever he’s dealing with is minor enough, since anything significant would’ve likely meant he’d be heading to the IL immediately, too.

(Or they’re just waiting for a second opinion before dropping that awful news on us – we shall see.)

Anyway, Nick is back, that’s a good thing, and here’s how the Reds will line up for tonight’s series opener back home:

Is this a series featuring two teams headed in opposite directions or early season mirages?

The Pittsburgh Pirates entered the offseason fresh off a seventh consecutive losing season. Their 434-598 record over that span was the second-worst in MLB behind only the Rockies (402-629). A team ERA of 4.58 (26th). 29th in runs scored!

What could be done?

The Pirates decided to retool their dreadful lineup, first by offering Kyle Schwarber a reported 4-year, $125 million deal. When that was rejected (he signed for 5/$150MM), they signed 1B/OF Ryan O’Hearn to a 2-year, $29 million contract and have gotten an .824 OPS out of it. But O’Hearn’s production does not lead the team. That honor belongs to second baseman Brandon Lowe, who was acquired for RHP Mike Burrows in a three-team trade involving the Pirates, Rays, and Astros. He has a Pirates-leading 10 home runs and .941 OPS. He hit .247/.326/.481 for the Rays across 8 seasons, but he’s off to a white-hot start. Even his defense (-23.8 Defensive Runs Above Average in those 8 seasons) has been great (+1.8 in 2026). They also signed Marcell Ozuna to be their DH, but he’s been a Deversian bust to this point, posting a putrid line of .186/.256/.288 in 129 PA.

Former Giants prospect Bryan Reynolds is off to a great start, too, hitting .254/.399/.410 and has played in every game to this point. Joey Bart has been pushed into more of a backup role at this point and in his .619 OPS (54 PA) he has 19 strikeouts against just 2 walks. The Pirates’ own farm hand, Oneil Cruz has shifted from shortstop to center field and has gotten better as a hitting, with a .773 OPS to start the year while playing the new position. He vacated shortstop so that the Pirates could call up their top prospect, Konnor Griffin, all of 20 years old. He’s hitting .257/.320/.389 with a pair of homers and 9 walks against 36 strikeouts in his first 125 major league plate appearances.

So, there’s a buzz in Pittsburgh and not just because it’s the setting of the excellent HBO Max drama The Pitt, but because their baseball team is finally competitive. They’ve been good on the road this season (10-8), though with a negative run differential, too. Regardless of how the season ends, the extra work they put in to reimagine their offense has gone a long way. They’ll be playing a Giants team tha has a distinct lack of imagination when it comes to rebuilding or reimagining any part of the roster, and the “stand pat” attitude towards the lineup coupled with the “win the lottery five times” strategy for the pitching staff seems to have set them up for a lost season just 37 games in.

Sure, you can’t win the division in April, but you can lose it all in May, and so far the Giants are off to a worst month in the second month of the season (1-5) than how they started the season (2-4); but, they’ve also lost 8 of 9. They spent the offseason crowing about how they felt they had the best lineup the franchise has seen in years, but through 37 games they’re merely the absolute worst lineup going in every way. Their pitching is valued at 24th (2.0 fWAR), Pittsburgh’s is ranked 3rd (5.3 fWAR). Knowing that most Giants fans and probably the front office abhor Wins Above Replacement, I’ll look at another stat that makes the gap between these two staffs look smaller than it is: the Pirates’ team ERA of 3.70 is 7th in MLB while the Giants’ 3.99 ERA is 11th. So, there you go. There’s not much of a difference between these two teams in this one very narrow respect. So, if you focus on that, maybe that’ll make it easier to imagine that the Giants are as good as the Pirates have been — unless you’re sticking with recent history and imagining that the Pirates will pumpkin back into the Pirates of the last seven years and the Giants will similarly revert to the… around .500 team they’ve been 5 of the last 6 seasons.

Series overview

Who: Pittsburgh Pirates (21-17) vs. San Francisco Giants (14-23)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday at 6:05pm PT, Sunday at 1:05pm PT
National broadcasts: None.

Projected starters
Friday: Carmen Mlodzinski (RHP 2-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. TBD
Saturday: Braxton Ashcraft (RHP 1-2, 3.02 ERA) vs. TBD
Sunday: Bubba Chandler (RHP 1-4, 4.76 ERA) vs. TBD

Players to watch

Pirates

Konnor Griffin / Brandon Lowe / Bryan Reynolds: Yes, yes, I just mentioned all these guys up above, but over the past two weeks, they’ve really led the Pirates’ lineup, with wRC+s of 183, 182, and 158, respectively. Griffin’s slugging .596 and Lowe .625. Griffin has also stolen 4 bases. Reynolds has scored 11 runs in 13 games and has a walk rate of 24.1% against a strikeout rate of 25.9% — interesting!

Spencer Horwitz: Sort of the big offensive acquisition the Pirates made last offseason in a trade with the Blue Jays. He’s struggled on the road this season (.530 OPS), but the first baseman has a .920 OPS in 31 career PA vs. the Giants, but in Oracle Park he’s hitting .381/.409/.619 in 22 PA with a home run and a pair of doubles. This might be a perfect setup for him, because the Giants might try to get around the hotter hitters in the lineup and forget about him.

Mason Montgomery: He was the other part of the three-team trade that netted Pittsburgh Brandon Lowe and all the 26-year old lefty has done is strike dudes out (22 in 14 IP). Okay, and walked duded (8 in 14 IP). And, uh, even given up a lot of hits to them (1.429 WHIP). But he’s allowed just 1 home run in those 14 innings, and that’s because his stuff is really something, with a 98 mph four-seamer paired with an average-ish curve and high spin slider (2,648 rpm). He’s not the team’s closer (that’s veteran Gregory Santos, who has a 1.42 ERA in 19 IP), but it feels like he’ll come into situations late in the game that will, effectively, decide them.

Giants

Willy Adames: This series will be the definitive test to determine whether or not Willy Adames passed away at some point this season and what we’re seeing haunt the Giants lineup right now is, in fact, a g-g-g-ghost. He has a lot of experience against the Pirates from his NL Central days, and while that .790 career OPS in 299 PA isn’t among the best results against a specific team, if he has a series that good we’ll know he’s still alive.

Jung Hoo Lee: He has just a .611 OPS in his career against Pittsburgh, but let’s balance that against what he’s done over his last 24 games (96 PA): .319/.354/.462 (.816 OPS). This stretches back to that terrible Baltimore-Cincinnati road trip. He has 5 doubles, a triple, and a pair of homers to go with 5 walks against 9 Ks. Of course, he’s just 2-for-22 in the first 6 games of May, so, maybe he’s back in a cold spell along with the rest of the offense? We’ll just have to find out!

Bryce Eldridge: This will be a classic test of a rookie, especially a rookie of the modern game, and especially for Eldridge himself. The three scheduled starters in this series all average either 96, 97, or 98 mph with their fastball, and have one exceptional second pitch while the rest of their arsenals are average/sub-average. Those other exceptional pitches will play around with his tremendous height. Mlodzinski has a splitter he throws more often than that fastball (though, he has a wipeout sweeper too). Ashcraft has a 46.2% whiff rate on his curveball (throw 28.5% of the time). And Chandler has a 92-93 mph changeup.

Tony Vitello watch

He’ll be managing against another first year manager in Don Kelly. The only differences are that Kelly played in the majors for 9 years and was an organizational scout and then staffed as a coach on two major league staffs prior to being named the Pirates’ manager. But, you know, other than that, exactly the same.

Prediction time

The Giants really need to sweep this series to get to a record (17-23) that, historically, has been one that can be recovered from in the quest for a solid season. I’m pretty sure these 2026 Giants are awful, and maybe even historically so, but I’ll let this one last flimsy historical mark be the deciding factor before I delete Have Hope In Your Sports Team app from my brain.

The Atlanta Braves are headed to The City of Angels to face off against the Dodgers after a day of rest. As it turns out, there could not be a better time in the schedule to play this series. The Braves are slotted to use their top half of their rotation, while the Dodgers will go with the bottom half of theirs.

Both teams have had injury issues with their rotations, but both have kept on winning. This series will be the biggest test yet for the Atlanta Braves that have been winning the games that they are supposed to. This will be the first series in quite some time that the Braves will be the underdog, which is always fun to see how teams respond.

The game one matchup tonight will feature Chris Sale against Emmet Sheehan, and in terms of ERA these two pitchers are having very different seasons. Sale is once again starting off strong with a 2.14 ERA and Sheehan is struggling with a 5.23. The season is still young, so the sample sizes are small, but this pitching matchup should make for the one game in the series that the Braves have the best odds of winning.

Chris Sale’s season has been no fluke. He did have the forgettable start on April sixth when he surrendered six runs, but that makes the rest of his work much more impressive. It is crazy to think that a pitcher, this early in the season, could surrender six runs in a 4.0 inning start, yet still own an ERA of 2.14 in the first half of May. Outside of that start with six ERs, Sale has pitched at least six innings in every other start and has not surrendered more than one earned run in any of them. Sale is also trending in the right direction. In his last three starts he is averaging 6.2 innings, 3.0 hits, 0.7 earned runs, 2.0 walks, and 9.0 strikeouts. Those are Cy Young front runner numbers almost every year. The one caveat is that he pitched those three games against the Phillies twice and then the Rockies.

Believe it or not, Chris Sale has not faced the Dodgers’ hitters that often. Outside of Teoscar Hernández that has faced Sale eighteen times, no other Dodger has faced him more in than nine at-bats.

Ironically enough, the player who has had the most success against Sale is former Braves hero, Freddie Freeman. Freeman has nine at-bats against Sale and currently holds a .333 average and 1.222 OPS with a HR. Hernández has an OPS of .818 against him, but no one else has an OPS above .708. Not even world superstar Shohei Ohtani.

The Braves will be facing Emmet Sheehan who has been victim of some poor luck. His ERA is much higher than his expected ERA (xERA) of 4.31. An xERA of 4.31 is not exactly elite, but it is much better than his surface numbers. What could be a recipe for success for the Braves is that Sheehan’s weakness is the Braves’ strength. Sheehan is in the top 25.0 percent of the league in strikeout and walk rates but struggles with giving up hard contact. Sheehan is currently at the bottom 36.0 percent in barrel percentage and bottom 42.0 percent in hard-hit rate. The Braves are currently third in MLB in barrels per plat appearance and eighth in hard-hit percentage. Fun side note, the Braves are first in MLB in batted balls (BBE), and second in MLB in balls hit 95.0 MPH or harder.

It should go without saying that in his young career Sheehan has not faced many of the Braves’ hitters many times. In fact, the last time he faced them was way back in 2023 before his season ending injury that kept him out all of 2024 as well. He has not faced any hitter on the Braves in more than five at-bats, and no player that was on the Braves in 2023 faced him more than twice. Ozzie Albies had two hits on him in that game.

The Atlanta Braves have a legitimate shot to win tonight but bring your coffee because the game does not start till 10:10 EDT.

Game Info

Game Time: Friday, May 8th, 10:10 pm EDT

Location: UNIGLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA.

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

The Diamondbacks are struggling, to say the least. They’re coming off another losing series, this time to the Pirates, where they had one game where everything went swimmingly, then ran into the buzzsaws of Skenes and Present Day Gallen. They’ve lost seven of their last ten, and they are already 5.5 games behind the Dodgers and 3 behind the Pirates and the final Wild Card. The season is almost 25% complete. It’s no longer too early to start looking at that. They need a turnaround. Fast.

Enter the Mets. If there was a team in baseball for the Diamondbacks to right the ship, they would be the one. They’ve done slightly better of late, going 5-5 over their last ten, but that has only brought them to 14-23, which is good enough for dead last in all of baseball, tied with only the Giants. They will be the poster children for the MLBPA as they argue that spending money doesn’t guarantee winning and there doesn’t actually need to be a salary cap after all.

Game 1 — 5/8, 6:40 PM: Ryne Nelson (-0.8 bWAR, 1-3, 6.61 ERA/64 ERA+, 1.43 WHIP) vs. Nolan McLean (0.6 bWAR, 1-2, 2.97 ERA/134 ERA+, 0.94 WHIP)

Nelson pitched pretty decently his last time out against the red hot Cubs. He went 5 2/3 inning, only giving up a run. He did give up two unintentional walks, but balanced it with four strikeouts. Because the offense is struggling nearly as much as the pitching is, that one run was enough for him to get tagged for the loss. Karma for the no decision in his five inning, six run start the game prior. Like all of the starting pitchers on the team, Nelson needs to get it figured out, and fast. This will be a good place to build a trend of his start against the Cubs.

McLean has been a bright spot for the Mets this season. He’s gone out for seven starts so far, and he has yet to give up more than three runs in any of them. However, he is coming off his worst start of the season, where he only lasted four innings and gave up three earned runs. He has already faced the Diamondbacks this season, and it didn’t go great for them. It was a 6 1/3 inning start. They only managed two runs, and they struck out eight times.

Game 2 — 5/9, 4:15: Merrill Kelly (-0.8 bWAR, 1-3, 9.95 ERA/43 ERA+, 2.31 WHIP) Clay Holmes (1.7 bWAR, 4-2, 1.69 ERA/236 ERA+, 0.98 WHIP)

Merrill Kelly is broken, and I’m not sure what else to say here. His command is gone. His ability to prevent runs is gone. It’s early still, but he is on the path to becoming yet another pitcher that the Diamondbacks signed to a multi-year contract and just tanked as soon as they put on the uniform. I’m not sure if it’s fixable. I’m not sure if it’s an injury. I’m not sure if it’s just the undefeated Father Time who comes for us all in the end. But he and the coaching staff need to figure out something soon, or it’s going to be a very long three years.

Holmes has also pitched exceptionally well for the Mets this season. He hasn’t given up more than two runs and has held his opponents scoreless twice already, while pitching into the sixth inning or later every time. One thing of note, however, is that his FIP is 3.65, basically two full runs higher than his ERA. That suggests that he is pitching a bit over his head, and that there might be room for regression if the Diamondbacks’ bats can wake up like they did in Game 1 against the Pirates.

This game will be nationally broadcast on FOX and will not be available on DbacksTV.

Game 3 — 5/10, 1:10 PM: Eduardo Rodriguez (1.3 bWAR, 3-0, 2.50 ERA/168 ERA+, 1.28 WHIP) vs. TBD

E-Rod is coming off his best start as a Diamondback, seven innings, no runs allowed. It was a very emphatic answer to the meeting Torey Lovullo had with the starting pitchers prior to the game. Even before that, however, Rodriguez has been pitching well this season. He had a couple of bumpy starts where he gave up four runs, but in the two starts since then, he’s pitched better.

Conclusion

Well, if you look at just these pitching matchups, it sure is hard to see why the Mets are struggling so bad, isn’t it? Unfortunately for the Mets, starting pitching will only get you so far. If you have a team batting average of .230 and an OPS+ of 83, even giving up two runs is close to catastrophic, which is why this could be a bounce back series for the Diamondbacks. Eduardo pitches like he has most of the season, and either Nelson or Kelly have a good game, this easily goes to the Diamondbacks. Now, how confident am I that will happen? Right now? Not very! but hopefully they’ll prove me wrong.

The Cubs met up with an AL West team in their second series of 2026 and took two of three from an Angels club that has fallen into the basement in their division.

This weekend they’ll visit another AL West team, the Rangers.

For more on the Rangers, here’s Adam Morris, manager of our SB Nation Rangers site Lone Star Ball.

Things are less than ideal for the Texas Rangers currently. The team is three games under .500, and Wyatt Langford and Josh Smith are both on the injured list, and yes, if you check the B-R page, both players have gotten off to bad starts, but Langford, in particular, profiles as one of the Rangers top players, so his absence hurts the lineup.  

On the other hand, the Rangers have played either the most difficult schedule so far this season, or the second most difficult schedule, depending on where you look, and are just two games behind the Northern California Athletics in the American League West, so, you know, things could be worse.

The Rangers will have the Vandy Boys — Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter — starting the first two games of the series. Each has been up-and-down this season, looking great at times and looking awful at other times, often in the same game.  

Rocker is a sinker/slider guy who has a changeup that is still a work in progress, and who generates a ton of ground balls. His slider is his best pitch, and when he’s on, he throws it for strikes enough to keep hitters from sitting on his sinker. When he’s not on, he struggles to throw strikes and hitters will tee off on his sinker.  Rocker is terrible at holding on runners, and the Rangers catchers aren’t great at throwing out baserunners, so the Cubs will almost certainly look to run on him. Base stealers are 5 for 5 against him this season, and 17 for 17 against him in his major league career.

Leiter, on the other hand, relies on a high-speed, high-spin fastball that generates swings-and-misses.  He introduced a kick-change last year that he’s used much more this year — its his second most frequently thrown pitch — and, unusually, he throws it frequently to righthanded hitters as well as lefties. It can be a devastating pitch, but he struggles to command it — if you look at the heat map for the changeup, you will see that the pitch can end up anywhere from above the batter’s head to hitting the ground 4 feet in front of the plate. When Leiter is on, he racks up Ks and gets a lot of pop ups and lazy fly balls. When he’s not on, his pitch count gets out of control early on, and he gives up a lot of loud contact in the air.  

Jacob deGrom is slated to pitch the finale. You might have heard of him before. He’s pretty good. He’s no longer “best pitcher in baseball” Jacob deGrom, but he is still “legitimate No. 1 starter” Jacob deGrom.  The biggest issue with deGrom is that he’s much more homer-prone since coming back from Tommy John surgery — he’s allowed just 13 runs this year, but 6 home runs, and allowed 26 homers last year.

The bullpen is a collection of no-names, but has performed quite well so far this season. Manager Skip Schumaker has tended to go with Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz as his primary options late in games with a lead.

The offense has been erratic. Corey Seager is off to a slow (for him) start, though he’s still got a 114 OPS+.  Brandon Nimmo and Josh Jung are off to great starts offensively, though Nimmo is nursing a hamstring issue that has limited him of late — he’s missed a couple of games over the past week, and DH’d when he has played. With Smith and Langford out, the Rangers have had to use Andrew McCutchen — on the roster as a platoon DH — in the outfield some, and put Joc Pederson in right field against the Yankees on Thursday, something we hope we will never have to see again.  

Globe Life Park played very hitter-friendly in 2023, when the Rangers won the World Series, but since the start of the 2025 has played as an extreme pitchers park due to the ball not carrying well at all. A ball off the bat that seems like it should land 10 rows back will end up caught on the warning track. Don’t be surprised if we have a low-scoring series.

Fun facts

The Cubs have a winning record against the Rangers all-time, with 14 wins and 13 losses. But they are 5-7 at Texas, where they have won only one of four series, two games to one in 2010. They lost two of three in their two subsequent visits, both to start seasons, in 2019 and 2024.

This is the first of three straight series on the road for the Cubs, their only three-team road trip this season. However, the third series will be in Chicago, on the South Side vs. the White Sox. They will play three games at Atlanta before that one.

(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

Probable pitching matchups

Friday: Ben Brown, RHP (1-1, 2.10 ERA, 1.013 WHIP, 2.71 FIP) vs. Kumar Rocker, RHP (1-3, 4.71 ERA, 1.465 WHIP, 3.98 FIP)

Saturday: Edward Cabrera, RHP (3-0, 3.27 ERA, 1.282 WHIP, 4.01 FIP) vs. Jack Leiter, RHP (1-3, 5.45 ERA, 1.368 WHIP, 4.45 FIP)

Sunday: Jameson Taillon, RHP (2-1, 4.24 ERA, 1.140 WHIP, 6.01 FIP) vs. Jacob deGrom, RHP (2-2, 3.11 ERA, 1.009 WHIP, 3.35 FIP)

Times & TV channels

Friday: 7:05 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, Peacock (streaming, Rangers broadcast, outside the Cubs and Rangers market territories)

Saturday: 6:05 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Sunday: 1:35 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Prediction

The Rangers got off to a decent start this year but have lost eight of their last 12. Two of the pitching matchups look favorable to the Cubs, so I’ll say, again, that the Cubs will win two of three.

Up next

The Cubs have Monday off, then head to Atlanta for a three-game series against the Braves beginning Tuesday evening.

Welcome, friends. I hope you brought popcorn and soda, because it’s time for Part 2 of my impromptu review of the Yankees’ first base situation before Ben Rice arrived on the scene. In Part 1, we covered the decline phase of Mark Teixeira and the tragic fate of Greg Bird, but ended on a high note with Luke Voit’s magical 2018 run. Today, we’ll be covering 2019-2024. Without further ado, let’s remember some guys.

2019 – 2021: Voit’s truncated tenure, LeMahieu’s uncomfortable fit, and Rizzo’s introduction

As the 2019 season approached, all eyes were on Luke Voit. I guess hitting 14 home runs in 39 games the year prior has a way of heightening expectations. While Voit could not quite match that level, he had a very strong start to the year, hitting .277/.386/.497 with 16 home runs through June. Everyone in Yankee Universe was just about ready to crown him as the future at first base. However, as with Greg Bird, the injury bug would befall Voit time and time again. 

First, on June 29 during the London Series against the Red Sox, Voit suffered an abdominal injury that sidelined him until July 13, forcing him to miss eight games. Then, on July 31, he was placed on the injured list yet again with a sports hernia. When he returned at the end of August, he simply wasn’t the same. Prior to the hernia, Voit’s wRC+ stood at a robust 132; post-injury, he only managed an 80 wRC+ over 94 plate appearances, with a paltry .138 ISO. Although his overall line (.263/.378/.464, 126 wRC+) was still strong thanks to his early-season performance, the way Voit’s season ended left a bad taste in many a fan’s mouth. 

Fortunately, though, for 2019, the Yankees were able to weather Voit’s absences quite well thanks to two excellent backup options – DJ LeMahieu and Mike Ford. When Voit went down at the end of June, it was LeMahieu, along with the recently acquired Edwin Encarnación, who handled first base. Those of you who have followed the Yankees’ recent years might not remember LeMahieu so fondly, but in 2019, he was truly a force to be reckoned with, hitting .327/.375/.518 while handling multiple infield spots capably. With LeMahieu sliding over to first from second and third, the Yankees did not miss a beat offensively – in 135 plate appearances as a first baseman, LeMahieu hit a sparkling .338/.361/.531. 

LeMahieu also saw time after Voit’s second IL stint, but this time, his first base partner was Mike Ford. A sleeper prospect who had posted strong OBPs in the Yankees’ system for many years prior, Ford was invited to spring training as a non-roster player, and had been assigned to Scranton to start the year before being called up in April when Greg Bird was placed on the IL. While he struggled in his initial April stretch, Voit’s second injury gave him another opening, and he sure made the most of it. In 84 August PAs, Ford hit eight homers with a .582 slugging percentage, good for a 121 wRC+. Between Ford and LeMahieu, first base was in good hands despite Luke Voit’s injuries and subsequent struggles, at least for 2019.

Coming into 2020, there was some uncertainty around how Voit would perform (although if that was your main preoccupation at the time, you should consider yourself lucky). However, Voit quickly silenced any doubters. In a pandemic-shortened season, Voit hit .277/.338/.610, and led the league with 22 dingers in just 234 PAs. Unfortunately, Mike Ford cratered, managing only a 37 wRC+ in 84 PAs. However, you don’t really have to worry that much about how your backup 1B is doing when your starter is running a 153 wRC+. Once again, Voit had shown that he was capable of being an elite player – the only question was whether he would be able to sustain that over a full year, and Yankeedom could not wait for that question to be answered in 2021.

So, the baseball gods being the bullies that they are, naturally it was time for Voit’s body to betray him again. On March 27, it was announced that he had partially torn his meniscus in his right knee and would undergo surgery. It wasn’t until May 11 that he would make his season debut, and just twelve games later, he landed on the IL again with an oblique strain, sidelining him for a month. Then, on July 11, Voit suffered a bone bruise, forcing him to miss yet another month. When all was said and done, Voit was only able to play 68 games, and while his 11 homers and 113 wRC+ weren’t terrible, it was a far cry from his peak form.

Unlike 2019, the 2021 Yankees’ backup options could not carry them. Fresh off winning the AL batting title, the magic was gone from LeMahieu’s bat, and he could only manage a 101 wRC+ – fine if you’re a slick defender at second and third, but inexcusable if you’re manning first. Ford could not bounce back from his awful 2020, hitting just .136 with three homers in his 21 games at first base. The Yankees tried throwing Jay Bruce and Chris Gittens at the wall, but they disintegrated upon impact. It was painfully clear that the Bombers did not have any in-house options.

So, the Yankees got creative. On July 29, they sent prospects Kevin Alcántara and Alexander Vizcaíno along with cash considerations to the Cubs for Anthony Rizzo. At the time, Rizzo was enduring the worst full season of his career since 2013, when he was still a budding major leaguer. At 31 years of age, it was abundantly clear that Rizzo had entered his decline phase. However, even a diminished Rizzo was head and shoulders above the Yankees’ other options at the time. He hit for a 115 wRC+ over 200 plate appearances with the Yanks, and coupled with Luke Voit’s struggles with injury, that was enough for Brian Cashman to hand him the keys to the first base job. On March 17, 2022, the Yankees signed Rizzo to a two-year, $32-million deal. A day later, they shipped Voit to the Padres for Justin Lange. Thus ended Luke Voit’s Bronx tenure – what an unceremonious end, given that it had started with such promise.

2022 – 2024: Rizzo falls victim to injuries, Yankees’ mismanagement; A new hope

Going into the 2022 season, there was some trepidation with Rizzo given his age and his performance in the prior year. However, Rizzo responded resoundingly with a resurgent year with the bat, hitting .224/.331/.480 (131 wRC+) with 32 homers in 548 plate appearances. Even though he was hampered by injuries, particularly in the second half of the season – first by back spasms, then by the aftereffects of an epidural injection gone wrong – Rizzo managed to be a stable presence at first base for the first time in what felt like forever. Indeed, his 117 games at 1B were the most by a Yankees first baseman since…Lyle Overbay’s 119 games in 2013. Man, that 2013 team sure was something.

In the offseason, Rizzo bet on himself, opting out of his deal and becoming a free agent. However, the Yankees weren’t going to let their first “real” 1B in nearly a decade slip away. They signed him to another two-year deal, this time for $40 million, and Yankees fans everywhere rejoiced. Then, as the 2023 season started, Rizzo did the unthinkable – he was even better than the year before. Through May 28, 2023, Rizzo hit .304/.376/.505, good for a 145 wRC+.

Why was I so specific about the date there? Because that was the day it all went south for Rizzo and the Yankees.

That day, during a pickoff attempt at first base, Fernando Tatis, Jr. rushed back to the bag, and his right hip collided squarely with the side of Rizzo’s head.

Hindsight is 20/20, but reviewing the video, it’s painfully clear that the play left Rizzo seriously disoriented. Watch the way he sluggishly rises to his full height, tries to tag Tatis again like he’s not sure where he is, and stumbles off towards second base like he’s had one too many beers. He left the game due to what was initially described as a “neck injury”, but even to the untrained eye, it seems quite obvious that Rizzo was suffering from a concussion.

Fortunately, the Yankees eventually reached the same conclusion. Unfortunately for Rizzo, it took fourty-six games for them to do so.

For more than two whole months, the Yankees kept on running Rizzo out, despite the fact that he was experiencing signs of post-concussion syndrome such as grogginess and fogginess, and the fact that his post-injury performance (a 43 wRC+ over 192 PAs) should have been cause for alarm in itself. Sure, he passed MLB’s initial concussion testing, but that’s no excuse for the Yankees to have continued to play Rizzo for as long as they did. For the record, in Chris Kirshner’s postmortem interview with Rizzo regarding the whole fiasco for The Athletic, Rizzo claimed that neither he nor the Yankees handled anything wrongly, explaining that he was hesitant to blame his struggles on the collision with Tatis because “we’re not bred to come up with excuses”.

I’m going to cut Rizzo some slack here. Although the “play through pain” mentality is just another example of how patriarchy harms men, I think it’s unrealistic to expect someone like Rizzo, who has spent nearly his entire life in a hyper-masculine, hyper-competitive field, to suddenly have a moment of clarity and concede that something wasn’t right. But I’m not inclined to extend the same courtesy to the Yankees. They have a responsibility to put their players’ health before anything else, especially for an issue as serious as this. Reading the Kirshner interview, it seemed like the team waited for Rizzo to come forward to conduct additional testing, but the onus should be on the team to look out for their players.

The hope for 2024 was that Rizzo would able to recover from this ordeal and return to his career norms. That did not happen. Limited to 92 games due to a mid-June arm fracture that sidelined him until September, Rizzo hit a pitiful .228/.301/.335 (85 wRC+). Somehow, the Yankees saw enough in him to stick with him at first base in the playoffs, but it did not end well, both offensively (he went 2-for-16 in the World Series) and defensively. After the season ended, the Yankees declined his $17 million option, making him a free agent. He went unsigned, and in September 2025, he officially announced his retirement.

However, all was not lost for the Yankees. A certain unheralded prospect made his debut in 2024. Always old for his level, no one expected much of him, but he burst on to the scene, becoming the first Yankees rookie to dinger thrice in one game. And though a hellacious slump prompted the Yankees to send him down to Scranton in late August, his peripherals suggested that he was much better than the back of his baseball card. His name was Ben Rice, and I guess you all know what happened next.

So, that concludes our trip to the pre-Rice era. The moral of the story is: don’t take what Rice is doing now for granted. Savor every moment. I hope he’s able to enjoy a long, healthy career, but you just don’t know. And if Rice ever finds himself in a slump, remember this article and remind yourself that it could always be worse.

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Two National League division leaders begin a weekend series tonight as the Atlanta Braves visit the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The Braves are tied for the best record in baseball at 26-12, while the Dodgers are at 23-14.

I’m backing Chris Sale and the visitors with my Braves vs. Dodgers predictions and MLB picks for Friday, May 8.

Who will win Braves vs Dodgers today: Braves moneyline (+108)

The Atlanta Braves and Chris Sale at plus money? That’s difficult to pass up.

Sale has been his typical dominant self with a 2.14 ERA, and Atlanta has come away victorious in six of his seven starts. His 114 Stuff+ ranks seventh among starters — well ahead of his pitching counterpart on Friday, Emmet Sheehan (169th among starters with a 93 Stuff+).

Sheehan’s velocity is down a full tick from last year, and he’s offered no mercy against an Atlanta lineup that has plated the most runs (213) in the MLB.

COVERS INTEL: Sale has dominated the Dodgers’ projected starting lineup, limiting them to a .535 OPS across 69 at-bats with a 21-5 strikeout-walk ratio.

Braves vs Dodgers Over/Under pick: Under 8 (-110)

Two of the most effective bullpens in baseball, and one of the most lethal starting pitchers? Yeah, that’s enough for me to take the Under. 

All of the top arms will be available for both teams after Thursday’s off day. Atlanta’s pen ranks third in bullpen SIERA (3.27), and the Los Angeles Dodgers are right behind (3.30).

While Sheehan’s 5.23 ERA is a worry, his 3.11 xFIP is more encouraging, and he’s turned things on lately with 18 Ks in his last two starts. 

Sale, meanwhile, has held some of the Dodgers' best bats (Kyle Tucker, Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith) to a combined 2-for-21 at the dish.

Braves vs Dodgers odds

• Moneyline: Braves +102 | Dodgers -120
• Run line: Braves +1.5 | Dodgers -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 8 | Under 8

Braves vs Dodgers trend

Atlanta is 6-1 in games where Chris Sale is the starting pitcher. Find more MLB betting trends for Braves vs. Dodgers.

How to watch Braves vs Dodgers and game info

Braves vs Dodgers latest injuries

Braves vs Dodgers weather

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The Tigers come to Kansas City this weekend, giving the Royals an opportunity to vault ahead of them in the mediocre Central Division. Detroit was considered by many to be the favorites to win the division title, but have had an up-and-down start and have dropped six of their last nine. The Tigers’ rotation was thought to be a strength, but they have been decimated. Tarik Skubal had elbow surgery this week, Framber Valdez was suspended for throwing at Trevor Story, and they were already missing Jackson Jobe, Casy Mize, Reese Olson, Justin Verlander, and Troy Melton due to injury.

Detroit Tigers (18-20) vs. Kansas City Royals (17-21) at Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO

Tigers: 4.34 runs scored/game (17th in MLB), 4.18 runs allowed/game (9th)

Royals: 4.13 runs scored/game (22nd), 4.55 runs allowed/game (17th)

The Tigers have hit just 36 home runs, three fewer than the Royals. They are hitting .238/.323/.375 on the road. Only two teams have stolen fewer bases. Kevin McGonigle is on his way to being in the mix for Rookie of the Year after a blazing start to his career, and he is hitting .338/.410/.486 in road games this year. Riley Greene is hitting .362/.463/.580 in his last 20 games.

Spencer Torkelson has the tenth-highest strikeout rate in baseball at 31.3 percent. Kerry Carpenter is just a .212/.274/.303 career hitter against the Royals in 39 games. Colt Keith is a 7-for-20 (.350) hitter against Michael Wacha. The Tigers are without Gleyber Torres, Javier Báez, and Parker Meadows.

Keider Montero will go in the opener after winning his last start against the Rangers, allowing one run in 6.2 innings. Montero had a 3.72 ERA in 12 starts last year, with a 5.51 ERA in eight relief appearances. Salvador Perez is 4-for-7 in their career matchups, while Bobby Witt Jr. is 3-for-8 with a walk.

Ty Madden has not been announced as the starter on Saturday, but seems like a likely option after he tossed five shutout innings in his season debut last week. Madden was drafted by the Royals out of high school in Texas, but elected to attend the University of Texas where the Tigers made him a first round pick. The 26-year-old has battled injuries and missed all of last year, and was promoted after putting up a 4.71 ERA in 21 innings at Triple-A.

The Tigers have had a solid bullpen the last few seasons despite not having a lot of big name relievers, and have the 11th-lowest ERA in baseball at 3.76. Top reliever Will Vest is out with injury, but the Tigers have gotten good innings from former Royals pitcher Burch Smith. Kenley Jansen has 482 career saves, but has blown his last two opportunities, and is 6-for-9 in converting saves this year. Brant Hurter has a 59.6 percent groundball rate this year. Kyle Finnegan has a minuscule ERA despite the 8th-highest walk rate in baseball.

The Tigers swept the Royals in Detroit a few weeks ago and took 9 of 13 from them last year. The Royals seem to have the offense going better than it was operating when they last saw the Tigers. They had a missed opportunity to win a series against Cleveland, they could really use a series win this weekend against Detroit.

Last night MLB’s Pipeline released their first mock draft for the 2026 MLB Draft, a draft where the Atlanta Braves have two first round picks – including their first Top 10 selection in seven years.

This mock draft only covers the first 25 picks of the draft, as well as the first selection for teams who pick after that point. This means the Braves second first round pick at #26 is not covered in this mock draft.

The first three picks shouldn’t surprise anyone, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Texas prep shortstop Grady Emerson, and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey. The first pick that might surprise a little would be the Giants taking prep shortstop Jacob Lombard fourth. Then as expected the fifth pick is UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora. The sixth pick is another surprise with Florida prep lefty Gio Rojas, leaving Mississippi prep outfielder Eric Booth Jr. to go seventh, and Arkansas catcher Ryder Helfrick to go eighth.

The Braves came up at nine and were taking Ole Miss right-hander Cade Townsend, for the second time in a mock released yesterday after Keith Law also made this pick in his mock.

The writeup for that pick is right here:

“Clubs believe that college pitchers will rise up boards by the time the Draft arrives, and Townsend could move up more than most. He can hit 98 mph with his fastball and spin a pair of plus breaking balls as well as a plus cutter.”

Others of note in this mock draft would include Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress at #10, Etowah HS outfielder Trevor Condon at #15, and Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron #16.

Thoughts

I like Townsend as a prospect in this draft, though I am not feeling like he is the guy I would target at #9. He has been great at a sophomore this year, a real improvement over his freshman season in 2025 – especially with the command. He also has potentially four pitches that could be plus offerings, though there is still some effort in his delivery which could keep his command in the more fringe-average range.

Overall this year he is 5-1 with a 2.42 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 52 IP over 11 starts. Townsend has struck out 73 to 13 walks, racking up a 12.6 K/9. He has also allowed just 37 hits, for a 6.4 H/9 and five home runs.

It is also important to know that he missed a start this year with shoulder inflammation. He has returned and looked good since then, but considering it is a shoulder, his medicals will need to be reviewed closely.

I personally would have preferred a bat here, as I believe the drop off in bats between #9 and #26 is greater than the drop off of arms in that same range.

After a long wait, it’s finally time to see Franco Aleman on a mound in Cleveland. The 26 year-old, 6-foot-6 specimen of a reliever finally gets the call.

BBWA writer Francys Romero reports the call has been made on Twitter:

I am not sure who @MayDayTimes is, but they had it first:

The big righty reliever had gone through ups and downs in Columbus, primarily with location, but 2026 has seen him completely dominate Triple-A. So where does Aleman fit? That answer is easy: wherever he’s needed. The Guardians bullpen, outside of Erik Sabrowski and recently Matt Festa and Cade Smith, has been abysmal. Colin Holderman has been better lately but isn’t used in big spots. Peyton Pallette can’t find the zone (16.4% BB%), Connor Brogdon has been rough and is coming off an outing where he gave up back to back home runs to Bobby Witt and Vinnie Pasquantino, and Tim Herrin has a horseshoe you know where as he’s running a -4.1% K-BB% but hasn’t allowed an earned run.

So yes, Aleman can and will slide in wherever he’s needed, the question just becomes can he throw enough strikes? This season says yes, but the lurking struggles of 2025 and beyond still loom. Aleman is throwing in the zone a career high 53.9% of the time, a mark 9% higher than 2024 and 2025 combined in Columbus, but the stuff is better. Aleman is generating better spin on his fastball and slider, his only two offerings thus far, and nobody in Triple-A has been able to hit either of them.

Aleman has a bull whip of a release, making for an incredibly uncomfortable at-bat for right-handed hitters. Aleman torments them and fares far better on a rate basis than he does against lefties. Aleman is able to utilize his fastball to cuff righties so that his slider can dive away from them and induce lots of swing and miss. From TJStats, Aleman is running a sub .200 xwOBA against RHH with a preposterous 42.3% strikeout rate.

You’ll notice the walk rate spike against lefties. Aleman being a two pitch pitcher with one being a slider turns him almost into a one pitch guy which lends to longer at-bats and more walks as the chase doesn’t follow. Definitely something to monitor as he makes the leap.

Aleman is not a sure thing nor a savior for the bullpen, but he is a massive step in the right direction. Cleveland shopped in the bargain bin all offseason and are feeling some regrets of their cheapness. Aleman will hopefully be the first of a few arms on the way to Cleveland to aid the back end in their quest to stay Division Champs.