Category: Baseball

The Mariners took another two steps backwards over the weekend after such a promising start to their week last week. The 12-run outburst on Friday was very good to see but to follow that up by scoring two runs total over the final two games in Chicago was a huge let down. It feels like I write this same bit every week, but the uninspired play across the entire American League means Seattle isn’t really in too much trouble despite its struggles. The M’s are still the favorite to win the division and currently have the third highest playoff odds in the AL. The last time the Mariners faced the Astros, the vibes were in the toilet following a three-game sweep at the hands of the Rangers. Seattle responded by sweeping Houston in four games. The team is in need of some of that schadenfreude this week.

Nothing has gone right for the Astros this year. They’ve been decimated by injuries and have limped along at the bottom of the AL West standings for nearly the entire season. Carlos Correa was the latest star to succumb to a significant injury; he injured his ankle last week and will be out for the season. He joins 14 other players on the IL, the most of any team in the majors. While the lineup hasn’t really been affected by all these absences yet, the pitching staff has been one of the worst in baseball. Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Josh Hader are all working through significant injuries and six other pitchers have been sidelined with minor maladies. 

The lone bright spot for the Astros has been their offense. They’ve scored the second most runs in the AL and it doesn’t seem like a fluke. Yordan Alvarez has been one of the best hitters in baseball so far, running a career-high 188 wRC+. Christian Walker has also bounced back after a rough first season in Houston last year; he’s blasted nine home runs this year and is sporting a 143 wRC+. Even though the injury bug has hit the lineup hard, Houston has found enough depth to cover for its absences. Isaac Paredes has looked solid covering third base while Correa was covering shortstop for the injured Jeremy Peña and Brice Matthews and Zach Cole have been solid in the outfield while Jake Meyers and Joey Loperfido have been sidelined.

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

After struggling to make much of an impact with the Rockies to start his career, Peter Lambert signed a one-year deal with the Yakult Swallows of NPB last year. He didn’t exactly excel, but he showed enough promise outside the oppressive environment in Colorado to earn a minor league deal with the Astros this offseason. He’s been pressed into service thanks to all the injuries Houston has dealt with and he’s looked pretty solid across four starts this year. He developed a straight cutter in Japan and that pitch has been a solid addition to his repertoire. He’s also got an excellent changeup to round out his deep arsenal. 

From a previous series preview:

The Astros emerged as the surprising suitors for Tatsuya Imai this offseason, signing him to a three-year deal well below what many were expecting. Perhaps his contract fell short because it’s really hard to figure out his arsenal. There were plenty of questions about how his fastball would play against MLB batters and pitch models had a terrible time trying to figure out his slider. That breaking ball is unique to say the least. The pitch has the least amount of horizontal movement of any slider thrown in the majors, and depending on how he locates it, it can look like a screwball at times. The heater has looked really good too, benefitting from a low arm slot and a lot of cutting action. Imai will also pepper in a splitter, changeup, and curveball to round out his pitch mix, but the fastball and slider are the two primary weapons.

Imai couldn’t work out of the first inning in his last start against the Mariners, walking four and allowing a single hit in just 0.1 innings of work. He was placed on the IL with general fatigue after that start in Seattle and will be activated from that list to make a start on Tuesday.

From a previous series preview:

Lance McCullers Jr. finally got back on the big league mound last season after missing more than two years following elbow surgery back in 2023. It wasn’t an easy return to his previous form. He struggled with his command throughout the season and his velocity was down two ticks across the board from where he was sitting way back in ‘22. His pitch mix looked a lot different too, with his sweeper taking the place of his trademark curveball as his preferred breaking ball. Command is usually the last skill to return after major elbow surgery and he’s now three years removed from that procedure. I’m not sure we’ll ever see peak McCullers again, but he’s got the deep repertoire and experience to be a solid starter as long as his health holds up.

The Mariners scored six runs off McCullers in that series in Seattle; he pitched 4.1 innings allowing five hits and two walks.

From a previous series preview:

The Astros acquired Mike Burrows in a three-team trade involving the Rays and Pirates this offseason. He was surprisingly solid for Pittsburgh in his first full season in the big leagues, even as he was overshadowed by some of the bigger name pitching prospects that were coming up through their system. Those same prospects gave the Pirates a surplus to deal from and Burrows ended up in Houston. He throws relatively hard and has a plus changeup to keep batters from sitting on his heater. That offspeed pitch is his go-to swing and miss pitch too, though he has a pair of above average breaking balls as well. Because the Pirates treat their pitching prospects so carefully, most of Burrows’s work came in four- or five-inning stints. He’ll need to prove he can work through an opposing lineup a third time to really take a step forward in his development.

Burrows is coming off his best start of the season, a scoreless seven-inning gem against the Reds. In his previous start against the Mariners, he allowed six runs on 11 hits and a walk in six innings of work.

The Big Picture:

The Athletics maintained their grip on the top of the AL West standings, winning their weekend series against the Orioles. They return home this week to take on the Cardinals. The Rangers managed to quiet the red hot Cubs over the weekend, holding them scoreless across both games on Saturday and Sunday. Texas hosts the Diamondbacks to start this week.

This was the 5th week of full minor league play (stats are entering play on Monday, May 11th).

According to FanGraphs (which factors in age and proximity to the big leagues), 19-year old Caden Bodine has regained his spot as the top hitter spot in the Rays system. The backstop is proving to be too advanced for Single-A as he was hitting .411 entering play on Sunday. After a zero hit performance though, he has dropped to .397/.442/.629 with 4 HR, registering a 184 wRC+ over 131 plate appearances..

Meanwhile, Aidan Cremarosa is still the team’s top minor league pitcher and among the top performers in all of minor league baseball. The 22-year old was taken by the Rays in the 8th round of the 2025 draft out of Fresno State. Thus far over six starts in Single-A, Cremarosa has a 2.38 ERA | 2.01 FIP with a 38.3 K% & 3.9 BB% over 34 IP. Most recently, Cremarosa completed a complete game no-hitter, a rarity in Rays organizational history.

RUMBLINGS

• RHP TJ Nichols began a rehab assignment with the FCL Rays
• INF Andreimi Antunez, a 2024 international signing, had quite the day on Friday. He was 4-6 on the day and homered twice in the first inning, including a grand slam. Overall he had the 2 homeruns, 2 doubles, and 10 RBI.
• Baseball America highlighted 12 prospects with impressive exit velocties early on this season; Taitn Gray and Nathan Flewelling are mentioned.
• Baseball America has also updated their top 100 prospect rankings, the Rays have players make the cut (this is a huge shake up, so I will not be updating the top 10 prospects futher below until Baseball America fully updates their rankings).
  • 36. Theo Gillen
  • 55. Brody Hopkins
  • 91. Nathan Flewelling
  • 95. Caden Bodine
  • 97. Cooper Flemming

TEAM LEADERS

• Must currently be assigned to that team
• Baseball America’s top ten prospects are featured below each team they’re currently assigned to.
• (minimum of 60 TBF & PA)

Tampa Bay Rays

Top 10 Prospects

• None currently on active roster

Durham Bulls

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .323, Victor Mesa Jr (hasn’t played since 4/15)
OBP: .417, Victor Mesa Jr (hasn’t played since 4/15)
SLG: .565, Victor Mesa Jr (hasn’t played since 4/15)
HR: 5,Blake Sabol & Dom Keegan
wRC+: 153, Victor Mesa Jr (hasn’t played since 4/15)
SB: 17, Jacob Melton (Placed on the IL on 4/23)

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.62, Kodi Whitley
FIP: 3.01, Kodi Whitley & Trevor Martin
K%: 40.0%, Joe Rock
BB%: 6.3%, Kodi Whitley
WHIP: 0.90, Kodi Whitley
AVG: .135, Evan Reifert
WHIFF%: 15.9%, Joe Rock

Top 10 Prospects

• #1 Brody Hopkins
  • AAA: 3.79 ERA | 5.26 FIP | 25.3 K% | 19.6 BB% | .210 AVG | 14.2 WHIFF% | 35.2 IP
• #3 Jacob Melton
  • AAA: .231/.346/.431 | 40.2 K% | 15.9 BB% | 1 HR | 17 SB | 98 wRC+ | 82 PA
    • 4/23: Suffered sprained ankle. Expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

Montgomery Biscuits

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .341, Cooper Kinney (promoted to AAA on 5/5)
OBP: .440, Xavier Isaac
SLG: .605, Xavier Isaac
HR: 8, Xavier Isaac
wRC+: 170, Xavier Isaac
SB: 21, Austin Overn

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.71, Michael Forret
FIP: 2.60, Alexander Alberto
K%: 33.3%, Alexander Alberto
BB%:  4.4%, Hayden Snelsire
WHIP 0.76, Hayden Snelsire
AVG: .157, Michael Forret
WHIFF%: 16.1%, Hayden Snelsire

Top 10 Prospects

• #4 T.J. Nichols
  • AA: 1.80 ERA | 1.71 FIP | 25.0 K% | 0.0 BB% | .300 AVG | 12.3 WHIFF% | 5 IP
  • CPX: 4.50 ERA | 3.05 FIP | 11.1 K% | 0.0 BB% | .333 AVG | 18.5 WHIFF% | 2 IP
    • 4/7: Placed on Injured List
    • 5/9: Began rehab assignment in Complex League
• #6 Santiago Suarez
  • AA: 5.70 ERA | 5.58 FIP | 28.7 K% | 5.9 BB% | .226 AVG | 13.9 WHIFF% | 23.2 IP
    • 4/25: Placed on Injured List
    • 5/5: Activated from Injured List
• #8 Michael Forret
  • AA: 1.71 ERA | 5.08 FIP | 26.2 K% | 11.5 BB% | .157 AVG | 15.5 WHIFF% | 31.2 IP

Bowling Green Hot Rods

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .309, Nathan Flewelling
OBP: .471, Tony Santa Maria
SLG: .610, Theo Gillen
HR: 8, Connor Hujsak
wRC+: 156, Theo Gillen
SB: 15, Tony Santa Maria

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.72, Jacob Kmatz
FIP: 1.87, Jacob Kmatz
K%: 41.0%, Jacob Kmatz
BB%: 4.9%, Jacob Kmatz
WHIP: 0.83, Jacob Kmatz
AVG: .172, Jacob Kmatz
WHIFF%: 17.7%, Jacob Kmatz

Top 10 Prospects

• #2 Theo Gillen
  • A+: .280/.404/.610 | 26.3 K% | 15.2 BB% | 7 HR | 11 SB | 156 wRC+ | 99 PA
• #5 Anderson Brito
  • A+: 4.24 ERA | 4.17 FIP | 33.6 K% | 10.3 BB% | .250 AVG | 14.5 WHIFF% | 23.1 IP
• #10 Aidan Smith
  • A+: Hasn’t played in 2026
  • CPX: .200/.333/.333 | 11.1 K% | 16.7 BB% | 0 HR | 1 SB | 77 wRC+ | 18 PA
    • 4/2: Placed on the Injured List
    • 5/2: Began rehab assignment

Charleston River Dogs

Team Offensive Leaders:
AVG: .397, Caden Bodine
OBP: .442, Caden Bodine
SLG: .629, Caden Bodine
HR: 5, Taitn Gray
wRC+: 184, Caden Bodine
SB: 12, Alberth Palma

Team Pitching Leaders:
ERA: 1.96, Trey Pooser
FIP: 2.01, Aidan Cremarosa
K%: 38.3%, Aidan Cremarosa
BB%: 3.9%, Aidan Cremarosa
WHIP: 0.79, Aidan Cremarosa
AVG: .172, Jacob Kuhn
WHIFF%: 18.9%, Aidan Cremarosa

Top 10 Prospects

• #7 Daniel Pierce
  • A: .247/.314/.403 | 29.1 K% | 5.8 BB% | 3 HR | 4 SB | 96 wRC+ | 86 PA
    • 4/22: Placed on the 7-day IL
    • 5/2: Activated from the IL
• #9 Brendan Summerhill
  • A: .188/.235/.375 | 23.5 K% | 3.9 BB% | 3 HR | 0 SB | 62 wRC+ | 51 PA
    • 4/22: Placed on the 7-day IL
    • 5/11: Began a rehab assignment with the CPX Rays

The Cubs were the hottest team in baseball for most of the past week, winning their first five games of the week against the Reds and Rangers, the last five of their second 10-game winning streak of the year, which also extended their home winning streak to 15 (and an 18-5 record at Wrigley Field in 2026).

Then, clunk… no runs scored at all over the last two games.

Still, it was a successful week, all things considered. Here’s who was hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.

Three up

Michael Conforto has found his role

Conforto hadn’t played much since he filled in for Seiya Suzuki while the latter was out for the first 12 games of the season.

But Craig Counsell gave Conforto some playing time against the Reds and Rangers and his bat came alive. He batted .500/.588/1.143 (7-for-14) with three doubles and two home runs.

One of those homers walked off the Reds last Monday [VIDEO].

Conforto has certainly earned more playing time.

Michael Busch’s bat has also gotten hot

Busch got off to a terrible start this year, but lately he has been hitting like the guy who hit 34 home runs for the Cubs a year ago.

For the week, Busch batted .348/.500/.500 (8-for-23) with a double, a home run, six RBI and seven walks. And since he bottomed out with a .377 (!) OPS after the game of April 11, Busch is batting .302/.414/.479 (29-for-96) with six doubles, a triple, three home runs, 17 walks and 21 RBI in 26 games, one of the biggest reasons the Cubs are 21-5 in those games.

Busch also walked off a game against the Reds last week [VIDEO].

Shōta Imanaga is dominant again

Imanaga is flashing the form that got him an All-Star selection and fifth place in Cy Young voting in 2024. It seems clear that he had never fully recovered last year from the hamstring injury. Now 100 percent healthy, Imanaga has a 28.3 percent strikeout rate and just a 7.0 percent walk rate.

He’s also getting tons of swing-and-miss. ranking seventh in MLB with a 32.8 percent whiff rate, which is notable given that Shōta doesn’t throw 95+ like everyone else on the list ahead of him.

Here are his 10 Ks against the Reds last Thursday [VIDEO].

Honorable mention to Ben Brown for his four no-hit innings against the Rangers on Friday.

Three down

What is going on with Alex Bregman?

Sometimes Bregman hits for a while — .333 /.400/.456 for a 13-game span from April 11-24.

And then he doesn’t — .174/.296/.217 (4-for-23) over the past week, though with four walks. His .328 season OBP does provide some value, but he’s got just five doubles, a triple and three home runs in 159 at-bats. That’s not the guy the Cubs thought they were getting.

Craig Counsell gave Bregman Sunday off. Hopefully the extra day will help him reset.

He’s still solid at third base. Check out this slick play he made last Wednesday [VIDEO].

Moisés Ballesteros is in an awful slump

The Cubs DH/catcher (mostly DH) started the season out hot, so much so that it was hard to remember that he’s just 22 years old.

The league appears to have adjusted to him. He was 0-for-16 over the week and Sunday, he struck out three times (okay, so those were all by Jacob deGrom, a very tough pitcher).

Ballesteros can hit, no question about it. But he will now also have to make adjustments. If he can’t, I would not be opposed to sending him to Triple-A Iowa for a short time, if for nothing else than to help him get his confidence back.

Edward Cabrera got hit pretty hard

Cabrera made two starts during the week and allowed 16 hits and three walks over 11 innings (1.727 WHIP), and eight earned runs (6.55 ERA). He did strike out 14, and overall has a 22.4 percent K rate, down a bit from his 25.8 percent rate a year ago. I still think Cabrera is a perfectly solid starter and he’ll be fine.

Here’s an interesting thread about Cabrera. Worth keeping an eye on these things.

Perhaps the Cubs are trying to manage his workload in a way that will keep him healthy this year, which has been an issue for him in the past. As always, we await developments.

I do my best to try and avoid ever thinking about the Tampa Bay Rays, but they have forced themselves upon my attention with some excellent play across the season’s first quarter. I’m writing this as Logan Henderson delivers his first pitch to Trent Grisham, and Tampa’s .658 winning percentage has them nominally atop the AL East, with two games in hand over the Yankees.

It’s a little rudimentary in 2026 to immediately look at run differential, but the Yankees should have an extra win with their strong +74, even after a weekend with strong Milwaukee pitching, and the Rays should be six games back of them with just a +17 differential. By BaseRuns, which intends to neutralize sequencing, the difference is more stark, indicating that the Yankees should have a seven-game lead in the East.

But of course there’s what should have happened and what has actually happened, and the Rays have banked those additional five or six wins early. A good chunk of those wins have come on two fronts: home field advantage, and one-run games. The club is 14-4 at the Tropicana House of Horrors, and while that .778 winning percentage will not hold up through August and September, the Rays have always felt an outsized impact of their home cooking.

The last season they played in Tropicana, 2024, the Rays were not a good team, finishing 80-82. They were a paltry .469 team on the road, and 50 basis points better than that at home. In 2023, a much stronger Rays team before a couple tough seasons, they were nearly a hundred basis points better when sleeping in their own beds. I think the 2026 Rays team is better than the squad we’ve seen in the past two years, but probably not a 92-win side. The Curse of the Trop is likely to continue into the summer, but they’ll win less than three-quarters of their remaining home games.

The one-run game phenomenon is a little harder to project out. One-run games are a product of sequencing and bullpen performance, both of which can be extremely volatile over the course of the season. A groundball to the right side after a leadoff double puts you in a great position to push a run across, but that same groundball to the right side when you yourself lead off an inning objectively hurts your chances at scoring. This is the problem that BaseRuns attempts to solve for: the compelling variable is that a batter hit a ground ball to the right side, which generally speaking does not create a lot of runs. This kind of volatility, where the outcome is dependent on a pre-established context, usually means that this stuff balances out over a season.

What’s more interesting is that the Rays don’t really have a particularly strong bullpen — 15th in baseball by ERA, 21st by FIP, 19th by K-BB rate. This is something the club could fix on the trade market, but between the unpredictability of sequencing and the fact the relief corps at present doesn’t frighten me, that 8-1 record in one-run games should start to close up a little bit.

Of course all of this is subject to devil magic, and it’s been a little while since we saw good old classic Tampa Bay Devil Magic. The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, and the Rays can employ sorcery for longer than it takes for randomness to normalize. The Yankees looked perhaps the worst they’ve looked all year when they played Tampa, of course down at Tropicana, and keeping an eye on the devil magic meter will remain a concern all summer.

Are these two teams evenly matched?

Historically, yes.  When these two teams met in the regular season, the Rangers won 32 games and the Diamondbacks won 31 games.  Against all teams, they were nearly equal in runs scored per game (4.5 vs 4.6) and runs allowed per game (4.7 vs 4.6).

Last Season, perhaps not.  When these teams met in the regular season, the Diamondbacks won more games (4 vs 2).  Against all teams, the Diamondbacks had more runs scored per game (4.9 vs 4.2), while allowing more runs allowed (4.8 vs 3.7).

This Season, probably not.   As of 7 May, four websites projected more wins for the Rangers.  The Ranger projections range between 81.0 and 86.4 wins.  The Diamondbacks projections are tightly bunched (79.4 to 80.3 wins).

In May, both teams are on a cold streak. In May, in games through 8 May, the Rangers lost 5 games out of 7, while the Diamondbacks lost 6 games out of 7. Whichever team loses the three game series may need their players to do a mental reset.

Which Ranger player will be at second base? 

Each player is barely 27 years old, although this season is Duran’s fifth in the Majors. Ezequiel Duran has recently been on a hot streak (OPS of .976 in the 14 days through 6 May).  However, on 7 May, the recently called up Justin Foscue played second base and Duran played left field. 

Pitching Matchups.

Monday, 5:05 PM MST.

Michael Soroka.  In his latest start, pitching against the Pirates, with some help by excellent Diamondbacks defenders he allowed only 1 earned run in 6.1 innings pitched.  The only Diamondbacks starter with a better ERA is Eduardo Rodriguez.

Nathan Eovaldi.  In his latest start, pitching against the Yankees, he allowed only 1 earned run in 8 innings pitched.  Of the five Rangers starters, only Jacob deGrom has a better ERA.

This matchup of starting pitchers is even.

Tuesday, 5:05 PM MST.

Zac Gallen.On 25 April, a comeback hit his shoulder. Before that incident, this season he started 6 games with an ERA of 3.14.  After that day, he started two games.  He allowed a total of 10 earned runs in 9.2 innings pitched.  How long until he returns to his earlier pitching prowess?

MacKenzie Gore. In his latest start, pitching against the Yankees, he allowed 5 earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched. 

This matchup of starting pitchers is even, but with some unpredictability.

Wednesday, 5:05 PM MST.

Ryne Nelson. He has pitched well this season except for 2 games in April. In May, he allowed 2 earned runs in 12.1 innings pitched.

Kumar Rocker. Although he pitched well in April, in May he allowed 8 earned runs in 5.2 innings pitched.

This matchup of starting pitchers is advantage Diamondbacks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ball could be flying tonight. 

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

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

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

Yankees vs Orioles odds

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

Yankees vs Orioles trend

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

How to watch Yankees vs Orioles and game info

Yankees vs Orioles latest injuries

Yankees vs Orioles weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

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

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

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

In the World of Baseball:

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

MONDAY

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

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

WEDNESDAY

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

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

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

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

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

THURSDAY

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

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

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

FRIDAY

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

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

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

SATURDAY

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

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

SUNDAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Giants vs Dodgers odds

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

Giants vs Dodgers trend

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

How to watch Giants vs Dodgers and game info

Giants vs Dodgers latest injuries

Giants vs Dodgers weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 12-14: Chicago Cubs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 15-17: Boston Red Sox

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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