Category: Baseball

It’s that time of year, folks. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, baseball is back, and so are our meters, which provide the community with a nice little snapshot of how each player is performing. To be transparent right from the jump, this year I am doing something new with the meters: instead of weekly, they will be posted biweekly (as in, every other week, not twice a week). This cadence is much more manageable with my schedule and I also think a two-week sample size is more meaningful to look at than a one-week sample. In the case of this first set of meters, because the first week of the season was not a complete one, these numbers cover the first ten games of the season. Hereafter, meters will appear on the site every other week on Mondays—maybe occasionally on Tuesday if your imperfect Mets Meter Maid (that’s me) is having a bad week.

As is tradition, we will start with the position player group first and the pitchers will go up later. On Opening Day, the Mets erupted for 11 runs right out of the gate en route to their usual Opening Day victory. But the bats went silent for a little while after that, prompting some agita about the offense. However, the Mets have bounced back to win their last three straight and the offense was looking pretty potent again, particularly on Friday and Saturday. This weekend’s games saved a couple of players from the dreaded “poop emoji in your very first meter” fate; Bo Bichette, Tyrone Taylor, and Marcus Semien in particular have turned things around of late. The first ten games have proven a bit of a renaissance for Mark Vientos, who has been the Mets’ hottest hitter in 2026 despite a dismal 2025 season. Juan Soto has been Juan Soto, but he has just hit the injured list and the lineup will definitely lack a certain je ne sais quoi without him in it.

Player	This week
Francisco Alvarez, C
Brett Baty, UTIL
Carson Benge, OF
Bo Bichette, 3B
Francisco Lindor, SS
Jorge Polanco, 1B/DH
Luis Robert Jr., OF
Marcus Semien, 2B
Juan Soto, OF
Tyrone Taylor, OF
Luis Torrens, C
Mark Vientos, 1B/3B
Jared Young, 1B/OF

We’ll start with Mark Vientos since he has been the Mets’ best hitter so far this season. Over the first ten games of the season, Vientos has put up a blistering 254 wRC+ in 23 plate appearances, which leads the team. He didn’t see a lot of playing time in the early going, but has gotten more starts lately—and why not? He has earned them. Vientos’ ten hits are tied for the second-most on the team thus far. “I feel like myself,” Vientos said after Saturday’s game. Something closer to the 2024 version of Mark Vientos over the course of a full season would be massive for the 2026 Mets.

The team leader in hits over the first ten games is Juan Soto, whose emoji I had to change to a red cross in the middle of writing this, as he was just officially placed on the IL with a mild calf strain. It is a huge bummer to lose the lineup’s most potent threat so early in the season, especially when Soto has been so durable over the course of his career, but hopefully this will be a relatively brief absence. Over 34 plate appearances before the injury, Soto scored three runs, drove in five runs, went deep once, and walked three times, posting a 164 wRC+.

Somehow, even with the new ABS challenge system, Soto does not lead the team in walks. That would be Francisco Lindor batting in front of him with ten walks, which is a good recipe for success to do in front of Soto. However, the walk is just about the only way Lindor is getting on base right now. Lindor had a couple of triples early in the season, which is already more than he had all of last year and an encouraging sign for those concerned that his hamate surgery may have zapped his power, but he has just five hits overall in 48 plate appearances, which is not good. However, he has seven runs scored to lead the team, so he is often being driven in when he does get on base. His 86 wRC+ over these first ten games should improve with time.

Speaking of improvement, one of the most prominent new faces on the position player side Bo Bichette was barreling toward poop emoji territory before he saved himself at the 11th hour with a strong performance over the weekend. He had a multi-hit game on both Friday and Saturday, raising his hit total to nine—a much more respectable number—with six RBIs, which is tied for the team lead. Still, Bichette holds an ugly 38 wRC+ over his first 48 plate appearances with a team-leading 12 strikeouts.

The story with fellow new Met Marcus Semien is quite similar. Outside of an RBI knock on Opening Day that was aided by the sun in Oneil Cruz’s eyes, Semien didn’t hit a lick in the early going until the past few games saw him raise his wRC+ from the doldrums all the way up to 117 in 41 plate appearances. Semien matches Bichette’s six RBIs for the season and has scored two runs—one of those coming on his first home run in a Mets uniform. Semien has also played strong defense at second base, as expected.

The new Met that has made the greatest impact so far has been Luis Robert Jr., who has been excellent with the bat to the tune of a 173 wRC+ in his first 38 Mets plate appearances. He matches Mark Vientos ten hits for the second-most on the team. One of those ten hits was a home run—his only extra-base hit so far. He is the third Met along with Bichette and Semien with a team-leading six RBIs. He has also scored six runs—second only to Lindor for the team lead. Perhaps the biggest pleasant surprise about Robert’s performance so far is that his eight walks are also second only to Lindor for the team lead. Robert is not particularly known for being patient at the plate, but he has exhibited uncharacteristic patience so far this season and it has paid off. Even when they were struggling to score runs, the Mets have demonstrated early on that they are capable of seeing a lot of pitches and and working deep counts as a collective.

Rounding out the new look Mets is Jorge Polanco, whose first couple of weeks as a Met have been okay-not-great. He’s struck the ball well on many occasions and not had much to show for it; the ball that was caught on the warning track that would have been the Mets’ second walk-off homer in as many days comes to mind. Polanco has amassed six hits—three singles and three doubles—and five walks in 37 plate appearances, good for a 76 wRC+. Polanco is still adjusting to first base and sharing time there with both Vientos and at times Brett Baty and Jared Young. Baty has been a jack of all trades, getting at-bats in both the infield and outfield. Baty posted a 71 wRC+ over his first 33 plate appearances, but his six runs scored match Robert for the second-most on the team. Baty has racked up eight hits, but unlike a lot of his teammates, he isn’t walking much. In fact, he hasn’t drawn a single walk this year and has struck out ten times—a troubling ratio to perhaps keep an eye on. Meanwhile, Young has made the most of his playing time, which will probably increase in Juan Soto’s absence. In addition to drawing two walks, Young has five hits in his first 15 plate appearances this season. He has scored two runs and driven in one run.

I didn’t have the heart to give Carson Benge a poop emoji in his very first meter in his rookie year, but his 27 wRC+ is the worst on the team in these first ten games, despite his thrilling Opening Day home run that represented his first hit in the big leagues. Overall, Benge has three hits and four walks in his first 34 major league plate appearances. He has also struck out eleven times, which is certainly a higher rate than you want. It is clear that Benge struggles against same-sided pitching—an expected growing pain for a young player. Carlos Mendoza has opted to keep him in there against lefties at times, while pinch hitting for him at other times, clearly wanting to strike the right balance between showing confidence in his young player and giving the team the best chance to win. Benge has scored three runs and driven in three runs so far in his rookie campaign.

Tyrone Taylor was another player in the “potential poop emoji” club who saved himself. His pinch hit three-run homer broke Saturday’s game open and represents one of only two hits from him in 15 plate appearances, three of his four RBIs for the season, and one of his two runs scored. Taylor is another player who will likely see more playing time during Soto’s IL stint with the Mets down an outfielder, especially with Mets brass wanting to give Robert regular rest to keep him healthy.

Francisco Alvarez was a big part of the weekend’s offensive breakout with a two home run game on Friday. Overall, he has three home runs and is the only player on the team with multiple long balls to his name. His 203 wRC+ is second only to Vientos for the team lead. Alvarez’s power surge in these first ten games earns him a fireball emoji to open 2026.

Luis Torrens provided the key hit in yesterday’s game—a go-ahead pinch hit RBI double in the eighth inning. It was Torrens’ fourth hit in 12 plate appearances and his first extra-base hit of the season. Torrens has scored two runs and driven in four runs in total.

SAN FRANCISCO — When Christian Koss took the mound to record the final three outs of the Giants’ blowout loss to the Mets on Saturday, it was hardly out of the ordinary.

The utility infielder has been the Giants’ go-to guy when a game has gotten out of hand the past two seasons. The twist is that his first pitching appearance came before he logged an at-bat.

After years of utilizing every spot on the 26-man roster and maximizing platoon advantages by mixing and matching with in-game moves, the Giants haven’t made much use of Koss or the rest of the five reserves on their bench in the early days of Tony Vitello’s managerial tenure.

“I think currently with the set-up we have, those guys are going to have to get used to not getting consistent at-bats,” Vitello said.

Not just consistent at-bats: any at all. 

Entering their 11th game of the season Monday, the Giants still had two position players yet to step to the plate in Koss and backup outfielder Jared Oliva. Jerar Encarnacion, their biggest bench bat, has been called on to pinch-hit just once.

In fact, Encarnacion’s groundout for Patrick Bailey in the seventh inning of their loss to the Padres on Wednesday was the Giants’ only pinch-hit plate appearance of the season. Just one other team, the Angels, has utilized its bench less than Vitello in the early going.

“I’m ready at any point,” Koss said. “You would like to be in the lineup more often, but that doesn’t dictate whether I’m ready for when my name is called.”

When asked if he has found it difficult to find opportunities to get Koss and the rest of his reserves into games so far, Vitello said, “Yeah, I think so.”

As he transitions from the University of Tennessee to Major League Baseball, every move the rookie skipper makes — or doesn’t make — will be under the microscope as fans and rival teams alike attempt to determine his managerial tendencies.

“There’s no agenda with the lineup other than trying to win the game,” he said.

It’s not like the regulars have made it hard to take them out of the lineup. Entering Monday, the Giants owned the worst record in the National League, at 3-7. They have scored the fewest runs in the majors — 2.6 per game — and played sloppy defense resulting in the fifth-most errors in MLB.

But Vitello has shown a proclivity to stick with his guys.

When the Yankees brought in tough lefty Tim Hill to face Jung Hoo Lee in a leverage moment in the first series of the year, Vitello didn’t bring in any of the five right-handed hitters on his bench.

Lee was called out on strikes to end the eighth inning of a 3-1 loss. 

Vitello had his full complement of reserves available, and Lee possesses a .601 career OPS against lefties, but when asked if there was any discussion about subbing in a pinch-hitter, he said, “Not at all. I mean, he’s our guy.”

When hiring the Giants’ next manager, Buster Posey said he wanted someone to “obsess over the details,” but Vitello has gone about showing that in a different way than with every little in-game decision. Gone are the days of winning at the margins by prioritizing platoon matchups.

Giants batters have owned the left-right advantage in only 47.5% of their plate appearances this season, tied for the fourth-lowest mark in the majors. The Guardians lead the league at 78.1%, and San Francisco ranked among the top 10 as recently as 2023 with a rate of 62.4%.

That same season the Giants used 179 pinch-hitters, tied for the most in MLB. Through 10 games this year, they’re on pace for fewer than 20 pinch-hit at-bats over the course of 162.

That is due, at least in part, to roster construction. Whether it be through trade or free agency, the Giants have built their most stable starting lineup in years, and Vitello has mostly rolled with the same group of nine players to start the season.

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Oliva has proven to be an asset on the base paths, with Vitello using the speedy 30-year-old to pinch-run three times. Daniel Susac looks like a capable backup to Bailey. But the remaining combination of Encarnacion, Koss and Casey Schmitt has so far been of little utility. 

“We’ll find ways to utilize JO’s speed, and he’s also got other things he can do well,” Vitello said. But, he added, “I think with Jerar and with Koss, we’ve got to get creative.”

All five reserves bat right-handed, but the highest career OPS against left-handed pitching among them belongs to Schmitt, with a mark of .685. 

If the hope is for at least eight of their nine regulars to play everyday, and few situations would be suitable for any of their reserves to pinch-hit, then what value are the Giants getting out of the end of their roster? At the end of the day, Vitello can only manage the players he has.

“Jerar has probably been the first guy to show up about everyday since the season has started,” Vitello said. “Koss, he could put on a couple pounds, he doesn’t look like the toughest guy in the world, I can tell you internally, he’s probably as tough as anybody we got. …

“On a personal level, I’d like to see those guys get rewarded for their hard work as much as anything. But also, this isn’t a situation where it’s a ‘Rudy’ deal. These guys can do some things on the field.”

Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages had five multi-hit games and reached base far more often than not against the Cleveland Guardians and Washington Nationals, and on Monday was rewarded with National League player of the week honors.

Pages last week started with a pair of two-hit games, then three three-hit games in a row, before reaching base twice on Sunday afternoon against the Nationals. In all, he had 14 hits in 24 at-bats, hitting .583/.615/.917 with two home runs, two doubles, two walks, seven runs batted in, and five runs scored.

He led or tied the majors last week in hits, times on base (16), total bases (22), batting average, and on-base percentage, and led the National League in slugging percentage, OPS (1.532), and wRC+ (334).

Through nine games this season, the 25-year-old Pages is hitting .471/.500/.794 and leads the Dodgers in home runs (three) and RBI (10).

“He’s controlling the zone, he’s fighting when he gets two strikes, he is hitting to all fields,” manager Dave Roberts said of Pages over the weekend in Washington D.C. “Right now, he’s showing he’s a complete hitter.”

It’s the second career player of the week honor for Pages, who shared NL weekly honors with Eugenio Suárez for the week ending in April 27, 2025.

Fair warning: this is going to be a very long roundup. It was the first weekend of Minor League Baseball, and for the first time in many, many months, the San Francisco Giants had four affiliates in action. There’s a lot to get to. So let’s get to 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

While a lot happened on the field, not a lot happened off it. AAA Sacramento RHP Trent Harris (No. 29 CPL) was placed on the Development List after a slow start to the season. Sacramento shortstop Osleivis Basabe, who started the year injured, was activated off the 7-Day IL.

AAA Sacramento (5-4)

Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Salt Lake Bees 6-5 [box score]
Saturday Game 1: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Salt Lake Bees 5-4 (7 innings) [box score]
Saturday Game 2: Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees 7-1 (7 innings) [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees 9-5 [box score]

As if these Friday-Sunday weekend roundups didn’t have enough baseball in them, Sacramento went and had their Thursday game against the Angels’ affiliate postponed, resulting in a Saturday doubleheader. Yeesh!

That said, it was a fairly mild-mannered quartet of games. The biggest boom came from right fielder Victor Bericoto (No. 35 CPL) who, I’m pleased to say, is finding the success in AAA that eluded him a year ago.

In case you forgot about 2025, I’ll get you up to speed: Bericoto, a Venezuelan who was in the same international signing class as Marco Luciano and Luis Matos, started the year in AA, but was quickly promoted to AAA. He hit poorly in 11 games there, with just a .478 OPS and a 16 wRC+ while mostly playing first base due to Sacramento’s bloated outfield, before suffering an injury. By the time he returned from injury, Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) had been promoted, and was the everyday first baseman, which meant Bericoto headed back to Richmond to play out the year.

Bericoto reached Minor League free agency this past winter, but re-signed, was an NRI, and won the Barney Nugent Award after an exceptional Spring Training. And so far he’s carrying it into 2026. Bericoto ended the weekend with serious momentum, with 2 extra-base hits in each of the final 2 games. Over the course of the 4 games, he hit 6-15 with a home run, a triple, 2 doubles, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts.

Gorgeous swing, but even more gorgeous backdrop!

His home run, a 3-run shot in the 1st inning on Sunday, was his first of the year, and a reminder as to the extreme power potential he has.

And with that, Bericoto is up to a 1.031 OPS and a 174 wRC+. A much better start this year, and it’s safe to say that if his performance continues and San Francisco’s offensive putridity continues, we’re going to see him in the Majors at some point…

In order to get there, though, Bericoto will need to be added to the 40-man roster. That’s not an issue for left fielder Will Brennan, a rostered outfielder who has MLB experience. Brennan had a fine, if not exciting Spring Training, and a slow start to the AAA season. But he started to find his rhythm over the weekend, hitting 5-12 with a home run, a triple, a double, a walk, and a sacrifice fly.

Brennan’s up to an .874 OPS and a 126 wRC+ on the season, but the Giants are probably as interested — if not more — in his tiny 11.4% strikeout rate (he didn’t strike out over the weekend!) and his solid (or at least passable) defense at all 3 outfield spots.

Speaking of strikeouts, the Giants struggling offense — not to mention their adventures at first base while Rafael Devers was semi-sidelined — have resulted in fans clamoring to see first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) get called up. That will obviously happen at some point this year, but Eldridge is going to need to show improvement in the swing-and-miss category before it does. Reading between the lines, it’s not hard to arrive at the conclusion that Eldridge missed out on the Opening Day roster due in large part to his 38.0% strikeout rate in Spring Training.

Unfortunately, Eldridge has been striking out quite a bit to start the year with Sacramento. He did some good things over the weekend, but that hole in his game is still being exposed: over the 4 games, he hit 4-14 with 2 doubles, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts.

Eldridge has 5 multi-strikeout showings in 9 games this year, and so far his rate (29.5%) is only a hair better than what it was in AAA last year (30.8%). He also is still searching for his first home run of the year.

But it ain’t all bad. Despite that high strikeout rate, Eldridge is still sporting a very high batting average, at .281. And he’s been an absolute on-base machine thanks to a 20.5% walk rate. All of that has resulted in an .852 OPS and a 151 wRC+. That will come down when the .474 BABIP invariably drops … but hopefully it will rise with some more power, and fewer strikeouts.

Mild weekends for the other 3 hitters on the 40-man roster: catcher Jesús Rodríguez (No. 16 CPL) only played in 2 games, and hit 3-9 with a strikeout, and now has a .534 OPS and a 42 wRC+ as his season starts slowly; outfielder Grant McCray slowed a little over the weekend while playing all 3 outfield spots, as he went 0-9 with 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, and a sacrifice fly, lowering his OPS to .680 and his wRC+ to 99; and left fielder/center fielder Drew Gilbert hit 5-14 with a double, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts, and a sac fly, moving his OPS to .788 and his wRC+ to 129.

Like the offense, the pitching was so-so. The highlight came at the start of the “weekend,” with Friday’s starter: LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 8 CPL).

Whisenhunt is still having some issues with finding the strike zone (he threw 49 of 84 pitches for strikes), and his pitches are still getting hit too hard, but Friday was a reminder that he still can show off some significant strikeout stuff. Against a Salt Lake lineup that is heavy with players with MLB experience, Whisenhunt struck out 8 batters in just 4.2 innings, while allowing 3 hits, 2 walks, and just 1 run.

All signs point to Whisenhunt being the next man up if/when San Francisco needs an additional starter. He was given the Opening Day assignment, and has been allowed to pitch deeper into games that RHPs Trevor McDonald (No. 12 CPL) and Carson Seymour, as well as RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 9 CPL), who was recently called up to be in the Giants’ bullpen. So if the Giants need a fill-in starter, you can assume it will be the reigning Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year, who has a 5.19 ERA but a 2.57 FIP through 2 starts, with 12 strikeouts in 8.2 innings.

Speaking of McDonald and Seymour, they started the Saturday doubleheaders, and Seymour in particular shined, with 4 no-hit innings, which required just 42 pitches out of him. He didn’t have tremendous command — he threw 24 of those 42 pitches for strikes, walked 2 batters, and only struck out 2 — but still. A quartet of no-hit innings is impressive, especially against a lineup with familiar names like Trey Mancini, Chris Taylor, and Vaughn Grissom (plus former Giants Wade Meckler and Donovan Walton).

It’s kind of unclear how Seymour fits into the team’s plans, as the team seems to have a foot in both doors when it comes to developing him as a starter vs. a reliever. He clearly has MLB-level stuff, though, so he’ll be back in the Majors at some point, after making his debut a year ago.

It wasn’t so smooth for McDonald, who pitched Game 1 of the doubleheader and gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs in just 2.1 innings of work, with 1 strikeout. Like the others, McDonald struggled with the strike zone, with just 27 of 48 pitches going for strikes. He started the spring so well, but has been struggling for a while now, and like Seymour (and Tidwell), it’s not entirely apparent whether the Giants view him as a starter, a reliever, or an amorphous blob who will fill in depending on what the team needs. Probably that last one.

Some players do have more defined roles as relievers, and unfortunately a pair in Sacramento that are on the 40-man roster did not have good weekends. RHP Spencer Bivens, who was passed over for Tidwell when the Giants needed a José Buttó replacement last week, pitched on Friday and gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in just 1.1 innings, allowing a run in the process. It was the 2nd consecutive rough outing for Bivens, who was optioned to start the year after spending all of 2025 in the Majors. RHP Tristan Beck also pitched once over the weekend, and faced 5 batters. While he didn’t allow any runs (or hits, for that matter), he did walk 3 of those 5 batters.

Bivens and Beck are no longer the only Sacramento relievers on the 40-man, thanks to the recent trade for RHP Dylan Smith. The 2021 3rd-round pick made his organizational debut on Saturday and it went well, as he pitched a scoreless inning with a hit and a walk allowed, but 2 strikeouts. Welcome!

And finally, strong performances from a pair of relievers who I expect to work their way onto the roster this season: RHP Gregory Santos pitched twice, throwing 3 shutout innings while allowing just 1 hit and 2 walks, with 2 strikeouts; and RHP Will Bednar (No. 24 CPL) threw a no-hit inning on Sunday, while walking one and striking out the side. That was his season debut, and it was a lovely one!

AA Richmond (2-1)

Friday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Erie SeaWolves 7-6 [box score]
Saturday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves 13-6 [box score]
Sunday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves 11-9 [box score]

Richmond’s season got underway this weekend, and it came with a whole lot of offense, with 31 runs scored over the 3 games. That’s impressive as is considering the pitcher-friendly environment of the Eastern League, but it’s doubly impressive when you consider that the Squirrels are temporarily playing without their 2 highest-profile bats: outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) who missed opening weekend while on paternity leave (hope all has gone/is going well for him and his family), and third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL), who is still nursing that hamstring injury he sustained in Spring Training.

Davidson and Harber gained their prospect status largely on the back of breakout 2025s, and there’s another player in Richmond (who is playing right now) who did the same: catcher Drew Cavanaugh (No. 19 CPL). A 17th-round pick in 2023, you can make the case that Cavanaugh had the biggest breakout of any Giants prospect last year. He began the year with Low-A San Jose where he was viewed somewhat as organizational filler/necessary catcher depth. He proceeded to homer at all 4 levels of affiliated ball, and finished the year with a 136 wRC+ across those levels … a very high number for a defensively-solid catcher.

But there were still warning signs. He had a 27.4% strikeout rate, and there were questions as to his surge in power after not showing much early in his career. In his 2 weeks with Richmond last year, he hit below the Mendoza Line, but his numbers held up thanks to an unsustainably-high walk rate.

So, like with Davidson and Harber, we’re going to learn a lot about Cavanaugh this year based on how he handles this upper Minors assignment. And the first test? Passed with flying colors, honors, extra credit, and a few gold stars.

Cavanaugh didn’t play on Opening Day, but made up for it with what he did on Saturday and Sunday, when he hit 5-9 with a home run, 3 doubles, 3 walks, and no strikeouts. My goodness, what a re-introduction! Hopefully that’s a sign of what the rest of the season will look like. And if it is? Well, he probably will be headed back to the West Coast by the summer.

He wasn’t the only left-handed hitter to get off to a rollicking start, as corner infielder Charlie Szykowny hit very well also. Szykowny, a 25-year old who was a 9th-round pick in that same 2023 draft as Cavanaugh, had a strong 2025, but it was noteworthy that the Giants kept him in High-A for the entirety of the year. But he looks ready for a new challenge: after going 0-5 in the opener on Friday, Szykowny went 4-10 over the actual weekend, with a home run, a double, a walk, a stolen base, and 2 strikeouts.

It will be interesting to see how playing time shakes out at the corners when Harber returns. Right now, Szykowny is splitting first and third base with Sabin Ceballos (No. 43 CPL), who hit 2-10 with a double, a walk, and 5 strikeouts. Dayson Croes also got some action at third base.

Shortstop Maui Ahuna (No. 33 CPL) was given an aggressive assignment to open the year in AA, despite playing just 11 games in High-A thanks to a career that has been derailed on multiple occasions by injuries. Watching how Ahuna fares in Richmond is one of the biggest storylines of the year, as evaluators are a little split on him, and the organization is quite clearly very high on him. He has had a swing-and-miss issue for his career, but has the type of glove that will take him straight to the Majors if his offensive production can sustain. His debut weekend at the level showed both the good and the bad, as he hit 3-12 with a double, 3 walks, and stolen base, though he was also caught stealing once, and struck out 5 times.

Speaking of shortstops, Aeverson Arteaga made his season debut in the series finale, and hit 1-3 with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a stolen base. That’s a very tiny thing to hang a hat on, but after his utterly disastrous 2025 — he had a .508 OPS, a 49 wRC+, and a 26.2% strikeout rate — it was good to see him start the year on a positive note. His double play partner last year also began the year well, as second baseman Diego Velasquez (No. 31 CPL) went 2-5 with 3 walks, a hit by pitch, a stolen base, and 2 strikeouts.

One fun note for the Squirrels: they are running! That shouldn’t be surprising given that the best base-stealer in the organization last year, outfielder Jonah Cox, is on the roster, but it’s fun to see. Richmond stole 9 bases over the weekend, with Cox leading the way with 3 swiped bags (they were also caught stealing 3 times).

It wasn’t a great weekend for the starting pitchers, but opening day went very well for LHP Greg Farone. Richmond is an exciting opening assignment for Farone, who was a 7th-round pick in 2024 out of Alabama. He didn’t debut during his draft year, and split his 2025 evenly between Low-A and High-A. Despite having just a 4.25 ERA and a 4.63 FIP with High-A in 12 starts, Farone — who turns 24 in a month — drew the opening assignment to AA, and the opening day assignment as well.

He rewarded both choices, tossing 4.2 dominant innings against the Tigers affiliate. Farone gave up just 3 hits (though that included a very-early solo home run for the only run he gave up), walked none, and struck out 8 Erie hitters. 8! In 4.2 innings! That was great to see, especially after watching his strikeout stuff really struggle following his midseason promotion last year (he had 13 strikeouts per 9 innings in Low-A, but just 7.9 in High-A). That’s a tremendous introduction to 2026 and to AA for Farone, who is a tall and well-built southpaw.

Richmond ran another southpaw to the mound to start on Saturday, LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL). Like Farone, Whitman showed off some delightful strikeout stuff, with 7 Ks in 3.2 innings. The rest of the stuff wasn’t as good, though, as he ceded 4 hits, 1 walk, and 4 runs. That said, Whitman was done in by some unfortunate sequencing. He was perfect in the 1st and 2nd innings, and retired the only 2 batters he faced in the 4th. All of his baserunners came during a 4-run 3rd inning. So while the ERA may be bloated after 1 start, it was still an encouraging showing.

Less so for Sunday’s starter, RHP Trystan Vrieling who, like Whitman, is a reasonably high draft pick repeating the level. Vrieling was a 3rd-round pick in 2022 by the Yankees (he came over in the Camilo Doval trade), but AA has stymied the 25-year old. The lone bright spot of his Sunday start was that he didn’t give up any extra-base hits, but he only pitched 3 innings while allowing 4 hits, 4 walks, and 4 runs, with 1 hit batter and 4 strikeouts. He threw just 34 of 62 pitches for strikes, and is surely eagerly awaiting his next start to course correct a little.

The bullpen was hit-and-miss. RHP Tyler Vogel pitched twice and pitched well, throwing 2 scoreless innings and allowing 2 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 5. The 2022 12th-round pick had a slow start to his career due to both performance and injuries, but really started to show nasty stuff last season, and is picking up where he left off. Given his performance with Richmond last year — a 1.13 ERA, a 2.42 FIP, and 18 strikeouts against 3 walks in 16 innings — I would expect that we see him in Sacramento sooner rather than later.

High-A Eugene (3-0)

Friday: Eugene Emeralds beat the Hillsboro Hops 8-6 [box score]
Saturday: Eugene Emeralds beat the Hillsboro Hops 10-4 [box score]
Sunday: Eugene Emeralds beat the Hillsboro Hops 6-4 [box score]

If you’re a fan of tracking old friends so you can have confused emotions when they play well, then you’ve probably been keeping an eye on James Tibbs III. The Giants 1st-round pick in 2024 had middling results with the organization, and not much was thought of losing him when the Giants sent him to the Red Sox in the Rafael Devers trade. The Red Sox immediately turned around and sent Tibbs to the Dodgers, and all he’s done to start 2026 with the evil empire is get assigned to AAA and hit 18-38 with 7 home runs, 12 extra-base hits, 5 walks, and a 336 wRC+.

So if that’s depressing you, then have I ever got the antidote: forget about the team’s 2024 1st-round pick, and instead think about their 2025 1st-round pick. Folks, I humbly present to you shortstop Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL). After playing just 10 games in his debut season, Kilen was given a High-A assignment to start the year. On the one hand that made perfect sense, as he’s a polished 1st-rounder hitter out of an SEC school (Tony Vitello’s Tennessee). On the other hand it was a little scary, given that he struggled mightily during his debut with Low-A a year ago (though, to be fair, he was playing through an injury).

So does he belong in High-A, or are the Giants moving him too quickly? Well, I think he answered that question during his debut on Friday, when he hit 2-5 with a 3-run home run in the 5th inning … and then a walk-off home run in the 9th. It’s hard to have a more memorable debut than that!

But Kilen wasn’t done. Friday wasn’t a one-off. He followed it up on Saturday by hitting a perfect 3-3 with 2 doubles and 2 walks. He finally came back to earth on Sunday, with just a normal good game, in which he went 1-3 and drew a walk.

The Giants aren’t going to be overly aggressive with Kilen — that’s not their style — but he sure spent his 1st week in the Northwest League trying to convince them that maybe he should be fast-tracked. That’s putting the cart well, well ahead of the horse, but it sure was great to see. With Ahuna in AA (and a pair of talented defensive shortstops in Low-A San Jose), Kilen should be getting everyday reps at shortstop in Eugene, which is part of the reason why he’s at that level. It will be interesting to see what the reports are of his time in the infield … he has a lot of skill, though many evaluators have already pegged him for an eventual move to the other side of second base.

Speaking of talented infielders, third baseman Walker Martin also drew a High-A assignment in what feels like a make-or-break season for the recently-turned 22-year old lefty. Martin was a 2nd-round pick in 2023 out of high school, but his highly-touted athleticism never really showed up. He struggled mightily in his 2024 debut between the Complex League and Low-A, where he had a 107 wRC+ but a 41.0% strikeout rate across the 2 levels. He spent all of 2025 in Low-A, where he was moved from shortstop to third base and dramatically cut back on strikeouts, but still sat at a concerning level (28.4%) while posting just a 106 wRC+.

So High-A is a big challenge for him, and so far one that looks good on him: in the 2 games he played, he hit 3-8 with a home run and 2 doubles. There’s the power we’ve been looking for! That said, he also struck out 3 times and committed an error in each game. Baby steps!

Also having a high-impact, high-strikeout weekend in his High-A debut was center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 5 CPL). As most people know by now, the 2024 4th-round pick has more power than perhaps anyone in the system, but also a huge swing-and-miss issue. His Northwest League debut showcased both, as he hit 3-13 with a home run and 2 doubles, but also struck out 8 times. When he hits the ball he hits it hard and he hits it far … but he needs to hit the ball move.

He also continues to look the part of someone who could be an impact center fielder, which is a huge development.

Sunday was a fun day for a pair of lower-profile Eugene prospects who are trying to have the breakouts that make following the Minors so fun. First baseman Jack Payton and right fielder Ty Hanchey didn’t play at all in the 1st games of the series, but asked for more playing time on Sunday. Payton in particular shined, hitting 3-4 with a pair of solo home runs. Hanchey had a boom-or-bust showing, striking out in 3 of his 4 at-bats, but bashing a 2-run bomb in his other. Both players joined the system in 2023 (Payton as an 11th-round pick; Hanchey as an undrafted free agent) as catchers, and are now utility player depth pieces.

Speaking of catchers, Eugene is where the Giants assigned Diego Cartaya, the former top-10 prospect who was the star of the Dodgers system, but who has really fallen on hard times in recent years. His strikeout stuff is, unfortunately, still a severe issue, as he went 0-6 with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

The pitching wasn’t very good, but there was a standout performance thanks to Saturday’s starter, RHP Hunter Dryden. The 2024 17th-round pick out of tiny Whitworth University in the Pacific Northwest felt right back at home making his Eugene debut, and tossed 4 shutout innings. The soon-to-be 24-year old only allowed 2 hits (both singles) and 1 walk, and struck out 6 batters. Dryden is coming off a decent-but-not-great debut season with Low-A San Jose, which featured a 2.90 ERA but a 3.82 FIP with so-so strikeout and walk numbers (10 K/9 and 4 BB/9). Hopefully Saturday’s start is a sign of a big year ahead for him.

LHP Tyler Switalski was selected 1 round ahead of Dryden in 2024, and he made his season debut on Friday in long relief. It was utterly sensational, as the tall southpaw took down 3.2 shutout innings with a whopping 8 strikeouts, while allowing just 2 hits and a hit batter. Switalski really struggled with Low-A San Jose last year, but still drew a late-season promotion, and really shined in Eugene. Perhaps there’s something in the air, because it’s carrying over into this year!

Also nice scoreless relief appearances from RHPs Ben Peterson (1.1 innings, 0 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts) and Austin Strickland (2 innings, 1 hit, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts).

Unfortunately, Eugene’s highest-profile pitcher, LHP Luis De La Torre (No. 14 CPL) did not see his 2026 get off to a great start. One of the breakout stars of 2025, De La Torre had a 2.78 ERA and a 2.93 FIP across 18 games in the Complex League and Low-A, with 13.2 strikeouts per 9 innings. But he has some work to do to find that success in High-A ball, as he allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs in 2.1 innings on Sunday, with just 1 strikeout. Not exactly a concerning outing, but not a good one.

And finally, RHPs Gerelmi Maldonado (No. 21 CPL) and Liam Simon both continued their struggles with walks. Maldonado, who is perhaps the hardest-throwing pitcher in the organization but who walked 6.7 batters per 9 innings in Low-A last year, faced 4 batters and walked 2 of them, while striking out the other 2. Simon, who, like Maldonado, was recovering from Tommy John last year, walked 12.4 batters per 9 innings (yikes!). He gave up 1 hit, 3 walks, and 3 unearned runs in an inning of work, but, like Maldonado, got all his outs by way of strikes.

Low-A San Jose (2-1)

Friday: San Jose Giants lost to the Stockton Ports 6-2 [box score]
Saturday: San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports 15-4 [box score]

Just 2 games for the Baby Giants, as their opening 3-game series went Thursday-Saturday instead of Friday-Sunday.

As I mentioned in the Eugene section, Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL) is currently getting to be an everyday shortstop in High-A, because the other top shortstops are playing at other levels. But that could change before too terribly long if shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL) keeps this up.

Level, who turned 19 last week, had a breakout in the Complex League last year, and then held his own in Low-A, where he’s back to start 2026. And if he keeps playing like this, he won’t stay long. The switch-hitter had a slow Friday, hitting 0-3 with 2 strikeouts, but drawing a walk and stealing a base. But on Saturday? He went 4-5, finished a triple shy of the cycle, and drew a walk for good measure.

To my eye, he looks even more athletic than last year, which is saying something. And while 3 games aren’t enough to make any grand proclamations, it sure feels like he’s headed for another great season.

He’ll likely hand off a fair number of days at short to Lorenzo Meola (No. 23 CPL) who played second base on Friday, and took over shortstop on Saturday when Level DH’d. Meola, the team’s 4th-round pick last year who recently turned 22, has a stellar glove and some intrigue with his bat as well. It was a good weekend for him, as he hit 3-8 with 2 doubles, 2 walks, and a strikeout.

The other best hitting performances went to players who had sensational professional debuts on Thursday, as covered in Friday’s roundup: first baseman Hayden Jatczak and catcher Junior Barajas. Jatczak was an on-base machine, hitting just 1-4 with a double, but drawing a whopping 6 walks and stealing a base. The cold water here is that Jatczak is an undrafted free agent who will turn 25 this season, but still. A phenomenal professional debut! As for Barajas, the organization’s 11th-round pick in July’s draft, he sat on Friday but hit 3-6 on Saturday, with 2 doubles, 4 runs batted in, and 1 strikeout. He is sure giving the team a reason to be excited!

Left fielder/center fielder Damian Bravo, who was a 15th-round pick out of Texas Tech last year, only hit 2-10 with 4 strikeouts, but he did smash a home run. That was his 1st career home run, as he was held dingerless in 24 games with High-A last season.

Friday’s game began with a debut on the mound, as LHP Jordan Gottesman made his pro debut, and looked mighty fine doing it. Gottesman, who was the team’s 6th-round pick last year, gave up just 1 hit (a single) in 3 innings, though he also allowed 2 walks and an unearned run. He only threw 37 of 62 pitches for strikes, and subsequently struck out just 2 batters, but still: a debut as a starting pitcher that results in a 0.00 ERA is a delightful thing!

One of the top prospects in the organization (and another 2025 breakout star) also had a start, as RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL) took the mound on Saturday. Cayama dominated the Complex League last year but struggled in his brief time with San Jose … understandable, given that he was just 18 at the time. He’s 19 now, though unfortunately the struggles carried over into his 1st start of 2026, as he gave up 8 hits in 3.2 innings, which tattooed him for 4 runs. But on the bright side, he didn’t walk any batters, and he struck out 4. Very excited to see what he does this year … I’m expecting big things.

There were a few dynamic bullpen performances, one of which came in a debut. LHP Braydon Risley, who was taken in the 19th-round last year and only just turned 21 last week, was perfect on Saturday. He retired all 7 batters he faced, including 3 by way of the strikeout. The Junior College southpaw also threw 20 of 32 pitches for strikes.

He was followed up by RHP Melvin Pineda, who is back in San Jose after a brief introduction to the league last year. Pineda, a Venezuelan who turns 22 next month, struck out 5 batters in 2 shutout innings, while giving up 2 hits.

RHP Mauricio Estrella is also a soon-to-turn 22-year-old who got a taste of Low-A last year, and shined in his season debut. On Friday he needed just 20 pitches to retire all 5 batters he faced, with 3 strikeouts.

And that’s your first mega roundup of the season, friends!

Home run tracker

2 — Gavin Kilen — [High-A]
2 — Jack Payton — [High-A
1 — Victor Bericoto — [AAA]
1 — Will Brennan — [AAA]
1 — Drew Cavanaugh — [AA]
1 — Charlie Szykowny — [AA]
1 — Dakota Jordan — [High-A]
1 — Walker Martin — [High-A]
1 — Zander Darby — [High-A]
1 — Ty Hanchey — [High-A]
1 — Jhonny Level — [Low-A]
1 — Damian Bravo — [Low-A]

Upcoming schedule

As is customary, all of the Giants Minor League affiliates are off today, and all kick off 6-game series on Tuesday. Sacramento will be hosting the Las Vegas Aviators at 6:45 p.m. PT; Richmond hosts the Altoona Curve at 4:05 p.m. PT; Eugene visits the aptly-named Vancouver Canadians at 7:05 p.m. PT; and San Jose hosts the Visalia Rawhide at 6:00 p.m. PT.

Texas Rangers lineup for April 6, 2026 against the Seattle Mariners: starting pitchers are Jacob deGrom for the Rangers and Logan Gilbert for the M’s.

Texas looks to break a four game losing streak today. Texas also looks to get their first home win of 2026. Seattle is the opponent.

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Langford — LF

Seager — SS

Burger — 1B

Pederson — DH

Carter — CF

Jansen — C

Smith — 2B

Jung — 3B

7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -118 favorites.

Blue Jays starting catcher will undergo surgery on his left thumb tomorrow, per John Schneider. Kirk’s thumb was broken and dislocated by a foul tip over the weekend. We had hope that it would be a relatively simple recovery, but the need for surgery would aeem to suggesr a more complex and severe injury and thus probably a longer timeline for rehabilitation.

In other injury news, Addison Barger has not been put on the IL yet, and the team seems hopeful that he can avoid the need. Reports from the clubhouse are that the ankle he jammed yesterday is swollen and causing him to limp, though, which doesn’t portend well. At least we haven’t heard anything about a break or significant sprain, so hopefully if and IL stint is required it’ll be for the minimum. Newly acquired infielder Tyler Fitzgerald is with thr major league club as a taxi squad player, presumably to taoe Bargers roster spot if necessary, but no move has been made.

On the pitching side, Austin Voth has been DFA’d and Josh Fleming called up.. Voth provided 2.2 innings of adequate relief work in yesterday’s game, but they need a fresh arm for tonight and so he becomes a casualty of roster churn. Fleming is an experienced long reliever who’s played in parts of five MLB seasons, mostly with the Rays. He’s an excellent ground ball pitcher but doesn’t record many strikeouts and is too prone to the long ball. Still, he should be able to provide an appearance or two of tolerable relief before some of theor actual pitchers are ready.

Astros fans have gone from doom and gloom after two games to euphoria following the next five, and back to doom and gloom after a strange series in West Sacramento that saw the ace of their staff land on the IL. Still, they are 6-4 through 10 games—good enough for first place in the AL West, powered by a hot lineup despite some shaky pitching.

Let’s play a game of Stock Up, Stock Down based on what we’ve seen so far.

Stock up

Yordan Alvarez

Alvarez has been the best hitter in baseball so far this season. After hitting a homer Sunday in West Sacramento, Yordan Alvarez is slashing .400/.578/.900. He leads the league in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and he’s tied with Jose Altuve for the league lead in walks. His 1.478 OPS is not only the best 10-game start of his career, it’s also the best 10-game start in Astros history. Just as important as the numbers is that he’s been able to play in all 10 games.

Because he missed so much time last season and performed well below his standard when healthy, it’s easy to forget just how much Alvarez, when firing on all cylinders, can carry an entire lineup. He’s not going to finish the season with a 316 OPS+, but this version of him is the kind of ceiling-raiser the Astros need after losing Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman following the 2024 season.

Jose Altuve’s swing decisions

Last season, Jose Altuve swung at 38.3% of the pitches he saw outside the strike zone, his highest chase rate since his rookie season in 2011. That number is down to 19.3% through the first 10 games this season. He hasn’t finished a season with a chase rate below 30% since 2012.

Altuve’s patience has also shown up on pitches inside the strike zone, where his swing rate has dropped to 50.7% from a career average of 65.7%. It’s unusual to see a great player make such a drastic change, but the results speak for themselves: Altuve is slashing .354/.523/.594, and his 12 walks are nearly double his seven strikeouts.

Christian Walker

Walker’s disappointing first season with the Houston Astros stemmed largely from an awful first 50 games, during which he posted an OPS below .600. From that point on, he slashed .258/.313/.465. His final 104 games were more in line with his production in Arizona, but still fell short of expectations given the price tag. Walker’s production has been through the roof so far this season.

Walker has a 1.053 OPS through 10 games this season, his best start over that span since becoming an everyday player seven years ago. He’s also striking out less and walking more, already compiling 0.5 bWAR after posting just 0.2 for the entire 2025 season.

Stock Down

Bryan Abreu

Abreu has appeared in four games and hasn’t looked good in any of them. He’s been scored on in each outing, marking the first time he’s allowed an earned run in four straight appearances, and three of the 16 batters he’s faced have taken him deep. He’s thrown 72 pitches and recorded just eight outs.

He’s still among the league leaders in swinging strikes and strikeouts, but his fastball velocity is down to 95 mph from 97.3 mph last season. Opponents are averaging 103 mph in exit velocity against him, and his chase rate has nearly been cut in half to 17%, per Baseball Savant, among the worst in baseball.

While Josh Hader’s return, possibly before the end of the month, will take some of the ninth-inning pressure off Abreu, the Houston Astros need the 28-year-old, who is scheduled to hit free agency after the season, to return to his dominant form. They don’t have anyone else with his ability to miss bats.

Yainer Diaz

Looking back, the Houston Astros should have kept Victor Caratini and traded Yainer Diaz while his value was higher. At this rate, Diaz could be a non-tender candidate this winter.

Diaz finished 2023 with an .846 OPS, but that number dropped to .766 and .701 over the past two seasons. Through his first eight games of 2026, he has a .570 OPS.

Diaz has improved his chase rate from 44.3% to 38.6%, but that still ranks in the bottom 20% of the league. His other metrics have plummeted, most notably his hard-hit rate (down from 42.2% to 21.4%) and average exit velocity (down from 89.9 mph to 84.4 mph).

Lance McCullers Jr. praised Diaz’s work behind the plate after his strong start against the Red Sox last week, but the metrics suggest Diaz has been one of baseball’s worst catchers over the past two seasons.

Our counterparts at Bluebird Banter have a fun segment in which they reach out to the opposing team’s SB Nation page before an upcoming series. Accordingly, before the upcoming Toronto Blue Jays/Dodgers series, which is the second-fastest rematch in MLB history, Bryant Tefler asked me some more questions he had about the current state of the Dodgers.

Here are the discussions from last year and the other half of this conversation posted on Bluebird Banter.

Question Time

The following is my conversation with Bryant Tefler, with light editing for clarity and brevity:

Last year, with context, I asked how you felt about the Blue Jays’2025 season. Knowing what you know now and how it ended, how do you feel about the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays with the benefit of hindsight? And what would you tell past-you, knowing what you know now?

I’d be pretty impressed with how many things did go right for this team. What really solidified during the second half of the season and into the postseason about this team wasn’t just fluke; rather it was a set of interlocking pieces that reinforced each other in unexpected ways and once it settled into place turned into a very good team that was tremendous fun to watch because of the excitement associated with all the things they did really well.

I would also preview that not only were the Jays going to face the Yankees, Mariners and Dodgers in the post season – three teams that are all arguably higher levels of true talent than the Jays – but they would they take it to extra innings in Game 7 but only missed walking it off three times on flukey situations that broke the Dodgers way instead of the Jays. It was one of the best seasons since 2015 as a fan just to enjoy the different ways they found to win every night.

The Blue Jays mostly brought the band back in 2026, after coming so close last year. What are the expectations for the fanbase from your perspective? Do folks expect another run at this point?

I think the Jays are well-positioned to contend in 2026. We lost Bichette and Bassitt from the core, but replaced them with Okamoto and Cease. And it was a different team in many small ways that ended 2025 from the one that started it. The Jays, quite smartly as it is now apparent, brought on plenty of starting pitching with Cease, Ponce, and bringing back Schzerer at significantly less cost. Neither Yesavage nor Berrios is expected to miss significant time, and Bieber is a bit of a question mark, but he is throwing. If they get one or two back soonish, that’s not only going to upgrade the rotation, but it will also help the bullpen as well.

The biggest questions to contend with are ‘are we going to get 2025 Springer or 2024 Springer?’, ‘how close will Okamoto’s numbers look to his NPB production?’, and, of course, ‘will they stay healthy?’. If the Jays continue to play their brand of baseball, which is low strike-out, lots of traffic on the bases with power, superiour defense, and durable starting pitching, they should have a very high floor to their production. However, we also play in the ALE, so the Yankees, Red Sox, improved Orioles, and even this slightly bizarre collection of the Rays can’t be counted out. If the Jays don’t make the postseason, something serious likely went wrong, but how deep that postseason goes is always a crapshoot. 

The tandem of Bichette and Vlad Guerrero, Jr. was integral to this core. What does Bichette’s departure mean to you and to the fanbase from your perspective? Accordingly, what does the emergence of Vlad Guerrero, Jr. mean to you and to the fanbase from your perspective?

When Bo and Vladdy came up (and the sadly forgotten Cavan Biggio) there was a tendency to look at them as a unit. It was three potentially homegrown franchise cornerstones, the kind of potential dynasties that you don’t often get in the MLB these days. While Biggio struggled, both Vladdy and Bo seemed to build from success to success, even facing the usual ups and downs of all young players.

They were also always depicted as close friends, so there was a strong appetite for both of them to be career Jays. But by 2022, the FO clearly valued Guerrero more, and according to reports, the relationship with Bichette was significantly frostier. Obviously, I don’t have any insider knowledge or know what offers were made, but their inability to extend either before their final year set off alarm bells with the fans, and the bringing in of Giminez really set the rumour mill working overtime.

Unfortunately for Bo, that injury he suffered against the Yankees gave the Jays weeks to essentially testrun an infield without Bichette and it was a significant improvement defensively. So there was always a bit of skepticism whether the Jays would get into a bidding war and whether Bo was willing to move off short. The Mets actually bailed the Jays out because the offer he accepted was wild enough that a lot of fans agreed the Jays shouldn’t match it. The infield will be significantly better defensively in 2026 and if Okamoto just has an offensively positive year, much less a star one, the team is likely better in the aggregate. 

Personally, it’s a shame, and I’ll miss seeing Bichette every game. He was always one of my favourites, and I was hoping he’d make a move to second to make a long-term deal work. On the other hand, Bichette’s offense is a profile that relies heavily on bat speed, and his foot speed has slowed significantly, so I always saw his long-term risk being higher than Vladdy. If I had to predict, I would expect his bat to remain excellent in New York, but taking over the hot corner defensively is going to be a bit of a roller coaster for Mets fans to watch.

As for Vlad, this has been his team basically since he was called up. He’s had some growing pains along the way, but between his effortless charisma and the FO’s push in their marketing to make him the face of the franchise, it has always been him front and centre. The fanbase let out a collective breath when they announced his new contract, and by the time it is done, the expectation is that he’ll own a lot of the Jays’ career leaderboards by a wide margin.

Cody Ponce and his fluke injury is a blow, but I have seen the Blue Jays fans really attach themselves to him during his short tenure. What will the Blue Jays do to eat the innings with the ongoing injuries to Berrios et al?

Jays fans love a feel good story. They love roleplayers and the supposed ‘lunchbox’ players that aren’t stars but have a great story. Guys like Sal Fasano, John McDonald, Munenori Kawasaki , and Kevin Pillar are guys who maybe only did one or two things well on the field that fans loved. Ponce already fits that narrative; a guy who struggled in the Majors and then in the NPB, but unlocked something to make him a record holder in Korea. He’s a big, goofy seeming Star Wars fan who has finally earned his way back to the bigs. Now, since even the most optimistic view is the second half at the earliest and more likely a lost season, there’s a lot of disappointment and feeling for the guy.

Eating those innings is a good question. As mentioned, Berrios and Yesavage are already throwing off a mound and both are expected to be available at some point before the end of April. Bieber is a little more of an x-factor. Now, as of writing this, the Jays have signed Patrick Corbin’s corpse to a one year deal so he’ll likely get a few starts and there’s some AAA depth they can draw on if necessary. I think they’ll try and work between him and a few bullpen games to align with off days to keep as many starts on the front four. 

I reviewed Rogers Centre based on my visit in 2024 and updated it with my visit in 2025. When exactly does the roof generally open, and how different is the ballpark between open and closed?

There is a metric for opening the roof. As I recall, the rule of thumb is something like five straight days without rain and temperatures above fifteen degrees. So it typically doesn’t open before May on a regular basis. Because of our location on the Great Lakes, we tend to have quite wet springs and because it takes time to open and close the roof, getting caught during a storm with it open causes all kinds of problems the stadium doesn’t want to risk if they don’t have to.

As for the atmosphere, I’m not necessarily the best person to talk to because I actually don’t really give a flip about the stadium in general. I go to the ballpark to watch the games first and foremost and the Rogers Centre is quite good for that. They have good unobstructed sightlines for most of the seats, concessions and bathrooms are never more than fiftish meters from your seat, every game starts on time which I can watch comfortably warm enough in just my jersey and I can get to it from my home in West Toronto in a half hour for $3.7 5CDN. [Author’s Note: About $2.70]. I don’t care about promotions, stadium specialty foods or special bars or activities at the ballpark that involve anything other than the game, so my perspective isn’t like the average fan.

So the biggest difference, I’d say, is that the dome does amplify the sound and light shows, so during a sellout games with it closed, Rogers Centre thunders in a way that other stadiums I’ve visited don’t. On the other hand, I remember many games in the 2000s on a weekday with the dome closed and an anemic crowd making the place echo like a mausoleum. When the fans are there, it’s a fun, dynamic atmosphere to watch baseball if that’s your priority, and I’ve heard from many people that the renovation areas creating unticketed bars and patios and watching spaces are very popular if you want more of a party experience. 

Trey Yesavage: one-hit wonder or the real deal?

Rookie pitchers will always break your heart so I will never declare anyone a sure fire star. In fact, the two greatest pitchers in Jays history were a former corner outfielder and a guy busted from the majors all the way back to A ball before they turned into the immortals they were destined to be. 

That said, Yesavage has the tools to succeed.

His four seamer sits middle 90s and touches 97. There’s ten-twelve MPH of separation between that and his splitter which is nightmarish for hitters and his unique arm angle makes him very hard to square up. The biggest challenge I expect him to face is that his splitter carries out of the zone a lot so at some point, hitters are going to start to lay off it more and wait for him to challenge them in the zone with the heater. So it will depend on his ability to adapt to that and to refine his control.

His slider isn’t consistent yet and I think if he can turn that into a plus pitch, he’s got the ceiling of a front of the rotation pitcher. It helps that he’s got Kevin Gausman’s brain to pick and help refine that splitter.

Lastly, fill in the blank. The 2026 Toronto Blue Jays will _________________________ mostly because of ______________________.

The 2026 Toronto Blue Jays will make the postseason mostly because of their starting rotation and a massive year by Guerrero at the plate.

Once again, a very kind thank you to Bryant Telfer for his time. I do not think I will ever be able to top my last visit to Toronto, but I am sure my travels will eventually take me that way again. It’s always fun to go to a game with friends, even if they are from the other side.

The first home series of the year is in the books, and the Yankees have continued to excel in the early going. New York owns the best record in the American League, tied for the best in baseball, and while it’s quite early to be scoreboard watching it is notable to point out that they’ve already built up a bit of a cushion for themselves with everyone else in the AL East sitting below .500 entering Monday. You may not be able to win the division in April, but you sure can put yourself in a hole that leads to you losing it, so the Yankees getting off to the sole strong start among their competitors makes it all feel even better.

There’s still plenty to go over, positively and negatively, with this year’s team. The offense has been good but not great, with the top half performing excellently while the bottom half has struggled to make any kind of impact. The bullpen has had several members struggle out of the gate, causing what could’ve been some easy wins to deliver a lot of stress in the process. How far can the team push their early lead in the standings? Is this Ben Rice’s superstar breakout after BABIP luck has held him down? Will we see a renaissance season from Giancarlo Stanton? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of April 9th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Brewers are headed east to begin the week and wrap up the road trip, as they’ll face their fourth consecutive interleague opponent in the Boston Red Sox.

Boston has had a rough go of it early, as they’re sitting at just 2-7 this season, putting them at the bottom of a deep AL East. Milwaukee has the reverse record at 7-2, sitting atop the NL Central just ahead of the Reds and Pirates.

Brandon Woodruff will get the ball in the series opener Monday night. Woodruff made his season debut last Tuesday against the Rays, picking up the win as he went five innings and allowed two runs (both solo homers) on four hits and no walks. He also struck out six despite being limited to just 67 pitches. Expect to see him get closer to the 75-80 pitch threshold tonight.

Opposing Woodruff is right-hander Brayan Bello, in his fifth MLB season with the Sox. Still only 26, Bello hasn’t had much success in the majors to this point, pitching to a 4.14 ERA over 101 career appearances (98 starts). He made his season debut against the Astros on Tuesday, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits and three walks, striking out two as he fought threw 4 2/3 innings.

Brice Turang leads off tonight for Milwaukee, followed by William Contreras and Christian Yelich at DH. Garrett Mitchell, Jake Bauers, and Luis Rengifo fill in the middle of the order, while Sal Frelick bats seventh as he returns from some side tightness that kept him out of yesterday’s lineup. Former Red Sox David Hamilton and Blake Perkins round out the bottom of the order. One of Hamilton’s trade counterparts, Caleb Durbin, bats seventh for Boston.

In transaction news, Milwaukee placed left-handed reliever Jared Koenig on the IL earlier today with a left elbow sprain. Lefty Shane Drohan (acquired in that same Durbin-Hamilton-Kyle Harrison trade) was recalled to replace him and, upon making an appearance, will make his MLB debut. The Red Sox have also reinstated right-handed reliever Garrett Whitlock from the paternity list, optioning Tyler Uberstine to Triple-A Worcester.

Today’s first pitch is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. CT. You can catch the game on Brewers.TV and the Brewers Radio Network, including WTMJ 620 in Milwaukee.

Welcome back to Monday Stat Party, a weekly series showcasing the most curious and nostalgia-inducing statistical developments from the past week of Mets baseball. What unites each entry is the sense of intrigue which they aim to spark, and the unbridled love of the game’s anomalies from which they arise. Without further ado, let the stat party begin…

MONDAY

Carson Benge became the eighth Met to steal two bases in their first four career games, and the first to do so since Ronny Mauricio in 2023.

TUESDAY

Kodai Senga averaged 97.4 mph on his four-seam fastball, the highest of any start in his major league career. Senga also notched five swinging strikeouts on the four-seamer; since pitch tracking began in 2008, the only Mets right-handers to register more swinging strikeouts on a four-seamer in a single game are Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, and Matt Harvey.

Jared Young recorded a hit with an exit velocity of over 111 mph in a second consecutive game. In 2025, Pete Alonso and Juan Soto were the only Mets to accomplish that feat.

WEDNESDAY

The Mets played extra innings for the third time in their first six games for the second time in franchise history, joining 1991. (credit: MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo)

The Mets scored one run or fewer through nine innings for the third time in their first six games. It’s only the seventh time that’s happened in franchise history, but the third time in the past four years (along with 2023 and 2024).

THURSDAY

Blade Tidwell became the first former Mets major leaguer to get a save against his old team since Paul Sewald on June 2, 2024.

FRIDAY

The Mets scored double-digit runs for the second time in their first eight games. It’s the first time they’ve accomplished that feat since 2007.

Juan Soto became the tenth Met to record a hit in each of the team’s first eight games in a season, and the first since Jeff Francoeur in 2010.

Francisco Alvarez recorded the sixth multi-homer game of his career, and the third where both homers were hit over 400 feet at 105+ mph. The only other Mets with three such multi-homer games in the statcast era (since 2015) are Pete Alonso and Yoenis Cespedes.

Mark Vientos reached base four times for the third time in his career. He had previously done so on April 28, 2025, and June 3, 2024 — both games at Nationals Park.

Through his first ten career games, Nolan McLean has recorded 58.1 innings pitched, 69 strikeouts, and a 2.16 ERA. The only other pitcher with that many IP and strikeouts with that low of an ERA through their first ten outings is Paul Skenes.

SATURDAY

The Mets earned their first shutout win while scoring 9+ runs since September 18, 2024, when they beat the Nationals 10-0 at Citi Field.

Clay Holmes completed seven innings for only the second time in his career, having previously done so on June 1, 2025 against the Rockies at Citi Field.

Tyrone Taylor has only hit ten homers as a Met, but he has now homered at Oracle Park twice, having previously done so on April 24, 2024.

SUNDAY

The Mets have won three games in a row for the first time since August 25-27, 2025, when they swept the Phillies at Citi Field (think parabolic microphones).

The Mets have recorded 12 hits in three straight games for the fourth time this decade.

Luis Robert Jr. has reached base 18 times in his first nine games as a Met. Only 14 Mets have done that to begin their stint with the team, with the first being Willie Mays in 1972 and the most recent being Ángel Pagán in 2008. Other notable names include John Olerud, Rickey Henderson, and Carlos Delgado.

Miscellaneous Mets stat of the week:

Ron Swoboda is the Mets’ all-time leader in home runs against the Giants with 16. Swoboda only hit 69 homers total with the Mets, and 23.2% of those came against San Francisco.

Tacoma Rainiers

Tacoma’s had more time under their belt than the other three affiliates, and with a 4-5 record thus far, it’s been a somewhat middling mix to start the season. There’s enough talent on this roster to be one of the more compelling teams in the PCL, but they’ll have to start picking things up in order to prove that on the field.

Colt Emerson, fresh off his record setting extension, fouled a pitch off his foot and had to exit Saturday’s game, though X-Ray imaging came back negative. He has been labeled as day-to-day and presumably should be back in the lineup sooner than later.

Looking like one of the most prodigious sluggers in all of minor league baseball right now, Patrick Wisdom has already launched seven homers on the young season, pulverizing baseballs deep into the stratosphere. He’s done a lot of the heavy lifting for this lineup so far and could be a compelling option as a right handed platoon option for the big league club should a spot happen to open up.

Arkansas Travelers

It’s been a tough start to the season for perhaps the most loaded affiliate in the entire organization, as a winless opening weekend has the Travs sitting in the cellar of the Texas League through the first three games. Despite their zero in the win column, there were plenty of performances that would indicate the future of this squad is much brighter than where they’re at right now. Talent wins out, and there’s plenty of it all throughout this roster.

Kade Anderson made his official minor league debut on opening night, and the left hander was as-advertised, dicing up opposing hitters and working an efficient four innings in Friday’s contest against the RockHounds. Striking out six and walking just one on 59 pitches, the third overall pick in last year’s draft didn’t surrender a run and looked like the premiere prospect he’s been touted as all offseason. His deceptive delivery and complete arsenal are brutal on opposing hitters and should give him a great shot at dominating Double-A competition from the jump.

Everett AquaSox

The Frogs kicked off their season with an opening series in Spokane, dropping two of three to the Indians in some back-and-forth battles that featured crazy momentum shifts. With a potent lineup and unproven pitching staff, expect a lot of high scoring games this season at Funko Field.

Luke Stevenson is picking up right where he left off. After an excellent stint in the California League last summer, Stevenson is 4-9 thus far and looks to have maintained his balanced approach at the plate. The power, his calling card in college, has been more subdued in the professional ranks, but in his current form, Stevenson looks more and more like an absolute steal as a Comp A round selection. There’s a non-zero chance he’s the best player on this team.

Jonny Farmelo, the top ranked prospect on this roster, has already homered on the young season, launching a towering shot out to the opposite field. The whiff isn’t in a great spot right now and is going to be something that needs to be monitored this season, but hopefully the small sample size normalizes sooner than later.

Inland Empire 66ers

It’s been an unceremonious start for the 66ers under Mariner affiliation as they’ve yet to collect a win just yet, but thus far, a few blowup performances on the mound have really sunk the team’s chances at winning. It’s far too early to make any long-term conclusions about how this team will shake out, and there’s a lot of fun “sleeper” prospects that could easily shoot up the latter half of the organizational rankings by mid-summer.

Korbyn Dickerson, patrolling centerfield for the 66ers, has been great through opening weekend and remains one of the bigger X-factors in this system. His talent could easily vault him into the upper-tiers of Mariner prospects, and though there are some concerns regarding the hit tool, he’s made strides improving his adjustability at the plate has shown an ability to succeed despite it. He’s a big name to circle for this season.

Ricardo Cova has been in the system for a while, but he’s consistently flown under the radar due to absolutely loaded infields in past seasons. Collecting seven hits across his first thirteen AB’s, the undersized second baseman has been on a tear at the plate and will look to continue this success in what will be his sixth season in the organization despite being just 21 years of age. He should be a key part of this team’s offensive attack this season.

The Milwaukee Brewers have placed left-handed pitcher Jared Koenig on the 15-day injured list with a left elbow sprain, recalling fellow lefty Shane Drohan from Triple-A Nashville to replace him on the 26-man roster.

Koenig, 32, is in his third season in Milwaukee as he’s developed into a valuable back-of-the-bullpen piece during his Brewer tenure. Over his three seasons, he has a 2.62 ERA and a 3.30 FIP with 135 strikeouts over 130 1/3 innings. He’s made three appearances so far this season, pitching 2 1/3 innings with two unearned runs allowed and four strikeouts.

Koenig’s injury is just the latest in a line of early-season injuries, including outfielder Jackson Chourio, first baseman Andrew Vaughn, and pitchers Quinn Priester, Craig Yoho, and Rob Zastryzny.