Category: Baseball

Only three of the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates were in action on Tuesday, as poor AAA Sacramento just can’t get in a game. The River Cats had both of their weekend games cancelled due to rain, which followed them as they traveled north from Sacramento to Tacoma, postponing their game on Tuesday. They’ll try again tonight, in what will hopefully be their first game since Friday, and the teams are scheduled for a doubleheader on Thursday. Now let’s get to the action.

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

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

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News

Help is on the way for San Francisco. Major League LHP Sam Hentges, who started his rehab assignment over the weekend with a perfect inning for Low-A San Jose, was moved up to AAA Sacramento. He’ll likely pitch a few times for the River Cats, and then be activated and added to the Major League roster.

Sacramento had to make space for Hentges on the roster, and they did so by sending RHP Will Bednar (No. 24 CPL) back to AA Richmond. That’s a bit of a bummer for Bednar, who was a non-roster invitee, and already dealt with the disappointment of beginning the year on the Development List, presumably also for roster logistics purposes. Bednar pitched well in a pair of games for the River Cats, with 4 strikeouts and just 2 baserunners in 3 scoreless innings. He’ll surely be back in Sacramento when roster space allows it.

According to Baseball America’s Jesús Cano, LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 11 CPL), whose season was delayed by a spring injury, threw 3 innings in a simulation game at Papago yesterday, and reached 97 mph. The reigning Cal League Pitcher of the Year should be in High-A soon.

And finally, the Giants announced on Wednesday that AAA Sacramento outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert had been called up, as Major Leaguers Jared Oliva and Harrison Bader are headed to the IL. That means there will be some transactions in a flurry to get enough outfielders to the River Cats.

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AA Richmond (9-1)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) 11-7
Box score

If the Squirrels weren’t on fire before, they certainly are now. After losing their opener, Richmond has now won 9 consecutive games, as they’re off to a truly brilliant start to the season. Then again, all of the affiliates are off to a brilliant start … if only the team in San Francisco could get the memo!

Richmond won this game on the back of hits, hits, and then some more hits, as they totaled 17 in the contest en route to their 11 runs.

It started at the top of the lineup, where a pair of hitters set the table with 3-hit days. Leading off was left fielder Scott Bandura, who had a brilliant day, hitting 3-4 with a pair of doubles, while also adding both a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly. That flurry of productive contact rewarded Bandura with a whopping 5 runs batted in for the day.

BASES-CLEARING BANDZ 🙌 pic.twitter.com/07AGPdh1xm

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 15, 2026

Bandura is really putting on a clinic on how to master a level the 2nd time around. The left-handed hitter, who was taken in the 7th round of the 2023 draft, was promoted to Richmond late last year, and had some struggles as he got his feet under him. Bandura posted a .626 OPS and an 88 wRC+ in 45 games with the Squirrels last year, but even those numbers look a little worse with some digging, as they were propped up by a lot of walks. The now-24-year old hit just .199, and struck out 30.6% of the time.

But the old adage of “one to measure, two to rake” doesn’t just apply to individual at-bats. Bandura appears to have applied that to his time in the Eastern League, as he’s raised his average to .333, while slashing his strikeout rate in half, all the way down to 14.9%. That, combined with his 6 extra-base hits, has given him a .913 OPS and a 140 wRC+ through 10 games this year.

We’re still a few months of good performance away from talking about Bandura in AAA, but it’s not exactly the rosiest of outfield situations in Sacramento. Hopefully Bandura keeps putting pressure on, and can earn a 2nd consecutive midseason promotion.

Hitting behind Bandura was second baseman Dayson Croes, who went 3-6 and also bopped a pair of doubles, while knocking in 3 runs. It’s been a sensational start to the year for Croes, a 26-year old who was signed out of indy ball a year ago. But that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, as the lefty was awesome in his stint with Richmond a season ago … and also awesome in his stint with Sacramento.

Dayson Croeses into second with an RBI double to pad the lead! pic.twitter.com/EGBz5ANlN0

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 15, 2026

But the Giants are having Croes repeat AA, despite those strong results, primarily because fellow second baseman Nate Furman (No. 39 CPL) has earned the AAA priority. Croes is taking it in stride, by taking all of his good numbers in AA last year and making them even better: his average has jumped from .307 to .349, his on-base percentage from .354 to .391, his slugging percentage from .400 to .488, and his walk rate from 6.0% to 6.5%, while his strikeouts have dropped from 18.1% to 15.2%. All of that has resulted in an .880 OPS and a 134 wRC+. Unfortunately, it does feel like Croes will be unfairly stuck in AA for a while, unless the Giants decide they want him (or Furman) to try a new position, which seems unlikely given that they both struggle to handle second as is.

Can't stop Croes 👏

8-1 Richmond! pic.twitter.com/YZMPMVKY7P

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 15, 2026

If the top of the lineup was the star that drove the team to victory, the bottom of the lineup was one hell of a wingman. The trio that hit in the 7-9 slots — catcher Drew Cavanaugh (No. 19 CPL), third baseman Diego Velasquez (No. 31 CPL), and right fielder Turner Hill — positively shined. Cavanaugh offered up the latest data point that his 2025 breakout season was not a fluke, as he hit 2-3 with a double, a walk, and a hit by pitch, while also striking out and getting caught stealing.

The 7 extra-base hits in 7 games is the headline-grabber for Cavanaugh, but I’d argue that the most important thing he’s shown is improved contact. He only got into 14 games for Richmond last year, but hit just .186 with a 26.8% strikeout rate and a 14.8% swinging strike rate. This year? A .435 average, a 9.1% strikeout rate, and a 7.6% swinging strike rate. Those numbers will come down (or up, as the case may be), but when you start that great, you have room to fall while staying in a strong place. The result, for now, is a blistering 1.432 OPS and a 262 wRC+. So watch out, those who fear the talking heads: the Patrick Bailey discourse has already become insufferable thanks to Daniel Susac and Jesús Rodríguez, don’t let Cavanaugh join the party!

As for the other pair, Velasquez hit 2-4 with a hit by pitch to raise his OPS to .798 and his wRC+ to 128, while Hill went 2-4 with a walk, bumping his OPS to 1.007 and his wRC+ to 164. I expect both of those players — who initially made it to Richmond in 2024 — to get their first real glimpse of AAA at some point this year (I say “real” because Hill has been an emergency fill-in for the River Cats on numerous occasions over the years). It’s certainly notable that Velasquez, who is still somehow only 22 years old, played third base in this game for the 1st time in his career. Some of that may be due to roster logistics in Richmond, but it also may be a way to prepare him for AAA since, as mentioned, Furman is blocking second base.

While it was the top and bottom of the order that carried the team, the prettiest swing of the day belonged to the heart of the order, as center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) left the building with a gorgeous swing of the bat in the 7th inning.

Stop us if you've heard this before:

Bo Davidson homered 💣 pic.twitter.com/pmQBydizRR

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 15, 2026

That salvaged an otherwise poor day for Davidson — he finished 1-5 with 3 strikeouts — but my goodness, that really might be the prettiest swing in the organization. The 23-year old is showing there’s still plenty for him to work on in AA — neither his .240 average nor his 28.6% strikeout rate are telling the organization that he’s almost ready for AAA — but he’s also emphasizing his game-changing abilities. So far he has 3 home runs in just 7 games, all while holding it down in center field. Perhaps it’s that new dad strength I’ve heard so much about!

The pitching was better than the score would suggest, as 5 of Hartford’s 7 runs came in the 9th inning, when RHP Cameron Pferrer got roughed up and couldn’t make it through the inning, forcing long reliever RHP Shane Rademacher into emergency duty to record the final out.

But the piggybacking starters pitched quite well, with RHP Logan Martin and LHP Jack Choate (No. 37 CPL) handling the Yard Goats quite adeptly. Martin, who was making his 2nd start with the organization after coming over this winter in the Mason Black trade, had a bounce-back game after a rough AA debut. The 2023 12th-round pick, who will turn 25 later this season, gave up just 3 hits and 1 walk in 4.1 innings, with 4 strikeouts and only 1 run allowed.

The strikeouts and walks will be worth watching for Martin, as they may determine whether he’s able to continue developing as a starter or will have to move to a relief role at some point. He only had 7.7 strikeouts against 3.6 walks per 9 innings in High-A in 2025, and the Giants will need to see improvement on that front.

Speaking of fluctuating between starting and relieving, it’s still not entirely clear what role Choate has, but he played it damn well on Tuesday, giving up just 2 singles and a walk in 3.1 innings, while striking out 6 batters (he also gave up an unearned run). Choate, a soon-to-turn 25-year old whom the Giants selected in the 9th round in 2022, has been playing something of a hybrid relief/piggybacking starter role, with 7.2 innings through 3 appearances this year. So far his strikeout stuff — which has always been surprisingly high given his lack of velocity — has taken a leap forward, from 10.8 per 9 a year ago, to 15.3 this season. That’s still a very small sample size though, so we’ll see how that holds. Either way, it’s been a great start to the year for Choate, who is trying to prove he belongs in AAA as he nears the 150-inning mark in AA.

High-A Eugene (8-2)

Eugene Emeralds beat the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) 7-1
Box score

A really phenomenal pitching showing for the Emeralds, who allowed just 4 hits on the day. They did issue 6 walks, but 4 of those came from RHP Trey Dillard who, like Pferrer with Richmond, entered the game late, struggled, and had to be relieved for the final out of the game.

But the 3 pitchers who came before him pitched wonderfully. It started with LHP Charlie McDaniel, who took down 3 scoreless frames with just 1 hit, 1 walk, and 1 hit batter, while striking out 4. McDaniel wasn’t the most efficient — he needed 52 pitches for those 3 innings, with just 32 strikes — but 4 strikeouts and 0 extra-base hits paint the picture of someone who made hitters uncomfortable all day long. Through 2 starts, the 24-year old UDFA has yet to allow a run.

Next up was LHP Esmerlin Vinicio, who is having a much-needed awesome season. Vinicio threw 19 of 30 pitches for strikes while tossing 2 shutout innings with just 1 hit allowed, and striking out 2 batters.

It feels like Vinicio has been in the system forever, though he only just turned 23 years old. He’s still lacking physicality, though this year he no longer looks like he could blow away with a strong gust of Pacific Northwest wind. Most importantly, after a few seasons of really struggling with walks, Vinicio has shown much better command through an admittedly tiny sample size: he’s issued just 1 walk in 4.2 innings, with 6 strikeouts (he’s also only given up 1 hit, and 0 runs). Vinicio, who was signed in 2019 out of the Dominican Republic, might need a strong year to stay in the organization.

And then it was RHP Ryan Slater, San Francisco’s 18th-round pick in 2024. He was utterly dynamic in 2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk while striking out 5 batters. Slater had a solid debut season last year with Low-A San Jose, but so far he’s been much better in High-A … though he’s only pitched 5 innings. Still, a great start to the year for the 23-year old, who has a 1.80 ERA and a 2.89 FIP.

Despite the 7 runs, it was a fairly mild-mannered day for Eugene’s offense, as they had 7 hits, just 2 extra-base hits, and 2 walks. But they made the most of their swings, no one more so than catcher Onil Perez, who hit 1-3 with a strikeout, but bashed his 1st home run of the season.

Nothing like some runsmaxxing on Brainrot Night!

Ems lead 4-0 on a Walker Martin 2-RBI 1B and an Onil Perez 2-Run HR#RootedHerepic.twitter.com/TsLVBLxsLR

— Eugene Emeralds (@EugeneEmeralds) April 15, 2026

Perez was once one of the better catcher prospects in the system, but has fallen on some tough times as of late, which has resulted in a 4th consecutive year getting reps in the Northwest League. He did finally put up some good numbers with Eugene last year, but really struggled in AA. That, combined with the emergence of Drew Cavanaugh, pushed Perez back down a level, and now he’s 2nd on the depth chart behind Diego Cartaya.

He entered this game just 1-12 on the year, but every hit helps, and that’s doubly (or perhaps quadruply) true for big flies. The season is long, so there’s plenty of time for Perez — who is only 23 — to find his swing again.

Second baseman Zander Darby had the only multi-hit game for the Ems, as he went 2-4 with a stolen base and a strikeout. It’s been a dreamy start to the year for the 23-year old lefty, who was a 12th-round pick in 2024, as he has a 1.029 OPS and a 178 wRC+ through 8 games (ignore the 29.4% strikeout rate and 0.0% walk rate). Darby had an excellent 2 months with Low-A San Jose last year, but struggled mightily in his month to end the year with Eugene. Nice to see him adapt to the level and start to take care of it.

Quiet — but not bad — games for the team’s pair of top prospects. Center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 5 CPL) hit 1-3 with a walk, while shortstop Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL) went 1-4 with a double and a strikeout. Jordan, who has an .804 OPS and a 112 wRC+, has just 1 strikeout in his last 4 games, after amassing 13 Ks in his 1st 5 games of the year. Kilen, who has a 1.067 OPS and a 176 wRC+, has 7 extra-base hits in just 9 games, as July’s 1st-round pick is off to a brilliant start to his 1st full season.

Low-A San Jose (7-3)

San Jose Giants lost to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Angels) 12-6
Box score

The San Jose Giants did something we all desperately wish the San Francisco Giants would do: they hit a lot of home runs. Unfortunately, the end result for the Baby Giants was something the Adult Giants are all too familiar with: a loss.

But it wasn’t due to the long ball, as San Jose bopped a trio of big flies.

The 1st one came on the very 1st pitch of the day, from the very best prospect on the team, shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL).

First pitch of the game, 1-0 lead.

Jhonny Level stays lava hot. pic.twitter.com/ISblUYXbhq

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 14, 2026

Level returned to the lineup after missing a few games, and wasted no time making his impact with a gorgeous swing of the bat. It was his only hit of the day, as the 19-year old switch-hitter ended the game 1-4 with a walk, a strikeout, and his 1st error of the season.

There have been a lot of star performers in the Minors for the Giants this year, but I’d argue no one has had a better year than Level, who is building on last year’s breakout campaign by hitting 15-31 through 7 games, with 3 home runs, 5 doubles, 4 walks, just 7 strikeouts, and 3 stolen bases, all while playing solid defense at shortstop. Level has started to pop up at the very end of some top 100 lists and, if he keeps performing even remotely like this, I think he’ll likely be residing in the top 50 in every midseason prospect list. Really couldn’t ask for a better beginning to the year for someone who, it’s worth repeating, is more than 2 years younger than the average player in the Cal League.

If Level is the MVP of the farm system at this point, then catcher Junior Barajas is first or second-team All-Farm. Last year’s 11th-round pick continues to rake in his debut season, as he hit 1-4 with a home run and a walk.

Rod Barajas Jr. gets in on the action today with his third home run of the year. He is now tied with Jhonny Level (and a couple more prospects) atop the Cal League long ball standings. pic.twitter.com/jwIJBP3CTF

— Giant Prospective (@giantprospectiv) April 14, 2026

The 21-year old lefty isn’t playing every day due to his position, but he’s making the most of his playing time, going 10-31 with 3 homers, 4 doubles, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts, for a 1.124 OPS and a 166 wRC+. Like Level, Barajas is doing that with solid defense at a premier position, as he’s wasted no time looking like the Giants latest late-round steal. We need more than 7 games before we can give him that crown, but still … the Giants have to be thrilled with what they’re seeing.

And rounding out the home run party was designated hitter Broedy Poppell, who hit 1-3 with a walk and his 1st career home run. That’s always worth celebrating!

Like Barajas, Poppell was a late pick by the Giants last year, as he went in the 13th round for a meager $50K signing bonus. The switch-hitter, who turns 24 soon, has been awesome in his debut season, hitting 6-20 with 5 walks against just 4 strikeouts. Normally an outfielder, Poppell is a little bit more a control the zone guy than a home run hitter, despite what he did Tuesday. That was his 1st extra-base hit, but he has more walks than strikeouts, which was also the case in his 2 seasons as a starter at Florida A&M.

Also a nice day for second baseman Dario Reynoso, who hit 2-4 with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. The right-handed hitter, who just turned 21, has had something of a mixed bag of a season in 2025. Last year he dominated the Complex League (.999 OPS, 158 wRC+), but was awful in his short stint with San Jose (.472 OPS, 45 wRC+). Things are much rosier in his 2nd pass through the level, as he has a .785 OPS and a 125 wRC+. But the issue with his 2025 was that he struck out a lot … even while decimating ACL pitchers, Reynoso had a red flag strikeout rate of 31.7%, which rose to 38.6% in San Jose. It’s still a troubling number this year, at 31.3%. And finally, there’s the power issue: Reynoso sported a .258 ISO in the ACL last year, thanks to 10 home runs and 27 total extra-base hits in just 53 games. He has just 1 extra-base hit this season, and through 22 total games in Low-A only has 4 … all of which have been doubles.

I’m stalling on the hitters because the pitchers weren’t good and I don’t want to talk about them. RHP Keyner Martinez (No. 10 CPL) got the start, and it was a great game until it wasn’t.

Martinez was on absolute cruise control for a while, as he was perfect through the 1st 3 innings. But he ran into so much trouble in the 4th inning that he didn’t make it out of the frame, as he gave up 2 hits (both singles), 2 walks, and a hit batter, while only recording 2 outs. That, combined with RHP Mauricio Estrella allowing 2 of the inherited runners to score, tattooed 4 earned runs on Martinez’s ledger in just 3.2 innings, despite looking great for most of the game, and recording 5 strikeouts.

The 21-year old Martinez has yet to replicate last year’s breakout campaign, as he has a 9.45 ERA and a 6.57 FIP through 2 starts. But that’s a tiny sample size, and he has 9 strikeouts in 6.2 innings. There can be no denying that he has some of the best stuff in the system, he just needs to harness it.

RHP Melvin Pineda also showed off the strikeout stuff despite some struggles. The 2021 international signee from Venezuela, who turns 22 next month, gave up a hit, a walk, a hit batter, and a run in just 1.2 innings, but struck out 4 batters. He has 10 strikeouts through 5.2 innings this year.

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Home run tracker

3 — Bo Davidson — [AA]
3 — Jhonny Level — [Low-A]
3 — Junior Barajas — [Low-A]
1 — Onil Perez — [High-A]
1 — Broedy Poppell — [Low-A]

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Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: 6:05 p.m. PT at Tacoma (SP: Carson Whisenhunt)
Richmond: 4:10 p.m. PT at Hartford (SP: Greg Farone)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Everett (SP: Tyler Switalski)
San Jose: 6:30 p.m. PT at Rancho Cucamonga (SP: Cody Delvecchio)

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

Crowds flocked to see the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders during their first home series of the season last week at PNC Field in northeastern Pennsylvania. Total attendance for five dates was 17,043, the team’s largest Opening Week attendance since 2019.

Fans saw the RailRiders split the six-game series with the Durham Bulls.

In the opener, the RailRiders overcame a six-run deficit in theie final three at-bats for a 7-6 win. A wild pitch and RBI double by big-league veteran Paul DeJong in the bottom of the sixth brought the RailRiders within 6-2. Another wild pitch and a Yanquiel Fernández sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh narrowed the margin to 6-4. Then in the bottom of the eighth, two balks brought in the tying runs. Familiar Yankees face Oswaldo Cabrera followed with a sacrifice fly to give the RailRiders the victory.

Manager Shelley Duncan said it was the type of win that can define the character of a team.

“The energy these guys had … a lot of teams would sometimes implode, give up,” Duncan said. “But these guys stayed locked in every pitch. They went out there and continued to have good at-bats, just chipping away. Not trying to do too much, not trying to force that big inning, not trying to force the comeback in one inning.”

Ali Sánchez kept that special feeling going in the series’ second game. After the Bulls scored a run in the top of the ninth to tie the game, the catcher homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the RailRiders a 5-4 triumph.

Alí says: Adios. Walk-off edition. 👋💣#RepBXpic.twitter.com/QwEJU839n9

— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) April 10, 2026

“They kept grinding and it ended up paying off,” said Duncan of his team’s spirit. “They had trust in themselves that things would happen. It’s something special.”

Durham won the next two games, 10-2, and, 4-2, in the first game of a doubleheader. The RailRiders used a six-run fourth inning to take the second game of the twinbill, 9-5. The Bulls claimed the series finale, 4-3, to salvage a split.

Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones led the way for the RailRiders against Durham.

Domínguez batted .316 (6-for-19) in the series with seven walks and five stolen bases in six games. “The Martian” has been batting in the leadoff spot this season and is tied for seventh in the International League in batting at .354 (17-for-48) with two home runs, eight RBIs and seven stolen bases.

Jones, meanwhile, hit .278 in the series (5-for-18) with one home run, eight RBIs and two stolen bases in six games. He walked five times and struck out five times. That last number is interesting since in his first eight games and 33 at-bats, he whiffed 19 times. His eight RBIs gave him 17 for the season, which is tied for the International League lead.

Into the bullpen! 👀

Yankees #6 prospect Spencer Jones launches his first home run at home ― third this season!#RepBXpic.twitter.com/Rij17Ujy80

— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) April 12, 2026

Reliever Danny Watson picked up two of the three wins in the series and fellow reliever Yovanny Cruz had the other. Cruz is 3-0 with one save. His three wins are tied for the league lead.

The split in the Durham series left the RailRiders with a 9-6 record, two games behind the Memphis Redbirds in the International League standings. They now head north up Interstate 81 for a six-game series with the Syracuse Mets that was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Syracuse (7-8) is coming off a series in which it lost four of six to the Buffalo Bisons. Nick Morabito leads the Mets at .295 (13 for 44) with two home runs and five RBIs. Cristian Pache has a team-best 10 RBIs while batting .233 (10 for 43) with one home run. Right-hander Jonah Tong, the Mets’ No. 2 prospect, was scheduled to start the opening game of the series. (Neither he nor the RailRiders’ Brendan Beck fared well.)

Also on the Syracuse roster is veteran Jose Rojas, who played for the RailRiders last season and was selected to the International League All-Star team. He led the league with 32 home runs and 105 RBIs and tied for the lead with 35 doubles while batting .287. He tied the franchise record for home runs in a season set in 2011 by Jorge Vasquez and was the second player in franchise history with 100 or more RBIs in a season, falling one short of the mark of 106 set by Torey Lovullo in 1999.

We’re still in small sample size territory as the calendar turns to tax day, but the Cubs are just a titch under 10 percent of the way through their season. The results have been disappointing to say the least, even though it’s early. While there are signs of optimism, the scoreboard doesn’t lie and neither do the standings, which you can see here:

The word that comes to mind immediately is “yikes.”

Admittedly, there are some close losses in those nine early contests and some of the Cubs bullpen arms haven’t gotten off to a great start. Additionally, there are a number of key hitters for the Cubs who should be performing better off to slow starts, I mean, just look at this table sorted by wRC+ for Cubs hitters with at least five plate appearances (not including Tuesday’s game):

Name	Team	G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	ISO	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	xwOBA	wRC+
Moisés Ballesteros	CHC	14	40	2	6	7	0	7.50%	22.50%	.194	.385	.333	.375	.528	.396	.351	152
Miguel Amaya	CHC	11	31	1	5	4	0	16.13%	29.03%	.160	.400	.280	.419	.440	.395	.325	151
Nico Hoerner	CHC	16	72	1	9	10	5	12.50%	11.11%	.167	.327	.300	.403	.467	.391	.357	148
Michael Conforto	CHC	11	27	0	3	3	0	22.22%	33.33%	.095	.500	.286	.444	.381	.389	.406	147
Carson Kelly	CHC	14	50	0	5	4	0	18.00%	16.00%	.073	.394	.317	.440	.390	.388	.406	146
Ian Happ	CHC	14	65	4	8	7	0	12.31%	33.85%	.263	.258	.211	.308	.474	.341	.333	116
Dansby Swanson	CHC	16	65	3	13	9	1	18.46%	27.69%	.192	.188	.173	.323	.365	.319	.334	101
Seiya Suzuki	CHC	4	18	0	1	1	0	22.22%	16.67%	.000	.273	.214	.389	.214	.310	.297	95
Alex Bregman	CHC	16	74	2	3	6	0	10.81%	13.51%	.108	.222	.215	.297	.323	.287	.297	80
Matt Shaw	CHC	15	49	2	3	6	1	6.12%	20.41%	.159	.212	.205	.250	.364	.273	.322	71
Pete Crow-Armstrong	CHC	16	68	1	9	5	4	4.41%	30.88%	.063	.286	.203	.239	.266	.225	.229	39
Michael Busch	CHC	15	60	0	6	3	0	11.67%	20.00%	.038	.171	.135	.233	.173	.202	.246	24

Again, every small sample size caveat in the world applies to these stats, but the Cubs absolutely need Alex Bregman, Matt Shaw, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch to right the ship and get their wRC+ above 100 ASAP. That’s a Short Porch for another day, though. Today we’re talking about starting pitching.

The Cubs started the season with a rotation that included Cade Horton, Shōta Imanaga, Edward Cabrera, Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon. Seventeen games into the season Cade Horton is out for the rest of the year after they found damage to his UCL, Matthew Boyd is on the injured list due to a biceps issue and the rotation is Shōta Imanaga, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon, Colin Rea and Javier Assad.

Life comes at you fast.

Despite Monday night’s shellacking of Assad, who gave up 11 hits and nine runs over 4.1 innings pitched at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, that’s honestly a better state of affairs than most teams could muster being down two starters less than a month into the season. There is also reason for some cautious optimism with the expectations that Boyd will be back soon. And Justin Steele should return before the All Star break.

But the bench of pitchers is basically depleted. The next man up would likely be Ben Brown who was moved to the bullpen this season after struggling as a starting pitcher. While fans may be clamoring to see top prospect Jaxon Wiggins, he’s dealing with unspecified “soreness” at the moment. In case you’re wondering how the front office is feeling about this pitching situation, reporting from The Athletic yesterday indicated the Cubs are one of the teams checking in on Lucas Giolito, who managed to piece together a season with a 3.41 ERA in 2025 over 145 innings pitched, despite a FIP of 4.17 and an xERA of 5.01.

The bottom line is that the Cubs’ depth is being tested early and it doesn’t look like the current 40-man or farm system have adequate answers for a team who fancies itself as being much better than their current record.

Braves’ run prevention was really good coming into this series. Through Sunday’s win over Cleveland, the Braves had a league-best 59 ERA-, a sixth-in-MLB 89 FIP-, and a pedestrian 99 xFIP-. The pitching performance was just okay, but a combination of favorable HR/FB stuff (yay, the universe owes them for last season) and top-three defensive play cured pretty much every ill.

And then, the Marlins came to town. They blasted the Braves with BABIP, homers, and everything in between in the first game. Grant Holmes came in with a 63/110/115 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-), and was dealt a 166/78/94 outing by the vagaries of fate and the Marlins’ bats. Basically: he didn’t pitch well but the team kept runs off the board, and then he pitched okay and the runs piled up on him anyway. Reynaldo Lopez came in with a 28/128/112 line, and was dealt a 133/63/89 start, which was pretty much the exact same outcome (except that no reliever hung a curve for a three-run homer and the Braves won). The Braves are still first in ERA-, and sixth in FIP-, but they’ve moved up to tenth in xFIP- while having 15 runs dumped on them in two games. The Marlins, meanwhile, have continued doing what they’ve done so far this season — they have a top-ten wOBA and bottom ten xwOBA, have the league’s biggest favorable variance in this regard, and if you’ve watched these first two games, you get it: holy every grounder finds a hole, Batman!

So, now we’ve got Bryce Elder lined up for the rubber game. Elder’s line? 25/73/86. That’s better, worlds better, than the frankly-subpar pre-Marlins performances of Holmes and Lopez, but the same giant run prevention gap applies. There’s added intrigue, too. Elder was brilliant in his first two outings of the year, showing a completely different approach to pitching and a much more exaggerated (and effective, and not all over the place, or mechanically problematic for long stretches) slider. Then, he faced the Guardians, and it was… if not Bad Elder, at least, Unremarkable Elder. But, honestly, nah — he was bad. A 3/3 K/BB ratio and his first homer allowed (a no-doubter). In essence, the Elder “regression” that everyone feared.

So, what’s Elder going to do now? In the first two games of this series, the Marlins upended things and drove a dagger into the positioning-and-defense run prevention the Braves had used as their aegis to this point. His career against the Marlins has been a mixed bag — better starts (but with some clunkers mixed in) through 2024, and then two struggle bugs in 2025. Not that it really matters, this might be a different Elder at this point. Or, it might be the same old Elder, based on his most recent start. I have no idea. I don’t think anyone does, including Bryce Elder. We’ll see what happens.

Countering Elder in this rubber game will be Chris Paddack, who signed a one-year, $4 million contract to pitch in Miami in the offseason. Paddack’s 2026 experience has been the opposite of that for the Braves thus far (except in this series): he has a 150/125/97 line in two starts and a relief appearance. He had a bizarre Marlins debut (6/0 K/BB ratio, but two homers and eight runs charged), then a blergh long relief appearance (4/4 K/BB ratio) where he was charged with just a single unearned run, and then a mixed bag start against the Tigers (4/1 K/BB ratio, a homer. Paddack has pitched pretty well against the Braves in his career (3.36 FIP, 4.14 xFIP), but it’s just a handful of outings spread across the now-kinda-long arc of his career. The Braves didn’t do much against him in two outings last year, but that was kind of par for the course for them.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, April 15, 7:15 p.m. EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLB.tv (and Braves.tv if you’re in-market, etc.)

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM

(Also, a moment of silence for the hilarious readout on the MLB.com preview that lists the Marlins’ TV provider as Marlins.TV, presented by Werner, Hoffman, Greig & Garcia. Between this and the clown show that is the forced spelling of loanDepot Park, please contract the Marlins and open a more serious franchise somewhere.)

The Yankees are making an addition to their bullpen ahead of Wednesday's game, calling up righty Angel Chivilli. 

Chivilli was acquired from the Rockies over the offseason in exchange for 1B T.J. Rumfield, who has taken advantage of his new opportunity with a stellar start in Colorado. 

The 23-year-old right-hander, on the other hand, struggled mightily with the Yanks during spring training as was optioned to the minors after giving up 11 runs in just eight appearances.

He rebounded nicely in Triple-A, though, starting the year with five straight scoreless outings. 

Chivilli will now look to carry that success over to the Bronx, where he’ll take the place of RHP Yerry De Los Santos, who was optioned back to the minors on Tuesday night. 

This morning, uber-prospect Kevin McGonigle and the Detroit tigers finalized an eight year, $150m contract extension. The deal covers the 27-34 seasons, effectively buying out the first three years of McGonigle’s free agency, and includes escalators that could increase its value to $160m. Even assuming McGonigle breaks arbitration records (firmly on the table, given that he’s hitting .311/.417/.492 in his first 72 MLB PA with peripheral stats that suggest he really is that good), that values his age 27-29 seasons at $90-100m. He’s one of a spate of top prospects to sign for big money right at the beginning of, or even shortly before, their MLB careers so far this spring:

Several young but established big league stars have also extended recently, including Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, Red Sox ace Garrett Crochett, and Orioles starter Shane Baz. The Jays were active in that market last year, signing Alejandro Kirk last season to a deal that now looks like theft after his breakout 2025 and then paying Vladimir Guerrero jr. what amounts to a retail price free agent deal to keep him in Toronto for the remainder of his career.

The Jays don’t have any clear extension candidates right now. Daulton Varsho is the obvious name, but he’s having something of a weird start to the season with his speed, range and power significantly down so far but his contact rate and overall offensive production looking excellent. Combined with a potential offensive breakout being derailed by injury last year, he might be a guy where both team and agent decide to wait and see before valuing his free agency.

I still think this trend is of interest to us on this site, though, because it probably reveals something about the direction the economics of the sport and the process of collective bargaining between the MLB Players’ Association and the league are headed. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) runs through the end of this season, at which point it’s been widely predicted that there might be a lockout. Owners are said to be upset about the lack of parity in payrolls, with the New York Mets’ $362.6m 2026 expenditure being more than five times the last place Cleveland Guardians’ $69.4m. Of course, one might reasonably then ask what the Guardians are doing with the roughly $200m disbursement of national and pooled local revenues each franchise receives, at which point owners tend to harumph and storm out of the room.

Regardless, it’s very clear that ownership intends to push for a salary cap. Progressively stricter luxury taxes have proven ineffective in curbing top team spending. Nine teams are paying some tax in 2026 and five are into the top tax bracket, including clubs like the Blue Jays and Mets that were not regular tax payers 5+ years ago. If a soft tax won’t stop spending, a hard cap is the only way to do it. On the other side, though, a cap has always been a firm red line for the union. They rely on high spending teams to set the market and to force cheap owners to spend. If owners are willing to press their case, there’s a risk of a lockout that could shorten or even scrap the 2027 season. Both sides are gearing up for a prolonged stoppage, with the MLBPA allocating 100% of player licensing revenues (the share the player gets when, e.g., you buy a replica of their jersey) in each of the last two seasons to build up a strike fund that’s now over half a billion dollars, while the owners have a war chest about four times as large.

There’s also a larger economic backdrop. The local cable sports market (referred to as regional sports networks, RSN), which is the backbone of MLB teams’ local revenues, is collapsing. Main Street Sports Group, which operates the FanDuel Sports Network RSNs that broadcast nine MLB teams’ games, has had to try to renegotiate rights deals it couldn’t afford to pay. Most of the teams eventually just transferred their rights to MLB.tv, which is partnering with ESPN to sell local streaming rights for roughly half of the league starting next season. Commissioner Rob Manfred is scrambling to redesign the league’s revenue model around streaming, but how well that will work isn’t clear, and he’s facing opposition from more successful teams that like owning their own regional broadcast rights. Owning a north American sports franchise has been a bonanza to TV money and skyrocketing franchise valuations over the last 30 years. Whether that will continue is at least a little murky. The potential for a lockout further clouds the picture. Attendance took a decade to recover from the 1994 strike. A prolonged 2027 lockout, at a time when the league is navigating the streaming transition, could be even more damaging.

GMs and agents are intensely aware of all of this, of course, which is why the recent extension spree is interesting. Early career extensions are a team friendly bet, in general, as players trade upside for certainty. They hit the market later and with fewer prime seasons remaining, taking the possibility of ever signing a true top of the market contract off the table in exchange for locking in set for life money now. That Scott Boras clients don’t take extensions has become a fan cliche because the hyper-aggressive agent pushes his guys to hit the open market, a bet that pays off more often than not. And now, the fact that agents are directing their clients towards extending shows that they’re leaning towards the safety side of that bet.

Teams are typically in a position to be less risk averse. A player only gets one career, and if something goes wrong that career can be cut short before they strike it rich. A team expects to operate indefinitely, and its revenue is stable as long as the fans show up. It’s still somewhat telling that they want to sign these deals, though. The Tigers clearly think locking in the right to pay McGonigle over $30m in 2034 is worth taking on that risk, which doesn’t point to an expectation that the top end of the free agent market is going to downshift in any huge way.

Overall, then, I think the signs are modestly pessimistic for labour, but arguably slightly optimistic for fans wanting to watch a 2027 baseball season. After all, negotiations need both parties to have a basically similar understanding of reality to work out, and it doesn’t hurt when failing to strike a deal has some painful consequences. The fact that a lot of extensions are getting done suggests that players and their agents are not expecting a world where salaries skyrocket while GMs don’t significantly fear the bottom of the free agent market dropping out. The league’s forced pivot towards variable streaming revenues has the potential to make viewership damaging antics by owners more damaging to everyone. Those factors in combination give me a little hope that reasonable positions will be taken and the gap can be bridged. Still, there are choppy waters ahead.

1915
It was the biggest shutout in team history, as the White Sox pasted St. Louis, 16-0. The Pale Hose put up seven runs before the home Browns even got to bat, and scored in every inning but the third, seventh and eighth. It was just a 15-hit assault with no homers, so how did the Sox score 16? With help from five Browns errors and six stolen bases!

Buck Weaver went 3-for-6 with a double and two runs, pacing all the White Sox hitters … except starting pitcher Red Faber, who went 4-for-5 with a double and three runs, leading the team in total bases! Faber, no clouter him, pitched in an AL-high 50 games in 1915 and racked up 118 plate appearances and 84 at-bats … yielding 11 hits. Yes, more than a third of Faber’s hits in 1915 came in this game.

Also a curiosity, the win moved the White Sox into first place, at 2-0 on the season, and Faber’s season record was 2-0 was well. How? Well, Opening Day was a 13-inning thriller that saw the second-year hurler relieve in the 12th inning (not too well, either, giving up two earned runs) to earn the win — with fellow young hurler and future star Eddie Cicotte getting the save with a clean 13th. The next day, this blowout, Faber threw a complete game despite eight innings of the contest qualifying as garbage time!

This game stood as the biggest White Sox shutout win until 1925 and a 17-0 drubbing at Washington (and later tied in 1987). The game remains the third-biggest shutout in team history and tied for the 18th biggest win ever for the White Sox.

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1954
The White Sox helped reintroduce Major League Baseball to Baltimore (in front of a crowd of 46,354) for the first time since 1902, as they played the new Baltimore Orioles in the first-ever game at Memorial Stadium (the franchise had moved from St. Louis that offseason). Virgil Trucks got the start for the White Sox, but the O’s won, 3-1, starting a run of numerous unfortunate, strange and bizarre happenings at Memorial Stadium over the next 37 seasons.

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1972
The first labor impasse to cause regularly-scheduled games to be cancelled had caused Opening Day of the 1972 season to be pushed back. Thus in the first game of the new season was in Kansas City, where the Sox lost to the Royals, 2-1, in 11 innings despite Dick Allen’s first White Sox home run. Allen blasted a shot in the ninth inning off Dick Drago to give the team a brief, 1-0 lead. Kansas City tied the game with two outs in the ninth inning on a Bob Oliver home run off of Wilbur Wood, then go on to win the game.

The Sox dropped three consecutive one-run games to the Royals to start the season, two in extra innings, but ended up with 87 wins in 154 games and battle the eventual World Series champion Oakland A’s until the end of September.

---

1983
Former Cubs pitcher Milt Wilcox had his perfect game ruined with two outs in the ninth inning when White Sox pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston ripped a clean single up the middle. It was the only hit of the night for the Sox, who lost to Detroit, 6-0. Hairston’s hit marked just the third time in major league history that a perfect game was broken up with just one out left. Billy Pierce was one of the other two pitchers to have that happen to him, when he lost his to the Senators on June 27, 1958.

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1985
In a game at Boston, pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston collected his 51st safety in that role, setting a White Sox all-time record. Jerry would lead the league in pinch-hits from 1983-85 and retired with 87 total in his career. He also hit the last home run to set off Bill Veeck’s original exploding scoreboard in October 1981 — a grand slam off of future Sox pitching coach Don Cooper!

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1987
Future White Sox bullpen coach Juan Nieves tosses the first no-hitter in Milwaukee Brewers history, defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 7-0. Nieves was a pitching coach in the White Sox minors from 1999-2007, then worked under Don Cooper as the bullpen coach on the South Side from 2008-12. He also appeared as Francisco Delgado in the 1999 Kevin Costner baseball film For the Love of the Game.

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2006
It was an all-time great defensive play.

In the ninth inning of a game at U.S. Cellular Field against Toronto, Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi had to charge in on a slowly-hit ball by Bengie Molina. Iguchi’s momentum carried him forward, forcing him to leave his feet and start to fall to the ground. Before he hit the field, though, he got a throw off, despite being parallel to the ground. His throw was strong enough to get Molina at first.

The Sox won the game, 4-2.  

---

2024
In his very first MLB start, Nick Nastrini retired the first 11 batters he faced, the most consecutive outs since 1960. In the process, Nastrini broke Bruce Tanner’s mark from back on June 12, 1985.

However, the punchless White Sox still lost the game, shut out, 2-0, by the Royals — tying a dubious record. It marked the sixth time in 16 games they were held without a run to start a season. The last time that happened in the modern era was in 1907 to the Brooklyn Superbas.

The White Sox were held to four singles in the game, and if not for a stolen base by Braden Shewmake in the fifth inning, no Chicago batter would have reached second base.

Phillies notes: Zack Wheeler closes in, Zach Pop goes to injured list originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Serious progress has been made. Zack Wheeler is getting close to a return to the Phillies’ rotation.

That is big news for both the ace and the organization.

On Tuesday, the 35-year-old made his fourth rehab start, going 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and striking out nine. Wheeler punched out five of the first six batters he faced.

It was another encouraging sign in his buildup, especially because he touched 95 mph with his fastball for the first time in the recovery process.

Rob Thomson called the outing “very encouraging.”

“He went through the minimum through five, was 92 to 95, so he touched 95,” Thomson said Tuesday. “That was good. He said he felt good after the outing. Somebody asked him if he was starting to run out of gas, and he said no, I felt good even at the end.”

Wheeler, who Thomson said felt good again on Wednesday, will make one more rehab start Sunday in Bridgewater, N.J. The plan is for him to throw around 90 pitches.

And while Thomson hinted Tuesday that a sixth rehab outing was still possible, there is no strong indication yet that it will be necessary. The Phillies are going to let Wheeler’s body and stuff guide the decision from here.

When asked Wednesday whether a sixth rehab start was under consideration, Thomson said, “We haven’t really talked about it. We’ll just see how it goes.”

At this point, Wheeler appears to have a very real chance to return to the big league club next weekend, when the Phillies head to Atlanta.

POP TO IL, BACKHUS RETURNS

In a three-day stretch, the Phillies have now lost two relievers to the injured list.

First, on Monday, they placed Jonathan Bowlan on the 15-day injured list. Then on Wednesday, right-hander Zach Pop joined him there.

Pop, who has posted a 3.68 ERA through his first seven appearances with the club, suffered a right calf strain on Tuesday night after his opener outing on Sunday. He allowed one run over two innings in that appearance.

Thomson described it as a mild strain.

“Zach was doing some agility work after the game last night and just felt something in his right calf,” Thomson said Wednesday.

It has been a solid start for the 29-year-old, especially with the development of his sinker. To begin the year, opponents were hitting just .111 against the pitch, which he has thrown 62.3 percent of the time. That has led to the type of ground-ball profile the Phillies were hoping to get from him.

To fill Pop’s spot, the club recalled Kyle Backhus from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He had originally been optioned when Orion Kerkering came off the injured list.

After allowing three runs in his Phillies debut on Opening Day, the left-handed submariner turned in three scoreless outings after that.

Backhus also gives the Phillies another left-handed option after Tim Mayza and Tanner Banks were both used Tuesday. Thomson noted that Backhus is in a good spot physically and could give them length if needed.

“Backhus was good. Just had a couple days off,” Thomson said. “He can give us probably maybe two innings today.”

Jesús Luzardo gets the ball Wednesday as he looks to bounce back after allowing five runs in his last outing against the Diamondbacks.

Red Sox avoid sweep in Minnesota; what we learned from series vs. Twins originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox salvaged their three-game series in Minnesota with a 9-5 win over the Twins in Wednesday’s finale. While it’ll be happier flight home, they still have plenty of issues to work out as they’ll take one of MLB’s worst records (7-11) into their four-game series against the Detroit Tigers.

After back-to-back series wins over the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, the Red Sox were humbled by the red-hot Twins. Minnesota torched Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet for 11 runs in 1.2 innings pitched and cruised to a 13-6 win in Game 1. In Game 2, Twins starter Mick Abel notched a career-high 10 strikeouts while Sonny Gray struggled in a 6-0 shutout.

Rookie left-hander Connelly Early quieted the Twins offense in Game 3, and the Red Sox offense showed signs of life with nine runs on 13 hits. Boston will need to carry that momentum to Fenway Park to avoid slipping further behind in the American League East standings.

So, what did we learn during the Red Sox’ 2-1 series loss to the Twins? Here are five instant takeaways:

Connelly Early a bright spot in disappointing rotation

After Garrett Crochet was crushed for 11 earned runs in just 1.2 innings, and Sonny Gray allowed five ER across four IP, rookie left-hander Connelly Early helped salvage the series with a brilliant outing in the finale.

Early let just one run cross on two hits and two walks while striking out five across six innings. He set the tone in the Red Sox’ much-needed 9-5 victory.

Connelly Early, Wicked 83mph Sweeper…and Sword. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/m4OoohGFZv

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 15, 2026

Early wasn’t even expected to make the starting rotation out of spring training, but the 23-year-old has been Boston’s best starter so far with a 2.29 ERA through four starts (19.2 IP).

The rest of the rotation, which was supposed to be the club’s biggest strength, has been a letdown. Boston will need more consistency from Crochet (7.58 ERA), Sonny Gray (4.43 ERA), Ranger Suarez (5.02 ERA), and Brayan Bello (6.14 ERA) going forward.

Masataka Yoshida has earned more playing time

Yoshida played in two of the three games in this series, going 3-for-9 at the plate with a double and one RBI. He has a five-game hit streak dating back to April 5.

In the series finale, Yoshida put the Red Sox ahead in the third inning by driving in two runs on an error by the second baseman. It should’ve been an inning-ending double play, but the sequence showed that Yoshida’s ability to consistently put balls in play can alter the course of a game.

吉田正尚がツーベースヒット🔥
レフト線に落ちる巧みなバットコントロール！
『5試合連続安打』

①左二塁打
打率.333 本塁打0 打点3 出塁率.515 OPS.973

Masataka Yoshida 📹@RedSox#吉田正尚#レッドソックスpic.twitter.com/ILSLY4dbr7

— 【MLB速報】放送地区【大谷速報】 (@MLB_comment) April 15, 2026

The outfield logjam persists, and it will likely continue to prevent Yoshida from getting consistent at-bats. But at this point, he’s making it difficult for Alex Cora to keep his bat out of the lineup. He has a .852 OPS in 11 games (28 at-bats).

Trevor Story is the X factor

The Red Sox are a different team when Trevor Story is hitting. We saw it last season, and it has been the case so far this year as well.

Story has started to heat up after struggling out of the gate. The veteran shortstop gave Boston’s offense a much-needed jolt in the third inning of Wednesday’s win with a three-run homer, his second blast of the season. He finished the day 2-for-4 with a double, HR, and five RBI.

That's a 3-run Story shot! 💥 pic.twitter.com/XzJkcxeeuN

— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 15, 2026

Story has played a critical role in four of the Red Sox’ seven wins. In addition to Wednesday, Story went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBI in Sunday’s win vs. the St. Louis Cardinals and had two-RBI performances in both of Boston’s wins over the Milwaukee Brewers.

ABS challenges are still a problem

Red Sox hitters have been among MLB’s worst at ABS challenges this season. That trend continued in Game 2 of this series.

In the sixth inning of Tuesday’s loss, Sox infielder Andruw Monasterio challenged a strike call on a pitch thrown down the heart of the plate. You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse use of the ABS challenge so far this year.

ABS confirmed in #RedSox at #Twins (Top 6).
Andruw Monasterio challenged the called strike against Mick Abel.
Called strike confirmed.
HP: Lance Barrett | Upheld 39.1% (9/23).
Result: Andruw Monasterio called out on strikes. pic.twitter.com/1932lMOfRz

— ABS Auditor (@ABS_Auditor) April 15, 2026

Boston has won only 45 percent of its ABS challenges at the plate this season (5-for-11). That’s the fifth-worst percentage in MLB, with the Cincinnati Reds posting a league-best 69 percent (11-for-16).

Red Sox need more from Jarren Duran

After grounding out in Game 2, Jarren Duran made headlines for his obscene gesture at a heckling fan. Duran later explained that the fan “told me to kill myself.” Given Duran’s history with mental health struggles, and his admission that he tried to take his own life in 2022, his knee-jerk reaction to such a crass remark is understandable.

That said, Duran is one of the most important players on the Red Sox roster, and they need him to ignore the noise. The 2024 All-Star is slashing .170/.204/.298 with one homer in 15 games, and he went just 1-for-14 with five strikeouts in this series. It’s clear his frustrations are boiling over, and rightfully so, but he’s needed as a leader in the clubhouse and as one of the biggest threats in an inconsistent lineup that could use all the help it can get.

TV: NESN

First Pitch: 1:40 p.m. ET

Well, this series couldn’t have started any worse.

Red Sox starters gave up 15 earned runs in the first two games, thanks to disastrous starts from Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray. Boston’s lineup also got shutout for the first time this season and is lacking momentum entering Wednesday afternoon. 

In another lineup shuffle, Ceddanne Rafaela moves up behind Roman Anthony in the No. 2 spot. Connelly Early gets the ball and while he needs to go deeper into starts, he’s impressed so far to the tune of a 2.63 ERA. 

Here’s who the Red Sox will send to the plate in the series finale. 

Afternoon baseball today. pic.twitter.com/ZPjUw584v5

— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 15, 2026

The Twins push for the sweep and sport the best record in the American League at 11-7. Simeon Woods Richardson takes the mound for Minnesota. 

Buck and the boys!

📺 https://t.co/usGFyQCbUxpic.twitter.com/NR3tHBBsIo

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 15, 2026

Long before the Yankees became the Yankees of Ruth, Gehrig, October mythology, and even Gerrit, Leonard Leslie “King” Cole (not to be confused with Nat) was one of the franchise’s most intriguing early arms. For a season, he looked like the kind of pitcher who could help stabilize a club still searching for its identity.

Instead, the ending was rushing toward him long before anyone realized it. Tragically the King’s New York chapter became one of the shortest, strangest, and saddest stories of the franchise’s early years.

Leonard Leslie “King” Cole
Born: April 15, 1886 (Toledo, IA)
Died: January 6, 1916 (Bay City, MI)
Yankees Tenure: 1914-1915

Before he ever became “King,” Leonard Leslie Cole’s story began in much humbler surroundings. Born on April 15, 1886, in the rural Iowa town of Toledo, Cole’s early life carried a level of instability that would quietly mirror the unpredictability of his later baseball career. A troubled family situation led to his separation from home at a young age, and by 14 he had been sent to the Industrial School for Boys in nearby Eldora. In those difficult early years, the baseball diamond quickly became home.

By his late teens, Cole had already built a reputation as a talented pitcher for Toledo’s town team, the kind of local arm whose name traveled beyond county lines before organized baseball ever formally called. His path to the majors was anything but ordinary.

In 1907, Cole joined one of the era’s barnstorming “Bloomer Girls” teams, one of the traveling girls clubs that toured the country playing against town, semipro, and minor league men’s teams. To help draw crowds and raise the level of play, these clubs often employed male pitchers and catchers known as “toppers,” players who wore wigs to blend into the novelty of the traveling roster. For a brief stretch, Leonard Cole was one of them.

It is one of the strangest and most perfect details in his baseball story: before becoming King Cole, he sharpened his game as a pitcher for a Bloomer Girls club, barnstorming across the Midwest and learning the loose, restless rhythms of early baseball life. That journey helped carry him to Bay City, Michigan, a place that would become deeply important to both his personal and professional life.

By 1908, Cole was pitching for semipro clubs in Iowa and Michigan, continuing to sharpen the command and durability that would later define his major league peak. Then in 1909, Bay City gave him the kind of platform every talented regional arm needed. He thrived there.

Cole went 21-7 as Bay City’s ace, a dominant season that drew the full attention of the Chicago Cubs, still a powerhouse having won three pennants in a row from 1906–08 and the last two World Series in a row. Chicago signed Cole and gave him a chance late that season to make his professional debut, and he made sure no one forgot it, throwing a six-hit shutout in his major league debut against the Cardinals while also collecting three hits at the plate.

Just like that, the road from rural Iowa, reform school, and barnstorming Bloomer Girls clubs had delivered him to the major leagues. The Bay City chapter changed more than just his baseball life.

During the offseason, Cole stayed in Michigan, took up barbering as a trade, and earned yet another fitting nickname: “The Bay City Barber.” It was there that he also met Ada Seder, beginning the relationship that would soon lead to marriage just as his Cubs career was taking off. By the time 1910 arrived, Cole was no longer just a fascinating baseball story. He was on his way to becoming one of the National League’s best pitchers and be anointed King.

Cole won 20 games for the Cubs in 1910, leading the Senior Circuit with a 1.80 ERA and posting the kind of frontline production that made him one of the National League’s top arms. In the Deadball Era, where one run often felt decisive, pitchers who could control games deep into the afternoon carried enormous value, and Cole fit that mold perfectly. It was the season that truly made “King” feel like more than just a nickname, and if the NL Rookie of the Year Award existed back then, he probably would’ve won going away.

The Cubs romped to their fourth pennant in five years with 104 wins but fell to the similarly potent Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. Cole got the start in Game 4, which ended up being the only playoff start of his career, and held the A’s to three runs in eight innings of work to help the Cubs stave off a sweep in their home park (West Side Grounds, Wrigley’s predecessor). Ace Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown relieved him and held the A’s in check while the Cubs rallied a couple outs from elimination to tie it in the ninth on a leadoff double by Frank Schulte and a game-tying triple from player-manager Frank Chance. They ended it in the 10th on a Jimmy Archer and a walk-off single from left fielder Jimmy Sheckard. Alas, the A’s followed suit, beating up on a tiring Brown—starting on no rest, because hey it was 1910—to take the series with a 7-2 triumph.

Cole followed that with another strong year in 1911, winning 18 games and proving the previous season was no fluke. Even if he did not quite match the 1910 peak, Cole still looked like the kind of pitcher a manager could trust every time they put him on the rubber. At his best, he was not overpowering so much as dependable, the kind of arm managers leaned on because they knew exactly what they were getting. Then came the collapse.

The 1912 season started disastrously in Chicago. The sharpness that had defined his best years disappeared almost overnight, and what had once looked like steady command turned into something far less reliable. The King had become the Jester and was so famous for the excuses he gave that he inspired short story “Alibi Ike.”

The Cubs eventually sent him to Pittsburgh to finish the season, where he was better, but not remotely close to the pitcher he had been just a few seasons ago. The brilliance of 1910 had already started to feel far away. So far away that Cole was sold by the Pirates to Columbus of the minor league American Association.

After spending the winter barbering in Chicago and Bay City, Cole proved his career wasn’t over by reporting to Columbus and having a stellar year. He posted a 23-11 record and received offers from several major league clubs following the season. The New York Yankees, now managed by Cole’s former boss with the Cubs, Chance, had the winning bid.

When New York picked him up for the 1914 season, Cole was still chasing the heights of his Cubs peak as much as he was trying to prove he still belonged in the major leagues at all. And for a time, it looked like he did. In that comeback season Cole went 10-9 with a 3.30 ERA making 15 starts in 33 games.

One fun fact from Cole’s first season with the Yankees popped up on October 2, 1914 at Fenway Park. Cole entered in relief of Carroll Brown, who started the game opposite of a rookie left-hander named George Herman Ruth in Boston. In the Babe’s third big-league game, the 19-year-old would limit his future team to six hits on the mound and lead off the seventh inning with a double off Cole — Ruth’s first MLB hit. Little did the 1,500 or so in attendance at the still-nascent ballpark know that they were witnessing history.

Cole’s first season with the Yankees gave the club exactly what early-era teams valued most from a pitcher: dependable innings and a calming presence on a still-developing staff. He was no longer the 20-game winner from his Cubs peak, but the command and poise that had once made him so valuable were still visible.

Across the 1914 and 1915 seasons, Cole would go 12-12 with a 3.27 ERA over 192.2 innings in pinstripes. Those numbers tell the story of a pitcher who still knew how to survive, compete, and help a club even as the overpowering version of his earlier career had faded.

That makes 1914 feel especially important in hindsight. It would be the final season in which Cole still looked like a veteran pitcher writing a respectable second act rather than a player unknowingly entering the final chapter of his life. That is what makes the turn into 1915 feel so much heavier.

In spring training, Yankees manager Bill Donovan noticed something was wrong. Cole had developed a growth on his leg, something he had apparently ignored for years because it had not yet caused him any pain. That detail says so much about the era and perhaps about Cole himself. Players then often pitched through discomfort, lived hard, and treated warning signs as inconveniences instead of alarms.

Cole’s instinct was simply to keep going until someone physically stopped him. That refusal to stop becomes the emotional center of the story. Even after surgery to try to address the tumors, Cole pushed to return quickly, insisting he would be back within weeks. And he did come back, pitching for the Yankees that summer despite diminished stuff and erratic command. The performances were uneven, and the club’s patience wore thin, but there is something deeply human in the image of a pitcher trying to outrun what his body was already telling him.

The quirks of his life off the mound only deepen that feeling. Cole’s 1915 season included missed trains, an indefinite suspension, and even an automobile accident in Yonkers that briefly put him in legal trouble, all while his health continued to deteriorate. It creates the portrait of a talented early ballplayer living with the loose structure and restless unpredictability of the pre-modern game, where routines were fragile and careers could tilt off course in an instant.

Then came the cruelest turn. By December, the cancer had returned aggressively. What had once seemed like a manageable operation became terminal illness, and on January 6, 1916, Cole died at just 29 years old. For a pitcher talented enough to win 54 major league games before turning 30, the loss feels especially haunting.

His Yankees chapter lasted only two seasons, but it remains one of the organization’s earliest reminders of how quickly baseball promise can vanish. What makes King Cole such a compelling birthday subject is not simply the tragedy. It is the strange mix of brilliance, stubbornness, unpredictability, and vulnerability that defined his final baseball years. In another era, maybe the diagnosis comes earlier. Maybe the recovery plan is stricter. Maybe the life lasts another few decades.

Instead, King Cole’s Yankees legacy became a snapshot of baseball’s rougher early century. A time where even “Kings” were still barbers in the offseason. A time when people and players alike ignored warning signs of their health. A time when the storylines the games and its players was able to create mattered almost as much as the games themselves.

Happy birthday, King Cole.

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

Coming into the season, one of the more polarizing prospects that was supposed to make his debut was Justin Crawford. One would think that a player that had as good a set of numbers from his minor league days as Crawford had would be the actual opposite of polarizing, but his case became an argument in “data vs. production”. From the scouting community, there was an overwhelming sense that Crawford’s success at the major league level would be muted due to his swing path and tendency to hit the ball on the ground. From Fangraphs:

Whether mechanical intervention will improve Crawford’s output, or whether it will happen naturally as he gets stronger, we just won’t know until he’s allowed to face and adjust to big league pitching over a long period of time. His groundball rate has at least been trending in the right direction since he turned pro. He was way up in the 70% range when he first debuted, and his spray chart looked like the most cartoonish slash-and-dash hitter. Zac Veen is a recent prospect whose underlying data contained similar warning signs (Crawford is also fairly chase prone), but his on-field performance began to dip once he reached the upper levels, while Crawford’s has not. Make no mistake; Crawford’s tools are going to help a big league club in some capacity, just probably as an action-pressing nine hole hitter who bunts and slashes his way on base.

From Baseball Prospectus:

Offensively, we could pretty much cut and paste any report we’ve written about Crawford since he was drafted here. He still hits the ball on the ground way too much, he still runs like the wind, he still puts the ball in play a lot, and he still swings at way too many pitches for a guy who has what is otherwise a 1990s leadoff man profile. He made some real improvements around the edges of his very durable broad profile in 2025—he cut his chase rate by over five points year-over-year, which got it from catastrophic to merely bad, while turning a few grounders into line drives—but for the most part what you think about his offensive game still depends on whether you think his reliance on nine-hopper singles can sustain a plus-or-better hit tool outcome in the majors. We’re probably a little less high on that profile than a lot of our peers in the public prospect analysis space.

And yet, so far this year as he has in his minor league career, he has produced. It’s still way, way too early to make any kind of definite determination about how actual career arc will be created, but he has gotten off to a start that has been quite good for a team that has had little production from its nine hole spot in the lineup over the past several seasons (all stats for Crawford and/or ninth spot in lineup through Monday’s game).

2026: .315/.403/.481
2025: .246/.307/.398
2024: .230/.279/.333
2023: .265/.314/.398

Based on what we’ve seen from Crawford, there are reasons to believe that he can actually producing. After all, bat control like this doesn’t come around too, too often.

With 10% of the season already in the books, it’s worth at least exploring what has happened so far with Crawford since he’s an interesting player.

Failure to launch

We all knew that one of the traits scouts have wanted Crawford to change has been how often he hits the ball on the ground. Baseball has changed so much from the Whitey Herzog days when Astroturf allowed players to hit the ball on a carpet and have it scoot into the outfield for a hit. Fielders have improved so much both in terms of their positioning and how well they field that a ball on the ground is almost an automatic out.

As of Monday, Crawford has an average launch angle when he hits the ball of -3.2^o. If that number strikes you as a startingly low number, you’re not alone! I went back through the Statcast era (2015 on) to find qualified hitters that had a launch angle that was a negative throughout the entire season. To the surprise of no one, there were very few:

Eric Hosmer ‘18: -1.5^o
Wilson Ramos ‘19: -0.1^o
Raimel Tapia ‘21: -4.4^o
Gilberto Celestino ‘22: -1.9^o
Jake Mangum ‘25: -0.7^o

These hitters are not ones that one would mistake for being productive in those seasons, so while it doesn’t mean it can’t happen, history suggests that it’s not going to happen. It’s possible for a player to go through an entire season having an average launch angle that low, but as you can see, the opposing team would be more than happy to have that happen. There just isn’t much of a threat to the defense.

Now, can we expect Crawford to have this low of a launch angle all season long? Probably not. At some point, he’s going to figure out how to drive the ball in the air and he does have some good power when he barrels up a baseball. He’s a lot of hittable pitches as well; he’s just hitting them into the ground.

For now, it’s just a curious thing, a negative launch angle, to see since it’s so rare that it happens for a full season. Maybe some balls in the air change things, maybe not.

BABIP, you BIP, we all BIP

Whenever one sees a ball trickle through the infield on the ground, get blooped down the line, get nubbed down the line, one silently says a prayer to the baseball gods to say think you. Specifically, the BABIP gods that allowed the ball to miss gloves on it’s way to the grass in the first place. It helps the personal numbers because, as is said, “it’s a line drive in the books!” However, having a high BABIP can often times signal that a regression is coming and with Crawford, it could be something to consider.

As of Tuesday morning, Crawford’s .405 BABIP is tied for 15th in the game among all active hitters and could be one that is ripe for regression. But what if it doesn’t regress as much as we think it will? He’s going to hit the ball on the ground as we see from above, but it’s not as though he isn’t hitting the ball hard. His average exit velocity of 88.5 miles per hour, right in the middle of the pack (and better than some current Phillies hitters). What if he’s going to be able to continue to just find holes and poke baseball down the line and keep being productive?

There’s no reason right now to change much of anything with Crawford. He’s finding success in the major leagues and isn’t being asked to do a lot hitting from the nine hole in the lineup. He can continue seeing how pitchers attack him and adjust accordingly. Moving him up in the lineup doesn’t really seem to be in the cards at the moment, nor should it be. He’s doing just fine where he is, though if he moved up a spot or two to better use his speed instead of anchoring him in front of Turner/Schwarber/Harper, that would be fine as well.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to win the series versus the Cleveland Guardians Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium. Dustin May, who is 1-2 with a 9.45 ERA on the season, will make his 4th start for the Cardinals. Slade Cecconi, who is 0-2 with a 5.74 ERA, will start for the Guardians.

It’s been a tale of two ballclubs for the Nationals to start the season, as on one hand, they have what is currently a top 5 offense in all of baseball, ranking 4th in wRC+ at 117 and 4th in WAR at 3.6, and on the other hand, they have a bottom 2 pitching staff in all of baseball, ranking 2nd to last in ERA at 6.08 and last with a -2.5 fWAR, miles worse than every other ball club. Outside of a strong start to his MLB return for Foster Griffin, there have been very few bright spots in the rotation or bullpen, and recent injuries to Ken Waldichuk and Cole Henry tighten things even more for an already taxed group.

While help to the rotation may be coming in the next few months in the form of top prospect Luis Perales and reliable righty Riley Cornelio, the bullpen could see new additions very soon, as guys at the major league level falter and arms in the minor league flourish. Let’s take a look at 3 Nationals minor league relievers who could make an impact at the big league level in 2026.

LHP Zach Penrod

The current Nats minor league arm I think it is most likely we see in the big leagues in 2026 is Zach Penrod, a 28-year-old righty currently at Triple A. Penrod has thrown 5 innings for the Red Wings in 2026, and while the results are mediocre currently, with a 9 ERA and .609 opponents slugging percentage, it’s the improvements to Penrod’s arsenal which lead me to believe he could be the best current left hander in the big league bullpen.

Penrod threw his fastball about 40% of the time in 2025, and 5 other breaking ball or offspeed pitches, and the results were terrible, with a 7.83 ERA and 6.80 FIP in 33.1 innings pitched. This year, he’s refined his arsenal, dumping his sinker and curveball and making improvements to his remaining 3 secondary offerings. He’s increased his slider usage from 13% in 2025 to 39% in 2026, with it’s new, sharper movement dropping opponents expected batting average on it from .321 to .240.

His changeup and cutter have seen improvements as well, with the changeups Stuff+ rating going from 81 to 96, and the cutter from 82 to 102, giving Penrod more options to attack hitters with, as long as he’s throwing them for strikes.

My one area of concern for Penrod currently is that his fastball has lost some spin and movement in 2026, grading out much more poorly according to Stuff+ and currently getting hammered at Triple A, but if he can show he’s found a feel for the pitch again in the next few outings, Penrod could find himself in the Nats big league bullpen, looking to help turn the ship around.

RHP Eddy Yean

Some folks might remember the name Eddy Yean from the Josh Bell trade way back in 2020, where the Nats sent right handed pitchers Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean to Pittsburgh for the slugging first baseman. Well, Yean is now back in the Nationals organization after 5 seasons in the Pirates organization, where he climbed to Triple A before being released in the offseason. Like Penrod, Yean was throwing a lot of pitches in 2025, but only one really good one in his sinker, but in 2026, he’s simplified his arsenal and made improvements to what he does have.

The sinker is the calling card for Yean, and it’s nasty, sitting 97 MPH with almost 17 inches of arm side run, grading out at near the top of the scale 117 Stuff+. He throws the pitch 40% of the time, and while it doesn’t induce much swing and miss, it does miss barrels, with an opponents expected batting average of .147 and expected slugging percentage of .163.

Yean has a fastball and changeup he throws roughly 23% of the time each, which have performed well so far but don’t grade out well, but the secondary pitch I want to focus on is his slider, which looks much sharper so far in 2026 than it did in 2025. His slider now has less vertical movement and more horizontal movement, raising it’s Stuff+ grade from 89 to 95, and so far it is doing damage against Triple A hitting, with a 66% whiff rate and .054 opponents batting average.

Despite the 5.14 ERA in 7 innings so far, Yean looks to be having a breakout season at Triple A with his swing and miss stuff, while also avoiding hard contact at a very high rate, 2 ingredients to success in the big leagues.

RHP Julian Tonghini

One more under the radar pick for a Nationals minor league reliever who could make their big league debut in 2026 is Julian Tonghini, the Nats 7th round pick out of Arizona last season. Tulian always had the strikeout stuff in college, with a 37% strikeout rate his senior year, but was held back by his shaky command, walking over 10% of batters all 4 years. He still managed a very good 25.2 K-BB% in 2025 with the Wildcats, and cut his walk rate by over 2%, showing if he could just find a little more command, he could be a breakout reliever in pro ball.

Lucky for the Nats, Tonghini has come out throwing strikes in 2026, as the righty currently has a 5.6% walk rate at High A in 4.2 innings pitched, less than half of what it what in 2025 and in the 79th percentile of all High A pitchers. To go along with his much improved command, Tonghini is also pairing swing and miss stuff with an elite groundball percentage, as he is 66th percentile in whiff rate, 87th percentile in called strike + whiff percentage, and 100th percentile in groundballs rate, keeping it on the ground 91.7% of the time.

Tonghini is only 4.2 innings into his professional career, so I won’t declare him the savior of the Nationals bullpen or anything, but he is also 24 years old and showing legitimate success right now, meaning there is the possibility of him fast tracking his way through the Nationals minor league season. If he can stay at the level he’s at currently, there’s a chance he finds himself in the big league bullpen in the backhalf of 2026.