WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 03: CJ Abrams #5 of the Washington Nationals hits a three run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning at Nationals Park on April 3, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) | Getty Images
CJ Abrams is off to a hot start, and has homered for three straight games. Hot starts are nothing new for Abrams. The last couple years he has come into seasons really locked in. This year is no different. Hopefully Abrams can show more consistency this year, and I am bullish on that.
It is still early, but CJ Abrams is really doing a good job hitting flyballs to the pullside. Right now, he has a 31.8% air pull rate. The last couple years, he has pulled the ball in the air around 22% of the time, which is above average, but not exceptional. Blake Butera said the Nats are trying to “lean into” Abrams ability to pull balls in the air.
One thing Abrams does extraordinarily well is pulling outside pitches for damage. Usually hitters are told to take the ball where it is pitched. However, Abrams has always been really comfortable yanking those outside pitches to the pullside. It is not something that will work for everyone, but it is something in his bag.
CJ Abrams might be the best puller of outside pitches for home runs I’ve EVER seen
However, as we mentioned at the top, it is tough to call Abrams a changed player right now. It is not like he did not get off to hot starts under Rizzo and Davey. He posted a .992 OPS in March and April in 2024 and an .865 mark in 2025. The big thing for Abrams will be keeping that up for a full season.
Luis Garcia Jr. actually said something after the game that I found interesting. He said that Abrams is at his best when he is “concentrated”. Garcia added that when Abrams is locked in, they are looking at video of pitchers together a lot. As Abrams gets older and more experienced, I think his concentration will be able to sustain better for all 162.
It is a long season, so I don’t blame Abrams for not being totally locked in every game, especially on a bad team. However, as he becomes one of the older players on the team, he will have to find that consistency. I am bullish on him doing that, especially with this new coaching staff. When they warned him after he stared at a ball that was not a homer, Abrams took it well, which I liked.
The Nats are going to have an interesting decision to make with Abrams over the coming months. He has three years of team control left and was in trade rumors this offseason. Will the Nats trade him or could they possibly give him an extension that would be a big statement to the fanbase? He is a fan favorite and a player, I would not mind seeing get an extension.
That will be something we have to follow throughout the year. However, this start to the season has shown us why so many teams aggressively pursued Abrams. When he is at his best, CJ Abrams can be a really dynamic player. If he can unlock more consistency as he gets older, that would take his game to another level.
Another thing that would take his game to another level would be defensive improvements at shortstop. Most of the teams interested in Abrams, like the Royals and Giants, would have used him as a second baseman.
However, the Nats have him at shortstop, and I think he’s looked a bit better so far. This Dodgers series has not been as great defensively, but I think he has looked much smoother so far this season.
It is early, but CJ Abrams has looked more fluid defensively this year. You can see his natural athleticism translating on that side of the ball so far
Blake Butera noted that Abrams has looked better making plays “outside of his body”. That is not always natural for Abrams, who Butera called a guy who likes to make plays with two hands. However, he has the natural athleticism to make those plays. It is all about being more confident in himself to make those plays. We will see how it goes, but I think Abrams will be a better defender in 2026.
Overall, I am more confident in Abrams sustaining his hot start this year than I was in prior seasons, especially last year. That is due to a couple factors. One is the coaching changes, which we have harped on constantly. Another one is Abrams just being an older, more mature player. Despite just being 25, he has been in the big leagues for a while now. By Nats standards, he is a veteran.
I think he will be more empowered to take on a leadership role, and that will help him. When Abrams concentration may drop, or his swing may lose some steam, there will always be someone in his ear. I also hope his own standards will be raised this year. CJ Abrams has always had the talent, but I am bullish on the idea that this is the year where he puts it together.
Alexis Lafreniere is playing some of the best hockey of his career, and he has the numbers to back it up.
My Capitals vs. Rangers predictions and NHL picks expect the former No. 1 overall pick to have another productive showing on home soil.
Capitals vs Rangers prediction
Capitals vs Rangers best bet: Alexis Lafreniere Over 0.5 points (-125)
Alexis Lafreniere has piled up 23 points over the last 22 games and shown the ability to move the needle offensively, even without Artemi Panarin.
He draws a Washington Capitals squad ripe for the picking at 5-on-5. They rank 23rd in expected goals and 27th in shot attempts allowed per 60 over the past 10 games.
The Capitals used starter Logan Thompson against the Sabres last night. That means they’ll turn to a worn-out goaltender for his 11th straight start (and third in four days), or Charlie Lindgren, who owns a poor .886 save percentage.
Either way, Lafreniere is primed to produce.
Capitals vs Rangers same-game parlay
Adam Fox is reminding us he’s still one of the most impactful blueliners in the NHL. He has picked up a point in 13 of his last 15 games and tallied 15 helpers along the way.
He plays a ton of minutes and facilitates a lot for the New York Rangers, making him a prime candidate to make noise in this matchup.
If top line and top pairing players like Lafreniere and Fox can take advantage of this struggling Capitals defense — and goaltending situation — there’s a good chance the Rangers come out on top. Igor Shesterkin generally doesn’t need much run support.
The Rangers have won four of their last five home games. Find more NHL betting trends for Capitals vs. Rangers.
How to watch Capitals vs Rangers
Location
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Date
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Puck drop
7:00 p.m. ET
TV
ESPN
Capitals vs Rangers latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
It’s 2026, which means baseball is partially governed by robots. More precisely, the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system is in place with the challenge system. Lots of ink, including our own, has been spilled on the new system; personally, I’m a fan of this intermediate step between letting CB Bucknor do whatever he wants and replacing umpires entirely. ABS also adds a small layer of strategy on when to use a challenge or when to save it.
Today, I want to see how well the Tigers are doing with their challenges. BaseballSavant helpfully keeps a leaderboard for each team’s challenge metrics. I’ll be breaking those down here and examining where Detroit stands out, where they don’t, and why some of these metrics really don’t matter that much. These statistics are all based upon a league-wide “expected” challenge formula developed by Tom Tango. You can read more about it here, but put simply, by evaluating the distance from the edge of the plate, how much is left of the game, and how many challenges a team has remaining, Tango developed a method to determine how likely any pitch is to be challenged. This results in “net overturns more than expected” for four basic scenarios: the offense and defense when Detroit is batting, and the offense and defense when Detroit is pitching.
Offensive Challenges
Offensively speaking, the two categories of note are “net overturns more than expected for” and “net overturns more than expected against”. “For” is the category for when a Tiger batter initiates the challenge, while “against” means the opposing team’s pitcher or catcher initiated.
When trying to determine how good the Tigers are at challenging, it of course makes more sense to look at the “net for” category. There’s nothing they can do about “net against”; the umpire called a ball and the catcher, or occasionally the pitcher, said no. Short of swinging at it anyways, Detroit has no way to prevent that. Their 1.3 “net against” challenges ranks 18th in baseball, but really, it speaks to Padres’ catchers not getting the call on 2 pitches in the zone. Only one of their “net against” challenges got overturned into a strikeout, which is good. Hitters really shouldn’t be swinging at pitches that could have been challenged unless there’s 2 strikes.
Far more interesting to me is the “net for” category; this is what Detroit can control. These are pitches called strikes and Tigers’ batters requested review. Here they rate much more positively: 2.3 net overturns more than expected, 9th in the league. Detroit’s mostly succeeding here by challenging pitches very close to the zone and getting them right, which has outweighed some decently large misses. The picture below shows all 9 of Detroit’s offensive challenges so far. The green circles are challenges they won and got overturned, while they lost the gray ones.
The highlight here is Kerry Carpenter challenging that really close green one with 2 strikes, which flipped a strikeout on a pitch that was listed as “less than 0.1 inches” off the plate. Carpenter capitalized by walking on the next pitch, which must have felt good. Unfortunately, he didn’t end up scoring, which would have been the best outcome, but it’s still best practice to flip a strikeout the other way whenever possible.
My main takeaway here is Detroit probably stands to benefit from challenging a little more. They seem to be saving challenges for leverage situations, which is smart, but are probably leaving some obvious overturns on the table to try and save them for bigger opportunities later. If you combine their “net for” and “net against” scores, the Tigers’ hitters rank 15th in baseball. They aren’t taking many more chances than the median team, nor are they succeeding too much more than the median team.
Defensive Challenges
The exact same scenarios play out for defensive challenges, but in reverse. “Net overturns for” are when the Tigers are pitching and their catchers call for a challenge, while “net overturns against” means an opposing batter initiated the challenge.
The “net against” category means a little more here than with the hitters since how a catcher frames the pitch can fool both the umpire and the batter. The Tigers are 12th here at 0.1 “net overturns against more than average”. Basically, opposing hitters aren’t doing anything unexpected with their challenges versus Detroit. Interestingly, all four challenge attempts have come with Jake Rogers behind the plate.
“Net overturns for” is where Detroit – and really, Dillon Dingler – stands out. The team as a whole is 4/4 on defensive challenges; only the New York Yankees match their 100% success rate. Again, only having four defensive challenges is probably too few (it’s less than 1 per game), but hitting on all four is impressive. Furthermore, only 1 has been a gimme. That was Rogers against the Diamondbacks, and it stands out in the picture below. The other three on the edges were all Dingler.
Those three calls are certainly not gimme challenges. Considering how much a catcher has on his plate with pitch calling, the pitch com, and managing base runners, knowing the corner of a pitch’s trajectory clipped the zone on its way through is very impressive. The most impactful was a corrected strikeout on Fernando Tatis Jr on the pitch closest to the edge of those four.
Basically, add this to a list of things Dingler does very, very well, at least early in the season. A year after earning the AL Gold Glove as a catcher, Dingler’s already showing a new dimension to his defensive capabilities. Presumably his two years of experience with ABS in Toledo give him a leg up on most of his veteran MLB peers, and his overall framing skills handle the rest. So far, he’s rated at having saved the Tigers 0.8 runs in challenges through 7 games, third most in the league. Additionally, with Dingler leading the charge, the Tigers’ defense rates 4th with 3.8 total overturns above average. This really is a team built on pitching and defense.
On the whole, Detroit is 6th in all of baseball with 4.9 total overturns above average. The majority of that value comes from their exceptional catchers, while the offense is mostly just holding serve. The only way to improve would likely be challenging less conservatively in general, as both halves of the team are at an above-average success rate. Similarly to baserunning, risking a few bad calls is likely the price of correctly challenging a whole let more. Teams are surely still experimenting with the best challenge strategies, and we have little idea yet how sticky a skill this will turn out to be for catchers and hitters, but a more aggressive approach that doesn’t quite breach into recklessness seems like the right path.
Woodpeckers manager Ricky Rivera helps a young child put on his glove at the annual PLAY BALL Weekend baseball clinic and community giveback on Friday, June 14, 2024, at Segra Stadium. The events were a collaboration between Major League Baseball, The Two-Six Project, and Fayetteville native Vic Blends.
It’s Final Four weekend in college basketball, so if you’re more focused on that, you can be forgiven. It’s a thrilling event to take in, even if your bracket is busted.
For today’s question, it’s taking that concept and putting a baseball spin on it. What is your baseball “Final Four”? You can take this question any direction you want to take it, but from my point of view, I’m talking about things that make baseball baseball. That means hot dogs, scorecards, Fangraphs and baseball gloves. I usually only eat hot dogs when I’m at a baseball game, forgoing the other temptations that are at the ballpark. I love keeping score during a game, purchasing a sweet scorebook to do so. I’m on Fangraphs every day, twice a day and, well, a baseball glove is just about the greatest thing one can give to a person.
Everyone will take this question a different direction, which is what I’m interested in. Let us know.
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 04: Jo Adell #7 of the Los Angeles Angels catches a fly ball hit by Cal Raleigh #29 of the Seattle Mariners during the first inning of the baseball game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 04, 2026 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Ryan Sirius Sun/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It took the Yankees two tries, but they managed to come back from losing positions to beat the Marlins, 9-7, putting them on the cusp of their second sweep in the first three series. After pitching carried them through their first six wins, it was encouraging to see the “never say quit” attitude displayed by the entire lineup, grinding out tough at bats against a stingy Marlins bullpen to come out on top.
That wasn’t the only exciting game in the AL, so let’s see how their Junior Circuit rivals fared.
Chicago White Sox (3-5) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (4-4) 3
On Wednesday it was an extra-innings loss to the Rockies. On Friday it was getting walked-off by the White Sox and last night brought another loss to the Pale Hose. The Blue Jays have now lost three straight games to the only two teams predicted to lose at least 95 games according to FanGraphs’ preseason projections. Both teams went with a bullpen game and did pretty well, Lazaro Estrada following Blue Jays opener Maso Fluharty’s first inning with four no-hit frames while Grant Taylor and Anthony Kay combined to give the White Sox 5.1 innings of two-run ball.
Munetaka Murakami has been electric since signing from NPB over the winter, opening the scoring with a sac fly in the first before crushing a 431-foot, two-run blast in the sixth to restore the White Sox lead for already four home runs, seven RBIs, and a 178 wRC+ in eight games — becoming the fastest Japanese player to four home runs in history.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grabbed Toronto a short-lived lead with a two-run tank in the top of the sixth, but that was immediately nullified by Murakami’s bomb and a solo shot from Colson Montgomery in the bottom half. Nathan Lukes cut the deficit to one with an inning-ending sac fly double play in the seventh, but Luisangel Acuña restored a two-run cushion in the eighth on a two-run single, a throwing error and Acuña subsequently getting caught in a rundown allowing both runs to score.
Detroit Tigers (4-4) 11, St. Louis Cardinals (4-4) 6
Even on a day when Jack Flaherty gave up five runs, the Tigers at no point looked like losing this game as Dustin May surrendered seven runs in just 3.1 innings. Detroit jumped on him early, Kerry Carpenter clubbing a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. They continued to pour it on in the fourth, Zach McKinstry crushing a two-run blast followed by a Parker Meadows triple and Matt Vierling sac fly.
St. Louis fought back admirably, putting up a five spot in the fifth. Alec Burleson got things started in the frame with an RBI double before Jordan Walker demolished a 459-foot grand slam — part of a five-RBI day for the former top prospect.
Unfortunately for St. Louis, the Tigers never took their foot off the gas pedal. Gleyber Torres led off the seventh with a home run and Vierling backed it up with a two-run shot an inning later. Four Tigers left the yard while three logged three-RBI nights to erase Walker’s career performance.
The Astros got their revenge for the Athletics scoring 11 on Friday by scoring 11 of their own in a dominant shutout victory over their divisional foes. Offseason signing Tatsuya Imai shook off his bumpy debut to give fans a teaser of his ceiling, twirling 5.2 scoreless allowing three hits and three walks against nine strikeouts. Out of his 94 pitches, 85 were four-seamers or sliders, yet he still managed to induce a 43-percent whiff rate on the two pitches combined.
It certainly helps when your offense can score double-digit runs despite hitting just a pair of solo shots, the Houston bats collecting 18 base hits and drawing 13 walks against a clearly hapless A’s staff. Four of those walks belonged to Yordan Alvarez while Cam Smith added a pinch hit solo shot late. However, this game was about the bottom-half of the Astros order. Four of the final five hitters in the lineup — Christian Walker, Joey Loperfido, Yainer Diaz, and Christian Vásquez contributed three-hit, two-RBI performances in about as complete a team victory as one could hope for.
The Red Sox woes deepen as they have now lost six out of seven games following an Opening Day victory. Boston Rookie Connelly Early allowed two runs on three hits and four walks in four innings, but it wasn’t enough to stand up against former Yankee Randy Vásquez’s six innings of one-run ball.
The two teams traded runs in the second, Freddy Fermin drawing a leadoff walk, advancing to third on a Ty France single, and scoring the opening run on a Bryce Johnson grounder before Marcelo Mayer responded with a sac fly after Willson Contreras led off with a single followed by a Wilyer Abreu walk. Fermin restored the Padres’ lead with an RBI double in the third after Miguel Andújar reached on a double of his own. Andruw Monasterio re-leveled the scores with an RBI forceout in the eighth after Ceddanne Rafaela and Roman Anthony opened the frame with a pair of singles, which allowed Alex Cora to hand the ball to Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, fresh off a 2025 campaign in which the erstwhile Yankees closer looked otherworldly.
However, Chapman surrendered a Fernando Tatis Jr. double to set up the go-ahead RBI single from Ramón Laureano, both with two outs. Mason Miller turned out to be a tougher customer than Chapman in this one, as he protected the 3-2 lead by striking out the side in a perfect ninth.
Los Angeles Angels (4-5) 1, Seattle Mariners (4-5) 0
This was a good ol’ fashioned pitchers’ duel, Emerson Hancock following up his six no-hit innings with nine strikeouts in his season debut with 6.2 frames of one-run ball against the Angels. However, it was Jack Kochanowicz who came out on top. He may have been the worst starter in baseball last season with a 6.81 ERA and -0.6 fWAR, but he turned in one of the best starts of his young career against Seattle — 5.2 scoreless innings allowing four hits and two walks against seven strikeouts.
The game started out with quite a bit of drama, Jo Adell robbing Cal Raleigh of a home run in the top of the first. In the bottom of the frame. Zach Neto led off with a booming 443-foot home run, and the Angels threatened to pour on more putting runners on second and third on a Nolan Schanuel double and Jorge Soler single, only for Schanuel to get thrown out at home to end the inning while attempting to score on a wild pitch.
In fact, that would constitute all the scoring in this contest.
The Mariners had their chances, loading the bases with two outs in the third and putting a pair on with no outs in the seventh, but the Angels pitchers averted the threat both times. The game ended in very much the same fashion as it began, Adell robbing another home run in the eighth — this time off the bat of Josh Naylor — before making it the trifecta by bringing a J.P. Crawford deep fly near the right-field foul pole back into the yard to preserve the 1-0 victory.
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - APRIL 1: Masyn Winn #0 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates with Ivan Herrera #48, Pedro Pages #43 and JJ Wetherholt #26 all of the St. Louis Cardinals after hitting a walk-off single against the New York Mets in the eleventh inning at Busch Stadium on April 1, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Depending on who you ask, the first week-plus of the 2026 season has gone exactly or nothing as planned for the St. Louis Cardinals. As they enter play on Sunday, they sit 4-4, which could easily be 6-2 or 2-6, whether you want to give props or blame to the bullpen. Despite being about as up and down as a .500 team could be through eight games, we have seen things to be excited about as we navigate the new waters of this rebuild.
I have done all the overreacting I could to the opening week of baseball, both doing an Opening Day Cardinals on my Time livestream and an opening weekend buy/sell podcast with Redbird Rundown, so I decided to use this week to dive into the timely news of the week. Now that we have settled down on the JJ Wetherholt first ballot Hall of Fame, 16-time MVP, and 46-time All-Star conversation, a more realistic talk to have is about his long-term value. And not just to the team in the midst of a rebuild. But also talking the money side, factoring in arbitration years, service time, and other prospects around the league taking home fat paydays with very minimal, or no, major league experience.
Konnor Griffin was forced to wait until the Pirates’ home opener to debut and then quickly signed a nine-year extension worth up to $140 million. This came after the Brewers locked up shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt, who had not even seen a pitch at Triple-A for eight years. Oh yeah, and of course Pete Crow-Armstrong signed a lucrative six-year, $115 million deal to haunt the NL Central for the next handful of seasons in Chicago. The question marks around 2027, prospect incentives, and potential salary cap concerns have created this explosion of early career paydays, but is it time the Cardinals got involved? The first year of a rebuild is hardly time to talk long-term contracts, but I do still believe this rebuild is different than others. The St. Louis lineup is full of pieces all 27 years old and younger. And these are not the same level of guys we see taking the field for the White Sox or Rockies. These are legitimate, or still project to be, major league-caliber hitters. The pitching has questions, as expected, and some of those will not receive answers this year. The offense is top-heavy when it comes to prospects, with the high profile players already being in St. Louis or Triple-A, while the rotation has more excitement brewing in the lower levels. This rebuild could really go anywhere.
Which members of the Cardinals’ young core should Chaim Bloom look to extend?
With those youngsters and owners apparently now finding out they can spend money, I want to look at the current Cardinals’ setup and see who I would start the conversation with if I was Chaim Bloom. However, I am not well-versed in contract negotiations enough to speculate length and salary, so I will allow you all to sound off in the comments for what you believe is fair value. Feel free to add or subtract from the list as well!
#1 JJ Wetherholt
Recency bias or not, there was probably the desire from both parties to at least get the extension conversation started. When Pratt was extended, slightly more attention turned to Bloom, but when Griffin got paid, it sort of seemed like the boat was missed for some reason. Especially when Sal Stewart and the Reds have also been open to the long-term contract talks. But it is not like a trade, where once an extension is signed, nobody else can do it. Quite the opposite probably, like we have seen, and maybe teams feel more pressure to get something done and add a year or a couple extra million bucks to sweeten a quick deal.
Griffin was immediately grabbed as a comp, but expecting a Wetherholt contract to hit the $140 million mark when compared to the Pirates’ infielder is a likely farfetched. The 19-year-old Pittsburgh phenom was the top-rated prospect in the sport, and rated greater than Wetherholt across the board in future projections. That is not to say that what Wetherholt has shown us in the first two weeks has not been impressive. The Opening Day homer, the walk-off hit the next day. Not looking completely overpowered at the plate despite a few more strikeouts. He is still taking his walks and already swiped two bags while settling in at second base. It is early, of course, but he does not seem to have the profile that will be exploited by pitchers for an extended slump.
Even with a couple misplays at second, Baseball Savant has him ranked in the 99th percentile in Fielding Run Value and he is near league-average in every other Statcast homepage metric. Not bad, even when compared to the bigger debuts of Griffin and Jose Fernandez. Wetherholt’s 425-foot flick of the wrist homer was impressive, especially coming at Busch Stadium from a prospect not expected to hit many more than 20 long balls per season. The sweet lefty swing, the athleticism, and the apparent baseball IQ we have seen from Wetherholt during his short time in the bigs should make him a safe bet to be the top of many of your lists for an extension.
In our Redbird Rundown conversation with Ethan Hannaford, I said the fact of the matter is, the average value of Griffin’s contract is about $15.5 million per year. If he is simply a league-average player for the majority of his career, that cost-certainty provides flexibility for future spending. If he becomes a superstar, then that is an unbelievable value for a team that would certainly hope to be contending for a championship.
#2 Ivan Herrera
The fall off in how obvious the talks should get after Wetherholt was steep. I bounced back and forth with all four of the next guys and where they should fall, or if they should even be included and if I just make this a three-man list. But that’s not fun. So I decided to go with Ivan Herrera at number two just to engagement bait any of my Herrera at catcher haters because the Cardinals are apparently fully committed to the bit until something goes horribly wrong.
The counting stats have been slow to… count for Herrera so far in 2026, but his Savant page is full of bright red, speaking to some bad luck or at ‘em balls that will find green sooner or later. To me, BABIP is the ultimate small sample size stat for both hitters and pitchers, but we can talk about that on another day. Looking at his exit velocity, hard hit percentage, and whiff/chase rates mean more to me and those are all above the norm. I am excited to check back in at the end of the month to see what kind of luck Herrera hit into and what the numbers show.
For why I put him at number two, though, is because of the catching. Even with the “catching freight train” heading to St. Louis, maybe the Cardinals play it safe and ensure they get a major league caliber catcher on the big league roster rather than play the risky prospect potential game we have seen them play with Andrew Knizner and Carson Kelly, and what they could do with Jimmy Crooks, Leonard Bernal, and further down the road Rainiel Rodriguez. For the here and now, though, Ivan Herrera is catching and doing a fine job. Even while playing three games behind the plate, Herrera has still played in every game this year and has not look hampered by doing so. The offense has not yet shown up on paper, but can we blame that on the catching? So far, no, since he has been hitting better on the days he wears the gear and the Cardinals are 2-1 with a total of nine runs given up in those games, all by the bullpen. Hm.
An extension for Herrera does not necessarily lock him in as the catcher of the decade, but it does not have to. His main tool is his hitting, and he is still showing he can do that while playing a premium position at a league-average level. The elbow surgery may not have helped him throw anyone out on the bases, but whenever I bring that up on Twitter, I am so nicely reminded that the Cardinals are “trying to lose” so it should not matter anyway. Call me weird for wanting my catcher to throw out a runner. But, the hope is that more time behind the plate and with Yadier Molina could only improve his throwing woes, and if not, Herrera has shown athleticism to potentially move to another position and not become a young DH-only. Before just saying he should play first base just because that is the suggestion any time a position change is brought up, he makes sense as a guy who can and should grab the oven mitt a time or two. Along with that, he has the potential to stand in the grass and do so well enough, especially in the black hole of left field offense, to find a home out there a couple times a week.
Any talks of a position change should come after this year for Herrera. If he is unable to stay healthy behind the plate, the Cardinals should move him to the DH role full-time, unless his injury allows him to spend time working in the minors for an extended period of time at t new spot. Then, next offseason, when the Cardinals hopefully have some final answers at other positions, the defense jockeying for Herrera can begin.
#3 Masyn Winn
Who wouldn’t want their 24-year-old cleanup hitter locked up for the next decade? Lineup jokes aside, if PCA can sign for nearly $20 million a year and the argument is “even if his hitting tails off his defense will provide enough value” then bring Winn to the table now. I wanted to put him number two, but the offense has been a bummer in the early season sample.
As a believer in Winn as a face of the franchise, it would be nice to see the offense progress in his third season in the majors. Healthy going into the season, the hope was the power and speed will result in homers and steals, but a car accident after his walk-off hit after a year-long struggle from the four-hole created some pause. He was in the lineup the next game, but pulled after soreness, but not from the accident. Supposedly from working too hard in the cage to correct his swing. My response? Chill, dude. It’s April 4.
I am in on Winn unless the offense craters to Brendan Ryan territory (don’t look too closely at their numbers), at which point, I have historically been against paying defense-first players with limited offensive ceiling. Because I do believe in his future ability to hit for average and spray the ball to both gaps, I have him third but understand if he would be fifth on other’s lists. With the Cardinals seeming set on Wetherholt playing mostly second base this season, Thomas Saggese is apparently the backup shortstop without a minor leaguer knocking down the door to be there in case things go awry quickly.
#4 Matthew Liberatore
I did not want to go full chalk with hitters but also am hesitant towards long-term pitching extensions in general, and I could not find anyone in the minor leagues that warranted a pre-debut contract. With Dustin May looking not good, Michael McGreevy being slow yet effective, Andre Pallante doing fine, and reminding myself that Kyle Leahy is nearly 29-years-old, Matthew Liberatore seems the best option here.
There’s definitely worse options than a 26-year-old front of this rotation lefty for this list, but a Libby extension should not be seen as a consolation prize, but an overall win for a trade that was, and apparently, still is viewed as a bust in some circles. Liberatore is making $2.25 million this season and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason, assuming a normal negotiation period ensues after the World Series. Even if Liberatore does not develop into the rotation ace he was viewed as when he was a Tampa Bay prospect, if he can remain healthy, he will be a valuable piece of consistency in a rotation that could see a lot of turnover in the next few seasons.
Liberatore drew the Opening Day start and was featured at the front of Cardinal media multiple times this offseason. With basically everyone except for Libby working to prove their worth in 2026, Chaim Bloom shelling out some cash for consistency could be a good stabilizing move as the rotation goes younger and strikeout-heavy.
#5 Alec Burleson
Even after publishing, I will still wonder if I should flip-flop Alec Burleson and Winn on my list, and I probably should. I think one of the determining factors is simply just the age difference, even though Burly has a profile that may be the safer bet for the future and command a little more effort to lock down now. He smacked one of the coolest homers on Opening Day, and probably the only one that could have overshadowed Wetherholt’s from earlier, capping off a huge comeback.
The eldest of the group, he appears to have accepted the leadership role vacated by Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, whatever value you placed on their version of leading is up to you, and become to voice of the clubhouse, taking over for Lars Nootbaar. We saw him lead the congratulatory speech for JJ Wetherholt in the locker room after Opening Day, but have also heard him be talked about as a competitor who challenges himself by both Oliver Marmol and Brant Brown. For a team that is searching for its identity, Burleson can be written into the middle of the lineup everyday.
To me, he continues to be undervalued defensively by the metrics. First base is notoriously a difficult position to measure, but seeing Burleson once again near the bottom of the league in defensive value seems crazy. We have already seen multiple diving plays saving hits and looking confident scooping errant throws. I think Burly also has a little sneaky baserunning acumen that is going to result in taking extra bases or grabbing double digit steals on a yearly basis. If he can keep his ability to make contact with the ball while selling out for slightly more power, I would be comfortable locking Burleson down for a handful of seasons to help with the transition. While the other players would hope to be around for the next competitive team, Burly might age himself out slightly of that window, similar to what just happened to Brendan Donovan, but still be around to usher to next guys up to the league. With only Blaze Jordan right behind him at first, Ivan Herrera, Nolan Gorman, Yohel Pozo, and potentially Pedro Pages could eventually work behind Burleson in some capacity.
Let me know your thoughts on length of contract and overall or annual value! Or, since all of these guys are controlled for a few seasons, is there even a need to go to the table? Sound off below!
(I hope some of you thought Pages would be on this list from the picture <3)
SELF PROMO OF THE WEEK
In this potentially final rendition of my self promotion Sunday (check out VEB’s pod coming this week), Redbird Rundown had a busy week.
Random Cardinal of the Week returned with Ken Griffey Jr. baseball core memory leadoff man, Delino DeShields.
Ethan Hannaford joined Redbird Rundown to go over some mystery player stat lines. That turned into a little extension conversation but also what we think is sustainable throughout the season. This premieres tonight at 6pm, so drop in the chat there and talk to us there!
Cardinals on my Time will premiere an episode with Kevin Wheeler on Wednesday after the game. This will be linked later, but like/follow/subscribe to Redbird Rundown for the full release info.
Next Sunday, Josh Jacobs from Dealin’ the Cards and now covering the Cardinals for MLB.com will answer some questions. We will post that on our socials later this week.
BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 9: Collin Murray-Boyles #12 of the Toronto Raptors drives to the basket during the game against the Boston Celtics on January 9, 2026 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Today, the Toronto Raptors have another opportunity to see if they have what it takes to beat a contender in the Boston Celtics.
Both teams have five games left in the regular season. While the teams who will appear in some type of playoff contention are set, it’s still unclear how exactly the seeding will shake out. Now more than ever, winning matters.
Boston is four and a half games behind Detroit, who has clinched the one-seed, meaning catching up is no longer an option. Their goal will instead be to hold off the Knicks who sit only 2.5 games behind them, and maintain one of the hardest remaining schedules.
Toronto handled business Friday in Memphis, but Atlanta and Philly were also both able to collect victories, solidifying the standings for another night. To the Raptors’ benefit, the Hawks and Sixers both have a far more challenging road ahead.
So far this season, these teams have already met three times. All three of those contests went in Boston’s favour, each by at least three possessions.
There’s no consistency in terms of any one thing that Boston out-did Toronto at. Boston shot better overall in two of the games, had better long range shooting in two of the games, out-rebounded in two, had more blocks in only one, had fewer turnovers in two, fewer fouls in only one….. And the list goes on. No one stat was in either team’s favour between the three contests.
This leads us to the question: how can Toronto avoid the sweep by Boston and get another much-needed win?
The first key will be adaptability. Boston, and other great teams have this characteristic, which is what makes them so hard to beat. If you run them off the 3-point line, they drive. If you’re being aggressive defensively, they draw doubles and kick the ball out. Toronto needs to recognize how Boston’s game develops throughout the course of the game and keep adjusting their defence to slow and stop them. Adopting some of that strategy themselves would help too.
The second key will be slowing Boston’s big three. Brown and Tatum can score at will, and stopping them forces the less-efficient rest of the roster to make plays. The third “big” player in this is Pritchard. For whatever reason, he’s had some of his best games against Toronto, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he tries to have another 30-piece. The combination of Scottie, CMB, and Shead will have to step up in a big way to slow these guys, and hope that will stifle Boston’s offense enough.
The third and final key is desire. At times this season, it’s felt like individual players or even the team as a whole doesn’t care. That’s easy to say from the other side of a TV screen, but even RJ pointed out the need for intensity recently when he said they needed to “play like their lives depend on it”. The season is coming to an end, and to set themselves up for the best chances to make it past the first round, they need to lock all the way in. He also pointed out that they are capable, as long as they play their brand of basketball:
RJ Barrett on what the team wants to prove to themselves, first and foremost, ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Boston Celtics:
“We could beat anybody… When we play Raptors basketball, we could beat anybody.”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the age of countless homeruns, it was the age of no homeruns, it was the spring of hope, it was the summer of baseball – in short, that is to say that while the country was torn asunder by embattled dualities, America’s pastime was once again being played in Cleveland.
The duality of our time could find no better manifestation than in the contrast between starts for the Cleveland Guardians’ Chase DeLauter. For it was he, who in his first play in the major leagues, dropped a fly ball hit to him during the playoffs. The unfortunate soul went hitless in that first career start. And it was he who mustered just one hit on 6 at bats during that same playoff series. And yet it was also he who started the current campaign with 5 homeruns in 26 at-bats. And it was he who was named the American League Player of the Week to start the season.
Chase DeLauter’s error was in the past, and the future lay before him in the year of Our Lord two thousand and twenty-six.
Chase DeLauter took his bat and made his way from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box. They said of him, about the stadium that day, that it was the most determined man’s face ever beheld there. Many in the stands added that he looked sublime and prophetic. If he had given any utterance to his thoughts that day, and they were prophetic, they would have been these:
“I see the city before me, alive with expectation and the echoes of 78 years of suffering. I see the streets leading to the ballpark lined with Guardians banners fluttering from light poles, the scent of Nathan’s hotdogs and freshly cut grass drifting on the Lake Erie breeze. I see Progressive Field, rising from the corner of Carnegie and Ontario like a cathedral of summer, its blue seats sun-warmed, waiting for the unfolding of moments that will be remembered long after the final Tom Hamilton call.”
“I see the scoreboard with the Cleveland skyline behind it as I walk to the plate. I see my photo appear on the screen that now bears my name. I see my teammates, their hands wrapped tight on bats, their eyes following the path of each ball. I see the coaches along the bench, their voices carrying across the dugout, reminders of swings that missed and pitches left over the dish.”
“I see the fans leaning forward in their seats as I walk to the plate, hands clutching foam fingers and cold drinks. I see the little girl in the stands, wearing my number 24, eyes wide with awe. I see old men, nodding with quiet satisfaction, as they jot down notes in their scorebooks. I see the ump meticulously clean the plate the same way he has done countless times before. I see the catcher returning the ball to the pitcher, their eyes meeting in a silent strategy for the at-bat to come. I see the recorded history of Cleveland seasons past etched into the dirt as I step into the batter’s box.”
“It is a far, far better start that I make than I have ever made; it is a far, far better victory that I go to than I have ever known.”
HOUSTON, TEXAS - APRIL 03: Brice Sensabaugh #28 of the Utah Jazz goes to the basket against the Houston Rockets during the second half at Toyota Center on April 03, 2026 in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images) | Getty Images
My significant other suggested that I ask each of you to “tuna in” to the Utah Jazz’s upcoming contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder. I don’t know what could have possibly possessed her to ask this of me, nor have I figured out what tuna could have to do with a basketball game of any scale (no pun intended), but now we are both cursed with the knowledge of a heinous maritime pun.
May this article smite us both.
Assuming you, the reader, possess the fortitude to withstand such a gut-wrenching play on words, perhaps you’ll likewise brave the Utah Jazz’s (21-57, 14th in West) impending struggle against the NBA-best Oklahoma City Thunder (61-16, 1st in West) with similar grace. You are stronger than most, and it’ll take a titanium digestive track to bear the disparity between basketball’s strongest record (OKC) and one of its weakest (Utah).
May I turn your attention to Brice Sensabaugh, who has averaged just shy of 20 points in his last 30 games in the absence of Utah’s veterans. Maybe even Ace Bailey, the Jazz rookie who has erased any buzz that he isn’t happy in the Beehive State and has blossomed into one of the most promising young players in his class? Could I interest you in Cody Williams — who is not terrible — the once-deemed ‘lost cause’ who has scored 20 or more points in seven of his last 10 appearances leading up to Oklahoma City?
The Utah Jazz seemed directionless and empty just a season ago, but with another calendar year of sample size and time in the incubator, Utah’s youngsters are among basketball’s most promising, and could make the Jazz one of the deepest and most dangerous teams in 2026 with a healthy Markkanen, JJJ, Kessler, and George leading the charge (and also AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson would be nice, lottery gods, but I’m not picky).
Sure, OKC is the basketball equivalent of a buzzsaw, essentially disintegrating every team it comes in contact with, and sure, they’ll be the favorites to hoist the NBA Finals trophy for the second consecutive season. Sure, they’ll likely make quick work of the visiting Jazz like a sniffling dog sneezing the powdered sugar off a donut. But something is manifesting in Utah. Don’t take this upcoming result as an indicator of these teams’ true value in the coming years.
Will Hardy and his intrepid group of Boy Scouts embarked on an excursion back in October that has lasted 78 games and taken the functionality of the troop’s most veteran members. Now, as Troop 801 comes across the Paycom Center and its native Oklahoma City Thunder. A storm of epic proportions forced the youth to fall under temporary shelter, shivering and frightened as lightning tore the sky, and the thunderous voice of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander followed.
Rain formed puddles, which formed ponds, which turned into lakes. The remaining scouts clung to floating debris like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Those who honored their parent’s age restriction wishes and hadn’t seen James Cameron’s nautical masterpiece were lost to the storm, but the Thunder’s wrath was withstood by the naughty boys who understand what it means to “paint me like one of your French girls”. Is that irony? Doesn’t matter. The waters are rising, and the Thunder is encroaching.
Suddenly, like a fountain, something shot swiftly from beneath the surface and took to the sky. If just for a moment, it seemed as though the storm… flinched? A sign of weakness? A fleeting glance of possibility for the young and chipper Jazz? The shape shed all ambiguity, revealing its head, tail, and… is that a tuna? Perhaps the task of conquering the Thunder is not impossible — perhaps the undermanned Jazz have a fighting chance after all. With a mighty sploosh, the rallier returned to his origin, having struck a match of hope in these fumbling scouts’ hearts.
[Did I stretch too far for the tuna thing? I feel like I might have.]
Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - APRIL 04: Kumar Rocker #80 of the Texas Rangers walks to the dugout at the end of the fifth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Globe Life Field on April 04, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Reds 2, Rangers 0
Not a great start to the homestand.
A very 2025 feeling game, this was. Quality pitching, but the offense does a bunch of nothing and the Rangers lose a low scoring game.
Kumar Rocker pitched well in his 2026 debut. The first inning was messy, with problematic defense contributing to two runs scoring before Rocker recorded his second out, but he stayed poised, handled things, and ended up pitching five innings of two run ball.
Not bad for a guy who was only named the fifth starter at the end of camp, and who hadn’t pitched for two weeks.
Rocker utilized a five pitch mix, with his slider and sinker making up almost 70% of his pitches while also using his changeup, fastball and cutter. The changeup was a pitch that it had been discussed he was going to need to use more often, and he got three swings and misses on it.
Texas got good work from four relievers — Jalen Beeks, Jacob Latz, Carter Baumler and Tyler Alexander — to keep things close. It was a winnable game.
Also, shout out to Carter Baumler for a 1-2-3 inning. He got a fly out, a strike out and a ground out and threw eight strikes in 12 pitches. It is his first 1-2-3 inning in the majors, and the first time he hasn’t walked a batter in an outing.
The offense? I don’t want to talk about the offense.
Kumar Rocker topped out at 97.2 mph with his fastball. Jalen Beeks hit 94.8 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz touched 94.7 mph with his fastball. Carter Baumler’s fastball reached 95.0 mph. Tyler Alexander’s fastball maxed out at 91.6 mph.
Corey Seager had a 107.4 mph single. Jake Burger had a 107.1 mph single. Josh Smith had a 105.0 mph line out.
The second-last Sunday of the NHL regular season features seven games and nearly 12 hours of action.
My NHL player props today feature the league’s top two goal scorers, Nathan MacKinnon and Cole Caufield, as well as star blueliner Quinn Hughes.
Find the details below in my NHL picks for Sunday, April 5.
Best NHL player prop bets today
Player
MacKinnon anytime goal
-120
Q. Hughes Over 0.5 assists
-160
Caufield anytime goal
+115
img alt="Get a first bet encore up to $800 with the BET99 promo code COVERSNHL" width="100%" loading="lazy" src="https://img.covers.com/promo-articles/bet99nhlcreative2526.jpeg"Get a first bet encore up to $800 with BET99 bonus code COVERSNHL. (not available in Ontario)
Our best NHL player props for Sunday, April 5
Take a look at our best bets and expert analysis below.
Prop #1: Nathan MacKinnon anytime goal
-120 at BET99
Nathan MacKinnon added to his NHL-leading goal total on Saturday with one of two Colorado Avalanche tallies in Colorado’s 2-0 win over the Dallas Stars.
The Avs superstar has 51 goals this season as he looks to claim his first Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, with five of those markers coming in his last five games.
MacKinnon enters Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Blues on a three-game goal streak, and he always seems to love playing against the division rival. He’s scored in three straight meetings vs. the Blues, and he posted four points in their last meeting on December 31.
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Where to watch: ESPN, Sportsnet
Prop #2: Quinn Hughes Over 0.5 assists
-160 at BET99
Quinn Hughes has been a perfect fit since joining the Minnesota Wild in December, collecting a ridiculous 47 assists and 50 points in 45 games with the club.
The Minnesota blueliner has picked up at least one apple in three straight outings, and five of his last six, while the Wild have averaged a solid 3.60 gpg over their last five contests.
This afternoon’s matchup should favor Hughes and the Wild as the Detroit Red Wings have struggled in the home stretch. Detroit is 2-5-0 over its last seven games while allowing 3.57 gapg during that span.
The Wild will score three or four, and Hughes will factor in at least one.
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Where to watch: HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, Sportsnet 360
Prop #3: Cole Caufield anytime goal
+115 at BET99
There has not been a better goal scorer in the NHL than Cole Caufield since players returned from the Olympic break. Hard to believe that the Montreal Canadiens sniper was a snub for Team USA, isn’t it?
Caufield has 17 goals in his last 18 games and has tickled the twine in nine of his last 12 outings.
He didn’t score against the New Jersey Devils yesterday, but he was all over the puck with five shots on net.
Jacob Markstrom likely starts for the Devils, and he’s allowed 3+ goals in eight of his last nine starts.
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
Travis Konecny has feasted on the Boston Bruins this season, putting together multi-point performances in both meetings thus far.
Well rested and likely to face a backup netminder, my Bruins vs. Flyers predictions and NHL picks expect Konecny to make his way onto the scoresheet once again.
Bruins vs Flyers prediction
Bruins vs Flyers best bet: Travis Konecny Over 0.5 points (-150)
Travis Konecny has been a model of consistency for the Philadelphia Flyers, producing a point in 65% of his appearances this season. That number jumps to 75% following one day of rest.
He should build on those totals against the Boston Bruins, who will likely turn to backup Joonas Korpisalo after starting Jeremy Swayman on Saturday.
Also helping the cause is a good set of linemates. Konecny is skating with Christian Dvorak and highly touted rookie Porter Martone, and the early returns on that trio are strong.
They’ve controlled 63% of the expected goals at 5-on-5 through three games.
Bruins vs Flyers same-game parlay
Porter Martone has shot the lights out since stepping into the NHL. He's averaged five shots on seven attempts and cleared this line in two of three games. The Bruins are a poor shot-suppression team and played yesterday, so we should expect Martone to generate volume.
Martone correlates with Konecny, making him a natural selection to pick up a point. He also skates on a power-play unit featuring the likes of Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov, which served as the top group in usage last time out.
Travis Konecny produced multiple points in both games against the Bruins this season. Find more NHL betting trends for Bruins vs. Flyers.
How to watch Bruins vs Flyers
Location
Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
Date
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Puck drop
3:30 p.m. ET
TV
TNT
Bruins vs Flyers latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood stole a quote from Houston coach Kelvin Sampson after the Fighting Illini's Final Four loss to UConn.
Sampson, one of the greatest coaches to never have won a national championship, knows a thing or two about March Madness heartbreak, which is exactly what Underwood was feeling after Illinois' 71-62 loss on Saturday, April 4, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
"I feel sad," Underwood told reporters after the game. "I'm sad. If you want to know the truth, I'm sad. But I'll reflect on some of the other stuff later. Seasons coming to an end sting. I'm going to steal a quote from Kelvin Sampson: 'I may not be as big a part of their life, but they are my life.'"
Illinois had beaten every team it faced in the 2026 Men's NCAA Tournament by double-digits until facing the Huskies, who have given the Illini fits in recent years. Illinois' three-lowest scoring outputs of the past three seasons all came against UConn, scoring 52 points in 2024's Elite Eight loss, 61 points in a nonconference game this season and 62 in its Final Four loss on April 4.
UConn denied passing lanes all night and made things difficult for Illinois' potent offense, limiting the Illini to only three assists as a team, two of which came from star true freshman Keaton Wagler, who also scored 20 points with eight rebounds.
Underwood took the road less traveled to Illinois as the head coach at Dodge City Community College in Kansas and Daytona Beach Community College in Florida before becoming a multi-year assistant at Kansas State and South Carolina. He got his Division I coaching start at Stephen F. Austin and parlayed a one-year Oklahoma State stint into his current role at Illinois.
The 62-year-old coach didn't take Illinois' run back to the Final Four for the first time since 2005 lightly, especially given his career path.
"If you guys don't know me, I'm about relationships," Underwood said. "If anybody remembers me for wins and losses, then I didn't do a very good job as a human being. The one thing this did for me was bring a lot of people who I haven't talked to reached out, and there's a lot of people here supporting me and my family.
"That's what this experience is about for me. For that group of guys in there, that's a lifetime memory, and I couldn't be more excited about that."
Underwood didn't spend much time discussing what went wrong for Illinois after the game, although he did note the Fighting Illini's poor shooting night, as they shot 34% from the field and 23% from 3-point range.
He did make an emphasis, though, on giving his 2025-26 roster their flowers after an impressive season that came up short.
"Am I competitive? Does today stink? It hurts. My gut hurts so bad right now, I feel for all of them," Underwood said. "But I'm also excited about the joy that we brought a lot of people in this run. And we got Illinois back to a level where they're in Final Fours again.
"By God, as long as I'm ball coach, I better not take 21 (expletive) years to get back there."
WEST VALLEY, UTFEB 24: Tony Bradley #30 of the College Park Skyhawks shoots oduring an NBA G-League game at the Maverik Center in West Valley, Utah on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. Salt Lake City won 119-96. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Allred/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
With the injury to Jock Landale, the Hawks decided to add a familiar center as the team prepares for postseason play.
The Atlanta Hawks are signing veteran center Tony Bradley to a deal for the remainder of the season, adding frontcourt depth in wake of an injury to Jock Landale, sources tell ESPN. Atlanta has had a hot second half, surging to No. 5 in the Eastern Conference.
Tony Bradley never appeared for the Hawks, but he did spend a chunk of last season (12 games) with the College Park Skyhawks. He was later picked up by the Indiana Pacers, who went on to come to within one game of the title.
Across the last two seasons with the Pacers, Bradley appeared in 50 games and 11 postseason games as a big-bodied reserve center.
The reason for this move now is that it’s unclear when Landale may return. On April 2, the Hawks released this update about Landale’s ankle injury:
Center Jock Landale sustained a right ankle injury during the fourth quarter of last night’s game at Orlando. Following medical evaluation and imaging, Landale has been diagnosed with a right high ankle sprain. He will be re-evaluated in approximately two weeks and an update will be provided at that time.
In order to make space on the roster, the Hawks decided to let go little used shooter Caleb Houstan.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 01: Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves dunks against Moussa Diabaté #14 of the Charlotte Hornets during the second half of the NBA game at Spectrum Center on November 01, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Charlotte Hornets Date: April 5th, 2026 Time: 6:00 PM CDT Location: Target Center Television Coverage: FanDuel Sports Network – North Radio Coverage: Wolves App, iHeart Radio
With Anthony Edwards sidelines, the Wolves went into Boston and pulled off a professional win, then followed it with that completely deranged, Scott Foster-fueled overtime escape against Houston, the kind of game that usually becomes a rallying point for a team trying to harden itself for the postseason. It felt like the Wolves had rediscovered their defensive identity, their connectivity, and maybe even a little bit of that stubborn edge that carried them on back-to-back Western Conference Finals runs.
And then they dropped three of four games, including back-to-back games to Detroit and Philadelphia, and suddenly the whole thing feels unstable again.
That is the maddening part of this Timberwolves season. They keep giving you just enough to believe they’ve turned the corner, and then they take that same corner like they’re driving on bald tires in sleet. Friday night in Philadelphia was the latest example. It was not some shameful no-show or one of those dead-eyed weekend matinee meltdowns where you question whether half the team remembered there was a game. In fact, the Wolves fought. They competed. They even built a ten-point lead in the third quarter. But eventually the weight of the week caught up to them. Anthony Edwards, still recovering from injury and illness, looked like a guy who had no business being asked to carry an offense, and the Sixers, refreshed, healthier, imposed their will.
That was the story. Minnesota came into Philly with its back against the wall after that exhausting loss in Detroit, needing to summon one more big effort on the second night of a back-to-back against a Sixers team that had started to find itself again with Joel Embiid back in the lineup. The hope was obvious. Edwards had returned Monday against Dallas, then sat Thursday in Detroit with an illness. Maybe the extra night of rest would help. Maybe the freshest legs on the roster would belong to the one guy who could actually bend the game. Maybe the superstar could be the superhero again.
Instead, the version of Edwards that took the floor looked like a shell of himself. He finished just 3-for-15 from the field and 0-for-7 from three, and for long stretches he was not simply ineffective, but almost invisible. That is not a criticism so much as an acknowledgment of the obvious. He was sick 24 hours earlier. He looked out of rhythm. He looked like a guy trying to force his way through a game his body was not ready to own. To be blunt, there were stretches where the Wolves functioned better without him, which is not something you say about Anthony Edwards unless the circumstances are screaming it at you.
The frustrating thing is that Minnesota still gave itself a chance. Even with Ant sputtering, even with the offense feeling patched together, they pushed out to that ten-point lead in the third and for a moment it felt like one of those ugly, admirable road wins you talk yourself into as evidence of maturity. But then the bottom fell out. The shots stopped falling. The legs got heavy. The Sixers got downhill, got to the rim, and started scoring in the kind of effortless, demoralizing ways that happen when one team is tired and the other senses blood. By the time the lead stretched to seventeen late, the game had taken on that ugly late-stage feel where everything Minnesota did required enormous effort and everything Philadelphia got seemed to arrive cleanly and on time.
The final numbers told the whole story. The Sixers shot 50 percent. The Wolves shot 38 percent. Philadelphia was better from three, better from the line, better on the glass, and over the course of 48 minutes there was almost nothing Minnesota actually did better. When the tape says one team beat you physically, schematically, and efficiently, there really is not much left to argue about.
So now the Wolves head into the final stretch of the regular season with things feeling less like a sprint up the standings and more like a desperate attempt to stay balanced on the ladder. Maybe the six seed is already where this thing is headed. Maybe the script has been written and all this scoreboard-checking is just emotional self-harm dressed up as fandom. But whether or not they can still climb, these last few games are now about something just as important: getting right. Getting healthy. Getting connected. Building momentum and rhythm and confidence so that when the playoffs arrive, they do not look like a team that has spent the past month in disarray.
That process continues against Charlotte, and while a late-season game against the Hornets does not exactly sound like an instant classic, it matters. It matters because Charlotte has been remarkably better in the second half of the season. It matters because the Wolves cannot keep alternating between “we’ve got it figured out” and “why is the house on fire again?” And it matters because if the Wolves are going to do anything meaningful in in the post-season, they need to start looking like a team that knows what version of itself it wants to be.
With that, here are the keys to the game.
#1. Match Charlotte’s energy and play with real defensive intent from the jump. One positive sign lately is that the Wolves, for the most part, have not been sleepwalking through games the way they did in those dead-brained losses earlier in the season. The competition has gotten tougher, yes, but some of it also feels like this team understands it no longer has the luxury of coasting. That has to continue against Charlotte. The Hornets are hungry, feisty, and still trying to carve out something meaningful of their own down the stretch. If Minnesota walks into this game treating it like a lazy weekend game against those old, irrelevant Hornets, LaMelo Ball will happily turn it into a track meet, and guys like Brandon Miller and Kon Kneuppel will start bombing away from deep. This has to begin on the defensive end. Pressure the ball. Show real purpose on closeouts. Do not let Charlotte’s guards get comfortable. If Edwards is still working his way back into rhythm, then defense has to be the part of the game Minnesota can always count on.
#2. Win the rebounding battle for once. The Wolves have let themselves get pushed around too often lately. Detroit did it. Philadelphia did it. It has become a recurring problem at the worst possible time, which is especially frustrating for a team with Gobert, Randle, and Reid on the roster. Charlotte does not have a frontcourt that should be able to duplicate what Joel Embiid or Jalen Duren did. That means Minnesota has to come into this game with the mindset that every rebound belongs to them. Rebounds are not just about ending possessions here. They are also about unlocking transition chances and giving this offense a simpler path to points than trying to grind through every halfcourt trip like it’s a tax audit.
#3. Stay aggressive and attack the rim. If Edwards is not back to being Edwards yet, the Wolves need offense from other sources, and that means pace and rim pressure become essential. Bones Highland, Ayo Dosunmu and, Terrence Shannon Jr. are the types of guys who can inject some burst into the game by getting downhill and making Charlotte’s defense react. Minnesota cannot afford to spend 48 minutes walking the ball up, running a static set, and watching someone jack up a late-clock bailout jumper. Push off rebounds. Pressure the paint. Create easy looks in transition and force Charlotte to defend on the move. Even if the three-point shot is shaky, the Wolves have enough athleticism and enough downhill players to generate good offense by attacking before the defense gets organized.
#4. Hit your shots — at the line and from deep. The Wolves shot 65 percent from the free-throw line against Philadelphia, and while that was not the only reason they lost, it absolutely helped turn the final minutes into a desperate uphill climb instead of a close clutch-time stretch. There is no polite way to say this anymore: it is completely unacceptable for a team with this much shot-making talent to keep punting away uncontested points from the stripe. It has been annoying all season. In the playoffs, it could be fatal. The same goes for the three-point line. Friday was not just an Ant disaster from deep, although 0-for-7 from your star certainly doesn’t help. DiVincenzo has looked off. Bones and Ayo have had hot stretches, but need to be steadier. This offense does not need to be elite every night, but it has to stop sabotaging itself with rotten efficiency in the two key scoring areas on the board: free throws and open threes.
#5. Use this game to get right, not just to get by. This is the biggest thing. At this point, it may be less about obsessing over whether the Wolves can climb to fifth or whether they are locked into sixth and more about whether they can enter the postseason looking like a team you’d want no part of. That does not mean the standings no longer matter. They absolutely do. The Lakers could still slide and maybe that fifth seed becomes an easy ticket to round two. There are enough moving pieces left that Minnesota cannot just sit tight and accept its fate. But beyond all that, the Wolves need this game as a tune-up, a stabilizer, a confidence builder. They need Edwards to look more like himself. They need the offense to function. They need the defense to feel connected. They need to start stacking quality basketball, not just surviving individual nights. A solid win against this feisty Charlotte team could help them get back on balance if they approach it correctly.
The runway is getting short now. The regular season has gone from long and meandering to urgent and loud. And after the emotional swings of the two weeks, the Boston win, the Houston miracle, the Detroit stumbles, and the Philly fade, the Wolves need something solid. Something that feels like progress instead of another go-round on the rollercoaster.
This team may not ultimately control where it lands in the standings. Maybe the sixth seed is already inevitable. But they do control whether they go into the postseason looking organized, dangerous, and ready to punch back. That is what these final games are really about. Not just winning them, but using them to rediscover what their best basketball actually looks like.
And if they can do that against Charlotte, if they can shake off the Philly fog, hit some shots, defend with edge, dominate the glass, and get Edwards back into orbit, then maybe the story of this season is not that they fell short of where they wanted to be, but that they found the right version of themselves just in time.
Q. 
