Category: Sports News

The Cubs are loading up on left-handers as they play the Phillies the next two days — and then four times next week at Wrigley Field:

You all know about Luke Little. Throws hard, but often does not know where the ball is going. In 35.1 MLB innings over the last three years, Little has a 2.80 ERA — which is good! He’s struck out 44 batters in those innings, which is also good! He’s also walked 28 batters in those innings, which is… not good. If Little could ever harness command and control, he could be a useful MLB reliever. So far this year at Triple-A Iowa, Little has walked 10 batters (and struck out nine) in 7.2 innings, so… not yet, anyway.

Ryan Rolison, as noted, pitched for the Rockies last year. He was their first-round pick (22nd overall) in 2018 out of the University of Mississippi. Last year Rolison posted a 7.02 ERA and 1.772 WHIP in 42.1 innings. The Cubs claimed him on waivers in January. At Iowa this year, Rolison has a 3.68 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 7.1 innings over five appearances.

Here are the moves to make room for Little and Rolison:

Charlie Barnes was called up to the Cubs over the weekend and threw the last three innings of Monday’s loss to the Phillies. I assume he’ll be on the Iowa Shuttle his year.

Ethan Roberts, who has a 0.00 ERA in three games (2.2 innings) with the Cubs this year. Hopefully this injury is nothing serious. He seems like he could also be a useful Iowa Shuttle piece.

This gives the Cubs four left-handers in the pen as they face the lefty-heavy Phillies for six more games over the next week. In addition to Little and Rolison, Hoby Milner and Caleb Thielbar round out the southpaw relief crew. The Mets, who visit Wrigley Field this weekend, are a more right-handed hitting team, though they do have a couple of switch-hitters in Francisco Lindor and Jorge Polanco.

As always, we await developments. Today’s game preview will post at 3:30 p.m. CT.

The pitching wasn’t pretty, but the Yankees survived an 11-10 slugfest with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night in the opener of their four-game set. They did, however, decide that they needed relief reinforcements before they played another game.

Immediately after the marathon on Monday, the Yanks demoted right-handed pitcher Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Initially acquired from the Colorado Rockies before the 2025 Trade Deadline with the hopes that his ERA wasn’t indicative of the stuff he could provide, Bird unfortunately has yet to take flight.

Bird was quickly demoted last year following three bad games, and though he made the Opening Day roster, 2026 hasn’t gone much better. Memories of a few solid outings in San Francisco and Seattle were quickly tarnished in a blown loss to the Marlins on April 5th where he failed to record an out and allowed three runs. He was then a bit shaky against the A’s and Rays before getting roughed up by the Angels—particularly Mike Trout. In seven innings on the season, he has a 7.71 ERA, and blowing multiple leads in last night’s game appeared to be the last straw.

In his place, the Yankees called up another bullpen contender from spring training: Yerry De los Santos. The righty pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2022-23 and has spent the last few seasons as a Yankees Triple-A depth option, primarily sticking in Scranton. Last season though, De los Santos did make it into 25 games for the Bombers and did yeoman’s work as a middle reliever, racking up 35.2 innings across 25 games and separate call-ups between April 27th through August 25th. De los Santos notched 28 strikeouts, a 3.38 ERA (81 ERA-), and a 3.44 FIP (coincidentally, an 81 FIP-).

The Yankees elected to go with Bird and Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest as the last men in their 2026 bullpen on Opening Day, but with Winquest returned to the Cardinals upon Luis Gil’s activation and Bird demoted, an opening was there for De los Santos. The 28-year-old did his part to make a case for it, as in 9.1 innings early on for the RailRiders, he’d allowed just two runs on six hits, fanning 13 with a 1.93 ERA and 0.964 WHIP. The Yankees preferred to select someone already on the larger 40-man roster, and De los Santos got the nod over Angel Chivilli and Kervin Castro. The offseason trade pickup Chivilli had actually pitched a little better, but he is seen as someone who is more of a post-Rockies project like Bird, so it’s understandable to take the safer pick in De los Santos.

The Yankees’ bullpen to this point has been a bit of a concern, and De los Santos—while only having pitched in limited innings for the club to this point—has been a decent option to turn to when things get tight for Aaron Boone and his staff. The best-case, of course, is that the Yankees get into a blowout victory situation and De los Santos can soak up some innings for his 2026 debut. Regardless, he’ll be ready and waiting.

When the Nats traded MacKenzie Gore, the piece people talked about the most was Gavin Fien. It makes sense, Fien was the 12th pick in the 2025 draft and has been a famous name for a while. However, I think there is a solid chance that Devin Fitz-Gerald ends up being the real prize of the return.

The early signs are sure pointing in that direction. Fien struggled in his first four games in Low-A, and then missed the last week for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Fitz-Gerald has taken to High-A like a duck to water as a 20 year old with limited professional experience. 

It is way too early to make any real declarations, and I am not giving up any of my Gavin Fien stock after just four rough games. For Fitz-Gerald though, he seems like he is on the road to being a top 100 prospect. After the graduation of Astros prospect Brice Matthews, Fitz-Gerald is now one of the top 10 second base prospects in all of baseball.

I anticipate that his stock will continue to rise, and there is a chance he will become a top 100 prospect. It was a slight surprise to see Fitz-Gerald assigned to High-A Wilmington. He only played 41 games last year in his first pro season, which was cut short by injuries. Fitz-Gerald spent 31 of those games in rookie ball and just 10 in Low-A. 

Despite only playing 10 Low-A games, the Nationals were comfortable assigning him to High-A Wilmington, which is not only a level higher, but also a ball park that is notoriously tough on hitters. The Nats stockpile of young infield talent forced their hand a bit, but the fact they were comfortable sending Fitz-Gerald to High-A shows their confidence level in him.

So far, their faith is being rewarded. Through his first 30 at bats, Fitz-Gerald is hitting .333 with a .944 OPS. He also has five walks to just five strikeouts. The switch hitting infielder is showing his advanced hitting chops despite being assigned to a tough level.

Fitz-Gerald has a nice combination of pure hitting ability and power. In high school, Fitz-Gerald was seen as a contact first player, but showed surprising pull side power in his pro debut. We saw that pull side power on display when he hit his first High-A home run last week against Yankees prospect and former Nats farm hand Sean Paul Linan.

That home run was a real thing of beauty. His left handed set up and toe tap kind of remind me of Tigers young phenom Kevin McGonigle. Fitz-Gerald has some similarities to McGonigle with his advanced hitting ability and surprising power. However, the 20 year old has a long way to go if he wants to reach McGonigle’s level.

When you watch Fitz-Gerald play, you can tell he is a gamer who has been around baseball his whole life. His dad Todd is one of the most prominent high school baseball coaches in Florida. He coaches at Stoneman Douglas High School, which has produced players such as Roman Anthony, Jesus Luzardo, Anthony Rizzo and Coby Mayo. Fitz-Gerald hopes to be the next great product of his dad’s program.

There was a podcast recently that had Todd Fitz-Gerald on, which I really enjoyed. They talked about Devin’s development among other things. Todd was not worried about his son’s aggressive assignment because of his confidence in his hitting ability.

That is not just a father hyping up his son, it is just true. Wherever Devin Fitz-Gerald has been, he has hit. None of the concerns about him as a player come from his hitting ability. The questions about Fitz-Gerald come from his average athleticism and defensive home.

Fitz-Gerald played shortstop in high school and with the Rangers, but he is likely to settle in as a second baseman. He is not the twitchiest player, but he has great instincts and enough athleticism to be a good second baseman. In the past, Fitz-Gerald’s power upside was questioned, but those doubts have been answered for the most part. He now projects to be at least a 15 homer bat with the potential for more due to his ability to pull the ball in the air.

Of all the prospects in the Nats system, Devin Fitz-Gerald has one of the fewest question marks. He may not have the athletic upside of some other players in the system, but man can he hit. Fitz-Gerald also gets the most out of his tools due to his baseball IQ.

He has average speed, but already has 7 stolen bases thanks to his great instincts. There could be 15 SB upside here even without great speed due to his ability to make good reads. This is truly your prototypical coaches kid and I think he is the hidden gem of the MacKenzie Gore return. If he is the best player of the five guys the Nats got back from the Rangers, I would not be at all surprised.

The Cincinnati Reds are wasting zero time instituting their outfield (and offensive) shakeup, as Rece Hinds will start Tuesday evening’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants in RF. Hinds, 25, was recalled after Noelvi Marte was optioned to AAA following a horrid start to his 2026 season, and the Reds will hope the improved plate approach Hinds has shown for the better part of the last 13 months with the Bats will now translate at the big league level.

Rece will hit 6th tonight as the Reds stack their lineup with right-handed hitters as the Giants will send left-hander Robbie Ray to the mound for the start. As was mentioned yesterday, Hinds actually has hit right-handed pitching better than southpaws down at AAA for a while now, but the assumption is that he’ll still have a better shot at turning one around than left-handed outfield options Will Benson and, for now, TJ Friedl.

Friedl will start this one on the pine as righty Dane Myers covers CF and leads off.

On the mound for the Reds tonight will be Brady Singer, and there’s a great hope that his blister issues are far enough in the past that he’ll finally be able to put together a more vintage Singer outing. In his trio of outings so far this year his average fastball velocity is down to just 90.3 mph after sitting at 91.5 mph last year (and 92.5 as recently as 2023), and he’s leaning on his sinker usage almost 13% more than he did a year ago. The assumption has been that the blister (or the threat of it coming back) have hampered him a bit from letting it rip 100% the way he’d like, so hopefully that changes for the better beginning tonight.

First pitch is set for 6:40 PM ET, and this one will be on Reds.tv/MLB.tv per usual.

Here’s how the Reds will line up for this one:

The Dodgers took the opener over the New York Mets on Monday night, continuing their season-opening stretch of not yet losing two games in a row. They now head into Tuesday night looking to keep another streak alive — winning all the middle games of a three-game series.

Thus far, the Dodgers are five for five in the second game of a series:

• March 27: Dodgers 5, Diamondbacks 4 — Edwin Díaz introduced with live trumpet playing, records first save
• March 31: Dodgers 4, Guardians 1 — Max Muncy homered, Cleveland didn’t score until ninth inning
• April 4: Dodgers 10, Nationals 5 — Second straight early pummeling in Washington D.C., with five runs in first two innings
• April 7: Dodgers 4, Blue Jays 1 — Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed only one run, faced two batters in seventh
• April 11: Dodgers 6, Rangers 3 — Alex Vesia joined the Dodgers birthday save club

Yamamoto has finished six innings in all three of his starts thus far, something Dodgers starters have done 10 times in 16 games this season (10 out of 13 starts by the non-Sasaki members of the rotation), including each of their last four middle games of series.

Dodgers starting pitchers have a 3.44 ERA this season while averaging 5.56 innings per start, and their nine quality starts are one behind the Seattle Mariners for most in the majors. And after Justin Wrobleski’s eight-inning gem on Monday night, the Dodgers will have a well-rested bullpen for the final two games of the homestand before Thursday’s off day.

Mets rookie Nolan McLean gets the ball for New York on Tuesday. The right-hander has 20 strikeouts against only six walks this season, with opposing batters hitting just .140/.234/246 against him.

Tuesday game info

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

If you told someone you were writing a script and had the White Sox at 6-10 a tenth of the way into the season, they’d reply, “Sounds about right. Extrapolates to a normal season for them.” If you then said that half the victories were against the defending AL champions, that same person would say, “That stretches the suspension of disbelief. Better rewrite that part.”

Incredulity would stretch further if you also wrote that the major failure was not from the expected terrible starting rotation, which has instead been very good except for Shane Smith, whose fall has been as rapid as his 2025 Rule 5 rise — back when, it’s worth noting, Ethan Katz was the pitching coach — but rather from a pathetic offense, which was supposed to be much improved.

With Lenyn Sosa off to botch up the Blue Jays’ defense (has there ever been a major league player with less in the way of baseball instincts?) in exchange for an 18-year-old 17th-round draft pick and a PTBNL or Jerry Reinsdorf’s favorite — cash — even last year’s home run leader has departed, so the almighty quest for power, power, POWER!!! becomes even more difficult. Sosa, incidentally, was the last remaining member of a White Sox team that didn’t have a losing record, except for Reese McGuire, who left and came back, so that doesn’t count.

How bad is the lineup? Let us count the ways.

So far in 2026, the Sox are dead last in the majors in scoring runs, at 3.06 per game, even with all the gifts from the Blue Jays and Royals. Sure, small sample size and bats generally warm up with the weather, but that’s true for the other 29 teams as well.

How awful is 3.06 runs per game? Last year, they scored 3.99, which was 27th. Worse yet, even the record-setting 2024 horror team scored more — 3.13 runs per game.

This year’s team is also 30th in average at .193, an astounding 29 points below the 121-loss team, and last in OPS, 34 points below 2024, in both cases by a wide margin. They’ve improved from that team and matched 2025 to tie for 23rd in home runs so far, and beat both years in rank in stealing bases, where they’re 10th with 12.

And apparently Braden Montgomery won’t be riding to the rescue soon, since he’s hitting .212 in Birmingham. San Antonacci, on the other hand, is clobbering the ball in Charlotte.

And, oh, yeah — they’re back to striking out like crazy, second to last. Or second best, if you think striking out is a good thing.

WHO’S TO BLAME FOR THIS MESS?

Well, Jerry Reinsdorf, of course, and to a lesser extent, Chris Getz. But among players, there’s plenty of awfulness to share. And that’s even before we get into a defense that is dead last in both defensive runs saved and RTOT, which is Baseball-Reference’s range factor, and by a wide margin in both cases.

B-R has an algorithm that measures Wins Above Average, a more persnickety version of WAR, by team and position. As you might imagine, the numbers aren’t pretty for the White Sox, but let’s look anyway.

STARTING PITCHING

As you’d expected, a very bright spot, and one that should (we hope) shine even more brightly when Noah Schultz comes in playing the deus ex machina role. The starters come in eighth out of the 30 teams despite Smith’s struggles, a big jump up from last season’s 18th, but — amazingly — below 2024’s fifth. See, I told you that was amazing (but remember, Garrett Crochet was on that team)!

RELIEF PITCHING

The Sox fall here to a dismal 27th, far below last year’s 14th, but — and this is disheartening — in line with 2024’s 28th.

ON TO THE POSITION PLAYERS (PLEASE AVERT THE EYES OF SMALL CHILDREN)

In each case, let’s go to the placement by year, going backward — 2026, 2025, 2024.

Catcher — 28/8/30. Obviously, the absence of Kyle Teel so far has been a major negative, but the collapse of Edgar Quero to a pathetic .162/.244/.162 line (a 21 OPS+) after a solid 2025 is horrid, and McGuire and his .125 average haven’t helped.

First base — 22/29/26. This was supposed to be a really bright spot with the acquisition of Munetaka Murakami. Still, after his red-hot four-homer start that made it look like a brilliant move for the Sox, Murakami has basically hit zilch, now checking in at .157/.323/.392, making the other 29 teams look smarter. Chances are, he’s neither as good as his start, nor as bad as he is now, and he wouldn’t have set records in Japan if he weren’t capable of making adjustments. A .154 BABIP indicates some bad luck, but Murakami’s 34% K rate (even young Kyle Schwarber wasn’t that bad) and 50% grounder rate aren’t good signs.

Second base — 29/25/29. Yep, near the bottom at second, despite Chase Meidroth usually being fun to watch. The problem is, despite occasional cool plays, he scores negatively in both DRS and RTOT, and his average is now down to .196, not workable for a singles hitter, leaving him with a 72 OPS+ despite a good walk rate.

Third base — five-way tie for 5/25/29. That’s a hard jump up to explain since Miguel Vargas is only hitting .180 and is just a wash defensively. Maybe it’s a collapse by other third basemen around the majors.

Shortstop — 16/20/29. Colson Montgomery only had part of a season last year, so he’s beating himself here, despite just hitting .200/.302/.418 for a 108 OPS+ thanks to three homers. His 30% K rate doesn’t help, though, and his hard-hit rate is well below league average.

Left field — 29/28/29. Correlation doesn’t necessarily indicate causation (except when it really does), but the White Sox have lost 100 or more games every season Andrew Benintendi has been on the team. Maybe with Sosa gone, he can go full-time DH and just be bad at offense. Tanner Murray looked good out there Sunday.

Center field — 29/21/26. Turns out, Luis Robert Jr. at his worst was better than whoever the Sox have sent out in his stead, which has mostly been Luisangel Acuña. Having escaped the Sox, Robert is hitting .319 for the Mets, while Acuña is hitting (and slugging) .196.

Right field — 22/22/30. This has been a throw-somebody-out-there-because-we-have-to situation since Austin Hays was hurt, and he only had a 69 OPS+ anyway. Must be a lot of bad right fielders around the big leagues to make it up to 22, though Dustin Harris’ homer-saving catch to save the game Sunday was quite nifty.

WHICH MEANS?

All those top-100 MLB prospect shortstops in the system need to move on up the ladder quickly and spread across the field. Otherwise, … well, let’s not think about it.