Category: Sports News

The glass of baseball is always half full and half empty at the same time and the 2026 A’s are no exception. Half full: the A’s still own sole possession of 1st place at the 1/4 mark. Half empty: their 21-20 record puts them currently on pace for only 84 wins.

The Good

Let’s start today with a big positive from the ‘half full department’. I think we should take a moment to realize just how good Shea Langeliers has been in 2026. He hasn’t just been the A’s best hitter nor is he simply the best catcher in the AL 1/4 of the way through the season. Langeliers can legitimately lay claim to being one of the best 2 or 3 hitters in the American League so far in 2026.

Sound like hyperbole? Langeliers has played in all but 4 games, missing most of those due to paternity leave, and he is batting, for the season, .340/.396/.641 with 12 HR. That’s a 48 HR pace and the league lead in batting (.020 points ahead of Josh Jung).

Shea’s 183 wRC+ is rivaled by few AL hitters. Even the legendary Aaron Judge is barely ahead of him at 185 wRC+. The only clearly superior hitter, by wRC+, would be Ben Rice (198). And once you factor in position and defensive value, Shea rises in overall WAR: Rice currently sits at 1.9 fWAR, Langeliers at 2.4 fWAR.

That’s right, Langeliers is on pace for a 9.6 fWAR season. Who knows how the voting will go, but he really should be a no-brainer to start the All-Star game as the American League’s catcher.

The Fugly

One wants to avoid the temptation to panic over small samples, but with Lawrence Butler the sample is growing ever larger: since the 2025 All-Star break Butler has just been bad. Last July-September you can wonder how much his knee might have been a factor, but that’s not really an excuse for how 2026 has begun.

The sample is now 96 games and here is how the numbers shake down:

2nd half of 2025, 58 games: .203/.268/.351, 70 wRC+
1st half of 2026, 38 games: .175/.277/.275, 56 wRC+

In aggregate you have a sub .200 hitter with an OBP in the low .270s and slugging in the low-mid .300s with a wRC+ in the mid-60s.

Against LHPs in his career now, Butler is batting just .221/.262/.378, 77 wRC+, which is why he is already becoming a platoon player in year 2 of his contract extension.

Defensively, Butler is fine in RF, even a tick above average, but he is terrible in CF despite the A’s insistence on pulling a Bleday and trotting him out there anyway. He’s already at -3 OAA in just 121.2 innings so he’s not providing valuable versatility to offset his hitting woes.

The A’s should now be legitimately concerned. There’s room for hope in that Butler has had his share of bad batted ball luck with hard hit outs. His expected BA stands at .232, which is a lot better than his actual .175 — but it’s not good and would only raise his OBP to a respectable .325.

Yes it would be nice if Butler were actually batting .232/.325/.400 but you don’t always exactly match your “expected” metrics and can’t just lean on that to excuse performance. Butler has struggled mightily at the plate for nearly 2/3 of a season now and is only really playable in RF — where Carlos Cortes can also play.

More Fugly: Pitching Splits

Meanwhile, on the mound….the A’s flat out need to figure out how to pitch in Sacramento. The team now has a 6.02 ERA at home for the season in 17 games in contrast to its 3.28 ERA in 24 away games. That’s absurd and it’s the same mound, same field, same conditions for the A’s and their opponents.

Sure the A’s could reasonably have a team ERA even a full point higher at home than on the road and chalk it up to “park effects”. But an ERA 2.74 runs/game higher at home than on the road? Serving up 2 runs every 3 innings? Come on, folks, you need to get a handle on this if the team is to contend for anything.

Trying to reverse the trend tonight will be one of the A’s biggest “split offenders,” JT Ginn. In a small sample so far in 2026, Ginn has a 7.62 ERA at home, 1.48 on the road. Last year, though, was similar: 6.85 at home, 3.14 on the road. It means Ginn will take a career ERA in Sacramento of 7.01 into tonight’s start.

Presumably, tonight we will see the debut of Henry Bolte, likely in CF and batting 9th. Here’s hoping The Bolte Era coincides with the team pitching better at home, Lawrence Butler hitting better everywhere, and Shea Langeliers not changing a thing.

The Nationals have been a surprisingly fun team to watch so far in 2026. As we have documented, the offense has been absolutely electric and the pitching staff has stabilized after a rough start to the season. However, the defense has been very rough, and it is showing no signs of improvement.

Even in last night’s comprehensive win, the Nats had two errors and a passed ball. This team just does not play error free baseball very often. In fact, the Nats are averaging nearly an error per game, with 41 errors in 42 games. Right now, they are on pace to have the most errors by any team since the beginning of the 21st century.

We knew heading into the season that this team was not going to be great defensively. They were not great last year, and have a number of players in the lineup not known for their defense. The Nats two best players, James Wood and CJ Abrams, are not great defensively, and that sets the tone in a way.

That is not necessarily the worst thing in the world. Defense is not like hitting and pitching. You do not need to be an elite defensive team to win a World Series. The Dodgers have been middle of the pack defensively the past two seasons, and so were the Nats in 2019. Going all in on defense is not the solution, but the Nats need to get to an acceptable level.

Averaging nearly an error a game is not an acceptable level of defensive play. Blake Butera knows this very well. He has spoken multiple times about the need to clean up the defense. At one point a week or two ago, he mentioned that he was going to change up the routine. It does not seem like that worked. Before yesterday’s game, he talked about how the Nats were not utilizing their athleticism in the field. I think there has been some pressing going on lately.

As Butera mentioned, this is an athletic team. You can see that on the bases. While there have been some base running mistakes, they have been a much better team on the basepaths this season. The Nats are first in Baseball Savant’s baserunning metric and second in BsR. This team is getting much better in a lot of areas, but fielding is not one of them.

Some of this is pretty predictable. The new regime talked a big game about making CJ Abrams a better defensive shortstop, but that has not happened. Abrams has 7 errors on the season and has -7 outs above average, as well as -4 DRS. He is just not equipped to be a shortstop long term. In fact, I think some of these defensive issues would have been mitigated by moving Abrams to second base before the season and playing Nasim Nunez at shortstop. However, I understand the new regime’s desire to give Abrams another shot at short.

I do not want to single out Abrams though, because he has been far from the only problem. Outside of Nasim Nunez, the whole infield has been a mess. Luis Garcia Jr. and Curtis Mead have both been producing with the bat, but neither are natural first baseman and it shows. 

The most disappointing player defensively has been Brady House, and it has not been close. House is tied with Abrams for the team lead in errors, and has a much worse fielding percentage at .908 compared to .956 for Abrams. As you would expect from someone as mistake prone as that, the defensive metrics are not great. His OAA is only -2, but his DRS is the same as Abrams at -4. 

Coming into the season, House’s defense was seen as a big strength for him. The young third baseman posted 2 outs above average last year, and made some great plays. He showed off his rocket arm and good range from his background as a shortstop. The big question with House was the development of his bat.

To his credit, House clearly put in a lot of work to improve offensively. House’s OPS is up over 100 points. He is walking more and hitting for much more power. House has been close to a league average hitter this year, with a 95 wRC+. However, he has gone from an asset to a liability on defense. It has been a disappointing development, and hopefully he can bounce back.

A lot of the problems seem to come when House is coming in on balls. That was how he made his error last night, and it was not the first one like that. There are also times where House just seems to be caught in between and is indecisive. The natural talent is there for him to be a good defender, and he has shown he can play good defense. Unlike Abrams, House has the range and arm for his position, he just needs to clean up the miscues.

The Nats defense has been the most mistake prone in baseball, but it has not been the worst. That is a key distinction, and one that can be tough to realize if you watch them play every night. For the season, the Nats are 25th in fielding run value at -7. In Fangraphs defensive metric, they rank 25th and they are 27th in defensive runs saved. 

So yes, the defense is bad, but it is not as bad as the error numbers suggest. That comes down to a few factors. The Nats do have a couple real defensive wizards in the lineup. Nasim Nunez and Jacob Young are both very good defensive players, which helps them out. The Nats have gotten much better defense from their catchers. They have been a top 5 framing team this season. 

The defense absolutely is a real issue, and they need to cut down on the errors. Making nearly an error a game is simply unacceptable at the big league level. They have 12 more errors than the next closest team. However, the defense is not as bad as the errors make them look. On offense, the new staff has really gotten through to the players, but it has been tougher to make them click on the defensive side of the ball.

It’s hard to find too much to gripe about with the 2026 Atlanta Braves through 42 games.

At the plate, they lead the majors in batting average (.272), slugging percentage (.452), wOBA (.347), wRC+ (121), and have scored the most runs of any team (233).

On the mound and with the gloves, they’re tops in runs allowed (143) and defensive efficiency (.249 BABIP-against), fifth in defensive value, while also tied for second in quality starts (20). Though the pitching has had some ups and downs, the defense has buoyed it, and they’re in the top half of MLB in FIP and xFIP.

There’s only been one real glaring issue through the first quarter of the season. There’s been an undeniable spike in baserunners being picked off under new first base coach Antoan Richardson.

With two more pickoffs in Tuesday night’s 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, the Braves have been picked off 10 times this season. That’s two more than any other major league team.

It’s also already as many pickoffs as the Braves had on the bases in all 162 games last season and more than they had in three of their four entire seasons between 2021-24.

It would seem that Braves manager Walt Weiss has seen enough of the new way the Braves are trying to be aggressive on the basepaths.

“To be honest, it’s gotten to a point where we’re going to have to make an adjustment there. I don’t think it’s costing us games, but it just shouldn’t happen at this rate,” Weiss said postgame Tuesday. “I know we’re trying to do some things different, and the guys are working their butts off trying to be really good at it. Antoan has been awesome. He’s got passion, he’s accountable. That’s just something we’ve got to clean up.”

While Weiss can say none of the pickoffs have cost them games — and it’s clearly not stopping the Braves’ winning ways — these issues have come up in some critical spots.

Most notably, pinch-runner Jorge Mateo was picked off when he represented the tying run in the eighth inning of the rubber match at Seattle, which remains the only series the Braves have lost this season.

The new baserunning belief has paid dividends in some ways. The Braves are tied for fourth in the majors in bases taken (46) and have only run into six outs on the bases (fourth fewest), a stat that doesn’t count pickoffs. They’re 11th in Statcast’s baserunning measure (which does not include steals, steal attempts, or pickoffs), after finishing handily in the bottom ten each of the last two seasons (and sixth in 2023).

But it’s not even like the team is stealing bases at a crazy rate. Atlanta’s 21 stolen bases rank 21st in the majors and the Braves’ 67.74% stolen-base percentage is the worst in the majors. In pure stolen base value, the Braves are also dead last; when you add stolen base and baserunning value together, they’re 22nd.

So if the upside of stolen bases isn’t going to be there with this team — which it likely doesn’t need to be given its slugging — the risk of getting picked off shouldn’t be nearly that serious… or common.

Alternatively, if they’re going to have this aggressive approach, they need to at least be a bit more selective about who uses it. Look at Tuesday’s two pickoffs as proof. Michael Harris II, given his speed, may be justified in risking an aggressive baserunning approach, even if it sometimes ends up with him picked off. Matt Olson — he of the ten career stolen bases in 11 seasons — simply shouldn’t be risking outs by doing whatever he was doing on Tuesday night.

On the one hand, it’s a good sign that pickoffs are one of the few things Braves fans have to lament this season. On the other hand, there’s just no reason for it to be this bad, this often. Hopefully they follow their skipper’s direction and clean it up soon.

The attrition within the Cincinnati Reds starting rotation has, apparently, finally become too much to bear.

Hunter Greene is out until the All Star break, while Brandon Williamson only recently got sent to the 60-day IL for his shoulder ailment. Rhett Lowder, meanwhile, heard ‘clicking’ in his shoulder during his last start, and while an MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage, he’s being sent to the 15-day IL to let that simmer down. Meanwhile, Chase Petty is dealing with blister issues for the second time already this season, joining the blistered duo of Brady Singer and Nick Lodolo as that has plagued the rotation all spring.

With that much inside drama, it became pretty clear the Reds would need to look outside their own ranks. According to Charlie Goldsmith on Wednesday afternoon, that will happen in the form of veteran righty Chris Paddack, who the Reds will reportedly sign.

Paddack was recently released by the Miami Marlins just 7 appearances into the $4 million contract he signed with them this offseason. That was largely due to him yielding 26 ER in just 30.2 IP, I’d wager, though at least his 4.98 FIP is better than the 7.63 ERA he sported in that time.

For his career, he’s a 4.79 ERA guy across 612.1 IP, and a fastball that once averaged right at 95 mph at its peak now sits at just 93 mph at age 30.

It remains to be seen exactly what kind of deal this will be, though with the current rotation opening rolling around in just days it’s hard to see this being anything other than a big league deal. That will require some 40-man roster shuffling, if so, and it also remains to be seen just exactly how much the Reds will truly expect from a guy who has only managed to complete 5 IP once so far this season.

If anything, I wonder if this is an indication that one of the current pitcher issues may well be more dire than we initially feared.

There is a major change in out TV broadcasts. For the first time in many many years, Buck Martinez isn’t sitting in one of the chairs in the booth.

Dan Shulman is still there. As is Hazel Mae and Arden Zwelling are still the sideline reporters. And Jamie Campbell and a rotating cast do the Jays Central studio stuff.

The big change is that Joe Siddall and Caleb Joseph have moved up from fill in game analysts to being the man. Or men, I guess.

So I thought I’d ask what you think of the TV broadcasts.

I will admit, I have developed the ability to tune out the talk, most of the time. But they seem to have given up on telling us how bad the one knee thing is for catchers (just wait until there is a passed ball at the wrong time.

I think Dan is as good as they come for play-by-play. I don’t think he and Joe or Caleb have developed the rapport that he and Buck had, but I’d imagine that will just take time.

Give us your opinion.

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After a perfect 3-for-3 on my MLB player props on Tuesday, I have found more value in today's packed 15-game slate.

I'll include Max Fried, Randy Arozarena, and Jacob Misiorowski. 

Read more in my MLB picks for Wednesday, May 13. 

Best MLB player props today

Player	Pick	Odds
Max Fried	Over 5.5 strikeouts	-145
Randy Arozarena	Over 1.5 total bases	+150
Jacob Misiorowski	Under 1.5 earned runs	-133

Max Fried Over 5.5 strikeouts (-145)

Max Fried is having a nice campaign for the New York Yankees, compiling a 4-2 record and 2.91 ERA while striking out 48 hitters in 58.2 innings of work. While his K rate isn't as high as usual, the lefty is still getting his fair share of swings and misses.

Fried will face the Baltimore Orioles tonight, and he also struck out six O's hitters earlier this month in 5.1 innings. 

Fried has cashed the Over in punchouts in two of his last four appearances, and he finished with five Ks in the other two starts -- just below tonight's total.

The Orioles struggle at times to put the baseball in play, ranking 26th in the big leagues in strikeouts. Fried also has 35 Ks in 41.1 road innings as the Bronx Bombers visit Baltimore here. 

• Time: 6: p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MASN, Amazon Prime

Randy Arozarena Over 1.5 total bases (+150)

Randy Arozarena is tearing the cover off the baseball right now. The Seattle Mariners outfielder is hitting .522 over the last seven days, and he's already notched six hits in this series against the Houston Astros ahead of the series finale tonight.

Arozarena has cashed the Over in total bases in three of his last five contests, and the Cuban was a perfect 4-for-4 on Tuesday.

Tonight's matchup plays in his favor, too. Arozarena will face Lance McCullers Jr, and he's 7-for-17 lifetime against him with a home run. McCullers Jr owns a horrible 7.41 ERA, and he's given up nine earned runs across his last two starts.

Arozarena is hitting everything, and McCullers Jr has had no luck against the slugger. He'll have another banner performance. 

• Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: SCHN, Mariners.TV

Jacob Misiorowski Under 1.5 earned runs (-133)

The Milwaukee Brewers' rotation has been led by youngster Jacob Misiorowski, who sports a 2.45 ERA through eight starts, holding opponents to a .162 average.

The right-hander is coming off a dominant outing against the New York Yankees, tossing six scoreless frames last Friday while allowing just two hits to a solid lineup. 

In fact, he's put together back-to-back scoreless appearances, and Misiorowski has cashed the Under in three of his previous four starts. The Brew Crew face the San Diego Padres at home tonight, where the hard-throwing right-hander owns a 2.54 ERA.

The Padres have been very underwhelming offensively, ranking 15th in runs and towards the bottom of the Majors in numerous other offensive categories. Misiorowski will deal. 

• Time: 7:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Brewers.TV, Padres.TV

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The New York Mets will look to make it two in a row at home as they host the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field on Wednesday night.

New York broke out offensively on Tuesday, and I’m picking it to win again in my Tigers vs. Mets predictions below.

Read on for my free MLB picks for Wednesday, May 13.

Who will win Tigers vs Mets today: Mets moneyline (-110)

Framber Valdez exits a disastrous start that saw him allow 10 runs in three innings. He’s running into a New York Mets team that broke out offensively with the help of prospect A.J. Ewing, who had a triple and three walks in his MLB debut last night.

Mets SP Christian Scott has allowed just three earned runs on six hits over 9 2/3 innings in his last two starts. He’s struck out 14 batters in that span, which should cause fits for a Detroit Tigers lineup averaging 2.71 runs over its last seven games.

COVERS INTEL: Christian Scott is holding opponents to a .172 expected batting average and a 4.2% barrel rate so far this season.

Tigers vs Mets Over/Under pick: Over 8.5 (+105)

New York showed energy and life that was desperately missing from its offense last night, whether that was from Ewing’s debut or not. The Mets singlehandedly carried the Over, and I think this lineup can generate offense off Valdez as well given his recent struggles. 

The Tigers will have their chances to score, too. Scott has yet to go more than five innings in a game this year, and the Mets bullpen is thin, with long relief options like Sean Manaea (6.56 ERA) and closer Devin Williams (5.68 ERA) struggling. 

Tigers vs Mets odds

• Moneyline: Tigers -110 | Mets -110
• Run line: Tigers +1.5 | Mets -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 | Under 8.5

Tigers vs Mets trend

Detroit is 1-6 straight up in its last seven games overall. Find more MLB betting trends for Tigers vs. Mets.

How to watch Tigers vs Mets and game info

Tigers vs Mets latest injuries

Tigers vs Mets weather

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Were you excited about the ABS challenge system at the start of the season? Did you think Craig Breslow’s “pitching and defense team” would be taking advantage of a new tool to help them reach the playoffs again? Well, so far challenges aren’t really a Red Sox thing. Whether this was an Alex Cora decision to more or less ignore the new powers of gamesmanship, or whether the Sox simply don’t have a collection of players who are comfortable tapping their helmets is unknown, but the results speak for themselves.

Boston has called for just 28 batter challenges through May 12th, the second lowers total in baseball. The Miami Marlins are at 28 and the San Diego Padres sit at just 26. Meanwhile the Minnesota Twins (56), Los Angeles Angels (49), Baltimore Orioles (48), and Cleveland Guardians (48) lead the pack with the most challenges by their hitters. Granted, these are not the most successful teams at challenges. That would be the Athletics, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, and Houston Astros. Each has won between 56% and 60% of their hitter challenges. And of the high-challenge teams, only the Guardians are above .500 on the year. Boston hitters have won 46% of their challenges, same as the Yankees who have challenged 46 times. The two teams are tied for the 14th highest winning rate by their hitters. Although 19 teams have won at least 45% of their challenges. And 21 teams have won 44%.

The disparity begins to show when you look at the individual hitters.

Ceddanne Rafaela is the leader of the Boston offense in helmet tapping. For better or worse he’s been one of the bright spots in the offense. And he’s challenged 7 times. Winning just 2. He shares that rate of success with Steven Kwan, Willy Adames, and Jonathan Aranda. Only Gunnar Henderson, with just 1 win, is worse among those with at least 7 challenge attempts.

If you look at Rafaela’s feel of the strike zone, it’s all over the map. The two blue circles were overturned. The 5 black circles were confirmed. Even here there’s some tough luck on the two in the corner on the lower left and the biter on the right that is essentially on the line of the strike zone. But that circle well inside the box? You might remember it from Sunday. It was called and obviously confirmed as a strike. It probably looked low.

It’s tough. The catcher lifts the ball really quick and it looks like his glove moved a long way as he does it.

Masataka Yoshida (1) and Trevor Story (2) have won all their challenges.

Roman Anthony is 2-for-3.

Willson Contreras (6) and Caleb Durbin (4) have won 50% of theirs.

Wilyer Abreu in the opposite of Roman at 1-for-3.

Let’s look at Masa’s win for comparison. He’s seen a lot of pitches this year and only one made him tap the helmet.

What’s the saying, juuuuust a bit outside?

Obviously some of this is going to be ingrained in a player. Some is going to be teachable. For the Red Sox, a team needing an offensive boost, maybe it’s time to figure out a more unified strategy. We know Roman and Masa know the zone. We know Willson is a veteran and a former catcher. He may know some tricks to gain a tiny edge here and there. But if the Sox could get back another pitch or two per week, it might be nice. I’m not advocating wasting challenges but if the game is ending and you have both remaining in the 9th inning maybe a little live practice…