Category: Sports News

Prior to the Field of Dreams game, the Twins took care of business against the Orioles, with Dean Kremer providing a “Revenge Game TM” performance against his old team. Unfortunately, the good vibes stopped as soon as the Twins walked through the cornfields, as they finished out the week getting swept by the Phillies, including dropping the final game on Sunday where at one point, they had a 4-0 lead.

Despite the poor week, the team is still only 1.5 games out of the final wild card spot, although it’s becoming an increasingly crowded field with six teams within 2.5 games of the Orioles, who are in that spot.

It does not get easier for the Twins as they face off against Atlanta in a three-game series starting today and then travel to San Diego for the weekend.

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

• Check out The Feed, where you can add your discussions about the Twins!
• We’re starting a new segment called Daily Questions! Provide your opinion on the Twins and debate with the community!
• Game threads and recaps are back! Commiserate with your fellow fans as we experience the season together.
• Zach Koenig takes us back to the good ‘ol days of 1991.
• Aidan O’Brien digs into the data behind the Twins’ most polarizing prospect.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Charlotte Varnes at The Athletic recaps the Field of Dreams game from the eyes of the fans who attended.
• Bobby Nightengale at the Star Tribune looks at how Jeff Hoffman’s career was revived by the Twins three years ago in spring training.
• Jace Frederick at the Pioneer Press evaluates how the Twins’ top prospects have been performing this season.
• Theo Tollefson at Zone Coverage writes on the reunion between former Twin Jhoan Duran and the team this weekend at Target Field.

In the World of Baseball:

• In the last week, nothing changed among the top-five teams in the American League, with the Rays at the top, followed by the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Astros. The endless shuffle for the last wild card spot will be the race to watch for the remainder of the season.
• Not much going on in the National League as well in the past week, with the only change being the flipping of the Padres and the Diamondbacks. It’s a much smaller field vying for that last spot, with three teams within 3.5 games of the Padres.
• Tommy John passed away this weekend. Jeff Passan at ESPN discusses how his legacy will continue on across baseball.

The San Francisco Giants, as teams that are functionally eliminated from postseason contention should be doing, have turned to a youth movement in recent weeks. And that youth movement is taking another step forward. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Giants are calling up 23-year old left-handed pitcher Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. The Giants have an off-day today, but will resume action on Tuesday in Ohio, facing the Cleveland Guardians … the team they acquired Wilkinson from in May’s Patrick Bailey trade.

It’s a bizarre move, to say the least, and one likely driven in part by the Giants feeling that they would have to roster Wilkinson in November as a Rule 5 Draft protection. While Wilkinson dominated AA this year, both with the Guardians’ affiliate and then the Giants’, he’s struggled quite a bit since getting to AAA. In 10 starts with the Sacramento River Cats, Wilkinson has just a 5.15 ERA and a 5.38 FIP, with just 43 strikeouts in 43.2 innings (to go with 17 walks). That said, home runs have been the biggest issue Wilkinson has faced, and that’s at least partially due to the Coors Field-esque environment of the Pacific Coast League.

Still, it’s a bit odd to see a player who is struggling in AAA, and who is in his first season above A-ball, get the call to the Majors, even though it’s abundantly clear that the Giants are huge believers in Wilkinson’s southpaw funk. He’ll certainly need that funk to play well, because Wilkinson is an absolute unicorn in the modern era of baseball: he relies on a low-velocity fastball. Tugboat’s fastball has averaged just 89.9 mph in AAA this year, which would be 2nd percentile in the Majors. More bizarre is that he uses that pitch 61.9% of the time, which stands in stark contrast to all the other low-velo pitchers in the Majors. It is, to be frank, a profile that no successful Major League pitcher in recent years has had.

But there are always exceptions, and the Giants are clearly optimistic that Wilkinson — who was a 10th-round pick in 2023 — is one such exception.

It’s unclear whether the Giants intend to use Wilkinson as a starter or in relief for his MLB debut. He’s worked exclusively as a starter in his Minor League career, but unless Logan Webb is going on the IL after getting hit by a comebacker on Saturday, the Giants rotation doesn’t appear to have any openings. Webb and Landen Roupp are established pieces, while the Giants are enjoying getting a longer look at prospects Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell. Adrian Houser would be the obvious option to be replaced, but he’s been pitching well lately and coming off his best start of the year; given that he’s a veteran option with another year left on his deal, the Giants likely want to keep giving him opportunities to prove that he can be part of the solution in 2027.

With the Giants set to activate Marcelo Mayer later this week, with a trip to Fenway Park starting Friday, it seems that they’re bringing up both Wilkinson and Mayer to have revenge appearances against their former teams. Perhaps that’s pure coincidence, or perhaps it’s the front office playing with vengeance … which would certainly be an odd strategy for a team 22 games below .500.

Either way, one of the best nicknames in baseball is up, and that’s exciting, even if I remain perplexed by the way the Giants deal with prospects. Wilkinson will become the 11th Giants player to make his MLB debut this year, and the 12th to collect their first active-roster check (Zach Morgan was called up for one game, but didn’t play).

San Francisco will have to make corresponding moves on both the active and 40-man rosters for Wilkinson. The latter will be easy, as Casey Schmitt and Harrison Bader can both be transferred to the 60-Day IL.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in White Sox fans and fans across the country.

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Well, it’s Crosstown week once again, and “this time it’s for real.” Did you know that of all the seasons since interleague play began (since 1997, that is), only one time have both the White Sox and Cubs won at least 65 games by their 125th contest? That came in the 2008 season — and now 2026 joins it, with the White Sox at 65-58 and the Cubs 72-53.

As the White Sox prepare to punch the Cubs in the mouth for a second series this season, we thought it might be fun to choose a favorite Sox triumph from interleague games past. The list was longer than what you see in the poll, but we had to trim some options away!

Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys:

It's challenging to pinpoint a precise low point in this San Francisco Giants season. There are many candidates.

Yet if we are judging it by one of baseball's truest standards – the clubhouse doors staying shut long after the game ends, the manager arriving very late to his postgame media briefing, the airing out of the team emerging publicly – that moment arrived Sunday, Aug. 16, when the Giants suffered a 13-7 loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies.

It could be considered a seasonal nadir for many reasons, chief among them that the 50-74 Rockies won the season series against the Giants for the first time since 2018. And that Giants pitchers walked 10 batters and hit another, and let a run in on a wild pitch that rookie catcher Drew Cavanaugh could not locate just a few feet away.

After the trade deadline shipped off Luis Arráez and other parts, these Giants more resemble a college team. And manager Tony Vitello would know, having made the unprecedented jump from the University of Tennessee to the Giants dugout.

Yet in describing his team's play, Vitello went a step lower: Junior college.

"It had more the feel of a lower level, a junior-college game as opposed to a big-league game, with how some of the things transpired," Vitello told reporters in San Francisco. "And I was a juco guy, so I’m not disrespecting junior college."

Yikes.

Vitello even had one of his guys, former Volunteers starter Blade Tidwell, on the mound Sunday. Yet Tidwell was part of the problem, walking five and giving up six earned runs in 4⅓ innings. Another Vol, Drew Gilbert, batted leadoff, suddenly among the more senior members of a lineup that featured Cavanugh, Buddy Kennedy, Turner Hill and Osleivis Basabe.

Not exactly Arráez, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames.

And just how did Vitello's JC remarks hit in the clubhouse?

"I think he did a good job," Tidwell, the former Vol, told reporters. "Everybody was locked in, and the guys were nodding their heads and stuff. So I think everybody was on board with what he was saying."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tony Vitello says Giants' performance was 'like a junior college game'

The Rays opted to go with the “we have McDonalds at home” approach during the trade deadline by not acquiring any external talent to upgrade at second base. Luis Arraez was a popular name, but ultimately the team decided to roll with a platoon pairing of Richie Palacios and Ben Williamson.

Overall, this was a fairly obvious opportunity for an upgrade, as the Rays second basemen had accumulated the 5th lowest fWAR in the league heading into the trade deadline. The duo combined for an uninspiring 85 wRC+ across 525 PA from the beginning of the season through August 2nd, the day before the trade deadline. The defense at the position has been a mixed bag too with middle of the pack DRS numbers but bottom of the league OAA.

The Rays decided to lean into what they’ve been doing all season by putting their faith in Palacios and Williamson. But then, a wrench was thrown into their plans when Williamson went down with a hamstring strain after playing parts of just two games following the trade deadline. The team has stated Williamson will miss some time, and those words typically mean a player will miss multiple weeks whenever Kevin Cash says that, and may well put Williamson out of commission until the playoffs.

Palacios was thus been given the keys to the car and will be playing most days at the position. He has rewarded the Rays for their trust in him by elevating his game and leaning into his strengths.

The Rays didn’t necessarily “find” something in Palacios after the deadline, but they gave him an opportunity to do more of what he was already good at, and it’s working:

Palacios 2026	Pre Trade Deadline (260 PA)	Post Trade Deadline (39 PA)
Chase% with less than 2 strikes	23.9%	18.8%
% of PAs that end with him ahead in the count	29.6%	41.0%
Hardhit flyball + line drive%	16.2%	39.1%

The data here tells a story: Palacios is comfortable and not trying to do too much at the plate, so he’s expanding the zone less when he doesn’t have to. Because he’s chasing less, he’s getting into more favorable counts. Then when Palacios is in those favorable counts, he’s attacking pitches he can do damage on, and he’s hitting them hard with lift.

This isn’t a complicated thing, but it is easier said than done.

Letting Palacios play most days has given him the security and comfort to play his game and stick to what he does well: grind out at-bats. He’s already a tough out given his plate discipline and bat-to-ball ability, but Palacios has found a new gear. He was seeing 3.85 pitches per PA before the deadline and is seeing 4.67 pitches per PA since then. While this is a small sample and things will vary as the season continues, the exact numbers here for Palacios are less important than the trends they’re revealing. The underlying data shows us he’s confident and locked-in with his approach.

It will be interesting to see if the Rays return Palacios to his strict platoon role now that they’ve added right handed hitting veteran infielder Jorge Mateo, the Braves backup short stop that was cut due to the return of Ha-Seong Kim from the injured list. It seems likely they will, with Kevin Cash starting Mateo for the first time on Sunday against a southpaw, but regardless Palacios should expect to still pick up 75% of the at bats for second base through the rest of 2026, and deservedly so.

Palacios’s team-leading 204 wRC+ since the deadline is likely unsustainable, but he doesn’t need to maintain anything close to that level to make the Rays’ decision look smart. If he settles in around 10-15% above league average against righties, Palacios will still provide meaningful value and help lengthen the lineup.

The Rays continue to make the right moves, and in this case the right move was making no move at all.

It has been a while since we’ve had an off-day. The Jays haven’t had an off-day since July 30th. At that time we were 5.5 games back of the Wild Card spot, with six teams to jump. Now they are just one game back, with two teams to jump over. That turnaround in 17 games is almost unbelievable. Add in that we played some very tough teams, and it seems totally unbelievable.

The next six games, against the Rays in that abomination, Tropicana Field and the Yankees in the Bronx, are important, but a split would be enough to keep us in the race, not that winning 4 or 5 would be a bad thing. After that, the schedule gets easier, which doesn’t mean they are automatic wins or anything.

And there are six games left against the Orioles and three games against the Rangers, the two teams that are directly in front of us.

But this is an Open Thread, so you don’t have to talk about that. You don’t have to figure out how many of the last 25 games the Jays would have to win to make the playoffs. Nor would you have to show your work.  

I’m sorry to see that Hayden Panettiere died. I’ve been rewatching Heros this last couple of weeks. The first season was good; after that, less so, but that wasn’t Hayden’s fault. Somewhere I have an autographed picture of her in the cheerleader costume. I guess the world won’t be saved now.

Also, Tommy John passed. I’ve seen a fair number of people saying he should be in the Hall of Fame, if not for his pitching (he did have an excellent career, 288 wins, which I find hard to believe isn’t enough for the Hall and a 62.1 bWAR), but for lending his name to baseball’s most prominent operation.  

Anyway, use the thread to, you know, chat.

Professional sports are a bottom line business and we run the risk of making things too simple. Entering the season it would fair to say that the playoffs were a litmus test on the 2026 for both Dana Brown and Joe Espada. If they were able to win the division they would likely keep their job and if they didn’t make the playoffs they would likely lose their job. However, that benchmark flies in the face of common sense.

In short, not every division is created equal. We see it in the NFL every season. At least one of the divisions (usually the AFC or NFC South) will see a 9-8 team when the division. We have seen 7-9 teams win the division before. This season has seen the extreme version of that in the AL West. It appears now that if any team finishes .500 or better they will take the division. Below is a quick look at the projected standings according to Fangraphs.com along with how much each team is spending according to Spotrac.com and their millions per win.

	Salary	Won-Loss	Cost per win
Houston Astros	239.0	82-80	2.91
Texas Rangers	189.5	80-82	2.37
Seattle Mariners	165.7	79-83	2.10
Los Angeles Angels	172.3	65-97	2.65
Homeless Athletics	96.0	65-97	1.48

In Economics, there is something called the law of diminishing returns. It essentially means that there is a saturation point where additional resources (or personnel) really don’t add productivity. I would surmise that when we get to the teams at or above the tax line we will see similar results as we see here with Houston. However, Jim Crane would be correct to point out that he’s not getting a ton of bang for his buck.

More than one thing can be true at the same time. The Astros can both reach global expectations by advancing to the wild card round of the playoffs and grossly underperform at the same time. Given the financial disparity between the Astros and the rest of the division, they should be in the lead. As much as we may decry Jim Crane not being willing to go above the tax, he certainly is supporting the team financially more than any other team in the division.

We could look at Brown’s moves on the pitching side of things this season and come away extremely underwhelmed. It is also fair to look at the deadline and come away disappointed. The biggest drawbacks came in the simultaneous comments about the need for a right handed hitting outfielder and the fact that we didn’t get pitching, but we have guys coming back from injuries and that is like getting a guy in a trade.

The first one is an easy one. Brown was fixated on left handed hitting outfielders and we have looked long and hard on that fixation. The question will be whether there was someone better than Nelson Velasquez available and what the cost would have been to get that player. The second question is a little more dubious because this isn’t the first year we are hearing this. Suffice it to say, expecting pitchers to return from Tommy John and immediately produce is a fool’s errand.

The Astros have two pitchers returning from TJ surgery and one that is about a year removed from his return. That pitcher also missed about two months to injury this season. So, let’s take a look at what all three have done since coming back. In short, was banking on league average performance from those arms really a good mathematical gamble?

	Games	INN	ER	H	SO	BB	ERA
Ronel Blanco	5	23.1	20	22	20	12	8.14
Hayden Wesneski	4	22.2	13	23	18	7	5.16
Cristian Javier	7	23.0	11	26	21	7	4.30
Total	16	69.0	44	71	59	26	5.74

There are multiple ways to look at this data. We can look at as a whole. Simply put, the collective performance isn’t good enough. Given that Tatsuya Imai has failed in the rotation and Mike Burrows is currently rehabbing, but he hasn’t been good enough either. The initial plan following the deadline was for these three pitchers to take the last three spots in the rotation. That plan is obviously a losing plan before you even start.

Thus comes the problem with Brown. If the plan was that hopefully one of these three pitchers would be usable then you could look at Javier’s numbers and say that was a success. If you came in with the expectation that one of the three would be an absolute dud then Blanco would fit that profile. Success and failure is not necessarily a binary thing. A lot of is nuance and depends on what was expected. For instance, Burrows opened the season as the number two starter. That was an abject failure.

Presumably, he will have one more rehab start and could theoretically return. If he finished the season strong then you could look at him as a global success in that he could finish at or near career norms. The same true of Imai if he finishes the season strong in the bullpen. It wouldn’t meet the lofty expectations, but the final verdict would be more complicated than a simple fail.

There isn’t a single person that should look at 82 wins as successful. It might be for some franchises for their own personal situation. For instance, the White Sox have taken a nice step forward this season. For a team spending nearly 240 million dollars, 82 wins is simply not good enough. There are always whys and what fors in these situations. Maybe ownership hamstrung him. Maybe he was hamstrung by a lack of resources or good minor league talent to trade. Maybe any one of us would have said no to any of the offers he was getting to bring in pitching or a right handed bat. These are all legitimate reasons and/or excuses. Still, it’s a bottom line business and the bottom line is that this is not good enough. You might win a crappy division and certainly that is something, but it is not the something we expected at the beginning of the season.

Seven days. Four ballparks. Three Teams. Two full series. One long week of travel. That is what awaits the Atlanta Braves this week as they get set to embark on a road trip that’ll see them getting well acquainted with putting their phones in airplane mode. The good news about this road trip is that it’ll all take place in Central Division territory, as the Braves will be going to Minneapolis for three games, Chicago for a make-up game, Milwaukee for two games and then Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Sunday for the Little League Classic.

With that being said, that’s still a lot of travel to be doing in the span of seven days and we’ll see how well the Braves hold up for what’ll surely be a grueling week both physically and mentally. It’s time to take a look at what could be a very tough week ahead for the Braves.

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August 17-19: Minnesota Twins

Current Record: 60-65 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 79-83

To put in comparison the performance of the National League when compared to the American League in 2026, the Washington Nationals are 60-66 and currently have a 0.4 percent chance of making the Postseason (according to FanGraphs). The Minnesota Twins are 60-65 and yet they have a 21 percent chance of making the Postseason. There’s a decent shot that somewhere between 80 and 82 wins will be enough for a team to take the third and final Wild Card spot, which means that Minnesota isn’t simply playing out the string here. If they (or anybody else, really) can get hot then the Postseason picture could really shake up.

So yeah, I’m saying all of that to say that we shouldn’t expect the Twins to simply roll over during this series. That especially won’t be the case since Byron Buxton is currently health and will be playing during this series after his most recent IL stint ended on August 13. Buxton did pick up a double during the Field of Dreams Game but outside of that, Philadelphia kept him quiet and it would be nice to see the Braves continue to keep him quiet going forward. Still, the Braves will also have to worry about making sure that Ryan Jeffers doesn’t have an outsized impact on the series as well, since he’s been having a very good season at the plate so far and could be dangerous, himself. Trevor Larnach, Kody Clemons, Royce Lewis and Luke Keaschall will also be names to watch as this series unfolds.

As far as the pitching matchups go, this should be manageable for the Braves. Bailey Ober has been pretty average so far this season and he hasn’t exactly been in shutdown mode since the All-Star break, as he’s produced an ERA of 5.27 and a FIP of 4.47 over his past five starts since the second half began. Zebby Matthews’ season-long ERA is 5.34 (5.05 FIP) and he’s currently in a bit of a rough patch where he gave up six runs (three earned) against the Brewers on August 7 and then the Orioles tagged him for four runs in five innings in his most recent start. Taj Bradley is currently Minnesota’s best healthy starter since Joe Ryan is currently on the IL and that could prove to be tough. Chris Sale will be starting opposite Bradley in that one, so that could potentially be another pitchers’ duel for Sale to navigate once again.

On paper, the Braves should be looking forward to taking care of business but at the same time, we all know that the game’s not played on paper or a spreadsheet. Still, Atlanta’s got to make sure that they get something from this series since the road trip will only get zanier from here.

Monday, August 17 at 7:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Tuesday, August 18 at 7:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Wednesday, August 19 at 1:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)

August 20: Chicago White Sox

Current Record: 65-58 Projected Record: 83-79

Remember when the Braves went into that absolute tailspin during the month of June? Well, they’re returning to the genesis of that tailspin as it’s time to make up the final game of that series against the Chicago White Sox. There won’t be an on-field reunion with Joey Bart since he unfortunately suffered a fracture in his left hand. This will be a chance for the Braves to get introduced to Munetaka Murakami, who has been a personal favorite of mine since his days playing with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Of course, we’re all rooting for the Braves to keep him quiet but he’ll certainly be arguably the most dangerous hitter for Atlanta to deal with in this one.

Miguel Vargas has been having a fantastic season, himself and he alongside Murakami have proved to be a very dangerous duo in Chicago’s lineup. Chase Meidroth has also been a handful for opposing teams to deal with, along with Tristaan Peters and Samuel Antonacci. Braden Montgomery is also here and hopefully he doesn’t continue to do damage against the Braves like he did once he broke into the big leagues and had a dream debut at Atlanta’s expense.

There could be a bit of a wild card when it comes to the starter for this game as far as the White Sox go, since Davis Martin’s injury and IL stint due to a blister has shaken up Chicago’s rotation a bit. If they still follow their current pattern then the starter for this game should be Anthony Kay (4.01 ERA, 96 ERA-, 4.79 FIP, 112 FIP-) or possibly Jose Urquidy. Either way, the Braves should avoid Sean Burke and there likely won’t be a reunion with old friend Sean Newcomb, so the pitching matchup could be something manageable for Atlanta. Still, the Braves are going to have to be on their toes for this quick layover game in Chicago.

Thursday, August 20 at 2:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)

August 21-23: Milwaukee Brewers

Current Record: 76-48 Projected Record: 96-66

Speaking of that June swoon for the Braves, they figured out a way to break out of that slump for at least a weekend when they managed to defend home turf in a three-game series win over the current best team in baseball. That alone is reason enough to believe that the Braves have what it takes to repeat the task and maybe take another series off of Milwaukee in the return leg of the matchup.

With that being said, the Brewers are coming into this week flying high after they went into Dodger Stadium and essentially asserted themselves as the current top dogs in the NL after taking three out of four from Los Angeles on the road. Granted, the Dodgers have been in an extended swoon of their own but that takes nothing away from the fact that this essentially confirmed that the Brewers are where they’re at in the standings for a very good reason.

That reason includes Jacob Misiorowski, who the Braves will likely have to deal with once again during this series. Again, he’s human and the Braves proved that when they managed to hang an L on Milwaukee while he was on the mound against them back in Cobb County. He’s still a great pitcher but we haven’t quite seen him reach the heights lately that he did right before facing the Braves, which is when he dominated the Phillies in a one-hit, complete game shutout with 15 strikeouts. Still, I can’t say that anybody particularly looks forward to facing The Miz right now and he’s coming off of a start in Los Angeles where he went six innings and only gave up one run, so he’s clearly still extremely tough to deal with.

Milwaukee will also be looking forward to getting some good injury news this week, as Sal Frelick could be back and Brice Turang should be getting over some knee pain that’s kept him day-to-day recently. Turang in particular has been having a fantastic season so far (Frelick, not so much) and he’s been leading the way with Jake Bauers, Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell and Andrew Vaughn not too far behind in terms of plate production. Milwaukee’s lineup hasn’t really been all that dominant since they last saw the Braves but their pitching staff has been absolutely nails since then. The Brewers as a staff are sitting on an 86 ERA- (3.56 ERA) and an 88 FIP- (3.72 FIP) since they got done with the Braves and that seems like an easy indicator that runs could be coming at a premium during this series.

Boy, ESPN really lucked out by getting these two for the Little League Classic, right?

Friday, August 21 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Saturday, August 22 at 2:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Sunday, August 23 at 7:10 p.m. ET (ESPN)