PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 20: Spencer Steer #7 of the Cincinnati Reds reacts after striking out in the seventh inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on May 20, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Reds have not finished in first place since 2012, but were in first place in the National League Central after a hot start had them 20-11 by the end of April. They have lost 17 of 27 since then and their only series wins since have come against the struggling Astros, Phillies, and Mets. Now they face the struggling Royals! The Royals dropped 18 of 28 in the month of May, and now have the second-worst record in baseball.
Kansas City Royals (22-37) vs. Cincinnati Reds (30-28) at Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH
Only seven teams have hit more home runs than the Reds, and they have the seventh-highest walk rate, but the second-highest strikeout rate. They have hit 43 of their 72 home runs at home (60 percent), but are hitting just .224 at Great American Ballpark. Sal Stewart leads all National League rookies in home runs with 12, and is third in wRC+ among all rookies with at least 200 plate appearances. Nathaniel Lowe is hitting .324 with three home runs and four doubles in his last nine games. Spencer Steer is hitting .327/.411/.612 against lefties this year. JJ Bleday is hitting .333/.474/.778 at home.
Matt McLain is hitting just .167/.231/.310 over his last 26 games. The Reds are without All-Star Elly de la Cruz, who was placed on the Injured List with a hamstring strain. Edwin Arroyo, who hit .323/.383/.562 with 11 home runs in 53 games in Triple-A, will be called up to replace him. The 22-year-old is a former top 100 prospect and the #3 ranked prospect in the Reds system, according to MLB Pipeline.
The Royals will start Luinder Avila on Monday, although he is not ramped up to make a full start. Former second-overall pick Chase Burns is enjoying an All-Star season in his first full year in the big leagues. He has given up two runs or less in ten of his eleven starts this year. He has the tenth-highest strikeout rate among starers. He throws a 98 mph fastball, and opponents are hitting just .137 against his slider with a 53 percent whiff rate.
Andrew Abbott was an All-Star last year and earned Cy Young votes, finishing fifth in the National League with a 2.87 ERA. He allowed just four earned runs in 28 innings in May, for a 1.29 ERA, earning three wins. He has a 5.28 ERA in six starts at home this year with five home runs allowed.
Chris Paddack has a 5.40 ERA in three starts with the Reds since they picked him up following his release by the Marlins. He leads the National League with seven losses, and has yet to win a game. Paddack had a 3.33 ERA in 2019, but has a 5.23 ERA in 102 games since then. Salvador Perez is just 1-for-8 against him in their career matchups, but Vinnie Pasquantino has homered against him, going 2-for-7.
The Reds have a 4.98 ERA from relievers, fourth-worst in baseball. Closer Emilio Pagán is currently on the Injured List. Tony Santillan has two saves, but was lifted from a save opportunity yesterday when he struggled to get throught the inning. He has a 53 percent flyball rate, one of the highest in baseball. Today, the Reds called up pitcher Brandon Leibrandt, son of former Reds and Royals pitcher Charlie Leibrandt.
The Royals swept the Reds in their last visit to Cincinnati, outscoring the Reds 28-3 in 2024. They enter this series with a much different mojo, although the Reds matched their gloomy May performance. Both teams could badly use a series win, although at least the Reds are still in a pennant race. The Royals may be looking forward to 2027.
After achieving their seemingly lofty goal, set in the Spring of 2025, to qualify for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the 2025-26 Anaheim Ducks took it a step further and won their opening round series against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Ducks believe they’ve driven the final nail into the coffin of their long rebuild, and can now be seen as a young, proven, contending franchise for the foreseeable future. Their breakthrough season, exciting young talent that now boasts playoff experience and success, and a market that features a desirable lifestyle, have the potential to render Anaheim a destination for impact players on the move through the trade market or free agency moving forward.
Anaheim made the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2017, and they will likely be setting their sights on an even deeper run in 2026-27. However, they witnessed firsthand what it takes on the ice to win multiple long series in the springtime, as they were defeated by the now Western Conference Champion Vegas Golden Knights in six games.
From a roster construction standpoint, the Ducks have some areas of their depth chart in need of tweaking and/or improving. They have several impact veterans with contracts set to expire every summer for the next three years, and though the prospect cupboard is still somewhat full, there aren’t many obvious internal replacements to fill the projected holes left behind by said veterans.
This year’s free agency class is as thin as it’s ever been, teams are flush with cap space due to the NHL’s now-ever-rising ceiling, and it’s been reported that teams are eyeing “massive” trades this summer. With that said, what holes are currently in the Ducks’ depth chart, and where can general manager Pat Verbeek look to improve his roster in the present, moving forward?
Right Shot Defensemen
Jacob Trouba (32), John Carlson (36), and Radko Gudas (35) will all see their contracts expire on July 1 if extensions are not agreed upon before then. That would leave the Ducks with just Drew Helleson (25), Ian Moore (24), and Tristan Luneau (22) as the only right-shot defensemen under team control with NHL experience.
If the Ducks were to roll with a right side of Helleson, Moore, and Luneau across from Jackson LaCombe (25), Pavel Mintyukov (22), and Olen Zellweger (22), they would boast a talented but vastly inexperienced blueline. For a GM who values experience to insulate his young talent, that potential blueline would likely be quite unappetizing for Verbeek heading into a season where expectations will be amplified.
LaCombe’s emergence as a true #1 defenseman has been a breath of fresh air and was needed for Anaheim’s build to get off the ground. The next step toward LaCombe realizing his potential will be finding him a complementary partner to grow alongside, and together, form an elite defensive pair in the NHL.
Acquiring the long-term Devon Toews to LaCombe’s Cale Makar, the Brayden McNabb to his Shea Theodore, Brock Faber to his Quinn Hughes, etc., will amplify the potential of LaCombe, the blueline, and the entire roster.
To a lesser extent, adding a similar complementary piece to the second pair beside either Zellweger or Mintyukov would also be welcome.
Second Line Center
The Ducks’ lack of center depth and consistency behind Leo Carlsson was exposed during their second-round series against the Golden Knights. Between Mason McTavish sliding to wing (and the press box), Granlund as the interim second-line center, and Ryan Poehling’s promotion to the third line down the stretch of the season, Vegas’ two-way centers like Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Tomas Hertl, and Mitch Marner’s cameo down the middle overmatched the Ducks with their 200-foot impact on every line.
Center isn’t as dire a need, as McTavish may return to form, Granlund can perform adequately, and prospect Roger McQueen (10th overall in 2025) could potentially be awarded an audition at some point in 2026-27.
However, if the Ducks intend to make a deeper run in the 2027 Playoffs, beyond the second round, an upgrade in the form of an all-three-zones, impact center to provide secondary scoring and defensive prowess could be necessary to elevate the forward group into that of a contending team.
Top Nine Winger
Every offseason, it seems as if all 32 NHL teams are looking to improve the top of their forward groups and are in the market for top-six wingers. As far as the Ducks are concerned, sophomore Cutter Gauthier (22) and rookie Beckett Sennecke (20) established themselves as two of the NHL’s top young scoring wingers, totaling a combined 129 points in the 82-game regular season and 18 points in the Ducks’ 12-game playoff run.
However, beyond that young, dynamic pair, the Ducks have short and long-term question marks on the wing. Troy Terry (28) is scheduled to undergo hip surgery this offseason, leaving the start to his 2026-27 campaign up in the air.
McTavish’s future with the Ducks has come into question, and if he’s to remain in Anaheim for the foreseeable future, it’s unclear if he’ll transition back to center or remain on the wing, the position he played down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.
Mikael Granlund (34) has two years remaining on his three-year contract with an AAV of $7 million. He’s a versatile player who can provide an impact anywhere in the top nine, so he can be seen as more of an impact gap-filler during the latter stages of his career.
Frank Vatrano was a staple in the Ducks’ top-six during his first three years in Anaheim, but found himself playing fourth-line minutes for head coach Joel Quenneville and the Ducks in 2025-26 when he did find himself in the lineup. He was healthy scratched for all 12 of the Ducks’ playoff games, and his future with the team is in question as he enters the second year of his three-year contract that carries an AAV of $4.57 million.
Chris Kreider (35) and Alex Killorn (36) will be entering the final year of their deals and may be suited for roles lower in the lineup as the Ducks look to advance further in the 2027 Playoffs than they did this year.
The Ducks still have one of the deepest prospect pipelines in the NHL, which features players of various NHL readiness, including Nikita Nesterenko (24), Sam Colangelo (24), Nico Myatovic (21), Yegor Sidorov (21), Sasha Pastujov (22), among a slew of others.
Though the potential remains that one or several of them break through and become top-six options, the likelihood of it being in 2026-27 is slim. A supplementary proven bridge veteran who more fits the Ducks’ timeline could be a useful addition to a team aiming to truly compete next season and beyond.
Some ancillary needs the Ducks may look to pursue could include an additional backup goaltender and/or more fourth-line depth pieces. Ville Husso is a serviceable backup, but NHL teams are electing to employ three goaltenders with increasing frequency, as injury and volatility are common at the position. The Ducks have multiple internal options from which they can build a fourth line. However, Verbeek has shown a penchant for tinkering with that area of his depth chart.
Stay tuned for articles this week featuring organizational situations around the league Verbeek could look to target were he intent on adding to his roster via the trade market this offseason.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 29: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers clicks his helmet with first base coach Chris Woodward #84 after a single against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on May 29, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Dodgers’ depth took some hits during May, with a pair of injuries on both sides of the ball. But they withstood the losses and piled up the wins over the final three weeks of the month.
But the team started to click on all cylinders, combining a powerful offense with stingy pitching to win 14 of their last 17 games. The Dodgers started May with a half-game lead in the division, and finished the month up by 5 1/2 games in the National League West.
May results
18-10 record 147 runs scored (5.25 per game, 4th in MLB) 84 runs allowed (3.00 per game, 2nd in MLB) .736 pythagorean win percentage (21-7)
Year to date
38-21 record 314 runs scored (5.32 per game, 2nd in MLB) 185 runs allowed (3.14 per game 1st in MLB) .725 pythagorean win percentage (43-16)
Fantastic four
The Dodgers dipped a bit in offense in May, relative to April, but still ranked fourth in the majors in runs scored during this month. Most of the difference came with a drop in batting average.
April: .273/.350/.452, 126 wRC+
May: .252/.339/.441, 120 wRC+
Andy Pages continued his strong season by hitting .26/.319/.560 with a 142 wRC+ during May, and led the team in home runs (eight), RBI (25), runs scored (20), and stolen bases (three). Plus one very memorable sacrifice fly off fireballer Mason Miller.
Freddie Freeman found his stroke, hitting eight doubles to move into the top 30 all-time, and hit .287/.397/.532 with a 159 wRC+ in May. Teoscar Hernández was on an extra-base hit tear when he got hurt, and hit .216/.333/.446 with a 149 wRC+ during May.
Shohei Ohtani still hasn’t gone on a home run barrage — he’s at 10 home runs on the season, on pace for 27 this year after hitting 54 and 55 in his first two years in Los Angels — but he was still quite productive, hitting .289/.397/.495 with a 153 wRC+ in May.
For starters
Ohtani was also busy on the mound, and in his four May starts his ERA ballooned … to 1.08 for the month with 27 strikeouts and eight walks.
The rotation got only one start each from Glasnow and Snell in May, and was more workmanlike in May than in April, but was still quite effective. Eric Lauer made one start during the month, and it was a quality one. Outside of a bullpen game on May 15 in Anaheim, Dodgers starters averaged 5 2/3 innings per start, a bit down from 5.85 innings in April.
Starting pitchers
March/April: 5.85 IP/start, 2.83 ERA, 3.52 xERA
May: 5.67 IP/start, 3.35 ERA, 3.46 xERA
What a relief
Unmentioned in the injuries above was left-hander Jack Dreyer, who missed most of the last half of May with left shoulder discomfort. But he still had enough time to pitch 8 2/3 scoreless innings, but he wasn’t alone. Kyle Hurt and Will Klein allowed one run apiece, and combined for 23 innings and 24 strikeouts. Tanner Scott had a scoreless month until blowing a save on Saturday. The bullpen, complete with its rotating cast of characters, did not allow any runs at all from May 13-24, totaling 38 (but really 40) consecutive scoreless innings, and a 1.74 ERA in 93 innings from actual relievers during the month. And the good news is that Dreyer was activated from the injured list on the final day of the month.
The month ahead
In June the Dodgers only play nine games at home, all of them against American League teams. Interleague play accounts for 17 of the Dodgers’ 27 games during the month, with divisional road series at Arizona to open the month and in San Diego in the last weekend of June.
The 2026 NBA Finals are a rematch of the showdown from 27 years ago, won by the Spurs in five games behind Finals MVP Tim Duncan. This year, it's another fascinating matchup of a Spurs big man — Victor Wembanyama — and a fast-rising young core in San Antonio going against a team on a historic hot streak in the New York Knicks, paced by point guard Jalen Brunson.
This is also a rematch of the NBA Cup Finals game from December, which you know is making Adam Silver smile. In that game, the Knicks outscored the Spurs 35-19 in the fourth quarter to come from behind and get the win, showing the kind of grit they will need in this series if they want to repeat that outcome. It's worth noting that a year ago, Oklahoma City lost in the NBA Cup Finals (to the Bucks) only to bounce back and win the NBA Title.
Who is the player to watch in this year's Finals? What are the keys to keep an eye on if the Knicks are going to win their first title since 1973, or if Wembanyama and the Spurs are going to put the league on notice earlier than expected? Here is everything you need to know in a preview of the NBA Finals.
New York vs San Antonio NBA Finals Schedule 2026
All times are Eastern (* = if necessary). Game 1: New York at San Antonio, Wednesday, June 3 (8:30 ET, ABC) Game 2: New York at San Antonio, Friday, June 5 (8:30 ET, ABC) Game 3: San Antonio at New York, Monday, June 8 (8:30 ET, ABC) Game 4: San Antonio at New York, June 10 (8:30 ET, ABC) *Game 5: New York at San Antonio, June 13 (8:30 ET, ABC) *Game 6: San Antonio at New York, June 16 (8:30 ET, ABC) *Game 7: New York at San Antonio, June 19 (8:30 ET, ABC)
Player to watch: Victor Wembanyama
Raphielle Johnson, NBC Sports Fantasy Basketball Lead writer Is this postseason, the first of his young NBA career, the beginning of the league's "Wembanyama Era?" It very well could be, given the Spurs' center's physical gifts, approach to the game and the teammates around him.
Wembanyama has been excellent throughout the postseason and is more than capable of leading the Spurs to their first title since 2014. However, this matchup stands to be a bit more challenging, as the Knicks have been on fire since deciding to play more through Karl-Anthony Towns offensively. Do the Spurs have Wembanyama guard KAT throughout the series? Or do they put Wemby on Josh Hart, which, in theory, would allow him to play more of a "free safety" role defensively? How Wembanyama is utilized and how the Knicks attack him will say a lot about how the NBA Finals go.
Keys to watch for in Knicks vs. Spurs
From Kurt Helin, NBC lead NBA writer
Can Spurs defense stall out Knicks?
New York enters the NBA Finals on a historic hot streak offensively — their ball movement and shot making have been brilliant and peaked at the right time, leading to 11-straight wins.
The Knicks' offense started to thrive under Mike Brown when they began using Karl-Anthony Towns more as a high-post hub and offensive initiator (as he was often used in Minnesota) and had players cutting off him. When the Cavaliers were able to limit that approach — because Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are both quality defenders — Jalen Brunson went to work and hunted James Harden (and Donovan Mitchell) and others relentlessly.
However, what has really fueled the Knicks is red-hot 3-point shooting and strong wing play from OG Anunoby (48.3% from beyond the arc in the playoffs) and Mikal Bridges (34.1% from deep). Then add Landry Shamet (60%) and Miles McBride (42.9%), who hit everything when they come in off the bench. As a team, the Knicks are shooting 40% from 3 this postseason.
Doing that against the Hawks and Cavaliers is one thing, doing it against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs is another entirely.
In the final minutes of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, with the Thunder trailing and their season on the line, both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Alex Caruso drove hard to the rim, then realized they had to bail out and threw a desperation pass back out of the paint — such is the presence of Wemby. But it's not just him. Stephon Castle is a high-level on-ball defender, and the guard/wing rotation with De'Aaron Fox, Julian Champagnie, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson are all plus defenders.
Put more bluntly: There is no James Harden to hunt in the NBA Finals. The Spurs are long, athletic and disciplined across the board. There are no obvious weak links. They come out of a series where they had to play elite defense to advance.
New York comes in playing like a juggernaut and with the confidence they can score in this matchup — in the regular season, no team scored more points per possession in their matchups with the Spurs than the Knicks. However, doing that in December and March is one thing, doing it in June with the Spurs playing their best ball is another. Can the Knicks stay this hot (especially from 3) against this defense? It will decide the series.
Can the Spurs score on the Knicks?
Maybe the most underrated part of the Knicks — both all season and during this postseason run — has been their defense. New York had the seventh-best defense in the NBA during the regular season, then has the best defensive rating in the NBA for the playoffs (103.5, although their opponents had something to do with that).
What's more, the Knicks were able to slow the Spurs during the season. In the NBA Cup win, the Knicks held the Spurs to 19 points in the fourth quarter sparking New York's comeback win. In the March meeting, the Knicks' defense was dominant, the New York wings cut off the Spurs' dribble penetration, and San Antonio shot just 41% from the floor with 21 turnovers.
San Antonio is playing better, with more confidence now than they have in the past, but they are going to have to show they can score at a high level on the Knicks to win this series. If New York's defense is dominant again, it will have a new banner to hang in Madison Square Garden.
Knicks wings need to dominate
When these two teams played on March 1, Mikal Bridges scored 25 in one of his better games of the season. In the NBA Cup Finals, OG Anunoby scored 28 and had nine rebounds. New York swept Cleveland out of the playoffs in part because they dominated play on the wings (a long-time Cavs weak spot). Against the Cavs, the duo combined to average 34.8 points and 10.2 rebounds a game, while playing stifling defense.
San Antonio presents a whole different level of size, physicality and skill with its guard-wing rotation. Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell start at the 2/3, with Dylan Harper, Keldon Johnson and Harrison Barnes off the bench. New York is not going to own play on the wings like they did last series, but if the Knicks are going to win this series, Bridges and Anunoby must outplay their counterparts for the majority of games.
The Cubs went 3-4 over the past week, which isn’t great… until you remember that they had lost eight in a row before the week began, and then the first two games of last week.
So let’s go with this: The Cubs have won three of their last five. Something to build on, anyway.
Here’s who was hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.
Three up
Ian Happ. Yes, Ian Happ.
Happ went 0-for-3 in the first game of the road trip and 0-for-4 in the last one.
In between, in the other five games: .417/.417/.917 (10-for-24) with three doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI. Overall on the trip, then: .323/.344/.710. That’s a pretty good run, and Happ, as you know, is a very streaky hitter. Hopefully the streakiness will continue in a positive way this week at Wrigley Field.
In Brown’s two starts last week, one in Pittsburgh and one in St. Louis, he threw 13 innings, allowed seven hits and three walks (0.769 WHIP) and posted a 1.38 ERA (two earned runs). He struck out 13.
Brown has allowed one home run this year — to the very first batter he faced on Opening Day (Jacob Young of the Nationals). The 51.1 innings he’s thrown since then without allowing a homer is the longest active homerless streak for any MLB pitcher.
Great stuff, Ben.
Honorable mention to Alex Bregman, who’s on a 10-game hitting streak and homered Sunday. Maybe he’s finally coming out of it.
Three down
Jordan Wicks needs a return trip to Iowa
Two starts, 6.1 innings, 13 hits, one walk (2.211 WHIP), 11 runs (all earned, 15.63 ERA).
I’m beginning to wonder if a change of scenery would work for Wicks. But would anyone trade for him after those two bad performances in Pittsburgh and St. Louis?
Moisés Ballesteros, same as Wicks
Ballesteros went 3-for-15 (.200), all singles, with five strikeouts in five games on the road trip. For the month of May he batted .102/.206/.153 (6-for-59) with one extra-base hit (a home run) and 18 strikeouts.
Give Kevin Alcántara and Pedro Ramirez some DH at-bats and let Ballesteros get his batting stroke back in Triple-A.
Dansby Swanson’s bat has disappeared
Swanson did have one two-hit game in Pittsburgh but overall batted .136/.321/.182 (3-for-22) on the trip with nine strikeouts. The six walks make the OBP decent, but overall in May Swanson batted .151/.233/.215 (14-for-93) with 24 strikeouts.
He continues to play stellar defense, but that bat has got to get going.
You all know about the home run issues for Shōta Imanaga and Jameson Taillon, so I won’t belabor them.
Instead of playing into June, as had been the case the previous five years, Arizona found itself done by mid-May after a disastrous 2026 season. It was a major regression from the year before, when the Wildcats returned to the College World Series for the 19th time.
But if there’s an upside to such a bad season, it’s that work on the next one can get started a little earlier.
The NCAA transfer portal officially opened on Monday, but plenty of players across the country had publicly announced their intention to enter. That included several members of the UA squad that went 19-34.
Arizona’s roster will look very different when the 2027 season begins in February with another tournament at Globe Life Field in Texas, and below is a breakdown of all the comings and goings. Updates will be made as changes occur:
The San Francisco Giants will be sellers at this year’s trade deadline and while they have some obvious “chips,” “chits,” or “pieces,” I figured it’d be a better conversation starter to rank them, as the perception of a player’s value will surely not be uniform across the fandom or even just those who read this post.
Now, it was only yesterday that I joined the community here by saying that the Giants should not rebuild, and while being sellers at the trade deadline doesn’t necessarily follow a philosophical shift from “trying to sneak into the postseason by accidentally getting the third Wild Card” to TANKING, I want to be ideologically consistent. This post isn’t to say that the Giants should be willing to move anybody on the roster, it’s just to rank the value *I* perceive players to have should the Giants decide to move them.
So, here are the 10 most valuable players the Giants could move before this year’s trade deadline.
10. Tyler Mahle
Look, I’m with you. He’s been terrible. The 1-7 record and 6.04 ERA gets the season ticketholders riled up, but it’s that 4.86 FIP (tied for 8th-worst in MLB with Zac Gallen) that really underscores how terrible he’s been. His 10.0 hits per 9 innings is explained away by the Giants being bad on defense, but the 1.7 HR/9 and 3.8 BB/9 are much closer to his career averages when the small sample size of 56.2 innings and context of his situation (being on one of the worst Giants teams in the long history of the franchise) are taken into account.
And I’ll add that Aaron Civale, he of the 4.91 ERA and 5.59 FIP in just 22 MLB innings last season, wound up being traded around this time last season by the Milwaukee Brewers — who had acquired him the previous season from the Tampa Bay Rays — to the Chicago White Sox for… Andrew Vaughn, one of the key figures in Milwaukee’s lineup these days.
Of course, Buster Posey isn’t the savvy operator that Brewers’ POBO Matt Arnold is nor are the Giants a big unlocker of hitting talent. Milwaukee really isn’t, either, but they are such a well run organization by comparison that simply getting Vaughn off a struggling team like the White Sox and onto a good team like the Brewers really did seem to reset his talent. It’s an interesting situation to note because the White Sox also had current Giant Adrian Houser on their roster last year and seemed to help him revitalize his career (2.10 ERA in 68.2 IP) to the point that they were able to trade him to Tampa Bay.
Mahle would have some value to teams because of his strikeouts (9.1 K/9 is right in line with his career average) and all of the under the hood numbers indicate that he’s still the same guy when healthy — he’s just never healthy. But he would also be more valuable than Houser in a trade scenario because he doesn’t have the extra year attached to him, unlike Houser. That fact might be moot if there’s a lockout, but Houser hasn’t pitched much better than Mahle to merit extra consideration, I think.
The Giants might not be able to get a middle of the lineup tarnished figure a la Vaughn for him, but there’s some dinged up value to be exchanged for dinged up value here.
9. Jung Hoo Lee
There are 64 hitters currently hitting 20% or better than the league average and one of them is Jung Hoo Lee. But to put it another, better way: there are 32 hitters aged 27 or younger currently hitting 20% or better than the league average and one of them is Jung Hoo Lee.
His age plus position plus hitting ability makes him valuable. Weighted against him are some big negatives:
An extensive injury history
An $18.833 CBT number through 2029, as he’s unlikely to opt out after this next season
Average defense, no stolen bases
And did I mention that he has an $18.833 CBT number through 2029? Oh, I did. Well, it’s even worse than that. Because of the structure of his deal, he’s owed $64.25 million after this season, $79.75 million if you factor in what’s left of his contract this season.
That’s a lot of money for a player who could still go either way in his career. That’s right, there’s still a good chance that he winds up hitting his way into a 3-win player over the next few years as the Giants hoped when they signed him. Another team might be able to unlock more consistency with better coaching and scouting, but with such an extensive cost attached to him, the Giants might not be able to get too much back in return, making him less valuable to trade.
On the other hand, here are the worst hitting outfields in MLB right now:
Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, and San Diego are almost certainly locks for the postseason, while the Phillies, White Sox, Astros, and Reds are extremely in the mix. With a looming lockout plus salary cap on the horizon, I’m not sure what the risk appetite will be, but if there’s a cap then there’s going to be a floor, and you could envision a scenario where the Rays, Reds, or Marlins add Lee just to help get them to a theoretical floor sooner… with the Giants kicking in some money to get back a decent prospect or two.
A bad example that still might apply. Back in 2024, the Mariners acquired Randy Arozarena (2.5 years on deal) from the Rays in exchange for their #12 and #22 prospects plus a player to be named later. Another bad example might be when the Marlins traded Jazz Chisholm (2.5 years on deal) to the Yankees back in 2024. They received the Yankees’ #19 & #20 prospects plus an infielder.
A player with 3.5 years remaining on his deal with a nonzero possibility of opting out next offseason (if there is one!) certainly limits a potential return, but given that he’s not one of Buster’s guys and the Giants needing to create some payroll flexibility, I’d say there’s a version of reality where a deal is possible and the Giants would get something in return that might be useful but would certainly be extra money they’ll need in the future.
8. Rafael Devers
In this morning’s Power Alley on SiriusXM radio, Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden talked about the Milwaukee Brewers and how the NL Central is theirs. They also pointed out that as good as they are in terms of winning a division, they’re going to struggle against the Dodgers and Atlanta come the postseason, suggesting they’re one starting pitcher short after Jacob Misioroski and Kyle Harrison and need a middle of the order bat, too. Bowden said something to the effect of “Now, they can’t afford it, but imagine them trading for Rafael Devers and dropping him into the middle of their lineup.”
Would the Giants trade Rafael Devers? I think so. He would be a great near-term value add for a lot of teams out there. I think there might be a behind the scenes scenario where the Giants, in trying to impress their new investors with their fiscal responsibility, might be looking to cut costs on a dead season as quickly as possible. Devers is owed a lot of money for a long time, so, this would be another situation where the Giants would probably need to eat some of the contract, which might be a problem unto itself, or it might be a situation where they get back another team’s problem contract just to balance the books in the near-term; but in any case, I can see another team wanting to make Buster Posey look bad by trading for Devers for even less than what the Giants gave up to get him.
I can also see the Giants figuring they need to hold on to Devers because his bat is meaningfully better than what they have on hand for the time being, and if they’re going to be good again next season or the season after, they’ll probably need him to stick around. So, moving him might hurt the team more than it helps, but I’ll put him low on this list because I think he should be on it. Just in case!
7. Keaton Winn
The Giants should try to move a 28-year old with an injury track record but who’s having a great start to a season (2.45 ERA / 2.80 FIP in 25.2 IP) in a new role as quickly as possible. Including him along with another player on the list might help boost a return, too. Just take a look at last year’s trades to see the reliever duos traded.
6. Robbie Ray
Before the start of the season, he absolutely would’ve been #1 or #2 on this list, but he has pitched so poorly this season that it’s clear the haul will be quite minimal. His 4.45 BB/9 is worst in the National League for starting pitchers (3rd in all of MLB) and his 5.37 FIP is third-worst in MLB behind Jamison Taillon and Ryne Nelson.
He’ll also be owed about $12.5 million the rest of the season, so, a team acquiring him would really need pitching and Ray will have had to string together some starts reminiscent of his best work. Last year, the Padres acquired Nestor Cortes from the Brewers in exchange for backup outfielder Brandon Lockridge. Now, Lockridge is hitting .294/.368/.341 for Milwaukee this season, so it’s not like they got nothing back for Cortes (who was by that point a journeyman several seasons removed from being an All-Star). I’m not sure Ray’s value has tumbled that low, but I’m putting him so low on this list because it feels like that might be more true than not.
5. Erik Miller
Lefty relievers who throw hard are always valuable and especially around trade deadlines. Look, Erik Miller is not is not is not Tanner Scott, but Tanner Scott has been traded twice in his career. After 156 innings of 4.73 ERA ball, the Orioles traded him to the Marlins for three minor leaguers (none of whom panned out). With the Marlins, he had ERAs of 4.31, 2.31, and 1.75 across 212.2 IP and wound up being traded to the Padres along with another pitching prospect for the Padres’ #2, #4, and #5 prospects.
The 28-year old miller is, again, NOT Tanner Scott, and has an extensive injury history that chews into the remaining value, but if the Giants were to dangle him, they’d get a really good return for him. He is a strikeout machine, and you would think an acquiring team would be able to help him tone down that walk rate, especially since they’d have him for three arbitration years after 2026. But even somebody like 34-year old Andrew Chafin netted the Tigers the Rangers’ #24 prospect and a major league reliever back in 2024.
Now, could the Giants use him in, like, 2030 when they might be an 83-win team, fighting for the fourth Wild Card? Sure. But his best value today is as a trade chip.
4. Landen Roupp
He’s got to be high on the list because he would be a tremendously valuable addition to an acquiring team which would mean that the Giants would get a lot for him. On the other hand, the hit to their starting rotation would probably be pretty steep, so, I can’t put him so high on the list. There also aren’t many comparisons to be made here and it would depend on what the industry thinks of him. Moving Roupp seems more like a move to make in the offseason, but if the lockout worries pickup, I wonder if that will change the calculation for teams hoping to compete in 2026. Roupp is also an injury risk who might only be sticking around for another 50-60 innings this season; but, really, I don’t think the Giants would be able to find equivalent value in a trade.
Still, you never know.
3. Luis Arraez
One could argue that the Giants signed him specifically to trade him at the deadline, regardless of their win-loss record. That they were able to Wash him and make him an above average defender at second base makes this whole gambit an absolute miracle, and it’s reasonable to believe that the Giants will do very well in trading him.
It’s very hard to find a comparison here because teams don’t typically trade players with this much value. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the year, so, it’s not like there will be a lot of value to be had in a trade scenario anyway, but on the other hand, we’ve seen teams really go all out to acquire exactly what they need. But just to give an example of value: last year, here were the position players around the 23rd-most valuable on June 1st:
Steven Kwan, 2.1 fWAR
Brendan Donovan, 2.0
Rafael Devers, 1.9
Ryan O’Hearn, 2.1
Remarkably, all of these players were traded at some point or, in the case of Kwan, rumored to be on the trade block. Only O’Hearn was a free agent at year’s end.
In his case, the Orioles traded him along with outfielder Ramon Laureano along with cash to the Padres in exchange for their #6, #8, and #16 prospects along with two more position player prospects and a pitching prospect. Laureano had an extra year on his deal and the Padres were in terrible need of help in their outfield, so, it’s not a true comparison to the Arraez situation.
Then there’s the factor of what teams value more: offense or defense. Only 11 of the 30 teams have positive defense and offense at second base. The rest
Plus, the teams that could use a boost at second base aren’t playoff teams for the most part, and the ones that could be are actually . Only the Rays (+0.3 fWAR, 100 wRC+), but 20 of the 30 teams have at least average defense there. So, how many of those teams would seek an upgrade at the position?
The Giants’ 113 wRC+ is 7th in MLB for the second base position, top third in the sport. Their +6.3 Defensive Runs Above Average is #2. Would Philadelphia want to improve over Bryson Stott (67 wRC+, +3.6 Def, +0.5 fWAR)? Or the Reds over Spencer Steer & Edwin Arroyo (78 wRC+, +2.4 Def, +0.3 fWAR)? Or Tampa Bay get better than Richie Palacios (100 wRC+, -5.4 Def, +0.3 fWAR)?
This is almost certainly the one big trade the Giants will be involved in this deadline and it’s a situation where they might get a big return if they are able to drum up enough interest or move him in June when the acquiring team would get to have him longer.
2. Logan Webb
From December: The “best time to trade Logan Webb is after the 2026 season, provided the Giants are still a .500 at best team.” The Giants are no longer a .500 team at best. They are back to the Bobby Evans era of 2017 in terms of their ceiling. It’s time to move Logan Webb. Problem is, he might not be the same pitcher everyone planned for him to be at the start of the season and the ABS Challenge System might’ve further eroded his value by taking away the shadow strike zone.
Still! There are plenty of comps to be made for a Webb deal. Back in December, I briefly mentioned the Padres trade for Dylan Cease before pivoting to more realistic-looking deals that fit Webb’s contract & age:
– The Orioles gave up INF Joey Ortiz (#8 prospect, #63 on Pipeline’s Top 100), LHP DL Hall, and a Competitive Balance Round A pick for one year of Corbin Burnes (then 29) two offseasons ago.
– The Rangers got the #4, #17, and #27 prospects in the Dodgers’ system at the 2017 trade deadline in exchange for Yu Darvish (age 30).
– In 2014, the Rays traded away David Price at the deadline for Willy Adames, Drew Smyly, and Nick Franklin (Seattle’s #4 prospect)
Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Ken Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic this morning that the trade deadline is about to be dominated by talk of Tarik Skubal being on the move, provided he can establish he’s healthy. I would never suggest that Logan Webb is on Skubal’s level, but he’s right there on the tier beneath and he, too, needs to demonstrate that he’s healthy, not just for the Giants, but for any team that might have interest. Such times might include those that miss out on acquiring Skubal or come to find that Skubal isn’t healthy and not worth acquiring in-season. Logan Webb could very quickly become The Best Pitcher Available, and that’s why I’m sneaking him past Luis Arraez. Not because he’s more likely to move, but because he’d be a more valuable player to move, given the probable return.
It’d be a big hit to the rotation, of course, but this season is so bad that moving Webb might be met by the season ticketholders and general fans with more of a “Well, Buster had to do something to shake things up.“ Because the possible return is lower and the pain for the Giants much greater, I can’t put Logan Webb #1. No Giants fan should want the Giants to trade away Logan Webb. But, you know, if it happens, it will be a logical decision.
1. Casey Schmitt
Now, why would the Giants move their best hitter right now? Well, because they have Matt Chapman, and chances are they won’t be able to trade Matt Chapman. Now, if they trade Luis Arraez, I’d think that would put Schmitt there or even shortstop if they want to slide Adames over to second in-season. There are certainly scenarios where a trade makes him more valuable to the Giants on the Giants, but just imagine what a player who is having his breakout season with three years of team control remaining could fetch in the trade market.
The Red Sox didn’t want to pay Alex Bregman to continue playing third base, so they let him walk and traded for Caleb Durbin (.183/.250/.280). Let Casey Schmitt aim his bat at the Green Monster and have some fun. The Red Sox have not only some interesting outfielders, but interesting arms who could really help the Giants, and with Schmitt in the lineup, Boston might be able to make a run at the AL Wild Card.
The Brewers could improve upon the 71 wRC+ they’re getting from the position and improve upon the defense, too. Cincinnati is dead last in offense from the position. The Phillies are 24th (71 wRC+).
Yes, this would be a big hit to the current Giants lineup, but with Schmitt out of position and a lot of the prospect depth being on the infield, it stands to reason that selling high on him would be a wise decision, particularly if it’s one of only a few moves they’d make around the deadline. It wouldn’t need to be a part of a total teardown, and it wouldn’t be the first time the team traded a popular third baseman to get better fast.
Sure, the Giants should make virtually their entire roster available for trade, but I didn’t include these players for the following reasons:
Adrian Houser: that extra guaranteed year. I don’t think he’s pitched well enough for a team to acquire him with that commitment. Then again, a team might be certain there won’t be a 2027 and change their mind, but I couldn’t conjure value there other than a salary dump for the Giants.
Matt Chapman: Yesterday, I wrote about how he’s not washed, cooked, or finished, but he’s still far enough along the aging curve with enough time left on his deal (plus a no trade clause!) that I don’t think he’d be one of the 10 most valuable trade pieces the Giants would have to offer at the deadline.
Willy Adames: Too much money owed, and not enough upside, especially with the bad defense this season.
Heliot Ramos: I did consider adding him to the list, but I think the Giants would want to hold on to him in the event that they do make other trades because he will be an important bat for them to have in the lineup when he comes back. If he doesn’t come back soon (and it doesn’t seem like he will), then teams won’t want him in-season.
Bryce Eldridge: Since the Giants wouldn’t be trying to acquire a player to remarkably improve their in-season chances I think he’ll stay put. But, wow, I wonder if Zack Minasian has even briefly reconsidered not moving him for CJ Abrams. Ultimately, of course, it all worked out at second base, but the situation is… interesting.
Caleb Kilian, Matt Gage, Joel Peguero, Ryan Walker: The relievers I put on the list would bring back more of a return than any of these guys.
Here’s my opinion of my own list: I’d like to see how the Giants could remake themselves for next year (or a post-lockout 2028) by trading Schmitt, Arraez, Webb, Robbie Ray, and Erik Miller. That would hurt, but it wouldn’t set them back very much going forward with the upside of bringing in prospects from the outside to pair with the ones they’ve been developing internally. The internal processes seem to be going well, so maybe now is the time to lean on the potential strength of player development and set themselves up nicely or a good, long future.
New Yorkers argue about everything. The best pizza, the best bagel, the best borough. Yankees fans won’t sit next to Mets fans at the Subway Series. Giants fans can tolerate Jets fans only because they have the same home — in New Jersey. Rangers and Islander fans split households.
But the Knicks? They make a run in the playoffs and suddenly this big city feels like they are all one big, loud New York family.
The city hasn’t had a moment like this in 27 years. And it shows.
“The Knicks are the one team that makes New York feel like a small town,” Mike Greenberg, host of ESPN’s Get Up, told USA Today Sports. He's a Greenwich Village kid and lifelong Knicks fan. “You always feel like you’re in the biggest city in the work, like you are in the center of the universe. And the Knicks are the one team that makes New York feel like a small town, because everyone is wearing their Knicks shirts and everyone is yelling ‘Go Knicks’ in the street. There is just a vibe.”
Greenberg has spent decades thinking about this. In 2014, when Super Bowl XLVII was New York, Greenberg said it was different than any of the other Super Bowls.
“I’d come to Midtown every morning and do my show, and it felt very Super Bowl,” Greenberg said of his Mike and Mike ESPN radio show. “But the moment I went down to the Village to visit my parents, you would not have been aware the Super Bowl was in New York. I’ve covered 30 Super Bowls. In every city, the moment you get off the plane, you never escape it. In New York, you would have never known it was in town.”
But right now, Greenberg said, you cannot walk a block in any borough without knowing what’s going on.
“The Knicks being in the Finals is bigger in New York than the Super Bowl,” Greenberg said.
Suzyn Waldman, the voice of the Yankees who covered the Knicks at WFAN for a decade before moving to baseball, has a theory why the Knicks resonate in New York.
“Every other sport has more than one team,” Waldman told USA Today Sports. “For a long time, it was just the Knicks. It’s the city’s sport. All you need is a basketball court and a ball. You rarely see an empty basketball court anywhere in the five boroughs. And for generations, the people running, coaching and playing pro ball were from New York. Everyone in the stands when I covered the Knicks for a decade knew a coach, a scout, a guy they played with or again, someone on one of the teams playing.”
Waldman’s point is made by scanning the Spurs roster. Julian Champagnie grew up in Brooklyn and played at Bishop Loughlin in Fort Greene before starring at St. John’s. Even Dylan Harper, the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, is something of a local, having grown up over the George Washington bridge in New Jersey.
Harvey Araton, the longtime New York Times columnist who wrote When the Garden Was Eden, has been thinking about the same question for 40 years. He agrees with Waldman that the Knicks place in the city’s heart is from being the only NBA game in town for so long before the Nets moved to Brooklyn.
But he also thinks it is partly location.
“Football is divided. Baseball is divided. Hockey is more of niche sport,” Araton said. “But basketball is the city game. The Yankees play in the South Bronx. The Mets are out in Flushing. The Knicks play literally in the heart of New York. Penn Station runs right underneath the Garden. It connects everyone to this arena.”
After the Knicks swept the Cavaliers to clinch their spot in the NBA Finals, fans flooded Seventh Avenue. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is planning sanctioned watch parties around the city for every Finals game.
For fans like Greenberg, what’s at stake isn’t just a championship. It’s a generational story. He sat next to his father at hundreds of Knicks games growing up. He took his daughter to a game earlier in this playoff run. He’ll take his son to a game in the Finals this week.
“I’ve waited essentially my entire life to see one of my teams win a title,” he said. “I have no idea how I’ll react, because it’s never happened to me before. I think a lot of Knicks fans probably feel that way."
Araton thinks New York City will get a chance to find out. He has the Knicks in six.
“The feeling over the next two weeks in New York is going to be pretty overwhelming,” he said. “People are just so hungry.”
The doors to NBA free agency swing open this month, and dozens of players will be on the market. Some have the status to choose their next team. Others accept the only offer available. Some go overseas. A few retire.
For fans glued to the NBA’s summer news cycle, it’s a fascinating time. For players and team executives, there can be enough uncertainty to redline stress levels.
Former Warriors center Zaza Pachulia, a guest on the latest episode of the “Dubs Talk” podcast, has been there. He endured multiple summers in free agency during his 16-year NBA career.
One foray stands so far above all others that he enjoys reliving it. That would be joining the Warriors in 2016.
“That was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life,” Pachulia told NBC Sports Bay Area.
Pachulia, then 32, was coming off a solid season with the Dallas Mavericks, starting 69 games at center, playing alongside the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews. His two-year contract, signed with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014, had expired and he was home in Eastern Europe, preparing to play with Georgia’s national team.
“My agent calls me, and he goes, like, ‘I got a couple options for you,’ ” Pachulia recalled. “But this is probably the most important decision you’re going to face, the most important decision you’ll ever face. Option 1 is Dallas wants you back. And then there was another team. And there’s another team. And the last option is the Golden State Warriors.”
The Warriors, featuring All-Stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, 11 weeks earlier finished the regular season with an NBA-record 73 wins. They were 16 days removed from losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a searing seven-game NBA Finals.
Golden State also was two days removed from signing Oklahoma City superstar Kevin Durant, one of the most coveted free agents to ever grace the market.
And now his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, was on the phone sending a grand opportunity through Pachulia’s ears.
“He said they’re looking at you as a starting center,” Pachulia said. “I was obviously . . . I was already thinking about it. This was Steph, Klay, KD and Draymond. And they needed a center. And I said, ‘Wow, these kinds of calls don’t happen.’ This is a lifetime opportunity. We’re like these are generational players.”
Zaza’s mind was racing. Visions he had not imagined were becoming clear in his mind. Pachulia and his wife, Tika, had two sons and a daughter, all between 3 and 7 years old. His NBA career had taken him from Orlando, where he was drafted in 2003, to Milwaukee, to Atlanta, back to Milwaukee and then to Dallas.
There had been a few trips to the playoffs, but none of those steps had offered anything close to an NBA championship. Nothing like this.
“This is generational, a once-in-a-lifetime call, this opportunity,” Pachulia recalled. “It was not about the numbers. It was unique. And that was special summer. It was not about which team is offering how much money and how many years, and what other bonuses. There was none of that.
“It was the Warriors’ offer, and it was everything else. And once I was thinking about the Warriors offer, once I was thinking about that I was going to be part of something special, something unique, I couldn’t focus on other offers.”
Pachulia had one request before accepting Golden State’s offer. He wanted to speak with head coach Steve Kerr.
Kerr talked about his coaching influences, Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. He explained his general coaching philosophy and how he wanted to deploy Pachulia. About 20 minutes later, the big man was sold.
Less than a year later, Pachulia and his teammates were celebrating with a championship parade through the streets of Oakland.
“Everything he said, that’s how the season went,” Pachulia recalled. “But honestly, that was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. At the end of the day, life is beautiful, because it’s just kind of either you make the right decision or you learn from it, right?
“That was one of those moments where I think I made the right decision, and the reason why I’m still here, because of that right decision, it’s kind of building on it, and still part of this amazing community is amazing organization, and this became home.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 29: The New York Mets Home Run Apple is seen after the New York Mets defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-3 in the game at Citi Field on April 29, 2025 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Fresh off back-to-back sweeps of the A’s and the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Mariners enter June in first place in their division, with a 31-29 record. Never a doubt, right?
Let’s set the scene together, shall we? Think back to the early (and then not-so-early) days of this Mariners season, when everything felt chaotic in all the worst ways. Players were dropping like flies, former stalwarts looked awful and the vibes were all around bad. Take all that, stuff it into the New York media megaphone and then add many more millions of dollars of salary and stress. Ta da! You’ve got the 2026 Mets. Carlos Mendoza is treating every day like a gift (and by gift, we mean a package left on your doorstep, shoddily wrapped and disconcertingly lumpy, with no return label or other markings). But, credit to ‘em, they’re riding a nice little win streak of their own and could be in the midst of turning things around. Regardless of how the series transpires, it seems Mets fans are overwhelmingly unbothered by us PNWers.
Player
Position
Bats
PA
K%
BB%
ISO
wRC+
Carson Benge
RF
L
217
21.2%
7.4%
0.106
97
Bo Bichette
SS
R
258
16.3%
7.4%
0.089
69
Juan Soto
LF
L
180
14.4%
13.3%
0.292
175
Jared Young
DH
L
39
20.5%
12.8%
0.152
140
A.J. Ewing
CF
L
74
32.4%
12.2%
0.079
94
Mark Vientos
1B
R
192
20.8%
3.6%
0.165
83
Brett Baty
3B
L
195
28.2%
9.2%
0.110
87
Marcus Semien
2B
R
233
19.7%
6.9%
0.108
76
Luis Torrens
C
R
103
20.4%
4.9%
0.075
66
If you’re looking at this lineup wondering “Hey, this is a weird list of players. I thought [insert names including Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco, Kodai Senga and more] was on the Mets this year?” you’re absolutely correct. They’re supposed to be on the Mets, but they are instead, unfortunately, hurt. It’s been part of their whole issue. Other components to the Mets’ issues include Bo Bichette being what some physicians might diagnose as “refried ass,” Marcus Semien being old and Luis Torrens, sweetie pie that he is, being their everyday catcher. The outfield is Juan Soto and a duo of babies with promising upside, and former Doosan Bear Jared Young is having the season of his life. They’re an offense that’s been trending positively of late, but whether that’s because they set the bar so low at the start or because they’ve truly turned things around remains to be seen.
Sean Manaea enjoyed a resurgence in his first season with the Mets back in 2024, keyed by a new arm slot and a new sweeper. He struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness last year and was relegated to the bullpen to start this season. With David Peterson limping to a 5.18 ERA in 13 appearances, the Mets have opted to move Manaea back into the rotation. The team will use Austin Warren as an opener and then turn to Manaea for the bulk of the middle innings. He’s still reliant on his fastball-sweeper combo but he’s widened his arsenal by reintroducing a sinker and cutter into his repertoire. Those two pitches have helped him manage his platoon split a bit better this year.
Pitcher
IP
K%
BB%
HR/FB%
GB%
ERA
FIP
Jonah Tong (MiLB)
38
32.7%
14.3%
27.6%
42.2%
5.68
5.42
Logan Gilbert
68.1
25.0%
5.8%
13.4%
35.3%
3.69
3.97
Jonah Tong flew through the Mets’ minor league system after being drafted in the seventh round in the 2022 draft. He made his big league debut late last year after posting a 1.43 ERA across 22 minor league starts. Tong’s success rides on a plus plus fastball that has a ton of carry at the top of the zone. His secondary pitches are a little less developed; his changeup is the best of the lot but his cutter and curveball look decidedly average right now. Tong started the year in the minors but the Mets recalled him a few weeks ago when Clay Holmes went down with his leg injury. He’s worked behind an opener in his two outings and I’d expect the Mets to continue that strategy to protect Tong from over exposure.
Pitcher
IP
K%
BB%
HR/FB%
GB%
ERA
FIP
Freddy Peralta
66
23.9%
9.8%
11.9%
41.3%
3.55
3.94
George Kirby
74
19.7%
5.7%
10.0%
52.7%
3.77
3.47
Pitch
Usage vRHB
Usage vLHB
Velocity
Stuff+
Whiff+
BIP+
xwOBA
Four-seam
55.9%
52.7%
93.9
96
102
103
0.323
Changeup
20.2%
25.5%
87.3
87
87
104
0.249
Curveball
9.4%
16.2%
79.1
111
103
81
0.291
Slider
14.5%
5.6%
83.0
97
147
133
0.429
Freddy Peralta was one of the Mets’ headlining acquisitions this offseason. Acquired in a trade from the Brewers, Peralta was expected to give New York an ace to lead the starting rotation. His fastball is his best pitch; he gets a ton of extension down the mound and his short stature produces a flat approach angle that really fools hitters. He’s got a trio of above average secondary pitches, though the effectiveness of each has waned a bit this year. He can be a little wild with his command, but has enough deception to generate high chase rates out of the zone. At times, that wildness can lead to a bunch of walks, but he’s usually able to overcome those extra base runners with a ton of strikeouts.
The Big Picture:
Team
W-L
W%
Games Behind
Run Diff
Recent Form
Mariners
31-29
0.517
—
+30
W-W-W-W-W
Athletics
28-31
0.475
2.5
-34
L-L-L-W-L
Rangers
28-31
0.475
2.5
+7
L-L-W-W-W
Astros
27-34
0.443
4.5
-33
W-W-L-W-L
Angels
23-37
0.383
8.0
-51
L-W-L-W-L
The Mariners have a two and a half game lead in their division and are currently the only team above .500. If that feels fragile to you, how about this: Only five teams in the American League have a record over .500. If the playoffs began today, the 29-31 Toronto Blue Jays would have the third Wild Card spot. Everyone in the West embarks on interleague play this week, which should be varying levels of entertaining. Me personally? I’ll be tuning in to Rockies vs Angels. As the towering pile of laundry I promised myself I’d do yesterday but eschewed in favor of attending the M’s game can attest, sometimes a little mess can feel good.
De La Cruz suffered the injury in Sunday's game when he hit a booming fly ball off the outfield wall but could only limp to first base with a single.
"He feels like he caught it before it did anything worse," Reds manager Terry Francona said after the game. "Saying that, we're gonna get him scanned at nine in the morning and we'll know more. ... Let's kind of hope. He's a pretty miraculous kid. Let's wait and see what happens."
An MRI revealed a right hamstring strain and resulted in a trip to the IL.
The Reds announce that Elly De La Cruz exited today's game with right hamstring tightness.
The injury will end De La Cruz's run of 276 consecutive games played, the third-longest active streak in the majors.
To take De La Cruz's place on the active roster, the Reds are calling up top infield prospect Edwin Arroyo from Class AAA Louisville.
Arroyo, 22, was hitting .323/.383/.562 with 11 home runs and nine stolen bases in 53 games.
He had been playing multiple positions in the minors to increase his versatility when he eventually made his MLB debut. However, the Reds had hoped Arroyo would come up to play alongside De La Cruz, not in place of him.
Reds general manager Brad Meador told The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, that Arroyo was most prepared to play shortstop, so the organization will at least have a chance to further evaluate him there.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA - MARCH 19, 2026: Steele Hall #3 of the Cincinnati Reds in the field during the sixth inning of a spring training Spring Breakout game against the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium on March 19, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
The month of May is in the rearview mirror, and a handful of select Cincinnati Reds farmhands are going to look back on it fondly for quite some time.
Here are four minor leaguers who absolutely smashed the ball during the most recent month:
Carlos Jorge, OF (AA Chattanooga Lookouts)
We’ve seen decent power from Jorge before, as he swatted 9 homers in 86 games with Daytona of the Florida State League as a 19 year old, slugging .483 in a league where power goes to die. We’ve seen ample speed with him, too – he’s swiped 169 bags in 439 minor league games across his career. We’ve also seen pretty elite control of the strike zone, as he reached base at a .400 clip in that Daytona stint and owns a .361 OBP for his minor league career.
This year, we’re seeing all of that – and some very well regarded defense in CF, where he’s finally found a home after playing all over early in his career. He also escaped Dayton for the first time in years, and is showing out at the AA level down in Southern League play.
Jorge poured in a rock-solid May hitting .337/.416/.483 (.899) with 11 walks, 10 steals, and 4 homers in 23 games played. The 22 year old is doing very little to suggest he’s anything other than Cincinnati’s CF of the future right now.
Jay Allen, OF (AA Chattanooga Lookouts)
The Reds once used a 1st round pick to pluck Allen out of high school, drafting him 30th overall out of high school in Florida. But while he’s shown, at times, an ability to take walks and control the zone, he’s never really hit much (.231 average in 1694 MiLB PA) or for much power (.351 SLG in those PA). He’s still just 23, though, and is finally putting together a more complete run for AA Chattanooga.
May saw Allen hit .309/.398/.519 (.916 OPS) with 4 dingers of his own in 23 games, a blistering run of form that helped pick up the slack from Austin Hendrick’s promotion to AAA and Cam Collier’s relative struggles from the left side of the plate.
Alfredo Duno, C (A+ Dayton Dragons)
If this entire blurb reads as if I were chuckling to myself while writing it, well, that’s because I was chuckling to myself while writing it. And, as it turns out, I was chuckling to myself while writing it because I had to make sure I didn’t accidentally put too many numbers in when listing what Alfredo Duno has been up to of late.
Duno, who’s still just 20 years old, is mauling the Midwest League in even more devastating fashion than he mauled the FSL last year. He’s one of the most elite hitting prospects on the planet, plays catcher, and I can’t imagine the Reds really wanting anyone else to be their top overall prospect right now than him.
In May, he did things only Duno does. He hit .338/.475/.713 (1.188 OPS) with 8 homers and nearly as many walks (20) as Ks (22). That even includes an 0 for 4 game on the first day of the month, but it also includes a ridiculous seven game stretch in which he homered in six games (and seven times overall), spreading that damage across games against the West Michigan Whitecaps, Lake County Captains, and Fort Wayne TinCaps.
Duno’s damage plays no favorites. I think he’ll be destroying Southern League pitching staffs very, very soon.
Steele Hall, SS (Arizona Complex League)
Steele Hall’s pro career finally got going in the month of May, and he promptly went 0 for 7 across his first two games played. That said, he homered in the third game he played and hasn’t blinked since.
In 20 games in May, he hit .297/.436/.608 (1.044 OPS) with 4 homers, 9 doubles, and 9 steals already under his belt. Cincinnati’s most recent 1st round pick is doing all this still at the fresh age of 18, and his 9 doubles currently sit tied for the most in all of Arizona Complex League play.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MAY 18: Jarred Kelenic #24 of the Chicago White Sox warms up before the game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on May 18, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Maddy Grassy/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Texas Rangers have signed outfielder Jarred Kelenic to a minor league contract, per the beats. He will be joining Round Rock.
Kelenic, 26, is a lefthanded hitting corner outfielder was the sixth overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft by the New York Mets, and was traded to the Seattle Mariners as part of the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade. He was a consensus top 10 prospect heading into the 2021 season, but struggled mightily that first year, and ended up being sent back down to AAA for a month. After another down year in 2022, splitting the year between AAA and the majors, but had a solid 2023 season for Seattle.
Kelenic was sent to Atlanta that offseason, along with Marco Gonzalez and Evan White, in exchange for Cole Phillips and Jackson Kowar. The deal was essentially dumping the ugly contracts that White and Gonzalez had on the Braves, while sending them Kelenic to make it worth Atlanta’s while. Gonzalez and White were shipped off within a couple of days by Atlanta, leaving them with Kelenic as their prize.
Kelenic didn’t hit well in 2024, however, and spent most of 2025 in AAA, where he didn’t hit, either. He was released at the end of 2025, and signed with the Chicago White Sox in January of this year. He started the year in AAA, but was called up in late April. After putting up a .226/.305/.321 slash line in the majors, he was designated for assignment a few days ago, cleared waivers, and became a free agent.
Kelenic was once seen as a future star with a tremendous potential at the plate. At this point, he’s AAA depth for the Rangers, though I imagine they hope to try to get him back on track offensively, at least to performing the way he was in 2023.
Steph Curry is widely considered the best shooter in NBA history and is often credited with altering the trajectory of basketball with his unlimited 3-point range.
While this is a common stance around the NBA, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins shredded the accolades of the four-time NBA champion and future Hall of Famer on Monday’s episode of “Get Up.” When discussing comments made by WNBA coach Becky Hammon and Warriors star Draymond Green, who both believed that the New York Knicks needed a “1A” player because Jalen Brunson is too small to fit that role, Perkins ended up firing a stray at Curry.
As he addressed Green’s comments that denounced the Knicks’ success because they are in a weakly perceived Eastern Conference, Perkins fired off the take that Curry wasn’t a “1A” kind of player until after the team’s 2022 title.
“Let me end on this, Steph Curry didn’t prove he was a 1A until he actually won his fourth NBA championship,” Perkins said. “That’s when he got his Finals MVP as being the 1A. If you want to keep it real, that’s why they had to go get Kevin Durant. That’s why they had to go get Kevin Durant for the other two after that.”
"Draymond Green and Becky Hammon lying to me… Jalen Brunson is a 1A and the Knicks can win a championship with Jalen Brunson." 👀@KendrickPerkins thinks Brunson can win a title in New York 🏆 pic.twitter.com/HvHjPsBac9
Perkins also wanted to make sure Green didn’t discredit the Knicks’ path to the NBA Finals, citing the fact that the Warriors benefited from Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving injuries during their first title run in 2015.
“To win a championship, it takes luck,” Perkins said. “Last time I checked, Draymond Green, when he was facing the Houston Rockets, didn’t Chris Paul when they had control over that series pull his hamstring? Didn’t they get to the NBA Finals and Kyrie Irving got injured, I believe it was in Game 1, for their first championship?”
While Perkins might have a point in the sense that plenty of teams have won titles as a result of injuries plaguing another, it does seem odd that he went after Curry for this particular discourse.
JUPITER, FLORIDA - MARCH 19, 2026: Miguel Sime Jr. #55 of the Washington Nationals throws a pitch during the second inning of a spring training Spring Breakout game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium on March 19, 2026 in Jupiter, Florida. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
The Washington Nationals just promoted arguably their best healthy pitching prospect. Miguel Sime Jr. is headed from the Fred Nats to High-A Wilmington to join a stacked roster including Devin Fitz-Gerald and Ronny Cruz. The 19 year old Sime was a strikeout machine in Low-A, but will need to work on his control moving forward.
— Nationals Player Development (@Nats_PlayerDev) June 1, 2026
Sime’s stint with the Fred Nats showed the good and the bad. When Sime was in the zone, he totally overwhelmed hitters. He struck out 54 batters in 26.1 innings, more than two per frame. However, he also walked 25 batters in that time, showing that he needs to work on his strike throwing.
Sime has absolutely electric stuff. His fastball sits at 99 MPH and can get up to 102. He combines that with a high 80’s slider he just learned this offseason that is a filthy offering that has plus-plus potential. Sime often threw the slider more than his fastball because he had a better feel for that pitch. Finally, he throws a low 80’s curveball with a ton of movement. He usually throws that to finish hitters off.
Sime’s 18.5 K/9 is the highest in the entire minor leagues. Honestly, there was not much of a purpose in keeping him in Low-A, despite the walks and an era over 4. Sime will have to learn to keep the ball in the zone and get quick outs. It is tough to do that when batters can’t make any contact against you.
Rather significant promotion on the farm, and well-deserved.
Sime had 18.5 K/9, the highest mark in MiLB (min 20 innings). Nothing left to prove in Single A. https://t.co/wpkXfqCbld
High-A is going to be a serious test for the youngster, and I would expect some early hiccups. His walk rate in Low-A was over 20%, and that is not going to fly at higher levels. Sime is going to have to find a way to consistently throw strikes. High-A hitters will have better approaches and won’t be as overwhelmed by his stuff.
However, if Sime is in the zone and throwing quality strikes semi-consistently, he will be fine. The hitters are not Miguel Sime’s biggest issue. His own command is usually his worst enemy. High-A hitters may not be quite as overwhelmed, but Sime still has the stuff to dominate them.
Miguel Sime Jr.: A —> A+
In 10 starts with Fredericksburg: 26.1 IP | 45.4-K% / 21.0-BB% 4.44 ERA | 1.52 WHIP | .160 BAA
Sime was untouchable in Low A, this promotion was due. The real test will be consistent strike throwing against more patient hitters pic.twitter.com/MaBlB0IV0y
— Nats Of The Future (@NatsOfTheFuture) June 1, 2026
Outside of the walks, Sime has just about everything you want to see. He obviously gets a ton of whiffs, but when batters do make contact, it is usually on the ground. His GB% is over 60%, which is elite. I am curious to see how that translates to higher levels.
This is a very interesting and gutsy promotion by the Nats. Sime is still so young and has a very clear control problem. However, the Nats new front office clearly believes he will be able to hold his own in High-A, and the promotion is what is best for his development. I think part of the calculus is knowing Sime as a person. If you listen to Sime speak, you can tell that this is a bright young man with a good head on his shoulders. He seems like the kind of character that can handle failing and take the right lessons from it. I am very excited to see what Sime can do in High-A because his ceiling is absolutely massive.
