Category: Sports News

Round Rock express pitcher Cal Quantrill has been named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week, it was announced today.

Quantrill, 31, was one of the Rangers’ final cuts this spring, but agreed to stay with the team rather than exercise his right to opt out of his minor league deal. His first start of the season for Round Rock went poorly, as he made it just two innings while giving up seven runs and, uncharacteristically, walking four batters. He followed that up with a five inning, three hit, no walk, four K shutout appearance, and then last week went seven innings while allowing just two hits, one run (on a solo homer), and no walks, striking out six.

Quantrill was signed as rotation depth for the Rangers, though so far, the team has not had to dip down to AAA for rotation reinforcements as of yet. He would probably be the top candidate to be called up if the Rangers needed to fill a spot in the minors, though the presence of Jacob Latz in the bullpen currently makes it less likely the Rangers would have to go that way for a rotation filler.

Quantrill was once a top prospect, taken 8th overall by the San Diego Padres out of Stanford in 2016 despite recovering from Tommy John surgery. He went to Cleveland in the nine-player trade at the 2020 trade deadline that sent Mike Clevinger to San Diego. Quantrill had a couple of good seasons for Cleveland, in 2021 and 2022, but even in those seasons his peripherals were weaker than his ERA would suggest.

Quantrill was traded to Colorado after the 2023 season for minor league catcher Kody Huff — who is not, incidentally, related to Sam Huff, though both went to high school in Arizona — and had a decent year for the Rockies. He made 24 starts for Miami in 2025 and two for Atlanta, combining for a 6.04 ERA and 5.76 xERA, which helps explain why he had to settle for a minor league contract this year.

Quantrill does not have the sort of stuff you’d expect to play as a short reliever, so if he were to come up at some point in a role other than as a spot starter, he’d likely be a long reliever — you could see him getting the nod to replace Latz in the bullpen if a Ranger starter were to go on the injured list and Latz was filling in for more than a one-off start. Otherwise, given the state of arms around the majors, if Quantrill continues to have the sort of success he’s had the last couple of times out, I imagine some team in need of a body for their rotation may look to sign him to eat some innings.

Last week, we got the news that Sean Murphy would be beginning his rehab assignment on Friday with the Gwinnett Stripers. That rehab stint ended up getting postponed for a while after Murphy had some family matters to attend to before he could focus on baseball.

The good news is that things appear to have settled down for Murphy now, which means that he now has the opportunity to get things going when it comes to his rehab assignment. As it turns out, he won’t be heading to Gwinnett after all. Plans have changed and now Murphy will be starting his rehab assignment with the High-A Rome Emperors.

Rome Emperors broadcaster Gavin Brooks went on to report that the tentative plan for Murphy is to start on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday — all against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws of the Phillies organization. If you’re a fan in the Rome area, Thursday night appears to be the night to go since you’ll be getting to see Sean Murphy in action while the Emperors wear those sweet ‘70s-inspired throwback-style uniforms.

That’s a digression on my part, though. The most important part is that Sean Murphy will be beginning his rehab stint shortly and that things appear to be on track for him to make a return in the near future. Here’s hoping that things go well in the rehab stint so that we’ll see Murphy get back to action and hopefully form a very formidable and dynamic catching duo with Drake Baldwin behind the plate for the big league Braves.

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Let's try to get the home run train moving this week by picking on some struggling pitchers in settings with good-to-great hitting conditions and spots to target MLB player props. 

Ryne Nelson, Yusei Kikuchi, and Nathan Eovaldi are solid pitching targets to find some dingers today, as they're struggling and their visiting parks are looking hitter-friendly. There are plenty of names on the Orioles, Yankees, and Athletics to target on Monday for four-baggers. 

These are my favorite home run props for Monday, April 13.

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Gunnar Henderson	+440
Jose Caballero	+1040
Shea Langeliers	+470

Gunnar Henderson (+440)

• Time: 6:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MASN, Dbacks.TV

Jose Caballero (+1040)

I'm taking a big shot at the Yankees' shortstop at the highest price I've hit in this article for a homer.

Jose Caballero might not have much time left with the club, as Anthony Volpe is beginning his rehab assignment tomorrow. Still, he has a great opportunity to showcase tonight at Yankee Stadium with 16-mph winds blowing out and a matchup vs. Yusei Kikuchi. 

The Angels' starter gives up a lot of flyballs, and only five other starters have given up hard-hit balls at a higher rate than the lefty at 48%. He has avoided giving up a lot of home runs this season (just one allowed), but the dingers are coming, and Caballero has already taken him deep in his career.

He also handles lefties better than righties. It's a giant price with a lot of checkmarks. 

• Time: 7:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: YES, FanDuel Sports Network West

Shea Langeliers (+470)

The Athletics are back at their Minor League diamond, where pitchers seem to struggle at a high frequency.

Nathan Eovaldi has yet to have a game where he keeps the ball in the park, and Shea Langeliers is a hitter I’ve watched go deep five times this season without my money on him. That changes today.

The middle-of-the-order bat is +470 to go long, with a break-even price around +390/+400. He’s gone eight games without a homer but still owns an OPS north of .900 to start the year, and he has solid history against Eovaldi, going 4-for-12 with a home run.

It checks all the boxes — setting, matchup, and most importantly, price. The Texas Rangers also have four left-handers in the bullpen that Langeliers can take advantage of, as he crushes lefties.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: RSN, NBCS-California

Today’s HR parlay

Gunnar Henderson	Bet Now +34,989
Jose Caballero
Shea Langeliers

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The Cincinnati Reds have every intention of trying to win as many games as possible in 2026. That was the plan when they first hired future Hall of Famer Terry Francona to be their manager before 2025. That was certainly the plan after the 2025 club snuck into the playoffs and gave fans the thrill of real postseason baseball for the first time in a decade.

It was the plan, though it seemed farfetched, when they tore things down in 2022. It’s been the plan as they sat patiently with a youthful core, watching it slowly but surely turn into the nucleus of a decently rostered baseball franchise.

Those plans don’t come without bumps in the road, however. The Reds were jettisoned from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers in just two (non-home) games last fall. The Reds waived goodbye to a number of good players in free agency, yet came to define themselves over the last nine months by a pair of deals that added a few square pegs to a roster full of otherwise round holes.

First, they committed big to Ke’Bryan Hayes in a deal with Pittsburgh. He came over with a long-term deal guaranteeing him a minimum of $36 million through the 2029 season, and was immediately established as the team’s 3B of the present and future. Despite 3B Sal Stewart knocking on the door, the Reds then swung big on AAV to reunite with 3B Eugenio Suárez this winter, doing so to bring in his much needed power even though he’d be forced to DH more than he’d ever done in his life.

In the process, they up and moved Noelvi Marte to RF – a position he’d literally never played before in his life. The former shortstop had his issues as the team’s 3B before the Hayes deal, but the thought was that his athleticism would translate well out there quickly despite the team, y’know, having every intention to win as many games as possible in 2025. For a hot minute it looked brilliant, and his home-run robbery in the season’s final week earned its own bobblehead giveaway, but Marte was abysmal at the plate over the final 25 games of the season (.186/.215/.275 in 107 PA).

He backed that up with a .138/.194/.138 start to the 2026 season across 31 PA, and the Reds officially sent him back to AAA on Monday because of it.

The expectation, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, is that the Reds will call up Rece Hinds prior to Tuesday’s game to take Marte’s place. It’s the rational call as Hinds has mauled AAA pitching this year after he mauled Cactus League pitching this spring after he mauled AAA pitching all last year, too.

What that move underscores, though, is the lack of rationality the Reds used to get themselves here in the first place. In shoveling so many square pegs into their infield mix heading into 2026, they pooled almost all of their minuscule resources into that part of their project, and it left them with an outfield mix that was mis-matched at best. Marte’d never played RF for 95% of his life. TJ Friedl, who’s struggling almost as badly right now, is being used in LF more after being exclusively a CF for more than two years. Spencer Steer, a Gold Glove finalist at 1B, is now being tasked with LF more often than not.

The outfield, which the Reds chose to patch instead of truly fix, simply hasn’t worked.

That brings us to Hinds, who hit just .116/.136/.279 in 44 PA at the big league level last year. I’m saying that the Reds owe it to themselves to let that guy play almost every single game in RF going forward.

One big part of that is that Hinds, a former 2nd round pick who has a superstar grade in terms of power and plus speed and arm grades, is a supremely talented individual. He’s still just 25 years old, an age where plenty of players who have struggled before can still very much have a breakout year (see: Will Benson in 2023, among many others). He’s also shaved off over 10% of his once atmospheric strikeout rate at the AAA level dating back to early 2025, and his walk rate so far this year has spiked accordingly, too.

He’s been maturing slowly, but surely. He’s also a guy who hit right-handed pitching much better last year (.914 OPS) than left-handed pitching (.769) at the AAA level, something that has continued in a much smaller sample there in 2026.

Most importantly, though, is that he’s been a corner outfielder for over five years since moving off the diamond as a 20 year old, with the overwhelming amount of that work coming as a RF. He’s a guy you put out there and know that while he may not be Roberto Clemente, he’s experienced with reads, with where his throws will go, and how to read the spin of the ball off the bat. He’s consistency in an area where there’s been turmoil, and provides that with pretty much the same type of star-caliber upside offensively that we’ve heaped on Marte for years, too.

If the Reds aren’t truly going to go out and address their outfield situation appropriately – which they didn’t do last summer or last winter – the least they should do to try to fix it now is roll out something there that they can at least count on in one aspect. No more counting on just throwing someone out there and assuming it will work out despite red flags waving wildly, no more daily rotation in hopes that miraculously kicks all players into gear despite choppy reps. Give Hinds his glove and tell him to go be the RF going forward, and see if just a little bit of well-earned stability there helps the rest of the jumble fall into place.

On top of everything else, Hinds deserves it. He went right back to AAA after his electric first week in the bigs two years ago and kept working, kept refining his game so that his best assets can more adequately shine. The Reds slow-played him and did a poor job trying to render him redundant, and now he’s more than ready at a time when the club needs him now more than ever.

The last instalment in the Top 40 series on this off-day is my list of prospects I was somewhat higher on and would have either had on or in the mix for the back of my list alone. As Tom noted on his list, these are deep(er) sleepers, generally low probability, but usually they’re be a name or two who pops up the list the next year (like Gage Stanifer had I got around to publishing a list last year, alas).

Nolan Perry was the Jays’ 12th rounder in 2022 out of high school in New Mexico, signed for a $200,000 (of which just $75,000 counted against the pool). I’m always intrigued by this type of draftee (player strongly motivated to pro ball over college, upside at a modest opportunity cost), so he’s been a name to follow for me. He had an uneven 2023 on the complex (7.28 ERA but 51 strikeouts in 38.1 innings), and got the bump to Dunedin early in 2024 to backfill the rotation spot when Landon Maroudis was injured and there was a chance to see him.

His 14 starts would best be characterized as effectively wild, with a 2.93 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 46 innings, but 39 free passes. Many outings he’d had dominant stretches and then an inning would suddenly go sideways. The stuff was quite promising, his fastball up to the mid-90s and the ability to spin two breaking balls that drew swings-and-misses. He mixed in a odd show-me changeup, but it and the command/control lagged as Perry largely “out-stuffed” low-A hitters. Then he too required Tommy John, missing 2025.

In two starts so far in 2026, the stuff is clearly back and that alone would likely have put him on the main list. Barring major steps forward in the control, he probably ends up short reliever, but with some higher end possibility.

Daniel Guerra was an 18 year old international free agent out of Venezuela in 2022, and slowly moving rung-by-ring to reach high-A in now his 5th season. He’s a big guy at a listed 6’6” and 230 pounds, and his fastball touches the mid-90s (sitting low-90s in longer outings) with a decent slider. There’s no viable third pitch, and command/control can be iffy, so this would be purely a relief projection. But if the velo ticks up in short outings, he could be viable as a middle reliver.

If there’s a guy I can’t quit, it’s 2022 2nd rounder Cade Doughty. It’s been an interesting progression for what was considered a power-over-hit, bat-first infielder out of LSU. To that end, in 2023 he slugged 18 homeruns in Vancouver but struck out 30% of the time. Then he was on-and-off the IL in 2024 in what largely ended up a lost season. In 2025 at AA, e cut the strikeout rate back to 22% but the power evaporated (4 HR and .085 ISO). He was also pressed into service at shortstop and while certainly not gifted was surprisingly decent. It’s probably time to move on, but if he can get some of the power back….

The Jays’ Mr. Irrelevant (20th rounder) in the 2023 Draft, Kai Peterson’s strikeout rate proved to be anything but. Using almost exclusively low-90s fastballs from a very low sidearm slot (he should be nicknamed SLingshot for the way he literally would sling fastball after fastball after fastball), Peterson ate up low-A hitters in posting comical peripherals (18 K/9 with almost a walk and inning; 60% of batters striking out or walking). He kept up a ~30% strikeout rate in high-A and AA but struggles to throw enough strikes for basic viability and more experienced hitters had had (more) success laying out to let him beat him himself. He’s increasingly mixed in a sweeping slider, but controlling it is even more of an issue. It’s probably too much to overcome, especially in a post-LOOGY world, but he’s enough of a funky lefty that it wouldn’t surprise me if made the majors at some point.

Carson Pierce was an undrafted FA in 2023 from Oklahoma. While most of the stuff is just okay and unremarkable, he’s got a heck of an offspeed weapon in his change-up that just dives down to the arm side. With a ton of vertical break, it piles up swings and misses and moved him quickly up to Vancouver where he had a very effective run as a bulk/piggyback reliever before leaving a start with an obviously significant arm injury that caused him to miss 2023. Pierce is effectively a one trick pony. but a heck of a trick representing a potential carrying tool.

In the same vein of one-trick offspeed pitch, I’ll at least mention Nate Garkow, 5’11” 28 year old signed two years ago who tops out in the high-80s on his fastball. What makes him effective (1.22 ERA for New Hampshire last year) is this super low-spin screwball that almost knuckles. It’s so befuddling that it vexed not just hitters, but flummoxed tracking systems into labelling it a slider for most of last year. Is it enough to get him the majors? Probably not, but worth keeping an eye on and it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Jackson Hornung was drafted as a catcher in 2023’s 16th round out of D-III Skidmore College in upstate New York. His work behind the plate could charitably de described as very rough, and by the beginning of last year he was moved out to a first base/outfield/DH mix. Frankly, his best position by far is at the plate, where he has a god feel for squaring balls up and driving them for some power (.287/.367/.452 split in Vancouver and NH). There’s a fair bit of swing-and-miss and given the heavy pressure on the bat that’s probably too much to overcome, but if more power comes through there’s potentially something in the bat.