Category: Sports News

The Braves have already taken two games in Philadelphia and currently hold a five game lead with 19 games left to play. They have the season tiebreaker over the Phillies now, always important in this age of no more tiebreaker games to determine winners of something. Even with one more game here in Philadelphia between the two and more games this coming weekend in Atlanta, it’s fair to ask the question:

Is the race for the National League East over?

Things can happen, of course, so maybe we should wait until next weekend happens to fully figure it out, but after that deflating loss yesterday, now is the time around these parts.

The Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, is the only one of the Tigers full season minor league teams to reach the postseason this year. That’s a credit to manager Tony Cappuccilli, who survived a lack of pitching prospects to get the SeaWolves to the postseason for the fifth straight season. With the A-ball season now done, the question is whether the Tigers might prioritize getting some of their top prospects at the High-A level a little more work and some postseason experience by promoting them to Erie.

Cappuccilli really had little to work with on the pitching side in the first half of the season. Lefty Joe Miller, a 26-year-old not ranked anywhere, was his top starting pitcher. Knuckleballing veteran Kenny Serwa struggled, as did options like RHP Max Alba, and crafty, soft-tossing lefty Carlos Peña. There really weren’t any legit relief prospects available to him either. Triple digit sinkerballer Moises Rodriguez was at least effective despite pretty weak peripheral numbers, but then he missed all of July with an injury. For the most part, Cappuccilli and his staff had to make due with a lot of older org pitchers in both the rotation and the bullpen. So it’s pretty impressive that they managed to turn things around in the second half, despite not really getting a ton of reinforcements on the pitching side. So perhaps some reinforcements are in order now.

Left-hander Ben Jacobs, the Tigers third round pick in the 2025 draft, is currently in peak form and challenging 2026 first rounder Cameron Flukey for top pitching prospect in the Tigers farm system. With improved mechanics and extension this year, Jacobs is getting down the mound better, throwing harder, and regularly getting 18-19 inches of ride (induced vertical break) on his fourseamer. His slider has really gotten more consistently sharp in recent weeks, and he packs a good changeup and a solid curveball as well. He holds a 34.5 percent strike out rate, which is outstanding, though his walk rate is somewhat too high at 11.2 percent.

Jacobs quickly breezed through Single-A Lakeland in just a few outings back in the spring. He had some trouble with walks and home runs after the jump to High-A West Michigan in May, but over his last six starts has really hit a new level. He’s allowed just four runs in his last six starts, collecting 43 strikeouts, and allowing 10 walks and 15 hits across 31 innings of work. He’s thrown 92.1 innings this year, but he threw 83.2 innings in his junior year at Arizona State, so he really hasn’t been pushed much beyond his college workload yet.

The SeaWolves could definitely use a pair of good starts from Jacobs to close out their regular season this week, and then in the postseason. RHP Lucas Elissalt is another nice breakout pitching prospect, who jumped from High-A to Double-A in early August, and has given the SeaWolves a nice boost in the second half. Beyond that they’re still working with a lot of veteran minor league starters without major league time in their futures. Giving Jacobs a look at a better class of hitters, and giving him experience preparing for a high pressure postseason start seems like a great way to close out his 2026 season. He still has work to do on his command, and we’d like another bump on his velo next season, but he’s not too far from 50 future value (FV) status, and he’s pitching his best ball right now. I love the idea of challenging players when they’re in really good form, and I like the idea of giving players a look at the level they’ll tackle fully next year before the end of a season. It would be good for both Jacobs and the SeaWolves if the Tigers would send him to Cappuccilli to finish the season.

The other interesting option is to promote top prospect SS Bryce Rainer. It’s been a wild season for the recently turned 21-year-old who missed most of his pro debut in 2025 after an injury required shoulder surgery. A good defender with speed, a huge arm, a patient, possibly too patient, approach at the plate, and 70 grade raw power, Rainer has struck out a ton, walked a ton, and done a whole lot of damage since moving up aggressively to High-A in mid-April.

Because of the injury, Rainer had less than 50 games out of high school ball when he reached High-A West Michigan. That was a highly aggressive promotion, probably sparked as much by the need to play Jordan Yost at shortstop full-time in Lakeland as because Rainer was really ready to handle it. He struggled mightily in May, striking out a ton, and then in June went nuts, hitting six homers and posting a 1.140 OPS. Another slump followed in July, but in August and September the damage has been prodigious yet again, while at the same time, Rainer has struck out in just over 40 percent of his at-bats since August 1.

In contrast to Jacobs, this isn’t really a case of a guy in the midst of a breakout. Rainer is still hammering fastballs and the occasional breaking ball or offspeed mistake, and doing a lot of damage. However, he’s also swinging and missing a fair amount, and taking an incredible amount of called third strikes. It’s a really strange combination. His 14.2 percent whiff rate isn’t good, but it’s not egregious for a power hitter at that level. Particularly one this young and inexperienced. However, his 19.8 percent called strike rate says he’s still taking a whole lot of pitches for strikes. Even accounting for a lesser caliber of umpiring, that’s a lot of called strikes.

It’s hard to call his approach passive considering the violent fury and all fields power in his left-handed swing, but it’s actually true. Unless he sees something up in the zone that he likes, he often doesn’t swing even with two strikes. Rainer does not chase out of the zone much at all, just 20.9 percent of the time, which is outstanding. He’s gone through a litany of adjustments to his batting stance and overall hitting mechanics, which have gotten him back to making a lot of extremely hard contact up to 115 mph off the bat, but he doesn’t really defend the zone or alter his approach appreciably with two strikes. He just continues to wait for a fastball he can crush, and if a pitcher drops in a good breaking ball, changeup or splitter on him, good on them.

If Rainer is promoted, he’ll get to join his new teammates on a road trip to Reading, PA to play the Fightin Phils for six games to close out the regular season. You’re not promoting him straight into the postseason. He’ll have a week to get to know everyone before they tackle the Richmond Flying Squirrels at home on September 15 to start the postseason. And he wouldn’t necessarily take plate appearances away from Erie’s better hitters either. Peyton Graham is having a nice year, but he’ll be 26 in January and is hanging on as a possible utilityman prospect. He can play second base and he’s played some outfield, including center field as well. The SeaWolves do need him in the lineup, but Rainer is already a more consistent, solid shortstop anyway.

The Tigers should really move Jacobs up. Lucas Elissalt has been pitching well and I like him quite a bit too, but Jacobs would be the best pitcher on the squad. If he made two more starts he’d probably finish with 101-102 innings pitched on the year. That’s ideal for a college pitcher in his first pro season.

With Rainer it’s a lot less certain that he really helps the cause. There’s certainly a chance that he’d see a lot more pitchers challenge him, and that might go very badly for those pitchers. But he might also be carved up by pitchers that can throw strikes without feeding him many cookies for a while at that level. It just seems like a good experience to take into the offseason for him. He may well struggle with Double-A pitching, but this late in the year, the good Double-A pitchers have already moved up, and Rainer would face a lot of arms that were in High-A part of the year anyway. And he’s going to see them a lot more next year. Might as well get a good look now.

Rainer is a good bet to need a lot of Double-A time before he advances, but even if he doesn’t reach Triple-A until 2028, he’ll still only be 22 years old. That’s a perfectly brisk pace for all but the elite pure hitting prospects in the game. To me, it seems like a good idea to acclimate him a bit right now with a taste of high pressure baseball to take into the offseason. The Tigers have done a bit of this sort of thing before, so I just think there’s a fair chance Rainer gets the call.

The SeaWolves have played really well in the second half, despite only really having Zyhir Hope, Thayron Liranzo, and Elissalt on hand as really notable prospects. It would be good for the team, and probably for Jacobs and Rainer, to reinforce them now for the final push. Still, of the two, Jacobs is by far the more ready and impactful player for the SeaWolves roster right now. They could definitely use help in the rotation, so Jacobs at least seems like a good bet to get the call.

Two wildcard hopefuls meet at Camden Yards for three games beginning today.

The Guardians are 73-71 and a -14 run differential, since August 4th 14th in team wRC+ at 98 wRC+, 21st in baserunning runs above average at -0.9, fourth in Defense at 2.2, 16th in starting pitcher ERA 4.06 (4.31 FIP), and fifth in bullpen ERA at 3.07 ERA (2.83 FIP).

The Orioles are 69-75 and a -29 run differential, since August 4th 18th in team wRC+ at 96 wRC+, 20th in baserunning runs above average at -0.9, 19th in Defense at -3.2, 14th in starting pitcher ERA at 4.15 (4.10 FIP), and fourth in bullpen ERA at 3.09 (3.43 FIP).

Can’t say this series looks awesome on paper. But, it’s time for the backend of the Guardians rotation to figure things out and for their hitters to be better.

Matchups:

Game One, Monday, 1:35PM ET: Cantillo, LHP vs. Rogers, LHP

Game Two, Tuesday, 6:35PM ET: Bibee RHP vs. Young RHP

Game Three, Wednesday, 6:35PM ET: Griffin, LHP vs. Baz, RHP

Since August 4th, watch out for Pete Alonso at 179 wRC+, Coby Mayo at 147 wRC+, Gunnar Henderson at 129 wRC+, Colton Cowser at 113 wRC+, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand at 111 wRC+.

Meanwhile since August 4th, the Guardians have been led by Chase DeLauter 171 wRC+, Angel Martinez 131 wRC+, Steven Kwan 127 wRC+ and Patrick Bailey 113 wRC+. They are gonna need something from Nathaniel Lowe, Jo Adell, Jose Ramirez and Travis Bazzana to win this series. Oh, and let Rocchtember continue.

Rangers 8, Rays 6

• That was a rather impressive little come-from-behind victory, no?
• It feels weird to call it a come-from-behind victory when the Rangers were only behind for the first few innings, though.
• It seems like when you talk about a come-from-behind victory, you’re talking about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat late in the game. Not putting up a 4 spot in the fourth to draw even, and then taking the lead for good the next inning.
• It was one of MacKenzie Gore’s less inspiring outings, as he was unable to either dominate or fool the Rays hitters.
• 68 pitches for Gore, in three innings plus a couple of batters. The Rays swung 33 times, and made contact 29 times. Just four swings and misses out of 33 swings is pretty poor.
• And Gore only had 7 called strikes, as well. It wasn’t a matter of the Rays being patient and taking a lot of strikes.
• Whereas in his starts Gore has had issues putting batters away, racking up a high number of pitches per plate appearance, Gore faced 20 batters on Sunday.
• Again, facing 20 batters while recording just 9 outs is pretty poor.
• In fairness, while 11 batters reached safely against Gore, one of those was due to a Cody Freeman error, and another was the result of an intentional walk. Take those out and he retired half of the other eighteen batters he faced.
• Yeah, that doesn’t make it sound much better.
• The MacKenzie Gore inning was the second, when he faced ten batters and allowed four runs, giving up five singles, the intentional walk, and the unintentional walk.
• We should be relieved he left the bases loaded, I guess, and kept the Rays from piling on more runs that inning.
• One can note that Gore gave up several not-terribly-well-hit hits that inning, including a bunt single that scored a run, if one is feeling generous.
• Gore got chased in favor of Trevor Williams after allowing a single and a double to start the fourth. One would say that Skip Schumaker was treating it as a must-win game, going and getting Gore that early, but then, one wouldn’t normally use Trevor Williams for the second day in a row in a must win game.
• Williams gave up a sac fly for the final run on Gore’s ledger, but the six innings the Ranger pen had to handle generally went pretty well. Tyler Alexander gave up a run in the seventh, but the Rangers had a two run lead at that point, so it was less upsetting than it would otherwise have been.
• Schumaker also used Jacob Latz and Jakob Junis in reverse order, with Latz, who picked up the loss the night before while throwing 22 pitches, going into the game to face the top of the order in the eighth, and then Junis pitching the ninth after a Corey Seager home run extended the Ranger lead to two.
• Apparently Schumaker was going to use Latz for the ninth when it was just a one run lead, but once Seager made it a two run game, he decided on Junis.
• Impressive work from the bats. 12 Rangers hits and 5 walks. That’s a lot of baserunners.
• Jake Burger was responsible for the first three Rangers runs, with a solo homer in second and a two run homer in the fourth.
• That second homer made it a 5-3 game, and turned a game that felt like it was basically over already into a game where the Rangers maybe had a chance.
• Corey Seager reaching on a two out E6 with two on extended the inning, setting the stage for a Justin Foscue double to tie the game. The following inning, an Elias Diaz drove home Jake Burger with the go-ahead run, and Ezequiel Duran had a two out single to give the Rangers an insurance run.
• It was a 3 for 5 game for Duran, if you’re keeping track at home, which I’m sure you are. He’s now slashing .277/.337/.457 on the year.
• The Rangers also had four different DHs in the game, which is kind of fun. Logan O’Hoppe started the game at DH, then Joc Pederson pinch hit for him, then Cam Cauley pinch ran for Pederson after he walked, then Danny Jansen pinch hit for Cauley with two on and two out in the eighth.
• So the Rangers are two games below .500 heading out to Seattle. They play three games there, and could get buried and more or less knocked out of the playoff race with a bad series in the Pacific Northwest, or they could do well and continue to hang in there.
• Baseball Fever. Catch it.
• MacKenzie Gore hit 96.5 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.5 mph. Trevor Williams reached 90.6 mph with his fastball. Chase Silseth touched 96.1 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball maxed out at 92.5 mph. Jacob Latz’s fastball touched 96.3 mph. Jakob Junis topped out at 92.2 mph with his fastball.
• Ezequiel Duran had a 108.6 mph single and a 100.2 mph single. Jake Burger had a 105.7 mph home run and a 103.9 mph home run. Logan O’Hoppe had a 105.2 mph single. Brandon Nimmo had a 104.9 mph groundout and a 102.4 mph groundout. Elias Diaz had a 102.1 mph single. Corey Seager had a 101.7 mph home run.
• Now an off day. Just 18 games left for the Rangers. In the regular season, anyway.

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The Philadelphia Phillies head into today's series finale against the Atlanta Braves as a clear 60% moneyline favorite, behind Jesus Luzardo. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET at Citizens Bank Park. 

However, my Braves vs. Phillies prediction and MLB picks see real value in Atlanta's underdog price, with Grant Holmes taking the hill. 

Who will win Braves vs Phillies today: Braves moneyline (41%)

For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.

Atlanta Braves righty Grant Holmes has been throwing the ball well lately. He owns a 2.47 FIP over his last two outings, with no home runs allowed and strong command.

Holmes also faces a Philadelphia Phillies lineup that has not been performing recently, posting a 72 wRC+ over its last six contests. He already has a pair of quality starts against Philly this season, too.

Jesús Luzardo is also in solid form with a 2.95 FIP over his previous 13 2/3 innings, but his 50% hard-hit rate during that span shows some vulnerability.

Atlanta owns a respectable 94 wRC+ vs. lefties and a 106 wRC+ over the last two weeks, giving the visitors a slight offensive edge.

Play this pick up to 50%.

COVERS INTEL: Jesus Luzardo has allowed a 41.5% hard-hit rate across his last five starts. On the season, his average sits at 33.5%. The lefty isn't untouchable right now, and the Braves can capitalize.

Braves vs Phillies Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (47%)

I’m leaning toward the Under, even with a low total of 7.5. Neither offense is flourishing, and I don’t expect either starter to get shelled.

Philadelphia’s bullpen has shown some vulnerability over the last week with a 5.12 FIP and home run issues, but that number is a bit inflated by a poor showing from the relievers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Braves’ relief corps is dealing, posting a 2.76 xERA during that same span with strong command and minimal long-ball damage.

The finale should stay controlled offensively in Philadelphia, and I'd play this pick up to 55%.

Braves vs Phillies home run prediction: Ronald Acuna Jr (15%)

Ronald Acuña Jr. is scorching hot at the moment. He owns a .440 average over his last six games while going deep three times, and his ISO also sits at .440 during that span.

His 52.4% hard-hit rate recently supports the power surge, and the Phillies’ bullpen has been vulnerable to the long ball lately. Acuña also homered off a Philadelphia reliever in yesterday's game, giving this angle some immediate matchup relevance.

For what it’s worth, Acuña has swung it well against Luzardo in his career, although it's a small sample.

Play this pic up to 20%.

Braves vs Phillies weather

Weather in Philadelphia looks excellent today, with clear skies and temperatures sitting in the high-70s from first pitch through the afternoon. Winds are light around 5-6 mph, humidity is comfortable, and rain chances are 0% throughout. No delay concerns, and conditions look mostly neutral.

Braves vs Phillies odds

• Moneyline: Braves 41% | Phillies 60%
• Run line: Braves +1.5 (59%) | Phillies -1.5 (42%)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (54%) | Under 7.5 (47%)

Braves vs Phillies trend

The Braves have cashed the Under in 24 of their last 35 road games for +13.30 units and a 35% ROI. Find more MLB betting trends for Braves vs. Phillies.

How to watch Braves vs Phillies and game info

Braves vs Phillies latest injuries

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Meet the Mets

The Mets looked fairly hopeless and bad through their first seven times up, but against all odds and tradition, they suddenly looked good and became winners.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, MLB.com, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post

Prior to Sunday’s victory, the Mets sent leaping Jefry Yan to Syracuse and recalled Tobias Myers in his place.

In a lost season with a lot of young players on the roster, having a stretch of struggles and failure ends up teaching them enough to be beneficial when it’s all said and done.

The Jonah Tong who joined the Mets yesterday morning is not only a year older than the Jonah Tong who debuted last year, but a year more mature and wiser.

If the Mets called up Mark Vientos looking for some sort of defensive improvement at first base, they’re severely disappointed thus far.

Around the National League East

Staging a late comeback with four runs over their final six outs, the Braves left Philadelphia with a 5-4 win over the Phillies and a fairly secure five-game lead in the NL East.

Using a technical term from the annals of the sport, the Marlins beat the hell out of Clay Holmes in his first bad start as a Cub in a 10-3 triumph.

In Sunday’s latest game, the Nationals coughed up another late lead, letting the Dodgers sneak off with a 7-5 win in a game where C.J. Abrams crossed the 30-homer plateau.

Around Major League Baseball

Joe Morgan, a veteran of four big league seasons as a player and another four as manager of the Boston Red Sox died on Sunday at 95 years old.

Not even a week after claiming him off waivers from the Mets, Luis Robert Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list by the Orioles with a bit of hamstring discomfort.

Umpire Doug Eddings’ apology to Hancel Rincon for stopping the game to make him straighten his hat only came after an official reprimand from Major League Baseball the night before.

Pete Crow-Armstrong became the second player in baseball this season to hit 40 home runs and, if all goes well, he’ll add the 40-steal mark to that statline over the next three weeks.

On the career milestone front, Aroldis Chapman saved his 400th big league game in the Red Sox’s sweep-clinching win over the Orioles.

Gerrit Cole found himself in the history books once again, though in a derogatory sense this time, as he became the first pitcher to ever give up three consecutive home runs to start a game twice in his career.

Dave Roberts is hopeful that Shohei Ohtani can return to the Dodgers’ lineup today after a stretch of four straight games with the four-time MVP on the bench.

Peyton Tolle struck out a dozen Orioles in the Red Sox final game in Baltimore and even found the time to do a push-up on the mound while facing Pete Alonso.

The capper to a really bad week for Ketel Marte, his third inning line drive went directly off the helmet of Geraldo Perdomo standing near first base and sent him out of the game.

This Date in Mets History

On this date 10 years ago, news that the Mets signed Tim Tebow first came out.

After leading for approximately 0 seconds in four games and winning three of those games, the Guardians go to Baltimore today looking to see if they can get and maintain a lead.

Here’s Zack Meisel’s write-up of the Guardians’ doubleheader sweep. Tim Stebbins wrote up the finale here.

Ralphy Velazquez smoked a huge homer yesterday.

Around MLB:

The Orioles, Astros, and Blue Jays lost and the Rangers and White Sox won.

Garrett Cleavinger had a 3.31 ERA and 3.40 FIP through July. Since the beginning of August, however, the results haven’t been there, with a 10.38 ERA and 6.79 FIP. He has even improved his first pitch strike rate from the high 50s to the low 70s between both samples, so it’s not like his command has completely disappeared. We’ll look at his key performance indicators to see what’s going wrong:

Cleavinger is really not doing anything fundamentally different compared to what he was doing most of the year before August. His underlying data is still solid and suggests the pitcher the Rays trusted earlier this season is still there. A .385 BABIP has played a major role in his recent rut while a subtle shift in his fastball location has made his stuff a little less deceptive. That BABIP is roughly 100 points higher than his .283 career mark. Some of that is almost certainly variance, but his recent fastball location issues may be contributing at the margins.

Cleavinger has allowed a .390 wOBA for his career on fastballs located on the arm-side third of the zone compared to a .212 wOBA on fastballs located on the glove-side third. He primarily throws both of his fastballs across the zone glove-side and down to that optimal spot as evident in his heat map from March through July:

But lately he’s been missing more to the arm-side as we can see in his August through September heat map:

The fastball still plays there to some extent, but more importantly it loses some of the cross-fire deception and awkward angle Cleavinger creates when spotting it glove-side. He throws his breaking ball to a similar spot across the zone, so landing the fastball there helps the two pitches play off each other. Failing to consistently hit his fastball locations diminishes the effectiveness of his arsenal. He loses some of the deception and tunneling that makes his entire pitch mix difficult to attack.

Because Cleavinger’s delivery doesn’t appear meaningfully different, I wonder if the problem could be addressed through his visual cue rather than a mechanical adjustment.

When Cleavinger throws his fastball, his catcher initially sets up high and near the middle of the zone before sliding toward the glove-side target. Here’s the setup, which is typically more in on lefties:

A similar cue is used against righties, although it’s typically closer to the middle of the zone:

Because Cleavinger still looks like himself mechanically, a potential solution to getting his fastball glove-side and down again could be to shift the catcher set-up. He’s missing arm-side with a high and middle cue, so shifting the cue to high and more glove-side could help him in regaining feel for locating his fastball. This wouldn’t necessarily need to be a permanent change. Cleavinger has a long track record of spotting his fastball at its intended location. The idea isn’t to change his target, but to change the visual cue he uses to find it.

With Cleavinger already on the IL, the timing could actually work in his favor. The break gives him an opportunity to work through the adjustment without having to solve it in a game, but there is some risk in making an adjustment this late in the season. Relievers live on routine, and changing a visual cue in September could create more uncertainty if it doesn’t immediately improve his command. With the postseason approaching, there’s little margin for experimentation.

Cleavinger doesn’t need to reinvent himself. His underlying performance suggests the pitcher the Rays trusted earlier this season is still there. He needs the BABIP pendulum to swing back toward him and, more importantly, needs to regain the fastball location that makes his unusual delivery and arsenal so difficult to hit. If he can consistently get back to glove-side and down, the rest of his arsenal should follow.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers didn’t call up an outfielder when active roster limits expanded on September 1, and in fact subtracted an outfielder with Alek Thomas sent back down to the minors. That meant no platooning of either struggling corner outfielder.

“We didn’t bring up an outfielder. That’s part of the bet on Teo, that he can right the ship,” manager Dave Roberts said on Tuesday. “That’s kind of where we’re at.”

Teoscar Hernández hit a go-ahead home run in the Dodgers’ win on August 30 in Detroit, then followed that up with a solid first week of the homestand. In his last seven games, Hernández has 11 hits in 26 at-bats (.423) with a home run, three doubles, four walks, and eight RBI.

Fourteen of Hernández’s 21 batted balls since last Sunday were hard-hit, including 13 with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. Hernández found success in an old swing, one he used to success in 2024 and the start of 2025 before injuries made it difficult to execute the specific swing mechanics. Now healthier, Hernández talked with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register about what’s working:

“Last year, I used it before I had the injury. That’s the way I was hitting,” said Hernandez, who got off to an excellent start in 2025. “Then when I came back, I was doing the same thing but I was feeling it (in his injured leg) so that’s why I stopped. This year when I got my hamstring issue, I had to get rid of it because it was putting so much pressure on the hamstring.

Links

At their Down on the Farm newsletter, Owen Riley and Maxfield Lane outlined some prospects who were and weren’t called up on September 1. They analyzed the Dodgers options of James Tibbs — who is not eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this December — and top prospect Josue De Paula, who is. They acknowledge De Paula’s defensive shortcomings, but nonetheless both advocated for the Dodgers calling up the 21-year-old straight from Tulsa. From Riley:

De Paula is too good for Double-A; he’s doing everything right with no red flags and very impressive contact metrics for a guy who is also blasting home runs at a 30+ per season pace. You won’t convince me that the Dodgers lineup looks better with Enrique Hernandez in it against LHP than it would with De Paula. This potential addition grades out top half, but not right at the top, for me, since it is only really relevant in the playoffs. Isolate to just October, though, and I do think De Paula has the potential to be a difference maker—a high-risk, high-reward play.

Kevin Baxter at the Los Angeles Times profiled Dodgers chairman and owner Mark Walter, currently under federal investigation for his insurance dealings. Among the tidbits in the article is this, which matches previous direct statements that the Dodgers are not for sale:

A source close to Walter not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times he has an interest in selling Chelsea if the terms are right but insisted there is no desire to sell the Sparks, the PWHL, his investment in professional squash or, more prominently, his stake in the Dodgers.