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It seemed another Braves game was going to come down to the wire.

Although they had led since the opening inning and saw that lead grow to 6-2 in the fourth inning, it was gradually chipped away until Atlanta was clinging to a 6-5 lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates entering the ninth inning.

Mike Yastrzemski gave the Braves insurance and then some with a two-out grand slam that kept everyone’s nails intact, allowing Atlanta to not use closer Raisel Iglesias and pull away for a 10-5 win in Thursday afternoon’s rubber match at PNC Park.

As is often the case with this offense, it was powered by home runs, three of them in total. Matt Olson gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a mammoth homer to right off Pirates starter Mitch Keller (6-7). It was Olson’s 25th of the season and came on the same day he tied Dale Murphy’s franchise record by playing in his 740th consecutive game.

After Atlanta tacked on two more in the third on Ozzie Albies’ RBI double and Mauricio Dubón’s RBI single, the Pirates got two runs back in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back homers by Bryan Reynolds and Esmerlyn Valdez in a three-pitch span off Braves starter Bryce Elder.

But the Braves responded, putting up a three-run spot in the fourth. After Yastrzemski’s 10-pitch walk, Jim Jarvis sparked the inning with his first career homer, a two-run shot to right, and Drake Baldwin made it 6-2 with a two-out RBI single.

Jarvis added a double and a single to finish a triple short of a cycle, finishing with not just his first three-hit game but his first multi-hit game at the major league level. Baldwin (2-for-4) was the only other Brave with multiple hits, but the offense racked up 11 hits with eight of the nine starters notching hits.

Keller lasted just three innings thanks to an extended third inning, allowing three runs on four hits.

The strong early showing for the offense which had managed seven total runs in the first two games of the series was needed as Elder again labored through a fairly short outing.

After stranding two runners on base in the first two innings and giving up the back-to-back jacks in the third, he got tagged again for a homer in the fourth, this time a two-run shot by Jake Mangum.

Elder finished allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits over four innings, striking out three and walking two. While he didn’t get through five innings to be eligible for the win, Elder did snap a three-game losing streak.

The win went to Dylan Dodd (2-0), who threw a 1-2-3 fifth before the game went into a weather delay.

That began a strong combined showing for the bullpen, which had to cover five innings. JR Ritchie issued a leadoff walk in each of his two innings but allowed just one run, with an assist by Danny Young, who got a double play in relief of Ritchie to escape a seventh-inning jam.

James Karinchak also issued a leadoff walk in the eighth, stranding the runner at third thanks to a nice play by Olson at first on a hard-hit ball.

After Yastrzemski’s slam, Victor Mederos got the ninth inning. He allowed a leadoff single but retired the next three batters, two on strikeouts, to close out the series win.

It’s just the second series win for the Braves since their sweep of the Pirates June 5-7 in Atlanta. They’ll look to make it two in a row entering the All-Star break this weekend in St. Louis, starting Friday night at 8:15 EDT on Apple TV.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are going back to the White House.

The Dodgers will visit President Donald Trump on July 23 to celebrate their second straight World Series championship, the California Post reported on Thursday, July 9, citing a White House official. The team found a window on an off day during an East Coast swing.

For a while it looked like the trip might not happen. The Dodgers' only scheduled visit to Washington came in April against the Nationals, and the game schedule left no room for the traditional ceremony.

"As was the case one year ago, the Dodgers upcoming visits to the White House and Capitol Hill follow the longtime tradition of visits by other World Series champions," the Dodgers' statement to the California Post read.

Manager Dave Roberts never wavered on it publicly. He said he was "going to continue to try to do what tradition says."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The kind of inning that only existed in the Yankees’ hopes and dreams over the last three weeks finally happened in the flesh Thursday afternoon.

That it came against one of the best pitchers in baseball who had shut them out in two starts earlier this season, well, “That’s baseball, Suzyn,” Aaron Boone said from his office as music blared in the winning clubhouse next door.

Whatever the Yankees offered up as a sacrifice during their hitters meeting Thursday morning, it worked, as their bats finally broke out of an extended slumber for a six-run third against Drew Rasmussen that fueled a 12-4 win over the Rays to salvage a series split at Tropicana Field.

The six runs the Yankees (51-42) scored in the third inning were more than they had scored in any full game since June 17, after which they began what was a 5-15 tailspin entering Thursday. But at least for a day they made good use of their bats to finish the four-game set on a high note and get back within four games of the Rays (54-37) for first place in the AL East.

“We needed a good one like that,” said Ryan McMahon, who delivered a pair of RBI doubles, including one on the game-changing at-bat with a 12-pitch battle in the third inning. “We needed a good one like that where we stacked good at-bats, had good energy against a really good baseball team. That team over there, they’re definitely a tough squad. To do it against them definitely feels good.”

On a day that began with Brian Cashman acknowledging that “the storm is upon us right now,” and giving votes of confidence to both Boone and hitting coach James Rowson, the Yankees snapped out of their offensive malaise with 14 hits while piecing together a bullpen game, as seven relievers did enough to get by.

Ben Rice clubbed a pair of home runs — giving him six in his last nine games and 28 on the year — and drove in five runs while Austin Wells added his first homer since May 22, finally showing signs of life in the midst of a brutal offensive season.

“The great thing about it was, it was everyone,” Boone said. “When they would answer, I feel like we had an answer to come back, too, to add on and protect the lead. Really good day for us, obviously with what we’ve been through, and hopefully one that gets some guys settled and we can continue it on this weekend.”

Max Schuemann, who went 2-for-4 and delivered a spark with a double that led off the decisive third inning, credited Jazz Chisholm Jr. for speaking up during the pregame hitters meeting and providing some energy that set the tone for the day.

“[The message was] just that we’re obviously better than how we’ve been playing,” Schuemann said. “Stacking good at-bats together and not folding. … Feel like it really brought the guys together. I think it needed to be said.”

Rasmussen, the Rays All-Star who had thrown 13 shutout innings against the Yankees this season before Thursday, retired the first six batters on 26 pitches before Schuemann led off the third inning with a double.

McMahon then entered a battle with Rasmussen, including fouling off seven pitches on the way to a full count before roping a double down the right field line to tie the game at 1-1.

“As you’re fouling more pitches off, you’re gaining more and more confidence,” McMahon said.

Wells followed by flying out to move McMahon to third, but the next five Yankees all reached on hits to knock Rasmussen out of the game in improbable fashion. Trent Grisham doubled, Rice clubbed a two-run shot, Jasson Domínguez and the badly slumping Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back infield singles and José Caballero added a single through the open right side on a hit-and-run for the 5-1 lead.

After Rasmussen hit the showers, Chisholm — the only starter without a hit, but who delivered some strong defense at second base — capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Of course, given how things have gone for the Yankees lately, it did not all come easy from there. But unlike most games over the past three weeks, any time the Rays answered, the Yankees did, too, to put together a feel-good win.

“It definitely boosts our morale heading into the next series,” Rice said. “We just got to keep that momentum going, keep that energy going and hopefully we can continue what we need to do.”

Mark Vientos, who was hit by a pitch on the hand in the second inning of today’s win over the Kansas City Royals, is set to miss a chunk of time. Interim manager Andy Green announced in his post-game press conference that he suffered a hand fracture, and he will be placed on the injured list.

Vientos has hardly had a season to write home about, and this is another roadblock for the right handed hitter. He will hit the injured list with a slash line of .211/.256/.388, good for a 77 wRC+ on the year. He also has struggled in the field throughout the season, earning a stunning -8 outs above average on the year (-9 at first base, and +1 at third base). Overall, it has been a season to forget for him.

The Mets have a fair few options to recall someone in Vientos’s place. The Syracuse Mets infield has options such as Christian Arroyo, Vidal Bruján, Ronny Maruicio, Christopher Morel, Zach Short and Ryan Clifford, all players who have Major League experience or, in Clifford’s case, are interesting but perhaps not quite ready prospect. Or they could go a more DH focused route, and recall M.J. Melendez.

As for the current Mets roster, the injury opens up Jared Young and Eric Wagaman to platoon at first base, with Jorge Polanco taking the lion’s share of the reps at designated hitter.

The Minnesota Twins were looking to sweep the Cleveland Guardians out of Minneapolis today. Doing so meant pulling alongside the Spiders for second place in the American League Central, getting back to .500 for the first time since mid-April, and extending their winning streak to five games.

It was pretty quiet for the first four-plus innings of the game today with the only blemish on either side being a solo home run by Spiders third-baseman Gabriel Arias off of fresh-off-the-injured-list Bailey Ober. The home run is the only run that Ober allowed, turning in great five innings of work and allowing two additional hits, a walk, and striking out five. Derek Shelton called it a day for Ober after 74 pitches.

On the other side of the coin, Spiders starter Gavin Williams took a perfect game into the fifth inning, where he got himself into a jam. With one out, Royce Lewis singled, Alan Roden walked, and Luke Keaschall was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Tristan Gray. Gray, who has been in a rut lately, slapped a single through the infield, tying the baby up at one run apiece. As we are all unfortunately too familiar with such situations, the Twins couldn’t pile on more; Alex Jackson grounded into a fielder’s choice to home plate and Trevor Larnach was called out on strikes to end the threat.

Ober gave way to southpaw Kendrys Rojas, called up today to take the roster spot of Connor Prielipp, who went on the injured list due to a blister on one of his fingers. His two innings led to a 2026 Minnesota Twins bullpen tradition of coughing up the tie or lead. Chase DeLauter hit a homer to right field in the top of the sixth while Rojas walked the number eight and nine batters in the order in the top of the seventh. “Walks will haunt” is the old adage, and Brayan Rocchio smooshed that in Minnesota’s face with a double to left field, plating both runners and giving Cleveland a 4-1 advantage.

Lewis clawed back one run with a home of his own in the bottom of the seventh, but the Twins couldn’t get anything else off of Williams. He held Minnesota batters to three hits, two runs, a walk, and 11 strikeouts. After Rojas, Kody Funderburk turned in a scoreless eighth while Woo-Sok Go made his major-league debut in the ninth, giving up a moonshot to Patrick Bailey – making it a 5-2 score – and also notching his first big-league strikeout.

Cleveland turned to Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith to shut the door, and they did so to solidify the 5-2 score and a Minnesota loss. The Twins stay two games back from the second-place Spiders and also two games back from .500. They also lose their winning streak. Sad day.

W: Gavin Williams (10-4)
L: Kendrys Rojas (1-1)
S: Cade Smith (27)

STUDS

• Royce Lewis: 2-4, 2 R, RBI, 2 K
• Bailey Ober: 5 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 5 K – why not? It’s a good outing coming off the IL.

duds

• Top of the Twins’ lineup (1-4): 0-16, 8 K
• Kendrys Rojas: 2 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

COTG

• falcontimmy shared the well-known (to us, not the Twins bullpen) insights of walking the bottom of the order.

The Cleveland Spiders are off to face the hot Miami Marlins in south Florida while the Minnesota Twins will stay put at Target Field and host the not-hot Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, United States of America, for a three-game weekend series to close out the first half of the 2026 campaign. The Angels will send the oft-used TBD to the mound while the Twins call upon Zebby Matthews. Have a #blessed night!

The Yankees split their four-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays after winning 12-4 on Thursday afternoon.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- Following a shutout loss on Wednesday which culminated a rough stretch for New York, the offense finally broke out in a big way with six players having multiple hits, including Ben Rice’s two-homer and five-RBI day. 

-- The Yanks scored 12 runs on 14 hits – their biggest inning coming in the third when they put up a six-spot on Rays starter Drew Rasmussen. 

-- The onslaught began with a double by Max Schuemann, followed by another double by Ryan McMahon to tie the game at one. After a flyout, Trent Grisham singled home the go-ahead run before Rice hit a two-run shot that just got over the right-field wall.

-- A new rally began immediately following the home run when Jasson Dominguez singled and stole second, Cody Bellinger hit an infield single and Jose Caballero drove in the fifth run of the inning with a third consecutive single that knocked Rasmussen out of the game. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to close out the scoring barrage.

-- Tampa Bay got two runs right back in the bottom half of the inning, but New York tacked on a run in the fourth on Austin Wells solo homer.

-- Despite constant traffic on the basepaths on both sides after that, the scoring settled down until the sixth when Rice made the Rays bullpen pay after reliever Casey Legumina walked Wells and allowed a double to Grisham to start the inning. 

On the second pitch of the at-bat, Rice launched a no-doubter to straightaway center field for a three-run bomb for his second of the game and his 28th of the season as he gets ready to participate in his first Home Run Derby over the All-Star Break.

-- New York added a run in the seventh and eighth innings on a double by McMahon that scored Schuemann, who singled and stole second, and then a single by Bellinger following a leadoff walk to Rice and a single by Dominguez.

-- Every hitter except Chisholm had at least one hit. The top four hitters in the order (Grisham, Rice, Dominguez, Bellinger) went 8-for-18 with seven RBI, seven runs scored and two walks. The bottom three in the lineup (Schuemann, McMahon, Wells) went 5-for-13 with three RBI, runs scored and a walk.

-- The offense went 7-for-14 with RISP.

-- In what was a bullpen game for the Yanks, Paul Blackburn got the start and pitched two effective innings, allowing a run on a solo shot by Junior Caminero while striking out three. 

-- After that, New York used six relievers: Jake Bird (0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB), Ryan Yarbrough (1.0 IP, 2 H), Camilo Doval (0.2 IP, 1 BB), Brent Headrick (1.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 K), Angel Chivilli (2.0 IP, 3 K) and Tim Hill (1 IP, 1 H). Yarbrough got the win.

Game MVP: Ben Rice

His first home run extended the Yanks' lead from one run to three and got things going from there for New York's offense. His second homer was just for good measure and got the Yankees to double-digits in runs for the first time since June 17.

Highlights

Ryan McMahon ties the game with an RBI doublepic.twitter.com/gTCjGvnJya

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 9, 2026

Rice is gearing up for the Home Run Derby 🔥pic.twitter.com/GtkjSc9c4e

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 9, 2026

Caballero extends the lead!pic.twitter.com/HUD3nVpUxb

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 9, 2026

Austin Wells with a solo shot!pic.twitter.com/yXeAYpWTWG

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) July 9, 2026

What's next

The Yankees continue their road strip with a three-game set against the Washington Nationals starting on Friday night at 6:45 p.m.

LHP Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.29 ERA) will face off against RHP Zack Littell (7-6, 5.02 ERA).

The Milwaukee Brewers will go for their fourth win in their five-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night. Last night, with a struggling Kyle Harrison on the mound, the Brewer offense was only able to muster one run across the plate, their fewest run total since June 3 against the San Francisco Giants.

The Brewers will be getting a much-needed arm back in their rotation as Logan Henderson gets handed the ball for tonight’s series finale. Henderson last pitched on May 22 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he didn’t allow any runs on two hits and three walks. Right-hander Garrett Stallings was optioned to Triple-A Nashville to open up his spot.

As the Brewers seek to put the dagger in the series, the Cardinals will try to salvage the final game of the series. Andre Pallante will be the man who gets handed the rock this evening as his impressive streak of 18 straight starts continues. Through 17 starts, Pallante has a 3.60 ERA with a 10-5 record. Pallante will be making his 23rd appearance against the Brewers in his career, with his most recent outing coming back in May, where he allowed five runs on eight hits.

Despite the wins racking up, the Brewers offense has been a bit hit or miss, but with Pallante on the mound, this lineup has seen quite a bit of success. The lone two players who haven’t faced him are rookies Luis Lara and Cooper Pratt, but outside of the two, you’ll find over half of the lineup has over a .300 batting average against him.

Tonight’s first pitch will be at 6:45 p.m., and you can find it on Brewers.TV and WTMJ 620.

Even in the most difficult of times, this Yankees team has had Ben Rice to count on, and here, needing a win, it saw its first baseman completely take over a game with two homers to lead a blowout 12-4 win over the Rays. Neither one of Rice’s homers represented the go-ahead hit or even came in moments where the game was close, but seeing how difficult each inning was for the Yankees’ bullpen, the impact of that performance cannot be understated.

In order to put up such lofty numbers, the Yankees offense had to handle one of its biggest foes in Drew Rasmussen. And in one half-inning, the Yankees managed to match all the runs they had scored against Rasmussen in the previous nine matchups versus the right-hander. When Junior Caminero hit a 438-foot solo shot in the first to give the Rays the lead, given the path of recent games, a certain level of skepticism was warranted about the team’s chances. However, the game is played on the field, and the Yankees overcame their negative momentum to score six runs in a third-inning rally. For context, the last time the Yankees scored at least six runs in a single half-inning was nearly a month ago, beating the White Sox on the road.

Although it wasn’t with a particularly hard-hit ball, the decision to start Max Schuemann in the outfield paid off for the Yankees, with his leadoff double starting the rally in the third. Speaking of unlikely hits, Ryan McMahon drove him in with a double of his own to put the Yankees on the scoreboard. It was a much-welcome (if unexpected) conclusion to a 12-pitch battle with Rasmussen. Then, Trent Grisham made do on his solid numbers against Rasmussen with a single, eventually driven in by Rice, who hit the first of his two homers in this game.

Unable to retire the following three hitters, Rasmussen didn’t even complete three full innings in his worst career start versus the Yankees. Reliever Cam Booser came in to try and strike out Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a lefty-lefty matchup with runners at the corners and only one out, but the Yankees’ second baseman played smart baseball and drove in his team’s sixth run on a sac fly, his third of the year.

Under normal circumstances, particularly with the quality of starting pitching the Yankees have had this year, a 6-1 lead would feel rather safe, even with a lot of baseball to be played. This bullpen game had a slightly different path, and right after the Yankees opened up this lead, the Rays started to chip away, even if it came with a bitter taste for the home team. Tampa loaded the bases ahead of Caminero against Jake Bird, and against all odds, the Yankees reliever induced a rally-killing double play. The scoring could’ve stopped at one, but Ryan Yarbrough, who came in for the lefty matchup, allowed a double to make it 6-3. Still, keeping it to just two runs when you loaded the bases before recording an out in the inning, it’s not half bad.

The Yankees got one back in the fourth on an Austin Wells solo shot of all ways—his first since the Knicks were in the middle of the NBA Finals, per our own John Griffin—but the theme of close calls would carry on for the Yankees bullpen throughout most of this matchup. Chandler Simpson led off that fifth inning with a triple, and Yarbrough, with a lending hand from Camilo Doval and the Yankees defense, would manage to strand him. Doval came in with two outs, and Nick Fortes hit a grounder to second that wasn’t easy to handle, but Jazz made the play and kept the game at 7-3. So often we’ve seen the game get away from Doval, but here he kept things in check, even if momentarily.

It was the same story all over again in the fifth as Doval was toying with fire by handing out a free pass and a hit-by-pitch in back-to-back at-bats with one out. The next in line of firemen out of the bullpen was Brent Headrick, punching out two straight hitters to strand a couple.

Finally, Rice had enough of these tense moments and gave the Yankees a bigger cushion with a three-run shot in the sixth to make it 10-3, but that didn’t stop the following innings from being entertaining.

Simpson hit his second triple of the game in the sixth, and this time he came around to score; later, Jasson Domínguez misplayed a fly ball in right, opening up room for a Rays big inning, but once again Headrick prevailed with multiple baserunners, stranding both.

With McMahon and Bellinger driving in runs in the seventh and eighth—and more importantly, Angel Chivilli being the only reliever to toss clean innings out of the Yankees bullpen—the final frames of this game came stress-free for Aaron Boone’s club. Leaving the Trop with a series split, the Yankees will face a strong Nationals offense to end the first half ahead of the All-Star break. First pitch from DC will be at 6:45pm ET with southpaws Ryan Weathers and Carson Palmquist squaring off.

Box Score

The Mets played a rather complete game against the Royals; arguably one of the more complete wins on the season.

Sean Manaea was the standard bearer for the team, throwing seven excellent innings. He was, however, treated quite rudely to start, as Lane Thomas took the very first pitch of the game and deposited it into the seats. The Mets did not let that 1-0 deficit stand for long, as Birthday Boy Jared Young doubled home Carson Benge to tie the game in the second inning. The Royals took the lead back in the fourth, when Bobby Witt hit a no-doubter to make it 2-1.

The 2-1 deficit held until the fifth inning, where the Mets took control of the game for good. Tyrone Taylor, who entered the game as a Mark Vientos replacement, after Vientos took a painful looking hit by pitch off the hand and was forced to exit, led off the fifth with a homer to tie the game at two. Brett Baty followed that up with a single, stole second, and was pushed to third on an A.J. Ewing single (Ewing, by the way, saw his first professional innings at second base in this one, as he moved from center field to second following the Vientos’s exit). Juan Soto worked a walk, which loaded the bases for Bo Bichette. Bichette flew out to center in a sacrificial fashion, chasing Ewing home and giving the Mets a 3-2 lead. Back to back singles by Benge and Francisco Alvarez pushed the lead to 6-2.

The game was mostly in cruise control from there. Manaea did not surrender an earned run after the Witt homer, going seven innings in the process. The third Royals run was largely due to an two out error by Soto in the seventh, as he overran a single and allowed Nick Loftin to get into scoring position. Jac Caglianone doubled him home, which put Manaea in a bit of a pickle. He walked Isaac Collins, putting the tying run at the plate, but a bizarre bunt attempt by Tyler Tobert gifted the Mets a reprieve from the jam.

Soto made up for his gaffe in left field, leading off the seventh inning with an absolutely mammoth home run (435 ft. to be exact). The rest of the game was elementary. Huascar Brazobán and Devin Williams threw a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, striking out three and allowing one hit (a two out single in the ninth) combined, giving the Mets a series win over the Royals.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Royals Review

Box scores

MLB.com (for some reason the link would not link to this, but it’s on the website I promise!!)
ESPN

Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Carson Benge, +19% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luis Torrens, -9% WPA
Mets pitchers: +7%WPA
Mets hitters: +43% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Carson Benge’s RBI single in the fifth, +18.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Bobby Witt Jr.’s solo home run, -13.0% WPA

Well, the day was bound to come. Pinch-hit specialist Jahmai Jones has struggled mightily all season long, and while the Detroit Tigers were more patient than most liked, he just hasn’t been able to turn things around. Dillon Dingler’s hand contusion isn’t going to put him on the injured list, but it did precipitate a move to make sure the Tigers have the catching depth and another right-handed power bat on hand. As a result, catcher and first baseman Eduardo Valencia has been promoted from Triple-A Toledo to make his major league debut.

Manager A.J Hinch told reporters on Thursday that his All-Star catcher was day-to-day, with hopes that he’d be able to play in the Philadelphia Phillies series at Comerica Park this weekend. Dingler was clipped by a foul tip that struck his hand between the base of his right thumb and forefinger on Wednesday against the Athletics. The area swelled up on him, but x-rays revealed that there was no underlying damage. That will coax a sigh of relief out of Tigers fans as Dingler is currently playing like one of the top handful of players in baseball. Hopefully he can get right and pick up where he left off.

As for Jones, well you can’t say the Tigers weren’t patient. For a veteran with a long track record, three months to try and get jump-started would be a fairly long leash but not unusual. For a limited player with one specific role and only a partial season’s worth of success in the major leagues in his late 20’s, the Tigers weren pretty generous here, but the issue has mainly been a lack of an obvious replacement. The club already promoted right-handed hitting outfielder Ben Malgeri to help carry some of the load in the outfield, and Dingler and Spencer Torkelson have been the designated destroyers of left-handed pitching instead over the past five weeks.

Maybe Jones will catch on somewhere else for a brief look, but probably the best move for him is to just accept a Triple-A assignment with the Tigers and give himself some time to try and get it going at the plate again.

The 26-year-old Valencia was added to the 40-man roster last fall to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. The right-handed hitter broke out in a big way last year, hitting 24 home runs between the Double-A Erie SeaWolves and the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens in 2025. After years of injuries and stagnant development in the farm system, it all finally started to come together for him. He got out to a slow start this season, but heated up into May and June. He now holds a 122 wRC+ with 16 home runs, a 10 percent walk rate, and a solid 20.8 percent strikeout rate. Much of that production came in June where he posted a 1.078 OPS with five home runs, six doubles, and a declining strikeout rate on the month.

The Venezuelan born Valencia has a balanced enough approach that he’s pretty good against right-handed pitching, but he does thrive against lefties. He holds an .892 OPS against southpaws this season, with a strikeout rate below 20 percent. He’s hit six home runs in 89 plate appearances, whereas he has 10 homers against right-handed pitching in 242 plate appearances.

The slow playing of Valencia was likely as much about his defensive role as his bat. The Tigers continue to work hard with him on his defensive progression, while mixing him in at first base more and more to open up another possibility for him positionally. He’s caught 47 games and played first base 23 times this season to date. That work was required before the Tigers were going to be comfortable with him in the field at the major league level. Valencia is decently capable behind the plate, but just doesn’t have the advanced framing, blocking, and throwing the Tigers demand from their catchers at the major league level. Learning first base has been a challenge for him too, and right now he’s mostly, like Jones, a bat without a home. However, he’s a much better bet than Jones to actually do some damage and give the Tigers some consistent at-bats. At the same time he’ll get to work with the major league staff on his defense and he has been improving at the first base position this spring.

With Jones DFA’d, however, it does mean that there’s at least a temporary role available for Valencia here if he’s productive at the plate. It’s not necessarily a quick stay until the Tigers are sure Dingler is good to go. Congratulations to Eduardo Valencia on his major league debut.