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Hello, friends.

The All-Star break continues. There’s still not going to be any more Orioles baseball until tomorrow when they start the non-mathematical second half of the season in Houston. We can hope the break is a good mental reset for those players who need one and a good physical reset for those who need one of those. It is a near-certainty that more than one player has been pushing through minor dings. Four days off might actually help with some of that.

Unfortunately, four days off isn’t going to do much to solve the challenge of Blaze Alexander’s broken hand bone. That’s not something that resolves in half of a week. Today is probably the day they’ll make their short-term decision about what to do to replace him on the roster for at least a few days, because they’ll want that player to be able to get to Houston to join the team coming out of the break.

We probably won’t find out until they announce the roster move tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps if the beat writers start putting “So-and-so has a locker here” posts on social media. Tomorrow’s roster move does not necessarily have to be the solution that the team will use from here until when Alexander is back. It also might be. Mike Elias generally does not act with the urgency that Orioles fans would like him to act with.

How much it’s worth paying the urgency premium for this 46-51 team is kind of an ongoing question. The odds for the Orioles are what they are, in the range of about one in eight to about one in five. You don’t want to bet a meaningful piece for the future on a one in eight chance. The odds could change if the Orioles keep playing well. The idea of a long winning streak has always been there for those who want to believe in it. “Well, if they could just win like seven in a row…”

The Orioles finally made it to four. If they were to sweep the Astros coming out of the break, the odds would be much better. They probably won’t sweep the Astros coming out of the break. The more they win over the rest of July, the more the math points more in their favor towards the value of seeking external improvements for this year’s team. Even if they stay on the fringes, finding someone who can help for the rest of this year and next year too might be worth getting. That’s something Elias will have to figure out between now and August 3.

There was some other injury news during yesterday’s off day. The team announced that lefty reliever Keegan Akin underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Things had been pointing in that direction for a while based on what was known of his elbow injury and they reached the inevitable conclusion yesterday. At this point, Akin may not throw another real MLB pitch until late next season, if not all the way into 2028. Best wishes to Akin as he begins on the long road to recovery here.

The cold reality is this isn’t much of a loss for the 2026 Orioles bullpen. Akin’s 5.68 ERA in 25.1 innings were part of this team’s problems, rather than part of their solutions. Akin being removed as an option is something the Orioles can now definitively plan around, as opposed to pretending Akin will be back in action soon and then pretending that he might pitch to the form he had in either of the past two seasons. He may have thrown his last pitch for the team that drafted him; Akin is a free agent at the end of the season.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Key upcoming stretch could determine Orioles trade deadline strategy (Orioles.com)
Jake Rill notes that these next two series are against teams – the Astros and Red Sox – who are currently between the Orioles and a wild card spot. Finding a way to win each series and gain a game on both would really improve their odds.

Two words of advice for Orioles POBO Mike Elias (Baltimore Baseball)
Peter Schmuck’s advice is also the title of a particularly well-known (in relative terms) episode of Doctor Who.

Teammates again for one out, Rutschman and Baker soak up All-Star experience (The Baltimore Banner)
I really hope the Orioles are asking themselves, “Why couldn’t we turn Bryan Baker into an All-Star reliever?”

The replacement-level killers: First base, second base (FanGraphs)
Ahead of each trade deadline, FanGraphs does a series showing which contending teams are weakest at each position. The Orioles, with a Jackson Holliday-heavy second base, show up here. Out of all of the infield positions, that’s the only one, though without Alexander, the third base picture looks tougher.

Orioles add multiple undrafted free agents (Orioles On The Verge)
With some good fortune, maybe one of these guys will turn into Trey Gibson some day.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

There are two former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2026 one-game outfielder Michael Siani, and 1966-67 pitcher Eddie Fisher. The 15-year MLB veteran Fisher passed away last year at age 88.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: civil rights activist Ida B. Wells (1862), Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen (1872), popcorn man Orville Redenbacher (1907), football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson (1943), actor Will Ferrell (1967), and US women’s soccer legend Carli Lloyd (1982).

On this day in history…

In 622, Islam’s prophet Muhammad began the journey leading his followers from Mecca to Medina. This event, the Hijrah, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

In 1790, the District of Columbia was officially established as the capital of the United States.

In 1941, Joe DiMaggio recorded a hit for the 56th consecutive game. This turned out to be the last game in his record hitting streak, a record that still holds today. There are four players tied for the currently active hitting streak lead with hits in eight straight games.

In 1951, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was first published. Did you ever read that one in school?

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 16. Have a safe Thursday.

Note: The All Star Break ends for the minor leaguers on the 17th, but the FCL Mets played!

Triple A: Syracuse Mets (46 – 46)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Double A: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (33 – 54)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

High A: Brooklyn Cyclones (36 – 49)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Low A: St. Lucie Mets (39 – 46)

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Rookie: FCL Mets (22 – 28)

GAME ONE: FCL METS 9, FCL MARLINS 1 / 7 (BOX)

This game was a completion of their July 6th game.

• CF Wyatt Vincent: 0-0
• PR-RF Heriberto Rincon: 1-3, R, K, 2 SB (12, 13)
• RF-CF Bohan Adderley: 0-4, 2 K
• DH Yovanny Rodriguez: 2-4, 2 R, RBI
• LF Randy Guzman: 1-2, R, 2B, RBI, K
• PH-LF Vladi Gomez: 1-2, R, K, SB (29)
• C Josmir Reyes: 1-3, R, BB
• 2B Anthony Frobose: 1-3, R, 2 RBI, BB
• 3B Roybert Herrera: 1-3, R, 2 RBI, K
• 1B Yeider Mindiola: 1-2, R, 3B, 2 RBI, BB, K
• SS Yorber Semprun: 0-3, RBI
• RHP Dillon Stiltner: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 3 K
• RHP Omar Victorino: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, W (1-1)
• RHP Roberto Pena: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

GAME TWO: FCL METS 7, FCL MARLINS 5 / 7 (BOX)

• SS Marco Vargas: 1-2, R, 2 RBI, BB
• PH-SS Diover De Aza: 0-0, BB
• RF Vladi Gomez: 0-4
• C Yovanny Rodriguez: 0-3, BB, 2 K
• DH Randy Guzman: 1-3, R, RBI, 2 K
• 3B Roybert Herrera: 0-4, 3 K
• 2B Anthony Frobose: 0-2, R, 2 BB, K, E (8)
• CF Heriberto Rincon: 1-1, R, 2 SB (14, 15)
• PR-CF Bohan Adderley: 1-2, K
• 1B Yeider Mindiola: 0-2, R, BB, K
• LF Adolfo Miranda: 1-2, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, SB (6)
• RHP Kevin Herget: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
• LHP Luis Sotillo: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
• REHAB ALERT: RHP Dedniel Núñez: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, BS (1)
• RHP Eris Albino: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, W (4-0)

STAR OF THE NIGHT

Enjoying the All Star Break!

GOAT OF THE NIGHT

Less baseball because of the All Star Break!

Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior was worried. But how worried? He couldn’t say at first.

The team had already taken major steps to address Shohei Ohtani’s lingering left knee issue, presenting him with a plan to skip his last start before the All-Star break and have his knee drained that Sunday. And he’d co-signed it.

The swelling in Ohtani’s knee, however, had already been more persistent than the team had first expected. And pitching seemed to irritate it.

“I would say, moderately concerned,” Prior eventually said in a conversation with The Times last weekend. “But no more concerned than I probably am with anybody else who’s had to deal with aches and pains. Hopefully, this break and this rest will get it to calm down a little bit, and then we’ll see where we’re at next weekend.”

Read more:Shaikin: Love it or hate it: Would the Dodgers' NL West rivals call a Tarik Skubal trade overkill?

Coming out of the All-Star break, the Dodgers face the most pressing question for their second half: Will they be able to manage Ohtani’s knee issue?

Of course, plenty of other questions loom: What approach will the Dodgers take at the trade deadline? Will the pitchers coming off the injured list in the second half provide enough pitching depth? Can they maintain the best record in the majors?

But naturally, Ohtani’s health is tangled up in all those answers.

The Dodgers have enough star power and enough of a lead in the division to still make the playoffs without Ohtani replicating his first half on the mound (8-2, 1.79 ERA). And they showed last year that they can win a World Series even if their postseason path begins with a wild-card series.

They’d prefer, however, to take a different route, with a strong second half that ensures home-field advantage all the way through the postseason.

“At the end of the day, it’s just trying to expect the best of your ball club,” manager Dave Roberts said before the break. “And with the talent that we have, we expect to have the best record in baseball, and so that’s our standard. And so, what falls out of it is x, y and z. So that’s what we’re playing for.”

That’s also what they need a healthy Ohtani for.

Workload is part of the equation, and an aspect that’s garnered plenty of attention in Ohtani’s first full season balancing two-way duties since 2023.

“I’ve been much more open and watching … his workload, and not just taking for granted that he can be a two-way player, take every at-bat, pitch like a normal pitcher,” Roberts said. “I think that would be unfair. So for me, if anything, it’s just, keep having those conversations with him, bringing them to him, and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we see. This might be a different option, a better option for your best interest and our best interest.’ And I think that with that, he’s responded really well.”

That approach will continue in the second half. But refining Ohtani’s mechanics will also be vital to keeping his knee from becoming an issue again.

Ohtani said it himself, through interpreter Will Ireton, last week: “I have to kind of find a way to adjust my mechanics so that my knee doesn’t get affected.”

He’s been trying to do so since the swelling in his knee first cropped up.

“I think we’ve identified the issue,” Prior said. “Sometimes the fix isn’t always the easiest, especially with a guy who doesn’t spend probably the same amount of time on the mechanics of it.”

As a two-way player, Ohtani doesn’t have the “physical bandwidth,” as Prior put it, for things like multiple bullpen sessions between starts, even if they are a week apart. He has to keep the long, grueling season in mind when he’s also in the lineup every day.

Looking back at Ohtani’s start against the Pirates last month, the day before he exited the series finale with inflammation in his left knee, the Dodgers observed him landing a little further across his body, likely putting extra strain on that plant leg as he moved around it.

Read more:How Dodgers' Justin Wrobleski went from demotion to All-Star in less than two years

“He fixed it, and then I’m wondering if it got aggravated just in-game,” Prior said. “These guys are extreme compensators, and in the moment they don’t necessarily know what they’re doing, but they’re finding other ways to pitch, and then afterwards you find out that things are a little sore.”

Ohtani had a dominant first half, but, whether because of the knee issue, or mechanics, or some combination of the two, he wasn’t quite as sharp in his last four starts (4.38 ERA).

“If he can fix the delivery, then he can fix a little bit more of the execution,” Prior said.

But will the delivery adjustment, All-Star break intervention and attention to workload fix Ohtani’s knee at least through the postseason? The Dodgers’ second-half trajectory will be tied up in the answer.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Following the developmental path of Detroit Tigers’ starting pitcher Troy Melton has been a pretty fascinating ride. Watching him improve in 2024, it was pretty clear that he would become a factor in 2025 if he could avoid the plague of pitcher injuries in the Tigers’ system, and so it went. However, during his mixed work as a starter and reliever down the stretch and in the postseason, his ability to handle left-handed hitters was the question determining his long-term future as a starting pitcher. This year, the 25-year-old Melton has found the answer, but it’s not the pitch we were expecting.

Last fall, I wrote about Melton’s splitter being the defining factor in locking down left-handed hitters, and argued that the cutter either had to get a lot better or be ditched entirely. Melton has chosen the first of those paths. He was good overall in his rookie season, and pitched pretty impressively in the postseason as well. Left-handers weren’t a huge problem for him, but they hit him quite a bit better than right-handers, and more specifically, Melton struggled to strike out left-handed hitters.

He managed a meager 14.2 percent K-rate against lefties in 2025. He struck out 26.2 percent of right-handed hitters. That was all fine in a relief role, but to really become a dominant starting pitcher, he was going to have to get a lot more whiffs against left-handed batters in particular. The .191 BABIP he ran against lefties just wasn’t going to hold up, especially as a full-time starter.

The answer, I assumed, lie in his split-finger fastball. Typically the development of a changeup or splitter is the key to limiting damage and getting whiffs against opposite handed hitters. Melton’s fourseam-slider combo wasn’t really going to get it done. Melton has gone another direction, turning his cutter into a monster weapon against hitters on either side of the plate.

In 2025, Melton threw the cutter just 10.8 percent of the time, regardless of which batter’s box the hitter was in. In 2026, that rate is up to 20.1 percent.

Against lefties, he uses the cutter 19.5 percent of the time. He’ll mix in the splitter (12.1%)and curveball (8.1%) sparingly against them, accounting for about 20 percent of his pitches to lefties combined. The slider is used 18.3 percent of the time against lefties, while the majority of the work is still handled by his fourseam fastball, which he throws 40.8 percent of the time.

So he’s still using a pretty deep mix against left-handed hitters, but the cutter is certainly playing a lot bigger role than it did in 2025. It’s also suddenly become a much better pitch in recent weeks. In 2025 he averaged 90.9 mph with it. He’s added a full tick of velo this season, but lately he’s really found the feel with it and is throwing it even harder, even topping 95 mph repeatedly in late June and July. Since June 15, the cutter is averaging 92.5 mph. There are only about 30 pitchers in the major leagues who average 92.5 mph with a cutter, and many of them are relievers.

Melton is getting a 23.9 percent whiff rate, which is nothing special, but hitters have posted a meager .158 wOBA against the pitch. The expected wOBA is just .196, so he isn’t just getting lucky here either.

The effect here is to give him a pitch between his relatively straight fourseamer that has average ride but a good angle to the top of the zone, and the slider he breaks off to back foot left-handers. Hitters have had a really hard time distinguishing between the slider and the cutter, and the result is that his slider went from a 23.1 percent whiff rate in 2025, with a big chunk of that coming as a reliever, to a 31.3 percent whiff rate in 2026.

I mean, deal with this thing after seeing the heater and knowing the wipeout slider is lurking.

Melton now has three pitches that he can work with to his gloveside, tying up left-handed hitters. They are doing nothing against him, hitting just .157. The one fly in the ointment is that when lefties do connect on his fourseam fastball, they’re crushing it, but the rise of the cutter-slider combo means they’re getting less fastballs, and a lot less obvious fastballs, no matter the count. Overall they’re striking out a lot more, and putting the ball in play weakly for the most part.

Right-handed hitters are doing even worse, and the cutter is a big part of that too as hitters have to look for two different hard breaking balls. The cutter looks like the fourseamer and breaks away late. Once they’ve seen that, there is less certainty for hitters when they see the slider come out of his hand. It could be the cutter, or it could be the slider, and they have to swing just as the latter disappears down and away for whiffs. The slider’s performance continues to improve as the cutter becomes more effective. Melton really has them on the horns of a dilemma trying to discern between the two breaking balls while knowing they could get 97-98 mph at the top of the zone with big-time extension helping it play up.

This is rapidly becoming a really deep mix of pitches for Troy Melton, and while his ERA looked unsustainable early on after his return to the rotation in late May, the stuff and underlying performance is rapidly catching up to the results, making the whole package look far more sustainable. We can still hope Melton gets more comfortable and consistent with the splitter, because it gives him another pitch beyond the fourseamer, curveball, and the occasional curveball that he can use armside, generating even more whiffs from lefties.

Overall, Melton still needed to punch out more hitters to turn himself into a top shelf, frontline starter that can lead a rotation. But with the amped up cutter, he’s now well on his way. He barely struck anyone out as he returned to the rotation in May, but he managed contact, didn’t walk hitters, and was somewhat fortunate. In June, his overall strikeout rate was just 22.1 percent but he was still limiting the traffic on the bases and occasionally giving up homers, but never a rally. In July, since he added more velo to the cutter? His strikeout rate through two starts in July in now 36.4 percent. You have to love the trendline there.

The evolution of Eduardo Rodriguez: How the D-backs left-hander reshaped his arsenalhttps://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/the-evolution-of-eduardo-rodriguez-how-the-d-backs-left-hander-reshaped-his-arsenal

Diamondbacks OF Tommy Troy placed on 10-day injured list

https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/tommy-troy-10-day-injured-list

Corbin Carroll Sends D-backs Nike RBI Teams Off to Regional Tournament https://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/corbin-carroll-diamondbacks-nike-rbi-teams-regional

Hazen blunt ahead of Deadline: ‘Need to go out there and play our best baseball’
https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/mike-hazen-addresses-d-backs-ahead-of-all-star-break

Introducing Our MLB Payroll Tracker
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/07/introducing-our-mlb-payroll-tracker.html

Top 25 MLB trade candidates: Will teams part with Tarik Skubal, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray in wide open AL?
https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/top-25-mlb-trade-candidates-will-teams-part-with-tarik-skubal-joe-ryan-sonny-gray-in-wide-open-al-030125964.html

This day in history:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-16

This day in baseball:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/July_16

The S in Harry S. Truman does have a meaning.

Harry S. Truman may have said that the “S” doesn’t mean anything, but it’s likely he was just trolling the media. In fact, the “S” stands for two names: his grandfathers Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Most planets rotate on their axis in an anti-clockwise motion. However, Venus rotates clockwise in retrograde once every 243 Earth days.

Sudan has the most pyramids out of any country.

One of the mind-boggling fun facts: The plentiest pyramids in the world is not in Egypt! Instead, the record belongs to Sudan with 255 pyramids – which is twice the amount of the pyramids in Egypt. 

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Pirates fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The MLB Trade Deadline is August 3. The Pittsburgh Pirates are sitting at 50-47. They are 9.5 games back in the division but just 2 games back of a Wild Card. The Pirates are typically sellers at the deadline. This week’s question is what do you think this year? Will the Pirates be buyer or sellers?

Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results.

The All-Star break giving us a four-day reprieve before kicking off the unofficial second half of the season is always a good time for reflection, as many front offices are surely doing with their rosters in the weeks remaining before the trade deadline. A lot can still happen to change up what the Yankees are working with, but until a move is made the team that they’ve got on paper needs to be the one showing up on the field. They finally pulled out of their tailspin in the week before the break, splitting a series with the Rays and sweeping the Nationals to give themselves a platform to hopefully spring off of once they’re back starting on Friday, but they’ve got a tough schedule in front of them.

The Yankees are in the tougher half of the toughest remaining schedules leaguewide with the 12th hardest foes left to face from the rest of July through September, and a few of the biggest ones are right on the horizon. Right out of the gate they’ve got the two-time defending champion Dodgers visiting the Bronx, and following them is a Pirates team that has surprisingly been rather competent surfacing over .500 this season. A road trip to Philadelphia is next up, and the Phillies have completely turned their season around since firing Rob Thomson and installing Yankee legend Don Mattingly as the interim manager putting them just two games behind Atlanta for first place in the NL East. A week in Chicago rounds out the month with both the White Sox and Cubs coming up back-to-back, and the ChiSox are another surprise as they narrowly lead the AL Central with the Cubs remaining a solid postseason threat in the middle of the NL Wild Card.

That’s a lot of contending teams to face in a row, and while the Yankees may have had a good week finally they’ll need to be on their A-game to not continue sliding down the standings with that many strong opponents on the docket. The schedule doesn’t let up from there, but let’s zoom in on this stretch to close out July for a moment. With the expectation that the big clump in the standings is going to force teams to wait around until the last minute before committing to being buyers or sellers, it’s reasonable to assume that the roster as it stands is going to be the ones handling this stretch, and it’s a crucial one. So how can we expect the Yankees to handle it, and how many series can they convert into wins?

Their immediate challenge with Los Angeles would certainly set the tone if they can win it, and they’ll be rolling out the top of their rotation rested and fresh with Cam Schlittler going in the first game to give themselves a chance, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they only came away with a win at most from the three-game set. Pittsburgh is a different discussion though, and for all the good they’ve done this year they have to be viewed as a team for the Yankees to beat. The Phillies are the pivotal point in this run, as the second-best team of the bunch and the first stop in a lengthy road trip — winning two out of three here would be a statement that the Yankees are back.

The White Sox got smashed the last time they faced New York, giving up 10+ runs in back-to-back games, and will be looking for vengeance on their home turf, but even though they’re a division leader they’re one of the weaker ones in all of baseball. With a four-game set the even split is the most common outcome, but tilting it in the Bombers’ favor is the kind of result they’ll need to catch the Rays. The Cubs will be a tough task to round things out with, and the prospect of facing them to end a 10-game road trip is daunting — I don’t know if they’ll be able to manage that, but expecting to win every series is impossible and I wouldn’t fault them for stumbling here if they play up to their lofty standards in the thick of this stretch. All in all, I see an 11-6 or 10-7 run to open the second half as a realistic goal if the Yankees are done stumbling all over themselves. Do you think it could be better? Is hoping for .500 with all of these contenders in the way the best they could hope for? Let us know what you think down below.

We’ve got a chill day ahead as we take our last day of rest before starting the dog days of summer. Nick leads off with a look at one of the few names that has been directly linked to the Yankees in trade rumors so far with Ryan Jeffers, and Matt follows with a birthday post for Tom Metcalf and the charming run he had in his lone year in the majors. Peter and Andrés both take Paul Blackburn under the microscope, with the former giving him the Sequence of the Week treatment while the latter looks at his breakout season at large. Then, Josh will preview the pitching matchups we’ll see when the Dodgers arrive tomorrow to kick off the post-break push.

Today’s Matchup

Off-day (Yankees will resume tomorrow at home against the Dodgers at 7:05 p.m. EST)

PHILADELPHIA — Within a 162-game campaign, there are multiple seasons within a season, each segment sowing hope or despair or perhaps just drudgery. Make it to July in decent shape, though, and anything’s possible.

Bryce Harper knows that all too well. His Philadelphia Phillies started out 9-19, cost manager Rob Thomson his job, then welcomed back Zack Wheeler – and exhaled.

A 45-24 tear to end the first half – Wheeler winning 10 of his 11 decisions – nudged the Phillies within two games of first place in the National League East – and firmly in wild card contention.

“Once we got Wheels back,” All-Star first baseman Bryce Harper tells USA TODAY Sports, “everybody took a deep breath and understood he was coming back and was going to do his job and do it well. That helped a lot of our other starting pitching fall into place and understand Wheels was going to do his job and everything was going to be OK.

“Once he got back, things started rolling a little more and kind of took off from there.”

And here we are, poised on the eve of the second half, with a mass of mediocrity huddled in the standings and 20 of 30 teams harboring fairly legitimate playoff hopes. Some are far better off than others, though, and with that in mind, USA TODAY Sports breaks down the tiers of playoff contenders as the season re-starts Friday, July 16:

Tier 1 – Almost certainly getting in: Dodgers, Brewers, Braves, Rays, Yankees

For what it’s worth, this group’s playoff odds, per FanGraphs, land in the 91-100% range, and you can guess which team enjoys the latter projection. Atlanta holds just a two-game lead over Philadelphia, and both teams possess below-average farm systems, which will make the trade deadline upgrade game fascinating. But Atlanta’s big league product features superior depth than the Phillies.

Milwaukee can largely rest on its first-half laurels and cruise to the postseason, but injuries to starting pitchers Kyle Harrison and Brandon Woodruff complicate matters. The Brewers hold a five-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central; the teams will face each other seven times in 10 games as August turns to September, spurring memories of their fairly epic five-game 2025 NLDS matchup won by the Brewers.

“Every game felt like a Game 7,” remembers Brewers ace Jacob  Misiorowski. “It didn’t matter if it was a Game 1 or a Game 3. It was a lot of fun.”

Despite the loss of Aaron Judge, the Yankees and Rays are simply the only teams with a semblance of consistency in the AL. The Rays have a three-game lead over the Yankees and 10 over third-place Boston. The Yankees should face the same scenario last year, a wild card in hand and a battle for the division, with Tampa Bay replacing Toronto. In case you were wondering: The Rays hold a 6-3 head-to-head advantage, so the Yankees best not tie for the division title once again.

Bloomberg | Silas Brown and Randall Williams: The Yankees are reportedly moving closer to raising $3 billion of financing from Apollo Global Management, Inc. The package is mostly comprised of debt and equity. Per the NY Post, the fresh capital is expected to be used ‘to refinance existing obligations and fund future expansion projects.’

ESPN | Kiley McDaniel: The 2026 MLB Draft is now in the books, and you can say that the Yankees added some exciting prospects. McDaniel updated each team’s top 10 prospects list and added the Bombers’ first two picks, left-handers Hunter Dietz and Sean Duncan, in the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. Fellow southpaw Henry Lalane (No. 8) and third baseman Richard Matic (No. 10) also cracked the list.

NY Post | Jon Heyman: A few weeks ago, former Yankees and current Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman suggested that if the Bombers wanted to acquire him before the deadline, he would need an apology from general manager Brian Cashman. That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. “I turned the page a long time ago,” Chapman told the Post. “They asked me a question and I answered it.”

Chapman’s tenure in New York ended on a sour note back in 2022, but the left-hander appears to be over it. A trade, however, is highly unlikely at this point, even though he has been magnificent this year with a 2.20 ERA.

Newsday | Erik Boland: The Yankees enter the second half with a 54-42 record, three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Per Boland, there are five burning questions surrounding the team at this point. He wonders about Aaron Judge’s return date, Ben Rice’s ability to keep up his torrid run, Gerrit Cole and his ability to return to top form, and more.

Five things to watch as Phillies return from All-Star break originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies return from the All-Star break and host the New York Mets on Thursday night.

Before Aaron Nola takes the mound and the boos start raining down on Juan Soto at Citizens Bank Park, let’s take a look at five storylines that will impact the Phils as the games get bigger and they try to make the postseason for a fifth straight year.

THE TRADE DEADLINE

At various times this season, the Phillies’ top need has appeared to be a right-handed outfield bat or a back-end starting pitcher. The club would still benefit from both, though newcomer Derek Hill’s contributions on both sides of the ball have at least partially addressed some of the outfield deficit.

In recent weeks, bullpen has probably become the team’s No. 1 need, specifically a quality late-game leverage arm that can help deliver the ball to All-Star closer Jhoan Duran. It doesn’t really matter if the Phils get a lefty or a righty, as long as it’s a quality arm that throws strikes. In a perfect world, however, it would be a left-hander because Jose Alvarado has struggled. Aroldis Chapman would be the pie-in-the-sky acquisition, but his Boston Red Sox rallied before the break and are just a half-game out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.

Not only has Alvarado struggled but right-hander Brad Keller, signed in the offseason to pitch in leverage situations in the seventh and eighth innings, recently missed time with forearm inflammation. Keller is back now, but eyebrows were raised over the weekend when he was not used in Detroit. That’s something to keep an eye on.

Since June 1, the Phillies’ bullpen ranks 25^th in the majors with a 5.21 ERA. In July, it ranks 29^th with an 8.05 ERA and has walked 5.45 batters per nine, second-most in the majors over that span.

The trade deadline is August 3. The Phillies are in the midst of their annual search for bullpen help. Baseball boss Dave Dombrowski got a good one in Duran last year. He doesn’t have a deep farm system to entice potential trade partners, but he’ll get something done. With a high-priced, aging, win-now team, the stakes are just too high not to.

Fans aren’t the only ones curious to see what happens.

The players are, too. Especially the guy in the first locker with the colorful spikes.

“I think you know what we need, what we’re good at and what we’re not good at right now,” Bryce Harper said at All-Star media day Monday. “Obviously John (Middleton) wants to win. He’s going to put all his chips in where he needs to, but he’s going to be smart about our future as well. I’ve said this before. Obviously, I like the future of our organization and we need our future, but you’ve got to try to win as well. So whatever that looks like, I think Dave is going to do a great job, or I hope he does, and gets the things we need.”

RACE FOR THE CY

Cristopher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler are right in the thick of a crowded NL Cy Young race that could go down to the wire. They rank Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in bWAR for pitchers in the NL – Sanchez at 5.4 and Wheeler at 4.8.

Sanchez, who finished second in the voting last season, ranks second in the NL in innings (127 1/3) and strikeouts (144). He is sixth in ERA at 2.62. He racked up the fifth-longest scoreless innings streak (50 2/3 innings) in MLB history earlier this season.

Since the streak ended, however, Sanchez carries an ERA of 4.50 in eight starts. Makes you wonder if he’s getting a little fatigued. Something to keep an eye on as the second half gets going.

Wheeler missed five starts at the beginning of the season so he does not yet qualify for the league ERA lead. If he did, his mark of 2.13 ERA would be second-best in the NL to Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski. His 0.892 WHIP would also be second in the league. Wheeler projects to have enough innings to qualify for the league lead by mid-August. He has twice finished second in the Cy Young voting and badly wants to win one. His innings total may end up being around 170. Can he win it at that number? Sure, he can. Corbin Burnes won the award with 167 innings in 2021, beating out Wheeler, who led the majors with 213 1/3 that season.

Sanchez and Wheeler face plenty of competition for the Cy Young. Misiorowski, Chris Sale, Chase Burns, Eduardo Rodriguez, Max Meyer and Shohei Ohtani, among others, are all in the mix.

SOME NOTABLE SERIES

The Phillies have a big one next week when they host the Los Angeles Dodgers for three games at Citizens Bank Park. The Dodgers have the best record in the majors and eliminated the Phillies from the postseason last year. Once again, they look to be a team the Phillies must get past if they want to make the World Series. The Phils lost two of three at Dodger Stadium in May. They’ll have another chance to measure themselves against baseball’s best next week.

A week after seeing the Dodgers, the Phils travel to Miami for three against a surging Marlins team that is right on their heels in the NL East and wild-card races. Miami has the best record (26-11) in the majors since June 1 and is 31-20 at home.

The Phils come back from the All-Star break trailing first-place Atlanta by two games. The Marlins are just four back. The Phillies and Braves will square off seven times in 10 days in early September.

HELP FROM THE MINORS?

If the Phils spend their limited trade currency to add bullpen or outfield help, they may not have enough to address the back end of their starting rotation. They would love nothing more than to see enough improvement in Andrew Painter to bring him back from Triple A.

It’s worth keeping an eye on Gage Wood’s progress at Double A. Would Dombrowski bring last year’s first-rounder to the majors down the stretch to help in the bullpen? It probably depends on the hard-throwing right-hander’s ability to throw strikes. It might be a long shot, but Dombrowski has been bold in the past.

Right-handed reliever Alex McFarlane is also at Double A, striking out almost 12 batters per nine innings. However, he’s walking almost five per nine. He throws hard and features a good slider. Maybe he earns a look if he can throw strikes.

Also, veteran Tommy Pham is still in the minors. The right-handed hitting outfielder could be in the mix if he gets hot.

CHASING RECORDS

Kyle Schwarber leads the majors with 32 homers. He’s on pace for 56, which would equal his NL-leading total from last season. Can Schwarber break Ryan Howard’s club record of 58, set in 2006? Can he get to 60?

Schwarber is 28 shy of 400 homers in his career. Bryce Harper is just 17 short of 400. Can they both get there this season?

On the flipside, Schwarber leads the majors with 144 strikeouts and is on pace to break the all-time single-season record of 223, set by Arizona’s Mark Reynolds in 2009.

Harper, who missed time each of the last five seasons with injury, has been remarkably durable this season. He’s played in all 97 games. Manager Don Mattingly knows he must get Harper an occasional day off in the second half to optimize production.