This isn’t the dead cat bounce of a new coach. They smashed Hawthorn in every facet of the game to show they are a serious AFL team
“Do you know what you need in a new coach?” interim president Brad Green was asked at the press conference announcing Simon Goodwin’s sacking last year.
“No,” he said.
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In August of 1969, Carlos May found himself laying in a hospital bed. Just weeks removed from appearing in his first All-Star Game, the burly outfielder was, by his own admission, feeling sorry for himself. That’s because he’d suffered a freak accident during a gunnery exercise while fulfilling his service obligations with the U.S. Marine Reserves, losing part of his right thumb. At the age of 21, it looked like the promising future for which he’d worked so hard might be over as soon as it began. Instead, played 10 years in the majors — a more than commendable career.
Carlos May
Born: May 17, 1948 (Birmingham, AL)
Yankees Tenure: 1976-77
May grew up in Birmingham in the shadow of his older brother, Lee. Lee May was a three-sport athlete at Parker High School before embarking on an 18-year MLB career, earning the nickname “Big Bopper” while swatting 354 home runs. Carlos followed in his footsteps, playing baseball, basketball, and football at Parker High. Despite receiving a scholarship offer to play running back and punt at Southern University, May opted for baseball. “I saw the size of some of those guys, 270-280 pounds, and thought baseball would be a lot healthier for me,” he would later say of the fortuitous decision.
In 1966, the year after Lee made his debut with the Reds, the White Sox took Carlos in the first round of the MLB Draft. While he didn’t have the prodigious power of his big brother, who stood four inches taller, May showcased an impressive hit tool, batting .333 in 604 Single-A at-bats between the 1967 and ‘68 seasons. That was enough to earn him a September call-up in ‘68. He’d never see the minors again.
In just his age-21 season, May emerged as an offensive force in 1969, slashing .281/.385/.488 in 367 at-bats. He made his first All-Star game that season as the lone representative of an eventual 94-loss Chicago squad. The showcase allowed the Mays to make history as the first brothers to oppose each other in a Midsummer Classic, with Lee representing the Reds in the NL.
Carlos got one at-bat in the game and was faced with the dubious obstacle of opposing Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro. Unsurprisingly, he struck out to end the game. “Lee was at first base and he had his glove over his mouth,” Carlos later said. “He was laughing so hard at me. I’d never seen a knuckleball before; I didn’t know how to hit the thing!”
That moment of levity would stand in stark contrast to the months ahead. After the injury that cost him part of his right thumb, May spent months in and out of hospitals, leveraging everything from massage therapy to skin grafts to toughen up the skin around his wounded hand. He maintained a remarkable sense of perspective throughout the crisis.
“When I first went to the hospital, I felt sorry for myself,” said May. “Then I looked around. I saw guys with no eyes, guys with no legs, guys with half a head, guys who couldn’t talk, walk, hear, guys with no mind or half a mind. I began to think, ‘What am I griping about?’”
After making a few adjustments — including the use of a custom batting glove designed by Wilson Sporting Goods — May was ready to return for the 1970 season. The rapid recovery was not lost on his teammates. “Carlos really showed me something,” said Tommy McCraw, a first baseman and outfielder on the ’69 and ‘70 White Sox. “He’s got great courage. If he didn’t have real guts, he’d be back in Chicago, not out here trying to play ball. I know he has pain every time he throws, but he keeps throwing anyway.”
While May never again slugged as much as he had in his rookie season — a campaign in which he hit 18 home runs in 100 games and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting — his hitting ability and plate discipline kept him performing at a high level for the next three seasons. May had a career year in 1972, making his second All-Star team while slashing .308/.405/.438. He began to fall off in the years after that showing, as leg injuries had further sapped his power and made him a liability in the outfield.
On May 18, 1976, the day after his 28th birthday, the White Sox traded their homegrown star to the Yankees for pitcher Ken Brett and outfielder Rich Coggins. The lefty had gotten off to a brutal start, slugging just .206, but found new life in pinstripes, serving almost exclusively as a DH, where he split time with the right-handed Lou Piniella. In 87 games, May hit .278 and got on base at a .358 clip, an encouraging return to form.
May showed out in the first playoff game of his career. In Game 2 of the ALCS, the DH went 2-for-5 against Royals pitching. Unfortunately, he’d go 0-for-14 the rest of the way, unable to contribute as the Yankees got swept by the Reds in the World Series.
May got off to another slow start in ‘77, posting a .601 OPS in 65 games before getting moved to the Angels. After appearing in just 11 games there, it looked like a 10-year career that had yielded two All-Star berths and a .274 batting average had run its course. Indeed, at the age of 29, May had played his last game in the MLB. But, after being recruited to play for the Nankai Hawks of the NPB, he had a second act in Japan. In four seasons with the Hawks, May slashed .309/.390/.506 and hit 70 homers, showcasing more power than he had in the States and ending his playing career on a high note.
After hanging up his spikes, May transitioned to a career with the U.S. Postal Service and has remained involved with the White Sox in their Community Relations Department. “I came to Chicago in 1968 and haven’t left,” May said of his adopted city. “They have the greatest fans in baseball. I played with the Yankees and the Angels, but the White Sox are me. I am a Sox die-hard fan. It hurts me when they don’t do well.”
While his stint in New York was brief, May was part of a pivotal team in Yankees history, one that ended a 12-year playoff drought and set the stage for championships in 1977 and ‘78. Please join us in wishing a happy 78th birthday to Carlos May.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
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The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox split the first two games of their rivalry series, with both games featuring at least 11 runs.
My Cubs vs. White Sox predictions see another high-scoring affair coming, with the road team doing the heavy lifting.
Let's dive deeper into my MLB picks for Sunday, May 17.
Erick Fedde owns an 0-4 record through six starts despite getting much better results than deserved.
His FIP (6.03) is 2.26 runs higher than his ERA (3.77). No other starting pitcher on today's slate has a FIP even 1.0 greater than their ERA.
Fedde has benefited from great batted ball luck (.208 BABIP), and been heavily reliant on it due to a low 14.7 K%.
He is very much playing with fire, and likely to get burned against aChicago Cubs offense thatranks second in OBP and fourth in runs per game.
COVERS INTEL: The Cubs rank seventh in hard-hit rate against right-handed pitching on the road.Fedde has benefited from a very soft schedule to date. He has only faced one team that ranks Top-10 in OBP, and he lasted just 14 outs while conceding three earned runs.
The Cubs rank Top-10 in almost every offensive category and should cause real problems for Fedde.
The Chicago White Sox are in a good spot to produce as well. Colin Rea ranks in the 15th percentile in xERA and has really struggled against lefties. That's not ideal going up against Colson Montgomery, Munetaka Murakami and a powerful offense reliant on its left-handed bats.
The Cubs have hit the moneyline in 22 of their last 30 games (+14.65 units, 38% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Cubs vs. White Sox.
| Location | Rate Field, Chicago, IL |
| Date | Sunday, May 17, 2026 |
| First pitch | 2:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | Marquee, CHSN |
| Cubs starting pitcher | Colin Rea (4-2, 4.68 ERA) |
| White Sox starting pitcher | Erick Fedde (0-4, 3.77 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
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For just the third time this season, the Yankees are an underdog. Despite having a record eight and a half games better than the Mets, the Yankees have earned it after losing six of the last eight games.
A loss Sunday will mean the Bronx Bombers have lost their last three series, topping their season total entering this stretch.
The Mets have won four of five and have a lopsided advantage in the starting pitching matchup. My Yankees vs. Mets predictions and MLB picks have the Mets getting the win on May 17.
The New York Mets seek their fourth series win in the last five. They’re allowing 3.1 runs a game over that stretch, down from 4.2 and scoring nearly a run more. The New York Yankees hit below .200 over the last week with an ERA nearly half a run over their season average.
The Yankees shuffled their rotation, pushing Ryan Weathers to Monday and starting rookie Elmer Rodriguez, still in search of his first MLB win.
He’s walking nearly a batter an inning, trouble against a Juan Soto-led patient Mets lineup. The Mets counter with All-Star Freddy Peralta, who has a 3.10 ERA.
COVERS INTEL:Peralta is avoiding solid contact this season. His barrel rate allowed is less than half of last year’s and in MLB’s top 17%. His exit velocity allowed is in MLB’s top quartile and his best in four years.The Mets offense still ranks at the bottom of MLB in OPS and OPS+ and third from the bottom in runs scored, but they’ve picked up the pace. The Mets have boosted their scoring by 0.7 runs a game in the last two weeks (from 3.7 to 4.4) and have scored five or more three times in the last five games.
The Yankees are the mirror image. They still lead the AL in scoring but have managed three runs or fewer in seven of the last 10. And the Bronx Bombers’ pitching hasn’t been good enough to gut out those low-scoring games.
The Yankees haven’t won a game scoring less than four runs since April 28. They’ve lost their last seven such games and are 3-12 in them on the year.
The New York Yankees have hit the Game Total Under in 14 of their last 22 away games (+6.15 Units / 25% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Mets.
| Location | Citi Field, Flushing, NY |
| Date | Sunday, May 17, 2026 |
| First pitch | 1:40 p.m. ET |
| TV | YES, SNY |
| Yankees starting pitcher | Ryan Weathers (2-2, 3.00 ERA) |
| Mets starting pitcher | Freddy Peralta (3-3, 3.10 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
There are a number of changes to the Braves’ lineup as they face their first right-handed pitcher of the Red Sox series in Sunday’s finale.
Most notably, the Braves are giving their top two shortstop options in Mauricio Dubon and Ha-Seong Kim the day off, starting Jorge Mateo at short and seventh in the lineup.
Dubon has started 43 of the team’s first 46 games at a variety of positions, becoming a regular outfielder with Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr. battling injuries early this season. Kim returned Tuesday from the finger injury which forced him to start the season on the injured list, but is 1-for-17 (.059) in his first five games of the season.
It bears mentioning given how liberally Walt Weiss has used his bench that it’s entirely possible one or both is utilized in a key at-bat or as a defensive replacement on Sunday.
Additionally, Dominic Smith is the designated hitter and hitting sixth, Mike Yastrzemski (who has five RBIs this week after he had six in his first 38 games) is in right field and hitting eighth. Jose Azocar moves to left field to replace Dubon and will hit ninth after his two-double performance in Saturday’s 3-2 loss.
No Braves hitter has faced Red Sox starter Brayan Bello (2-4, 6.46 ERA) more than nine times. Austin Riley has faced him the most and is 5-for-9 (.556) against him with an RBI. Drake Baldwin (2-for-3) and Dubon (3-for-5, three doubles) have also had success against Bello in limited sample sizes. Ozzie Albies is just 1-for-7 (.143) against Bello but has the Braves’ only homer and four RBIs.
Overall, Braves hitters are 18-for-58 (.310) against Bello with six doubles, seven RBIs and 11 strikeouts against four walks.
The Red Sox are running back a similar lineup for Sunday’s series finale. Mickey Gasper is DHing once more after doing so Friday but still hitting second, with Carlos Narvaez replacing him behind the plate and hitting eighth. Nick Sogard also replaces Caleb Durbin at third base, keeping his ninth spot in the Boston lineup.
No Red Sox hitter has faced Braves starter Grant Holmes (2-1, 4.35 ERA) more than six times. Jarren Duran is 1-for-6 (.167) but has the team’s lone homer off the righty. Saturday’s hero Willson Contreras is the only Boston hitter with multiple hits off Holmes (2-for-5).
Overall, members of the Red Sox lineup are a combined 4-for-29 (.138) against Holmes with three RBIs, 10 strikeouts and three walks.
For a franchise that looked dangerously close to wasting another year of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar’s prime, Chris MacFarland rebuilt a Stanley Cup favorite in real time.
There really shouldn’t be much debate about the NHL’s General Manager of the Year award.
The job description for a modern NHL general manager is brutally complicated. You have to protect the future without sacrificing the present. You have to manage personalities, injuries, contracts, cap math, timing, and pressure from a market expecting championships every spring. Most executives spend years trying to thread that needle.
MacFarland spent the last 18 months doing it aggressively — and nearly every gamble paid massive dividends.
The move everyone will remember first is the one that could have detonated the locker room if it failed: trading Mikko Rantanen.
Superstars like Rantanen are not supposed to leave contenders in the middle of a championship window. They especially are not supposed to be moved when the fanbase already believes the roster has flaws elsewhere. But MacFarland looked at the bigger picture and saw something uncomfortable: Colorado had become too top-heavy, too vulnerable, and too expensive to sustain in its existing form.
Complicating that reality was the fact that Rantanen wanted $14 million on his next deal.
It made the pivot unavoidable.
Martin Necas arrived and immediately unlocked another level offensively. Jack Drury became the type of dependable, hard-minute center playoff teams desperately need in May. The cap flexibility created by moving Rantanen opened the door for additional reinforcements that transformed Colorado from dangerous into overwhelming.
That’s the part people miss when they isolate the trade itself.
The Rantanen move wasn’t a one-for-one hockey trade. It was the first domino in a complete roster reconstruction.
Suddenly the Avalanche could afford Brock Nelson. They could take swings on veteran depth. They could add Brett Kulak to stabilize the blue line. They could bring in Nicolas Roy and Nazem Kadri to harden the bottom-six and insulate the stars.
Now Colorado rolls four lines with almost no weakness.
That matters in the playoffs, where series stop being about talent and start becoming about survival.
Against Minnesota, the Avalanche were missing pieces almost nightly. Josh Manson was banged up. Sam Malinski missed time. Artturi Lehkonen wasn’t available. Cale Makar was clearly fighting through something physically by the end of the series.
Colorado kept winning anyway.
The Avalanche are no longer built like a top-heavy track team trying to outscore problems. They look layered, punishing, and adaptable. They can beat opponents with speed one night and grind them down the next. Few teams in hockey can absorb injuries to key contributors and still look deeper than the opponent. Colorado can.
And none of it matters without fixing the crease.
That may ultimately become MacFarland’s defining achievement.
Early in the season, Colorado’s goaltending situation looked catastrophic. The Avalanche were hemorrhaging goals and wasting elite performances from Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen because they simply could not get saves when games tightened. Georgiev, in particular, was about as stable as an Avenged Sevenfold song, which, for the record, isn’t very stable. Cup contenders don’t survive long with unstable goaltending, and MacFarland knew it.
So he acted before the season slipped away.
Scott Wedgewood came in first. Mackenzie Blackwood followed shortly after. Suddenly, the Avalanche went from one of the NHL’s shakiest teams in net to one of its most reliable.
“The Lumberyard” became one of the best stories in hockey.
Not only did the tandem stabilize Colorado, they did it at a bargain price compared to the rest of the league. While other contenders committed enormous money to goaltending, the Avalanche found elite production without crippling their cap structure. That flexibility became critical later when the deadline arrived.
And unlike some executives who empty the future for one desperate run, MacFarland somehow managed to strengthen both timelines simultaneously.
Necas is signed long-term.
Malinski is already locked into a manageable contract after emerging as one of the breakout defensemen in the league.
Parker Kelly turned into a 21-goal player on a contract that now looks like highway robbery.
Wedgewood’s extension could become one of the best-value deals in hockey if his play holds.
Even the Brent Burns signing — a low-risk veteran addition many initially viewed as a depth move — became enormous once injuries started piling up on the back end.
That’s what separates a good GM year from an elite one.
Anybody can make flashy moves. The hard part is building connective tissue throughout the lineup so the roster survives adversity when spring hockey becomes chaotic. Colorado finally has that again.
And the timing of all this matters.
Twelve months ago, there were real questions surrounding the Avalanche. Gabriel Landeskog’s future remained uncertain. Valeri Nichushkin’s situation cast a shadow over the organization. The goaltending was unstable. The supporting cast around MacKinnon and Makar no longer looked championship caliber.
The core still gave Colorado a chance.
MacFarland gave them support.
Now the Avalanche enter the Western Conference Final looking like the most complete team left standing.
That didn’t happen organically. It didn’t happen because Colorado simply stayed healthy or waited for internal growth. It happened because the front office identified weaknesses honestly and attacked them relentlessly.
That’s why the GM of the Year conversation is a no-brainer.
Chris MacFarland rebuilt a Stanley Cup contender while the window was already open — and somehow made it look calculated instead of desperate.
In recent years, baseball fans have come to accept the phrase “Because baseball” to describe certain games. Generally, it involves a situation where you look at the matchup on paper and assume that Team A will dominate Team B because of a very favorable matchup. But then Team B wins. And we say, because baseball. It’s a short phrase that tries to explain how sometimes everything looks one way but happens the other. Those games occur, of course, in all sports. If you’ve ever won your NFL Survivor pool, it was because of a game that could have been described as because football. Or your NCAA pool. That guy who is sweating a Mountain West game at 2 a.m. and knows a little something about every team in the tournament lost his champion in the round of 32 when some school that no one has ever heard of just beat the reigning ACC champion on a late three. Because basketball.
If we allow for because baseball to explain things, then there is also a world where it has a total opposite. This is the opposite quadrant on an X,Y graph. In this quadrant, we have Team A that’s been struggling a bit. They are on the road, though as close to home as they can be and still be considered a “road” team. Their starting pitcher is prone to the long ball. Team B on the other hand, they are at home and are surging. They are playing with a ton of confidence. Their starting pitcher. Is he an Ace? Or is he just on a heater? Too soon to tell, but even a good pitcher on a heater is a handful. Team B also thrives on the long ball. This is a bad matchup for Team A.
This was not the matchup you were looking for. Move along, now. It sure would be nice to come off of this road trip with four wins in nine games. So shake the Etch-a-Sketch, forget this one happened and move along. This has been a tough trip. You certainly hoped to win at least five on this trip. But it’s really going to be sick if you only get three. So sleep tight and bounce back. Let’s keep little brother down a little longer. They can try to do their little Phoenix rising thing on someone’s else’s dance floor.
This trip, at times, has exposed that the Cubs pitching staff has been leeched of so much depth that pitching is not anywhere near a strength, even with a stellar defense behind them. None of us are surprised by that, either. It looks like some more relievers will surface soon. Jordan Wicks is getting healthy, but has never established himself at the major league level. But, at least it’s another live arm. Ben Brown has emerged and is a reason for some optimism. He is also a reminder not to flush Wicks. I’ve said this many times and in many contexts. The road to the top is never guaranteed and it’s not necessarily a straight line. Both Wicks and Brown were once highly thought of prospects. Brown is now rebuilding some of his in front of our eyes. Maybe Wicks can be a piece.
This team is going to need more than what they’ve got. It’s going to be interesting to watch this front office wrestle with addressing that. This team in no way looks like it is one or two pieces away from a sure World Series team, much less champion. But it does look like a team that could get hot and could be dangerous and maybe if things fall just right they have a shot. The kind of trade(s) that would significantly boost this team’s chances tend to hurt in terms of prospect capital. This organization has a ton of depth, but their top talent doesn’t exactly leave other talent evaluators drooling.
But that’s still at least a few weeks and probably more than a month away. So this team has to roll with what it’s got and it has to find ways to win games. More often than not, that’s going to rest on the shoulders of the offense. So this team has to get right and soon. Why not Sunday?
Three Positives:
Game 46, May 16: White Sox 8, Cubs 3 (29-17)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
THREE GOATS:
WPA Play of the Game: Miguel Vargas homered with two on and no outs in the bottom of the first for the first three runs of the game. (.172)
*Cubs Play of the Game: With a runner on first and one out in the seventh, the Cubs down six, Alex Bregman doubled. (.024)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Game 45 Winner: Carson Kelly received 108 of 173 votes.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
Current Win Pace: 102.1 wins
Up Next: The third and final game of the series Sunday afternoon. Colin Rea (4-2, 4.68, 42.1 IP) starts for the seventh time this year. He’s coming off of a rough start in Atlanta, allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk in just 4.1 innings. Significantly better both at home and at night, so hopefully the Cubs offense gets things going quickly in this one.
33-year-old Erick Fedde has been a mixed bag so far this year. He’s 0-4 but has a 3.77 ERA in 43 innings across eight starts. He also didn’t win across his final nine appearances last year, but eight of those were relief outings. It’s been a long time since he’s won, let’s keep it that way. Last time out, he faced the Royals and allowed two runs on six hits over five innings but didn’t get a decision. The former first round pick of the Nationals from 2014 (18th overall) out of UNLV has been better during the day and much better at home.
This is no gimme. Be the better team. Get a win.
Go Cubs!
Randy Arozarena isn’t all that streaky, but he is on a streak right now.
Arozarena has been the Mariners best hitter this year. His 148 wRC+ is best among the qualified hitters on the team, and his 1.8 fWAR makes him a top 25 player in the majors. He’s more than half-way to his 2.9 fWAR from last year, in about a quarter of the games. It’s looking like a career year.
But one thing I’ve often said about Arozarena is that he’s streaky. Last year, for instance, Arozarena posted a 136 wRC+ in the first half — also pacing for a career year — before posting a 97 wRC+ in the second half. That’s just Randy, I thought, like this is just Randy now.
I tried to measure that hot-and-cold tendency. I found every batter with at least 2,000 plate appearances since 2021. I found their rolling wOBA and xwOBA over each 100 plate appearance stretch. I then found the standard deviation and coefficient of variation for each player — basically, how much does their performance change relative to their personal average.
Arozarena… showed nothing. He is almost exactly the median player by these measures, meaning he was neither particularly streaky nor particularly non-streaky. His performance is about as normal as it gets. I tried different plate appearance thresholds and different spans of years- nothing. Arozarena has been remarkably consistent in his unremarkable consistency. I guess this was just something I made up in my head.
For instance, here’s one of the 10 least consistent hitters since 2024, Jorge Polanco, presented in 100-PA increments:
You can see Polanco’s line begins at the end of his first 100 plate appearances with the Mariners, where he hovered near average. Then he slumped, got hot, and slumped again… only to come out in 2025 and post one of the best months in team history, before slumping and finishing the year on fire… and now he has a 54 wRC+ with the Mets and an achilles injury.
Here’s Randy, on the other hand:
And yeah, that looks more consistent. He starts very low, with the unfortunately-timed slump to begin 2024. But then he figures it out, gets hot after joining the Mariners, and lands firmly above average through April 2025. He slumped briefly last May before riding a long hot streak, then returned to average through the end of the season. So, yes, he has been streaky, but all hitters are streaky.
Of course, this is all just pretense to direct your attention to where the lines end on the plot above: The present. We can see by wOBA, Arozarena has performed well most of the year. But we can also see that his xwOBA is much lower. In fact, Arozarena’s .379 wOBA and .327 xwOBA represent one of the five largest gaps of 2026.
The whole profile is different this year. His 41.1% hard hit rate is much less than his career-best rate of 50.6% from 2025. His barrel rate is also more than halved. Most of his contact is now aimed at the ground, spiking his ground ball rate from 42.6% to 54.0% (one of the largest changes in the league). His line is largely the result of sneaking soft grounders through the infield and a .393 BABIP. Maybe Arozarena isn’t a streaky player historically, but this particular streak I expect to reverse course sometime in the near future.
That said, it’s not all bad. Arozarena is still finding better launch angles overall this year. His 35.5% sweet spot rate is a career best. That’s because, by turning toward the ground, he’s all but eliminated pop ups. It’s good to hit the ball in the air because that’s how you hit homers. But aiming too high is an auto-out, whereas even weak grounders come with a minimum .200 batting average. Arozarena is now hitting a lot of high grounders and flares that are good for singles. He’s making a lot less perfect contact, but his imperfect contact has improved dramatically. His xwOBA on non-barrels has leapt 30 points this year (.319), one of the 20-best marks in the majors.
I also think the contact is getting better overall. Arozarena was perhaps the lone example of a guy who’d actually lost bat speed in the early season — he lost so much bat speed that he brought the team average down with him. His bat speed is now back to normal, and his hard hit rate is up to 45% in May from 37% in April.
Arozarena also is swinging more, chasing more, and just overall being a lot more aggressive early in counts. And his swing is a little different, too. He’s both getting out in front of pitches, and also angling his bat more to the opposite field. He’s also really excited about fastballs up this year for some reason:
And so a lot of his hits look like this:
I’m really not sure what to make of it. Sometimes with these things I know what I’m going to say and where I’m going to land. Sometimes I find that along the way. But yeah, no, this is just bizarre more than anything.
Randy in 2026 looks like a fundamentally different hitter. I’ve always thought of him as kind of a wanna-be three true outcome guy — working counts, letting the ball travel, swinging hard and up. And now, for whatever reason, he’s become more of a slasher, swinging early and often and at anything close. His strikeout rate is down, and his walk rate is unchanged, which is good. But the lesser contact quality is concerning, and I don’t see him getting to 20 homers this year without some changes. He’s given himself over to the whims of BABIP, and we’ll see how far that takes him.
Still, the great irony here is that Arozarena’s xwOBA is .327 — identical to his mark last year (and .005 off the year before). So while I’m skeptical of his status as a top 25 hitter, he’s probably still in the top 50, and certainly in the top 100.
I guess that’s where my misplaced notion of his streakiness comes from. You just never really know what you’re gonna get with Arozarena. One day he’s a slugger. The next he’s slapping the ball the other way. One day he goes diving into the wall in left for an out. The next he’s walking toward the gap with runners on base. Consistently surprising. Surprisingly consistent. That’s just Randy.
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For baseball drama and storylines, it doesn’t get much better than the Subway Series, so the rubber match between the New York Yankees and New York Mets naturally headlines today’s slate.
My MLB player props target that matchup with a wager on Cody Bellinger, and I also see Kevin Gausman dealing in Detroit to ease the pressure on the Toronto Blue Jays.
Read on for my Top 3 MLB prop picks for the May 17 action.
| Player | Pick | Odds |
|---|---|---|
 Cody Bellinger | Over 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBIs | -110 |
 Kevin Gausman | Over 5.5 strikeouts | -112 |
 Mookie Betts | Over 1.5 total bases | +105 |
Cody Bellinger has come alive this month after a slow April, and that’s helping to fuel a New York Yankees offense that’s in the Top 5 in runs and OBP. He’s posted a .304 batting average in May, to go with a 1.010 OPS.
Bellinger chipped in with an RBI double in the Bronx Bombers’ win on Friday night, and I like this matchup against New York Mets starter Freddy Peralta.
Though Peralta has been steady so far this year, Bellinger has had the upper hand in their head-to-head duels, with a career 6-for-14 record against the Mets righty, including a double, a homer and three RBIs.
The Toronto Blue Jays are fighting to stay afloat after a barrage of injuries, and that makes every Kevin Gausman start even more valuable.
The veteran’s strikeout tallies have tailed off after racking up 21 Ks across his first two outings of 2026, but this O/U number feels too low and I’m jumping on the Over against a Detroit Tigers lineup that he’s dominated over the years.
Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Zach McKinstry are a combined 6-for-36 against Gausman, while striking out 11 times. The Toronto ace has a 3.16 career ERA against Detroit, and I’m counting on a bounce-back effort here after a rocky start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers exploded for 15 runs yesterday against the cross-city Angels, I’m buying into a key piece of that offense tonight. Mookie Betts served up a homer and a single in last night’s rout, and that’s the surest sign yet that his oblique strain is behind him.
It was Betts’ second dinger of the week, and I like these odds for 2+ bases here, especially with Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez just returning from the 15-day IL.
Though Betts has struggled to post elite numbers this year, there’s been no dip in his exit velocity and he’s done his best work against righties on the road. Look for that trend to continue tonight.
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Jack Flaherty’s strikeout total is set too high today against the Toronto Blue Jays, and I plan to take full advantage.
Read on to see why with my Blue Jays vs. Tigers predictions and MLB picks for Sunday, May 17.
Collecting five strikeouts against the Toronto Blue Jays is a big ask of any pitcher, let alone a struggling one like Jack Flaherty.
The Detroit Tigers have lost four straight starts of Flaherty’s, and he’s seen his ERA balloon from 3.47 to 5.74 in that span.
His strikeout numbers are down in that stretch as well, recording four or fewer in three of those outings.
To suggest he’ll surpass this number against the Jays, who own a league-low 18.2% K-rate, feels rich to me.
Additionally, Flaherty owns a lowly 7% chase rate this season.
COVERS INTEL: Flaherty owns a 5.21 xERA in 2026, and has completed five innings just once in his last five starts.Yohendrick Pinango continues to rack up the hits. He owns a .364 batting average, while recording a hit in 11 of his 15 career outings.
For the final leg of my SGP, I’ll take the Jays on the moneyline. They own the advantage on the mound with Kevin Gausman facing Flaherty, who hasn’t won a game all season and has seen his Tigers drop five straight contests he’s started.
Despite Flaherty allowing four home runs in his last four starts, I’m making this a half unit wager this afternoon.
The Jays haven’t been hitting many home runs lately. However, Kazuma Okamoto still remains the best bet to launch one.
Okamoto has a team-high 10 home runs this year, while ranking in the 95th percentile in hard hit rate.
The Jays slugger owns a .295 AVG and a .590 SLG against the four-seam fastball, which is Flaherty’s most used pitch against right-handed batters.
The Blue Jays have hit the Under in 5 of their last 6 away games (+5.00 Units / 75% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Blue Jays vs. Tigers.
| Location | Comerica Park, Detroit, MI |
| Date | Sunday, May 17, 2026 |
| First pitch | 1:40 p.m. ET |
| TV | Sportsnet, Detroit SportsNet |
| Blue Jays starting pitcher | Kevin Gausman (2-3, 3.86 ERA) |
| Tigers starting pitcher | Jack Flaherty (0-4, 5.74 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
Gavin Sheets and Nick Castellanos hit homers off Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert and the San Diego Padres earned a 7-4 win at T-Mobile Park on Saturday night. Sheets opened the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the second inning to put the Padres up 1-0. With San Diego leading 2-0, Castellanos hit with a three-run home run in the top of the fourth inning to make the score 5-0. That was all the run support Walker Buehler would need. The right-hander allowed two runs on five hits over five innings of work. Buehler walked two and struck out six. Rodolfo Duran tacked on two runs in the top of the seventh inning with a two-run homerun, which was also his first hit in MLB. San Diego will look to complete the sweep of Seattle today at 4:20 p.m.
Padres News:
Sunderland and Bournemouth were the big winners on a day of twists and turns in the race for Europe
Bradley Lowery, the Sunderland mascot whose battle with neuroblastoma helped raise than more £1m before his death in 2017, would have been 15 today. There will be a minute’s applause at Hill Dickinson Stadium after 15 minutes of today’s game, and two fans – one of each club – have cycled to the ground from the Stadium of Light to raise funds for the Bradley Lowery Foundation. Hats off to them.
Two more goals have been scored in a thrilling end-of-a-season game at Old Trafford, and Bruno Fernandes has equalled a major Premier League record. Clickity click click click!
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All four Dodgers minor league affiliates won on Saturday.
Alex Freeland homered for a second straight day, and liked it so much he did it twice on Saturday. After Friday’s homer was hit from the right side, Freeland on Saturday homered twice while batting left-handed, and also singled.
Freeland scored three runs and drove in three.
The Comets scored in five consecutive innings in a second straight rout of the Albuquerque Isotopes (Rockies).
In addition to Freeland’s two home runs, Jack Suwinski helped break the game open with a three-run homer in the fifth inning. Suwinski has 19 extra-base hits (nine home runs, 10 doubles) in his last 23 games.
Shortstop Noah Miller also had three hits. Catcher Eliézer Alfonzo doubled, singled, and drove in two, giving him six hits over his last two games.
For the second consecutive day, Oklahoma City activated one of the Ryan brothers to start. On Friday it was River Ryan who pitched four innings in his first start in five weeks. Saturday was Ryder Ryan returning to the rotation after missing over three weeks with a back injury. He pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts and just one single allowed.
Kiké Hernández played all nine innings in center field on Saturday and was had two walks in his five plate appearances.
The Drillers hit four home runs, erasing an early 4-0 deficit to beat the Springfield Cardinals.
Josue De Paula has exactly one hit in all five games of this series, including a home run on Saturday. Zyhir Hope homered, as did Jake Gelof. Kyle Nevin also homered and reached base four times with three hits and a walk.
Starter Adam Serwinowski allowed four runs on a grand slam in the third inning, but gave up nothing else through five innings. Serwinowski struck out a season-high nine and walked only one.
The Loons trailed 5-1 after six innings, then scored once in the seventh and five runs in the eighth to stun the West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers). The fateful eighth for Great Lakes included four singles, a triple by right fielder Samuel Muñoz, two walks, and a run-scoring wild pitch.
Mike Sirota and Jose Izarra each had two hits, including run-scoring singles for both in the eighth inning.
Alex Makarewich recorded six outs in a scoreless outing that stretched from the seventh into the ninth, then left-hander Matt Lanzendorfer entered with one on and the tying run at the plate and struck out his only two batters faced, the first professional save for the 2025 15th-round draft pick.
Left-hander Justin Chambers tied a career high with five strikeouts in his 2 1/3 innings, his longest outing of the season. Chambers allowed a run on two hits and also walked two. Free passes have been a problem for the 20-year-old, who was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in January 2024 for left-hander Bryan Hudson. Chambers has 15 walks and 7.82 ERA in 10 1/3 innings this season to go with his 19 strikeouts, but he’s been better of late. In his first seven appearances this season, Chambers had a 26.3-percent walk rate and more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven). But in his five games since the left-hander has a 17.2-percent walk rate with five walks and 12 strikeouts.
Chase Harlan had four hits in the Tower Buzzers’ win over the San Jose Giants, including a double, three singles, and a walk.
Emil Morales homered, while middle infielders Mairo Martinus and Joendry Vargas each had three hits.
Peter Heubeck, who started 16 games last year for Double-A Tulsa before getting injured in July, made his 2026 season debut on Saturday in the rookie league at Camelback Ranch. The 23-year-old struck out all three batters he faced in a one-inning start, the first game back for the 2021 third-round draft pick.
Triple-A: Ryder Ryan was activated off the injured list.
The San Francisco Giants had gone three games without a hit with a runner in scoring position. The offense just couldn’t string together anything of substance. They had become reliant on an inside-the-park-homer or solo shot from Luis Arraez, which is like relying on lightning strikes to be your home’s main provider of electricity.
Unsurprisingly, the Giants lost all three of those games.
The spate of innings without a RISP knock dated back to Jung Hoo Lee’s 7th inning double last Tuesday, and including the first two innings on Saturday’s contest in which a lead-off double by Willy Adames was promptly squandered in the 2nd, extended to 31 consecutive offensive frames, until it was mercifully snapped with a Casey Schmitt bloop with Jung Hoo Lee standing at second.
But in true 2026 Giants fashion, even that long-awaited hit wasn’t enough to score a run.
True to form, the bloop blooped, spinning indecisively in the airspace above shallow right-center, buffeted and carried by the winds coursing from left to right, as outfielder Nick Bolte charged in. Would he catch it? Would it find grass? Lee couldn’t be sure, and by the time it fell back to earth, the only option was a 90-foot progression to third. Station-to-station — sounds about right for this team. Laughable too, how this team found a way to technically snap their skid while still managing to hold onto the spirit of the slump. This feeling of disheartened disbelief grew even more palpable when this strike-3 call from Luis Severino to Rafael Devers was upheld.
But just when this long rope of recent ineffectiveness, stretching from Chavez Ravine to the banks of the American River, began to tighten around the line-up’s neck, Willy Adames decided to think opposite field, and slapped a first-pitch single into right field to plate two runs.
They had done it! The streak demon banished! The floodgates opened and the river of run-production and efficiency flowed!
Not exactly. Adames was thrown out at second to end the inning on the play. And while the offense did an impressive job of accruing 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position, they managed just three hits and left 11 runners stranded on base. Eight of their 11 strikeouts came with a runner in scoring position. Five of Severino’s seven strikeouts came in situations when a ball-in-play would’ve either advanced the runner or plated another run.
This is a happy recap, I promise. San Francisco did win this game 6 to 4, but this inefficiency with runners threatening and lack of situational hitting meant that, despite all the opportunity and semblance of control, a rough outing from a reliever, one decisive swing from an opponent’s bad, turned a breezy weekend win into a bit of a nail-biter.
With a 6-1 lead, Erik Miller, in his first game back from the IL, walked the first two batters he faced in the 8th (extending Nick Kurtz’s on-base streak to 39 games). Tony Vitello chose to swap him for Caleb Kilian against the right-handed Brent Rooker and after the mound visit, the call to the bullpen, the warm-up pitches, Kilian served up a first pitch slider that Rooker obliterated.
The Boog booged it — walk, walk, 3-run dinger, and a stressful ballgame. While it didn’t have the same effect as Kurtz’s Boog from Friday, it was a timely reminder that few leads are safe, that there’s never a strategic time to not-score or not pad a lead.
If San Francisco just relied on the two hits with RISP that scored runs (Adames, and Matt Chapman’s RBI double in the 7th), Rooker’s 3-run shot would’ve proved decisive and so so so depressing.
Thank god for Casey Schmitt and homers. Schmitt’s two homer game provided the other half of the Giants’ 6-run output. His team-leading seventh homer of the year came off Severino in the 1st, and his eighth, pinged off the right field foul pole in the 5th to give San Francisco a 5-0 lead at the time.
A diverse offensive portfolio. Singles with runners on base and homers after walks — that’s what we’ve been missing. Someone alert Buster and Tony that I’ve figured it out!
Good pitching helps too, and Trevor McDonald appears to be a good pitcher. In his third start of the year (and fifth of his career), he earned his second (and fourth) quality start, allowing just one earned run over 6.2 IP while needing just 90 pitches to do it.
The secret: throw strikes, make them hit the ball. The secret: keep the ball grounded when they hit the ball. With his dive-y sinker leading the charge, McDonald induced 9 groundball outs. Two of the A’s five hits on the day didn’t leave the infield. The two doubles he surrendered came with two outs and nobody on base.
The secret: field your position well. In the 5th, with a runner on and a run already scored, McDonald won a 3-2 battle against Kurtz with a heavy inside sinker that the big boy recognized but couldn’t help but offer at. Immediately after, Shea Langeliers lined the third out into McDonald’s glove.
He then induced a stylish 1-6-3 double play in the 7th to erase a lead-off HBP.
The Rooker 3-run shot upped the heart rate for sure, but ultimately thanks to Schmitt, just enough knocks with runners in scoring position, and an excellent outing from Trevor McDonald, San Francisco evened the series in West Sacramento.
The Mets beat the Yankees 6-3 to even the Subway Series at one game apiece. It was a solid group effort, especially from the bullpen, highlighted by Luke Weaver escaping an inherited bases loaded, nobody out jam in the seventh to protect the lead.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, MLB.com, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Athletic
Clay Holmes, who suffered a tibial fracture in Friday’s game, went on the injured list yesterday and reliever Joey Gerber was called up to take his place on the roster. Holmes will not need surgery and his injury is not expected to be season-ending. However, he’ll be out 6-8 weeks and is unlikely to return before August, which certainly complicates things for the Mets’ pitching outlook moving forward.
Gerber is just with the Mets until they need a starter to fill Holmes’ spot. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com ran down the options the Mets have to replace Holmes in the rotation, including Tobias Myers, who was mentioned as a possibility by Carlos Mendoza during his pregame press conference.
Left-hander Anderson Severino was also briefly with the Mets on the taxi squad yesterday, but ultimately no roster move was made to activate him, as a player who had been feeling ill felt better ahead of last night’s game.
Juan Soto continues to be banged up, but is playing through his various minor ailments for now.
Veteran reliever Luke Jackson opted out of his minor league deal with the Mets yesterday.
Jon Matlack and Jerry Koosman fondly remember 1973 Met Buzz Capra, who passed away this week.
The Nationals unleashed a 13-3 drubbing on the Orioles, powered by a seven-run seventh inning.
Similarly, the Marlins erupted for a whopping eight runs in the 10th inning to beat the Rays 10-5 in extra innings.
The Phillies blanked the Pirates 6-0 behind another fantastic outing by Cristopher Sánchez, who struck out 13 to maintain MLB’s longest active scoreless streak among pitchers.
Willson Contreras delivered a clutch go-ahead homer in the eighth, as the Braves suffered a dramatic 3-2 loss to the Red Sox that included Aroldis Chapman escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to end the game.
The Red Sox placed shortstop Trevor Story on the injured list with a sports hernia. The team had been calling it a right groin injury, but Story recently underwent scans that revealed the more serious problem that may keep him sidelined for several weeks.
Tommy Pham, recently let go by the Mets, signed a minor league deal with the Orioles.
Travis Sawchik of MLB.com took a look at an interesting phenomenon: across baseball, as velocity keeps going up, the average gap between pitchers’ minimum fast ball velocity and maximum fastball velocity over the course of the season keeps shrinking. In other words, minimum fastball velocity is going up more than maximum fastball velocity, as pitchers seek to throw max effort at all times for a shorter period of time.
Blue Jays pitcher José Berríos will undergo surgery on Wednesday to repair his fractured elbow and also to address potential loose bodies. Depending on whether there is ligament damage, Berríos could be sidelined for a couple of months or much longer.
Dodgers’ Blake Snell will also undergo surgery to address loose bodies in his elbow and could be out for awhile.
Thomas Harrigan of MLB.com runs down a list of players who are surprisingly leading their teams in hitting.
Edgardo Alfonzo, Roberto Alomar, and Mo Vaughn turned a 5-4-3 triple play against the Padres on this date in 2002.