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MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees are off to the West Coast, and Aaron Judge is coming with them. The plan is for Judge to really start ramping up this week, including taking on-field batting practice. “Hopefully out there, he’ll start to get on velocity and things like that,” Aaron Boone said. “He’ll be part of the pregame stuff and just get more entrenched into getting ready to come back.” Though it’d be a major surprise to see Judge play during this trip, it seems possible that the team’s next homestand could see him return.

ESPN | Jorge Castillo: Rookie George Lombard Jr. left Saturday night’s game after tweaking his knee, and though he’s avoided any structural damage, he’s could still hit the injured list. “It feels fine,” Lombard said. “It’s definitely better than yesterday. It felt a little stiff, and there’s still a little soreness, a little inflammation in there, but not terrible.” Jose Caballero, who was the starting shortstop for the first several weeks of the season, started at short on Sunday. Anthony Volpe is also biding his time at Triple-A, with the erstwhile starter at short having moved around the infield in the last month, taking several starts at second, and even starting at third over the weekend.

New York Post | Mark W. Sanchez: The Yankees called up Luis Gil yesterday, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year giving the club a fresh arm and taking Yerry De los Santos’ spot on the roster. Things are set up for the Yankees to have something of a bullpen audition in September, as there’s plenty of room in Aaron Boone’s Circle of Trust. Gil could toss his name into the mix, as could Clarke Schmidt, who made a rehab appearance over the weekend. Most everything is up for grabs beyond David Bednar, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn, so anyone that performs well over the season’s final month could become a factor come October.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Padres fans and fans across the country.

In the end, it was not close. To be honest, that was to be expected.

Ty France was the overwhelming answer to the Gaslamp Ball Reacts Survey poll question this week. “Who has been more impressive so far this season?” Respondents had the choices of France, Luis Campusano, Walker Buehler or Bradgley Rodriguez. Looking back, it would have been appropriate to add Yuki Matsui to the list of candidates as well, but France would probably remain the top choice.

The right-handed slugger has been stellar defensively for the Padres this season, despite a bobble on a play on Saturday night. The fielders, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth all seem to enjoy having a Gold Glove Award winner manning first base. It allows them to make throws without the pressure of having to make them perfect. France himself is not perfect, but more often than not, if he can get to a throw he does and that results in more outs and less traffic on the bases for San Diego pitchers.

France came into the 2026 season as a minor league invite, but he has taken full advantage of his second opportunity with the Padres. There is no reason to think he would not receive a multi-year contract offer that would start in 2027 if the season is not lost due to a lockout. France added to his season totals with a home run int the second game of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays. He is currently hitting .287 after 355 at-bats. He has 19 home runs with 59 RBI and 47 runs scored. France has also walked 30 times. He has been entrenched as the No. 4 hitter in the San Diego lineup and there have been calls from some fans the the Padres to slide him up to the No. 3 spot in front of Machado who has been struggling as of the late.

If France can continue his level of play he should be rewarded in the offseason, but for now his ability to maintain his level of play could be a key factor in whether or not the Padres make the postseason.

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Longtime baseball reporter Francys Romero reported Sunday evening that Cuban OF Lazaro Montes will be called up to the Seattle Mariners, with Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reporting that the move is expected ahead of Tuesday’s game in Boston, coinciding with the expansion of rosters to 28 for September call-ups. Montes is in transit to Boston but is not necessarily expected to be activated for Monday’s series opener at the Red Sox.

Montes has been one of the most powerful sluggers in the minor leagues since arriving in pro ball after training in the Dominican Republic as a teenager. Progressing through the same program that produced Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, the comparisons for the titanic lefty have been common. They’re not quite accurate, however. Montes is a huge kid, a 21 year old listed at 6’5, 210 whose frame is as massive as his smile. Like Alvarez, while he moves well for his size, his gait and foot speed are never going to reflect as plus defensively, though Montes has good baseline athleticism that helps him make many 50/50 plays despite middling range. Moreover, his arm is absolutely massive, a profile similar to an early-career Nelson Cruz. Not just that, but Montes is a high-effort player in all phases, occasionally stunning opponents with his pace and hustle.

But that’s not the main thing Lazaro Montes is all about. The reason he’s been a top-100 prospect and one of the most anticipated hitting prospects in years for Seattle is gargantuan power that’s seen him club 21 homers in 2024 across 542 PA at a teenager, then 32 a season ago between High-A and Double-A, and now 38 big flies in 537 PA across Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma. At every level, Montes has been a variation of highly consistent, slugging massively, walking prominently, and whiffing most of the time he’s not doing one of those two options.

It’s made for a fascinating profile, with a .247/.365/.556 line this season that features a 14.3% walk rate and a 30.7% strikeout rate. The in-zone contact rate on Montes’ swings (and contact rate overall) is poor enough that there are plenty of folks who simply don’t think he can be a big leaguer in an effective long-term capacity, despite doing devastating damage most of the time he makes contact. Montes has a 71.1% in-zone contact rate and 64.4% contact overall on swings in his ~200 plate appearances with the Rainiers, where Statcast data is tracked throughout the Pacific Coast League publicly. The only qualified hitter worse than that at the big league level is 1B Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox, who is at 70.5% and 60.7% respectively. Nobody else is below 77% for in-zone contact, and even if you drop the big league split to minimum of 200 PAs, it’s only Murakami lower.

The key for Montes is what he does on contact. His hard hit rate in Tacoma is 56.8% per Statcast, which is again a number in company with only Murakami, James Wood, Oneil Cruz, Nick Kurtz, Pete Alonso, and Aaron Judge. His hardest hit ball in Triple-A this year is 116.3 MPH, which ties Wood, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Elly De La Cruz for 8th-hardest in MLB all year. His average exit velocity would be third-highest in MLB behind just Cruz and Wood, right ahead of Yordan. The more likely outcome than instant stardom is something closer to what we’ve seen from Jordan Walker, Coby Mayo, or Jac Caglianone, all of whom share similar offensive profiles, explosive strength, and risk of whiff in their swing.

The choice of Montes makes sense in terms of production, he’s crushed every level at every age he’s been assigned. His profile, however, is an intriguing one to see, and may be indicative of Seattle’s willingness to hope for a hail mary, looking to Lazaro to bring their season back from the dead with a deluge of big flies. Being called up in September will not impact Montes’ ability to be a rookie in 2027, nor disrupt his eligibility for the Prospect Promotion Incentive picks the have ample value to clubs. Whether Montes posts daily or in a part-time role may depend on what the M’s are valuing in their final month of play.

It was the non-catch that kicked off a five-run inning and has the Red Sox irate, especially after the Yankees completed a 16-1 win over Boston in The Bronx.

Ceddanne Rafaela was emphatic Sunday that he had indeed made a diving catch that would have led to the Red Sox outfielder turning a double play.

With a runner on first, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a fly ball into right-center field in the fifth inning that sent Rafaela to try to make the diving catch.

While it appeared that he did, and Rafaela certainly felt like he did, the umpires ruled that he had trapped the ball and therefore the runners were on first and second. A video review also upheld the call on the field.

“I didn’t have to even watch it,” Rafaela told reporters, according to ESPN. “I know I made the catch. I know when a ball drops and a ball don’t drop. And I know I made the catch.”

Rafaela also took to social media to call out the ruling, posting a zoomed-in image of the ball in his glove along with text that stated that “it’s a man above that saw it.”

He told reporters that he was “mad in the moment” because he wanted to help his pitcher.

“I feel that changed the whole game right there,” Rafaela added

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy made it a point to note that the video review did not confirm the original call; rather, it merely upheld it.

“I know when you hear ‘call stands,’ not ‘call confirmed,’ that’s a pretty good indicator that they’re saying it’s very difficult to see anything on video for us to overturn on the field,” he said. “So, if you hear ‘call confirmed,’ that’s different. That’s not what you heard.

“We in the dugout feel like our center fielder caught the ball. But if they don’t have anything that they can definitively overturn it, that’s usually where you end up and obviously it’s frustrating.”

The Yankees went on to add runs in the sixth and seventh innings and then scored nine runs in the bottom of the eighth to cement the win.

Yes, Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted another pair of homers on Sunday night just 24 hours after he hit a trio of bombs off Cincinnati Reds pitching during Saturday’s 17-5 embarrassment by the Chicago Cubs. Yes, the Chicago Cubs jumped out to an immediate lead in the process, as PCA’s first blast of the night came in the Bottom of the 1st off Reds ace Chase Burns to open the game’s ledger.

From there on, though, the scrappy Cincinnati club took matters into their own hands on the Sunday Night Baseball national stage, and in doing so head home after a long three-city road trip west with as series victory on which they can most definitely hang their hats.

Hector Rodriguez helped turn the tide with a massive left-on-left three-run homer over the RF wall in Wrigley Field, and both Dane Myers and Tyler Stephenson followed in the Top of the 5th with moonshot blasts into the bleachers beyond the LF wall.

Then, Sal Stewart went to work on the Chicago bullpen in the Top of the 7th with a solo shot out to CF that carried some 418 feet. That blast meant the NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner officially homered in each game of the series.

That gave the Reds a 7-spot, and that was enough for their pitching staff to hold onto in the eventual 7-5 win.

Burns, to his credit, shrugged off the rain delay and early poor umpiring to pour in 5.2 IP of 2 ER ball on exactly 100 pitches before being pulled. He had PCA struck out in their first PA against one another in the Bottom of the 1st in a steady rain, but the home plate ump missed the call (and Stephenson opted against challenging in the game’s first PA for his pitcher), and PCA hit his homer on the very next pitch.

The lone real blemish on an otherwise impressive night by the young core of the Reds was that Elly De La Cruz exited early after hustling down the 1B line out of the box. He was pretty clearly in at least a bit of discomfort, and it was later reported that he’s got some quad tightness.

Fortunately, it appears all parties may be mostly OK. Charlie Goldsmith reported after the game that manager Terry Francona has some confidence that Elly may even be right back in the lineup as early as tomorrow.

Reds 7, Cubs 5, and the vibes sit about as good as they can given everything else that’s fallen by the wayside so far in 2026.

Over the past month, Carson Benge’s case has strengthened. Over the past 28 games entering play Sunday, the Mets outfielder carved out a place in the National League’s Rookie of the Year race with a .952 OPS and an NL-leading 38 hits.

Benge hasn’t thought about his name continuing to pop up in chatter surrounding the award, but “[I] definitely do want it,” he told The Post before the Mets (61-76) lost 6-3 to the Astros. If he won the honor, it’d make him the first Met to do so since Pete Alonso in 2019 and just the third rookie from the franchise this century to take it, joining Alonso and Jacob deGrom (2014). But he’ll need to surge past the other candidates, including the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt, the Reds’ Sal Stewart and the Mets’ Nolan McLean, and extend his own tear across the final month of the season.

“It’d be cool,” Benge said before going 0-for-4 as the Mets capped a six-game homestand at Citi Field. “There’s plenty of good rookies around the NL, with one being in our locker room and the conversation, too, but it’d be pretty cool to win it over all those guys.”

It’ll be challenging for Benge to separate from the field. Wetherholt, the St. Louis infielder who went on the injured list Sunday with right wrist tendinitis, has hit .242 with a .743 OPS and the sixth-best bWAR among NL position players (4.6). Stewart, 22, just became the first Reds rookie in franchise history to record a season with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs, and he entered play Sunday with an MLB-leading 104 RBIs — one of two players in the league to hit the century mark.

And McLean, who stumbled early in the season, has collected a 1.76 ERA across his last 11 starts, with the most recent one unfolding Saturday when he allowed just two hits and an unearned run against the Astros.

But then there’s Benge, who has impressed with both his bat and his arm. He played his way onto the Opening Day roster with a strong spring training and then never lost his spot. He became the first Mets rookie since Darryl Strawberry in 1983 to have 15 homers and 15 stolen bases in the same season, and he sits at 16 homers and 54 RBIs for the year. Benge’s right arm has produced outfield assists clocked at 99.9 mph and 103.9 mph.

“I think [he] definitely belongs in the conversation right now with the guy who pitched last night for us,” interim manager Andy Green said Sunday of Benge and McLean. “I know there’s other good rookies throughout the game. I think Carson, throughout the year, shows the ability to bounce back from tough moments really well. Really talented hitter. Can hit any pitch at any time. Even as he goes through funks, he maintains like the right perspective and the right attitude and the right approach.

“I think we knew that’s who he was. It’s great to see it play out on a big league field in the first season.”
Benge said he doesn’t think about what might allow him to stand out from others in contention for the award. He’ll let whoever votes judge that. He hasn’t talked to McLean, a teammate at Oklahoma State before their climb through the minors and to the Mets, about it either.

It might be tough to unseat Stewart, who has the numbers. It might be tough to topple Wetherholt, even if he misses chances to add to his stats while injured. But with his recent tear, Benge has at the very least entered the conversation, inching closer to something the 23-year-old said he thought was possible from when he first started working toward cracking the Mets roster back in spring training.

“I think if not,” Benge said of that thought, “I’m selling myself short. If you’re gonna try and come into the league and not do anything, be average to below average, I don’t think you’re doing it right.”