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Some quick grades for the Jays deadline day deals.

Kevin Gausman to the Cubs for Ty Southisene and Brett Bateman

Gausman’s having the poorest season of his five with the Jays, but still has a 102 ERA+, so he’s still a useful pitcher. And he could step it up in a pennant race. The Jays didn’t send any money along with Kevin.

Southisene was listed as the Cubs #10 prospect by Baseball America. He’s 21, and has played most of this season in High-A ball. hitting .326/.451/.372. I do like guys who get on half the time. But he has no power and I think pitchers will throw him more strikes as he moves up the ladder. He can play short or second. Could end up a utility players. Has some speed.

Bateman is #21 on MLB Pipeline’s list of Cub prospects. He’s a lefty bat, hitting .312/.430/.421 with 20 steals in Triple-A. Could be a lefty hitting Myles Straw-type. I’d imagine we’ll see him in Toronto before the end of the season.

Quick Grade: C. Not an overwhelming return for Gausman, but I don’t know that you could have hoped for much more.

Arjun Nimmala, Eddie Macheletti, and Angel Rivero to Angels for José Soriano

In the middle of all this selling, the Jays became buyers.

Soriano won’t be a free agent until 2029. He’s been a good pitcher for the Angels, with a 3.29 ERA and a 2.7 bWAR this year in 22 starts. Career, he has a 7.0 bWAR in 113 games 73 starts. He, Cease and Yesavage could be a very good threesome at the top of our rotation.

Nimmala is a very good prospect. I hate losing him, but you have to give up something to get a starter like Soriano.

Quick Grade: B. Depends on what Nimmala becomes.

Adam Macko to Rangers for Josh Smith and Josh Stephan

Macko has been on the highway from Toronto to Buffalo a lot. He’s been perfectly ok. Macko is out of options after this year.

Smith has had five years in the MLB. He’s played every position other than catcher and pitcher. In 2024 he had a 3.5 bWAR and in 2025 a 2.9 bWAR. This year hasn’t been as good, -0.6. He’s hitting .213/.299/.272. And he’s, more or less, major league average defensively where ever he’s played. We do seem to like utility infielders. If he can be the player he was the last couple of years, he would be useful. If not, he can’t be optioned.

Stephan is a 24-year-old RHP. He has a 5.44 ERA in Triple-A this year. He gets ground balls. He could have Macko’s job of bouncing between Buffalo and Toronto if all goes well.

Quick Grade: C. Macko’s value was that he had options, that changes next year. Smith either remembers how to hit or spends a lot of time in Buffalo.

Daulton Varsho to Astros for Spencer Arrighetti

Varsho was having a terrible season for the Jays. The team is sending some money to Houston as well. He’s a free agent at the end of the season.

Spencer Arrighetti is 27, a right-handed pitcher, who can’t be a free agent until 2030 and he still has an option year left. He was a sixth round pick in the 2021 draft. He’s in his third season in the majors. This year he has a 4.60 ERA in 17 starts. In 88 innings, he’s got 87 strikeouts, but 50 walks. Batters are hitting .215/.344/.360 against him. If Pete Walker can work a little magic and bring his walk rate down, he could be a decent back of the rotation starter. As we’ve seen this year, you can never have too much pitching.

Quick Grade: A. Turning two months of Varsho into a starting pitcher with three-years of control left is pretty good. If Walker can help him find the strike zone more, it would be a great trade.

Jeff Hoffman to the Twins for Dasan Hill, John Klein and Dameury Pena

Hoffman was not a fan favourite, had a very rough time as our closer, but was excellent since moving into the setup roles. It’s entirely possible that he will be great for the Twins. He is signed through next season.

The Twins pick up their second Jays reliever in a month, after getting Tommy Nance. They give up:

Hill, who Baseball America had as their #8 Twins prospect is a left-handed pitcher. He was their Competitive Balance pick in 2024 (the 69th overall pick). He walks too many, but struck out 35% of batters this year. If he can’t cut down the walk rate, well he could be a back of the pen reliever. If he does cut back, he could be a very good starting pitcher.

Klein is 24, a RHP. He’s has pitched 4.1 innings in the majors this year. In Triple-A, he has a 5.91 ERA this year, with 74 strikeouts in 64 innings (also 34 walks and 14 home runs). He looks like a middle reliever type. Hopefully, Pete can work a bit of magic with him.

Pena turns 21 September first. He’s playing mostly second base in A ball but sounds unlikely to stay in the middle infield. He’s hitting .300/.373/.362. Lots of walk, not many strikeouts, but not enough power to make it as an outfielder. Some speed, but seems a long shot to have a major league career.

Quick Grade: A. Honestly, getting Hill for Hoffman would be an A for me, if Klein can be a semi useful reliever that’s gravy.

Overall Quick Grade: B.

Of course, if Soriano pitches great and the Jays make run at a Wild Card spot, I’ll edit this to a A.

The Jays come out of the trade deadline with +1120 odds to make the playoffs, +30000 odds to win the AL East and a +17500 odds of winning the World Series. I don’t gamble, but I’m figuring that those are very long odds. I wouldn’t suggest betting the mortgage on them winning the World Series.

This post is sponsored by FanDuel.

Record: 60-53. Pace: 86-76. Change on 2025: +6.

The resurrection of Brandon Pfaadt continues. The team won his seventh consecutive start since he came back from Reno. The pitcher should have a 7-0 record, if not for the Thompson/Sewald meltdown in Pittsburgh. He’ll have to settle for being 6-0 with a 1.55 ERA (40.2 IP and 7 ER), after going 6.2 innings tonight, allowing only an unearned run. To be fair, he did get some help from his defense, with a number of quite excellent plays. But that ERA is the best by a Diamondbacks starter across any seven-game span, since Zac Gallen’s figure of 1.16 (46.2 IP and 6 ER) in April-May 2023. I may just have made myself a little bit sad with that memory.

Tonight was definitely a contrast in opposites, with Pfaadt being remarkably efficient, in contrast to the Padres’ Michael King. It took Brandon only 31 pitches to record nine outs. 31 pitches into his outing, King was still working with two outs in the first. Arizona didn’t manage to score, but it was still a promising start against a man who had given them trouble in the past. Over five previous starts against the D-backs, covering 25.2 innings, King had a 1.05 ERA. But tonight spawned chances from the off. A pair of two-out walks were stranded in the first. Tim Tawa stood on third with one out in the next frame, then fell victim to the dreaded contact play. A Max Kepler double-play ended the third.

I do want to talk about a pair of quite terrible Diamondbacks challenges tonight (above). One came with one out in the top of the first inning by James McCann, on a pitch which was nowhere near the zone – 1.7” from the edge, according to the graphic. That left the D-backs down to just one challenge, two batters into the game. As a result, they – specifically, Ketel Marte – had to suffer some egregiously terrible calls by home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus. Though the three most obviously blown ones didn’t impact the outcomes of the at-bat: Marte walked twice, and Nolan Arenado singled. However, Marte then decided to waste Arizona’s second challenge on an equally blatant strike.

Had this all led to a loss, I’d probably be more than the “slightly irritated” all of the above made me reach. In the fourth inning, the D-backs finally broke through against King. One of those Ketel walks led things off, and one out later, Adrian Del Castillo singled. Then, Tim Tawa blasted his fifth home-run of the year down the left-field line and into the home bullpen (below). It was one of Tawa’s three hits on the day, and his OPS is now higher than that of Max Kepler. Also on form tonight was James McCann, a late replacement in the line-up after Gabriel Moreno had to go off and give birth (or something – I was in the kitchen…). He had an RBI double plus a single, and is now batting .319 for the year.

Pfaadt continued to cruise through six innings, with a two-out double in the fifth the only time a Padres got past first base. But he was beginning to look a little rosy-cheeked, and Pfaadt connoisseurs will be aware, that often indicates he’s running out of gas. So it proved in the seventh. He allowed his first walk with one down, and a single followed one out later. A ball hit into the shortstop hole proved too difficult for Nolan Arenado, his throw sailing wide of Tawa, and putting the Padres on the board. Torey Lovullo had seen enough, and Pfaadt was lifted. His final line: 6.2 innings, with just five hits and a walk, and three strikeouts.

Juan Morillo took over, and disposed of Xander Bogaerts on three pitches, the last a 100 mph fastball. Morillo then worked around a leadoff single in the eighth. Arizona added a pair of insurance runs to make the score 5-1, one on McCann’s double mentioned above, and the other on a well-worked sacrifice fly off the bat of Jorge Barrosa. He was clearly hyped at getting the job done, and why not? But it wasn’t all good news. Corbin Carroll went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in the leadoff spot, and some really bad choices. Over his last 30 games, a spell now covering 137 PA, he is hitting just .148. It’s the worst 30-game streak of his career.

Still, a four-run lead proved far more than adequate. New chairman of the closer committee, Brandyn Garcia, set down the Padres in order in the ninth, on 12 pitches – non-save situations apparently not proving an issue there. The win was an important one, over a wild-card rival and on a night where all the other active contenders won. It kept Arizona in a tie for the second wild-card spot with the Phillies, two games up on the Padres, who are now tied with the Marlins. The Diamondbacks are also “only” nine games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. Their lead in the division hadn’t been that small since June 27.

I also want to call out the Arizona defense. Ryan Waldschmidt had a lovely running catch in deep right center, and Max Kepler might have robbed a home-run at the wall in left. There was also an excellent double-play turned, and despite his error, Arenado also made a play worthy of a man with ten Gold Gloves. All told, a solid game for Arizona on all sides of the ball, and a welcome win after the understandable disappointment of the team’s limited moves at the trade deadline.

Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Trade winds: Tim Tawa, +32%
Trading partners: Pfaadt, +23%; Morillo, +15%
Trade deadline: Corbin Carroll, -7%

Comment of the thread to ercil, for an observation regarding Barrosa’s sacrifice fly:

Tomorrow night, it’ll be the same two teams in this best of four series, with the D-backs now having a very good chance of at least securing a split. Eduardo Rodriguez starts for Arizona, with another 6:40 pm first pitch.

CHICAGO –– The first time Kyle Tucker was booed at one of his former home ballparks this year, he shrugged it off.

When it happened again on Monday night, he seemed decidedly less amused.

In his first trip back to Wrigley Field since leaving the Cubs for the Dodgers in free agency this winter, Tucker received a reception that belied that ballpark’s “Friendly Confines” nickname.

He was voraciously booed before his first at-bat. Then again and again with each subsequent trip to the plate.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked of the hostilities afterward. “I tried my hardest last year. I tried playing through a hand fracture and calf thing, just trying to get back for the playoffs for them, trying to do what I could to help out the team.”

Evidently, that didn’t sway a nearly 40,000-person crowd on the North Side to welcome him with a warm greeting.

Tucker’s lone season with the Cubs didn’t go according to plan, of course. After an All-Star first half, the slugger slumped down the stretch while battling his hand and calf injuries.

Though the team still made the playoffs, and prevailed in a three-game series against the Padres in the wild-card round, their NLDS elimination to the rival Brewers ultimately qualified as a disappointment.

Tucker’s 4-for-16, one-RBI performance in that series also left a disappointing impression –– at least, it seemed, among the fan base –– before he entered free agency and signed his $240 million deal with the Dodgers this past January.

“I mean, I liked playing here last year,” Tucker said. “There were some really great guys over there and they have a good team.”

“Didn’t end up great at the end of the year,” he added of his up-and-down campaign. “But I had a good run.”

Monday’s scene was not exactly new for Tucker.

During a May trip back to Houston to face the Astros –– the team with which he spent his first seven MLB seasons before being traded to the Cubs last year –– the outfielder was also booed in a way he hadn’t been during his only prior visit in 2025 (having “Dodgers” across his chest seemed to have something to do with that).

That night, however, he said “I don’t really focus on crowd noise and stuff” and “don’t really have a take.”

On Monday, his answer struck a different tone, even while he insisted it was “nice being back and playing here.”

On the field, Tucker went 2-for-3 with a walk in the defeat, snapping the latest slump in his disappointing debut season with the Dodgers after going 3-for-19 in his previous seven games.

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“I just try to move on to the next day if I have a bad game,” he said, despite continuing to sport career-lows in batting average (.240) and OPS (.710). “If I have a good game, I try and just keep it going. So, I mean, felt like I had good at-bats tonight. And I’ll just try to continue that to tomorrow’s game.”

Yet, Monday’s performance also came with a baserunning mistake, with Tucker getting thrown out at second base –– one at-bat before Teoscar Hernández hit a home run, no less –– while trying to stretch for a double on a line drive off the wall in right field.

“They made a good play,” Tucker said, explaining he was trying to take a chance with the Dodgers facing a three-run deficit in the sixth.

Manager Dave Roberts, however, was more critical.

“It just doesn’t look good when you’re down three,” he said.

On a night full of booing, it was the one time Tucker prompted Wrigley Field to cheer.

Luis García Jr. was born and bred in New York and grew up rooting for the Yankees before moving to the Dominican Republic.

So for García, Monday’s homecoming — and the home run that highlighted it — hit a little different.

“Yeah, it means a lot to be able to do that,” García said through an interpreter. “Hit a home run in Yankee Stadium and to be able to get the ball back, it’s a great moment there, a great memory. So I’ll keep that in my heart.

“It means a lot to be able to connect there. I’m really just going there, try to do my job, try to find a pitch where I can put my team on top. Just the whole moment, I’m going to cherish it.”

The Yankees fell 13-7 to the Cardinals, but García sparked the offense in his debut.

Starting at first and hitting third, García went 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs — crushing a go-ahead home run in the seventh.

He drilled a 2-2 pitch from George Soriano out to right-center, dropping his bat and watching with a smile as the ball cleared the fence.

“He was amazing,” starter Cam Schlittler said.

“I’m sure a lot of emotions run through. You’re from here, this is your team growing up, and you walk into Yankee Stadium for the first time, everyone’s watching you, counting on you,” Aaron Boone said. “That’s one of those things about being a big leaguer and being a good player, being able to slow moments down. He obviously did a really good job of that.

“Very few guys are turning those double plays. And then, good at-bats, too. … So, excited for him. Cool that he came in, first day you get settled in and have a big night. Hopefully that goes a long way in getting him acclimated where it’s normal and routine for him.”

That’s what the Bombers are hoping for.

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García had been leading the National League in slugging before the Yankees acquired him.

His 24 homers and 78 RBIs are already career highs.

And the Bombers are convinced there’s even more offense to unlock because of how his newfound penchant for pulling the ball will take advantage of the short porch in right.

He raked righties for a .918 OPS, and could give the Bombers a boost.

They had scored just seven runs in their prior four games and 35 in their previous 12 contests.

His impact was clear and immediate.

And general manager Brian Cashman dismissed any concerns of overlap between García and Ben Rice, both lefty-swinging first basemen/designated hitters.

“We went into the trade deadline looking to find ways to improve our offense, and quite simply, he does do that. He improves our offense. He gives us more flexibility, more choices, and more impact,” Cashman said. “It makes us deeper and it makes us better, period.”

García got the ball from his first Yankees home run, and got to debut in front of friends and family.

But he’ll get to play in front of many more Tuesday.

“[Monday] was just five,” said García, adding with a grin, “but [Tuesday] will be 25.”

This game had a little bit of everything, and it really was not as close as the final score. This game was well in hand very early, but Coors did what it often does and made things interesting late. It is rather crazy this game was 13-9 with the wind screaming in from left field that actually supressed what would have easily been a three-run home run by Hunter Goodman.

This was one of several interesting plays disrupted by the wind in the outfield, but the most notable one as it would have plated the first three baserunners of the inning before an out was recorded in the 9th. These were the types of games Coors was infamous for before the humidor came into play, so it was comforting to see the Rays get out to an early lead the way they did.

The matchup on paper could not have been better for the beleaguered Rays offense coming off a slumber of a weekend series. Michael Lorenzen was the starter for the Rockies and came into the outing with a 8.86 ERA at home, and that number only got worse when Junior Caminero hit this 442 ft laser beam the other way in the first inning:

The second inning was no better than the first as consecutive singles by Chandler Simpson and Richie Palacios brought Kenny Piper to the plate for his first major league plate appearance. Piper is the 56th different catcher to put on a Rays uniform in franchise history and he could barely contain his excitement for his first at bat, which resulted in him drawing a walk to load the bases:

Taylor Walls would single to drive in the first two followed by a Yandy Diaz sacrifice fly to plate Piper. Walls would steal second and come around to score on the second of Jonathan Aranda’s four hits on the evening.

Caminero would come up later and blast another long home run, this one into the teeth of that aforementioned wind from left field:

The offense would continue to pick up some runs off singles and baserunning while Ian Seymour kept the Rockies offense at bay through the first six innings. Seymour pitched about as well as one can in Coors striking out 9, walking none, while scatting seven hits over six complete innings

Seymour generated 18 swings and misses by Colorado hitters tonight, 11 coming off the changeup. He featured the pitch this evening, and aside from a hanging one which Ezequiel Tovar hit out, it was fantastic for him tonight. Michael Grove, Casey Legumina, and Kevin Kelly had to get the final nine outs and the former two made things interesting enough that Kelly was called in to throw one pitch to get the elusive final out of the 9th inning.

The 9th inning saw Richie Palacios blast a no-doubt homer run to plate Cedric Mullins after his leadoff double, but the highlight of the inning belonged to Piper collecting his first major league hit:

The dugout was absolutely elated for him, which was heartwarming. Longtime fans might remember the 0 for 25 stretch Stephen Vogt had in his only season with the club and how he was thrown out at first by a hair in his final at bat of the season. It was great to see Piper get his first ht as a 28-year old who has spent the past five years in the organization while earning the admiration of his peers in that time.

Piper was called up from Double-A Montgomery as an emergency backup plan for the trade deadline plans, and it worked out for all involved. He and the rest of the offense bankged out 15 hits and went 6 for 14 with runers in scoring position on the evening. This was a much needed outing after the offense was catatonic in the series against the White Sox and the club hopes to continue the effort against Gabriel Hughes Tuesday evening with new catcher Liam Hicks likely hitting cleanup and receiving new starter Freddy Peralta.

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris pushed back on the notion that the organization should have held off on dealing Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers. 

Skubal, who has won back-to-back Cy Young Awards, was traded to the Dodgers over the weekend ahead of Monday’s trade deadline.

The Tigers received outfield prospect Zyhir Hope and right-handed pitching prospects River Ryan and Brady Smith, but there had been some thought over whether Harris should have waited to trade the talented starting pitcher to try and maximize the offers he would have gotten.

“We came into this with a firm idea of the type of deal that we wanted to ultimately land. And we had a deep understanding of what every organization had to offer,” Harris told reporters. “I think there is a unique dynamic with a player like Tarik Skubal. Markets at the deadline for the top players are just different than the rest of the market. So I understand the intuition that, ‘Hey you’re supposed to wait until the very last second on a deal and then pull a trigger at the very last second to maximize a return.’ That’s not how markets for the top players work.

“There was no team that was pursuing Tarik Skubal that was waiting to see if they could get someone else and then pivoting to Tarik if they didn’t get him. There weren’t these market forces that were ultimately affecting what each team’s appetite was for a package to land Skubal.”

Harris also said that it became clear through conversations with other organizations that the market was set for someone like Skubal and that the Tigers “could steer it as fast or as slow as we wanted to” when it came to finding the right move for the organization. 

“We felt like we put ourselves in a position on Saturday night where it was abundantly clear what every organization was going to be able to do, and we laid down all the offers in front of us and we chose one. I’m very confident that we absolutely maximized the return we could get for Tarik Skubal,” Harris said. 

The Tigers executive also said that several teams pursued Skubal aggressively before Detroit’s front office decided that the Dodgers’ offer was the best deal, describing the interest in the star pitcher as a “bidding war.” 

Even with Skubal on to a new club, Harris explained that they did believe a playoff run still could be in the cards for the Tigers, who also dealt starter Casey Mize to the Padres.

The ballclub is 2 ½ games back of a wild-card spot in the American League. 

Following weeks — or months — of uncertainty, the Yankees finally landed on their starting catcher the rest of the season.

It’s Austin Wells.

It was no secret the Yankees wanted to acquire a right-handed-hitting catcher by Monday’s trade deadline.

With Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers seemingly off the market and Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman going to Boston, the Yankees were left with the same setup they had going into the deadline: Wells and Ali Sánchez splitting time behind the plate the rest of the way.

General manager Brian Cashman said the “limited opportunity” to trade for a catcher helped lead to the Yankees staying put.

He acknowledged again the team has struggled offensively for much of the season — especially at catcher.

But he also added the team has been encouraged by Wells’ improved results over the past month.

“I think Austin has got his offense going the past month,” Cashman said. “It’s a much more successful version and much closer version to what he’s capable of. I hope he’s trending in the right direction.”

Then Wells went out and had a pair of hits — including a two-run homer — in the Yankees’ 13-7 loss to the Cardinals.

Wells said he was unaffected by the vote of confidence the Yankees showed in him, saying his approach to his game would be “the same either way. I have no control on that [trade situation].”

Cashman praised Wells’ defense and handling of the pitching staff.

In his past 16 games, Wells has an OPS of .973, with four homers.

Prior to that stretch, the lefty-hitting Wells had a paltry .468 OPS in his first 62 games and he still had the worst OPS of any player with at least 250 plate appearances (.537).

“He does possess a lot of potential with that bat,” Cashman said. “Hopefully he’s able to tap into it and save his best for the rest of the way.”

It’s the latest twist for Wells, who was drafted by the Yankees as a bat-first catcher and remained one throughout his minor league career.

Many outside the organization believed Wells would wind up moving out from behind the plate.

Instead, Wells became a solid pitch-framer and the Yankees value his ability to game-plan against hitters — but his offense has declined steadily.

Earlier in the season, he was sidelined by cervical headaches.

He said he’s seeing the ball better since his return, which has helped lead to his uptick at the plate.

“The last three or four weeks, he’s moved the needle back to who he can be and that’s a real presence at the bottom of the order, with some power,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Fresh off a Trade Deadline that saw the Yankees fail to add a catcher or increase their bullpen depth, fans at Yankee Stadium were rewarded with a 13-7 loss that was somehow even more painful than the final score indicates. The Cardinals crushed young ace Cam Schlittler and ran up a 6-0 lead. The blowout was on, until a furious barrage of Yankees homers was capped by a two-run shot from trade addition Luis García Jr. to make it 7-6. One disastrous seven-run (!) eighth later, and, well there’s your final score.

In short, the outlook wasn’t brilliant (to invoke “Casey at the Bat”) on Yankees news as the clock approached midnight on the East Coast. Then came a bolt of lightning from YES Network’s Jack Curry, bringing the news that a 21-year-old long discussed in fan circles would be debuting the next day: George Lombard Jr.

Does this make me feel better about the Yankees after a Monday like this one? I’d like to say that it does, but it only does so much. This loss really stunk and unless Lombard has secret two-way talents that he’s not disclosing, he’s not helping the bullpen. (Austin Wells at least had a nice game behind the plate, so that frustration was mildly assuaged.)

That being said, this is still the right move. This is the time for Lombard.

The Yankees’ top pick in the 2023 MLB Draft has zoomed through the system, getting the bump from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre back at the end of this past April. Across 78 games in the minors in 2026, he’s hit .284/.411/.498 with 24 doubles, 12 homers, 13 stolen bases, and a 157 wRC+. Now those figures are different when only looking at Triple-A (.268/.405/.440, 126 wRC+), but Lombard really started raking once he got his feet wet in May. From the beginning of June onward, he’s hit a staggering .352/.470/.648 with a 183 wRC+ in 30 games. Although he missed time with a sprained finger, he did not take any breathers upon returning just after the All-Star break.

Lombard is also extremely deft at shortstop, and it wasn’t long after he was drafted that folks started calling him the best defensive shortstop in the system regardless of level. In a midseason update, Baseball Prospectus ranked Lombard as the 24th-best prospect in baseball. His glove has been big-league ready for some time; it’s just been a matter of the bat catching up. Now, it’s here.

As demonstrated by Lombard’s bumpy adjustment to the International League back in May, fans should not assume that he’s going to hit nearly as well in The Show as he did at Triple-A. The chasm of talent between Triple-A pitching and Major League Baseball has never been higher, and he’s had an understandable pattern of needing to figure things out. Patience is not a virtue that Yankees fans are known for, but they’re going to need to demonstrate some of that with Lombard. Honestly, as long as Lombard plays well on defense and adds a little righty boost to the lineup against southpaws, then the Yankees will be thrilled.

Now, what does mean for incumbent shortstops José Caballero and Anthony Volpe? Well for the former, he was a nice story when he was hot at the outset of 2026, but his position has always been utilityman extraordinaire. And when he’s not finding his way into the starting nine, he’s a former stolen base leader who is an easy pinch-running threat. Caballero might eke his way into the lineup here and there regardless due to the Yankees’ current injuries, but there will be less of a reliance on him.

As for Volpe, the ship has sailed. He was in Lombard’s shoes once, at the start of the 2023 season when he was named Opening Day shortstop and won the job in spring training from another highly-regarded shortstop prospect, Oswald Peraza. Now, Volpe is being demoted to Triple-A for the second time this year (following a decent rookie year and two follow-ups that left a lot to be desired). His first demotion was because the surging Caballero displaced Volpe as starting shortstop while he worked his way back from injury. There was no room at the inn.

Once Caballero himself went on the IL, Volpe had another shot. He’s hit .240/.325/.322 with only one homer and an 87 wRC+, barely above his career-average 85 wRC+. The story is the same; it’s just a slightly different flavor every year with Volpe. Caballero was once again getting more reps at the six in July, and the writing was on the wall. Now that Lombard’s up, Volpe is going down.

Volpe will be be joined by Jasson Domínguez, who has had chances to nail down a starting spot of his own due to injuries to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger. He’s hit worse than Volpe: .230/.270/.380 with an 81 wRC+, and he has no idea how to play the outfield. The Yankees just traded for the Giants’ Heliot Ramos and Spencer Jones at least knows what he’s doing out there, so Domínguez is back to being a RailRider. (Angel Chivilli was walloped in relief on Monday despite a nice run recently and the Yankees need a fresh arm, so out he goes.)

Back to the focus of Lombard, Volpe and Peraza are the warning flags here. There’s a very real chance that fans are never going to love Lombard as much as they do in this very moment. The onus will be on Lombard to be his own person and ultimately fare better than Volpe and Peraza, who never adequately corrected the serious flaws in their approaches at the plate.

I do honestly feel pretty good about Lombard. And just because past recent stories of the six have disappointed, that obviously doesn’t mean you never try again. He can break the pattern. Even in the current flawed Yankees lineup, he doesn’t need to be the star as a rookie. New York is simply looking for a solid defender who can get his share of hits here and there. If he can do that as a 21-year-old—he was born in June 2005, barely a month after Robinson Canó‘s MLB debut if you want a jump-scare—then that’s as good a way as any to begin!

Go get ’em, George. Welcome to The Show.

CHICAGO –– For most of this season, Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski has been surpassing expectations.

The last two weeks, however, he has succumbed to some ugly franchise history in his first real slump all year.

In a 10-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday that tied a season-long four-game losing streak for the Dodgers, Wrobleski encountered a suddenly familiar problem. 

For a second-straight start, he couldn’t keep the ball in the yard.

Last week, the third-year left-hander was tagged with four home runs in a six-inning, five-run start against the Seattle Mariners, yet came away feeling like he hadn’t pitched that poorly.

“I just think going back and looking at it, I still threw the ball pretty well,” he said. “I know that sounds crazy considering the number and the line, but for the most part I think I did an OK job of kind of the things that are in my control.”

Problem was, when he returned to the bump at Wrigley Field on Monday, Wrobleski’s long ball problems only got worse.

Once again, he surrendered four big flies in a 4 ⅓-inning, seven-run start. 

And just like that, he became the first pitcher in Dodgers history to allow four homers in multiple games in the same season –– let alone in back-to-back outings just six days apart.

“I think sometimes teams are gonna have, honestly, good swings off you,” Wrobleski said. “And yeah, today that happened. But there’s no excuse. I think I need to be better than I have these past two.”

Monday’s barrage began with a first-inning blast that felt reminiscent of last week. 

In a 1-1 count against Seiya Suzuki, Wrobleski climbed the ladder with a seemingly well-executed 94.6 mph fastball, the kind of pitch that has typically been an effective weapon for him this year. Only this time, Suzuki was on it, lifting a two-run shot to the left-field bleachers that left Wrobleski shaking his head.

If that was bad luck –– Wrobleski said he was “not super upset” with his execution of that throw –– then the rest of the night’s damage seemed much more self-inflicted, and raised questions about a potential underlying problems.

In the second, he missed down the middle with a two-strike fastball that Kevin Alcantara clobbered for a go-ahead two-run blast (erasing the 3-0 lead Tommy Edman had staked them to with a home run during their first trip to the plate). In the third, he hung a slider in the heart of the zone that Carson Kelly teed off on for another two-run drive.

Wrobleski’s night, and frustrations, then culminated in the fifth. 

In an 0-1 count, he challenged former Dodgers prospect Michael Busch with a sinker in the zone; another go-to strategy for him this season that has often led to soft contact that keeps his pitch count under control.

Alas, Wrobleski instead got barreled up once again, with yet another home run leaving him doubled over in disbelief.

That would be his final pitch of the night. In his last two starts, his ERA has risen from 2.62 to 3.31 (his worst mark since entering the Dodgers’ rotation in early April).

“I think last week, some of [the home run pitches] were better pitches than this week,” Wrobleski said. But overall, just didn’t throw the ball well enough today, obviously. I’ve been pretty frustrated these last two.”

When pressed on Wrobleski’s struggles postgame, manager Dave Roberts argued his “stuff is really good,” and downplayed concerns about the 26-year-old approaching a career-high workload.

Instead, he said, “It just seemed like they were on everything.”

Asked if that was because of predictable game-planning, or Wrobleski potentially tipping his pitches, Roberts was unsure.

“That’s something I think we have to dig into,” he said.

“When he did make mistakes,” Roberts added, “it just seemed like they went out of the ballpark.”

Wrobleski also left the door open to the potential pitch-tipping theory, struggling to reconcile consecutive starts that have gone so wrong. 

“I changed the game plan pretty significantly today, and felt like they were still on some stuff,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just need to continue working and get better. The chips will fall where they’re going to. Just keep going.”

The Rockies pieced together a decent late rally, scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an eight-run deficit on Monday night at Coors Field.

The game capped off an action-packed day that included the Rockies trading Brenton Doyle, Antonio Senzatela and Victor Vodnik.

This one got out of hand early as Tampa Bay (66-46) jumped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings. It was too big a hole to crawl out of as the Rockies dropped to 45-68.

Ezequiel Tovar went 4-for-4 with a homer and Mickey Moniak added his 18th homer of the season to try to help the Rockies, but they couldn’t keep up with the hard-hitting, speedy Rays. It didn’t help that the Rockies struck out nine times in the first six innings against Tampa Bay’s Ian Seymour.

In the final box score, both teams posted 15 hits, but the Rays made them count more. The Rockies went 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven guys on base, while Tampa Bay went 6-for-14 and only left five on base.

Lorenzen stung early, Gordon blasted later

It only took the Rays three innings to record seven hits — including one homer — three stolen bases, three walks and seven runs. Junior Caminero hit a two-run shot for his 31st homer of the season in the first inning to put the Rockies behind right off the bat.

In the second, Chandler Simpson and Richie Palacios hit back-to-back singles and then Lorenzen walked Kenny Piper, who was making his MLB debut, to load the bases with no outs. Taylor Walls hit a two-run single, Yandy Díaz hit a sac fly and Walls stole second and moved to third on a throwing error from Hunter Goodman to move into scoring position for Jonathan Aranda’s RBI single. Caminero hit into a double play to avoid further damage, but it was 6-0 after two innings.

Two more walks, another stolen base and a single in the third gave the Rays a touchdown after three innings and ended Lorenzen’s night. To get nine outs, Lorenzen needed 75 pitches. His record dropped to 3-10 and his ERA increased to 6.94.

“I just didn’t think he was in the zone enough. That’s all,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “…When you are behind in counts to a good hitting team, it’s probably not going to go that well, especially here at Coors Field.”

Tanner Gordon relieved Lorenzen in the fourth. Caminero hit his 32nd homer of the season, but otherwise, Gordon retired nine out of the first 10 batters he faced through the sixth inning. Schaeffer said he thought Gordon was “extremely efficient.”

“That’s what TG does for us. He gives us a chance there to come back,” Schaeffer said. “Just pounding the zone with his stuff and early contact, which is all good. It’s what you want to hear.”

Trouble came in the seventh when the Rays added two more and continued to add to their lead, which came in handy in the end. Gordon finished with six runs — only four of which were earned — on eight hits, including two homers, with three strikeouts and no walks in six innings.

Seymour strikes out more

The biggest reason the Rockies couldn’t keep up with the Rays on the scoreboard was Seymour. The part-time starter went six solid innings and registered nine strikeouts. He held the Rockies to two runs on seven hits with no walks thanks to a nasty changeup that drew 11 swings and misses.

“He pounded the strike zone,” Schaeffer said of Seymour. “He used his changeup well. Left-on-left changeup was good. He’s a good pitcher and we knew that coming in.”

Despite giving up triples to Willi Castro and Moniak, each with only one out, neither was able to come in to score.

Seymour and Michael Grove, who pitched the final three innings, were also aided by outstanding defense throughout the game. The first came from Richie Palacios when he climbed the stairs to rob Jake McCarthy of a base hit with runners at first and second in the fifth inning.

In the seventh, Victor Mesa Jr. took away extra bases from Cole Carrigg with this catch in front of the out-of-town scoreboard.

Tovar time

It’s no secret that Tovar has struggled this season. On Monday night, he looked more like his old self.

He went 4-for-4 in his first multi-hit game since July 3, while also scoring four runs. And it started with a bang. In the third inning, he connected for his ninth homer of the year to put the Rockies on the board. The solo shot went 398 feet to left center field.

He added a single in the fifth and came around to score on an RBI single from Kyle Karros to score the Rockies first two runs of the game.

In the seventh, Tovar scored again. Troy Johnston led off with a double and Tovar followed up with a single. After McCarthy hit a sac fly to score Johnston, Karros hit another single to plate Tovar and make it 10-4.

Tovar added a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth as well. He came around to score immediately when McCarthy doubled.

“It was awesome to see Tovy have that night. Good for him. He’s been looking for that for a while,” Schaeffer said. “Three hard-hit balls and that was a tough matchup there in the ninth for him with another base hit. I just saw a balanced, ready-to-go hitter. Hopefully, he can carry that over.”

Tovar did make an error in the field after he was unable to come up with a ground ball in the middle of a two-run seventh inning from Tampa Bay. Both runs were unearned.

Moniak’s big day

On the same night the Rockies announced plans for a two-year extension with Moniak that will likely be finalized on Tuesday, Moniak tripled and hit his 18th homer of the season. It was a blast, too, measuring 447 feet.

Moniak finished the night with a sac fly in the bottom of the ninth for his 49th RBI of the season.

Carrigg hit an RBI double and Hunter Goodman added a sac fly in the ninth-inning rally that came up too short.

Up next

The Rockies and Rays will face off again on Tuesday. RHP Gabriel Hughes (0-3, 3.33) will start for the Rockies, while RHP Freddy Peralta (5-9, 4.99 ERA) will likely make his Tampa Bay debut after being traded from the New York Mets earlier on Monday.

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