Thomson, Phillies hopeful red-hot offense carries into Nationals series originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

To say the Phillies offense has been as hot as an August summer day in Philadelphia might be an understatement right now. Consider in their three game series just completed against the visiting Seattle Mariners, they scored 29 runs and collected 49 hits, 17 for extra bases.

It all starts at the beginning and Trea Turner has been absolutely spectacular of late as the shortstop has had two or more hits in six of his last seven games, and scored 11 runs and drove in seven during that time.

Kyle Schwarber leads the National League with 45 home runs, 109 RBI and has a home run in 15 straight series. Bryce Harper is hitting .288 over his last 35 games with 15 doubles, 12 home runs and 26 RBI. Throw in J.T. Realmuto posting a .333 average with 23 multi-hit games, 18 extra base hits and 21 RBI over his last 51 games and you see why the Phillies have been so good offensively.

Before Friday’s game with the Washington Nationals, manager Rob Thomson pointed to something else that has been working quite well for his team.

“The back end of the lineup,” Thomson said. “We’re producing which turns it over to those guys and that’s where you can really do some damage as far as scoring runs. The bottom of the lineup is doing a great job right now.”

Leading the way has been outfielder Brandon Marsh and second baseman Bryson Stott. Because of his continued hot hitting, Marsh has moved up a bit in Thomson’s lineup and understandably so. Since snapping an 0-for-31 slump on May 3, Marsh has hit .296 over an 87-game span and is hitting .338 over his last 24 games.

Stott, along with his always-present excellent glove work, has hit .381 with nine runs scored, four stolen bases, seven extra base hits and eight RBI over his last 14 games.

Outfield carousel continues …

Nick Castellanos heads back to right field Friday while Harrison Bader takes the night off, sliding Brandon Marsh to center and Max Kepler to left against Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli, whom the Phillies just saw Sunday. Castellanos was held out of the series finale on Wednesday against the Mariners.

“Casty didn’t face him the last time and I don’t want him sitting too many days,” said Thomson. “This would be his third day in a row and I don’t want to do that. He’s in there tonight and then we’ll figure it out moving forward.”

Which means Thomson will probably continue to shuffle his outfield, pending numerous things but he said, “A lot of it has to do with the pitcher.” So it will probably continue that Kepler will face the majority of right-handers and Bader lefties and some right-handers, too.

“I try to get ahead of it if I can and communicate that with the players, if I can,” said Thomson of his platooning. “Sometimes it changes. You schedule a guy for a day off tomorrow, but he hits two homers and a double, you really got to change gears at that point. With a lefty going tomorrow I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’m doing.”

Wheeler update

Nothing official from the team Friday as far as the condition of pitcher Zack Wheeler, who was diagnosed with a blood clot near his right shoulder last week. Asked what he’s heard, Thomson said there wasn’t much.

“I think we’ll know something in the next couple of days,” Thomson said. “We’ll see him in the next couple of days. Just getting some opinions, that’s all. Just texting (Wheeler). I don’t want to really bother him. He’s resting but he feels good.”

What Alex Cora expects from Red Sox prospect making debut vs. Yankees originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jhostynxon Garcia, also known as “The Password,” is the latest Red Sox prospect to be called up in hopes he’ll provide a spark.

Garcia, who was called up from Triple-A Worcester on Thursday, will bat fifth and start in centerfield as the Red Sox face the rival Yankees on Friday night. A late-August night at Yankee Stadium with the Red Sox playing arguably their most important series in years? No, not a bad night for a Major League debut.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora offered a scouting report of Garcia, a 22-year-old slugger who arrives after recording a .932 OPS in 66 games in Triple-A Worcester. MLB Pipeline views Garcia as Boston’s third-best prospect behind Franklin Arias and left-handed pitcher Payton Tolle.

“He swings a lot,” Cora said of Garcia, who has struck out 110 times in 99 games this season. “That’s the first thing, he swings a lot. But HE drives the ball to right-center, can do that with two strikes. He’s a great defender, good base-runner. So, we’ll see.”

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Garcia’s elevation fills a need for the Red Sox with outfielders Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsnyder on the injured list. Their respective injuries aren’t expected to cause long-term absences, which could result in Garcia returning to Worcester in the not-too-distant future. Unless, of course, he receives one of Boston’s added roster spots when rosters expand in 10 days.

For now, Cora indicated Garcia will start every game against a left-handed pitcher. He’s hit .283 with a .964 OPS against lefties this season.

Yankees left-hander Max Fried might present a different challenge for Garcia. But having watched rookie Roman Anthony blast one into the second deck against the Yankees on Thursday night, and having Anthony next to him in right field, could go a long way in setting the tone.

Throughout the entirety of the 2024-25 season, there was a lot of noise surrounding Igor Shesterkin, but he remained quiet. 

He entered the season without a contract extension, as speculation about his future with the New York Rangers and contract status began to dominate headlines.

Shesterkin refused to talk about it though, making it hard to truly read his emotions. 

“I don’t read and I try to not hear about that,” Shesterkin said about all of the outside noise during the season. “I just focus on my game, on my practice and on my family. That’s it.”

In December, Shesterkin signed an eight-year, $92 million contract extension with the Rangers, which should have simmered down all of the outside noise. 

However, the Rangers began to struggle, and the team faced intense scrutiny for their play, including Shesterkin who signed the richest contract for a goaltender in NHL history.

It was a long and grueling year for both the Rangers and Shesterkin. 

During his exit interview, Shesterkin was as honest and candid as we’ve ever seen him. He divulged that the Rangers were a broken team.

“In my mind, something broke during the season and (went) the other way,” Shesterkin said. “We couldn't handle it.

“Probably not too much confidence. If we can look on the last season before when we won (the) President’s Trophy, if we’re down 3-0 we still know we get back but during the season I didn’t feel that sometimes.”

Dylan Garand's Confidence In Himself Runs DeepNew York Rangers prospect Dylan Garand possesses the ideal trait for a goaltender: confidence. 

This kind of honesty and openness from the 29-year-old goalie is a good thing for the Rangers. Shesterkin is the face of the franchise, so his comments carry a significant amount of weight. 

He’s one of the best players in the NHL, but the next step for Shesterkin is to blossom into a leader, and his exit interview was a positive first step. 

There’s a lot of pressure on Shesterkin going into the 2025-26 campaign. 

In order for the Rangers to succeed and bounce back into Stanley Cup contention, it’s all on Shesterkin’s shoulders to propel them to those levels and prove he’s the best goalie in the world.

The Mets are signing catcher Ali Sanchez to a minor league deal, according to Will Sammon of The Athletic.

The move will bolster New York's minor league catching ranks with Francisco Alvarez on the shelf with a thumb injury that he hopes to play through before eventually needing surgery.

Sanchez, 28, began his career with the Mets organization as an international free agent out of Venezuela in 2013. He worked his way up the ranks and eventually made his MLB debut during the 2020 season, when he appeared in five games -- notching one hit in nine at-bats.

After being DFA'd by New York in February 2021, he bounced around several big league organizations' minor league outfits and played a handful of big league games while making stops with St. Louis, Detroit, Arizona, the Chicago Cubs, and Miami. Sanchez appeared in nine big league games this season with Toronto (eight) and Boston (one), and tallied five hits in 22 at-bats (.227), including two doubles. 

In 54 games with the Blue Jays' Triple-A outfit this season, he slashed .279/.347/.419 for a .766 OPS with 13 extra-base hits and 28 RBI. He was claimed off waivers by the Red Sox earlier this month before he was again designated for assignment 10 days later.

Sanchez has appeared in 47 big league games and has 22 hits in 119 at-bats (.185) with six extra-base hits, for a .458 OPS.

Last week, the Mets called up No. 4 prospect Nolan McLean for his big league debut, and he impressed with 5.1 scoreless innings against Seattle. This has led to the question of "who’s next?"

There is likely just one more prospect who should be expected to debut during the 2025 season: No. 5 prospect, right-hander Brandon Sproat. 

It’s been somewhat of a roller coaster ride for Sproat, who -- less than a year ago -- was the consensus Mets No. 1 prospect and was ranked among the top 50-60 prospects in all of baseball. It now appears as if that ride is soon going to arrive at the station, Willets Point that is.

Sproat burst onto the scene last year in his first professional season after the Mets took him in the second round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

In 17 starts split between High-A Brooklyn and Double-A Binghamton, he was basically untouchable, posting a 2.05 ERA in 87.2 innings with 110 strikeouts. Batters only hit .170 with a .523 OPS against him. He was blowing hitters away with his upper 90s fastball and leaning on a changeup and sweeper as his primary secondary offerings.

Then came his first real adversity as a professional at the Triple-A level. He made his first start with Syracuse on Aug. 8 against Worcester and allowed six runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings with three walks and four strikeouts. Sproat ended up making seven Triple-A starts to close out 2024 and posted an unsightly 7.53 ERA. Triple-A opponents hit .313 with a .957 OPS against him.

Adversity is not a bad thing. In fact, it is something the Mets organization embraces, as senior vice president of player development Andy Green told us on The Mets Pod back in spring training. 

"[Adversity] is going to come in a big league uniform at some point in time, and you can always go back to that experience in the minor leagues," Green said. "We would love for everyone to have to fight through something."

Some of that adversity was due to challenges at the Triple-A level that affect some more than others. They use the major league ball there, and it is a different ball than Double-A and below. That generally has a negative impact on pitch metrics. 

There is also the ABS challenge system, so pitchers must be more precise. On top of those changes, pitchers are facing veteran players, sometimes as much as 10 years older than them, who have much more of a plan at the plate.

The Mets were excited about Sproat’s spring training and his approach heading into this season, but it did not go according to plan for his first 15 outings. In 62 innings, Sproat posted a 5.95 ERA and struggled to miss bats, striking out only 43, which is a well below average 15.4 percent strikeout rate.

From a pitch usage standpoint, Sproat appeared to be focusing on trying to be a ground ball pitcher, with a higher use of his sinker. He was throwing it 21 percent of the time during that stretch after throwing it just one percent of the time in 2024. Overall, his power stuff wasn’t quite as powerful as it was in 2024.

His four-seam fastball’s average velocity was down nearly a full mile per hour, from 96.7 mph in 2024 to 95.9 mph in early 2025. It wasn’t just his fastball; his velocities were down across the board. 

There was some thought that Sproat was not throwing with conviction and trusting his stuff like he should. He was pitching much more defensively, just trying to outsmart hitters instead of attacking them.

In late June, there was a mental shift from Sproat. He decided, after conferring with his mental strength coach as well as the Mets organization, that he was going to just let everything loose and throw the ball nearly as hard as he could. In his eyes, there was no downside.

In nine starts since, Sproat has pitched to a 2.05 ERA in 48.1 innings with 57 strikeouts. In this span, his 30.3 percent strikeout rate was essentially double what it was earlier in the year. Opponents have hit only .144 with a .461 OPS against Sproat over the last nine starts.

For Sproat, everything has taken a step forward in the last nine starts. 

He is throwing more strikes, getting more swings and misses, his ground ball rate is up and, importantly, his line drive rate has gone down significantly. His average velocities and/or whiff percentages are up across the board for all six of his offerings from just earlier this season:

- Four-seam fastball velocity is up from 95.9 mph to 97.1, and whiff percentage is up from 18.1 percent to 32.1

- Changeup whiff rate is up from 27.8 percent to 40.6

- Sinker velocity is up from 95.3 mph to 96.1

- Slider velocity is up from 86.9 mph to 90 mph, and whiff rate is up from 20.7 percent to 24.4

- Sweeper whiff percentage is up from 31 percent to 38.6

- Curve ball velocity is up from 78.9 mph to 81.1 mph, and whiff percentage is up from 27.8 percent to 34.3

Sproat is pitching with confidence and conviction, and his stuff has ticked up across the board. He is back to routinely touching 99-100 mph, which he was not doing at all earlier in the season.

The Mets' rotation has been struggling for much of the second half, and Sproat has made the necessary adjustments that warrant a call-up. 

Having both McLean and Sproat in the rotation could provide a jolt that the Mets seem like they need as they head into the final month of the season -- as they try to make the playoffs for the second year in a row for just the third time in franchise history.