First off, I think in 15 years of draft previews that’s the first time I’ve ever typed C/SS. It’s an odd positional combo, but is a sign of some unusual athleticism for the guy squatting behind the plate. Brick was not on my radar to review, but Kiley McDaniel of ESPN mocked him to the Phillies last week. Since all my previews feel like they’ve been of Catchers and Shortstops, why not go for the combo here?

Brick is a 6’2″, 195 lbs 18 year old who reclassified from the 2027 Draft last Fall. He currently attends Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, TN. As noted above he’s played both Catcher and Shortstop at a high level, but is expected to be able to stick behind the dish. He has a College commitment to Mississippi State and is currently Baseball America’s 62nd ranked prospect. He’s a right handed batter and while you should never draft for need, the system is short on RHB and potential future starting Catchers. If you think a group of players are roughly equal, it’s fine to use need as a tie-breaker and perhaps that could be the case here.

To talk some skills, Brick has a double plus arm and consistently puts up sub 1.9 second pop times (he’s even thrown runners out at 2nd from his knees). His lateral agility is excellent and he shows a lot of promise being able to block pitches in the dirt and get to off target throws (he’s a bit of a, ahem, Brick wall, one might say). He’s a prep Catcher, so the receiving isn’t perfect and will need some work, but the tools are all there and he’s already very advanced for his age. His speed is below average, but better than you may expect from a Catcher. He won’t be stealing many bases, but he’s not slow enough to clog the basepaths either (this could change as he adds muscle and grows fully into his frame, but it’s still a better starting point).

Hitting is a mixed bag for Will. He makes a lot of contact and seems to have a good feel for a prep bat, though spin can be an issue. His swing is a good starting point, but I expect changes will be made. He shows good, above average power potential in batting practice sessions, but in game his approach is more line drive gap power oriented. His bat has not impressed as hoped this spring. He can have a passive approach at the plate and some in zone swing and miss. Additionally he hasn’t shown any growth in over the fence power. These have dropped his stock from a possible late first round pick to more of a mid-second rounder. As you can see in the below video he has a small leg kick and stride with decent balance. I could see a team asking for a bigger kick and more lift in the swing. That said he tops a lot of balls in this BP clip, it may help if his stance was less upright as he currently has his eye level a bit all over the place throughout the swing. Some of the better power he shows in the clip are on higher pitches where he keeps his eyes more level.

In game hitting video was really tough to come by. so I apologize for the below video which is a lot of skippable content. You’re looking at #2 in white/purple. The first few minutes you can watch him catching. To see him hit you have to jump to 2:18 (bloop single), 6:10 (a gap bloop he managed to stretch into a Triple, rather inadvisably probably), and the 10:05 mark when he moonshots one over the Left Field wall, thus accounting for pretty much the entirety of his team’s scoring. It’s not the best angle to analyze a swing from, but his stride seems much shorter with just a toe tap instead of a kick, except on the Homer where he gets more of a leg kick in. It’s also the lone high pitch in the video he sees.

I’d be thrilled with Brick as a Second or Third Round pick, but the rawness of the bat would make me a bit nervous, though not upset, if he was the pick at 36. There is a potentially special ceiling here, but the risks feel commensurate with a later pick.

Partially off topic, this week is the draft combine, so next week I may do a bit of an update summary on how the players I’ve profiled so far performed and if it changes anything I wrote. Also, if you watch any of the coverage and somebody really gets your radar buzzing, feel free to comment on it and I’ll add them to my list of possible write-ups.

Alright, it’s Friday, this game preview is going up in the mid-afternoon because this game is happening very late if you are on East Coast time, and I’m going to take a quick detour because I’m not sure how many people even read game previews in general, much less read game previews that will go up at 5 pm ET on a Friday for a game that starts after 10 ET.

Over the past few years, I’ve had this recurring thought: what if stuff just worked out? I don’t mean, in the end, after a bunch of detours and elbow grease and serendipitous solutions to cropping-up problems. I mean, just… from the jump. What if you wanted or needed to do something, and it was easy, and your first idea worked out fine? The reason I think about this, of course, is because it feels like stuff doesn’t just work out. Here’s an example: we got a car to replace the one that was totaled a few years ago. A minor “want” in the replacement car we got was finally having a car new enough to plug your phone into the USB port and get stuff like Google Maps shown on the infotainment display. It isn’t that we erred in this regard, it was just… I hopped into it to set this up for my wife before she took the car to work this morning, and come on, seriously? It wasn’t a plug-and-play. First the phone wouldn’t pair (even though it was plugged in via USB), then it paired via USB but apparently also needed Bluetooth to actually connect, and the Bluetooth couldn’t find the car or vice versa on my wife’s phone but could on my phone, so after clearing every cache (including the car’s, which wasn’t straightforward), and finally realizing that you had to do a specific order of operations that involved first connecting and syncing via USB and the re-syncing via Bluetooth while it was connected via USB, would you finally get the car’s system to actually be able to use Android Auto rather than just saying the phone was connected but Android Auto crashing with no error message. So that was not a great use of an hour or so.

But that’s just one example. There are so many that occur every week that — even if this doesn’t happen to you directly — you can see why I fixate on “what if stuff just worked out?” Here’s a fun one: I am supposed to get a payout from the insurer. They have an electronic payment thing. It requires 2FA to be able to log in and direct the payment. For some reason, the insurer has the 2FA number listed as my office number… which would be fine, except that during the pandemic we switched to a fully-electronic switchboard (no more receptionist), but the insurer won’t change the number on file, saying that they’ll just send me a check once the five-day limit on receiving electronic payment lapses. Why didn’t they use my cell for the 2FA number? Because stuff doesn’t just work out. There are a billion similar enshittification-related examples from daily life, but hopefully you get the idea, even if you don’t personally experience this. And, if you don’t, I am personally delighted for you.

(I hired a guy to do some mild landscape/lawn work because I don’t have time. My hiring process was explicitly oriented around “I want someone that will just do it and not bug me” because if I had the time to be bugged about it I’d just do it myself. He said he’d start two weeks ago. He has not. Hopefully he’s still alive. The lawn is… how it was before I hired him. | I signed my older kid up for summer camp months ago. It starts in a couple of weeks. No communication from the camp about logistics or anything, even though it was the same camp and they had clear, timely communication last year. Now I have to reach out to them. Oy. It goes on and on like this.)

Why do I bring this up? Because it’s so wholly relevant to the Braves. 2023 was the last year of “stuff just works out” (something I feel relatively mirrored in my life; I think stuff got harder in 2024). 2024 was an epic inputs underperformance that lasted for months, along with injuries. Even though it was successful, it wasn’t easy and there was no “just” in it working out. 2025, well, it didn’t work out at all, but it also featured a lot of teeth-pulling while it was failing. Injuries, an unforced error of a changed offensive approach, and more injuries.

And then we get to 2026, and it’s whiplash-inducing in a way. The first two months of 2026? It was glorious. It was “stuff just works out” with a vengeance. The Braves have to use a roster fill-in in a key role? Dominic Smith comes through, again and again, and posts some pretty insane outputs and inputs considering his career arc. The Braves don’t have a north star offensive approach with a spare parts lineup? No worries, they all hit the ball hard early in the count and post great outputs and inputs. Austin Riley has no idea what’s going on at the plate? No worries, Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson are two of MLB’s best bats in the early going to more than make up for it. The rotation is suspect? No sweat, the defense will play so well that the team barely gives up runs. The Braves could do no wrong… for a while. Michael Harris II was day-to-day and not in the lineup, but had a game-winning pinch-hit double that cleared the bases and was the only source of the Braves’ runs in a game against the Pirates that secured a sweep.

And then, just like that, it all came crashing down into “it just doesn’t work out” territory. The Braves were aggressive with pitching decisions to some extent, but have given the ball to Carlos Carrasco, in all his roster barnacle-ness, in two games in the past two weeks, each of which turned a lead into a loss. There have been a number of other foibles, but these are perhaps all overshadowed by how all the stuff regarding run-scoring that worked so well over two months just cratered. The fill-ins are playing like fill-ins, the non-fill-ins are playing like fill-ins, Drake Baldwin was rushed back to reduce the reliance on no-hit backup catchers and started hitting like one himself… I’m not going to detail all of it, but basically, things went from immaculate vibes and smooth sailing to the baseball equivalent of all those paragraphs about my personal first world problem-esque travails above.

So, how are the Braves responding to this? By… pushing Chris Sale back two more days (his normal rest pitch day would’ve been yesterday) and giving the ball to Reynaldo Lopez. Yes, the Reynaldo Lopez that was yoinked out of the rotation after five starts, and has been pitching nondescript mop-up relief since.

Lopez’ first five starts of the season were, commensurate with his whole 2026 saga, just really weird. His first two were really gross peripherals-wise, but because everything was working out easily, the only run charged to him came on a solo homer in each. His third had better peripherals, but ended after a bout of fisticuffs with Jorge Soler. His fourth kept up the good peripherals, but the Marlins BABIPed him. His fifth and final was a disaster that got him banished from the rotation. In aggregate, it was an 89/130/118 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) in five starts — okay only if you look at the ERA, and honestly, pretty brutal otherwise. So, Lopez went to the bullpen. Banished to the bullpen, more like. He’s pitched very intermittently (13 outings in about seven weeks), and has largely pitched in garbage time (no high-leverage outings, four medium-leverage but on the very low end of medium leverage). His relief performance has been better but not good considering his usage: 78/95/104, which is basically what you’d expect from a decent mop-up guy.

And now, he’s going back into the rotation. The Braves don’t expect him to go more than a few innings, but since nothing is easy, this could mean they have to cover eight or nine frames with the non-Lopez bullpen if things go awry. On the flip side, if the Giants blow Lopez up on relatively few pitches, the bullpen will still have to work a lot. It’s an odd strategy for a team desperate to save the bullpen — as someone noted in the comments, you can’t actually rest both the starters (i.e., Sale) and the bullpen, but the Braves are somehow attempting to thread that needle right now while also not collapsing out of the division lead altogether. It’s a very tall order.

The Giants haven’t announced a starter. It’s nominally Trevor McDonald’s turn in the rotation; McDonald has a 121/103/94 line in nine starts, but has gotten blown up each of his last two tries, not making it out of the fourth in either try. Maybe that means the starter is unannounced because the Giants will use one of their numerous lefty relievers as an opener ahead of the right-handed McDonald, or maybe something else will happen. In any case, this isn’t a marquee matchup, and the Braves need to figure out how to win games like this in the effortless manner they managed in April and May. But if they don’t, well, maybe they can spend some time calling that lawn guy or my kid’s camp instead.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Friday, June 26, 10:15 p.m. EDT

Location: Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Atlanta has lost 10 of their last 13, and things have gone so poorly that the Giants nearly swept them last weekend, but for an act of rain that postponed the final game of the series to August. They’ve allowed 5 runs per game during this stretch while averaging just 3.2 runs scored. It’s probably not a staggering surprise despite Atlanta’s division-leading record and top 10 lineup because this is the sort of thing that befalls every team during the regular season. But, of course, they’re playing the 2026 San Francisco Giants, a team that offers every other team the opportunity to turn things around right away.

I am writing this preview far too late for anyone to read it, but as of this publication, the Giants still don’t have starters named for this series. Drew Cavanaugh is slated to be promoted to take the spot of the injured Daniel Susac. Heliot Ramos might also be activated. It’s hard to guess but, more importantly, maybe a little harder to care. The Giants aren’t a good baseball team and it’s a shame we can’t just fast forward to the end of the season like a baseball video game sim.

Atlanta did trade for Joey Bart after the Giants series, so add him to the list of former Giants who will be returning to Oracle Park. You’ve got Mauricio Dubon, Dominic Smith, and, of course, Mike Yastrzemski; but also, J.P. Martinez is Atlanta’s bullpen coach and Antoan Richardson is the first base coach. I wonder if these guys returning to San Francisco will feel a little bit like returning to one’s hometown long after graduating high school. “Wow, everything is exactly the same… for better or worse.”

The Giants are 5-5 since the anti-Pride Night protest, and are 10-11 on the month, meaning that this series gives them a shot to actually have a winning month this season, a feat that seemed impossible even a week ago. Despite all the crapitude in the bullpen, maybe this Band of Bigots really has bonded over sticking it a bunch of the team’s fans. It wouldn’t be the first time a team has played the “us against the world” card, and athletes thrive on underdog narratives. The Giants don’t seem like a particularly cohesive, intelligent, or talented enough group to flip a switch and be decent again, but one cannot predict baseball.

Who: San Francisco Giants (33-47) vs. Atlanta Braves (48-31)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday at 6:05pm PT, Sunday at 1:05pm PT
National broadcasts: None

Projected starters
Friday: TBD vs. Reynaldo Lopez (RHP 3-1, 3.50 ERA)
Saturday: TBD vs. Bryce Elder (RHP 5-5, 3.71 ERA)
Sunday: TBD vs. Chris Sale (LHP 8-5, 2.14 ERA)

Prediction time

Thank goodness for Max Muncy… seriously! In the last series preview, I predicted “An A will hit a home run,” and that’s exactly what happened. An A (Max Muncy) hit the lone home run of the series for West Sacramento. As to the second prediction, “The Giants will do something really dumb,” I think I was spot on there, too, given all that transpired off the field.

So, for this series I’ll just say that somebody in the pool of Joey Bart, Mauricio Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski, and Dom Smith will homer. I also predict that we will see Yaz throw out Jung Hoo Lee or vice versa.

Earlier today, Andy Green officially became the 25th manager in Mets history (26th if you count Carlos Beltrán’s ill-fated tenure) after the team fired Carlos Mendoza. We did learn via David Stearns’ press conference that Green will strictly serve as an interim manager and will return to his previous role of Senior Vice President for Player Development, which he’s held since 2024, when the season concludes.

Andrew Mulligan Green is not really a household name around these parts, though he’s hardly new to the Mets. Green was born in Lexington, Kentucky on July 7, 1977 (7-7-77, for those of you who love numbers) and is a former major league infielder who played parts of four seasons with the Diamondbacks and the Mets. He was picked in the 24th round of the 2000 MLB draft and ended up having a great minor league career, earning the Pacific Coast League MVP award in 2005. That success did not translate at the major league level with the Diamondbacks, as he hit .199/.280/.265 in 136 games from 2004-2006. During his time, he played a little bit of second, short, third, and even got some chances in the outfield.

After his stint with Arizona, he bounced around from Japan in 2007 with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to the Reds’ farm system in 2008. He briefly re-emerged in 2009, playing four games with the Mets and picking up one hit in four at-bats. The hit was enough to get his career batting average over .200 and give him one more hit as a Met than Jed Lowrie. He was invited to spring training in 2010 but was ultimately released by the Mets.

From there, he spent a lot of time in the dugout, managing the Missoula Osprey to the Pioneer League Championship in 2012, and leading the Mobile BayBears to first and second half division titles, which led to him being named the Southern League’s Manager of the Year in 2013. He served as the Diamondbacks’ third base coach in 2015, and used that to catapult himself to the managerial ranks in 2016 for the Padres. His tenure came during a rough patch for the Padres, who had averaged 74.8 wins between 2011 and 2015 and had not had made the playoffs since 2006.

He unfortunately failed to lead the Padres to glory, finishing with a 274-366 record as their manager. The club went 68-94 under his leadership in 2016, 71-91 in 2017, and 66-96 in 2018. Halfway through the 2017 season, he was extended through 2021, but he was ultimately fired in September 2019 with the team owning a 69–85  at the time of his dismissal. He joined the Cubs as a bench coach, where he stayed under manager David Ross until Craig Counsell was hired brought in his own staff.

Since leaving the dugout, a move he said during today’s press conference he made intentionally to give him more time to spend with his family, he has entered the front office to serve as David Stearns’ Senior Vice President for Player Development. In this role, he oversees the club’s farm system and minor league operations. As Stearns made abundantly clear, this is a temporary role, and Green will ultimately go back to the front office following the season. Green also made it clear during his introductory press conference that he will not be handling anything related to his old job while he is managing.

The Andy Green era, which will last exactly 81 games barring anything unforeseen, begins tonight, with the Mets taking on the Phillies to begin a three-game series at Citi Field.

The first phase of the MLB proposal for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement to the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) included a hard salary cap and a hard salary floor. They also outlined multiple revenue-sharing proposals.

The MLBPA quickly rejected the concept, as they have in past negotiations. The debate between the two sides began in May and will continue intermittently until the current agreement expires on Dec. 1.

The second proposal from MLB to the union included changes to the draft, including the elimination of high school drafting and the institution of an international draft. In response to that proposal, the union requested the elimination of the Qualifying Offer from free agency and the shortening of time it takes for a player to reach free agency.

On Thursday, during their regular negotiation session, the MLB negotiators proposed a minimum salary increase from $780,000 to $1 million for pre-arbitration players with two years of service time.

Those with less than two years would receive $900,000 with a $100,000 bonus at the end of the year if they spend less than 50 percent of the season on the injured list and complete the season with the team.

They agreed to the MLBPA’s request to reduce the free-agent eligibility requirement to five years of service time from the current six years for players 30 and older. They accepted the request for the elimination of the qualifying offer.

The MLB then proposed that all free-agent contracts be capped at five years for players changing teams or six years for those staying with their current team. The maximum dollar amount would be capped based on payroll. The top would be 15 percent of total payroll with a five percent increase per contract year. (Example: six-year/ $265 million under 2025 numbers).

The proposal also included the elimination of deferred money contracts, such as the controversial contract Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The pre-arbitration pool would increase by 30 percent ($50 million to $65 million) and up to $75 million by the end of the agreement.

The MLB proposed expanding the Prospect Promotion Program with the eligible player yielding up to two draft picks if the player is in the top two or three in Rookie of the Year or four or five in Cy Young voting or MVP voting. The picks would be distributed one for each draft (domestic and international).

MLB released its statement in support of its proposals.

“The biggest issue baseball fans want solved to strengthen the game is fixing the payroll disparity that leaves too many fans without hope of their team competing for a World Series title,” MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin said. “Every other major U.S. sport has tackled this problem, and every year more small-market teams in those leagues have a chance to win. The salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field, allowing us greater flexibility to address longstanding player priorities while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50.

“Today, in addition to proposing the largest-ever increase in the minimum salary, earned by over half of MLB players, we accepted two landmark changes to free agency that have been in place for 50 years. We agreed to both the MLBPA’s proposal to provide earlier access to free agency, and their proposal to eliminate the qualifying offer system, a provision players view as a drag on free agency. We also proposed to eliminate deferred compensation and to create a new ‘Cornerstone Player’ provision similar to the NBA’s ‘Bird rights’ to give every team a fair shot at retaining their fans’ favorite star players. We will continue working with the MLBPA during the bargaining process to improve the game for teams, players and fans.”

The MLBPA had a rapid response to the latest offer from the MLB negotiating team.

“After making a series of proposals to reduce player compensation by billions of dollars, eliminate fundamental rights with a salary cap, and destroy the amateur entry process, Major League Baseball and team owners are now attempting to distract from the true impact their plan would have on baseball,” a statement from the MLBPA said. “These misleading offers are designed to look like ‘improvements’ but are of little or no value, given they are expressly conditioned on agreement to the league’s cap system which eliminates the free market, and ensures gains for one player only come at the expense of another. The league also introduced a litany of additional restrictions on player rights — limiting salaries, contract length, performance, award, and signing bonuses. While MLB claims to be acting in the interest of fans, their proposals thus far are entirely consistent with owners’ long-held goals: suppressing player salaries and maximizing club profits.

“Owners’ attempts to pit players against players are nothing new, but they’ve failed in the past and will fail again now, because PA members remain unified. We are committed to achieving a fair deal that protects the rights of all players, promotes competition, and leaves our game better for future generations.”

The two sides are expected to meet again before the All-Star break in July. There seems to be very little current space for agreement with the initial proposal as the basis for all subsequent proposals by both sides.

With the players staunchly refusing to consider that suggestion, nothing else can be achieved until they find some common ground on the competitive balance issue.