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The Detroit Tigers will be without ace Tarik Skubal for the foreseeable future, as the two-time AL Cy Young award winner is set to undergo surgery to remove loose bodies in his throwing elbow.

Before the injury designation, the left-hander was the presumptive favorite to win a third straight American League Cy Young.

With Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet already on the shelf, Skubal's lengthy absence sends the AL Cy Young odds into chaos.

Latest AL Cy Young odds following Skubal injury

Player
Cam Schlittler	+250
Max Fried	+350
Dylan Cease	+500
Jose Soriano	+600
Jacob deGrom	+1200
Gavin Williams	+2500
Bryan Woo	+2500
Kevin Gausman	+2500
George Kirby	+3000
Drew Rasmussen	+3500
Framber Valdez	+3500
Logan Gilbert	+4500
Parker Messick	+4500
Taj Bradley	+4500

Odds from FanDuel, one of our best betting sites, as of 5-4.

What Skubal's injury means to Cy Young race

With Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal likely on the shelf for the next couple of months, the AL Cy Young race is suddenly wide open and very interesting. Tigers fans may not find much solace in that, though.

New York Yankees duo Cam Schlittler and Max Fried have immediately leapt to the front of the line at +250 and +350, respectively. Schlittler has been borderline untouchable in his first full MLB season, going 4-1 with a 1.51 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, and 31.4% strikeout rate compared to a 3.8% walk rate. The 25-year-old has earned his status as the favorite, perhaps even had Skubal not been sidelined.

Fried has been quite effective, though in a much different way, with a 2.39 ERA and a 21.4% strikeout rate, relying more on inducing soft contact than blowing hitters away.

Outside the Bronx, Los Angeles Angels right-hander Jose Soriano and Toronto Blue Jays newcomer Dylan Cease are both shorter than +1000 and have seen their odds improve significantly with Skubal going under the knife.

Fourteen pitchers are drawing odds shorter than 50/1, showing how crowded the field is with Skubal and Garrett Crochet hurt, and someone like Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans (+6000) struggling.

AL Cy Young pick to make now

Pick: Dylan Cease (+500 at FanDuel)

I don't love the landscape right now. Schlittler is probably a good option, but he's also at least somewhat unproven as a sophomore starter, and +220 is too short relative to the risk involved.

Similarly, Fried's tendency to pitch to contact will inflate his numbers at some point.

You may lean more toward Soriano at slightly longer odds, but he's vastly outpitching his career norms and his peripherals. I fear regression is coming for him.

So, I'm settling on Cease. He pitches for a team that should be in the mix for a playoff spot with World Series odds of +2500, has more strikeouts than any other pitcher in MLB since 2021, has consistently logged a ton of innings, and is finally pitching in front of a top-tier defense that will help keep his ERA down. I'd like the line to be a bit higher, but none of the long shots inspire much confidence at the moment.

What this means for Skubal

Only a few short months ago, Skubal won his arbitration case against the Tigers to earn a record $32-million salary in 2026. He hasn't agreed to an extension and is slated to hit free agency at season's end. 

A third straight Cy Young award would have resulted in an unfathomably huge contract, and while he will almost certainly get paid an absurd amount of money to the layman, this injury puts the ceiling of a potential deal in at least some doubt.

Whether that means a short-term pillow deal with opt-out clauses and a high annual salary or a deep-pocketed (*cough* Dodgers *cough*) team saying "screw it" and giving him the deal he desired in the first place, remains to be seen. That it's not Tommy John surgery should at least curb some concern, especially if he finishes strong and healthy down the stretch.

One other wrinkle is what happens if the Tigers fall out of the race? At 18-17, Detroit is tied for the AL Central lead, but is also only three games ahead of the last-place Minnesota Twins. Skubal, injured or not, would definitely be the most sought-after player at the trade deadline if he were to become available.

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Mets lineup

Juan Soto – LF
Bo Bichette – SS
MJ Melendez – RF
Mark Vientos – 1B
Brett Baty – 3B
Marcus Semien – 2B
Carson Benge – CF
Francisco Alvarez – DH
Luis Torrens – C

SP: Huascar Brazobán – RHP

Rockies lineup

Mickey Moniak – LF
Tyler Freeman – DH
TJ Rumfield – 1B
Hunter Goodman – C
Willi Castro – 2B
Jordan Beck – RF
Kyle Karros – 3B
Ezequiel Tovar – SS
Brenton Doyle – CF

SP: Tomoyuki Sugano – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 5:40 PM EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

With a spring storm approaching Denver, the Rockies have moved their series-opening game against the Mets up three hours to 3:40 p.m. today. The weather could throw a curveball for the entire three-game series with rain, thunderstorms and/or snow forecasted for Tuesday through Thursday.

With warmer temperatures reaching the 70s by early afternoon, thunderstorms and hail are possible later Monday. The Rockies and Mets could be in a race against the weather.

A winter storm watch alert has been issued beginning on Tuesday at 8 p.m. It is calling for three to nine inches of snow in some parts of the Denver Metro area.

The Rockies (14-21) are coming off being swept by the Braves and are still looking their first win of the homestand. It could come against the MLB-worst Mets (12-22), who Colorado swept in New York in April.

It would be a good day to not have a traditional, high-scoring, long Coors Field game. If the forecasts are correct, then Colorado is sending the right man to the mound. Tomoyuki Sugano is 3-1 in six starts this season with a 2.84 ERA in 31.2 innings with 21 strikeouts and nine walks. Sugano has surrendered only one run in 11 innings in his last two starts, recording wins over the Padres and Reds.

In order to try to shake things up and help a rotation that’s struggled thus far this season, the Mets will be deploying RHP Huascar Brazobán as an opener today. In 14 appearances in relief, Brazobán is 2-0 with a 1.15 ERA in 15.2 innings with 13 strikeouts and three walks.

LHP David Peterson is expected to eat up the middle innings for the Mets. Peterson (0-4, 6.53 ERA) started the season in the bullpen and was so ineffective that he was moved to the bullpen. He’s made five starts in seven appearances. He returned to the rotation on April 29, but was hit hard by the Nationals, who put up seven runs on five hits with three walks (and five strikeouts) before being pulled after 3.2 innings.

May the 4th be with you to all who celebrate!

First Pitch: 3:40 p.m. MDT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM KOA Rockies Radio Network; KNRV 1150 AM (Spanish)

SBN Site:Amazon’ Avenue

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

The Astros have recalled OF Zach Cole and designated OF Daniel Johnson for assignment.

The club has reinstated OF Zach Dezenzo from the Injured List and optioned him to Triple A Sugar Land.

Cole, 25, was a 2022 10th round pick by the Astros who burst on the scene last year after a swing adjustment.

Cole began last season at Double-A Corpus Christi, where he batted .267 with a .363 OBP and an .868 OPS in 307 AB. He smashed 14 HR and 19 doubles, with 6 triples and 15 stolen bases before being promoted to Triple-A Sugar Land.

Cole continued to excel with the Space Cowboys, batting .353 with a .459 OBP and 1.204 OPS over 15 games with 5 HR and 16 RBI. That performance earned him a call up to Houston.

With the Astros last season, Cole hit .255 with a .327 OBP and an .880 OPS, hitting 4 HR and 2 doubles in 47 AB. His strong showing late in the season last year had him in line to compete for a starting job with the Astros this season, one in which he clearly had an inside track.

However a poor spring training landed him in Triple-A to start the season, and a broken toe suffered on a hit-by-pitch 3 days onto the season kept him out of the lineup for a month.

Since returning to the Space Cowboys 4/23, Cole is 5×20 with a homer, double, triple, 5 walks, 4 runs and 3 RBI.

Rick Leach turns 69 today.

In 1979, the Tigers picked him 13th overall. Leach reached the majors in the 1981 strike season, hitting .193/.320/.289 in 83 at-bats, mainly pinch-hitting with some first and right field. He played three seasons for Detroit without much success at the plate before his release.

After leaving Detroit, the Blue Jays signed him before the 1984 season. He spent five seasons with the Jays, playing DH, first base, right field, left field, and occasionally center field. He even pitched an inning in 1984, though it went poorly: two walks, two hits, a home run. He hit fairly well. In 1986, he posted a .308/.335/.435 line; in 1987, .282/.371/.405. Still, he lacked the power and speed expected of a corner outfielder, but as a fourth outfielder, he was solid.

His time in Toronto had challenges as well. In 1986, Leach tested positive for a recreational drug, resulting in a 60-day suspension and mandatory treatment.

In 5 years with the Jays, Rick hit .283/.34/.391 with 8 home runs and 95 RBI in 763 at-bats. After Toronto, Leach played a season with the Giants and Rangers before leaving baseball at 33. He was a likable, fan-favourite fourth outfielder, but with Bell, Barfield and Moseby in the outfield, he had no chance at a full-time role. Still, he was a useful lefty off the bench.

He was a favourite of mine partly because, back in the day, I played Statis Pro Baseball and Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Rick had good numbers in 1986 and 1987, which gave him a valuable card in those games.

Leach was also a solid college football quarterback and was a fifth-round Broncos pick in 1979.

Wishing Rick a happy 69th birthday.

Also having birthdays:

• Miguel Cairo turns 52. Signed by the Dodgers as an undrafted free agent, he played 17 MLB seasons. His debut was with the Jays, who acquired him and Bill Risley for Edwin Hurtado and Paul Menhart. After 9 games (.222/.300/.296), he was traded to the Cubs for Jason Stevenson, who never made the majors. Cairo played 1,490 MLB games, hitting .264/.314/.361 with a 7.7 bWAR.

• Max Castillo turns 27. An international free agent signed by the Jays in 2015, he pitched in 9 games (2 starts) for them in 2022. In August, he and Samad Taylor were traded to the Royals for Whit Merrifield. He pitched 12 games for the Royals in 2022 and 2023 and is now in the Phillies farm system.

• Butch Alberts turns 76. He played 6 games for the Jays in 1978, hitting .278/.278/.333. Butch and Pat Kelly were traded to the Angels for Ron Fairly in 1977.

Tarik Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner, will undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow, the Detroit Tigers announced May 4. No timetable for his return has been set, but a two-to-three-month recovery is typical for this type of procedure. That would potentially have the 29-year-old ace out of the rotation until sometime in July or August.  

What are loose bodies? About the Tarik Skubal injury

Loose bodies are fragments of bone, cartilage or both that have broken off and float freely inside a joint. In a pitcher’s elbow, they are typically caused by the extreme stress of throwing. The violent snapping motion of releasing a pitch, repeated thousands of times over a career, causes bone and cartilage to chip away. It usually comes from the back of the elbow. Those fragments can move around the joint, causing locking, catching, pain and loss of range of motion.  

It’s not an uncommon injury for pitchers. Skubal himself has had significant elbow problems before, including Tommy John surgery in 2017 and flexor tendon surgery in 2022. This procedure is generally considered less serious than either of those.  

How serious is Tarik Skubal's upcoming surgery?

Arthroscopic surgery is minimally invasive. Surgeons insert a small camera and instruments into the joint through tiny incisions to locate and remove the fragments. Recovery varies widely by each pitcher. Atlanta’s Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both had loose body surgery this spring within days of each other. Schwellenbach was placed on the 60-day IL and still had not thrown two months later. Waldrep was throwing bullpen sessions within weeks. Los Angeles Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz had the surgery in April and is expected to miss about four months.  

Skubal’s situation will be clearer once he consults with doctors and schedules the procedure.  

When the Mets unveiled their lineup for Monday's matchup with the Colorado Rockies, there was a new name at the top of the order: Juan Soto. 

For just the third time in his major league career, and the first time since the 2021 season, Soto finds himself batting leadoff, which manager Carlos Mendoza explained he'd been considering, especially with the injury to Francisco Lindor.

"It’s something that I’ve been thinking about the past few days, given a lot of the players on our injury list. Just got to a point of watching how other teams deploy their bullpen, not so much affecting Juan, but the guys behind him, and it’s forcing us to make decisions a lot earlier in games," Mendoza said. "We’re gonna get a guy who is gonna get on base, having Bo (Bichette) behind him. But I think it makes my decision a lot easier when you get the buy-in from the player. I didn’t bring it up to him until yesterday, but I was thinking about it for a few days. I was giving the team a chance to see how it was going to play out. 

"But when I brought it up to him yesterday, it was an easy yes. It was ‘I’ll do whatever the team needs,’ kind of like my conversation with him when we talked about the left field situation in the offseason, or the times that I hit him in the three hole or back to the two hole, it was an easy yes."

According to Mendoza, having Bichette hit behind Soto, instead of the other way around, makes it more difficult for teams to pitch around the slugger.

"If they bring a lefty, they know they’re going to have to face Bo behind him.," said the skipper.

The one potential downside to moving Soto up is that it could take away RBI opportunities, but Mendoza said that he's "also trying to create traffic" to lead to more runs as well. 

Mendoza was also asked how long he plans to stick with Soto in the leadoff spot, and the answer seems to be open-ended. 

For now, it's a wait-and-see situation. 

"It’s hard to tell. Personnel matters," Mendoza said. "I’m not putting a number of days, games. I’m just going to let it play out and see how it goes."

Soto is hitting .314 with a .915 OPS this season, belting three homers with eight RBI and eight runs scored.

The San Francisco Giants were still licking their wounds after the pasting the New York Yankees gave them opening week and it seemed as though their division rival the San Diego Padres would extend the misery. Instead, the Giants took 2 out of 3 and left San Diego with the same 2-4 record as the Padres. But, from this point, the two teams diverged.

The Padres exploded for an 18-7 record in April while the Giants went 11-15. The surprise was less that the Giants underperformed and more that the Padres were great. As I mentioned in the last preview:

It’s expected to be a down year for the Padres, right? The team’s finances are such that AJ Preller couldn’t make a big splash in free agency and years of huge trades has emptied their farm system. They scored just 7 runs in their opening series against the Tiges, tied for third with the Rockies and just behind the Diamondbacks, putting all four non-Dodger NL West teams in the bottom 5 of the sport in terms of runs scored. By wRC+, San Diego’s 66 puts them just outside that bottom 5 at 6th place. Sustainable for all these NL West teams? Probably not. 

San Diego sold at a valuation of $3.9 billion not long after the series and that seemed to gas them up to competing with the Dodgers for the top of the NL West. Except there’s been one cute little storyline accompanying all that winning:

Fernando Tatis Jr. has not hit a home run this season.

He’s slashing .261/.333/.311 in 139 PA (32 G) with just 4 doubles and a triple. He is 9-for-11 in stolen base attempts and he’s playing his normally great defense in right field, but why has the power disappeared? Has he caught the Matt Chapman Virus? Not according to Statcast, which puts him in the 99th percentile of Hard Hit rate. According to MLB.com’s Thomas Harrigan, “While he has been hitting rockets, he hasn’t been producing contact that’s conducive to slugging, recording the lowest pull and fly-ball rates of his career.“ He warns, ”At some point, though, the dam is going to break.“ Could that be at Oracle Park, where he’s enjoyed a .908 OPS thanks to 10 home runs, and 9 doubles in 178 career plate appearances?

While the Padres and their fans hold their breaths, Giants fans will be holding theirs to see if the team’s #1 hitting prospect, Bryce Eldridge, can finally hit his first major league home run. At the end of Spring Training during the exhibition schedule, those willing to attend a game that didn’t count got a look at Eldridge’s opposite field power in Oracle:

He’s been called up along with Jesus Rodriguez to give the Giants a season-saving shot of talent. In a 10-game, 37-PA cup of jav at the end of last year, he was 3-for-28 with a pair of doubles. He’s been striking out in 30% of his plate appearances for Triple-A Sacramento, though, and those seem likelier to stick than the .900+ OPS he’s also sporting. Still, who will homer first this season: Fernando Tatis Jr. or Bryce Eldridge?

Series overview

Who: San Diego Padres (20-13) vs. San Francisco Giants (13-21)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Monday & Tuesday at 6:45pm PT, Wednesday at 12:45pm PT
National broadcasts: None.

Projected starters
Monday: Randy Vasquez (RHP 3-0, 2.94 ERA) vs. Trevor McDonald (RHP season debut)
Tuesday: Walker Buehler (RHP 1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. TBD
Wednesday: Matt Waldron (RHP 0-1, 9.88 ERA) vs. TBD

Players to watch

Padres (besides Fernando Tatis Jr.)

Randy Vasquez: Is the 27-year old good and breaking out or has he just had a few good starts here in the early season? Last year, he posted a 3.84 ERA in 133.2 IP (26 starts) but with a 4.85 FIP and just a 5.3 K/9. Through his first 6 starts here in 2026, he’s at 2.94 in 33.2 IP (3.45 FIP) and a 9.1 K/9. His game log looks like this:

• Start 1: 6 IP 0 ER 3 BB 8 K
• Start 2: 6 IP 1 ER 1 BB 3 K
• Start 3: 5.2 IP 1 ER 0 BB 8 K
• Start 4: 4 IP 4 ER 4 BB 6K
• Start 5: 7 IP 0 ER 0 BB 5 K
• Start 6: 5 IP 5 ER 3 BB 4 K

He’s allowed just 1 run on the road — okay, admittedly, just 2 starts on the road, but they were in Boston (Start 2) and Colorado (Start 5).

Still, his Statcast page is unremarkable, bordering on poor. It’s when you look at the raw stuff that you see the upside: a 95 mph fastball (has both a four-seamer and sinker) and wicked spin on his cutter, curveball, slider, and sweeper. He also throws a changeup. The Giants lineup has a tough assignment ahead of them, as is often the case.

Miguel Andujar: Along with Xander Bogaerts (138 wRC+) and Manny Machado (112), Andujar (161) has really helped the Padres hit their way to victory over the past month or so. He has just a 2.9% walk rate against a 15.7% strikeout rate, but an impressive .209 Isolated Slugging percentage. His .389 batting average on balls in play suggests this is all pretty unsustainable, and maybe the Giants will pitch him into a cold streak, but for now, this utility guy is hitting the ball hard (41.5 Hard Hit%) and he’s doing it by pulling the ball in the air at an elite rate (23.1%).

Mason Miller: He’s not a “lights out” closer, he’s a soul devouring one. On top of all the strikeouts (32 in 16.1 IP), he’s got a 65.2% groundball rate. If he gets the ball at the end of the game, and you haven’t already done so, give the Giants the L.

Giants (besides Bryce Eldridge)

Matt Chapman: Is he, like Willy Adames, the ghost of the player we once knew? Did Chapman and Adames fall down an elevator shaft at the team hotel and what we’re seeing on the field now is merely their ghosts? What’s happened to Chappy? What’s happened to Willy? Their career-threatening slumps are getting a little silly.

Trevor McDonald: The only named starter for this series as of publication, it will be exciting to see if he can pickup where he left off at the end of last season as sort of the “hey, why didn’t the Giants stick him in the rotation sooner?” guy. He’ll be going against a strong lineup who might not be all that impressed with 93-94 and a big ol’ curveball.

Who will close: It couldn’t possibly be Ryan Walker at this point, which means Caleb Kilian, Erik Miller, and Keaton Winn are on closer watch.

Tony Vitello watch

You know, Hunter Wendlestedt’s jab at Director of Pitching Frank Anderson was a really sudden reminder that the top step of the dugout crew for the Giants is not respected around the league. Makes sense. That’s got to be earned. At the same time, the disrespect is compounded by all the losing. I don’t know if these Giants have any resiliency, but when Tony Vitello’s answer in the post-game presser goes like this:

“It all kind of got pretty hot pretty quick,” Vitello said. “I was trying to figure out, can we take a look at it and what can be done from there. I kind of blacked out, to be honest with you amongst all the extra riffraff after something about ‘rah-rah’ and ‘pom-poms,’ which I assume was something to do with either college or my behavior in the dugout.

I become concerned about focus and priorities. What’s coming across is that Vitello & co. are overwhelmed right now, likely in over their heads, and they’re (especially Vitello) lurching from feeling to feeling. The abject failure of the roster has to be making this all seem surreal or nightmarish, so I have some sympathy, but at this point, I think I only know Vitello by his visceral reaction to events or situations and not really anything about his philosophy on baseball or the players under his management. Am I going to learn any of that in this three game series? Probably not, but I’ll be on the lookout.

Prediction

The Giants won’t get swept, but it might feel like they did. Unless they win the series, in which case we’ll all be a little crabby about how they didn’t get a badly needed sweep.