This was the 23rd week of full minor league play (stats are entering play on Monday, September 14th).
According to FanGraphs (which factors in age and proximity to the big leagues), prospect Theo Gillen tops the system and might just find himself in the running for Minor League Player of the Year. Gillen ranks 4th among all minor leaguers while Caden Bodine ranks 11th.
Meanwhile, Aidan Cremarosa is the top hurler in the system. Over his first professional season, Cremarosa has a 2.82 ERA | 3.02 FIP with a 29.8 K% & 6.0 BB% over 76.2 IP in Single-A. FanGraphs slotted the 22-year old as the 30th top prospect in the Rays system during their midseason rankings.
The Bowling Green Hot Rods lost to the Winston-Salem Dash in the South Division portion of the South Atlantic League playoffs.
Grady Emerson returned to action to pinch run for the Charleston River Dogs a few days after leaving a game early after being hit by a pitch

#league #system #year

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kyle Tucker has started to click for another promising run of games, this time due to a mechanical shift.
He finished Friday's game against the Miami Marlins going 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, along with a triple and a grand slam.
Over his last two games, he is 6-for-8 with just one strikeout, two home runs, a triple, and a double.
Tucker has been a disappointment by all accounts this season, hitting just .225/.323/.361 with a 93 wRC+ and a 0.2 fWAR, per FanGraphs.
Sep 11, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker (23) runs toward third base after hitting a triple against the Miami Marlins during the sixth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

#triple #angeles #kyle #games

3 reasons why Mariners are likely to fire Dan Wilson after 2026 season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
There are plenty of teams that have been major disappointments during the 2026 MLB season. The New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, and Cincinnati Reds are just a few. The Seattle Mariners might be the biggest disappointment.
While the Mets and Blue Jays stand out as huge disappointments, the Mariners have a real case as the biggest disappointment this year. In a wide-open American League and a weak AL West, the Mariners have failed to capitalize on a great opportunity.
With the 2026 season almost over, and the Mariners looking likely to miss the postseason, Dan Wilson's job is very much on the line. Andy McCullough of The Athletic revealed three reasons why Wilson will be fired by the end of the year.
"The Mariners do not play a particularly crisp brand of baseball," McCullough writes. "Nearly a quarter of their at-bats end in strikeouts. They rank 27th in FanGraphs' metric measuring base-running value and 30th in defensive value."

#Mariners #sporting #likely

Here at Over The Monster, we like to ask a topical question of the day; but on this dreary morning, we might as well be asking the question of the month. Very simply: If the Wild Card series started today, who would you want starting those three games?
Of course, the Wild Card series doesn't start today, and Red Sox haven't officially punched their ticket into the dance yet. But with FanGraphs giving them a 97.1 percent chance to make the playoffs and only 0.3 percent chance to win the division as of this morning, it seems pretty darn likely they're going to be playing baseball on September 29th (and playing it somewhere other than Fenway Park).
The Red Sox know this as well and have already reshuffled their rotation to pitch Sonny Gray on Saturday (September 5th) and Payton Tolle on Sunday (September 6th). With off days for the month already scheduled for the 10th, 14th, 17th, and 28th (assuming they make the playoffs), this means Gray and Tolle could pitch with an extra day of rest every start from here to the end of the year in a normal five man rotation and be perfectly lined up to pitch Game 1 and Game 2 of the Wild Card series. (September 11th and 12th against the Royals, September 17th and 18th against the Rangers and Rays, September 23rd and 24th against the Guardians, and September 29th and 30th against the Wild Card opponent.)
So the Red Sox have already told us who they believe will start the first two games of the playoffs indirectly, but third option is far more complex. Historically, Ranger Suarez would be the best man for the job. Not only did they just give him a $130 million contract in January, but he also has a 1.48 career ERA in the playoffs. However, the Sox might not be too pleased with the way he threw the ball in Sunday's start against the Yankees with the tiebreaker on the line, and they might not want to set things up that way again for a potential winner take all game on October 1st.
So what about tonight's starter Jake Bennett? He just might be pitching for a postseason starting job over the next few weeks. If he does well and ****** ody steps up, the Sox could end up sending a rookie to the mound to start and do or die game in Yankee Stadium for the second year in a row.

#game #might #series

Red Sox place five players among ESPN's top MLB award contenders originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Boston Red Sox might not have the favorite for any of Major League Baseball's biggest individual awards. They do have something no other team can easily match: candidates everywhere.
Five Red Sox players appeared prominently across three categories in ESPN's latest MLB Awards Watch. Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela ranked among the top five candidates for American League MVP, while Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett landed in the top 10 for AL Rookie of the Year.
Veteran right-hander Sonny Gray also appeared eighth in the AL Cy Young race. The rankings were produced through AXE, an ESPN rating system that combines several value metrics, including Baseball Reference WAR, FanGraphs WAR, win probability added and championship probability added.
AXE does not reflect the official vote. It provides a consensus measurement of each player's overall value. By that measurement, Boston's roster is loaded with some of the most impactful players in the American League.

#players #value

Among the 122 major league outfielders with at least 200 plate appearances entering Friday, Teoscar Hernández (.250/.313/.401, 97 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR) and Kyle Tucker (.232/.327/.368, 95 wRC+, 0.3 fWAR) ranked 87th and 94th, respectively in FanGraphs WAR.
With the Dodgers getting such little production offensively and defensively from the corner outfield this season, calling up one of their many productive minor league outfielders seems more and more appealing by the day.
Dustin Nosler at Dodgers Digest this week argued for calling up 21-year-old Josue De Paula, the club's top prospect, directly from Double-A Tulsa.
Geoff Pontes on Hot Sheet podcast at Baseball America acknowledged the rawness of De Paula but suggested that because De Paula will be added to the 40-man roster this November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, calling him up now would not fundamentally alter his long-term timeline.
Keith Law at The Athletic is not as high as De Paula, ranking another Dodgers outfielder Eduardo Quintero higher, and said Mike Sirota is a better athlete with a better long-term ceiling. Law was a guest of Jeff Speigel on the Dodger Heads podcast this week and talked De Paula among others, and suggested James Tibbs III as the more feasible Dodgers outfield call-up if they so choose this season.

#paula #calling #week #podcast

DETROIT — It's grim for the Tigers, but it's not game over. Not yet.
The Tigers (61-66) have 35 games remaining on the schedule, starting Friday, Aug. 21, with the opener of a three-game road series against the Kansas City Royals.
The Tigers, coming off another crushing loss at the hands of a bullpen blowup, start play Friday five games back of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the American League Central. The Tigers are in fourth place in the division, just behind the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians. Detroit is 1.5 games back of the third and final wild-card spot in the AL, with several teams ahead of them to race down, and more teams behind them to fend off.
So, yes, grim — hence the long-shot odds they're facing to make the playoffs. According to FanGraphs, the Tigers odds of making the postseason for a third consecutive season are 14.8%. Their odds of winning the division are even longer, at 7.7%.
Those aren't the lowest odds they've faced this season. At May's end, when they were 22-38, they had just a 9.8% of making the playoffs and a 5.1% of winning the division.

#grim

This was the 19th week of full minor league play (stats are entering play on Tuesday, August 18th).
According to FanGraphs (which factors in age and proximity to the big leagues), prospect Theo Gillen tops the system and might just find himself in the running for Minor League Player of the Year.
Meanwhile, Aidan Cremarosa remains the top hurler in the system despite spending the past several weeks on the Injured List; he was recently activated. Thus far in his first professional season, Cremarosa has a 2.75 ERA | 2.62 FIP with a 32.7 K% & 4.4 BB% over 59 IP in Single-A
Theo Gillen left a game early last weekend after being hit in the left leg by a pitch. Gillen stayed on his feet but was clearly in a lot of pain. He would walk off the field under his own power but with a noticeable limp.
Grady Emerson has been **** igned to Single-A Charleston and will make his professional debut. The #2 overall draft pick has been excelling in the Bridge League.

#theo

The vagabond Athletics will make their annual journey to Kansas City for the home series this week. They stand at 49-75. Heading into July, FanGraphs playoff odds had them about equal to the Astros for making the playoffs. They have had some truly unfortunate injury issues, with Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers both on the injured list right now.
It's not like the Royals are much better at 51-74, but tonight Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia are returning to the squad and will start.
Hopefully those guys are healthy and rested and can show us what they can do the rest of the season.
The Royals will put Michael Wacha on the hill. Once again, I seem to get him a lot for my Monday games. He's had a run of pretty good starts over the past few weeks, and with two of the Athletics stars out, no reason to believe that won't continue.
Mason Barnett starts for the Athletics. The Athletics got him from the Royals in the Lucas Erceg trade in 2024. This year, he's been stretched into a starter only in the past few weeks and has generally been shelled.

#july #fangraphs

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Reds fans and fans across the country.
The most recent start from Cincinnati Reds ace Chase Burns was a uniquely poor one. He yielded 5 ER and 6 H with a trio of walks in just 5.1 IP, exiting earlier than anyone would have liked in an eventual 8-2 loss to the Washington Nationals that may just have been the final nail in the coffin for the 2026 Reds club.
As you can see from the fine folks at FanGraphs, the average fastball velocities in his starts has also begun to decline over the course of the season, something that's not at all uncommon for a young pitcher who's being tasked with throwing more innings this year than he ever has before.
To date, Burns has fired 124.0 IP for the Reds, already topping the 109.1 IP he threw across all levels of professional ball last year. That in itself eclipsed the 100.0 IP mark he logged in his 2024 season with Wake Forest at the collegiate level, as Burns – who was oft-used as a reliever at Tennessee prior to transferring to Wake for his senior year – simply hasn't ever had a huge workload put on his prized right arm.
The Reds, obviously, hope that changes over the course of the long-term contract Burns signed earlier this season. But in a year where they're mired in last place and effectively out of a playoff spot, just how far should the Reds let him go in 2026?

#season

Clay Holmes made his Cubs debut against the Royals on Saturday. It probably wasn't the box score line he was looking for, but seeing as it was his first start since taking a comebacker that broke his leg in mid-May, it was perfectly fine. He threw four innings, giving up four runs (all earned) on six hits while walking two and striking out one. Here's more about that outing directly from Holmes:
Even if there are a few starts where Holmes needs to shake the rust off like his first outing, the Cubs clearly see something in his ***** nal that should work well with their elite defense. Today let's dive into the numbers behind this trade that sent one of their top prospects back to the Mets in Jefferson Rojas.
Holmes is your classic sinker ball pitcher. He throws his sinker, which averages 94 miles per hour, about 50 percent of the time. You know what that means: ground ***** . You don't even really have to squint to see what the Cubs front office sees in this move: ground ***** with an elite defense are more likely to be outs. You can see all of Holmes' pitches along with their velocity in this screengrab from Baseball Savant:
This is a pitcher who tinkers a bit. There have been changes to his ***** nal over the last few years, but it's mainly in how much he throws a certain pitch. The biggest thing to look at in Holmes' pitches is that his role shifted considerably from 2024, when he was an elite reliever with the Yankees to 2025 when he became a credible starter with the Mets. You can see how Holmes' pitch mix has changed over time below:
Holmes can tinker all he wants if he winds up with ground ball rates like the ones he's had over the past few seasons for the Cubs. These numbers were truly eye-popping to me. I ran a FanGraphs leaderboard for every pitcher's ground ball rates since 2021 split by season for pitchers with at least 50 innings a season. Holmes has four of the top 15 seasons out of 1961 total seasons (yes, really). His worst ground ball rate (2025 with the Mets) is still in the top 10 percent, ranking 119th. There is elite in a single season and then there is elite over time. Holmes is elite over time, and I am dreaming on the double plays he's going to have turned behind him already. You can see key stats from his last six seasons below:

#METS

New York Daily News | Gary Philips: Jazz Chisholm Jr. has lost himself a considerable amount of money in his pending free agency with his downright bad 2026. The Yankee second baseman has managed just a 92 wRC+ with a career high strikeout rate, and of course self-proclaimed that he'd be able to land a 50/50 season in spring training. Jazz hasn't been the only problem with the team's offense of course, but he's been a major contributor — or rather, non-contributor. If nothing else he seems to at least be aware of it, but awareness is different from adjustment.
NJ.com | Adam Zagoria: Tommy John released a very sad public farewell to the Yankee franchise and fanbase over the weekend, as the 83 year old enters hospice care with bladder cancer. Dr. Chris Ahmad, the club's head doctor, penned his own touching open letter to the man on Monday, acknowledging John's place in baseball history and remarkable determination to return to the game despite the shortest of odds.
New York Post | Ethan Spears ($): The Yankees will not have a clear path through the AL without Aaron Judge returning and hitting like we're used to seeing Aaron Judge hit. Cody Bellinger will also likely need to be back, patrolling left field and hitting cleanup. However, the emergence of both George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones as potential lineup-lengtheners give the club a couple more options, although relying on rookies — including one with just five games under his belt — to be reliable contributors through their first taste of MLB baseball is a risky endevor.
FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer have been contemporaries atop the "best pitchers in baseball" list over the last decade or so, and they mirrored each other in strikeout accomplishments over the weekend. Scherzer fanned the 3,516th victim of his career on Saturday, moving into the top-10 in all of baseball history, and moments later Cole sat down the 1,000th batter as a Yankee, the fastest to do so in pinstripes, needing just 139 games. Both pitchers are closer to their enshrinement in Cooperstown than they are to having lost prospect status, but we can still mark the milestones when they come.

#Baseball #york

Coy James may have been a 5th rounder in the 2025 draft, but he is not your average fifth round pick. The Nats gave James a $2.5 million signing bonus, paying him approximately the slot value of the 39th overall pick in that draft. With that in mind, big things were expected from the high school shortstop, and so far he has lived up to expectations.
It has not been a perfect first season for James by any means. He is only hitting .222 and is striking out 25.4% of the time in Low-A. However, he is showing flashes of immense upside with 16 homers and 27 steals. His .755 OPS is also above league average. James remains a work in progress, but his upside remains tantalizing.
We got reminded of how loud those tools are last night. While the Nats were lifelessly meandering to a 7th straight loss, James hit a 456 foot bomb. That is some crazy raw power for a 19 year old. When James is firing on all cylinders, he is one of the most impressive of the Nats many infield prospects.
James' season has been interesting because going into the draft scouts were split on if he were a power first guy or a hit first profile. Baseball America gave him a 55 hit tool with 50 power, while MLB Pipeline gave him a 45 hit tool with 55 power. So far the Pipeline projection has been more accurate, though his raw power might be closer to a 60.
Interestingly, it also seems like James' athleticism got undersold coming out of the draft as well. Both BA and Pipeline graded him as an average runner. However, he has looked more explosive in pro ball. He has 27 steals, but Fangraphs also gave him a 60 run tool in their early season update.

#james #gave #first #season

Andrew Baggarly just described today's activity as "frenetic," and he's right. The past two trade deadlines have been practically Zaidian for Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, and the San Francisco Giants. For as much as the franchise has oversteered from the 2019-2024 days, the new regime is a lot like the old one in that no matter what they've done to improve the team, it's been stuck in the zone of mediocre-to-bad. But Zaidi was (seemingly) constrained by ownership in how he could rebuild on the fly. Posey doesn't seem to have any constraints. Does that automatically make today's deadline deals great? In a moment, I'll grade them.
First, though, let's contextualize this ******* ysis. It helps that these 2026ers will go down as one of the worst teams in franchise history, something Zaidi's squads never came close to even suggesting. Trading away a chunk of the roster, then, would seem like a mercy killing. But also, with free agency and the regular season being such busts, the only real excitement these days seems to come from acquiring hope in the form of prospects. The Giants have done that in their past two drafts, at last year's deadline, and now, possibly, this year's deadline, too.
Take a look at this graph of Farm System Values (via FanGraphs) that was compiled by Sky Kalkman:
I admit that my eyes darted far to the right by sheer instinct. I've seen farm system rankings for decades now and have become accustomed to the Giants being down, down on the list. And yes, I'd forgotten that I'd written up FanGraphs' farm rankings back in June. The Giants have been on the rise for some time now. But heading into the trade deadline ranked #9 ? Cool! And that was before the majority of the trades.
Second, I hope people have internalized that trade deadline deals are usually not great deals. Yes, headliners are moved, but rarely does the team getting prospects in return get equal (future) value. But, like, in the case of say, the Detroit Tigers, it was going to be hard to get back fair value for Tarik Skubal whether they traded him before the season or at the deadline, and the fact that they decided to try to go for it this season with Skubal is a very reasonable one on their part that just didn't work out in the way they'd hoped.

#like

For all the drama surrounding the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, and the will they or won't they position the Tigers were in as the trade deadline approached, the Detroit Tigers ultimately kept to just two notable trades. They got good value for both Skubal and Casey Mize, but at the same time didn't really address their biggest weakness in their high leverage relief corps. As they still seem bent on trying to secure a wild card slot, it's a bit of a peculiar mixed bag in terms of their intentions, but ultimately their trades have to be viewed as punting on the 2026 season without simply giving everything away to slash payroll. They had two valuable ****** ets heading to free agency, and they did a solid job of cashing them in for good prospects with which to restock their farm system.
The Tigers currently have the 17th best odds of making the postseason and are +590 on FanDuel's sportsbook to do so at the moment. FanGraphs is more optimistic, giving them a 22.6 percent chance of reaching the playoffs. It helps that they're not entirely out of the divisional race, as well as having the shot at a wild card berth and currently just 2.5 games back of the final spot.
Those odds still aren't great, and with Skubal and Mize out of the rotation, and no attempt to address the bullpen, those odds will also have to be adjusted to reflect the significantly weaker starting rotation they'll be working with down the stretch. Ultimately, while the Tigers will say they're still trying to make the postseason and will do what they can with what they have to do so, the totality of their moves adds up to capitulation without going whole hog and trying to dump the salaries of players like Gleyber Torres, Jack Flaherty, or Kenley Jansen.
Of course, teams have to want those players, and with Flaherty injured, and Jansen struggling, there wasn't going to be much, if any, interest. Still, the decision not to deal Torres is the really interesting one. He wouldn't return a whole lot in trade, but he's also potentially blocking a currently hot-hitting prospect in Max Anderson. Perhaps Anderson will get the call anyway and they'll simply piece together at-bats for the Anderson/Torres duo, but the best reason to keep Torres is to have that extra, professional right-handed bat in the lineup against the best teams in the postseason.
Overall, we'll take the Tigers for what they did do, rather than trying to piece together why other moves weren't pursued. The slightly mixed signals here make it tricky to figure out what they're thinking in regard to their hopes to at least get into the postseason. The trades suggest a team throwing in the towel, and as sellers, they did pretty well overall. On the other hand, their proximity to a wild card berth, says they still have an outside shot. So declining to go after relief help was strange when that's been the team's main problem all season long. Whatever their intentions or hopes the rest of the season, they sold off talent and got quali

After sending one of their best relievers to Toronto at last year's trade deadline, the Blue Jays have returned the favor in 2026. Former All-Star closer Jeff Hoffman is heading to the Twins in exchange for prospects Dasan Hill, John Klein, and Dameury Pena according to The Athletic. Hoffman is under contract for next year as well at $12.67 million, a portion of which will be covered by Toronto.
Hoffman, 33, has a high ERA but everything else about him still looks like the elite reliever he was over in Philadelphia. He has a 3.94 ERA that is artificially inflated thankto a .389 BABIP, but a 2.49 FIP provides a better insight into the type of pitcher he's been. His 1.2 fWAR is 13th among relievers in baseball, while his 14.06 K/9 is second to only the Padres' Mason Miller.
Most importantly, Hoffman brings elite strikeout stuff to a bullpen that, while improved, has really needed some swing-and-miss on the backend. His pitch mix is very Griffin Jax-esque, relying heavily on a slider that's among the best pitches in baseball and a fastball with enough velocity to be dangerous. He'll also mix in a splitter, primarily against lefties, that is also quietly pretty strong.
In return, the Blue Jays will receive pitching prospects Dasan Hill and John Klein, along with infielder Dameury Pena. Hill, 20, is the clear headliner of this group. He was the Twins' second round pick in 2024 and had an excellent debut season in 2025, appearing on the back end of some Top 100s. The Twins moved him up to High A to start this season, but has struggled mightily to throw strikes. The stuff is there, but the lanky lefty has a very long way to go before he's ready to face big leaguers. Hill was the Twins' 12th-ranked prospect according to FanGraphs, while Klein slotted in at 35 and Pena at 49.
Manager Derek Shelton has a lot more tools to work with than he did this time last week. Hoffman should slot in as the team's primary closer immediately, but I would still expect Yoendrys Gomez and Andrew Morris to have opportunities down the stretch. Those two have both been heavily used the past two months and, as we saw with both walk-off losses last weekend, have probably been a bit overexposed. Having Minter and now Hoffman solidifies what has quietly become a very solid group of relievers.

#hill #last #toronto #blue

Today is the MLB trade deadline, and the San Francisco Giants wasted no time being active. Early in the morning, news broke that the Giants had traded All-Star second baseman to the Philadelphia Phillies for right-handed pitching prospect Ramon Marquez. The Giants are also sending right-handed reliever Caleb Kilian to Philadelphia, while getting back right-handed pitching prospect Marty Gair.
The Giants held out for a nice return for Arráez, who is in line to win the National League batting **** le this year, and it seems they got exactly that with Marquez. A 20-year old who signed as an international free agent last year, Marquez has wasted no time becoming one of the top prospects in the Phillies organization. In the most recent Fangraphs rankings, Marquez graded out as the team's No. 3 prospect, and the No. 67 overall prospect in baseball.
Marquez was thoroughly dominant in Low-A this year, posting a 1.86 ERA and a 2.65 FIP in six games, with 47 strikeouts in 29 innings, and just 10 walks. That earned him a promotion to High-A, where he's kept the performance up: in six starts at the level, the righty has a 1.50 ERA, a 1.99 FIP, and 46 strikeouts to nine walks in 30 innings. He has a high quality fastball and slider, but his money pitch is a changeup that grades out as one of the best pitches in Minor League Baseball. He should immediately slot right behind the team's No. 4 pick in last month's draft, Jackson Flora, as the second-best pitching prospect in the system.
As for Gair, he was Philly's 13th-round pick in the 2023 draft. The 23-year old is a gaudy strikeout artist but struggles with command. Across 36 innings this year (33 in Low-A and three in High-A), the right-hander has 66 strikeouts and just 20 hits allowed … but has walked 22 batters. He has a 4.50 ERA and a 3.88 FIP on the season, and has worked exclusively in relief.
The Giants have been exposed this year for not having nearly enough pitching. Seen through that lens, the addition of Marquez to pair with Flora, and fellow draftees Carson Bolemon and Kaden Waechter, is a big win. Suddenly, San Francisco's pitching pipeline looks a whole lot better than it did in June.

#year #pitching #high #innings

If you are just waking up, where have you been? The Braves kicked off their postseason by adding righty outfielder Lane Thomas from the Royals. If you had been reading us all this time, you may have had an inkling.
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From Lane Thomas's Fangraphs profile, he appears to have peaked in 2023. He hit 28 home runs with the Nationals that year and compiled 2.9 WAR. But he hasn't reached those heights since. Lane suffered a left MCL injury in April 2024 before being shipped to the Guardians. In 2025, he suffered a bone bruise before serving two IL stints for plantar fasciitis. However, he was able to keep away from scooters long enough to come back and have a league average offensive season in the outfield for Kansas City. Now, I feel you may not be sold on Thomas in the same way that the Braves were. Nevertheless, if Atlanta employs him in the correct manner, he becomes a very useful piece.
A brief aside to mention a couple of things. Shoutout to Ivan to get me started on this, and we'll hopefully catch some typos later if necessary. Also, thanks to whomever leaked this trade info before 10 pm so we had time to put something together for Sunday morning.
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#Braves #fangraphs #nationals

According to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Twins have acquired starting pitcher Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins are sending outfield prospect Jhonmardo Reyes in return. Kremer is owed $5.75M this season and is controllable via arbitration for 2027.
Kremer has struggled this season to a 6.50 ERA/6.24 FIP in seven starts this year, but has a long track record as a reliable starter. He's also missed most of the season with a quad strain and just returned July 1, and his advanced numbers paint a prettier picture with a 4.92 xERA/3.81 xFIP. From 2022-2025, Kremer had 3.95 ERA/4.17 FIP in 599 innings, so the Twins are making the bet he'll return to that form down the stretch.
If there's one area that is likely to get back to normal immediately, it's Kremer's home run rate. Kremer has allowed 12 home runs in those 7 seven starts for a robust 3.00 HR/9. He was sitting at a 1.17 HR/9 for his career before this season and will likely regress closer to that figure as he rounds into shape.
Reyes, 18, will be heading back to the Orioles. He's still a long ways away, but he's had some very exciting flashes in his first full season in the Twins' system. FanGraphs has him rated as the Twins 10th-best prospect, touting his top end power potential with a lot of questions about his ability to make contact against better pitchers. Twinkie Town's Aidan O'Brien is a bit lower on Reyes, placing him at number 22.
Starting pitching is always significantly more expensive than relievers, but this is a pricey trade for a pitcher that has looked rough this season. His track record will likely pay off in the long run, but Reyes is a significant tier above most 18-year-old wildcard prospects. The Orioles were likely only willing to move Kremer this early specifically because the Twins were willing to offer Reyes. And while I consider this a bit of an overpay, it's not outrageously high and the cost for starting pitching is high in July (See: Minnesota getting a decent prospect for Chris Paddack last season).

#twins #season #reyes

ESPN | Jorge Castillo: The two New York teams are expected to have wildly different trade deadlines, with the Yankees presumed to be buyers and the Mets perhaps the biggest sellers. While there's a couple possible deals to be had between the two clubs — ****** o, Luke Weaver? — the largest possible splashes for the Yankees look like they could come from the West Coast. The San Diego Padres offer two relievers that could reinforce the bullpen, and the Angels feature both Zack Neto and Reid Detmers as alluring trade targets.
FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: With Cody Bellinger out 4-6 weeks with a hamstring strain, the Yankee lineup and outfield are starting to look pretty bald. The team is already suffering significantly without Aaron Judge in the lineup, and while they still have a chance to win the AL East, they need someone to step up and start hitting, or they have an increased need to bring in an impact bat before the Trade Deadline.
Front Office Sports | Eric Fisher: As a longtime lover of MLB.tv, I get to benefit from what might be sports' best livestreaming experience. From what I've heard from New York locals, the Gotham Sports App has not been a very good livestreaming experience. The platform has repeatedly had playback, UI, and general quality issues over the past two seasons, and it seems it is being sunsetted by the YES and MSG networks. Streaming service DAZN is being tapped as the replacement for Gotham Sports, and I'll keep using MLB.tv.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees announced who will be coming back to the Bronx on August 8th for the 78th edition of Old-Timers' Day. Hall of Famers Joe Torre and Mariano Rivera lead the way, and they'll be joined by Monument Park honorees Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte. The first-time Old-Timers are Dellin Betances (born in 1988, gulp), Todd Frazier, David Weathers, and Adam Ottavino (who just pitched last year). Check out the full list!
TSN: If you know me, you know I'm a born hater. I want Shohei Ohtani to grow old and die warm in a bed surrounded by loved ones and I hope he has a rock in his shoe every single time he steps on a baseball field. Yesterday was a win for the haters, as Alek Manoah was released by the Angels. One imagines Gerrit Cole opened a particularly special bottle of wine last night's game with the White Sox.

#yankees #Angels

The Guardians were rained out yesterday and will play at 1:40 and 7:10. Slade Cecconi and Gavin Williams will both pitch as the Guardians have an off day on Thursday to get the rotation back on track.
The Guardians have five players in FanGraphs' new Top 100 prospects list. 11. Angel Genao, 37. Braylon Doughty, 38. Ralphy Velazquez, 67. Juneiker Caceres, 96. Aaron Walton. Khal Stephen also snuck on to the 11 players listed just outside the 100 at 111. Get well soon, Khal.
AROUND MLB:
The Tigers and White Sox lost.

#players #fangraphs

Those hoping hoping to see the Sox splash the cash on some hard-to-sign candidates on day 2 of the MLB Draft were immediately disappointed, as the Red Sox spent their fifth round pick on Lucas Davenport, a pitcher out of Baylor University who was unranked by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline heading into the draft.
Davenport is a beastly 6-6, 230 lbs. and his pick launched a mini-run on those big college pitchers Craig Breslow likes so much: sixth rounder Brett Lanman, a 6-5, 23o lbs. lefty out of Abilene Christian, eighth rounder Josh Volmerding, a 6-4, 210 lbs. lefty out of California Polytech, thirteenth rounder Mason Lei, a 6-4, 215 lbs. righty out of the University of Illinois-Chicago, and fifteenth rounder Chase Frey, a 6-6 225 lbs. lefty out of Grand Canyon University.
The highlights of Day 2 are the two higher-ranked high schoolers the Sox nabbed back-to-back in the ninth and tenth rounds. Ninth rounder Martin Shelar, an outfielder, comes out of the baseball powerhouse that is the Marist School in Georgia. He has massive power potential, is committed to Mississippi State, and was ranked as the 65th-best prospect overall by FanGraphs, 125th by Baseball America, and 175th by MLB Pipeline.
Tenth rounder Kaleb LaFavor out of Bishop Heelan Catholic High School in Sioux City, Iowa is a towering 6-7 righty with a ton of extension who can already hit 95 MPH on the gun. He was ranked the 171st-best prospect by ESPN evaluator Kiley McDaniel, 465th by Baseball America, and is committed to the University of Iowa. Craig Breslow's got bonus pool money burning a hole in his pocket, and it's going to go to these guys in hopes of enticing them away from college (speaking as someone who spent a fair bit of time partying in Iowa City as a 22-year-old, good luck in LeFavor's case).
Here's the full slate of day 2 picks:

The Texas Rangers, with their second round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, #54 overall, select Austin high school infielder Connor Comeau. We did a write-up on Comeau earlier this week.
Connor Comeau is a 6’4”, 180 lb. lefthanded hitting, righthanded throwing infielder out of Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. Comeau is on the young side for a draftee, as he doesn’t turn 18 until August. He is committed to Texas A&M, though the Rangers wouldn’t be taking him in the second round if they weren’t confident he would sign.
Comeau offers a quality hit tool with power projection. Baseball America says he “stands out for his present hitting ability.” He has a nice, easy swing and showed strong contact ability on the showcase circuit last summer. He has shown the ability to hit the ball hard to all fields. He has shown the ability to hit for power — MLB Pipeline notes he finished second in the Home Run Derby at the Canadian Futures Showcase this past summer — but is still extremely lean currently, so there’s a belief that he should add more power as he develops and his body fills out.
Comeau played shortstop in high school, but most likely will immediately move to third base as a professional. He has a good arm, but not much speed, so third base would be the best fit for him, if he can stick there.
Baseball America has Comeau at #55 on their board. MLB Pipeline has Comeau at #55 on their board. Kiley McDaniel puts puts Comeau at #66 on his top 150 list. Keith Law has Comeau at #59 on his board. Fangraphs has Comeau at #32 on their board. Baseball Prospectus does not have Comeau on their top 30 draft board.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
It's been a tough three-to-four weeks for Yankees fans, as they've seen their team that once stood 46-28 with the best record in the American League stumble through a 4-14 stretch. It was enough for the upstart Rays to pass them for first place in the AL East, and even though the Yanks have won their last couple contests, they still trail Tampa Bay by four games.
The Rays also have one of the lighter remaining slates by current strength of schedule, so that's not helping matters, nor is the fact that the Yankees will have to sweep their only remaining series against the Rays (a four-game set at the Bronx in late September that includes a doubleheader) to take the head-to-head tiebreaker that didn't go their way last year against Toronto. The second half formally begins next Friday, but mathematically, we are already halfway through the 162-game slate, and FanGraphs currently projects the Rays with a 59-percent chance to take the division. The Yankees sit at 38 percent with none of the remaining teams sitting above 1.5 percent.
As such—and given the gloomy vibes around the team this week—it's not surprising to see that per our SB Nation Reacts results, only about a quarter of the Yankees fans who responded said that they believe this team will win the AL East. A total of 18 percent even predicted that they would miss the playoffs entirely:
The most popular vote has the Yankees finishing in the spot they presently occupy and the one they held at the end of the 2025 regular season: the top AL Wild Card and hosting a first-round best-of-three against the second-best Wild Card. The Yankees survived that rumble with the Red Sox last year, but it certainly put them behind the eight-ball against the top-seeded Blue Jays, and that could certainly happen again this year with Tampa Bay.

When the Jays dumped Trevor Richards on the Twins at the 2024 deadline, the return was an infielder who’d signed a way under slot deal in the sixth round of the previous year’s draft out of the decided non-baseball hotbed of Penn State University by the name of Jay Harry. Baseball America ranked him 426th among draft eligible prospects that year and promptly never wrote about him again. After the trade, Fangraphs’ rated him the 87th best prospect dealt at the deadline and described his likely peak as “a utility guy for a weak Double-A team.” Which is harsh, perhaps, but looked about right as his OPS last season, split between A+ and AA, started with a five.
I’m writing about him here, so you can guess that things have improved. And indeed they have, to the tune of a .327/.368/.591 line split between New Hampshire and Buffalo that makes Harry one of the best 40 or so hitters in the upper minors this season.
So what’s happened here? Harry was an ultra-contact-oriented hitter in college, with a swing geared just to try to poke line drives through the infield. You can see that approach carry over to his first taste of pro ball after the draft, where he struck out just 6.8% of the time in A ball but failed to generate much impact. His contact rate dropped, though, from 85% that season to 76% during his time with the Twins organization in 2024 and then 71% after his trade to the Blue Jays. At the same time he showed a little bit of game power, going from 1 home run in 129 PA in his draft season to 12 in 448 in ‘24. Last year he seems to have been caught in between, bringing his contact back to 77% but losing almost all of his impact. In 2026, his contact rate remains at 77%, but all of the power production has returned and then some. Normally with a left in New Hampshire, you can write some power jumps off as the product of park factors, but a) he was awful in the same park last season, and b) he’s hit even better since moving up to Buffalo.
On video, you can see his swing change a little over the course of the last three years, going from a very upright setup with almost no hand load and the bat starting upright in 2024 to a bit deeper of a load and more angle in 2025. His 2026 swing is back closer to 2024, very upright and with his hands starting out front to give him a super short path to the ball. These are all subtle differences, though, and I don’t see evidence that he’s reinvented his swing.
There are a couple of other changes to note. First, he’s just swinging a lot. He’s always been aggressive, but his 59.5% rate this season is among the highest in the league and would be in the top five in the majors. That’s resulted in a collapse in his walk rate, although without much change in his strikeouts.

Detroit Tigers’ manager A.J. Hinch announced prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Athletics that third base coach Joey Cora has left the organization. Hinch told reporters that he and Cora had met and mutually decided to part ways based on some philosophical differences that had developed. Billy Boyer will take over as third base coach effective immediately.
Hinch characterized the differences of opinion as purely baseball related. That’s interesting considering that Cora has been his third base coach for two and a half seasons after joining the organization in November of 2023. The 61-year-old had an 11-year career in the major leagues, mainly with the Padres, White Sox, and Mariners, before moving into coaching. Apart from his third base responsibilities, Cora has also been the Tigers infield instructor for the past two and a half seasons.
One wonders if the difference of opinion may have had more to do with coaching players than Cora’s work at third base. Like every third base coach since the dawn of time, he’s been criticized for some aggressive sends that worked out badly, but overall the Tigers have graded out pretty well in the baserunning department under his watch, despite not stealing many bases. That’s changed a little bit this year, with the Tigers slipping in the baserunning metrics a bit. They currently rank 17th best in team baserunning per FanGraphs, compared to finishing 10th in that category in 2025.
The 41-year-old Boyer was a college coach before joining the Tigers’ organization as a minor league infield coordinator back in 2021. That was part of now ******* istant general manager, Ryan Garko’s, overhaul of the entire player development system after for director of player development, Dave Littlefield, was reassigned. Boyer became the quality control coach for the major league club this season. As a longtime infield coach who has been working with infielders all year anyway, we ******* ume he’ll take over Cora’s responsibilities working with the infielders as well.
We look forward to seeing a new set of gestures at third base, but otherwise this probably won’t change much about the way the Tigers run the bases. They’re still committed to being aggressive in terms of sending runners from third base to home. We’ll see if they’re more or less successful with Boyer making the calls.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Each summer brings with it some omissions for the All-Star Game roster. On Saturday, two Red Sox players who were thought to be good bets for inclusion on the AL roster were, instead, left off.
First baseman Willson Contreras was not chosen despite his 18 homers and 53 RBI and a slugging percentage of .532. Contreras ranked second in WAR (2.8) as calculated by FanGraphs among AL first baseman — only the Athletics' Nick Kurtz (3.5) had a higher figure.
Sonny Gray, who started Saturday night in the second game of the Red Sox' nine-game road trip, was 9-1 with a 2.69 ERA that would have ranked him fourth among AL starters had he qualified. Gray missed some time in April on the IL, and that absence prevented him from qualifying.
"The way I look at it is," said interim manager Chad Tracy, "we do have a couple more players who, when you look at the numbers and what they've done, are definitely deserving. I'm still holding out hope. Between now and when the All-Star Game happens, there's so much roster fluctuation. It happens every year, where people can't go or get hurt or things happen. So I'm still holding out hope that there's a couple more guys (selected) on our team that I feel are deserving, no question about it."
"I'm not disappointed," said Contreras. "I try not to build up too many expectations when it comes to the All-Star Game. But if you ask me if I feel like I'm personally deserving, I would tell you, 'Yes.' But talking about with my teammates, I wasn't filling my head up with illusions of being on the team."

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Since I was out of range this week – I will be leaving a one-star review on Yellowstone’s TripAdvisor page, due to the lack of wifi – there was no specifically D-backs related question this week. So let’s just discuss the national poll, sent out to those on the list (and if you aren’t on it, the link above has you covered). There were three questions. The first was in regard to which executive was on the hottest seat. You probably won’t be surprised to discover that the Mets’ David Stearns was the clear winner there, at 62%. However, the Giants’ Buster Posey (20%) while the Red Sox – and former D-back – Craig Breslow (18%) also got significant support.
These are all examples of teams with large payrolls, in excess of $210 million cash value per Spotrac, putting them comfortably in the top half of MLB spending this year. But they are also all struggling: the Red Sox, at 38-48, have the best record. We’re still not even at the All-Star break, and they only have a fifteen percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Fangraphs – and that feels generous to me. The Mets and Giants might as well pack it up and go home. New York and Boston have already fired their managers, and one wonders how long San Francisco will stick with Tony Vitello, the first man to go straight from a college job to MLB management.
Related: another question was “Who won the Rafael Devers trade?” and a resounding victory there was “No one” at 69%. However, the Red Sox did beat the Giants in the remainder, by a 22-9 percent margin. That seems fair. Boston did get to dump a massive contract for a player who was increasingly toxic there. However, the players they got back have either fizzled, or been traded on. For example, Kyle Harrison was yesterday’s starter for the Brewes against the D-backs, and despite his struggles there, is 8-1 with an excellent 2.82 ERA. Meanwhile, Devers has been worth just 3.2 bWAR over a year and a half. He’s on the SF books for seven more seasons and $225 million. Yep. Happy not to be them.

Graphics via FanGraphs
The Snake: Jake McCarthy, +0.33 WPA
Walks Will Haunt: Michael Lorenzen, -0.20 WPA
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Graphics via FanGraphs.
Hey, Mickey!: Eury Pérez, +0.33 WPA
Max-imum: Max Meyer, -0.23 WPA
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