Off day yesterday. Light news day.
Jaylon Thompson covers John Schreiber joining the Yankees.
The reverse splits were attractive. Schreiber is not as effective against left-handed batters (opponents hit .326 against him) but he should help the Yankees down the stretch.
New York is responsible for the remaining amount on his contract. Schreiber is earning $3,715,000 this season.
The Royals will likely turn to young relievers in the bullpen. Guys such as Nate Pearson and Connor Thomas have gotten additional
opportunities. Meanwhile, the Royals will see what they have in Carlos Duran — who was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Ryan Blake at FanGraphs wrote about Jac Caglianone’s season.
Caglianone swings 77.3 mph on average, which is faster than all but five qualified batters in the majors this year. That hasn’t changed since last year. What has changed is he’s now getting way more from his contact, squaring up the ball 31.2% of the time (compared to 25.9% last year). Maybe it’s obvious, but a fast swing and flush contact is why he’s posted a 54.6% hard-hit rate and 105.6 mph EV50 — each top 10 in the majors. This is the sort of in-game power potential we were promised in his (brief) tenure as a prospect, and it’s respected enough around the league to earn him an invite to the Home Run Derby this year.
Unfortunately, that’s still pretty much the extent of what Caglianone does well at the plate, at least consistently. Again, it’s awesome he’s doing anything well, given his struggles as a rookie, and he could have a very successful career without changing much. But the rest of his profile lags behind, limiting him to a merely top-100 batter in 2026.
One reason is all that ultra-hard contact generally isn’t going that far. Caglianone has done well to lower his groundball rate from 50.6% last year to 46.3% this year, but most of his extra exit velocity is still coming on the ground. Hitting balls on the ground while improving the contact of those groundballs is a fine tradeoff, but well-hit singles are still just singles.
David Lesky is ready for the remaining games, even if the recent hot streak doesn’t catapult them into playoff contention.
So here we are, with 24 games to go, and it does feel like even the tiniest hope is essentially gone, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not fun to watch them play better baseball down the stretch. If they want to start another nine-game winning streak, I certainly won’t turn that down. We’ll get to it at the bottom with what’s up next, but they’ve got a challenge this week at home with three teams fighting for the postseason. The Marlins are currently 3.5 out of the last Wild Card spot. The Blue Jays are currently 1.5 out of the last Wild Card spot. And the Diamondbacks are one-half game ahead of the Padres for the third Wild Card spot in the NL. So everyone has something to play for.
Eli Nitz at Royals Keep examines whom the Royals could add once rosters expand.
Andrew Banks gives some love to Jac Caglianone.
The Cubs hit nine homers yesterday in a win over the Brewers. That’s a franchise record for the Cubs.
The Padres will call up top prospect Ethan Salas, a catcher. Sadly, Freddy Fermin’s bat continued to decline.
Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs examines Tristan Peters’ rise to stardom for the White Sox.
Old friend Carlos Hernández is expected to join the Cleveland Guardians major league roster.
Old friend Tommy Pham is joining the White Sox.
The Orioles picked up Luis Robert Jr on waivers.
The odd saga with Ketel Marte and the D-Backs appears to be ending.
Unforked in Crown Center is closing due to the new stadium development.
Missouri forward Mark Mitchell will return to Mizzou instead of transferring.
UCLA fired their AD over “financial deficit”.
Everton are picking up USMNT star Flo Balogun for a reported $52.3M transfer.
The Chiefs 53-man roster looked like this after cuts, but I think it’s already changed.
A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of “orchestrating” Tupac Shakur’s murder.
Your song of the day is Dirt Poor Robins with Holy Roller.
