Jung, Older

 

This is now the third season that's elapsed since the Texas Rangers won the World Series. Mind you, they won it with a young team of a ton of rookies and budding young stalemates. Josh Jung, Evan Carter, Jonah Heim, Wyatt Langford, Cody Bradford, Josh Smith to a degree, and eventually Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. This would be their core going forward.

It's been three years. They have been to the playoffs zero years since. They've lost multiple big pieces, and others have spent time on the IL. Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, Nate Eovaldi, and ultimately Langford, Carter and Jung, have lost time to injuries. And so here we are, 2026, the Rangers attempting to resume progress and fight the fact that time has passed. With the exception of Carter and Langford, this isn't an especially young team anymore, and people can see this.

Josh Jung, thought of as one of the first big pieces of the next dynasty upon his call-up in late 2022, is now 28 years old. Since his all-star 2023, he's spent one season nursing an injury, and the next season playing very okay, fine-but-unspectacular baseball. And now here he is again, hitting .300 and excelling once again. He's got 5 homers and 20 RBIs already, and is tied with Evan Carter for WAR lead of the lineup. Especially in a year where Corey Seager's gone deathly cold, a healthy, powerful Josh Jung [and Evan Carter honestly] s a very good thing. Behind him follow another great power-friendly Jake Burger performance, Brandon Nimmo making the Mets regret another one of their choices, Ezequiel Duran hitting .300 as a fill-in for Josh Smith, and Alejandro Osuna quietly drawing eyes while filling in for Langford. 

It's not the ideal incarnation of this team, but it's getting the job done to a degree. They're in 2nd place, behind Sacramento, and are hoping to fend off the Mariners as they continue to ascend to their promised spot in the standings. The A's and Mariners have their strengths and their lifelines, but they're both without a key player right now. The Mariners just lost Cal Raleigh to an injury, and the A's are now without Jacob Wilson for a bit. The Rangers' biggest omission right now is Langford, and they have Eovaldi and deGrom healthy and working. deGrom's certainly looking like his old self, with a 2.62 ERA and 57 Ks. 

So honestly, even given the Rangers' faults, I can't exactly count them out of a year like this. They're good enough to not go quietly, and have a different kind of fuel behind them than the Bochy-tradition-backed 2020s teams. So we'll see how this goes. 

Coming Tonight: One of two ex-Yankee starters finding success in San Diego right now.

Sho Stopper

 

Bit of a topsy-turvy NL Central year so far. We had the Brewers on the bottom for a bit, the Pirates in last for a moment, and now the Reds are down there after a rough week. But leading ever since that fateful game in Philly I went to is the Chicago Cubs. I'm once again choosing to take credit for this.

Could the Cubs simply have the most effective lineup in baseball? With the exception of Dansby Swanson, who's a .194 hitter with 25 RBIs, everybody's hitting. Moises Ballesteros is an everyday DH at the MLB level now, that's pretty damn cool. Dude's built like a lunchroom trashcan and he makes contact like crazy. Alex Bregman's having a slower start to the season than usual but he's still a good option at third. Happ, Hoerner, PCA, Suzuki and Kelly are all off to fantastic starts. PCA in particular is doing his usual multifaceted thing, with 10 steals and a ton of robberies to distract from his fairly pedestrian hitting. 

I think the biggest sign of this team's success has been the eventual blossoming of those Japanese contracts. Seiya Suzuki took a few years to really adjust to a 162 game season, and he's looking very confident now, hitting .274 with 7 homers and 16 RBIs. Dude's just a ferocious hitter and it doesn't surprise me that Chicago's taken to him. Same with Shota Imanaga, who's just a reliable, consistent hurler who doesn't need to be too flashy, a lot like a Masahiro Tanaka type. Imanaga's 4-3 with a 2.32 ERA and 59 Ks, the best line in the rotation thanks to some mixed bag starts from Edward Cabrera and Jameson Taillon and injuries to Matt Boyd and Cade Horton. Already this team has needed to resort to Colin Rea and Javier Assad for rotation spots, and aside from Imanaga it's honestly not pretty. But again, having Imanaga there gives them a leg up.

And also, just to be clear...the Cubs are still a winning team even with this rough rotation. Cabrera and Taillon still have ERAs under 4. They can still get you through a game without too much bleeding. Compared to 2025, Taillon looks way more trustworthy, despite those 11 home runs thus far. I don't know who the 'break in case of emergency' starter is from here on out, or if there's a rookie on the horizon, but I think they're closer to a decent rotation as they are than if they try an overhaul. Fundamentally, Cabrera, Taillon and Rea are good pitchers, they've just had some rough patches. 

The Cubs have lost 4 straight, need to upset the Braves tonight and then look to recoup momentum with a hometown brawl at Comiskey. There's a reason they're still in first, and there's a reason barring those weak patches this team hasn't been knocked off for long.

Coming Tomorrow- He won a World Series in his first full year in the bigs. Been a rough go of things since then though.

High on Enthusiasm, Low on Ideas

 

So here's something fun. When the Tigers signed Justin Verlander, bringing him home after 8 years, there was a staged photo opportunity of the rotation. JV, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Framber Valdez and Jack Flaherty. Basically saying 'this is our pitching, get ready', etc. 

Last week, the Tigers only had Flaherty on their active roster. Just one guy of that immortal five. Hooboy.

To get here, a lot of shit had to go wrong. First JV got injured in his very first start, after giving up 5 runs. If he ever pitches again, hopefully it'll be halfway decent, but the man is 43 years old. Then Mize, after starting the season with a 2.90 ERA, got hurt. Then SKUBAL, with a 2.70 ERA in 7 starts, got hurt. Then Framber Valdez, shaky but still reliable, gets suspended for plunking Trevor Story after Story started a sign-stealing train on second base. And the Tigers were left with Flaherty, and his 5.73 ERA, plus Keider Montero who wasn't supposed to be needed for a bit but still has a 3.18 ERA in 7 starts and has done just fine. 

So in that interim period in between Valdez's suspension, the Tigers had...two active starters. And so they had to get creative. A lot of bullpen games, a couple openers, lots of long appearances from Enmanuel de Jesus and Drew Anderson. And then last night, they get Valdez back, he has a fairly decent start. But...now they're down to 3 valid starters and some bullpen games. They could, like, go and get Sawyer Gipson-Long from Toledo, but that seems to apparently be the coward's way out for this team. Why go and get the guy who's never had room to pitch in the majors the second a spot opens up? Why do that? I bet they're gonna trade him like they did with Matt Manning. 

Anyway, despite all that, the Tigers are trending upwards but still in 3rd place, underneath the White Sox who are on a better pace than they've been since the rebuild started. Not helping the Tigers is the fact that the lineup depth is diluted this year. Torres, Carpenter and Baez are all hurt. Torkelson, Vierling, McKinstry and Wenceel Perez are all slumping. Dillo Dingler leads the team in homers with 7. Hao-Yu Lee was brought up as a new infield depth option but he's not hitting either. Thankfully there's 3 guys hitting .300, but one of them is Cole Keith, with 6 RBIs to his name. Having McGonigle and Greene performing well is a very good thing, but it feels like much less of a team effort than usual for these teams. Greene's hitting .315 with 4 homers and 20 RBIs, building on his 2025 ASG season despite the usual defensive quibbles.

If the team isn't gonna hit as a unit, having a fractured pitching staff's gonna hold them back even further. Hopefully they can build on this and reestablish leverage in this division, but at the present moment it looks tougher than usual.

Coming Tonight: The latest Japanese pitcher to settle into comfortable success in the States. 

Everyday People

 

I remember back when it was news that Freddy Galvis hadn't missed a game from 2016 to mid-2019, and that was the extent of the streak. Remember Freddy Galvis? Good couple years back there, decent Phils infielder. Seems kinda silly now that we've got Matt Olson, who hasn't missed a game since 2021. Since Olson got to Atlanta he's not missed a game. Meaning after losing their 1st baseman since 2011, the Braves then got a first baseman...who literally plays everyday. And does so while hitting 40 or so homers.

This is the beauty of these Braves teams. It's the right kind of layering of talent, in that it's not egregious, it's not overspending the rest of the league. It's calling up great players and extending them, then signing great free agents in their prime, and picking the right guys to perpetuate the cycle. People have gotten mad about this team letting some key pieces go [Freeman, Fried, Swanson, William Contreras], but considering all the great players they've retained it's hard to be completely mad. They signed Olson early and since then he's been absolutely wonderful. Right now he's got a 1.019 OPS, a league leading 37 RBIs, 14 homers and a .294 average. He's on track for another terrific season, and could notch yet another 25+ homer year [he's already accumulated seven of those]. Recently Olson hit his 300th career homer, and at only 32 he's put together some underrated numbers, much like his former Oakland battery mate Matt Chapman. The Braves have some truly excellent players, and Olson, out of all of them, might be the one they're luckiest to have.

Especially considering that Ronald Acuna Jr. is once again injured. The good news is that Ronnie is not the 'magic hat' guy he seemed to be last year, as there's enough roster depth to stay ahead of every else. Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris and Matt Olson still make this an elite lineup, and getting Ha-Seong Kim back certainly helps, despite how well Mauricio Dubon has done in his stead. Baldwin continues to be one of the best pure power hitters in the game, already at 10 homers and 37 RBIs. Dom Smith has been a surprisingly powerful DH bat, hitting .363 with 18 RBIs and 4 homers. I did not expect this guy to positively replace Ozuna but I guess being low-budget occasionally pays off. 

Also paying off is the stagnated, unconventional rotation tactic. People like Martin Perez, Reynaldo Lopez and J.R. Ritchie have swung in and out as needed, and activating key pieces has not obstructed the rhythm of the unit. Spencer Strider's looking decent 2 starts later, he's only allowed 3 runs and struck out 14. Perez has been the surprise, still in excellent condition at 34 and so capable in middle relief that he's back to starting. Meanwhile, Elder, Sale and Holmes have been strong at the top but you knew that. Sale's got 56 Ks by throwing smoke, Elder's got 53 Ks from pitch selection. Both tactics are working.

A lot's going right for the Braves right now. The other 4 NL East teams all struggling has helped as well, but so much has clicked, and though there's still time for things to falter, I've got a really good vibe about how this team's flowing. And having [to date] FOUR everyday guys certainly helps.

Coming Tomorrow- The future of his team has shifted, and he's got to do what he can to keep things on track. Unfortunately, all he can do right now is power hit adequately. 

Plan B Becomes Plan A

 

Barring one lousy week in April, the Yankees have been outdoing everyone's expectations to begin the season. Even their own. The thought going into 2026 was that Jose Caballero would be a replacement level patch for Anthony Volpe, Cam Schlittler would only do so much to cover for Gerrit Cole, and the bullpen would be rougher without Luke Weaver. Well...looks like the team's just leveled up then.

Cam Schlittler has picked up exactly where his 2025 left off and has been wonderful for us. Through 9 starts he's got a 1.40 ERA, 59 Ks and 5 wins [I'm writing this as his latest start is going on, I hope it becomes 6 [EDIT: DAMMIT DOVAL!!]]. He's young, durable, practically unhittable, and leads the league in ERA and WHIP. I'd hoped for a young pitcher like this, and he's definitely fit that bill. We're getting Carlos Rodon back today, and hopefully he's gonna make up for lost time with some 2025-esque starts. Even then, Rodon will make the already strong rotation even better, as Fried, Warren, Schlittler and Weathers have been very nice thus far. In the absence of Cole, we needed consistency, and right now we have it. May it persist.

The 'Cabby replacing Volpe' thing was something I didn't expect in concept but makes a lot of sense the more I think about it. Cabby's not just a great base stealer, he's a versatile, multitalented player who has so many uses. It's a bigger version of Gio Urshela in 2019. Cabby's hitting .264 with 4 homers and 14 RBIs, plus 13 steals. He seems to fit right in. And let's not forget Ryan McMahon slowly coming to life in May, Paul Goldschmidt being responsible for 2 RBIs last night, and Spencer Jones stepping in to hopefully show the big leagues what all the fuss is about. And if Topps thinks of a reason to make the cutoff for Update last week, robbing us of 2026 Spencer Jones cards....I will be quite upset.

It's very easy to whittle this team down to Judge and Rice and Bellinger, and while that looks nice on a magazine, it's a full team effort right now. All the pieces are coming together and keeping this team ahead of the pack. They've got one of the best records in baseball, one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, and some of the best power hitters in baseball. Now...it is only May, and this team has a habit of dropping momentum out of nowhere, so I seriously hope they remember that this is a marathon, and they need to pace themselves rather than burning themselves out too early. This could be the team that could go mano e mano with LA in the end, and we don't want them peaking here.

Coming Tonight: How did the Braves really managed to have two incredible 1st basemen in a row, back to back? They couldn't do that at third after 2012!

All in the Spectacle

 

Remember a couple years ago when Anthony Rizzo was in a terrible slump for months on end and it was only after it had gone on for a bit that the Yankees' trainers realized he had concussed at the beginning of the season and none of them had noticed? The Dodgers thought 'well, what if we had a GOOD version of that?'

Hence, Max Muncy, whose numbers fell off for a couple years, then went and got his eyes checked, got new specs, and once again is a tremendous contact hitter. Muncy's hitting .279 with 9 homers and 13 RBIs, hitting more accurately than he has in years. At 35 he's become one of the elder statesmen of the team, whose reliable output is still a crucial part of the team's success. I have to tell you, when Muncy came up in 2018 I did not predict that he'd mature into a Justin Turner-type figure. But that's pretty much what's happened, except Muncy is a better power hitter, hitting 35+ homers four times in his career.

I think the expectation was for Muncy to play more of a minor role in this team's success, but with Betts out, Ohtani hitting .278, Tucker with 4 homers and 20 RBI, and Freeman teetering over his peak, it's a welcome development. I think now you're beginning to see the next stage of the Dodgers experiment, because if Betts and Freeman are getting old, there's gonna need to be new working pieces. Tucker's definitely one of them, even if he's been okay at best so far. Alex Freeland's been surprisingly nice as a 2B replacement, he's hitting .253 and playing great defense. Andy Pages is the man, the myth and the legend even if I can't see him carrying the team much on his own. Dalton Rushing, uhh....I dunno, man. He hits a ton of home runs but he's got this attitude issue that I'm not sure about. We'll have to see.

I think this team has happened upon a working rotation schematic for the most part. Ohtani's pitching Cy Young caliber numbers every sixth day, Justin Wrobleski's become the best compromise money isn't buying, Yamamoto's still elite, Emmet Sheehan's doing alright, Sasaki still hasn't figured the majors out and Snell's gonna swap in for Glasnow perfectly. As it stands it's a durable model, and there's still River Ryan and a host of to-be-activated guys if things turn out similar to last June. Also, suddenly Tanner Scott can close games again. I dunno what happened back there but he seems to have figured it out again. Good for him.

The Dodgers are still ahead of the Padres for the division by 2 games, meaning for the first time this season, they have staved off being lapped. Let's see if this goes any differently from last year.

Coming Tomorrow- The Yankees don't get Carlos Rodon back for another few days, and they don't get Gerrit Cole back for another couple months, yet they still have a guy leading the league in wins, ERA and WHIP. Magic. 

One Missed Cal

 

Lot of law firm guys in the bigs these days. Emerson Hancock, Hurston Waldrep, Warming Bernabel. Just put an ampersand in between any of those and you're in business. 

Anyway, the Mariners have overcome a rough start by putting together an extremely even team. In the past it's been either all pitching or all hitting, here both sides are doing their part. There have been well-pitched months from Emerson Hancock, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo, in addition to welcome production from Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez and Cole Young, the latter finally cementing himself as a worthy piece of this team. Brendan Donovan just came off the IL and is getting back to his old tricks as a contact bat. And even on a night where Hancock gets rocked a bit, you can't entirely count him out because most of his other starts he can go 6 strong without giving up many runs. After years of faulty appearances, seeing a more composed, confident version of Hancock is a welcome sight, especially alongside a healthier version of George Kirby. 

Now...there's a fundamental flaw in this team, and it's one that could be avoided over time but is worrying people already. This is a 2020s Mariners team, and everyone is performing pretty well...except for Cal Raleigh.

Raleigh is months removed from his coronation, his biggest season yet, and one of the best hitting seasons from a catcher since the 50s. To his credit, he has 7 home runs and 18 RBIs, which isn't terrible. But the multifaceted Raleigh who could also hit for contact and rely on assets other than power hasn't really shown up. He's hitting .175 with twice as many strikeouts as hits. The accuracy and power Raleigh showed frequently in 2025 has been sparse this year, and it's in a year where the team thought they could finally rely on him to lead things. Not that Julio and Randy CAN'T per se, but more is falling on them than previously figured, and it's a bit awkward at times.

Raleigh insists there's a larger issue, and he's sat a bit dealing with that thumb trouble, but hopefully it's as simple as that. Say the thumb heals and the rough patch continues. What then? What needs to be reassessed? 

The M's are good enough now that they can balance the work elsewhere, but they're being kept out of first by the A's. This division was supposed to be theirs, and it's been closer than they'd like. Hopefully they have it in them to pull away again this year, but with Raleigh struggling it's been put into question.

Coming Tonight: The opposite of Superman. He puts on glasses and becomes unstoppable.