That's One Way to Debut

 

Imagine, for a second, that you have just been called up to the major leagues. The day you are up with the team, ready to debut out of the bullpen, your team is no-hitting the Texas Rangers. Keep in mind, the already came close to doing this earlier this month, Spencer Arrighetti had something going, but it didn't work out. Now a much less trustworthy pitcher's gone 6 strong, handed it to Steven Okert who went 1 strong...and now they are handing the ball to you. Your debut appearance will be attempting to complete a combined no-hitter in not only the away team's park...but the cross-state rival's park. So if you mess this up, it could haunt you for the rest of your life.

This was the conundrum put upon Alimber Santa last night in Arlington. 7 no-hit innings, now here you go. And then after 1 inning, the pitching coach tells you to stay out there. Josh Hader's still hurt, Bryan Abreu's not trustworthy, you're it. So now you have to face the top of the order in the bottom of the ninth and hope you get out of there with your dignity intact. 

Damn if Santa didn't handle it like a pro. 2 innings, 6 batters, all retired. And thus he gets to be the hero in his first MLB game ever. That's incredible. It's great for Tatsuya Imai, finally getting the hang of things over here, and for the oft-injured Okert, but Alimber Santa had to feel over the moon. This is the Astros in a nutshell, it's a well-oiled machine, and the people coming up, whoever they are, can probably inherit it. 

Obviously it's a little bit funny how Houston's still the no-no capital of baseball. They tried to stat twist, 'this is their first no-hitter since 2024'. Here's what you should have said. 'The Houston Astros have had a no-hitter in every season since 2022, except for 2025. They've had FIVE no-hitters in the past five seasons, one of them in the World Series. Hell, Christian Vasquez, who caught this one...he'd caught one BEFORE for the Astros! He caught the one in Game 4 of the World Series! So this isn't even new to him! 

Five no-hitters in 5 years- the Blue Jays haven't even thrown one since 1990! The Guardians haven't thrown one since 1981! Parker Messick got painstakingly close recently, and losing that one hurt. Don't give me that 'first since 2024' bullshit. 

It's very cool that this happened, and it's even cooler for Imai and Santa to be a part of this so early in their MLB careers. I'd love for some teams other than the Astros to figure out how to go all 9 without a hit. Cause without the Santa stat, it's hard to get excited about another Astros no-hitter. 

A Lot Changes in Ten Years

 

In 2016, Willson Contreras was called up to act as an alternative to Miguel Montero behind the plate, at least on days where David Ross wasn't catching for Jon Lester. It was, in actuality, the last necessary piece to cement a lineup that would propel the Cubs to a World Series, one they would FINALLY win. Contreras used that season as a starting point, and eventually became one of the best hitting catchers in baseball, retaining his dignity until 2022, and eventually leaving to play for the division rivals in St. Louis. 

Now, Contreras has a different role, as first baseman on a team vastly different from the 2016 Cubs. The 2026 Red Sox do have a lot of great young players, and a lineup on the verge of greatness...but they're still a last place team, and they're still relying on Contreras's offense as a main asset rather than as one of many standouts. In 2016, Contreras could be a cog in a machine and let Rizzo, Bryant, Fowler, Schwarber and Baez have heroic moments. Now, when Anthony, Mayer, Duran and Yoshida don't have things rolling, it's up to Contreras more often than not. The balance has shifted. 

I thought it was really cool earlier this month, though, to see Willson Contreras reunited with Jon Lester, as the latter was inducted into Sox Hall of Fame. Lester in 2016 was the ten year veteran, the World Series winner, the ace coming to town to jumpstart a new regime. Lester had all the respect in the world when he came to Chicago, and he wanted to win that third ring with a new team. And so it would be done. Now, Willson is the ten year veteran coming to town in an effort to jumpstart something. And so it was really fitting that Contreras got to give a hug to Lester after his ceremony. The passing of the mantle, as it was.

Contreras is currently hitting .281 with 11 home runs and 33 RBIs, pretty exceptional power numbers for the big guy. His OPS is .899, the best in Boston currently. And while it might not be the most exceptional season by a member of the Contreras family, Willson's is a very sure and confident barrage of power, surer than he's been since 2019. Now, as a first baseman, he can appear in more games, and last year he came the closest to 100 RBIs of any season thus far, with 80. He's never had a 25 homer year, which is kind of insane, and perhaps this is the year that changes.

The Sox themselves are still struggling to live up to expectations. The young kids, Early and Tolle, are making up a lot of ground that Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello should have covered by now. Jarren Duran's still hitting .193, and if you can believe it, Caleb Durbin's hitting worse. Story's 2025 resurgence may have been a one-off. It's not a terribly engaging team, and yesterday I saw my first 'where Aroldis Chapman might be heading this July' article. Having Contreras is certainly better than the alternative, but hopefully he stays long enough to not have to be as essential as he is right now. 

Coming Tonight: Speaking of people who really shouldn't be as essential as they are right now, for teams that shouldn't be as bad as they are right now, a guy making more money than you, and for good reason.

The Latent #1

 

Ooooh, I bet you thought that just because they restructured the draft lottery rules, that meant that the Rockies wouldn't have a #1 overall guy surfacing this year. Think again! They've got Mickey Moniak. True, THEY didn't draft him first overall [the Phillies did], but it's better than nothing.

And yes, as far as 1st overall picks go, Mickey Moniak is around the mid-to-bottom tier, and he knows it. Not the absolute bottom, because...Brady Aiken and Mark Appel and Bryan Bullington exist, but he's entered into the tier of 'letdown that's still capable of a late-20s surge. You saw what happened with Tim Beckham out of nowhere, how he started hitting homers with Baltimore. And how Matt Bush crashed out then eventually became a likable relief option with the Rangers. Even guys like Phil Nevin, Adrian Gonzalez, Kris Benson and, yes, Josh Hamilton needed to set the expectations a bit before they had their breakouts. 

Not everyone is gonna be like Griffey or Strasburg and Skenes and be incredible right from the start. Sometimes you get a Mickey Moniak, who takes an extra three years to develop, gets hurt the second he has a shot with the team that drafted him, is traded for a rental the same day that team gets a centerfielder they actually CAN trust [from the same team!!], dries out in mediocrity for a year, gets cut, winds up playing for the worst team in the league AND THEN, SUDDENLY, BECOMES GOOD. Make 'em work for it!

Moniak, though sidelined for a little bit with an injury, has surfaced fully in Denver, because that's what becomes of all power hitters once thought lost. It honestly surprises me that Colorado parted with Blaine Crim so easily; yes, T.J. Rumfield's a better working option, but Crim seemed so at home in Coors Field. Moniak has that same feeling, he's hitting .280 with 12 homers and 28 RBIs. At the moment he does lead the team in long balls, but Hunter Goodman's heating up, and he's got 11 right now. Moniak is 28, and the heights that were once assumed for him have come down, but he's still a pretty nice hitter with some defensive perks, and the Rockies need a guy like that right now, as they begin to assemble the next stage of the rebuild.

Right now, they've got slightly surer footing than before. Goodman and Rumfield are locked in, Tovar's been struggling but he's still great at short. Karros is more serviceable than anything but he's becoming more sure of himself. I think Troy Johnston's more of a placeholder guy, a good contact walloper in the tradition of Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger, without much defensive ability. A shame Beck, Doyle and Ritter haven't done much, as well as Zac Veen still in the minors. Freeland and Quintana's last few starts have ballooned their ERAs, and now Dollander's hurt, but Tomoyuki Sugano's been keeping things down and still has an ERA under 4. The bullpen's solidified but very snakebitten so far. 

As of right now they're still a last place team, but the Rockies arguably have more of a spark than the Giants at rest. This dismal May stretch just hasn't done them any favors, and they're now at 20-34, which is more in line with how things were the last few years. I still think an improvement is imminent, but they need to get past this month and get back to how surprising they were in April.

Coming Tomorrow- Moving to 1st base isn't for everyone, but after a couple seasons he's fully adjusted and is now focusing more on pure power damage. 

Somebody's Got to Be Last

 

In 2024, the White Sox were not just bad, they were legendarily bad. In 2025, the Rockies were similarly awful. So...is it possible that 2026's last place team will just be a normal, regular old bad team. No 'worst team ever' stuff? Because right now, I don't think the Rockies are the worst team in baseball, I don't think the White Sox are anywhere near the worst team in baseball...and even if they're 30th of 30...the Angels aren't even an interesting kind of terrible.

Like, okay, what do they have. Their best pitcher's Jose Soriano, who's having a Cy Young caliber age-27 season, with a 6-3 record, a 2.44 ERA and 74 Ks. He might not be an Angel in August, guys. I don't see why they wouldn't try to trade him. And yes, it'd lead them with a rotation consisting of Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, Grayson Rodriguez, Walbert Ureña and, eventually, Yusei Kikuchi, but they've come back from worse. Besides, isn't it fun that they've got a guy named Walbert? Nobody's named Walbert!

Their best hitter is Mike Trout, who, despite only hitting .239, has 12 homers and 25 RBIs. The lower sample size is due to having 47 walks, which should be your indication that he's back. Nobody walked him when he wasn't hitting. They also are getting a pretty decent year out of Zach Neto, who's got 10 homers and 24 RBIs despite 73 Ks, which makes him one of 4 Angels with over 50 Ks. Neto's still looking like a foundational piece for this team, but I also said that about David Fletcher, Taylor Ward and Jared Walsh and Trout outlasted them all. 

Beyond that, a lot of the lineup plan is already being crumpled and tossed. Moncada's hurt [as he tends to be], so the backups, namely Vaughn Grissom, Adam Frazier and Donovan Walton, are covering third. Josh Lowe didn't work, so they're going with Jose Siri and Wade Meckler in left, and both are...doing alright so far. Oswald Peraza's actually been pretty brilliant covering second, he's displayed all the contact wonder that the Yankees had zero room for. Nolan Schanuel, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler have had decent moments but all are struggling at various other facets. You look at the gameplan for last season and barely any of it's shown up this year. Where's Karen Paris? Where's Christian Moore? What about Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri, weren't they supposed to be the next starting guns back in 2024? Even the Alek Manoah publicity stunt bombed. That guy might just be cooked, which is pretty upsetting. 

It's really frustrating to look around this team that's been trying to build something for so long and see no immediate future. It can't just be Trout, the Angels have been trying to look beyond Trout for a decade now. But, this is where they are. And as they remain in last, they need to start being honest with themselves. Soriano's probably gonna go...Trout might need to as well, sad to say. And then they can actually focus on a full rebuild, which has worked with the White Sox. If it hasn't occurred to them yet, that's on them.

Coming Tonight: Ironically the guy the Angels cut last year, who's now having a bounce back year in THE place to bounce back.

Biscuits and Gravy

 

Since April 28th, when the Cardinals were just 14-13, they have gone 14-8. There was some talks of 'look at them streaking a bit', but...aside from a few losses, it doesn't tell me that much is different. They're 8 games over .500, but for a team that's that statistically thriving it's a very commonplace run of things. Not a lot of double digit wins, not a lot of double digit losses, not a lot of blowouts. Just sort of pedaling fast enough, staying in second and avoiding the Cubs as they plummet back downwards. I can't really tell you too much about this team's full season prospects right now, cause they're GOOD...but there's still limitations.

Like...we've gotta be honest with ourselves, this rotation is far too mediocre for the amount of wins this team has. Other than Michael McGreevy, none of them are really doing anything. Kyle Leahy's evened out with more innings even after a rough start, but May's struggling, Liberatore gets lit up more often than not, and Andre Pallante is, again, inoffensive if nothing else. Bullpen's not much better, it's really the Gordon Graceffo show with a lot of okay showings from the rest. Riley O'Brien has 13 saves and a 3.13 ERA, I guess that counts as good this season. I dunno, I haven't really heard much about good closing pitching this year apart from Mason Miller. I guess that's good? Maybe?

Either way none of it matters because this offense has been crazy. I can say with the pitching 'yeah, this isn't really second place material', but I can't say that about the lineup. It took YEARS, but Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, J.J. Wetherholt, Ivan Herrera, Masyn Winn and Nathan Church represent a very strong young core. And YOUNG is the key word, as the whole lineup's under 28. Bryan Torres had a huge moment earlier today, and he's a 28 year old rookie. A rookie...who is older than the entire rest of the lineup. Imagine that. Unlike some other teams, 'young' doesn't mean 'inexperienced' here, and Winn, Burelson and Herrera feel like vets.

Burleson in particular is handling the power numbers handily, with 7 homers and 34 RBIs, plus 54 hits and 12 doubles, with a .290 average. He just feels surer of himself than he has in prior years, and his bat is that much more valuable on a team without a Goldschmidt or an Arenado. The same can honestly be said for Jordan Walker, who FINALLY works as a proven power hitter, with 13 homers and 35 RBIs. Imagine if he just keeps doing this consistently? After all that time struggling to? That'd be the twist ending of the century. My one worry is the lack of real depth with this lineup, as we're finding out now that Church is hurt and the nearest fill-in is Thomas Saggese and his .159 average. There's more immediate pitching depth than hitting depth, which is helpful considering the lack of pitching identity, but you're gonna need both to leg a full season out.

The Cardinals do have enough hitting to keep them in second, but the Cubs aren't gonna sink forever, which should indicate that they're not gonna CRUISE forever. Works both ways. 

Coming Tomorrow- Beyond Mike Trout, there is him, trying to build a bridge to the next chapter. We'll see if he lasts long enough to get that to happen. 

Surviving on Witt Alone?

 

The good news is the Royals are ahead of the Tigers in the standings. The bad news is they're in fourth. 

It's clear, a couple years removed from the season where the Royals nearly chased the Yankees and went all in, that the infrastructure for this Royals team was imperfect. Relying on a bunch of pitchers that weren't always reliable shouldn't have been the plan. Obviously Ragans, Lugo, Wacha, Cameron and Bubic could come together in spurts, or on their own, for greatness but getting them all to be healthy and thriving at the same time has been a challenge. Right now, Wacha's pitching well, Lugo's pitching well, Cameron's getting hit a lot [he was good last night though], and Bubic and Ragans are hurt. And it's not like Stephen Kolek and Luinder Avila are doing badly per se in covering for them, but the strength of the compact unit is not there. The weight is on Wacha right now and it shouldn't be. It should really be on Cameron but apparently a year in the majors has done damage on his throwing arm. Meanwhile, Lucas Erceg is still covering the ninth for Carlos Estevez, and while he's got 11 saves I still think he's just better off as a setup man.

The lineup infrastructure is marginally better but I think everyone assumed Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey, Isaac Collins and Jonathan India would mean more to this team than they have. You have a guy like the Pasquatch, being the character that he is, and you expect some modicum of success. The dude's hitting .184. I root for the guy, because you can't not, but he only seems to succeed when the pressure's off. Massey still hasn't put together a solid enough full season effort, he's hitting .217. Isaac Collins's sophomore effort, yes he's only a sophomore, is a .215 season with middling defense. All of these guys are 28, by the way. Not that the window's completely closed, as Bobby Witt is 26 after all, but it's closING. 

And yes, this team does have some youth, but it hasn't locked all the way in yet. Carter Jensen is a solid power hitter but the team is afraid to let him catch. This team has SALVADOR PEREZ, who is 36 and not his old self, and they're afraid to let Jensen catch. Cause Perez is at least a solid enough framer who can call out the umps' BS in the age of the ABS. He's only hitting .211, but he's got 8 home runs, which leads the team. I still hope this team can eventually bring up a catcher who's good at defense AND can hit, and isn't just one or the other. M.J. Melendez was not the guy, I worry Jensen isn't either. Jac Caglianone does seem like he's on the right track though, with 5 homers and 10 RBIs, plus a .750 OPS, which is the second-highest on this team. That's...frightening. But Cags is still looking like the exact kind of piece the Royals hoped he was. This adds to the already strong Maikel Garcia, trying to build off his 2025, hitting .255 and trying to get hotter. He and Witt are doing what they can to ensure this isn't completely forgettable.

I can't completely count the Royals out, because I can't completely count the Tigers out and if I counted the Royals out too it'd be hypocritical. It's just looking very uninspired right now. But the way this division is looking, it's still not completely decided.

Coming Tomorrow- A big, beefy power bat for a team already surprising a lot of people.

Life Begins at 30

 

2026's rookie class is gonna be one of the strangest in some time. In addition to the J.J. Wetherholt, Konnor Griffin, Kevin McGonigle and Spencer Jones sect, people who SHOULD be debuting this year, we have Andrew Painter, who should have been up 3 years ago, and Foster Griffin, who technically had a rookie season in 2022, but didn't fulfill enough innings to meet the official requirement, then went off and pitched in Japan for 3 years, came back and seems to be the only person in the Nationals' rotation who's doing what he's supposed to. Grouping Griffin, who's THIRTY, in with that group is...odd. It's why I don't like the service time schtick that's lumped Randy Arozarena and Luis Gil into rookie categories when they honestly had the stats necessary to be counted as veterans. What Foster Griffin is doing this season isn't exactly rookie material, in the same way that what Munetaka Murakami's material isn't technically rookie material.

But...this is their first clear sample size in the MLB, so we go with it.

Griffin, through 10 starts, is 5-2 with a 4 ERA and 54 Ks. He also has a 1.179 WHIP, which is the lowest in the rotation. Aside from Cade Cavalli, who's been decent with a 3.86 ERA and 61 Ks, Griffin is head and shoulders above everyone else with a job. Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell are both failing to keep runs down, and at least with Mikolas he has the excuse that he's 37. Jake Irvin's still waterlogged from 2024 it seems, with a 5.79 ERA in 10 starts. They really should be starting Andrew Alvarez but they seem afraid to for some reason, and they're more prone to try out the opener bullshit and waste Richard Lovelady there rather than keep him for the save, which he's far better at. So much in this pitching staff makes absolutely no sense that the mere presence of a 30-year-old rookie ex-pat pitching the best out of everyone is even harder to believe.

Shame, because the lineup can actually hit this year. They've gotten to a point where if something isn't working, they do away with it, which they weren't always at liberty to do [at least with the hitting; doesn't explain why Mikolas is still here]. lady House wasn't working, so Jorbit Vivas and Luis Garcia are getting the reps at third. Joey Wiemer went cold so Dylan Crews gets another shot. The working model now includes Australian corner guy Curtis Mead manning first, and he's got 4 homers and 16 RBIs already. Daylen Lile, though lacking in triples, has 14 doubles, in addition to the 7 homers and 26 RBIs. Nasim Nunez leads the league in stolen bases with 21. Jacob Young and Jose Tena are slowly heating up. And...this team still very much belongs to James Wood and C.J. Abrams. It's not a perfect lineup, but it's got more angles than past iterations.

At least they've got that. At least they're hitting this year. Because it really is down to Foster Griffin to keep the pitching in line, and after 2024, where it looked like the future is bright with Parker, Irvin and Herz, that's insanely depressing. 

Coming Tomorrow- Last year, unexpectedly, he went from 'decent homegrown option' to 'one of the best infielders in the game'. Where's he gonna land this year?