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The Opener: London Series, Maeda, Mets

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As the 2023 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. 2023 London Series begins:

The Cubs and Cardinals have arrived in London for a two-game set over the weekend. It will be just the second MLB series ever played in London, after the Red Sox and the Yankees faced off in 2019. The 2023 campaign has been a struggle for both St. Louis and Chicago so far, as both clubs are under .500, though the Cubs have won ten of their last 12 games to lift their record to 36-38, just 3.5 games back in a weak NL Central division. That streak has come on the back of a fantastic starting rotation that includes Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, Drew Smyly, and a resurgent Kyle Hendricks. The Cardinals have not found any such footing, with the preseason division favorites toiling in last place with a 31-44 record despite a talented roster centered around Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. Game 1 of the London series will take place at 12:10pm CT tomorrow, while Game 2 will take place at 9:10am CT on Sunday.

2. Maeda to return:

After missing the past two months with a triceps strain, right-hander Kenta Maeda is set to return to the Twins today, starting tonight’s game against the Tigers in Detroit. Maeda joined the Twins prior to the 2020 season in a deal that sent Brusdar Graterol to the Dodgers, and immediately delivered for the Twins with a 2.70 ERA in 11 starts during the shortened season.

That performance propelled Maeda to a second place finish in AL Cy Young award voting behind Shane Bieber, but the now 35-year-old right-hander hasn’t pitched up to that standard since. After 21 starts during which he delivered a 4.66 ERA, Maeda underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2021. He returned at the beginning of the current campaign, but made just four starts with an ERA of 9.00 over 16 innings before returning to the injured list. If Maeda is back to full health, he nonetheless figures to be an asset for a Twins rotation that currently features Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, and Bailey Ober.

3. Mets roster move incoming:

According to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, the Mets are poised to recall right-hander Vinny Nittoli to the roster today. Nittoli is already on the 40-man roster after being acquired in a trade with the Cubs earlier this month. Nittoli has just three innings of major league experience under his belt, but has posted a 3.81 ERA in 26 innings of work at the Triple-A level this season between his time in the Cubs and Mets organizations.

Nittoli will join a Mets bullpen that’s currently shorthanded due to the suspension of Drew Smith for a violation of the league’s foreign substance policy. Smith counts against the active roster during his suspension, which will come to a conclusion in time for Monday’s game against the Brewers. Nittoli is already on the 40-man roster and the club has space on the active roster after optioning right-hander Tylor Megill yesterday, meaning no corresponding move will be required to add Nittoli.

The Braves’ Shortstop Gamble Is Paying Off

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The Braves entered the 2023 season with a question mark at shortstop. Atlanta didn’t seem to strongly pursue a reunion with Dansby Swanson over the winter. Only the front office knows how much that was due to payroll constraints versus a genuine belief in their other options. In any case, the Braves have picked up right where Swanson left off.

Atlanta shortstops have combined for a .310/.365/.422 batting line. Only the Rangers (where Corey Seager is playing at an MVP level) have gotten a stronger on-base percentage out of the position. Atlanta shortstops are eighth in slugging and fourth in overall offense as measured by wRC+.

If one were told three months ago that Braves’ shortstops were performing at this level, they’d probably have assumed Vaughn Grissom hit the ground running. The 22-year-old broke into the majors with a .291/.353/.440 showing as a rookie last season, filling in for Ozzie Albies at second base while the latter was injured. Midway through Spring Training, Grissom appeared to be the favorite for the job, with rookie Braden Shewmake also garnering some attention amidst a strong Spring Training.

The Braves went elsewhere. Atlanta made the surprising decision to option Grissom and Shewmake at the same time a week before Opening Day. That signaled a commitment to veteran Orlando Arcia, who had played a utility role since being acquired from the Brewers in a lopsided 2021 trade. It marked the first time he’d be in an Opening Day starting lineup since a four-year run as Milwaukee’s shortstop from 2017-20.

Arcia has seized the opportunity in a way few would’ve seen coming. He’s hitting .341/.400/.489 in exactly 200 trips to the plate. He lost a couple weeks with an early-season microfracture in his left wrist, but he’s started 52 of 73 games. Arcia was off to a .333/.400/.511 start before the injury. He has been no worse for wear since returning in early May, putting up a .343/.400/.482 line over the last six weeks.

The 28-year-old isn’t going to continue hitting at quite this level. He’s not going to maintain a .406 average on balls in play all year. He’s hitting .363 on ground-balls, a top ten figure in MLB that’s probably going to regress. It’d be too simplistic to wave away his strong first few months as a complete product of ball in play fortune, though.

Arcia’s plate discipline profile is the best of his career thus far. During his time with Milwaukee, he had a very aggressive approach that kept his walk rates near the bottom of the league. Not consistently swinging at good pitches was a big reason he never developed into the quality everyday shortstop the Brewers anticipated when he was coming through their system as a top prospect.

As he has gotten more experience, he’s become more patient. Arcia has swung around 45% of the time over the past two years after typically offering at over half the pitches he’d seen early in his career. He’s had a particularly discerning strike zone feel this season. He has chased less than 28% of pitches outside the zone, a career-low mark that’s four percentage points better than league average. He’s swinging at a typical rate at pitches within the zone, though. Laying off pitches off the plate without getting passive and letting too many hittable offerings pass by is a tough balance to strike.

Arcia has found it. Not coincidentally, he’s hitting the ball with more authority than usual. This season’s 45.8% hard contact percentage (batted balls with an exit velocity of 95+ MPH) is a personal best. A lot of that contact is coming on the ground, so he’s still not making a huge power impact. Combining average or better walk and strikeout numbers with a lot of hard, low-angle batted balls is a recipe for getting on base consistently. Arcia isn’t going to sustain a .400 OBP, but he looks capable of keeping his on-base a fair bit higher than the .312 league mark for shortstops.

Alongside the offense, Arcia has stepped back into regular shortstop duty without missing a beat defensively. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast have pegged his glove as four runs above average in a little less than 500 innings. He rated as a solid defender for most of his time with the Brewers but hadn’t played shortstop with regularity in three years because Swanson almost never missed a game. A couple seasons of multi-positional work don’t appear to have taken any toll on his glove at the infield’s most demanding spot.

The all-around production has Arcia among the top 30 position players in both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference WAR even with his three-week injury absence. Even if he falls off that pace as the BABIP declines, Arcia has provided the Braves more than they could’ve anticipated in the post-Swanson era. The top of Atlanta’s lineup is loaded with star talent. They only needed some stability at shortstop once they let Swanson go. Arcia has gone well beyond that.

In the process, he has quieted questions about promoting the younger players. Grissom and Shewmake each saw a little MLB action while he was hurt but have spent the majority of the season in Triple-A. Shewmake is having a dreadful offensive season there; Grissom is hitting well (.314/.380/.466 with an excellent 13.5% strikeout rate) while getting an extended run to try to improve his reputation as a middle infield defender. While shortstop once looked like a potential deadline concern for the front office, that’s no longer the case.

The final touch for the team: Arcia’s affordability. He and the club agreed to a restructured contract on Opening Day that could keep him in Atlanta through 2026. He’s making $2.3MM this season, followed by respective $2MM salaries for the next two years. There’s a matching ’26 club option that comes with a $100K buyout.

That’s fine value for the utility role he’d played between 2021-22. It’s a bargain for a quality everyday shortstop. Arcia is playing like one right now, one of the many reasons Atlanta is in pole position for a seventh consecutive division title.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Bobby Bolin Passed Away

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Former major league pitcher Bobby Bolin passed away earlier this month, as noted by the New York Post’s David Russell. He was 84.

A South Carolina native, Bolin entered the professional ranks in 1956 when he signed with the Giants out of high school. He reached the majors four years later, debuting in April ’61 not long after his 22nd birthday. The 6’4″ righty worked mostly in relief over his first few seasons.

Immediately effective, Bolin posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each of his first six campaigns. San Francisco increasingly entrusted him with rotation work midway through the decade. By 1966, he’d make 34 starts and log a personal-high 224 1/3 innings while pitching to a 2.89 ERA. Bolin rebounded from an uncharacteristic 4.88 mark to allow only 1.99 earned runs per nine over 176 2/3 frames in 1968.

Even in the colloquial “Year of the Pitcher,” that was standout run prevention. Bolin ranked seventh among qualified hurlers in ERA that season. He remained in San Francisco through the end of the decade. After the 1969 campaign, San Francisco traded Bolin to Milwaukee for outfielders Dick Simpson and Steve Whitaker. The Brewers wound up flipping him to the Red Sox later in the season.

Bolin closed his career with three-plus seasons in Boston. Moved back into exclusive relief work, he finished with another pair of sub-3.00 ERA campaigns.

Altogether, Bolin pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons. His peak came with the Giants, for whom he worked to a 3.26 ERA in just shy of 1300 innings. He tallied 1576 frames over 495 appearances (164 starts) overall. Bolin had a career 3.40 ERA, won 88 games, struck out just shy of 1200 batters and collected 51 saves. He never won a World Series but was on a San Francisco team that claimed the NL pennant in 1962; Bolin pitched twice against the Yankees in that year’s Fall Classic.

MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, loved ones and friends.

Rays Notes: McClanahan, Raley, Franco

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Rays starter Shane McClanahan departed today’s outing in the fourth inning after a visit from the trainer. The club later announced he’d been dealing with mid-back tightness.

It’s unclear whether the Rays anticipate McClanahan missing time. Postgame, he conceded he was “frustrated” to have to leave the game early but expressed hope it wouldn’t be a serious issue (video provided by Bally Sports Sun). Manager Kevin Cash told reporters the southpaw had experienced some minor back discomfort before his previous start as well (relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).

McClanahan is the only Tampa Bay starter to have taken all 16 turns through the rotation. Last season’s sixth-place Cy Young finisher has continued to excel. He owns a 2.23 ERA across 93 innings. His 26.7% strikeout rate is down a bit relative to last year’s 30.3% clip, but it’s still well above league average. The Rays are already without Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Josh Fleming and had to navigate the first couple months sans Tyler Glasnow. McClanahan, Glasnow, rookie Taj Bradley and offseason pickup Zach Eflin make for an excellent top four, but the Springs and Rasmussen injuries have put some pressure on the depth arms.

Corner outfielder Luke Raley also finished today’s game with some health concern. He was hit on the right hand by a José Cuas pitch in the first inning. While Raley played the remainder of the contest, Topkin tweets that his hand remained sore postgame. Initial x-rays came back negative but he’ll head for further imaging tonight. Raley has somewhat quietly been one of the game’s best hitters this year, mashing at a .276/.354/.582 clip over 193 plate appearances.

Whether he’ll require a stint on the injured list is to be determined. There’d seem a decent chance he’ll at least be out of tomorrow night’s lineup. If that’s the case, he’d be joined in sitting out the contest by Wander Franco. Tampa Bay penciled in Taylor Walls at shortstop tonight, and Cash announced pregame that Franco would be on the bench for Friday’s contest as well.

It’s not an injury concern in his case. It’s instead a disciplinary decision. Cash told reporters the organization was benching Franco for at least two games after taking issue with some of his clubhouse behavior. As Topkin writes, it isn’t believed to be related to one specific incident but rather a culmination of a few events throughout the season. Topkin notes that Franco has been involved in some verbal spats with teammates over the course of the year and has had some instances of slamming equipment in the dugout after making outs.

To be clear, there’s nothing to suggest the Rays’ overall relationship with Franco has been affected. Cash was quick to call the 22-year-old star “a really good kid, really good person” while conceding that the infielder “is learning and dealing with the challenges of being a major league player and some of the frustrations that come with it.” Both Cash and president of baseball operations Erik Neander expressed support for Franco overall but indicated they felt it appropriate to sit him down for a few days to reinforce the need to be a good teammate.

Franco is arguably the face of the franchise and already one of the sport’s brightest young stars. He’s off to a .287/.349/.455 start to the season and has elite defensive marks. Recipient of the largest extension in franchise history, he’s under contract through the 2032 campaign and remains as important to the organization as any player on the roster.

Rockies’ Prospect Zac Veen Undergoes Season-Ending Hand Surgery

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Top Rockies’ prospect Zac Veen posted an image of himself in the hospital (on Twitter) after an apparent left arm surgery this evening. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports the procedure was to address ligament damage in his hand (Twitter link). According to Harding, Veen is expected to be out of action until December.

Obviously, that ends his 2023 campaign. Had Veen been healthy, the 2020 first-round pick had a shot to make his MLB debut this year. He reached Double-A Hartford late last season and returned there to start this year. Regarded as a borderline top 50 prospect by each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, the left-handed hitter was seeking to hit his way to Coors Field by year’s end.

That won’t happen, as it seemed Veen was hampered by the hand issue all season. According to Harding, the young outfielder first felt discomfort midway through last summer. Veen’s numbers plummeted following a late-season bump from High-A to Double-A. While the higher caliber of pitching presumably played a role, the injury offers an additional explanation.

Veen’s 2023 numbers lend support to that possibility. Hand or wrist injuries can diminish a hitter’s power. Veen’s batted ball quality has evaporated this year. He connected on only two home runs over 46 contests and 201 plate appearances. Prospect evaluators have credited the 6’3″ corner outfielder with significant raw power potential. A lofty 47.7% grounder rate hasn’t helped his power output, but it stands to reason he wasn’t hitting the ball with as much authority as he would’ve had he been fully healthy.

The 21-year-old had a .209/.303/.308 batting line overall. He walked at a strong 11.4% clip while striking out at a roughly average 21.4% rate. While Veen’s plate discipline numbers were fine, a meager .260 average on balls in play and the lack of home run pop led to the dismal overall results.

Charlie Blackmon, Jurickson Profar and Randal Grichuk are all slated for free agency after this season. Kris Bryant will be assured one corner outfield spot if healthy, but the rest of the Rox’s future outfield is unsettled. Even if Nolan Jones builds off his strong start to lock himself into right field, Veen could have a path to DH reps next season depending on Colorado’s offseason activity. Colorado doesn’t have to add Veen to their 40-man roster until after the 2024 season, though they’d presumably be happy to get a look at him before then if he mashes in the upper minors to start the year.

Yoshi Tsutsugo Opts Out Of Deal With Rangers

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Corner infielder Yoshi Tsutsugo opted out of a minor league contract with the Rangers, tweets Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Texas allowed him to hit free agency rather than add him to the MLB roster.

The Rangers took a non-roster flier on Tsutsugo over the offseason. He didn’t get a big league look, instead spending the entire season with Triple-A Round Rock. He hit .249/.380/.432 over 280 trips to the plate. The left-handed hitter drew free passes at a huge 17.3% clip but went down on strikes over 28% of the time. He connected on six home runs, nine doubles and a pair of triples — fine but unexceptional power production for a bat-first player in the Pacific Coast League.

Tsutsugo will now look elsewhere in search of an MLB opportunity for what’d be the fourth consecutive season. He struggled early upon signing with the Rays and fared even worse in a cup of coffee with the Dodgers. Tsutsugo caught fire late in the 2021 season with the Pirates, though, popping eight homers in only 43 games.

Pittsburgh re-signed him in hopes he’d approximate that production over a full schedule. That didn’t happen, as he hit .171/.249/.229 in 50 contests last year before the Bucs released him. A late-season Triple-A run with the Blue Jays didn’t result in another MLB look. Tsutsugo heads back to the market with a career .197/.291/.339 line over 182 big league contests.

Tsutsugo has primarily played first base and designated hitter at the major league level. The Rays gave him a few looks at third base back in 2020. He didn’t see any time at the hot corner from 2021-22 but started 13 games there with Round Rock (in addition to 22 starts at first base and 16 outings as the DH).

Giants Acquire Dalton Guthrie From Phillies

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The Giants have acquired outfielder Dalton Guthrie from the Phillies for cash, according to announcements from both teams. San Francisco optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento. In order to create space on the 40-man roster, they transferred Mitch Haniger from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Philadelphia had designated Guthrie for assignment earlier in the week, clearing a roster spot for Darick Hall to return from the injured list. That spurred the first organization change of his career. Guthrie had been with the Phils since they nabbed him in the sixth round of the 2017 draft coming out of Florida.

Guthrie first reached the majors last September. He played in 14 regular season games and made a single appearance in the Division Series during Philadelphia’s run to the NL pennant. Guthrie has gotten into 23 more games this year, starting eight times.

Between the two seasons, the right-handed hitter has a .244/.393/.333 line in his first 56 trips to the plate. He has quite a bit more Triple-A experience, tallying 607 plate appearances in parts of three seasons. Guthrie is a .296/.359/.467 hitter at the top minor league level. He can play all three outfield spots and had some infield experience earlier in his pro career.

Guthrie has never been regarded as a high-upside prospect. The 27-year-old has some positional flexibility and a solid minor league track record, though. There’s little downside for the Giants in jumping the waiver order to add him as a depth player. He’s in his first of three option years, meaning the club can keep him in Triple-A for the next few seasons if he earns a lasting 40-man roster spot.

Haniger’s injury meant the Giants were operating with a de facto opening on the 40-man. He underwent surgery to repair a fractured right ulna last week. He’ll be out into September.

The Silver Lining Of The Angels’ Catching Injuries

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The Angels came into 2023 with an apparent logjam behind the plate, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco examined back in February. Prospect Logan O’Hoppe had just been acquired from the Phillies at last year’s deadline and seemed ready for an extended big league audition. Max Stassi was coming off a rough 2022 season but the club committed to him with a $17.5MM extension at the start of that year. With those two seeming to be likeliest candidates for jobs on the major league roster, it looked like Matt Thaiss might get squeezed out.

Thaiss, now 28, had already been through some ups and downs prior to the 2023 season. He was considered a bat-first catcher when the Angels selected him in the first round of the 2016 draft, using the 16th overall pick to nab him. Since his bat was considered his standout tool, they decided to focus on that, moving him to first base and seemingly abandoning the idea of him catching.

He always hit well in the minors, with an overall batting line of .278/.367/.454 in 582 games down on the farm. However, he wasn’t able to hit the ground running in the big leagues. He first reached the majors in July of 2019 but hit just .211/.293/.422 in the second half of that season for a wRC+ of 86. Over the next three years, he would spend the vast majority of his time on optional assignment, only getting into 40 major league games over those campaigns. He struggled in his sporadic chances, hitting .196/.307/.299 for a 74 wRC+.

Coming into 2023, he was out of options on account of languishing in the minors for most of the previous three years, but he was on the catching depth chart again. Although the Angels had initially moved him to first base and had also tried him at third, they moved him back behind the plate in 2021. He got into 54 games as a catcher for Triple-A Salt Lake that year. In 2022, he was behind the plate for 45 more Triple-A games and 14 in the big leagues.

It seemed like a fork in the road was coming at the start of 2023. He was out of options and was blocked by one player with a longer major league track record as well as a younger and shinier prospect. Although Thaiss was a former first-round pick and had plenty of minor league success, it seemed like he was destined to be cut from the roster.

But a couple of plot twists have happened since then. Stassi opened the season on the injured list due to a hip strain and has stayed there due to an undisclosed family situation. That opened a door for Thaiss to stick on the Opening Day roster as O’Hoppe’s backup, but then O’Hoppe landed on the injured list himself just three weeks later. He was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his shoulder that required surgery, putting him out of action for four to six months.

In less than a month, Thaiss went from the roster bubble to the club’s top catching option. No club wants to lose its top two catchers, of course, but at least this finally created some runway for them to see what Thaiss could do in the big leagues.

Thankfully for both him and the Angels, it has been working out well so far. In 51 games, he’s received 155 plate appearances. His 27.1% strikeout rate is on the high side, but he’s paired that with an excellent 13.5% walk rate. Among catchers with at least 150 trips to the plate, only Will Smith and Adley Rutschman have walked at a higher clip. Thaiss has just three home runs, but his .267/.374/.382 batting line amounts to a 116 wRC+. That places him in the top five in the league among backstops over that threshold of 150 plate appearances.

Of course, it’s not a total shock that he’s performing well at the plate, since that’s always been considered his best skill and he’s always hit on the farm. But he’s also holding his own defensively. By each of Statcast’s Blocks Above Average and their Caught Stealing Above Average metrics, Thaiss is graded with a zero or exactly league average. That’s not going to blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a nice outcome for a guy who’s always been considered bat-first and wasn’t even catching as of a few years ago. Thaiss is still considered slightly below league average by Defensive Runs Saved and FanGraphs’ framing metric, but he’s not killing the club back there.

It’s also worth mentioning that veteran Chad Wallach is holding up his end of the deal as well. Those Statcast metrics consider him a bit below average, but he’s hit six home runs and is slashing .247/.304/.482 for a wRC+ of 114. For a guy who signed a minor league deal and was fourth on the depth chart coming into the year, that’s excellent production.

Turning back to Thaiss, he may not be a superstar but he’s inflated his own stock significantly in a few months. The roster squeeze won’t be coming back anytime soon, since O’Hoppe probably won’t be back until rosters expand in September — if he returns at all this season. Stassi’s timeline is completely unknown. He still has one guaranteed year left on his extension at $7MM, plus a $500K buyout on a 2025 club option, but after a dismal campaign in 2022 and this year potentially being entirely lost, he’s won’t be guaranteed any roster spots going forward.

Thaiss came into this year with one year and 38 days of service time, meaning he will finish this season at 2.038. That will leave him shy of Super Two status, allowing the Angels to potentially retain him cheaply for next year and three more arbitration campaigns beyond that. His defense still seems like a work in progress, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect continued improvements there given his relatively short amount of time getting reacquainted with the position.

The Angels have often had star power from Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and others, but failed to succeed as a team due to injuries and a lack of depth. This year, they lost both of their primary catchers by the end of April, but it hasn’t been a disaster, with Thaiss and Wallach deserving credit for picking up the slack.

Pirates Place Bryan Reynolds On IL

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The Pirates announced they have placed outfielder Bryan Reynolds on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 20, due to low back inflammation. Right-hander Cody Bolton has been recalled in a corresponding move. Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relayed the moves on Twitter prior to the official announcement.

Reynolds, 28, sat out the club’s past two games due to this back issue and it seems it has lingered enough that the club will give him some extra time to recuperate. Since the move is backdated by a couple of days, he can theoretically return in just over a week if he heals up quickly.

Since the club waited a few days before making this move, it’s possible that it’s not a significant injury and Reynolds will be back after a minimum stint. Nonetheless, it’s an ill-timed development for the club. The Pirates got off to a hot start this year but have fallen on hard times recently and are currently mired in a nine-game losing streak. They will now have to try to pull out of this tailspin without one of their best players.

Since debuting in 2019, Reynolds has hit 82 home runs and has a career batting line of .281/.360/.480 for a wRC+ of 126. He’s been essentially right in line with that production this year, hitting .279/.350/.473 on the season for a wRC+ of 122. He’s also swiped eight bags on the year and has solid marks from advanced defensive metrics for his work in left field.

With Reynolds out of action, the club has a few options available for filling the corner outfield spots next to center fielder Jack Suwinski. They recently recalled catcher/outfielder Henry Davis, who is in right field tonight with Connor Joe in left. There’s also Andrew McCutchen, who has missed a few recent games with an elbow issue but is back in the lineup as the designated hitter tonight. Calvin Mitchell and Josh Palacios are also on the roster and could factor into the mix.

Despite the club’s recent struggles, their 34-39 record has them just five games behind the Reds in the weak National League Central. The Bucs are reportedly open to going into the deadline as buyers this year, though that would surely depend upon them stopping their recent slide and staying relevant in the next five to six weeks. For at least the next week or so, they will have to do so without the contributions of Reynolds.

Yankees Place Willie Calhoun On IL With Quad Strain

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The Yankees announced today that outfielder Willie Calhoun has been placed on the 10-day injured due to a left quad strain. Infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera was recalled in the corresponding move.

Calhoun, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees this winter and had his contract selected just over a week into the season. Since then, he’s received 149 plate appearances in 44 games. He’s kept his strikeout rate to a 13.4% level while walking at a 9.4% clip. His .239/.309/.403 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 96, indicating he’s been 4% worse than the league average hitter.

That might not sound like a significant loss, but it actually could be for the scuffling Yankees. They have dealt with injuries to a number of players, including superstar Aaron Judge, who has been out of action for almost three weeks now. Several other players have also dealt with their own injuries or underperformance. Aside from Judge, the only other Yankees to have produced a higher wRC+ than Calhoun in more plate appearances are Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres. The team’s collective wRC+ of 96 is right in line with Calhoun’s and places them 19th out of the 30 clubs in the league.

The Yankees haven’t yet made any announcements about how long they expect Calhoun to be out, but it seems there’s a decent chance it won’t be a minimum stint of 10 days. The outfielder told Chris Kirschner of The Athletic that he felt his quad “pop” while running to first base in yesterday’s game. He’s going for an MRI today and will be receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in the coming days. There should be more specificity forthcoming but it seems the issue is potentially significant.

As for Judge, manager Aaron Boone provided an update today to members of the media, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Judge made an excellent catch at Dodger Stadium on June 3, crashing into the right field bullpen gate and hitting his foot on the concrete pad beneath. He was diagnosed with a bruise and ligament sprain in his right big toe and is coming up on three weeks of missed time. Boone says Judge has now advanced to pool/balance/strength work and could resume throwing and light hitting in the coming days. That seems to be encouraging progress but there’s still not much clarity on his timeline.

He’s following up his MVP campaign with yet another excellent performance here in 2023, having hit .291/.404/.674 for a wRC+ of 189. However, that production has come in just 49 games since he missed time earlier with a hip strain and now this toe issue. As mentioned, the club’s offense has been subpar overall this year but they are still in the postseason hunt. They currently sport a 41-33 record, enough for them to currently be in possession of a Wild Card spot, though each of the Astros, Angels and Blue Jays are within one game in the standings.

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