Here are three things to watch for around baseball this Tuesday:
1. Rays to recall Junior Caminero:
The Rays plan to promote top prospect Junior Caminero before tonight’s game against the Astros. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times was the first to report the news.
Caminero, 21, is a consensus top-five prospect in the game. He made his MLB debut last September, going 8-for-34 with a .631 OPS in a seven-game cup of coffee. The promising young infielder returned to the minor leagues in 2024, and he has settled in quite nicely during his first stint at Triple-A. He has 13 home runs, an .828 OPS, and a 109 wRC+ in 53 games. What’s more, he has not skipped a beat since returning from his most recent stint on the IL due to quad trouble. The righty batter is hitting .304 with an .857 OPS and a 114 wRC+ in his last 19 games. That’s not overwhelming production, especially coming out of Triple-A, but Caminero has been playing well enough that it’s not hard to see why the Rays decided to give him another shot in the bigs.
Caminero will likely spend most of his time at third base and DH, and Tampa Bay will hope he can provide a boost to a struggling lineup. The Rays have lost six of their last 10 games, and their offense ranks 27th in the majors in runs scored since the trade deadline, averaging just 3.33 runs per contest.
2. Zebby Matthews to debut for Twins:
In more prospect news, the Twins plan to select one of their top pitching prospects to make his MLB debut tonight: Zebby Matthews will get the start against the Royals (per ESPN’s Jeff Passan). Matthews, 24, will join fellow rookies Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa in the Twins’ rotation. Minnesota’s starting rotation was supposed to be one of the team’s biggest strengths entering the season, but injuries to Anthony DeSclafani, Chris Paddack, and, most recently, Joe Ryan – plus a poor performance from former top prospect Louie Varland – have forced the Twins to rely more heavily on their rookies than they expected to.
Matthews started the season at High-A and made his way up to Triple-A by mid-July. He’s sporting a 2.60 ERA in 97 innings and has demonstrated excellent strikeout skills and phenomenal control at every step along the way (30.5% strikeout rate, 1.8% walk rate). Minnesota might have preferred to give him a little more time at Triple-A – he has a 5.68 ERA over his first four starts with the St. Paul Saints – but Ryan’s injury forced the team’s hand. The Twins will need to make a corresponding move to open up a spot for Matthews on the 40-man roster.
3. MRIs scheduled for Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ketel Marte:
Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. exited yesterday’s contest with a left elbow injury after diving awkwardly into home plate (per Greg Joyce of the New York Post). X-rays were negative, and Chisholm told reporters he wasn’t “super concerned” about the injury, but he will undergo an MRI today just in case (per Joyce). Chisholm has been a key player for New York over the past couple of weeks, batting .316 with a 1.062 OPS in 14 games. He has hit seven home runs and scored 13 times for the Bronx Bombers, and the Yankees have gone 9-5 since he joined the team.
Over in the NL, another star infielder will go for an MRI. Ketel Marte aggravated a prior injury in his left ankle last night and exited the game in the second inning (per Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports). Marte sat out on Monday due to his ankle, but he and the team presumed he would be ready to return after a day off. The D-backs have not provided much more information about the potential severity, but manager Torey Lovullo suggested today’s MRI was a precautionary measure (per Weiner). Marte is a dark-horse NL MVP candidate this season, so needless to say, he has been critical to Arizona’s success. He is batting .298 with 30 home runs, a .930 OPS, and a 152 wRC+. His 5.4 FanGraphs WAR ranks third in the National League.
If Bo Jackson (a fundamentally hideous baseball player, by the way who wasn’t even good, let alone very good or great. Low BA, low OBP, sucked in the outfield, couldn’t steal many bases despite having great speed but never being as fast as Deion Sanders, one of the worst SO rates of all time- even worse than Adam Dunn. Deion Sanders was the more gifted baseball player/football player/basketball player/athlete in general despite the widely accepted false narrative that Jackson was better in baseball or any other sport than Sanders- and that’s despite the fact that baseball was Sanders’ side sport but Jackson’s primary sport) gets credit for his college performance, so do players like Wieters (best college player of all time), Mussina, etc.
A wonder what Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk thought of Deion Sanders. Huh?
“I don’t care whether you are black or blue or pink or red,” Fisk said. “If you don’t start playing this game right, I’m going to kick your butt right here.”
Carlton Fisk of Boston was Munson’s main rival for recognition as the best catcher in the AL. Their enmity to each other added a flair to the competitiveness of the Boston-New York rivalry. “As much as everyone made a big thing of our rivalry, it was entirely in baseball terms, not in human terms,” said Fisk. “I just wish we’d been able to know each other off the field, but I know enough to realize this a great loss for the Yankees and a great loss for baseball.
“If we were, as people said, the best or worst of enemies, it was because we had the highest amount of respect for each other,”
Reynolds thought: “Slide? Are you kidding me?”
So, he was about to launch into what he called “a courtesy slide” when he saw that Kansas City catcher Bob Boone had the ball. Boone tagged him. In the clubhouse afterward, Reynolds would watch the play again and again and again, and never figure out exactly what happened.
Idk WTH you’re smoking, and I have even less of a clue what you’re ranting about right here, but this narrative you’re trying to present is ridiculous.
Bo Jackson was far and a way superior to Deion Sanders on a baseball field. Bo Jackson’s hip injury was so severe it was an amazing feat for him just to play MLB baseball. The fact he was able to put up the type of numbers he did for years after suffering what was a near consensus career ending injury is remarkable.
Bo Jackson was so gifted he could’ve easily put up near hall of fame career numbers if he was a baseball only player and didn’t suffer such an awful injury.
Deion Sanders was a side show, and could barely hit water if he fell out of a boat.
He was already 28 when the injury happened, he wasn’t a young athlete by any means and the effect of the injury on his career is overstated because of that.
“Bo Jackson was far and away superior” except for Deion’s better BA, better speed, better OBP, better SB, and better defense and not being one of the worst hackers in the history of the game. Except for all that.
Deion was better in every way except for HR power. Jackson was an ugly, unpolished player.
jobus….12981’s post reads less poorly if you ignore the parenthetical rant.
…or one reads it in context. The poster has called for Matt Wieters and Andre Ethier to go into the HOF…I mean, if you can’t laugh at that, what can you laugh at? Also badmouths Ichiro and Miggy Cabrera as not being that good…difficult to take such “ideas” seriously.
He’s just a troll. Ignore him. Don’t feed him. Tell him to get a job.
Basketball: Deion had NBA level talent. Jackson didn’t have that, to put it mildly, and had zero- I repeat zero- chance of ever being in the NBA.
Football: Deion was offense/defense/special teams and has one of the best careers of all time (inner circle) and was also known for his extreme awareness, anticipation, etc. on the field. Jackson played one position and had terrible hands and all he did was run into/through the defense- that was his 1 strategy. Regardless of the injury (which, again, happened when Jackson was already 28), he was never going to have anywhere close to the career that Deion had. Also worth noting that the 49ers won as soon as Deion arrived and the Cowboys won the very next year as soon as Deion arrived.
Speed: Deion was faster.
Baseball: Despite it being Deion’s secondary sport and Jackson’s main sport, Deion still had the better BA, OBP, SB, defense, ability to make contact, etc. Jackson had better power, that’s it. Another thing is that Jackson didn’t make any kind of big splash in MLB until his age 27 season- very late in the game. Meanwhile, Deion made a big splash in his age 24 season. Huge difference in terms of age and again speaks to Deion being the better baseball talent- again, despite it being his back-burner sport. Also worth noting that Deion would have been the MVP of the 1992 World Series if the Braves had won.
Deion was the better athlete, and it’s not even really all that close. Jackson might be in the top 5 all time. Deion is the best athlete of all time.
Bro…
6.2
7.7
Those are the career WAR for
Deion
Bo
They were 2 players with 2 vastly different skill sets.
If you really want to talk about obp. Id much rather take Bo’s .309 career obp over Deion .319. Seeing as how you described Bo as having 1 great attribute which was his power. I think anyone would take a power hitter with a .309 obp over a slap hitter who sports .319.
Here’s 2 more numbers for you.
4.13
4.27
That’s the 40 yard dash times coming out of college for…
Bo Jackson
Deion Sanders.
For reference the fastest 40 time recorded at the modern nfl combine was John Ross at 4.22.
So when you’re talking about speed, try not to forget Bo Jackson is known as the fastest player in NFL history. Him and Bob Hayes. Hayes never ran the 40 at a combine, but since he was the world record holder for the 100 I feel like I should make him 1A and Bo 1B.
What are you even talking about? Sanders was inferior to Bo in every sport. It wasn’t even close. Sanders wasn’t even a league average hitter ever in his career. He wouldn’t ever been able to tackle Bo ever in football. If it wasn’t for Bo’s hip injury he would be regarded as the best athlete ever.
Even with the hip injury he’s still probably the greatest athlete ever.
Sanders was probably the greatest CB to ever play, but Bo was still the better football player of the 2. Anyone making comments as foolish as 12981 was either born after 1995, or never played tecmo bowl.
Dbacks finally got Kelly and Rodriguez back in their rotation. Hope Marte doesn’t join Walker, Moreno and Gurriel on the sidelines.
It was Jackson’s main sport. It was Sanders’ backup sport.
@12981
No football was Bo’s main sport but Tampa screwed him from playing in the ncaa championship, told tb if they drafted him he would go and play baseball. Well tb wasted there #1 pick and he went and played baseball
12981 is so pointless I used the Mute button on them.
Interesting comment that Marte is a “dark horse NL MVP candidate”!
I think he is the co-favorite NL MVP candidate with Ohtani. Major counting stats are comparable on offense, plus Gold Glove caliber defense and the acknowledged leader/star of the Dbacks in their drive for a second straight appearance in the WS.
He has had an amazing year. But if Ohtani is healthy, he wins, regardless of numbers or impact. The media loves him. I understand why, don’t get me wrong, but they won’t even look past him when it comes to awards.
Redwine I know the media darling thing is strong, but so is the fact that no DH has ever won the MVP Award. Because a DH is a one dimensional performer, and in Ohtani’s case 1/3 of a baseball player. He doesn’t play a position, and this year he isn’t pitching. Part of his “unicorn” greatness is as a two way player, but the fact that he isn’t pitching means that voters are voting for him based on reputation rather than actual performance. From an actual performance standpoint, Marte has totally overwhelmed everyone this year, including Ohtani.
“I think”
Aka
“I’m biased for a player playing a kids game”
Kamalafan
I like your name
“I’m biased for a player playing a kids game”
==============================
What does that even mean?
Voting for NL MVP….voting is done by the Baseball Writers of America. In 2023, 389 of these BBWAA members from across America voted for NL MVP. These are the newspaper sports writers, many older guys. That group is vastly different from the primarily youthful television and radio sports personalities, who we think of as the “media”. So, when someone says the media votes for NL MVP, the image in our minds is very different from reality.
I think these writers will look more at performance than reputations, although reputations will definitely play into the voting. That is why Marte stands a chance against Ohtani in the actual voting.
This Leo guy stinks. This is totally wrong, unless “and” is a pitcher: “but injuries to Anthony DeSclafani, Chris Paddack, and, most recently, Joe Ryan…”
There shouldn’t be a comma after “and.” It should be written “but injuries to Anthony DeSclafani, Chris Paddack, and most recently, Joe Ryan.” Learn how to use the Oxford comma.