As the 2025 regular season continues, here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on throughout the day:
1. Who’s starting in Atlanta?
The Braves had to unexpectedly place Spencer Strider on the injured list yesterday when he suffered a hamstring strain while playing catch. Strider had been slated to make his second start of the season today against the Cardinals and right-hander Andre Pallante. It’s a frustrating problem to have, particularly at a moment where depth starters like AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep are unavailable after making starts at Triple-A within the past few days.
That leaves the club likely to be forced to go with a bullpen game today; righty Scott Blewett tossed 43 pitches his last time out for the Orioles and could perhaps be counted on for two or three innings of work. Recently recalled right-hander Michael Petersen last pitched on Thursday, so he could throw multiple innings as well. If Atlanta decides they need another potential multi-inning option, they could turn to southpaw Dylan Dodd, who has pitched in relief this year but has plenty of experience as a starter. Dodd pitched an inning of work on Sunday and could give the Braves a multi-inning look from the left side, though a roster move would be needed to call him up from Triple-A.
2. Bello to make season debut:
Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello was slowed by shoulder soreness in camp and ultimately began the season on the injured list alongside Lucas Giolito and Kutter Crawford. In the meantime, the Red Sox have had to cycle through depth options like Richard Fitts, Sean Newcomb, and Hunter Dobbins to piece together starts at the back of their rotation. Fortunately, a bit more certainty is on the way, with Bello slated to be activated for this evening’s game against the Mariners. Seattle is likely to counter with young right-hander Bryce Miller. Opposite Miller, Bello will look to build on the steady production he has offered the Red Sox over the past two years, when he posted a 4.37 ERA and 4.36 FIP across 58 starts. The righty looked good in the second half last year, with a 3.47 ERA over his final 13 starts.
3. MLBTR chat today:
Each MLB team is now around 15% of the way through their season, and some expected contenders like those in Atlanta and Baltimore have struggled while more surprising teams like the Giants have done quite well for themselves. There’s still plenty of baseball left to go. If you have questions about which starts to believe in or are already looking towards July’s trade deadline then MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Dylan Dodd is worse than Bryce Elder and Elder pitches Wednesday.
Agreed that 5th pitcher spot and long reliever spots are a real mess. When Dodd’s name is mentioned…its very very bad. Take the over today
Waldrep should move into the bullpen hes just not SP material. Could replace Inglesias in 26. like they should have moved Touki into the pen a few years back.
Might as well leave AJSS on the 26-man. He’ll have to develop in the big leagues. At least there’s upside with him. You know what Elder and Dodd bring (not much).
Mariners still haven’t officially named any of their SP’s for the Boston series, what’s up with that?
All eyes will be on Bello, his 4th year in the majors, this will be a make or break season for him. Hopefully him having his family with him throughout the season will help him mentally.
I’m not sure I’d call it make or break. But I would say it’s time to see whether the flashes of brilliance he shows can be more consistant or if he’s looking at a career as a back end starter..
Sabe – Yeah the good news is his struggles have been psychological more than anything. Last season I had been saying that and it was confirmed in the Netflix doc. He pitched well in the second half of last season, so hopefully that will carry over. Might have some rust today.
It’s also important to remember most pitchers don’t really show their stuff till they’re 25 or 26.
DeGrom had a great rookie showing and continued from there, but he was 26 in his rookie year.
Blake Snell had a couple nondescript seasons before his first big year at age 25. Same for Tyler Glasnow.
Tarik Skubal took until 26 to have his breakout year.
Framber Valdez didn’t really get going until 26/27.
Verlander had a number of good seasons early, but his first true elite season didn’t happen till he was 28.
Bello still has time, although he does need to show at least some progress this season.
Fever, it is very important for Bello to look good given the contract and at least in my view Fitt has shown to be his equal so far. Bello may still turn out as the team had hoped but so far he’s in my view been marginal.
Canuck – Most people believe he’s older than stated, but even if it’s his real age he’s still gonna be 26 in 3 weeks ….. so you’re right, the time is now.
RS shouldn’t have spent the $ on Bello and Ceddane IMO. Campbell so far so good. Roman and Marcelo are true candidates for extensions after they prove themselves in transitioning to majors. Although the RS would be better is Casas would contribute offensively, their ability to hold off on extending Casas seems correct so far.
RS extending ANY pitcher with Cora as manager is questionable.
Only a few of the greats have gotten out the gate swinging and even then, it took Maddux his second season at age 22 season to dominate and Clemens his third season at age 23 to show his stuff. 25 is still young he’s gotta do it this year to prove he’s got elite stuff.
sox – All excellent points! However Roman has said he wants to go year to year instead of sign an extension, which makes sense because he has reason to be confident in himself. And Mayer I’d like to see him stay healthy for a full season first.
As for Casas and Duran, both those guys have had off the field issues that make extending them worrisome. It’s kinda like Josh Hamilton, no matter what challenge is conquered you’re never completely out of the woods.
Isn’t the problem with Casas actually ON the field? Maybe the Fenway grass isn’t organic.
Seriously though, I think rib cage injury may have been far more intense than first believed. I think it is possible the after effects may be permanent.
DBH – My understanding is he was afraid to swing because of the rib injury, so they told him to be more aggressive at the plate, and now he’s being overly aggressive. I think he’s made the last 8 outs on like 19 pitches total.
He needs to get back to being super selective without being afraid of aggravating the rib injury. Easier said than done though.
The contracts may make them good trade candidates especially to small market teams.
Bello has electric stuff. He just needs to learn how to be a pitcher. Come on Bailey, get on it!
I know strider has a non arm il trip but with potential limitations and Lopez done for most if not all season the Braves need to go get an innings eater. Did someone say Bauer?
No. Nobody in a major league organization has said Bauer in a very long time.
Hank?
Hank Bauer’s average OPS+ was 126 over his six year peak. He also managed the Orioles to their first championship and was a decorated Marine who served in WW2.
Bad, Hank Bauer didn’t know what OPS+ was as there was no such stat then. It’s why saberstats shouldn’t be used to compare historically. The game has lost a lot IMO by trying to play the game through a computer.
Then you haven’t been watching. There are days when he pitches you can see he’s everything Pedro Martinez says he can be. He’s got electric stuff and it just feels like you only need a couple of runs to win. Unfortunately he hasn’t done that consistently and there’s plenty of days where the offense would have to pick him up.
Saber, I guess we don’t watch the same games. Many pitchers can at times flash brilliance. The ability to be consistent hasn’t been shown other than he’s consistently inconsistent.
It took pedro a few years to get his act together.
Watching a lot of Giants games this year.
Had a feeling when Posey was elevated to running the organization that they would get squared away. Meanwhile people were on here with the most ridiculous comments – “How does Posey know how to negotiate with the service workers union?”
Am a retired computer back office person. When innovations in computer technology started coming it was known that the companies breaking ground first would have a leg up for a period of time. But employees cross-pollinate…..move around and share methods. At some point, most companies had computers and systems and it was just another part of doing business. In turn, those understanding business fundamentals while working with the computer systems (among other areas) were the most successful. Same thing has been coming in MLB for years.
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The Rangers hired a recently retired player to run their Baseball Ops (Chris Young) a few years ago. One of the first things he did was hire one of his ex-managers (Bruce Bochy) to manage. Mr. Bochy had won multiple championships. Yet no one would even offer him an interview to manage because he wasn’t a stat geek….was out of touch. The owner gave Mr. Young a bunch of money to spend. The team won a championship their first year.
Yankees. Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman were running around in circles for years. They brought in Brian Sabean – who built those Giants teams – to advise them, Gee, suddenly they’re hiring good coaches, signing good FA’s, and making smart trades.
Brewers. Sure, they use stats. But look at how their players are coached up and expected to to play smart, fundamental baseball (or they’re moved). What bullpen coach Charlie Greene has done working with catchers is ridiculous. He straightens out veteran catchers that revert back to mediocrity when they leave. Young players that play the game correctly. Make pitchers that few heard of or were barley passable into solid perfumers.
Rays. Sure they’re big on stats. But watch the games. They’re constantly straightening out players they bring in with bad fundamentals into playing the game properly and producing to being a part of a winning team. They have a lot of new guys this year that are going through the transformation so it’s understandably a bit bumpy.
Terry Francona. Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti were chasing their tails for years. Francona had squared away the Red Sox using stats and meshing that with fundamentals. He came over and completely squared away the Guardians. Now working with the Reds FO to do the same there.
The wrong way. Orioles Where to start…..
Drafted great, Moved position players up through the minors. Can’t play fundamental baseball. Have a great overall 3B. But they have what should be a 3B (even Brooks Robinson thought that’s where he would wind up) playing SS, so they have a SS playing 2B…..and neither are particularly good at it. They had one of the best – or the best – record in MLB in mid-2024 when suddenly they traded one of their team leaders that apparently was inured. Fundamental Rule #1 in team sports: ‘Don’t Mess With Good Team Chemistry’. The Orioles have been a .500 club since that trade, and are on their way below it. They have been moving out the veterans from a contending team. Gave their jobs to young players that don’t play the game properly and hadn’t earned it. They’re below .500. Imagine that. Then there’s the pitchers. The media created the narrative that they had to sign a big-name starting pitcher for $150-$250m. Like that was going to square away their pitching situation (the national sports media are simplistic thinking [sic] morons). At present the Orioles HAVE 6 (6) STARTING PITCHERS ON THE IL (Don’t ever remember anything like this). MLB is a sport that evolves around a teams pitching (and not one or 2 pitchers). Add in a young OF that has spent more time on the IL for running into walls and sliding into 1B – over single plays that didn’t really mean much – than he has on the active roster. Think there might be a fundamental problem?
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It’s a joy to watch the Giants and Brewers play this year. Enjoyed the game against one another last night and look forward to the rest of the series.
And somehow a 4.37 ERA seems to be except able? Geez
I remember when Samuel commented that Jorge Mateo was the greatest athlete he’s ever seen in baseball.
Depends o what you’re looking for. Bello had a 3.66/3.67 from July-Sept last year.
What scare me about Bello is that he has a 1.80 ERA but his SIERA is 4.30. I wouldn’t say he’s an All-Star yet. It looks like we should expect some serious regression coming.