As the 2025 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Strider to return from IL:
The Braves officially welcomed right-hander Spencer Strider back from the injured list earlier this morning in preparation for his start against the Blue Jays later today. It will be Strider’s first big league start in just over a year after he underwent UCL surgery in April of last year, causing him to miss nearly the entire 2025 season. The righty was among the very best pitchers in baseball from 2022 to 2023, with a 3.36 ERA, a 2.43 FIP, and a 37.4% strikeout rate in 318 1/3 innings of work.
During the 2023 campaign, Strider led the majors in strikeouts and wins while leading his league in FIP en route to a fourth-place finish for the NL Cy Young award. A performance on that level would go a long way to helping the Braves, who have stumbled out of the gate to a 5-12 start, get back into the race for the playoffs. Strider’s first opponent will be Toronto right-hander Chris Bassitt, who has looked excellent through his first three starts of the season with a microscopic 0.98 ERA in 18 1/3 innings.
2. Schmidt to return from IL:
Strider isn’t the only righty returning from the injured list today. The Yankees are expected to activate right-hander Clarke Schmidt from his own IL stint. Schmidt opened the season on the shelf due to rotator cuff tendinitis, but the issue was a fairly mild one as he’s back in action after just a couple of weeks. That’s great news for a Yankees rotation that lost ace righty Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery before the season even began and will also be without reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil for at least the majority of the first half. Marcus Stroman recently went on the injured list as well due to a knee issue, leaving the Yankees with a patchwork rotation that features Carlos Carrasco, Will Warren, and Allan Winans alongside Max Fried and Carlos Rodon.
Schmidt should help stabilize things in his age-29 campaign. The righty made just 16 starts last year due to injury but was brilliant in those limited appearances, with a 2.85 ERA and a 26.3% strikeout rate across 85 1/3 innings of work. The right-hander’s first start back from the injured list will come at Yankee Stadium against the Royals. His opponent will be southpaw Kris Bubic, who excelled in a relief role last year and has found great success after moving to the rotation so far, with a 0.96 ERA and 2.59 FIP across 18 2/3 innings of work.
3. Rockies youngster to make MLB debut:
When the Rockies placed Kris Bryant on the injured list yesterday, they selected the contract of catcher Braxton Fulford to replace him on the roster. The 26-year-old was a sixth-rounder in the 2021 draft but spent the majority of last year at the Double-A level. With just 15 games of experience at Triple-A, Fulford had yet to make his big league debut. That’s set to change, however, as manager Bud Black told reporters (including MLB.com’s Andres Soto) last night that Fulford will make his big league debut in today’s game against the Dodgers. Assuming Fulford is starting behind the plate, he’ll catch longtime Rockie German Marquez in the first MLB game of his career. Currently, Fulford is the third catcher on the Rockies’ roster alongside Jacob Stallings and Hunter Goodman, but it’s possible a strong performance out of the gate could earn him more playing time going forward.
I find it a little weird for a 26 year old to be described as a youngster
26 looks pretty young to me
Welcome back Schmidty!
Insert: Depends on where you’re looking from.
50
26 is still a a baby. I don’t care if you are married and have 3 kids at 26, you still have a lot to learn about life at that age.
Anyone under 50 is a “kid” to me.
Carlos Carrasco has amazingly put in some good innings.
ERA notwithstanding, Cookie has been serviceable not allowing opponents to run away with games. I’m glad to have Schmidt back taking over for Stroman.
@bwmiller79- Cookie’s been great, hopefully Stroman goes on the IL.
Stroman is already on the IL. Winans will likely be cut loose again.
If Strider can get into the 6th or go 6, Braves win easy and start a nice 6-8 game winning streak to get right back in the division race
Tyler Soderstrom is on pace for 72 HRs! Move over Mark McGwire.
By far my best fantasy waiver wire pickup so far! lol
I find it odd that there is nothing on this site about Bregman going on paternity leave and the Red Sox not moving Devers back to 3B for the 1-2 games he will be gone.
I don’t know.
Chris Cotillo had an article out about it last night. They are calling up Sogard to play 3B instead.
@Baseballisthebest
Devers is a DH not a 3B man.
I know that. He always has been. With all the news on here about him saying no to moving to DH this spring you would have thought there would at least be a mention of him not getting to play 3B for the 1 game Bregman will be on maternity leave. Instead there is crickets.
I don’t think Devers has touched 3rd base even one time in the calendar year 2025.
Probably because Devers learned to not say anything and instead go through team channels and with his translator present, which is the smart play.
Bryant pulled a Rendon and straight up quiet quit on the Rox after he signed his huge contract. 1 RBI in 39 AB this year out of 4/5 spot. Genius move to dump Nolan only to sign that turd for the same amt per year…
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say he “quit” on them–back injuries are bad ones for anyone, including athletes. Though, from years of watching Bryant with the Cubs, he has always had an oddly passive affect about him; he never seems to be hustling. I never could figure out whether he really wasn’t, or he was but that was just his style. I wasn’t sorry to see him go. Not unlike a similarly diffident Cub, Sandberg, he had a couple of very good years and then coasted on his inflated reputation from then on. They were good players, not great players, from the start.
🙄
Bryant has a degenerative health condition. For one, he has dehydrated discs in his spinal column which don’t grow back among other physical ailments. I’m pretty sure he could’ve medically retired a few years ago with full pay without repeatedly going to through rehab.
“Turd” is wrong. Here’s the reality for the guy. The shock absorber pads between his vertebrae have lost their hydraulic fluid. This decreases their shock absorber effectiveness and reduces their physical height. Reducing their height means all the ligaments holding the spine bones together are now loose, as opposed to tight and strong. This looseness leads to spine vertebrae moving back and forth instead of being stable. Running just behind and being protected by the vertebrae is a filthy big thick nerve called the spinal cord. When the vertebrae move back and forth they are constantly pinching and prodding the big nerve and its branches. Nerve pain is the worst pain. The guys future probably holds having big rods put in his back to hold it together.
It’s not of his doing.
It’s of his doing in that he chose to be a professional athlete as a career choice. But if he had chosen guidance counselor as a vocation instead and still would have developed a vertebrae condition then I guess your point stands.
How was he to know his back would age early ? He was probably tracking just fine when that decision was made.
The questions should be around what went down with the Rockies and Dr Boras.