Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world as we head into another weekend:
1. Acuña to return:
The wait is finally over for fans in Atlanta: the Braves will be back to (mostly) full strength today when they activate outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. from the injured list. The 27-year-old superstar and 2023 NL MVP hasn’t taken the field in nearly a fully calendar year after tearing his ACL last May, and the Braves have struggled somewhat in his absence. The club made the playoffs by virtue of a tiebreaker last year but went on to get swept out of the NL Wild Card series, and after an 0-7 start to the 2025 season they’ve only recently clawed their way back to a .500 record. A career .289/.379/.525 hitter, Acuña should certainly help with the offensive woes in Atlanta amid lackluster seasons from Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II as well as a PED suspension for offseason signee Jurickson Profar.
2. Roster overhaul in West Sacramento?
The A’s are in a tough spot. The club worked hard to try and revamp their roster over the offseason for their first year away from Oakland, and while the early part of the season saw them flirt with contention, they’ve now crashed back down to Earth with nine consecutive losses. It seems as though that losing streak might be a cause for a shakeup to the roster; outfielder Denzel Clarke is reportedly on his way, and while that move by itself wouldn’t constitute a major change to the roster ESPN’s Jeff Passan teased the possibility of more moves to come as the A’s try to get things back on track. Will the roster look substantially different by the time they face the Astros next week — or even the Phillies this evening?
3. NLCS rematch in Queens:
The reigning World Series champions are coming to Queens, and for the Dodgers and Mets that means a rematch of last year’s NLCS. The Dodgers, of course, ultimately prevailed in six games last time around, but both teams made substantial upgrades in the offseason. The series starts tonight at 7:10pm local time in New York with longtime Dodger Clayton Kershaw on the mound for his second appearance of the season. The Mets will counter with Griffin Canning, who has a 2.47 ERA through nine starts. Saturday will see Tony Gonsolin (4.05 ERA) make his fifth start of the year against southpaw David Peterson (2.86 ERA), while Sunday’s game will feature Dodgers youngster Landon Knack (6.14 ERA) against Mets ace Kodai Senga (1.43 ERA).
Not much of a rumor post just a rehash of news releases hope u get as good as USA Today sports section just a day late
Does the CC on your paid account need to be updated?
His account name is self explanatory.
Welcome back, Mike Trout Jr. How many days till your next IL stint? Let’s hope he’s hustling 100% of the time on every play so he backs up his bark while he was on the IL.
Will be interesting to see how much Acuba runs, especially this season. Probably a lot less.
Dodgers sweep
*Dodgers weep.
Seems like they’ll need to average double-digits for that to happen. Pitching staff be wrecked….
Phils will say no.
Say a prayer for Kershaw. His 89 mph not-so-fastball might not be enough anymore.
Dude don’t have much left in the tank. Prolly be a spectator again in October….
To call this, a rematch of the NLCS is really overstating it. The Dodgers aren’t the team they were last October. At the point they’ll be lucky to get into the playoffs through a tiebreaker.
They’re definitely the same team they were at the end of May last season. When they got swept in Cincy during Memorial Day weekend, I dint think they had a chance in hail to get to the World Series, let alone win it. But here we are. Still wondering how it got done….
We’ll see, they were head and shoulders above everybody else in the NL West last year. That’s not the case this year.
San Diego was right there with em til the last week of the season. Had em on the ropes in the LDS. Then, it seems like the Dodgers just flipped a switch and went into cruise control….