It’s already a newsworthy morning, with one of MLB’s top prospects reportedly headed to the majors. Here are three more things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Seager to be re-evaluated:
Late last month, the Rangers lost star shortstop Corey Seager to the injured list due to a strained right hamstring. The club’s star came back after just a minimum stint on the shelf. Unfortunately, it appears he didn’t come back at full strength. He served as the club’s DH on the day of his activation from the IL and since then has played just four games in eight days. Evidently, Seager is still feeling the effects of his hamstring injury, and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that Seager will be “re-evaluated” today after missing yesterday’s game due to his hamstring tightening up while playing Saturday. Josh Smith has been filling in as the club’s shortstop on days Seager is unable to play and figures to continue doing so if Seager required another stint on the injured list.
2. Snell visiting with team doctors:
Blake Snell has made just two starts in his first season as a Dodger so far due to persistent soreness in his left shoulder. The southpaw was expected to return to action late April but instead wound up getting shut down from throwing entirely. In the nearly three weeks since, he has yet to resume throwing. Today, Snell is expected to meet with team doctors to determine next steps regarding his injury amid continued soreness in his shoulder.
The Dodgers have struggled to patch together their rotation without Snell (as well as Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, and others). Despite their impressive pitching depth, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dustin May have been the only consistent performers on the staff. Roki Sasaki is the only other Dodgers pitcher with even 20 innings as a starter, and though his future outlook remains bright, he’s struggled early on in his initial jump to Major League Baseball. Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Landon Knack round out a patchwork rotation at the moment.
3. Surging Cardinals go for 2025’s longest win streak:
The Cardinals opened the offseason by talking about a need to step back and focus on player development. An offseason of inactivity followed. Reliever Phil Maton was the team’s only free-agent addition, and the Cards spent most of the winter trying unsuccessfully to trade future Hall of Famer Nolan Arenado. The 2025 season was billed as a year of transition, creating opportunities for young players and scaling back the payroll.
All of that may end up playing out, but if the front office was eyeing a rebuild/retool, the players on the field seem to have other ideas. The Cardinals have rattled off eight straight victories, boosting their record to 22-19 and tying them with the Twins for the longest active streak in the majors right now. Minnesota is off today, but the Cardinals and Phillies square off this evening in Philadelphia at 6:45pm local time. The Cards will send red-hot lefty Matthew Liberatore (1.88 ERA, 27-to-6 K/BB ratio in 28 2/3 innings over his past five starts) to the mound against another impressive southpaw, Cristopher Sanchez, who’s been nearly just as good in that same span (2.39 ERA, 28-to-11 K/BB in 26 1/3 frames over his past five turns).
The current eight-game win streaks in St. Louis and Minnesota tie those two teams with the Dodgers for the longest streak of the 2025 campaign. If the Cards can rattle off a ninth straight victory tonight, they’ll improbably stake a claim to the top winning streak of 2025 in a season where they didn’t even appear fully intent on contending.
hmmm…. right now I have to wonder if Tony Gonsolin is the 2nd best starter on the Dodgers. And yeah, how ’bout those Cardinals.
Good on the Cardinals but I still think they’ll revert to being a 500 team. The division will go down between the Brewers and Cubs at the end. Cubbies need to not do their usual collapse at the end though…
I’ve learned to never bet against the Brewers … but they look pretty weak this year.
I can’t say I disagree @Across. Though I’m not quite convinced on the Brewers. If the Cubs keep running with it they’re certain to be active at TD.
These cubs are different this year
They’re giving off 2015 vibes again as a legit contender but their lack of pitching will be a huge problem if their bats go cold
Also this is kind of a last dance for them already because there’s no way ricketts pays for Tucker
5 games over .500, Same ass cubs
Cubs looked very ready to dominate but you may have heard they lost the two best starters to injury. That’s a problem for them especially with a weak bullpen. If Ricketts does not pony up to sign Tucker he has allowed the franchise to be set back several years with all they gave up to get him. Plus Wrigleyville is his piggy bank. I think he may shock everyone and extend him. If he gets to free agency, he’s gone.
I don’t think you can say that yet. The only bad team they’ve played is the Pirates. They’ve got a stretch of games now where they will play the Marlins (twice), White Sox, Rockies, and Nationals. They’ve also got a couple of series with the Reds. If they’re not 9-10 games over .500 by the time that’s done, then maybe you can say “same as Cubs”.
How about those Cardinals? I’d disagree, the Cardinals have the best pitching in the NL Central and JJ Weatherholt is coming soon.
And, having done that without any assistance from Walker and Gorman! The leash gets shorter on those two the better the other Cards’ play. Saggese and Prieto would bring more wins!
The Reds have the best team ERA and ERA+ in the NL Central right now.
5 games over could win the division. So .500 the rest of the way could be enough.
Its time to option Walker, he has been terrible.
I wasnt going by the numbers, it was an off the cuff assessment.
Sonny Gray got bombed yesterday, that hurts the team ERA but he’ll get it going again.
Bullpen threw 5IP of 2H 0ER 8K 2BB in his start yesterday, Cards erased a 5-1 lead and won that game 14-7 to take the series from the Phillies. Every player in the starting lineup got a hit and scored a run.
Cubs are strong favorite.
But Cards are above Brewers this year.
Brew – they are fortunate to have Gonsolin return to form. I wonder if he and May are on at least an informal innings limit?
May being in a contract year, should definitely think about not overdoing it as there doesn’t seem to be a spot in LA for him in 26 ala Buehler.
He could be an option on a pillow contract for SD in 26 if he wants to stay on west coast.
Ohtani, Yamamoto, Snell, Sasaki, Glasnow, Gonsolin, and the group of guys returning from IL and well, you can always expect CK to be back again, right?
Kershaw’s return is imminent.
Annual state of affairs.
Right now he is. And May is the 3rd.
The Cardinals 8-game winning streak just goes to prove the entire Cardinals Franchise would have been much better off if John Mozeliak had a hands off approach, like this season, with the team over the past several years as they went down hill.
…they had a 17 game winning streak in 2021 so according to your logic, John Mozeliak is the solution, not the problem.
As you’d recall, Mozeliak fired that Manager (Schildt) shortly after that winning streak put the Cardinals in the Playoffs and almost a National League Championship.
And why did he Fire Schildt???
Mozeliak said…A difference of Philosophy!
Schildt’s philosophy must have been pretty durn good!! Manager of the Year as a Cardinal, a 17 game winning streak and a strong run in the playoffs as a Cardinals manager, and Fired for it!!!
Now…… Schildt is Leading the Padres to Winning seasons with his Philosophies and the Cardinals, under Mozeliak, wants a rebuild and forget the 2025 season.
Obviously—- as Donovan stated before the season started —— “We can be competitive and win without a rebuild!”
And they have !!!
I might add they have been competitive without any positive leadership in
2025 from John Mozeliak at all.
It’s definitely time for Chaim Bloom.
uh oh, Donovan better watch having such a philosophical difference
I seem to recall the 2021 Cardinals getting bounced in the Wild Card Game. Going on that run to make the playoffs that year was great, but they were nowhere near becoming NL Champions that year.
Meanwhile, Mozeliak has never said the Cardinals are rebuilding. It’s partly because he believed enough in the team that he didn’t trade anyone away over the offseason (and only tried to do so with Arenado) that the Cardinals are competing so far.
Or they got fired up after taking a series from the Phillies and beat up on the lowly Bucs and Nats.
The Mets, I mean, not the Phillies.
True, the last six wins have been against bottom feeders Pirates and Nats. Keep it going against the Phillies and we can talk about the team being ready to compete in a middling division.
I think you gotta make some big moves. Going and getting Arenado was good. Trading for and then signing Goldschmidt was good. Getting Sonny Gray was good. But beyond the stars he could have left things alone. Signing guys like Lynn and Gibson is dumb when you have young talent ready for an opportunity like Liberatore, Pallante and McGreevy.
So making the playoffs for 4 straight years is considered going downhill? Yes, 2023 was terrible, but then Mozeliak did a great job going from 91 losses to a winning record last season in just one year.
Players play to win, front offices decide on the makeup of the team. Should be no surprise when pro ball players go on a win streak. Front offices should always put together a competitive team. Bud Black got hosed by his front office.⚾
I don’t think it’s all that surprising that the Cardinals have a competitive team. You field a team with a lot of younger players and there’s a lot of variance in the potential outcomes. This team could win anything between 72 and 92 games and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
It’s because the Cardinals still had a decent chance to be competitive that they didn’t trade guys like Helsley and Fedde in the first place and weren’t going to just dump Arenado for whatever they could get (wherever Arenado would accept going).
They dumped Goldie’s buddy who was the hitting coach and got someone putting in the work with the younger players. Also the emergence of Scott and Libertore as star players helps along with Nootbar and Donovan being fully healthy
Yeah, and Contreras is healthy again, Arenado has rebounded at least partially, they’re getting a full year with Fedde and Pallante in the rotation, Matz is finally both healthy and effective, Leahy has broken out in the bullpen (albeit with some others in the pen taking a step back), and they’ve got MLB’s best 7th starter (McGreevy) still on standby in AAA. Graceffo as the 8th starter has also looked really good when he was called up for a couple doubleheaders.
With the offense as good as it has been, it’s hard to believe that both Walker and Gorman have so far become even worse offensively than they were last year. Although, at least Walker’s defense has improved dramatically.
id assume smith stays at 1st and duran plays SS if seager goes to the IL
I don’t think so, I think Burger will come back up and Smith will play SS.
Cards now just one game behind the Cubs, while the Reds continue their free-fall towards the basement. The Crew shall improve with Woodruff returning from IL this week, I expect a nose-to-nose end.
Somebody needs to tell that one psychotic Cardinals fan that there’s an article about his precious team today
lol
Bob Nightengale says the Dodgers are going to go after Kyle Tucker in free agency this coming offseason.
Why haven’t we heard about it on this site?
You tell me.
There you are!
Because it’s May and we could speculate every team going after every player next winter, it doesn’t mean an article is needed
Bob Nightengale thought it was needed. He wrote an article about how the Diamondbacks and Phillies were interested in Ryan Helsley just a couple weeks ago. And this site thought an article was needed about that.
Believe what you want. This has been going on for years. Do you remember Brian Roberts? I do……
Because Bob “Bobby” Nightengale might be #1 in the “frivolous takes” department and #1 in the “talking out of my ass” brigade. [BTW why does my comment get auto-moderated for b#tt but not ass?]
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/phillies-diamondbacks-i…
Thats from 2 weeks ago. Was it frivolous then too?
A win is a win but have to consider 6 of 8 were against bottom feeders
I know the Rangers needs Seager’s bat but they gotta let his hammy fully heal and not chance a worse aggravation.
I know they lost the series vs the Rangers, but the Tigers are 57-28 in their last 85 games and people are still doubting them. Not sure why, but sure.
Future HOFamer??? A little premature there. Yes, he may well get in, because his defense is beyond amazing, but he is a “potential HOFamer” at best IMO.
Best not to annoint him yet, folks. I don’t see a sustained peak run that makes him a slam-dunk HOF guy.
Exactly. He’s not there yet. Until you get to 2000 hits, it is way too soon to call anyone a future HOFer. Of course it seems that Andruw Jones is going to change that even though he shouldn’t in my opinion.
With Scott Rolen inducted, I don’t really see any way Arenado doesn’t make it. I do disagree with one of your points though, 5 straight years of top 8 MVP votes and 10 straight Gold Gloves is a HOF level sustained peak run
6 straight Platinum Gloves, as well, and he’d probably have more if the Platinum Glove had existed before he started winning them.
Ah, sorry, my mistake. The Platinum Glove has existed for Arenado’s entire career.
Still, winning 6 of them is an MLB record that probably won’t be broken for quite a while.
If Arenado retired tomorrow he is a hall of famer. This is his age 34 season he’s definitely not done yet. He will get to 400 homers. 10 straight gold gloves. Easily a hall of famer.
No he isn’t. As of now, he is Vinny Castilla with better defense. He needs at least 2-3 decent years to get in solidly. He is not getting in with 1800 hits. He gets to 2200 and he is probably a lock, 2500 and he might even make first ballot, but as of today he is not there yet.
Nonsense. Castilla was a lesser player in every way possible. The fact is he is where he is and he’s only 34. If he retires today people would see his peak and he will get in because of that.
10 straight gold gloves. Best defensive 3b in the history of the game behind Brooks Robinson. He’s a hall of famer.
I dodn’t he was the same talent level as Vinny, who had a very commendable career BTW, but as of this day he has about the same offensive stats as Vinny. I guess a better comp with the whole picture would be Evan Longoria. Longoria is not a lock for the Hall. He might not even do more than hang around the bottom of the ballot for a few years. THAT is where Arenado is at this exact moment. As I said, 2-3 more years of decent stats and he will be a shoo in. But he is not a slam dunk HOFer right now in my book.
I kinda feel like we are agreeing on this: if he gets in, it will be due in very large part to his defensive prowress. If his career ended today, I would not vote him in. That said, I do think he is the best defensive 3rd baseman since Brooks Robinson, and he’s got a >50% shot at getting in. I just took issue with the article calling/proclaiming him a future HOFamer, full stop. That is an overstatement at present, and should have had a conditional word attached to it.
I don’t know how much it would hurt him, but do you think he gets any points taken away from him because of his demeanor?? The Colorado situation where he pretty much forced a trade, and seems prickly at times in St Louis. Is there any credence to the fact that he can be perceived as a selfish player and not much of a leader?
It could probably hurt him somewhat with the Colorado based writers, but I don’t think it really hurt him mainstream wise. He is not a friendly sort, but it’s not like he is Albert Belle or Eddie Murray or something.
Arenado easily gets in. Longevity matters, but the combination of offense/defense is elite at 3B. More so than Brooks Robinson comp. His career is far from over so his running stats will be there.
Arenado’s peak run was 2015-2019. He’s a slam-dunk first ballot, based on today’s voters’ standards, when you look at his complete body of work.
Adding 2022 to his peak score really helps, as well.
Snell may have the potential to pull a Jason Schmidt on LAD…as a former giant
He sure feels like a likely Hall of Famer to me. Vinny Castilla? Seriously?
Josh Smith is not at short: it’s Duran. Joc at DH. Burger at 1b. Smith riding pine
I love hearing bad news for the Dodgers in any case, but injuries are disappointing. I never root for a player to be injured not even on the teams I hate.