Here are four things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Phillies scuffling:
The Phillies got swept by the Pirates over the weekend, and that crushing series was the latest in what’s been a very tough stretch for the club. Philadelphia has lost five games in a row and nine of their last ten contests. It was hardly a week ago that they were vying for first place in the NL East with the Mets, but now they’ve fallen 4.5 games back in the division and are clinging to the final NL Wild Card spot, just one game up on the Cardinals. The schedule isn’t doing them any favors in the short-term, either: they’re set to start a three-game series against the Cubs tonight, and while club ace Zack Wheeler (2.96 ERA) will be on the mound he’s coming off an uncharacteristic start against Atlanta where he surrendered six runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. Will he be able to turn things around tonight against Chicago and southpaw Matthew Boyd (3.01 ERA)?
2. Angels roster move incoming:
The Angels acquired first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. from the Giants last night, but he’s not yet been officially added to the club’s active roster. That could come as soon as today, and when it does the Halos will need to send one of their current players out to make room. It’s possible that could mean optioning a bench piece like Scott Kingery or Matthew Lugo, but it’s also fair to wonder if Jorge Soler could be ticketed for the injured list after he was pulled from Saturday’s game due to groin tightness and missed Sunday’s contest entirely. Regardless of who departs the roster, the move should help balance Anaheim’s outfield mix somewhat given that Wade is a left-handed hitter who can complement the Angels’ entirely right-handed outfield.
3. Pérez returns to Marlins:
The Marlins will welcome right-hander Eury Pérez back to a big league mound for the first time since Sept. 2023. Touted as perhaps the top pitching prospect in the sport prior to his 2023 MLB debut, Pérez suffered a UCL injury during spring training 2024 and missed the entire season as a result. He’s been on the mend for the first two-plus months of the 2025 campaign as well but has now pitched 22 2/3 innings with a 1.99 ERA during a minor league rehab stint.
Pérez debuted at just 20 years old, so the towering 6’8″ righty only turned 22 a couple months back. His debut in ’23 was electric, featuring 91 1/3 innings with a 3.15 ERA, 28.9% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate. Opponents could barely touch Pérez’s offspeed and breaking pitches, and he averaged 97.4 mph on his heater while missing bats at rates commensurate with some of the top veteran starters around the game. Pérez is on the 60-day IL, so the Fish will need to make a 40-man roster move to reinstate him for tonight’s start on the road against the Pirates (set to begin at 6:40pm ET).
4. Series Preview: Dodgers @ Padres
Two of the NL West’s top dogs are set to clash in a three-game set that begins today as the Dodgers head down to San Diego. Los Angeles is clinging to just a one-game lead over both the Padres and the Giants in the division race, which could make this series pivotal for all three clubs. A strong showing for the Dodgers could allow them to stay out in front, while an upset by the Padres could let them wrest control of the division. The Giants, meanwhile, are off entirely today and have what should be a fairly easy set against the Rockies coming up later in the week. That could make them the kings of the hill by the time the dust settles if their two rivals split this series.
The first game in San Diego will begin at 6:40pm PT, when Dustin May (4.09 ERA) takes the mound for the Dodgers opposite Nick Pivetta (3.16 ERA). The Dodgers have not yet announced who will take the ball against right-hander Dylan Cease (4.72 ERA) tomorrow, but the series will wrap on Wednesday with southpaw Justin Wrobleski (7.20 ERA in three outings) facing off against right-hander Randy Vásquez (3.69 ERA).
The Phillies are a joke. Same thing every year. No clear plan to obviously solve their problems. They’ll probably lose 2-1 again today.
All phans seem to lose their minds when the team goes through a rough stretch. The Phils are hardly a joke as an organization. Whining and grumping is in our DNA given our illustrious history.
The lineup is the big problem and the only thing good in it – Kyle Schwarber – is a free agent in November.
As an organization, I agree. Enviable. However, this year’s team has more flaws than the last several, starting with the Alvarado-less bullpen, including a bottom five outfield and overrated hitters in Realmuto at this stage, Stott and arguably Bohm, due to borderline power numbers.
Dark – I’m not a phan, but your skepticism is unwarranted. They are without Nola and Harper, those are pretty big injuries.
Same thing every year? You mean making at least the NLDS like they do every year?
Phillies have no outfield.
Minimal position player depth.
Bullpen is weak.
Teams lose stars and they still keep winning.
Phillies lost 9 of 10.
Phillies are not trending up.
Major: Those are 10 games out of 162. The concern comes from having the losses bunched together.
MLB – Over the course of a 162 season even the best teams will have losing streaks.
Mets went 10-25 last year, made it to the NLCS
Dodgers went 1-6 and also 2-7 last year, won the WS
Yankees went 5-16 last year, made it to the WS
I agree with you the Phillies lack depth, but depth doesn’t matter if you can keep your best players healthy. You think the Yankees would be AL pennant favorites without Judge?
It’s good to follow trends, but they can change at any time. Look at the Angels sweeping the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium, or the ChiSox sweeping the Marlins in Miami.
Baseball is very unpredictable.
Nola can’t hit worth a F___. He hasn’t been able to pitch either, but it’s the lineup that’s the issue.
Heels – It’s temporary. When Harper is in the lineup they’ve got 3 guys with an OPS+ over 120 ….. that’s pretty darn good.
In fact their offense is Top Ten in MLB.
The Phillies have half a dozen guys in their lineup every game with an OPS that begins with __6__.
That’s what total failure looks like. If the first number of your OPS is a six, you suck.
Heels – OMG you are too funny!
As of right now there are 14 TEAMS with an OPS that begins with a 6.
Including the Padres, Guardians, Royals and Giants ….. all contenders.
Only the Padres can be considered a contender.
The Royals are an absolute abomination.
The Phillies have the 10th best team OPS in MLB.
You need to stop letting those pesky facts get in the way of a preferred narrative.
This, of course, also applies to our current national discourse, where alternative facts rule the day.
Anyone talking about the bullpen being the problem needs a good hard smack. The Phillies have plenty of bullpen.
Six runs in three games against the Pirates. Reminds me of the Mets sweep of them earlier. Plenty of other teams can plate runs against the Mets but not the Phillies.
If you can’t hit, you can’t win.
Let’s hope the Phillies struggle some more against the Cubs! Need a series win after losing 2 out of 3 against the Tigers!
As a reds fan I disagree
As a Reds fan, I would think your username would be “Wire to wire 1990.”
More importantly to the Cubs, they need to get 2 of 3 or give up the tiebreaker to the Phillies at season’s end. Phils won two of three at Wrigley earlier.
You just never know whom you may end up tied with, and for what playoff spot, at the end of the year.
Cubs have not been playing their best baseball either but have been fortunate with a fairly easy schedule the past several weeks.
Happ hasn’t looked very good since coming back from the IL. Tucker has ran into a power outage leaving it up to Suzuki and PCA more often than not to carry the offense.
I personally think Counsell needs to move Happ out of the leadoff position and either put PCA or Nico there. Then take the chalks off the running game and let guys really start putting pressure back on the opposing battery.
Go Tigers!
GOP: Ditto. Taking two out of three from the cubs showed who the better team is
The better team in early June. October is still 4 months away….
It just showed who played better in two out of three games, which is a pretty trivial amount of action to determine the better team.
How do you split a 3 game series?
One team takes 2 games, the other takes 1 game.
2 to 1 is a series win/loss. Splitting means equal wins. I believe the author was attempting to convey that if neither LA or SD sweep and SF sweeps COL then they would at least be tied with LA for 1st.
Go Giants!
If we want to get pedantic, you could “split” a series 3-0, the word only implies a distribution of wins and losses.
In baseball the context has always meant an even number of games. If you say LA and SD split a 4 game series it’s always implied that each team won 2 games. “LA and NY have split the first 4 games of the World Series” – has always meant 2-2, not 3-1.
One win each; the third game is rained out after 5 or more innings with the score tied. It never gets completed due to scheduling or weather complications, and the result if it were completed would have no effect on the playoffs.
Wake me when it rains in San Diego, Cap’n!
1 suspended game
Let’s GO Padres!!!
Duck the Fodgers!
LFGSD
Phillies are 1-7 when Harper doesn’t start.
bb – Interestingly, according to his wife he’s 1-7 when he finishes.
Padres need to start hitting, or this isn’t much of a series.
Dan – Xander will come up big, he always does … especially when he goes head-to-head against his buddy Mookie.
regarding the Giants who are playing the Rockies, Nick Deeds said “That could make them the kings of the hill by the time the dust settles if their two rivals split this series”. I doubt the Padres and Dodgers split the series since they play an odd number of times (3 times). Unless a rainout is being assumed, one team will win that series.
He didn’t say “evenly split”.
ha, ok. But if the Dodgers win 2 of 3, then it renders the prior statement untrue. In that scenario at best the Giants would be tied for 1st or a half game out not kings of the hill.
Still early, but the AL wildcard race seems like teams have little separation in quality to handicap (Cle, Minn, KC, TB, Sea….Toronto surprising in positive way, Boston/Texas in negative way but with talent to go on a late hot streak).
cws: It’s mind boggling how far out of their divisions Atlanta, Arizona and Baltimore are. Who would’ve thought it?
Phillies are a mess of cheeks and doo doo, mostly cheeks. When is Topper going to put the goods on ownership and make them bring up the big guns: I’m talking Roman Quinn, Donny Sands, Shed Long. Harper needs to retire, and its time to fire Joe Torre.
That sounds like a fun acid trip.
Incredible how much the padres pitching is carrying considering 3 of the top guys are hurt and caese has been mid af.
Here’s how you fix the Phillies:
Phillies acquire:
-Mike Trout LF (6/$210M – Phillies take on the entire contract, in lieu of giving up a top 5 prospect – but Anaheim does take back Walker, essentially covering 1/2 of Trout’s contract this year and next)
-Reid Detmers LHP (Phillies pitching coaches/analytics team might be able to get him right)
– Caden Dana RHP – he’s one the Angels top prospects, but he’s a RP – so DD adds another arm & bat to package)
Angels acquire:
– Taijuan Walker RHP (2/$36M – slides into the #4 spot in the rotation, if he pitches well Angels could have a reasonable trade chip this winter. Quality vet for a rebuilding club)
– Mick Abel RHP (#6 – the main prize for parting with a franchise icon)
– Michael Mercado RHP (#23 – Angels get a local guy in this trade as well, could provide innings down the stretch when they clean house)
– Johan Rojas CF (more the adequate young & fast stop gap CF for a rebuilding team. Addel moves back to RF)
– Gabriel Rincones Jr. OF (#10 – Angels going to need some slg after trading Trout and eventually Adell, GRJr. has intriguing raw power)
– Otto Kemp INF (#18 – former undrafted FA is quite a story, leading the international league in HR’s & OPS+ before his call up. Angels like the versatility that the CA native provides around the diamond)
This deal would also create a 40 man roster spot, in which the Phillies add Justin Crawford and select his contract to MLB squad.
Lineup:
1. T. Turner SS
2. K. Schwarber DH
3. B. Harper 1B
4. M. Trout LF
5. A. Bohm 3B
6. N. Castellanos RF
7. B. Stott 2B
8. JT Realmuto C
9. J. Crawford CF
Bench:
– R. Marchan C
– E. Sosa INF
– M. Kepler LF/RF
– B. Marsh OF (when the Red Sox trade Durran to the Padres, we could offer Marsh + Max Lazar (hypothetical) for Aroldis Chapman & Vaughn Grissom.
Rotation:
1. Z. Wheeler
2. J. Luzardo
3. C. Sanchez
4. A. Nola
5. Ranger
6. A. Painter (AAA – break glass in case of emergency)
Bullpen:
CL J. Romano
CL/SU A. Chapman
SU O. Kerkering
SU M. Strahm
SU C. Dana
MR T. Banks
MR S. Johnson
If you made it this far, congratulations.
@AC Surf – I have noticed quite a few around here with similar symptoms, but you have a rather serious case of Trade Idea Tourettes Syndrome (T*TS).
One of the notable indicators is that every trade idea involves at least six plus players (this was a particularly busy one), makes little sense for either side and could not possibly occur in the real world.
Start simple and build from there. If you want Trout, look at the risk, the contract and the reward…of course he has a NTC but ignore that for now. What is his current trade value? Pretty darned negative. Upside down by at least $100M if one is an optimist that he will be a bit healthier over the next five seasons than he has been in the past six seasons, and that his performance isn’t cratering as the past 3 seasons would indicate. There is your starting point.
Haha that’s a good one. Personally, I think it’s the only way to steal the headlines. People are thinking Eagles already. Let Trout represent the Angels one last time at the Allstar game – then make the trade official. Anaheim and Philly play the very 1st series after the AS game, at the Bank, against his former team. Now there’s away to get people to stop talking about the Eagles. And with all the chaos on the west coast, Trout has to want to get out of there. Angels are a dumpster fire and they should finally, finally finally pull the plus and rebuild. Send a message to the Phans and salvage the damn season.
Yup – clearly stealing headlines is far more important than figuring out how to run the organization.
its that time of year, as far as Trout goes, there is a lot of pressure in Philly, if he brings his big contract over and doesn’t produce, he will be dogged in his hometown for the rest of his life.
Trout has a no trade clause, Id stay in LA, Neto and Schanuel are both good players, O’Hoppe is a good catcher, Adell has started to hit a little — Rendon off the books in ’27, If they can get Arnold in the draft, that sould be a big addition.
That’s the funniest thing Ive read all week thanks for the laugh.
Padres offense has been struggling. Pitching has been carrying them. Hopefully the offense can get it going.
1) Forget 2025. The Phils are not a world series caliber team. They have one of the best starting rotations in baseball, but that only lasts for 6 or 7 innings a game. After that, an incompetent bullpen undoes everything the starting rotation accomplished. What’s more, the Phils have no consistent or sustainable offense. Great pitching is nice, but you can’t win games without runs. Just as the Phils couldn’t win a world series with a starting rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt, and Blanton for lack of run production, the 2025 Phils will not be able to do so either.
2) The Phils are an aging team that needs a major infusion of youth. So, to salvage something from the 2025 season, the Phils should create an endangered list of players who have overstayed their welcome in Philly and start bringing up some young prospects.
3) The Phils should play Kemp at 2B and platoon Stott and Sosa at SS. If Kemp does not show signs of being ready for prime time, Miller should replace him and play SS with Stott and Sosa moving to 2B.
4) Turner needs to be moved to LF.
5) Crawford has to be brought up to platoon with Rojas in CF.
6) The Phils need to find a closer and additional catcher just to make 2025 respectable. It would be nice if they could trade with the A’s for Miller and MacIver.
7) If the Phils can’t find a lights-out closer, that role should go to Abel for the rest of the season. The guy is averaging 2 Ks an inning. What more do the Phils need from a closer? He can return to the starting rotation next season.
8) Endangered List: Kepler, Rojas, Marsh, Realmuto, Marchan, Schwarber, and half of the pitching staff – starting rotation and bullpen.
9) Schwarber should absolutely be traded before the trade deadline while he still has maximum trade value. He does have 20 homers this season and has improved his batting average to .252, but he also has 73 Ks and 116 runners left on base in 65 games. With time, his stats will revert to the mean, leaving a .230 lifetime hitter with 35-40 home run potential each year, but also 200+ K potential, an unacceptable number of runners left on base each year, and the inability to contribute defensively at any position. Extending him 4 more years at a projected cost of $100 million would be conveniently disregarding the team’s more pressing needs and budgetary constraints. Now is the time to trade him.
10) The front office has to get real about the kind of players they need to bring to Philly after this season. As they’ve learned, expensive doesn’t necessarily equate to successful.
11) The Phils’ fans and media have to get real about the importance of leadership on a team. Professional athletes should know what their job entails and how to come to the field every day prepared to do their job. If every player understands their job and does nothing more than play to the best of their ability, clubhouse leadership become much less important. A professional team needs one leader – its manager, and not a few self-appointed players who talk a lot in he clubhouse and have the ear of the sports media to perpetuate their leadership roles. If a team lacks leadership, maybe it’s time for a new manager.
I request all the great Angelinos to please stay in LA to protest and avoid stinking up Petco Park
“Meanwhile” has to start the sentence, not come in the middle between commas. And there shouldn’t be a comma before “either.”