Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Glasnow returns:
After a strong first season in Los Angeles last year, right-hander Tyler Glasnow hasn’t been able to give the Dodgers much due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder that’s limited him to just five starts in 2025. That’ll change today, as Glasnow is slated to be activated for this afternoon’s game against the Brewers, scheduled for 1:10pm local time in Milwaukee. Glasnow posted a rather pedestrian 4.50 ERA in his five outings before going on the shelf and has struggled to an 8.31 ERA in his three rehab outings at Triple-A, but he remains one of the game’s most overpowering pitchers when healthy. Glasnow’s opponent will be veteran southpaw Jose Quintana, who has a 3.44 ERA through 12 starts this year.
2. Schlittler to make MLB debut:
The Yankees recently lost right-hander Clarke Schmidt to what is likely to wind up being season-ending Tommy John surgery. Schmidt’s 3.32 ERA in 14 starts won’t be easy to replace, but the Yankees are calling on Cam Schlittler to try and fill the void. The 24-year-old righty has looked quite good at Double- and Triple-A this year, and it was enough for the Yankees to have him start against the Mariners in his big league debut at 7:05pm local time in New York. His opponent will be fellow rookie Logan Evans, who has put together an excellent 2.96 ERA across eight starts with Seattle while filling in for various injured pitchers throughout the season. Schlitter’s addition to the Yankees’ roster still hasn’t been announced, so corresponding moves to create room on the 40-man and active rosters will be necessary.
3. Red Sox to activate Yoshida:
It’s been an unusual year for Masataka Yoshida, who underwent shoulder surgery during the offseason and has been sidelined ever since—even though he was healthy enough to hit. Yoshida hadn’t been able to play the field to this point in the season, and with Rafael Devers at DH on regular basis that meant the Red Sox had no room for him until he was ready to play the outfield. All of that changed once Devers was traded to the Giants last month. Roman Anthony had been serving as the club’s DH since the trade, but Yoshida has been on a rehab assignment and is expected to be activated for a home game against the visiting Rockies, scheduled for 7:10pm local time. Boston’s opponent today will be right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who has a 6.57 ERA in 86 1/3 innings of work this year. A corresponding move will be needed to activate Yoshida. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reports that outfielder Nate Eaton has been sent to Triple-A already, though that move hasn’t been formally announced.
Time for Yoshida to earn his money. If Cora intends on him playing some outfield, trading either Duran or Abreu seems imminent. The starting pitching market will be very costly,as usual. After losing another starting pitcher the Yankees will be desperate.
He’s not ready for the outfield. He’ll be platooned at DH
he played outfield during his rehab assignment
Why would the Red Sox want Yoshida in the outfield when Rafaela, Abreu, Duran, Anthony, Refsnyder are lightyears better with the glove, even if Yoshida’s arm was fully healthy!
The ONLY reason for Yoshida to play D is to legitimize leaving him on the DL over half the season when he could hit. That said, with Devers as DH, there was no room on the Red Sox until now.
You must have glossed over the part where he cannot currently throw a baseball.
Amazing how quickly Yoshida recovered after the Devers trade, it’s a miracle!
Well it will be great to see a very good contact hitter like Yoshida join the team, and very interesting to see who gets benched vs RHP. Right now it seems like Duran would be the odd man out.
Meaning Duran will be the one to lose playing time or be traded?
Lord – The overwhelming feeling throughout baseball is he will be traded.
Until then, I think he will sit more against RHP than any of the others (Anthony, Rafaela, Abreu, Yoshida).
FPG – I dont really want to trade Duran.. That said, i had an interesting idea.
Lets assume the Sox are in very clear sell mode. Lets also assume that Yoshida does a good job of being a serviceable player and hits .270/.310 with 3Hrs until the deadline.
Do you see a buyer for a Duran/Yoshida package? Maybe Houston or Toronto bites on eating Yoshida’s salary?
Sad – Why would they trade both Yoshida and Duran? As long as one is traded, there’s no need to trade the other. They can always DH one of the 4 remaining outfielders against RHP.
No contender will trade for Yoshida after just a couple weeks of games. I think the plan is showcase him through the rest of the season, then trade him in the offseason.
FPG – Remember, i said “clear sell mode” so, 2025 season is over.
Without the two of them your OF is l. to r. Anthony, Rafaela, Abreu, with Refsynder as fourth. The Password is knocking on the 2026 door.
No one is taking Yoshida’s 2026 and 2027 $36mm on its own, now or in the off-season.. This may be the only chance at unloading that money and paying Bregman
If you cant do that, i’d stick with Duran and his $8mm for next year
@FPG Yoshida is Luis Arraez-lite. I don’t think any team will trade for him when they can just sign Arraez as a FA.
@YBC Arraez and Yoshida are extremely different players. Both are LHHs who have strong contact skills but Arraez takes it to the extreme at the expense of all power and walks while nearly eliminating strikeouts.
Yoshida is a well-rounded hitter with average power and the ability to draw walks. He’s not an 18mil/yr guy, but he’s the guy most of MLB expected him to be.
They also play different positions (the hate on Yoshida’s defense is due to the failing of OAA to accurately judge Fenway’s LF and the presence of GG defenders on the Red Sox roster).
YBC – True! I think if Yoshida can stay healthy, it would be 2022/2023 Arraez though …. not the 105 OPS+ Arraez.
Unfortunately it does appear Duran will be the one to either see less playing time or even get traded. I really pull for the kid and his success bleeds down the line-up. Lou says it all the time “As Duran goes, so does the team.” Personally, I would dangle Abreu in trades and keep Duran. It sucks that a very poor decision to sign Yoshi to such a bad contract has created such logjam on the current roster.
The longer theory is that they’ll force Yoshi into games as a showcase to trade him and his contract.
It all goes out the window if they don’t stay hot during their upcoming schedule. 13 games vs the Rays, Cubs, Phillies and Dodgers all coming up. Kennedy even said it,.. if they stay in the race, the FO will be aggressive in adding to the roster. If they go 3-10 over that stretch, Boston be selling at the deadline and fighting for another .500 season.
swan – Yeah I’ve been a Duran supporter since Day One, going back to the Tapia grand slam and the vax controversy. I really do think all the trade talk has hurt Duran’s game, and he will likely improve after the deadline.
As for Kennedy, I wouldn’t believe a thing he says. He flat out lied 2 years ago when he said the same thing, if they play well and stay in contention they’d be rewarded with good additions …. they did play well and stay in contention, but there were no additions.
@FPG it’s actually quite the opposite.
Yoshida was good to go as a hitter back in March yet it took a full month after the trade to get him back into the lineup.
The set-backs in his throwing program really threw a wrench in things.
WCS – The arm injury excuse was a sham, a farce. They declared him to be an outfielder with an arm injury only as a reason to keep him off the active roster.
He was injured all of last year too, so why didn’t they IL him?
Because last year Raffy was a 3B, not a DH.
Shortly after the Devers trade the Sox announced Yoshida was suddenly healthy and would be “fast tracked” to the active roster. Not a coincidence, as there were never any reports of recovery progress until after the trade.
That kind of roster manipulation needs to be addressed in the rules of the game,
@FPG your conspiracy theory doesn’t hold water:
– why did they put infielders in the OF in multiple cases last year while refusing to play him there?
– why was he hitting during spring training, when they knew Devers was the DH, if they were going to do this all along?
– why did they wait for over a month to activate him after trading Devers?
– why wasn’t his agent and the players union forcing the Red Sox to activate him in April (as they would in any other fake IL situation for a player on a guaranteed salary).
– How did the get the extremely cynical and driven Boston reporters to go along with reports of a surgery that wasn’t real?
– how did they get the same press to make up articles tracking his progress (and failings) in his throwing program?
The Red Sox have been consistent in saying that Yoshida could hit, and he was hitting, before being shutdown because he couldn’t throw (this is well documented) and there was no opening for him to hit in the lineup.
Fake injuries don’t happen to players on guaranteed contracts because the contract is guaranteed and the player has no reason to ‘play ball’ – they can easily force their way out while collecting the entire paycheck and the union would make sure this happens.
There were reports of Yoshida’s recovery progress, and set backs, all throughout the season. You can go back and read them at any time. MassLive was consistently updating where he was atb and I read each article that popped up.
WCS – Again I’m not saying he was 100%, I wrote as much recently somewhere here.
What I’m saying is he could have managed part-time in left field. Lots of players play with injuries. Hell Pedroia played the last two months of the 2007 regular season AND the postseason with a bone fracture in his left wrist.
To your first question, that’s how Cora operates …. if he doesn’t want you playing a position, you’re not gonna play that position unless it’s an absolute emergency situation.
He did it with Story his first year, refusing to allow him to play shortstop when Xander didn’t.
He did it with Raffy this year, refusing to allow him to even fill in for Bregman.
You want proof with Yoshida? Well here it is.
beyondthemonster.substack.com/p/red-sox-outfielder…
“Meanwhile, the Red Sox maintained all season long that Yoshida not playing the field was not related to physical issues. Alex Cora said that Yoshida not playing the field had more to do with the abundance of outfielders on the roster.
“That’s not the reason he was only the DH,” said Cora. “The first game of the season, Willy wasn’t playing. It was O’Neill, Rafaela, Duran. We had the other guys. I think we accomplished a lot of things playing those guys in the outfield. Our defense was better, and Masa did his thing as the DH.”
There ya go, a direct quote from Cora. And Yoshida also made it clear he was not happy with not being allowed to play any outfield last year.
There is absolutely no way Yoshida was gonna be activated before the Raffy trade.
I followed along, I know he was shut down for a few days when he had a cortisone shot etc etc.
They simply had no place to put him, which is why many of us were hoping Raffy would play first base so that Yoshida could be activated.
To be fair I feel like the reporting has been pretty consistent all along with respect to the issue being he was ready to hit and not play the field. That’s kind of an issue for a guy whose role was expected to be on the field. However, now with Devers no longer clogging DH, it opens up that spot to be clogged by Yoshida.
I agree with you that nobody is going to trade for Yoshi based on a week or two worth of AB’s – unless he somehow looks like peak Bonds during them – so I’m not sure what the answer is. I really don’t want to trade Duran. I’d be amenable to including Abreu as part of a deal for another stud pitcher, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table so I’ve been letting go of that idea. And Ceddane is legitimately breaking out so forget him going anywhere.
They’re also playing so well right now I’d be very hesitant to mess with things just to try and justify the foolish contract they gave Yoshi. The kids plus Story seem to have really been taking to the show of confidence that this is their team now and really running with it. Honestly, a few things that have transpired since the Devers trade have made me realize I was overreacting to it. Still hate to salary dump that big of a bat amidst a playoff push, and the team still handled the situation very poorly with their dishonesty and terrible communication skills, but the fact that the guys on the team required no explanation from Breslow, plus this tear the offense has been on, plus hearing things about Devers continuing to be lazy in SF – okay, fine, I will admit I was wrong to look upon the trade as an unforgivable sin. The clubhouse seems to be just fine without him. But trading Duran would just go and piss me off again so I really hope they don’t choose that route.
It’s a shame, because like Story I have no beef with Yoshi the player. He seems like a good dude and not a clubhouse diva. They just gave him way too big of a deal for what he realistically is. I don’t think he’s inherently a negative, but if they force him into a ton of at bats to try and stir up some trade interest this winter that could be where you see Yoshi’s presence start to present a problem.
I think for now, maybe the answer is ease him into playing time by just using him to spell guys here and there when someone needs a day off, and if he does well with those ABs you can look at expanding his role. They need to be prepared for the answer to potentially be that we may have to salary dump him while eating a good amount of retained money.
Dirty – Good post!
I don’t see any scenario where Yoshida is not the DH against every RHP. He could be against righties what Romy is against lefties.
As for his throwing, they publicly stated he wouldn’t be activated until his shoulder/arm is 100% healthy, knowing full well:
1) Many players will play an entire season despite not being 100% healthy
2) Even if he was 100% healthy, he was never going to be a starting outfielder as long as Abreu/Duran/Rafaela were all healthy.
The Bregman signing was the only reason they “decided” Yoshida was suddenly an outfielder again and therefore “needed” to stay on the IL. If Devers had remained at 3B, Yoshida would have started the season as the DH.
Right. Had to keep up the pretense of him being an outfielder. I agree he never justified a starting OF spot over the in-house options, but it seemed he wanted to play the field and they wanted to at least let him believe he was going to get a chance to. Whether that was a white lie intended to keep the peace in the wake of them publicly rocking the boat with Devers, or more outright dishonesty, who knows for sure.
For Yoshi’s part I’m sure at this point he just wants to play even if he’s at a stage in recovery where that means he is not going to be taking the field in any capacity. The Red Sox are known to be a little shiesty with their DL usage, so they have basically played their part perfectly in order to keep him stashed until a point in time that was more convenient to activate him.
The Sox rotation has become a strength of this team,like many , including myself thought it could be . Crochet is an all-star, Giolito and Bello have been real good the last month or so. Fitts has been performing well,even Buehler had an ok start. When in there Dobbins has been acceptable. Not sure what to expect from Houck. I don’t want the Sox to ship either Duran or Abreu and prospects for a #4 or 5 starter. A #2 , yes.
cdc – When you thought the rotation would be a strength, did you really think it would be because of Dobbins and Giolito instead of Houck and Buehler? I don’t think anyone expected Houck and Buehler to be as bad as they have been.
Regardless, I really like Crochet/Bello/Giolito/Fitts as a 1-4.
Sox will likely get a nice return for either Abreu or Duran, but I’m guessing it will be mostly prospects coming back. Because it will likely be a contender looking to acquire Abreu or Duran, and contenders typically don’t create a hole to fill another.
Fever – I never “got” the idea of them trading Priester. That was foolish. And I saw Houck’s minor league stats. That guy has something wrong with him. Or he’s on the verge of being this generation’s Steve Blass or Rick Ankiel.
let – Yeah I don’t really want to speculate as to Houck’s issues. Some have said Bailey’s influence led to short term success last year and now teams have the book on him and have adjusted.
Whatever the cause, it’s a shockingly fast fall for him.
The organizational pitching philosophy that i have been hammering here all year ruined Houck, almost got Bello, screwed up Quinn Priester and is currently messing up Kyle Harrison.
bostonglobe.com/2025/07/05/sports/red-sox-player-d…
Priester has never held it together for very long in his career. He had a good stretch this year, but in 2 of his last 3 starts, he hasn’t lasted 5 innings. He doesn’t miss bats and is still averaging quite a bit less than one strikeout per inning which doesn’t favor long-term success. Harrison was getting hammered in SF before he was traded to Boston. So, it is not surprising he hasn’t worked out his problems in his short time in Boston so far.
Let’s wait until they have some success against teams not named Colorado and Washington.
They have a very tough schedule leading into the trade deadline.
Rays
(All star break)
Cubs
Phillies
Dodgers
Twins
(trade deadline)
Twins are the only team below average in terms of runs/game.
That is an extremely tough schedule coming up. Very telling. Hopefully with Bregman and even Yoshida the offense will continue to hit. I am concerned about the 1stbase and catching offensive production. I don’t think you can expect Narvaez to keep up with his 1st half production. Can the pitching keep up the strong string they got going on.? Especially against improved competition.?
Traded Devers to get Yoshida in the lineup, so now Duran or Abreu have to go to get Anthony in the lineup.
???????????????
It’s all fan talk, just moving hot air around the room. Pay no attention.
It depends on if the team is happy with playing Rafaela at 2nd base (or SS with story at 2nd) against RHPs. That’s the only way to keep Rafaela, Duran, Abreu and Anthony all in the lineup.
Rafaela has 14 OAA and 13 DRS, so not playing him in CF for 60%+ of the time will be rough.
Rafaela is not going to play 2B. Like you stated, Rafaela’s value comes from playing CF.
Troy – Trading Devers was to get out from under a $300,000,000 contract for a 29 year old with two bad shoulders who was starting to look like a cross between Bartolo Colon and Pablo Sandoval (the original fat panda). That contract would have made the $280,000,000 for Xander Bogaerts look good.
The trade was NOT so that Yoshida could play, but as a result of the Red Sox wanting to redeploy the money elsewhere. That is from several sources who have access to Breslow.
I thought it would be Crochet and Buehler as #1 & # 2 . With Bello finally settled in as a #3 ( strong 2nd half in 24) Houck (yikes) and Crawford. I will take Crawfords 2024 season from a #5 starter every year. I really think Bello has benefited from not having the pressure of being the #1 option. He was the opening day starting pitcher last year.
Seriously, why trade ANYONE? Because they have too much of something? And not enough of something else? Not really. So, stay the course. And when they win the World Series THIS YEAR and Cora is manager of the year and Breslow is executive of the year, you’ll see.
hayzee – I once had 3 girlfriends at the same time, they were all great.
I traded 2 of them because you can’t expect them to sit around doing nothing. It just doesn’t work longterm, same as having 6 players for just 4 positions.
Ah, yes. The Wade Boggs. I haven’t seen such execution of the strategy in a while.
I’m with Hayzee here though. It seems easier to teach Yoshida or Anthony 1B than to trade anyone.
Troy – Not sure if you’ve ever heard of a guy named Ozzy Osbourne, he was a singer back in the day who was notorious for hooking up with women on tours despite him having a wife.
One night he brought a groupie back to his hotel room while he was on tour, they undressed and went into the bedroom where Ozzy discovered his wife there ….. he forgot she was accompanying him on this particular tour.
At least Wade was smart enough to remember when Debbie was with him on the road!
What would we do with willie mcgee?
Keep them all, give each guy a game off a week. It’s a great problem to have. With Eaton (who has done well) demoted for the Yoshida move, Hamilton needs to go when Bregman is activated (Mayer primary 2B with Romy G as backup and Rafaela as emergency IF). Then Boston has one of the deepest position-player rosters of any WC contender.
Just heard on the radio the Sox are interested in Joe Ryan. This is a guy who would be a fantastic addition to the team. It will cost a ton .Just turned 29, cannot be a free agent until 2028. Probably would take some combination of Duran/Abreu & Password,Arias,and or Tolle , I would assume. Not all , but some of the Sox big time prospects Campbell?? Had to be considered. What do you think FPG ?
Dave Dombrowski would be pulling the trigger on this type of deal.
Will Clark laying into Devers is very telling. I heard Will Flemming’s story about it and was skeptical. Then I heard Clark’s response. Maybe the return was not great, but this is a trade that had to be done. And I’m glad it was done as a Sox fan. True colors coming out. It’s a shame as Devers was a home grown favorite of mine since I 1st heard of him playing for Greenville. If you’re not part of the solution , you are part of the problem. LFG Sox.
Yoshi is getting activated now because the Sox are facing 5 straight RHP before the break. Teams manage differently in July, especially when they are on the bubble. The Sox need to take 3 of 4 from TB and stocking lefties makes sense, even if Ceddanne, hot as he is, becomes a late defensive sub. After the break, they will put the best lineup on the field until July 31st, and some guys losing ABs over 2 weeks isn’t a major concern.
Bigger question to me is when Bregman comes back do you option Marcelo or Hamilton?
Regarding trades – I love all the OFs, but Abreu would seem to be the odd man out. Problem is Sox biggest needs are 1) top-level SP, 2) 1B slugger, or 3) backup C (Wong is toast). Abreu could fetch a starter as he has multiple years of control, but is too valuable for temp options on the last 2. You could trade Duran but I hope they don’t – he is a freak athlete and when he gets going the whole team gets going.