Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Sproat to debut:
The Mets are expected to bring right-hander Brandon Sproat to the big leagues this Sunday. He’s ticketed to start Sunday afternoon’s game against the Reds in Cincinnati. A second-rounder in the 2023 draft, Sproat made it all the way to Triple-A during his first pro season last year and this year has spent the entire season at the level. In 26 appearances (25 starts) with Syracuse this year, he’s posted a 4.24 ERA with a 22.1% strikeout rate across 121 innings of work. Sproat joins Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong as pitching prospects who have come up to help impact the club down the stretch. The Mets already have six pitchers in their rotation, but it appears that the club may be considering asking veteran righty Kodai Senga to accept being optioned to Triple-A. That would open up a spot in the rotation for Sproat, but it’s also possible that Senga refuses to be optioned. Regardless of what happens regarding Senga, a 40-man roster move will be needed to accommodate Sproat’s promotion.
2. Brewers IL move coming?
The Brewers are set to place one of their relief pitchers on the injured list, according to a report from MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. Manager Pat Murphy declined to say who that was they’d be placing on the shelf, but he did describe him as a “significant” reliever. McCalvy went on to note that both Abner Uribe and Jared Koenig warmed up during yesterday’s loss to the Phillies, which would suggest that neither of them is currently injured. That would seem to indicate that the injured player is Nick Mears, who has a 3.42 ERA in 59 appearances with Milwaukee this year. The specifics of the situation will become more clear later today when the club makes a roster move prior to today’s game against the Pirates. Robert Gasser and Chad Patrick are among the more interesting names who could join the club’s pitching staff to fill the vacated roster spot.
3. Series Preview: Blue Jays @ Yankees
A series with major consequences for the AL East is set to start later today as the Blue Jays head to the Bronx for a three-game set against the Yankees. Toronto currently has a three-game lead over New York, meaning that a sweep by the Yanks would bring them into a tie for control of the AL East. Veteran right-hander Kevin Gausman (3.75 ERA) will take on rookie Cam Schlittler (2.61 ERA in nine starts) in game one later today, followed by a match-up between Luis Gil (3.68 ERA in six starts) and Max Scherzer (4.11 ERA in 13 starts) on Saturday. The series will wrap up Sunday with Chris Bassitt (4.10 ERA) on the mound opposite southpaw Max Fried (2.98 ERA). It’s a series that could also have big implications for the Red Sox, who will be in Arizona facing the Diamondbacks this weekend and could gain ground in the standings if they manage to pull off a sweep while their two divisional opponents split the series.
Toronto is good, the Yankees unsteady. Let’s see how the home plate umpire and Boone get along.
And neither team has a bullpen.
Jays bullpen at least got a day off Thursday. Boone will probably use Bednar every game the rest of the season!
Get rid of that pipe loser!!
Boone likes to try to intimidate the guys in black, but everyone knows that, so they just throw him out / his game is getting OLD… The umps are just waiting becuz they know it’s coming … Jays bats need to get hot, but their “D” makes the yanks “D” look look silly… should be a good series…
The Bad News Bears make the Yankees D look silly.
@Joe…….
I was surprised to hear you say Yankees D. In 2025, is there even a resemblance of D in New York?
@Dogs for Hire
“In 2025, is there even a resemblance of D in New York?”
There are lots of D’s in New York. ;o)
Y’all didn’t see Boone caught the Astros cheating again Thursday night. Umpires actually confiscated an Astro bat that was discolored on the trademark.
Cheating? C’mon we all know the Trashtro’s NEVER EVER cheated! 😭
@Floridacoach 2
NYY have a DRS value of 31, 3 below Toronto’s 34. NYY are ranked 11th by DRS.
Yankees are way below the Jays on range and fielding run value.
TOR: 35 DRS, 5 OAA, 34 FRV
NYY:31 DRS, -12 OAA, 4 FRV
@terrymesmer
Yes, but TOR is built for defense first so it’s actually expected that TOR should be good. Jomboy even did an episode on it and NY isn’t as bad as people make it out to be, despite not being built for defense.
The Jays defense was great throughout much of the year but has really taken a step back in recent weeks. A lot of errors and poor play lately.
The Jays as a whole have really slowed down since the all-star break. Both the offense and the starting pitching are hit and miss. Some nights one or both show up, others they don’t. The bullpen is completely torched and unreliable, giving up multiple runs pretty much every night
The Jays were like a finely tuned race car driving laps around the competition. Now 3 of the wheels have come off and the entire team is trying desperately to balance on the one remaining tire, attempting to roll that last tire over the finish line before everyone passes them and they collapse into a pile of broken dreams, missed opportunities and collective disappointment.
The Jays swept the Yanks a while back when they were on a roll and NY was struggling. This feels like a payback series for the Yankees.
@Canuckleball
I wasn’t expecting NY to take 2 of 3 from HOU, since they have been terrible against tough teams this year but maybe that short period of beating up on easy teams gave them some new life and they’re back at it. It will definitely be a competitive series. I don’t see any blowout games happening. Toronto’s not a pushover.
>A lot of errors and poor play lately.
They haven’t looked as sharp. But…lot of that going around. Since the trade deadline, Jays rate #1 by FanGraphs Def metric:
TOR: 4.1 Def (#1)
NYY: -2.2 Def (#12)
Boone loses games based on his decisions….and he does so repeatedly. Case in point: Devin Williams in high-leverage scenarios.
Same for not pinch-hitting for Volpe.
Okay I hafta ask …. how can you split a 3-game series?
Each team wins one game and then they play the 2002 All Star game for game 3.
One team wins a game, the other wins two.
He didn’t say split evenly, even though, when reading it, that is what many assume.
Canuck – In the baseball world, these are the only things than can happen for every series …..
1) Sweep the series
2) Get swept in the series
3) Win the series
4) Lose the series
5) Split the series
In my many decades of baseball, I have never heard anybody involved in baseball refer to a series win or series loss as a “split” ;O)
Even AI gets it. LOL!!
“What is a Split?
A split happens when the series doesn’t have a clear overall winner because the games are divided equally between the two teams.”
Also from AI:
“Yes, something can be split unevenly; “unequal parts” refers to dividing something into portions of different sizes, either by quantity or value, often in a way that reflects varying contributions or needs. For example, a cake can be cut into slices of different sizes, or a number can be divided according to a specific ratio, like splitting $10 into a 1:3 ratio where one person gets $2.50 and the other gets $7.50.”
I agree in baseball terms, split generally is assumed to mean evenly split. But the word split does not literally have to mean evenly, therefore the writers statement was factually correct, even if not commonly understood as such.
Canuck – We agree, a writer writing a baseball article on a baseball website did not use baseball terminology.
The Guardians must be relieved to have salvaged a split of their 3-game series with the Sox this week ;o)
@Fever Pitch Guy
Your team should be aiming to sweep every series. Anything less is a failure in my opinion.
So series can only be split if there are an even number of games. Otherwise, it’s one team wins the series or one team sweeps the series. Need a word for winning 4 out of 5. Hmm.
York – Why exert the energy when they’ve already got a playoff spot clinched? Especially the pitchers, they need their rest.
And yet Story is on pace for like 160 games …. now who woulda thought THAT!
@Fever Pitch Guy
I get it. They don’t make pitchers like they used to. Good ol’ Farmboys don’t exist anymore. We’ve got kids playing ball 24/7 365 but no focus on overall strength training. Kids need to be doing more than just 1 sport their whole life.
But, in terms of a business, these teams know they control the market so fans will continue to support them and young players will always want to compete to join the MLB. Burn through the arms and bring the next guy up. Huge supply low demand.
hayzee – Winning 4 out of 5 would be “Dentist Majority”.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Winning 4 out of 5 is still a failure. Can’t let the opponent beat you.
York – Baseball is a game of failure.
The best teams in baseball still lose 38% of the time.
The best hitters in baseball still make outs 7 out of 10 times.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Unfortunately, that is a very Liberal perspective on life. What is life worth living if you are failing more of it?
4 of 5 is a Gentleman’s Sweep.
They put a dentyne into the lead.
York – Hitting is not life.
When hitting, somebody has to fail …. either the pitcher or the batter.
In life, you can succeed without causing others to fail.
And we all know what people who step on others to climb the ladder are ;O)
The Jays/yanks 3 game set didn’t prove anything / yanks were stealing signs/ but it’s allowed – jays outhit yanks 8-3, yanks with two errors , 5 jays struck out , 13 yanks got struck out, jays were 1-for/ 12 RISP…Yankees won 4-3, Jays sat Bichette, Barger, and Varsho, their bench had 65 homers sitting out …
One win each.
One rainout.
Game never gets played.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Schroeder’s cat. The series is split and not split at the same time.
Saint – I didn’t even know Ricky Schroder had a cat?
@Fever Pitch Guy
Auto correct is 99.9% the best thing invented. This is the 0.1% of the time it sucks.. LOL
Given that the Yankees are the biggest cheaters in the history of baseball, Toronto just needs to drill a dozen or so of their players, win all three and send them packing with half the team on the IL for the rest of the season. That would be good.
In all fairness to Boone, who is a nut, some of the dumpiring has been awful. But it helps to set up the game fixing that MLB insists on in the postseason.
Have you told mother?
Quoth the Raven, nevermore.
C’mon Brew Crew hold it together! Rub some dirt on it and keep grinding, you’re not done yet.
Murph gonna f it up. Best hitter, Yeli is out. So he sits Turang and Frelick??? They just had a day off! We can’t waste a Peralta start. Yesterday’s loss is on him.
We’re up 5-5.5 games these days. You can expect lots of rest days for these guys until the end now. All they have to do is play around .500 ball and everything will be ok.
Schlittler!
Yankees took the series against the Astros, really didn’t expect them to beat them in their own house. Against the Blue Jays, I really don’t know what team wins.
Also, the umpiring in the Astros series was just wild, both sides got terrible calls.
Cincy has to sweep the Mets to have any chance of catching them or SD for final WC spot. Up to them or SF to go on an unlikely heater to disrupt what looks like the established 6 NL playoff group.
Belli is opting out of his Yankees contract.
Pay the man whatever he wants to keep him, give him whatever contract he wants.
I agree Belli has been invaluable. If he wants a 7- or 8- year deal, that may give me some pause although he can play 1B.
5 or 6 years for Bellinger would be okay I think. Grisham has been great, and super clutch so it’s going to be an interesting offseason for Cashman.
Grisham needs to also be kept on the team, no question about it.
I feel like Sproat best suits the Mets’ as a replacement for Helsley – who has been GDFing awful. They need a 7th/8th inning bridge to Diaz. I think he’ll have better success throwing 1 or 2 IP than 5+.