Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Astros roster moves incoming?
The Astros got hit with a double whammy on the injury front yesterday, as both center fielder Jake Meyers and right-hander Cristian Javier exited yesterday’s game due to back and shoulder injuries respectively. There’s likely to be some roster shuffling as a result of those injuries today. In particular, Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle notes that outfielder Taylor Trammell was scratched from the Triple-A lineup last night as Meyers is expected to head to Houston for imaging. That would fairly cleanly replace Meyers on the roster, but it leaves open the question of how the Astros will handle the potential loss of Javier. Hunter Brown is already on the injured list, and the club was seemingly planning to go to a six-man rotation in the coming days. Spencer Arrighetti, Colton Gordon, and Jason Alexander are among the options at Triple-A who could be asked to take up a rotation role moving forward.
2. Rockies going streaking:
The Rockies didn’t enter the 2026 season with much hope for a successful campaign on the field. It will take more than the first couple weeks of the season to change that perception, but the club has put together a bit of a winning streak with wins in each of their last four games to pull them up to .500. That keeps them out of last place in the NL West and makes them the only club in the division besides the Dodgers with a positive run differential. All of that leads into a series against the division rival Padres that opens today wherein Colorado could have a chance to pull themselves into a winning record and perhaps even sole possession of second place in the division. Those efforts will start tonight at 6:40 local time in San Diego when right-hander Randy Vasquez takes the mound for the Padres against an as-of-yet unnamed Rockies starter, though Chase Dollander is expected to get the bulk of today’s innings.
3. Tigers looking to avoid sweep:
Meanwhile, the Tigers entered the season with lofty expectations but have gotten out to a rough start this year. They’re 4-8 to open the season this year, putting them tied for last in the AL Central alongside the White Sox. That’s in large part due to a rough series against the Twins, who have won three straight against the Tigers. Today, Detroit will be looking to avoid a sweep while the Twins will try to finish the job with Mick Abel on the mound against veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty. That game is scheduled for 12:40pm local time at Target Field in Minnesota. Both have struggled badly so far this year, with a 7.56 ERA in two starts for Flaherty while Abel has posted an 11.05 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work. Will one be able to get back on track today?
Mick Abel has been interesting I was definitely expecting more but his 4.96 FIP is definitely better and I still think he puts together a good year going forward.
I’m the extremely pessimistic twins fan. Not sure how you see the light on Abel in his small sample size. Never an era under 4 in the minors. Whip of 2.9 this year. Reliever at best imo
According to this article, the Twins have won three straight games against Minnesota. Fascinating.
Hey, you know the age old saying:
You must first learn to beat yourself before you can learn to beat others…
no, wait, I think that was love. my bad.
I think I can speak for most by saying I hope Jason ” George” Alexander gets the call up. The comments are always hilarious for those posts.
A little too soon in the season for The Summer of George.
With the Rockies, the starting pitching has been great with a couple of hiccup games. The bullpen has been arguably the best in the game thus far. Most of the new arrivals have been good with the exception of Jake McCarthy. The real struggle are with holdovers like Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle. They are 6-6, but could easily be 10-2 because 4 of the losses were by one run. And the best part is that these games don’t look fluke-y. The Rockies are playing with a confidence that I haven’t seen in a long time.
My Rockies so inspirational
It’s amusing to see writers place such relevance on a team being .500 on W-L and run differential after just 12 games in a 162-game season.
Consider that the Rockies were never .500 at any point last season and didn’t win their 6th game til may 1st and you can see why they are making a big deal. It’s a marked improvement, even if it’s a small sample