The league’s two highest-scoring offenses will face off this weekend. It’ll be the Braves taking on the … Nationals? Washington surprisingly paces the league in runs so far. MLBTR’s Leo Morgenstern dove into the Nats’ offense in this piece.
1. Cole, Caballero rejoining Yankees
Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole will make his long-awaited return tonight against the Rays. The six-time All-Star missed all of 2025 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. Cole cruised through 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball in his final rehab outing, striking out six. New York will also get infielder Jose Caballero back in the mix. The versatile veteran will return after a minimum stint on the injured list with a fractured finger. Outfield prospect Spencer Jones will head back to the minors to clear room for Caballero. Jones went 4-for-24 with 12 strikeouts in his first taste of the majors.
2. Valdez gets the call
Pirates prospect Esmerlyn Valdez is expected to be promoted for a series against the Blue Jays. He’ll take the spot of outfielder Billy Cook. Valdez is a consensus top 10 prospect in the organization. The 22-year-old has shown solid power in the minor leagues, including 26 home runs across two levels in 2025. Valdez has already popped 10 homers in 46 games at Triple-A this year. Perhaps more importantly, he’s trimmed his strikeout rate to a reasonable 21.1%. Valdez has mostly played the corner outfield spots with Indianapolis this season. He also has experience at first base. Valdez will be an option at both first and right field with Pittsburgh with Ryan O’Hearn sidelined.
3. Red-hot Guardians sweep sputtering Tigers
Cleveland beat Detroit on Thursday afternoon behind a strong outing from lefty Joey Cantillo. Recent trade acquisition Patrick Bailey launched his first home run with the club. The Guardians took all four games from the Tigers and have now won six straight and nine of 10. With the White Sox falling to the Mariners, Cleveland now has a 3.5-game lead in the AL Central. Detroit has gone in the exact opposite direction. The club has dropped six straight and nine of 10, sinking to last in the division. The Tigers had managed to stay afloat despite injury issues heading into May, with an even .500 record. The team is now 20-31 on the year. Detroit will look to get back on track in Baltimore this weekend.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Oehler of the Poughkeepsie Journal, via Imagn Images
Well Spencer Jones strikeout concerns proved legit in his quick sample of big league action. Hopefully he can work on his approach in the future but he profiles as a guy who would get tons of interest overseas if he can’t translate his success into the bigs.
Good series in Baltimore. 2 post season hopefuls that each need to show some signs of fight. After the weekend, one of the teams will be in a tight spot going into June.
Let’s go Orioles!
Baltimore and Detroit are in very different divisions though. The O’s are currently last in the East, 13 back of the division lead. The Tigers, while also in the basement of the Central, are only 5 games back of their division.
Obviously, there is still a lot of ball to be played. While the O’s are slightly ahead of Detroit in the wildcard standings, the reality is that Baltimore has a tougher mountain climbing expedition against divisional opponents while the Tigers have more of a stroll up a gentle mound in the meadow.
The Tigers are now 9.5 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central. With the way they’re playing nothing is “a gentle mound in the meadow.”
You’re right, my bad. I was looking at the wrong column (wild card not divisional standings)
Cole Caballero sounds like a beck album
Cole does look like he gets crazy with the cheese whiz these days
Drive-by body piercing
I’m always amazed that every year people don’t consider Cleveland a possible division winner. I think most of pundits had them 3rd or 4th in the Central. It’s early, of course, and they have dodged the injury bug to this point.
Source?