The Opener: Misiorowski, Alvarez, Skubal
The Marlins are baseball’s hottest team, as a six-game winning streak has brought Miami back to a .500 (35-35) record. Friday’s 8-3 win over the Pirates saw Sandy Alcantara allow five runs and a walk over eight innings of three-run ball, while striking out seven. Alcantara’s impressive start included his 1000th career strikeout, with 992 of those punchouts coming in a Marlins uniform. Ricky Nolasco is Miami’s all-time strikeout leader with 1001, so Alcantara figures to set a new franchise record perhaps as early as his next start.
1. Miz’s masterpiece
Jacob Misiorowski‘s dream season continued with one of the best pitching performances in recent memory, as the Brewers ace faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 shutout of the Phillies on Friday. Kyle Schwarber‘s fourth-inning single made him the only Philadelphia batter to reach base, and Misiorowski quickly extinguished the threat by inducing Bryce Harper to hit into a double play. Misiorowski recorded 15 strikeouts and needed only 94 pitches to finish his complete-game gem, and an absurd 58 of those pitches reached or topped the 100mph threshold. Misiorowski has a 1.34 ERA over 14 starts and 87 innings this season, and he has been charge with just one earned run over his last 54 1/3 IP.
2. Yordan goes yard twice
If Misiorowski’s pitching numbers look like something out of a video game, Yordan Alvarez is posting his share of unreal statistics on the offensive side. The Houston slugger is hitting .321/.433/.659 with over 305 plate appearances, and his 24 home runs are tied with Schwarber for the Major League lead. Alvarez’s 23rd and 24th homers came in the first inning of Friday’s 10-8 Astros win over the Royals, as Alvarez also became the first batter in Astros history to record six RBI in one inning.
3. Skubal returns
For the first time since April 29, Tarik Skubal will take the mound for the Tigers. The reigning two-time AL Cy Young Award winner is set to be activated from the 15-day injured list for today’s key AL Central game against the Guardians, capping off what seems to be a remarkable recovery. Skubal was expected to miss at least a couple of months after he underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow, but the use of the new “NanoNeedle” scope during the procedure appears to have shaved several weeks off of Skubal’s recovery time. While the Tigers are still just 29-41, Detroit has a 7-3 record in June, and the returns of both Skubal and Casey Mize from the IL create some hope that the Tigers can continue to dig themselves out of their early-season hole. And, if not, Skubal suddenly becomes the biggest trade chip in baseball heading into the deadline.
Chase Dollander Expected To Undergo UCL Surgery
The Rockies provided a brutal injury update on Friday night. Manager Warren Schaeffer tells Kevin Henry of The Denver Gazette that Chase Dollander is expected to require surgery to repair UCL damage in his elbow. The Rox haven’t finalized those plans yet, as Schaeffer indicated the righty has one more pre-operation appointment in the coming days.
Dollander has been out since the middle of May with an elbow sprain. They transferred him to the 60-day IL this afternoon when they promoted Sean Sullivan. Schaeffer indicated that while the team was initially optimistic that Dollander could avoid surgery, the injury hasn’t healed as they hoped.
It’s about as bad a development as the Rockies could have. Dollander is arguably the most player in the organization. The ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft, he has the highest ceiling of any pitcher on the club. Dollander struggled with Coors Field as a rookie. He had seemingly figured things out in year two, working to a 3.89 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents across 44 innings.
The Rockies used Dollander behind an opener early in the season. They had moved him into a more traditional rotation role shortly before the injury. Dollander had a couple clunkers — most notably a six-run outing against Atlanta on May 2 — but was clearly Colorado’s best starting pitcher. His four-seam fastball and sinker were both in the 98-99 mph range as he got swinging strikes on 12% of his offerings.
It was too small a sample to know if Dollander had truly arrived as a top-of-the-rotation arm. He’s the only Colorado pitcher who has anything close to that kind of ceiling. Assuming he undergoes surgery, he’ll be done for the rest of this season and a good portion of next year. An internal brace procedure usually comes with a 12-14 month return timeline. If he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction, there’s a chance he’ll miss the entire ’27 season.
The Rockies are trending toward a fourth straight 100-loss season. They’re very unlikely to be competitive next year either. The development of young players like Dollander is the primary focus for the Colorado fanbase as they remain near the nadir of their rebuild.
Dollander is under club control for the next six seasons, barring changes to the service time structure in the next collective bargaining agreement. He’ll collect an MLB salary and service time while he’s on the injured list. Colorado will need to carry him on the 40-man roster over the offseason but can place him back on the 60-day IL when Spring Training begins next year.
The Rox have arguably the worst rotation in MLB for a second straight year. Kyle Freeland, Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen and Jose Quintana are all going to hit free agency. Ryan Feltner will be back if he’s tendered an arbitration contract. Tanner Gordon, McCade Brown, Gabriel Hughes and Sullivan are also among those on the 40-man roster. They all profile as back-end or organizational depth types. They’ll need to completely overhaul the rotation next winter while trying to acquire any kind of controllable pitching in their deadline approach.
Weston Wilson Elects Free Agency
The Orioles announced that utility player Weston Wilson elected free agency. Baltimore designated him for assignment last week when they selected catcher Sam Huff onto the MLB roster. Wilson cleared waivers and was outrighted for the second time in his career, which allowed him to test the market.
Wilson had spent the last two months on Baltimore’s MLB roster. He got some work at third base, mostly against left-handed pitching. Wilson tallied 46 plate appearances, hitting .231/.348/.333 with one home run. He worked six walks against 11 strikeouts. It was a decent enough showing for a bench player, but Baltimore needed to carry a third catcher with Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo nursing minor injuries.
The 31-year-old Wilson is out of options, so the O’s needed to send him through waivers. It stands to reason they’d like to bring him back on a minor league contract, though he’ll have the opportunity to explore other opportunities. Basallo and Rutschman have both returned to the lineup over the last two games, so the O’s theoretically could reverse the weekend transaction and sign Wilson to a big league deal.
Before this season, Wilson’s MLB experience came exclusively in Philadelphia. He played three years for the Phillies as an up-and-down platoon bat, hitting .242/.328/.428 across 245 trips to the plate. Wilson was mostly a corner outfielder with the Phils despite Baltimore using him most frequently on the dirt.
Giants To Use Caleb Kilian As Closer
The Giants have named Caleb Kilian their closer, manager Tony Vitello told reporters before tonight’s game against the Cubs (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). They had used a committee approach but is moving to stricter roles in what has become a problematic bullpen.
San Francisco inexplicably made almost no moves of consequence to improve the bullpen over the winter. They had one of the better relief groups in MLB for the first half of the 2025 season. They traded Camilo Doval and impending free agent Tyler Rogers at the deadline. That opened the ninth inning for Randy Rodríguez, then amidst a breakout All-Star season. He blew out in September and required Tommy John surgery, making the bullpen a clear area of need going into the offseason.
They nevertheless eschewed all but the reclamation portion of the bullpen market. They claimed Reiver Sanmartin off waivers and added injury rehabbers Jason Foley, Rowan Wick and Sam Hentges for a few million dollars. Kilian was among a handful of arms brought in on minor league deals.
The bullpen was surprisingly effective early on, carrying the second-lowest ERA in the big leagues through the end of April. Things have gone off the rails since then, as only the Reds and Rockies have a higher bullpen ERA than San Francisco’s 5.35 mark since the beginning of May.
Kilian has generally been among their most effective back-end arms. He only allowed one earned run in his first 14 appearances. Kilian struggled in May, punctuated by a five-run blowup at Coors Field to close the month, but has tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings over six appearances to start June.
The 29-year-old was a Giants draftee whom they traded to the Cubs in the Kris Bryant deal. Kilian was hit hard in limited MLB action between 2022-24 and spent most of last year on the minor league injured list. He has already easily established a career high with 29 2/3 MLB frames this season, posting a 3.34 ERA and 26% strikeout rate. Kilian’s average fastball has climbed to 96.7 mph after sitting 93-94 during his stint with the Cubs. He’s missing more bats as a result but issuing a lot of free passes as well.
Kilian has already picked up his first four saves this year. They’ve been scattered over the past month. It now seems they’ll try to zero in on him for the ninth inning while using other leverage arms like Keaton Winn and Erik Miller earlier in games. Ryan Walker, who logged three saves in April, was recalled this afternoon after spending five weeks in the minors. He’ll pitch more in the middle innings but said his goal is to work his way back to the ninth. Walker was lights out in 2024 but had an up-and-down ’25 season and allowed 12 runs in his first 15 1/3 innings this year.
Marlins, Zach Pop Agree To Minor League Deal
The Marlins are in agreement with reliever Zach Pop on a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’ll report to Triple-A Jacksonville.
Pop signed a big league deal with the Phillies over the winter. He broke camp and made seven appearances over the first couple weeks, allowing three runs through 7 1/3 innings. Pop sustained a right calf strain on April 13 and spent the next few weeks on the injured list. Philadelphia decided not to put him back on the MLB roster once he was healthy, and because he’s out of minor league options, they needed to designate him for assignment.
After clearing waivers, Pop elected free agency last week. He now returns to Miami, where he began his MLB career as a Rule 5 pick in 2021. Pop pitched parts of two seasons with the Fish, posting an earned run average just under 4.00 across 74 2/3 innings. They traded him to the Blue Jays at the 2022 deadline.
Pop has since spent time with the Mariners and Mets in addition to his brief run in Philly. He has a lifetime 4.83 ERA over 169 2/3 frames. Pop gets a lot of ground-balls but doesn’t miss many bats, as he leads with a 96.2 mph sinker.
Royals Place Seth Lugo On Concussion IL
The Royals placed starter Seth Lugo on the seven-day concussion injured list this evening. Righty Eli Morgan is up from Triple-A Omaha to provide an extra bullpen arm for the time being.
It was a scary scene on Wednesday when Lugo was struck in the face by a comebacker hit by Brandon Nimmo. The ball came off the bat at 106.6 mph and hit him on the right side of his forehead. Nimmo, a former teammate of Lugo’s with the Mets, was equally concerned as the players on the Kansas City side and raced out to the mound to check on the veteran righty as soon as time was called.
Lugo immediately had a welt on his forehead but thankfully avoided the worst. He was able to leave the game under his own power. Manager Matt Quatraro said this afternoon that Lugo felt worse on Friday than he had yesterday (link via Drew Davison of MLB.com). He’s still dealing with headaches and increased head pressure. The seven-day IL is available whether a player has been formally diagnosed with a concussion or has concussion-like symptoms.
The Royals are now down three-fifths of their preferred rotation. Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic have both been out for a month with elbow issues. Bubic made a rehab start on Tuesday but reported some shoulder discomfort after that appearance, Quatraro told the K.C. beat. He’ll go for further testing this weekend before the Royals determine next steps.
Michael Wacha started yesterday’s series finale against Texas. The Royals will run Luinder Avila, Noah Cameron and Stephen Kolek for their weekend set with the Astros. They’ll either need a bullpen game or a new fifth starter on Monday for the beginning of a series in Washington. No one in the MLB bullpen has been built up to a rotation workload.
Mitch Spence, who has an ERA pushing 7.00 in the minors, is their only healthy depth starter on the 40-man roster. He’s starting for Omaha tonight, so the Royals clearly aren’t viewing him as a candidate for Monday. Their non-roster starters in the minors (e.g. Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Ramsey, Ben Sears, Henry Williams) have all struggled as well.
Braves Release Maverick Handley
The Braves announced they’ve released catcher Maverick Handley, who’d been on optional assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett. That opens a 40-man roster spot for Hurston Waldrep, who was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A. Atlanta also outrighted Carlos Carrasco yet again after designating him for assignment on Wednesday.
Waldrep has been out all season after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow at the beginning of Spring Training. The 2023 first-round pick had entered camp as a lock for the rotation after turning in a 2.88 earned run average through 56 1/3 innings. Waldrep’s injury was one of a number of Spring Training hits for the Atlanta pitching staff. Spencer Schwellenbach has yet to return from his own elbow procedure. Spencer Strider began the year on the injured list, while Joey Wentz tore his ACL.
The Braves have more than weathered those injuries. Chris Sale, as expected, has been fantastic. Bryce Elder has had an excellent season to stabilize the middle of the rotation. Strider returned in early May. Grant Holmes and Martín Pérez have gotten decent results despite middling strikeout and walk marks.
Atlanta has a reasonably stable five-man group for the time being. They’ve already bumped Reynaldo López to the bullpen. Rookie righties JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes are also in relief for the time being, the former after being recalled on Wednesday.
Waldrep figures to crack that group within the next few weeks. He just began a rehab assignment at the Florida complex before moving to Double-A Columbus yesterday. He went 3 2/3 innings and tossed 53 pitches. Waldrep was only two weeks into what could have been a 30-day rehab assignment. It’s not clear why the Braves elected instead to activate him to the 40-man roster just to have him continuing building up with Gwinnett.
The righty was being paid an MLB salary and accruing service time while on the 60-day injured list, even on the rehab stint. That’ll no longer be the case while he’s in Gwinnett. The salary savings for the team are marginal, however, and there’s no particular reason for service time to be a factor. Waldrep had 103 days of MLB service entering the season. He has already topped the 69 days he needed to surpass the one-year threshold.
Whatever the rationale, Waldrep will probably be back up before long. He clearly has a higher upside than Holmes or Pérez if he’s at full strength. Waldrep will burn his third minor league option year if he spends at least 20 days in Gwinnett, but the Braves would likely be granted a fourth option next offseason because of his limited professional experience.
The procedural move pushed Handley off the roster. Atlanta claimed him off waivers a few weeks back after losing Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin to injury. They immediately optioned him to Triple-A as a third catcher behind Sandy León and Chadwick Tromp. The Braves subsequently swapped in Austin Wynns for Tromp.
They’re still light on catching depth for the next few days, but Baldwin is set to begin a rehab assignment tomorrow. Handley wasn’t providing any short-term insurance regardless, as he landed on the Triple-A injured list last week. If he clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent. The 28-year-old has otherwise spent his entire career in the Baltimore organization, appearing in 17 MLB games over the past two seasons.
Rockies Promote Sean Sullivan For MLB Debut, Move Chase Dollander To 60-Day IL
5:03pm: The Rockies announced Sullivan’s promotion. To make room, they shifted right-hander Chase Dollander to the 60-day IL and optioned lefty Sammy Peralta to Triple-A. Dollander has been down with an elbow sprain since May 15. He will now stay on the shelf until at least July 15.
12:57pm: The Rockies are set to promote pitching prospect Sean Sullivan, according to Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. Sullivan will start tonight against the Athletics and make his major league debut in the process. The lefty is not on Colorado’s 40-man roster, which is currently full. Thus, a corresponding move will be needed in order to select Sullivan’s contract.
Sullivan, 23, was the Rockies’ second-round draft pick in the 2023 draft. He currently ranks as the organization’s No. 11 prospect, according to MLB.com. Sullivan fared well in 20 starts between Single-A and Double-A last year, posting a 2.94 ERA in 104 innings with a 24.9% strikeout rate. He’s been less fortunate in 2026, with a 5.60 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A.
The 6’4″ Sullivan is a bit of an oddity in terms of his raw stuff. He throws a four-seamer 41.0% of the time, but the pitch only averages 89.0 MPH. Sullivan mixes in an upper-70s slider 29.9% of the time, plus a changeup and cutter at 14-15% each. The changeup is Sullivan’s best pitch, while scouting reports rate his fastball and slider as slightly below-average. Despite the low velocity, Sullivan generally thrives by leveraging pinpoint control and a deceptive, low three-quarters arm slot (video courtesy of MLB.com). He walked just 6.0% of hitters in the minors last year and has walked 7.7% of hitters at Triple-A in 2026.
Sullivan will now have a chance to prove himself in the big leagues as a control and deception guy. Tonight’s game is at Las Vegas Ballpark, the hitter-friendly home of the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate. If he sticks around for multiple starts, Sullivan could then try his luck at high altitude, with the Rockies hosting the Red Sox at Coors Field from June 22-24.
Rockies starters have performed poorly in 2026, as is seemingly the case every year. The rotation’s 5.94 ERA is dead last in the Majors and 26% worse than average even accounting for the games at Coors. No Rockies starter has thrown enough innings to qualify, with Tomoyuki Sugano just barely missing the cut at 68 1/3 innings. Sugano’s 4.08 ERA is palatable but well shy of his 7.39 xERA, which shows he’s been extremely lucky. Michael Lorenzen and Kyle Freeland are the only others to throw at least 50 innings. Both have ERAs over 7.50.
Given those underwhelming performances and injuries to other starts, there’s little harm in calling up Sullivan. Chase Dollander, one of the team’s more promising arms, has been out with a right elbow sprain for over a month and is not expected to return soon. Tanner Gordon made two starts at the end of May before landing on the 15-day injured list with a right hip impingement retroactive to June 2nd. He’s expected to throw a bullpen soon. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool currently has the club at a four-man rotation of Lorenzen, Ryan Feltner, Freeland, and Sugano, so Sullivan can serve as the fifth starter until Gordon returns.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Athletics Place Brent Rooker On IL, Reinstate Jacob Wilson
The Athletics have placed designated hitter/outfielder Brent Rooker on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 9) with a bone bruise in his left knee, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The team reinstated shortstop Jacob Wilson from the IL to take Rooker’s roster spot.
The injury continues a rough start for Rooker, who is already up to two IL placements after playing all 162 of the A’s games in 2025. Rooker missed about three weeks with an oblique strain in April. When healthy, the 31-year-old has slashed a disappointing .200/.281/.389 (82 wRC+) with 10 home runs in 203 plate appearances. Rooker’s 32 percent strikeout rate is up nearly 10 points from last year’s mark, while his .312 xwOBA is not significantly better than an underwhelming .295 wOBA.
Rooker’s struggles have come as a surprise, as the former waiver claim entered 2026 off three straight 30-homer campaigns. The Athletics gave him a five-year, $60MM extension in January 2025, at which point he was coming off a career season. Rooker walked to the plate 614 times in 2024 and slashed .293/.365/.562 with 39 homers and the majors’ sixth-best wRC+ (164). While his numbers took sizable steps backward last year, he still batted .262/.335/.479 (122 wRC+) with 30 homers in 699 trips to the plate.
The A’s will likely use a committee approach at DH for the time being. Carlos Cortes got most of the run there during Rooker’s first injured list stint. Cortes is hitting .310/.396/.494 across 182 plate appearances and has remained a regular in the corner outfield. Giving him a few more DH reps could get Lawrence Butler back in the lineup after he’s been supplanted by Henry Bolte in center field. The Rockies are running rookie southpaw Sean Sullivan for his MLB debut tonight. The A’s will keep Cortes and Butler on the bench against the lefty, using backup catcher Jonah Heim at DH.
Wilson draws back in at shortstop as the #5 hitter. His return moves Alika Williams into a utility role. Wilson, who has hit .292/.311/.398 through 168 plate appearances, is back from a month-long absence due to a dislocated left shoulder.
Orioles Release Tommy Pham
JUNE 12: The Orioles have granted Pham his release, per Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun.
JUNE 11: Veteran outfielder Tommy Pham will exercise an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Orioles tomorrow, reports Josh Tolentino of The Baltimore Sun. He’ll return to free agency if the Orioles don’t add him to the MLB roster.
Pham signed with the O’s midway through May. He took a few days to build up before reporting to Triple-A Norfolk. Pham struggled in 14 games for the Tides, batting .196/.281/.375 with 20 strikeouts in 64 plate appearances. He picked things up from a power perspective recently, connecting on three homers in his final eight games.
The 38-year-old Pham had a brief big league stint with the Mets earlier in the year. He went 0-13 with a walk and seven strikeouts while starting four of nine appearances. Pham spent the entire ’25 season in the Majors with the Pirates. He took 449 trips to the dish and had a slightly below-average .245/.330/.370 slash line. He connected on 10 homers, 17 doubles and one triple with a solid strikeout and walk profile.
Baltimore has a starting outfield of Taylor Ward, Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. The latter was signed as a fourth or fifth outfielder but has put together a decent season, batting .258/.345/.365 in 209 plate appearances. He has handily outplayed Tyler O’Neill, who has hit .155 with one home run since returning from a concussion in mid-April. O’Neill has started to lose playing time as a result, dropping into a part-time corner outfield/designated hitter role.
The O’s have been without Dylan Beavers for the past month due to a low-grade right oblique strain. He’d likely push Taveras back into a fourth outfield role once he’s healthy. The O’s could make room on the bench for Pham by optioning Jeremiah Jackson, but they could see that as a redundant fit with O’Neill already on the roster. If they grant him his release, he’ll search for another team looking for right-handed outfield depth.