As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Phillies to honor Hamels:
Left-hander Cole Hamels announced his retirement back in August of last year after spending much of the 2023 campaign attempting a comeback in the Padres minor league system. After playing in parts of 15 seasons in the majors with the Phillies, Rangers, Cubs, and Braves the southpaw is set to return to Philadelphia this evening where, as noted by Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer, he’ll be honored with a retirement ceremony prior to the club’s game against the Diamondbacks.
The veteran of ten seasons with the Phillies is set to throw out the first pitch of the game, which is schedule for 6:40pm local time, before D’backs lefty Jordan Montgomery (6.00 ERA) and Phillies righty Taijuan Walker (5.33 ERA) take over. Hamels pitched to a 3.30 ERA and 3.47 FIP in nearly 2,000 innings of work with the Phillies from 2006 to 2015 and helped lead the club to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2008 and 2009, where he secured MVP honors for both the 2008 World Series and that same year’s NLCS.
2. Yastrzemski sidelined:
Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski departed yesterday’s game against the Cardinals at Rickwood Field due to a bout of side tightness, as noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker. Acquired from the Orioles just before Opening Day 2019, Yastrzemski has been a staple of the outfield in San Francisco for six seasons now with a .239/.325/.456 slash line in 621 games for the club to this point in his career. The club’s plan is currently to re-evaluate the 33-year-old in St. Louis after the clubs take a day to travel from Birmingham to Missouri, though it would be a tough blow to the Giants if the veteran were to miss time.
The Giants are already down one key lefty bat in the form of LaMonte Wade Jr. after the first baseman was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring last month. If Yastrzemski joins Wade on the IL, the club could turn to Luis Matos to replace the veteran in the outfield mix alongside Heliot Ramos, Michael Conforto, and Austin Slater. Another option would be to simply stick with utility man Tyler Fitzgerald, who served as the 27th man in last night’s game.
3. Astros hurler to debut:
The Astros are set to select the contract of right-hander Jake Bloss prior to today’s home game against the Orioles. It’ll be the 22-year-old’s MLB debut, where he’ll be tasked with facing a difficult Baltimore lineup opposite fellow youngster Grayson Rodriguez (3.20 ERA). The club’s 40-man roster is full currently, so Houston will need to make corresponding moves to clear space for Bloss on both the 40-man and active rosters prior to tonight’s game, which will start at 7:10pm local time.
Bloss is set to skip the Triple-A level entirely as he heads to the majors after starting the season in High-A earlier this year. Despite that minimal experience, the right-hander looked fantastic in eight starts at the Double-A level with a 1.61 ERA and a 21.2% strikeout rate in 44 2/3 innings of work. That limited body of work was enough to earn Bloss his first call up to the big leagues amid a string of injuries to the Astros rotation that has seen both Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier suffer season-ending injuries, while veteran ace Justin Verlander recently joined them on the injured list due to a bout of discomfort in his neck.