| | | | Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | | We got another big prospect promotion Tuesday. Okay, not quite Roman Anthony-big – unless you're being literal. The Brewers are going to promote top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski from Triple-A to start Thursday against the Cardinals, and I can't wait to watch the 6-foot-7 fireballer pitcher. | | I wrote some extended thoughts on Misiorowski's impending promotion here, but here are the bullet points: | | The stuff is ridiculous. He has hit 103 mph as a starting pitcher, and it's a dominant pitch thanks to his size and huge extension. The curveball, slider, and changeup all lag behind the fastball at present, but at best, all three could miss bats. The command is bad. His 12.3% walk rate this season at Triple-A would be the best of his career and would also be the second-highest in the majors. He's going to have to either improve on that or miss a Blake Snell/Dylan Cease-level of bats to make this all work. He might miss a Blake Snell/Dylan Cease-level of bats, and this all might work. It's risky, but given the dearth of interesting options on the waiver wire at pitcher, I'm inclined to slap the "must-add" label on Misiorowski.He might not stay in the rotation. The Brewers already have five starters in their rotation, and Logan Henderson has already been a victim of roster crunch despite looking excellent in his tastes of the majors to date. No reports that I've seen have confirmed that he's up for good.I'm still inclined to slap the "must-add" label on Misiorowski until we know for sure he isn't sticking around. | | For more in-depth thoughts on Misiorowski's promotion, head here. And here's what else you need to know about from Tuesday's action around MLB: | | | | Wednesday's top waiver-wire targets | | | | Sandy Alcantara, SP, Marlins (73%) – It's just two starts against arguably the two worst lineups in baseball, but I'm at the point where I'll take any positive signs from Alcantara. And we've gotten them over the past two starts, as he has limited the Rockies and Pirates to just two runs on seven hits, with 10 strikeouts and most importantly, just two walks in 12 innings of work. Alcantara's stuff has mostly looked fine this season, but his command has been really poor in his comeback from Tommy John surgery. Tuesday he threw 61% of his pitches in the strike zone and still managed to generate just 83.5 mph average exit velocity on 15 balls in play. Sure, it's the Rockies and Pirates, but again, we'll take whatever positive signs we can get from a guy who wasn't just a must-roster pitcher but a must-start pitcher in the past. Let's hope this is the start of him getting back to that level. | | Evan Carter, OF, Rangers (32%) – All of a sudden, Carter's season-long OPS is up to .772. Now, the past two games are carrying a lot of weight there, as he has gone 6 for 9 with two of his three homers, five RBI, and five runs scored in that span. But, as with Alcantara, I'm looking for any signs of life I can find from Carter, who is still just 22 and was one of the most hyped prospects in baseball 15 months ago. We haven't had much reason to be excited about Carter in the past 15 months, so I'll take what I can get. I still believe there's a ton of upside here if he's healthy. | | Jose Soriano, SP, Angels (48%) – What's always been frustrating about Soriano is that he's always had the upside to be a strikeout pitcher. His knucklecurve has always been a good swing-and-miss pitch, and his splitter has seemingly taken a big step forward – and both pitches have been very good at limiting hard contact in addition to generating whiffs. But he entered Tuesday's start with just a 16% strikeout rate, and his 11.7% walk rate gave him the second-worst K-BB% rate in baseball. So we should probably approach Tuesday's 12-strikeout effort against the A's with a skeptical eye, especially since it came with a whopping 16 whiffs on his sinker. But the stuff has always been there, and Soriano has always generated plenty of weak contact, so if can build on this, there's clearly upside. It'll be tough to use Soriano in his next start against the Yankees, but he is a two-start pitcher, with a second outing against the Astros on the way, which should make him pretty useful if you want to beat the waiver wire. | | | | Shelby Miller, RP, Diamondbacks (30%) – Justin Martinez has been diagnosed with a sprained UCL, an injury that is probably going to keep him on the shelf for a while. A.J. Puk is on the IL for another three weeks with an elbow sprain of his own, so Miller looks like he's going to get at least that long as the Diamondbacks closer – and he has very much looked up to the task this season. Miller has six saves and a 1.69 ERA on the season, and while his underlying numbers don't quite back that up, his 3.77 xERA suggests he should at least be good enough to get the job done. Miller isn't a shutdown closer by any means, but on a competitive team, he should get plenty of save chances, and that's the most important thing. | | Calvin Faucher, RP, Marlins (11%) – I think Faucher is both a lesser pitcher than Miller and clearly on a worse team, so he's definitely a lower priority. But the Marlins are pretty clearly treating Faucher like the closer right now, and he has their last three saves. Those three saves have come over the course of about two weeks, so don't expect him to suddenly start racking them up. But if you really do need saves, he's got the chance to provide some. Just go make sure Miller isn't available in your league first. | | Sawyer Gipson-Long, SP, Tigers (23%) – I don't know when the Tigers are going to give Gipson-Long the leash he needs to really matter for Fantasy, as he was limited to just 51 pitches in a bulk relief role Tuesday against the Orioles . But he looked pretty good here, limiting them to just one run on three hits while striking out five in 4.2 innings of work. Gipson-Long generated nine swinging strikes on 51 pitches and has always had good swing-and-miss stuff, so it's been nice to see it still here after his Tommy John surgery. He's more of a stash candidate for deeper leagues. | | | | Tuesday's standouts | | Dylan Cease, Padres vs. LAD: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 11 -- Cease told The Athletic's Eno Sarris recently " I'm about to get hot, " and I suppose he did. I mean, he definitely did. He just did it in an extremely Dylan Cease kind of way. It's not often you'll see a pitcher scatter three hits over seven innings and still end up with a WHIP over 1.10 for a start, but then, you don't see pitchers like Dylan Cease very often. When he gets hot, he tends to go on these runs where he's absolutely unhittable, making the occasional bouts of wildness easier to live with. Let's hope Cease's intuitions are correct and this is the start of him turning everything around. | | Mackenzie Gore, Nationals @NYM: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K – Prior to the start of this season, Gore's best 14-game stretch saw him post a 3.10 ERA that was backed up by a 4.07 FIP. After yet another terrific start Tuesday, he's down to a 2.88 ERA and 2.63 FIP. and he's back to leading the majors in strikeouts, a title he has been swapping with Garrett Crochet for the past few starts. None of this means Gore has figured it out for good, but it does mean this is absolutely the best we've ever seen from him, and the only real reason to be skeptical is his shaky history. It might fall apart on him, but I see no reason to expect it at this point. | | Andrew Abbott, Reds @CLE: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K – I wrote about how I stopped worrying about Abbott's weirdness last week , so I'm happy to see this kind of outing from him. Sure, a complete game shutout with only five strikeouts isn't the kind of thing we typically view as sustainable for pitchers, but, well, Abbott's weird. Only five strikeouts, but 16 swinging strikes on 110 pitches is pretty neat, and of course, he generated a ton of weak contact in this one – of 25 balls in play, only 11 were hit harder than 90 mph, and only four had an expected batting average of even .500. Abbott misses bats with all five of his pitches and limits hard contact with nearly all of them, something he's done a good job of basically his entire career. The strikeout rate has fluctuated but has generally been up this season, and the missed bats Tuesday suggest the low strikeout rate is the outlier here. I dunno, I think he might just be good. I didn't think that's where I would land on Abbott at this point, but it's where I am. I don't think he's a sub-2.00 ERA pitcher, but I do think he's probably a lot closer to a 3.00-ERA pitcher than a 4.00 ERA pitcher. | | Grant Holmes, Braves @MIL: 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB, 9 K – The strikeout upside has been really nice to see from Holmes, who has nine in two of his past three starts and three of his past eight. The floor is still really low, as seen in his 3.1-inning outing last week, but on the whole, he's been more good than bad lately, with a 3.80 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 45 innings since the start of May. He doesn't consistently pitch deep into games, but Holmes generally looks pretty useful right now. | | Chris Bassitt, Blue Jays @STL: 7 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – It was really only one bad inning for Bassitt, who was tagged for four runs in the fourth of this one. But it's been a lot of bad innings lately, with just one quality start in the past four and a 4.50 ERA since the start of May, and a return to the really poor WHIPs of previous seasons. It looked like Bassitt might be reversing those trends early on, and the overall numbers are still pretty solid, with a 3.70 ERA and ERA estimators in the same range. But the iffy strikeout totals and poor WHIP make Bassitt a pretty frustrating pitcher to start and probably will continue to do so. | | Tyler Mahle, Rangers @MIN: 5.2 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – I've been saying Mahle can't keep getting away with it all season, so maybe it's starting to catch up to him. After allowing just 12 runs total in his first 12 starts of the season, Mahle has now given up eight in his past two. The ERA still sits at a pristine 2.34, but the peripherals are a lot closer to 4.00, and that's what I expect Mahle to be moving forward. Not bad. Not unusable, certainly. But not a must-start pitcher by any stretch of the imagination. | | Shane Smith, White Sox @HOU: 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – I wanted to include Smith as a waiver-wire recommendation, but he's already 70% rostered, and that probably feels about as high as I'm willing to go. I think he's pretty good, but not in a 2.37 kind of way; his WHIP is likely to be a problem when his .266 BABIP normalizes; and his merely-decent strikeout rates don't really do much to elevate the whole package. I think he's useful, but coming off a two-start week, this should probably be the high-water mark of Smith's roster rate unless he finds a way to miss more bats or improve his command. I think the bat-missing potential is there if he can sustain his velocity better deeper into his starts, but we haven't seen that from him yet. | | Mick Abel, Phillies vs. CHC: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K – Since striking out nine in his MLB debut, Abel has just five in his past two starts. Maybe the trip back down to Triple-A derailed him a bit, or maybe the first start was a fluke. Given his pretty iffy track record, I'm inclined to believe the latter is more likely the case. I was willing to add Abel when he returned from the minors on the chance that first start represented something real, and maybe it still will. But his velocity has been down since that first start and he just hasn't shown near the same upside. There aren't a ton of interesting pitchers on the wire right now, but I would drop Abel for Misiorowski, at least. | | Slade Cecconi, Guardians vs. CIN: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K – There's something here. The slider and curveball are good bat-missers – nine whiffs on 12 combined swings in this one – and the Guardians have a well-deserved reputation for maximizing their pitchers. But they also aren't giving Cecconi a particularly long leash, with just one start over five innings in five tries. The production has been spotty over those five starts, so he needs to show more consistency to earn our trust – and, hopefully, his team's. | | Lance McCullers, Astros vs. CHW: 5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 6 K – I was skeptical of trusting McCullers, even with a great matchup, because I just don't think the stuff is there any more to overcome the iffy command. His breaking ball-heavy approach should still lead to some big strikeout numbers, but he hasn't shown good control or quality of contact suppression. This could have been worse, and I do think there will be some ugly days ahead of McCullers, who I don't really trust even as a streamer. | | Noah Cameron, Royals vs. NYY: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – The problem with going with the "hot hand" play when you don't believe in the skills is, if you're right about the skills, eventually it's going to blow up on you. Look, Cameron still has a 2.17 ERA in his first six career starts, so it's not like he's totally undone all the good from his first five. But this was a bad one, and I think that's going to be more the norm moving forward. Cameron's 4.01 FIP is a lot closer to what I expect from him moving forward. He did start throwing his four-seamer less in this one, which is probably the best chance he has of surviving, given the iffy movement profile and poor velocity of the pitch. I just don't know if the rest of the arsenal is good enough to make it all work. | | Quinn Priester , Brewers vs. ATL: 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K – Priester's in a weird spot. He has a 1.96 ERA over his past four starts, a sign that he might be starting to figure things out. Then you look at the game logs, and it's trickier to make that case, with strikeout totals looking like this: 7, 0, 4, 7. He threw fewer sinkers and more cutters in Tuesday's start and that might be a good idea, with his slider generating solid whiff numbers and the cutter sporting much lower exit velocities and a higher whiff rate than his sinker. I want to suggest adding him, but I need to see more consistent swing and miss from him before I get there. It's tough to recommend him with the Cubs likely up next on the schedule for him. | | News and notes | | Bryce Miller went back on the IL with right elbow inflammation; this is the second time that's happened this season. He's pitching through bone spurs in his elbow, and while the team seems to believe pitching won't make it worse, he also hasn't been able to pitch well at all. I think at this point, he might just be droppable in all formats because I don't see how this gets better until he has surgery to fix the underlying issue. I hope I'm wrong. | | Aaron Nola will be shut down for at least two weeks after an MRI showed a stress reaction in his right rib cage. He could be out until after the All-Star break. That gives Mick Abel a bit more runway and could give Andrew Painter a spot to start whenever the club deems him ready – probably sometime in July. | | Jazz Chisholm left Tuesday with neck tightness. Let's hope it's not a serious injury after he just came back from an oblique injury. | | Logan Gilbert recorded six strikeouts over five scoreless in a rehab start at Triple-A Tuesday. His velocity looked fine over 72 pitches, so hopefully that means he's ready. I'm not sure I fully trust him coming back from an elbow injury, but I'm hopeful, if not optimistic. | | Shota Imanaga will need a couple more rehab starts before rejoining the Cubs, but he got through his first start Monday without issue. Hopefully, we're talking about two weeks until he's back. | | Matt Chapman was placed on the IL due to right hand inflammation. | | Brendan Donovan left early with left toe discomfort. | | The Orioles activated Jordan Westburg and Cedric Mullins from the IL. Heston Kjerstad was optioned to Triple-A and Emmanuel Rivera was designated for assignment. | | Shohei Ohtani faced hitters in a 44-pitch, three-inning live batting practice session. He could be back to pitching after the AS break, and while I don't have a ton of confidence in him – he's coming back from the same surgery Spencer Strider is and likely won't pitch in a real game until he makes his debut. But obviously, the upside is such that he demands to be rostered in all formats where he is pitcher-eligible. | | Jacob Wilson was scratched from the lineup with hamstring tightness. Hopefully, it was just a precautionary move, given how good he's been. | | Giancarlo Stanton started a rehab assignment at Double-A Tuesday. He went 2-3 with 3 RBI and is expected to play again Wednesday. Stanton is 42% rostered, and given that he's likely to split playing time at DH with Ben Rice, I think that roster rate is about as high as it needs to be until he actually gets to the majors and gives us reason to add him. | | Speaking of Rice, he made his 5th appearance at catcher, meaning he now has eligibility on CBS. But with Stanton's return looming, I just don't know how much he's going to play. The catcher eligibility certainly lowers the bar, but if he's only playing 3-4 times a week, that probably makes Rice more of a No. 2 catcher – even if he has top-five upside at the position if he were to play everyday. I still think he's a must-roster player because if anything should happen to Paul Goldschmidt, Rice would be a must-start player at first base or catcher. | | Cody Bradford will throw a bullpen Wednesday. He's recovering from a sprained UCL in his left elbow and is probably more than a month away, still. | | Craig Kimbrel signed a minor-league contract with the Rangers. Not a bad landing spot for a team that's been searching for a closer, though he needs to prove he actually belongs in the majors before we even think about taking a flier. | | Jorge Mateo was placed on the IL with left elbow inflammation, retroactive to June 7. | | | | | | | | Unforgettable Awaits | | WNBA | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder face off against Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight at 8:30PM ET.
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