Time for the annual midseason report card. It's another successful year in the making with a 55-27 record through the first 82, and a healthy 10 1/2 game lead in the AL East, so we're looking at the team's 9th straight year in the playoffs barring an incredibly improbable collapse. The talent pipeline is stocked, the youngsters are getting it done, and it will be time for one last playoff hurrah with Wander Franco and some key members who have been part of the core for a while now (Brandon Marsh, Matt Manning, Keston Hiura, Liam Hendriks and perhaps Jose Alvarado, although with his great bounceback year I'll try to re-sign him) so this team will be looking fairly different in 2028. Here's a position-by-position look:
C: (A) Keibert Ruiz is having a great season, hitting .325, getting on base at about a .370 clip and driving in runs. He was probably miscast as a #3 hitter last year after Austin Meadows left and has to my surprise thrived in the #7 hole. Andrew Knizner has hit .311 as a backup and I can't complain.
1B: (C+) When I traded for Yordan Alvarez I was expecting the guy who hit 50 HR even when the ball wasn't juiced, like it isn't this year. I wasn't expecting a guy on pace for 28. He had a big last week on the road, but the Trop seems to have him psyched out. I'm hoping for some big-time positive regression in the second half and most importantly, come playoff time.
2B: (B+) Vidal Brujan has come in somewhere between his up-and-down 2025 and his outstanding 2026 this year. He's still getting it done, but he can be better.
SS: (A-) This is Wander's farewell tour after he got pissy in negotiations. We were about $5M and 2-3 years apart in negotiations and then he suddenly started demanding $71M a year and then broke off talks. We'll circle back later this year to see if there's a chance but I'm not optimistic, hence the Ricky Widmar and Isaac DeLeon acquisitions. He's not letting the contract woes affect him on the field though, as he's doing his usual 310/350/500 thing. I'm sure he'll be motivated for that 4th ring to further bolster his big new contract.
3B: (B) Triston Casas finally started hitting this year after spending the last 3 seasons flirting with the Mendoza Line and early in the season was the team's most consistent source of power. At the same time Keston Hiura got off to a miserable start and ended up on the short half of a platoon. But Hiura over the past week took advantage of Casas's suspension to start raking again so we may end up with more of an even split here.
LF: (A-) Hunter Bishop helped carry the team in April and May and although he's been a bit down recently, he's still Steady Eddie and plays excellent defense, except in CF where he's been forced to moonlight the past month with Brandon Marsh hurt, which brings us to...
CF (B) Marsh was doing his usual thing before getting hurt (which to be honest has been part of his usual thing) and will be out another 2-3 weeks.
RF (C) Judson Fabian has hit better of late but still had a miserable first half by his standards: 247/343/390 with only 6 HR and 36 RBI. The deader ball is some of it, but maybe about 25-30%. Like Alvarez, I'm expecting some positive 2nd half regression. As great as he was last year, with all the OF talent we have he could be off-season trade bait if he doesn't snap out of it.
DH: (B-). Not sure what to make of this. Spencer Torkelson of course tore his meniscus in early May and is done for the year (he might be ready come playoff time). So this has mostly been Jhon Diaz's domain and he was pretty bad for about a month before going nuts when Nate Clark was called up and he went to RF. Of course this is now Clark's position but he's only been up for a week but looks the part.
Bench: (B): Aside from Knizner, the bench is Hiura/Casas, Nick Gonzales and Nick Loftin. Loftin hardly ever plays (and could be waived to make 40-man room) so this grade is primarily Nick Gonzales, who's hit over .300 in sporadic playing time but with little power until last night's big homer.
Starters (A): Really, everyone's been good to great, just at varying degrees. Shane McClanahan took over Tyler Glasnow's status as ace of the staff and has pitched up to it, Matt Manning has been up and down but mostly up, Mack Anglin was doing great until he got hurt but should be back in a couple of weeks, and Christian Little is just something else to watch with 142 K's in 100 innings. Blake Money has had his ups and downs in the rotation but has been decent, and of course Asa Lacy was pretty bad before he was dealt.
Bullpen (A): The renaissance of Jose Alvarado has turned the pen from a potential weak spot to a true strength, and JDLC has been great since coming back from his multi-week injury. As I alluded to in my last game recap, Evan Godwin has been the unsung hero and Steven Casey and Liam Hendriks have done well if not lights-out. Also a shoutout to utility pitcher Hayden Johns, who's given us fine long relief to go with a pair of really good spot starts against Baltimore. I'm not sure what to make of Jack Filby yet. Last year's AL Reliever of the Year hasn't looked like that so far, but he hasn't been terrible either. Mike Bayley has been the weak link, and he'll go to Durham when Aaron Ashby comes back as he's been missed as the 3rd lefty.
Here's where we rank among the league, with as usual a lot of 1sts up and down the list. (Before the offense exploded on that last road trip, we were down to 2nd, 3rd and 4th in some of the offensive categories). Also as usual, we're a fine baserunning team but a lousy defensive one. Look for that to improve next year, especially if Julio Cedillo and his 70 defense win the CF job to take over for Brandon Marsh's 55, and either Widmar or DeLeon and their 65 D at SS take over for Wander's 55. Also Casas at 3B is a 55 compared to Hiura's 45.
