Fountains Up -- A Kansas City Royals Franchise

[3Bplay]

[3Bplay]

Pitchers
## Name                     B/T   Ht    Wt   DOB        School
24 Michael Lorenzen (IL-15) R/R   6'3"  215  01/04/1992 Cal State Fullerton
30 Kyle Wright*             R/R   6'4"  215  10/02/1995 Vanderbilt
32 Stephen Kolek            R/R   6'3"  210  04/18/1997 Texas A&M
36 Bailey Falter            L/L   6'4"  205  04/24/1997 Chino Hills HS (CA)
38 Ryan Bergert             R/R   6'1"  200  03/08/2000 West Virginia
41 Daniel Lynch IV          L/L   6'6"  190  11/17/1996 Virginia
45 Taylor Clarke (IL-15)    R/R   6'4"  210  05/13/1993 Old Dominion
46 John Schreiber           R/R   6'2"  220  03/05/1994 Univ. of NW Ohio
48 Alec Marsh (IL-60)       R/R   6'2"  220  05/14/1998 Arizona State
50 Kris Bubic (IL-60)       L/L   6'3"  210  08/19/1997 Stanford
52 Michael Wacha            R/R   6'6"  210  07/01/1991 Texas A&M
53 Carlos Estevez           R/R   6'6"  275  12/28/1992 None
55 Cole Ragans              L/L   6'4"  190  12/10/1997 N FL Christian HS (FL)
56 Hunter Harvey            R/R   6'3"  230  12/09/1994 Bandys HS (NC)
58 Luinder Avila            R/R   6'3"  190  08/21/2001 None
60 Lucas Erceg              R/R   6'2"  215  05/01/1995 Menlo College (CA)
61 Angel Zerpa              L/L   6'    220  09/27/1999 None
62 Jonathan Bowlan (IL-60)  R/R   6'6"  260  12/01/1996 Memphis
64 Steven Cruz              R/R   6'7"  235  06/15/1999 None
65 Noah Cameron             L/L   6'3"  215  07/17/1999 Central Arkansas
66 James McArthur (IL-60)   R/R   6'7"  225  12/11/1996 Ole Miss
67 Seth Lugo (IL-15)        R/R   6'4"  225  11/17/1989 Centenary Coll. (LA)
81 Ryan Thompson (IL-15)    R/R   6'5"  205  06/26/1992 Campbell Univ. (NC)
87 Eric Cerantola*          R/R   6'5"  220  05/02/2000 Mississippi State

Catchers
## Name                     B/T   Ht    Wt   DOB        School
13 Salvador Perez           R/R   6'3"  255  05/10/1990 None
22 Carter Jensen            L/R   6'    210  07/03/2003 Park Hill HS (MO)

Infielders
## Name                     B/T   Ht    Wt   DOB        School
 6 Jonathan India           R/R   6'    200  12/15/1996 Florida
 7 Bobby Witt, Jr.          R/R   6'1"  190  06/14/2000 Colleyville Heritage HS (TX)
 9 Vinnie Pasquantino       L/L   6'4"  245  10/10/1997 Old Dominion
11 Maikel Garcia            R/R   6'1"  185  03/03/2000 None
12 Nick Loftin              R/R   6'1"  200  09/25/1988 Baylor
19 Michael Massey           L/R   6'1"  195  03/22/1998 Illinois

Outfielders
## Name                     B/T   Ht    Wt   DOB        School
 1 MJ Melendez*             L/R   6'1"  195  11/29/1998 Westminster School (FL)
 2 Tyler Tolbert* (IL-60)   R/R   6'1"  180  01/27/1998 UAB
 8 Drew Waters*             S/R   6'1"  190  12/30/1998 Etowah (GA) HS
14 Jac Caglianone           L/L   6'5"  245  02/09/2003 Florida
15 Randal Grichuk           R/R   6'2"  215  08/13/1991 Lamar Cons'd HS (TX)
16 John Rave*               L/L   6'1"  200  12/30/1997 Illinois State
18 Mike Yastrzemski         L/L   5'11" 180  08/23/1990 Vanderbilt
26 Adam Frazier             L/R   5'10" 185  12/14/1991 Mississippi State
28 Kyle Isbel               L/R   5'11" 180  03/03/1997 UNLV
44 Dairon Blanco            R/R   6'    180  04/26/1993 None

[3Bplay]

Reserved for Stats/League Leaders

[3Bplay]

Reserved for MLB Standings

[3Bplay]

I'll be picking things up from August 25th on.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Losing streak snapped at six; Ragans inches closer to return

By artoodeetoo
08/28/2025

8/25 -- White Sox walk-off: All-Star closer Carlos Estevez came in with a 4-1 lead and looking to lock down his 31st save of the season. With three-run leads this season, Estevez is nearly perfect, going 9-for-10 in those situations.

Unfortunately, that fell to 9-for-11 after Monday night's collapse, as the White Sox struck for four runs against Estevez (with some shoddy defense) to turn a 4-1 win into a 5-4 defeat. It was the fifth straight defeat for the Royals, as they fell to four games out of the final wildcard spot, which coincides with the Mariners, Guardians, and Rangers all winning multiple games in a row.

Salvador Perez got the Royals on the board early in the fourth, hitting his 20th homerun of the season to put the Royals up 1-0. The homerun was significant as he tied George Brett for the most 20-plus homerun seasons in team history; and also is now tied for third amongst primary catchers in 20-plus homerun seasons all-time.

The Royals increased their lead in the seventh to 3-0, but manager Matt Quatraro came away disappointed they couldn't get more in that inning. The first three Royals hitters reached base safely, with a Mike Yastrzemski single scoring Adam Frazier, and putting runners at first and third with no one out against lefty Tyler Alexander and the heart of the order coming up.

But Bobby Witt Jr flied out to left for the first out; and while Vinnie Pasquantino singled home another run, Maikel Garcia swung at the first pitch (a bad one) from Alexander grounding into a double play to bring the inning to a close in quick fashion.

"Yeah, you can't do that," he said regarding Garcia's at-bat in the seventh. "We have to be able to make better swing decisions than that. We did get two runs out of it, but the game may turn out differently had we cashed in a bit more on that particular opportunity."

They did add another run in the eighth on a pinch-hit homerun from Randal Grichuk, but as it turned out, it wasn't enough to hold off the White Sox in the end. Estevez retired Curtis Mead on one pitch, but it was downhill from there.

Josh Rojas blooped a single to right, and former Royal Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run bomb to cut the lead to just one. The problems were compounded by an error by Witt, booting a fairly easy groundball to put the speedy Jordan Sprinkle on base. He would get to third on Andrew Benintendi's double, and both of them were driven home on Chase Meidroth's single.

8/26 -- Royals' freefall continues in close defeat: Despite three solo homeruns, that was nearly all of the offense that they could put on display as the White Sox edged the Royals 4-3 to hand them their sixth straight loss.

Luke Maile and Mike Yastrzemski would go back-to-back with two outs in the third inning against Jonathan Cannon, only to see the White Sox battle back with two of their own in the bottom of the third. Seth Lugo allowed three earned runs over five innings, fanning six with one walk, but took 105 pitches to do so.

"We have to start jumping on these pitchers earlier in the inning," manager Matt Quatraro mused after the loss. "It seems lately we're taking until two outs to get anything going, which really limits your margin for error."

Chicago briefly took the lead in the fourth on an RBI single by Jacob Amaya, going in front by a 3-2 score at that point. It would remain that way until Vinnie Pasquantino tied the game with a solo homerun, his 22nd of the season. The hit also extended his hitting streak to sixteen games, the current longest streak in the majors.

"Vinnie has been on a mission lately," Quatraro said of his star first baseman, "But unfortunately, he's not getting a lot of help from the rest of the lineup."

Kansas City made things interesting in the ninth. Pasquantino flew out to center on the first pitch, but Maikel Garcia reached on an infield single, followed by a stolen base to get to scoring position with just one out. Things got even more interesting when Jac Caglianone, in a big spot, walked against White Sox closer Grant Taylor.

But again, as the Royals have been prone to do as their offense is back to sputtering, they quickly brought about the end of the inning by swinging at bad pitches. Salvador Perez entered the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement, and Quatraro made a good move by dropping him in Jonathan India's sixth spot in the order while pinch-runner Jorge Mateo took over at second base in the ninth spot.

Perez came up with a chance to at least tie the game with a single, but flew out on a flare to left-center on the first pitch from Taylor. Adam Frazier saw just two pitches before rolling over to second to end the game.

With the loss, the Royals have now dropped six in a row and have fallen five games off the pace for the final Wildcard spot, so it's going to take a miracle at this point for the Royals to have a chance. They'll have to leapfrog three teams now after coming within a half-game of the Rangers for the third position less than a week ago.

8/27 -- Ragans to begin rehab assignment: Having not thrown a pitch from a major league mound since June 5th, Cole Ragans is now the closest he's been to returning since then.

On Thursday, he'll make his first of two rehab starts in Double-A as he's expected to throw seventy pitches then; and then if all goes well during that start, he is scheduled to make a second rehab start in Triple-A before eventually returning to the Royals if both starts go off without any setbacks.

Despite a high ERA (5.18), he still has elite peripherals with a 2.44 FIP and 1.83 SIERA, thanks to several factors such as opponents' BABIP (.385), a high strikeout rate (40.4%), and a 47% groundball rate.

"We were thinking he was originally going to return around the end of July," said manager Matt Quatraro. "But we didn't want to take any chances after he felt some discomfort after a bullpen session back then, and it's been a tougher road back for him than we all imagined."

8/27 -- Offense comes to life in series-salvaging win: Over the years, the Royals have typically been bad against pitchers making their MLB debuts. For the first four and two-third innings, outside of a Randal Grichuk RBI double, it appeared that way again on Thursday night.

But the offense came alive in the fifth against lefty Noah Schultz, a consensus top twenty-five prospect that was just called up a few days ago to pitch out of the bullpen. With Sean Burke going on the injured list, however, he has been pressed into starting duty.

The Royals batted around in the fifth, with Jorge Mateo and Mike Yastrzemski going deep back-to-back with one out to put the Royals up 3-0. Bobby Witt Jr and Vinnie Pasquantino both singled, and each moved up a base after a wild pitch. Pasquantino's hit would extend his hitting streak to seventeen games, which is a new career high and the current longest streak in the league.

Maikel Garcia grounded into a fielder's choice, but Witt beat the throw home from second baseman Jacob Amaya for their third run of the inning. Schultz continued to fall apart in the inning, with Salvador Perez hitting a sac fly, issuing a balk with Grichuk at the plate that moved Garcia up to second, and then Grichuk put the exclamation point on the frame by launching a two-run homerun that finally knocked Schultz out.

"I was thrilled to finally see us put up a big number in an inning, and then we did it twice," said manager Matt Quatraro, referring to the following inning. "Bailey (Falter) pitched well, allowed us to really give our pen a rest heading into the next homestand. We really set ourselves back with losing six in a row, but there's still a lot of baseball that will decide things."

They tacked on four more in the sixth, all with two outs. Yastrzemski walked, followed by a Witt double to score him from first base. Pasquantino continued his rampage over the league, hitting his 23rd homerun to put the Royals up 10-0.

Kansas City closed out their scoring with a Grichuk RBI single later in the sixth, and then piled on with another insurance run in the ninth with LeMahieu scoring on a fielder's choice.

Lenyn Sosa led off the seventh against Falter with a homerun, but Falter was otherwise solid -- allowing just the lone run in seven innings of work, fanning eight with no walks on four hits. Luinder Avila pitched the final two innings, allowing one run on three hits, striking out four and walking one.

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
Central divisions' injury blues; Wilson to return for A's

By MLB.com staff
08/28/2025

8/25 -- Cubs activate Soroka; place Keller on IL: Chicago welcomed Michael Soroka back from the injured list, and is expected to start on Tuesday night at San Francisco.

Acquired from the Nationals just prior to the deadline, Soroka made one start before going on the injured list with a shoulder issue. Instead of going on a rehab assignment, the Cubs decided to speed up the timeline with reliever Brad Keller basically trading places with Soroka, going on the injured list with elbow soreness.

Keller is expected to miss the remainder of the season, but is not expected to have to go under the knife, which should help him in the offseason as he's a free-agent-to-be after signing a minor league deal with the team in the spring, and then making the team as a relief arm.

"He's been doing pretty well throwing in his bullpen sessions, so we felt the time was right to bring him back," said manager Craig Counsell of Soroka. "We'll have to do some re-shuffling, but we have some guys with swing experience going from the bullpen to the rotation and back, so we can make it work."

Namely, pitchers like Colin Rea and Spencer Turnbull, who was recently added to the active roster. Rea has been one of the best swing pitchers in the league over the past few years, pitching well in both a starting and long relief/follower role.

8/26 -- Athletics to activate Wilson: After missing the last month with a hand injury, Athletics rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson will return to the lineup beginning tonight against the Tigers.

He was leading the league in hitting at the time of his injury; and still barely qualifies for the batting title after missing some two dozen games. Aaron Judge, however, has surged ahead of Wilson in the race, sitting at .331 heading into play on Wednesday.

Despite missing Wilson, fellow teammate Nick Kurtz has become the overwhelming AL Rookie of the Year favorite, posting one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory with a 1.039 OPS (189 OPS+). That mark would rank second in the AL behind the aforementioned Judge, but still falls just short of the plate appearances needed to qualify.

8/26 -- White Sox place Burke on 15-day IL: Chicago welcomed Michael Soroka back from the injured list, and is expected to start on Tuesday night at San Francisco.

Acquired from the Nationals just prior to the deadline, Soroka made one start before going on the injured list with a shoulder issue. Instead of going on a rehab assignment, the Cubs decided to speed up the timeline with reliever Brad Keller basically trading places with Soroka, going on the injured list with elbow soreness.

Keller is expected to miss the remainder of the season, but is not expected to have to go under the knife, which should help him in the offseason as he's a free-agent-to-be after signing a minor league deal with the team in the spring, and then making the team as a relief arm.

"He's been doing pretty well throwing in his bullpen sessions, so we felt the time was right to bring him back," said manager Craig Counsell of Soroka. "We'll have to do some re-shuffling, but we have some guys with swing experience going from the bullpen to the rotation and back, so we can make it work."

Namely, pitchers like Colin Rea and Spencer Turnbull, who was recently added to the active roster. Rea has been one of the best swing pitchers in the league over the past few years, pitching well in both a starting and long relief/follower role.

8/27 -- Cardinals' Liberatore on 60-day IL: One of the former top prospects-turned-rotation-mainstays in the St. Louis organization has landed on the 60-day IL after undergoing elbow surgery.

In his first full season as a starter, Matthew Liberatore has made two dozen starts while pitching to a 4.09 ERA as part of a rotation that has been fairly durable, with he and three other starters all with two dozen or more starts to date.

The Cardinals are out of the playoff hunt, but manager Oliver Marmol still laments that the young lefty is going to miss out on valuable game experience for the sprint to the finish.

"We've been pretty happy with how the season has gone for him, even with some ups-and-downs," Marmol said to local media in a recent interview. "It's a shame he won't get to finish the season, but we're hopeful that we'll get him back for the beginning of next season or soon thereafter."

Veteran John King was activated off the injured list to take his place, and rookie Quinn Mathews will take Liberatore's spot in the rotation going forward this season, Marmol also noted.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Royals drop two of three to Detroit; claim former D-Back Thompson off waivers

By artoodeetoo
09/01/2025

8/29 -- Royals hold off Detroit in nailbiter: With one in the second and two in the third, the Royals had to make that stand up throughout the entire game, and behind a strong start from Michael Wacha and some excellent situational bullpen work, they held Detroit off in a 3-2 series-opening victory at home.

Jac Caglianone, who has had a solid month of August in posting a .244/.333/.463 slash in forty-one plate appearances this month, was responsible for their first run on an RBI double against Jack Flaherty in the second. They scored on back-to-back at-bats in the third, with an RBI single from Bobby Witt Jr and sac fly from Vinnie Pasquantino.

In going 0-for-3, Pasquantino's seventeen-game hitting streak came to an end, but still played a role in getting a key victory over the divisional front-runners with what ended up being the deciding run.

"Just gotta do what I can to help us win games," he said. "Am I sad that the streak is over, yeah, but even going 0-for-3, need to find ways to contribute even if it's not in the box score."

Michael Wacha was brilliant after a rough time out against these same Tigers in Detroit last week. Over 6 2/2 innings, he allowed just one earned run (two total) with eight strikeouts and a walk on seven hits. The eight punchouts were the second-most he's recorded in a game since June 25th, a nine-strikeout performance in a 3-0 loss to Tampa Bay.

8/30 -- Opportunities squandered in extras loss to Detroit: It has become a theme lately -- the Royals are very good at getting players in position to score; but are struggling to actually get them in, even with their best hitters at the plate.

In the first nine innings, they managed to get three of their six runners in from scoring position with less than two outs. In extras, they only managed to score one of five that were in scoring position with less than two outs; and the one was the ghost runner in the 10th inning, Mike Yastrzemski, as the Royals dropped a 5-4 decision in eleven innings.

"Despite giving up the run in the 10th, we had them on the ropes when Bobby hit the double to lead the inning off to bring the lead runner in," said a clearly-frustrated manager Matt Quatraro. "They brought in the lefty to face Vinnie, and we loaded the bases with one out after that, and then hit a couple of grounders. I know I've said it before, but our situational hitting just isn't good right now, especially from the seventh and eighth inning on."

In the 11th with Angel Zerpa on the mound, Colt Keith hit a comebacker with runners at first and second, but Keith hustled down the line to prevent the twin killing. Kerry Carpenter then hit a sac fly to score Riley Greene from third, and the Royals made things interesting yet again in the bottom of the frame only for the rally to fizzle out.

They had runners first and third with one out against Thomas Szapucki, who was on the mound for the previous Royals' rally in the 10th. But he managed to get Yastrzemski on a fly out before fanning Bobby Witt Jr to end the game with the tying run stranded on third.

All-in-all, the Royals wasted a fine effort from Noah Cameron, who allowed just two earned runs in six innings, allowing just a half-dozen hits with no walks while fanning seven. After back-to-back poor starts, including last week at Detroit, Cameron came back with a much better effort at home.

"Honestly, I felt better going into last week's game than I did tonight," he said with a chuckle. "But aside from the homerun early on, they weren't able to square me up as much as last time out, so it was an improvement in that regard."

8/31 -- Royals claim Ryan Thompson from Arizona: Ahead of the September 1st roster expansion deadline, the Royals have added 33-year-old veteran righty Ryan Thompson off waivers. He has been added to the 40-man roster this morning to get him playoff-eligible, but will not be available until September 2nd when the Royals host the Angels.

Thompson was on the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2023 NL pennant-winning team, but was out for the season at that point and missed about 80% of that year, including the entire postseason run. He's controlled through next season, meaning the Royals have the option to bring him back for 2026 if they so choose.

Kansas City is on the hook for about $500K of his total $2.95 million contract through the end of the season, and he is likely to get a small raise in his final year of arbitration eligibility with Fangraphs projecting a $3.1 million figure for 2026.

He doesn't bring the big strikeout numbers, but a 51% groundball rate and peripheral marks of 3.89 (FIP) and 3.84 (SIERA) run a bit higher than his ERA (4.45) in 2025. Veteran relievers such as Michael Fulmer, Justin Dunn, Joey Krehbiel, and Stephen Nogosek have all been brought in for depth in Triple-A, but only Nogosek has been at least league-average in Triple-A (ERA+ of 98), so the Royals felt compelled to bring in another veteran with at least some postseason experience, and a player under Matt Quatraro as bench coach in Tampa Bay back in 2020 to boot.

In thirty-six appearances, Thompson has pitched 32 1/3 innings, striking out thirty with just a dozen walks. He's also been decent at limiting homeruns, with just four in that time frame.

8/31 -- Bullpen falters in loss to the Tigers: Holding a 3-1 lead heading into the seventh, a Riley Greene-led rally put five runs on the board for Detroit in that half-inning, and they held on to hand the Royals another close defeat, falling 6-5 in the rubber match of the final series between these two teams this season.

Despite ninety-four pitches heading into the seventh, Michael Lorenzen stayed in to pitch to the bottom of the Tigers' order. He sandwiched a pair of walks around a one-pitch flyout, and was replaced by John Schreiber with runners on first and second and one out to try and get the twin killing to get out of the inning.

He wasn't helped by his defense, as Maikel Garcia flubbed a relatively easy chopper to third from Jake Rogers, getting charged with an error to load the bases. Zach McKinstry then singled home a run before Riley Greene smacked a grand slam to deep right field, some 400 feet from home plate.

"We definitely played for the double play there, (Jake) Rogers was a good candidate for one," manager Matt Quatraro noted. "We even got the groundball we needed; it may not have been easy, but that's a ball that Maikel usually gets and makes that play. Without that, we were forced to leave John in against lefties, and they made us pay for the error."

Quatraro was then asked why not just keep Lorenzen in to face Rogers, and then bring in someone like Daniel Lynch or Sam Long to get the lefties in the lineup. Quatraro noted that Lorenzen was already at 110 pitches, a season high, and that Schreiber has been "one of the best out there" at inducing groundballs.

Once again, the Royals had a chance to win in the late innings, but fumbled the ball deep in the opponent's territory. A leadoff single from Kyle Isbel in the ninth, followed by a double from Adam Frazier put runners on second and third with no one out, but aside from a wild pitch that brought Isbel home, the Royals failed to get the ball out of the infield the rest of the inning, as Will Vest struck Luke Maile and Jorge Mateo out, followed by a groundball out to short from Jonathan India to end the game.

"Guys are clearly pressing," said Quatraro after the game. "They're trying to come up and win the game with one swing; and especially with no one out, that's not a recipe for success. A single from any of them ties the game at that point, and who knows what goes on to happen. That error earlier in the game also came back to haunt us a bit, as the wild pitch is the tying run in that case, and not just a run that gets us back to within one."

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
Angels designate three players; Basallo to debut for O's

By MLB.com staff
09/01/2025

8/28 -- Waiver wire frenzy as several teams dump salary: Several teams, led by the Los Angeles Angels, have decided that their chances at the postseason are officially over and have designated several big names for assignment, giving them time to get claimed by other teams looking to bolster their rosters for the final push.

Much like last season, the Angels led the way again, designating three players off the roster -- infielders Yoan Moncada and Luis Rengifo, along with closer Kenley Jansen. Notably, veteran pitcher Tyler Anderson and outfielder Taylor Ward, both free-agents-to-be, were not a part of this purge, as it's possible they could reject a qualifying offer at season's end to give the Halos one, perhaps two extra draft picks in the 2026 draft.

Arizona also designated reliever Ryan Thompson, per MLB.com writer Anthony Castrovince. Thompson was a big contributor on the D-Backs' 2023 team that reached the World Series along with Kyle Nelson, a lefty reliever who was claimed by the Athletics today.

Although they are still in the race, the Kansas City Royals are also designating outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha for assignment as well, although with all of the new acquisitions they've had since going on the injured list more than two months ago, there really wasn't a role for him to return to after completing his rehab assignment.

Other names that could be on the move are Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo, Giants reliever Miguel Diaz, and White Sox lefty Brandon Eisert.

8/28 -- Basallo to make MLB debut tonight: With Adley Rutschman going on the injured list, the Orioles are re-calling catching prospect Samuel Basallo and will be playing him behind the plate, at least for the next few weeks.

Despite Rutschman being down with an oblique injury, the Orioles will still carry three catchers (including Basallo) on the roster along with Alex Jackson and Gary Sanchez, also returning from an injured list stint.

Just twenty, Basallo has torn up the International League to the tune of a .939 OPS, with twenty-one homeruns and twenty-six doubles. The jury is still out on whether he will stick behind the plate, but that likely won't stop speculation that the Orioles might be willing to deal Rutschman in the offseason, or even at the deadline next year if they are not in the race at that point.

Basallo could also end up at first or third base, although first is more likely due to the lack of range. Scouts describe Basallo's defensive game in the field as "robotic", and that his arm could carry him at third base for a little while, but that first base or catcher are still his better defensive options.

8/29 -- D-Backs' McKay placed on IL: Making his first MLB start since 2019, Brendan McKay had recorded six strikeouts through 2 1/3 innings in his start against Milwaukee, but left after just thirty-seven pitches with elbow tightness.

An MRI revealed that there was some inflammation in his throwing elbow, and was subsequently placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 28th) and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

"He's worked really hard to get back to this point in his career," said manager Torey Lovullo. "Aside from making one mistake tonight on the homerun, he was pitching very, very well at the time, so it's just incredibly frustrating to see this happen for him."

Yu-min Lin, a young left-hander recently called up and subsequently placed on the bereavement list, will re-assume McKay's spot in the rotation and is expected to start tonight against the Brewers.

8/30 -- Dodgers place Conforto on IL; will miss rest of season: Michael Conforto's season with the Dodgers appears to be over, as he was placed on the IL with a biceps strain. He's been day-to-day since August 22nd, but went on the injured list yesterday, retroactive to the 22nd. He hasn't played since August 21st, going 0-for-2 before leaving the game in the sixth.

It's been a rough year for the 32-year-old veteran outfielder, posting a measly 75 OPS+ after posting just two seasons in his career below an OPS+ of 100, and even those seasons were 97 and 96, respectively.

Andy Pages, who had been on a brief rehab assignment in Triple-A, was activated to take Conforto's place. Now, Conforto will look to head into the offseason with some uncertainty about his future, although in a weak year for outfielders, he could still find himself being in demand for offensive-needy teams.

"It's never an easy thing to do, going on the injured list," he said talking to reporters early this morning at the stadium as they prepare for the final game of their series with Arizona. "But I'll continue to travel with and support the guys as we push towards the postseason."

8/31 -- Grisham, Yankees agree to five-year extension: Expected to be one of the better outfield free agents this upcoming offseason, the Yankees instead will not let Trent Grisham get to free agency as they have signed him to a five-year, $130 million extension with a $2 million signing bonus. The fifth year is a player option that is worth $26 million.

The Yankees acquired Grisham from the Padres as part of the 2023 offseason Juan Soto trade, and the trade paid off in spades with Soto putting up a 180 OPS+ (9 bWAR) in 2024; along with Grisham putting up a 121 OPS+ in 467 plate appearances with Gold Glove-level defense so far in 2025.

With Cody Bellinger expected to decline his $22 million player option for next season, it gives the Yankees a little more peace of mind knowing they have at least one veteran outfielder returning for 2026 and beyond. They also have youngster Jasson Dominguez waiting in the wings for a full-time opportunity.

The Yankees' Twitter account announced the signing late last night. The contract includes a no-trade clause; and will pay him $26 million per year guaranteed through 2029 before the option hits for the 2030 season, which would be his age-33 season if executed.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS MAILBAG
Where to place the blame for hitting woes; new stadium talk heats back up

By 3Bplay
09/01/2025

Who deserves the blame for the offense? What do they do to fix it in the offseason?

Let's put aside the whole "fire Alec Zumwalt" discussion for later; although I think there's some merit to it. I'll have a more detailed outlook next month, but I'll sneak peek some details here.

Basically, they need one or two bats for next season, either one big bat or spread out the money over multiple mid-level improvements. And they don't have to be in the outfield; they have needs at multiple positions. I'll have more on this later, but one internal move I'd make is moving Maikel Garcia off third base to either second base or left field.

Unless the Rays decline Brandon Lowe's $11.5 million team option for next season, I don't see a second baseman out there that would be worth pursuing, so Garcia to second would be an acceptable alternative. The third base market doesn't look a ton better, but there are at least some options there, especially if the Dodgers cut ties with Max Muncy or if Yoan Moncada finishes strong with the Padres.

Eugenio Suarez has openly stated he'd love to stay in Seattle, so I don't have much confidence there, either, and even if he would opt-out with the Red Sox, the Royals could easily be out-bid for Alex Bregman.

I will say this about Zumwalt -- it is a feather in the cap (to me at least) for him that the players that came over in trades are hitting better with the Royals than they did with their old clubs. It's not a sure-fire correlation, since these are all veteran players that have been on winning teams with winning cultures, but it can't hurt him going into the offseason where he'll likely be looking for any reason to make his case to stay in his current role.

Is it critical that the Royals make the postseason to build more support for the new stadium?

It would help, but don't think it's necessary. The number-one obstacle to a new stadium is parking, as Royals fans have grown accustomed to traveling to a fairly sparsely-populated part of the metro over the last half-century or so, with easy in-and-out parking and tailgating space. They have memories with parents and grandparents at Kauffman that go back generations, especially those older fans that remember the mid 70's and the World Series teams of the 80's.

The plan put forth to voters last year was ham-handed, forced, and frankly looked half-assed; and the voters responded accordingly. Honestly, though, the Chiefs' renovation proposal was still weaker than the Royals' idea for a new downtown stadium, and that had much more support from the county voting base, which I found strange, but when you've won three Super Bowls this decade with two other appearances, I suppose winning does cover up most, if not all, warts.

Much like newer ballparks such as Truist Park in Atlanta; and even at older parks like Wrigley and Busch Stadium, they have their own areas with bars, restaurants, and fan-friendly activities that bring in additional revenue to the team. I think John Sherman has correctly surmised that if you want to compete for better free agents and have more money to invest in the franchise, more revenue is needed; and while I love the K and have lots of good memories there, it's not an area that's conducive to much development.

The projected payroll for Opening Day 2026 is just north of $175 million, which would shatter the previous Opening Day payroll record. I fully believe, though, that it will be much lower than that by the time that rolls around. They have arbitration cases that potentially could get non-tendered, some options that are unlikely to be exercised, and even a few players that could be moved in a trade (can cover that in a later piece).

Is Maikel Garcia the long-term solution at third?

He is right now by default, as he's currently playing there at a fairly high level defensively, and he's been one of the top handful of offensive players at the position this year in the AL.

That said, I would be looking for someone to take over third base and move him to second. One, he could be a perennial All-Star there with the kind of offensive production he has, and secondly, his defensive profile actually fits better at second than at third. He has shortstop/third base range, but a fringy arm per Fangraphs, as he's a lower middle-of-the-pack thrower of the baseball amongst qualifying third basemen.

With DJ LeMahieu on the roster, we thought it might allow them to use Garcia at second more often, but DJL has mainly been a bench bat with Adam Frazier and Jonathan India getting most of the reps there.

Unfortunately, free agency likely will not look down on the Royals kindly, as third base is a pretty mediocre crop after Eugenio Suarez as noted earlier. Both Miguel Andujar and Yoan Moncada are enjoying above league-average seasons in 2025, but both will be entering their age-31 seasons in 2026 and neither of them represent a huge upgrade at third, enough to move Garcia off the position to second.

I wouldn't rule out an offseason trade either, but my guess is that it will likely take someone currently on the roster or a top prospect to swing a deal worth making.

Is the postseason hope over?

It's not, but it's going to take a pretty incredible run to make it after dropping those six straight games, especially the first two against the White Sox (which is going to be pointed to if they barely miss out on the postseason by a game or two).

The Yankees and Mariners are near shoo-in's to make it (both 80% or better), but the Royals are coming in at about a 10% chance. In September, they play a lot of games against teams directly ahead of them (four @ Cleveland, three vs Toronto and Seattle), so there's some opportunity if they can hold serve at home and steal some wins on the road.

I think Seattle is in due to a pretty soft September; the Royals in KC may be their toughest draw of the month aside from playing in Houston right before that. New York and Toronto have tougher roads in September, including three against each other in the Bronx from September 5th through the 7th. The Rangers and Guardians might have it even tougher, with six against Detroit (including three on the road), four at Tampa, and three at Boston. They also get the Royals at home for four.

Texas has six against Houston (three on the road), three at Cleveland to end the season (that may decide the last WC spot), three at the Mets, and a home series with Milwaukee.

As I sit here writing this one, on August 31st, they have twenty-six games remaining, including the series finale with Detroit that will be played by the time you read this. They likely need eighteen or more wins to pull it off, which means an 85-77 record or better. They would likely need to go no worse than 11-2 at home, which would mean at least 7-6 on the road since they have an even 13-13 split of home and road games remaining.

Basically, these three things need to happen -- 1) Win at least eighteen games, 2) at least eight of those wins against CLE, TOR, and SEA, and 3) hope for the tougher schedules to eventually do in the teams like the Rangers, Guardians, and Blue Jays.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Royals win series over Angels; Top prospect Jensen promoted

By artoodeetoo
09/05/2025

9/1 -- Royals tab Jensen for 40-man roster; move Tolbert to 60-day IL: Despite having not played for the past few days down in Triple-A due to a nagging quad injury, the Royals promoted one of their top prospects to the active roster to take the 28th and final spot for the stretch run in September.

In fact, he's still not likely to play at least until the Minnesota series later in the week, per manager Matt Quatraro. Catcher Carter Jensen was the Royals' third round pick in 2021 out of Park Hill High School in suburban Kansas City, and has been one of the minors' most consistent risers since making his pro debut roughly four years ago.

He'll join Salvador Perez and Luke Maile as part of their catching depth, and will be playoff-eligible as they were able to get him in just prior to the deadline on Sunday. To clear a spot on the 40-man, they transferred infielder Tyler Tolbert to the 60-day injured list. Quatraro confirmed they brought him on in his early morning press conference call with the local media.

"Carter really stood out back in the spring, even amongst players that were in their late 20's, early 30's," he said. "It's a bit cliche' for catchers, but he really is one of those cerebral players who has gotten so much better at calling a game and getting in tune with what each pitcher throws, and accounting for the game situation. The plan is to play him as much as possible as the situation allows, but really it's also about getting him up here and getting accustomed to the rigors of big league travel and preparation."

That's a good sign that he'll likely open up in 2026 on the Opening Day roster as the left side of a catching platoon with Perez, provided that the Royals bring him back on his team option for next year.

9/2 -- Eighth-inning rally falls short; Royals drop first game: Despite holding a 3-2 lead at the end of the sixth inning; in the following inning, the Angels took the lead against newcomer Ryan Thompson, who arrived at the stadium just a handful of hours prior to first pitch, scoring a pair of runs against him in just one-third of an inning.

Later, With the bases loaded and the team down 4-3 with two outs in the eighth, Lucas Erceg came in with just two homeruns allowed in over fifty innings of work. Although the hitter he was brought in to face was no ordinary hitter, but it was Mike Trout.

The two battled to a full count, but despite Erceg's 3-2 pitch not being in the zone, Trout managed to barrel the ball on the outside edge of the plate, putting it over 400 feet away to right-center to put the game seemingly out of reach. Or was it?

The Royals countered for four in the bottom of the eighth, which sounds great, but the Royals again let a promising rally fizzle out with a whimper as Jonathan India rolled into a double play to end the inning with pinch-runner Dairon Blanco stranded at third. Carlos Estevez kept it a one-run game, but Reid Detmers worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save, his first as the new full-time closer for the Angels in handing the Royals an 8-7 defeat.

"Just a very frustrating turn of events, and quite the rollercoaster we were on in that inning," said manager Matt Quatraro. "The crowd went from a roar to dead silence after the grand slam, and then back to a roar when Maikel scored on the play at the plate, then back to a dull silence when Johnny grounded into the double play. And then Detmers came in and slammed the door shut in the ninth, so we feel like just tipping our hats. They did just a little more than we could manage."

What was even more frustrating is that the Royals missed on a golden opportunity to narrow the wildcard race, as all of the contenders in front of them minus the Yankees also dropped their games, most of them by one-run margins. At 5 1/2 games out, they still have the opportunities in front of them, but the hourglass is starting to run out of sand.

9/3 -- Royals rebound in annihilating the Angels: For the first time in quite a while, the Royals enjoyed a pretty stress-free night at the park, as they scored eleven runs on a baker's dozen hits to cruise to an 11-5 win over the Angels, evening their series with Los Angeles at a game each.

Jac Caglianone's strong August has carried over into September as he hit a two-run homerun in the second, reaching base a total of three times in the win. He also walked in the fourth, and was hit by a pitch in the eighth, the sixth time he's been hit this season in just 220 plate appearances.

The Angels countered with two in the top of the third to tie the game, but the Royals fired back with two more in the third to take the lead for good, as the Angels never seriously threatened again. They scored two in the fifth, four in the sixth, and then added one in the seventh.

"It felt good to see consistent offense, where you're not just getting all of it in one or two innings, but up-and-down the lineup," manager Matt Quatraro. "It's silly to expect that night in and night out, but it's something I'd like to see us do more often, that's for sure."

And all of this was backed up by a strong start from Bailey Falter, although he did run into some homerun issues as Travis d'Arnaud homered in the fourth leading off that inning, while Gustavo Campero hit the first of his two homeruns against Falter in the seventh. In seven innings, Falter allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits, with two strikeouts and no walks. Ryan Thompson atoned for his loss in Tuesday's game by fanning the side in the eighth, and Taylor Clarke worked around Campero's second homerun to finish the contest.

Kansas City goes for the series win Thursday night as Michael Wacha will face a yet-unnamed Angels starter. Tonight's win moves them to within 4 1/2 games of Seattle for the final wildcard in the AL, and they are just a half-game back of the Guardians in both the wildcard and divisional standings.

9/4 -- Sac flies, strong pitching seals series victory: It wasn't the most efficient way to win, but the Royals managed to claim the rubber game of their series with the Angels by a 4-2 score, thanks to a trio of sacrifice flies and some solid work from the pitching staff.

With the birth of his child happening any day now, Michael Wacha pitched well into the seventh inning, but did not figure into the decision after surrendering a leadoff homerun to Kyren Paris in the seventh. He was able to get the next two outs before Angel Zerpa picked him up, although Zerpa allowed a hit and a walk before getting a fly ball out from Taylor Ward to end the inning.

"He really left it all out there," said manager Matt Quatraro. "There has to be quite a bit on his mind with a baby on the way in a matter of days, or even hours perhaps, but he's a pro's pro and showed why he's done it so well these last ten years or so."

The Royals struck first with an RBI double from Maikel Garcia, scoring Vinnie Pasquantino. That was the last run that the Royals would get without recording an out on the same play. After a Chris Taylor RBI hit in the second, Kyle Isbel hit a sac fly to put the Royals back up 2-1, a lead that stood until the seventh when Paris homered off Wacha.

Adam Frazier gave the Royals the lead back with a bases-loaded sac fly in the seventh, followed by Garcia driving in his second run of the game with one in the eighth. Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estevez kept the Angels at bay with scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.

With the Rangers and Mariners idle, Kansas City gained a half-game on both with the win, moving to within four games of the final wildcard spot. The Twins come to town beginning tonight for a three-game series with Minnesota.

9/5 -- Royals make roster moves ahead of Twins series: Royals skipper Matt Quatraro noted after last night's win over the Angels that Michael Wacha potentially had "hours to go" until his baby arrived, and that proved to be prophetic as he was placed on the paternity list early this morning.

"It was pretty much just a few hours after the final pitch," he said in his early-morning conference call with reporters. "He's at the hospital right now, so we'll wish him and his family well at this exciting time."

Kansas City re-called Ryan Bergert to take his spot in the rotation. Bergert was sent down back on August 21st, and would have been eligible to return even without needing an injury or restricted/paternity list reason to return, but Quatraro is glad to see the youngster back with the major league team.

"Ryan carries himself like a veteran, and he's barely been in the majors for a few months," he said of his young pitcher. "One of the things that we noticed with him early on here is how he prepares for games, and he's very in tune with studying film and really sussing out what guys can and can't do."

The Royals also will welcome Cole Ragans back into the rotation, as the Royals have activated him after a successful pair of rehab starts in the minors. It will be over three months between starts, as he is not expected to make his next appearance until sometime in the Cleveland series next week. His last start was June 5th, and couldn't get out of the third inning before getting pulled early.

Quatraro noted that lefty Bailey Falter will move to the bullpen to make room for Ragans, with Sam Long being designated for assignment for the second time this season. Long statistically has been one of the best relievers not only on the Royals, but in the AL over the last couple of months. Albeit, most of those innings have been attained largely in low-leverage situations.

At the time of his first designation, Long was pitching to an ERA of over 12.00 and was not claimed and outrighted to Omaha. This time, he could end up on a roster with his strong numbers over the past few months. Aside from a disastrous outing against the Dodgers back in late June when he allowed four earned runs in a single inning, Long has worked to a 1.80 ERA in twenty innings since June 21st.

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
Postseason in doubt for Alonso; Clase's suspension extended indefinitely

By MLB.com staff
09/05/2025

9/1 -- NL Central big winners in waiver claims: The Reds and Cubs added some quality depth for their bullpen and bench, respectively, on Sunday with the additions of Kenley Jansen (Cincinnati) and Luis Rengifo (Chi. Cubs).

Jansen is likely to end up as Cincinnati's closer for the stretch run, despite Emilio Pagan in the midst of a superb season as the team's closer up until this point. The Reds are within earshot of the last wildcard slot in the National League, just 2 1/2 games out.

Rengifo, along with newly-minted Padres infielder Yoan Moncada, both claimed from the Angels, gives those two teams some additional infield versatility. All of them were claimed in time to add to their respective teams' 40-man rosters.

Other notable names added via waivers were lefty Brandon Eisert (White Sox to the Rockies), righty Ryan Thompson (D-Backs to the Royals), and righty Eduard Bazardo (Mariners to the Braves). Only Thompson out of that group is on a playoff-contending team, although K.C.'s chances are dwindling by the day.

9/1 -- Cubs sign Santana to majors deal: The Cubs made a last-minute effort to bolster their roster for the post-season stretch run, signing former Guardian Carlos Santana just before the close of business on Sunday. He was also added to the 40-man and active rosters, making him post-season eligible.

Chase Strumpf was optioned to Triple-A Iowa to make room for Santana, who is likely going to platoon with Michael Busch at first base as the right-hand side of it. While Justin Turner has historically crushed lefty pitching, he has sputtered to a .566 OPS (62 OPS+), which pales in comparison to Santana's still below-average 86 OPS+.

Thanks to the Guardians releasing him and paying him the remainder of his $12 million salary, which came out to roughly $1.8 million, he's only owed the pro-rated league-minimum through the rest of the year.

Despite being in the wildcard race, the Guardians have been signaling they are wanting to give rookie CJ Kayfus more playing time down the stretch, as they view him as a Josh Naylor-type that is hit-over-field, but can still play first base and either corner outfield spot from the left side. The jettisoning of Santana will speed up that process.

9/1 -- Mets' Alonso goes on injured list; playoff status in doubt: The Mets' lineup took a huge blow when it was revealed that Pete Alonso's ankle injury was worse than feared -- it's a high ankle sprain that will at least keep him out the rest of the season, and perhaps some portion of the postseason, especially if the Mets advance past the wildcard round.

"It's a four-to-six week timetable, roughly," said manager Carlos Mendoza. "We kept him day-to-day for some time, but things haven't really improved, so we got several opinions and think it's best to sit him for the rest of the season, and then re-evaluate right before the postseason."

On a fourth-inning double in their 14-8 loss to Miami on Friday, Alonso landed on first base awkwardly as he rounded the bag, limping the entire way to second, and was nearly tagged out on what would have been a routine stand-up double.

He was removed from the game as a precaution, and as Mendoza noted was listed day-to-day, but was a scratch from the lineup the next two days, leading the organization to get several MRI procedures that led to the high ankle sprain diagnosis and subsequent placement on the IL.

9/1 -- Guardians' Clase suspension to last through end of season: MLB has indefinitely extended the unpaid suspension of Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, as the scope of the gambling investigation into him and his teammate, Luis Ortiz, is expanding.

That suspension will also include any postseason games; and could perhaps extend into the 2026 season, a spokesperson with the MLB office told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The same goes for Ortiz, although his original suspension was for the remainder of the season (incl. postseason) from the outset.

Despite the loss of Clase, youngster Cade Smith has proven to be a reliable closer in his stead, going 9-for-11 in save opportunities since taking over the full-time role in late July. Smith has a dozen saves on the season overall, with three stemming from earlier in the season as the eighth-inning arm.

Smith was signed by the Guardians as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Hawai'i in 2020, but likely would have been one of the first picks of the sixth round had the draft lasted longer due to the coronavirus pandemic that year.

9/2 -- Astros agree to four-year extension with outfielder: The Houston Astros have agreed, per their Twitter account, have signed outfielder Jake Meyers to a four-year, $50 million extension through the 2029 season.

Meyers is entering his second year of arbitration; and will have the final two years (including this season) bought out for $4.9 million in 2026, and then his final year of arbitration in 2027 for $8.6 million.

His salary hit after 2027, though, jumps to $18 million in 2028 and 2029. He also has a $1 million signing bonus, and a no-trade clause that kicks in beginning in 2028.

He's enjoying his best season to date, posting a 121 OPS+ in 342 plate appearances so far. In addition, he's 14-for-17 on steals and is amongst the top half-dozen of MLB center fielders in DRS (+6) and has only committed two errors to date.

9/3 -- Raleigh ties homerun record: Despite a 4-2 loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, Cal Raleigh tied an MLB record with his 48th homerun as the team's primary catcher, needing just one more to break Salvador Perez's record set just a few years ago in 2021.

"I'd trade it for a win, that's for sure," he said to reporters after the loss. "Right now, we've lost a few in a row, so hopefully after the day off tomorrow, we can regroup and get back on the winning track."

Raleigh has seen more plate appearances as a DH lately, but manager Dan Wilson insists it's not due to any injury concerns, only to keep him fresher down the stretch.

"Cal's not battling anything right now," he said outside the locker room after their 4-2 loss to Tampa on Wednesday. "He'll be back behind the plate Friday, and we'll have Mitch (Garver) ready as well. It's important to keep his bat in the lineup, and also give him some extra rest at the same time. Mitch is a veteran guy that's been in these situations before."

Seattle currently occupies the final wildcard slot in the AL, but they've lost three straight and need some wins to keep the other contenders at arm's length. Friday night, they begin a three-game series in Atlanta before kicking off a seven-game homestand beginning on Monday that sees St. Louis and division rival Los Angeles come to Safeco.

After that, they'll embark on a road trip that will likely define their season, as they travel to Kansas City and then Houston each for three games for their final roadie of the 2025 season.

9/4 -- Kirby, M's finalizing extension: Per Jon Morosi, who works for several different outlets including the MLB Network and Fox Sports, is reporting that the Mariners and right-hander George Kirby are finalizing details on a five-year, $81.2 million extension through 2030.

The move will buy out the final two years of Kirby's arbitration eligibility at $7.7 million and $12.1 million, respectively. He'll also have three years of free agency bought out, with 2028 at $15.1 million, and $23 million each in '29 and '30.

It's a good move on paper, as he was likely to get in excess of $10 million in arbitration per Fangraphs this offseason. One of the most consistent right-handed starters in baseball since breaking into the majors back in 2022, Kirby has 631 innings to his ledger.

He's never been a big strikeout pitcher, striking out roughly 23% of his hitters faced; but has issued a paltry eighty-seven walks over that same timeframe for a 3.4% walk rate, the best in the majors since the beginning of 2022 amongst pitchers with at least 500 innings.

His peripherals have also consistently out-performed his actual numbers, posting SIERA's below 3.00 in each of his first three years, and posting a 3.16 SIERA this season. His grounder rate is also a career-best at 47% this year, contributing to better than average FIP marks as well.

He joins Luis Castillo as the only two starting pitchers under contract for next season for Seattle, with closer Andres Munoz also under contract through 2028. Morosi also noted that they would like to get at least one more young starter under an extension soon, with Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo as the most likely there.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Royals cap series win over Twins with walk-off; Isbel to the IL

By artoodeetoo
09/08/2025

9/5 -- Royals drop nailbiter to Twins: Wasting another fine effort from Noah Cameron, the Royals' bats went silent in dropping a 2-1 decision to Minnesota to open a three-game series at home with their divisional rivals. Cameron struck out nine to tie a season and career high, allowing just one earned run. He scattered just four hits and two walks over his 104 pitches.

"Mixing it up, changing speeds even on his fastball, really helped him keep hitters off-balance," pitching coach Brian Sweeney noted to reporters at the post-game press conference, as skipper Matt Quatraro had to step away to attend to a personal matter. "That's a thing that younger pitchers have the biggest adjustment to pitch at this level. He's always been good at that, even prior to getting here."

Aside from a couple of hits each from Mike Yastrzemski and Jac Caglianone, the Royals didn't get much offense from the rest of the lineup, as they went 4-for-25 with no extra-base hits. A positive from the lackluster offensive performance has been the ongoing maturation of Caglianone, who has gone 15-for-56 (.267) with five doubles and four homeruns since returning from the minors last month.

The best part is that he's posted an on-base percentage of .391 since returning from his rehab assignment, although that's been helped by being hit by a pitch four times. Even without those, his OBP would be .365 since coming back up, still a very good number.

"I think a lot of it is just reps and getting in the cage and working on some things," he said of his improvement over the last few weeks. "Alec (hitting coach Zumwalt) has been the only other person I've seen more than my girlfriend over the last several weeks."

Unfortunately, Caglianone was forced out of the game due to hamstring tightness, and has been listed as day-to-day going forward according to Sweeney. The hamstring issue is the same injury that landed him on the injured list earlier in the season, so it will bear watching going forward.

Kyle Isbel also was pulled from the game in the middle of the fifth inning, with Jorge Mateo replacing him in center. After attempting a throw to the plate on an Alan Roden single, Isbel winced after throwing, eventually being diagnosed with a strained oblique. These two injuries also impacted the decision-making late in the game as the Royals were down 2-1 to begin the ninth.

Catcher Luke Maile singled to lead off the inning, but with replacements like Jorge Mateo and Jonathan India already in the game as replacements earlier in the game; and rookie catcher Carter Jensen still not cleared to play, Quatraro had to roll the dice with the veteran catcher on the basepaths.

"We were down to Randal (Grichuk) off the bench, and that would have meant losing a solid bench bat to pull off a double switch and lose the DH spot in the lineup," Sweeney noted. "The injuries earlier in the game really forced us into a box, so rolling the dice was the only option."

Mateo, who had subbed in for Isbel earlier, grounded into a fielder's choice, beating out a relay throw from second to deny the double play. He would end up stealing second, but was eventually stranded at third as Bobby Witt Jr grounded out to short.

9/6 -- Isbel placed on 10-day injured list: Kansas City made a roster move on Saturday, placing Kyle Isbel (oblique) on the 10-day IL and re-calling John Rave to take his spot on the roster. This will be Rave's second stint with the club this year, but it is likely to be a short one as manager Matt Quatraro noted that it is a low-grade strain that should be cleared up by the time the IL stay is complete.

"We're hopeful that he won't need any ramp-up in the minors when he comes off, but the way that the team physicians spoke that we wouldn't need any further action," he said. "John will do a good job for us in the meantime, but we're hopeful to get Kyle back as soon as we can."

Isbel is expected to return in time for the team's final homestand of the season, a critical six-game stretch against two teams that are ahead of them in the wildcard race in Seattle and Toronto that begins on September 16th.

9/6 -- Jensen cleared to play; will be in starting lineup: Rookie catcher Carter Jensen (quad) has been cleared by team officials, and will be in the lineup against the Twins tonight in the number-nine spot.

"I mean, it's a thrill to finally be able to put on the gear and get out there," he said. "I watched dozens and dozens of games here when I was a kid, and was in the building when Salvy hit the groundball down the line to beat the A's in 2014 to win the wildcard. Now I'm here on the same team with him all these years later. It's just surreal."

Jensen's presence will allow the Royals to more frequently rest their two veteran catchers in Salvador Perez and Luke Maile, and giving the youngster a chance to acclimate to the rigors of preparation and traveling at this level.

"We're excited to get him out there and playing," skipper Matt Quatraro said. "We sat down and told him, we're in the thick of it, and we're counting on you as part of this run to the postseason. We wouldn't have him up here if we didn't think he could handle it."

Quatraro, himself a former catcher, noted that having not one, but two veteran catchers to learn from over the next handful of weeks is "extremely invaluable" to his development as a player.

"We also re-iterated that this was his opportunity to really learn and soak up what you can from these two, and that they have nearly two decades combined playing this game," he added.

Jensen noted that he had secured "nearly thirty" tickets for the game tonight for family, friends, and former high school teammates from Park Hill High School in suburban northern Kansas City.

What was even more frustrating is that the Royals missed on a golden opportunity to narrow the wildcard race, as all of the contenders in front of them minus the Yankees also dropped their games, most of them by one-run margins. At 5 1/2 games out, they still have the opportunities in front of them, but the hourglass is starting to run out of sand.

9/6 -- Lorenzen, Royals hold off Twins to even series: Since coming off the injured list in mid-August, Michael Lorenzen has been a man on a mission by posting three quality starts in his last four; including Saturday night's gem in which he went seven innings while allowing just one earned run on six hits. He struck out four with just one walk to pick up the victory, his sixth of the season as the Royals claimed a 2-1 triumph.

"Definitely feeling in a groove right now," he said after the game. "There really isn't a pitch that I have that I don't think I can't get over for a strike. It's a good feeling to have as a pitcher, that you can throw any pitch in any count."

The bats struggled again, but the pitching was good enough to hold off the Twins' bats for the win. All of the damage was done in the first few innings, with Maikel Garcia hitting a solo homerun in the second inning, and Vinnie Pasquantino singling home a run in the third.

"When you get those first two runs early on, you want to keep building on that throughout the game, but it really puts a lot of pressure on the pitching when you miss on opportunities," said manager Matt Quatraro. "Luckily for us, Mike was rock-solid and handed the game off to Lucas and Carlos, who have been the rocks at the end of the pen all season."

WIth Cleveland's loss, the Royals have moved ahead of the Guardians in both the Central and wildcard races, but are still four games behind Seattle for the final spot. Kansas City will turn to Seth Lugo to secure the series victory tomorrow night, with Taj Bradley opposing him.

"I mean, every win is precious right now," Quatraro went on to add. "We're getting a little healthier, with Carter (Jensen) getting cleared to play today, and Cole (Ragans) coming back and making his first start in several months later this week, so we're still in a solid place, but time is getting short."

9/7 -- Witt walk-off in 11th: Bobby Witt Jr made MLB history on Sunday afternoon, becoming the second shortstop ever to have one hundred homeruns, one hundred steals, and more than 20 fWAR before the end of their age-25 season. Alex Rodriguez is the only other one to do so, putting BWJ in a very exclusive club.

With the Royals needing a spark down 1-0 against new Twins closer Justin Topa in the ninth, Witt hit a solo homerun to lead off the inning to tie the score, and would later walk the Twins off with a single in the 11th as the Royals pulled off arguably their biggest win of the season to date, a 2-1 11-inning thriller that allowed them to gain a game on other wildcard contenders in Seattle and Toronto. They also moved to one-and-a-half games over Cleveland with a key series beginning there on Monday.

Toronto and Seattle have dropped into a tie for the third and final spot, with the Royals now three games back of them. Texas has moved up into the second spot, a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays and Mariners.

"Just Bobby doing Bobby things," skipper Matt Quatraro beamed after the game of his star shortstop. "This was one that we really had to have, and really couldn't have done it without his contributions."

That's not to say he was the only one, however. Seth Lugo held a no-hitter through nearly six innings, finally surrendering a one-out single to Will Holland that helped lead the Twins to their first and only run of the game. The bullpen didn't allow a single hit in four scoreless innings, with Daniel Lynch IV pitching for the first time in a week getting the win.

Another unsung hero per Quatraro was rookie catcher Carter Jensen, who drew the starting assignment behind the plate for the second straight game. In twenty innings, the Twins scored just two earned runs with him calling the game for Royals pitching, and no baserunners had attempted to steal on him.

"The pitchers are all raving about him," Quatraro said of his young catcher. "Like I've said before, he's a student of the game that really has a knowledge of the game that's beyond his years. If he stays healthy, I think he'll enjoy a pretty long career in this game."

In the other dugout, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was questioned as to why he didn't keep Bradley in the game to preserve the shutout. Bradley had gone eight shutout innings, allowing five hits and a walk with six strikeouts, but was at ninety-eight pitches, with a little over a third of those in the previous two innings.

"We noticed that the velocity over the previous few innings was starting to dip a little bit, so we thought with Witt leading off the next inning, it was a good time to get Justin in there," he said, referring to Justin Topa. "Obviously, it didn't work out, but I'd make the same choice again in the same situation."

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
Rays, Phillies lose important pitchers; Astros' Correa returns from IL

By MLB.com staff
09/08/2025

9/5 -- Red Sox release Walker Buehler: Despite a recent run of success, the Red Sox have decided to cut ties with Walker Buehler and pay him the remainder of his 2025 salary, plus his $3 million buyout for 2026. That total comes out to roughly $5.7 million, and is expected to sign with a different team "in the coming days", per a source close to the pitcher.

Since the beginning of July, he's lowered his ERA from the low 6's to the high 4's, but his peripherals have not been as kind, especially over the last month. In August, despite a 2.73 ERA, his FIP and SIERA have been over 5.00, owing to a very high walk rate and low opponents' BABIP, suggesting that he's had some fortuitous luck in run prevention despite walking a lot opposing hitters.

Any team that signs him in the coming days (to a major league contract) will only be subject to paying him the pro-rated league minimum; and also in the offseason, his $3 million that he's already banked from the buyout will likely hurt him in free agent negotiations.

A minor league deal will not subject him to that rule, unless the minor league deal comes with some kind of bonus that cannot exceed the pro-rated amount remaining.

9/5 -- M's Raleigh breaks record with homerun: With his three-run homerun in the fifth off Erick Fedde, the record for homeruns in a season by a primary catcher now belongs to Cal Raleigh with forty-nine. He broke Salvador Perez's record of 48 set just four seasons ago back in 2021.

His homerun put the Mariners up 5-2 in that inning, and they would go on to post a 5-4 victory to stave off a three-game losing streak. His 49th homerun ties him for second in the league with Shohei Ohtani; and both are second to Kyle Schwarber's fifty longballs.

"Personal records and accolades are nice, especially when it's a record that belonged to someone like Salvy Perez," he said after the game, "But we just need to keep stacking wins and get this thing to the postseason. That's the goal right now."

Their series with Atlanta continues tonight at 7:10 PM Eastern time from Truist Park in suburban ATlanta, where Luis Castillo will go up against Dane Dunning.

9/6 -- Orioles sign Basallo to extension: After only all of six days and four games with the Orioles, they have signed rookie catcher Samuel Basallo to an eight-year, $67 million extension. The deal also includes a ninth season, determined by a club option worth $18 million, although it can be bought out for $7 million.

The deal also comes with a $5 million signing bonus and escalators that could take the total compensation of the deal to nearly $89 million if all prerequisites are met.

Basallo hasn't played since Wednesday after suffering a thigh bruise, but hit his first MLB homerun on that day, and has generally been praised by the Orioles' staff for his limited work behind the plate so far.

The one big negative for the extension is that it takes him out of the running for the Orioles to receive a PPI compensation pick down the road if he would happen to place in the top two of the Rookie of the Year voting next season, or in the top three of MVP voting sometime over the next three seasons.

However, if he ends up fulfilling his vast promise as a player, especially if he ends up sticking at catcher instead of moving to first base or left field, it is a risk worth taking.

9/6 -- Rays' Pepiot to miss remainder of season: Even though Tampa Bay's postseason chances are quite remote (<5% by FanGraphs), those remote chances took another big hit with the loss of starter Ryan Pepiot. The young right-hander and budding ace is expected to miss the rest of the season with a partially torn labrum.

Torn labrums are not the months-long injuries they used to be, especially in Pepiot's case where surgery is not required and could heal up on its own. However, Pepiot opted for surgery to correct the problem, and is expected to be out of baseball activities for at least the next several months.

The surgery was reportedly successful, which could end up shortening the recovery time if the upcoming rehab goes well. He's expected to be at full strength for spring training next year according to manager Kevin Cash.

"We're pretty fortunate to have some nice depth on which to draw from," Cash noted when asked about Pepiot's timetable for recovery. "Joe (Rock) is up and pitching well, we have Joe Boyle really hitting his spots out of the bullpen, so we still feel good about where we're at."

Tampa would still have to leapfrog five teams with twenty games to go to reach the postseason; not an impossble task, but losing one of their top starters for the remainder of the year is not likely to help their cause.

9/7 -- Phillies' rotation suffers massive blow: With the resurgence of the Padres and Cardinals in the postseason race, the Phillies all of a sudden find themselves in a perilous position as they are only a game ahead of St. Louis, and two games ahead of the Padres in the wildcard race, as they themselves hold the number-two spot.

That position went from bad to worse when it was announced that veteran righty Zack Wheeler will be out of the rest of the season. He left his start at Milwaukee after just four and one-third innings on Thursday night, with a similar injury to Tampa Bay's Ryan Pepiot that will knock him out for the rest of the season.

However, Wheeler's torn labrum is much more serious, one that will require surgery and a longer rehab time at his age. In fact, it's not 100% certain that he'll be ready on Opening Day for next season, as he's expected to miss the next six-to-eight months after undergoing surgery on Saturday per a team source.

"Not going to lie, this is going to hurt us quite a bit," said manager Rob Thomson, not mincing words. "Zack not only brings the ability, but his leadership and knowledge and steady hand is going to be missed. Not having him around in the clubhouse is a big blow. But we're just going to have to pick it up elsewhere, whether it's scoring more runs or just pitching better."

Many thought with the injury that the Phillies would finally call up Andrew Painter from Triple-A, but they opted to re-call Matt Manning from the minors, whom they acquired in a trade with the Tigers back before the deadline. They are also reportedly linked to the recently-released Walker Buehler, who has ample postseason experience from his time with the Dodgers.

Painter has struggled in Triple-A this season, pitching to a 5.12 ERA in 95 innings of work with the Phillies' top minor league affiliate in Lehigh Valley. He's coming off a start on Saturday in which he allowed six earned runs on ten hits in 3 2/3 innings in an 11-10 loss at Buffalo.

9/7 -- Astros' Correa returns to lineup: It's been a bit of a struggle offensively for Carlos Correa since returning to the team that drafted him earlier this season via trade, but manager Joe Espada said that the lineup is much better with than without him.

"He just adds that extra presence that makes teams have to account for him," he said. "He hasn't had quite the success since coming back that he may have hoped for, but he still plays great defense, and is a player the younger guys look up to."

After Correa's 0-for-3 in a loss to Texas last night, he has just an 76 OPS+ in ninety-four plate appearances, with twenty-four strikeouts to just six walks. Jeremy Pena, who had been the primary shortstop in Correa's absence and a former Gold Glove winner himself, will go back to being the primary DH while Yordan Alvarez is still on the injured list.

"We've talked about giving Carlos some rest a few times a week and putting him in the lineup as the DH," Espada said. "But I think for now, we'll go back to the lineup we had with both of them pre-injury."

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Royals keep pace in wildcard race with series win

By artoodeetoo
09/12/2025

9/8 -- Jac plays hero as Royals win in extras: With perhaps the biggest hit of his young career to date, Jac Caglianone cleared the bases against former Royal Carlos Hernandez in the top of the 11th with two outs, hitting a double just over the head of first baseman Jhonkensy Noel to bring home all three runners as the Royals secured the first game of their series with the Guardians on the road by a 6-3 count.

Carlos Estevez, who pitched the 10th, stayed on for two hitters in the 11th before giving the ball to Angel Zerpa, who picked up the final out for the save. Skipper Matt Quatraro noted he made the move since Estevez had thrown two-dozen pitches, and he would likely be needed later in the series.

"We want to throw our best guys, but we're going to need to give Carlos some rest, so he's likely to be unavailable tomorrow," he said. "We've thrown four additional bullpen innings over the last two games, and that includes a plane trip in between that."

The two teams each scored once in the first, with Vinnie Pasquantino hitting his 26th homerun of the season with two out in the top of the frame. Cleveland countered with an RBI double from Lane Thomas, recently activated off the injured list.

It was 2-2 after four innings, with Ryan Bergert getting the start in place of Michael Wacha, who was moved from the paternity list to the restricted list. He's expected to be back in Kansas City tomorrow, and is likely to start in Wednesday's game. Cole Ragans is tabbed for the start on Tuesday night, his first since June 5th.

9/9 -- Royals hold Guardians' late rally off for fourth straight win: With a depleted bullpen, the Royals had to rely on converted starter Bailey Falter to close out the victory, and he pulled it off thanks to some good defense in the ninth inning of their 4-3 win over Cleveland.

Falter came in with two outs in the eighth, and promptly gave up a pair of singles to Nolan Jones and Lane Thomas, but was able to get out of trouble with a fly ball to center to end that inning. In the ninth, he once again gave up back-to-back baserunners with a hit and a walk, but brought the game to a close in a hurry with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Brayan Rocchio before getting a 6-3 double play.

Jose Ramirez hit a line drive right at Bobby Witt Jr for the second out, but Greg Jones, who had walked two hitters ago, got a bit too far off first base and Witt doubled him up after Jones stumbled trying to get back to the bag.

Needing to steal a couple of wins on the road after going just 5-4 on their most recent homestand, the Royals are still in a strong position for a wildcard berth as they've seen their playoff chances increase to almost 20 percent per FanGraphs, up from ten prior to the beginning of the Angels series last week.

Making his first start in the bigs since June, Cole Ragans looked very strong in the early going with seven strikeouts over his first four innings. He ended up leaving the game with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh, but John Schreiber was able to get out of the inning with just one of those three inherited runners scoring.

"He looked in control, had everything working for him pretty well throughout, just looked a little gassed around the 85-pitch mark," said manager Matt Quatraro. "His velocity was down, but the movement on all of his stuff looked great still. Stamina-wise, he probably isn't quite all the way back, but one or two more starts should have him back at full strength."

The offense got off to a strong start with a two-run Vinnie Pasquantino homerun; adding single tallies in the second and fourth. Adam Frazier's sac fly in the second to score DJ LeMahieu accounted for the third run, and Frazier did it again in the fourth, scoring LeMahieu from third on a sac fly.

Cleveland would start chipping away at the lead in the sixth as David Fry led the inning off with a solo homerun, and added two more in the seventh. Ragans was eventually charged with all three Cleveland earned runs, but scattered just six hits and a walk to pick up his third win of the season.

9/10 -- Late homerun spells doom in Cleveland: Arriving back in Cleveland prior to last night's game, Royals starter Michael Wacha didn't get the normal preparation time as he is accustomed to, having been at the birth of his son over the weekend.

"I arrived back here a day later than anticipated, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything," he said. "I was able to do a little bit while I was away, but obviously it wasn't going to be as intensive as if I was here the whole time."

Wacha wasn't sharp in the early going, as he allowed three hits and a walk in the first two innings (although no runs). In the third, however, the Guardians were finally able to break through with three tallies to take their first lead of the game, 3-2.

In the top of the fourth, Kansas City re-claimed the lead with a two-run John Rave homerun, followed by a two-out RBI double from Maikel Garcia to put the Royals back up by two. Those runs finally chased Gavin Williams from the game in favor of Joey Cantillo, who threw one pitch to Vinnie Pasquantino and got him to fly out to right.

Cantillo pitched two more clean innings, allowing just a hit and a walk while striking out four. Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and finally Cade Smith were able to combine for three innings to keep the Royals off the scoreboard the rest of the way out.

"We fought really hard in this one, changed leads a few times, but that homerun in the seventh against us was a big one," Royals skipper Matt Quatraro mentioned, referring to Gabriel Arias' solo homerun to lead the seventh off. "We never really threatened with the bats after that one."

Taylor Clarke, who replaced Wacha in the fifth with two men on and no one out, retired all six he faced in those two innings, and then came out for the seventh. Arias, a right-handed hitter, took a 2-2 fastball deep for his 14th homerun of the season. Quatraro immediately went to Angel Zerpa, who pitched two scoreless innings of his own.

9/11 -- Royals promote Mitchell to Double-A: Despite not having overwhelmingly impressive offensive numbers in High-A, the Royals are nonetheless promoting their top prospect, catcher Blake Mitchell, from Quad Cities to Double-A NW Arkansas for the remainder of the season, as noted by GM JJ Picollo on a Wednesday local talk show.

In his weekly spot with 610 AM in Kansas City, Picollo gave an update on Mitchell when asked by the hosts about his progress, and said that later in the week Mitchell would be 'moving on up' to Double-A to finish out the season. In 105 plate appearances with the River Bandits, he has a .748 OPS (103 OPS+) at that level, although he shows an elite ability to get on base (.371 OBP) despite a low-ish BA; and has more extra-base hits (9) than singles (7).

Picollo also said that Mitchell has drawn rave reviews for his work behind the plate, as coaches and teammates alike have been complimentary of his work ethic and his ability to call a game.

"We're in constant communication with the minor league staffs and even some of the more experienced, leadership-type players on those teams, and we get very positive reports on Blake all the time," he said. "Of course, there are still some soft spots in his game that will continue to need work, but everything that we've seen and know of him has been nothing but positive so far."

It's an interesting move given his lack of experience, even at the High-A level, and the fact that the Royals now have Carter Jensen on the big-league roster and contributing. But it was reported that the Royals were asked about Mitchell in trade talks, and the Royals wouldn't even entertain any offer that included Mitchell going to another organization, so it appears that the Royals still think very highly of him and see him as a part of the future -- for now.

Jensen could take off and become the heir apparent to Salvador Perez, and render Mitchell expendable. Additionally, Jensen is also athletic enough to potentially move to a corner infield or corner outfield spot, especially with his plus-arm and above-average speed. Mitchell is athletic as well (career 37-for-46 on steals), but is widely regarded as not only the best defensive catcher in the entire organization, but one of the best in the entire minor leagues.

9/11 -- Four pitchers combine to shut Guardians out: Behind seven strong innings from Noah Cameron, the Royals put some considerable distance between them and the Guardians with a 4-0 win that also saw three other pitchers contribute to the shutout victory.

Lucas Erceg worked a scoreless eighth inning, and appeared to be staying on for the save when the Royals took a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, but a leadoff walk chased him from the game in favor of Angel Zerpa, who sandwiched a strikeout and a flyout around a walk before Carlos Estevez got the final out for his 34th save.

"Things got a little hairy late in the game, but Carlos came in and shut the door rather quickly," skipper Matt Quatraro said out in front of the locker room after the game, looking a little relieved. "We were able to get three of four in Cleveland, and we're going to be on the way to Philly in a matter of hours, and that will be another tough series for us."

Randal Grichuk was responsible for the first two Royals runs, hitting an RBI double in the second, followed by an RBI single in the fourth. Bobby Witt Jr inched closer to another historical milestone with his 19th homerun in the fifth inning. He needs just one more homerun to become only the sixth full-time shortstop in MLB history to reach one hundred career homeruns before the end of their age-25 season.

His next homerun would put him in even more exclusive territory, being the third player along with Bobby Bonds (1972-5) and Carlos Beltran (2001-4) to have four straight 20 HR/30 SB seasons. His 100th homerun last week also gave him the honor of being the fastest player in team history to reach 100 career homeruns.

"He's at the center of everything we do," Quatraro went on to say about the two-time All-Star. "I've talked with other managers around the league, and they all say that we don't want him beating us if we can help it. I would say the same if I were managing against him."

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
Red Sox top newest Power Rankings; Mariners extend reliever

By MLB.com staff
09/12/2025

9/8 -- A new number-one atop the Power Rankings: After a huge leap in last week's rankings into the top five, Boston has made another giant leap in this week's Power Rankings to the top spot by finally de-throning the Brewers, who have held the top spot in the rankings since the All-Star break.

Boston, Milwaukee, Detroit, San Diego, and the Chicago Cubs rounded out the top five, with the red-hot Cardinals sitting just on the outside in the sixth spot. Other big risers into the top half of the rankings are the Yankees (8th) and the Royals (13th).

The Dodgers, Mets, Astros, and Phillies were all the biggest droppers, with the first three remaining in the top ten, but the Phillies falling out of the top ten to 12th.

9/9 -- Mariners, Ferguson to agree to extension: Seattle continues to lock up more of their current talent, as they are putting the finishing touches on a three-year extension with recently-acquired reliever Caleb Ferguson. The deal will pay out $13 million over the life of the contract, which also includes a $1 million signing bonus. No other incentives have been confirmed as of yet.

Teams rarely dole out long-term extensions to non-closer relievers, but Ferguson has been so impressive in his Mariners' tenure to date that the team brass has felt compelled to not let him get to free agency this winter. In 9 2/3 innings over six appearances since coming over via trade from the Pirates, Ferguson has allowed just one earned run with a dozen strikeouts to no walks.

Seattle is the fourth team for Ferguson since being traded from the Dodgers, his original team, back in February of 2024. He was then traded from the Yankees to the Astros at last year's deadline, only to hit free agency. He was eventually signed by the Pirates for this season in early February to a $3 million, one-year deal.

The Mariners sent pitcher Jeter Martinez to the Pirates in exchange for Ferguson in July, but the Mariners are going to take a different strategy and not let him get to free agency for the 2026 season.

9/10 -- O's Bradish triumphant in return: Arguably the best starter this side of Grayson Rodriguez on their roster, Kyle Bradish made his first start since June 14th of last season and was dominant over five innings, scattering just four hits with no runs, no walks, and nine strikeouts as the Orioles beat Paul Skenes and the Pirates by a 4-1 score.

Skenes went the distance in a rare complete-game loss, allowing four earned runs in eight innings with ten strikeouts to just two walks. Elvin Rodriguez worked in relief of Bradish, going 3 1/3 innings before Felix Bautista picked up the final two outs to get the save.

"Honestly, it feels good to get back out there on a major league mound instead of the minors," Bradish said with a laugh after the win. "Nothing against the minor leagues as we all came up through them, but the travel just isn't my thing."

It's been a season to forget for the Orioles, but the return of one of their top starters, a still very young roster, and signing one of their young prospects to a lengthy extension should give them some hope that they could return to postseason contention in 2026.

9/11 -- Two Brewers hurlers land on IL in consecutive days: Milwaukee's rotation has taken two major hits in back-to-back days, with both Brandon Woodruff and now Freddy Peralta landing on the 15-day injured list. Woodruff is dealing with a rotator cuff strain, while Peralta was removed from his start last night with a high ankle sprain.

They also lost one of their top relievers in Grant Anderson late last month with elbow inflammation that will keep him on the shelf for the remainder of the season, postseason included.

"We're pretty fortunate to have some solid depth on our big-league roster and in the minors," said manager Pat Murphy. "We have some guys in the pen that have made a significant number of starts even this season, so we're still feeling pretty good about where we're at despite the losses. Still, we'd rather have them as opposed to not, so stay tuned."

Chad Patrick, who made nineteen starts earlier in the season before being optioned to Triple-A, and then recalled a few weeks later to pitch out of the bullpen, is expected to slide back into the rotation.

Robert Gasser, a southpaw who made five starts a season ago with the Brewers, is back in the majors for the first time in 2025 and will hold down the other vacant role in Peralta's absence.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Wildcard chances begin to slip further away

By artoodeetoo
09/15/2025

9/12 -- Bullpen implodes in loss to Phillies: Heading into the sixth inning, the Royals looked poised to cruise to a fairly stress-free victory up by a 4-0 count on the road at Philadelphia, but the Phillies rallied for two in the sixth on a Kyle Schwarber two-run homerun, which seemed to jumpstart a moribund offense.

They picked up two more in the seventh to pull to within one before exploding against the Royals' bullpen in the eighth, picking up a half-dozen runs on their way to doubling up the Royals by a 10-5 score.

Michael Lorenzen, a former Phillie hurler, had allowed just two earned runs through six innings before coming back out for the seventh. He allowed a single to Brandon Marsh, who then stole a base and came around to score on Harrison Bader's RBI double. Daniel Lynch IV came in to face the top of the Philly order, allowing a Bryson Stott RBI double before getting the next three outs consecutively.

Royals skipper Matt Quatraro made an interesting move in the eighth, going to Ryan Thompson for the eighth instead of Lucas Erceg. Despite not working for three days before then, Erceg had thrown twenty-seven pitches in yesterday's win over Cleveland, which was the reason that Quatraro went with the newcomer Thompson in this situation.

"We just haven't had a situation for Ryan to work in a while, and we had right-handers coming up in the inning, so we decided it was a good spot for him to go," he said. "It didn't work out for us in the end, and Ryan ended up coming out after feeling some discomfort in his right shoulder, so we turned to Lucas in a pinch, even though we were hoping to get him at least a day of rest to have him ready for the final two games of the series."

Erceg didn't get anyone out in his brief appearance, allowing two hits and a walk and ended up being charged with three earned runs. Bailey Falter came in and was able to get the final out, but had to work around a couple of hits to end the frame.

Offensively, the Royals hit a trio of homeruns, but otherwise could not get much of anything going outside of the first half of the game. Maikel Garcia hit his 14th homerun of the season in the sixth, with Mike Yastrzemski following him up in the seventh for his 16th homerun of the season (his 8th since joining the team).

9/13 -- Offense comes alive late in Royals victory: For the second straight night, the Royals lost a multi-run lead after the sixth inning, but this time the offense came back with a vengeance as the Royals tacked on five runs over their final two at-bats as the Royals sprinted past the Phillies by a 9-5 score.

With a first-inning two-run homerun, Salvador Perez became the 10th active player with 1,000 or more RBI, and joined George Brett and Hal McRae as the only Royals to top the 1,000-RBI mark for their career. Perez would also add a solo homerun in the eighth-inning, part of a back-to-back homerun inning as both he and Bobby Witt Jr homered against Orion Kerkering to lead off that frame.

Witt's homerun was also a milestone homerun, becoming only the second player in league history, joining Alex Rodriguez as the second player ever to have four seasons of at least twenty homeruns, at least thirty doubles, and 25 fWAR or better prior to their age-25 season completion. Perez is now just four homeruns away from 300, as he would become just the eighth catcher in league history to reach that mark.

However, Seth Lugo's strong start was spoiled yet again by a bullpen implosion as Daniel Lynch IV surrendered three earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning of work. John Schreiber got the final out of the seventh, and also worked a perfect eighth to pick up the win.

Lugo only struck out two, but didn't walk a batter and scattered eight hits over six innings, throwing 104 pitches. Maikel Garcia's ninth-inning three-run blast gave the Royals a nice cushion heading into the bottom of the inning, allowing Matt Quatraro to not have to expend any of their top options in the victory.

"Huge, just huge," he said of the homerun. "I mean, I would have settled for a single because you're up three, but that extra run to put us up four cemented in my mind that we could skip using the back end of the bullpen unless the situation would later dictate that we needed to, so that's a big deal for us heading into tomorrow's game."

It was Garcia's only hit of the game, but it showed that he's become quite the force in the middle of the order.

"The amount of extra work he's put in has been paying off for him, and us, in spades," Quatraro went on to say. "There's also still some room for growth and further development as well, so we're thrilled about what we've seen so far and what to expect down the road."

Now 8-4 in the month of September, the Royals are off to a good start, but still remain three games behind Texas for the final wildcard position; and now just one back of the Mariners, who are beginning to slip a little bit. After tomorrow afternoon's game, the Royals will be off before beginning the final homestand of the year with the aforementioned Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays coming to Kansas City.

9/14 -- Very little goes right in series finale: Bobby Witt Jr's solo homerun in the first inning gave the Royals an early lead in the game; but beginning in the fourth inning, the Phillies had a sustained and consistent onslaught as they pounded the Royals 16-4 to send the Royals packing back to Kansas City. It's the largest margin of defeat for the Royals this season.

The loss drops the Royals to four games back of the final wildcard spot with just a dozen games to go, with the Mariners two games ahead of them. They have key series coming up against both Seattle and Toronto, and will likely need to sweep both series and then win at least four of six from their final road trip against the Angels and Athletics to have a shot. It's do-able, but if the Phillies' series is any indication, the chances appear to be slim.

Drawing his second start since returning from the injured list, Cole Ragans breezed through the first three frames before running into a brick wall in the fourth. Four of the first five hitters in that inning reached base safely, with three runners coming home to score. With two out, Ragans hit Edmundo Sosa with a pitch to extend the inning, allowing another run to score on a bases-loaded walk to Trea Turner.

Ragans, already over eighty pitches through four innings, stayed on for the fifth. However, he allowed two of the first three hitters to reach before Brandon Marsh hit a three-run homerun to finally kick Ragans from the contest. He was charged with seven earned runs over 4 1/3 innings, although he only walked two with five strikeouts.

"Just didn't have it today," he said when asked how his stamina was later in his outing. "Didn't really have anything to do with feeling tired, or anything like that."

The bullpen didn't fare much better, with Taylor Clarke surrendering four earned runs over the next two innings of work. The normally reliable Steven Cruz was also knocked around as he was eventually charged with five earned runs over 1 1/3 innings, with Bailey Falter being the only reliever that went scoreless in his outing. He struck out the only hitter he faced in the eighth.

"Of course, this is one that you just have to flush and move on," said skipper Matt Quatraro, a bit dejected. "We'll head back to Kansas City today, have a day off, our next-to-last one, and then see if we can finish this sprint to the end of the season."

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
McKinstry, Ward sign extensions; Boston's Anthony could miss first round of postseason

By MLB.com staff
09/15/2025

9/12 -- McKinstry, Tigers agree to extension: The string of high-profile contract extensions continued on Thursday, with the Tigers announcing an extension with All-Star infielder Zach McKinstry.

Detroit will buy out the final two years of his arbitration eligibility, plus two years of free agency at $17.5 million per year in 2028 and 2029. His salary hit is $4.6 million for 2026, followed by an $8.2 million hit for 2027. His deal includes a $4 million signing bonus.

A first-time All-Star this season, McKinstry has played seven different positions with the exception of catcher and center field. He has a career-high fourteen homeruns this season, posting another career-best in OPS with an .821 mark (129 OPS+).

9/13 -- Boston's Anthony could be out two to three weeks: The playoff status of Boston rookie phenom Roman Anthony has been thrown into doubt, as the outfielder has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring, suffered while legging out a double during Tuesday night's game.

The Red Sox re-called infielder Kristian Campbell to take his spot on the roster. Another heralded Red Sox rookie who received an extension recently, Campbell has not had quite the season as a consensus Top 50 prospect coming into the season, but gives them a bit more versatility defensively than Anthony, who is an outfielder-only.

While it's not expected that he would miss the entire postseason should the AL East-leading Red Sox advance past the ALDS, it is a coinflip at this point if he'll even be available for that series. Even though it is not mathematically official yet, the Red Sox are a near-lock to win the AL East and take one of the two first-round byes, along with Detroit.

"It's a tough break for him, but thankfully we have guys that can step in and keep us going from that spot," said manager Alex Cora. "Really, the injured list placement is just as a precaution and to give him some time off before the postseason run."

9/14 -- Another free-agent-to-be off the board: One of the most coveted upcoming free agents is off the board after signing an extension, as slugger Taylor Ward is going to return to the Angels next season and for the following three seasons after that.

Ward agreed to a four-year, $82 million extension with the club as he ranks in the top ten league-wide in homeruns (42) and is in the top five in RBI (110). Despite having enough service time to reach free agency if he would remain on the active roster the rest of the season, he'll bring in just $10.4 million next season before getting a massive raise for the next three seasons, earning $24 million for 2027, 2028, and 2029.

Normally an outfielder, Ward has also played some first base as well as getting some at-bats while serving as the team's designated hitter. Fangraphs had pegged Ward in the offseason as getting a five-year deal worth $130 million, so the Angels are actually getting a significant underpay in terms of AAV per Fangraphs.

[3Bplay]

Team Roster/Records | Statistics | Standings

ROYALS HEADLINES
Royals win two-of-three from Mariners; sign minor league pitcher

By artoodeetoo
09/19/2025

9/15 -- Flurry of roster moves made ahead of Seattle series: Pitchers Ryan Thompson and Taylor Clarke were placed on the 15-day injured list ahead of the Royals' series with Seattle, as Hunter Harvey was activated off his rehab assignment, along with Stephen Kolek. Kolek was re-called from Triple-A to make his Royals debut tomorrow night, as he'll draw the starting assignment against Logan Gilbert in the series opener between the M's and the Royals.

Michael Lorenzen will be moved to the bullpen for the remainder of the season, per manager Matt Quatraro, to accommodate Kolek being placed in the rotation. Additionally, the Royals also activated Kyle Isbel from the injured list, and optioned John Rave back to Triple-A.

Kansas City is 5 1/2 games out of the wildcard race with just a dozen games to go, but the skipper is not giving up so easily as they continue to shuffle the roster to try and give them a chance to sneak in.

"Not until the math says that we can't," he said with a wry smile when asked about starting to turn the page to next season. "I mean, does it look good? No, but we're not going to stop fighting until it's impossible to get in. We owe it to the players to make every effort to get in and then win in the postseason."

9/16 -- Cags homers; Royals drop opener: Jac Caglianone's solo homerun got the Royals on the board first in the third, but otherwise couldn't figure out Logan Gilbert as the Mariners would eventually tie the game and then take the lead late in handing a loss to the Royals by a 2-1 score.

Over eight innings, Gilbert allowed just three hits and the lone homerun, striking out eight without walking a batter. His Royals counterpart on the other side, Stephen Kolek, was outstanding in his K.C. debut, allowing just one earned run (two total) over 5 2/3 innings of work. He fanned only four, but didn't walk anyone and scattered five hits.

"Disappointing that we couldn't give Steve any support, but that guy on the other side was pretty solid," manager Matt Quatraro said, referring to Gilbert. "I mean, he had everything working for him to a T. That's really hard to counter."

Even as the Royals' playoff hopes begin to dim, one of the bright spots in the last month's worth of games has been Caglianone's improvement since returning from the injured list. His homerun in the third was his fifth homerun since returning, and has gone 21-for-86 (.244) with five homeruns, seven doubles, and a dozen walks in that same stretch.

That last stat is significant as it shows that teams are starting to respect him a little more; as most of his on-base was helped by a half-dozen hit-by-pitch plate appearances, although he's added three more since his IL stint.

"Something is really starting to click with him, and we couldn't be more excited to see it happen," Quatraro went on to say when asked about his progress. "Whether it's been extra sessions with Alec (hitting coach Zumwalt), or film study, or just the game starting to slow down, all of that is good to see."

9/16 -- Royals acquire Anderson from Red Sox: It's late in the season, but the Royals are still looking to find talent for 2026 and beyond as they have announced a deal with the Red Sox for pitcher Jack Anderson. The Royals will send cash to Boston for the 25-year-old righty, who has put together a solid year for their Double-A affiliate in Portland, Maine.

Working mainly as a long reliever-slash-swingman, Anderson posted a 3.02 ERA in 59 2/3 innings, striking out seventy-nine hitters while walking just fourteen. He made twenty total appearances, with three of those being starts. He did make one spot start with Triple-A Worcester, but was bombed for three homeruns, eleven hits, and eight earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings all the way back on April 19th.

He was just coming off a rehab assignment in High-A, working two innings over two appearances with no walks and two strikeouts. However, he has not pitched since September 3rd after undergoing a minor procedure for a finger tendon injury on his pitching hand.

9/17 -- Cags, Grichuk power Royals win: Kansas City kept their slim playoff hopes alive with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday night, thanks to a big day from Jac Caglianone and key hits from Maikel Garcia and Randal Grichuk. Michael Wacha picked up his eighth win of the season with just two earned runs over six innings; with both runs coming in the first on a Cal Raleigh homerun, his 53rd of the season.

Wacha worked through just eighty-nine pitches. With the top of the lineup coming up for the seventh, Matt Quatraro opted to go with Angel Zerpa for the fourth turn through the order rather than try Wacha on a fourth turn through the order.

Kansas City pounced on Mariners starter Luis Castillo in the second, scoring a pair of runs on a Caglianone double and a two-run homerun from Grichuk that also brought Jac around to score. The offense went dormant until the eighth when they scored another four-spot to put the game out of reach.

Five of the first six hitters in the eighth reached base with two scoring. Bobby Witt Jr's flyout was the only out to that point. Jonathan India later added a two-run single to chase the newly-extended Caleb Ferguson from the contest in favor of Trent Thornton.

Up 8-2 to begin the ninth after the big inning, Quatraro went with lefty Daniel Lynch IV to finish out the game with a slew of lefty hitters coming up, but couldn't finish the game as he left the bases loaded with two outs and a run already in to make it an 8-3 game.

Julio Rodriguez was the next hitter, with Quatraro opting for closer Carlos Estevez to pick up the save. With Cal Raleigh on deck, Estevez struck out the All-Star outfielder to end the game and pick up his 35th save of the season and leave Raleigh in the on-deck circle.

9/18 -- Royals ride big inning to series win: Thanks to a six-run fourth inning, Kansas City took two of three from the Mariners at home, rolling to a 9-2 win to keep their hopes alive for a playoff berth as they head into the final home series of the season that begins Friday night against the AL wildcard-leading Blue Jays.

The Mariners once again started off with a two-run homerun in the first inning, this time from Eugenio Suarez to put the Mariners up 2-0 against Noah Cameron in the first inning. But the rookie southpaw put that behind him very quickly, striking out five through his first two innings on his way to a nine-strikeout, no-walk performance over 6 2/3 innings of work to pick up his ninth win of the season.

He only allowed two baserunners after that initial inning, with none of them reaching any further than second base.

"Just going out there and throwing strikes, lots of good things can happen," he said after the game. "A lot of pitching is just putting bad stuff behind you and going out and just continuing to attack guys, letting your defense take control and having the confidence they'll do the job."

Bobby Witt Jr kicked off the fourth with a solo homerun against Bryce Miller, who had cruised through the Royals' lineup over the first three innings. But they clearly adjusted for the second go-round, as beginning with Witt, the Royals saw their first seven hitters reach base safely before a strikeout and a double play ended the inning.

However, they hit two more homeruns after that initial homerun, also adding an RBI single from Maikel Garcia. Salvador Perez and Jonathan India added two-run homeruns, chasing Miller from the game after just four innings. Domingo German was able to stop the bleeding, but even he couldn't go unscathed as Carter Jensen's RBI single in the sixth added an insurance run, his first MLB RBI.

"Seeing the offense put these games away late is great to see," said skipper Matt Quatraro. "One of the things we haven't done well lately is put teams away when we have a chance, and the last couple of games have been positive developments in that regard. Especially against a bullpen like they have over there."

In the eighth, Jensen would later hit his first MLB double for another run, giving him his first multi-hit game. Adam Frazier also doubled home a run in that eighth inning. Michael Lorenzen finished the game, pitching the final 2 1/3 innings in his first relief appearance of the 2025 season.

[3Bplay]

MLB NEWS WIRE
New boss in D.C.; Kershaw set to make final home start

By MLB.com staff
09/19/2025

9/15 -- Nationals to hire Toboni to head up front office: Washington is planning to tab Boston's second-in-command in the front office to sit in the big chair for the Nationals, as Paul Toboni will be introduced as their president of baseball operations later this week.

Mike DeBartolo has been the interim general manager since early July, when manager Dave Martinez and then-GM Mike Rizzo were fired just days prior to the All-Star break and the 2025 draft. DeBartolo had been an assistant that played a big role in the draft preparations, so it was a more seamless transition in that regard.

Toboni, despite being just thirty-five, already has a pretty long and successful track record as a talent evaluator from his time with Boston, and will almost assuredly bring people over from the Red Sox to fill out his staff. Players like Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Marcelo Mayer all were signed under Toboni's hand as the main draft executive for the Sox.

That said, DeBartolo also seemingly has a leg up on retaining the day-to-day duties, as the ownership group led by Mark Lerner (that hired Toboni) has been squarely in his corner since being named as the interim. He has been with the organization since 2012, starting as an area scout before working his way up the ranks under Rizzo's leadership.

9/16 -- Rangers' Kimbrel to miss remainder of season: Already retiring at the end of the season, reliever Craig Kimbrel has been placed on the injured list with elbow tendinitis and is expected to be out for at least a month, which effectively is the end of his career.

If Kimbrel is truly done playing after this season, he'll go down as one of the best closers the game has seen, ranking fifth all-time in saves with 440. In five appearances (covering seven innings), he's allowed four earned runs on eight hits while striking out six with five walks.

Signed by the Braves prior to this season, he spent just one day on the active roster before being designated off the roster and declined an assignment to Triple-A, effectively making him a free agent. Texas signed him to a minor league deal on June 12th, and pitched to a 4.43 ERA before getting re-called in late August.

9/17 -- Dodgers' Betts removed from game after serious injury: In the second inning of tonight's game with the Phillies, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts had to be removed from the game after awkwardly landing on his right ankle trying to avoid a slide from Bryson Stott on a double play attempt.

Betts stayed in the game through the end of the inning; but clearly was in some pain as he was moving around the field, and eventually walked off the field with a considerable limp. Veteran Miguel Rojas replaced him from the third inning on, going 0-for-1 with a couple of walks.

"It certainly didn't look too good at the outset, but we won't know much until tomorrow most likely," manager Dave Roberts lamented. "Right now, it's just going to be a day-to-day thing. He's getting looked at by our training staff, and hopefully we can get an update on him tomorrow or the day after that."

9/18 -- Kershaw set to make final Dodger Stadium start: Tomorrow night, Clayton Kershaw will make his final regular season start with the Dodgers, as he announced his retirement earlier in the season.

"Emotions will be pretty high, that's for sure," he said a few days ago when asked about his thoughts on it. "It's pretty rare for guys in this game any more to play their entire career with one team, so I think that I'm almost on a first-name basis with the fans here."

This time at home, he'll face off against the Giants again, as he's coming off a poor start on the road against them at Oracle Park on Sunday in which he allowed five earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. For the season, he has an 8-3 record with a 4.22 ERA in twenty starts.