Things That Make You Go “Hmmmm…”
Jorge Polanco is eligible to begin playing rehab games on June 20th. He will allowed to play in 20 games before his suspension is up. His suspension is up on July 2nd pending on any potential postponements. He will return to his every day role at shortstop once he is activated.
Willy Adames made his Major League debut today for the Tampa Bay Rays. Adames is one of the top prospects for the Rays and he hit the ground running swatting a home run against Chris Sale . He was crushing AAA pitching before coming up, hitting .311/.387/.466 with four home runs. The question become, will he stay up? He is replacing Joey Wendle on the roster while he is on paternity leave. He will likely head down once Wendle returns, but if he continues to rake, then he could force the Rays to make a tough decision.
Chris Carter was traded from the Angels to the Minnesota Twins for cash considerations. He was assigned to AAA by the Twins. Carter was hitting .255/.333/.600 with 13 home runs for the Salt Lake Bees in AAA. He could be the answer for the Twins while Joe Mauer is on the DL because they hate Kennys Vargas and Byung-ho Park.
Forrest Whitley is scheduled to join the Astros AA rotation in mid-June according to The Athletic. Whitley was suspended for 50-games for violating the minor league drug program. He also suffered a lat injury while training to return, but it appears to not be serious. He is largely considered to be one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. He could be in the Astros rotation near the end of the season if injury strikes them.
Yasiel Puig hit his fifth home run of the season for the Dodgers on Tuesday. Since returning from the DL, Puig is hitting .294/.400/.765 and appear to be healthy and firing on all cylinders. His recent hot streak has not yet made his overall line look good, so now is the time to buy in on Puig.
What We’ll Be Watching Today
Can Kyle Freeland keep it up? He has been fantastic, especially on the road and gets a struggling Dodgers team. The underlying numbers say Freeland will regress, but it may not be this start.
What does the Mariners lineup look like? Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura were both removed from Tuesday’s game. Haniger left after being hit on the elbow with a pitch. Segura left Tuesday’s with an apparent shoulder injury after a diving slide into home plate. This is bad news for a Mariners team that has already lost Robinson Canó and Dee Gordon , not to mention has an ailing Nelson Cruz . Consider both day-to-day at this time.
David Price vs Chris Archer . Former aces battling in the dogfight of the AL East. Can Archer rebound from a bad start to the season? Is Price healthy? Lot to gleam from these two.
Will Khris Davis go on the DL. He was removed from a game over the weekend after injuring himself. There have been conflicting reports on the severity and whether or not he will need a DL stint.
Luiz Gohara vs Arrieta. Gohara gets a spot start with injuries piling up for the Braves pitching staff. He can be dominant at times, but must improve his control if he wants to stay out of the pen. Arrieta has been good, but the underlying numbers don’t fully support it. Can he keep it up?
Baseball. Lots of baseball.