On the heels of some early morning transaction news, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Red Sox 40-man move incoming:
The Red Sox are poised to select the contract of veteran left-hander Rich Hill today. Hill, 44, will have participated in the 20th MLB season of his career when he next takes the mound for his hometown team. Before the team can welcome the veteran back into the fold, however, they’ll need to clear space on the 40-man and active rosters. With no obvious candidates for a 60-day IL stint currently at the club’s disposal, that space figures to come by way of a player being designated for assignment. That decision should be coming down the pipeline later today, ahead of their game against the Blue Jays that’s scheduled to begin at 7:10pm local time.
2. Jones to return to action:
The Pirates have been without one of their best rotation arms for nearly two months now, as right-handed rookie Jared Jones has been on the 15-day IL with a lat strain since early July. That’ll change today, however, as Pittsburgh plans to activate Jones ahead of a start against the Cubs in a game scheduled for 6:40pm local time. He’ll get a tough assignment in his first start back with the club as he takes the ball opposite southpaw Justin Steele (3.07 ERA). Jones is no slouch himself, of course, as the 23-year-old righty pitched to a strong 3.56 ERA through 16 starts with the Pirates prior to his injury while striking out an impressive 26.4% of batters faced. Since Jones was never placed on the 60-day IL, only an active roster move will be necessary to make room for the rookie’s return this evening.
3. Pitchers’ Duel in Philadelphia:
After a close series opener in Philadelphia last night, Astros and Phillies fans are in for an exciting starting pitching matchup in Game 2 this evening. On the mound for Houston will be future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander in his second start since returning from the injured list. The 41-year-old veteran of 19 MLB seasons hasn’t quite pitched to the level that earned him his third career Cy Young Award back in 2022, but he’s still be an effective hurler overall with a 3.92 ERA and a 22% strikeout rate in 11 starts this year. Verlander is also coming off a solid performance against Boston his last time out, where he posted five innings of two-run ball while striking out six.
Opposite Verlander will be longtime Phillie Aaron Nola, who is enjoying a nice performance in the first season of the seven-year deal he signed back in November. In 159 1/3 innings of work across 26 starts this year, Nola has pitched to a strong 3.45 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate. While that production has arguably made him only the third or fourth starter in a vaunted Phillies rotation this year, it’s still a strong record commensurate with Nola’s reputation as one of the league’s top arms. The 31-year-old’s last time out was quite similar to that of Verlander, as he posted 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball while striking out five opponents. The pair are scheduled to begin their duel at 6:40pm local time this evening.
Guessing it will be Keller or Horn that goes.
Talk about re-arranging the deck chairs …..
I think it’s Keller he needs to go yesterday. Horn has options so I think they keep him.
Keller is their top 3 pitcher why would he go? His game wasn’t even that bad yesterday it is Domingo German that was atrocious
Different team and different Keller. They’re talking about the red sox and Brad, not the Pirates and Mitch.
Oopsie I thought we were talking about Mitch since this is a pirates article and people are talking about them giving up 18 runs to Chicago
Realistically, they could drop anyone not named Kelly, Jansen, Houck or Martin at this point. But I’m guessing Keller.
Is there going to be a chat today? If so, where is the link?
avenger – I think they are observing a moment of silence for the Red Sox playoff hopes.
Suddenly a third-straight last place finish is back into play …. unreal.
And the band continues to play……….
olm – Did you see Bob Stanley was in the house yesterday?
Hard to believe the Sox could be in last place by Thursday.
Is it? It’s what most people expected at the start of the season. The fact that summer baseball was compelling to watch was a pleasant surprise. Fortunately we now know that Abreu, Rafaela, Houck, Wong and a few others are viable peices moving forward. We’ll see if they sell high or buy high on Duran… let’s see some kids play this fall and hope for two starters and two late inning bp guys in the offseason. Add that and if just two of the “big four” in AAA are legit… the teams in a pretty good place next year.
elm – You’re right, some people here got caught up in the early season excitement and bought in without realizing all the warning signs. They also forgot the 2023 and 2022 teams both got off to similar decent starts, and of course both finished with losing records.
Myself and a few others here tried to point out the cause for concern, but we got shouted down and attacked for simply bringing truth and logic.
You think Wong is definitely viable? Have you seen his catching skills recently?
You think Rafaela will have a long career if he continues to swing at every pitch thrown anywhere in his general direction?
Sorry I don’t mean to take away your hope, but predicting next year is kinda useless at this point.
Fever, Ceddane is young. He made great adjustments and then pitchers started to adjust to him. The team will only go as far as their pitching and defense takes them. Yoshida is a major league hitter but the team is too lefty oriented and maybe another team doesn’t care about his lack of speed and will trade for him this off season. That recent attempt at a triple looked great in form but he never had a chance….
Maybe if they didn’t acquire terrible pitchers like Paxton, Priester and Rich Hill for their rotation and shown the team they want to win they’d have done better. They got all they could out of their team, needed another addition or teo.
dewey – My biggest concern with Rafaela is that he’s stubborn, and his boss (Cora) refuses to lay down the law by telling him to stop swinging at every pitch. Hopefully he will mature in time, we shall see.
The defense will not improve as long as they have DH’s playing 3B, 1B, LF and catcher.
You’re right about Yoshida, that was an embarrassing decision but very uncommon for him.
FPG… no I haven’t been able to see many lately.. saw 4-0 lead Sunday before afternoon nap( at least I had a good nap)as for Steamer… He will always be my number 1 guy !!( no I didn’t meet him though) useless trivia… every one complains about Dent.. but it was RJ homer in eighth that was difference in 78.. in 86… he had ZERO wild pitches in regular season.. I read article about him and it said he had a very sick child that overcame many operations and such… That was the wake up call this 20 something needed to realize it’s JUST A GAME!! I have 3 autograph photos ( one wife got me Tek) the other El Tiante of course.. the third.. Bob Stanley at major card show in Rosemont… on picture of most relief innings Redsox history.. $5!! Who would try and fake that I ask you???
The Bucs will need to make a few roster moves today after the relievers threw gopher balls to the Cubs last night
Feigl and German wouldn’t be available for tonight’s game anyway so they will need to bring up another pitcher that Cherington took from the dumpster
Cherington needs to go get the other Brady Feigl and unify these homonymous dopplegangers.
Pirates served nothing but meatballs last night…
Don’t forget they also allowed 8 stolen bases….
That score was so big I thought I was looking at a football game
interesting bit for the opener especially down the stretch could be game times of important matchups on the day, for example royals-guardians, red sox-blue jays, braves-twins, mariners-rays, mets-dbacks, and orioles-dodgers all have playoff implications tonight and will be on starting from 3:40-7:10 locally for me. exciting slate across the board
love the opener already, just thought it would be nice to see the days slate on mlbtr when i read it in the morning. thanks for the work and have a great day
Two of the highest quality organizations in MLB.
It shows in the way they play on the field. Last nights game was pleasure to watch. Baseball at its best. The 2 TV broadcasting crews are also among the best in MLB.
Nola has always been one of my favorite pitchers, he can go deep in games and eat innings and (at least used to) get a lot of strikeouts
I don’t think he has enough HOF caliber seasons to be a HOFer but he has a ton of consistent above average seasons
IL stint, same story for Jared Jones. He’s tipping his slider and hitters just aren’t biting. He hasn’t lost control over it – it’s been the same pitch since Day 1 – but hitters have adjusted. High with the heat, low with the off-speed, he is completely predictable at this point. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts. Honestly, I’d like to see him talk shop with Ortiz and learn the cutter or get even a reasonable splitter that slots similar to the slider (low and in on a righty).
If nothing else, he needs to start locating his fastball down when hitters are expecting the slider and laying off completely. Same story with Bednar starting every AB with a curve, the second Jones throws something thigh-high or lower, you know it’s a slider and you’ve seen the break on tape and know it’s going to bend out of the zone.
Way to go Rich Hill! Remarkable