Mining the News (5/13/25)

American League

Angels

• The team is not running wild this season.

As a team, the Angels have swiped just 17 bags this season, which ranks 27th in baseball. In a terrible 2024, stealing bags was part of their identity, when they ranked 12th in the sport with 133.

Part of the problem is not having enough people on base. But the Angels have been notably less aggressive. Luis Rengifo, who stole 24 bases in 78 games last season, has just one in 32 games this year. Jo Adell stole 15 last year, but has just one so far this year.

Astros

• Brendan Rodgers is hitting the ball harder and in the air more.

Since spring training, Houston’s hitting coaches encouraged Rodgers to widen his batting stance and lower his hands in hopes he could curtail a career 52.8 percent ground-ball rate. Rodgers entered Tuesday’s game with just a 36.6 percent ground-ball rate. The average launch angle of 10.9 degrees on the contact he makes is more than five degrees higher than his career mark.

Rodgers’ 90.6 mph average exit velocity is 1.4 mph harder than his career average, too. The Astros have managed to increase Rodgers’ average bat speed from 71.7 mph last season to 74.3 mph across the first 113 swings he’s taken of this one.

Since he’s selling out for power, he has a 35% K% and 15% SwStr%, both career highs.

Blue Jays

• Addison Barger reworked his swing with great results.

You can see Barger’s calm in the field, Schneider said, no longer speeding things up with his feet or throws. With the 25-year-old lashing his bat at 76.2 mph — harder than any other Jay — the chill isn’t as obvious at the plate. But it’s there.

Barger blasts baseballs with an average exit velocity of 96.6 mph and the third-best barrel rate on the Blue Jays. But it’s the swing decisions that have taken a jump in 2025, slicing his strikeout rate down 8.2 percent and his chase rate 12.6 percent.

He’s always had a good sense of the zone, assistant hitting coach Lou Iannotti said, but constrained mechanics prevented that from flashing on the field in 2024. Barger was “stuck back” in his swing, trying to lift the ball too much. This year, in the latest version of Barger’s swing, he’s got forward and free movement. It’s a natural swing that Barger doesn’t have to think about. It’s free and it’s chill.

Better results happen with more contact and power. Who knew?

Guardians

• Daniel Schneemann changed his swing and approach last season.

What a rise for a guy who changed his swing mechanics and hitting approach after that wretched season as a 25-year-old toiling away in the minors. He saw a spike in production the following year at Triple-A Columbus, left an impression on coaches in spring training in 2024, boosted his production again in Columbus and then reached the majors — and stuck. He obliterates fastballs. So why do pitchers throw him fastballs? Because he’s patient enough at the plate (with healthy walk and chase rates) to force the pitcher into the zone.

So far this season, he’s batting .263/.344/.513 with 5 HR.

• Luis L. Ortiz results have improved since he’s better prepared for each game.

“I think it’s a combination of three things,” Ortiz said through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “The work that you put in, the focus that you give after every outing and especially the confidence. All of those things are building up to be where I am right now.”

Guardians catcher Bo Naylor noted that Ortiz’s preparation before starts has continuously gotten better.

“The way that he’s preparing and getting ready,” Naylor said, “understanding how we’re attacking the hitters, diving into ways to just continuously put himself in a spot to go out there and execute. It’s all been coming together really, really well.”

Mariners

• Bryce Miller continues to deal with back issues.

Miller, who revealed after multiple starts earlier this year that he’d been dealing with arm soreness and back tightness, suggested that some of those issues are still lingering.

“Today, I felt good going into the game, obviously, and just kind of third or fourth inning, I kind of had some stuff that didn’t feel good and didn’t feel normal, like I have in the past,” Miller said. “I don’t know. I don’t want to say too much on it.

Red Sox

• Tanner Houck could be headed to the bullpen.

Things have reached a crisis point for Houck where there are no guarantees he will make his next scheduled start. The Red Sox have an off-day on Thursday, and Walker Buehler is expected back from the 15-day injured list, which could give the team a chance to, at the very least, give Houck some time to regroup.

“We will talk about it, of course,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “He had that good one in Toronto. The last one was OK. And today, there were a lot of pitches in the middle zone. The split, it was up. They put some swings on it, the slider, he wasn’t able to get it across home plate and down in the zone to lefties. Just one of those [nights]. We’ll have to take a look at it and see what we do.”

Yankees

• Ryan Yarbrough and Allan Winans could become regular rotation pieces.

Moving forward, Boone said left-hander Ryan Yarbrough, who tossed four scoreless innings in a spot start on Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, may play a part in the club’s rotation plans moving forward. He also mentioned right-hander Allan Winans, who has not allowed an earned run in 14 innings at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“He’s been throwing the ball well,” Boone said of Winans, 29. “He’s very much in play for us.”

National League

Braves

• Michael Harris II seems to get worse every season.

So here we are in his fourth season. Harris, who surpassed all expectations as a rookie in 2022 when he hit .297 with 19 home runs, 20 stolen bases and an .853 OPS in 114 games — easily outdistancing teammate Spencer Strider to win NL Rookie of the Year — has seen his offensive statistics decline every season since.

Harris’ OPS and OPS+ in each season:
2022: .853 and 133 in 114 games
2023: .808 and 116 in 138 games
2024: .722 and 99 in 110 games
2025: .564 and 57 in 36 games

While Harris has not struggled like this much to start a season, he’s had two worse stretches at other points.

• When Ronald Acuña Jr. returns, Michael Harris II or Alex Verdugo could get platooned.

Snitker doesn’t seem inclined to sit him as long as Harris is healthy. Although when right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. returns from a yearlong rehab from knee surgery — likely within the next 3-4 weeks — the Braves might want to consider playing hot-hitting White some in center field or left field to keep him in the lineup if White continues producing like he has since becoming a lineup regular April 23.

The left-handed hitting Harris is 4-for-30 (.133) against lefties, and left-handed-hitting left fielder Alex Verdugo is 0-for-7 against lefties, after hitting .228 with a .592 OPS in 192 plate appearances against lefties in 2024 with the Yankees.

• Grant Holmes could move to the bullpen when Spencer Strider returns from the IL.

Assuming the Braves aren’t going to go with six starters on the big-league roster for any extended period, one potential move would be shifting Grant Holmes to the bullpen, where he pitched well for part of last season. But such a move would require the Braves to bump a reliever, and their only two with options are Daysbel Hernández and lefty Dylan Lee, both of whom seem too important to send to the minors for any period.

Unless another reliever comes up, ahem, injured — let’s not act as though that doesn’t happen frequently across the majors — and goes on the 15-day IL, the Braves might be forced to DFA one of their option-less relievers. But all have pitched well, and none would likely pass through waivers without being claimed by another team.

Brewers

• William Contreras has been dealing with a fractured finger since last season.

The test confirmed the existence of a fracture on his left middle finger, but it’s believed to be an old injury that dates to last season, when Contreras played in 155 games, caught in 120 of them, won a Silver Slugger Award and finished fifth in NL MVP Award balloting. This year, like last year, he’s told the club he wants to play through the pain rather than miss time.

…
He and the Brewers were working to develop a splint for that finger to absorb some of the impact he absorbs on a daily basis while catching and hitting.

“They’re doing all sorts of things to put things in his glove, and he had the finger injected, so that should calm down,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Now we have to do something, [because] when he swings the bat, it’s just so painful for him. We’re working that out.

Cubs

• The team is worried about Cade Horton’s ability to throw strikes.

In a recent conversation about Horton, Counsell said there are “absolutely things that he needs to keep improving on.” The manager added that pitchers can have flaws exposed quickly on the Major League stage that do not always show up in the Minors. Hoyer was asked what boxes Horton was working on checking in the first month.

“The biggest thing is always just competitive pitches,” Hoyer said. “Throwing non-competitive pitches in the big leagues puts you in bad counts pretty quickly, counts that you can probably pitch out of in Triple-A easier than you can in the big leagues.

While Horton posted a 4.0 BB/9 in AAA, he didn’t want anyone in his 4 IP debut.

• The pitching coach thinks batters know what pitches are coming from Ryan Pressly

“I believe in deception factors that don’t maybe show up in normal mechanical breakdowns or even in pitch data,” Hottovy said. “He can have good pitch data, but I do believe there are some mechanical things that hitters are just seeing the ball a little early. When you can have good pitch data, good velocity, but a hitter sees it a tick early, whether it’s subconscious or they’re actually picking it up, it just gives them more time.”

Hottovy said this problem is different than tipping pitches.

“Tipping would be more where they literally know what’s coming,” Hottovy said. “We’re on top of making sure that’s not happening. He’s very astute of what he’s doing. Not to say there aren’t minor things that pop up. But I’m thinking more about how the delivery happens. When a guy’s front shoulder flies open early, that shows the hitter and gives them more time.”

Hottovy also believes that hitters are very familiar with how Pressly pitches. He wants hitters to chase his breaking balls down. They know that. Hottovy wants to combat that by having Pressly use his fastball up in the strike zone more often.

Diamondbacks

• The expectation is for Jordan Lawlar to play three or four games a week.

“We are very well aware of Jordan Lawlar and his progression and his development, and he is coming on quickly,” Lovullo said. “We know that he’s doing his job, and I’m really proud of him because he is a very talented player that is knocking as hard as you can at the big league door.

“Based on some of the things I’m telling you — guys needing days off — we could, if we need to, we could probably get [Lawlar in the lineup] 3-4 days a week, and that’s enough at-bats per week. There’s different criteria for different players.”

• Corbin Burnes thinks his cutter is back.

With a fresh arm, Burnes said his signature cutter was better on Saturday night than it had been for years.

“It’s been a couple years since I’ve been able to feel like that,” Burnes said. “I think that was a good sign. That’s something that myself and Kap have been working on a lot the last month, trying to figure out what’s not making it cut. Tonight was cutting.”

After digging into Burnes, I found his pitch movement clusters were tighter in this last start. With each pitch having the same shape, he would know where each one is going.

Dodgers

• Freddie Freeman will need treatment on his ankle for another couple of months.

Even now, when he’s as healthy as he could be, Freddie Freeman undergoes about an hour and a half of treatment on his surgically repaired ankle before every game, with additional treatment following final out.

…
Freeman has been taping his ankle every day. He wears heel lifts to prevent the top of his ankle from getting jammed. And still, there’s the time-consuming treatment, which he’s been told will probably continue until at least the All-Star break.
…
“I’m not 100%, but I feel good,” Freeman said. “I feel good enough. … Back-to-back turf series, being on the basepaths is a lot, a couple day games after night games — it was a lot. I’m obviously not feeling 100%. But I am feeling good enough out there where I’m not thinking about it.”

• Roki Sasaki has been trying to throw hard, but his velocity continues to drop.

That made life difficult even before Friday, when circumstances aligned to challenge Sasaki. The roof was open on a warm day in Phoenix. The ball was flying. His breaking stuff was not. And, pitching on five days’ rest for the first time in his rookie season, he didn’t have the velocity he wanted early, even for his new standards. A potent Diamondbacks lineup crushed his fastball — five of the ones they hit came off the bat at 100 mph or harder. They didn’t swing and miss at the pitch once.

Sasaki’s fastball appears to be a real problem. The quickest solution might be rediscovering his velocity, which was already down on average last season in Japan. Even when he ratcheted it up to 101 mph through a combination of adrenaline and brute force in his Tokyo debut, it came with virtually no command.
…
Sasaki said Friday he wasn’t dialing back the fastball velocity for command’s sake. The fastball has been in the strike zone, but was hit hard and still hasn’t been commanded all that well. He maxed out the pitch at 97.5 mph in the outing, and hasn’t topped 98 mph since April 12, his fourth outing of the season.

Phillies

• Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh will split time in centerfield.

Rob Thomson pulled Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh into his office Tuesday night to go over the plan for the next week-plus.

Tuesday’s series opener at Steinbrenner Field was the first of a nine-game stretch in which the Phillies were scheduled to face a right-handed starting pitcher but Rojas is still going to get his chances in center field. He was in the lineup Wednesday night against right-hander Shane Baz.

“I went over the next six to nine days because they’re both playing well, both swinging the bat well, I don’t want either one of them to get rusty,” Thomson said. “We sort of planned it out over the next nine days who’s playing.”

The Phillies will likely alternate between the lefty-hitting Marsh and right-handed Rojas this week and start Rojas against the next lefty opponent, St. Louis Matthew Liberatore at home on Monday. The next lefty on the calendar after that is Pittsburgh’s Andrew Heaney next Friday.

Rockies

• Ryan McMahon is reworking his swing.

Long before last Monday’s game at Coors Field, Ryan McMahon dug into the batter’s box and received instructions for a purifying hitting session with Rockies hitting coach Clint Hurdle: Hit the opposite way, toward left field.

McMahon’s second swing, a weak bouncer to the mound, was exactly the type he had been taking in games during a slump that would eventually reach a club-record 0-for-35. McMahon reacted with colorful commentary.

“None of this is [that bad],” Hurdle corrected, his celebrated deep voice toned with positivity. “Just getting information.”

McMahon’s session improved, with Hurdle keeping McMahon’s eyes in the right direction.
…

Finally, whether on purpose or accidentally/on purpose, McMahon’s swing has begun producing happiness.