Mining the News (5/13/26)

David Richard-Imagn Images

American League

Athletics

• Zack Gelof flattened his swing to take a step forward.

Glovework has never been a question mark. For Gelof, the increase in playing time is largely a result of rediscovering his swing. Through struggles and injuries over the previous two seasons, Gelof’s swing mechanics had gotten out of whack. This offseason, he worked on “leveling out” his swing, and the result has been a noticeable decrease in whiffs and increased ability to put the ball in play.

It used to be tough to see if a swing change happened, but bat path is available here at FanGraphs via Baseball Savant. Here are Gelof’s numbers.

You can see he dropped his Attack Angle (AtkAng) from 21 deg to 15 deg which was closer to his 2024 value of 15 deg when he broke out.

I don’t have a good understanding of the good, acceptable, and bad values here. I see a future article coming.

Orioles

• Jackson Holliday is taking reps at third base.

On Sunday, Holliday will be playing his third game for Double-A Chesapeake since starting a new rehab assignment on Thursday — his third since undergoing right hamate surgery on Feb 12. However, the 22-year-old won’t be at second base (his primary position), nor will he be at shortstop (where he was playing when he was taken No. 1 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft).

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“With Jackson’s background, his athleticism, just thinking through to see what it looks like and see how he feels about it. He has the ability to play second, short and third, so we’ll see what it looks like when he gets down there,” Albernaz said. “He’s played the left side of the diamond his whole life. He was out there today, took some ground balls, it looks really good.”

I read two things from this move. The Orioles like what they are seeing from Jeremiah Jackson ( .238/.259/.400, 6 HR) and are going to let him keep him at second. Second, they expect Jordan Westburg to be out long enough to make Holliday practice at third.

Twins

• Royce Lewis worked on swing recently.

After discussing his concerns about his future during the week, Royce Lewis made several positive contributions in Cleveland. Following two days off to work on his swing, Lewis hit a laser to the warning track on Friday on the first pitch he saw and later singled. He also drew a walk on Saturday and made several nice defensive plays.

Lewis made his biggest impact on Sunday with an RBI double off Gavin Williams. He also turned in a nice defensive play in the eighth inning, snagging a tough one-hopper and making a nice throw to end a Guardians rally.

I couldn’t find any recent changes to this swing, besides a longer swing length, which should increase his power but create more swing-and-miss.

National League

Cardinals

• Lars Nootbaar will be a regular when he returns.

Nootbaar is eligible to return from the 60-day injured list on May 24, and the Cardinals are tentatively lining him up for a return sometime around the end of the month. Marmol said the organization’s goal is for Nootbaar to immediately resume an everyday role once he is activated.

“When he comes back, he’s a regular baseball player,” Marmol said.

Good news for Nootbaar, but I think Victor Scott II (.485 OPS) is done with Nathan Church (.693 OPS) taking over in center field.

Dodgers

• To improve his swing, Freddie Freeman changed his stance a bit.

Freddie Freeman made a change this week in Houston. It’s a small thing, but even the smallest thing is a massive tweak for a stickler like Freeman. For weeks now, Freeman felt his front side fly open in his swing, forcing him to “cut” it, as he says, and minimize the time his bat is in the hitting zone. So Freeman, on a whim, tried something.

Rather than try to tell himself to keep his hip closed during the swing, he started his swing with it already closed. He turned his front foot in toward his body in his batting stance. It looks awkward, but Corey Seager built a career as a slugger doing just that. When Freeman demonstrated the change this week to a reporter, he used a glove to smack the reporter’s front hip. It can’t rotate early when the foot is facing away from the pitcher.

“I was getting beat on heaters,” Freeman said. “So it’s been a daily thing of just trying to find mechanical cues. I got to Houston, and, you know, in the morning we got out to the field. I was like, you know, let me try the foot turn in, see if that will help keep my hip in.”

Giants

• Casey Schmitt may get some starts in the outfield.

That said, Slusser writes that Schmitt has been taking outfield reps during batting practice this week. That builds on prior comments from manager Tony Vitello, who said that Schmitt is athletic enough to handle the corner outfield if the team handles it “intelligently.”

This may clear up the first base/DH long game between him (.836 OPS), Rafael Devers (.677 OPS), and Bryce Eldridge (.505 OPS).

• Logan Webb has been dealing with a knee issue since late April.

Webb said he’d been dealing with the knee issue for a while and aggravated the injury while covering the bag during his April 30 start against the Phillies.

“I haven’t missed a start in a long time, so it’s been eating at me a little bit,” Webb said before the Giants’ game against the Pirates on Saturday. “But I think it’s best for me, best for the team, best for the longevity of my career. That sort of thing. I’ve got a lot of good people in my corner that talked me into it, pretty much. But I’m glad I did.”

Mets

• Christian Scott throws two new pitches.

The first thing you’ll notice here is that Scott is working with two new pitches. He replaced his slider with a cut-fastball, using a grip that he picked up from former teammate Drew Smith during their respective rehabs. Though the cutter has similar movement qualities as the slider, it’s thrown 1.5 mph harder.
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Scott is also sprinkling in a two-seamer, which is slower than his four-seam and runs inside to right-handed hitters. It doesn’t have any standout physical qualities, but that’s not entirely the point.

What matters is that Scott now has a three-fastball mix. Pitchers across the league are picking up multiple fastball shapes, and for good reason. These fastballs are thrown at similar speeds and out of a similar window, but they have vastly different movement profiles. That makes it nearly impossible for a hitter to match his bat path to the pitch. There’s no spin or velocity difference to pick up on.

Go read the article for more details. It does a great job of showing the changes and the impact on his production.

Pirates

• Bubba Chandler or Carmen Mlodzinski will move out of the rotation if/when Jared Jones joins the rotation.

Cherington has said previously they view Jones as a starter long-term, so one would think he moves into the rotation. That would seemingly displace either Chandler or Carmen Mlodzinski, who was actually really good in the first game against the Giants (six innings, two earned runs).

If Mlodzinski continues to pitch this way deeper into May, it may be tough to move him to the bullpen. At the same time, it would absolutely help the team given the weaknesses in long relief and even later innings.

Chandler, who was around the plate a bunch more Sunday, makes much more sense as a starter given some of his control issues compared with Mlodzinski’s relief experience and his dominance facing hitters the first time.

In my opinion, Chandler would be demoted. His 6.2 BB/9 (league’s 2nd highest) is unacceptable, and he is throwing like a 5.00 ERA talent (5.36 xFIP). Another interesting point is that Mlodzinski (with ABS) is throwing similarly to what Jones did in 2024 (without ABS), back when Jones was healthy.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Pirates (23-19) play for now or continue to develop Chandler in the majors.