Mining the News (6/12/25)

American League

Mariners

• Dominic Canzone will be part of the right field rotation.

Prior to the game, manager Dan Wilson noted that Canzone would be “in the mix” for at-bats as part of a right field rotation moving forward.

National League

Braves

• For those who might have the roster space, Jurickson Profar’s suspension ends on June 29th.

Cardinals

• Michael McGreevy will get another MLB start in late June.

Keeping the rotation rested and on a six-day schedule as much as possible has been a priority for the Cardinals as they look to keep their starters healthy.
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The most logical solution would be to continue spot-starting McGreevy when the schedule allows. Because of the off day next Monday, the Cardinals won’t need a spot starter next week. But they will need one to break up a block of 16 consecutive games after that, which makes that the most likely time for McGreevy to make his next start.

The 6th consecutive game when the team needs McGreevy would be on Sunday June 21st

Cubs

• Shota Imanaga plans to rejoin the rotation in June.

The countdown to Imanaga’s return to the Cubs’ rotation is underway now that he is beginning a regular five-day routine and getting back into game settings. The way things have been progressing and are mapped out right now, Imanaga looks on target to return before the end of June, barring anything unexpected.

Imanaga, who is on the 15-day injured list, logged 25 pitches for the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League Cubs in a game against the Rockies’ affiliate on Monday night. He racked up four strikeouts, allowed one hit and threw an additional 15 pitches in the bullpen after his outing to get his pitch count up.

“He looked really good,” Hottovy said. “[His velocity] was probably 88-90 [mph] — pretty consistent with where we’d expect him to be in kind of a lower environment. The pitch shapes were good. A lot of good [elevation] on the fastball. I think the things he was working on and feeling through in the week leading up to it, he did a great job of taking into the game.”

• Ben Brown added a changeup.

If you’ve noticed Ben Brown continue to up his changeup usage, it’s potentially in part because he is also now throwing a kick-change (the one we’ve been talking about a lot with Jameson Taillon), something that Cubs Insider was eyeballing for a while. The way Taillon has talked about it, that slight grip variation allows him to throw a changeup more naturally (has to do with him being a supinator rather than a pronator in his delivery – thank you Tread Athletics and Tyler Zombro for bringing more of this philosophical stuff to the Cubs!). Wonder if that’s the same for Brown.

Here are the comps for the pitch. If he ends up throwing in even 20% of the time, his fantasy value could take off.

Dodgers

• There is a chance Shohei Ohtani may pitch in games before the All-Star Game.

Both Dave Roberts and Mark Prior said they were very impressive with Shohei Ohtani’s live today

Roberts even said there’s a “north of zero” chance he could be pitching in games before the All-Star break (he had been saying post-ASB the last few weeks) https://t.co/SyPHl2CdNP

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) June 11, 2025

Mets

• Jeff McNeil has been working on a swing change for over a year now.

That was the distinction he made around last summer’s All-Star break, and it propelled him to a significantly better second half — an average closer to his career norms with power well above it. McNeil went into last offseason looking to solidify those gains by working on improving his bat speed and generating better rotation through the ball.
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Though McNeil’s average exit velocity is right in line with 2024’s, he’s hitting more of those balls in the air (46 percent to 41 percent) and to right field (54 percent to 44 percent).

McNeil’s done that while cutting his already meager strikeout rate further and nearly doubling his walk rate — proof that being less eager to put the ball, any ball, in play can be beneficial in multiple ways.

Usually, batters trade off power for contact like he did in the second half of 2024. This season, he’s getting a high contact rate and power.

Phillies

• Otto Kemp could be an outfield regular once Bryce Harper returns from the IL.

The Phillies plan to get a good look at Otto Kemp in the coming days — and it won’t be solely at third base.

Kemp has started at third — his primary position — in each of his first two big league games, but don’t be surprised if the club’s No. 24 prospect starts to move around a bit as he gets settled.

“We’re going to get him some work at first, some more work in the outfield,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But [to start], I just want to play him at the place he’s most comfortable with, and then we’ll keep moving forward.”

Prior to Saturday’s promotion, Kemp had mostly played third base (33 starts) with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, though he also logged time at second (10 starts), first (seven starts) and left field (seven starts).