Mining the News (7/11/25)

• Two Japanese hitters who might get posted and available in 2026 drafts are Kazuma Okamoto and Minetaka Muratani.

Posey said he made his first trip to Japan in April to scout Nippon Professional Baseball and meet executives. Kazuma Okamoto, a right-handed hitting outfielder for Yomiuri, is expected to be made available to clubs in the offseason. Okamoto is most notable to an American baseball audience for the home run he hit in the 2023 gold medal game of the World Baseball Classic that provided the margin of victory over Team USA.

The most significant potential prize from Japan was expected to be Minetaka Muratani, a stocky, left-handed hitting corner infielder who hit 56 home runs — an NPB record for a Japanese-born player — for the Yakult Swallows in 2022. Muratani will be 26 in February and it was expected he would be made available to major league clubs after the 2025 season, but he underwent elbow surgery and then strained an oblique in his first game upon returning. So his situation is a bit murky at the moment.

American League

Angels

• Yoán Moncada will “manage” his knee injury.

Moncada said his knee isn’t at 100 percent yet, but that it’s manageable. The 30-year-old played just one game at third as part of his rehab assignment but said he felt fine defensively. The switch-hitter also said he can hit from both sides of the plate.

• Jack Kochanowicz is adding a changeup.

The Angels are the only team in the Majors this season to use just five starters, but it’s fair to wonder if Kochanowicz would be better served working on his stuff at Triple-A Salt Lake. He’s been trying to incorporate a changeup to pair with his sinker and slider, but it’s clear it’s still a work in progress.

The changeup is solid with a 16% SwStr%. The STUPH models disagree and say it’s below average. It’s a development worth tracking.

Blue Jays

• When Daulton Varsho returns, he’ll be an outfield regular with everyone else headed to the bench.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider discusses Daulton Varsho’s timetable for a return from injury and how he’ll fit into the outfield mix, saying the veteran will “take priority” and there will be a “trickle-down effect” as a result.

In the video, the manager mentions Varsho needing five to six rehab games.

Guardians

• Lane Thomas is still dealing with plantar fasciitis.

The Guardians placed Thomas on the 10-day IL on Sunday with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, an issue that he has previously missed time for this season. The move is retroactive to Saturday, and Cleveland recalled infielder Will Wilson from Triple-A Columbus in a corresponding move.
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Perhaps most frustrating for Thomas and the Guardians is he seemed to be trending in the right direction. He has dealt with plantar fasciitis in the past, and he received injections in his foot during his last stint on the IL that helped him turn a corner. He hit three homers over his past 10 games.

Thomas said after Friday’s game that he had some symptoms over the previous few days.

Stay away this year and problem next season. Plantar fasciitis is normally a career killer.

Twins

• Luke Keaschall shall return to the team after the break.

Keaschall will likely spend time at the Twins’ year-round complex in Fort Myers, taking more live batting practice, followed by a rehab assignment for his first game action in nearly three months. He’s on track to potentially rejoin the Twins after the All-Star break.

A consensus top-100 prospect and reigning Twins minor-league player of the year, Keaschall made his big-league debut on April 18. He got hurt in his seventh game, but not before making a great first impression by hitting .368 with a .538 on-base percentage and five stolen bases.

Using Baseball-Reference’s lineup tool, here is how Keashall was utilized when he was on the team.

Yankees

• Here is Cam Schlittler’s pitch usage and results in AAA. All of his pitches got a decent amount of swing-and-miss.

National League

Cardinals

• For the rest of the season, Iván Herrera will not catch much.

He is not scheduled to catch for Memphis, nor do the Cardinals plan to put him behind the plate for any significant action for the remainder of the 2025 season as they look to protect the slugger’s lower body while keeping his bat in the lineup.

“We have to definitely keep that in mind as far as if we want to keep him healthy for the remaining couple months,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “We’ve talked about that. We haven’t come up with, like, ‘This is exactly what it will look like,’ but we’re pretty close to [not catching].”

• Miles Mikolas has been tipping his pitches according to the team.

The adjustment? Mikolas was tipping his pitches, Marmol revealed.

“(Mikolas) is a pro,” Marmol said. “You can shoot him straight, you can tell him exactly what you need to say, and he handles it really well. The majority of the (conversations this week) was with (pitching coach) Dusty Blake, just cleaning up some tipping and making sure that were going into this outing feeling good about that.”

Mikolas fired 50 of his 71 pitches for strikes, allowing two hits, no walks and six strikeouts. He retired 13 straight after his leadoff double to Abrams, and departed in the sixth to a standing ovation from the home crowd.

• Erick Fedde 페디 will keep getting starts to increase his trade value.

Fedde has struggled immensely over the last few weeks and was not able to finish the second inning in his latest start. But the decision to keep him in the rotation comes from above Marmol. The Cardinals are still straddling the fence as buyers or sellers at the deadline. Fedde is in the final year of his contract, and though his current performance has not been good, no position is coveted more at the deadline than starting pitching. He’s a player the Cardinals could deal regardless of direction. By not pitching Fedde, the team tanks his potential value.

The obvious counterargument is that Fedde’s current performance has already hurt his value. He owns a 6.54 ERA over his last seven starts. However, the Cardinals figure they have a better shot at increasing his trade value rather than shelving him altogether, and they are prepared to give him at least one more go.

Who the hell’s logic is this? So, a team scrapping for a playoff spot will target Fedde to help their team? When will a solid mid to high-4.00 ERA talent push a team to the playoffs?

Diamondbacks

• The team plans to piece together their closer situation.

“We’re gonna piece it together the best way we can,” Lovullo said. “I’m not gonna say anybody’s gonna close the game.”

The Diamondbacks called on Kevin Ginkel to record Monday’s save at the San Diego Padres, and he did so.

That does not make him the closer, as he is one of several options. Jalen Beeks is another, while rookies Kyle Backhus and Juan Morillo could be counted on depending on availability and matchups.

Giants

• Justin Verlander is trying to hide the ball more.

“I think one of the things that I’ve just kind of really been harping on is I feel like hitters have been seeing the ball a little early on me,” Verlander said. “I think my arm is a little late, dragging. I kind of just had this thought a couple of days ago, just to kind of force the issue a little bit, just get it out, get it kind of down where it used to be. It felt good in catch play, and I carried into the game today. I think immediately, the results were great. So yeah, quite optimistic.”

Mets

• Francisco Alvarez’s latest minor league stint allowed the team to gain a year of control over him.

Unless Alvarez is recalled to the major leagues by Saturday, he will have spent enough time in the minors this season to delay his free agency by a full year. The New York Mets will gain an additional year of team control over the catcher, who wouldn’t become a free agent until after the 2029 season. Alvarez would be a free agent entering his age-28 season, still relatively young to be on the open market.

“I can’t worry about that right now — it’s a lot for me to worry about right now,” Alvarez told The Athletic when approached about the free-agency issue Tuesday before a game in Syracuse. “I didn’t know that, but I feel like I need to just focus on getting better and that’s it.”
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So, entering the year, Alvarez needed 166 days of major-league service to get to three full years, putting him exactly halfway to free agency. Saturday would mark his 21st day in the minors this season, meaning he will fall short of those 166 days. Even if Alvarez is recalled to start the second half next Friday and is never sent down to the minors again, he will finish 2028 just a few days shy of the six years required to reach free agency.