Mining the News (8/13/25)

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American League

Athletics

• Colby Thomas is being more athletic in the batter’s box.

“Darren and I sat with [Thomas] and we made some adjustments,” Kotsay said. “I wanted him to get a little bit more athletic in the box.”

What exactly does “more athletic in the box” mean?

“Well, I’m usually really wide,” Thomas said. “I’ve skinnied up a little bit just so I can be a little more adjustable with my legs. A little more athletic.”

In addition to practicing the new stance in batting practice, Thomas said he worked with Bush one-on-one in the batting cage a few hours before Thursday’s game. Later, in his first at-bat of the game, Thomas crushed his first homer.

The only number that matters right now is finding a way to lower his 52% K%.

Blue Jays

• The team has been controlling the workload of Trey Yesavage …

It feels like the Blue Jays have nailed Yesavage’s workload through the first four-plus months, too. From late May through June and early July, they throttled down on Yesavage, often keeping him in the range of four innings and 70-75 pitches. That’s kept some gas in the tank for the stretch run, which was always the plan, but an interesting wrinkle came in his last start with Double-A New Hampshire.

Last Friday, Yesavage came out of the bullpen instead of starting. He ended up throwing a season-high 89 pitches, though, over five innings of nine-strikeout ball, but there’s a clear method to what the Blue Jays are doing here. They have one eye on rounding out this first full year of development for Yesavage, which has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped for. But there’s always one eye on that small chance Yesavage could help Toronto in 2025. Those odds still aren’t overwhelming by any means, but they keep growing and this move to Triple-A only builds some momentum.

… with the manager mentioning him as a major league option …

Earlier this month, Blue Jays manager John Schneider mentioned Yesavage, alongside lefty Adam Macko, as a potential big-league pitching option down the stretch.

“I think Yesavage could (factor in),” Schneider said. “I know he’s not on the 40-man, but I think he could.”

… since he’s one of their top-14 pitchers.

Another long man like Lazaro Estrada or Paxton Schultz is possible, but No. 2 prospect Trey Yesavage still looms. Don’t consider it the “likely” outcome, but if you want your best 14 pitchers on the roster, he’s making a fine case to be in that Top 14.

Mariners

• Victor Robles will need 40 to 50 PA before finishing his rehab stint.

Mariners outfielder Victor Robles will play the first game of his rehab assignment on Tuesday night at Triple-A Tacoma, continuing his recovery from a dislocated left shoulder he suffered while making a highlight-reel catch in foul territory in early April.

Tacoma begins its six-game set at Las Vegas, with Game 1 starting at 7 p.m. PT. Robles, who remains ahead of schedule in his rehab, is expected to need roughly 40-50 at-bats before returning to Major League action.

Orioles

• Coby Mayo has until the season’s end to prove he’s the team’s everyday first baseman.

Mayo is still in development, both as a hitter and corner infielder, but interim manager Tony Mansolino said before Sunday’s game that the first base experiment is going well and that the young slugger has an opportunity to establish himself as the team’s long-term answer at the position.
….
“We like him, that’s why he’s playing right now,” Mansolino said. “We want to see him do well. I don’t see the third base thing happening, but I don’t make all the decisions. For me right now, he’s playing a good first base. I think he tried really hard to play third base and it just didn’t work out. We also have this guy at third base that’s pretty darn good.”
…
“Is he going to unseat Jordan Westburg?” Mansolino asked rhetorically. “If he’s not, why are we playing him at third base. He’s got to be able to play first base. That’s where the at-bats are going to come from. So, for Coby, get very good at first base and then at that point, you’ve got to swing the bat. Because there are guys coming. Basallo’s coming and he plays a really good first base.”
…
“There’s going to be competition internally for that job,’’ his manager added, “and Coby’s going to get some run. He’ll get a lot of chances to fail, which we’re giving him right now. And, at some point, the best man takes the job. That’s normal. That’s healthy. That’s what you want. And that situation is coming.”

• The team won’t name a closer.

Mansolino insisted after Friday night’s game that the Orioles didn’t have a designated closer and weren’t going to have one.

Since the trades of Seranthony Domínguez, Andrew Kittredge and Gregory Soto, and the injury to Félix Bautista, there isn’t an established closer in the Orioles’ bullpen.

Mansolino has used left-hander Keegan Akin, who was the losing pitcher in Sunday’s game, and says he’s open to using Yennier Cano and Rico Garcia, who joined the team Friday but didn’t pitch over the weekend, in the closing role.

Red Sox

• Top outfield prospect, Jhostynxon Garcia, will start getting some first base reps.

Jhostynxon Garcia has been a career outfielder in the minors but he is working out at the position at Triple-A. Worcester manager Chad Tracy said Garcia could potentially see some game action at first base within the next week.

“If that’s the only way we can speed him up, then we might have to do it,” Tracy told Speier. “We take into consideration, ultimately, if he makes a mistake and it’s costly, oh well, at least it’s not at Fenway….At the same time, you also don’t want to throw a player out there to the wolves who you feel like is not ready and have him standing out there with his shoulders down feeling like he’s costing the team.”

Tigers

• Alex Cobb is still pitching through hip pain.

The pickoff probably felt better mentally than physically. But then, Cobb pitching at this point is a matter of pain management. He looks less labored now after five rehab starts, with another expected this weekend, but to call them free and easy would be optimistic. He has had injections in both of his hips this year, more than he wishes to count.

“Where I’m at, I’m going to have pain,” Cobb said last week. “It’s just going to be dealing with it and seeing if you can do it effectively. I don’t know at what point that mindset switched, but at a certain point I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to be pain-free, and I’m going to have to battle through pain.’ The mindset is just see how it is tomorrow, see what you can do tomorrow.”

National League

Braves

• Sean Murphy encouraged Hurston Waldrep to throw a sinker.

“The day after (that) start, [Sean Murphy] called me in,” said Waldrep, 23. “He’s like, ‘Hey, man, let’s go over the start a little bit. Let’s look over some things.’ He noticed some things in my four-seam. He’s like, ‘I think it would be really easy for you to throw a sinker right here.’ And I agreed. I threw in the bullpen two days later.”

Murphy was activated by the Braves and gone before his next start, but the seed was planted. Waldrep felt comfortable with the sinker right away.

“It was a lot of video, a lot of comparing myself to other guys who have about the same arsenal and how it would play and work with (hitters on both sides),” he said. “But (Murphy) was really helpful in the process and kind of opened some doors for me, and I knew that from what he was seeing that it would play really well.”

It’s not the only change Waldrep has made this season. There’s a noticeably shorter leg kick, which has helped improve his command without sacrificing velocity. He’s also throwing a cutter and more curveballs.

Both of our STUPH models prefer Waldrep’s sinker over his four-seamer. Additionally, the sinker has a solid 11% SwStr%.

• Michael Harris II went back to an old batting stance to turn around his season …

But since adjusting his stance by raising the starting position of his hands from chest-high to around ear level, Harris has been one of baseball’s most-improved players, batting .359 with eight doubles, three triples and six homers in his past 26 games.

He’s back to the hand positioning he used during his amateur and minor-league career. Harris said he dropped his hands after struggling initially upon being called up to the majors in May 2022.

He had so much success after the initial switch in his rookie season, batting .297 with an .853 OPS in 114 games in 2022, that he stayed with it even as his stats slipped in subsequent seasons — to .293/.808 in 2023, then .264/.722 in 2024, and to his career-worst first half this season.

Now that he’s made the switch back, Harris feels comfortable and has no intention of dropping his hands again.

… which he implemented right before the All-Star break.

Michael Harris II has his mojo back and business is booming once again for Money Mike. I asked Brian Snitker about Harris’ performances lately and he provided a clear line of demarcation for the turnaround:

“It started when we were in St. Louis right before the break. He’s made some adjustments and it’s working for him.”

Cardinals

• Matthew Liberatore can’t maintain his in-game velocity …

Sustaining velocity has been an issue for Liberatore coming out of the All-Star break. The Cardinals skipped over his first start of the second half, citing the need for extra rest as Liberatore navigates his first full year as a major-league starter. He has not been able to record more than five innings since. Sustaining performance has been the focus over the past month, to the point that manager Oli Marmol declared Tuesday’s start as an “evaluation” point for the young southpaw and hinted a change in Liberatore’s usage could be on the horizon.

“We’re going to continue to closely monitor it,” Marmol said of Liberatore’s velocity and command Tuesday afternoon. “If it doesn’t make sense to continue to have him go because there’s a regression in his overall stuff, velocity, being able to hold it, then we’ll make a decision on it.

“He’s recovering well in between starts. He’s healthy and feeling strong. But it’s a matter of being able to maintain it during his start. If anything points to that not being the case, then we’ll make a decision.”

…and might need someone to piggyback off him.

“You can piggyback,” Marmol said. “You have (Kyle) Leahy — that gives you an option. There are different ways of approaching it where (Liberatore) stays in a routine, but you monitor it pretty closely.

“But that’s just one option, and not one we’ve committed to in any way. It’s just an option based on Leahy being stretched out more than most in that ‘pen. We don’t have to make that decision until we further evaluate Liberatore’s start.”

Cubs

• Matt Shaw is pulling more flyballs …

I’m sure there are other changes under the hood, and we’ve seen some discussed with [Shaw’s] approach, setup, and swing, but the biggest differences are the most obvious: he’s pulling hard fly balls. That’s it. That’s the thing. His fly ball rate is up to 43.8% after the break (35.0% before), and his pull rate is up to a whopping 51.0% (31.7% before).

… after moving his hands in his stance.

Shaw’s mental adjustment wasn’t the only change he made. He also tweaked his mechanics. During the break, he watched an old video of himself and saw that in the Cape Cod League and college, his hands were higher. That felt comfortable, so he went back to that. In his first game after the break, he experimented with a more open stance. That “felt right, then it worked,” Shaw said, so he stuck with it.

Diamondbacks

• Gabriel Moreno, Pavin Smith, and Ildemaro Vargas should return to the team next Monday.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will send catcher Gabriel Moreno, first baseman Pavin Smith and infielder Ildemaro Vargas on a rehab assignment to Triple-A Reno on Tuesday, manager Torey Lovullo said on Sunday.

The trio is unlikely to return during the club’s upcoming seven-game road trip which starts on Monday, but there appears to be optimism they will be back at some point during the following homestand which starts on Aug. 18 against Cleveland.
…
Lovullo has said both Smith and Locklear will play when available. Does that squeeze out Del Castillo? Perhaps it depends on how he continues to swing the bat, as he snapped an 0-for-14 streak with an RBI double on Saturday.

“ I’ve always said that when you’re having tough decisions, it means you’re a good baseball team and you gotta make decisions on good players,” Lovullo said. “There’s gonna be some tough conversations moving forward here.”

Giants

• Tyler Fitzgerald will play right field on the weak side of a platoon.

Tyler Fitzgerald served as the Giants’ primary second baseman before being sent down to Triple-A Sacramento amid a prolonged slump in July.

With the Giants in need of another right-handed bat, Fitzgerald got a chance to return to the Majors on Tuesday, though he found himself sliding over to a new position.

Fitzgerald made his first career start in right field in the Giants’ 5-1 loss to the Padres at Oracle Park, batting eighth against left-hander Nestor Cortes in his first big league game since July 6.
…
Fitzgerald should get an opportunity to platoon with rookie Drew Gilbert in right field for now, though he ended up going 0-for-2 before being subbed out for pinch-hitter Dominic Smith, who singled to load the bases and extend his hitting streak to a career-best 15 games in the sixth.

Phillies

• Bryson Stott calmed his hands and is pulling the ball more.

“I think the change in his mechanics,” Thomson said of Stott’s better hitting of late. “Quieting his hands and hands up as he’s going into his load is helping a lot. He knows where the barrel is at now. He’s using the field and now he’s getting the ball up in the air to the pull side, which is good.”

Over his past 14 games, Stott is 13 for 39 (.333 average) with nine RBI, eight runs scored and five doubles.

In the first half, he was pulled 31% of all batted balls, and now 41% in the second half. Here are his BABIPs and ISOs depending on the direction he hits the ball.

Directions: ISO, BABIP

Pull: .344, .356
Center: .054, .248
Oppo: .023, .241

• David Robertson will start in low-leverage spots.

The Phillies are hoping Robertson can become another high-leverage option down the stretch, though Thomson said he hopes to ease him into some lower-leverage situations initially just to help him settle back in.

“I’ll just have to find a spot where I fit in there and work my way up into the ‘pen to figure out how I can help us win,” Robertson said. “I don’t really care when I pitch, I’ve always said that. So whatever it takes, whenever they want to put me in, I’ll give it everything I got.”

• The team is going with who is hot in the outfield.

His performance is one datapoint in the outfield roulette, which the Phillies continued to play over the weekend. Thomson gave each outfielder a game off, citing the hard turf at Globe Life Field. But he said he also wanted to see everyone play to determine “who’s hot, who’s not.”

“To me, I’m not so sure why everybody keeps talking about the outfield because it’s been doing OK,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told The Athletic. “It doesn’t matter to me who plays where or who plays versus who as long as they do well. (Brandon) Marsh has been doing well. Castellanos has been solid. Bader’s part of it now at this point.”

Here is how each has performed over the last two weeks.

Name: wRC+
Marsh: 232
Wilson: 223
Kepler: 113
Bader: 66
Rojas: 35
Castellanos: 17

• Zack Wheeler has dealt with shoulder pain for a few games.

Wheeler has been dealing with shoulder soreness for the past few weeks and his start on Sunday in Texas saw a dip in his velocity on all his pitches