No complex games yesterday but we have Will Thompson on MLB, Samuel Gomez at Triple-A, Nate Rasmussen at Double-A, Grant Carver at High-A, and Matt Thompson on Single-A.

Major League Baseball

Covered by Will Thompson

‼️ Jack Leiter, RHP TEX (MLB)

7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, HR allowed

The line doesn’t tell the full story here, this was one of Jack Leiter’s best outings of his career. The righty carried a no-hitter into the 7th before it got broken up by a Yainer Diaz solo shot. Bruce Bochy left Leiter in for the 8th though and he allowed two bloop singles before getting pulled and Robert Garcia allowed those runners to score on an Isaac Paredes go-ahead three-run homer. Leiter led with his slider mostly in this outing and had a lot of success, using it 48% of the time and generating 26% whiffs. He hasn’t consistently missed bats yet, but this was a terrific outing and one to build on. 

Brayan Bello, RHP BOS (MLB)

4.1 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 5 BB, 3 K

Bello came into this start with a 2.33 ERA but was a ticking time bomb given he was allowing a ton of baserunners and just getting out of jams to achieve that mark. That bomb detonated on Sunday and his stuff looked horrible. He struggled to land the sinker and his changeup which used to be his calling card had no bite or fade to it and just looked like a slightly slower sinker. Bello now has 19 walks and 20 strikeouts this season and as crazy as it may sound, he might need a stint in Triple-A to try and figure himself out with Walker Buehler coming back this week. Rookie righty Hunter Dobbins has earned a rotation spot far more than Bello has at this point and the stuff that Bello has shown early on this season is simply not big league caliber.  

💣💣 CJ Abrams, SS WAS (MLB)

3-for-5, 2 HR, 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI

CJ Abrams is breaking out before our eyes and has gotten off to a terrific start this season. A double dong day plus a double for the 24-year-old, whose exit velocities are significantly improved over 2024 and he’s hitting the ball in the air. Abrams might be heading for a 30 homer season at this rate and the return they got for Juan Soto continues to look better and better. 

‼️🆕 Mick Abel, RHP PHI (MLB)

6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K

What an awesome MLB debut for Mick Abel, who dominated the Pirates over six shutout innings with nine strikeouts and outdueled Paul Skenes for a 1-0 Phillies win. Abel’s strike throwing improvements over last season have been remarkable, lowering his walk rate by 5% in Triple-A before his promotion and had no walks in this outing. The stuff has never been the question and now that he’s throwing strikes consistently, we could be looking at a 2 or 3 starter in the big leagues. Abel’s curveball was his best weapon in this one, generating eight whiffs and 64% CSW. About as good of a debut as you could possibly ask for. 

‼️ Paul Skenes, RHP PIT (MLB)

8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

Poor Paul Skenes man. This Pirates organization continues to fail him and there is no better representation of that than this start where he absolutely dominated over eight innings and took the loss. The whiffs and strikeouts are still down from last season but it’s probably by design and for the best to let him go deeper into games and be more efficient. Just not sure how this Pirates offense improves any time soon so this probably won’t be the last time we see an outing like this from Skenes get wasted. 

Jackson Jobe, RHP DET (MLB)

6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

This marks two solid starts in a row for Jackson Jobe. He got some more whiffs in this outing (12) and his changeup generated five whiffs on seven swings. He will be just fine long-term and the last two starts have been encouraging if he fills the strike zone like he did in this outing. 

💣💣 Will Benson, RF CIN (MLB)

3-for-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI

What is it with the Reds outfielders and getting on insane power runs that are wildly unsustainable? Well we have another case like that in Will Benson, who had a double dong day and now has five home runs in his first nine games of the season. With strikeout rates consistently over 30% in his big league career (39.7% in 128 games last season), he’s going to come back down to earth eventually, but that doesn’t mean these types of runs aren’t fun. Terry Francona has the Reds playing well and this performance from Benson helped seal an impressive sweep of the Guardians. 

Brendan Donovan, 2B STL (MLB)

4-for-5, 2B, K

The National League hit leader is currently…Brendan Donovan? The 28-year-old continues to rake to start the season, boosted by a four-hit day with a double in Kansas City. Donovan is now hitting .330/.387/.466 with a league-leading 58 hits on the year. He’s good but probably not this good as a .359 BABIP with similar contact rates to his career indicate some regression is on the way, but Donovan is an underrated hitter and a big reason why the Cardinals find themselves two games out of first place in the NL Central. 

Zebby Matthews, RHP MIN (MLB)

3.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

It was not a fun season debut in the big leagues for Zebby Matthews, who uncharacteristically struggled with command in Milwaukee and had some poor batted ball luck. The righty allowed only one ball hit over 95 MPH so the Brewers had some balls that got hit in the right spot. The walks don’t concern me, that’s not an issue Matthews has had for his entire pro career. The stuff is there with his uptick in velocity and I’m still a big Zebby believer, but was hoping to see a better season debut with the Twins after how hard he got hit in his 2024 stint. He’ll be just fine though.   

Miguel Vargas, 3B CHW (MLB)

2-for-3, HR, R, RBI

After a rough start to his White Sox tenure, Miguel Vargas is starting to get it going finally. He had an excellent series against the Cubs this weekend and over the last month is hitting .333/.400/.607 with six home runs and a K rate of just 10.5%. That’s significant improvement from the first three weeks of the season, where he hit just .149/.240/.209 and a 25% K rate. Vargas’ hard hit rate is up 13% from last season as well. While I don’t think the 25-year-old is going to turn into a star, he’s looking like he can be a 50 OFP player if this can somewhat sustain and the White Sox will probably take that given how rough his big league numbers have been previously. 

Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF CHC (MLB)

2-for-4, 3B, 2B, 2 R, K

There’s not much else to say at this point other than PCA is a superstar. Yes he has his flaws, he chases at an insane rate, rarely walks, and whiffs more than you’d like. But he’s so good at everything else that it doesn’t matter. He hits the ball hard consistently, is a major threat on the basepaths, and is the best defensive center fielder in baseball. Crow-Armstrong is box office and I find myself watching way more Cubs games just to watch him play, he’s that type of talent. 

Heliot Ramos, LF SF (MLB)

2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, K

The Giants have been the surprise of baseball this season and the emergence of Heliot Ramos has been a big reason why. He had a good season at the plate last year but has taken it to a new level in 2025, hitting .293/.360/.494 with eight home runs in 46 games. He’s hitting the ball hard consistently, but hits too many ground balls to sustain hitting near .300. Even if that doesn’t happen, he’s still going to be around a 125-130 wRC+ guy which is more than enough to make up for his subpar defense in the outfield. The Giants can hide that a lot more in LF than they could last season when he was forced to play center after Jung Hoo Lee got hurt. 

Chase Dollander, RHP COL (MLB)

4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, HR allowed

Three of Dollander’s last four starts have been quite good and he’s bounced back nicely after he had 7.91 ERA and 7.38 FIP in his first four starts. To the surprise of literally no one, the righty has pitched much better on the road than at Coors Field, with a 8.66 ERA at home compared to a 4.29 ERA away. There’s going to be some starts where he implodes and he’s going to give up a lot of homers this year, but I’m still really high on Dollander long-term. He’s missing more bats now and is clearly the best starting pitcher in the Rockies organization at the moment. 

‼️ Merrill Kelly, RHP ARI (MLB)

7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 K

Where would the Diamondbacks be without Merrill Kelly this year? After a mediocre and injury-riddled 2024 campaign, the veteran is off to a great start and is reverting back more towards his 2023 pitch usage with more fastballs and less cutters. The changeup was the pitch that led him to dominating the Rockies in this one though, generating 11 whiffs at a 58% clip and had 16 whiffs overall. Kelly has been the DBacks best starter so far, especially given that Corbin Burnes is probably due for some regression soon. Yikes that Burnes contract is going to be rough. 

Zach Neto, SS LAA (MLB)

2-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB, K

Zach Neto is hitting the absolute daylights out of the baseball this season and this continued with a leadoff homer yesterday to help the Angels sweep…yes sweep the Dodgers in their own ballpark. Neto has a 52% hard-hit rate, a 15% barrel rate, and has an average exit velocity of 94 MPH (95th percentile). For a shortstop that’s insane and a really positive sign for the Angels future. Now he does strike out far too much at 29% and doesn’t walk a ton so how well he can sustain this is unclear when his contact rates inevitably go down some. However, he continues to improve and the Angels “learn by big league failure” method in this case is working, although it hasn’t worked in a lot of other cases. 

Pete Alonso, 1B NYM (MLB) 

0-for-4, 2 K

After a blazing start, Pete Alonso has officially come back to earth and the strikeouts have returned recently. Over his last 11 games, the Polar Bear is hitting .159 with no home runs and a 42.5% K rate. Alonso didn’t just become a superstar overnight who no longer strikes out so this regression is expected. Long-term he will be fine I think and his numbers will likely still be much improved over the last two seasons, allowing him to get a multi-year deal this winter. 

Cody Bellinger, LF NYY (MLB)

3-for-3, HR, 2B, R, 6 RBI, 2 BB

Cody Bellinger had his first big Yankees moment last night, clubbing a grand slam off lefty Genesis Cabrera to seal the Subway Series win for the Bombers. After a rough start at the plate he is red-hot and has hit safely in his last 13 games. In that span, he is hitting .377/.450/.679 with four home runs and needless to say, this Yankees lineup is significantly more dangerous when Bellinger is hitting well. 

Triple-A

Covered by Samuel Gomez

Jace Jung, 3B DET (Triple-A) 

2-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, 2 BB

The Tigers sent down Jung last week in favor of Baddoo returning to the major league club. He had a measly five hits in 45 at-bats with Detroit and none of them went for extra bases. This was his third game in Toledo since being demoted and he squared up a few balls, although his single in the ninth came off a position player. Hopefully he can reset himself at Triple-A and return to the majors in short order.

🍔🍟 Brock Jones, CF TBR (Triple-A) 

1-for-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB, K, SB

I absolutely loved watching Jones play in college at Stanford. A former safety for the Cardinal, he has a solid power-speed combo, but has failed to put it together in the upper levels of the minors. He looks incredibly overmatched in Triple-A, however, he was able to showcase the power and speed with a 417-foot bomb and a stolen base.

🍔🍟 Jacob Berry, 3B MIA (Triple-A) 

2-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, SB

Berry is slowly but surely creeping back towards the Mendoza line. It was good to see him hit a ball hard, but I’m not sure how much longer the Marlins can hold out hope for him being a productive big league hitter in the future. Shockingly, he hasn’t hit for a wRC+ above 100 since being in A-ball during his first minor league season in 2022.

Bobby Miller, RHP LAD (Triple-A) 

6 IP, 2 H, 4 BB, 7 K

‼️ Gerson Garabito, RHP TEX (Triple-A) 

6 IP, H, BB, 4 K

Miller and Garabito have both been pretty bad this season for their respective organizations, so it was good to see them deal against one another through six innings. Miller walked too many hitters, but he missed bats with his breaking balls and picked up numerous strikeouts in big spots. Garabito experienced much smoother sailing as he faced the minimum in six innings. He induced plenty of weak contact on the ground and sequenced his stuff well.

Michael Siani, DH STL (Triple-A) 

5-for-5, 3B, R, 3 RBI, SB

Believe it or not it’s still small sample size season, because Siani raised his batting average 57 points with his 5-hit performance. His bat isn’t great and he got a bit fortunate with weaker contact avoiding gloves in this game, but he’s still a good depth outfielder due to his terrific defense.

Drew Rom, LHP STL (Triple-A) 

4 IP, H, 2 BB, 4 K

Rom missed last season due to bicep surgery and only has four starts this season after experiencing some shoulder discomfort. He’s no longer on the Cardinals 40-man, but his splitter looks nasty and I think he could be an interesting look out of the bullpen, while still having the ability to spot start. 

Andrew Morris, RHP MIN (Triple-A) 

5 IP, 4 H, BB, 8 K

Morris has been a bit inconsistent in the last month or so, but when he’s on he’s been great. He threw six different pitches and got a lot of swing-and-miss outside the zone. He pitches with a ton of energy and confidence for a kid his age, so I recommend taking a look at him throw for yourself when you get the chance.

🍔🍟🔜 Lane Thomas, CF CLE (Triple-A) 

3-for-4, HR, 2B, 3 R, RBI, BB, K, SB

Thomas made his fourth rehab start after missing nearly a month with a wrist injury. He hit two balls over 100 mph, neither of which was his homer, showing that he’ll probably be ready to return within the next few days at most.

💣💣 Daniel Susac, C ATH (Triple-A) 

3-for-5, 2 HR, 2B, 3 R, 6 RBI

A former first round pick in 2022, Susac is finally showing some real improvement this season at Triple-A. He’s increased his walk rate to over 10%, which is a vast improvement from his miniscule 4.3% rate in 343 at-bats in Double-A last season. I think he could overtake Pereda this season and eventually get a go at being Langeliers backup.

Jack Perkins, RHP ATH (Triple-A) 

4.2 IP, 3 H, BB, 7 K

Perkins is slowly shedding the reliever risk narrative that has surrounded him for a bit now. His revamped slider got a ton of chase and was used more than his 4-seamer. He’s still not even built up yet due to an unspecified injury that kept him out until May 1st.

‼️ Bryce Jarvis, RHP ARI (Triple-A) 

5 IP, H, BB, 3 K

‼️ Tyler Ivey, RHP HOU (Triple-A) 

6 IP, 2 H, BB, 8 K

Another great pitching duel occurred between Jarvis and Ivey. Both guys had been struggling before this outing and got going at the same time. Jarvis had been struggling with his command, but he pounded the zone with his fastball and sinker and his offspeed was effective outside the zone. He was sent down in mid-April after posting a 7.36 ERA in six appearances out of the bullpen for Arizona, but his peripherals were significantly better than that. Ivey did much the same, but was in the zone more with his offspeed pitches. His low velocity, high IVB fastball got a ton of whiffs and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the majors if Houston has any more rotation or bullpen woes.

Harry Ford, C SEA (Triple-A) 

2-for-4, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, BB

Ford has been making great swing decisions and is still running a walk rate within a percentage point of his strikeout rate. He hit three balls in the air above 100 mph, which I love seeing from a guy who has some pop but hits the ball on the ground too often. He appears to be growing into a future starting big league catcher.

Ryan Ritter, SS COL (Triple-A) 

3-for-4, 3B, 2B, 2 R, RBI, BB

Ritter’s walk rate is still at a career-high level of 15.9% and he continues to hit for power. He’s been flying under the radar offensively and I’d like to see him get a chance to play shortstop behind Tovar this season.

‼️ Carson Whisenhunt, LHP SFG (Triple-A) 

7 IP, 2 H, BB, 5 K

Whisenhunt is really hitting his stride as he’s thrown at least seven innings, while giving up two earned runs or less in his last four starts. In this start, he pitched a bit differently than usual. He used his slider to get whiffs outside the zone and utilized his changeup earlier in counts in the zone. This led to plenty of weak contact and allowed him to work through seven. There’s been some shuffling in the back of the Giants rotation recently, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring him up if one more guy struggles to give them consistent innings. 

Double-A

Covered by Nate Rasmussen

Noah Schultz, LHP CHW (Double-A)

3.1 IP, 3 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, HR

2025 has been a weird one for Schultz, as he’s struggled with command and is not striking out quite as many batters as we are used to. According to FIP- and ERA-, Schultz has been a below-average pitcher for the first time in his minor league career. The potential is still through the roof with Schultz, with a great example being that he was still growing coming into this year, adding an extra inch or two to his height. Front-end starter is still the goal with Schultz, and we’ll likely see him at some point in 2026 after a bit more development.

‼️ Ty Johnson, RHP TB (Double-A)

4 IP, H, 2 BB, 8 K

Ty Johnson had a ridiculous 2024 and is still putting up strong numbers in Double-A in 2025. Johnson has been able to strike out 38% of batters this year with a lethal fastball/slider combo, which also gives him plenty of reliever risk. A third-plus pitch will likely be necessary for Johnson to continue to be a starter moving forward. Johnson is one of many Rays pitching prospects who have overperformed their projections. Keep an eye on him in your deep dynasty leagues.

Colton Ledbetter, CF TB (Double-A)

2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, K

Colton Ledbetter is a fun centerfield prospect due to his immense power potential. He already tapped into most of it last year, hitting 16 homers in High-A before getting the promotion to Double-A to start his 2025. Ledbetter struggles to make consistent contact, running just a 70% contact rate this year. The floor is high enough with his great defense and speed, alongside 20 home run power potential. I think there is a decent amount of pre-2025 Trent Grisham in Ledbetter, albeit without the hype.

🍔🍟 JJ Wetherholt, SS STL (Double-A)

1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, K, SB

JJ hasn’t missed a beat all season, quietly putting up really strong performances at Double-A. The Cardinals need to make some room on the MLB roster sooner rather than later, because there is a logjam in the middle infield, and Wetherholt needs some runway. I wonder how much power we might see in Wetherholt’s bat down the road, with that being the key to unlocking his full potential. 

💣💣 Jorel Ortega, 2B MIN (Double-A)

3-for-5, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI

After coming off the worst season of Ortega’s minor league career, we’ve seen a potent bounceback from the infield prospect. Ortega is pacing to hit the most home runs of his career this season, all while dramatically improving his BB and K ratios. At 24 years old, this is a great time for a breakout for Jorel Ortega. One issue, though, the Twins don’t have a whole lot of space in the infield, especially for a guy who projects at 2B.

💣💣🍔🍟 Junior Perez, DH ATH (Double-A)

3-for-4, 2 HR, 4 R, 3 RBI, BB, K, SB