Because the 2024 common season continues, listed below are three issues we’ll be keeping track of across the baseball world all through the day right now:
1. Lee receiving second opinion:
Giants middle fielder Jung Hoo Lee exited Sunday’s recreation in opposition to the Reds attributable to a dislocated shoulder suffered whereas attempting to catch a fly ball off the bat of Jeimer Candelario on the wall. Since then, Lee has undergone an MRI that (as famous by MLB.com’s Maria Guardado) that exposed structural injury in his shoulder. That’s a worrisome discovery, however Lee and the Giants is not going to decide subsequent steps till a go to with Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles that’s scheduled for later right now. The 25-year-old has flashed sturdy protection within the outfield whereas slashing .262/.310/.331 (89 wRC+) in his first style of huge league motion.
2. Sequence Preview: Pirates @ Cubs
Because of a quirk on this 12 months’s schedule, the Pirates and Cubs are set to face one another their second collection over the previous week with a four-game set beginning at Wrigley Subject this afternoon. Over the weekend, the Cubs took two of three from Pittsburgh in a collection that notably included the debut of high pitching prospect Paul Skenes, who finally allowed three runs in 4 innings of labor however struck out seven batters in his first large league look.
Skenes will get a second chew on the apple in Chicago, however not earlier than fellow teenager Jared Jones (2.68 ERA via eight begins) takes on Cubs ace hurler Justin Steele (4.73 ERA via three begins) this afternoon. On Friday, Skenes (6.75 ERA) will face veteran righty Kyle Hendricks (10.04 ERA), and the collection will wrap up over the weekend with a pair of powerful match ups for the Pirates as Bailey Falter (4.15 ERA) and Mitch Keller (3.93 ERA) face off in opposition to Shota Imanaga (0.96 ERA) and Jameson Taillon (1.61 ERA) respectively.
3. Pending DFA resolutions:
Astros right-hander Brandon Bielak and Pirates right-hander Roansy Contreras had been each designated for project 5 days in the past. Whereas the DFA window technically lasts for an entire week, outright waivers are usually a 48-hour course of, that means if both participant goes to be traded it’ll very probably be right now. If no trades are agreed upon, they’ll be run via the waiver wire and made accessible to all 29 different golf equipment.
The 28-year-old Bielak pitched to a 4.05 ERA in 142 1/3 innings from 2021-23, hanging out 19.2% of his opponents in opposition to a 9.8% stroll fee. Metrics like FIP (4.76) and SIERA (4.65) aren’t as bullish on that stretch as his ERA, however he’s a reasonably skilled righty who’s acquainted pitching in lengthy reduction and out of the rotation. In the meantime, Contreras is a former top-100 prospect who gave the Bucs 98 innings of three.67 ERA ball to start his profession. He’s since struggled and been dropped to the bullpen, nevertheless. Each pitchers are out of minor league choices, so any crew that acquires both pitcher might want to add him on to the MLB pitching workers in some position.