Brandon Glick

Absolutely. He's stubborn and trusts his baseball instinct. That's fine. My problem is that Canario NEEDS development time badly. He missed most of a crucial year because of injuries. Him sitting around and watching other guys play isn't of any use to him. He needs the ABs. If that's in Iowa, so be it, but while he's here he might as well play at least a little.

"Top" prospect as in guy who was consensus top 10 in the system and garnering league-wide Top 100/honorable mention consideration before his winter ball injuries following a ridiculous 2022 season. Felt like it was a fair label. The second point I disagree with - yes the minor leagues function as a means of developing guys for the majors, but if a guy isn't going to play in the majors, why not keep developing him in the minors. This isn't some 30 year old journeyman a la Wisdom. This is a guy who has a legitimate chance to be a staple of the next half-decade of Cubs teams. You can argue that he isn't good enough to play in the majors yet... but then he shouldn't be here at all. Simple as that.

All of this is incredibly helpful - thank you! HUGE shout out especially on the Spot Hero call. Looks like a lifesaver

A section of the Wrigley Field guide will include a history on bars in the Wrigleyville area! There's actually a bar/pub crawl in the area that goes in depth too: https://brewsandclues.com/tour/chicago-cubs-bar-crawl/

Alexander Canario was called up to the major leagues as a top prospect with lots of power… and he isn’t playing. What is the vendetta David Ross and the front office have against him? Image courtesy of © Bryon Houlgrave/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK As one of the people banging the drum for Alexander Canario to get called up when he went on his recent heater at Triple-A Iowa, I was ecstatic to see the Cubs opt for the high-risk, high-reward outfielder when the September roster expansions came. He fills a void on this team--namely, monstrous, gargantuan power--that should, at the very least, position him to be a valuable pinch-hitter and platoon option. Instead, Canario has all of one at-bat since being recalled on September 1: a strikeout in a meaningless plate appearance in a blowout, against one of the most dominant closers in the sport today (Camilo Doval). Why isn’t the kid getting any playing time? To hear it from the boss himself, David Ross attempted to explain his rationale behind sitting a prospect who was scorching hot for three weeks: “Look, we’re in a really good position to win. The guys that got us here are going to play. And the guys that are on the bench, if they’ve got roles, they’ll fill in those roles. Canario got called up for a September call-up. He’ll play when he’s needed and [he] fills in nicely or the game gets out of hand one way or the other–get some at-bats, get in the outfield. I think the future is bright for a lot of our minor leaguers that are coming up, but now’s not the time that I’m trying to get those guys at-bats.” Now, there’s a lot of validity imbued in that familiar Rossy stubbornness. Seiya Suzuki is on an absolute tear right now (1.077 OPS over his last 26 games), and Ian Happ is playing really nicely as well (.840 OPS in his last 100 at-bats). Those are the two everyday guys at Canario’s primary positions, left field and right field, and there’s not much sense in sitting them when they’re just as hot as Canario was. No one is advocating for Cody Bellinger to take a day off, and Canario only has limited experience playing center field in the minor leagues, anyway. Beyond them, though, a lot of the Cubs’ regulars are struggling badly. Jeimer Candelario, the big trade deadline acquisition when the Cubs surprisingly bought this year, has a paltry .600 OPS over the last month, with an equally egregious 29% strikeout rate to match. Dansby Swanson has been even worse at the plate, with a .595 OPS in the last 30 days brought down by an ugly .295 slugging percentage. The list keeps going: Nick Madrigal (.638 OPS in the last 30 days), Christopher Morel (.454 OPS), Miguel Amaya (.595 OPS) and others are all in prolonged cold stretches with the bat right now. None of those guys play positions Canario is suited for, but there’s enough positional flexibility on this roster to at least get the top prospect in the lineup against lefties. Now, I need to make it clear: no one is (or at least, no one should be) advocating for Canario to see everyday playing time. Ross is absolutely correct that the Cubs are in position for the playoffs for the first time since 2020 because of their regular starters. Those guys need the chance to work through funks and slumps. However, wins right now are more important than they’ve been in a long while for this team, and willingly playing guys who are producing negative value at the plate isn’t exactly “Manager of the Year”-level coaching. Canario, by the way, is also an important factor in this whole equation. Yes, the needs of the major-league team come first and foremost, but this is a guy who was on his way to being a blue-chip prospect before the freak injuries in winter ball set him back. He needs to be playing (nearly) every day for the sake of his development, not to mention continuing to get his legs back under him, and having him sit on the bench for weeks at a time while Mike Tauchman slashes .178/.294/.205 over his last 23 games played is organizational malpractice. If Canario isn’t going to sniff the field--because of front office dictation, Ross’s hard-headedness, or simply because he isn’t ready--then send him back to Iowa. Let the kid play and keep developing, so that he can, one day, actually contribute to the major league team (and use his roster spot on a guy who will actually contribute right now!). Despite all of this, the Cubs are still winning. Canario isn’t going to be the reason the team makes or misses the playoffs. However, Ross has a habit of grinding his “circle of trust” guys into the dust (gee, wonder where he learned that habit from), and getting a couple of the normal starters a few breathers before the playoffs would kill two birds with one stone, assuming he actually puts Canario in the lineup in those players’ places. Hopefully, the ridiculously powerful outfielder can find himself in a few more games before the regular season ends, lest the Cubs convince themselves that the “Mahomes development plan” is the best way for prospects to learn. View full article

I think all your arguments have plenty of validity. In no way am I attempting to degrade your opinion on things (as I know you are not on mine either). My stance ultimately comes down to this: there are SO many prospects in minor league baseball, and the path from the lowest levels to the major leagues is STEEP. It's absurdly difficult to project guys out years in advance, especially as the talent level across all of baseball continues to rise exponentially. Having strategies with prospects (like drafting college bats) or playing to your organization's strengths (like the way Cleveland and Tampa do with drafting and developing young pitchers) are ways to mitigate the risk of a prospect falling off the development curve. But there is never a way to ensure that any given player - no matter how much of a "can't miss" guy he is - will truly succeed at the major league level. That's what makes prospecting so hard.

Of course, it's fine to disagree (welcome to the world of prospecting). But to take the point that we colloquially refer to prospects as "busts" or "successes" (after their development arcs have been completed) and then suggest that that's how all of prospecting works is a clear misrepresentation of the main argument of the article (and of course, that may be a failure of my own to properly articulate said argument). There are innumerable "generational" prospects who fail (Mark Appel for instance) and a ton of "organizational depth" guys who last a long time in the bigs (e.g, Kyle Hendricks). It's a guessing game for fans, and a reason why every organization invests so heavily in player development. Also - a TON of guys from the first rebuild didn't pan out: Albert Almora, Arismendy Alcantara, arguably Soler (at least before he got to the Braves in '21), Billy McKinney, and the list goes on and on. Obviously the Cubs had a strategy when drafting college bats with more advanced feel in that era, but to suggest that they "gamed" the prospect system completely disregards the fact that 1) they got extraordinarily lucky with some of their top guys panning out rather quickly and 2) the strategy didn't hold up whatsoever. If you ask anyone who's studied prospects for a long time (with any sense of humility about it), they'll be the first to tell you that there is no such thing as a "guarantee" when it comes to prospects.

Absolutely - this is a great point. These "values" are assigned to prospects as a means of tiering them, but so often prospects in the same tier are there for a multitude of reasons; some have 1 big carrying tool and a lot of lagging ones, some are a jack of all trades, master of none, and others simply just aren't beloved because of their baseball "acumen". It's arbitrary on a grand scale, and incredibly complex on an individual one. Of course... all of this is what makes the prospect side of the game so fun.

With midseason updates from every corner of the prospecting world at our fingertips, and more substantive evaluations around the corner during the offseason, the question remains: what do these external rankings actually mean to the Cubs? Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports This is a topic I’ve juggled plenty in the past, having originally started with prospect rankings when I began writing about sports many moons ago. There was a lively discussion on a Pete Crow-Armstrong piece a few weeks ago (that ended up being mostly about how to evaluate Matt Mervis, for some reason), and it caused me to reflect on the topic of personal versus industry prospect evaluations. First things first: there is no such thing as a “consensus” ranking for a prospect, at least in the sense that everyone views one EXACTLY the same. Unless you’re a legend foretold like a prophecy, or the son of a seven-time all star, chances are you’re going to find different outlets ranking your future differently. Some scouts prioritize certain metrics to which other scouts barely pay perfunctory attention. Some prospecting websites might subscribe to the credo of “performance above all”, while others might be looking for under-the-hood, advanced analytical measurements that are meant to more accurately offer insight into a prospect’s ceiling and floor. With the influx of sabermetrics into the standard fan’s lexicon, there has never been a more bountiful time for all corners of the baseball globe to scrutinize every last detail of a player’s profile. However, this isn’t a piece about HOW to evaluate prospects. Again, that’s more of a “to each their own” proposition. Indeed, my own method of evaluating prospects is unique relative to the current zeitgeist, as I put extra emphasis on performance versus other top prospects, much in the same way “Quad 1 Wins” matter more for Selection Sunday in college basketball. Instead, I wanted to offer a reminder that, while these prospect rankings are important, they may be more so for fans than for the teams themselves. We’ll never truly know how a team feels about a player. There will always be in-house information on a prospect’s medical history, developmental timeline, makeup and character, and more that will never make its way to the public. In addition to that, the Cubs (at least under the stewardship of Jed Hoyer) have been notoriously coy with the media, rarely offering more than a bland or vague statement about any given player. Also, don’t forget that the Cubs just relaunched their entire scouting and player-development departments following the horrendous 2019 draft, with entire teams of people in the organization dedicated just to “swing decisions'' and “pitch shapes”. Their evaluative process, no matter how much of it is revealed to the public eye, will always be more in-depth and purposeful than a composite ranking of every farm system in baseball. All of that is why it’s important to remind ourselves that, no matter how we feel about current prospects, the team (hopefully) knows best. It hurt like hell to watch one of my favorite players in the system, Kevin Made, get traded at the deadline this year. Yet, the major-league team was competitive and ready to buy, and Made was a redundant asset for a team already loaded with middle-infield depth. The trade made sense, even if I thought Made was worth more than half of a prospect package for a rental bat. Now, teams will always miss on prospects in every sense. Organizations will pass over generational talents in favor of their own internal evaluations, much like when the Astros gifted Kris Bryant to the Cubs in the 2013 draft by drafting Mark Appel instead. Even teams with a preternatural gift for turning scraps into stars will make timeline-altering mistakes, like when the Cardinals traded eventual Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara for two seasons of Marcell Ozuna. Baseball, more than any other sport, is a guessing game of which prospects will pan out and which ones will burn out. Never has there been a more accurate characterization of an event than when we all started calling the MLB Draft a crapshoot. So, as a friendly reminder, the Cubs do not give a rat’s ass about your or my feelings about any prospect in particular. They also really don’t care for the external evaluations provided by sites like FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus (unless they help provide additional leverage in a trade, of course). Odds are, they’ll give Mervis another chance in the big leagues, unless they truly believe he’s a scrub… in which case, he’ll be designated for assignment or traded, just like every prospect who failed before him. All of us fans have extremely high opinions on PCA… just like we did for Brailyn Marquez and Brennen Davis not too long ago. The prospecting game of baseball is a hard one. There is no exact formula, no textbook way of knowing which players will live up to the billing and which ones won’t. Sometimes, the science of evaluating prospects is more art than science. Finally, to answer the biggest question still on your mind: no, this is not me pre-coping before the Cubs inevitably trade Alexander Canario for a pitcher this winter. I promise. (Okay, maybe a little.) View full article

Definitely a worthwhile trip if you can make it happen! Lots of exciting prospects at all levels right now - could be cool to say you saw them before they made it to the bigs!

The Chicago Cubs farm system had an excellent month of August. There were many promotions and continued breakout performances from a number of prospects. Which relievers in the organization had the best performance over the last 30 days? Image courtesy of Dylan Heuer, Iowa Cubs As a caveat before these rankings proceed, a player must have appeared in at least three games at any one level to earn consideration. Sample sizes, especially for relievers, over a one-month span are never large, but there needs to be some established data to properly analyze a player. Also, a player does not need to be considered a “prospect” to actually show up here; as long as he pitches for a Cubs’ affiliate and appeared in at least three games in August, that player has met the full criteria for consideration. With the logistics out of the way, let’s take a deep dive into the top five relievers from the Cubs’ minor league teams in the month of August. Honorable Mention: Frankie Scalzo Jr. (South Bend, High-A) - 7 Appearances, 10 IP, 1.80 ERA, 15 Ks, 3 BB Scalzo Jr. has been a true multi-inning weapon for South Bend this year, putting up 66 1/3 innings in just 35 appearances, including eight saves. His stuff has been improving as the year has gone on, and he’s taken a gigantic leap forward after a so-so season at Low-A Myrtle Beach in 2022 (4.63 ERA in 23 games). Most importantly, his walk rates and contact quality are improving, as both his batting average against and BB/9 are down significantly from last year. Also, Scalzo Jr. was just promoted to Double-A Tennessee at the end of August. Which honor do you think matters more to him: the promotion in his professional life or receiving the honorable mention on this list? I kid, I kid… it’s obviously this one. #4: Jose Romero (Myrtle Beach, Low-A) - 7 App., 15 1/3 IP, 1.17 ERA, 24 Ks, 1 BB The strikeout-to-walk ratio alone is gaudy, but when you realize Romero is doing it in more high-leverage situations than ever (he got his first two saves of the year this month), you know you’ve got a potential stud on your hands. Romero has been tested out in a variety of roles, from the traditional one-inning closer to a multi-inning reliever (in the mold of Keegan Thompson, for example), and the 22-year-old has proven malleable in the bullpen. He should be a candidate for a late-season promotion to High-A South Bend, and all expectations should be placed that he’ll start next year there with the potential to rise through the remainder of the system rapidly. #3: Zac Leigh (Tennessee, AA) - 8 App., 10 2/3 IP, 0.84 ERA, 16 Ks, 4 BB It brings me so much joy to put Leigh on this list. Yet, despite my favoritism, when your month-long WHIP is well below 1.00 (Leigh’s is 0.94 for August), you’ve earned your spot. Leigh’s found nothing but success since being a 16th round pick in 2021, and he’s generally been great since being promoted to Tennessee earlier this year. In 24 2/3 innings there this year, he has a 2.92 ERA and 34 strikeouts. He’s firmly put himself on the radar heading into his age-26 season next year, and he should begin 2024 as a candidate for Iowa’s closer gig, while staring down a potential midseason call-up to the big leagues. #2: Blake Whitney (Tennessee, AA) - 9 App., 14 1/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 16 Ks, 1 BB Now, you’re probably looking at the above stat line and wondering how anyone did better this month than Whitney. Spoiler alert: no one did (the next guy on the list is in the number one spot because of his absurd recent hot streak and proximity to the majors). The Smokies’ newly-minted closer has been having an excellent season, with his ERA down to 2.15 over 62 2/3 innings pitched (and an impressive 71 strikeouts!). The 24th round pick from 2018 is already 27 years old, so his prospect clock is ticking (if not already expired), but his repeat of Double-A is going swimmingly so far. #1: Luke Little (Tennessee, AA and Iowa, AAA) - 7 App., 10 2/3 IP, 1.69 ERA, 21 Ks, 5 BB As I explained not long ago, Little’s time in Chicago is coming. Given that he’s Rule 5 eligible this offseason, he needs to be added to the 40-man roster regardless, and his recent performance since coming off the development list earlier in the summer has been jaw-dropping. The towering lefty is simply overpowering hitters with his 6’8” frame and mid-to-high-90s fastball. He needs to get his overall walk rate down, but Little’s preposterous strikeout and home run rates (he’s averaging almost two strikeouts an inning this season and has only given up one home run all year) should make him a viable option for the big league team right now. And with the heater he’s been on since being called up to Iowa (he’s got 18 strikeouts against just five walks in only 9 2/3 innings there this month), there’s no doubt that Little is currently the most tantalizing reliever in the farm system. What do you think? How would you rank your top minor league relief pitchers in August? Comment below. View full article

I'm with you - I think the biggest thing dinging Steele is that he doesn't pitch all that deep into games. Not once this year has he reached the 8th inning of a start. The 250 inning guys are of a bygone era, but part of being an ace is still going deep into starts to preserve the bullpen. If he catches fire over his last five starts, he'll have a legit chance. But it's a very crowded field this year with no one separating from the pack.

Definitely one of the biggest success stories from the team's new pitching infrastructure. If he can remain a viable 4/5 starter for the next five years, that's as big of a win in player development the Cubs have had in a long time. Also doesn't hurt that he's just plain fun to watch pitch!

In the heat of their first playoff run since 2020, the Chicago Cubs have needed their pitchers to hold down the fort more than ever. Who answered the call in August? The Cubs went a scorching 18-9 in August, further solidifying themselves in the Wild Card race and garnering a legitimate shot at the division crown. The team also posted a 4.28 ERA throughout the month, good for 14th in the league. It wasn’t a dominant month from the mound, but the pitching staff is doing enough to keep the team in games. While… ahem, certain players won’t be appearing on this list, there were a number of candidates for the six slots below. Also note that, though they didn’t appear enough times to deserve serious consideration, it was amazing to see the debut of Jordan Wicks and the revival of Keegan Thompson this month. Those two developments could prove to be as important as any down the stretch. Honorable Mention: Kyle Hendricks - 6 Games Started, 33 IP, 4.09 ERA, 26 Strikeouts, 8 Walks Hendricks logged the second most innings of any pitcher on the staff this month, providing crucial competence to a rotation that is attempting to withstand the ebbs and flows of Jameson Taillon and the prolonged injury to Marcus Stroman (not to mention the utter implosion of Drew Smyly). He’s not giving the team as many Cy Young-caliber performances as the Hendricks of old did, but at this point, he’s probably the team’s number two starter in a playoff series. Honorable Mention #2: José Cuas - 10 Appearances, 11 IP, 0.82 ERA, 7 Ks, 10 BB Cuas has been sneakily dominant this month, posting the lowest ERA of anyone on the team with at least three appearances. He’s gotten it done despite a middling strikeout rate (5.7 K/9 in August) and alarming walk rate (8.2 BB/9 in August), but results are results. Nelson Velasquez has been doing well over in Kansas City, but so far this trade looks like a win-win for both sides. #4: Justin Steele - 6 GS, 34.1 IP, 3.41 ERA, 41 Ks, 7 BB The fact that this was a "down" month for the Cubs’ homegrown ace should tell you all you need to know about the season Steele is having. He probably cost himself a real shot at the Cy Young over the last 30 days, but that’s more by virtue of how crowded the field is than a reflection of any true struggles on Steele’s end (though that recent shutout performance against the Brewers may have reopened the door). Yet again Steele made all six of his scheduled starts and the Cubs posted a flawless 6-0 record in those games. He may not fit the bill of a traditional rotation leader, but Steele has been the most dependable starter on this team since Opening Day (save for maybe a brief hot stretch early in the year from Marcus Stroman). He’ll start Game 1 of any playoff series the Cubs make it to - and given the way things have gone this year for Steele, the Cubs have to like their odds when that game rolls around. #3: Julian Merryweather - 13 App., 14 IP, 1.93 ERA, 21 Ks, 4 BB With Michael Fulmer on the IL, Merryweather is now the set-up man to Adbert Alzolay. That may not be the most comforting sentence in the world, but Merryweather has been nothing short of excellent since April, and he’s got his season-long ERA down to 3.30 in 60 innings. He’s the most prolific strikeout artist the Cubs have out of the bullpen, and his steadily improving walk rate (2.6 BB/9 in August) is turning him into a true weapon. It remains to-be-seen just how much David Ross trusts Merryweather as his workload skyrockets and the games become more and more important, but he’s clearly one of the best relievers on the team. If anything should happen to Alzolay, Merryweather should be next in line for the closer’s gig. #2: Mark Leiter Jr. - 14 App., 12 IP, 2.25 ERA, 17 Ks, 4 BB Good lord - is this guy good or what? Just another stellar month in the bag for the man who is simply unstoppable right now, as I dove into more here. His season ERA is down to 2.84, and he’s working a healthy 3.89 K/BB ratio to back it up. Leiter Jr. is nails against lefties, and his season slash line against them this year is something to behold: lefties are hitting just .148/.223/.261 against Leiter Jr. in 2023. His splitter is among the best pitches in baseball right now, and the Cubs have helped unlock the rest of his arsenal that plays off of it. The only reason he isn’t treated as a more traditional set-up man is because he’s really the bullpen’s only weapon against left-handed hitters (at least until Luke Little is called up), but make no mistake that’s he as crucial to this team’s success as any reliever they have. Oh, and enjoy some highlights while you’re here: #1: Javier Assad - 5 GS, 29 IP, 2.48 ERA, 20 Ks, 9 BB What else can you say about Assad at this point? He won our Pitcher of the Month last month for his work in long relief, and now he’s done it again as the team’s best starting pitcher in the month of August. He’s doing it on the back of extraordinary contact management (.198 batting average against in August) and limiting walks (2.8 BB/9 in August). There’s no one pitch in his arsenal that’s carrying him, but the repertoire is so diverse that everything plays up anyways. The Cubs will want to watch his workload (already at 79 innings pitched this year) as they enter the final month of the season, but Assad is too important to the entire operation to be limited in any meaningful way. There are a ton of players having big seasons for the Cubs on the mound (Steele, Leiter Jr., Alzolay, etc.), but it’s the emergence of Javier Assad that stands above the rest again. What do you think? How would you rank your top Cubs pitchers of August? Comment below. View full article

He certainly has the "set the world on fire" hot streak-ability in him to do it. I think expecting anything more than a nelson velasquez-type (for right now) is a dangerous game, but Canario is going to be the most electric prospect debut since Morel regardless.

Well said. Let's all hope he "doesn't suck".

Still a more legit source than Nightengale

The Cubs have been nails in close games recently. Who should we thank for this recent bullpen dominance run? Image courtesy of © Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports If you’ve been watching Cubs games over the last three months - or if you bothered to read the headline of this article - you know the answer is Mark Leiter Jr. The son of an 11-year MLB veteran (Mark Leiter Sr.) and the nephew of two-time World Series champion Al Leiter, Leiter Jr. comes from an impressive baseball lineage. Like his father and uncle before him, Leiter Jr. was a starting pitcher early in his career. Initially, he was a prospect with the Phillies after they drafted him in the 22nd round in 2013. He was then called up in 2017 without much fanfare, expected to fulfill a swingman/fifth starter job for as long as he could keep throwing strikes. Yet, he scuffled early and often as he tried to make a name for himself in the league, posting an unsightly 5.91 ERA across 137 innings in 2017 and 2018 with the Phillies and Blue Jays. In turn, he fell out of the league for a few years before attempting a comeback in the Tigers organization, which earned him a minor league deal with the Cubs heading into 2022. Leiter Jr. made six largely unsuccessful starts at Triple-A Iowa in 2022 (5.32 ERA in just 22 innings) before being recalled to the major leagues, where he made four fill-in starts for various members of an ailing rotation. The struggles continued, and the talented but miscast righty once again found his career on life support. It wasn’t until the Cubs made the move to have Leiter Jr. emulate his father’s late-career transition to the bullpen that the results finally started to come. Now, the younger Leiter is dominating major league hitters as a reliever. He’s been doing it on the back of perhaps baseball’s best split-finger fastball. This pitch is generating some truly mind-boggling advanced statistics: in 311 splitters thrown in 2023, Leiter Jr. has produced a .108 expected batting average against (xBA), a .212 expected slugging against (xSLG), a .195 expected weighted on-base average against (xWOBA), and an utterly preposterous 52% whiff rate. The pitch is averaging 84.7 miles per hour, which, when combined with its 33.0 inches of vertical drop (roughly league average for splitters) and only 6.2 inches of horizontal movement (~50% less than league average), makes Leiter Jr.’s splitter almost a facsimile of a power curveball but with more fade. It’s truly among the best singular pitches the Cubs have had since the days of Aroldis Chapman's legendary fastball. His repertoire goes deeper than just one pitch, though, as both his sinker and cutter have generated positive run value so far in 2023 (he also has a curveball and four-seam fastball, which have generated zero, or league-average, run value this year). It’s a starting pitcher’s mix with the out-pitch of a great reliever, which makes Leiter Jr. as versatile as anyone in the bullpen. If you’ve been watching late into Cubs games this year, odds are you’ve noticed that, for the most part, they haven’t had a lefty available in the bullpen. Anthony Kay has been up and down between the majors and minors, and Drew Smyly is in there now, but for most of the season, it’s been Leiter Jr. as the nominal “lefty out-getter.” And, surprise, it’s a role he’s thrived in, giving up a paltry .145/.217/.261 slash line against 152 opposing left-handed hitters (he’s allowed a .250/.356/.433 line against 73 opposing righties this year). As you’d imagine, it’s the splitter that is such a weapon against lefties, as the pitch has generated an unfathomable .095 xBA against left-handed hitters in 2023 (the whiff rate is 54.6%, just in case you were wondering and needed a laugh). With Adbert Alzolay firmly entrenched as the closer and Julian Merryweather and Michael Fulmer (when he’s healthy) crowned as the traditional set-up men, Leiter Jr. has been utilized more loosely than his late-reliever brethren, often being asked to clean up messy innings with inherited runners or shut down the two best left-handed hitters the opposing team has. It’s a job that may not be as ceremonious as the fist-pumping highlights the closer’s role creates, but Leiter Jr. is as important to this team’s success as any pitcher on the roster. It's quite a story for a guy who cleared waivers in January. View full article

I think we're all happy campers after tonight.