Pitching Grips

Joe Puetz-Imagn Images It’s hard to know what to expect from a pitcher returning from a serious injury. In addition to velocity and spin rate, pitching is also about rhythm and feel, and that can take time to come back after a long layoff. But there was little rust for Gerrit Cole to shake off when he made his season debut Friday night at Yankee Stadium. In his first major league start since undergoing Tommy John surgery on March 11, 2025, Cole silenced the first-place Rays, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out two across six scoreless innings. His only real trouble came in the first inning, when he gave up a leadoff single to Chandler Simpson and walked Junior Caminero to put two on with nobody out. After a Jonathan Aranda fly out, Cole picked the speedy Simpson off second base and then struck out Yandy Díaz looking at an inside fastball to end the inning. From there, he got in a groove. He averaged 96.1 mph with his four-seamer, and he threw 50 of his 72 pi...

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2:02 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource chat! Reminder that you need a FanGraphs account (membership not required) to sign in and ask a question. It worked fine last week but please let us know if you have any issues. Here we go … 2:02 ankoalec : It sounds like Jared Jones will be able to return to the Pirates within the next week – what do you expect the rotation to look like upon his return? Does Chandler get sent down? Does Mlodzinski move back to a bullpen role, or maybe layer on with Jones initially if they want to build up Jones’ workload? Do they go six man? 2:03 Jon Becker : A Jones/Mlodzinski piggyback feels likeliest to me, at least for a turn or two. But if Chandler’s next start is yet another rough one then maybe they change course and send him down, because he’s just not throwing enough strikes and that’s taxing on the bullpen. 2:04 Yakety Sox : Thanks as always for these chats. Is Didier...

Matt Krohn-Imagn Images Expectations were generally quite low for the Minnesota Twins coming into the 2026 season after last summer’s fire sale that resulted in the departure of seven players from the 26-man roster, including Carlos Correa and half the bullpen. To defy those expectations this year, the Twins needed to wring as much performance as they could out of the talent that remained. In the early going, Ryan Jeffers did more than meet his projection, hitting .295/.408/.541 for a sterling 165 wRC+. At 1.7 WAR in just under two months, he was already nearing his career-best 2.3 WAR from 2023. Now, a broken left hamate bone will likely knock him out for four to six weeks, resulting in a lot more Victor Caratini in the lineup than anyone wants to see. The Twins also held onto third baseman Royce Lewis last summer. Part of that was because he was affordable and under club control through the 2028 season, but it was also because he took a major step backward last year and wouldn...

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Steven Bisig-Imagn Images The Mariners didn’t expect to call up Colt Emerson , but they had no choice. Emerson made his big league debut Sunday in the Mariners’ 8-3 loss to the Padres. It wasn’t a particularly eventful day in the box score. He flied out to right field in his first at-bat, drew a walk in his second, and flied out to right field again in his third. But at just 20 years old, he became the youngest Mariner to reach the majors since Félix Hernández in 2005. General manager Justin Hollander told reporters that calling up Emerson wasn’t a move he anticipated making when he woke up that morning. However, Emerson was next on the depth chart, and once it became clear that Brendan Donovan needed time on the injured list, Hollander felt it was the only choice to make. “We want to do the right thing for Colt. We also want to do the right thing for the Mariners. We think he’s the best option. This period will give him some runway. This is not a 15-at-bat or a 20-at-bat tryout...