| | | | Thursday, July 10, 2025 | | If you didn't know who Cam Schlittler was a few weeks ago, I don't blame you. He had one brief start above Double-A at the start of June and ended up making just five starts at Triple-A before making his major-league debut Wednesday against the Mariners. But he's definitely a name you need to know about now. | | Schlittler wasn't dominant in his MLB debut. He fell short of a quality start by a couple of outs, giving up three runs over 5.1 innings of work, and the Mariners jumped on him for a couple of homers and four batted balls with an exit velocity over 100 mph, and his command generally wasn't pristine – he didn't throw a single slider below the bottom edge of the strike zone, and that pitch led to most of the damage he surrendered. | | But man, it was easy to get excited about Schlittler while watching this start in spite of the iffy results. The scouting reports were high on his fastball, but it was even better than expected in his debut. Schlittler hit 100 mph on the high end and averaged 97.9 mph, as he was clearly amped up for this one – in Triple-A, he was averaging 96.6 with his four-seamer. That velocity will probably prove unsustainable, but this still looks like a fastball that should work at 96-97, with a pretty good movement profile. He generated five whiffs with it on 20 swings and had a very good 38% Called-plus-Swinging strike rate with it, making it a very good foundation for an arsenal. | | | | The slider was a bit iffier, but definitely flashed. He probably threw it in the strike zone a bit too much when he should be looking to bury it more often, but he still managed four swinging strikes with the pitch, too. He didn't generate a swinging strike with the rest of the arsenal, which included a heavy downer curveball 7 mph slower than the slider, plus a sweeper with a similar movement profile to the slider but 4 mph slower. I don't know how well that sweeper is going to work, so focusing more on the slider and getting it down below the zone more consistently could be something for Schlittler to work on. | | But all in all, I thought the stuff looked pretty good, and the stuff models agreed with me – Thomas Nestico's tjStuff+ model graded all four of Schlittler's pitches as solidly above-average in his debut. Those grades will probably come down if and when Schlittler's velocity comes down, but he certainly looked the part in his MLB debut. | | Don't be surprised if Schlittler is sent back down to Triple-A in the coming days to give the Yankees another arm through the end of the weekend. But with Clarke Schmidt out for the season, I do expect him to be back for the second half before long. And he'll have a chance to pitch his way into the rotation long term, even with Luis Gil working his way slowly back from injury. | | Is Schlittler a must-add pitcher in Fantasy? I'm not ready to go that far when names like Edward Cabrera, Emmet Sheehan, Noah Cameron, and Joe Boyle are still all rostered in fewer than 75% of CBS Fantasy leagues. All four of them would be priority adds ahead of Schlittler, and Ryne Nelson (75%) and Trevor Rogers (52%) are in the same tier as him but with less ambiguity in their short-term roles. But if you've got the roster spot and none of those pitchers are available, Schlittler showed enough in his debut to be worth an add. | | Here's what else you need to know about from Wednesday's action around MLB: | | | | Thursday's waiver-wire targets | | Noelvi Marte, 3B, Reds (61%) – Marte has been playing pretty consistently since coming off the IL after missing two months with a hamstring injury, but you'd be forgiven for not realizing it with how cold his bat had been before Wednesday. Marte went just 1 for 12 in his first four games back, albeit with just two strikeouts, which was a promising sign. And he got back on the board Wednesday by going 2 for 3 with a homer, his first since April 26. Marte's season got derailed by that hamstring injury, but he's still hitting .277/.330/.494, and he's still a recent top prospect, which makes it worth giving some extra weight to that line. He's an obvious talent, and he's starting to show it off. Let's hope Marte can just stay healthy. | | Masataka Yoshida, DH, Red Sox (11%) – Yoshida didn't waste any time making his impact felt in his first game back from offseason shoulder surgery Wednesday, going 3 for 4 with a double while starting at DH. He had three hard-hit (95-plus mph) batted balls in the game, which is a good sign for a guy coming back from a shoulder injury. The nice thing is, despite making his debut in July, Yoshida has actually been cleared to hit for a lot longer than that and should be a lot closer to fully healthy than most players making a mid-season debut. He is DH only and will likely be limited to starting vs. RHP for the time being, but the Red Sox have talked about trying Yoshida out at first base, which would both make him more viable as a Fantasy option and give him a path to more playing time. I don't think Yoshida needs to be on radars in most 12-team points leagues, but deeper Roto leagues could look his way for some cheap batting average help and RBI upside. | | Ha-seong Kim, SS, Rays (22%) – Even at his best, Kim is a fringe-y enough hitter that it was fair to question how valuable he'd be after having offseason shoulder surgery. Well, he hit a ball 107 mph Wednesday against the Tigers , his third batted ball of at least 100 mph in just three games since coming off the IL, which seems like a pretty good sign that his shoulder is feeling okay. I don't say that to make the claim that Kim is suddenly going to be a big bopper the rest of the way, just to say that he looks fine. He looks like himself, more or less. And Kim has been a pretty valuable Fantasy player the past couple of seasons thanks to his ability to hold his head above water as a hitter while stealing plenty of bases. Could he hit .250 with a 10-homer, 30-steal pace the rest of the way? Yeah, that feels reasonable enough, making him a solid middle infielder in any Roto league. | | | | Wednesday's standouts | | Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers @MIL: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K – This isn't an overpowering line, but the important thing is Glasnow made his return from the IL and looked like himself. He threw 85 pitches, and his velocity was actually up from earlier in the season, likely a result of the adrenaline of pitching in the majors again, but also a promising sign for the health of his arm. As always, predicting Glasnow will stay healthy is a fool's errand, but he should be a must-start pitcher as long as he's on the mound, and he's on the mound right now. That's the best you can hope for. | | Mackenzie Gore, Nationals @STL: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K – Gore's whiff rate has been down a bit in the past couple of starts, but seeing as he has four different pitches with a whiff rate of at least 40%, I'm not sure that's actually something to be at all worried about. Gore's command wavers and his fastball gets hit hard, but the gains he has made this season against lefties have taken his game to the next level, and I'm not sure he shouldn't just be a top-12 SP in all formats at this point. | | Kris Bubic, Royals vs. PIT: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K – Bubic is now already up to 26.2 more innings than he threw in the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined. If he makes 14 more starts while averaging six innings per start, he's going to add another 80 or so innings to his total, pushing him another 40 innings past his previous career high. He's slowing down a bit lately, and the Royals' playoff chances are rapidly slipping away – FanGraphs.com gives them a 13.8% chance right now – and I do think we have to ask whether Bubic is likely to be, if not shut down, limited at some point in the second half. And if he isn't, can he continue to pitch like a difference maker? As good as he is, it feels like asking a lot. I do think you should be trying to move Bubic right now for another top-20-ish starting pitcher with fewer questions about how the rest of the season is going to go. | | Jesus Luzardo, Phillies @SF: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K – Luzardo has been alarmingly inconsistent lately, but when he's good, he's still really good. Since he gave up 20 runs in consecutive starts on May 31 and June 5, he has put up a 3.41 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 31.2 innings of work despite a couple of blowups sprinkled in there, and that's right in line with his 3.65 xERA for the season. I think that's a reasonable expectation for Luzardo moving forward, so there might actually be a buy-low opportunity here – could a Bubic-for-Luzardo-plus-another-piece offer be worth pursuing? I think so. | | Andrew Abbott , Reds vs. MIA: 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K – Abbott relies so much on generating weak contact to be a good pitcher, which is always a risky profile to bet on – especially in one of the best offensive parks in baseball. He doesn't seem to be showing many signs of slowing down from a run prevention standout, but he is down to 30 strikeouts in 43.2 innings since the start of June, which puts even more pressure on his outlier quality of contact skills to play up. I'm not expecting Abbott to suddenly stop being useful for Fantasy in the second half, but I do think you could probably add 1.5 runs to his current 2.07 ERA the rest of the way, and it wouldn't look out of place. Whether you consider that a "sell-high candidate" depends on how much someone is willing to pay for Abbott, but he's a top-40 SP for me the rest of the way. | | Lucas Giolito , Red Sox vs. COL: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K – That's now six quality starts in a row for Giolito. He's taken advantage of some easy matchups, but plenty of pitchers have good matchups and don't put together runs like this. And, at least Wednesday, he showed some answers to the biggest question I've had about his apparent breakout, as he generated 17 swinging strikes in this one, a season-high mark. And he generated those whiffs with the whole arsenal, something we needed to see from a pitcher who didn't have a single offering with a whiff rate over 26% even during his strong recent run. I'm still not sure I buy that Giolito is back to being a must-start pitcher, but I do think it's fine to play the hot hand moving forward. | | Brandon Walter, Astros vs. CLE: 6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K – If Walter could miss bats like he did Wednesday consistently, there would suddenly be a lot to like about him. He's throwing tons of strikes and limiting hard contact, and there are actually pieces here to miss bats – his four-seamer and changeup have played incredibly well off each other, and both have a 30%-plus whiff rate even before he had 16 total whiffs Wednesday. On the other hand, the Guardians haven't really been able to hit anyone – except Hunter Brown a few nights ago, weirdly – so take it with a grain of salt. Walter's 3.19 expected ERA is solid enough that I do think he might be emerging as more than just a streaming option. | | Sandy Alcantara, Marlins @CIN: 5 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – I'm very confident Alcantara will be a must-start pitcher in Fantasy again. But after a stretch where he really looked like he was starting to find himself in June, he's been tagged for 18 runs in his past three starts, which makes me increasingly uncertain if Alcantara is ever going to get back to that level this season . The command has been significantly better of late, with just eight walks over the past seven starts, but he still isn't consistently missing bats or generating weak contact consistently. Is the upside high enough that you need to hold Alcantara through this tough stretch? At this point, I'm not convinced it is. | | Brandon Pfaadt, Diamondbacks @SD: 8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K – Pfaadt keeps trying to find an answer. He's been working a cutter into his arsenal more often lately, and he led with his sinker and cutter in this one, throwing them a combined 50% of the time. We've never really seen that kind of approach from Pfaadt, but given the results here, should we be paying closer attention here? I don't really see it. He didn't get a whiff with either pitch in this one, which wouldn't be such a big deal if he was getting a bunch of called strikes and/or limiting hard contact, but he didn't do either – he had just a combined 24% CSW rate on the two pitches, while allowing a 92.5 mph average exit velocity on 12 balls in play. Pfaadt garnered just seven whiffs on the day and allowed seven batted balls of at least 100 mph and 10 of 95-plus, so I think he was extremely lucky to get away with this line. I'm not looking to add him. | | Adrian Houser, White Sox vs. TOR: 7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K – The 1.56 ERA isn't sustainable at all. But is Houser actually a viable Fantasy option right now? His strikeout rate is too low for Houser to be much more than a low-end option, but the rest of the profile looks pretty good, with Houser sporting a 3.50 expected ERA that is his best since 2019. It probably isn't sustainable, but I'm much more open to the idea of Houser being useful in the second half, especially if the White Sox trade him, than I ever thought I would be. | | Slade Cecconi , Guardians @HOU: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K – We need to see a lot more starts like this from Cecconi before I really consider him anything more than a low-end streamer for Fantasy. Cecconi actually has some interesting secondary pitches, with both his slider and curveball especially looking like real weapons. But his fastballs, both the sinker and four-seamer, have a tendency to get absolutely crushed, and even in this one, the four-seamer had a 92.5 mph average exit velocity against. There's talent here, but the 3.44 ERA is belied by the 5.21 xERA, and until he shows real signs of fixing his fastball problem, I don't think Cecconi is worth chasing here. | | News and notes | | Ronald Acuña Jr. was back in the lineup after missing Tuesday with lower-back tightness, and he homered twice. Looks like the back is feeling fine. | | Hunter Greene is headed to the team's spring training facility in Arizona to continue his rehab, though Terry Francona said "there's no roadmap" for the next step in the pitcher's progression. I'd guess we're still weeks away from seeing him back in the majors. | | Byron Buxton was removed Wednesday after getting hit on the left hand by a pitch. Hopefully it's nothing serious, because it would be awfully cruel to have Buxton's incredible season derailed by the fluke of a hit by pitch. | | Alex Bregman has a good chance of being activated from the IL before the All-Star break. | | Brandon Lowe has missed three straight with a left side injury. | | Jacob Wilson was out of the lineup after getting hit by a pitch in his left hand Tuesday. | | Adley Rutschman hit off a tee Wednesday. He's not swinging at full effort yet, but continues to progress on his way back from a strained left oblique. | | Zach Eflin could make a rehab start Sunday. He's on the IL with lower-back discomfort. | | Sean Manaea struck out five and allowed 3 ER over 3.2 innings in his rehab start at Triple-A on Tuesday. He built up to 73 pitches and looks poised to return this weekend. It's worth watching Manaea's first start this season to see if he can recapture last year's magic, but seeing his velocity down 1.7 mph in this start, my expectations aren't super high. | | Emmet Sheehan will be the bulk reliever behind Shohei Ohtani on Saturday. He should be good for five or so innings if he pitches well enough to last. | | Tommy Edman returned to the Dodgers lineup Wednesday. They're hoping Teoscar Hernandez will be back Friday. | | Nolan Arenado returned to the lineup after missing three straight with a right shoulder impingement. | | Thairo Estrada has missed two straight with a jammed left thumb he suffered on Monday. | | Luke Keaschall took batting practice and faced live pitching Tuesday. He'll likely need a lengthy rehab coming back from a fractured right forearm, but was looking like a potential must-roster player before the injury and is worth a stash if you have the IL space. | | The Yankees DFA'd DJ LeMahieu and recalled Jorbit Vivas. They need to find a real answer at third base at the deadline now that Jazz Chishoml is back to his home at second. | | The Athletics reinstated Miguel Andujar from the IL and sent Colby Thomas back to Triple-A. | | | | | | | | PGA Tour | | BIG3 | Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are back at the Genesis Scottish Open. Watch the third and final round this Saturday and Sunday at 12 ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
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| | Ice Cube's 3-on-3 tournament is back this Sunday at 3 ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+!
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