Grayson Rodriguez struggles again vs. Tigers

He’ll serve as the 27th man and start Game 1 in Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Mets. By using him as the 27th man, the Braves won’t need to wait 15 days to recall him from the minors. That likely means that he will head back to Triple-A after this start so that the Braves can keep another reliever. We would then fully expect Smith-Shawver to come back up and join the rotation full time for his next start.

Schwarber continues to deal with a gastrointestinal issue that has now kept him out of the lineup for two games. The Phillies could really use his bat in the lineup right now. Trea Turner will DH on Wednesday with Edmundo Sosa playing shortstop and batting ninth.

It’s great to see the power from Caissie, but we know he possesses that in spades. Seeing him come back from his injury and command the strike zone the way he did is really nice to see. He was used as the DH in this game, so we’ll likely need to see him play the outfield at least once before he could be an option to be activated from the injured list.

Bassitt struck out three and walked one while throwing 28 of his 46 pitches for strikes. The only hit he allowed was a solo home run to the Red Sox’s top prospect, Franklin Arias. The 37-year-old likely needs at least two more rehab starts, but you have to wonder if the Orioles would also try to move him at the deadline to a team that wants rotation depth.

Rodríguez now has 25 home runs on the season to go along with a .272 average, 63 RBI, and an .876 OPS. He’s an aggressive hitter, but he’s swinging outside of the zone less than he did last year and has reduced his swinging strike rate to a league-average mark. He also continues to make league-average contact while driving the ball over the fence. We should note that his 42 percent hard-hit rate and 89.2 mph average exit velocity don’t suggest tons of power, but he makes the most of his contact with his approach, and playing his home games in Great American Ballpark will help. We’d imagine he’s up after the August 14th cutoff to retain his rookie eligibility for 2027.

Mauricio has five home runs in his last six games in Triple-A and has 12 home runs and a .979 OPS on the season. It’s unclear which players the Mets will be trading away at the deadline, but it makes sense for them to use the final two months of the season to see if Mauricio can be a regular part of their 2027 roster. That, or use him as part of a trade to land a starting pitcher.

Donovan had just one extra-base hit in nine rehab games before this, so the home run is nice to see. It’s also interesting to note that he played the whole game in right field on Tuesday. With Cole Young, J.P. Crawford, and Colt Emerson playing every day in the field, you have to wonder if Seattle would bring Donovan back to play mostly outfield and cut into playing time for Dominic Canzone and/or Luke Raley. It’s a situation to monitor.

Salas was one of the top overall prospects in baseball a couple of years ago, but he had a rough last few seasons in the minors. Still, he remains just 20 years old, and his previous rankings were probably aggressive. This season, in 71 games at Double-A, Salas hit .285/.359/.418 with seven home runs, 37 RBI, and 14 steals. He had just a six percent swinging strike rate and a tremendous 87 percent contact rate overall. Now we’ll see if he can do that one step away from the big leagues.

Ohtani left a game on July 3 because of biceps discomfort, but it was a hitting issue and not supposed to be pitching-related. If the Dodgers are now concerned about it in terms of his pitching, then any sort of quick return to the mound seems highly unlikely. All signs point to him remaining in the lineup as a designated hitter, however.

Canzone took Justin Wrobleski deep for a solo homer in the sixth inning to tie the game. With the game still tied in the eighth, he went deep once again, blasting a two-run shot off Alex Vesia to put the Mariners ahead. Both home runs came off a left-handed pitcher. The 28-year-old outfielder is up to 18 homers and 49 RBI while hitting .263/.333/.530 across 297 plate appearances.