Elieser Hernández elects free agency on Friday

The 28-year-old hurler has blossomed into the Nationals’ ace this season, going 12-5 with a 3.12 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and a 194/48 K/BB ratio across 164 2/3 innings. Cavalli is currently in the first of four arbitration years as a Super Two player, so it seems likely that the extension would cover all arbitration years and the first year or two of free agency as well.

With Kyle Finnegan (groin) landing on the injured list on Thursday, Madden will get another chance to prove his worth at the MLB level over the final 10 games of the regular season. He holds a 3.46 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP over 39 innings with the Tigers this season.

That will end the veteran right-hander’s season. Finnegan has been an unmitigated disaster for the past two months, posting a 10.20 ERA and a 2.40 WHIP over 15 innings in 19 appearances dating back to July 25. That’s certainly going to hurt him when exploring the free agent market over the winter.

Bogaerts got the homer and the triple in the second and the double in the fourth. That left him two chances needing only a single for the cycle, but he struck out in both of his remaining at-bats. Bogaerts’ homer was his 12th, giving him one more than he had each of the last two seasons. His triple, a gift from Zac Veen in right field, was his first since July 27. 2024.

The Rockies really made him work in the sixth — he threw 34 of his 104 pitches in that inning alone — but they managed to score just once in the frame after Troy Johnston swung at a couple of ball fours with the bases loaded and two outs. King has won four straight starts, allowing only five runs in the process. He struck out six and generated 11 whiffs today. If the Padres leave their rotation alone, King will next pitch Wednesday against the Dodgers. They could make some changes, though, depending on how tight the race is.

All of the runs came in the second, which started with a Xander Bogaerts homer and then just got worse from there. The 10 hits came from the Padres going 8-for-10 on non-hard-hit balls against him. Gordon dropped to 1-5 with a 6.01 ERA. He’ll likely face the D-backs next week.

Harris topped out at 91 mph in terms of exit velocity today, but he had a couple of well-placed liners to the outfield and a groundball single. Mostly replacing Luis Rengifo, he’s hit .370/.407/.481 with 11 RBI in 60 plate appearances since joining the Padres.

Grissom has been functioning as the Angels’ everyday first baseman and cleanup hitter in recent weeks, he’ll get a well-deserved day off in this one though. Moises Ballesteros will start in his place and will bat in the cleanup spot against Twins’ right-hander Taj Bradley on Thursday evening at Angel Stadium.

The defensive miscues came back-to-back in the Padres’ seven-run second inning. After a long run to his left, he had Jackson Merrill’s fly bounce off his glove for a triple. A minute later, he made an ill-fated dive after a Xander Bogaerts liner, turning a single into another triple. Veen went 5-for-15 with two homers and seven RBI in his first week with the Rockies last month. Since then, though, he’s 8-for-40 with no homers, five RBI and 21 strikeouts. He’s probably going to enter 2027 as an underdog to claim a spot in Colorado’s outfield.

When pressed to see how many at-bats he’s expected to receive before the postseason, Friedman just shrugged his shoulders. It sounds like the Dodgers want to get him a handful of at-bats next weekend, if possible, but their priority is to have him healthy and ready to go for the start of the postseason.