| | | | Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | | For every player, there's a relatively wide range of possible outcomes that could come to fruition at any given time. The margins will be different for every player based on their talent level, of course, but even proven great players will have bad games – Tarik Skubal just gave up four runs on Tuesday, after all. | | But that's especially true for players making their MLB debut. No matter how hyped the prospect is, we don't truly know what their actual talent level is until they've been tested against big-leaguers. Some guys are ready to be difference makers right away and will show it from day one, and some guys are totally overmatched, and that can be clear just as quickly. | | So it's kind of funny that Chase Burns' debut saw him land right in the middle of what we should have expected from him. He struck out the side in his first inning and racked up eight strikeouts overall, showcasing the wicked stuff that made him the No. 2 overall pick in last year's draft and the top pitching prospect in baseball this season. And he gave up some loud contact to a very good lineup and finished with three earned runs allowed over his five innings of work. Yep, that all sounds about right. | | But the positives clearly outweighed the negatives here, even if Burns wasn't immediately and totally dominant. He sat at 98.1 mph with his four-seamer, which generated a solid six whiffs on 23 swings, and that probably wasn't just an adrenaline rush like we see in some debuts, because he averaged 97.8 in Triple-A. And his 70-grade slider looked like one, generating six whiffs on 15 swings and a 60% chase rate. | | | | It wasn't perfect, obviously. Burns gave up seven hard-hit balls – four over 100 mph, including a 108 mph shot to Ben Rice that went 427 feet. Even 70-grade sliders are going to get crushed by major-league hitters if you leave them belt-high on the inside half of the plate , as it turns out. Lesson learned, and Burns probably won't sit in the zone quite as often as this moving forward, though he does have the stuff to make it work. | | All told, Burns looked every bit like a potential future ace, if not necessarily one you can trust every single time out there right now. The talent is obvious, and I don't think it'll take long until he is someone you can trust every time out there. He should be rostered in absolutely every Fantasy league, and his best-case scenario probably looks a lot like his teammate Hunter Greene thanks to his high-velo heater and slider – and Burns might have an even deeper arsenal than Greene, as he threw 10 changeups and even flashed a curveball in this one. | | We saw a pretty middle-of-the-road outcome from Burns in his first start, but I'm willing to bet we're going to see much better from him moving forward. | | Here's what else you need to know about from Tuesday's action around MLB: | | | | Wednesday's top waiver-wire targets | | Christian Moore, 2B, Angels (28%) – It's been a tough first couple of weeks in the majors for Moore, but he finally showed some upside Tuesday, hitting a couple of clutch homers to lift the Angels over the Red Sox. He still struck out twice and is up to a 35% strikeout rate, so Moore has mostly looked overmatched so far. But he's also a top prospect with no playing time issues and clear skills, so if you've got a roster spot to play with, Moore is an interesting stash just in case this is the start of him figuring things out. | | Michael Toglia, 1B, Rockies (30%) – Never wrong; just early. Toglia was a big breakout pick of mine coming into the season, and I guess all it took was a demotion to Triple-A to make it look like a prescient call. I'm being mildly facetious here, but Toglia is now hitting .303/.343/.667 with six extra-base hits in eight games since returning from Triple-A after a 3-for-5 showing Tuesday against the Dodgers . The strikeout rate is still high and likely always will be, but at least Toglia is punishing the ball now like he did last season, when he put up a 30-plus homer pace from June 1 on. If you can stomach the batting average, Toglia is going to be a pretty useful contributor moving forward, I'd bet. | | Caleb Durbin, 3B, Brewers (19%) – Durbin had just four extra-base hits in his first 96 trips to the plate, and it looked like he was confirming concerns that he just didn't have enough bat speed or pop to hit major-league pitching. Well, he hit his fourth homer of the season Tuesday, and his third in 31 games since that earlier stretch. He is hitting .287 with an OPS close to .800 and five steals in that span, while increasing his average swing speed, as BrewerFanatic.com 's Matthew Trueblood noted earlier in the day. Durbin's spot in the lineup is holding him back a bit, but he's showing the kind of skills that got some excited about him this offseason. A name to look for in categories leagues. | | Ryne Nelson, SP, Diamondbacks (30%) – Nelson continues to pitch well, as he limited the White Sox to just one run over five innings Tuesday, which lowers his ERA to 2.62 since he joined the rotation on May 20. Tuesday's seven strikeouts were an outlier, as he has just 24 in 34.1 innings in that span, and his fastball-heavy approach makes chasing fastballs tough – he found them today by generating all nine of his whiffs with that fastball. I don't have a lot of faith in Nelson keeping this up, but Nelson did have a 3.23 ERA with 67 strikeouts and a 1.03 ERA in his final 64 innings after the All-Star break last season, so I can't write it off entirely. Especially with what looks like a two-start week coming next week. | | | | Tuesday's standouts | | Ranger Suarez, Phillies @HOU: 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K – Suarez just keeps rolling, and at this point, there just isn't much reason to be skeptical. He has a 2.08 ERA and 1.03 WHIP, and while his underlying stats suggest that isn't quite sustainable, that's also true for someone like Max Fried, who has a lot fewer skeptics around him these days. Fried has a longer track record, but Suarez has had must-start stretches in three of the past four seasons now and just seems like a really good pitcher when he's healthy. Expect more like a low-3.00s ERA, and you'll be thrilled to have Suarez around. | | Spencer Strider, Braves @NYM: 5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K – This was a disappointing showing for Strider after he had 21 strikeouts to just two walks in his previous three starts. But I'm not sure it was an especially worrisome outing. Strider's stuff looks like it is largely back, but the command may just come and go from time to time. The strikeouts and swing and misses were excellent here still, and even though there was some loud contact, he mostly avoided the worst-case scenario. I think this is what we should expect from Strider: Mostly excellent starts, with a few duds thrown in there when the command isn't quite as sharp. He's not the best pitcher in baseball anymore, but he's a solid top-24 guy at the very least. | | Kris Bubic, Royals vs. TB: 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K – We're seeing some shakier results from Bubic of late, mostly because he's just giving up more loud contact over his past three starts. In this one, it was a 93.2 mph average exit velocity, as everything but the four-seamer was getting hit hard. That continues to be an outlier pitch for him, with a whiff rate over 30% and excellent quality of contact suppression metrics. Because he sits in the low-90s with the pitch, I think it's reasonable to be at least somewhat skeptical that he can continue to pitch like an ace, and the fact that Bubic is already well past his innings totals from the previous two seasons combined does present a case for Bubic as a sell-high candidate. But it has to be high – a top-20 pitcher or a top-50 overall player. He won't sustain a 2.18 ERA the rest of the way, but I don't see much reason to think Bubic will be worse than a low-to-mid-3.00s ERA pitcher. So, again, emphasis on selling high. | | Luis Castillo, Mariners @MIN: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – I fear the sell-high window has already passed for Castillo, who has a 5.73 ERA over the past four starts. On the other hand, he still has a solid 3.69 ERA that isn't backed up by any of his underlying metrics, which all suggest he deserves something more like a low-to-mid-4.00s ERA. If you can sell Castillo for a solid top-40 SP, I'd be looking to make that move right now. | | Taj Bradley, Rays @KC: 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – Bradley has been a disaster lately, with a 12.54 ERA and 2.46 WHIP in 9.1 innings over his previous three starts. To his credit, his control was excellent in this one, and he generated a bunch of weak contact, which has generally been the biggest problems for him. That's nice, but it also came against a Royals team that ranks 27th in wOBA against right-handed pitching, so I'm not exactly excited about him again. Bradley is already 78% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues, and I don't really think that number needs to be higher after this one. | | Jacob Latz, Rangers @BAL: 6 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K – Latz is an older pitcher who has mostly pitched as a reliever over the past four seasons, so to say this came out of nowhere would be an understatement. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning! Is there anything here? Well, he has shown the ability to generate strong whiff rates on his four-seamer, changeup, and slider, and has actually increased his velocity since moving into the rotation for the Rangers, which is pretty interesting. I'm not sure he needs to be rostered in more than AL-only or deeper 15-team leagues – is he even going to remain in the rotation for long? But if he has another good start against the Orioles next week, we'll take another look. | | Frankie Montas, Mets vs. ATL: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K – Montas held his own in his first start of the season, something he didn't really do in the minors on his rehab assignment. His velocity was up 0.6 mph on his four-seamer and a full tick on the sinker, which is a good sign, but I'm not sure there's much else to be excited about from this one. He had nine whiffs on 27 four-seamers and zero on 53 other pitches, and his feel for his splitter was especially bad – he threw eight of them, all of which were balls. And he let up a bunch of hard contact. We'll keep an eye on Montas moving forward, because if he gets the splitter working and keeps generating whiffs with the four-seamer, that could be pretty interesting. For now, not so much. | | Eric Lauer, Blue Jays @CLE: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K – How weird is it that Lauer is finding so much success as a member of the Blue Jays rotation? Well, he pitched in Korea last season and had a 4.93 ERA, and then came back stateside and had a 5.26 ERA for two different teams' Triple-A affiliates. After this one, his ERA is down to 2.21 for the season. But it comes with a mediocre 3.84 FIP, and I just don't have a lot of faith in him really being a strikeout-per-inning guy as a starter. Lauer has a decent matchup against the Angels on the way next week, but he's still only a deep-league streamer in my eyes. | | News and notes | | Bryce Harper did his full pregame routine Tuesday, though the team remains vague on a timeline. They haven't ruled out a return this weekend, so let's cross our fingers. | | Yordan Alvarez hit off a tee Sunday and did so again on Tuesday, his first time swinging a bat since being diagnosed with that fracture in his hand. Let's see how he responds in the coming days to the increased activity. | | Zach Neto left Tuesday night's game with a right shoulder injury. He suffered the injury on an awkward slide and tried to play through, but had to leave after airmailing a throw to first base. This is concerning because Neto had surgery on that right shoulder in the offseason, so let's hope he didn't aggravate it. | | Eugenio Suarez was out Tuesday and is expected to undergo an MRI later this week. He's dealing with a ton of swelling after getting hit by a pitch on his right hand, and while initial X-rays showed no breaks, further testing could show something more. Hopefully not, but it might not be a bad idea to add Jordan Lawlar proactively just in case. | | Josh Naylor was originally in the lineup Tuesday but was later scratched with that tweak in his right shoulder. Something to keep an eye on here, too. | | Jordan Westburg has missed three straight with a sprained left index finger, but, the team still hopes he'll be back by Friday, at least. | | Bad news on Sean Manaea as he'll be shut down 2-3 days after getting a cortisone shot to combat a loose body in his left elbow. He has been working his way back from an oblique injury, and now he has to deal with this. The team is downplaying the injury for now, so hopefully they're right. Keep him stashed and hope we get good news this weekend. | | Keibert Ruiz went on the IL with a head contusion. He was hit by a foul ball in the dugout on Monday night. Riley Adams is set to take over in his place. | | Some good catcher news as Shea Langeliers will begin a minor-league rehab assignment at Triple-A on Wednesday. He's been out since June 6 with a left oblique strain. | | Speaking of rehab, Tyler O'Neill had his minor-league rehab assignment moved to Double-A on Tuesday. He is a name to stash in five-outfielder leagues if you need power. | | Dylan Crews is accompanying the Nationals on their West Coast trip, which runs through June 29. He's working his way back from an oblique injury and is currently running at 85-90%, but has yet to take full swings, so I don't really think his return is imminent yet. | | The Cubs optioned Ben Brown to Triple-A after his latest blow-up on Monday. That means Cade Horton should stick around even after Shota Imanaga returns this week. | | Max Meyer is scheduled to undergo season-ending labral repair surgery on his left hip Friday. The recovery timeline is roughly 6-8 months, so hopefully he's ready for next season. Meyer could be a late-round flier, but I think we'll need to see something from him in the spring before we say even that. | | Cody Bradford will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the UCL in his left elbow, which means we won't see him until next July at the earliest, in all likelihood. And potentially not until 2027 if he has Tommy John surgery. | | Giants first base prospect Bryce Eldridge will miss 3-4 weeks with a right hamstring strain. He was recently promoted to Triple-A and could have had a chance to be promoted in the second half, but now that feels like much more of a long shot. | | | | | | | | NBA Draft Coverage | | Canadian Football League | Get On the Clock coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft with CBS Sports HQ, your free, 24/7 sports streaming network. Watch live for pick-by-pick analysis, player comps and instant reactions all night long starting at 7 ET tonight!
Watch Live
| | Catch the Edmonton Elks vs. the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at 8:30 ET this Thursday on the CBS Sports Network.
Watch Free
|
| | | | |
|
|
