It's been a long time since we've seen ace upside from Shane Baz. Since opening the season with double-digit strikeouts in two of his first three starts, Baz had gone 12 straight starts with six or fewer strikeouts, posting a 5.80 ERA and 1.48 WHIP that surely had many Fantasy players considering whether it was even worth the trouble of rostering him.

So, how much should Thursday's start change that?

Baz dominated the Royals for eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and, notably, one walk, while striking out nine. The nine strikeouts are his most since an 11-strikeout effort on April 14, while the one walk comes after he walked four in each of his previous two starts.

That's notable because Baz introduced his new cutter three starts ago, and it was his most-used pitch in this one. Introducing a new pitch is always an interesting move for a struggling pitcher because it has the potential to reset the board for them. But, in Baz's case, that hadn't happened; it was looking like a pretty good pitch by whiff rate and quality of contact allowed, but when he was walking eight over two starts, it's hard to get too excited about it.

But Thursday was exciting. The cutter led the way for Baz, generating six swinging strikes on 18 swings, and his command was terrific; nearly every cutter he threw landed either up and in to lefties or away to righties. And he even generated a very strong 41% chase rate for the day, including a 52% mark with the cutter – something that has been an issue for him even when things were going well. 

The cutter has replaced the slider for Baz, and he seems to have a much better feel for the harder pitch already. He's aiming middle and letting the pitch's natural glove-side movement carry it to either the high or low corner, depending on whether he's looking for a chase or a called strike. It worked masterfully in this one, and it could be a game-changer for him.

Could. 

The command of that pitch was terrific Thursday, and the results were incredible, but again, he had eight walks in his previous two starts combined since starting to throw the pitch, and he allowed five runs in one of them. This was an impressive start – an emphatic one, even – but it's too soon to say it fundamentally changes how we should view Baz. There's a chance we look back at the introduction of this cutter as a turning point in his season, but at the very least, I think we can say this: If you were on the verge of dropping Baz, you can't do it now. 

Whether I'm ready to raise him back up in my rankings is a question I'll need at least another start to have a good answer for. But I do have five players I did raise in my rankings in my update Thursday, so before we get to the rest of the standout performances and news from Thursday's action around MLB, let's take a look at five names who moved up in my latest update:

If Corbin Carroll hadn't gotten hurt this week, I might have had a tough argument with myself about who to rank higher, but I think Acuna would have ended up here anyway. I think you can already make a case that he should be the No. 2 player in Fantasy the rest of the way, too. That would require jumping him ahead of Bobby Witt and Shohei Ohtani , of course, which is asking a lot. On the other hand, Acuna is hitting .369/.485/.658 through his first 31 games with nine homers, and the underlying numbers largely back it up – his .436 xwOBA is the second-best mark of his career and would rank just ahead of Ohtani for the season. And, while Ohtani hasn't even attempted a steal since May 23, Acuna has three in his past seven games after stealing just one in his first 24. Acuna is probably never going to get back to being a 70-steal guy like he was in 2023, but if he's back to being a 30-40 steal guy already, I don't really see a good argument against him being the No. 2 player in Fantasy at this point. We couldn't have asked for a better return from his second torn ACL. 

This isn't quite where Gilbert was before his elbow injury, and I'm not sure I could ever get there in-season for someone who dealt with an elbow sprain. There's just too much inherent risk there. But despite a slightly inflated ERA thanks to three homers allowed in his most recent start, Gilbert has more or less looked like himself since coming back, and there aren't many pitchers who look better than Gilbert at this point. His slider has been better than so far this season, but it's really the splitter that has become the main attraction for Gilbert, generating a truly absurd 51.1% whiff rate and .088 xwOBA allowed. It has become one of the best weapons in baseball, and my only concerns for Gilbert are health related. 

(For more on the development of Gilbert's splitter, check out this excellent piece from Mikey Ajeto at BaseballProspectus.com this week.)

This might be too low. You probably think it's too low. He has a 2.08 ERA and 1.03 WHIP on the season while averaging 6.5 innings per start for a good Phillies team, and even his xERA of 2.54 mostly backs it up. Suarez is pitching at an unbelievable level right now, and it's not like it's totally out of nowhere: He had an even better stretch last summer, where he posted a 1.64 ERA over 15 starts. The only thing holding me back is the fact that Suarez more or less immediately fell apart from that point on, posting a 6.54 ERA over his next 11 starts while missing some time with a back injury. When he's on and executing like this, Suarez has proven he can perform at a high level for stretches. He's just never proven he can sustain it for more than a month or two. SP26 gives him plenty of credit, while still baking in some room for the regression that has caught up with him every prior time. 

Yeah, this one's aggressive. But I really believe in the talent – Burns isn't quite on Paul Skenes' level as a prospect, but he's just about the next best thing. And he acquitted himself very well in his first MLB start, striking out eight Yankees in five innings, with the three runs allowed inflated by some iffy defense behind him. Burns' fastball and slider combo have strong Hunter Greene vibes, and his secondary pitches are probably already further along than Greene's have ever been. That's not to say he's already as good or better than Greene, but I do think Burns has that kind of upside. Dropping him at SP31 is a way to hedge my bets, because there's always risk with an unproven player, but I do think Burns has ace upside. As much as I like Jacob Misiorowski , Burns is only one spot behind him. 

We haven't talked much about Diaz, but at a moment when many of the early breakouts at 1B are flagging, he's starting to surge. And his underlying numbers suggest this may be the best version of him we've ever seen. His expected batting average of .308 and expected slugging percentage of .513 are the best of his career, and the fact that he's playing half his games in a much better home park than he used to be in should only help. He got off to a shaky start to the season, but is up to a .286/.339/.464 line for the season, and while his career-low walk rate makes him a worse real-life hitter, it actually helps his Fantasy appeal in Roto leagues – walks help you score runs, but they take away opportunities for the hits, homers, and RBI we really want. Diaz is on pace for 90 RBI and nearly 25 homers, which would be the best marks of his career. If that batting average does push closer to .300, which might just be the best version of Diaz yet. 

Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies @HOU: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 11 K – Sanchez continues to rack up career-best strikeout numbers, while there was a little bump in the road with the control in May and early June, he has settled in with three straight starts without a walk. At SP25, I'm still not sure I'm ranking him high enough at this point. 

Shota Imanaga, Cubs @STL: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – The results have been excellent, but the strikeouts still aren't there for Imanaga. He struck out 25.1% of opposing hitters last season, but that's down to 18.7% through nine starts. Missing more than a month and a half with a hamstring injury certainly didn't help, and with this being his very first start back, we can give him a grace period here. But it's a trend we'd like to see signs of him turning around.  

Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays @CLE: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – What makes Gausman especially frustrating at this point in his career is how he's still capable of starts like this, despite being pretty middling overall. Even after this start, he has an ugly 5.46 ERA in the month of June, and it really seems like it all comes down to control – he walked just one batter in May and was dominant, but has struggled in June while walking 12 in 20 innings prior to this start. At this point, I'm down hoping Gausman is "turning the corner" with every good start; I'm just accepting that he'll have his good starts and bad starts, and the end result will probably just be a mediocre starting Fantasy option. 

Tanner Bibee, Guardians vs. TOR: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K – In his first two seasons, Bibee threw his four-seamer nearly 45% of the time, but he seems to have mostly shelved that pitch. He threw it just 13% of the time Thursday, and he's clearly prioritizing his sinker ahead of it at this point. If the four-seamer isn't going to generate many whiffs (down to 13.5% on the season), then this change makes sense, at least against right-handed hitters, who will beat that thing into the ground repeatedly. Whiffs weren't an issue in this one anyway, as he racked up 17 of them, with at least two on each of his six pitches. Bibee looked lost early in the season, but he seems to have come out the other side with a deeper arsenal, and he now has 32 strikeouts to five walks in 31.2 innings in five June starts. Bibee hasn't made the ace leap and probably never will, but at least he's a solid starter now. It didn't look like he'd get there back in April. 

Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers @COL: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K – Even when he looks mostly washed up, Kershaw is still pretty good. Hall of Famers tend to age differently than the rest of the player pool, and Kershaw is showing he can still get the job done against all odds. Is he likely to sustain a 3.03 ERA moving forward? I'd take the over, but he's spamming his still excellent slider and getting by on command and veteran guile. I don't think the ceiling is particularly high here for Kershaw, but he's a fine option to start against the right matchups still. 

Hayden Birdsong, Giants vs. MIA: 4 IP, 4 H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 1 K – Birdsong was terrific when he pitched out of the bullpen for the Giants, but he just hasn't been able to carry that over to the rotation. The strikeouts had been there before this one, but he's now up to 14 walks in 33.1 innings over seven starts, which was his biggest issue as a starter last season. There's still some upside here, but not enough to make him a must-roster if he can't even survive against the Marlins at home. 

Dietrich Enns, Tigers vs. ATH: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – Who? Enns last pitched in the majors in 2021 with the Rays, and before that, it was four innings with the Twins back in 2017. He pitched in Japan in 2022 and 2023 and Korea in 2024 and wasn't particularly impressive against the low level of competition, so while this was a nice spot start for the Tigers – who just seem to be pressing all of the right buttons over the past 11 months or so – I don't think this is a name Fantasy players really need to know about. 

Griffin Canning left Thursday's start with an Achilles injury. We don't know any specifics beyond that, but it looked bad enough that I'd be surprised if we saw him on the mound again this year. The Mets pitching has really taken a hit lately, and with Sean Manaea still a ways off, seemingly, I'd expect them to call on someone from Triple-A in the coming days. Unfortunately, Brandon Sproat has been awful in Triple-A, so I don't think he'll be the one to get the call. And if he does, he'll have to show us something before we look to add him in most leagues. 

Bryce Harper could be activated Monday when the Phillies begin a homestand. He's been out with a right wrist injury.

Jose Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero were both hit in the right forearm by pitches Thursday, though thankfully, X-rays came back negative for both. Hopefully, that means they avoided serious injuries, but we'll hold our breath until we know for sure. 

Sean Manaea played catch Thursday, two days after getting a cortisone shot in his left elbow.

Mark Vientos will return to the Mets on Friday. With Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio both mostly struggling lately, there could be a path for Vientos to get his everyday job back. Of course, he needs to hit a lot better than he has so far this season for Fantasy players to get excited about that again, but at least it looks like he'll get the chance. 

Eugenio Suarez participated in light batting practice Wednesday. He was hit by a pitch on his hand Monday and is hoping to return this weekend. 

Apparently, Max Scherzer's right thumb felt better Thursday than it did following his final rehab start. That sounds like good news, so let's see if he can build on his iffy return with his next start.

Lars Nootbaar was out Wednesday and Thursday after receiving a pain-killing injection to address an intercostal injury.

Lance McCullers is an option to start Saturday against the Cubs. He's out with a right foot sprain but did some successful fielding practice on Thursday.

Royce Lewis will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A on Friday. He has struggled with both health and, for the first time, production this season, but I still think there's plenty of upside here if he's been dropped in your league. 

Shane Bieber threw a 20-pitch bullpen Tuesday. He's returning from Tommy John surgery and is apparently targeting a mid-July return. Bieber is 55% rostered and is an interesting stash candidate. 

Mariners catcher prospect Harry Ford is joining the team in Texas on Friday, just in case Mitch Garver has to go on the IL. Ford was hitting .311 with eight HR, 43 RBI, and three steals in the minors, but he'll likely have a fairly limited role behind Cal Raleigh even if he is promoted to the active roster, so he's not a recommended add yet. 

Kyle Harrison is working on revamping his repertoire at Triple-A. He made his debut with Worcester Thursday and introduced a new slider to go along with his slurve and changeup. He still threw his four-seamer 60% of the time and wasn't exactly dominant – he gave up four runs in four innings to a lineup whose most notable name is probably Bryan De La Cruz . Harrison is likely to join the Red Sox rotation sometime soon, but I can't say I'm super excited about the prospect just yet. He needs to prove himself first. 

Casey Schmitt had a CT scan on his left wrist come back negative. He was hit by a pitch on that left wrist on Wednesday.