Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Thanks for being here.

A sea change is coming for the Erie SeaWolves. The Tigers’ Double-A affiliate will be the lucky recipient of a full, fun transformation courtesy of “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver, who made the announcement on Sunday’s show.

In case you are unaware of what the heck we’re talking about here, a quick recap: Oliver recently did a Minor League Baseball segment on his show in which he offered to rebrand a Minor League team out of the goodness of his heart, so long as his staff received full autonomy to do as they wished with no interference from the club. Nearly 50 teams reached out with submissions, and the SeaWolves of Erie, Pa., were ultimately selected.

The team was pretty upfront about its need for a refresh. The main reason? They are named the SeaWolves but play baseball on the southern shore of a lake.

“That’s a problem, Erie. We can help you fix that,” Oliver said on the show.

How he means to do that is, of course, a minor mystery, and the team president of the SeaWolves told our own Ben Hill that he is entirely in the dark. Speaking of Ben, there’s no better ambassador for the Minors and nobody better to tell us (and John Oliver) what great stuff there is to work with over in Erie. So I reached out to him for his take on why the SeaWolves are ready for this makeover.

First and foremost, they’ve been open to change before, embracing the chilly lake effect as the SnowWolves or spooking the competition with their Howl-O-Ween alternates.

“They are shape-shifters by nature,” Ben said. “The SeaWolves are veterans of the sartorial merry-go-round and will be able to handle whatever John Oliver throws at them.”

Take one of their extremely esoteric promo nights from back in 2021 as an example. The team celebrated the 25th anniversary of the movie “That Thing You Do,” about a band called The Wonders that hails from Erie, by playing a game as The Wonders and bringing members of the fictional group to the ballpark.

And what would a Minor League game be without the ballpark eats? The Smith’s sausage stand is a ballpark staple, and when a previous version of it first opened in 2008 as Smith’s Sausage Shack, it released a trippy marketing video to the tune of “Love Shack.” So go ahead, John Oliver; do your wurst.

— Scott Chiusano

• Braves @ Nationals (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Atlanta has put up an NL-best 19-10 record since April 18, which just happens to be the first game after Spencer Strider landed back on the IL with a hamstring injury. Well, Strider is due back tonight, giving the Braves even more firepower as they climb up the NL East standings.

• Tigers @ Cardinals (7:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, who has struck out 61 against just two walks in his last seven starts, faces a red-hot Redbirds squad (13-2 since May 4) that has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate in the game. Something’s gotta give.

• D-backs @ Dodgers (10:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): After Arizona clubbed three homers last night to send L.A. to a season-high fourth straight loss, the champs could really use a huge start from ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one of just two pitchers left from their injury-decimated Opening Day rotation.

I don’t know much about the collectible game (beyond recognizing my 50 Mike Harkey rookie cards were never a good investment strategy), but I do know that anytime there’s only one of something, it’s probably extra valuable.

And if his reaction to pulling a Topps one-of-one Jayden Daniels Superfractor autographed card is any indication, Justin Steele agrees. Pretty cool to see the rehabbing Cubs ace jumping up and down like a kid pulling … a Justin Steele rookie card.

But Steele is no amateur card hound, he’s an avid hobbyist who’s deep in the collector community, and he’s even got a TikTok (@SteelysSportsCards) devoted to his impressive stash.

– Ismail Soyugenc

We love a good milestone, and Kyle Schwarber just got one — the Phillies slugger hit his 300th career home run on Monday. But how many will he finish with? We reached out to Dan Szymborski, the creator of the ZiPS projection system over at FanGraphs, to look into Schwarber’s future.

First things first, Schwarber is projected to hit 28 more home runs this year, for a season total of 44. That would take him to 328 career homers entering his age-33 season, and he’d need 172 more for 500.

ZiPS puts Schwarber’s 50-50 projection for the rest of his career at 139 more homers from 2026 onward. His 90th percentile projection — meaning the high end of his possible career outcomes — is 245 more homers.

That means Schwarber is looking at 460-470 career home runs as his “average” career, and if he can exceed the projection — well within the realm of possibility for an elite slugger like he is — he has a shot at the 500-home run club. That’s a lot of Schwarbombs.

– David Adler

MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition is celebrating its return for a fifth season with the first of two special crossover episodes tonight, when former NBA star Jamal Crawford will join Dexter Fowler and Matt Vasgersian to offer fun, unscripted commentary and whiparound coverage of tonight’s games. The 2 1/2-hour “Crawsover Edition” is slated to include celebrity guests and live look-ins while “celebrating greatness and connecting fans through the universal language of competition,” says Crawford, a Seattle native and diehard Mariners fan. Catch it on MLB Network, MLB.TV or MLB.com at 7:30 p.m. ET.

This is your guide to new food and beverage options at ballparks around baseball in 2025, featuring one special offering you won’t want to miss. Happy eating! 

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that’s definitely true of the Boomstick Burrito, one of the new concession items at Globe Life Field this season. It’s a 26-inch flour tortilla stuffed with rice, beans, seasoned taco meat, Rico’s Nacho Cheese, pico de gallo, lettuce and sour cream. Check out all the other new offers at the Rangers’ home park here.

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Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and two-time MLB All-Star Marquis Grissom have been named managers for the 2025 All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta, and they’ll bring along some former Braves stars as coaches.

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is full of love for Minor League Baseball — so much so that it’s offered to give a team a rebrand. On Sunday’s show, Oliver picked the Erie SeaWolves for the project.

Cincinnati’s Will Benson and Chicago’s Miguel Vargas combined for 9 HRs and 19 RBIs en route to earning their first career Player of the Week nods.

Voting is now open for Konami League Leaders Pick ‘Em! Enter your prediction for which teams will hit the most home runs during games from May 23-25 and you could win a trip to the 2025 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard.

Join former MLB All-Star & World Series champ Dexter Fowler and former NBA All-Star Jamal Crawford alongside host Matt Vasgersian for a special edition of MLB Tonight, featuring guests including Ken Griffey Jr., live game look-ins and unscripted commentary at 7:30 p.m. ET on MLB Network.

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© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

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