Tuesday, July 21

View Online

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. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.

There is one big leaguer on a particularly fun quest this season. A quest only completed by 10 players in baseball’s Modern Era … and also by Will Ferrell and Bugs Bunny. 

Pirates utilityman Tyler Callihan wants to play all nine positions.  

Right now, it’s six down, three to go. And Callihan has already gotten one of the hardest ones out of the way! 

The 26-year-old has pitched for the Buccos twice this season in blowout losses. So even though he’s a position player, “pitcher” is crossed off the list. So are first base, second base, third base, left field and right field. 

That means, over Pittsburgh’s final 61 games, Callihan just has to play catcher, shortstop and center field. Of those three, catcher is the big one — it’s definitely the hardest to just jump in and play. But Callihan’s in a decent spot there. He’s the Pirates’ emergency catcher already, and he even used to catch Rangers flamethrower Jack Leiter while they were playing for the USA 18U National Team. 

Sixty-one games is plenty of time to check off those last three spots on the diamond. Heck, five MLB players have managed to play all nine positions in a single game — Andrew Romine for the Tigers on Sept. 30, 2017, Shane Halter also for the Tigers on Oct. 1, 2000, Scott Sheldon for the Rangers on Sept. 6, 2000, Cesar Tovar for the Twins on Sept. 22, 1968, and Bert Campaneris for the A’s on Sept. 8, 1965. 

Five more guys have done all nine within a season — Jake Elmore in 2013, Jose Oquendo in 1988, Jack Rothrock in 1928, Gene Paulette in 1918 and Jimmy Walsh in 1911. 

And in total, 23 players since 1900 have completed the trick in their Major League career … including Callihan’s own manager, Don Kelly. 

Yes, Kelly, the Pirates’ skipper, fielded all nine positions over the course of his nine seasons in the big leagues from 2007-16. He thought of playing every position as a “puzzle” that he finally solved. And now he’s encouraging Callihan to chase the dream. That might be the best part of this whole thing. 

Callihan has Kelly’s full blessing in his pursuit of ultimate positional versatility. So we know it can be done. And we love a good quirky baseball frivolity, so we hope Callihan does it.

Read the full story on Callihan’s quest to play all nine positions here >> 

 

GAMES OF THE NIGHT

Here are three games to watch tonight. For info on how to watch every game this season, go to MLB.com/Watch. 

Dodgers at Phillies (6:40 p.m. ET, TBS / MLB.TV) 

There were plenty of fireworks in the first game of this 2025 NLDS rematch, a 10-7 Phillies win. We’re set up for another great matchup tonight, as Dodgers All-Star Justin Wrobleski faces off against the Phillies’ second ace, Zack Wheeler — who was not an All-Star but is a Cy Young contender. Even though Wheeler’s season didn’t start until late April, he’s been at his very best ever since he returned to the mound.  

Orioles at Red Sox (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

The Red Sox have now won 14 games in a row. If they get No. 15 tonight, they’ll tie their longest winning streak in franchise history, a mark that was set in 1946. While Ranger Suarez’s return, originally scheduled for this game, will have to wait, special things are happening in Boston. The Sox hold the third AL Wild Card spot at 51-48. 

Reds at Mariners (9:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

The Mariners are back in first place in the AL West thanks to Cal Raleigh’s massive grand slam last night. But tonight, they’re running into Chase Burns, who’s making his first start of the second half, fresh off making his first career All-Star team and earning a $105 million contract extension. 

A FIELDING RECORD FOR PCA

We all know Pete Crow-Armstrong is one of the very best fielders in the entire world. Very likely the best. Here’s one more number that proves it. 

PCA just set a crazy Statcast fielding recordthat he might hold for a long, long time. 

Last night, Crow-Armstrong made his 33rd career 5-star catch. What’s a 5-star catch, you ask? Any play that has a catch probability of 25% or lower. On Statcast’s grading scale for outfield defense, it is the most difficult level of play. 

PCA now has the most 5-star catches of any MLB outfielder in the entire Statcast era. He just passed Kevin Kiermaier, who’s one of the best to ever do it.  

The crazy thing is, Crow-Armstrong is only in his fourth big league season. We’ve been tracking catch probabilities for a full decade. At 24 years old, the Cubs star already has the most out of anybody. More than Billy Hamilton or Jackie Bradley Jr. or Byron Buxton or whichever other elite defensive outfielder you want to put up against him. 

PCA makes the near-impossible look easy. He can truly track down any fly ball. On the record-setting 5-star grab, he covered 70 feet in just four seconds to steal a hit from Zach McKinstry. He had a catch probability of just 5%. 

MLB outfielders are incredible, and almost none of them make that catch. As the Cubs radio broadcast correctly proclaimed about PCA: “One of the only people on the planet who makes that play.”

Mike Petriello has a deep dive on PCA’s record-setting outfield defense here >> 

HE WROTE THE BOOK ON TJ RECOVERY

Tejay Antone could literally write the book on how to come back from Tommy John surgery. 

So he did. 

Antone is one of the only pitchers ever to successfully come back from three Tommy John surgeries. His experiences led the Reds reliever to write a book: “The Tommy John Protocol.”

It’s both a memoir and an instructional guide about recovering from the ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction procedure that has become the most famous surgery in all of sports.

Antone recently sat down with Reds beat reporter Mark Sheldon to talk about the book. Here’s a teaser of the Q&A:

MLB.com: How long did it take to complete from the genesis of your idea to the final draft being submitted?

Antone: I think probably 18-24 months, give or take. I started right around the middle of summer in 2024, and then just kept kind of chopping away at it. It’s been with the editor since around Spring Training. A lot of edits. I’m not a writer at heart. She had a lot of changes and just clarifying questions like, ‘Hey, can you add more detail here about how you’re feeling in this moment?’ Little areas of what the reader would want, especially the monologue or memoir part. It was interesting and a lot of fun.

It was a little bit therapeutic to go back through my career so far. One of the things I’m most excited about is my boys will get to read it some day and read and learn about my whole career.

MLB.com: What’s the one thing about the journey of Tommy John surgery — injury to recovery to returning — that you hope people get from the book? Everyone hears the words ‘Tommy John surgery’ and they have a certain perception of maybe what it means. You’ve lived it three times.

Antone: I hope it inspires people to take a trial in their life and to flip it on its head and figure out what they can get out of that trial versus what is the trial doing to me in the present moment, or woe is me and how bad is this situation? It’s OK I’m in this moment but what can I get out of this? What can I learn from this? It’s just changing perspectives of a trial or a down spot like an injury in your career and being able to learn from it and grow from it while being challenged from it and coming out a better human on the other side.

Read the full Q&A with Antone here >> 

TRADE RUMORS: ADLEY ON THE MARKET?

We’re bringing you all the latest trade rumors before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. Today we’re looking at the catcher market. 

Could Orioles star catcher Adley Rutschman be traded at the Deadline? It looks like a possibility. 

This year’s trade market is brimming with intrigue behind the plate. A bunch of contenders need catching help — a trio of AL East teams (Yankees, Rays, Red Sox) chief among them — and several top backstops are drawing interest.

And according to ESPN, the O’s aren’t in a rush to trade the 2019 No. 1 overall Draft pick but are “certainly listening.” ESPN notes that the O’s wouldn’t necessarily be trying to trade Rutschman for prospects. They could use him as trade bait to shore up their pitching staff with MLB-ready arms that are under team control beyond 2026.

Rutschman even appears to have a higher likelihood of being traded than fellow All-Star backstops like Shea Langeliers and Hunter Goodman, who have been frequently mentioned in trade rumors.

See the rest of today’s trade buzz here >> 

AUSL PLAYOFF BRACKET IS SET

It’s time for the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League postseason. Here’s who’s playing, and how to watch.

The Utah Talons, who finished with the league’s best record at 16-9, have already earned a spot in the best-of-three AUSL championship series.

They’ll face either the Chicago Bandits or the Portland Cascade, who are playing a winner-take-all play-in game on Thursday at 9 p.m. ETon ESPN.

The AUSL championship series starts Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on ABC.

Check out the full bracket and AUSL postseason schedule here >>  

 

© 2026 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.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (pahovis@aol.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com.

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe  or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.