Wednesday, April 08

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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.

Imagine playing the most games for a team that’s been around for more than a century. A team that’s literally as old as the American League.

Well, as of this week, José Ramírez doesn’t have to imagine. Because he is now the Guardians franchise leader in games playedafter breaking a 108-year-old record.

Ramírez, who played his 1,620th game for Cleveland on Monday, is the only active player who is also his team’s all-time leader in games played. But does anyone else have a chance to do it?

As it turns out: Yes! 

We broke down the most likely candidates to set their franchise’s record for games playedin the future. Keep an eye on these four names in particular. 

Next up: Ketel Marte, D-backs 

The D-backs are the youngest MLB team (their first season was 1998, along with the Rays), and the three-time All-Star Marte, who’s playing in his 1,066th game for Arizona today, could pass D-backs leader Luis Gonzalez (1,194) as soon as this season. 

Likely: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays 

Vlad Jr. is on track to cross the 1,000-game threshold with the Blue Jays this season, and in a few years, the five-time All-Star slugger could be passing Tony Fernandez (1,450 games) for Toronto’s franchise mark.  

On course: Mike Trout, Angels 

Trout has been an Angel for all 16 seasons of his career, and has actually played more games in Anaheim (No. 1,660 comes today) than Ramírez has in Cleveland. The three-time MVP will still need 354 more to pass Garret Anderson (2,013) for the franchise record.

Down the road: Juan Soto, Mets  

If Soto plays out his entire 15-year contract with New York, he’d be in line to pass 1969 Miracle Mets star Ed Kranepool’s franchise record of 1,853 games played. Soto of course has only played one full season for the Mets so far, but he’s only 27 years old and in the prime of what should be a very long career.

Want to see what other players are on the list? Read our full story. 

 

ANOTHER PHENOM GETS A MEGADEAL

This morning, Konnor Griffin and the Pirates agreed on a record nine-year extension, which is reported to be for $140 million.

Griffin, who’s been in the Major Leagues for less than a week, is the latest young phenom to sign a very early contract extension. There’s been a flurry of deals like that early in the 2026 season.

Just to recap the star prospects who have signed long-term contracts recently:

Konnor Griffin, SS, Pirates (5 days of MLB service time)

Griffin’s new contract would keep the 19-year-old shortstop, who’s ranked the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, a Pirate through the 2034 season. 

Colt Emerson, SS, Mariners (Zero days of service time) 

The 20-year-old Emerson is MLB Pipeline’s No. 7 overall prospect and has yet to make his MLB debut. But that didn’t stop him from inking a record-setting eight-year, $95 million deal last Tuesday that’s the biggest for any player before he reaches the Majors. 

Cooper Pratt, SS, Brewers (Zero days of service time) 

The last player in our shortstop trio is the 21-year-old Pratt, who locked in an eight-year, $50.75 million extension the day before Emerson. MLB Pipeline’s No. 60 overall prospect followed in the footsteps of fellow Brewers phenom Jackson Chourio.

What other players are on the list of the earliest contract extensions in MLB history? We have you covered right here.  

A 10-RUN INNING … ON 1 HIT???

We always thought that if you want to score runs, you have to get hits. 

How silly of us. 

You have to see what happened in this Minor League game yesterday. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (that’s the Blue Jays’ Double-A team) scored 10 runs in one inning against the Portland Sea Dogs (the Double-A affiliate of the Red Sox) … while getting exactly one hit. 

It actually gets crazier. The Fisher Cats scored their first eight runs of the inning before they recorded a single hit. 

How in the world does that happen? Here’s how. 

This is what the play-by-play of a 10-run, one-hit inning looks like: 

• Walk
• Walk
• Wild pitch
• Strikeout
• Sac fly (1st run)
• Walk
• Walk
• Walk (2nd run) 
• Pitching change 
• Hit-by-pitch (3rd run)
• Wild pitch (4th run)
• Walk
• Hit-by-pitch (5th run)
• Wild pitch (6th run)
• Walk
• Walk (7th run)
• Pitching change
• Wild pitch (8th run)
• Single! (9th and 10th runs … and the 1st and only hit)
• Strikeout

You might never see anything like that again.  

A FORMER TOP PROSPECT BREAKING OUT

Is this the Jordan Walker breakout we’ve been waiting for? We have reasons to believe. 

The 23-year-old Cardinals slugger has had an up-and-down first few years in the big leagues, but Walker has now homered three times in the last four games and is hitting the cover off the ball. 

So let’s take a look at what Walker is doing right now. Here are some of Walker’s under-the-hood numbers for 2026 compared to 2025. 

First: There’s a lot more red. Red is good. 

But pay extra attention to the three highlighted metrics: Walker’s chase rate, squared-up rate and launch angle sweet spot rate. 

Walker has always had elite bat speed, and he’s always hit the ball hard when he’s connected. But this year, he’s swinging at better pitches, which is letting him take advantage of that bat speed. 

Walker’s chase rate on pitches out of the strike zone has dropped from 34% in 2025 to 26% in 2026. Meanwhile, his swing rate against pitches in the strike zone has increased from 67% to 73%. That’s a good combo. 

It’s why he’s squaring up more baseballs. Walker’s “squared-up rate” shows how often his swings make contact on the barrel of the bat. He was one of the worst hitters in the Majors at doing that last season. This year, he’s in the top third of the league.

The other thing he’s doing is hitting the ball in the launch angle sweet spot — in other words, hitting the line drives and fly balls where he’s most likely to do damage. Driving the ball in the air is good, and Walker has gone from one of the worst hitters in the league at it in 2025 to one of the best early on in 2026. 

If he keeps this up, there’s a big year incoming. 

THEY’RE THROWING WIFFLE BALLS AT CITI FIELD

When the wind starts swirling in a big league stadium, it can do more than just knock down a home run or wreak havoc for an outfielder. It can also do crazy things with the pitches being thrown. 

That’s what happened at Citi Field yesterday. In a windy game between the Mets and D-backs, pitches were moving WAY more than they normally would.  

The ones in the GIF above are the two craziest: A sinker from Huascar Brazobán that had 29 inches of horizontal break, and a sweeper by Brooks Raley that had 35 inches of horizontal break. 

Reminder: Home plate is 17 inches wide. Raley’s sweeper broke more than twice the full width of the plate. It broke nearly three feet! That truly is Wiffle ball movement. 

DAILY WALKOFF

Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >> 

 

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