Pete Crow-Armstrong doubled off Brooks Raley in the 10th to complete a 4-3 win Thursday night and a four-game sweep at Citi Field. The Cubs are now 7-0 against the Mets in 2026, outscoring them 51-24 across those seven games. PCA extended his on-base streak to 27 consecutive games. The Mets have lost six straight and sit 13 games under .500 at their lowest point since 2023.
With Ben Brown (neck strain), Edward Cabrera (hamstring/adductor), Jameson Taillon (hamstring), Cade Horton (UCL surgery), and Justin Steele (elbow) all sidelined, Chicago acquired LHP David Peterson from the Mets for 1B/DH Cole Mathis. Peterson is 3-6 with a 6.09 ERA in 16 games this season but is a ground-ball heavy lefty who will pitch behind the Cubs' top-tier infield defense (2nd in MLB in DRS).
Soto missed Thursday's series finale and is being evaluated this morning. Manager Carlos Mendoza described his back as having 'locked up' mid-game Wednesday, and said an IL stint hasn't been ruled out. The same lower-back area flared in May. Entering the week, Soto was batting .299 with 17 HR and a .965 OPS — the highest OPS in the NL.
Minnesota Twins RHP Mick Abel will have arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow after a second recovery setback from elbow inflammation. An MRI found no UCL or flexor tendon damage, but Dr. Keith Meister recommended the procedure to address recurring discomfort. No return timetable has been set; with three months of season remaining, his 2026 return looks extremely unlikely.
Who's Hot This Week
The Giants named Kilian their closer two weeks ago and he's held the role, converting five saves with a 2.97 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and a 39:16 K:BB ratio across 33.1 innings. Yes, the Giants are bad — but bad teams play tons of close, low-scoring West Coast games that generate save situations. At 28% owned, you're getting a legit closer at a serious discount. Rostering a pitcher on track for 25+ saves for free is exactly how you build a saves lead.
Worth Reading
The best single read on three under-the-radar adds this week. The Kilian section is especially useful — it walks through the Giants' closer pecking order and projects save volume better than anything else published this week. Manaea's velocity recovery angle is also worth the read for deep-league SP streamers.
Pitcher List's weekly waiver column covers both hitters and pitchers with ownership context and format-specific add thresholds. Still the best reference for the Bazzana and Antonacci situations — the format breakdown (10-team vs. 14-team) is what makes it worth bookmarking.
A Statcast-driven deep dive on five hitters whose underlying metrics have quietly improved in June. The Bazzana and Antonacci sections make the clearest case that these aren't BABIP-driven hot streaks — the exit velocity and hard-hit data support sustained production.
Lower-back tightness forced him out of Wednesday's doubleheader in the fourth inning and kept him out of Thursday's series finale. The Mets have not cleared him for today. Manager Carlos Mendoza said an IL stint isn't ruled out — the same back area flared in May. He was batting .299/.390/.575 with 17 HR before the injury.
Arthroscopic right elbow surgery announced June 24 following a second recovery setback from elbow inflammation. No UCL or flexor tendon damage was found, but a return timetable won't be known until after surgery. With three months of regular season remaining, his 2026 return is extremely unlikely.
Grade 1 left hamstring strain — his second IL stint of the season at the same location. Manager Walt Weiss described him as 'a long way' from returning and said the Braves are being significantly more cautious this time. All-Star break return is unlikely; August is the realistic target.
Hamate fracture surgery performed June 16. Recovery timeline is 5-7 weeks, projecting him out through at least the All-Star break. Travis Bazzana has stepped in as the everyday second baseman in his absence and is producing at an elite clip.
Jacob Misiorowski is pitching the best baseball of any starter in the sport and the numbers are not remotely ambiguous: a 1.50 ERA and 0.81 WHIP across 14 starts, a 14.0 K/9 that leads all of MLB, and a 99.7 mph average fastball that is essentially 100 mph sustained across a starting rotation's workload. His 2.21 xFIP and 2.23 xERA confirm the performance isn't luck-driven. These are the profiles of a legitimate ace at age 24 in his second major league season.
The engine of the dominance is a fastball-slider combination that has become legitimately difficult to solve at the major league level. The four-seamer generates elite spin and carry, suppressing hard contact and manufacturing elevated whiff rates against every batter type. The slider has become a true secondary weapon — its break mirrors the fastball's trajectory long enough to generate swings below the zone at a 40%+ clip. What makes this sustainable is that the underlying contact quality — xwOBA, barrel rate, hard-hit percentage — all support the ERA. This isn't hot BABIP; batters genuinely aren't squaring him up.
The one real vulnerability is command. Misiorowski is walking 10.8% of batters, the highest rate among any SP-1 caliber arm in the league. His mechanics are fine — he has not allowed a run in his last 16 innings — but deep counts create high-leverage walk risks, and against a patient lineup or in a playoff series, the walk rate becomes exploitable. He's managed it all season through pure stuff overwhelming contact. If the velocity ever dips or his release point drifts, the walks could balloon quickly.
The Cubs' ninth-inning committee keeps rolling without Palencia — Webb got Thursday's save opportunity but Thielbar and Maton remain fully in the mix with no clear hierarchy emerging. Oakland's Elvis Alvarado is making a serious push to pull away from Hogan Harris in a situation that's been closer to a true split than it looks from the outside. Minnesota's five-man free-for-all with Rogers and Gomez as front-runners hasn't clarified, and Detroit's Anderson-Finnegan split remains coin-flip close.
Read the full Ledger →| Closer | Team | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Webb | CHC | 🔴 Committee | Daniel Palencia (flexor strain, placed IL June 16) is out a minimum of three weeks. Webb handled Thursday's save but Caleb Thielbar and Phil Maton are fully in the mix. Every Cubs save opportunity is essentially a lottery draw. Low-floor speculation only — don't roster more than one of them. |
| Elvis Alvarado | OAK | 🟡 Watch | Scoreless in five of his last six appearances with an elite K rate, and his workload share is trending toward locked-in. Hogan Harris is still on the roster but Alvarado is clearly separating. Best upside play among all unstable closer situations — add now before the official designation arrives. |
| Caleb Kilian | SF | 🟡 Watch | Named the Giants' closer two weeks ago, five saves collected, 2.97 ERA. The team is bad, but West Coast low-scoring games create real save opportunities. New enough in the role that the situation is still 'watch' — but he's held it cleanly so far. Worth rostering in 12-team formats. |
| Ryan Helsley | BAL | 🟡 Watch | Reinstated from IL (right elbow inflammation) on June 16 and immediately reclaimed the closer role. Has converted 7 of 8 saves this season but is pitching through a recently inflamed elbow. The performance has been good since his return — but monitor his usage after back-to-back appearances. One rough outing could re-open the situation. |
| Taylor Rogers | MIN | 🔴 Committee | Shares Minnesota's save situations with Yoendrys Gomez and at least three other candidates in a full bullpen-by-committee that has showed no sign of resolving. Not worth a roster spot in standard formats. Check Closer Monkey daily if you're in a very deep league where any save opportunity has value. |
Mookie Betts crushes his 300th career home run — a 3-2 fastball sent to deep left-center to put the Dodgers on top against the Twins.
Dansby Swanson hits two home runs including a grand slam to drive in seven in Cubs-Mets Game 1 of the doubleheader.
Pete Crow-Armstrong crushes a three-run home run for his 10th home run of June — the most by a Cubs centerfielder in any calendar month in franchise history.
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