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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 4/17/2025

Spencer Strider is back on the bump!

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 4/17/2025

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

It’s another night where I got to watch the Rockies late into the night. I think writing these articles really causes me to have an unhealthy attachment to this franchise, but also it means I gotta let everybody know about their reliever Angel Chivilli, who definitely has a Top 3 name in baseball right now. That’s pronounced ahn-HEHL she-vee-yee, and it’s just a very pleasing thing. He pitched 31.2 innings in 2024, but I somehow never caught one of them, yet I think I’ve seen almost every one of his appearances this year. We don’t have to get into the details about how those appearances have gone.

Don’t forget to watch every game with the Pitcher List community on Playback!

 

Today’s Headlines

 

Quaddy’s Home

Sorry, sorry, I’m trying to delete it.

Spencer Strider is back on the mound, folks! A year ago on Sunday, Strider underwent the internal brace surgery to repair the UCL in his throwing arm, which is the second arm surgery he’s needed after getting a traditional Tommy John back in 2019, while pitching at Clemson. Like the linked article notes, the recovery time for an internal brace procedure is considerably shorter than a full UCL reconstruction, hence his game action sooner than most of us would have maybe expected (I swore I saw May originally?!)

And if you were wondering if he skipped leg day even a single time over that 368-day break, well, he didn’t:

Time to fire up the quad box

— Sam Dykstra (@samdykstramilb.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T17:37:59.444Z

His line for the day wasn’t necessarily Vintage Strider, as he was stuck with the loss after going 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R (both earned), one walk, and 5 K. His velo was down a touch, less than 1 mph on the fastball and barely over 1 mph on the slider. Aside from that? It looks like the stuff is still there, though:

Strider ended the day with a 28 CSW%, although he had a 24% rate on his fastball and 41% on the slider. As you can see, a lot of those FBs were left a bit more over the middle of the plate than you’d want. I trust that he’ll iron that out.

They were a pretty consequential set of five strikeouts, though, including some history:

Strider threw 186.2 innings in 2023, and I assume Atlanta would like to manage his load this year coming off the surgery, but given it’s still mid-April, any inning limitations definitely won’t come from an overly long recovery timeframe. That breeze you felt was every fantasy manager who took him in the first half of their drafts exhaling. Atlanta fans aren’t feeling quite as nice, though, as the Blue Jays walked away with the 3-1 win.

Double Dumper 100

While we’re talking about big, strong bottom halves, I would be remiss to not immediately pivot to Cal Raleigh’s antics in Cinci last night:

Cal’s Platinum Dumper bobblehead giveaway was earlier this month, and he’s posting a negative run value on defense this season so far. However, he’s tied for second place in HRs with Aaron Judge. Both behind Tyler Soderstrom, like we all thought the case would be, right?

Big Dumper is also among some pretty impressive company in terms of his speed to 100 HRs:

Anyway, Cal’s pair of dingers helped carry the M’s to a 5-3 victory, which is also Bryce Miller’s first W of the season! Synergy!

Rockie Road To LA

The first inning of yesterday’s tilt between the Rockies and Dodgers looked exactly like how you’d think a Rockies and Dodgers game would go. The Rockies did get out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning thanks to a Nick Martini single and a Kyle Farmer double, but LA wasted no time in fixing that little issue:

And they weren’t particularly interested in keeping it close at 2-1:

After an infield single, a HBP, and a walk loaded the bases, Andy Pages comes through with the bases loaded.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T02:39:40.323Z

Austin Barnes (!!!) doubles home two more runs, then Shohei Ohtani hits the first pitch he sees for a single to score Barnes and make it a blowout early.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T02:42:32.637Z

Chad’s correct to be shocked at Austin Barnes coming through here, as it was his first hit of the season. It was the end of an ignoble appearance for Germán Márquez, who lasted only 0.2 innings:

#Rockies Germán Márquez is done in the first inning after surrendering seven runs to the Dodgers, five with two outs.It's tied for the shortest start of his 10 seasons in the Majors.

— Patrick D. Lyons (@patrickdlyons.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T02:42:57.193Z

However, declaring the game a blowout was a bit premature…

After an unremarkable second inning, Colorado roared to life against Bobby Miller, loading the bases with one out for everybody’s sleeper 1B pick, Michael Toglia:

 

And Colorado followed that shot up immediately with a solo shot from nobody’s sleeper OF pick, Mickey Moniak:

Miller would finish off the third inning and go no further, cementing last night’s game as one of the history books, although not on the pages that either pitcher would like:

The Dodgers would tack on another run in the fifth inning, again thanks to Andy Pages, and Colorado would threaten again in the seventh and score a run, but they would end the night with an 8-7 loss. LA will obviously take the win, but I imagine neither team will be in a hurry to remember this whole kerfuffle.

Quero Getting The Call

The White Sox aren’t putting together a much better season in 2025 than in 2024 so far, but they are calling up their No. 6 prospect (according to MLB Pipeline rankings), catcher Edgar Quero.

Quero was originally sent to Chicago as part of the Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López trade back in 2023, and he finished his first full year in the Sox system with a .280/.366/.463 line across Double-A and Triple-A in 2024, and has hit .333/.444/.412 in 15 Triple-A games so far in 2025. I don’t think I need to tell you that the team context for Quero isn’t great for fantasy purposes, but our own Eric Samulski has some more notes:

📞Edgar Quero is getting called up by CWS. Hit over power. Very patient/passive but has a good feel for the zone & makes a lot of contact. Is it Keibert Ruiz-ish? Gabriel Moreno? Has the potential for more power but adjustment to MLB is hard. Must add in two-catcher; fringe in one-catcher leagues

— Eric Samulski (@samskinyc.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T02:30:23.757Z

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Cruz Missile? Nah, Intercruztinental Ballistic Missile

The Pirates/Nats game yesterday was pretty uneventful through six innings, although a pitcher’s duel between Mitchell Parker and Bailey Falter (with Falter winning!) was unexpected, but then in the seventh inning, things got spicy:

Jorge López was ejected from the game immediately after buzzing one right by Andrew McCutchen’s head and was replaced by Eduardo Salazar, who ended up walking Cutch. And that left Oneil Cruz to put an exclamation point on the whole thing:

A Cruz missile, but make it a GRAND SLAM 💥

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@pirates.com) 2025-04-17T00:45:58.270Z

I love watching Cruz hit home runs. Every time he does it, the ball is in the stands before they can cut to the tracking camera. I guess you could say he was seeing red, eh? Get it? Because the Nats wear red? Yeah, you get it.

Holliday Out

And to round things out with yet another grand slam, we go to Baltimore, where Jackson Holliday hit one of his own, although without any attendant bench-clearing fights:

But listen, not every grand slam needs a violent backstory, sometimes it just needs the context that it was Bark At The Park night in Baltimore and that Jackson’s own pup was there:

This marks Holliday’s second career grand slam, but also makes him one of five different first overall picks to go yard on Wednesday night. Which apparently happens more than you would think!

Rake Baldwin

I’m definitely the first one to make that joke, right? I’m going to assume my superior wordplay lead me here before anybody else, let me have this.

I already gave you a quick recap of the score of the Braves/Blue Jays game up at the top, but that one run came off of the bat of rookie Drake Baldwin, who sent a shot over the left field wall in the top of the ninth:

Top Braves prospect Drake Baldwin picks up his first Major League home run.The backstop has been much better offensively than his numbers early on. For example, his xSLG entering today was .535. His actual SLG was .250. This was coming.

— Sam Dykstra (@samdykstramilb.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T19:52:07.459Z

Baldwin’s getting to see time as the DH while Sean Murphy steps back in as Atlanta’s catcher, but there’s always gonna be some brotherly love between the two backstops:

Sean Murphy hugs Drake Baldwin after his first MLB home run

— Baseball GIFs (@baseballgifs.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T19:56:15.826Z

Firstnando

The Yankees completed their three-game sweep of the Royals on Wednesday night with a 4-3 victory, and it wasn’t their newly acquired closer Devin Williams on the mound picking up the save, but newly acquired setup man(?) Fernando Cruz, marking his first career save. I’m mostly mentioning this because the photo the Yankees posted to commemorate the moment is a good one:

Also in the eighth inning, Cruz did this against Bobby Witt Jr:

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ The Twins picked up Jonah Bride, who was recently DFA’d by Miami. Miami is getting cash back in return…

⚾ …unfortunately part of the reason this deal happened is that Matt Wallner is going to the IL with a hamstring strain.

⚾ Minnesota utilityman Willi Castro left yesterday’s game with right oblique tightness, which manager Rocco Baldelli described as “minor”.

⚾ The O’s scratched outfielder Tyler O’Neill due to “neck discomfort”.

⚾ DJ Herz underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday following multiple opinions on his damaged UCL.

⚾ In a “Good Riddance” move, the White Sox have designated Mike Clevinger for assignment.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

The History of Bats: How MLB Lumber Has Changed, From Corking and Axe Handles All the Way to Torpedo Bats – Dayn Perry, CBS Sports

Meet the 90 MPH Pitch That Can Move Like a Knuckleball – Mike Petriello, MLB.com

This Is How You Earn (Or Lose) One Fielding Run – Davy Andrews, FanGraphs

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Waiver Wire Picks

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

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Asher Dratel

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Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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