In this very special release, we have—gasp!—a special guest feature. Exciting, right? Maybe not quite as exciting as the Mets managing to win two games in a row, but it's up there.

The Scoreboard

• The MLBPA put forth their initial collective bargaining proposal, and MLB responded with a counterproposal plus a load of pro-owner propaganda. We'll be seeing a lot of that over the next 6-ish months, and it'll get tiresome very quickly.
• Stephen Kolek threw the season's fourth complete game shutout last Saturday, exactly one week after Cristopher Sánchez threw the third. This would be awesome if it hadn't been against the Mariners.
• Friend of the show Jeff McNeil cleated a fan in the face trying (and failing) to make a catch in foul ground.
• The Cubs' losing streak hit a full 10 games on Tuesday before they were able to right the ship and beat the Pirates on Wednesday and Thursday to split the four-game series. I won't complain if they have another one, though.
• We all found out that Bryce Harper (because who else would it be?) applies his toothpaste in a deeply unsettling way. If you didn't know already, I'm sorry you do now.
• The Astros put together a combined no-hitter against the Rangers on Monday, which was finished off by Alimber Santa making his MLB debut. Naturally, he was wearing the perfect belt for the occasion:

On Deck

• Rikuu Nishida debuted for the White Sox on Monday, making him the first player born in Japan to be drafted by MLB and reach the majors. Their director of player development called him the “best personality in our organization”, and while I can't speak to that, I certainly respect him choosing to wear #51 in tribute to Ichiro. He did his best to live up to the number out in right field; hopefully he sees even more success as the year goes on.
  • The roster move resulted in our old friend Jarred Kelenic being designated for assignment, ultimately electing free agency earlier today.
• David Sandlin also made his debut for Chicago this week, pitching six near-perfect innings on Wednesday night. Good for him!
• Lots of rapid Mets moves: A.J. Minter and Jared Young came back from the IL; Eric Wagaman was called up, just in time for a revenge game against the Marlins; Tyrone Taylor went to the 10-day IL with a right hip flexor strain, and somehow everyone I know failed to notice Nick Morabito heading back down to Syracuse.
• Not as much exciting stuff for the Mariners, but Gabe Speier is back from the injured list, at least.
• Eury Pérez hit the 15-day IL with a right gracilis strain after injuring himself while stretching in the dugout pre-game. I probably shouldn't laugh, so I won't.
• It was a busy week for big-name veterans: Taijuan Walker signed a minor league deal with the Angels, Craig Kimbrel (if he even is a real person and not simply a figure from my nightmares) took up a contract with the Rays, and Andrew McCutchen was released by the Rangers.
• Both Dylan Cease and Jose Quintana got injured this week—the former with a left hamstring strain, and the latter with a much more serious elbow sprain. And while we're on the subject of Blue Jays developments I didn't care for, Davis Schneider was also optioned back down to AAA.

The Dugout

• Munetaka Murakami hit his AL-leading 20th home run of the season on Wednesday night, in addition to netting his first stolen base in MLB. What can't he do?
• Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Rob Refsnyder's stats this year are good. They really aren't. But on Wednesday, he finally did the job we all wanted him to do: hit home runs off of left-handed pitchers. His 3-run homer was a great way to open the game, empowering the Mariners to steamroll the A's the rest of the way.
• Colt Emerson seems to be settling in nicely during his second week in the majors. He had a 4-hit game last Sunday, becoming the third Mariner to do so at age 20... alongside Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez.
• The annual thaw of Julio Rodríguez's cold beginnings seems to be well underway. A quarter of his home runs this season came in the last week, putting his total for May up to 9—the most he's ever hit in one month.
• Nick Kurtz's historic on-base streak of 48 games ended on Tuesday night. Though his bat hasn't returned to where it was last year, he's padded his stats enough to still lead the majors in OBP.

Home Plate: Top of the Inning

Since I had a holiday last weekend for Memorial Day, there's no Prospectus column to promote this week. I don't have any blog-related announcements right this second, so this week I'm opting to replace Home Plate and The Backstop with a guest feature!

I sometimes ask my friend and photographer-in-residence Daniel to take notes for me when I'm particularly busy, which really helps in compiling the list of events that forms the backbone of the Weekly Scorecard before I get around to fully writing everything out. As I am wont to do, I enlisted his help in jotting down quick notes on a few things I missed yesterday while I spent this afternoon volunteering. Much to my surprise, I returned to a very thorough (and entertaining) writeup rather than a concise list of bullet points, and he generously gave me permission to publish it. His special guest report follows below:

Seattle Mariners

In an attempt to thwart a Mariners siege for first place in the, at the time, all-below-.500 AL West, the [redacted] Athletics pushed back Luis Severino’s start to May 28th after the Mariners opened a can of whoop-ass on a righty that Monday. Looking to exploit the soft underbelly of the Mariners hitters, the A’s slotted in two lefties back-to-back: Gage Jump, making his MLB debut on Tuesday, and Jeffrey Springs to pitch on Wednesday.

The Mariners jumped on Gage Jump early in Tuesday’s game, putting up 9 hits in a 4-1 victory. The following game, they ambushed Jeffrey Springs with 6 hits, and added another 7 when Springs was done for the night. On Friday, the Mariners came back to T-Mobile and of course blew an early 5-1 lead; after regaining it, they lost a 6-5 lead to tie things up in the 9th. Cooper Criswell locked down the top of the 10th, and Randy Arozarena’s walk-off RBI double made for the fifth walk-off of the day.

New York Mets

• On Monday, Nolan McLean got tagged for five hits and seven earned runs in only 3.1 innings, the most damage occurring when he struggled to find an out in the 4th. The Mets out-hit, but could not manage to out-score, the Cincinnati Reds.
• On Tuesday, the New York Juan Sotos got Chase Burns’d, and it didn’t help that David Peterson was tagged for six runs on eleven hits. A.J. Minter was a highlight! It was good to see him back.
• On Wednesday, God must’ve been paying attention to something else, because the Mets eked out a victory on the backs of an acceptably run bullpen game (Jonah Tong went 3.2 innings!) as well as Carson Benge, Juan Soto, Eric Wagaman and Jared Young. Brett Baty also helped.
• On Friday, God was definitely not around. The Mets got to Max Meyer, who has been pretty good this season, laying on six hits and six runs in six innings. In a harrowing 10-inning game, the Mets finally found a way to win. Specifically, MJ Melendez found a way to win.

Colorado Rockies

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were bleak. But Friday… Friday was beautiful. Among the deluge of walk-offs, the Rockies rallied for a five-run 9th inning comeback, taking another game over their division rival. WBC champion Ezequiel Tovar’s swing is a gorgeous thing to watch.

Munetaka Murakami & Jacob Gonzalez

Munetaka Murakami exited Friday’s game in the third inning due to right hamstring tightness. This morning, Saturday, May 30th, Murakami was officially placed on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain. Jacob Gonzalez was subsequently selected from AAA Charlotte. Happy birthday, Jacob Gonzalez! To make room for him, righty starter Jordan Leasure was transferred to the 60-day IL after spending a month pitching through right flexor strain.

Gonzalez is a shortstop, and was taken 15th overall in the 2023 draft out of Ole Miss. He showed below-average offensive numbers through a handful of minor league seasons until 2026, where he turned it around in AAA. As of the morning of May 30th, Gonzalez has had 238 PAs with the Knights in 2026 and put together a slash line of .317/.419/.668, the third best in his entire amateur and pro career. He also leads all of AAA in home runs (19), though he’s seen as more of an on-base machine—he leads the Knights roster with 63 total hits (which breaks down to 39 singles, 11 doubles, 1 triple, and of course, the 19 home runs). It seems even an on-base merchant can’t resist Murakami Fever.

The Mets Bullpen

Tobias Myers was officially optioned to Syracuse today after the move was first reported last night. Part of the trade that also landed Freddy Peralta, Myers has pitched to a 4.05 ERA in 33.1 innings, but did at least notch his first career save as a Met.

Anderson Severino (he was here? Taking up a spot on the 40-man???) was DFA’d to make room for… Cionel Perez, a Nationals leftover picked up this season amongst the flurry of other pitcher transactions from a team trying to stop the bleeding. In all likelihood, he will eventually end up part of the bullpen arms damned to waivers, too.

Charles McAdoo

The righty infielder Charles McAdoo, drafted in the 13th round of the 2023 draft from SJSU by the Pirates, got the call to the bigs on May 28th and officially debuted on May 29th. So far in 2026, as of May 30th, the Blue Jays are slashing a measly .240/.322/.361 as a team with RISP, posting just a 90 wRC+. Though, as rookies free from the burden of what could’ve been, McAdoo and Brandon Valenzuela have their sights set on somehow fixing the Blue Jays.

McAdoo’s first big league hit, a 369ft, 98.5mph homer to right-center field, was the spark for a struggling Jays offense, leading to a triumphant 6-5 victory over the Orioles. He became the sixth Blue Jay to homer in his first MLB game, joining:

• Al Woods, April 7th, 1977.
• Steve Staggs, July 1st, 1977.
• J.P. Arencibia, August 7th, 2010.
• Devon Travis, April 6th, 2015.
• Davis Schneider, August 4th, 2023.

Francisco x2

David Stearns has said that Francisco Lindor still does not have a timetable for return, but resumed baseball activities this week. Lindor’s bat, eye, and defense have been sorely missed since April 22nd. The hope still is to see him back by the end of June.

Francisco Alvarez, however, must be superhuman.

Two weeks ago, Alvarez hit the IL with a meniscus tear in his right knee, an injury that can take 6-8 weeks to recover and return from. On May 14th, Alvarez underwent surgery, and the expectation was that his recovery and rehab would take on the longer side.

On May 29th, Alvy was officially two weeks and a day removed from surgery. And somehow, some way, he was taking full BP without a knee brace. How does he do this? Does he have magical powers? Does he know a wizard? All these questions and none get answered.

Mendoza said he would not be surprised if Alvy began a rehab assignment as early as the coming week. Meniscus surgery 100% speedrun world record?