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Phillies OF Justin Crawford (21, AAA) has three home runs and three stolen bases over his last five games. His season-long line is .333/.409/.454 with seven home runs and 43 stolen bases in 54 attempts. Still seems underrated to me in a general kind of way across the lists, and Philadelphia’s front office is complicit in that. Nick Castellanos is under contract for $20 million in 2026, but he comes off the books after that and has been mostly awful this season, posting a negative WAR (-0.7) and .294 on base percentage in 128 games. The team’s best roster for 2026 would probably have a cheap Crawford in left field and Castellanos on someone else’s payroll. Heck that might be true for this year. I realize things are pretty good on the big league side in Philadelphia, but leaving Crawford out of his post-season push feels like a mistake to me. 

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Rays LHP Ian Seymour made his first career start Monday after spending about six weeks in the bullpen. He allowed just two baserunners through five shutout innings, bringing his season-long ERA down to 3.18 with a 1.02 WHIP. At 26 years old with good command of a change-up first arsenal, he’s got a great shot to lock down a rotation spot for the stretch run, and because he’s under a rookie contract, he could look ideal to this front office as a cheap rotation piece for 2026 and beyond. He also gives this team multiple Seymours. Good vision incoming. 

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Graduated from Prospect News Stash List #9: Wake Up With Snelling Salts: Samuel Basallo, Dylan Beavers, Jhostynxon Garcia, Bubba Chandler, Nolan McLean 

Note: Anyone promoted during the current season is ineligible for the stash list.

 

1. Cardinals SS JJ Wetherholt (22, AAA) 

St. Louis has struggled to sort its pieces for about a decade, so it’s no surprise we haven’t seen Wetherholt in the majors despite him lighting the Triple-A level on fire for a month, slashing .301/.391/.628 with nine home runs and five stolen bases in 29 games. He’s my pick for 2026 National League Rookie of the Year, and I think he’ll open the season with the big league club, but it’s always a little scary waiting on a young Cardinal to get his chance to take flight.

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These days are reserved for the true cheapskates. If a minor leaguer is good enough to stress the pricing mechanisms in place to suppress his salary, the cheapskate team is obligated to keep him on a minor league contract as long as embarrassingly possible. How can you not be romantic about Baltimore promoting Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo on back-to-back days just after crossing the invisible barrier between trying to win games and trying to spend as little as possible for as long as possible. Or perhaps it was pure coincidence that they were both ready for the next challenge on the same weekend just in time to preserve their rookie status for 2026. It could happen. 

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The Cubs recalled OF Owen Caissie this week to help spell OF Kyle Tucker, who has been mired in a deep slump for a month. Since July 3rd, he’s slashing .186/.331/.239 over 33 games. There’s nowhere for Caissie to play in an everyday way, so this promotion feels a little strange even as Caissie has certainly earned it, cutting his strikeouts over the last few months, slashing .326/.420/.628 with 16 home runs in his last 59 games. All the Cubs fans I know are pretty doom and gloom about this season now that the team is nine games behind Milwaukee in the National League Central, but the Cubs are still in the thick of the Wild Card race. Perhaps Caissie can bring some hope with him whenever he steps up to bat. 

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Red Sox RHP Dustin May pitched six innings and allowed one run in his second start with Boston after allowing four runs in 3.2 innings against the Royals in his debut. This front office took a lot of heat during the Rafael Devers saga, and they probably could’ve avoided that with better communication, but the proof is in the win-loss pudding at this point, and Boston is back in a playoff race, 1.5 games up on the Yankees and and one game behind the Mariners for the top wild card spot. 

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Note: Anyone promoted during the current season is ineligible for the stash list.

1. Orioles C Samuel Basallo (20, AAA)

I’ve given Baltimore a lot of guff in this space over the last few years for how they manage their roster, but this delayed promotion is easy to understand. Basallo turns 21 on August 13, so even though the bat was ready, and the roster had a clear need behind the plate, they had every incentive to hold Basallo back and give him a shot at rookie of the year in 2026. He’s got 23 home runs in just 72 Triple-A games and would be my pick for best fantasy rookie if selecting today. 

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Today’s a pretty big deal for Nationals RHP Cade Cavalli, who will make his first MLB appearance since his major league debut in 2022. He allowed seven earned runs in 4.1 innings that night and hasn’t been doing a whole lot better than that in Triple-A this year (6.09 ERA in 65 innings), so he’s a pretty obvious ratio-bomb waiting to happen. Probably wise to avoid unless he can string a few solid outings together. 

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Lotta fun to be had tracking the trade deadline this year, so let’s grab our Geiger counters and pick through the fallout.

AJ Preller brought his own fireworks and fuses. San Diego threw down the gauntlet early by moving SS Leo De Vries, RHP Henry Baez, RHP Braden Nett, and RHP Eduarniel Nunez in a package for closer Mason Miller and LHP JP Sears. Speculation came quickly from Buster Olney and others that the club must be looking to move Robert Suarez and Dylan Cease for outfield help. Instead, they kept Suarez to build a monster bullpen. As much as I like Mason Miller, this represents an enormous return for the Athletics. I can’t believe they got Henry Baez just tacked on for some reason. He’s a good pitcher. 

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Rockies new starting 1B Warming Bernabel is the kind of guy who should thrive in Coors. He hasn’t always hit for power as he’s climbed the system, but he’s always made contact and been difficult to strike out. I know he’s here now because Ryan McMahon is not, but I’m hopeful we’re seeing something of a sea change in Colorado. Perhaps the front office has seen the value of stacking plus contact guys in a big ballpark and will continue to acquire and play guys like Bernabel and Tyler Freeman. Coors hasn’t been a basher’s ballpark for quite some time thanks in part to the humidor, but there’s still a million base hits to be had for anyone who puts the ball in play. Man I wish I hadn’t released Mickey Moniak off a team of mine that has Byron Buxton and Ronald Acuña Jr. At least Cardinals C Ivan Herrera played outfield the other day. Maybe he’ll add eligibility in time to help. On the other end of this trade, new Yankees 3B Ryan McMahon gets a fresh lease on competitive baseball in New York. It’s hard to predict how a Rockie will roll once he’s escaped Coors, but this sure feels like an excellent fit. 

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Off the top, I want to point out how this draft and the one before it are great examples of why you should NOT tank in dynasty leagues. Last year’s class was so stacked, you could’ve landed Cam Smith with a pick at the end of round one, as happened in one of my leagues. This year, there’s not much of a difference between the top fifteen or so, and there’s no fast-moving monster among the college bats. 

1. Mariners LHP Kade Anderson

2. Rockies SS Ethan Holliday

3. Marlins SS Avia Arquette 

4. Reds SS Steele Hall

In a class without an obvious bat at the top, Kade Anderson in Seattle represents the best combination of proximity and upside. Easily the top pick in a league where quality pitching is at all hard to find. The shallower the league, the more I’d lean Holliday here. 

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Tigers RHP Troy Melton (24) made his big league debut with Detroit today after dominating Triple-A hitters for most of the season. It did not go well, but most debuts don’t these days, so I’m not dropping him off the couple rosters where I have him. I did not start him today. 

Guardians 2B OF Angel Martinez (23) graduated from prospect status a while back, but he’s only recently really found his footing at the highest level. If I had to bet whether this is just a hot steak or the start of a new level for Martinez, I’m betting he’s reaching a new level despite the total lack of patience at the plate. Over his past 13 games, he’s hitting .345 with four home runs. He has walked one time against 14 strikeouts. His walk rate on the season is 2.9 percent. He walked 8.9 percent of the time in 43 MLB games last season and has never had this issue, so I think it’s a case of a young guy stretching himself, testing his limits, swinging more than he ever has and harder than he ever has. The total swing rate is up from 48.2 percent last year to 55.8 percent this year. His bat speed is up from 69 mph to 70.1 mph, which is still below league average, but it speaks to a player in motion, and as a switch-hitter with plus contact skills and above average defense at two up-the-middle positions, Martinez has a long runway to keep improving. 

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