Wednesday, June 03
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.
The All-Star Ballot is out! Here’s everything you need to know.
Voting is now open for the 2026 All-Star Game, which will be on July 14 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
But before you fill out your ballot, check out our ultimate guide to 2026 MLB All-Star voting.
We’ve got a breakdown of every All-Star race in the AL and NL, including the reigning winners at every position, the top challengers to watch and a dark-horse candidate for each spot.
Here are three of the most interesting races in each league:
AL first base
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been the starter four of the last five years, but he’s not hitting for his usual power, which leaves the door open for a strong field of challengers. There’s Ben Rice, who’s paired up with Aaron Judge to give the Yankees one of the best slugging duos in baseball this year. There’s Nick Kurtz, who was just named the AL Player of the Month for May after his 48-game on-base streak. And there’s rookie sensation Munetaka Murakami and his 20 home runs (even though he’s currently injured).
AL shortstop
Which young star will lay claim to this spot? Of the top contenders, Bobby Witt Jr. is the “veteran” of the group, even though he’s only 25. Then you have a sophomore in Colson Montgomery, who’s been awesome for the upstart White Sox, and a rookie in Kevin McGonigle, who’s been an on-base machine for the Tigers ever since he debuted as one of the top prospects in baseball.
AL outfield
The big storyline to watch in the AL outfield is: Can Mike Trout get back to the All-Star Game? The Angels star is having a resurgent season and is hot on the trail of what would be a 12th All-Star nod. Trout already has the most All-Star selections among active players now that Clayton Kershaw has retired.
NL second base
Incumbent Ketel Marte has come on strong after a slow start, giving him a chance at a fourth All-Star start. But Brice Turang, who’s blossomed into a star for the Brewers, will give Marte a run for his money. So will the Marlins’ Xavier Edwards and the Pirates’ Brandon Lowe. And don’t overlook Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt.
NL outfield
As stacked as the NL’s starting outfield was last year — Ronald Acuña Jr., Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker — there’s a chance we could see an all-new one this year. That’s because players like Juan Soto, Corbin Carroll, James Wood, Michael Harris II, Andy Pages, Jordan Walker and more make this a loaded field.
NL designated hitter
This spot usually belongs to Shohei Ohtani. But can Kyle Schwarber swoop in and take it from him? Schwarbs leads the Majors with 22 home runs, and Ohtani has been better as a pitcher than as a hitter this season … although he’s still been very, very good as a hitter.
Vote for the 2026 All-Star Game here >>
3 KEYS TO AN OHTANI CY YOUNG
It’s the one thing Shohei hasn’t done yet: win a Cy Young Award as a pitcher.
But this could be the year. Ohtani enters tonight’s start vs. the D-backs (9:40 p.m. ET on MLB Network Showcase and MLB.TV) with a 0.82 ERA, the lowest of any pitcher who’s thrown at least 50 innings this season.
He’s one of the top contenders — alongside Cristopher Sánchez, Jacob Misiorowski, Chris Sale, Paul Skenes, Chase Burns, Mason Miller and more — in what’s shaping up to be a historic NL Cy Young race.
So what exactly will it take for Ohtani to win his first career Cy Young? Manny Randhawa breaks down three key benchmarks that the two-way superstar might need to hit:
1) An ERA below 2.00
If Ohtani can pitch a full season with a sub-2.00 ERA, that could be just what it takes for him to overcome other workhorses who might throw more innings, like Sánchez and Skenes.
2) A strikeout rate over 30%
There are multiple other strikeout artists in the NL Cy Young race, chief among them the flamethrowing Misiorowski and last year’s Cy Young runner-up, Sánchez. But if Ohtani can keep up with them on a rate basis — and he does have a strikeout rate over 30% for his career, which is elite — then he can keep pace in the Cy Young race, too.
3) At least 170 innings
This is the big one. Ohtani needs the innings pitched to go along with his ERA and strikeout numbers. It would go a long way if Ohtani can at least stay in the ballpark of his fellow Cy Young competitors. At the least, he’ll need to reach the 162-inning threshold to qualify for the ERA title. But Cy Young winners usually throw a bunch more than that.
GAMES OF THE NIGHT
Even besides Ohtani, there are a lot of aces pitching tonight. Here are three more games to watch.
Padres at Phillies (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Cristopher Sánchez, who was just named the NL Pitcher of the Month for May, puts his historic 44 2/3-inning scoreless streak on the line tonight. It’s the seventh-longest streak in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) — and with three more scoreless innings tonight, he could move all the way up to third place, behind only Orel Hershiser (59 innings in 1988) and Don Drysdale (58 innings in 1968).
Guardians at Yankees (7:05 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video / MLB.TV)
Gerrit Cole is making his return from Tommy John surgery look easy. He has yet to allow a run in two starts back with the Yankees. But he’s facing a first-place Guardians team that just knocked around his Cy Young contender teammate, Cam Schlittler, in last night’s series opener.
Pirates at Astros (8:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Paul Skenes had a dominant 10-strikeout start on the eve of his 24th birthday last week. Now, exactly one year to the day after his last start against Houston, he faces an Astros team led by star slugger Yordan Alvarez and newly named AL Pitcher of the Month Spencer Arrighetti.
HE HAS 266 WINS. THIS ONE WAS A FIRST
There’s a hotshot pitching prospect who just got his first-ever win at Triple-A. He’s a power-pitching righty with an explosive fastball and silky-smooth mechanics. This kid just might have a future in the big leagues.
The prospect in question? Justin Verlander.
Yes, Verlander, at 43 years old, just won the first Triple-A game of his life. He’s been a pro pitcher for over two decades. He’s amassed 266 wins in the big leagues — the most among active players. But he’d never won a game at Triple-A until now … though, to be fair, it was only his fifth start at that level. (Verlander famously jumped straight to the big leagues from Double-A back in 2005.)
Still, JV checked off that last unrealized milestone yesterday in his rehab start for Triple-A Toledo, as the Tigers veteran works his way back from left hip inflammation. Even after such a long, illustrious career, Verlander can still do something new.
ADELL PULLS HIS BEST CANSECO
It’s one of the classic baseball bloopers: Jose Canseco, in right field, having a fly ball bonk off his head and bounce over the fence for a home run.
That was on May 26, 1993. Well, 33 years later, it’s happened again.
Angels right fielder Jo Adell last night — yes, the same Jo Adell who robbed three home runs in one game earlier this season — gave back a homer last night with a ball off the dome.
Adell had TJ Rumfield’s fly ball glance off his glove, then his head, then over the fence at Angel Stadium. It was a mirror image of what happened to Canseco:
Even more incredibly, Adell had another play where he deflected a ball over the fence as a rookie in 2020, when a routine fly ball to the warning track went in and out of his glove and flew over the wall.
THAT TIME WEMBY ENGULFED A BASEBALL
The NBA Finals start tonight, with the Spurs and Victor Wembanyama squaring off against the Knicks, who are in the Finals for the first time since 1999.
So this is the perfect occasion to remember that one time Wemby made a baseball look teeny tiny in his hand.
Back in 2023, the 7-foot-4 megastar visited Yankee Stadium and threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a game. Wemby posted a close-up photo to his Instagram story that day — which quickly went viral — showing off just how absurdly small he makes a baseball look.
If only the Alien had picked a different sport, he could’ve been the nastiest pitcher in the galaxy.
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RJ Hamster 