We’ve had plenty of pitchers show flashes this season, but I’m not sure any have me as interested as what we saw from Payton Tolle in his season debut Thursday.
Pitching against the Yankees, Tolle was absolutely dominant. He limited the Yankees to just one run on three hits over six innings of work, and he did it while striking out 11 and walking just one. He racked up 18 whiffs to back up the big strikeout numbers, and if you know anything about Tolle, you won’t be surprised to learn that the four-seam fastball led the way with eight whiffs. That is an elite pitch, coming in at 97.1 mph from the left side with very near ideal movement and release profiles, as has come to be expected. It is simply one of the best fastballs in baseball among starters already, and has been since he was in the minors last season.
But what stood out was how Tolle expanded the arsenal this time around. When he pitched in the majors last season, he threw the four-seamer 64% of the time, but it was down to 49% this time around. He mostly introduced more sinkers, a heavy bowling ball of a pitch with 17 inches of horizontal break and seven inches more of drop than the four-seamer. But he also nearly tripled his curveball usage, and that pitch was excellent, too, generating seven of his 18 whiffs; he added two more on the cutter and one on the changeup to get to 18 for the night.
The development of the non-four-seamer part of the arsenal has been the focus for Tolle since his middling debut in 2025, and it looked pretty awesome in his first start. And that was after he struck out 19 in 15 innings in his first three Triple-A starts this season. Tolle is one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, and he just put up arguably the best debut by any pitcher this season. Why wouldn’t we add him in all formats?
Well, it’s not 100% clear he’s going to stay in the rotation moving forward. The need arose with Sonny Gray going on the IL with a hamstring injury earlier this week, but if he ends up missing just the minimum, the Red Sox might have to make a tough decision, and that decision might end with Tolle back in Triple-A.
No matter. I’m adding him everywhere. Pitchers get hurt, and opportunities tend to arise unexpectedly, as we’ve already seen here. Maybe Gray comes back at the minimum, and it’s a tough decision; maybe Tolle dominates a few more times and makes the decision to keep him around obvious. Or maybe someone else gets hurt or struggles with effectiveness and clears a spot for Tolle anyway. Or maybe he’s just so irrepressibly good that they go for a six-man rotation to keep him in. There are paths where Tolle is back in the minors and isn’t worth adding, but if he pitches like he did Thursday, it’s hard to see those actually coming to fruition.
I’ve stated it many times already this season, but we’re always looking for big upside at pitcher, and Tolle showed he has as much as anyone who has been available on the wire so far this season. Maybe it won’t work out for him. But I’d prioritize Tolle over Noah Schultz and Mick Abel and Didier Fuentes and JR Ritchie and most other young pitchers we’ve gotten excited about lately.
Before we get to the rest of what you need to know about from Thursday’s MLB action, we’ve gotta talk about the Francisco Lindor injury. He suffered a calf injury Wednesday, and while the full extent of the injury is not known, it sure doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a minimum stay on the IL.
Lindor was placed on the IL after undergoing testing Thursday, and manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters, “he’s going to be down for quite a bit.” Specifically, he contrasted it to Juan Soto’s calf injury, saying that the team knew “right away with Juan that it was kind of the best-case scenario.” But he added, “I don’t think we’re dealing with the same thing here.”
That’s still awfully vague, of course, but we can assume it’ll be longer than Soto’s 19-day stint on the IL. For hitters over the five seasons leading into 2026, the average IL stint for a calf strain lasts 35 days, with a median stay of 30 days; with Mendoza’s comments, even that timeline might be optimistic. One data point we can point to is Lindor’s previous calf strain back in 2019, which cost him 10 weeks when he suffered the injury in February.
That’s probably closer to the worst-case scenario here, but it’s going to be more than just a few weeks. If it’s just four weeks, replacing Lindor will be tough, but manageable; names like Andres Gimenez (61% rostered) or Ezequiel Tovar (53%) could get hot and help carry the load; if you’re in one of the 21% of CBS Fantasy leagues where Dansby Swanson is available, that’s even better.
But if Lindor’s injury lingers longer, it’ll be even tougher to replace him, and the hole will get even deeper. You could hope for a quick promotion for someone like Colt Emerson, or you could hope Jose Fernandez can get hot and help carry you. But your best bet will probably be to try to trade from a position of strength on your roster to acquire a shortstop, preferably someone off to a slow start who might come at a discount.
In that case, I would be aiming high for one of the rookies who hasn’t quite clicked yet, JJ Wetherholt or Konnor Griffin, both of whom have top-12 upside at the position if they figure it out. You could also try to buy low on Jeremy Pena, who should be back from his hamstring injury at least a few weeks before Lindor.
The truth is, there’s no good replacement for Lindor, and any trade is going to leave you weaker somewhere else. I like targeting one of those underwhelming rookies and hoping they can get hot in time to help carry you, but there’s risk involved there, too – Griffin is striking out 30% of the time, and Wetherholt isn’t hitting for much power yet. But there is at least upside, and aiming for that is better than going with a low-ceiling free agency target.
You could look at Ronny Mauricio, a former top prospect for the Mets who is expected to get a lot of run at shortstop as the Lindor replacement. Mauricio has mostly looked overmatched in the majors so far, striking out 29.4% of the time and hitting just .234/.294/.359 in his first 296 plate appearances. But the physical tools that made him an interesting prospect are still there, and he has generally remained pretty productive in the high minors, hitting .305/.360/.537 with 32 homers and 33 steals in 140 games at that level. I think Mauricio is a long shot to matter much, but the upside is there.
Here’s what else you need to know about from Thursday’s action around MLB:
Friday’s top waiver-wire targets
Here’s who we’re looking to add coming out of Thursday’s action:
JR Ritchie, SP, Braves (26%) – Yesterday, I stated I didn’t see how Ritchie could have long-term value in the Braves rotation unless he made himself indispensable. Well, he might have done that in his MLB debut, as he was phenomenal. Ritchie overcame a first-pitch homer to James Wood to throw seven innings of two-run ball, with seven strikeouts and just two walks, and he did it mostly as expected: With a wide arsenal of good pitches, without any one looking especially dominant. With Spencer Strider likely back in the rotation this time next week, the Braves would either have to pull Reynaldo Lopez or Grant Holmes from the rotation or go with a six-man, and I’m not sure how likely either outcome is. I would prefer Tolle to Ritchie even if both were guaranteed their role, but with the uncertainty around Ritchie, he’s hard to view as a must-add, though I don’t mind a speculative add in deeper leagues.
Tanner Scott, RP, Dodgers (54%) – In the first save opportunity after Edwin Diaz went on the IL, it was Scott who got the ninth Thursday, so we have to consider him the leader. Maybe this weekend sees Alex Vesia get another save or two and change our perception, but when Diaz got hurt, I expected Scott to be the primary ninth-inning option, and then he got the first save. That’s enough for me to buy in pretty much everywhere on Scott, who has been an elite closer in his career before he fell apart in his first year with the Dodgers in 2025.
Cade Cavalli, SP, Nationals (26%) – Cavalli was the only member of the Nationals rotation entering the season with any real hope for upside, but he spent the first five starts of the season showing basically none of that. Entering Thursday, he had just 18 strikeouts to 12 walks in 19.2 innings of work. So skepticism is necessary, even coming off an excellent start Thursday against the Braves. Still, it’s not like it was out of nowhere – Cavalli has a strong curveball that has always generated whiffs, and he was definitely locked in here, striking out 10 over five innings. It’s the first great start we’ve seen from him. In deeper leagues, it’s interesting enough to be worth a second look.
Davis Martin, SP, White Sox (42%) – Martin has the ERA down to 2.01 for the season, and that’s obviously unsustainable. But that doesn’t mean he’s not good. Because underneath that 2.01 ERA, you’ve got a 3.08 FIP and 3.57 xFIP after his seven-strikeout effort against the Diamondbacks Thursday. He’s thriving thanks to added confidence and usage of his cutter, which has helped expand his arsenal and seems to have helped the slider become a better swing and miss pitch – it generated four whiffs Thursday. I don’t think Martin is likely to be a good strikeout pitcher moving forward, but he is throwing plenty of strikes and limiting damage on contact, so maybe he can at least be useful for an upcoming matchup against the Angels.
Brandon Marsh, OF, Phillies (28%) – At this point in his career, I’m pretty sure about who Marsh is, and that’s a pretty good platoon outfielder, but not likely much more than that. He’s done almost nothing against lefties so far this season, as is his norm, but he’s having an excellent start to the season nonetheless, hitting .300/.329/.500 for the season. You’ll always have to check the schedule to know how useful he’ll be, but here’s the good news: The projected schedule for next week has six righties listed. That’ll play.
Riley Cornelio, SP, Nationals (1%) – Here’s one for your deeper league players. Cornelio is a pitching prospect in the Nationals system who emerged as a pretty productive pitcher last season and may have leveled up here in the early going as he gets set to make his MLB debut this weekend, per The Athletic. Cornelio had a 3.28 ERA while making his way to Triple-A last season, but didn’t garner much attention in prospect circles because he typically sat in the low-90s with his four-seamer by the time he got to Triple-A. FanGraphs had him ranked as the team’s No. 41 prospect in their mid-season update last season, and BaseballProspectus.com didn’t even mention Cornelio in their preseason write-up of the system. That’s usually a reason to ignore a call-up, but in Cornellio’s case, we have some new information, most notably that he’s throwing his four-seamer significantly more at 95.5 mph. His sinker isn’t up nearly as much, but that four-seamer jump is significant, and it’s tied to a jump from 11.2% swinging strikes to 17.1%. I’m not saying Cornelio is likely to be an impact arm in the majors, but that leap stood out as I looked into him, and it makes me at least interested to see what he could look like.
Thursday’s standouts
Tarik Skubal, Tigers vs. MIL: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – Skubal was cruising with just one earned run allowed through six innings, but with his pitch count still low, they opted to let him go out for the seventh, and that’s when things unraveled, as he allowed three straight hits, including a double, to open the inning; all three runners would come around to score before the end of the inning, leaving Skubal stuck with an ugly line. You expected better from your aces, and I’m not making excuses here. I’m just saying, a different decision would have left him with a much better line.
Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies @CHC: 5.1 IP, 12 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – Yeah, these kinds of games will happen from time to time for groundballers. I don’t see much reason to be worried about it, but it does highlight one thing of note for Sanchez and the Phillies writ large: This is probably a bottom-10 defense in the league, especially if Trea Turner continues to underwhelm. He rather miraculously reversed years of defensive sliding last season to be one of the best shortstops in the league, but he hasn’t rated out nearly as well. That doesn’t change Sanchez’s outlook that much, but it matters on the margins.
Jacob deGrom, Rangers vs. PIT: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K – It’s kind of weird how quiet deGrom’s dominance has been this season. Now that everyone isn’t approaching every pitch with bated breath, waiting for the next injury, it seems like he’s gone kind of overlooked. His fastball whiff rate has ticked back up to solidly above-average, and it’s helped fuel an excellent strikeout rate in the early going. deGrom is nobody’s idea of a boring veteran.
Cam Schlittler, Yankees @BOS: 8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K – The strikeouts have tailed off a bit over the past two starts, but even pointing that out feels like nitpicking when he has allowed one run over 14 innings across those starts. When he isn’t generating hit strikeout numbers, Schlittler is still pounding the zone and generating weak contact across his whole arsenal. I’m not far from moving him into my top-15 starters at this point.
Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers @SFG: 8 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K – What if this is just the year he stays healthy? I know, he probably won’t; Glasnow has famously never thrown more than 134 innings in 11 MLB seasons. But it’s not like he’s limited by the inability to go deep into games, or is likely to have his starts skipped down the stretch. He just has to stay healthy, and he could probably give us 160 innings of ace-level production. He’s just never done it, and I would never bet on him to do it. The injury track record is too long to make that kind of bet. So, I suppose you can make a “sell-high” high case here … if someone in your league somehow doesn’t know about that injury track record, I guess.
Joe Ryan, Twins @NYM: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K – Ryan has a 3.78 ERA now, which mostly just means he’s had two bad starts. Those two starts were frustrating, accounting for nine of the 14 runs he has allowed to date. But I don’t see any real reason to be concerned about him at this point.
Logan Webb, Giants vs. LAD: 7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K – Webb has been legitimately worse this season, entering this start with a 4.40 xERA to go with his 5.10 ERA. His strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up, and he isn’t limiting hard contact to make up for it. He’s genuinely been worse this season, though I don’t actually have a good explanation for why that is. His sinker is getting hit harder, but it’s not like he’s lost velocity on it; he’s down 0.3 mph, which is effectively nothing. It mostly seems to be a command issue, and that’s the kind of thing that can get fixed overnight. Given the success against the Dodgers here, he might have already fixed it. I don’t really have many concerns here.
Edward Cabrera, Cubs vs. PHI: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – Now here’s a hot start I really don’t believe in. Even after five strikeouts and zero walks Thursday, Cabrera’s 18.5% strikeout and 9.3% walk rates are a step back from where he was during his 2025 breakout. Cabrera is throwing his four-seamer more than he did last year, and that’s never really been the answer for him — though he has reversed that the past couple starts. I was skeptical coming in, and while the Cubs defense will continue to help cover up for his flaws, I do view Cabrera as a sell-high candidate if I can pull it off.
Bubba Chandler, Pirates @TEX: 4 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 K – I’m not going to give up on Chandler. I’ll park him on my bench if I have to. But I’m not giving up on an arm with as much obvious talent as his. He needs to figure a lot of stuff out, don’t get me wrong – his pitch mix very much remains a work in progress, and his command has obviously been terrible. There’s no guarantee he fixes those issues. But there just aren’t many pitchers with the kind of arm talent Chandler possesses, and I’d rather him be disappointing on my bench than figure it out in someone else’s starting lineup.
Mike Soroka, Diamondbacks vs. CHW: 5 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – The results have been really solid so far, and the more traditional peripheral stats back it up – see the 2.71 FIP to go along with the 2.60 ERA. So, we’re buying in, right? I’m not so sure. Soroka is getting crushed right now, with a 91.7 mph average exit velocity and .468 xwOBA on contact allowed, truly terrible marks, and significantly worse than what he managed last season. It hasn’t hurt him yet, and a 23.4% K-BB% rate is usually enough to make any pitcher must-start for Fantasy. Soroka may just be that. But I’d be lying if I stated I fully believed he will be that moving forward, even if he does have the upside. I’m just not quite there yet.
Christian Scott, Mets vs. MIN: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 1 K – Yikes. Scott was someone to put on the watchlist for his debut because he was, at one point, a pitching prospect of some note. But this was a pretty disastrous start, and I don’t know if he’s even likely to stick around in the Mets rotation after this one. If he does, you should still wait for him to give you some kind of reason to be interested. He may never.
