Outside The Confines: Casualties of the pennant races

I hope everyone had a long and enjoyable holiday weekend. And I hope you spent a little time watching baseball and a little time with us here. But I also hope you got out and did some other stuff too with friends and family.

There’s a really big butcher’s bill this week.

• The Angels can’t seem to catch a break as outfielder Mike Trout was placed on the injured list with a broken hamate bone. Trout will miss four to eight weeks.
• Mike Axisa looks at who might fill in for Trout in the outfield. He has both in-house candidates and trade possibilities.
• Additionally, Shohei Ohtani left Tuesday’s start with a blister. Ohtani says he will not be able to pitch in the All-Star Game, although it sounds like he will still play as a designated hitter. Oh, and third baseman Anthony Rendon left this game after fouling a ball off his shin.
• Emma Baccellieri breaks down Ohtani’s month of June, which she writes “may well have been the best month ever by an individual baseball player.”
• Dan Szymborski examines Ohtani’s chances of breaking the American League home run record, just one year after Aaron Judge hit 62.
• Speaking of Judge, there’s still no timetable for his return from a toe injury.
• Dennis Lin looks at the Padres’ chances of signing Shohei Ohtani as a free agent. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Staying in SoCal, Dodgers pitcher Dustin May will undergo season-ending elbow surgery.
• The Dodgers also put Clayton Kershaw on the 15-day IL with an ailing shoulder. He’s not expected to miss much time. Just the All-Star Game.
• Jack Harris argues that with May out for the year, the Dodgers desire to add a pitcher at the trade deadline has now become a necessity.
• Juan Toribio has the three biggest needs for the Dodgers in the second half. Starting pitching is number one.
• Cardinals right-handed veteran Adam Wainwright is expected to go to the IL with shoulder irritation. Wainwright, who intends to retire at the end of the season, vowed that “that’s not the end” of his career and that he will pitch again this year.
• Mariners Julio Rodríguez and George Kirby were among five players named as injury replacements to the All-Star Game. The Rays’ Wander Franco, whom many noted as the biggest All-Star snub, was also named to the team.
• The trades have started with some bullpen arms switching teams. The big one was the Royals sending Aroldis Chapman to the Rangers. Jay Jaffe breaks down what the Rangers are getting out of Chapman and what the Royals can expect out of the two players they acquired in return.
• The Mets acquired right-handed reliever Trevor Gott from the Mariners. The Mets also agreed to eat the contract of reliever Chris Flexen, whom the Mets immediately designated for assignment.
• Speaking of DFA, the Padres designated designated hitter Nelson Cruz for assignment. If that’s a career for the 43-year-old Cruz, it was a good one with 464 home runs.
• Bradford Doolittle takes stock of every MLB team at mid-season and each team’s MVP. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is the first player ever to have 20 home runs, 40 steals and 50 RBI by the All-Star Break.
• Bob Nightengale speaks with Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich and how he’s managed a career renaissance in 2023.
• A breakdown of the contestants in the Home Run Derby.
• Leo Morgenstern has the details of the current hot steak of Rays outfielder Jose Siri.
• The staff at MLB Pipeline gives the odds on who will go first in the MLB Draft.
• Andrew Simon looks back at every draft and says who should have been the number one pick for each year.
• And finally, on the 84th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech, the Yankees honored MLB dot com writer Sarah Langs, who was also diagnosed with ALS in 2021. The Yankees also honored six other women suffering from ALS alongside Langs, at her suggestion. Langs’ parents threw out the first pitch.

Baseball is the best, Sarah.