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.
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One of the best shortstops in baseball makes his long-awaited return tonight.
Francisco Lindor is back after over two months on the injured list. But can he save the Mets?
The five-time All-Star will play the second game of today's doubleheader against the Cubs at Citi Field (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV). It will be Lindor's first game since April 22, when a left calf strain sent him to the IL.
After dropping Game 1 of the doubleheader, the Mets are now 11 games under .500 at 34-45, in last place in the National League East and eight games out of an NL Wild Card spot.
Lindor, who has finished in the top 10 of NL MVP voting in each of his last four seasons in New York, will have missed the Mets' last 55 games when he's activated for Game 2 tonight.
Lindor got off to a slow start to the 2026 season but was starting to heat up right before he got hurt -- he was batting .360 over the seven games before his injury and had slugged his first two home runs of the season.
Lindor's injury was ill-timed for him and the Mets. New York had just welcomed back Juan Soto from the injured list a day before Lindor got hurt.
The Mets have only played seven full games this season with both of their superstar hitters in the lineup. Even now, as Lindor prepares to return, Soto is being held out of the Mets' lineup with back tightness.
Lindor's return marks an inflection point in the Mets' season. He's the team's best chance to turn things around. If New York is going to make any sort of run, they need him back at his best, alongside Soto.
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Besides Lindor's return to the Mets, here are two more games to watch tonight.
Yankees at Tigers (6:40 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video / MLB.TV)
We're still waiting for that first vintage Tarik Skubal start since the Tigers ace returned from elbow surgery a week and a half ago. This will be Skubal's third start back, and he's shown flashes of dominance, but he hasn't quite been "back-to-back Cy Young winner Skubal" yet. Will this be the game? Plus, as trade season heats up, every start could affect Skubal's likelihood of being dealt.
Dodgers at Twins (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Shohei Ohtani has hit a rare rough patch on the mound over his last couple of starts, which has his ERA up to a whopping … 1.47. That's pretty darn good, obviously, but if Ohtani is going to have a chance to win his first Cy Young over the likes of Jacob Misiorowski and Cristopher Sánchez and Paul Skenes, he'll need to get back on track here.
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LIGHT-TOWER POWER FROM JAPANESE HS STAR |
One of the biggest stars of Day 1 of the MLB Draft Combine is also one of the most polarizing prospects in this year's class: Rintaro Sasaki.
Sasaki became famous for setting Japan's high school home run record … at the same school Shohei Ohtani went to. He could have jumped straight to Nippon Professional Baseball from there, but instead, with dreams of playing in MLB, he came to the U.S.
Sasaki first went to the MLB Draft League, then to Stanford, where he mashed 23 home runs over his two college seasons, including 16 this year.
He's not ranked among MLB Pipeline's Top 200 Draft prospects for 2026, but the lefty slugger has prodigious power. And that was on display at the Draft Combine yesterday.
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Sasaki put on a show with some monster home runs during his batting practice session at Chase Field. Sasaki posted the highest exit velocity of the Combine's early session (115.4 mph), and he crushed two of the four longest homers (458 feet and 434 feet).
"I just tried to hit [it over] the wall, hit it far away and hit it hard," he said afterwards.
Can Sasaki parlay those moonshots into a selection at the 2026 MLB Draft? We'll find out soon enough.
There's also still the possibility that Sasaki will play in NPB. He was drafted in the first round of the 2025 NPB Draft by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and he could still sign with the Hawks before the MLB Draft.
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WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MILWAUKEE MVP |
The blockbuster trade of Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks to the Heat in the NBA was basically a "Reverse Yeli."
Christian Yelich was traded from Miami to Milwaukee and then won an MVP trophy. Giannis won an MVP trophy and then was traded from Milwaukee to Miami.
Now the Milwaukee MVP Club is down to one. Yelich has been with the Brewers for nine years, and he's helped the team become perennial contenders during his tenure. So MLB.com Brewers reporter Adam McCalvy talked to Yelich about what it means to be a star of the city. Here's what Yelich had to say …
On hoping to stay in Milwaukee: "I would like to have this be my last team. It just feels right to finish here, and I’m proud of what we’ve done here as a team. I think at this point in my career, it would be really weird being anywhere else."
On bringing a World Series to Milwaukee like Giannis brought the city an NBA title: "It was cool to get to know him, and hopefully we can do something like they did at some point. It's obviously hard to win championships in any sport, so it would be something to be really proud of … I think it would be even crazier if we ever won. It would be so awesome. Hopefully we get that done."
On the bittersweet emotions Antetokounmpo must be feeling: "I think I understand a little of what Giannis is feeling. Winning a championship and leaving would be tough. It’s a chapter of your life you would look back on fondly. Sometimes you think you’ll be in one place or one situation forever, and then when the door closes, it takes a while for it to sink in and for you to realize, 'Wow, that was pretty special.'"
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Here's more news and notes from around the Majors.
• Congrats to Sandy Alcantara, who became the Marlins' franchise leader in strikeouts last night with his 1,002nd K for Miami. Alcantara, who hails from the Dominican Republic, is one of four Latin-born players to lead a franchise in strikeouts, along with Félix Hernández (Mariners/Venezuela), Yovani Gallardo (Brewers/Mexico) and Germán Márquez (Rockies/Venezuela).
• The Phillies were down to their last strike against the Nationals yesterday when they erupted for eight runs to come back and win the game. Ten straight Phillies reached safely with two outs, including a game-tying home run by Brandon Marsh and a go-ahead three-run shot by Bryson Stott. Philadelphia's eight runs were the third most scored by any team with two outs in the ninth inning in the Expansion Era (since 1961).
• The Padres clinched a series win over the Braves with a second straight victory in the showdown between the two NL playoff contenders. Manny Machado knocked the walk-off single in the 10th inning after lights-out closer Mason Miller pitched two innings in a game for the first time since he arrived in San Diego.
• Royals slugger Jac Caglianone kept mashing with his third multihomer game in June. Caglianone has hit nine home runs this month -- behind only Pete Crow-Armstrong (10) for the most in the Majors -- and is batting .373 with a 1.227 OPS.
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JETER DIVE, JUDGE DEBUT JERSEYS UP FOR BID |
Two iconic pieces of memorabilia from two Yankee captains go up for auction at Sotheby's this July: the game-worn jerseys from Aaron Judge's MLB debut and Derek Jeter's "The Dive."
Pre-sale estimates for the Sotheby's Summer Sports Marquee have Judge’s debut uni valued at $3 million to $5 million and Jeter’s jersey at $500,000 to $700,000.
Judge made his debut in pinstripes on Aug. 13, 2016, and homered in his first career plate appearance.
Jeter made "The Dive" in 2004, when he went flying into the stands after snaring a fly ball in the 12th inning of a wild win over the rival Red Sox.
The Sotheby's auction will begin at 10 a.m. ET on July 1 and run through July 20.
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