With the trade deadline a matter of days away, here are three things we\u2019ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:<\/p>\n
1. Giants top prospect set to debut against top trade candidate:<\/p>\n
Well-regarded Giants prospect Carson Whisenhunt<\/a> is reportedly<\/a> headed to the majors to take the ball in tonight\u2019s start against the Pirates at 6:45pm local time in San Francisco.\u00a0The 24-year-old Whisenhunt has posted a relatively pedestrian 4.42 ERA in 18 starts at Triple-A this year, but the inflated offensive environment found in the Pacific Coast League is at least partly to blame for that inflated figure. Whisenhunt is not yet on the 40-man roster, meaning the Giants will have to either trade away or designate someone for assignment before Whisenhunt\u2019s start tonight unless the club transfers someone to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n Whisenhunt\u2019s opponent will be well-regarded right-hander Mitch Keller<\/a>, who sports a 3.53 ERA and is one of the league\u2019s top trade candidates. The 29-year-old has been ultra-consistent this season, holding opponents to three or fewer runs in 18 of 21 starts. That includes a run of eight such starts in a row, during which he\u2019s pitched to a pristine 2.59 ERA. Keller\u2019s 18.7% strikeout rate this season is the second-lowest of his career, but his 5.8% walk rate is a career-best. He\u2019s drawn<\/a> interest<\/a> from a variety<\/a> of contenders<\/a> and is affordably signed all the way through 2028. The Pirates aren\u2019t necessarily dead-set on trading Keller<\/a>, but tonight could still be his last start for the only team he\u2019s known to this point in his career.<\/p>\n 2. Lugo, Royals to finalize extension?<\/p>\n The Royals and right-hander Seth Lugo<\/a> are reportedly finalizing an extension<\/a>, but there has been no official announcement of the deal yet by Kansas City. Perhaps that\u2019s set to come as soon as today. Assuming the extension is completed, it will remove the veteran right-hander from any trade conversations by re-asserting him as a key part of the Royals\u2019 core. Lugo\u2019s extension will be the latest move in an effort to surround Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a> with a playoff-caliber supporting cast, joining other deals like those signed with Michael Wacha<\/a> and Carlos Estevez<\/a> this past winter. Lugo, the 2024 AL Cy Young runner-up, sports a 2.95 ERA in 19 starts this year.<\/p>\n 3. Series Preview: Cubs @ Brewers<\/p>\n The Cubs and Brewers have been locked in a battle for the NL Central ever since Milwaukee\u2019s surge toward the top of the standings that began last month. They\u2019ll get the chance to face off for the first time since the Brewers\u2019 win streak this week with a three-game set that begins at 6:40pm local time this evening. A pair of 2025 All-Stars will square off in Game 1, as veteran southpaw Matthew Boyd<\/a> (2.20 ERA) takes on rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski<\/a> (2.45 ERA in six starts). Game 2 of the series will see Colin Rea<\/a> (4.06 ERA) square off against Brewers righty Quinn Priester<\/a> (3.28 ERA), while the series finale will pit Shota Imanaga<\/a> (3.12 ERA in 14 starts) against Freddy Peralta<\/a> (2.81 ERA). The winner of this series will come out on top of the NL Central, as the Cubs and Brewers are currently tied for the National League\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the trade deadline a matter of days away, here are three things we\u2019ll be keeping an eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-29538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}