The Buzz · August 22, 2026
The Buzz — Saturday, August 22
This weekend's noise came in five shapes — a broken hand in Los Angeles, a Fenway return more than a year in the making, a debut the Mariners have pointed at since spring, a Cy Young statement in Milwaukee, and a rookie finding his power in the Bronx. Under each, the number that settles whether the signal holds.
Andy Pages
The take All-Star CF broke his hand on a HBP, out weeks
The number that makes this hurt is 5.6 — Pages' bWAR, second on a roster with no shortage of star power. He was hitting .272 with 25 home runs and 80 RBIs, playing the kind of center field that earned him his first All-Star nod, and a 100.2 mph fastball caught him on the outer left hand, just below the pinkie, in the third inning Friday night.
The initial read was a contusion. The imaging said otherwise. Roberts put the window at four to five weeks and pointed to the early side, which leaves a contender without one of its two best position players for September's push. A hand that has to grip and swing at full speed does not heal on a schedule, and the difference between four weeks and five is the difference between the division race and a wild-card series.
Andy Pages cards on eBay →(paid link)
Rafael Devers
The take First Fenway return since the trade, boos and a homer
The 412-foot home run to center is the shot everyone will carry — straightaway Fenway, off Sonny Gray, in his first game there as a visitor, more than a year after the trade that ended his nine-season tenure. It was his 26th of the season and it cut the Boston lead to one in the fourth. Then the Giants lost 6-4, and the night's bigger swing was a five-run third that had nothing to do with him.
The reception was the split you would expect — boos during the lineup and his first at-bat, cheers for the tribute video, a wave, then boos again. He finished 1-for-3 with a walk. One shot to center confirms he is still a middle-of-order bat. It does not settle the feelings, and a 37,007-person crowd made that plain.
Rafael Devers cards on eBay →(paid link)
Kade Anderson
The take Top Mariners prospect debuting Saturday vs Cubs
Anderson was the third overall pick in 2025 out of LSU, and he is the first player from that draft class to reach the majors — a timeline that tells you what the Mariners think they have. The number that clears every level below this one is 135 against 13: his strikeouts to walks in 93 1/3 innings at Double-A Arkansas, where he went 10-1 with a 1.06 ERA in 18 starts. That ratio says the stuff and the command showed up together, which is the combination that does not just survive a promotion but forces one.
MLB Pipeline ranks him fifth among all prospects; ESPN has him third and calls him the top pitching prospect in the game. The Seattle Times is calling this the most anticipated Mariners pitching debut since Félix Hernández in 2005 — a comparison the Double-A line earns.
The Cubs are 74-54 and hold the top NL Wild Card spot. The Mariners are 60-68. Anderson is walking into a lineup playing for October, on a club that is not, and the minor-league numbers say he is ready. What Saturday tells us is whether ready holds when the other side has something to lose.
Kade Anderson cards on eBay →(paid link)
Jacob Misiorowski
The take Six shutout innings outduels Sale, elite fastball praise
The 1.68 ERA leads the majors, and so do the 216 strikeouts, the 0.76 WHIP, and the .152 batting average against — four league-leading marks in late August, after six scoreless against Atlanta that made Milwaukee the first team to 80 wins. Sale, who faced him, called the fastball the most impressive he has ever seen. It averaged 100.1 mph with more sliders than usual, and the line did not move. The Cy Young case is not just the heat. It is that the results hold when the heat dips.
Jacob Misiorowski cards on eBay →(paid link)
Spencer Jones
The take Two-run HR extends Yankees win streak
The two-run homer was his seventh of the season — scoring Grisham after a walk, upheld on replay, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead they never gave back in a 3-1 win, their fifth straight. It was the second time this year Jones has homered in consecutive games.
That is the recent form. The full line is .232 with a .740 OPS across 151 at-bats in 55 games — a rookie whose power comes in bursts, with work still to do on the average. The consecutive homers say the adjustment is starting. The average says it has not finished, and 151 at-bats of evidence does not get overridden by one hot week. The power is real. The hitter is still arriving.
Spencer Jones cards on eBay →(paid link)
What the Dodgers are really waiting on
Roberts said four to five weeks, and he said the early side. That is the optimistic read on a fracture that has to bear the force of a full swing before the player behind it is worth a lineup spot. Pages was a first-time All-Star with 5.6 bWAR, 25 home runs, and the center field defense that makes a contender whole. The Dodgers can survive September without him. October is what they need him for, and a hand that has not swung at game speed for a month is not a hand you can assume is ready.