The Buzz — Thursday, September 3

Shohei Ohtani

The take Manager says Ohtani pitching shutdown still an option

The crowd reads shutdown still an option as the season slipping away from the mound. The phrase is softer than that — it is managed uncertainty, not a verdict, and the difference matters.

He has not pitched since July 3, and the body is the reason: a sore left knee and a right biceps that Ohtani himself said is not at 100 percent. He threw a 20-pitch bullpen on Friday and was scratched from a potential start two days later. A light session did not clear him for even a short outing, and the Dodgers reset the calendar with no new target date.

Before the pause, the pitching was not the problem — 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA across 14 starts, the kind of line that makes a shutdown a health decision, not a performance one. Roberts said if throwing cuts into the offense, it is not worth it, and that is the whole calculation. The bat is what the Dodgers need in October; the arm is what they would like to have. Still an option means they have not decided, which means the knee and the biceps will decide for them.

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Ronald Acuña Jr.

The take Fastest ever to 200 homers and 200 steals

The record is exact, and it is the right one to be loud about. Acuña reached 200 home runs and 200 stolen bases in his 904th career game — 25 games faster than Alfonso Soriano's 929. He did it with a three-run homer in a 9-0 win at Nationals Park on September 2, the power side finally catching the speed side he banked over a year ago, when he stole his 200th base in June 2025.

What the record understates is the cost. Acuña already sits at 225 career steals because multiple major injuries carved gaps into seasons that should have been uninterrupted. The fastest-to-200-200 mark belongs to a player whose talent was so overwhelming that even the stretches he lost could not keep him from passing everyone before him.

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Ethan Salas

The take Youngest MLB catcher debut since Pudge in 1991

The debut was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and that is the least important number from it. Salas caught every inning of a 7-3 loss at 20 years and 93 days old, making him the youngest catcher in a major-league game since Ivan Rodriguez in 1991. The Padres called him up from Triple-A El Paso for depth — a third catcher and left-handed bench bat, not an everyday starter — but the .296/.374/.448 line he posted across 96 minor-league games this year says the bat will catch up to the glove soon enough.

Ethan Salas cards on eBay →(paid link)

Lazaro Montes

The take Montes debut HR multi-hit fuels Mariners win buzz

A 407-foot home run to center in your first major-league game is a fine way to announce yourself, and Montes did not stop there. He walked in his first plate appearance, singled home a run, then launched the solo shot off Wyatt Olds in the fifth — reaching base in his first three trips as a big leaguer.

At 21 years and 314 days, he is the youngest player in Mariners history to homer in his MLB debut. The timing mattered as much as the line: a club that had lost five straight snapped the streak with 14 hits in a 9-6 win, and a September call-up supplied the spark. The power is real; whether the discipline holds is the next question.

Lazaro Montes cards on eBay →(paid link)

Thomas Saggese

The take Cardinals utility man delivering clutch hits vs Dodgers

Three homers in a two-game span at Dodger Stadium is the kind of line that buys a utility man a month of at-bats. Saggese is 7-for-12 with six RBIs since his August 28 recall from Triple-A Memphis, and the timing is no accident: injuries to Masyn Winn and JJ Wetherholt opened the door, and Saggese walked through it with a two-run shot off Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a 10th-inning infield single that drove in the go-ahead run in an 8-6 win. The streak is real; the role is borrowed.

Thomas Saggese cards on eBay →(paid link)