Mahle is coming off an injury-riddled 2025 with the Rangers, though he was productive when healthy. The veteran righty was one of the most pleasant early-season surprises, pitching to a 1.64 ERA over the first two months of the season. Mahle allowed two earned runs or fewer in 11 of his first 12 starts to begin the campaign. He was knocked around for eight earned runs across his first two starts of June,
If there's one thing that definitely feels like it needs correcting over and over, it's the idea that Michael Harris II has declined consistently since his rookie year. He hasn't, but his results have. Harris won the 2022 NL Rookie of the Year award with 4.7 fWAR in 441 PAs... because he outhit his .335 xwOBA by an egregious amount. Only 12 other hitters with more PAs than Harris outhit their xwOBA by more that year. In 2023, his xwOBA went up but the wOBA went down, so 3.7 fWAR in 539 PAs.