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May 17, 2026
By Kevin Glew
Cooperstowners in Canada
Some Canadian baseball news and notes:
Sabrowski, Smith dominate for Guardians
You can’t pitch much better than Erik Sabrowski (Edmonton, Alta.) and Cade Smith (Abbotsford, B.C.) did for the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday.
Sabrowski entered the game in the eighth inning with his club leading the Los Angeles Angels 4-2 and proceeded to strike out the side to register his major league-leading 16th hold.
Smith then took over in the ninth and also struck out the side to record his 13th save, which tied him for most in the majors.
The Canadian duo has been overpowering out of the pen for the Guardians, especially recently.
Sabrowski has not allowed a hit or a run, while striking out 14, in six innings in his last seven outings.
Meanwhile, Smith has notched a save in each of his last nine appearances. During that stretch, he has surrendered just one run in 9 2/3 innings and fanned 16.
Smith registered his American League-leading 14th save of the season yesterday in the Guardians’ 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds. He is also tied for the most saves in MLB this season with San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller.
Hicks, Lopez powering Marlins’ offence
I woke up this morning and looked at the 2026 MLB stats leaders and Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.) is leading the majors with 61 hits and a .341 batting average, while Liam Hicks (Toronto, Ont.) leads the big leagues with 40 RBIs.
This is remarkable when you consider that the Marlins picked Lopez up off waivers from the San Francisco Giants on February 13, 2024 and selected Hicks from the Detroit Tigers in the Rule 5 draft on December 11, 2024.
Let’s have a round of applause for the Marlins’ scouting department.
Lopez and Hicks also played on Canada’s World Baseball Classic team together in March.
Macko with Jays in Detroit
Left-hander Adam Macko, who was raised in Stony Plain, Alta., is on the Toronto Blue Jays’ taxi squad in Detroit this weekend.
The 25-year-old southpaw has not been activated, but if he is, he’ll be making his major league debut.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Macko is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 13 relief appearances for triple-A Buffalo this season. He has 19 strikeouts in 18 innings.
In March, he didn’t allow a run in three relief appearances for Canada at the World Baseball Classic.
Macko was acquired from the Seattle Mariners, along with reliever Erik Swanson, for outfielder Teoscar Hernandez on November 16, 2022.
Selected in the seventh round of the 2019 MLB draft by the Mariners, the Vauxhall Academy grad owns a 17-28 record and a 4.53 ERA in 102 games (73 starts) in parts of seven minor league seasons.
Soroka collects fifth win of the season
Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) started and tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings against the Texas Rangers on Monday to record his team-leading fifth win of the season.
He also struck out five batters, giving him 47 Ks – which also tops the D-Backs.
Overall, Soroka, 28, is 5-2 with a 3.53 ERA in eight starts this season, his seventh in the majors.
He is scheduled to start today against the Colorado Rockies.
Wilkinson shines in first start in Giants’ organization
Left-hander Matt Wilkinson (Ladner, B.C.) permitted just two hits, while striking out six batters, in five scoreless innings in his first start with the Giants’ double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels on Wednesday. That performance lowered his ERA to 1.35 ERA in seven starts this season.
On May 9, the Guardians dealt the Okotoks Dawgs grad, along with the 29th overall pick in this year’s MLB draft, to the Giants for catcher Patrick Bailey.
Prior to the trade, Wilkinson, 23, had posted a 1.59 ERA and struck out 36 batters in 28 1/3 innings in six starts for the double-A Akron RubberDucks this season. This followed his outstanding performance for Canada at the World Baseball Classic in which he didn’t allow a hit, while fanning four, in 2 2/3 innings in two outings.
Nicknamed Tugboat, the 6-foot-1 southpaw was selected in the 10th round of the 2023 MLB draft by the Guardians.
Canadian baseball historian Tyler Partridge recently shared on X that if Wilkinson were to receive a big league call-up from the Giants this season he’d become the first Canadian to play for the Giants since left-hander Ken MacKenzie (Gore Bay, Ont.) in 1964.
Gagné made first start at Olympic Stadium 25 years ago today
It was 25 years ago today that Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Éric Gagné, who grew up in Mascouche, Que., started a game at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium for the first time.
He allowed just two runs on four hits in six innings, while striking out seven, but was saddled with a tough-luck loss in the Montreal Expos’ 3-1 win.
Sean Gordon, of the Montreal Gazette, described the atmosphere at the Big O that day in this excellent May 18, 2001 article:
Anniversary of Carter’s 2,000th game as a catcher
In 1992, Gary Carter returned to the Expos for his final season.
And it was on this day, 34 years ago, that he caught his 2,000th career game, which at the time made him just the third major league catcher to reach that milestone, joining Carlton Fisk and Bob Boone.
Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Kendall and Yadier Molina have since added their names to the exclusive 2,000 games caught club.
Black sent down by the Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers sent Tyler Black (Stouffville, Ont.) down to the triple-A Nashville Sounds on Tuesday.
The transaction was made to create a roster spot for outfielder Christian Yelich, who had been on the 10-day injured list with a groin injury.
It was the second tough-luck demotion for Black this season. In nine games with the Brewers, Black went 9-for-27 (.333 batting average) with four doubles and seven RBIs. He had four multi-hit games.
The 25-year-old Toronto Mets alum was also sent down near the end of spring training despite going 11-for-20 (.550 batting average) with 14 RBIs in six Cactus League games.
The left-handed hitting Canuck also spent the bulk of 2025 with the triple-A Sounds, where he had a .369 on-base percentage with four home runs and 22 stolen bases in 61 games. He also hit .250 with an RBI in five games with the big-league Brewers.
Black made his MLB debut with the Brewers in 2024. In 18 big league games that season, he went 10-for-49 with two doubles, three stolen bases and seven walks.
Jordan Zimmerman made MLB debut 27 years ago
On this date 27 years ago, left-hander Jordan Zimmerman (Kelowna, B.C.) made his MLB debut with the Seattle Mariners.
He came into the game with one out in the eighth inning and retired both Minnesota Twins batters he faced in the Mariners’ 15-5 win at the Kingdome.
It was the first of 12 relief appearances Zimmerman made with the Mariners in 1999.
Happy Birthday to Orv Franchuk!
Happy 82nd Birthday to legendary Canadian coach Orv Franchuk!
The Amesbury, Alta., native has spent more than 50 years in the amateur and professional baseball ranks as a coach and a scout.
After playing college ball at Pepperdine University, Franchuk served as a scout for the Cincinnati Reds from 1977 to 1984. During that period, he doubled as a coach for the Canadian national team.
By 1988, Franchuk had transitioned to the California Angels organization where he served as a scout and as a minor league hitting coach before returning to his home province in 1995 to work as the hitting coach for the Oakland A’s triple-A Edmonton Trappers.
After a stretch as a roving hitting coach in the A’s organization, he came back to Canada again in 2002 when he was hired to manage the A’s class-A Short-Season Vancouver Canadians. Following that campaign, he moved to the Boston Red Sox organization, where he’d work as a minor league hitting instructor and earn a World Series ring with the club in 2004.
He’d later have tenures as a hitting coach in the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres organizations prior to returning home again to manage the independent Northern League’s Edmonton Capitals to a North American League championship in 2011.
For his efforts, he was inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2025.
Remembering Harmon Killebrew
Please take a moment to remember Hall of Famer and legendary Minnesota Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew who passed away 15 years ago today at the age of 74.
As a Canadian baseball history buff, when I think of Killebrew, I think of the influence he had on 2020 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and fellow Twins legend Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.). Morneau used to talk hitting with Killebrew, but Killebrew is also responsible for Morneau’s very legible signature. You can hear the story in the following video:
Barfield set RBI high 40 years ago
It was 40 years ago today that Jesse Barfield recorded a career-high six RBIs for the Blue Jays in their 11-5 win over Cleveland at Exhibition Stadium.
Barfield had a single, a double and a three-run home run in the contest.
For the record, Barfield also had four, five-RBI games during his MLB career
Also, McGriff’s MLB debut
In the same game Barfield registered six RBIs, a 22-year-old slugger named Fred McGriff made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays.
He came in as a defensive replacement for Willie Upshaw at first base in the top of the eighth inning.
Remembering Pascual Perez
Former Montreal Expos pitcher Pascual Perez would’ve turned 69 today.
He died in 2012.
What we tend to forget about him is that beyond his enthusiasm, energy and antics on the field, he was an excellent pitcher for the Expos. In 10 starts for the club in 1987, he went 7-0 with a 2.30 ERA. He followed that up with 12 wins and a 2.44 ERA in 27 starts in 1988 and a 3.31 ERA in 33 appearances in 1989. You can watch some fun highlights of him in the following video:
Trivia question
This week’s trivia question: Who has played the most games as a catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays? Please share your answer in the “Comments” section below.
Last week’s trivia question answer
The answer to last week’s trivia question (Who holds the record for most hits in an MLB season by a Canadian? (Hint: It’s not Larry Walker)) was Tip O’Neill (Woodstock, Ont.) with 225 for the American Association’s St. Louis Browns in 1887.
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