The Expos season got off to a good start. On a side note, this looks to be almost the exact same April schedule for the third year in a row so I will need to look at the schedule generator settings.
The Expos opened the season winning 1 of 3 against the Marlins, 2 of 3 versus the Dodgers, and swept Tampa Bay in three games. At this point 2B Massey was placed on the DL for 6 weeks and SS Devine was placed on a rehab assignment.
The Expos won only 1 of 4 in the next series versus the Mets and followed with a three game sweep of the Phillies. At this point, I activated SS Devine from his rehab assignment and decided it would be more valuable to have Case start at 2B rather than LF, at least while Massey is injured as I have more adequate OF depth than middle infield.
The month concluded with wins in 2 of 3 versus the Giants and 1 of 3 versus the Reds.
This adds up to a 13-9 record for the month.
The worst news of the month came on the last day of the month -- SP Newcomb was placed on the DL for 3-4 months. This could be worse as he should return in the late July to August time frame to hopefully help with a playoff push, but more likely a push to move above or stay above .500. I'm not sure how this will affect whether he will execute his option for 2026, but I feel okay with this either way as he could remain a valuable rotation piece or net a draft pick. I think it is unlikely that he completely unravels after this injury. With the injury to Newcomb, I promoted RP Rosales to the majors as he was performing spectacularly in AAA. MiLB SP McCormick also got consideration and will likely be the next pitching callup, but I want to see if his control improves just a little more with more AAA starting experience.
I also made a trade on the last day of the month, shopping backup 1B Xu while he still had any value. I sent 1B Xu, MiLB SP Stevic, and MiLB 2B Boyd to the Boston Red Sox for CF Omari Williams, MiLB SS Josh Draxler, and MiLB SP Mario Lucero. Williams is the key of this return and will slot into the starting CF role. His defense is fantastic, though slightly less than Reese. His bat, on the other hand is about average, giving him the edge over Reese. At best Draxler projects as an average bat utility infielder, and Lucero could potentially put in a few average-ish years in the back of a rotation if he reaches his potential.
Here is an overview of my batters for the month:
1B Franco is off to a great start, leading the team in virtually all of the counting stats (7 HR, 16 RBI, 15 R). LF Boissiere played very well with fewer plate appearances and should continue to get more opportunities with Case filling in for the injured 2B Massey for several more weeks. C Dillard is off to a slow start, as he was last year as well.
And the pitchers:
Other than SP Newcomb, the rotation performed well, though not spectacularly so. In the bullpen, RP Mejia, one of last year's top performers was the only one to struggle this month. Four of the relief arms posted ERA's below 2.00 and one more was below 3.00. CL Burdi posted a spectacular 15.1 K/9 in 8.1 IP.
Overall, a good start. It could have been better and could have been worse. I didn't add notes on all of the minor (day-to-day) and non-DL injuries, which were fairly notable as several players missed a few games here and there. I hope that this season doesn't spiral into making up for all of the injuries the team managed to avoid the past two years.
Next up, we will see if the Expos can carry this momentum into May...