By Scott Barancik, Editor
Without further ado—heck, without any “ado” whatsoever—below are some recent Jewish highlights from the Majors, Minors, and independent leagues.
Play ball!
MLB
1B Spencer Horwitz (Pirates), who limped onto the injured list June 25 after pulling a hamstring, has no fear. Consider his current rehab stint at Single-A. On July 21, in the four-year veteran’s first game with the Bradenton Marauders, he singled, walked twice, and—perhaps unwisely for a man with a bum hammy—stole second base. Four days later, Horwitz was struck in the face by an 88 mph four-seam fastball. Rather than exit the game, however, he stayed in and stroked a towering, game-tying home run on the first pitch of his very next at-bat (7/28/2026)
LHP Max Fried (Yankees) hadn’t pitched in the Majors in well over two months when he took the mound on July 22, but you would hardly know it. The 6-foot-4-inch southpaw threw five near-perfect innings with seven strikeouts in a 2-0 shutout of the Pirates. Fried needed just 57 pitches, and he allowed only two baserunners: one on a single, and one on a walk (7/7/28/2026)
DH Joc Pederson (Rangers) powered division-leader Texas to a 7-3 win over the Mariners on July 27, going 2-for-4 with two HRs and four RBIs. His first was a 418-foot bomb to lead off the 1st inning. The 13-season veteran has 19 HRs and has homered in 5.9% of all plate appearances—his highest rate since 2019 and seventh-best among AL hitters with at least 15 HRs, close behind stars like Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, and Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero (7/28/2026)
3B Alex Bregman (Cubs) went 4-for-5 with a home run, 2 doubles, a single, and 2 RBIs in a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals on July 27. It was Bregman’s 12th career game with 4+ hits—and his first with Chicago (7/28/2026)
Minors
LF Zach Levenson (Cardinals/AA) hadn’t homered in his last eight games when he took the field against the Royals affiliate on July 26. The 2023 draftee proceeded to smash a trio of round-trippers: a solo HR in the 2nd inning that put his team up 1-0, a solo HR in the 5th inning to tie the score at 2, and a grand slam in the 6th inning to break the game open, en route to a 9-3 win. The opposing pitcher gave Levenson nothing to hit in his fourth and final at-bat, walking him on four pitches (7/28/2026)
That’s a lotta Jew: three Jewish relievers appeared in the same Triple-A game on July 22. Yankees prospect Eric Reyzelman allowed one earned run over 1.1 innings with no hits, a walk, and two strikeouts. He was relieved by Jake Bird, who threw 1.2 scoreless innings with one walk and one strikeout. But it was RHP Ben Simon (Mets) who took the trophy, recording his third Triple-A save in four tries by retiring the side in the 9th inning on just seven pitches. The Mets affiliate beat the Yankees affiliate 5-4 (7/23/2026)
RHP Charlie Beilenson (Mariners/AAA) tossed a perfect inning of relief with one strikeout in his Triple-A debut, a 9-7 win over the Diamondbacks affiliate on July 21, and was credited with the victory. The 2024 draftee threw nine strikes in 13 pitches. Before his promotion, Beilenson had eight saves in Double-A, tied for second in the Texas League. His 2.03 ERA and 0.95 WHIP ranked second (40+ innings), while his 4.64 K/BB ratio ranked fourth (7/28/2026)
DH Rowdy Tellez (Braves/AAA) hit a game-tying home run in a July 21 loss to the Cubs affiliate, his 12th round-tripper of the season in 205 ABs and the fourth game in a six-game span in which he had homered. Through July 25, Tellez led the Gwinnett Stripers with an .890 OPS and .517 slugging percentage, ranked second with 12 HRs and a 130 wRC+, and ranked third with an 0.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 14.1% walk rate (7/28/2026)
RHP Josh Mallitz (Padres/AA) earned his team-leading fourth save in five chances in a 4-3 win over the 1st-place Rangers affiliate on July 25, tossing three scoreless innings while allowing one hit and no walks and striking out three. Through July 25, Mallitz’s 2.80 strikeout-to-walk ratio was tops among San Antonio Missions pitchers with at least 40 innings (7/28/2026)
Independent Leagues
RHP Aaron Glickstein, a 29-year-old reliever with the Schaumburg Boomers of the independent Frontier League, is playing the best ball of his five seasons with the team. In 30.2 innings across 22 appearances this season, the SUNY-Stony Brook alum ranks second on the Boomers in ERA (2.64) and saves (3), first in WHIP (0.913) and fewest walks per nine innings (1.17), and 36 strikeouts against just four walks (7/28/2026)
1B Hank Zeisler, a 27-year-old in his fourth season with the Florence Y’alls of the independent Frontier League, is giving New York Boulders catcher Jason Agresti a run for his money at the plate. Zeisler ranks 11th in the league with a .340 batting average, is tied for second with 21 doubles, comes in fourth at 62 RBIs, and has produced 10 HRs, a .421 OBP, and a .970 OPS (7/28/2026)
— Da End —
