ATLANTA, GA - JUNE 28: Spencer Schwellenbach #56 of the Atlanta Braves pitches in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Truist Park on June 28, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Heading into this season, the Braves were anticipating that Spencer Schwellenbach would be healthy and ready to go after he had his 2025 season cut short due to a fractured elbow. Unfortunately, here on the first day of pitchers and catchers being at spring training, it’s become clear that Schwellenbach’s elbow is still bothering him.
Braves beat writer Mark Bowman of MLB.com is reporting that Spencer Schwellenbach is experiencing elbow inflammation in his throwing arm and as such, he’ll be starting the year on the 60-Day IL.
Spencer Schwellenbach is dealing with right elbow inflammation. The Braves are hoping he’s just dealing with bone spurs. But he’ll miss significant time. He’ll begin the year on the 60-day IL
The only good news about this is that because we’re so early on in things, if all goes well then he could start ramping up to return starting in April since recovery from having bone spurs removed via surgery is usually 10-12 weeks. Still, you never want to see pitchers miss this much time early on since they’ll be behind the proverbial 8-ball once the regular season rolls around and Schwellenbach starting the season on the 60-Day IL means we’re not going to see him pitch for a couple of months as a result — smooth recovery or not. You also definitely don’t want to see elbow issues of this magnitude coming from a young pitcher of Schwellenbach’s caliber — especially considering that elbow issues are what ended up costing him the majority of his 2025 campaign.
The only thing the Braves can do now is just hope that the inflammation is being caused by the bone spurs, since that’d be pretty straight-forward in terms of treatment and recovery. If anything gets more complicated then that’ll certainly be concerning and then he could very well miss a ton of time once the regular season rolls around. We’ve just got to hope for the best when it comes to this and have also got to hope that between this and Ha-Seong Kim’s stroke of bad luck that the Braves are getting their bad injury luck out of the way early on. Atlanta has some pretty high expectations for this upcoming season and just about the only way that this could be derailed is if they end up going through another injury-plagued season.
The good news is that Atlanta’s offseason dealings have insured that they will at least have a lot better depth than they did during the 2025 season but it’s certainly kind of lame to see that depth being put to the test right from the jump.
Also in other news, Bowman is also reporting that Robert Suarez will be late reporting to camp because he’s dealing with visa issues. Fortunately, that’s not an injury but it’s still just another frustrating thing for the Braves to deal with this early on in the campaign.
The return of Texas Ranger pitcher Cody Bradford from internal brace surgery has been both eagerly awaited and a topic of much discussion among Rangers fans over the winter. Jeff Wilson talked to Bradford this morning in Surprise, and we have good news in regards to an update.
Per Wilson, Bradford is throwing his seventh bullpen session today, and after the first six featured all fastballs, Bradford will be looking to throw “8-10” changeups today. Bradford also said he is “[s]till aiming for a May return.”
This is one of those situations where no news — or at least, no change in the news — is good news. May has been what has been suggested as a target date for Bradford’s return for some time, and the fact that he is still on track to do that is a positive. And while I will note that a “May return” is kind of vague and could be interpreted different ways — does that mean a return to the big leagues in May, for example, or a return to pitching in competitive games in May, which would mean starting a rehab assignment then — Bradford has previously indicated that he was hopeful to be close to being ready to go out on a rehab assignment soon after the season starts, which would seem to mean that May is when he would potentially be ready to return to the big club.
Bradford followed up an up-and-down rookie season in 2023 with a 2024 campaign that saw him perform well when he was healthy enough to be on the mound. Bradford put up a 3.54 ERA and 3.44 xERA for Texas in 2024, making 13 starts and a relief appearance and throwing 76 innings. It was hoped that Bradford would be able to step up and claim a rotation spot in 2025, establishing himself as a member of the rotation, before his elbow issues ended up costing him the season.
The Rangers currently have a front four in the rotation you have to feel good about, with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore and Jack Leiter. Kumar Rocker and Jacob Latz appear to be the favorites to claim the fifth spot in the rotation to start the season, with Jose Corniell also a possibility to contribute to the rotation at some point in 2026, and non-roster invitees Cal Quantrill, Pat Murphy and Austin Gomber in camp.
If Bradford can return on schedule and perform like he did in 2024, the Rangers would have a very solid 1 through 5 on paper, and allow them the luxury of using Latz in the bullpen as a swingman, having Rocker in AAA as depth along with any veterans who don’t opt out, and allowing Corniell, along with the likes of David Davalillo and Winston Santos, to get regular starts in the minors.
Los Angeles won its second straight World Series in 2025 (Credit: Getty)
The phrase "Game 7" is often labeled as the best two words in sports. And last season for the Dodgers, it's hard to argue otherwise.
Los Angeles trailed the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 entering the eighth inning, before going on a magical run filled with home runs, great defensive plays and the pitching performance of a lifetime to win 5-4 in extra innings and win the team's second consecutive World Series.
Now, the Dodgers are sharing relics of that historic comeback with fans. The team announced Monday this upcoming 2026 season would feature a Game 7 Bobblehead Series. There will be four different bobbleheads in the series, each depicting one of the game-changing plays in the team's Game 7 comeback.
The first will come on Saturday, March 28 vs the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team's third game of the season and first weekend game. It will be Will Smith bobblehead night. Smith hit the go-ahead home run in 11th inning of Game 7.
The second bobblehead in the series features Miguel Rojas, who became the first player in MLB history to hit a game-tying home run in the 9th inning or later of a World Series Game 7. This bobblehead will be featured on Friday, May 8 vs the Atlanta Braves.
The third bobblehead, and perhaps the most important of the three, is the Yoshinobu Yamamoto "Game 7 Last Out" Bobblehead on Wednesday, May 27 vs the Colorado Rockies. Yamamoto provided a Herculean effort in Game 7, pitching 2.2 innings of shutout baseball on zero days rest, having just dominated Game 6. It put an exclamation point on what was already one of the most dominant World Series runs by any pitcher in history.
The final bobblehead in the series comes on Friday, June 19 vs the Baltimore Orioles, showcasing the final out of the game. Mookie Betts, who spent a decade as a perennial Gold Glove outfielder, shifted to play shortstop for the Dodgers due to team injuries and has now made the position home.
He made the final play of the World Series, producing an unassisted 6-3 double play to end the game and the series.
The Dodgers will celebrate their remarkable Game 7 comeback with bobbleheads
While these four bobbleheads certainly make up quite the showcase, the Dodgers have a staggering 24 bobblehead nights this season, despite leading the league every year in attendance since 2013.
Individual game tickets go on sale to the public on Thursday, February 12 at 1 PM ET.
_Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. _
SURPRISE, AZ - MARCH 08: The Kansas City Royals logo on the field before the spring training MLB baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Texas Rangers on March 8, 2020 at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Football is over, the weather in Kansas City is spring-like, and today we can say one of the sweetest sentences you can hear in February. No, it’s not “Happy Valentine’s Day,” it’s “pitchers and catchers report today.”
Pitchers and catchers will have their first workout tomorrow, while the rest of the squad will have their first full workout on Monday, February 16. The Royals will have a little over six weeks to prepare for the season opener on March 27 in Atlanta against the Braves. In the meantime, here is what you need to know about the boys in blue in Arizona.
Where do the Royals spend spring training?
The Royals’ spring training facility is in Surprise, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. They share a facility with the Texas Rangers and play games at Surprise Stadium, which seats 10,500 fans. For more information on the stadium or to order tickets, click here.
Fifteen teams train in Arizona, which has a drier climate and allows for closer proximity to other teams than spring training in Florida.
What is the spring training schedule?
The Royals will play 32 exhibition matchups to prepare for the regular season, beginning on February 20 against the Rangers. In addition to playing other MLB teams training in Arizona, the Royals will take on Team Cuba on March 3, as that team prepares for the World Baseball Classic. MLB will also once again hold Spring Breakout games, where prospects for each team get the spotlight. Royals prospects will take on Rangers prospects on March 20. The team then breaks camp and heads to Arlington, Texas for two exhibition games on March 23 and 24 before they begin the regular season in Atlanta.
Many players will not be part of camp as they participate in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Pool play takes place March 5-11 in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Tokyo, Japan; Houston, Texas; and Miami, Florida, with the championship game to be played March 17 in Miami, Florida. You can watch games on FOX, FS1, and FS2. Among the Royals participating are:
Bobby Witt Jr. and Michael Wacha (USA)
Seth Lugo (Puerto Rico)
Salvador Perez and Maikel Garcia (Venezuela)
Carlos Estévez (Dominican Republic)
Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone (Italy)
How can I follow Royals spring training games?
The Royals have ended their relationship with FanDuel Sports Network to create Royals.TV. They anticipate some spring training games to be televised, but have not yet announced which games will air. Royals.TV will be available on many cable and satellite providers, and is available as a direct-to-consumer streaming option at $19.99 per month or $99.99 for in-market viewers, or $149.99 for out-of-market viewers. Ryan Lefebvre, Rex Hudler, and Jeremy Guthrie return for television broadcasts, with Joel Goldberg and Jeff Montgomery on pre- and post-game coverage.
The Royals will also likely air many spring training games on the Royals Radio network, but those games have not yet been announced. You can also, of course, discuss Royals spring training games in Royals Review gamethreads!
Who is in camp?
The Royals will have 67 players in big league camp – their 40-man roster plus 27 non-roster invitees. The list of non-roster invitees includes former first-round picks Blake Mitchell, Gavin Cross, and Frank Mozzicato, as well as MLB veterans like Jorge Alfaro, Luke Maile, Abraham Toro, Aaron Sanchez, and Héctor Neris.
*-denotes non-roster invitee
Catchers (10): Jorge Alfaro*, Canyon Brown*, Omar Hernandez*, Carter Jensen, Luke Maile*, Elih Marrero*, Blake Mitchell*, Salvador Pérez, Ramon Ramirez*, Luca Tresh*
Infielders (13): Brandon Drury*, Maikel Garcia, Jonathan India, Connor Kaiser*, Michael Massey, Kevin Newman*, Vinnie Pasquantino, Josh Rojas*, Tyler Tolbert, Abraham Toro*, Daniel Vazquez*, Peyton Wilson*, Bobby Witt Jr.
Outfielders (11): Dairon Blanco, Jac Caglianone, Gavin Cross*, Isaac Collins, Kyle Isbel, Nick Loftin, Kameron Misner, John Rave, Carson Roccaforte*, Lane Thomas, Drew Waters
Pitchers (33): Luinder Avila, Ryan Bergert, Mason Black, Kris Bubic, Noah Cameron, A.J. Causey*, Eric Cerantola, Dennis Colleran*, Steven Cruz, Jose Cuas*, Lucas Erceg, Carlos Estévez, Bailey Falter, Stephen Kolek, Ben Kudrna, Alex Lange, Seth Lugo, Daniel Lynch IV, Alec Marsh, Chazz Martinez*, James McArthur, Nick Mears, Frank Mozzicato*, Héctor Neris*, Helcris Olivárez*, Shane Panzini*, Hunter Patteson*, Cole Ragans, Aaron Sanchez*, John Schreiber, Matt Strahm, Michael Wacha, Steven Zobac
What are some spring training storylines?
There are really three big storylines going into camp. First, are Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen ready for the big leagues? The Royals need to upgrade their offense and lengthen the lineup, and both hitters show tremendous potential. Jensen excelled in a month-long call-up last year, while Caglianone struggled. The Royals have said Caglianone will have to earn a spot in the lineup, so his spring performance could be important.
Second, is the Royals pitching staff healthy? Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic each missed the second half of the season with injury, hurting a strength for the team. Seth Lugo really struggled the final two months and will look to enter this season refreshed and looking to return to his 2024 form. The Royals have built depth in their rotation – enough that they looked to trade some of it for a bat – but they’ll need their frontline pitchers to stay healthy to have a chance to compete.
Finally, is the team done upgrading? J.J. Picollo cited the offense as a concern last year, and did add some improvements by acquiring Isaac Collins from the Brewers and signing free agent Lane Thomas. But he has not acquired the impact bat that can move the needle, and opportunities have dwindled as an already-thin free agent market has been depleted. There is still time to make a trade, but time is running out and the Royals may begin the season with the team at hand.
Are you headed to spring training? Any tips for someone checking out some Arizona baseball?
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 13: Angel Chivilli #57 of the Colorado Rockies pitches against the San Diego Padres during the eighth inning at Petco Park on September 13, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Heading into the 2026 season, the New York Yankees have some kinks to work out and some roles to be filled by those who are able to step up to the plate (for lack of a better phrase) and take advantage. The pitching staff is dealing with injuries—primarily to the starters—and the bullpen lost a couple of weapons who, despite both having down years in their careers, did eat up innings for them last season.
There are plenty of arguments to go around about which pitchers in the bullpen should take which spots. The Yankees brought back some familiar faces and acquired hurlers on multi-year contracts at last year’s trade deadline to help themselves out, but there are a few new faces in the clubhouse as well, including Angel Chivilli, who was acquired on January 28th from the Colorado Rockies.
An offseason critique of the decision-making from this Yankees’ front office is that they didn’t bring in any names to bolster the bullpen. Instead, they brought in a handful of reclamation projects that need lots of coaching before they’re able to trim their ERAs down to a respectable level. Chivilli, while a young pitcher with some promise, is one of the projects for pitching coach Matt Blake and his staff.
At just 23 years old heading into this season, Chivilli has some traits that could be highly useful and, more importantly, refinable for his second full season at the major league level (as my colleague Josh cited in his feature on the Chivilli trade). Between 2024 and 2025, his average fastball velocity jumped from 96.2 to 97.1 mph. In fact, his fastball sat in the 88th percentile among all major league pitchers after the 2025 season, according to Baseball Savant.
Chivilli also throws a changeup and a slider, which have proven to be decent secondary and tertiary pitches, as he tosses his slider at almost 91 mph on average and a whiff rate of over 45 percent, while his changeup comes in with a .225 batting average against and a 42.6-percent whiff rate.
However, his fastball and slider were hit a lot last season. Opposing batters hit .366 against the fastball and .302 against the slider, but the difference between the pitches comes in what batters were expected to do against them. The fastball—while an impressive velocity—wasn’t as lethal as it could have been, coming in with an expected batting average of .338 with very spotty command. On the other hand, the slider finished with an expected batting average of .202.
All those numbers are a bit concerning, considering everything at stake here for the Yankees. If they are unable to work through Chivilli’s troubles with his two main pitches, then that’s another option in the bullpen down the drain, and it makes the workload much harder for everyone who is already being relied upon to produce outs. However, there is reason to believe that the fastball can be figured out. For such a young pitcher to have that velocity relative to his peers is exciting, and getting him out of the Colorado altitude—and the taxing travel that comes with flying back and forth from Denver—should immediately give him at least a minor boost anyway. It’ll be the job for Blake and the Yankees to figure out why he’s been hit so hard and how to address it. It would be a project worth pursuing regardless; the pressure will just be higher given the bullpen’s other needs.
If Chivilli is going to work out with the Yankees, there needs to be some serious work on his ability to control the ball and find a strikeout touch (or even just a “get outs” touch). Clearly, Chivilli has the kind of arm that should be able to get outs at the highest level. He has a chance to be another helpful reclamation project out of the bullpen, following the likes of Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Ian Hamilton, and Lucas Luetge. Whether the Yankees are able to hit on someone like Chivilli and find a diamond in the rough could go a long way toward determining the bullpen’s fate in 2026.
ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 08: Rookie Drake Baldwin #30 of the Atlanta Braves celebrates after scoring during the Monday evening MLB game between the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs on September 8, 2025 at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Do y’all remember the time when Baseball Prospectus would drop their annual PECOTA projections and there would be gnashing of teeth and rending of garments on the Braves Country corner of the internet? That was because for years, if there was any team that represented the whole “PECOTA hates your team” belief, it was the Braves because they’d routinely come in somewhat underrated compared to how the fanbase or even other projection models felt about the team.
Well, those days appear to be over because PECOTA has actually been quite fond of the Braves in recent seasons. Baseball Prospectus has just released their annual PECOTA projections for the 2026 season (and I highly recommend that y’all go over there and subscribe so you can get even more high-quality baseball analysis and data concerning these projections) and just like FanGraphs, PECOTA figures that the Braves are going to bounce back in 2026.
As of right now, PECOTA has the Braves winning 92 games and losing 70 — it’s actually 69.8 but I’m rounding up, as usual. They’re currently projected to win the division with a 57 percent shot at doing that and they’ve also been given a 34 percent shot at making the Wild Card, which has sent them up to a 90 percent shot of making the Postseason. Additionally, PECOTA is giving the Braves a 72 percent shot at making the Divisional Round and a nine percent chance at winning the World Series altogether. That’s once again good for the second-best odds in the National League and they only trail the Dodgers. If PECOTA could actually be infatuated with a team then I’d imagine that it would be singing the words to OutKast’s “Prototype” to the Los Angeles roster.
Here’s a look at one of the graphs that comes associated with the standings, which shows the simulated win percentage for each team in the NL East. I like this because I’m definitely a visual learner and also it gives you a better idea of how the divisional race is projected to shake out.
Once again, it’s looking like this’ll be a three-way dance between the Braves, Mets and Phillies for the NL East crown. PECOTA is actually pretty low on the Phillies but then again, they were also low on them heading into last season and look how that turned out. The point is that once again, we’re not going to know how any of this shakes out until the games actually get played but for now and that there’s always a chance that this could look very different once October rolls around.
With that being said, I think everybody here on the Braves corner of the internet is hoping that these projections actually stick for once. The Braves have had some rosy projections for a couple of seasons now and none of it really came to pass. Here’s hoping that this season actually does go how the projection models figure it will (well, outside of the Dodgers sauntering to another World Series crown) and that the Braves are once again mixing it up with baseball’s elite clubs.
We’re not too far removed from this team spending two-and-a-half years across 2021 through 2021 as one of the most dominant teams in the regular season and hopefully these projections from both PECOTA and FanGraphs signal a return to that level of form for the Braves.
CINCINNATI, OH - SEPTEMBER 20: Aaron Civale #38 of the Chicago Cubs pitches during the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, September 20, 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Abdoul Sow/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
After spending all winter long scouring the free agent market for a veteran addition to their starting rotation, the A’s finally landed one just in time for Pitchers and Catchers reporting, agreeing to terms with right-hander Aaron Civale on a one-year deal for the 2026 campaign.
Right-hander Aaron Civale and the A’s are in agreement on a one-year, $6 million contract, sources tell ESPN. Civale, 30, adds a veteran arm to an A’s team with hopes of competing for a postseason spot this year and can make an additional $1.5 million in incentives.
One of the items on the team’s offseason wishlist was adding a veteran starter to stabilize a rotation short on certainty. Civale fits that bill to a T and it’ll only cost $6 million to secure his services (plus incentives). That’s a great deal for a pitcher like Civale at this stage of the offseason and fits perfectly with the Athletics’ needs.
The 30-year-old Civale began his career in Cleveland and spent the first four and a half years of his career with the Guardians. At times the right-hander flashed potential but he was never quite able to find much consistency, though he was a reliable member of their starting staff for years.
Civale found his way to Tampa in a mid-season trade in 2023 but struggled in the second half of that year as well as the first half the following season, eventually finding himself on the move again mid-season to Milwaukee, where he stepped his game up over the final couple months of the 2024 campaign.
The right-hander began this most recent season in the Brewers’ starting rotation but was bumped to the bullpen when Milwaukee promoted top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski. That didn’t sit well with the 7-year veteran who subsequently requested a trade to a team that would use him as a starter. He got his wish with another trade, this time going to the Chicago White Sox and making 13 starts for the South Siders. The results weren’t great and he’d find himself on the move one more time before the season was out, getting claimed by the other Chicago squad and pitching five games in relief for the Cubbies, his first five relief appearances in his entire career. Overall on his big league resume Civale has a 4.14 EEA in 140 games as a big league pitcher.
Civale should immediately slide into the starting rotation behind fellow veterans Jeffrey Springs and Luis Severino. The A’s had lots of interesting young arms on the verge of being able to contribute but the team needed more certainty, and to replace the lost innings by the departures of JP Sears and Osvaldo Bido. Civale should be a workhorse for the A’s during the first half of the season and as always with these types of deals if Civale is pitching well come the trade deadline he could be used as trade bait to acquire more prospects to improve the farm system even further/opening a rotation spot for a younger pitcher.
Now there are only two spots in the starting rotation left to be fought over. One would have to think left-hander Jacob Lopez has a leg up on one of those spots but he dealt with an injury at the end of last year so the A’s might take things easy with him to start. Arms like Luis Morales, JT Ginn, Gunnar Hoglund, and Jack Perkins now face an uphill battle to break camp with the club as a starting pitcher (though the bullpen may await one or two of those arms as well).
Welcome aboard Aaron! You’re joining a team certainly on the rise with outside hopes of contending. You’ll like the crew we have here.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 30: Dylan Cease #84 of the San Diego Padres speaks to the media during a press conference ahead of the NL Wild Card Series between the San Diego Padres and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 30, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Pitchers and catchers report to Dunedin tomorrow, so I wanted to ask who you’re most interested in watching this spring?
All eyes are going to be on Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, as the big offseason signings. We know that Cease will look great, it’s just a matter of seeing whether his stuff translates into results this season. Ponce will be interesting, we’ll get to find out how his improved stuff translates back to North America after his time in Japan and Korea
We’ll also have last year’s guys to scrutinize. Will Jeff Hoffman bounce back? Can Jose Berrios regain his form?
Prospect hipster that I am, though, I might be most intrigued by Spencer Miles. The Rule 5 pick touches 98 with what’s reported to be a nice slider and even some command. He’s managed just 23 innings in three and a half seasons since being drafted, but then he’s punched out 34 in that time. He’s a long shot to stick with the team, but if he does there’s some fun upside.
Whose shaky iPhone workout videos will you be poring over this week as we desperately pretend that baseball is here?
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - JANUARY 6: Nae'qwan Tomlin #35 of the Cleveland Cavaliers jogs up the court during the game against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on January 6, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed two-way forward Nae’Qwan Tomlin to a standard contract worth $3 million over two years, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Tomlin has played 43 games with the Cavaliers this season. The Cavs have currently filled all of their standard roster spots and now have one two-way slot remaining.
The Cavs first signed Tomlin to an Exhibit-10 deal in September of 2024. After a strong season with the Charge, where Tomlin averaged 17.2 points and 7.3 rebounds, he was signed to a 10-day contract in February of 2025, then later converted to a two-way deal after that.
Tomlin, a 6’8” forward who didn’t start playing organized basketball until college, is the quintessential example of how the G-League should work. Cleveland found a hidden gem, polished him with the Charge, then allowed him to prove himself.
The Cavaliers quickly learned how beneficial Tomlin could be when they turned to him for minutes earlier in the season. Tomlin made an immediate impact by being a high-motor athlete whose energy and activity made him a contributor. Especially at a time when the team was lacking effort more than anything.
Tomlin has averaged 6.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game this season. He’s delivered on highlight plays such as stripping Luka Doncic and throwing down a windmill dunk in Cleveland’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers. But he’s also played a smaller role in numerous wins for the Cavs, playing his role and doing the dirty work.
There is still room for improvement. Tomlin, at this point, is shooting just 22% from downtown. Opponents have begun ignoring him entirely on the perimeter. While he can cut to the basket and make up for some of this, it will eventually become a deal breaker if Tomlin can’t consistently knock down corner three-pointers.
Nevertheless, this is the dream for all two-way players. Make the most of your opportunities, prove you belong in the rotation, and then earn the big deal. The job is never finished, but this is a moment worth celebrating. Congrats, Tomlin. You earned it.
It's one thing to hear fans say it — Lakers fans know this is not a championship team. They've known for a while that this was a good but flawed roster, one not built to maximize the strengths of Luka Doncic, one not deep enough to absorb the loss of Austin Reaves for an extended time (for example), one that is not a genuine threat to the teams at the top of the West. Trust me as someone who lives in Southern California (and whose friends are largely Lakers fans), they get it.
It's another to hear LeBron James say the quiet part out loud.
Which he did on Monday night after a game where both teams were missing their MVP candidate — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) and Luka Doncic (hamstring) — and the depth of the Thunder roster got them the 119-110 win, with seven players scoring in double figures, three off the bench.
LeBron: "We can't sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes and they can. That's why they won a championship." pic.twitter.com/CBMK3s3P8Q
"You want me to compare us to them? That's a championship team right there. We're not. We can't sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can. That's why they won a championship."
The issue with the Lakers is clear: They have the 22nd-ranked defense in the NBA. It's not just one thing, the Lakers are 24th in the league in halfcourt defense and 21st in transition defense (stats via Cleaning the Glass). They lack perimeter defenders (especially who can shoot), and Deandre Ayton is not the future at the five. While the Lakers' offense is solid (11th in the league), they lack shooting, they are 23rd in the league in the percentage of points generated on 3-pointers. LeBron isn't saying anything everyone didn't know, but when LeBron is saying it, the statement carries some weight.
Two other things remain true as well.
First, this team is still a tough out in the first round of the playoffs if healthy — Doncic, LeBron and Reaves are going to score points and thrive in the slower, halfcourt game of the playoffs. Doncic will hit big shots. They can win games, and if things break right (with matchups and health), they can win a round.
Second, changes are coming this summer. To the roster, and to the front office. And that likely includes the end of the LeBron James era with the Lakers.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 02: Gabriel Arias #13 of the Cleveland Guardians looks on prior to Game Three of the American League Wildcard Series against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field on October 02, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
Now is the winter of our discontent. So, spake Shakespeare and so speak many Guardians fans right now.
Currently, the Cleveland Guardians seem set to enter the 2026 baseball season cutting almost $30 million from their 2025 payroll and trusting internal options and Stuart Fairchild to improve their 28th-best MLB offense from last year. Understandably, I have heard from many fans who are so frustrated they are canceling ticket plans, streaming options, instituting boycotts, etc. Seeing ownership cut payroll after a miraculous division run is a tough pill to swallow.
I have used my cognitive dissonance theory techniques to bring myself around to place of acceptance and excitement about this team, while realizing that when they force Gabriel Arias as their Opening Day shortstop and Nolan Jones as their Opening Day centerfielder on me that I’ll be due for another outbreak of resentment. But, for fans whose discontent is at a more unbearable level, I do think the Guardians could still do one or more of five different moves to bring understandably upset fans back into the fold:
Move #1: Trade for Nico Hoerner from the Chicago Cubs
Analysis: I believe Nico Hoerner would be available at the right price, given the Cubs’ current players and needs. The Guardians should find that price and meet it. Hoerner has one year of control remaining, but the team could pay the return price for Hoerner and pursue an extension that he should be amendable to considering. Hoerner has a career 103 wRC+ which won’t excite anyone, but he has a career 120 wRC+ vs. LHP and 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 23 Outs Above Average for his career at shortstop. He’s a better second baseman, but he is perfectly capable of winning a gold glove at short. Acquire Hoerner, install him as the shortstop, move Brayan Rocchio to second base and you have Travis Bazzana behind him in case he proves to be more of a fit in the utility role. If Rocchio succeeds as a hitter and Bazzana is succeeding in Columbus, you can flip Hoerner at the deadline. I don’t think there is a better fit for a potential trade anywhere in baseball, and I know the Guardians like Hoerner. Now, if they have a trade fit for a centerfielder that I don’t see… I am certainly on-board for that. Making A move for an established veteran hitter to plug into the lineup and raise the roster floor just seems like a necessity… and it has all offseason.
Signing Rhys Hoskins, Randal Grichuk or Griffin Canning would be nice, but I am not pounding the table for them. If it happens, cool. If not, I get it.
Move #2: Indicate that Gabriel Arias and Daniel Schneemann are in content for the utility role, not starting roles.
Analysis: I am not saying this indication should or will be made publicly, but, if the roster remains as is, I’d like to see Rocchio playing at shortstop every time he is on the field in Spring Training. Folks, we know who Arias is as a hitter. He isn’t going to change. There is still hope with Rocchio, albeit getting slimmer by the day. But, his 100 wRC+ performance to end the last three months of play gives some hope that needs to be tested (if the team doesn’t add a Nico Hoerner, of course). Arias and Schneemann are 75-85 wRC+ hitters who offer defensive versatility of different sorts, so let me start to see a lot of “A” lineups in Spring Training with Rocchio at short and Juan Brito, Travis Bazzana and even Angel Martinez paired with him at second base and I will start to feel a lot more optimistic that the team is serious about not wanting to block their young players.
I am tempted to say the same thing about wanting Chase DeLauter, Stuart Fairchild and Angel Martinez to get the majority of “A” lineup reps in centerfield over Nolan Jones, but I think it may just be untenable to play DeLauter in centerfield because of his injury risk. In that case, Jones is probably the best option on the roster for those primary reps in centerfield (which is SAD, but, ANYway…). Just have to hope that Jones’ back issues have resolved and his trip to Driveline has helped him get to more of his potential as a hitter.
Move #3: If healthy, don’t mess around with Parker Messick in Columbus.
Analysis: Messick was a revelation last season. I suspect IF the team has their top six pitchers emerge from Spring Training healthy (which would be a minor miracle) that they may have Messick start in Columbus and Logan Allen in Cleveland, mostly to help manage Messick’s innings load. Forget that. Let Messick pitch in Cleveland and manage his innings with bullpen help. Let this bulldog eat and show us you’re going to try to field a top 5-10 rotation in baseball. This one of a series of things the team can do to show us they are not going to block their best prospects (as they have REPEATEDLY stated) and try to let their best players lead them back to a division title.
Move #4: Pursue extension talks with Steven Kwan, Kyle Manzardo, Cade Smith, Gavin Williams and Chase DeLauter.
Analysis: First of all, I know Williams isn’t going to extend because Boras is his agent. Still… approach him with an offer, just in case. Aside from that quixotic effort, see if Kwan’s injury issues make him more apt to consider a reasonable extension. If he’s dedicated to getting to free agency and being paid as a 4-win outfielder… that’s his right, but I am fine letting him pursue that goal and not being willing to pay him at that rate given his struggles to stay healthy. Manzardo seems like the most reasonable extension candidate – let him lock in arb salaries and buy out some free agency years in a deal that should be team friendly. See if Smith wants to lock in some security given his age and the volatility of relief arms. And, finally, I’d love it if the team would be able to use DeLauter’s injury struggles to lock him in at a reasonable salary for his arb years and buy a couple years of free agency. I don’t expect it, but that would be the most exciting extension they could do, in my humble view.
Move #5: Announce that Guards Fest will be an annual event, again, starting in 2028
Analysis: Yes, I am still bitter. No, I won’t give it up.
GLENDALE, AZ - MARCH 12: Los Angeles Dodgers fans wait in the ticket line to get refunds at Camelback Ranch after Major League Baseball suspends Spring Training on March 12, 2020 in Glendale, Arizona. MLB suspended spring training due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Spring training for the Dodgers begins in earnest this weekend at Camelback Ranch. Here are a few dates to keep in mind for the next six weeks.
In this episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jacob Milham and Jeremy “Hokius” Greco welcome the return of baseball with a wide-ranging discussion that blends spring training excitement, roster analysis, and the broader culture surrounding the game. The show opens with reflections on spring training energy, recent MLB trades, MJ Melendez’s fresh start with the Mets, and the lasting legacy of Terrance Gore, before shifting into how changes to MLB TV and global events like the World Baseball Classic affect fans and players alike.
The heart of the episode focuses on an in-depth breakdown of the Kansas City Royals’ pitching rotation, ranking current starters and evaluating both established arms and emerging prospects. Jacob and Jeremy analyze the importance of bounce-back seasons for veterans like Seth Lugo, the stability provided by arms such as Stephen Kolek, and the upside of younger pitchers including Noah Cameron, Kendry Chourio, and Mason Black. With thoughtful context on injuries, command, and player development, the episode offers a clear-eyed look at the Royals’ pitching depth and what it means for the team’s competitiveness moving forward.
So we took a look at the experienced guys in the dirt with the infield preview yesterday. Today we take a look at the outfield. It does have some familiar names, but the entire starting outfield for the postseason run in 2025 is gone either with the transfer portal or graduation. Husker head coach Will Bolt has said who will get the first crack at starting in the new look outfield. So lets go through that group of returners and then check on who will be pushing them for playing time.
Left Field
Gone: Gabe Swansen (Sr.), Hayden Lewis (R-Soph.)
Back: Will Jesske (Jr.)
Mr. May, Gabe Swansen, is leaving quite a void in left field. He finished 1 home run shy of tying Ken Harvey for 10th all time in program history. Combine that with the numerous clutch hits in some of the biggest games of the last 20 years for the program, and it’s going to take a lot to replace him. Will Jesske is going to get the first opportunity to take over his spot. Jesske will be fully giving up his original position of catcher to move into the outfield full time. He has always been a good line drive hitter, but added some more power last year with 11 extra base hits in his 29 starts.
It’s hard to see the outfield defense being anywhere near as good as 2025. Riley Silva roamed the Haymarket Park outfield as well as anyone of recent memory. And Robby Bolin looked primed to succeed him the same way he did in JUCO. Bolin was probably the biggest surprise of the transfer portal departures. He would have been the only true outfielder returning, but instead chose to head south to Kansas State.
That void in center will be filled by Devin Nunez. Originally brought here as a second baseman, he transitioned to the outfield to get more at bats as the outfield was really struggling offensively for large stretches of the 2025 season. His bat has been elite since he was inserted into the lineup, so he has to be an everyday player, and the most obvious slot for him is taking over the center field duties. He is a good athlete and has great natural baseball instincts, so I don’t feel he will be a liability on defense, but it’s going to be hard to live up to Silva and Bolin’s playmaking abilities.
Right Field
Gone: Cael Frost (Sr.)
Back: Max Buettenback (Jr.)
Cael Frost was supposed to be the big addition offensively in 2025. He had the long 0-for start to the season and despite showing off his incredible power when he did make contact, his hits were few and far between. He left to use his extra year of eligibility from the JUCO ruling at Western Kentucky.
After his breakout summer ball campaign, Max Buettenback was the best and most consistent hitter in the Husker lineup until he was sidelined with mono. He never really regained his form, as he only had 3 hits in the month of May. Before that he had a stretch where he had multiple hits in 7 out of 14 games, batting .417 over that stretch. He will be the everyday right fielder to start the season, and a fixture in the middle of the lineup.
New Faces: Mac Moyer (Jr.), Preston Freeman (R-Jr.), Drew Grego (Fr.)
An Oregon commit out of high school, Mac Moyer comes to Lincoln after a very productive JUCO career. Baseball fans will know his dad, Jamie Moyer, a left handed pitcher who lasted 25 years in the Major Leagues despite never getting close to throwing 90 mph. He was a World Series champion with the Phillies in 2008 and has the wild fact of having faced 7.5% of all batters to have ever played in the majors when he retired. Both of Mac’s brothers have also been drafted into the MLB. Like his old man, Mac throws and hits lefty. He batted .394 his first year in JUCO and .354 last season with 38 extra base hits in his two seasons in which he was named first team all conference both times. Baseball is in his blood, and he will be hard to keep down.
Nebraska tried to get some speed back with Preston Freeman. Freeman didn’t get on the field much his first year in JUCO, but then took off in his second year to the tune of a .355 batting average, 16 doubles, 7 triples, 4 home runs and an OPS of .966. Freeman has the ability to play a high level of defense at not only the outfield positions, but on the infield as well, providing a lot of versatility.
The Huskers added one of the best baseball athletes in the state in Drew Grego. He owns nearly every record at Bellevue West playing mainly short stop and pitcher. He was a two time Super State honoree and tabbed the #7 ranked recruit coming out of his class in Nebraska. Grego hit over .450 both of his last two seasons, and had 27 RBIs and 26 runs scored last season. His future looks bright, but it will take some fighting to get through all the bats ahead of him.
On Deck
Two of the most important bats in Nunez and Buettenback reside in the Husker outfield, but none of the main contributors in the outfield are in their natural position. Nunez, a middle infielder and Jesske and Buettenback are former catchers and 3rd basemen. The coaches tried this a few years ago with mixed results defensively. This outfield is better athletically than the one in 2022, so hopefully that wont be quite so glaring. Speaking of athletes moving positions to the outfield, don’t be surprised to see Jeter Worthley out in left field should the staff deem he needs a day off from the rigors of catching. He was there in fall ball and didn’t look out of place in the least.
Our preview extravaganza continues Wednesday with a look at the pitchers. The weekend rotation has been set by Coach Bolt, so Todd will dig into the roles of the staff and what to expect for the coming season.
We didn’t do sleeper prospects or anything like that last season, but Wenninger would have been mine. Even though his 2024 season was so-so, I ranked him 20th on my 2025 personal list based on the power of his control and strikeout stuff. This past season Wenninger continued showing that control and strikeout stuff, but the results were there and he rocketed up the cumulative list. The fact that the improvements were seemingly based on pitch refinement, particularly his slider and curveball, is encouraging, because it shows that his success was real and sustainable and not just based on random luck. I am not going to be as bold as to say that Wenninger has as much front-line starter potential as Nolan McLean or Jonah Tong do, but the right-hander has kept pace with those two in terms of statistical domination and I would not at all be surprised if he performs at an order of magnitude higher than what most are expecting when he makes his eventual MLB debut sometime soon.
Lukas says:
The Mets’ pitching development apparatus is unstoppable. Wenninger was a 6th round pick out of Illinois who never posted an ERA under 4.50 in college. Two years later, he’s dominating Double-A with an ERA under three. He’s throwing harder, has improved breaking ball shape, added a good splitter – basically the Mets (and Wenninger, who deserves a great deal of credit as well) managed to pull every single development lever simultaneously here. The upside here is still probably more like #4 starter rather someone w/ top-of-the-rotation potential, but it’s an extraordinary win, and he’ll be in the picture if and when the Mets need arms at some point in 2026 (and beyond).
Will Watson (9)
Steve says:
A year ago, I was skeptical of Will Watson, comparing him to Trey Cobb and Cole Gordon as cautionary mid-90s-fastball-guys-with-a-slider tales if something in his profile didn’t pop. Well, Will Watson popped. He started throwing harder, added a cutter, improved his changeup, and now we’re cooking. I don’t remember exactly when it was, sometime in the summer, but I was watching a game and seeing Watson’s stuff and how his pitches were moving, it really wowed me. It’s one thing to read the data saying that his fastball is averaging 15 inches of induced vertical break or that his slider is averaging 2,500 RPM or that his changeup is producing an above-average 31 inches of vertical movement and 18 inches of arm-side movement and another to see live how those pitches are moving and how batters are reacting to those things. It is definitely hyperbole to say that the organization has another round of top-tier pitching prospects cooking in the minors, but I think there is enough depth emerging that the bargain bin might not need to be perused for middle relievers, or that potential substantial trades can be made in the future without feeling too much of a system-wide loss of talent.
Lukas says:
The Mets’ pitching development apparatus is unstoppable. Watson was a 7th round pick whose most notable pre-draft resume item was 50.1 middling innings as a swingman at USC. Now he’s a top-100 prospect, with a very promising four-pitch mix, including a recently introduced changeup. I think there’s more relief risk here than with some of the other arms in this range (Wenninger being the most direct point of comparison), but we live in an era where multi-inning relief arms or low-inning starters are frequently leveraged and quite valuable. Maybe he’s a guy who makes it up as a multi-inning reliever / swing-man first and eventually shifts back to the rotation. Or his upward trajectory could continue and make that sort of worry look silly in 12 months time. Like the others before him, expect to see Watson at some point in 2026.
Ryan Clifford (8)
Steve says:
As much as he destroys baseballs, I can’t get on the Ryan Clifford train. I value him certainly, but big-time power hitters with suspect hit tools just don’t really do it for me; what good is 80-grade power (Clifford does not have 80-grade power, to be clear) if you have a 20-grade hit tool (Clifford does not have a 20-grade hit tool, either)? Even Adam Dunn, the modern-day archetype of the three-true-outcome player, was a .300+ hitter in his formative years in the minors. Clifford showed incremental improvements last year in certain areas as compared to his 2024 season, and he still is just barely able to legally drink, but he feels like the kind of player who will be maddeningly inconsistent and never fully live up to expectations. As we’ve seen in the past, he can go 2-27 with 2 home runs and 1 walk to 10 strikeouts one week (July 8-13), then go 12-31 with 2 doubles, 4 home runs, and 8 walks to 6 strikeouts the next week (July 22-27), and then go 5-23 with 1 double and 1 walk to 4 strikeouts the week after that (July 29-August 3). Game changing power doesn’t grow on trees, and while I’m not sure how much there is to realistically work on or optimize that isn’t going to fundamentally change Clifford as a player, he should be given every opportunity to develop and eventually fight for some kind of big league role.
Lukas says:
It wasn’t the biggest breakout in the system by any means, but Ryan Clifford had an extremely successful 2025 that restored a lot of the faith we lost in 2024. If you looked only at his wRC+ in Double-A between the two seasons, you’d probably wonder what the hell I’m talking about (137 in 2024, 148 in 2025). The shape matters though, and Clifford improving the net production while reducing his strikeouts, swinging more frequently, and translating more of his good contact into homers are all moves in the right direction. We got a glimpse of how this looks in Triple-A at the end of the season as well, and while the total production was only average, all the key markers were very promising; 93rd percentile damage, 83rd percentile SEAGER (indicative of his less passive approach) and 66th percentile Z-contact. The Mets are telling you something by leaving Clifford a potential path to playing time at 1B/DH this season; he’s firmly back on the map as a potentially valuable long-term piece.
Jacob Reimer (7)
Steve says:
This past season, Jacob Reimer hit .279/.374/.479 in 61 games at Double-A Binghamton with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 4 stolen bases in 5 attempts, and drew 26 walks to 60 strikeouts, good for a 150 wRC+. Back in 2004, another Binghamton third baseman hit .363/.467/.619 in 60 games with 27 doubles, 10 home runs, 20 stolen bases in 26 attempts, and drew 39 walks to 41 strikeouts, good for a 160-ish wRC+. David Wright was also a five-tool third baseman, whereas Reimer is lacking in the speed and defense departments, but it just goes to show that Reimer’s hit tool is legitimate and his power is indeed coming along. As long as he continues hitting, you live with the poor defense at third, but because the profile is so weird and so offensive-driven, it feels hard to really commit and say that Reimer is the future of the hot corner.
Lukas says:
The second I get out, he finally has a healthy season and starts hitting for power like we’ve all been hoping he’d do since 2022. A swing change and a bump in in-zone swing rate really brought all the pieces together; Reimer maintained his overall strong approach while leveraging his bat speed more effectively, impacting the ball more out in front of the plate and getting more pull-side damage. He struggled briefly at Double-A, then decided to just not do that and finished the season with a 150 wRC+. There might be a 6 hit, 6 power bat with a good approach here. So why isn’t he higher? Well he can’t defend basically anywhere. He’s a non-viable 3B, probably doesn’t have the foot speed for the outfield, and would be a very short / small first baseman. The cold corner is where I’d guess he winds up, but that puts a lot more pressure on the bat. If he keeps hitting like this though, it really won’t matter.
A.J. Ewing (6)
Steve says:
Back in 2024, when A.J. Ewing hit 5 homers in 19 games with the FCL Mets, I was kind of blown away because that kind of power was unexpected. Earlier in the process, when the reports came out, I had to kind of tell myself, “Wow, this is coming out.” I had to think about it. And I was a little bit, somewhat, “Let’s find out about this. We really have to do a thorough investigation of this.” And lo and behold, Ewing really was hitting the ball hard. While the home run numbers have stagnated, he is averaging about a 90 MPH exit velocity since then, with multiple 100+ MPH readings and high-water marks around 110 MPH. He is going to need to activate some more of that power into doubles, triples, and homers in order to be a productive hitter going forward, but it’s not like he needs to magically revamp his entire game and become a slugger in order to have utility to the organization; far from it, with his hit-tool, great eye at the plate, strong swing decisions, elite speed, and more-than-capable center field defense, Ewing has an incredibly high floor, and the more power he can generate, the higher his ceiling becomes. There is some overhype risk in Ewing, but at 21-years-old this upcoming season, he is well ahead of the curve with plenty of time to put in the work.
Lukas says:
It’s been less appreciated because of the breakouts from the first three names in the system, but A.J. Ewing actually had an incredible 2025. He came into the season with a totally revamped swing and immediately demonstrated high-end contact skills. Ewing also hits the ball harder than you’d think, though his spray angles – both vertically and horizontally – currently limit the over-the-fence pop. Couple those skills with a disciplined, appropriately-aggressive approach and elite speed that may make him a 7 in center and you have a prospect who, in my opinion, is pretty clearly the fourth best player in the system. Oh and he’s also still only 20 and finished the year with a successful run at Double-A. There’s a reason the Mets balked when the Brewers asked for him in the Freddy Peralta deal.
Brandon Sproat (5)
Steve says:
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter much now since he was traded, but I think the concept of Brandon Sproat is better than Brandon Sproat. A big, strapping 6’2”, 215-pound lad that flirts with triple-digits, throws a decent slider, and has a solid changeup, what’s not to like? But then you look into Brandon Sproat, and there’s a lot of pretty problematic data in his pitch characteristics- and not just semi-problematic under certain conditions, I’m talking fundamentally problematic. His four-seam and two-seam fastballs are both highly flawed pitches, and that’s not good when you’re a power pitcher and you’re going to be throwing those two pitches in whatever ratio about 50% of the time. There’s definitely a pathway for Sproat to be a good starting pitcher- he obviously wouldn’t be ranked so highly if we didn’t think that potential was there- and I personally think that he has even more potential as a reliever, perhaps a high leverage reliever, but that’s for Milwaukee to decide now.
Lukas says:
Brandon Sproat does a lot of things well. He throws pretty hard, he finally landed on a breaking ball shape that works, and the change is still a decent pitch. Put in terms of physical skills, you can say that he has good arm speed and feel for spin. However, this has never really all come together for him, in large part because his fastball shape is just too bad to be an effective offering. Even with the addition of a sinker last season – one that grades out better but still not great – I’m still not convinced he’s the type of arm who can make it through a lineup two or three times. If you couple that with the lack of development runway relative to other arms (Sproat is older and was selected as a senior out of a major college program, which would normally mean there’s less juice to squeeze) in the back of the top-10 and I think I’d actually prefer Sproat a good deal lower, even though he’s a totally justifiable top-100 prospect.
Jett Williams (4)
Steve says:
It’s not something that the Mets, or us as Mets fans need to deal with anymore, but Williams was definitely the victim of post-hype prospect fatigue. I have literally read people saying, seemingly without jest, “Jett isn’t any good.” I don’t have a crystal ball and don’t know what the future holds, so Williams may not actually end up being any good, but players solidly ranked by all of the major outlets and at the front of the second half of the Top 100 lists clearly must be well regarded to wind up there. I’ll put it like this: in 2026, his age 21 season, if A.J. Ewing hit .288/.390/.477 in 96 games with Double-A Binghamton with 10 homers, 32 stolen bases in 39 attempts, and drew 62 walks to 96 strikeouts, we might be hearing about how he might be the best prospect in minor league baseball. Ewing plays better defense, so it’s not an exact 1:1 comparison, but the point is that reports of Jett Williams prospect death are greatly exaggerated, which is why he, along with Brandon Sproat, were able to net the Mets a two-time all-star pitcher. As a fellow 5’7”-er (on a good day), I have watched his career with great interest and look forward to Milwaukee Brewers photo day during spring training, when Jett is invariably positioned between the 6’8” Trevor Megill and the 6’7” Jacob Misiorowski.
Lukas says:
I don’t disagree that much with Jett’s ranking here (I had Ewing above him), but I still find myself pretty down on him as a prospect, and I don’t think it’s just prospect fatigue. I began voicing concerns about Jett’s hit tool ~2 years ago, and in that time he’s not really assuaged any of those worries. Sure, injuries have played a role and the strikeout rate has held steady in the low-20s, but that’s not because Williams is great at putting bat on ball, it’s because he just doesn’t swing. He ranked in the 6th percentile for hittable pitches taken, nuking his SEAGER down to 3.9 despite the aforementioned healthy walk and strikeout rates. Couple that with what is still just okay damage on contact and a tweenerish defensive profile and this is trending more towards “high quality bench bat” or “second division starter” rather than the sort of player we were extolling as the future of the team in 2023.
Jonah Tong (3)
Steve says:
I will always be a sucker for overslot prep pitchers and Jonah Tong piqued my interest back in 2022. In 2024, Tong had a breakout season, but little did we know that he was just getting started. When he was called up at the end of 2025 after absolutely crushing it in Double-A, the results weren’t there, but honestly, none of that matters to me. What is more important to me is the dominance he showed over the course of the 2025 season, not a handful of games in September. His fastball? Plus. His changeup? Above-average. His slider? Above-average. His curveball? Average. Tong throws a four-pitch mix where everything is average of better. The Mets threw him into the fire in a last ditch effort to salvage the 2025 season, and while it did not work out, Tong has showed that not only does he have physical skill, but he has the mental acuity to work on what went wrong, figure things out, and address what held him back. While he is high on the depth chart, Tong should have some time early in the season to get acclimated to the MLB/Triple-A ball and work on adjusting his pattern of attack against wily veterans and players with MLB experience before finally getting the call to Queens once again.
Lukas says:
Tong was not good in the majors, there’s really no other way to slice it. It wasn’t just the top-line results that were concerning either; major league hitters just did not chase his changeup, nor did they whiff as frequently on his fastball. This is a problem both of command (Tong’s is not exactly precise) and pitch mix; Tong simply doesn’t have a good glove-side / breaking ball option right now, and it’s hard to succeed without that in your arsenal in the bigs. Thankfully, Tong has two things working for him. First, his fastball and changeup are still just silly good pitches. Second, the Mets have done enough that he can start the season in Triple-A and have ample runway to make the necessary improvements. I’m still quite bullish and think there’s clear top-of-the-rotation upside, we’re just going to have to wait a little bit long for the 22-year-old Tong to get there.
Carson Benge (2)
Steve says:
On the heels of Kevin Parada and Alex Ramirez fizzling out because of some odd swing mechanics, I had a sinking feeling when Carson Benge’s name was called in the 2024 MLB Draft. Like those aforementioned two, Benge had some funk in his swing…except he didn’t! Around three months or so into the NCAA season, Benge eliminated some of the extra movement in his swing, and by the time he was drafted, it more or less resembled the swing that he is using currently. As highlighted by his numbers over the course of 2025, and his placement on this list, the outfielder clearly did not have any issues hitting the ball as a professional. Benge is about as well-rounded a player as one can be, with an above-average hit tool, average power, average speed, an above-average arm, and average defense. There are areas of improvement to be sure, such as the need to pull-and-lift more, or emerging platoon splits against lefties, but Benge looks to be the real deal and the best outfielder drafted and developed by the organization since Michael Conforto.
Lukas says:
That two of the biggest 1st round coups of the decade – Benge and Trey Yesavage – were taken back-to-back in 2024 is a cool little oddity Yesavage’s postseason heroics have vaulted him ahead, but Benge isn’t far behind and will likely be a universal top-10 or top-20 prospect by the time the offseason is over. He made an absolute mockery of both Brooklyn and Binghamton in 2025, and the key performance metrics didn’t change all that much in Syracuse even though the top line was ugly (getting hit in the hand didn’t help either). Benge has about as ideal a combination of contact and power as you could hope for without setting cheats and pushing the sliders up to the max. He’s also likely to be a viable center field defender in the near term. That the Mets are giving him ample runway to win a starting job out of Spring Training tells you basically everything else you need to know; this is a potential 5-tool player who is ready now.
Nolan McLean (1)
Steve says:
I was a Nolan McLean doubter last year, and he certainly proved me wrong. It’s not that I didn’t think that he could have success, but with him only having two highly above-averages pitches and- at the time- a lack of innings, I thought he would be a high leverage bullpen conversion candidate. It may be my own preconceived notions stemming from my doubt at this point last season, but even in the face of what he did last season, I don’t know how much of the magic he might capture in 2026. The history of Major League Baseball is littered with well-considered minor leaguers who impressed in their initial debuts and then never were able to recapture that kind of magic ever again. There have been plenty who did find their footing, of course, but there are enough chinks in the armor and little things here and there to dissuade the notion that he is not second only to Paul Skenes, as his 2025 sample size suggests, at the very least. That does not mean that I think McLean will be bad in 2026, or unrosterable, or anything like that, but a McLean that regresses to the numbers that Steamer or ZiPS think he will- an ERA in the high 3s, a strikeout per nine rate just south of 9 and a walk per nine rate hovering around 3.5- is a solid pitcher, but not exactly an “ace”. Projection systems like Steamer or ZiPS have a bit of a blind spots when it comes to certain things, newly promoted rookie players being one of them, so obviously Steamer and ZiPS should not to be taken as gospel, but I think we all do need to hit the breaks a little before we anoint McLean the next deGrom.
Lukas says:
McLean, by all rights, is no longer really a prospect, but he technically missed the innings threshold by six outs so here we are. His electric MLB debut featured a 2.06 ERA backed by a 21.8% K-BB% and a 60.2% GB rate (he’ll surely benefit from improved infield defense). His fastball, slider, cutter, and sweeper all had 90th percentile or better quality metrics per Rob Orr’s app, and his slider wasn’t shabby either. You could project some eventual struggles against left-handed batters, but McLean has such innate feel for spin and has already evolved his arsenal so thoroughly that it’s reasonable to expect he figures that out in time. However you slice it, he’s the best or second-best pitching prospect in baseball alongside Trey Yesavage.
