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Bob Boone, a four-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove winner who spent much of his career with the Angels, has died, his son Bret announced Tuesday via social media. He was 78. No cause of death was shared.

The sturdy catcher was the middle man in one of the most accomplished three-generation Major League Baseball families. He caught more games than all but two catchers in history.

Boone’s father, Ray, and his sons Aaron and Bret also enjoyed successful playing careers. But Bob’s stood out primarily because he was as durable as a cast-iron skillet, catching 2,225 games in 19 seasons.

He spent seven seasons in the 1980s with the Angels, whose manager Gene Mauch marveled after Boone led the American League by catching 147 games at age 37 in 1985, the fourth of five consecutive years he did so.

“Bob Boone is a freak,” Mauch said told The Times the following spring. “I never dreamed he’d catch that many games. A hundred and fifty games is not realistic for a 38-year-old catcher; it’s ridiculous. Except it’s not ridiculous to Bob Boone. I quit being surprised by Bob Boone a long time ago. I’ve never known anyone so mentally tough and impervious to pain.”

Once Boone punched the clock, he punched out baserunners, throwing out a league-leading 41.6% of base stealers in 1985, one of three times he did so with the Angels. And he seemed to improve with age. All seven of Boone’s Gold Gloves came after he turned 30, including four in a row from ages 38 to 41.

“Boone’s leadership, exceptional defense and knowledge of the game made him an invaluable presence behind the plate and helped the Angels win two division titles,” the team said Tuesday in a statement. “His impact on our pitchers and the example he set for his teammates are lasting parts of his legacy with our franchise.”

When Boone retired at age 42 in 1990, he had caught more games than anyone in major league history: 2,225. Three years later, Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk edged him by one. Another Hall of Famer, Ivan Rodriguez, blew past both of them, retiring in 2011 with 2,427 games caught.

No active catcher is anywhere close to passing those three. Salvador Perez (1,427), J.T. Realmuto (1,401) and Christian Vasquez (1,005) are the only ones with more than 1,000 games caught, and all three will begin next season at age 36.

Read more:Four Dodgers-related story lines to follow at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas

“The roster lists me as the catcher,” Boone told The Times in 1986. “If you’re the catcher, you catch. Every day. I don’t think catching is much more demanding than any other position. It’s not any more difficult than, say, right fielder or third baseman. If they’re in the lineup every day, why shouldn’t I?”

Robert Raymond Boone was born Nov. 19, 1947, in San Diego, where he raised his family. He was the fifth great-grandson of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone.

Boone grew up on a baseball field. His father was an infielder who broke into the big leagues in 1948 after three years of military service during World War II and three years in the minors. Bob was born a year before his dad made his debut with Cleveland. Ray played 13 seasons for six teams, batting .275 with 151 home runs.

A special family moment came at the 2003 All-Star Game when Ray and Bob attended because Aaron and Bret were playing. Already the first family to have three generations play in the majors, they became the first and only family to have all each generation participate in the All-Star Game.

“Anybody that’s not proud in this situation,” Ray Boone said at the time, “there’s something wrong with them.”

Bob Boone was a sixth-round pick of Philadelphia in 1969 out of Stanford, where he graduated with a degree in psychology. He transitioned from third base to catcher, made his MLB debut in 1972 and became the Phillies’ starting catcher the next season, a position he held until they traded him to the Angels 10 years later. Boone helped Philadelphia win the 1980 World Series.

“Bob was an incredible player, teammate and family man,” the Phillies said in a statement. “He embodied everything we believe exemplary athletes should represent, both on and off the field. We were proud to have him as part of the Phillies family during one of the most historic runs in team history. His impact on our organization, his teammates, and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him will never be forgotten.”

Read more:Bob Fontaine Jr., a legendary scout who drafted the Angels' 2002 championship core, dies at 73

Boone played in seven postseasons with the Phillies and Angels, hitting .311 with two home runs. He finished his career with a .254 batting average, 105 home runs and 826 runs batted in. He also made a mark as the MLB players union’s National League player representative during a midseason strike in 1981.

After retiring, Boone seemed a natural to become a manager. When Orlando attempted to join the National League as an expansion team, Bob was set to lead the team. Miami and Denver got the franchises, however, and Boone didn’t get a chance to manage until 1995 when he led Kansas City.

He was fired midway through his third season and lasted another 2½ seasons managing Cincinnati from 2001-03, a stint in which he managed his son Aaron, who in turn has been manager of the New York Yankees the last nine seasons.

Boone spent several years as an assistant general manager and vice president for player development with Washington. He was part of the front office in 2019 when the Nationals won their only World Series championship.

Boone’s son Bret said on Facebook, “With a heavy heart I’m here to confirm the passing of my dad today. He was a man of great integrity. He was a great dad, husband, and patriarch. It was a privilege to call him my father. Baseball lost a great one today.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The 2026 season was an interesting one for Jackson Kent. On one hand, he had quality numbers in the minor leagues and made his MLB debut. However, he also looked overmatched for most of his big league tenure, and did not exactly dominate in AAA. Kent has the ceiling of a solid number 4 starter, but has a lot of work to do in order to get there.

Coming into the season, Kent was one of those prospects to keep an eye on. He was not a big name, but he did some interesting things in his first pro season. Despite posting a 4.61 ERA across two levels, Kent struck out 25.9% of hitters and walked batters at a 7.5% clip. His changeup was his standout pitch, but he needed to add velocity.

That is exactly what Kent did heading into the season. His fastball went from the low-90’s to the mid-90’s. This increase in stuff helped Kent overwhelm AA hitters. He posted a 2.35 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 30.2 innings before quickly getting promoted to Rochester after 7 starts. 

Kent’s stint in Rochester looked a lot like his minor league campaign last year. He struck out a lot of hitters, while keeping the walk rate in check. However, his ERA sat at 4.38 and he was plagued by some blowup starts. The advanced numbers painted a prettier picture, but he was still not exactly dominating the level.

Jackson Kent is not an overpowering arm, but his 5 pitch mix is solid. His go-to pitches are his 4-seamer, his slider and his changeup. Despite only sitting in the 93 MPH range, Kent’s fastball has good life. The best pitch in his arsenal is a tumbling changeup which gets a ton of chase and whiff. One thing about Kent is that he relies heavily on hitters expanding the zone.

His zone rate was below average in AAA, but it really became an issue in the big leagues. Kent only threw pitches in the strike zone at a 42.7% clip, which ranks in the 15th percentile. He actually got plenty of chases, but his inability to throw the ball in the strike zone led to a lot of walks.

Despite not having a walk problem in the minors, Kent issued 25 free passes in 36.1 MLB innings. That is a 14.7% walk rate, which is really bad. Without elite stuff, Kent was trying to nibble when he faced big league hitters. The best hitters in the world were also less willing to fall into Kent’s traps compared to minor leaguers.

For Jackson Kent to reach his ceiling, he will have to solve this problem. How can he get the ball in the zone more without allowing a ton of hard contact. There were times where he was spraying his pitches, especially in his first few starts. However, I think a lot of his walks were due to him being afraid to challenge hitters.

Whether it is improving his command, altering his pitch mix or finding extra velocity, Kent will need to change things up when he gets back to the big leagues. I would be surprised if he started the season on the big league roster, but when a pitcher inevitably goes down, he will be one of the first guys in line. 

With his changeup and ability to generate ground balls, there is a path to Kent having success. He is a funky lefty with big extension and good enough stuff. That is a profile big league teams like. However, after posting a 5.94 ERA and a 1.79 WHIP, Kent will need to figure some things out. 

That is not to say Kent had no moments of success. There was a start at home against the Marlins where Kent went 7 great innings. In that outing, he kept Miami’s hitters off balance all night and did a great job generating soft contact. Those sorts of outings are the blue print for Kent moving forward.

His path to success starts with getting quick ground outs and limiting hard contact. The changeup is a good weapon to put guys away when he does get to two strikes. Entering next season, Kent will need to learn to trust his stuff more. In his first taste of the big leagues, he was not very efficient and walked too many guys.

At just 23, Kent has plenty of time to figure things out. However, he showed that he is not ready to be trusted with a full time starting spot yet. It will be important for the Nats to acquire more starting pitchers and let Kent develop in the minors. He could be a piece in the future, but he is not there quite yet. I am intrigued to see what kind of strides he makes in 2027.

For every action, there is a reaction. After losing Tanner Swanson, who essentially left for a promotion to be the bench coach of the Seattle Mariners—signing up for the staff around first-year manager Jason Kanzler—the Yankees are opting for an in-house approach in promoting Aaron Gershenfeld, according to Robert Murray of FanSided.

Officially, it has not been announced that Gershenfeld will be the new Director of Catching for the Yankees—the position Swanson occupied over the last three seasons. However, the fact that he had already been working with catchers for the Yankees for the past several years makes this a healthy assumption; he was previously the Run Prevention and Catching Coordinator. Whatever the specifics, we know much of the work that used to be done by Swanson will now fall under Gershenfeld’s umbrella. Gary Phillips of the Daily Newsspecified that his expected titles are Director of Catching, Major League Field Coordinator, and Catching Coach.

While this turnover in the coaching staff is not necessarily the best news, one could easily choose to be flattered by it. Gershenfeld will have big shoes to fill, replacing Swanson, who thrived working without necessarily the most naturally gifted of catching depth charts throughout his Yankee tenure. The now-Seattle coach extracted all you could defensively out of the likes of Austin Wells, José Trevino, and others. Never mind the impact of strong defense at that position on the Yankees’ pitching staff; strictly from a value standpoint, they needed to be above-average to make up for the lack of production at the plate.

The good thing is that whatever the Yankees’ choice, Gershenfeld is firmly aware of how the team operates and the inner workings and requirements of his new position. Expectations will be high to meet the top-of-the-line status quo, but the 34-year-old should be ready.

First off, this is a big shout-out to DJourn for helping to keep the convo going over in The Feed. He’s been touching upon some rumors throughout the offseason and I figured that it was my turn to weigh in on some of them. It’s November 10 and there’s not much else going on — even with Awards Week going on, the GM Meetings taking place in Las Vegas and the lockout looming, there still hasn’t been a ton of talk about player movement or acquisition from a Braves perspective.

Not a lot has changed in that regard but hey, there are some rumors out there so let’s go ahead and talk about what’s out there, shall we?

Will the Braves trade Ronald Acuña Jr?

No.

Well, I guess I’d better expound upon that. The answer to this was “no” before Jon Morosi poured cold water on that rumor. The easiest way to put it is that it still makes plenty of dollars and sense for the Braves to hold onto a player of Acuña’s caliber. Both he and Ozzie Albies signed two of the most absurdly team-friendly deals that you’ll ever see players of that caliber (especially Acuña’s) agree to, so from a financial standpoint the Braves are going to hold on to both of those players for as long as they see possible and aren’t going to hit the “eject” button any sooner than they’d feel necessary.

Secondly, Acuña is still a really good player who has shown that he can still dip into the superstar vein of form that made him one of the most electric players in baseball not all that long ago. Sure, his performance in the Postseason was concerning but really, who else was producing in the plate on a consistent basis during this past Postseason run outside of Michael Harris II? Acuña’s failure to show up at the plate during the NLDS was certainly disappointing but he certainly wasn’t alone in failing to reach expectations during that series.

Also, it’s not like the trade banter makes sense in a way that it would for, say, Spencer Strider. Strider was reportedly involved in the trade talks that would’ve brought the Braves Jacob deGrom and that only made sense because Strider is clearly diminished from where he was before his elbow issues began. While Acuña has also taken a step back since dealing with injury issues of his own, he’s also shown that he can go into supernova mode once he’s healthy and has things figured out.

From August 1 through the series-clinching series in Houston in late-September, Acuña was hitting .283/.340/.528 at the plate with a wOBA of .373, 12 homers, five stolen bases and a 136 wRC+. That’s still a step back from what he did in limited time during the 2025 season (.290/.417/.518, .403 wOBA, 21 homers, 162 wRC+) but it’s close enough to where it’s clear that if Acuña can stay healthy and get on a run, he can aboslutely be a star-caliber player going forward.

I’m sure that this’ll make for some tricky contract negotiations going forward when you consider his body of work and the pros and cons that come along with potentially making a long-term commitment to Acuña once his contract is up but at the same time, I’d imagine that the Braves would much rather have him around than to ship him elsewhere and risk seeing a potential superstar get right with another ballclub. The Braves under Alex Anthopoulos aren’t afraid to let core players walk (see: Freddie Freeman, Max Fried, Dansby Swanson, etc.) but they also aren’t willing to just ship them out, either. It’s extremely unlikely that the Braves will be trading Acuña any time soon.

Is Jurickson Profar done with the Braves?

Now this has been an interesting saga to keep track of. Jurickson Profar is certainly making an effort to return to the Braves for the 2027 season but based on what Alex Anthopoulos said about Profar in his end-of-season media availability and the inked article from Mark Bowman, I think this could be a situation where the Braves might actually decide to cut bait if it came down to it.

It might sound like a cliché but the Braves definitely do value a harmonious clubhouse. It’s part of the reason why they chose to promote NL Manager of the Year finalist Walt Weiss from bench coach to manager and it’s Anthopoulos has frequently cited character as one of the factors that goes into his search for and recruitment of players. A peaceful clubhouse is a clubhouse that will remain laser-focused on winning and pulling in the same direction and it’s hard to imagine that being the case when it comes to a guy like Profar who left his teammates in the lurch for one-and-a-half seasons due to some decisions off-the-field.

I figured that due to the suddenly-affordable deal that the Braves have Profar on that this would be a no-brainer to keep him around. However, if the clubhouse doesn’t want him around then maybe we’d see Alex Anthopoulos give the players what they want and ship Profar out one way or another. He certainly didn’t commit to the idea of keeping him around during that aforementioned media availability so maybe there’s a source of fire coming from the smoke billowing from Mark Bowman’s article.

Phillies interested in Ha-Seong Kim

Well, good luck with all of that!

No, but seriously, this does seem like the type of move that would be right down Dave Dombrowski’s alley. Ha-Seong Kim is a veteran with a proven track record of production and there’s certainly a universe where Kim never slipped on ice in January and we’re talking about the Braves needing to figure out a way to keep him. However, we are currently in the universe where that finger injury essentially wrecked his season and now we’re even further removed from his last fully productive season of 2024 — and he’s officially over 30-years old as well.

Still, it would make sense that if the Phillies are still trying to hold on to this current era then they’d give Ha-Seong Kim a try. With Trea Turner apparently being destined to play center field going forward, they have a pretty large hole at shortstop with not too many appealing candidates left to fill it. Considering how bleak the free agency market is for shortstop, if you’re going to go down the free agency route then taking a flier on Kim would make a decent amount of sense. It’s a huge gamble at this point but hey, scared money don’t make money, right?

Anyways, I’m saying all of that to bring it home in a perspective that makes sense for Atlanta: He’s probably not coming back here, either. I’d have to imagine that at this point after a full season and a month of having Ha-Seong Kim around, the Braves are probably in the “thanks, but no thanks” territory with him. He was lovely to have around by all accounts and we’ve talked about how he stayed a consummate professional despite his struggles but it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll see Ha-Seong Kim return to Atlanta. Maybe if they get really desperate then we’ll see talks of a reunion for a second full season start to heat up but for now, the Braves might just let the Phillies take their crack at it.

Inspiration.

Every offseason, the AZ Snake Pit has player reviews for every player who played for the Diamondbacks Major League Team.  Those reviews will happen later in this offseason.

If things had happened differently (in a parallel universe), there are several players who played for the Diamondbacks – but it did not happen in this universe.  In this universe, they will not have formal player reviews.   

Let’s look at some of those players and do mini-reviews. 

Last season, in a parallel universe, who might have played for the Diamondbacks?

AJ Puk.  If he had avoided injury, he would have added to a bullpen which was better than it had been in years.

Kristian Robinson. If his batting broke out to the extent that he could not be ignored, he might have been called up to be a designated hitter.

Ty France.  Having children takes many years for some couples.  If the birth of his children had not happened near the beginning of last season, he might have been open to playing for the Diamondbacks instead of the Padres.  In February, the Padres offered him a minor league contract, and his MLB contract was small with an incentive clause.  I’m confident that the Diamondbacks would have matched or bettered it because the Diamondbacks needed a first baseman.

Marcelo Mayer.  Last offseason, the Diamondbacks discussed trading away Ketel Marte to the Red Sox.  The Red Sox refused to trade away Marcello Mayer and a reworked trade did not happen (per Gabe Speier of the Boston Globe).  What if the Red Sox had agreed to trade him to the Diamondbacks?

Clay Holmes.  Pending medical checks, the Mets had agreed to trade Clay Holmes to the Diamondbacks in return for a prospect.  The Mets did not like the medical records of the prospect, and an alternate was not found.  What if the prospect had been acceptable to the Mets?

2026 Parallel Universe Player # 1 : AJ Puk

2025 Stats: 8 Games in relief, 3.38 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 12 SO, 2 BB.

Due to injury, in 2026 he played 2 games in AAA, plus 3 games in the rookie league.

Date of Birth: 4/25/1995.

2026 Earnings: $3.1 Million.

2027 Status: Free Agent.

2026 Review.

Due to injury, he did not play for the Diamondbacks Major League Team. In 2025, his strength was a fastball velocity of 96.4 MPH, which was at the 83rd percentile.  His 34.3% K was awesome.  His 2.84 xERA was better than his actual ERA.  In the parallel universe, he significantly improved the Diamondbacks bullpen.  He pitched 30 games and added 1.3 bWAR.

In the parallel universe, his performance was about the same as his 2025 season.

Performance Comparison 2025 actual (parallel universe) vs 2026 Diamondbacks.  His 3.38 ERA was better than the 4.07 ERA of pitching in relief per FanGraphs.  His 4.61 FIP was worse than the 4.01 FIP of pitching in relief. Overall, the Diamondbacks won one additional game in the parallel universe.  

2027 Outlook.

He is a free agent. He could play for the Diamondbacks in both universes.  He is projected to have an ERA between 3.42 and 3.86. He could make a positive contribution to the Diamondbacks bullpen, especially if his velocity and strikeouts are at 2025 levels.

2026 Parallel Universe Player # 2 : Kristian Robinson. 

2026 Stats: 116 Games in AAA, .268/.373/.442 (BA/OBP/ SLG). 

Date of Birth: 12/11/2000.

2026 Earnings: Minor League.

2027 Status: Free Agent.

2026 Review.

In AAA, his average exit velocity, hard hit percentage, and barrels per batted ball event were better than the Reno Aces averages (92.4 vs 91.7 MPH, 45.0% vs 38.2%, and 9.1 vs 7.4 B/BBE).  However, they fell short of numbers that would have shouted to call him up to the Majors as a designated hitter (perhaps with some playing time in the outfield). 

In the parallel universe, his RBIs per plate appearance in Reno was 50% higher (0.18 instead of 0.12).  Mid-season he was called up and in the Majors his RBIs per PA was 0.14, which was better than the team’s second half average of 0.12.  With 300 PAs, he added 6 runs (about 0.6 bWAR).   

Performance Comparison 2026 parallel universe vs 2026 Diamondbacks. In the parallel universe, he increased the team RBIs by 6, which won the Diamondbacks one additional game. 

2027 Outlook.

He is a free agent, and I would be surprised if he plays for the Diamondbacks. 

2026 Parallel Universe Player # 3 : Ty France. 

2026 Stats: 133 Games, .295/.363/.502 (BA/OBP/ SLG), 139 OPS+, 4.5 bWAR.

Date of Birth: 7/13/1994.

2026 Earnings: $1.35 Million plus $0.65 Million incentive.

2027 Status: Free Agent.

2026 Review.

Playing first base for the Padres, his 139 OPS+ was a career best.  His defense was outstanding:  In 2025, he won a gold glove.  In 2026, his 7 outs above average was the second best among first basemen, and his 15 defensive runs saved was best among first basemen. 

Performance Comparison 2026 actual vs 2026 Diamondbacks. Comparing wins above average at first base, the Padres had positive 1.9 and the Diamondbacks had negative 2.3.  In the parallel universe, the Diamondbacks signed him before the season started.  The Diamondbacks won four additional games.

2027 Outlook.

He is a free agent.  Because the Diamondbacks do not have a first baseman for next season, and because he is an outstanding first baseman, acquiring him would make a large positive impact.

2026 Parallel Universe Player # 4 : Marcelo Mayer. 

2026 Stats:  76 Games, .209/.279/.295 (BA/OBP/ SLG), 62 OPS+, negative 0.1 bWAR.

Date of Birth: 12/12/2002.

2026 Earnings: Pre-arb.

2027 Status: Giants control him through 2031.

2026 Review.

In the parallel universe, the Diamondbacks traded away Ketel Marte for Marcelo Mayer.  Ildemaro Vargas played more games as the second baseman to cover the loss of Marte, and Mayer stayed in the minors to continue his development until September.

Performance Comparison 2026 actual vs 2026 Diamondbacks.  In the parallel universe, the Diamondbacks lost two additional games.

2027 Outlook.

Marcelo Mayer is on track to be an All-Star.  At some point, his performance will reach that level, but maybe not in 2027.

Looking forward, the Diamondbacks will be ok that they kept Ketel Marte.  Ketel Marte’s performance will likely bounce back, and his hitting fundamentals are among the best players on the Diamondbacks.

2026 Parallel Universe Player # 5 : Clay Holmes. 

2026 Stats: 18 Games Started, 3.29 ERA, 3.63 FIP, 78 SO, 42 BB.

Date of Birth: 3/27/1993.

2026 Earnings: $13 Million.

2027 Status: Free Agent.

2026 Review.

He is a starting pitcher. He pitched exceptionally well (1.86 ERA) until the 15 May game, when a line drive hit his leg and broke a bone.  What is extraordinary is that with a broken leg he finished the inning and in the next inning he got one batter out before leaving the game.

When he returned, his 4.25 ERA was good, but less than exceptional. 

Performance Comparison 2026 actual (after 7 August) vs 2026 Diamondbacks (after 7 August).  In the parallel universe, he was traded to the Diamondbacks at the beginning of August.  From 8 August onward, his 4.25 ERA was slightly better than the Diamondbacks average of 4.43.  However, he pitched 3 shutouts in the parallel universe.  The Diamondbacks won three additional games.

2027 Outlook.

He is a free agent. His projected ERA is between 3.63 and 4.25.  My view is that he will pitch much better than projected, albeit not reaching the rarified heights of an ERA of 2.  He would be an excellent acquisition by the Diamondbacks.

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest. 

No. 24, Nick Frasso (0.2 rWAR)

On July 20, the Colorado Rockies traded right-handed relief pitcher Seth Halvorsen to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for fellow right-handed pitcher Nick Frasso and outfielder Landyn Vidourek.

Until that point, Frasso had spent the previous six seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays and Dodgers minor league systems after having been drafted in the fourth round in 2020. Originally thought of as a potential starting pitcher, Frasso reached as high as the number 68 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline in 2023. From that prospect ranking high, however, Frasso went on to miss the entire 2024 season recovering from shoulder surgery.

Having never managed to amass more than 93 innings in a season previously, he was quickly moved to the bullpen upon his return to action in 2025.

Frasso came to the Rockies having put up great strikeout numbers (14.59 K/9) for the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate in 2026 paired with abysmal walk totals (6.20 BB/9). That lack of command had prevented Frasso from being able to break into the Dodgers stacked Major League roster. As a 27 year old, Frasso was running out of time to translate his raw stuff and 91st percentile extension into the sort of finished product that would lead to a notable MLB career.

After entering the Rockies organization, however, Frasso did not need to wait long before being given a shot in the big leagues. Just a week after being traded, with only five (admittedly impressive) appearances for the Albuquerque Isotopes on his résumé, Frasso was called up to the Rockies to make his Major League debut.

For his first assignment, Frasso took the ball in the 11th inning of a tie game against the Tampa Bay Rays in what manager Warren Schaeffer would later characterize as “Probably the most difficult position you can be in (for) your Major League debut.”

His first opponent, Taylor Walls, moved the extra-innings automatic-runner from second to third on a sacrifice bunt attempt. The next batter he faced was the ever-intimidating Yandy Diaz, against whom he bounced a ball in the dirt allowing the go-ahead run to score.

With what would ultimately be the winning run already scored, Frasso finished the inning after allowing another run on a couple of hits. While his first taste of the big leagues may not have gone exactly as he would have liked, Frasso managed to muddle through a full inning and look to the future.

Frasso remained on the Major League roster for the remainder of the 2026 season. His results throughout his 20 appearances for the Rockies were a mixed bag.

The chase percentage that he saw as a prospect was still present during his first stint against Major League hitters, but he was not able to translate that into the sort of strikeout numbers he had become accustomed to.

His two best stretches, encompassing a total of ten scoreless innings over nine outings, was interrupted by a brutal four game streak in early September in which he allowed nine runs in just 3.2 innings. If not for that brief swoon, Frasso’s overall line in his rookie season would look sparkling and it’s notable that he was able to course correct and throw four scoreless outings to finish off his season.

Overall, the lanky 6’5” right-hander’s rookie season gave enough positive indications that he is one of the lone bullpen arms that you can feel confident in being a part of the teams plans for the forseeable future. He finished the season with 21.2 innings in the Majors with an ugly 5.82 ERA but a much better 4.38 FIP and just a 3.99 expected ERA.

The most encouraging aspect of his final line is that his walk rate, which had been his largest problem area throughout his minor-league career, dropped from 9.4% in his debut month of August all the way down to 4.3% in September. With his combination of stuff and extension, a walk rate like he showed in September would allow him to become a high-leverage reliever for years to come.

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Bob O’Farrell is one of the earliest examples of a Cubs player who was very good for the team — posting seasons of 6.0 and 4.7 bWAR in 1922 and 1923 at ages 25 and 26 — and then was traded away because the Cubs had a catcher they thought was going to do much better.

In this case, they were right. Gabby Hartnett was that new catcher and yes, he had a much better career than O’Farrell, eventually ending up in the Hall of Fame.

But the Cubs didn’t get much for O’Farrell when they traded him to the Cardinals May 23, 1925. The players in return: Howard Freigau and Mike González. Freigau was a decent player for a couple years, but by the time the Cubs won their next pennant in 1929, he was gone. González backed up Hartnett and was capable, but… if they’d kept O’Farrell, they’d have had an almost unbeatable catching tandem.

O’Farrell, a Chicago-area native (Waukegan), played 12 years for the Cubs, though as a teenager he played in only six games for the team in his first three seasons. He posted 14.5 bWAR as a Cub, and his best year was that 6.0 bWAR sason in 1922, when he batted .324/.439/.441 in 126 games. The next year he hit 12 home runs while batting .319/.408/.471 in 131 games. An injury helped the Cubs want to move on to Hartnett, as described in O’Farrell’s SABR biography:

In a game on July 22, 1924, an injury to O’Farrell knocked him out of the Cubs lineup for three weeks. Essentially, it cost him his starting job. In the first inning of the first game of a doubleheader, a foul tip off the bat of Stuffy McInnis struck O’Farrell’s catcher’s mask. The impact caused the steel support rods to jam right into O’Farrell’s forehead far enough that he suffered a concussion. He was rushed to the hospital where he would remain for two to three weeks.

“It was my own fault,” O’Farrell said to [author Lawrence] Ritter. “It was an old mask and I knew I shouldn’t have worn it. You know, a lot of times a catcher’s mask gets so much banging around it gets dented here and there. If you try to bend it back the way it’s supposed to be, it weakens it. Well, I got on an old mask that day and asked the clubhouse boy to go get me my regular one. Before he could get back with it, the ball had spun off the bat, smashed through the mask, and knocked me unconscious.”

O’Farrell was NL MVP in 1926 with the Cardinals, batting .293/.371/.433 in a career-high 147 games and throwing out 51 percent of runners trying to steal. That’s something he was really good at, and O’Farrell was the catcher who threw out Babe Ruth trying to steal second in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1926 World Series, winning that Series for St. Louis.

O’Farrell played in MLB through 1935, even returning briefly to the Cubs in 1934. After his career he returned to Waukegan, where he ran a bowling alley/billiards center. He died Feb. 20, 1988 in Waukegan, aged 91.

The Major League Baseball season's characterization as a "marathon" is more appropriate than any other professional sport.

There are plenty of ebbs and flows over the course of the 162-game season. Performances can't be defined by a single month or stretch of time.

The extensive nature of the campaign is what made the National League race for Rookie of the Year one of the most contentious contests in the MLB Award season. Over the course of six months, five candidates rose to the top in the Reds' Sal Stewart, Mets' Carson Benge and Nolan McLean, Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt and Rockies' TJ Rumfield.

In the end, it was Stewart who was named the NL Rookie of the Year honor as the Baseball Writers Association of American announced the award on Monday night. Stewart took home the honor on the strength of his 32 home runs and 112 RBI, which led all NL rookies, along with 87 runs, a .787 OPS, 25 doubles and 15 stolen bases.

Stewart earned 20 of the 30 possible first-place votes. The Mets' Benge ended up as the runner-up with seven first-place votes, three second-place votes and 12 third-place designations.

One of those votes for Benge to receive the top honor was mine.

When the BBWAA assigned its award designations to the writers in early August, the Rookie of the Year race appeared to be a two-horse race between Stewart and Wetherholt. But over the the final two months of the season, Benge's kick provided further intrigue.

That's why the season is an endurance race. And by the completion of the 2026 season, I believe Benge had done enough in all facets of the game to warrant the top slot in the Rookie of the Year vote.

Stewart's explosive bat made him a top contender. The Reds first baseman had the second-most RBI and eighth-most home runs in the National League while he slashed .263/.330/.457. But defensively, he posted a -2 outs above average and a negative first-base receiving score.

Wetherholt, who finished third in the voting, proved he had one of the best gloves in all of baseball, boasting a +25 outs above average that trailed only Cubs MVP frontrunner Pete Crow-Armstrong for the best mark in baseball. While batting atop the Cardinals' lineup, the second baseman led all rookies with 89 runs, while adding 17 home runs, 51 RBI and 14 stolen bases but posting an unassuming .242/.339/.365 slash line in 139 games.

Benge provided the best of both worlds in terms of offense and defense despite a slow start through the opening two months, which hurt his case in the early going. Benge opened with a .189 batting average and .525 OPS through the month of April. He slashed .299/.363/.457 over the final five months.

The Mets right-fielder led all rookies with 168 hits — matching the Tigers' Kevin McGonigle in the American League — and was second among NL rookies in batting average (.282) and home runs (20) and third in RBI (65) and stolen bases (22). Benge is the only NL rookie to finish in the top three in each of those key offensive categories.

Benge's 118 OPS+ bested both Stewart and Wetherholt. He had a better batting average and on-base percentage than both. And his offensive spark only told half the story.

Benge was one of the three finalists for the NL Gold Glove in right field. His 10 outfield assists were the third-most among all NL outfielders while he boasted a 7 defensive runs saved. Benge's arm value was the best in baseball, along with the fifth-highest arm strength in MLB.

Stewart might have had the best offensive season among all rookies in baseball, while Wetherholt proved to be one of the best young defensive infielders.

Benge was at the top of his class in a multitude of different categories while flashing one of the best outfield gloves in all of the National League. The Mets also saw Nolan McLean finish in fourth place and A.J. Ewing receive a fifth-place vote.

Benge might not have earned the hardware on Monday night, but his first season, and those supplied by McLean and Ewing alongside him, us enough to have Mets fans yearning for more heading into a bright future.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Why Mets’ Carson Benge should have won NL Rookie of the Year | Opinion

LAS VEGAS – The Dodgers want Tarik Skubal back.

They need him back.

So pay him.

Offer him a salary next year greater than Kyle Tucker’s last year.

Or even Shohei Ohtani’s.

If the uncertainty over potential future economic regulations give the Dodgers reservations about signing Skubal to a long-term contract, present him with a deal that would pay him more money than any player has ever made in a single season.

Eighty million dollars.

Ninety million.

One-hundred million.

Whatever necessary.

The Dodgers like to talk about the importance of reading and reacting to various situations, and that’s what their efforts to re-sign two-time Cy Young Award winner call for them to do.

As the baseball industry gathered Monday on the Las Vegas Strip for the general managers meetings this week, teams didn’t know the rules under which they would be playing next season, whether there will be a salary cap or some other form of cost control designed to increase franchise valuations.

The prospect of a salary cap or some other form of cost control in the next collective-bargaining agreement could make the Dodgers reluctant to sign Skubal to the kind of eight- to 10-year contract he figures to command on the open market.

As it is, the Dodgers already have a number of long-term commitments on their books. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is under contract through 2035, Ohtani and Will Smith through 2033, Mookie Betts through 2032, Tucker and Blake Snell through 2029.

But in its most recent CBA proposal, Major League Baseball offered to delay the implementation of a salary cap until 2028 and said in a news release that it “is willing to discuss additional appropriate phase-in timeline & procedures for implementation of the Salary Cap and Floor.”

While the pitch was quickly rejected by the players, it confirmed that even if extreme changes are introduced, teams will likely be granted time to make their rosters salary-cap compliant.

The Dodgers have to take advantage of that grace period.

Signing Skubal to a short-term contract with a high average annual value will only cost them money, and they should have plenty of that, provided they are as unaffected as they claim to be by the reported problems of owner Mark Walter’s insurance companies.

They will have to offer Skubal enough money to forfeit the security of a longer deal.

What about $100 million to pitch for them next year? Perhaps a player option or two after that?

If nine figures for one season of baseball sounds expensive, consider the cost of not retaining Skubal.

The Dodgers were crushed by the eventual World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, but they were still the second-best team in baseball this year.

They have an older roster, but that doesn’t mean this iteration of their team is finished. They could have another championship run in them.

The Dodgers won 100 games this year – and that was with Ohtani injured for the half of the season.

They destroyed the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS – and that was with Ohtani hitting on one leg.

Manage Ohtani better, re-sign Skubal, inject the right amount of youth into their roster, and who’s to say the Dodgers can’t win the World Series next year?

Acquired by the Dodgers at the trade deadline, Skubal quickly became a central figure in their locker room and was entrusted with being their No. 1 starter in the postseason.

“The way he was able to seamlessly transition, not just in terms of on the field, but in the clubhouse, I can’t say enough good things about the impact he made in such a short period of time,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

Offering Skubal a short but lucrative deal doesn’t mean he will accept it, of course.

Skubal’s market is “robust,” according to his agent, Scott Boras.

“Pitchers like him deliver what every owner covets, and that’s championships,” Boras said.

The Dodgers owe it to themselves to at least make an attempt to re-sign Skubal, however.

They have a small opening to retain a player they want without compromising their long-term stability.

They have to make the most of it.

Chasing starting pitching on the free agent market is often a fool’s errand. The combination of injury risk and performance variance at the position removes any ability to add certainty to your rotation. Guys with top-end potential cost an absurd amount and typically come with high risk. Seemingly safe options to fill out the back of your rotation fall apart just about as frequently, and you should be able to create that sort of arm internally anyway. To the Mets’ credit, they seem able to do this. Your best move is typically not to play.

Converting relievers into starters has emerged—or re-emerged, depending on your historical perspective—as a viable alternative path to adding starting pitch depth in the last half decade. Reynaldo Lopez, Michael King, Seth Lugo, and of course Clay Holmes have all been notable success stories in recent years. This has expanded from a niche dice roll to a league-wide trend, to the point where a pitcher like Adrián Morejón seemed likely to be one of the most sought after pitchers on this year’s market—at least until he indicated a preference for remaining a reliever.

When analyzing the Clay Holmes signing two years ago, we took a pass at defining what sort of reliever is a good conversion candidate. With Holmes now gone and the Mets seemingly gearing up for another dip into the free agent starter market, now is a good time to update that analysis and see if there are any under-the-radar finds worth pursuing.

So back to the core question: What are the actual differences between starters and relievers? After contemplating this question deeply and discussing with several well-respected baseball minds, I’d define four key dimensions that define the difference:

• Arsenal Depth: Starting pitchers, even in an era where they see fewer batters and pitch fewer innings than ever before, typically face batters multiple times. They also, in general, cannot sustain max-effort, top of the line stuff quality over their full outings. This necessitates a broader, more varied pitch mix, typically featuring options with both armside and gloveside movement. Without getting into the nitty gritty of pitch-interactions, we can quantify this with a metric I call pitch mix entropy (PME)—see below for an explanation.
• Arsenal Quality: Relievers typically have better raw stuff. In part this is because they’re airing it out for an inning at a time and don’t have to conserve energy. In part it’s a selection bias, because you can survive with one or two really good pitches as a reliever but not as a starter. Stuff quality also drops when going from the bullpen to the rotation for the aforementioned reasons. Conversion candidates, therefore, will likely have good enough stuff to sustain their arsenal even when accounting for the conversion penalty.
• Location: Though less critical than the previous two factors, throwing strikes is more important to surviving as a starter than a reliever, due both to the underlying role / responsibilities (you need to throw more pitches and more innings) and the previously mentioned stuff penalty (you can get away with fewer strikes if you’re throwing nastier stuff).
• Physical Capability: This is the hardest criteria to quantify but is nonetheless critical. Some guys simply can’t hold up to a starter’s workload, or have too checkered an injury past to make the conversion worth it. I am a firm member of the “predicting health outcomes is impossible” camp, particularly with only public information, but we can leverage some common sense to rule out select pitchers as we work through the data.

Pitch Mix Entropy was defined as the Shannon Entropy of a single player’s pitches, a metric that ranges from 0-1. As a simple example, a pitcher with a more varied arsenal like Seth Lugo will have a higher value, while someone like Kenley Jansen who throws a limited arsenal will have a lower value.A better metric would incorporate the diversity of movement profiles as well, something Baseball Prospectus’s Surprise Factor metric does in a slightly different way.

Putting aside the Physical Capability aspect of things, we can quantify the differences between starters and relievers across these three metrics:

*One-tailed T-test between 2026 qualified players

Arsenal Depth and Arsenal Quality both match our expectations; starters have deeper arsenals, relievers have nastier stuff. Location, as quantified by Zone%, is a bit trickier. The surface level difference is minimal and the statistical difference is not significant. A confounding factor here is that pitchers can succeed in different ways – a low control, high stuff profile can work as either a starter or a reliever. Other metrics such as Location+ show similar results. Maybe you fall in the “control is fake” camp, and this evidence perhaps supports that. In either case, there is certainly a limit to how bad your control can be before you run into problems (we all remember later career Óliver Pérez).

If you’re more a visual person, here’s what this looks like for starters…

…and for relievers:

Highlighted circles represent those players at least two standard deviations away from the mean Stuff+ and PME in any direction. Names omitted from some highlighted relievers for readability purposes.

Unsurprisingly, there are a lot more arms up and to the left in relief, guys who throw one or maybe two nasty pitches and nothing else. By contrast, there are a fair number more starters on the right hand side of the plot, those who survive on varied arsenals despite pedestrian stuff. Command, as previously discussed, is a bit all over the place, but does offer some useful context; guys with terrible command and weak stuff (i.e., Austin Voth) are bad. Those with nasty stuff and terrible command (i.e., Josh Hader) can be good, but may also struggle (i.e., Jefry Yan).

So we have a theoretical framework to parse the differences between starters and relievers, now let’s apply it. The best conversion candidates are likely those that:

• Have sufficiently differentiated arsenals in some direction – perhaps not as stringent as our plots above, but something noticeable
• Have above average stuff to survive the conversion penalty – at least one standard deviation better than mean Stuff+
• Have viable arsenal depth – at worst one standard deviation worse than mean starter PME
• Have viable command – at worst one standard deviation worse than starter Zone%

Some of these players are clearly too old (e.g., Aroldis Chapman) or too injury prone (e.g., Mason Montgomery) to give this a go. But there are some hits as well. There’s Adrián Morejón at the top of the list. AJ Smith-Shawver, who has at times looked like a potentially decent starter, also appears. Ditto Chase Dollander. The Rays already traded for Casey Legumina and deployed him as a starter a couple times as well.

Then there are some new names. Justin Martinez just signed an extension with the Diamondbacks and looks like the closer of the future, but he’s young enough and started recently enough that he seems ripe for conversion. Louis Varland was a failed starter in Minnesota before figuring it out in the bullpen in Toronto, and I have to wonder if it would work as a starter. Jhoan Duran hasn’t started a game since 2021 and has been so good in relief that you probably don’t mess with it, but theoretically he’s an interesting option.

The two most interesting guys to me here are Drew Sommers and Yoendrys Gómez. Sommers was awesome last year for the Tigers and has never started before, but he seems like someone where this could work. Gómez wasn’t quite as good in relief but has started more recently. I’d be kicking the tires on both of them via trade this offseason if I’m the Mets.

But what if you think stuff is control is fake? We can remove that threshold to open the aperture a bit, and some more names come through:

This doesn’t add a ton of names but does unveil Aaron Ashby, perhaps the best candidate for this beyond Morejon. Coming off his insane postseason run, Ashby still seems intent on starting, and frankly the Brewers should probably let him. Will the control hold up in the rotation? Great question, but the breadth and quality of the stuff are good enough to be worth finding out.

Edgardo Henriquez is another fascinating name here, but not one that I think will be relevant for us; the Dodgers have too many starters to make experimenting with a shut down reliever worth it, and he’s not likely to be available via trade. William Kempner is an interesting one that might be attainable. There’s nasty stuff and he started in his senior year at Gonzaga back in 2022. He’s worth checking in with the Marlins on.

There is one caveat to our analysis that we’ve left out; pitchers can add to their arsenal when moving to the rotation. Clay Holmes himself is a prime example of this. In 2024 with the the Yankees he had well below average PME, throwing two pitches (sinker and slider) exclusively. One year later with the Mets, Holmes was throwing five pitches and running an above average PME.

So it may be worth looking at arms who don’t have presently broad arsenals. We’ll still have a threshold—three standard deviations below mean PME—to ween out the extreme narrow arsenal guys, but that leaves a number of additional candidates. Note that previously highlighted players are omitted for readability:

Parsing this is harder than our previous two views. Unless you’re an actual professional coach, determining which of these relievers can add a pitch—and which pitches they should add—is likely beyond your capabilities. A decent proxy would be looking at recent starters such as Dax Fulton who seems like a prime candidate to step back into the Marlins’ rotation next season. Alex McFarlane is another NL East name who the Phillies could leverage as a starter in 2027. All of Blade Tidwell, Seth Johnson, Antwone Kelly, and Erik Tolman had some degree of recognition as prospects and started in the minors, but have struggled significantly with health or effectiveness.

There are two free agent names in Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips that pop up towards the extremes of this cluster. Both are interesting in a vacuum, but neither has a track record of starting, both are over 30, and in Phillips’ case his arm is held together by duct tape and glue. I would chalk these up as plausible but unlikely conversion candidates.

For completeness, what about those arms that don’t necessarily have high-end stuff but zone the ball well and have a broad arsenal. Here you’re mostly getting former and/or failed starters who have not narrowed their arsenal to function in the bullpen. This is not a group worth digging into, but is a decent sanity check on the analysis:

This is an imperfect framework for a number of reasons. Public facing stuff metrics are poor. Zone% is a rudimentary at best measure of control. A more sophisticated view of pitch mix diversity would be informative. And of course we’re missing the all important ability to determine physical capability of starting.

Nevertheless, we can pick out a number of candidates for whom a conversion might make sense. Most (Sommers, Kempner, Gómez, Fulton, McFarlane) would have to be acquired via trade, and the majority of the free agents that stick out (Phillips, Vesia) are likely not viable options.

Morejón, however, really does stand out as much as the free agent hype suggests. His current arsenal—buffed by pitching in releif—is most similar to Jacob Misiorowski among starters. Hitting him with a nerf similar to other players who have made the conversion puts him in the range of Payton Tolle and Eury Perez. He’s only 27, as well, meaning whoever signs him gets his physical prime. Presuming his medicals hold up, he really does seem like the best conversion candidate yet and someone the Mets should seriously pursue.

All data and filtration results can be found here.