Albert Pujols is in the mix for yet another managerial opening. 

The MLB legend is interviewing for the Astros’ manager job, according to The Athletic. 

He will be interviewed by new Houston general manager Randy Flores, who spent the previous 11 seasons in the Cardinals’ front office and played with Pujols in St. Louis for five years. 

The Astros are kicking off a new era after parting ways with general manager Dana Brown in August and declining to renew manager Joe Espada’s contract following an 81-81 season.

Houston won its eighth American League West title in 10 seasons but was swept out of the postseason by the White Sox during the wild-card round. 

Pujols, a three-time MVP, interviewed for managerial openings with the Angels and Padres last offseason, but fell short of getting either job. 

He also reportedly had interest from the Orioles for the manager role last offseason. 

In June, Pujols suggested he’d be interested in becoming the manager of the Mets after the franchise fired Carlos Mendoza. 

He’s enjoyed some success from the dugout, though. 

He guided Leones del Escogido to the Dominican winter league championship and Caribbean Series title in 2025 before managing the Dominican Republic in this year’s World Baseball Classic to a third-place finish. 

The Astros are also considering Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus, who previously managed the Tigers and Angels, and Rangers bench coach Luis Urueta, per The Athletic.

Pujols, who will be eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame in 2028, hit 703 career home runs, which ranks fourth all time.

Brandon Lowe is officially a free agent and able to sign with any of the 30 MLB clubs as soon as possible. 

Now the waiting begins.

The Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman is one of the best free agents available in this year’s cycle after a historic season.

Lowe slugged 35 home runs in his lone year in Pittsburgh, the most by any second baseman in team history. He broke Neil Walker’s record by 12.

Lowe slashed .260/.331/.493 with a .824 OPS in 150 games after being traded from the future American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays.

He recorded 152 hits, 29 doubles, 96 RBIs and consistently carried the Pirates lineup from the No. 2 spot in the batting order.

Not known as a good defender, Lowe improved his defense well enough to earn one of three Gold Glove nominations at second base.

Pittsburgh has officially offered Lowe a qualifying offer as he enters free agency. The deal is a one-year, $23.15 million contract for the 2027 season. If Lowe accepts, he will be back with the Pirates and can still negotiate a long-term deal. 

If he rejects, the Pirates will receive a compensatory draft pick when Lowe signs elsewhere. Lowe has until November 17 to accept or deny the terms. Lowe was one of eight players to be offered a qualifying offer.

Multiple MLB analysts have estimated the contact Lowe could command on the market. Former MLB GM Jim Bowden only projected a three-year, $45 million deal, a $15 million average-annual-value for someone already offered over $23 million.

ESPN insider Kiley McDaniel believes Lowe will agree to a deal nearing a four-year, $80 million total.

Keith Law of The Athletic has the most stunning projection. Law regards Lowe as the third-best free agent on the market and estimates he will sign a five-year, $150 million contract. 

The difference in years and annual value is staggering and paints a difficult picture for what Lowe will command. It also doesn’t help that the league and players have until December 1 to agree on a new CBA before the impending lockout.

Lowe, 32, put together one of the best all-around seasons in Pirates history this century, and the Pirates should offer him a three-year deal nearing $20 million. 

They can afford it, plus a potential change in revenue sharing and the economic landscape of baseball could make the deal even easier.

The clock is ticking, and it’s time for the Pirates to step up to the plate and show they are committed to winning and winning significantly in 2027. Sign Brandon Lowe. It just makes too much sense.

The Cincinnati Reds announced on Wednesday afternoon that they have found their new pitching coach. Joe Torres, who had been an assitant pitching coach with the Cleveland Guardians since back in 2022, will assume the roll immediately and work with the staff as it heads into the 2027 season.

Torres, now 44 years old, is a former 1st round draft pick of the then Anaheim Angels from back in 2000. A lefty, he got off to a sharp start within an Angels organization that won the World Series in 2002, and Baseball America even named him the #50 overall prospect in the game prior to 2001. He missed all of the 2004 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and his pitching career went sideways from that moment on, and he never actually made it to the big leagues after bouncing around the farm systems of the Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Colorado Rockies.

Beginning in 2017, he began coaching on the Guardians farm, doing so while the likes of Terry Francona managed the big league club. That means that the current Reds pitching coach, 1B coach (Colin Cowgill), and hitting coach (Chris Valaika) all spent time under Francona either playing or coaching during the future Hall of Fame manager’s time spearheading the Guardians.

Torres will replace Derek Johnson, who served as the franchise’s overall pitching coordinator prior to his leave of absence last June. Johnson, who came to the Reds as the team’s pitching coach back in 2018, was relieved of his duties at season’s end after having been absent for the final 3+ months of the 2026 season.

After ten years and 1,662 plate-appearances, it appears the Pavin Smith era in Arizona has ended. His time here is likely notable more for its length than its quality. In franchise history, only seven position players have appeared in more seasons for the Diamondbacks. But Smith was never a full-time, regular player: just once did he reach even ninety games, and he trails the likes of Orlando Hudson and Conor Jackson in PA as a D-back. He certainly wasn’t great: his time here ends barely better than replacement (0.2 bWAR, 0.9 fWAR). But he wasn’t expensive either: this was the first year Pavin earned any semi-significant amount. I’d say he didn’t deserve the brutal vitriol hurled at him by certain sections of online fandom.

Perhaps it was a sense of disappointment at Smith never living up to hopes and expectations. He was a first-round pick – and a high one at that, going seventh overall in the 2017 draft, as Mike Hazen’s first ever selection. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great class that year: excluding Drew Rasmussen, who didn’t sign, only two of the top sixty players have reached even eight bWAR so far: Hunter Greene and Trevor Rogers [The most productive player has arguably been Daulton Varsho, selected after sixty-seven others] As a yardstick, the following year already has seven such. Arizona could have done worse. #4 in 2017, Brendan McKay, threw less than fifty innings at below replacement level, and #6 Austin Beck never reached the majors.

At the time, John Sickels of Minor League Ball (remember that site?) wrote, “Overall few players offer the combination of safety and upside possessed by Smith.” Pavin was immediately named the team’s top prospect, and the following month was Arizona’s only player listed in the overall top 100 prospects by MLB Pipeline, coming in at #75. By the following spring, the general consensus was that he had been overtaken by pitcher Jon Duplantier – yeah, about that – but he was still the D-backs #2. However, a sluggish, power-depleted campaign in High-A, with only eleven HR in 120 games, saw him drop to the fringes of Arizona’s top 10 for 2019.

Smith rebounded that year, his SLG jumping 74 points despite a promotion to Double-A. The following year saw the minor-league season wiped out by COVID-19, but Pavin still made his major-league debut as a September call-up. Down the stretch, he hit 10-for-37 and notched his first home-run, against the Phillies (above – I had quite forgotten how weird things were that season, with a stadium devoid of fans, cardboard cutouts and piped-in crowd noise). The following year saw Smith’s sole campaign as a regular. He was much more an outfielder, starting at least five games at each OF spot, and making 98 of his 145 appearances there.

While he won our Rookie of the Year honor in 2021, (albeit in a weak class – “No award” came runner-up!) that largely set the tone for the years which followed. Smith hit respectably enough (a 98 OPS+), but mediocre defense wiped out any value at the plate. Outside of that brief 2020 stint, Pavin’s dWAR was below replacement every other season. This persisted, even as he moved from the outfield to the far easier position of first base. “Starting in center field: Pavin Smith” has a really weird sound to it now. But there was likely weirder, since in 2021 Ketel Marte was our main CF, on our way to a hundred and ten losses.

In 2023, however, the bat evaporated, as Smith hit just .188. His playing time consequently evaporated to 158 PA, and he was never able to command a regular spot as a Diamondback again. He always hit well in Reno: even given the offensive environment, a .955 OPS across 175 games for the Aces is still pretty good. But consistently translating this into success at the major-league level proved to be elusive. Oh, there were moments. Of the almost 23,000 major-league players, only 673 – less than three percent – have enjoyed a three-homer game. But Smith is among them, having done it on September 8th, 2024 (above). And two came off likely Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander.

However, the two seasons since have proved problematic, Smith struggling with a fatal combination of injury and ineffectiveness. He got off to a good start in 2025, and had an .852 OPS at the half-way point in the schedule, over almost 250 PA. But a right oblique strain in early July sidelined Pavin for six weeks, and he had barely returned when a left quad strain against the Brewers then ended his season. This year was worse still. He had lingering elbow soreness in spring training, and after a mere two games, this forced him onto the IL. He required surgery in mid-April to remove loose bodies from his left elbow, and struggled on his return. Smith was batting just .141 when designated for assignment on July 10.

There was one last hurrah. September saw Arizona desperately seeking a reliable left-handed bat to take on right-handed pitching, and Pavin got the call. The results had their moments, most notably a September 19th walk-off home-run against the Yankees, on the night the Diamondbacks honored the 2001 World Series team (above). But the team had decided Smith, now in his thirties and about to become significantly more expensive through arbitration, was no longer worth the squeeze. He was effectively non-tendered, being taken off the 40-man roster and becoming a minor-league free agent instead. Maybe he’ll sign back with the team in time for spring training!

Part of me kinda wants that to happen, simply to see the Twitiots’ heads explode. For I can’t recall the last time a player was the target of so much online hate – and, arguably, for little reason. At $2.25 million in his most expensive year, he was $850K cheaper than A.J. Puk this season, who didn’t play at all, and barely more than the startlingly useless Carlos Santana. It’s not as if Smith at first was blocking some top prospect either. Ildemaro Vargas was the most-used first baseman for Arizona this year in Smith’s absence. If I squint a moderate amount, perhaps too much faith in Smith caused Hazen to skimp on the 1B position since the departure of Christian Walker? That’s all I got. I know we have some in the #SmithHate camp present, and I’m genuinely curious.

It does leave a hole. Between them, the departed Vargas, Smith and Santana were responsible for half the starts at first base this year. Those need to be replaced. But that’s a question for another day, I think. For now, we just bid farewell to the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, that was Pavin Smith.

Josue De Paula ended the 2026 season as the top prospect in the Dodgers organization, while also playing briefly in the major league postseason after his September debut. So it’s no surprise that De Paula tops the list of top Dodgers prospects heading into 2027, as rated by the fine folks at Baseball Prospectus.

But he’s not alone among outfielders at the top, with Mike Sirota ranked second in the system and Eduardo Quintero third. Reigning Midwest League MVP Charles Davalan, another outfielder, checks in as the seventh-best prospect among Dodgers minor leaguers, and he’s been adding second base to his repertoire in the Arizona Fall League.

Sirota started last season in High-A Great Lakes, was promoted to Double-A Tulsa, and finished the season in the Triple-A playoffs with Oklahoma City. All the while, Sirota was an on-base machine, hitting .307/.461/.526 with 28 doubles, 17 home runs, and 100 walks in 108 games.

From Jeffrey Paternostro at Baseball Prospectus:

While Sirota is not likely to maintain those high batting averages further up the chain, the hit tool should play a bit above-average despite his below-average contact rates, because he can start his swing late and still do a lot of damage. And the more types of swings and types of pitches you can hit hard, the more often you will find gaps in the grass. That’s not to say there is no hit tool risk here, of course, and you can find Double-A arms that had success getting it in Sirota’s kitchen. Given his power and ability to draw walks, however, if he even hits .250 in the majors he would be a first-division starter, even in a corner.

De Paula, Sirota, Quintero, and shortstop Emil Morales were all top-101 prospects in the sport at Baseball Prospectus prior to the 2026 season, and they comprise the top four Dodgers prospects heading into 2027. The were in the top five prospects in the system before last season along with the since-traded Zyhir Hope.

De Paula and Christian Zazueta won Branch Rickey Awards as the Dodgers minor league player and pitcher of the year. For Zazueta, it was his second straight Rickey Award. He’s ranked fifth in the system by Baseball Prospectus this year, up 11 spots from last offseason.

Also of note, last year’s Dodgers first-round pick, high school shortstop Bo Lowrance, joins the top 10 prospects in the system at No. 8 heading into 2027 as he awaits his professional debut.

“He does have a pretty—and pretty simple—left-handed swing, but Lowrance has a weird mishmash of skills that don’t fit his frame nor his profile,” Paternostro wrote of the 6’5 Lowrance. “The Dodgers have the luxury of time with this sort of a position player project—and a near-best-in-class player development apparatus backing it—but like a lot of their prospects on this list, the org’s biggest swings don’t always make contact.”

Hyun-Seok Jang, the right-handed pitcher the Dodgers signed out of South Korea in 2023, jumped up from 21st in the system before 2026 to 10th going into 2027.

“The only thing keeping Jang from being ranked with the top pitching prospects in the system is his inability to stay on the mound for a full season,” Paternostro wrote.

Note: It’s nomination day! So in addition to voting, head to the comment section to nominate players for Friday’s CPL.

We’re fully off and running with the 2027 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, which will see us rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization. Hey, we’ve already got a top three!

Rounding out the opening trio is shortstop Luis Hernández, who jumps up three spots from last year’s placement at No. 6. Hernández, a right-handed hitter who turns 18 in December, was widely considered the top international free agent when he signed with the Giants out of Venezuela in January.

In a fairly unconventional (unless you’re the Padres) move, the Giants had Hernández skip the Dominican Summer League entirely, and come straight to the states. What followed was pure brilliance: despite his age and inexperience, Hernández had no issues at all with the Arizona Complex League, where he hit .298/.382/.535 for a .917 OPS and a 117 wRC+, while bopping six home runs in 228 plate appearances and stealing six bases.

Hernández was the total package in Arizona: among 136 qualified Complex League hitters (where Hernández was more than two-and-a-half years below the average age), he ranked 24th in batting average, 14th in isolated slugging percentage (.237), and 15th in strikeout rate (16.7%). He also played a quite delightful shortstop, looking remarkably smooth and graceful, and handled third base well when displaced by Josuar González (our No. 1 prospect).

Given his age and experience level, it’s safe to say that Hernández fairly dramatically outperformed expectations … and expectations were quite high!

When the Rookie Ball season ended, the Giants rewarded Hernández for his strong play — and sought to get him more reps — by sending him to Low-A San Jose for the final month of the season. There, he understandably hit a bump in the road, slashing .231/.276/.319 for a .594 OPS and a 48 wRC+, with two home runs in 98 plate appearances and a 29.6% strikeout rate. But that’s no matter. Hernández was laughably young for the league (four years younger than his average peer), was dealing with a small ailment, and it was a small sample size … if you need reassurance, just know that Gavin Kilen posted a 58 wRC+ at the same level in his short stint there last year, after being drafted in the first round out of an SEC school at age 21.

Hernández will surely be back in San Jose to start 2027, and if he adjusts well to the league, there’s no telling how quickly — and emphatically — he can rise through the ranks of both the system and national prospect lists. His instincts, fundamentals, and bat control are truly elite, and he’s got far more pop than you would suspect from looking at him. The sky is the limit for Hernández!

Now let’s add to the list, and don’t forget that it’s nomination day!

The list so far

1. Josuar González — SS
2. Jackson Flora — RHP
3. Luis Hernández — SS

Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.

No. 4 prospect nominees

JacobBresnahan — 21.4-year old LHP — 2.92 ERA/4.32 FIP in High-A (98.2 IP); 5.06 ERA/3.60 FIP in AA (16 IP)

BoDavidson — 24.3-year old OF — .861 OPS/122 wRC+ in AA (315 PA); .923 OPS/138 wRC+ in AAA (234 PA); .714 OPS/100 wRC+ in MLB (22 PA)

JhonnyLevel — 19.6-year old SS — .968 OPS/134 wRC+ in Low-A (217 PA); .836 OPS/119 wRC+ in High-A (331 PA)

RamonMarquez — 21.1-year old RHP — 1.86 ERA/2.67 FIP in Low-A (29 IP); 2.48 ERA/2.45 FIP in High-A (40 IP)

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page.All stats are from the 2026 season.

Welbyn Francisca was just named to the AFL All-Star Game.

In other “news”, FOX News is worried that everybody in Arizona has to change their name to Welbyn now.

And the A’s hired a GM—a gent from the Brewers with NEOH connections.

The Nats released LGFT Zak Kent.

and MLB made a proposal