Category: MLB

Instead of sharing that Jurrangelo Cjintje lost the head-to-head vote to Quinn Mathews for the #5 prospect during our regularly scheduled programming (tomorrow), I figured it was more appropriate to have its own official post. There was an interesting quandary posted in the comments that was not a quandary at all as it turns out. There was a belief that Cjintje could have plausibly lost to Joshua Baez but would have beat Mathews. But no, the prospect order was seemingly confirmed when Cjintje beat Baez and then lost to Mathews. The order as it stands now:

1. JJ Wetherholt
2. Liam Doyle
3. Rainiel Rodriguez
4. Quinn Mathews
5. Jurrangelo Cjintje
6. Joshua Baez
7. Leonardo Bernal
8. Jimmy Crooks
9. Brandon Clarke
10. Tink Hence
11. Tekoah Roby

The 12th prospect gets revealed tomorrow, although it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to figure out who that is if you really wanted to know right this minute. And hey while you’re here, I might as well get some use out of this post and run another comparable player poll, which I technically lost when Cjintje was automatically placed in the top 7 without ever going on the vote.

Comparable Player Poll #1

One of the appeals of making this its own post, quite frankly, was being able to run a couple extra of these. When Cjintje got added to the top 7 without ever going into the main vote, I lost a comparable player poll. And since this is such an exceptionally short post and you’re already here, help me separate seemingly indistinguishable prospects who may or may not get added to the voting, but at least shortening my options from 3 to 1 would help a lot. The first of these will be simple: pick the best of the 2025 trade deadline pickups:

Nate Dohm, 23 – RHP

Low A: 7 GS, 28.1 IP, 27.9 K%, 8.2 BB%, 43.4 GB%, .351 BABIP, 3.18 ERA/2.66 FIP/3.14 xFIP

High A: 15 GS, 46.2 IP, 27.9 K%, 10.9 GB%, 39 GB%, .289 BABIP, 3.28 ERA/4.28 FIP/3.52 xFIP

Scouting (FG): 50/60 Fastball, 45/50 Slider, 30/50 Command

Frank Ellisalt, 24 – RHP

Low A: 18 G (7 GS), 50.2 IP, 28.4 K%, 10.4 BB%, 30.2 GB%, .222 BABIP, 3.02 ERA/3.69 FIP/3.64 xFIP

High A: 6 (3 GS), 15.1 IP, 22.2 K%, 12.7 BB%, 35 GB%, .282 BABIP, 4.70 ERA/4.18 FIP/4.26 xFIP

Scouting: 55/60 Fastball, 50/60 Slider, 30/40 Change, 30/40 Command

Mason Molina, 22 – LHP

Low A: 11 GS, 46.2 IP, 32.3 K%, 8.3 BB%, 43.6 GB%, .298 BABIP, 3.86 ERA/3.87 FIP/2.94 xFIP

High A: 11 GS, 49 IP, 28.1 K%, 13.3 BB%, 36.5 GB%, .270 BABIP, 2.39 ERA/3.38 FIP/4.03 xFIP

Scouting: 45/50 Fastball, 40/45 Slider, 35/40 Curve, 50/55 Change, 30/40 Command

No mini-profiles here, just the stats and the scouting.

VOTE HERE

Comparable Player Poll #2

Kind of weird comparison honestly, but today we are looking at two recently recovering from Tommy John pitchers with not much of a sample size and a recent draft pick with zero sample size. I wanted all of them in a poll at some point, and honestly, comparing three guys with very little sample to work with makes sense to me. As such I don’t think listing the stats is particularly useful. Here’s a spoiler: the Tommy John guys struck out a lot of guys but also walked a lot of guys.

Cade Crossland was the 2025 3rd round draft choice out of Oklahoma. He is left-handed and had in my opinion a bit of a confusing stat line last season. Playing in the SEC, he struck out a good number of batters, walked a bit too many but nothing too bad and…. allowed a lot of runners to score. He is an underlying metrics + scouting the stuff bet I would guess.

Andrew Dutkanych IV was the 7th rounder from the 2024 draft who was drafted after having already gotten Tommy John, with a gamble on grabbing a higher round talent who was available lower because of his injury. He threw 17 total innings and finished the year in Low A.

Jacob Odle was a 14th round pick from the 2023 draft who needed Tommy John after getting drafted and thus missed all of 2024. On the bright side, he threw 51 innings last season including 43 in Low A. He averaged a bit more than 3 innings per start.

All three are 22-years-old, so age is not a separator.

VOTE HERE

That’s all I have for you. The #12 prospect will be revealed tomorrow and so will the chance to vote on 13th best prospect.

Today we look at the Cubs’ younger right-handed swingman.

The Cubs have restocked the bullpen and added a starter. So far, we’ve covered the starting five and the entire batting/fielding group (as it stands). We’ll look at the additional starter candidates and the bullpen in alphabetical order, which means that the roster will consist of Assad, Brown, Harvey, Hodge, Hollowell, Little, Martin, Maton, Milner, Neely, Palencia, Ray, Roberts, Rolison, Thielbar, Webb, Wicks. We’ll skip Miller and Steele until they are activated.

Javier Eduardo Assad was born July 30, 1997 in Tijuana, Mexico. He’s 18-12 lifetime, 3.43 ERA in 78 games, 54 of which were starts, over a four-year period. When he isn’t starting, he’s a long reliever. He’s fine in either role — I don’t think he gets enough respect, honestly. He started 29 games in 2024, his best overall and most complete season, and then got hurt, suffering a Grade 2 left oblique strain in Spring Training which bit him twice, aborting a first comeback attempt.

He seems fine now, is playing for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, and is said to be focused on his health.

His health willing, Assad will probably make the cut in the spring and travel north. He’s more or less on a plain with Colin Rea as a swingman, and there’s no reason not to keep both unless they lay eggs in Mesa.

He’s amassed a career 5.1 bWAR (2.7 fWAR), and is an injury away from the rotation.

We’ll see you tomorrow with a few words about Ben Brown.

This time of year, there are always a few young players across the league that get contract extensions. Teams try to buy out a few free agent years at what they think will be cheaper costs, while players get long term security. Bobby Witt Jr., Jackson Merrill, Kristian Campbell and Keibert Ruiz are all young players who have signed lucrative extensions right before a season over the last few years.

From that list, you can see this is a high risk, high reward approach. If you sign the right player, you will be getting these guys on huge bargains for most of their primes. However, extending the wrong guy could be an anchor on the franchise. Not only financially, but also from an opportunity cost standpoint.

Paul Toboni comes from a Red Sox organization that has extended several young players in the last few years. Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Ceddanne Rafaela, Garrett Whitlock and Brayan Bello have all signed extensions in Boston, with most taking place before those guys hit arbitrations. Could Toboni replicate this process with the Nats, and if he does, who should he extend?

In my opinion, Daylen Lile is the best and most obvious extension candidate on the roster. Unlike a few of the Nats other young players, he is not represented by Scott Boras, so that makes talks easier. He is not projected to hit free agency until 2032, which also means an extension will not be that pricey. As players accrue more service time, the price of their extension goes up.

Lile showed a phenomenal feel to hit in his first taste of MLB action in 2025. He hit .299 with an .845 OPS. The speedy outfielder also compiled an insane 11 triples in just 91 games. His speed and gap to gap power make him a constant threat for triples. He hit a ton in the minor leagues as well, so this is no fluke.

Daylen Lile is going to shock a lot of people this year! In 2025:

351 PA
.299 / 9 HR / 41 RBI / 8 SB

.302 xBA
.199 ISO
.348 xwOBA
16 K%

Power/speed potential going at ~200 ADP.
pic.twitter.com/HSEnkuO82t

— Andrew DeCeglie (@Andrew_FBB) February 11, 2026

I also think Lile has room to grow, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Right now, he is not a good defensive outfielder. However, I think he has the athletic ability to be at least an average defender in a corner. His reads need sharpening, but he has been making a point of improving that. Lile’s reads could also improve when it comes to stealing bases. Despite 92nd percentile sprint speed, he was inefficient as a base stealer.

Lile’s combination of current production and upside make him the guy Toboni should approach. He is already a good player, but he has clear areas of improvement. Lile also has the athleticism to improve in those areas, which makes development possible.

Honestly, the Nats should try offering him an 8-year $65 million contract with a couple team options attached as well. It is a bit more than the 8-years $50 million that Keibert Ruiz got, but Lile has produced more than Ruiz ever has.

He is not the only guy the Nats should approach though. Dylan Crews and James Wood are Boras clients, which complicates things, but it is still worth asking. That is especially true in the case of Wood, who has shown super star upside when he is at his best. 

ICYMI, Harry Ford made the switch from Boras to RocNation as his agents. With Gore gone, the Nats have James Wood and Dylan Crews as Boras guys. By our calculations, that's the lowest number since 2010 on the projected Opening Day roster. https://t.co/6rTcyDtGdG

— Talk Nats (@TalkNats) January 31, 2026

Given how Wood has performed at his best and his agent, this extension will be pricey. If Scott Boras were even willing to listen, he would probably use the Julio Rodriguez contract as a point of comparison. That is a 12-year $209 million deal, but it has incentives that could take it up to $470 million. Boras would want more guaranteed money, but there would not be as much incentive based money.

A Wood extension is not very likely, but you never know. He is a local kid whose family has a lot of roots in DC. However, I do not see that happening unless the Nats absolutely blow him away. Given how they have been spending lately, I find that hard to envision.

One player who I certainly do not see the Nats extending is CJ Abrams. Despite not being a Boras client, it really seems like the extension window has closed with Abrams. He is much more likely to be traded in the next year than extended, at least in my opinion.

It is not just my opinion though. Those around the game see an Abrams trade as a matter of when not if. There was an Athletic article about potential Spring Training trade candidates, and Abrams was at the top of the list.

Will there be a good old-fashioned blockbuster deal this spring?

Never say never.

Our panel weighs in on the MLB players who could get traded, with Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams leading the pack.https://t.co/edo1yNGln2pic.twitter.com/1jMv9nQdTu

— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) February 16, 2026

I do not think Abrams will be traded before the season, but a deadline deal seems like a real possibility. The piece on Abrams was actually quite interesting. They talked about how those Giants rumors had legs, even if the move did not come to be. It was also mentioned that the Nats goal right now is making the best farm system in baseball, and that they will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.

Abrams only has three years of team control remaining and is on the trade block. Combine that with some of the maturity questions, I do not see an extension coming. If it does happen, I would be pleasantly surprised because I still think Abrams can be a long term piece for this group.

Now I am going to flip the question to you guys. Who would you want to extend and are there any guys you would stay away from? An extension this spring would be a good PR move from the Nats as well. With all the losing, there is apathy setting in. There is also a sense that ownership is checked out. An extension would not quell all of those concerns, but it would be a positive step. For me, I would be on the phone with Daylen Lile’s agent non-stop.

For the final time this year, it’s nomination day! Head to the comment section to nominate some prospects for Friday’s CPL.

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Baseball is in the air. The San Francisco Giants, like all teams, are fully in the spring swing, as they’ve been playing real baseball activities in Scottsdale for over a week now. On Saturday, they’ll play their first Cactus League game of the year. Meanwhile, over here at McCovey Chronicles, we’ve nearly finished our Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, in which we’ll work together to rank the top 44 prospects in the Giants organization.

Our next name is a player we just might see in that aforementioned Saturday game, as he’s in camp as a non-roster invitee: it’s left-handed reliever Juan Sánchez, who earns the vote as the No. 41 prospect in the system. That’s a drop of eight spots for Sánchez, who came in at No. 33 last year.

It’s been a long and winding road for Sánchez, who is one of the longest tenured players in the organization. Despite having only recently turned 25, Sánchez is entering his 10th year with the Giants, after signing in international free agency in 2017 out of Venezuela. That said, it’s only his seventh year actually pitching: he didn’t pitch in 2017 due to the timing of the DSL schedule and the international signing period back then; he didn’t throw in 2020 as Minor League Baseball was cancelled due to Covid; and he lost all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

But when he has pitched, the crafty southpaw has been quite successful. After a brief stint as a starter, Sánchez started to rise the ranks as a reliever starting in 2021. He really took off in 2023, when he posted a 2.39 ERA and a 3.17 FIP with AA Richmond, despite being nearly two-and-a-half years younger than the average pitcher in the Eastern League. He ended the year by holding his own in AAA Sacramento as a 22-year old, where he was more than five years younger than his peers.

Questions persisted about Sánchez’s ability to get outs at the Major League level, as he didn’t possess too much heat with his fastball. But he showed up to his first Spring Training in 2024 looking like a new man, with a notable uptick in velocity, and results that opened eyes. Sánchez was the talk of camp at times and, were it not for roster logistics — he wasn’t on the 40-man roster, and Rule 5 protection Erik Miller was — he might have made the Opening Day roster.

Instead, he returned to Sacramento for some more seasoning, and the red flags immediately started to wave. While he had a 3.93 ERA (very respectable for the Pacific Coast League), Sánchez struggled with control in a way we’d never seen before, issuing 28 walks in 34.1 innings. Soon, a scary explanation for the lack of control was given, as the southpaw hit the Injured List with elbow soreness. Not long after, it was announced that he needed Tommy John surgery, which ended his 2024 and his 2025 at the same time.

But now he’s healthy. While Sánchez didn’t get on the field for the 2025 season, he did end the year with a stint in the Arizona Fall League, where he posted a 2.70 ERA in seven appearances. Most importantly, Sánchez walked just four batters in 10 innings, while striking out 11.

He’s back in camp for a second time, and once again hoping to beat out the competition and earn a spot on the Opening Day roster. Whether or not that happens, odds are good that Sánchez — if he stays healthy — will see his nearly decade-long journey in professional baseball finally result in the ultimate prize sometime this year: a Major League debut.

Now let’s add to the list, and a reminder that today is nomination day. Both nominations and voting take place in the comment section, using the “rec” feature.

The list so far

1. Bryce Eldridge — 1B
2. Josuar González — SS
3. Jhonny Level — SS
4. Bo Davidson — CF
5. Dakota Jordan — CF
6. Luis Hernández — SS
7. Gavin Kilen — SS
8. Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
9. Blade Tidwell — RHP
10. Keyner Martinez — RHP
11. Jacob Bresnahan — LHP
12. Trevor McDonald — RHP
13. Argenis Cayama — RHP
14. Luis De La Torre — LHP
15. Trevor Cohen — OF
16. Jesús Rodríguez — C
17. Parks Harber — OF/3B
18. Carlos Gutierrez — OF
19. Drew Cavanaugh — C
20. Daniel Susac — C
21. Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP
22. Josh Bostick — RHP
23. Lorenzo Meola — SS/2B
24. Will Bednar — RHP
25. Yunior Marte — RHP
26. Joe Whitman — LHP
27. Joel Peguero — RHP
28. Alberto Laroche — RHP
29. Trent Harris — RHP
30. Carlos De La Rosa — LHP
31. Diego Velasquez — 2B
32. Lisbel Diaz — OF
33. Maui Ahuna — SS
34. Cam Maldonado — OF
35. Victor Bericoto — OF/1B
36. Reid Worley — RHP
37. Jack Choate — LHP
38. Rayner Arias — OF
39. Nate Furman — 2B
40. Jakob Christian — OF
41. Juan Sánchez — LHP

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

No. 42 prospect nominees

Sabin Ceballos — 23.5-year old 3B — .670 OPS/102 wRC+ in AA (420 PA)

Reggie Crawford — 25.2-year old LHP — did not pitch in 2025; 1.04 ERA/4.07 FIP in AAA in 2024 (8.2 IP); 4.66 ERA/4.93 FIP in AA in 2024 (9.2 IP)

Charlie Szykowny — 25.7-year old 3B/1B — .816 OPS/122 wRC+ in High-A (549 PA)

Jancel Villarroel — 21.0-year old C — .699 OPS/91 wRC+ in High-A (61 PA); .746 OPS/123 wRC+ in Low-A (372 PA)

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 2025 season.

The Kansas City Royals were on the brink of making the playoffs last season, they were in it until the final week of the season, despite the myriad of starting pitching injuries and hitters underperforming.

Things like that happen in baseball, everything doesn’t work out the way you want or plan for them to go. Last season, the usual suspects, Bobby Witt Jr., Salvy, Vinnie were all great. The bullpen for the most part was exceptional.

It was leaps by players like Maikel Garcia and Kyle Isbel. Taylor Clarke had a surprisingly good year, considering his expectations at the beginning of the season. Steven Cruz was a revelation out of the bullpen before suffering an injury. It was “role” players or “secondary” guys like this that helped the Royals get to another winning season of baseball.

There are plenty of candidates for the 2026 squad that could fill this role of surprise hero or big part of the team. Names like Jac Caglianone, Carter Jensen, Jonathan India come to mind immediately for me. Jac and Jensen are obviously still really young, so I don’t like calling them “role” players or “secondary” players, but the Royals are relying on those two to be huge parts of the team this season, so I feel like they fit into the category still.

The point being, outside the main cast of superstars that the Royals have, who would you pick to have a big 2026 season?

Although it may be hard to tell with the unseasonably warm weather this winter in the Mile High City, spring is in the air and on the horizon. Pitchers and catchers reported to the Rockies’ complex in Scottsdale, Arizona last week, with position players reporting yesterday. The first game of spring training is this coming Friday, and the 2026 season of Major League Baseball will be here before we know it.

The new-look Colorado Rockies front office and coaching staff have emphasized competition and the earning of positions over the off-season. They’ve brought in plenty of players who could complete for virtually every position—save for center field, catcher, and shortstop—and the prospects and youngest Rockies will have to earn their way into starting roles.

However, that doesn’t mean prospects won’t be given a chance to show their stuff.

A sizeable handful of prospects—many of them listed in our PuRPs rankings—received non-roster invites to camp this year to showcase how they might be part of this organization’s future. We’ll start by looking at the young pitchers.

Left-Handed Pitchers

Konnor Eaton (No. 28 PuRP, Pre-Season 2026) and Sean SullivanNo. 8 PuRP, Pre-Season 2026) are the two southpaw prospects with non-roster invites this spring.

Eaton, 23, was the Rockies’ sixth round pick out of George Mason University in the 2024 draft. In his professional debut season, he pitched just 11 innings, all of which were out of the bullpen. However, his workload both in college and in 2025 are that of a starter.

Eaton made 23 starts with the High-A Spokane Indians last season with a solid 3.56 ERA over 121 1/3 innings and struck out 125 batters before a late season promotion to Double-A Hartford. With the Yard Goats he made another four starts over 18 2/3 innings and posted a 5.30 ERA with 24 strikeouts. While with Spokane, he earned Northwest League Pitcher of the Week in late June after pitching back-to-back Quality Starts with 11 strikeouts in each game.

The 6’3” lefty is most likely to return to Hartford to start the 2026 season, but his ability to strike out batters and limit walks throughout his minor league career so far show promise. He misses bats with a low-to-mid 90s fastball and a high-spin sweeping slider with late horizontal break. He also has a changeup in development.

Sullivan, 23, had his 2025 season delayed after having off-season hip surgery. When he made it to Double-A Hartford in mid-May, he hit the ground running with a stupendous season.

The 2023 second round pick out of Wake Forest made 18 starts for the Yard Goats, posting a 3.14 ERA over 97 1/3 innings of work and 95 strikeouts to 24 walks. Sullivan did seem to run out of gas at the end of the season. In his final four starts, he pitched more than four innings just once and had a combined ten strikeouts over 16 2/3 innings. He had previously been on a streak of tallying five or more strikeouts in 11 of his last 12 starts.

With no experience over Double-A, Sullivan will likely start his 2026 campaign with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes. However, he is virtually a lock to make his Major League debut at some point this year.

Right-Handed Pitchers

With Gabriel Hughes (No. 12 PuRP, Pre-Season 2026) now on the 40-man roster to protect him from this off-season’s Rule 5 draft, the right-handed pitching prospects left with non-roster invites fly a bit under the radar.

25-year-old reliever Brayan Castillo started his 2025 season with Double-A Hartford and was a reliable strikeout machine out of the Yard Goats’ bullpen. In 26 appearances, he struck out 40 batters, walked 17, and gave up only one home run on his way to a 2.12 ERA over 34 innings.

Castillo was promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque, where his debut was less than stellar. In his first Pacific Coast League game against the Reno Aces, he yielded five earned runs on four hits—including a home run—with a walk and a strikeout over 2/3 of an inning. However, he was lights out for the rest of the season. Castillo gave up earned runs in just two of his final 14 appearances and struck out 23 batters over 17 1/3 innings.

Also headed to Rockies camp is Eiberson Castellano, a 24-year-old from Venezuela who originally hails from the Philadelphia Phillies system. Castellano was selected by the Minnesota Twins in last year’s Rule 5 draft, but was returned to the Phillies after failing to make the Opening Day roster in spring training. He was allowed to become a minor league free agent at the end of the season.

What makes Castellano intriguing is his young age and the fact that he’s not far removed from a strong 2024 campaign. In 22 appearances—including 20 starts—across the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws and Double-A Reading Fightin’ Phils, Castellano posted a 3.99 ERA with 136 strikeouts and 29 walks over 103 2/3 innings. He was named the Phillies organization’s best minor league pitcher for his efforts.

Castellano struggled in 2025 pitching mostly for Double-A Reading. Battling both injuries and his own command, he carried a 5.14 ERA in 20 appearances and only made one start. While he did strike out 39 batters in 36 1/3 innings, he also walked 17 and carried a bloated 9.5 hits per nine innings.

A healthy Castellano then attended the Arizona Fall League with the Surprise Saguaros and made a solid four starts, striking out 18 batters with a 3.86 ERA over 14 innings.

Castellano can work both as a starter or from the bullpen and has done both extensively in his young professional career. His lively four-seam fastball rises late and can hit up to 98 MPH, and his excellent low-80s curveball featured a whopping 49% whiff rate in 2024. He also has a promising changeup.

With a full 40-man roster, multiple veteran signings in Jose Quintana, Tomoyuki Sugano, and Michael Lorenzen brought in over the off-season, and Rule 5 protections like Gabriel Hughes and Welinton Herrera on the inside track, it’s difficult to see a path where any of the non-roster invite pitchers make the Opening Day roster.

However, with a long season ahead and the Rockies looking to evaluate talent and establish a new floor, strong performances this spring could indicate who goes where for minor league assignments and who might be on the short list for an eventual call-up.

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rangers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

In these early days of spring training, there are a gaggle of pitchers who are in camp. Some are on the 40 man roster, some are guys in the minor league system who aren’t on the 40 man roster but who got invites, and some are veterans who are brought in on minor league deals to provide depth or to compete for a spot on the major league staff.

Today’s question…who of the veteran NRIs that the Texas Rangers have brought to camp is most likely to end up on the Opening Day pitching staff?

Cast your vote below…

The two latest Atlanta Braves pitchers dealing with elbow issues are now beginning to deal with those issues as both Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep are taking the route of surgery. According to a report from Braves beat writer Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Spencer Schwellenbach has already underwent surgery on his elbow to hopefully deal with the “loose bodies,” while Hurston Waldrep will undergo surgery on Monday to deal with the “loose bodies” in his own elbow.

Spencer Schwellenbach underwent surgery to remove loose bodies today. Hurston Waldrep will undergo a similar procedure on Monday. The Braves aren’t providing a timeline. Weiss said he hopes both will be able to pitch again this year

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) February 18, 2026

As you can imagine, no timeline doesn’t exactly figure to be the most encouraging news for these two as far as a baseball prognosis is concerned. I think the best case scenario would be for Schwellenbach to miss maybe half of the season but with Waldrep, everything appears to be up in the air. Either he’ll likely follow Schwellenbach in returning in the latter portion of this season or this could be it for him. We really don’t know at this particular moment in time.

Either way, with both pitchers undergoing surgery, it’s clear that the Braves are going to be missing both of them for a significant period of time. While Waldrep only figured to be one of the competitors for the final spot in the starting rotation (which, again, figures to be a real and actual competition and not a case of simply giving it to an outside signing or trade acquisition), Schwellenbach figured to be a core piece of the rotation going forward. His spot will have to be filled and I suppose we’ll have to keep a close eye on spring training to see who ends up being the frontrunner to replace Schwellenbach in the rotation once the season starts.

For now, the Braves are at least aware of the fact that they’ll be down two young starters for a significant portion of this season. Hopefully that number stays at two and doesn’t start to balloon at any point in the near future.

The Dodgers open their Cactus League schedule this weekend with a pair of road games — Saturday against the Angels in Tempe, and Sunday vs. the Padres in Peoria. Shohei Ohtani will be in the lineup for each of the first two games, manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Wednesday at Camelback Ranch. Additionally, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start either Saturday or Sunday.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to start one of this weekend's first two Cactus League games, and Shohei Ohtani is expected to DH in both, per Dave Roberts.

— Sonja Chen (@SonjaMChen) February 18, 2026

Dave Roberts said Yamamoto will start either Saturday or Sunday and Ohtani will DH this weekend. #Dodgers

— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) February 18, 2026

It’s the earliest Ohtani will have played in a spring training game in his now three years with Los Angeles. In 2024, when he was coming off a second Tommy John surgery the previous September, Ohtani’s first spring game for the Dodgers was February 27, five days after their Cactus League opener. Last season, coming off left shoulder surgery in the previous November, Ohtani didn’t play in a spring game until February 28, eight days after the Dodgers’ opener.

Ohtani homered in each of those first two spring games.

Whether Yamamoto starts Saturday or Sunday, it will likely be his only Cactus League appearance before leaving to join Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic, with training camp beginning in Tokyo next Friday, February 27.

Either way, counting his time away pitching for Japan, there is time this spring for at least five starts for Yamamoto to build up toward the regular season. Count that as a benefit to opening the season the same time as everyone else, rather than beginning more than a week early on a different continent.

Both Dodgers games this weekend will start at 12:10 p.m. PT, and both will be televised by SportsNet LA, simulcast on AM 570, and broadcast in Spanish on KTNQ 1020 AM.

As this series grows closer and closer to its end, we come upon contracts that can’t be assessed on the whole, because they are still underway. Over the last handful of offseasons, the Yankees have put a particular emphasis on left-handed starting pitching, as much of their resources of flowed in that direction of late. One of the main benefactors of this was Carlos Rodón, who signed prior to the 2023 season.

A one-time prized pitching prospect who experienced a post-injury renaissance in his late-20s, Rodón ascended to become one of baseball’s most dominant starters, and got a major pay day from the Yankees as a result. Now halfway through their six-year agreement, the results have been a bit mixed for the lefty, but he is coming off of some of his finest work in 2025.

Carlos Rodón
Signing Date: December 21, 2022
Contract: Six years, $162 million

Carlos Rodón grew up in North Carolina, and displayed prowess on the mound that was immediately evident to major league eyes. He was drafted out of high school in 2011, but made the jump to the pros a few years later, when he was selected with the third overall pick in the 2014 amateur draft by the White Sox.

The hard-throwing lefty made his MLB debut with Chicago a year later in 2015, and put together a very solid rookie campaign in 139.1 innings on the South Side. Over his first four seasons with the Sox, Rodón had some solid stretches on the bump, and worked out to a roughly average run preventor, though he was only able to top 140 innings once from 2015 to ‘18. From there, his career really began to take a turn for the worse. The then 26-year-old missed most of the 2019 and 2020 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery, and pitched poorly when he was on the mound.

Rodón fell far enough to be non-tendered by the White Sox following the 2020 season, before being re-signed on a one-year deal. The move may have served as some kind of wake-up call, however, as post-injury Rodón seemed to be a different animal. A no-hitter against Cleveland in April of ‘21 helped to kick off a career-year for the lefty. In 132.2 innings (his most in half a decade), he boasted a 2.37 ERA and 2.65 FIP, while striking out an impressive 185 batters along the way, helping him earn his first career All-Star selection not long after it appeared his days in the big leagues were numbered.

The left-hander parlayed the late breakout season into a two-year, $45 million contract with the Giants prior to the 2022 season, with the second year being a player option, and he was able to pick up right where he left off. With San Francisco Rodón was perhaps even better, pitching a then-career-high 178 innings with a sub-3 ERA once again, and FIP and K/9 numbers that both led the league. As a Giant, the lefty amassed a career-best 237 strikeouts —the Rodón-aissance was in full effect, and it was happening at just the right time. With back-to-back top-six Cy Young finishes now in tow, Rodón hit free agency once again after declining his player option.

Not too long after the season ended, in December of 2022, Rodón cashed in by signing a six-year contract with the Yankees for $162 million. The excitement was easy to see, as the lefty had suddenly become one of the sport’s best pitchers, but his tenure in New York got off to a brutal start. He began the 2023 season on the injured list with forearm problems, not to mention that the 64.1 innings he did pitch upon returning were some of the worst in his career. Off the bat, the contract looked like a miss, as the resurfaced injury trouble, increasing walk rate, and ERA approaching 7.00 indicated they had signed someone very different than the two-time All-Star. It all came to a close with an absolute disaster of a regular-season finale, Rodón recording zero outs in eight batters faced, allowing six runs, and infamously turning his back on pitching coach Matt Blake.

Despite all that, Rodón rebounded nicely in his second season with the Yankees, his age-31 campaign. The left-handed starter returned at least partially to form in pinstripes, as he tossed 175 innings, and racked up just shy of 200 strikeouts. He seemed to have his health back, which was obviously a priority, and the pitching was much better than that of the nightmare season he had just come off of.

Rodón was vital in the postseason as well, as he made four starts in their pennant-winning October. This stretch included a pair of starts in the ALCS against Cleveland, which saw him give up three runs in over 10 innings of work, striking out 15 in total.

A season later, in 2025, Carlos Rodón fully arrived, and helped to show why the Yankees made the commitment they did. Prior to the start of the season, the club received the crushing news that they’d be without ace Gerrit Cole for the entire season, making a successful season from their $162 million man all the more important. Now tasked with that additional pressure, Rodón delivered with one of the better seasons of his career in the major leagues.

For starters, the lefty tossed a career-high 195.1 innings, particularly important when considering Cole’s absence. On top of the durability needed to make 33 starts, Rodón pitched to the tune of 3.09 ERA, and reclaimed some of his strikeout prowess, topping 200 for the second time in his career. For the most part, this was the pitcher the Yankees signed, and he was recognized accordingly, with another All-Star selection and more down-ballot love in the Cy Young voting (sixth-place finish).

He was once again saddled with a significant role in the postseason for 2025, and although he made a solid start in the Wild Card round, he tossed a dud in his start against the Blue Jays in the Division Series.

Carlos Rodón’s career in the majors has been one full of ups and downs, and in all fairness, the veteran pitcher has shown time and again his ability to get back up after difficult stretches. What originally seemed to be a prospect-to-bust career arc for Rodón turned into a couple of All-Star seasons, and eventually a nine-figure deal with the Yankees. After that deal started on a rather rough note, the lefty proved himself once again with one of the better seasons of his career, with an uncharacteristically large workload at the age of 32.

With his contract now at the midway point, it is difficult to fully assess the success of the move. There was a lost season to begin the deal, and Rodón will begin the 2026 season on the injured list as well. But, he was vital to the team over the last two seasons, and his most recent work was some of the best we’ve seen from him. The jury is still out, but there’s little reason to expect any steep decline from the talented hurler — and either way, his signing was a significant one to the construction of this club.

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See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.

In one of my first editions of the lab, I mentioned something I called “magical thinking.” I think the kids call it wishcasting but I’m not necessarily down on the lingo. The idea behind magical thinking is that the person practicing it thinks of the most positive result from a particular player or situation and assumes that to be not only possible, but likely.

Usually, this does not impact those inside organizations, but it can if the organizations are not mindful of the analytics. We see this more from the general public. There is no greater example than Yainer Diaz. People seem to think he should be a 30 home run guy and maybe even a .300 hitter. Unfortunately, there is not much to base this on in terms of actual performance. What we will do in this series in Spring Training is look at the Astros position by position and determine what is likely to happen based on some key numbers. Before we dive in, I thought we should review those numbers.

• Chase rate: This is the percentage of balls a player swings at outside of the zone. The league average normally lives between 30 and 32 percent, but we will be looking at three year intervals and we should notice trends more than where a player is in relationship to the league average.
• Hard hit percentage: This is simply the percentage of balls that a player hits hard. Hard hit balls become hits and extra base hits more often than softer contact. Typically 35 percent is around the league average in this category.
• BABIP: This is batting average on balls in play. Home runs are obviously excluded since they are not in play. The league average tends to hover around .300 but it will largely depend on hard hit percentages and breakdowns between groundballs, flyballs, and line drives.
• Contact percentage: This is the percentage of swings that turn into contact. Typically 70-75 percent is around league average.
• HR/FB percentage: This is the percentage of flyballs that result in home runs. Ten percent is typically around the league average.

Yainer Diaz

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2023	44.0	43.9	.292	74.6	21.9
2024	42.3	47.5	.338	77.6	12.5
2025	43.8	42.2	.277	78.1	12.7
Aggregate	43.4	44.5	.303	76.8	15.7

Expectations of 30 home run power are based on an unsustainable home run per flyball rate from 2023. He still has more power than most players, but we have to focus on what he does well. Diaz hits the ball more often than most players and he hits it harder than most players. That is what scouts would lovingly call the hit tool. So, if we were to expect any number to go up for Diaz it would probably be batting average. If hard hit ball rates and contact rates remain constant then he could very well hit as high as .280 with the current underlying numbers.

Of course, that brings us to the negative. Diaz probably chases more than any regular in the game. What’s more, that rate seems to be fairly constant over the three years. This is one of the reasons why plate discipline needs to be added as a sixth tool. Diaz can put the bat on the ball even when it is outside the zone, but that contact usually doesn’t result in extra base hits.

The chase rate will be a number I will track throughout the year because it will tell us whether the new hitting coaches can mute some of his aggressive tendencies. Balls in the zone are typically hit more often and hit harder than balls outside the zone. I don’t think Diaz would ever be a good disciplined hitter, but if we could elevate himself to even below average in that category (35-40 percent) then it could lead to more walks and to more pitches for him to hit in the zone.

Cesar Salazar

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2023	35.7	8.3	.167	72.3	0.0
2024	29.4	13.6	.381	77.2	0.0
2025	34.6	18.2	.273	80.8	0.0
Aggregate	32.8	13.3	.295	76.2	0.0

Remove the soft contact and Salazar is as close as you can get to an average major league hitter. His chase rate is fairly close to average. His BABIP is fairly close to average and his contact rates are fairly close to average. He simply does not hit the ball hard and does not have enough power. The good news is that the hard hit ball rate has steadily climbed in each pass through the big leagues. The bad news is that his next home run will be his first one.

Salazar is there because there is really no one else at this point. Of course, that could change this week or next as rumors are swirling about Christian Vazquez being signed to give the team a veteran option. Of course, that rumor has been circulating for weeks. In case it comes to fruition, we will list his numbers below as a comparison.

Christian Vazquez

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2023	33.2	32.8	.279	75.5	7.2
2024	33.5	36.6	.257	81.7	7.5
2025	25.3	27.4	.214	84.6	4.1
Aggregate	30.7	32.3	.250	80.6	6.3

One of the offshoots of magical thinking is what we might call “the Jeff Bagwell theory.” As Bagwell is fond of saying, players will produce the numbers that are on the back of the baseball card. The difficulty with this theory is that almost every player goes into rot late in their career. It happened to Bagwell himself in 2004 and 2005. it happened to Craig Biggio in his last couple of seasons. It is rare for a player to finish on top. So, magical thinking would look at the aggregate above and assume Vazquez will get back there. It is certainly possible. Rot is also possible for a catcher in his mid-thirties.

In particular, the hard hit percentage and home runs per flyball rates concern me. It shows a concerning reduction in power that could crater the overall numbers. A return to even the aggregate in hard hit percentage, BABIP, and even home runs per flyball rate make Vazquez a viable backup catcher. Continued rot in those categories do not.

What do you think are reasonable expectations for these players? Are you predicting a return to near all-star performance for Yainer Diaz or do you think we will see more of the same?

From an offensive perspective, three outcomes all but assure a miserable result in a plate appearance: a strikeout, pop-up, or double play ball on the ground. Devoid of function and aesthetic, all three demand failure by the batter as well as success by an opponent, but they are most commonly where I see and feel frustration while watching baseball. In contrast to the Three True Outcomes of walks, strikeouts, and homers, there is no mixed bag in this virtue-less trio. Like the chthonic goddesses of Greek yore, these three outcomes are my Baseball Furies (not to be confused with the other Baseball Furies).

In some ways, those at the helm of the sport share this sentiment. A well-earned strikeout is gorgeous, but a balance-less sport can be rote. The efforts to curb bullpen engorgement, along with several quality of life adjustments to the sport’s pace and baserunning seem to have at least slightly arrested MLB’s longstanding upward creep in strikeout rate. The 2025 season was MLB’s sixth 40,000 strikeout campaign, but it was also just the third campaign (besides 2021, following the shortened 2020 gauntlet) since 2005 – when the non-pitcher strikeout rate for hitters was 16.0% leaguewide – to see a drop in the league-average strikeout rate. You might’ve missed the parade, watching 22.2% of hitters whiff down from the full-season records of 22.6% and 22.7% in 2024 and 2023, but it’s progress. The how of this trend is not just legislative alterations, it’s hitters consciously altering their behavior, and players like Brendan Donovan seeing their skills creep into higher prioritization.

Donovan is anathema to the Baseball Furies, who will fittingly frame his lens today. It’s not enough to just make contact, or even just slap singles – if it were, Yuniesky Betancourt might’ve been a valuable big leaguer instead of an example of why every big league club now is at least some basic level of analytical in their assessment of the sport. Yes, Brendan Donovan strikes out sparingly, even for 30 years ago, with a minute 13.5% punch-out rate for his career, against a 9.1% walk rate and a healthy .282/.361/.411 line with a 119 wRC+. Just 12 other qualified hitters struck out less often (a sample of 145 hitters) last year. Self-selectingly, they are mostly solid players, though most qualifying hitters are, or else they’d likely not qualify. But it’s Donovan’s ability to do things like this, converting a well-located pitch in a two-strike count into a game-changing line drive, that not only shed strikeouts, but improve Seattle’s roster.

One Fury tamed, two more to go.

Unlike strikeouts, there’s no mighty furor over the trends in pop-ups within baseball. In 2025, players generated infield pop-ups on about 9.9% of their fly balls, per FanGraphs, within essentially the same 1-2% ebb and flow range it’s been since tracking data became uniform in 2002. Baseball Savant’s database on contact goes back to 2008 for pop-ups, with ‘25 yielding a whopping 8,818 pop-ups, or 1.2% or pitches, nearly identical to each other year in the sample, albeit a lessening trajectory down from a consistent 10,000+ from 2008-2011.

Should we mourn the dwindling pop fly? Unless you are in the pocket of Big Can of Corn, there’s little to lament. Pop-ups yielded a .012 Weighted On-Base Average last year, functionally no better than just striking out. Despite making contact at such a high clip and only putting the ball over the fence around a dozen times each year, Donovan’s propensity to avoid pointless pop-ups allows him to avoid empty ABs. Many of the most prodigious pop-uppers are high-contact players like Nolan Arenado, Jose Altuve, and… approximately half of the Milwaukee Brewers lineup last year. But like Donovan, their success comes from splashing enough other contact around the outfield grass to compensate for their fallow fly balls, or clubbing the ball with enough authority (like fellow pop-up producers Cal Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber) to make it worth the risk. For Donovan, his barrel control allows him to cover not just good off-speed below the zone, but heat above it.

That leaves us with just the final Fury, the twin killing terror. While her power is on wane, with 2025 featuring the fewest double plays grounded into since the league expanded to 30 clubs in 1998, Donovan should find this deity his ultimate challenge. Plenty of contact, commonly enough on the ground, and only mediocre foot speed for a big leaguer, it should be the recipe for a double play all day. Sure, Donovan has the benefit of the lefty batter’s box, and is not a true plodder, but Mariners fans are not so far removed from the bittersweetness of Ty France in this regard. And yet, a season ago, Donovan tied with eight others for the 10th-fewest GIDPs in baseball, doing so just four times all season. That tied him with, once again, Schwarber, a famous double play eschewer by the more blunt method of simply never hitting groundballs.

It’s no one-off, either. Since entering the league in 2022, through his combination of sprayed contact, high-effort, and, perhaps, intentional approach, Donovan has grounded into just 20 double plays. 20, in 2,006 plate appearances, tied for 18th-fewest in MLB since 2022 for hitters with at least 1,500 PAs, of which there are 179. To credit Donovan with his successes instead of merely the vices he avoids, since entering the league Donovan has a .307/.389/.451 line with runners on base – a 136 wRC+ that’s 27th out of 251 qualifiers (min. 500 PA) in 788 such plate appearances.

Like many – but not all – hitters, he’s better with runners on, but in Donovan’s case it is a noted improvement, a 136 wRC+ with runners on against a 109 wRC+ with the bases empty.

Herein lies the only conflict I see with Donovan’s fit in Seattle’s roster. The presumptive third baseman of plurality, if not majority, he’ll scuttle across the diamond as needed and provide cromulent glovework. On the heels of Jorge Polanco, blessed may he be, a defensive upgrade is the easiest and least pertinent bar, but it will be noticed. But most projections for Donovan’s fit have placed him as the leadoff hitter in the M’s lineup. He’d be just fine there, and lineup construction is a bit of a cascading impossibility to isolate. His rhyming traits with Josh Naylor create a funny lean for Seattle’s roster, but one to be categorized in the realm of “good problem to have.” Whether Donovan is leading off or cleaning up, he’s well-suited to be the one creating fury for opponents yet again.

Here are the managers and coaching staffs for the Cubs minor league affiliates: Iowa Cubs, Knoxville Smokies, South Bend Cubs, Myrtle Beach Pelicans, the Arizona Complex League Cubs and the team in the Dominican Summer League. Many of these you will recognize from previous years.

The managers are detailed below. The full coaching staffs follow.

Marty Pevey returns as manager of the Iowa Cubs for the 14th consecutive season, extending his franchise-record tenure while his 822 victories are also a franchise mark. Entering his 18th season in the organization, he has over 30 years of professional experience, beginning with 13 seasons as a player. All told, Pevey owns a 1,466-1,511 minor league managerial record and his 1,466 victories are fifth-most among active minor league skippers through 2025.

Lance Rymel enters his third season as manager of the Knoxville (previously Tennessee) Smokies following two seasons at the helm in South Bend. He guided the 2025 Smokies to a 69-67 record. This will be his 11th season as a coach or manager in the Cubs organization, where he also managed Single-A Eugene in 2019 and the Cubs Dominican Summer League squad in 2017-18.

Daniel Wasinger enters his first season as manager of the South Bend Cubs, after serving as South Bend’s Bench Coach in 2025. He began his coaching career in 2024, joining the Cubs organization as a Development Coach with the Myrtle Beach.

Yovanny Cuevas enters his second season as manager for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, following three years coaching within the Cubs system. He previously served as the hitting coach for the ACL Mesa Cubs (2024) and the Dominican Summer League Cubs (2023) and as the hitting fellow of the Rookie League Cubs (2022).

Dixon Machado enters his first season as manager of the Arizona Complex League Mesa Cubs, after playing with the Iowa Cubs in 2025. Machado played 14 minor league seasons with the Tigers, Cubs, Giants and Astros farm systems from 2010-19 and 2022-25 and two seasons in the KBO from 2020-21.

Enrique Wilson is in his ninth season with the Cubs Dominican Summer League club and his fifth as a manager after serving as a hitting coach. He had a nine-year major league playing career with Cleveland (1997-2000), Pittsburgh (2000-01), the Yankees (2001-04) and the Cubs (2005).

Jovanny Rosario is in his second stint as manager of the Cubs Dominican Summer League team after holding the position in 2021 and his 11th year coaching in the Cubs system. Following his time in the DSL in 2021, he served as the bench coach for Myrtle Beach in 2022, coached in the Arizona Complex League in 2023 and returned to the Dominican Summer League as a coach from 2024-25.

The Angels began spring training last week at Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., with a new manager in Kurt Suzuki and plenty of new faces to go with some familiar ones like veteran Mike Trout. The Angels, who open the season March 26 against the Astros in Houston, have not had a winning season since 2015 and last made the postseason in 2014.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.