The Mets will broadcast 13 spring training games across SNY and PIX11, beginning with February 21st against the Marlins, and wrapping up on March 21st against the Astros. All of the SNY/PIX11 broadcast games will take place at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie.
As per usual, the bulk of the Mets’ spring games are against the fellow east coast Grapefruit League teams of the Cardinals, Astros, Marlins, and Nationals. The Mets will also face off against the crosstown rival Yankees and see the American League champion Blue Jays.
While the spring broadcasts often feature fill-ins due to other obligations and/or last minute vacations, the Mets’ broadcasts will be anchored by some combination of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling ahead of their 21st season together.
All told, the Mets will play 30 games this spring, mostly against other MLB clubs, but also featuring exhibition games against the World Baseball Classic teams for Nicaragua and Israel. Some of these other games will likely be broadcast on MLB Network, ESPN, and elsewhere, though no additional broadcasts have been announced yet.
SNY/PIX11 games:
2/21 1:10 PM SNY vs. Marlins 2/24 1:10 PM SNY vs Astros 2/25 1:10 PM PIX11 vs Cardinals 2/28 1:10 PM SNY vs Nationals 3/1 1:10 PM SNY vs Astros 3/8 1:10 PM PIX11 vs Yankees 3/9 6:10 PM SNY vs Marlins 3/10 1:10 PM SNY vs Cardinals 3/13 6:10 PM PIX11 vs Marlins (Split Squad) 3/15 1:10 PM PIX 11 vs Blue Jays 3/16 6:10 PM SNY vs Nationals 3/20 1:10 PM SNY vs Cardinals 3/21 1:10 PM PIX11 vs Astros (Split Squad)
With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.
Today we are looking at relief pitcher Cole Winn.
So is Cole Winn good now?
Winn, the last man standing (or, at least, still in the organization) from the disastrous 2018 draft, seemed to be destined for perpetual NRI-land not too long ago. A consensus top 100 guy heading into the 2022 season, he got his shit rocked in AAA in both 2022 and 2023, to the tune of a 6.83 ERA in 222 innings for the Express in those two campaigns. A more successful 2024 in AAA, in a relief role, led to opportunities in the majors, and after five scoreless appearances to start his major league career he allowed 15 runs in his final eight major league appearances before missing the final three and a half months of the season with “right shoulder discomfort,” which is never good.
So coming into the 2025 season, the answer to the “is Cole Winn good now?” question would have likely been, no, probably not.
But that was then, this is now, as the Monkees once sang, and as we used to see on the HBO listings constantly in the mid-80s (I guess someone there was a big Emilio Estevez fan). And as of now the answer is…probably different?
Winn was sent to AAA to start the year and put up 12 straight appearances without allowing any earned runs. That’ll get you noticed. It led to him being brought up to the majors in mid-May, and he continued that remarkable streak, putting up 11 straight appearances in the bigs before allowing a run in late June against the Mariners. Two days later he gave up a three run homer to Mitch Garver in the 12th inning, and even though he’d shut down the M’s in the 11th, he was sent back to AAA (though really, that was about fresh arms more than anything).
Continued good work in AAA got Winn back to the majors after the All Star Break, and he kept putting up zeroes, registering 11 more straight scoreless appearances before going K, walk, homer (to Bobby Witt Jr., so I mean, whaddya gonna do?), HBP in a mid-August game, after which he was put on the injured list with nerve irritation in his hand. Winn returned in mid-September, allowed two runs in eight appearances, then spent the final series on the injured list because of shoulder irritation again.
Winn ended the year with a 1.51 ERA in 41.2 innings over 33 appearances for the Rangers, and his 1.1 bWAR was second highest among relievers, behind Shawn Armstrong’s 1.5 bWAR, unless you consider Jacob Latz a reliever despite his eight starts, in which case Winn was third on the team. Either way, pretty good.
Ah, but now, as Paul Harvey says, you’re going to hear the rest of the story.
Winn didn’t miss a ton of bats in 2025. His K rate of 21.6% was a shade below league average. That’s fine, except he also walked 10.5% of batters he faced. That’s not good. That’s comfortably below average. In addition, his hard hit rate of 48.1% was way below average.
So not surprisingly, the non-ERA stats show reasons for concern. Winn had a 3.90 FIP, a 4.37 xFIP, and a 4.12 xERA. He did allow just 3 home runs, in large part because he generated lots of ground balls. But he also allowed just a .194 BABIP, with over 90% of the runners he allowed being stranded. Neither of those are encouraging from a sustainable-future-performance standpoint.
Winn, unusually for a middle reliever, threw five pitches regularly, six pitches in all (he threw his curve just six times, so we can ignore that). He threw three varieties of fastball — a four seamer, a sinker, and a cutter. None of them featured a lot in the way of movement. All three had a xwOBA over .300, and his sinker, which he threw 21% of the time, was especially lit up, as he allowed a .400 wOBA and .389 xwOBA off of it.
On the other hand, his slider and split-finger were both much better. The slider showed a ton of horizontal movement, and his split finger had a bunch of drop. The slider resulted in a .154 wOBA against (though a .276 xwOBA) with the splitter resulting in .206/.255. His splitter was his least used pitch, though he still threw it 12.1% of the time.
Simplistically speaking, we could say Winn should use the slider and splitter more and junk the sinker, though of course reality is much more complicated and we are talking about a rather small sample size of pitches.
So is Cole Winn good now? I don’t know. He’s obviously quite reliant on his defense as a groundball guy who doesn’t strike out a ton of guys. The 3.90 FIP and 4.12 xERA make him someone who is fine, I guess, in a low-leverage role in the pen, though obviously, if you think his true talent is more like the 1.51 ERA he put up (oh, and the 0.59 AAA ERA last year), then you can slide him much higher up in terms of the leverage role he fills.
Winn is out of options, so barring injury (and after two i.l. stints with shoulder issues and an i.l. stint with a nerve issue in the past two seasons, I’m starting to worry about whether there’s a TOS issue looming), he’ll be in the Ranger pen to start the season. There’s not a lot of blue chip, skins on the wall relievers in the mix, so he will get the opportunity to show what he can do.
It would be nice if he turned out to be a solid relief pitcher. I think the Rangers could use one of them.
Anyone in the Philadelphia area looks outside today and sees white, frozen nothingness that will permeate our thoughts these next few days as the continued frigidness lingers. It’s things like this that cause our minds to wander to Clearwater, to the impending sound of bats against balls, rawhide being hurled on leather, a color other than white that helps us realize dreams of warmth and sunshine.
Spring training is nearing and what better time to think about the Phillies than to take a guess as to what they are going to look like once the curtain drops on the 2026 season. Here is the first guess.
Catcher – J.T. Realmuto, Rafael Marchan
Another season with this tandem behind the plate should lead to the pitching staff doing backflips. There are some serious questions that need to be answered by both of these catchers though:
Can Realmuto improve both behind the plate and at the plate?
Can Marchan hit enough to justify Rob Thomson giving him more playing time?
Will Thomson actually give Marchan more playing time?
The answers to all three of these questions are probably obvious, but there is hope that the opposite answer can be given.
What’s interesting is how much the team is talking up Kemp this winter. We hear platitudes heap upon Kemp by the manager and the POBO, something that is interesting considering his skillset. He’s a good bench piece, but there seems to be a sentiment behind their comments that they see something more.
I’d like to know why.
Outfield – Brandon Marsh, Justin Crawford, Adolis Garcia, Johan Rojas
The question with this outfield alignment is: how far is the gap between the worst case scenario and the best case. Where the arrow points more towards this season is going to determine a lot about their direction. If it’s more worst case scenario, not only are they having to trade more prospects for a band aid, they also have an answer to their question about the viability of Crawford as a major league piece, about Marsh and if he can be something closer to a regular, not needing a platoon and about Garcia and whether that one-year deal was a wise choice.
If it leans more towards the best case scenario, then the biggest weakness this team has is suddenly something better, perhaps even – dare I say it – a strength?!?
Personally I’d be happy with splitting the difference.
Designated hitter – Kyle Schwarber
There are about 150 millions reasons why this is a stone cold lock. The more interesting question about Schwarber is the other positions he might play. If we set the over/under at games played at first base and/or left field at 15, which are you taking?
Starting rotation – Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker, Andrew Painter
There is a capital A “Ace” here in Sanchez, a solid #2 in Luzardo…
…and a whole lot of question marks.
Getting back Aaron Nola to his pre-2025 form would be a boon for this rotation. Based on his history, betting on something closer to that form would be wise, but building in some buffer would also be wise. If Andrew Painter can take a step forward for this rotation, it would also be a large boost as he might be able to settle into something between a #3 and 4 were that to happen, something more being his ceiling. I’ve never really considered Taijuan Walker as anything more than a LAIM (League Average Innings Muncher), so if he can give the team five innings each start, that’s a win for the team.
It’s just that there are so many question marks for a team that leans into the rotation as its strength. Getting Zack Wheeler back and healthy makes this unit looks so much better, but that’s something can’t really be counted on until we actually see it in practice.
Relief pitching – Jhoan Duran, Jose Alvarado, Brad Keller, Tanner Banks, Orion Kerkering, Zach McCambley, Seth Johnson, Jonathan Bowlan
It’s probably been said before, but on paper, this might be the team’s best complete bullpen in a long, long time. There is depth, there is swing and miss stuff, there is upside, there are projects that can be worked with unlock something a little more. A lot of that is something the Phillies’ bullpen hasn’t had in quite some time.
For me, the biggest question is: where does Kerkering rank among all of these arms? Fifth? Sixth? Seventh?
Injured list – Zack Wheeler
As badly as he might want to be ready for the first series of the season, it’s likely that the team proceeds cautiously with Wheeler. There is little doubt he’ll be working his tail off to get ready, but with the team pumping the brakes a bit, a late April season debut is far more feasible than to be ready by Opening Day.
Lázaro Estrada is a 26-year-old (27 in April), right-handed pitcher, from Cuba.
He made it to the majors for the first time last year, pitching in two games, 7.1 innings. He was hit pretty hard, 10 hits in 7.1 innings, but he also had 10 strikeouts.
Lázaro was #36 on our Top 40 Prospect list in 2024 (in 2025, he turned 25, and we don’t consider players 25 and over ‘prospects’). Tom_M wrote:
There are three pitches in Estrada’s arsenal. The fastball is a four seamer that’s not hard, sitting 91-94, but has nice vertical ride and horizontal run. His changeup is rarely used and doesn’t have impressive shape, but it does sit 10mph off his fastball and can get some chases. In the past, his breaking ball has been the star of his arsenal. Before 2023, it was a curveball that he could occasionally snap off with spin rates up to an elite 3,400 RPM. This year the curve was replaced with a slow slider. He still spins it at around 2,700 RPM, which would be in about the 90th percentile in MLB, but in a couple of looks this year the movement wasn’t as impressive as that would suggest. Estrada’s command is solid and seems likely to end up average.
Estrada profiles mostly as a reliever, with only one pitch that looks like it has the potential to be a difference maker in MLB and a spotty track record of durability, but he’s performed so far and the breaking ball bears watching. At 25 and rule 5 eligible, he’ll need to move this year to have a hope of reaching Toronto.
He pitched most of the 2025 season in Buffalo. He had a 5.73 ERA in 26 games, 25 starts, with a 5.73 ERA. In 97.1 innings, he had 99 strikeouts and 32 walks.
Estrada has two option years left, but I’m thinking this is a pretty important year for him, if he’s going to have a major league career.
Steamer thinks Estrada is going to pitch in 23 games, 23 innings, with a 4.19 ERA with 21 strike outs.
The team has added a bunch of relievers this off-season and there are younger arms coming up quickly behind Lázaro. But he gets a lot of movement on his pitches, as you can see in this gif from Sportsnet. He would be better off on a team that could let him pitch and find his way in the majors. But, unless he’s DFAed, I think he’s going to end up in Buffalo, hoping to be next in line when we need a pitcher in case of an injury.
I don’t think there is enough prospect shine left on him to be a trade piece, but who knows. I think he could be a good major league pitcher. I’m not sure he’ll get the chance.
The 2026 World Baseball Classic is set to begin in less than three months, as Team USA is looking to avenge a runner-up finish at the hands of Shohei Ohtani and Japan back in 2023.
Manager Mark DeRosa heads up the American squad, a team that is headlined by several big-name stars. Let’s take a quick look at MLB players participating in the upcoming event, beginning with Team USA. Note: Rosters are not yet finalized, meaning there will surely be additions to this list in the coming weeks. I’ll try to keep this updated over time.
USA
RHP David Bednar (Yankees)
SP Matthew Boyd (Cubs)
3B Alex Bregman (Cubs)
OF Byron Buxton (Twins)
OF Corbin Carroll (D-backs)
RP Garrett Cleavinger (Rays)
INF Ernie Clement (Blue Jays)
OF Pete Crow-Armstrong (Cubs)
SS Gunnar Henderson (Orioles)
RHP Clay Holmes (Mets)
RP Griffin Jax (Rays)
OF Aaron Judge (Yankees)
RHP Brad Keller (Phillies)
LHP Clayton Kershaw (retiring after WBC)
RHP Nolan McLean (Mets)
RHP Mason Miller (Padres)
C Cal Raleigh (Mariners)
RHP Joe Ryan (Twins)
DH Kyle Schwarber (Phillies)
RHP Paul Skenes (Pirates)
LHP Tarik Skubal (Tigers)
C Will Smith (Dodgers)
LHP Gabe Speier (Mariners)
2B Brice Turang (Brewers)
RHP Logan Webb (Giants)
RP Garrett Whitlock (Red Sox)
SS Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals)
Team USA is not short on big names, as the team is headlined by reigning AL MVP (and three-time winner) Aaron Judge and runner-up Cal Raleigh, who broke MLB’s record for homers by a catcher in a season. Both the AL Cy Young (Tarik Skubal) and NL Cy Young (Paul Skenes) are also on the roster.
Players returning from the 2023 WBC roster for the US include designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, catcher Will Smith, and shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
The Brewers’ lone representative in the 2026 WBC, as it stands, is infielder Brice Turang, who is coming off the best season of his young career. Turang, 26, accumulated 5.6 bWAR in 2025, hitting .288/.359/.435 with 18 homers, 81 RBIs, 97 runs, and 24 steals while finishing as a finalist at second base for both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.
Australia
2B Travis Bazzana (Guardians)
RHP Liam Hendriks (free agent)
INF Curtis Mead (White Sox)
Australia’s roster includes veteran reliever Liam Hendriks, who is currently a free agent after spending an injury-shortened 2025 season with the Red Sox, struggling to a 6.59 ERA and 12 strikeouts over just 13 2/3 innings. Travis Bazzana is arguably a bigger name than Hendriks despite having not yet reached the majors with Cleveland. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick and MLB’s No. 17 prospect split time across three levels in 2025, hitting .245/.389/.424 with nine homers, 39 RBIs, 71 runs, and 12 steals in 84 games.
Bonus: Former Brewer Dave Nilsson, who played for Milwaukee from 1992-1999 and earned an All-Star appearance in his final MLB season, is the manager of Australia.
Brazil
INF Bo Bichette (Mets)
Canada
OF Owen Caissie (Marlins)
1B Josh Naylor (Mariners)
C Bo Naylor (Guardians)
RHP Matt Brash (Mariners)
SS Otto Lopez (Marlins)
LHP James Paxton (retired)
RHP Cal Quantrill (free agent)
RHP Michael Soroka (D-backs)
C Liam Hicks (Marlins)
1B Tyler Black (Brewers)
RHP Jameson Taillon (Cubs)
Colombia
LHP Jose Quintana (free agent)
3B Gio Urshela (free agent)
RHP Julio Teherán (free agent)
Cuba
OF Andy Pages (Dodgers)
3B Yoán Moncada (Angels)
RHP Yariel Rodríguez (Blue Jays)
INF Andy Ibáñez (Dodgers)
Dominican Republic
RHP Sandy Alcantara (Marlins)
RHP Brayan Bello (Red Sox)
3B Junior Caminero (Rays)
SS/OF Oneil Cruz (Pirates)
1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays)
LHP Cristopher Sánchez (Phillies)
OF Juan Soto (Mets)
OF Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres)
Junior Caminero is the headliner on the D.R.’s roster. The 22-year-old third baseman had a breakout 2025 season, accumulating 4.4 bWAR as he hit .264/.311/.535 with 45 homers, 110 RBIs, and 93 runs, garnering an All-Star spot and a ninth-place AL MVP finish.
Great Britain
LHP Aroldis Chapman (Red Sox)
C Harry Ford (Nationals)
Israel
OF Harrison Bader (Giants)
RHP Dean Kremer (Orioles)
C Garrett Stubbs (Phillies)
Team Israel is led by Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, who had a great season between the Twins and Phillies in 2025, totaling 3.9 bWAR as he hit .277/.347/.449 with 17 homers, 54 RBIs, 61 runs, and 11 steals to go with strong defense. Dean Kremer of the Orioles and Garrett Stubbs of the Phillies both return from the 2023 team.
Italy
1B Vinnie Pasquantino (Royals)
OF Jac Caglianone (Royals)
RHP Adam Ottavino (free agent)
First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, or “Pasquatch” as he’s affectionately known, will represent Team Italy for the second consecutive WBC in 2026. He’s had a solid four-year career with K.C., hitting .266/.330/.456 with 70 career homers across 424 games.
Japan
DH/RHP Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers)
LHP Yusei Kikuchi (Angels)
LHP Yuki Matsui (Padres)
INF Munetaka Murakami (White Sox)
INF Kazuma Okamoto (Blue Jays)
RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (free agent)
OF Seiya Suzuki (Cubs)
RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers)
I don’t think I need to say much more about Shohei Ohtani at this point. Everyone knows he’s the best player on the planet at this point, and no other player (with the possible exception of Aaron Judge) is even close to being in that conversation. Ohtani helped lead Japan to the title in 2023 and will look to do so once again in 2026. Dodger teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto is also on the roster.
Mexico
1B Jonathan Aranda (Rays)
OF Randy Arozarena (Mariners)
OF Jarren Duran (Red Sox)
C Alejandro Kirk (Blue Jays)
RHP Andrés Muñoz (Mariners)
1B Rowdy Tellez (free agent)
INF Luis Urías (free agent)
INF Ramón Urías (free agent)
RHP Taijuan Walker (Phillies)
Randy Arozarena and Jarren Duran both return to the Team Mexico roster after participating in the 2023 WBC. Arozarena was a star in that edition, hitting .450/.607/.900 with a homer, six doubles, nine RBIs, eight runs, and six walks in four games. Duran is, notably, a name that has come up often in trade rumors this offseason, as Boston looks to deal from their outfield depth.
Netherlands
OF Ceddanne Rafaela (Red Sox)
Nicaragua
3B Mark Vientos (Mets)
Mets third baseman Mark Vientos is the lone MLB player on Nicaragua’s roster, though he’s coming off a disappointing season after a breakout campaign in 2024.
Bonus: Milwaukee pitching prospect Carlos Rodriguez was on the 2023 Nicaragua WBC roster, pitching four innings of one-run ball (2.25 ERA). We’ll see if he’s on the team once again in 2026.
Panama
LHP Logan Allen (Guardians)
C Miguel Amaya (Cubs)
C Iván Herrera (Cardinals)
Puerto Rico
3B Nolan Arenado (D-backs)
UTIL Willi Castro (Rockies)
SS/3B Carlos Correa (Astros)
RP Fernando Cruz (Yankees)
OF Riley Greene (Tigers)
SS Francisco Lindor (Mets)
SP Seth Lugo (Royals)
OF George Springer (Blue Jays)
The Mets train continues, as shortstop Francisco Lindor is included on Puerto Rico’s roster. Lindor had a solid 2023 WBC with the team, hitting .450/.500/.550 with a triple, five RBIs, six runs, and a steal over five games.
Venezuela
OF Wilyer Abreu (Red Sox)
OF Ronald Acuña Jr. (Braves)
OF Jackson Chourio (Brewers)
INF Maikel Garcia (Royals)
C Salvador Perez (Royals)
SS Ezequiel Tovar (Rockies)
The 14-year veteran catcher Salvador Perez will participate in his fourth WBC with Venezuela, this time as the team captain. Across eight career WBC games, he’s hit .346/.393/.808 with two homers and eight RBIs.
It is prospect list season! The Royals have a few names that rank highly on lists, providing reasons for optimism. But despite signs of improvement, it is clear that the team still needs more progress to become a sustainable winner.
Baseball America is the gold standard of prospect lists, release their 2026 update last week. They are quite high on Royals catcher Carter Jensen, ranking him #11 among all prospects. Other than Bobby Witt Jr.’s #3 ranking in 2022, it is the highest a Royals prospect has ranked in a Baseball America preseason ranking in the last dozen years. Jensen hit .290/.377/.501 with 20 home runs in 111 games across Double-A and Triple-A, then joined the Royals in September and impressed, hitting .300/.391/.550 with three home runs in 20 games.
Pitcher Kendry Chourio also broke into the top 100 prospect list at #82, after being aggressively promoted this year. He went from the Dominican Summer League, to the Arizona Complex League, finishing with six starts at Low-A Columbia, all at age 17. With the Fireflies, he posted a 5.16 ERA but with 24 strikeouts and just 4 walks in 22.2 innings. The publication singles him out as a prospect who could be a riser this year, writing he “blends now stuff with uncommon poise into a skill set,” and that a strong season could give him “a case as the sport’s best pitching prospect.”
Baseball America pre-season top 100 rankings for Royals prospects
Just missing the top 100 prospect list was pitcher David Shields, who also impressed this year at a very young age. The 18-year-old left-hander posted a sensational 2.01 ERA with 81 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 71.2 innings. In their article about the prospects that just missed, Josh Norris writes that he “doesn’t have the kind of blow-away stuff as some of the other pitchers in the minors, but his pitchability and command should help him become a mid-rotation starter in a few years.”
MLB Pipeline also came out with their prospect list last week, with Jensen ranked #18 and former first-round pick Blake Mitchell ranked #75. Mitchell had a tough start to his 2025 season, suffering a wrist injury in spring training that kept him out for the first half of the season. When he returned, he continued to show a very patient eye at the plate, but his power was sapped as it often is for players returning from wrist injuries. The 20-year-old catcher hit .207/.372/.296 with two home runs in 49 games for High-A Quad Cities. Mitchell was ranked #48 by the publication last year, and was ranked #75 by Baseball America last year before falling off their list this season.
Keith Law has high praise for Jensen, ranking him #10 overall. He writes the 22-year-old is a “legit Rookie of the Year candidate this year as a true catcher who could hit 20 homers with a strong OBP, and with 3-plus WAR potential right away thanks to the defense and positional adjustment.” He ranks Mitchell #56, despite what he calls a “lost year.” Law believes Mitchell is “the best defensive catcher in the Royals’ system, a plus receiver and framer with at least a 60 arm, and has the raw power to be a regular at the position even if he doesn’t hit for a high average.” He also ranks Chourio #61, writing that although there are injury concerns when a pitcher his age throws so hard, he is “everything you’d want to see in a young pitching prospect, including the potential upside of 80 command.”
Kiley McDaniel at ESPN had Jensen as the only Royals prospect in his top 100 list at #25, but he ranked Kendry Chourio (#124), Josh Hammond (#132), and Blake Mitchell (#143) in his 101-200 list. He had high praise for Chourio, writing the right-hander “has the elements to become a front-line starter I’m looking for: enough velocity, plenty of command, the potential for three above-average pitch shapes and surface number performance.” But he adds that the right-hander needs to tweak his “breaking ball shapes.” Curiously omitted from the ranking is Shields.
As for the overall state of the Royals’ farm system, they still seem to rank in the bottom third. McDaniel ranks them #24, praising top prospects Jensen and Chourio and their draft picks of Hammond and pitcher Michael Lombardi. But he writes, “the rest of the system is made up of mostly role players and higher-variance types.”
Jon Hoefling of USA Today came out with a farm system ranking last week, putting the Royals at #26, writing, “they might have a dry spell of great prospects coming to the big leagues for a few years. However, in his top five list of Royals prospects, he omits Chourio or Shields, instead listing Jensen, Mitchell, 2025 first-round picks Sean Gamble and Josh Hammond, and 19-year-old shortstop Yandel Ricardo.
MLB Pipeline last August ranked the Royals #26, although they write the Royals had “one of the most interesting and dynamic international classes of 2025” that netted Chourio. A recent MLB Pipeline poll of executives regarding relative strengths of farm systems did not mention the Royals at all. Kiley McDaniel at ESPN ranked the Royals #27 last August, writing, “Hammond and Gamble could be the high-end prospects needed to pull this system out of the bottom third of the league.”
Prospects1500 ranked the Royals #26 at the end of last season, writing that if “Kendry Chourio continues his breakout and Blake Mitchell can bounce back after an injury-filled 2025, the top of this system could look stronger this time next year. Fangraphs has farm system rankings based on Future Value metrics of top prospects in each system, ranking the Royals 28th.
The Royals are one of six clubs to place just two prospects on the Baseball America list, with the Diamondbacks, Braves, Cubs, Phillies, and Rangers. Three clubs – the Rockies, Angels, and Padres – have just one prospect, and the Astros have none.
You could argue that the Royals’ farm system ranking is low because they graduated players to the big league roster. But that isn’t quite accurate. Jac Caglianone has graduated from lists, but other homegrown players have been in the big leagues for a significant amount of time – Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Maikel Garcia have all spent at least three full seasons in the big leagues. Noah Cameron and Freddy Fermin are the only significant players who have debuted in the last three seasons. Besides, a successful small market team needs to continually produce prospects to build a sustainable winner. Having a farm system that has dry spells will lead to a thin roster.
But there is reason to think things are turning a corner for the Royals. They have taken a more data-driven approach since J.J. Picollo took the helm, and have been more aggressive in spending in the international market, landing top prospects like Ricardo, Chourio, and shortstop Warren Calcaño. Scouting director Brian Bridges took over after the 2023 season, and his first two draft classes have an intriguing mix of prospects that includes Caglianone, Shields, Gamble, Hammond, and pitcher Drew Beam.
Still, the Royals have a long way to go before they are even close to the top farm systems in baseball. And unlike the free agent market, the financial disparities haven’t made it impossible for small-market teams to compete for prospects. The Guardians are tied for the most prospects on Baseball America’s list with six, with the Brewers and Marlins close behind at five. Kiley McDaniel tweeted that the Brewers will rank #1 when he comes out with his overall farm system rankings.
Until the Royals can consistently produce impact talent year after year, and not just rely on the occasional standout prospect, the farm will remain closer to the bottom than the top of industry rankings. Progress is evident, but sustainability remains the real test.
The 2009 season marked a transitional year for the Yankees, coming off the final season in the original Yankee Stadium and the team’s first season without a postseason appearance since 1995. The team’s aging core was still producing, but veteran slugger Jason Giambi’s contract expired after the season, leaving a hole at the cold corner.
Thankfully, there was a marquee first baseman available on the market: Mark Teixeira. The switch-hitting slugger and Gold Glover was coming off an MVP-caliber season — he had been traded from the Braves to the Angels at the trade deadline, which wiped out his vote share because of the change in leagues. Several teams attempted to woo Teixeira, but the Yankees were ultimately successful, inking him to an eight-year pact. Tex would be one of the most important contributors to the 2009 team which baptized the new Yankee Stadium with the franchise’s 27th championship. While he struggled with injuries on the back half of the deal, he was a fearsome presence in the heart of the Yankee lineup for most of those eight years.
Mark Teixeira Signing Date: January 6, 2009 Contract: 8 years, $180 million
Teixeira was born on April 11, 1980 in Annapolis, Maryland and attended Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore. He excelled enough there for the Red Sox to take a flyer on him with a ninth-round pick in the 1998 Draft, but he chose to honor his commitment to Georgia Tech, where he became one of the top college hitters in the country.
Now a consensus first-round talent, Teixeira was selected fifth overall in 2001 by the rebuilding Texas Rangers. It wouldn’t take long for him to blossom in the bigs. He made the Rangers’ roster out of spring training in 2003 and from that point forward was a lock to slug at least 25 home runs a season. By 2005, he had already exceeded 100 career homers, reached the All-Star Game, and taken home a pair of Silver Sluggers as well as a Gold Glove. But he wouldn’t reach the postseason until 2008, at which point Teixeira had been traded at the deadline twice in as many seasons; first from the Rangers to the Braves for a king’s ransom, then from Atlanta to the Angels.
That offseason, Teixeira entered free agency as the best hitter on the market. The Angels were interested in bringing him back, but several other teams made big offers. The Red Sox, who had drafted him back in high school, were in the mix — though Teixeira had vocally criticized Boston in the past for their pre-draft negotiations with him. The Nationals and Orioles both tried for the Marylander who grew up close to both Baltimore and DC.
Eventually, the Angels and Red Sox got cold feet, providing an opening for the Yankees. Teixeira, who idolized Don Mattingly growing up, ultimately chose the Bronx as the place to continue his career. The eight-year, $180 million agreement, announced right before the holidays, was made official on January 6th. Teixeira joined starting pitchers CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett as part of a gargantuan free agent haul as the team awaited the grand opening of the brand new Yankee Stadium.
Teixeira proved a perfect fit in the Bronx, providing a strong baseline of production at the plate with sterling first-base defense, but also capable of entering incendiary stretches in which he was impossible to pitch to. Like the rest of the team, Teixiera took a bit to get going in April, but was the AL’s best hitter in May, smashing 13 home runs with a .330/.391/.748 slash line. He made the All-Star Game and then was an even better hitter in the second half, finishing the year with 39 homers and 122 RBI. He finished second in MVP voting behind Minnesota’s Joe Mauer.
Mauer and the Twins, of course, would meet Teixeira and the Bombers in the ALDS. The Yankees took Game 1, but Game 2 would be a battle requiring extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th, Teixeira smashed a line drive down the left field line and over the wall for a walk-off home run to put New York in the driver’s seat.
Teixeira struggled in the playoffs despite the early highlight, but the Yankees took down his former team, the Angels, in the ALCS, and hosted the Phillies in the World Series. After Philadelphia snatched the series lead in Game 1, a homer from Teixeira off Pedro Martinez tied Game 2 and lit the spark for an eventual Yankee win. Finally in Game 6, Tex provided an RBI single in the fifth to help bring the Commissioner’s Trophy back to the Bronx.
The Yankees would not return to the Fall Classic again during Teixeira’s tenure, but his presence at the heart of the order helped extend a window which appeared to be closing before his arrival. In 2010, he registered another strong season, with an .856 OPS, 33 home runs, and his second Gold Glove in as many seasons at first base. Unfortunately, Teixeira struggled again in the playoffs before a hamstring injury put him on the shelf. The Rangers, the franchise which had drafted him nine years before and was now a powerhouse, kicked the Yankees out in the ALCS in six games.
In 2012, Teixeira began to struggle with injuries. He suffered from a persistent cough that plagued him throughout the early part of the season, then endured a pair of DL stints for calf injuries late in the season. He returned in time for the postseason and hit well, but with no home runs, and the Yankees were swept by the Tigers in a demoralizing ALCS.
That marked the final postseason run of Teixeira’s career. The Yankees entered a somnambulant period after 2012, overloaded with veterans who couldn’t stay on the field. Teixeira was one of them, only playing 15 games in 2013 after injuring his wrist during the World Baseball Classic. In 2014, Teixeira’s production dropped as he again dealt with hamstring and wrist injuries. New York missed the postseason both years.
Entering the 2015 season, it appeared Tex’s halcyon days had come to an end. But in his age-35 campaign, the embattled first baseman authored a terrific comeback campaign, returning to the All-Star Game for the first time since ‘09. He finished the year with 31 home runs, a total which would have been even higher had it not been for August 17th. That night, with the Twins in town, Teixeira fouled a ball off his leg and staggered out of the box. He left the game and was diagnosed with a bone bruise, but after several weeks of tests and negative X-rays, was finally found to have suffered a shin fracture. That would spell the end of what had been a stirring resurgence.
Then, at last, came 2016, the final year of Teixeira’s deal. His final ride was an unproductive slog, in which his average hovered around .200 and his formerly prodigious power wilted, even as he slugged his 400th career homer on July 4th in San Diego. In August, he announced in a press conference that he would retire at the end of the season. But he did have one last magical moment in him: a walk-off grand slam against the Red Sox in one of the final games of his career.
The main objective for Teixeira in coming to New York was to win. He did, right away, playing an instrumental role on a championship team. Despite failing to return to the mountaintop in his successive years in the Bronx, Teixeira provided high-quality play on offense and defense for as long as his body would allow him to do so. He retired as an accomplished and dedicated 14-year major leaguer with nothing left to prove.
See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.
Fifth in the series.Today we look at the Cubs’newly-anointed utility man.
Matt Shaw is a controversial figure in Cubdom right now. Not for his political beliefs (at this time), but because the signing of Alex Bregman necessarily leads to a change of position for the young man, and because it looks a bit like fan favorite and team leader Nico Hoerner is going somewhere else after this season to facilitate Shaw’s transference to second base, should there be a 2027 season.
The chance of that is non-zero, but that won’t be our focus.
Shaw had two different seasons in one. His first half was iffy — the entire third base contingent were not very good, and none of them got to midseason, except for Shaw, who took over the spot, made a lot of really good defensive plays, and held his own with the bat. His slash line of .226/.295/.394, with a bWAR of 3.1, isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s leagues better than Jon Berti was turning in.
Indeed his bWAR figure is in the same ballpark as Bregman’s 2025 (3.5 bWAR). Bregman’s numbers were reduced due to injury. Shaw’s were bolstered by his very good second half. Fangraphs, who aren’t as influenced by defensive numbers, awarded Shaw 1.5 fWAR, while Bregman garnered 3.5 fWAR.
We’ll have to see how Shaw adjusts to a utility role. Team management has said that he’ll spend some time in the outfield, which would lead me to think that Kevin Alcántara will be spending the bulk of his time in Iowa, provided that Tyler Austin’s power shows up, which would make Austin the backup 1B/DH, as noted in his profile.
It would not surprise me if Shaw flourishes in that role. He certainly has the speed and athleticism to get the job done. I wouldn’t vote against his chances.
The Arizona Cardinals coaching search could stretch through the Super Bowl.
In a recent report, coming out late last night, the team has scheduled another interview with Klint Kubiak, the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator.
Peter with the latest on Kubiak…
Expecting these interviews to happen Saturday in Seattle. Belief among some in league is Kubiak is the lead candidate in both places. https://t.co/bSR1sMl7BD
So, the Cardinals have been waiting and taking their time trying to get another shot at Kubiak, but so are the Las Vegas Raiders.
Both teams will have to do a quick sales job, before Kubiak returns his focus to the Seahawks in their quest for another Super Bowl.
The question becomes, what do the Cardinals have to offer over the Raiders?
If Kubiak was to turn towards the Cardinals, I think the biggest thing it would signal, at least to the Raiders, is a lack of belief in likely first overall pick Fernando Mendoza. While there is a debate on the rest of the roster, their is an unquestioned reality that having Mendoza if you believe he can be a franchise guy, is better than the Cardinals options at quarterback, thus negating basically all other roster construction questions.
If Kubiak decides to go back to Seattle to wait until the next coaching cycle, then it would say a lot about both moribund franchises.
The problem seems to be, that all the “insiders” continue to say it isn’t likely Kubiak would come to Arizona, so are the Cardinals wasting their time?
Via @ScoopCityShow, @DMRussini says that Mike LaFleur, Raheem Morris and Anthony Weaver are waiting to hear back from the Arizona Cardinals.
NEW YORK — Cody Bellinger listened to pitches from other teams during his second foray into free agency, but he made it clear to his agent, Scott Boras, that calls from the New York Yankees come first.
It took more than two months, but Bellinger officially is returning to the Yankees. The versatile outfielder spoke with the media after becoming the last of the free-agent hitters to reach a new agreement by signing a five-year, $162.5 million contract.
“I spoke my mind to Scott all the time whether it was on any different occasion,” Bellinger said. “I definitely really enjoyed my time. I love playing in New York and I love the stadium. I made that very clear to Scott there as well.”
Bellinger’s new deal with the club includes a $20 million signing bonus, half payable April 1 and the remainder Aug. 1. The contract also includes a full no-trade provision.
The 30-year-old receives a $32.5 million salary in each of the first two seasons, $25.8 million in the next two and $25.9 million in 2030.
He can opt out after the 2027 or 2028 seasons to become a free agent for the third time. If a work stoppage leads to no games being played in 2027, the agreement specifies the opt outs will shift to after the 2028 and 2029 seasons.
Bellinger’s second free agency was a much-wider process than his first. After getting non-tendered by the Los Angeles Dodgers in November 2022, he agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.
“You work your whole life pretty much in order to get into this type of position,” Bellinger said. “So, you want to enjoy the ride and, you want to understand (everything). You want to take in all these many different things that are being thrown at you.
“So it’s a combination of wanting to enjoy the process and hear what everyone’s got to say and ultimately expressing what you really want and where you want to see your future at.”
A two-time All-Star acquired by the Yankees from the Chicago Cubs in December 2024 after Juan Soto signed with the New York Mets, Bellinger hit .272 with 29 homers and 98 RBIs last year — including .302 with 18 homers and 55 RBIs at Yankee Stadium. A left-handed hitter, he played 149 games in the outfield and seven at first base in his first season since 2022 without a stint on the injured list.
Bellinger appeared in 152 games, last season his most since winning the MVP, a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award with the Dodgers. He also hit .353 against left-handed pitching, .348 with runners in scoring position and .304 with runners on base.
“Badly, Badly,” manager Aaron Boone said when asked how much he was hoping Bellinger would return.
A Gold Glover in 2019, Bellinger also made standout defensive plays in right and left field.
On July 6, Bellinger also made an 89.8 mph throw from left field after making a shoestring catch on Soto to start a double play in a 6-4 win over the Mets.
Three months later, he made a 95.3 mph throw from right field to get Bo Bichette at the plate in the sixth inning of a 3-1 win over Toronto.
“He can win a game in a lot of different ways and that became very apparent to us,” Boone said.
Bellinger is joining a roster mostly intact from last year when the Yankees won 94 games, beat the Red Sox in three games in the wild-card series before getting outscored 34-19 in a four-game ALDS loss to the Blue Jays.
Bellinger has a .261 average with 225 homers and 695 RBIs in eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2018-22), Cubs (2023-24) and the Yankees.
He earned $57.5 million from the three-year, $80 million contract he reached with the Cubs before the 2024 season. Bellinger declined a $25 million option for 2026 in favor of a $5 million buyout.
On January 21, 2026, Brandon Sproat was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. This list, and Sproat’s place on it, was compiled back in late-November. For continuity’s sake, I decided upon including Sproat’s profile, but for all intents and purposes, every player on our list below Sproat can be considered to have moved up a spot on it.
Always more focused on hitting than pitching while playing little league and travel ball in the Pensacola area, Brandon Sproat left coaches stunned when he finally tried out for the Pace High School varsity baseball team in his junior year there. With a fastball that sat in the high-80s-to-low-90s and a full arsenal of secondary pitches, the right-hander instantly became the best player on the team. He dominated hitters not just across Santa Rosa County, but all over Florida, a baseball hotbed. In his junior year, he posted a 1.78 ERA in 59 innings, helping lead Pace to Florida’s Class 7A State Championship Game, and in his senior season, he posted a 1.53 ERA in 32 innings. Over the two seasons that he pitched for the Patriots, he made 27 starts and 5 relief appearances, posting a cumulative 1.83 ERA. The Texas Rangers selected Sproat in the 7th round of the 2019 MLB Draft and offered him an over-slot deal, but the right-hander elected to honor his commitment to the University of Florida instead, looking to really develop as a pitcher with the Gators and hear his name called earlier in the 2022 MLB Draft.
Initially, it looked like turning down the Rangers and their money might have been a miscalculation, as the right-hander missed most of his freshman season thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He appeared in 4 games out of the bullpen at the beginning of the season prior to the suspension and eventual outright cancellation of the season, and allowed 1 earned run over 6.0 innings, giving up 2 hits, walking 3, and striking out 8. That summer, as many players did, he supplemented his time on the mound by pitching in an independent collegiate league, the Texas Collegiate League. Pitching for the Tulsa Drillers, the right-hander allowed 4 earned runs over 10.1 innings, allowing 6 hits, walking 11, and striking out 7.
In 2021, he returned to Florida and appeared in 16 total games, starting 2 midweek games and making 14 appearances out of the bullpen. All in all, he posted a 6.65 ERA in 21.2 innings, allowing 29 hits, walking 15, and striking out 18. Over the summer, he made a brief appearance with the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Collegiate Baseball League, allowing 3 earned runs in 2 innings with 3 hits allowed, 4 walks, and 2 strikeouts.
In 2022, his junior season, Sproat finally established himself, serving as the team’s Saturday starter following an injury to Hunter Barco. Making a team-high 16 starts, the right-hander posted a 3.41 ERA in 89.2 innings, allowing 84 hits, walking 33, and striking out 82. Analysists believed that based on his stuff and performance, Sproat would be selected early on the second day of the 2022 MLB Draft, and sure enough, he was. With their third round pick, the 90th selection overall, the Mets selected the right-hander. The two sides were unable to agree to terms, and Sproat ended up returning to Florida for a senior season, fulfilling a promise to graduate from college and potentially fulfilling a promise to teammates, classmates and Florida fans to bring a championship to Gainesville.
Sproat gave it all he could, but he and the Gators ended up falling just short of winning that championship in 2023. The right-hander appeared in 19 games as the staff ace and posted a 4.66 ERA in 102.1 innings with 81 hits allowed, 43 walks, and 134 strikeouts. Florida made the College World Series, defeating the University of Virginia in the first round, Oral Roberts University in the second round, and TCU in the semifinals, but lost to Louisiana State University in the finals two games to one. Sproat took the mound in game one, matching up against Tigers ace Ty Floyd, and pitched four innings in Florida’s one and only win in the series, allowing two runs on six hits, with five walks and seven strikeouts and not factoring into the decision. With the Gators’ eventual loss, Spoat’s career at the school came to an end. In total, he appeared in 56 games for them, starting 37, and tossed 223.2 innings. He posted a cumulative 4.27 ERA over the course of his four seasons at Florida, with 202 hits allowed, 99 walks issued, and 242 strikeouts.
Having given the Mets permission to potentially select him a second time around prior to the start of the 2023 MLB Draft, the Mets did just that, selecting him a second time, this time in the second round, the 56th player selected overall. The two sides agreed to a $1,474,500 signing bonus, exactly the MLB-recommended slot value, and Sproat finally became a professional baseball player. He did not suit up for the Mets for the remainder of the season.
Over the off-season, Amazin’ Avenue ranked Sproat the Mets 14th top prospect on the Mets Top 25 Prospects list for 2024. He was assigned to start the season with the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones, but it quickly became apparent that he was not being challenged at the level. He appeared in 6 games for the Cyclones, starting 5 of them, and posted a 1.07 ERA in 25.1 innings, allowing 12 hits, walking 16, and striking out 33. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton in mid-May and was just as good against Double-A hitters, posting a 2.45 ERA in 62.1 innings over 11 starts with 39 hits allowed, 15 walks, and 77 strikeouts. He was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse in early August and the wheels finally fell off of his excellent season. The right-hander wrapped up his first professional season there, making 7 starts and posting a bloated 7.85 ERA in 28.2 innings, allowing 36 hits, walking 11, and striking out 21. Despite its poor ending, the right-hander had a successful season and catapulted his name into the discussion not only for Mets top prospect, but among the best nationally as well.
Amazin’ Avenue ranked the right-hander the Mets’ top prospect coming into the season, but he stumbled out of the gate, once again struggling at the Triple-A level. In March/April, he posted a 5.48 ERA in 23.0 innings over 6 starts, allowing 21 hits, walking 12, and striking out 17. In May, he posted a 6.56 ERA in 23.1 innings over 5 starts, allowing 25 hits, walking 10, and striking out 17, and in June, he posted a 4.15 ERA in 21.2 innings over 5 starts, allowing 19 hits, walking 13, and striking out 15. In late June, a lightbulb finally went on. It wasn’t one thing specifically, but suddenly everything started clicking for Sproat. Thanks to a combination of throwing his fastball harder and using a more effective pitch mix, the right-hander went on a terrific run in the month of July. In 27.0 innings over 5 starts, the right-hander posted a 0.67 ERA, allowing 14 hits, walking 8, and striking out 33. His streak of success ended in August, but by that point, the organization was looking at internal options to bolster the starting rotation and the Mets’ dwindling playoff aspirations, and Sproat was in consideration for a call-up. Sure enough, in mid-September, the Mets selected his contract from the Syracuse Mets, joining fellow recently-promoted right-handers Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong.
In his first big league start on September 9th, Sproat allowed 3 runs on 3 hits over 6.0 innings against the Cincinnati Reds, walking 4 and striking out 7. In his next start, against the Texas Rangers on September 13th, the right-hander threw six scoreless innings, scattering 6 hits and not walking a single batter while striking out 3. His next start, which came on September 19th against the Washington Nationals, was his first real clunker, allowing 4 runs over 4.0 innings. His next and final start of the year, September 26 against the Miami Marlins, was a similar clunker that saw him allow 4 runs over 4.2 innings. All in all, Sproat posted a 4.49 ERA in Queens, allowing 18 hits, walking 7, and striking out 17 in 20.2 innings of work and a 4.24 ERA in 121.0 innings with the Syracuse Mets, allowing 97 hits, walking 53, and striking out 113.
The 6’3”, 210-pound Sproat has a solid pitching frame. The right-hander throws from a three-quarters arm slot with a long, whippy arm action through the back. His delivery is fairly simple with few moving parts, and he repeats it well. He struggled with his control earlier in his career while playing at Florida, but has improved in that regard since turning pro, as the Mets worked with him to raise his arm slot a bit and remove some of the crossfire from his delivery, as they identified his lagging arm being the root cause of his control issues.
Sproat has a wide assortment of pitches that he is comfortable using, incorporating multiple fastballs, breaking balls, and off-speed pitches. His pitch mix changed slightly in Queens as compared to his mix while in Syracuse. In Triple-A, he threw his four-seam fastball 26% of the time, his sinker 21.3% of the time, his sweeping slider 16% of the time, his gyro slider 15% of the time, his changeup 15% of the time, and his curveball 7% of the time. In Queens, Jeremy Hefner had Sproat throw his sinker 34% of the time, his sweeping slider 19% of the time, his curveball 15% of the time, his changeup 15% of the time, his four-seam fastball 14% of the time, and his gyro slider 3% of the time.
Sproat’s four-seam fastball averaged 96.2 MPH while playing in Syracuse and 96.7 MPH in his cup of coffee with the Mets, topping out at 100 MPH. While it has plenty of velocity- the pitch was in the 94 percentile in Syracuse and in the 78 percentile in the majors in terms of average velocity- it features a well-below average spin rate. With an average spin rate hovering around 2,000 RPM, the pitch has minimal life and movement. Batters hit .258/.390/.423 against it in Triple-A with a 24.3% Whiff% and in a much smaller sample size, .143/.282/.143 with a 6.3% Whiff% in Queens. The pitch is almost a brute pitch offering, with Sproat having success with the pitch when he is throwing it as hard as he can and sniffing triple-digits but missing considerably fewer bats when the pitch’s velocity backs up.
His sinker sits in a similar velocity band, averaging 95.7 MPH in Syracuse and Queens, topping out at 100 MPH. Triple-A batters hit .268/.366/.366 against it with a 13.7% Whiff% while MLB batters hit .333/.262/.519 against it with a 6.7 Whiff%. Jeremy Hefner had Sproat throw the pitch more than his four-seam fastball, and while its metrics aren’t that great either, the bit more vertical and horizontal movement that it has helped with its damage suppression, resulting in more ground balls and weaker exit velocities in batted ball events.
Sproat’s sweeping slider averaged 85 MPH, while his harder gyro slider averaged 89 MPH. Like his fastball, both pitches recorded spin rates well below average for their respective pitch types, with his sweeping slider averaging 2,400 RPM and his gyro slider averaging 2,090 RPM at Triple-A and the MLB combined. While his sweeping slider has less movement than the MLB average in 2025, the pitch was effective against Triple-A and MLB hitters alike, resulting in a .104./211/.269 BAA in Syracuse with a 33.8% Whiff% and a .077/.268/.077 BAA with a 34.6 Whiff% in the small sample size of his MLB call-up. His gyro slider, used more in Syracuse than in Queens, did not achieve such results, resulting in a .291/.381/.382 BAA with a 29.3 Whiff%.
His changeup, which was an effective offering and arguably his most effective offering while a collegiate player, has remained an effective pitch against professionals. Triple-A batters hit .194/.243/.284 against it with a 29.7% Whiff%, while MLB batters hit .182/.234/.273 against it with a 8.3% Whiff%. The pitch hovers around 90 MPH with a spin rate of 1650 RPM, giving it roughly 30 inches of vertical drop and 16 inches of horizontal movement. Ironically, despite its arm-side fade, the pitch was more successful against right-handers than the left-handers change-ups usually neutralize.
Rounding out his arsenal, Sproat also throws a high-70s-to-low-80s curveball with big 11-5 shape. Much like his change-up, while conceptually his bender should have been more effective against left-handed hitters, it was actually better against right-handers.
Trouble against left-handers has plagued Sproat for his young professional career. In Triple-A, right-handers hit .180/.276/.272 against him with a 28.1% Whiff%, as opposed to the .260/.353/.390 left-handers hit against him with a 23.6% Whiff%. Left-handers also hit the ball harder and further, with more advantageous launch angles.
2026 Mets Top 25 Prospect List
6) A.J. Ewing 7) Jacob Reimer 8) Ryan Clifford 9) Will Watson 10) Jack Wenninger 11) Mitch Voit 12) Jonathan Santucci 13) Elian Peña 14) Zach Thornton 15) Nick Morabito 16) R.J. Gordon 17) Chris Suero 18) Dylan Ross 19) Ryan Lambert 20) Antonio Jimenez 21) Edward Lantigua 22) Eli Serrano III 23) Randy Guzman 24) Daiverson Gutierrez 25) Boston Baro
Good morning! It’s prospect ranking season, and we’ve already seen a few new top-100 lists, most of which feature the same quartet of Red Sox minor leaguers: Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Franklin Arias, and Kyson Witherspoon. Today, we’ve got a couple of rankings of the system as a whole, with Keith Law giving the Sox the 10th-best farm system in the majors, while ESPN put them at 11th. Not bad for an organization that has graduated and traded away a lot of prospects lately.
Talk about what you want and be good to one another.
Despite the wealth of injuries among this cohort already, the Detroit Tigers didn’t back off of their draft strategy in 2025. They went prep heavy from the start, sprinkled in some college players they hope to improve, and tried to save money to lure some talented high schoolers into signing and starting their pro careers. Right-hander Ryan Hall gives the Tigers yet another talented young arm to try and develop. Hopefully things will go more smoothly than the front office’s first two draft classes to date.
The Tigers took the 6’1” 175 pound right-hander in the fifth round last year. Hall got a bonus of $997,500, roughly $550,000 over the slot value, to pass on Georgia Tech. The Georgia raised, North Gwinnett High School product didn’t pitch after the draft, and odds are he’ll get extended spring training time this spring before going out to pitch in the Complex League in May or June, depending on how things are progressing.
Hall was a two-sport athlete in high school who played football as well as baseball. He was a good, if undersized, high school quarterback, but wasn’t really a standout on the mound until his senior year, when he grew a few inches and added muscle and better velocity on his fastball. He went from scraping 90-91 to sitting pretty comfortably in the low-90’s and hitting 95 on the radar gun. Hall moves well on the mound and gets pretty good extension for his size. He backs the heater up with a low 80’s slider with good two plane break and a spin rate that can top 2600 rpms. That pitch flashes above average already while Hall showed some feel for a circle changeup as well.
This is a bit of an upside play based on Hall’s overall athletic ability. His strike throwing is still pretty raw, but that athleticism should help him develop well in pro ball, and the Tigers will expect his balance and coordination to translate into good command in time. He’s got the projection to be a mid-90’s right-hander with a good breaking ball, a solid changeup, and good command eventually. The fact that he was a late bloomer who didn’t really start coming into his own as a pitcher until his senior year prior to the draft doesn’t hurt his profile either. He’s got a fairly low mileage arm as a pitcher and the Tigers scouts no doubt liked adding a young, athletic pitcher with this background who broke out late in his high school career.
Hall is more of a project rather than an established prep standout that tons of teams were on in the early rounds of the draft. He’ll probably take time to find his footing and is unlikely to move quickly in his first pro season. In year one we’re just looking for improved strike throwing and a more consistent breaking ball. He’s got the raw ingredients to be a mid rotation starter someday, but the risk level is high and the road is long.
It’s been quite a journey for Daniel Espino as Covering the Corner readers have selected him as our No. 12 Cleveland Guardians prospect. Espino won a nailbiter earning 24.6% of the vote, beating out Jace Laviolette (23.7%) and George Valera (22.9%). Espino returns to the prospect rankings after missing out last year and previously being No. 1 in 2023 and No. 4 in 2024.
Espino was a first round draft pick by the Guardians back in 2019 when the then-Indians selected him from Georgia Premier Academy with the No. 24 pick overall. He impressed in his professional debut in 2019, then got a year off due to the lost MiLB season from the COVID pandemic. In 2021, he split time between Single-A and High-A, improving his numbers after his promotion.
In the leadup to the 2022 season, Espino’s hype started to skyrocket and he became a top 10 overall prospect in MLB. He blew away Major League hitters in Spring Training, then dominated Double-A to the tune of a disgusting 51.5% strikeout rate.
But then the injuries began.
It started with some knee soreness, and while rehabbing the knee, he sustained a compensation injury to his shoulder, causing him to miss the final four months of the 2022 season. Many hoped the injuries would heal on their own, but Espino instead required anterior capsule repair surgery on his shoulder in May 2023. To make matters worse, he required additional surgery on the same shoulder the following year.
In total, he missed over three full years of baseball before he finally returned to the mound to pitch two-thirds of an inning for Triple-A Columbus late last season. He zipped his fastball at 98 mph and his slider looked as devastating as ever. He then logged 4 and 2/3 scoreless innings in the Arizona Fall League with seven strikeouts. He’s back … knock on wood.
I doubt Cleveland stretches Espino back out to be a starting pitcher again, but if he does — and he stays healthy — Cleveland has an ace up its sleeve. More likely is him becoming a key cog in the back end of the bullpen. Regardless, I couldn’t be more excited for his 2026 season.
Now, it’s time to determine who is number 13 in the Guardians’ loaded farm system and you now have a whopping 10 players to choose from! Your options are below:
Impressed at the complex league, then hit the ground running in a late season promotion to Single-A before running out of steam late in his age-17 season. Loaded with potential.
One of Cleveland’s top performers in the Arizona Complex League in 2025. Undersized, but makes solid contact and doesn’t strike out often. Earned a small taste of full-season ball at the end of the year.
Acquired from the Mets in a trade for international bonus cash, Gomez lit up Single-A in his age-19 season, then improved his walk and strikeout numbers after being promoted to High-A.
Venezuelan prospect who broke out in with increased velocity in 2025, putting up nearly identical numbers at both High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron. Gomez was added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster.
Acquired from Pittsburghin the Spencer Horwitz trade, Hartle was one of Cleveland’s most successful starting pitchers in its minor league system in 2025. Stands 6-foot-6, but doesn’t have a ton of velocity.
Cleveland’s first round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, the 6-foot-6 LaViolette instantly becomes one of the top power hitting prospects in the system. Strikeouts and contact have been an issue, however.
Cleveland’s 3rd round pick in 2024 out of high school, Oakie got off to a rough start in the Complex League, but then absolutely dominated when promoted to Single-A Lynchburg with a pair of 11 strikeout performances.
Absolutely dominated Double-A to begin 2025 looking well on his way to repeating his tremendous 2024 season, but then struggled after an early-season promotion to Triple-A. Remains on the 40-man roster.
One of Cleveland’s most impressive hitters in its minor league system during his stint at High-A Lake County as a 20-year-old. Rosario has a unique combination of speed and power, but will need to overcome his strikeouts.
Former top prospect returned from a torn knee and put up good enough numbers to finally make his MLB debut with Cleveland in 2025. Hit a memorable home run against the Detroit Tigers in the playoffs.
Our list so far: 1. Chase DeLauter, LHH OF 2. Travis Bazzana, LHH 2B 3. Parker Messick, LHP 4. Ralphy Velazquez, LHH 1B/RF 5. Angel Genao, SH SS 6. Braylon Doughty, RHP 7. Cooper Ingle, LHH C 8. Khal Stephen, RHP 9. Juan Brito, SH 2B/1B/RF/3B 10. Jaison Chourio, SH OF 11. Kahlil Watson, LHH OF 12. Daniel Espino, RHP
Good morning friends. It was kind of a slow news day yesterday around baseball. Hopefully things will pick up again soon as we close in on spring training.
Regardless, here are the stories we’re tracking as we pass the mid-week point.
The Rockies acquired infielder Edouard Julien and right-hander Pierson Ohl from the Twins for minor league righty Jace Kaminska and cash considerations.
