Category: MLB

Before you immediately run to the comments and simply put “YES”, hear me out. The St. Louis Cardinals have spent the entire offseason actually committing to the (re)build, but have done so by trading away high-priced and/or underperforming veterans and restocking the minor league pitching staff. Those deals have created opportunities around the diamond, except one position group has been completely untouched by Chaim Bloom and his staff.

The St. Louis Cardinals outfield has something to prove in 2026 and beyond

The trade of Willson Contreras meant that utility Silver Slugger Award winner Alec Burleson would move to first base full-time, the position where he is the best fit for the long-term, although he held his own in the grass. That cleared up a potential “logjam” in the outfield, so the current setup seems to be Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II, and Jordan Walker from left to right. All three of these players come with their own questions as they each enter different stages of their careers. The idea for the look into the outfield came while perusing the cesspool of Twitter, and I came across a Phillies account posting their thoughts on the Philadelphia outfielders.

While the Cardinals team is definitely young, the roster does contain plenty of major league caliber talent under the age of 28 years old, which we heard all of Michael McGreevy, Thomas Saggese, and Andre Pallante point to being a potential strength of this team. In the outfield, that youth continues, with Nootbaar being the elder statesman at 28, but all three of the expected starters have gained major league experience despite their ages. Noot has played in over 500 games, with Walker playing another 279, and Scott putting 191 games under his belt as a 24-year-old.

That experience has not come with production, for really any of those three outfielders just yet, but I understand how those on the outside (or even inside) could be so down on the entire group. Last year, the Cardinals outfield finished 24th in the league (13th in NL) in terms of fWAR, and that could have been way worse if not helped by VSII’s Gold Glove caliber defense in center. With that entire group returning, and the only supplemental pieces coming from Nathan Church and 28-year-old rookie Bryan Torres, it makes sense that the rest of the league could be seen as being stronger than St. Louis in the outfield. Further behind is 40-man addition Joshua Baez, but he has not seen a pitch beyond Double-A, which I guess does not mean all that much since that’s the same level that Scott reached before his rushed promotion to the majors.

Looking at each position brings what questions each player has to face in 2026 as they look to either rebuild their careers or take a step forward into the future. For Nootbaar specifically, he might have the largest gray area surrounding him in terms of his St. Louis Cardinals tenure. The oldest of the group, Noot is entering his sixth season for the big league team and has had an issue with taking advantage of the opening in the outfield to turn it into a guaranteed full-time starting spot. This past season, there was plenty of hype surrounding the outfielder as Baseball Savant was full of red and his offseason hitting videos showed some gaudy hitting numbers. That momentum followed him into the new campaign and he was hitting .263 with an .834 OPS through April, thanks to five homers and 25 walks.

May brought on Noot’s first struggles of the season, as his patience at the plate waned (or pitchers were attacking more aggressively) as he drew just eight walks and saw his strikeout rate skyrocket from 15% to 25%. The patience came back in June, walking 12 more times, but the strikeouts kept coming, this time surpassing a 30% K-rate for the month, which led to his monthly numbers dropping to a .596 OPS and a .169 batting average. Then, the Noot injury story continued.

At the end of June, he missed a couple games with a rib injury, came back, then missed another game, before sitting out two more games in July and eventually hitting the injured list on July 13. He sat out for 14 games and made his return to the lineup in August where he attempted to regain his footing from earlier in the season. Right as he got started again, his knee acted up, causing him to miss an additional two games. In a lost season, Noot opted to play the rest of the season, although he may have been hampered by the malady for the last month and a half. To end the year, Noot hit .205 in September to put his end of the season line at .234/.325/.361 for a season-long OPS of .686.

Now, Noot is rehabbing his double heel surgery and the team has not said much in terms of his recovery process. At the time of the procedures, Bloom and Marmol both noted that there is no timetable for his return as the organization wants to make sure he is fully healthy when he returns to the field.

Moving up the middle, Victor Scott II has next to nothing to prove with the glove, as he was named a finalist for the Gold Glove award in center. The story for VSII, though, is that his approach and performance at the plate has to tick up if he is to be an everyday option in the lineup. So far in his short career, Scott has a .206/.283/.293 slash line for a .576 OPS and a 67 wRC+.

Again, do not jump straight to the comments yet because yes, I do know that VSII’s value comes from his glove and whatever he provides with the bat is a bonus. To me, though, the bat has to do something to make it palatable to keep putting him in the lineup everyday. Again, again, I do not want to be unfair to Scott, because he was absolutely rushed to the major leagues after the late Spring Training injury to Dylan Carlson and the team excited about what Scott’s gamebreaking speed could do for the lineup in 2024. At the time of his promotion, he had yet to see a pitch above Double-A, but was coming off a .303 batting average and 94 stolen bases after spending equal time in Peoria and Springfield.

However, that early promotion brought quick, expected struggles as VSII worked to learn the major league game as a rookie. The time spent on the big league roster was a valuable learning experience as he had to figure out how to adjust on the go at the plate, play elite defense, and still try to be a difference maker on the bases without trying to push it too much.

To be fair (Letterkenny anyone?), Scott did show some growth at times in 2025. His overall season line was an improvement from that rookie year, but he still measured out as a 76 wRC+ and among the 22 center fielders with at least 450 plate appearances last year, his offensive value came in at 18th in baseball. He improved his walk rate and strikeout percentage, but at 24%, he will have to find a way to simply put the ball in play (but please no more 2-0 or 0-2 bunt attempts) and use his legs to wreak havoc. In the grass, his 9.2 FanGraphs defensive value put him third in the league behind Ceddanne Rafaela and Pete Crow-Armstrong. In total, his fWAR came out to 1.7, which bumped him up to 14th among qualified center fielders.

Admittedly, I have been critical of Scott’s performance at the plate but do still understand he is still shy of his 25th birthday and has not had the best development path to this point. VSII has not used that as an excuse, though, as both he and manager Oli Marmol credited his failures to aiding his offseason work and has high expectations for himself this season and beyond.

And finally, everyone’s favorite talking point since 2022: Jordan Walker, the right fielder.

In my attempt to avoid rehashing what everyone already knows, Walker has not come near the expectations the league set for him coming into the 2023 season when he was ranked as a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, with a power and speed combo that could make him a perennial All-Star.

For his career, those standards have not been met (yet), as Walker has an 89 wRC+ over his first 279 games, which honestly is not as low as I, or probably a lot of Cardinal Nation, thought it would be. It is still a far cry from the .898 OPS, 18 homers, and 22 stolen bases Walker put up in Springfield as a 20-year-old, but that is enough to still give me some hope for what we could see eventually.

For one, I have a hard time believing someone with his talent can just forget how to hit, especially since we know he was constantly working through swing changes while also learning a new position at the major league level. That is obviously a big ask of a 21-year-old who was also rushed to the bigs, but his quick promotion was a tad more understandable than that of VSII.

Regardless of your thoughts of Walker right now, I personally think it is hard to argue that he should not receive the bulk of the playing time in the outfield to start the year. The mismanagement of Walker’s development to this point leaves his with just one option year remaining, despite being just 23-years-old. To maximize their flexibility for this year and beyond, the Cardinals likely want to avoid burning that minor league option and finally get a full evaluation on the former first round pick.

It may seem like beating a dead horse, but Walker’s 2025 season was his worst so far. Among the 38 right fielders who had at least 350 plate appearances last season, Walker finished… 38th in terms of fWAR and offensive value. After a step forward on defense last season, he regressed slightly, but bumped up to 26th in baseball by defensive value. We are approaching that time of the year where managers and teammates compliment everyone about being in the best shape of their lives, and I would be surprised if we do not hear Walker being a constant talking point around the organization.

Currently, FanGraphs projects all three outfielders to play in at least 125 games and has all of them taking a step forward in different ways. The annual ZiPS DC projection adjusts for expected playing time and has Walker taking a major leap but still below the superstar expectations placed on him as a minor leaguer. ZiPS shows Walker putting up an 88 wRC+ and hitting 14 homers, while raising his average to .232, swiping 10 bags, and cutting his strikeout rate. As sad as it may be, that type of performance could get fans back to believing in Walker and giving him another full season before throwing in the towel. It could become another vicious cycle of repeated outfield mishaps, but there’s no better time than 2026 for Walker to put it all together.

Thank you if you have stuck with me thus far! I appreciate all of the comments and feedback from everyone and do my best to engage in the conversation on Sundays. With that said, I want to take the last paragraph to plug my other work (with the blessing of Doc). I hope you check it out, follow if you please, and share your thoughts there as well!

Cardinals on My Time: My individual podcast where I talk Cardinals when it fits into my schedule and there’s something I want to talk about. I try to have a wide range of guests, from fans, to media, as well as having Ryan Loutos on as my first pro guest. I’d be happy to talk to any of you about joining in as well, after a little “screening” process! And if you have not already, follow me on Twitter as well. I am more active during the season, but try to do more than just emotionally tweet during games. I also plan to do some giveaways of baseball cards and old stadium giveaways that will take place over there.

Redbird Rundown: I joined here full-time recently and it was honestly the three brothers on the podcast that got me into giving the Cardinals content game a go. This is where I will be most consistently. They gave me a chance to be a guest for the first time and now I am working with them to put together a Cardinal hub of sorts. We post every Sunday evening and have started a YouTube channel as well as on Twitter and Instagram. Tonight, we talk about ZiPS projections. Just this week, I added my brother to the team and he began a Random Cardinal of the Week segment with Khalil Greene. That will post on Fridays.

I don’t necessarily enjoy selling things (including myself), but I do hope to see you over on those other platforms in addition to your constant support here on VEB! My weekly articles will end with brief links to any show updates, so feel free to zoom right by those on your way to the comment section!

Have a great week!

The last time Shohei Ohtani was in the World Baseball Classic, he struck out his then-Angels teammate Mike Trout to give Team Japan their third title in tournament history. Three years later, fans from around the world will only get to see half of the Ohtani experience.

After a 22 month absence from pitching on a big league mound, Ohtani tossed 47 innings in the 2025 regular season to the tune of a 2.87 ERA before tallying an additional 20 1/3 innings in the Dodgers title run. With a full offseason to prepare himself on both sides of the field, the goal for Ohtani in 2026 is to have his first full season of two-way activities in a Dodger uniform, notes Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“I wasn’t surprised. I can’t even say I was relieved,” Roberts said. “Understanding what he did last year, what he had to go through to then how best to prepare himself for ’26 to do both — it just seemed like the right decision.”

Links

After undergoing ankle surgery in November, the expectation for utility man Tommy Edman was that he’d be ready around the start of spring training. With just three weeks remaining until the Dodgers play their first cactus league game against the Angels, Edman provided an update to David Vassegh of AM 570 at DodgerFest on Saturday, stating that he is back to regular baseball activities and ready for the spring.

“I’m feeling good. I just started baseball activities again, so I’m feeling like I’m in a good spot going into the spring… I just very lightly started swinging and started throwing again this past week, and that’ll be ramping up as we get closer to spring. I’m really looking forward to being a baseball player again.”

The addition of outfielder Kyle Tucker gives the Dodgers one of the most complete and dangerous lineups in all of baseball, and Dave Roberts is starting to get a feel as to how the top half of the order will shape up for the 2026 season, per Jack Harris of the California Post.

Dave Roberts hasn’t decided exactly how the Dodgers’ batting order will look in the wake of Kyle Tucker’s signing, but he did drop some hints, saying Ohtani will still lead off, Betts will likely hit third, and Will Smith will hit fifth. That presumably leaves Kyle Tucker and Freeman for the Nos. 2 and 4 spots, in some order.

On Friday, the Athletics of Sacramento and eventually Las Vegas, inked their young shortstop, Jacob Wilson, to a seven-year, $70 million deal that buys the club Wilson’s first two years of free agency and all of his 20’s.

The Detroit Tigers already did something like this with Colt Keith prior to promoting him to the major leagues before the 2024 season. There’s a fair chance that signing that deal was Keith’s ticket to an Opening Day major league debut rather than the Tigers potentially waiting until sometime in May to save a year of service time and give Keith more Triple-A plate appearances to get ready.

Of course, Keith signed his deal through 2029 for a very reasonable price, with the Tigers getting club options from 2030-2032. This wasn’t Scott Boras making a deal. Keith’s mother acted as his respresentative, and he was willing to take more guaranteed money over his years of team control rather than expecting to make bank in his arbitration years and then in free agency. From his perspective perhaps, he already has all the money he’s ever going to need if managed well, and now he doesn’t have to deal with the business side at all for years, potentially not until he’s 31 years old.

That’s a decent deal for Keith, and hopefully a nice bargain for the Tigers over the long haul.

It also brings up the question of which Tigers player you’d currently like to see extended the most? Tarik Skubal ain’t happening so let’s not pain ourselves any longer on that front. Should the Tigers extend Riley Greene? Or would you prefer they try to work out a bigger, but similar deal to Colt Keith’s with Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark?

Or, perhaps you don’t think extensions for either prospective 2026 rookie are a good idea just yet. Obviously the price matters a lot.

It’s your call.

Eli Morgan is a Royal. Or an Omaha Storm Chaser, on a minor-league deal, according to sources. David Robertson has retired.

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): How Cubs’ bullpen is shaping up as camp nears. “The bullpen is where the team has turned over the most and looks different the most,” Counsell said during Cubs Convention in mid-January.
• Joe Trezza (MLB.com*): These Cubs prospects could crack the Top 100 soon. “… prospect development is all about the future…”
• Keith Law (The Athletic* {$}): Ranking all 30 MLB farm systems, from the Brewers to the Padres. “… these rankings only consider players currently in a team’s system and eligible for the rankings…”

Food For Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We will not wittingly publish A. I. – driven articles or clickbait, and insist on unimpeachable sources.

Another day, another cold snap that reminds us that the hot stove is probably turned off. Talk to me again when the warm sunshine of Florida is on my screen and I’m whining about how long spring training is.

At least there is the World Baseball Classic this year.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Ranger Suarez is in Boston, which means the rotation is going to have a whole new look in 2026. How are those options stacking up?
• It’s prospect ranking season, which means local writers have their own top ten. Here is a glance, as well an outlook for each for 2026 ($).

MLB news:

• Handsome Dave Robertson has retired from the game. His calves were memorable, his pitching as well. He should be remembered as one of the best non-closer relievers of all time.
• Luis Arraez is heading to the Giants to get base hits and “play” second base.
• This was a fascinating story that followed Edgar Quero to the Driveline hitting labs as it profiles the hitting program they are instituting.
• Austin Hays is going to the South Side of Chicago to get some regular playing time with the White Sox this year.
• Puerto Rico is considering withdrawing from the World Baseball Classic because of insurance issues with several players.

In 1970, two years before he died, Jackie Robinson spoke at his son’s high school graduation.

“In a land where we declare that we have liberty and justice for all,” Robinson said, “it seems that slogan really means liberty and justice for all as long as you do and say what some people want you to do and say.”

Those words ring uncomfortably true today.

Robinson often spoke out on civil rights, challenging both political parties. If you visit the Jackie Robinson Museum, as the Dodgers did when the museum opened in 2022, you see displays on civil rights and economic opportunity and social justice before you get to the baseball showcases.

“Jackie’s passion was civil rights and equality, and more so than baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said then. “It was more of, baseball was just a vehicle for him to use his voice, which is pretty cool to see and actually pretty inspiring.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani will not pitch for Japan in WBC: 'Just seemed like the right decision'

In these perilous times, in which “indivisible” has been replaced by “you’re with us, or you’re the enemy within,” Robinson’s team will have the opportunity to celebrate its latest World Series championship at the White House.

Last month in Minneapolis, two American citizens were shot to death on American streets by agents of the American government. In this fragile moment, I asked Roberts if he would feel comfortable visiting the White House as the manager of Jackie Robinson’s team.

“For me, I stand by: I’m a baseball manager,” Roberts told me Saturday at the Dodgers’ fan festival. “That’s my job.

“I was raised — by a man who served our country for 30 years — to respect the highest office in our country. For me, it doesn’t matter who is in the office, I’m going to go to the White House. I’ve never tried to be political. ... For me, I am going to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”

Neither was Robinson. In 1944 — three years before he broke baseball’s color barrier and 11 years before Rosa Parks — Robinson refused an order to move to the back of a bus. He was an Army lieutenant, prosecuted by a military court for insubordination and then acquitted.

In the wake of the killings of Renee Good and then Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, federal officials hurried to television cameras and social media accounts. None of the usual admonitions against leveraging tragedy for political purposes. No thoughts and prayers, even, just a rush to dehumanize the dead with labels such as “domestic terrorist” before any investigation.

The last words of Good, to one of those federal agents: “I’m not mad at you.” The last words of Pretti, to someone needing assistance: “Are you OK?”

Jackie Robinson: “The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.”

After the killing of Pretti last week, the BBC exhaustively checked the claims of federal authorities against video evidence from a variety of sources: “None of the videos we have analyzed show Alex Pretti holding a gun. There is no available evidence that he was an assassin who tried to murder federal agents, no available evidence he intended to massacre law enforcement, nor that it was a violent riot, no available evidence that this was an individual who arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers visiting Trump's White House goes against everything they represent

In Minnesota, the immigration sweeps proceed unabated. The Star Tribune reported Saturday of a local detention facility so overcrowded that a woman had been locked inside a bathroom with three men.

In a suburban Minneapolis incident captured on video, an agent tells a man he must produce citizenship documentation “because of your accent.”

The Huffington Post reported that four children from an elementary school in a heavily Latino suburb of Minneapolis had been shipped to a detention facility in Texas.

This is what America voted for. The “Mass Deportation Now!” placards at campaign rallies in 2024 were held high.

Yet a judge ordered one of those children released Saturday, blasting what he called the “ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

Jackie Robinson: “The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.”

This is not something the Dodgers can dismiss as an out-of-town issue. Federal immigration agents operate in Los Angeles too.

And, since Dodger Stadium has become a must-see Japanese tourist attraction in the Shohei Ohtani era, how much might tourism drop if Japanese citizens could be forbidden from entering the United States without sharing their social media history from the preceding five years and every personal and business email address from the preceding 10 years, as federal officials have proposed?

Jackie Robinson: “To build for leadership, one must base his standing on what is right, not what is expedient.”

I asked Dodgers president Stan Kasten whether the team had decided to visit the White House.

“I don’t have any news for you on that,” he said Saturday.

To skip the trip could be uncomfortable, but the Dodgers would not have to stand on a Washington street in protest, or issue a blistering statement. All they would need to do is decline a photo opportunity.

The Dodgers are free to make their own decision, of course. They’ll be in Washington for their first road series of the season, in the first week of April. Then they’ll return to Dodger Stadium, for the annual Jackie Robinson Day festivities.

For me, going to the White House would feel more expedient than right. If the Dodgers do go, they ought to skip the tributes to Robinson’s grand courage, since they would not have been able to muster up a fraction of their own.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Hello, friends.

There are now 53 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. We’re getting there! WBC-participating pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota in just eight days, while the first Grapefruit League game for the Orioles is 19 days away. We’re in the month where fake games will be happening! That’s more fun for me than it typically is since, you know, I’m sick of all of this snow/ice lingering around.

I’m also kind of sick of all the speculating about Framber Valdez. Just sign a contract already, man! Get the best deal that’s out there right now. I don’t think anybody’s going to blink and give you more. Maybe the market has gotten really weird for him and there’s nothing even worth signing right now, I don’t know. If nobody’s even offering like 3/100, then sure, wait it out.

My suspicion is that Valdez could get that from the Orioles today, maybe he wants a few million more in AAV or maybe he wants an extra year. But it’s February 1 now, and again, some people will be in camp in eight days! It’s time to get some certainty here. I’ve been on “Valdez or bust” train for a while, so I don’t think there are even any alternatives worth considering for the O’s at this point. Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito, Chris Bassitt, whatever, I don’t care. Unless there’s a surprise injury to a starting pitcher that we don’t know about beyond “maybe Zach Eflin isn’t going to pitch before May” then they don’t need any more back end guys.

Perhaps for the sake of negotiating, Mike Elias needs to pretend he might sign one of those other guys. He has some credibility in making that claim. We know he’ll sign a mediocre-at-best starting pitcher who nobody really wants. He’s got a real track record of that and he might still do it even in this winter where he’s otherwise been fairly aggressive in getting things done. I don’t know. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten figured out yet.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Mailbag: Is it Framber Valdez or bust for the rotation? (The Baltimore Sun)
People are wondering whether the Orioles really have any interest in non-Valdez pitchers left out there. I’m skeptical, but there’s no way to know for sure until we see who’s left after Valdez signs.

The Orioles have had a busy winter, and say it’s boosted ticket sales (The Baltimore Banner)
They can say all that they want. The final ticket numbers for 2026 will tell the tale, and that tale will probably be told more by how the team plays than by anything that has happened since October.

Rogers reflects on magical 2025 season (School of Roch)
This was also in yesterday’s Bird Droppings and I’m including it here mostly to note that there’s enough in here to indicate that you probably don’t need to worry about Trevor Rogers being in the “day 1 of spring training secret offseason injuries” news dump.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2010, former Orioles broadcaster Jon Miller was named the year’s winner of the Ford Frick Award, an honor given out annually by the Hall of Fame since 1978 for “meritorious service by baseball broadcasters.”

In 2024, the Orioles traded Joey Ortiz and DL Hall, plus a competitive balance draft pick, to the Brewers for Corbin Burnes. What an exciting couple of days that was with news of the sale of the team one day and the Burnes trade the next.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2012 two-gamer Joe Mahoney, 1998 outfielder Rich Becker, 1996 pitcher Kent Mercker, and 1964-76 outfielder Paul Blair.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include:

On this day in history…

In 1884, the first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. Volume 1 covered A to Ant.

In 1896, Puccini’s opera La bohème had its premiere performance. This show’s story was later adapted into the long-running musical, Rent.

In 1964, the Beatles single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” reached #1 in the United States, the band’s first #1 hit here.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn to do Bird Droppings until I run out of questions or forget. If you are answering the question early in the day, please be considerate of others arriving later and place your response behind spoiler text in the comments. Thank you!

Which Orioles player was the first to record a 50+ home run season? As a bonus, in what year did he do it?

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 1. Have a safe Sunday.

Hello everyone and welcome to February. We’re trying out something new this month with “Today on Pinstripe Alley” in alignment with many of our fellow SB Nation sites. Instead of getting two occasionally random questions per day at the end of the Today on PSAs, we’ll be choosing one and offering our own answers before turning it over to you all for discussion. We’ll still be detailing what’s ahead on the docket at PSA, but the goal here is to really engage on something of note, so let’s see what happens!

There’s no time to waste! So what’s the strongest reason to believe this Yankees season won’t be a waste? I think there’s a number of ways to approach this. There’s the very obvious, and that’s the 6-foot-7, three-time AL MVP who patrols right field for the Yankees. Anytime you get to pencil Aaron Judge into a lineup, you feel like good things will follow.

The only time the Yanks have missed the playoffs since he broke out as a rookie in 2017 was when the Dodger Stadium outfield fence rudely interrupted another MVP-caliber campaign in 2023. They’ve been one of the last four teams standing in four of those eight seasons, and while the rest of the team wasn’t as sharp last October, Judge was en fuego, shaking off some playoff doldrums. He’ll be another year older in 2026, but it’s not as though 34 is ancient; former teammate Paul Goldschmidt didn’t win his first career MVP until his age-34 season in 2022. Judge can absolutely be as good again, or at least at a highly impressive level.

One player cannot make a team though (ask the Angels). And yet for as much as I would’ve liked to see the Yankees do more this offseason to bolster their championship odds and better safeguard them from potentially ruinous injuries, it’s still a very good ballclub. They have flaws, but ask an opposing fan if their own preferred team has any flaws; trust me, they’ll be sure to find ‘em! (Yes, even on the Dodgers.) The Yankees’ offense easily led the majors last year with 274 homers, and non-Judge players still combined for 221 bombs, which would’ve still ranked six without Judge. Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Giancarlo Stanton, and Ben Rice all provided hefty support, and for as frustrating as the “run it back” approach is in some aspects, that’s not really the case for the offense. They should rake again, and for as uneasy as fans were with the non-Gerrit Cole pitching staff last year, they still recorded more strikeouts than every AL team outside of Houston — and Cole will rejoin them eventually.

Is this the rose-colored glasses view? Perhaps, but hope springs eternal. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Today on the site, Matt will celebrate a very familiar Yankee second baseman’s birthday as part of our ongoing series and Peter will look into pitcher Nick Martinez as a free agent addition, given the recent news of the Yankees’ possible interest in the erstwhile Reds righty. Later, John will present the weekly Social Media Spotlight.

Welcome to our new February Daily Question series. Throughout the month, we’ll be posting question articles every day in the hopes that we can start some more conversations within the Brew Crew Ball community. To begin, we’re asking, “What’s the strongest reason to believe this season won’t be a waste?”

Now, I’ll be the first to say that “rebuild year” doesn’t seem to be in the Brewers’ — specifically Matt Arnold’s — vocabulary. But it seems almost too good to be true that Milwaukee can avoid having any rebuild seasons for nearly a decade. That’s typically the stuff of high-payroll franchises like the Yankees and Dodgers.

But that’s exactly what Arnold & Co. have done. The Brewers have played virtually no “meaningless” baseball since 2017 — the only season they’ve missed the playoffs since 2018 was in 2022, when they remained in wild card contention until the last series of the season and ultimately finished just one game back of the Phillies for the last playoff spot.

They can’t keep getting away with it, can they?

With Freddy Peralta just the latest “sacrifice” in a long line of trades to reload Milwaukee’s prospect depth, can Arnold, Pat Murphy, and the Brewers work their magic once again? Is there reason to believe this is the rebuild year, or will the “bites of the apple” approach continue to work?

Weigh in in the comments, and join us throughout the month as we keep these conversations rolling into spring training.

Hello everyone! Welcome to our new Daily Question series for the month of February. With Spring Training around the corner, we want to hear from you on what 2026 holds for your Minnesota Twins. Let’s get excited for baseball!

After nine years at the helm of the Minnesota Twins, Derek Falvey and the Twins agreed to mutually part ways (though, further reporting from Dan Hayes and Aaron Gleeman certainly indicates that the decision was more on Falvey’s end after disagreements on the franchise’s future with new owner Tom Pohlad). GM Jeremy Zoll, at least for the 2026 season, will run baseball operations in the meantime

While the timing is certainly suspect, there were arguments on both sides to move on after nearly a decade. Falvey modernized a baseball operations department that was stuck in 1995 under Terry Ryan and turned their longstanding coaching and development issues into a strong suit. Coaches, scouts, and front office personnel went on to prominent positions with some of the best teams in baseball like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox, among many others.

Perhaps because of the brain drain caused by replacing those poached positions every season, the Twins had definitely plateaued over the past four or seasons. While a lot of that can be laid at the feet of the Pohlads after repeated budget cuts coming off of their elite 2023, Falvey and the Twins also were unable to develop top prospects into productive MLB hitters, with former Top 100 prospects like Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff, Austin Martin, Jose Miranda, Brooks Lee, and Edouard Julien unable to live up to their billing. However, Falvey should also get credit for repeatedly developing both starters and relievers above and beyond expectations.

So, was parting with Falvey the right move? And relatedly, what would you like to see Jeremy Zoll improve on as the new head man? Is there enough time for Zoll to feasibly fix the major holes this roster still has? Can he find anyone to take on Trevor Larnach and his uber-redundant role on this roster?

Yesterday in the Moose Tracks, commenter Search4honor posed this question:

For those who were here before the 2022 season. Is the way Colt Emerson is being talked about prior to spring training the same as Julio Rodríguez?

As someone who contributedsignificantlyto the way in which Julio Rodríguez was talked about as a young prospect, this is something that caught my eye. I first met Julio as a 17-year-old, anxious to practice his English in one of his first stateside interviews, outside the complex in Peoria. By the next year, Julio was interacting with fans, sitting in the stands at spring training games and surprising fans with merch from the Mariners team store. There’s something about Julio that always felt inevitable, a storm brewing from the DSL complex to a tour of small-town America, gathering steam until he arrived in Seattle in 2022 as the Rookie of the Year.

By contrast, Colt Emerson’s ascent has been quieter. While Julio had to share the prospect spotlight with Jarred Kelenic, the two of them always vying for gold vs. silver in the system rankings, it was always the two of them, a significant gap, and then everyone else. Emerson, on the other hand, might be the Mariners’ de facto top prospect at most outlets, but he shares the Mariners top ten with a raft of other Top-100 prospects. Like Cole Young before him, Emerson also suffers somewhat from the “jack of all trades, master of none” label, lacking a standout skill – like Julio’s prodigious power, or at least the kind of skill that generates breathless highlight reels on social media.

It’s understandable: Julio was in conversation for the top prospect spot in all of baseball with fellow wunderkinds Adley Rutschman, who plays the hardest position on a baseball diamond, and five-tool player Bobby Witt Jr. Emerson isn’t in those kinds of conversations nationally, especially not as a shortstop in a deep prospect class for the position. The top four prospects on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 are all shortstops: Konnor Griffin (PIT), Kevin McGonigle (DET), Jesus Madé (MIL) and Leo De Vries (Athletics). (Emerson lands at number nine, behind another two infielders, JJ Wetherholt and Sebastian Wolcott.)

The context the Mariners were in at the time also bears mentioning. When Julio was on his way up, the Mariners were deep in a stepback, and the bright but distant star of Julio twinkling on the horizon soothed many Mariners fans after another grueling loss. However, now that wave of prospects has crested and is contributing at the big-league level. Emerson, on the other hand, feels like a complementary piece rather than a rising tide that lifts all the boats – but is that a fair characterization considering Emerson’s track of minor-league success so far? Or, as JasonRyan put it: Julio had to be better than everyone; Emerson just has to supplant the M’s current underwhelming in-house infield options. But again, is that something to hold against Emerson?

Let us know what you think in the comments; we’d be especially interested in hearing from those of you who have watched Emerson play in person.

Phillies notes: Moore adds depth, Robertson retires, WBC ahead originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Like every winter, clubs stockpile minor-league deals. As the offseason drags on and free agents remain unsigned, those opportunities tend to become more creative.

Friday night brought one of those.

The Phillies agreed to a minor-league deal with free-agent utility man Dylan Moore, according to Will Sammon of The Athletic. This contract stands apart from many of Philadelphia’s recent minor-league signings.

Per Sammon, Moore can earn up to $3.25 million through plate-appearance and active-roster bonuses.

Moore, 33, is a legitimate big leaguer with a track record across the diamond. While with Seattle in 2024, he earned Gold Glove honors for his work as a utility player.

Across his career — seven seasons with the Mariners before his release and a stint with Texas last year — Moore has played every defensive position except catcher. Most of his innings have come at second base and left field.

Offensively, Moore owns a career .693 OPS and is coming off a down season in which he slashed .201/.267/.374. Still, his value has consistently shown up against left-handed pitching.

Moore carries a career .400 slugging percentage and .727 OPS versus southpaws and has posted an OPS of .750 or higher in five of his seven seasons.

At his peak, Moore paired that platoon value with strong quality-of-contact metrics, posting barrel rates around 17 percentand hard-hit rates in the mid-40s. While those numbers have dipped in recent seasons, his approach has quietly improved.

Over the past two years, Moore has been among the league’s most disciplined hitters. For reference, in 2024 he ranked in the 99th percentile in chase rate (17.7%) and the 94th percentile in walk rate (12%).

The Phillies are well aware of that profile — and what it could still offer.

So where does he fit?

Moore will first need to make the club out of spring training. If not, a potential opt-out clause in his deal could give him the opportunity to go elsewhere. Those details remain to be seen.

If he performs well in camp, the signing creates flexibility. Edmundo Sosa has filled the utility role in recent seasons and continues to hit left-handed pitching well. In 2025, Sosa slashed .318/.362/.533 against lefties. Given his defensive reliability at second base, Sosa could also factor into a platoon with Bryson Stott, who has struggled in those matchups.

Moore’s differentiator is outfield experience. He has appeared in more than 250 career games across the corner outfield spots. Sosa, by comparison, has one career outfield start.

While it initially appeared Rob Thomson might deploy a left-field platoon of Brandon Marsh and Otto Kemp, Moore’s presence introduces competition, especially for Kemp, both in camp and potentially on the roster.

D-Rob officially hangs up the spikes

David Robertson’s relationship with Philadelphia spanned three separate stints. On Friday, the 40-year-old made it official, announcing his retirement.

Robertson pitched 17 seasons in the Majors with the Yankees, White Sox, Rays, Cubs, Mets, Marlins, Rangers and Phillies. Across 881 career appearances, he posted a 2.93 ERA.

With Philadelphia — in parts of 2019, 2022 and 2024 — Robertson logged a 3.59 ERA. His most memorable stretch came during the Phillies’ 2022 National League championship run, when he made eight postseason appearances, including four scoreless outings in the World Series, earning the save in Game 1 in Houston.

The Phillies signed Robertson for a third time at the end of last July. He made 20 appearances before closing out his career.

Pitchers, catchers — and the WBC

February has arrived, and baseball is close. Phillies pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater on Feb. 11. Five days later, position players join for the first full-squad workout. Spring Training games begin Feb. 16 in Dunedin against the Blue Jays.

Philadelphia will play 32 Grapefruit League games, including two Spring Breakout contests and one split-squad game day.

When camp opens — and into mid-March — nine Phillies will also be away participating in the World Baseball Classic:

• Brad Keller — USA
• Bryce Harper — USA
• Kyle Schwarber — USA
• Cristopher Sánchez — Dominican Republic
• Johan Rojas — Dominican Republic
• Aaron Nola — Italy
• Edmundo Sosa — Panama
• Taijuan Walker — Mexico
• Alan Rangel — Mexico

Seven of those players project as Opening Day roster locks. While representing one’s country is an honor, the injury risk remains real. A recent piece in The Athletic outlined how teams attempt to protect against that risk.

Insurance has become a bigger factor in the WBC since José Altuve and Edwin Díaz were hurt in 2023. Team Puerto Rico officials said this weekend eight to 10 players were initially denied coverage, including Francisco Lindor, as insurers have tightened standards and costs have risen heading into this spring.

The priority is protecting the clubs. The WBC policy is designed to reimburse a team for a player’s guaranteed salary if he gets hurt during the tournament and misses time afterward. Players typically go through entrance and exit physicals so injuries can be traced to the event instead of something preexisting.

Underwriting can also get stricter for players with recent surgeries or extended injured-list history, which is why some names get flagged late in the process. If a player isn’t approved, his MLB team can still clear him to play, but the club is taking on more financial risk.

Whether that impacts the Phillies remains to be seen, but it’s another layer they’ll be monitoring as camp opens.

Baseball player insurance concerns potentially could cause one country to drop out of the World Baseball Classic.

On Saturday, officials from Team Puerto Rico said they might withdraw the team from the tournament after learning eight of their 10 players would be denied coverage, according to The Athletic.

“That option is on the table,” said Joey Sola, Team Puerto Rico’s operations manager told The Athletic. “It obviously will depend upon if we can figure out the substitute players.”

Mets captain Francisco Lindor was one of the big-name players who had to withdraw from the tournament Friday because he was denied coverage after undergoing two surgeries on his right elbow in the past three seasons.

Fortunately for Mets fans, Lindor is expected to be ready for spring training.

The insurance concerns stem from the numerous injuries players suffered in the 2023 WBC tournament. Mets fans remember when closer Edwin Díaz, now with the Dodgers, suffered a harrowing right knee injury in that tournament that cost him the season.

Jose Altuve also broke his thumb in that year’s event, which was a months-long injury.

According to The Athletic, those injuries from the last tournament caused insurance for big leaguers to grow considerably more expensive, forcing the league’s insurer to become more stringent on which players it approves.

Astros third baseman Carlos Correa, Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos and Twins catcher Victor Caratini are among the other Puerto Rican players who were not cleared to play — though the cases of Correa, Berríos and several others are under review, Sola told the website.

Team officials fear if some of those reviews aren’t overturned, they will be unable to get enough substitutes to field a quality team.

If Puerto Rico can’t field a team it would be especially harmful because it‘s scheduled to host the first round of the WBC in San Juan from March 6-11.

Puerto Rico is in a pool that also includes Canada, Colombia, Cuba and Panama.

MLB declined comment as the statuses for many players in different countries are still to be decided. National Financial Partners, an official partner of the league that brokers insurance policy did not immediately respond to request for comment, according to The Athletic.

MLB and the Players Association, co-owners of the tournament, are lobbying the insurer to change some decisions before the rosters are due Tuesday.

They are scheduled to be announced Thursday.

The offseason may almost be over, but the Braves have widely been rumored to still be looking to add a starting pitcher and there are plenty left on the open market, as well as some presumably available via trade. The biggest fish in free agency is Framber Valdez and there has been some buzz about him and the Braves for months now. This connection was reaffirmed on Saturday by Mark Feinsand. Valdez is a good pitcher getting into his mid-30s and would cost a draft pick to sign. Perhaps his availability this late into the offseason could result in a bit more team friendly of a deal, combined with those other factors, making it a more palatable signing for this front office. If not, there are plenty of other options available.

Braves News

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand listed the Braves as a potential suitor for the top remaining free agent, Framber Valdez.

The Braves hosted some player panels, featuring the team’s Rookie of the Year winners, star pitchers, and infielders.

MLB News

The Giants signed contact savant Luis Arraez to a one year deal to play second base for the club.

The White Sox signed outfielder Austin Hays to a one year guaranteed deal with a mutual option for a second year.

Some quirks with insurance rules for players playing in the WBC are impacting which players can play and how they can be used, warranting some forward-facing scrutiny.

SNY | John Flanigan: A couple of weeks ago, the Yankees sent four prospects to the Miami Marlins to acquire exciting, yet injury-prone lefty Ryan Weathers to fortify their rotation. Weathers, who posted a 3.99 ERA in 38.1 innings last year with 37 strikeouts, still hasn’t hit his ceiling according to pitching coach Matt Blake.

“This is an exciting arm,” the pitching coach said on Yankee Hot Stove, per SNY. “It’s a kid who I’ve been following since high school when we were scouting him in the Amateur Draft, he’s done a nice job of growing into a major league version of himself. The biggest thing is just keeping him on the field. We have to do a good job of having a nice onramp for him this spring and keeping him healthy, but an electric arm with a nice arsenal — there’s definitely a ceiling for him he hasn’t touched yet.”

The 26-year-old southpaw possess a big fastball that averaged about 97 mph last year, so if Blake and the Yanks can optimize it and improve his consistency with his breaking stuff, he could have some untapped potential. The coach even discussed a plan for Weathers, involving more two-seamers “to help open the zone for his four-seam fastball and sweeper.” For more on Weathers, check out my colleague Peter’s analysis of Weathers from shortly after he was acquired.

The Athletic | Brendan Kuty ($): On Friday, Jon Heyman reported that the Yankees were interested in some free agents, including right-hander Nick Martinez and Michael Kopech, plus outfielders Austin Slater and Randal Grichuk. He also said that Paul Goldschmidt was willing to return to the organization (Jack Curry had previously noted that the Yankees had discussed a Goldy return as well).

Well, on Saturday, it was revealed that the Yanks had already sent an big-league offer to Slater, a right-handed hitter who has fared well against lefties and whose potential arrival would theoretically force Jasson Domínguez out of the picture for semi-regular playing time. That being said, it isn’t known at the time whether or not the offer to Slater is still on the table (Cody Bellinger’s now-official contract could’ve change plans), and it’s also unclear when it was submitted. Slater had a .726 OPS against southpaws in 2025, encouraging New York to acquire him from the White Sox midseason, but a hamstring injury sidelined him almost immediately and he was a nonfactor in 14 games for the Yankees.

MLB.com | Theo DeRosa: Yankees reliever Camilo Doval has been added to the Dominican Republic roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, joining a fantastic collection of talent lead by players such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Fernando Tatis Jr., and others. Doval took part in the 2023 edition of the tournament, pitching 2.1 scoreless frames with three punchouts back then. The 6-foot-2 righty is expected to be a key cog in the Yankees’ late-inning mix come Opening Day.