Category: MLB

He’s done it. After one of the better rookie seasons by a 21-year-old in the sport’s history, Detroit Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle has been named the Jackie Robinson American League Rookie of the Year for 2026. He won the award with 28 of 30 first place votes. Guardians left-hander Parker Messick got the other two votes to finish second.

Despite skipping Triple-A and being one of the youngest players in the league, McGonigle served immediate notice on Opening Day, when he racked up four hits in a stellar major league debut. He went on to slash 278/.376/.430 with 18 home runs, 12 stolen bases, with nearly identical walk and strikeout rates. He posted a 129 wRC+ for the year while grading out as an above average shortstop and third baseman per defensive runs saved. His 5.4 fWAR was fourth in the American League, while his 7.1 rWAR was first in the American League and fourth in the major leagues. He’s just getting started.

The Detroit Tigers promoted McGonigle to the major league roster on March 24, 2026, ensuring that he would be eligible to earn the Tigers a Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) pick if he won Rookie of the Year, or if he finished top three in MVP voting over his first three seasons in the major leagues. By promoting him early, and then waiting until into the season to sign a 10-year extension, the Tigers both kept him eligible for the PPI pick and got him locked up for a decade. He cannot earn another PPI pick going forward.

The plan has come together perfectly, as McGonigle’s Rookie of the Year award earns the Tigers an extra draft pick in the 2027 amateur draft next July right after the first regular round. In addition, the Tigers will have roughly $3M added to their bonus pool in the draft. So on top of their normal first round pick, the Tigers will have the PPI pick, and then they’ll also have their Competitive Balance pick in the A round next summer, giving them three of the top 40 picks in the draft.

McGonigle’s skills and ongoing development, along with excellent poise and leadership ability for a player so young, all say this is just the beginning for him. The raw power to hit a lot more home runs is already present, and he has the hit tool to do it without selling out for power very often. He’s already tracking like a regular MVP award contender for many years to come, and Tigers fans are going to love watching him anchor the club for the next decade or more.

The Cleveland Guardians’ LHP Parker Messick was the runner-up, with Boston Red Sox lefty Peyton Tolle finishing third. Both made outstanding debuts, and Messick in particular finished strong enough to really challenge McGonigle in the voting, and made a good case for the AL Cy Young award, to be announced on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. ET, as well.

Congratulations to Kevin McGonigle on a truly special season that took a bit of the sting out of the Tigers’ failings as an organization this year. The best is yet to come.

2026 stats:46 G — .202/ .268/ .341, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 71 wRC+, -5 FRV, -0.5 fWAR

Boy, there was a moment when fans really felt like Osleivis Basabe was going to be a real spark. He was 8-for-24 with 3 homers and 8 RBI in his first 8 games. But then he went 18-for-105 over the rest of the season and in due time we were all reminded of why he’s been a fringe roster candidate since the Giants picked him up last season.

To dig a little deeper into the numbers — just for fun — let’s look at his Win Probability Added. Through those first 8 games it was +0.637. And those three home runs were significant.

The first tied a game:

And in the same game, he smacked a double off Mason Miller with the hardest contact a Giant had registered on a hit in the Statcast era:

His second home run cut another deficit:

And the third tied a game late and breaking up a shutout in the 7th inning:

Those final 105 at bats and 38 games, though? A -1.057 Win Probability Added. Statistically, he cost the Giants a full in the majority of his time. Confusingly, he had reverse platoon splits (.747 OPS vs. RHP, .406 vs. LHP) and more productive on the road (.712 OPS road, .489 OPS home). He thrived when the stakes were low. None of those three home runs came in Giants wins. And utility as a fielder was seriously lacking. After that initial barrage of offense, among the silent hitting spell, he had key errors.

But Basabe was one of those players who got some love as gratitude for giving fans a little bit of hope in a bad season. I think Giants fans are always hoping the next Gregor Blanco is around the corner. A Juan Uribe in waiting. He has yet to translate that MiLB career batting average of .288 into MLB success (.208 in 216 AB), though, which means at the end of the day he was a warm body the Giants turned to once Casey Schmitt was lost for the season. Because of Schmitt’s absence and the Luis Arraez trade, he was definitely called upon to play more often than he should have been, to the extent that at some point it could be argued that it’s hard to imagine what the team might’ve seen in him. Did they see another Donovan Solano? An Otto Lopez type?

Does he have the skills to be an MLB backup? Possibly. The pedigree is certainly there. At one point, he was a top 30 prospect in both the Rangers and Rays systems. He’s still just 26 years old so there’s always a chance he could catch on with another organization, but some aspect of his game needs to improve against world-best competition. A middle infielder who can’t hit or field against big league competition doesn’t really warrant a roster spot, and the Giants were in a position where they needed to see if any of his Triple-A work (.268/.344/.388) could translate.

It did not.

With Schmitt, Marcelo Mayer, Jonah Cox, Christian Koss, Maui Ahuna, Diego Velasquez, Gavin Kilen, Jhonny level, Josuar, Luis, and Joniel all in the mix, it was a runway to show off his utility and it just didn’t happen, so the Giants released outrighted him and he declared himself a free agent.

Will he be remembered in a couple of years as one of these bridge players between eras?

Happy Monday, folks. It’s been a day of some good Braves-related news and some funny Braves-related news.

On the good front, MLB Network reported that the Braves have no intention on hearing out any potential trade offers for star slugger Ronald Acuña Jr.

On the funny front, the Philadelphia Phillies are interested in Ha-Seong Kim for what is being reported is an important and versatile role? No doubt HSK’s 2027 season (lockout depending) will go better than his 2026 in Atlanta did. But I’m still skeptical of him stepping into an important role heading into next season.

On the eve of MLB’s annual General Managers Meetings, the Dodgers made their first acquisition of the offseason.

The team announced Monday that it claimed infielder Christian Cairo off waivers from the Mets, adding a 25-year-old former fourth-round draft pick who has yet to make his MLB debut.

A career-long minor-leaguer who spent most of last year in the Philadelphia Phillies’ organization –– hitting .227 with a .676 OPS in 128 games with their triple-A affiliate –– Cairo was a late-season waiver addition for the Mets, who subsequently re-signed him to a one-year contract on a split MLB/minor-league deal earlier this month.

However, the Mets tried to quickly pass Cairo through waivers after that signing, in hopes of keeping him in the organization but saving space on their 40-man roster.

Instead, the Dodgers decided to strike, scooping up the Bakersfield-born product in a move that will bolster their own organizational depth chart.

Cairo was originally drafted out of high school by Cleveland in 2019, and reached their triple-A affiliate in 2024. But he hasn’t produced much offensively since then, owning a .233 average and .675 OPS in three seasons at that level. In seven minor-league seasons overall, he also has just 21 home runs.

Cairo is an on-base threat, though, coming off a 2026 campaign in which he drew 92 walks and struck out only 76 times.

And while he will likely have a limited pathway to any sort of big-league role with the Dodgers, he is at least joining the club at the start of an offseason in which versatile bench depth is a need (thanks to Miguel Rojas’ retirement and Kiké Hernández hitting free agency). 

With Cairo’s addition, the Dodgers now have only two open spots remaining on their 40-man roster.

LAS VEGAS — To account for the loss of Tanner Swanson, the Yankees are promoting another top coach from their catching department.

The club is adding run prevention and catching coordinator Aaron Gershenfeld to the major league coaching staff, a source confirmed on Monday, after Swanson left to become the Mariners’ bench coach.

Gershenfeld had been heavily involved with the organization’s catchers, which Swanson led as the director of catching and major league field coordinator.

And while Swanson’s departure hurts, the club believes it is well equipped to maintain its success in coaching its catchers to become some of the game’s best framers, thanks in part to Gershenfeld.

It remains to be seen if there will be any further changes to Aaron Boone’s staff, most notably with the hitting coaches whose seats got warm when Hal Steinbrenner blamed the offense for another early playoff exit.

Pitching coach Matt Blake will be back after signing an extension, while bench coach Brad Ausmus interviewed for the Astros’ manager, with a resolution expected soon on that front.

Swanson, whose new job with the Mariners gets him back home after living across the country from his family during his time with the Yankees, played a major role in helping his catchers become elite framers — including Austin Wells turning into a Gold Glove finalist this season.

But Gershenfeld was a key part of that process as well, working with both major and minor league catchers. Now the former Louisville catcher will get a chance to do that full-time in the big leagues.

Jaylen Brown the latest in long line of former Boston athletes facing old teams originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Sports in Boston are … a big deal. That’s not breaking news, of course.

And part of that deal is that the bonds that form between fandoms and athletes are strong. So much so that even when some Boston athletes move to other cities — whether that be for good, bad, or ugly reasons — the locals don’t always move on. And in some cases, it leads to a rather grand spectacle.

That’s relevant this week because Jaylen Brown will be playing as an opponent of the Celtics when his 76ers take the court on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, after Brown spent the first 10 years of his career in Boston.

This particular reunion appears to be of the icy variety, as Brown told reporters Sunday night that he has no plans to talk to longtime former teammate Jayson Tatum, despite Tatum stating publicly that he’s reached out to try to talk to Brown since the trade went down this summer.

Tatum’s done his part to downplay the dramatics of this matchup, saying, “In the words of Brad Stevens, they all count as one.”

This one, though, clearly will have a lot of juice and draw quite a bit of attention. It may not quite be the same as when Brown actually returns to Boston in January, but it’s still a regular-season game that qualifies as having “event” status in early November.

And it won’t be the first such case, as a whole parade of great Boston athletes have moved on before facing off against their former teams.

Roger Clemens

The grandaddy of them all, Roger Clemens’ return to Boston as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays was one for the ages. After then-GM Dan Duquette had declared Clemens to have been in the “twilight of his career,” The Rocket took things personally.

Clemens ascended the Fenway mound in the bottom of the first inning and promptly loaded the bases on back-to-back singles by Nomar Garciaparra and John Valentin and a hit-by-pitch on former teammate Mo Vaughn. He even spotted Boston a run on a Reggie Jefferson groundout to first, but recorded two strikeouts to get out of the inning without further damage.

From there, Clemens was dominant: Eight innings, four hits, just the one run with 16 strikeouts and no walks.

By the end of his outing, he had the Fenway crowd roaring for him as he struck out Vaughn to end the eighth inning.

Clemens, as we know, was decidedly not in the twilight of his career, as he went on to win 162 more games, strike out 2,082 more batters, and win four more Cy Young Awards and a pair of World Series trophies over 11 years after leaving Boston.

Ray Bourque

Nobody knows when fans started wearing jerseys to games, and nobody can pinpoint the genesis of the split jersey. But Ray Bourque’s return to Boston as a member of the Colorado Avalanche might have been the day that concept came to life.

Bourque’s departure from Boston was as amicable as possible, as the Bruins sent him to Colorado to give him a chance to win a Stanley Cup at age 39. The Avalanche came up short after that trade in 2000, but Bourque returned to the Avs for the 2000-01 season. Doing so meant he’d play against the Bruins for the first time after spending the previous two decades on the blue line for Boston.

Bourque’s first game as a Bruins opponent came in February of 2001, and he helped the Avalanche pull away with a pair of second-period assists in what ended up being an 8-2 Colorado win.

A month later, Bourque played his first game as a visitor in Boston, once again registering two assists in an Avalanche victory. Bourque was named the game’s No. 1 star and was given an ovation by the Boston crowd.

Three months later, Bourque returned to Boston with the Stanley Cup in tow for a rally at City Hall Plaza. The four major teams in Boston hadn’t won a championship in 15 years at the time, so that celebration — for a player, not the team — represented the epitome of pre-2000s Boston sports.

Pedro Martinez

The Boston Red Sox, quite famously, did not win a World Series for 86 years. It was a well-covered story. Some people wrote books on the matter.

But the fortunes of the franchise began to change in the late ’90s, when the Red Sox acquired Pedro Martinez at the peak of his powers. Pedro only spent seven seasons in Boston, but it was a stretch that included some of the best pitching in history. From 1998-2003, Martinez went 101-28 with a 2.26 ERA and a 0.942 WHIP while striking out 1,456 batters with 248 walks.

He wasn’t the same dominant pitcher in 2004, but he helped the Red Sox break that curse and win the World Series. And then, once the confetti was cleared off the streets of Boston, Pedro was … a New York Met.

Martinez didn’t face the Red Sox in 2005 but made his return to Fenway in June of 2006. What followed was one of Martinez’s worst starts of the year, as he allowed eight runs (six earned) and struck out just one batter while lasting three innings.

Joe Thornton

Still considered one of the worst trades in Boston sports history, the Bruins hastily traded captain Joe Thornton to San Jose, receiving Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau in return.

It didn’t take long before Thornton returned to Boston, as the Sharks visited the Bruins just six weeks after the trade. Despite the Bruins’ losing record, it was a tough ticket to get into the Garden that night for the return of Jumbo Joe.

Fans who shelled out money to be there, though, were left stunned just five minutes into the game, when Thornton was given a game misconduct for hitting Hal Gill from behind. Thornton had just 2:31 of ice time before getting the gate, but the Sharks still went on to win, 6-2.

Adam Vinatieri

Despite being a kicker, Adam Vinatieri was a Boston sports icon. Drilling a pair of kicks in a blizzard before sending a picture-perfect kick through the uprights two weeks later to win the first Super Bowl in Patriots franchise history will have that effect. Kicking another Super Bowl-winner two years later and scoring the winning points on a field goal in a third Super Bowl in 2004 only worked to reinforce that status.

Yet after the 2005 season, Bill Belichick’s desire to no longer pay Vinatieri coincided with Indianapolis going through their own kicker struggles with Mike Vanderjagt, leading to Vinatieri making the move to the rival Colts.

Vinatieri returned to Gillette in prime time in his first season with the Colts, a Week 8 Sunday Night Football matchup. Patriots fans greeted Vinatieri with boos, and the kicker uncharacteristically missed two field goals. But Tom Brady was even more off his game, finishing the night with no touchdowns and four interceptions, allowing the Colts to win at Gillette for a second consecutive year.

Vinatieri would then go on to help Peyton Manning and the Colts get over the hump and win the Super Bowl later that season.

Johnny Damon

If fans felt hurt by Adam Vinatieri joining the Colts, then they felt downright betrayed by Johnny Damon jumping ship and joining the Yankees.

Coming off an All-Star season with the Red Sox in 2005, Damon signed a four-year, $52 million deal with the Yankees. Just a month into his Yankees tenure, Damon made his return to Fenway Park. And though the reaction when Damon dug in to lead off the game was primarily negative — fans would later dump fake money onto the warning track when Damon trotted out to play center field — Damon made the decision to remove his helmet and salute the crowd.

“I heard a lot more cheers than jeers. Regardless, I wanted to do it because these fans meant so much to me,” Damon explained.

Damon went 0-for-4 on a night where his return was overshadowed by the acquisition of and subsequent police escort for Doug Mirabelli, who arrived at Fenway in dramatic fashion to catch Tim Wakefield.

Mookie Betts

While the Joe Thornton trade held the crown for 15 years as the worst in Boston sports since Babe Ruth, the Red Sox recaptured that ignominious title when they forced new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom trade Mookie Betts in 2020.

The return for a homegrown, generational talent was underwhelming to say the least, and the reality of that situation had fully set in by the time Betts finally played a game against his former team in 2023. He walked in the seventh and came around to score what proved to be the winning run in a 7-4 Dodgers victory.

Lawyer Milloy

In retrospect, Bill Belichick’s decision to essentially swap out Lawyer Milloy for Rodney Harrison in the summer of 2003 was clearly the right one. At the time, though, Belichick’s decision to cut the veteran safety just before the season started was certainly one of the most controversial moves of his tenure.

And while it paid off in the long run, it immediately backfired, as Milloy signed with the Bills and helped Buffalo put a beatdown on the Patriots in Week 1. Milloy recorded a sack, a tackle for a loss and a pass defense as the Bills rolled the Patriots 31-0. That game spawned this now-famous television moment:

But things turned out just fine for the Patriots, who won 34 of their next 36 games, including two Super Bowls.

Drew Bledsoe

Lawyer Milloy’s teammate in Buffalo was quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who made his own debut as a Patriots opponent the year prior in 2002.

Bledsoe lost to the Patriots 38-7 in that game, throwing for 302 yards with one touchdown and one interception while taking four sacks. His second crack at the Patriots — and his first game at Gillette Stadium — didn’t go much better, as his Bills lost 27-17. Bledsoe threw for 328 yards and two touchdowns … but also four interceptions in that game.

Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett own the rare distinction of helping the Celtics during their time in Boston and through their departures, as Danny Ainge was able to acquire the picks that would turn into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum from a Nets team that was desperate to gain relevance.

Pierce’s first game against the Celtics was quiet, as he was playing in his first game back after missing four games due to a broken finger. He went 0-for-4 from the field in just his fourth-ever game coming off the bench. Garnett had 11 points and nine assists as the Nets beat the Celtics in Brooklyn.

Rajon Rondo

While on the subject of 2008 champs who moved on, Rajon Rondo was traded during the 2014-15 season. Just weeks later, he faced off against the C’s and put on a rare shooting display for the Mavericks.

Rondo, who was averaging less than one 3-point attempt per game through the first nine-plus seasons of his career at that point, went 5-for-7 from deep and 12-for-19 from the field for a 29-point night (along with six rebounds and five assists) on the Garden parquet.

Brad Marchand

Following the second-lost captaincy in Bruins history with Zdeno Chara, the Bruins had a couple of relatively quick runs with Patrice Bergeron (three seasons before retiring) and Brad Marchand (a little over a season and a half before being traded to the Florida Panthers).

It worked out great for Marchand and the Panthers, who went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2025.

Though Marchand hadn’t been gone for long, his return to TD Garden was an emotional one, as he fought through tears while a tribute video played on the scoreboard.

Marchand picked up an assist just 61 seconds into the game and added another one in the third period of a 4-3 Panthers win.

Ray Allen

To say Kevin Garnett was upset when Ray Allen left the Celtics to join the rival Heat would be an understatement. It took Garnett about a decade to finally welcome Allen back into his life.

So when the Heat and Celtics squared off on opening night, Garnett wasn’t exactly up for catching up with his former teammate.

Allen scored 19 points off the bench that night while LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh combined for 74 points in a 120-107 Heat win.

Curtis Martin

Losing Bill Parcells after the 1996 season was bad for New England. Losing Curtis Martin to the Jets a year later was arguably worse.

The steal of the 1995 draft, Martin played just three seasons in New England, rushing for 3,799 yards and 32 touchdowns with 117 receptions for 890 yards and five more TDs. But he left as a restricted free agent to reunite with Parcells in New York. In Week 7, he’d begin what would end up being a Hall of Fame career of reminding the Patriots of what they lost.

Martin ran for 107 yards in a 24-14 win at Foxboro Stadium on Monday Night Football. He went over 100 yards in the regular-season finale vs. the Patriots, too.

That would become a bit of a habit, as Martin averaged 104.1 yards per game in his first eight games against New England.

Manny Ramirez

The deadline day trade of Manny Ramirez in 2008 caught many people by surprise, but by the time Ramirez returned as a visitor in 2010, the shock had surely worn off.

Ramirez’s return to Fenway wasn’t notable for what he did — he went 1-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts — but for what his former running mate David Ortiz did.

Ortiz launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, which moved him into a tie for fifth-most in Red Sox history, appropriately tying him with … Ramirez.

Ortiz was well on his way to finishing at No. 2 on that list, behind only Ted Williams.

Wes Welker

The Patriots undoubtedly got the best years out of Wes Welker, but he still had plenty of gas left in the tank for his first year in Denver with Peyton Manning. Bill Belichick was able to limit Welker when the Broncos visited Gillette for a Sunday Night Football matchup in Week 12 of 2013, holding him to just four catches for 31 yards. (He had been averaging six receptions and just under 65 yards per game.)

Welker made a game-changing gaffe in the game, too, when the Patriots punted with 3:11 left in overtime. Welker backed away from the landing spot but was late to signal that to his teammates, leading to Tony Carter running directly into the ball. The Patriots recovered and kicked the game-winning kick shortly thereafter.

That night, the Patriots also climbed out of a 24-0 halftime hole to force overtime, where Belichick won the coin toss and took the wind. That decision paid off, as Manning could not throw into the biting wind, and the Patriots eventually won the game.

Phil Kessel

The fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft, Phil Kessel was tabbed to be the next great goal scorer for the Bruins. Instead, he was traded after just three seasons, netting Boston the picks that landed Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton.

Kessel returned to Boston with the Maple Leafs in December of 2009, and the Bruins blew them out. Boston had a 7-0 lead before Toronto finally scored in the final five minutes of the game. Kessel, who was booed every time he touched the puck, was a minus-3 on the night.

Rafael Devers

Of the more recent vintage, Rafael Devers faced the Red Sox just five days after he was shockingly traded to the Giants.

Devers went 0-for-5. He did homer the next day, and he also homered when he returned to Fenway Park more than a year later:

Tom Brady

Of course, the biggest one we’ll ever see, Tom Brady visited Foxboro as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer to take on Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots in October of 2021. Ticket prices were astronomical, and the game had a Super Bowl-type of feel around it for the weeks leading up to kickoff.

Brady was — as you’d hope — greeted with a roar from the fans who cheered for him for 20 years when he first jogged across the field. Yet when he took the field on offense, those fans let him know where their allegiances lay when they rained boos down upon the GOAT.

Brady didn’t play great, completing just over half of his 43 passes for 269 yards with no touchdowns or picks, but the Bucs squeaked out a win when Nick Folk’s 56-yard field goal clanked off the upright.

Brady and Belichick — despite their rough ending — shared a long conversation in the Bucs’ locker room after the game, closing the book on the most fascinating and successful story in NFL history.

The Dodgers on Monday claimed Christian Cairo off waivers from the New York Mets, a week after the utility player was designated for assignment.

Cairo played all last season in Triple-A, 128 games with Lehigh Valley in the Philadelphia Phillies system and two games with Norfolk in the Mets system after New York claimed him off waivers in September. Cairo hit .230/.381/.300 with a 95 wRC+ last season in the minors with 92 walks against 76 strikeouts in his 413 plate appearances, plus 25 stolen bases in 37 attempts.

The Mets designated Cairo for assignment last Monday amid various moves on the edges of the 40-man roster.

The bulk of Cairo’s time in the minors has come in the infield, with 160 starts at second base, 159 starts at third base, and 149 starts at shortstop, plus 54 starts in left field, 13 in center field, and four starts in right. It was more of the same in 2026, with 58 starts at shortstop, 26 at third base, 17 at second base, 16 in left field, and eight starts in center field.

Born in Bakersfield, Cairo was drafted by Cleveland in the fourth round in 2019, and played six seasons in the Guardians’ system before signing with the Phillies as a minor league free agent last offseason. Cairo exercised an upward-mobility clause in his contract and was added to Philadelphia’s 40-man roster before opening day, but was optioned to the minors and has yet to play in the majors.

Cairo, who turns 26 in June, has two option years remaining. He’s the son of longtime major league infielder Miguel Cairo.

With this move, the Dodgers have 38 players on their 40-man roster, including 17 position players.

Delco's own Kevin McGonigle takes home AL Rookie of the Year honors originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

What a year it was for Delaware County’s own Kevin McGonigle.

The Tigers infielder won American League Rookie of the Year on Monday, receiving 28 of 30 first-place votes. He became Detroit’s first winner since Michael Fulmer in 2016 and its first position player to receive the award since Lou Whitaker in 1978.

The Aldan native and Bonner-Prendie product hit 18 homers, drove in 72 runs and produced a .278/.376/.430 slash line over 156 games. His 7.1 Baseball-Reference WAR led every player in the American League, not just rookies.

McGonigle faced his hometown team for the first time in July, going 2-for-12 with a walk, a homer and two RBIs during a three-game series at Comerica Park. His 414-foot, two-run shot off Aaron Nola helped Detroit win the opener before the Phillies took the final two games.

Two days after the series ended, McGonigle played in his first All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park. He became the first Tigers rookie selected to the Midsummer Classic since Matt Nokes in 1987.

McGonigle grew up attending games at the ballpark as a diehard Phillies fan. During batting practice, he finally met Chase Utley, his favorite player growing up.

During All-Star week, McGonigle reflected with NBC Sports Philadelphia on how playing baseball in the Philadelphia area helped shape him.

“It was all about winning,” he said. “It wasn’t really about our personal stats or what you did that day. It just all mattered about if we won or not. I think that’s what really helped me get better and get me to where I’m at today.”

McGonigle will not have to wait long for his next homecoming. The Tigers visit Citizens Bank Park for a three-game series from April 6-8, the Phillies’ second home series of the 2027 season.

Gabriel Moreno just completed the best season ever by a Diamondbacks catcher. Before this year, nobody had reached even five bWAR, the highest figure by a full-time player at the position belonging to Miguel Montero’s 4.5 bWAR, back in 2012. [Daulton Varsho did reach 4.9 in 2022, but he was very much an outfielder by this point, with only eighteen starts as a catcher] Montero blew that away, reaching 6.7 bWAR. Never mind at catcher, since the end of 2015, only Ketel Marte and Gerardo Perdomo have posted a higher figure, and Moreno ranked fourth among all National League position players. He’s likely to become only the second ever catcher, after Joe Mauer, to win the batting title, Golden Glove and Silver Slugger in the same season.

However, great though this success was to enjoy as a fan, it poses a really hard question for the team. Moreno’s current contract expires at the end of 2028. The topic of an extension has certainly cropped up between the team and the player. Speaking back in July, team president Derrick Hall said, “We love Gabi, and we’ve had those conversations in the past with him and I’m sure we’ll continue to have conversations with him about his future because he has become a mainstay.” But it is notable that, while Brandon Pfaadt and Geraldo Perdomo have both signed long-term deals, Moreno has remained on a year-to-year basis, now about to enter his second year of arbitration.

That, alone, is going to be expensive enough compared to his current salary. Moreno earned just $2.55 million this year, and on the back of that historic season MLB Trade Rumors is currently projecting more than double that, at $6.1 million. Though that would still represent a real bargain for 2027, providing he continues the same level of production (and taking the season as read, obviously). A major plus was Gaby largely remaining healthy this year. His 130 appearances was easily a career high, surpassing the 111 made in 2023. Interestingly, both campaigns saw him play the same number of games at catcher (104). The big difference was the 25 appearances at DH this season, compared to just one in 2023.

Unpalatable as it is to say so, Moreno’s trade value will never be higher. Two years of control left, coming off what feels deserving of a top five MVP performance, at a premium position? That would fetch a real haul, restocking several other areas of necessity. However, the obvious problem is, who would play catcher? The team does have a couple of good catching prospects, in Ryder Helfrick and Carlos Virahonda. But Helfrick was only drafted in June, and is only 21 years old. Virahonda is younger still, though is more advanced – he got a cup of coffee at Double-A last season. Still, 2028 is the earliest we should expect to see him.

Trading Moreno right now, would only make sense if the team was in tear-down mode, and the six wins lost wouldn’t matter. For an 86-win team with the misfortune to be in the wrong league, it’s less logical. But do they want to splash out for an extension either? To get an idea of what it might cost, let’s look at some recent contract extensions for catchers. The obvious point of comparison is Cal Raleigh, who signed one with the Mariners in March 2025, before his epic, 60-homer season. He was coming of his age 27 season – a year older than Gaby – where he posted 4.6 bWAR and had two arb years remaining like Moreno. Raleigh got a 6-year, $105 million extension, with a full no-trade clause.

In Cal’s favor, he had proven himself more durable than Gabriel. Over the two seasons prior to the extension, Raleigh averaged 149 games, with 120 starts per year at catcher. Even including his career-high playing time in 2026, Moreno has been considerably less durable, averaging 106 games and 82 starts per season. On the other hand, the factors which make this the best time to trade Gaby, make it the worst time to extend him, coming off what could well end up being his career best. Moreno may not have hit 60 homers, but a Gold Glove and a batting title balance that. The two catchers’ overall production in those season was quite close: 7.2 bWAR for Raleigh, 6.7 for Moreno. Imagine the Mariners trying to extend Raleigh after last year.

Should the D-backs back up the armored car to Casa Moreno? The good thing is, he is still young. A six-year deal, covering the two arb season and four in free agency, would still only run through Gaby’s age 32 season. There are plenty of cases of catchers remaining productive to that point – maybe not 5-6 wins, but certainly 2-3. Over the past decade, thirteen catchers have been worth 2.5 bWAR or better at age 32+. But, the reality is that the team will still be paying over the odds for a player who will be well onto the down side of the aging curve by that point. Younger, cheaper and possibly better alternatives, perhaps in the shape of Helfrick and Virahonda, may be available.

Long-term deals for catchers can work. Buster Posey’s 9-year, $167 million deal with the Giants was expensive, but worth 32.4 bWAR. On the other hand, the Twins signed Joe Mauer, to an 8-year, $184 million contract in March 2010. The years covered, 2011-2018, he averaged 128 games, and put up 22.4 bWAR. But he had to stop playing catcher less than half-way through it, and the math is rather different for a first-baseman. Or there’s Sean Murphy with the Braves. Over the past three years, he has earned $39 million, but been worth below four bWAR. There’s still two years and $30 million more to go on that, and the signs aren’t good.

To some extent, it depends on broader factors. The D-backs contended until the final weekend this year, and will hope to remain a contender in 2027. But who knows when that season might start, and 2028 is even less predictable, never mind 2029-2032. If the team believes their window of contention stretches several seasons ahead, then extending a core position would make sense. But if not, then maximizing Moreno’s value may involve trading him for prospects who can help in the next window. There are no easy answers, and no matter what is decided, it’s very likely we won’t know if it was the right choice for years.

Not that this will stop anyone from reacting, of course! So let’s get ahead of the curve. Here’s a poll with some options of ways to handle Moreno. I largely expect “back up the truck” to win, simply because history shows us that fans are very good at spending other people’s money. 🙂 But feel free to explain your reasoning in the comments.

Jimmy Slagle, who was the Cubs’ center fielder on their first three pennant-winning teams of the 20th Century (1906, 1907, 1908), was acquired by the Cubs from Boston in a bit of subterfuge, as noted in his SABR biography:

In Boston he impressed Frank Selee, the Hall of Fame manager who won 1,000 games with the Beaneaters before leaving Boston for the Chicago Orphans (soon to be the Cubs) in 1902. In 1901, when Jimmy had suffered a broken finger, Selee released him outright, but anticipating becoming Chicago’s manager in 1902, he told him not to sign with anyone for the next year. As planned, Selee convinced Cubs’ co-owner James Hart to sign Jimmy. He would play for Chicago for the rest of his major league career, batting leadoff and playing center field.

Almost immediately, Slagle became a star player, playing a strong center field and drawing tons of walks in the leadoff spot — 53 in 1902, good for a .386 on-base percentage, and maxed out at 97 walks in 1905. The 454 walks he drew in only seven Cubs seasons ranks 25th in franchise history.

In addition, Slagle was a good base-stealer, stealing 41 in his first Cubs season in 1902, the first of six straight years with at least 25 steals. In the fourth game of the 1907 World Series, Slagle stole home in the seventh inning, the third run in a key rally that broke open a tight 2-1 game to that point; the Cubs eventually won 6-1.

Arm injuries limited Slagle’s playing time in 1908, his last major league season. After playing two years for the then-minor league Baltimore Orioles, Slagle retired from baseball and settled in Chicago, where he died May 10, 1956, aged 82.

More than 50 years later, Slagle was remembered in his hometown of Worthville, Pennsylvania. From the SABR bio:

On October 19, 2007, a century after Chicago swept the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, a memorial to Jimmy Slagle was erected in his home town of Worthville. A bronze plaque mounted on a 600-pound sandstone rock, the memorial listed his accomplishments and noted that it was “dedicated to the memory of a country boy who made his mark on the world.”

Jimmy Slagle posted 14.4 bWAR in his seven years with the Cubs. This series will continue on Monday.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers was the largest total dollar value given to a MLB pitcher at the time when it was signed in 2023. Joel Wolfe of Wasserman negotiated the historic Dodgers deal as his agent.

He is back in the news on Monday, and has been very outspoken about the proposed MLB salary cap.

“Over our dead bodies are we going to accept a cap and further restraints on salaries,” Wolfe said to The Athletic.

Wolfe, who is also the agent of Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki, is one of many representing players to speak out regarding the league’s handling of the looming lockout.

The current CBA expires on Dec. 1 and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is guiding the negotiating process between the league and the Players Association.

With MLB’s general managers meetings beginning Tuesday in Las Vegas, discussions are sure to remain heated with the clock ticking. Based on Wolfe’s comments, players appear firm in their stance to keep MLB without a salary cap.

If that remains true, the lockout feels like a near guarantee with no real end in sight.

The next few weeks will be pivotal as both sides continue negotiations.

It’s very early days in the 2027 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, which will see us rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization. But we’re already seeing some very close elections, including the most recent one to round out the top five.

But only one player can emerge victorious, and that player is right-handed pitcher Ramon Marquez, who has been voted as the No. 5 prospect in the system. And if you need evidence as to how much the farm system has been reworked and remade, you can find it right there: that’s two players in the top five who were acquired in the summer.

Marquez came to the Giants in the Luis Arráez trade, and serves as the bow on Arráez’s glorious but short Giants tenure. Now the question is: can that bow blossom into a fortune?

Not only is Marquez one of the top pitchers in the system, but he’s one of the top stories. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him out of Mexico for just $10,000 last year, and he was on the older side for an international signing. But he immediately opened eyes. Once he was in the professional setting of Minor League Baseball, and teams were able to put their high-tech equipment to use analyzing his pitches, it became abundantly clear that he was special.

Marquez, who turned 21 in September, had a strong debut season in the Complex League and in Low-A last year, but it was in 2026 that he really took off, and ascended onto the national radar. He opened the season in Low-A, where his numbers jumped off the page: a 1.86 ERA, a 2.67 FIP, and 47 strikeouts in just 29 innings, with only 10 walks.

A promotion to High-A didn’t slow him down; in fact, it seemed to accelerate him. In six starts with Philadelphia’s High-A affiliate, Marquez posted a 1.50 ERA and a 1.99 FIP, with 46 strikeouts in 30 innings, and just nine walks. He faded a touch upon the trade to the Giants, as he made just two starts with High-A Eugene (where he had a 5.40 ERA, a 3.82 FIP, and 12 strikeouts against one walk in 10 innings), before being shut down to rest and prepare for 2027.

Those numbers all look good, but they’re even better when you contextualize them and weigh them against the competition. Combining his numbers with both organizations, Marquez was one of 355 Minor League pitchers to throw at least 40 innings in High-A this year. Among those 355, he was 12th in ERA (2.48), first in FIP (2.45), 17th in strikeouts per nine innings (13.05), 25th in walks per nine innings (2.25), and 33rd in ground ball rate (53.4%). And he did it all while being more than three years younger than the average pitcher at the level.

Those numbers are, in a word, elite. In a few words, elite and exciting.

Marquez, who I would assume will open 2027 in AA despite having made just eight starts in High-A, does it all with a fantastic fastball/slider combo, which is backed up by his best pitch, an utterly destructive changeup. His mechanics are a little funky and violent, which is either a good thing (a foreign look for hitters) or a bad thing (harder to maintain consistency) depending on your view point. Either way, he’s a must-follow prospect next year … he’s only pitched twice for the Giants organization, and we’re all itching to see more!

Now let’s add to the list! Head to the comment section to vote on the next prospect.

The list so far

1. Josuar González — SS
2. Jackson Flora — RHP
3. Luis Hernández — SS
4. Jhonny Level — SS
5. Ramon Marquez — RHP

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

No. 6 prospect nominees

Carson Bolemon — 19.7-year old LHP — yet to debut

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

ArgenisCayama — 20.1-year old RHP — 4.87 ERA/4.27 FIP in Low-A (57.1 IP)

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

DakotaJordan — 23.5-year old OF — .879 OPS/125 wRC+ in High-A (355 PA); .697 OPS/87 wRC+ in AA (88 PA)

GavinKilen — 22.7-year old SS — .811 OPS/112 wRC+ in High-A (349 PA); .811 OPS/112 wRC+ in AA (143 PA)

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

In this episode of the Viva El Birdos podcast (0:04), hosts Jake Wood and Gabe Simonds interview Derrick Goold, the lead baseball writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and host of the Best Podcast In Baseball. The discussion covers significant changes within the Cardinals organization, future front-office strategies, and the evolving landscape of Major League Baseball.

Key topics discussed include:

• Front Office Evolution: The hosts and Goold examine the Cardinals’ changing front-office structure, specifically addressing the departure of assistant GM Randy Flores to the Astros and the potential for new, outside voices to be brought in to prevent stagnation (3:00 – 9:51).
• Player Development & Coaching: The conversation touches on the hiring of Joel McKeithan as the new hitting coach (19:05 – 26:56). Goold explains that the team is focused on finding coaches who can grow with a younger core of players rather than just focusing on immediate results.
• CBA and League Economics:Goold provides insights into the potential for missed games due to CBA negotiations (39:43 – 45:17) and discusses the financial challenges teams face regarding Regional Sports Network (RSN) revenue declines (35:58 – 38:57).
• The “Metric” Disconnect: A major portion of the interview (1:23:03 – 1:32:13) focuses on the disconnect between the organization and fans. While fans primarily use total wins as the metric for success, the team is currently prioritizing long-term development, leading to a clash in expectations.

YouTube:

Spotify:

-Thanks for reading

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

No. 25, Mickey Moniak (0.1 rWAR)

The Colorado Rockies made it clear that they had wanted to have Mickey Moniak in their organization since before he was drafted. When they finally got the chance to bring him in just before the 2025 regular season they wasted no time in signing him.

Moniak’s first year in purple was arguably the best in his now journeyman career. He entered the 2026 season looking to build upon that and cement himself as a regular for the Rockies moving forward.

After missing the first two series of the season due to a sprained right finger, Moniak made his season debut in the Rockies home opener, batting third against the team that drafted him. While he only managed a single in that first game against the Philadelphia Phillies, he went on to have probably the best month career so far.

Over the course of 25 games in April, Moniak hit an incredible .315/.361/.652 with eight home runs.

What’s more, his power came in bunches. Moniak had three multi-home run games by the start of May.

Moniak slowed down in terms of getting on base after April but his power remained. While his batting average slipped to .230 in May he slugged .514 with another four home runs.

Moniak’s most memorable game of the season came on his birthday, May 14. Not only did he hit the Rockies first three-run homer of the season, but he also followed that up with both a double and a triple. At the end of the day, he became just the second player in MLB history to come a single shy of the cycle on his birthday.

Early in the season when the Rockies pitching staff was at its best but the rest of the lineup had yet to really gel the way it eventually would in June, Moniak was hitting like the All-Star he was drafted to be.

Then came his trip to the injured list.

Moniak would remain on the IL for a full month until eventually returning on June 22.

In the first week after returning from the IL, Moniak appeared to have lost his early-season momentum and had only three hits during his eight games in June. Once he was able to get his timing back, however, he was back to being a key run producer for the Rockies in July. On the month, he slashed .320/.338/.560, good for a 128 wRC+.

By mid-summer, it looked like Moniak was potentially in the midst of a breakout season — the sort that can never be fully written off when it comes from a player drafted first overall.

Given his surging performance, his age, and the Rockies place in the standings it was reasonable to assume Moniak would be dealt at the trade deadline. Rumors swirled around his name, especially in connection to the Houston Astros who were searching for an outfield bat, but the deadline passed without any news of a Moniak transaction.

This lack of movement was befuddling to many but in president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta’s words “We had a set price in mind of what it would take to acquire any of our players.” None of the teams interested in Moniak met that price.

Given the fact that the Rockies still had Moniak under team control for another season after 2026, their urgency to move him if not getting the sort of return they wanted was limited. Following the trade deadline, however, the front office quickly pivoted and extended him for an additional season beyond 2027.

Ultimately, the price of buying out a single would be year of free agency for Moniak was pretty modest at $9 million in 2028. Given the inability to extract the level of return they wanted in trade and the way in which Moniak had hit all season, pivoting to a cheap extension may have been seen as the next best option to capitalize on the potential breakout of a once highly ranked prospect.

In the immediate aftermath of the extension, however, things did not play out as anyone had hoped.

After riding high for most of the season, Moniak came crashing down to earth in the final two months of the season. In 26 August games, he hit .188/.226/.365 and then followed that up by only collecting nine hits in the entire month of September.

If you just look at Moniak’s basic first half vs. second half splits, you can see the preposterous divide in his season, despite the fact that his second half numbers are propped up by part of a good July.

• In 227 first half plate appearances, Moniak hit .278 with 15 home runs which was good for a 130 wRC+.
• In 209 second half plate appearances, he hit .195 with eight home runs which was good for a 46 wRC+.

While the full reason for Moniak’s uneven performance is likely a combination of many smaller factors, there are two that are pretty obvious and not yet particularly worrying.

First, his batting average on balls in play plummeted from .312 in the first half down to .231 in the second half. For a player that has a .300 BABIP for his career, that second-half figure would seem to be the outlier. Speculatively, the right ankle injury that sent him to the injured list in May could have made him unable to beat out close plays at first that he otherwise may have.

Second, a higher percentage of his plate appearances came against left-handed pitchers. For his career, Moniak has a 103 wRC+ against righties as opposed to only a 35 wRC+ against lefties. Despite taking fewer total plate appearances in the second half, he actually faced left-handed pitchers more total times than he had in the first half of the season. Overall, he faced lefties in 5.5% more of his total plate appearances in the second half. That may not sound like much, but for a player that has always struggled so immensely against them, every at-bat matters.

With an offseason to rest his ankle, some positive regression, and the team treating him as the platoon player his numbers (and modest contract) indicate that he is, there is every reason to think that Moniak’s second half struggles are not a harbinger of what is to come for him.

For his part, Moniak has expressed both comfort with and affection for the Rockies organization. From the two-minute mark forward in the video interview below, he elaborates on his history with the Rockies franchise and how they have always shown extreme confidence in him.

Moniak has seen his share of ups and downs in his short MLB career but has felt consistently embraced by the Rockies through it all… even when he was a member of other teams.

Given that, the extended stretches of good performance these past two years and his contract status being locked in for the next two seasons, we shouldn’t be surprised if Moniak ends up wearing purple for some time to come.

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