Category: MLB

According to New York Post national baseball writer Jon Heyman, the San Diego Padres and Nick Castellanos have agreed on a one-year deal. The move comes after the Philadelphia Phillies released the outfielder a few days ago. 

Castellanos was owed $20 million for the 2026 season. The Padres will pay the veteran’s minimum of $780K, and the Phillies will pick up the remainder of the salary. 

The right-handed slugger has played primarily as an outfielder in his 13-year major league career, but Castellanos has been seen working out at first base this winter, and the Friars are expected to play him at the position once he arrives in Peoria, Ariz.

He is coming to San Diego with some baggage, as his time in Philadelphia ended with controversy. The dispute stems from Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s decision to bench Castellanos following a dugout confrontation last season. The skipper removed the veteran for a defensive replacement late in a game against the Miami Marlins. 

Castellanos proceeded to confront Thomson about his decision in the dugout.

The 33-year-old posted a social media comment earlier this week to provide further clarification on the incident. Castellanos admitted to bringing a beer into the dugout after being taken out of the game. His teammates took the can away before he could open it.

Also, Castellanos confirmed that he apologized to the organization for his dugout actions in a postgame meeting with Thomson and Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski. 

The veteran outfielder batted .250 with 17 HR and 72 RBI in 147 games.

After trade negotiations failed to gain traction this offseason, the Phillies released Castellanos before the start of full-squad workouts.

The Texas Rangers officially signed Jordan Montgomery on Friday. To make room for him on the 40 man roster, the team has designated pitcher Zak Kent for assignment.

We discussed the Montgomery addition earlier in the week when the news that he would be coming back to Texas was first reported. He will start the season on the injured list, and will presumably be on the 60 day injured list at some point when the Rangers need to open up a 40 man roster spot. He will presumably start a rehab assignment in June, and if all goes well, could be part of the Rangers’ rotation at some point in July. With Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom as part of the Rangers’ rotation currently, Texas has the rare opportunity to have three two-time Tommy John surgery guys in their rotation this year.

Zak Kent, meanwhile, will presumably be put on waivers, with an eye towards trying to get him outrighted. Originally drafted by the Rangers, he was purchased by Cleveland at the end of spring training in 2024, claimed on waivers from Cleveland by St. Louis in December, and then claimed by the Rangers from St. Louis last month.

New Yankees starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, who arrived in a January trade with the Marlins, takes a swing at some spring training Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby. 

Q: When you think of the New York Yankees, what do you think of? 

A: Did you ever watch the movie “Everyone’s Hero”? When I was younger, it’s an animated movie and he wanted to play for the Yankees (laugh). That’s the movie I think of. 

Q: What do you think of when you think of the Yankees’ tradition and former players, etc.? 

A: Oh, I mean, it’s awesome. When you think about what that logo carries, I mean, that New York logo. It hasn’t been changed since they became the New York Yankees, and it’s just a logo that’s recognized throughout the whole world, the pinstripes. … Every team tries to emulate the pinstripes and it never looks the same, it’s like you can’t get away from like the classic pinstripes the Yankees carry. It’s just cool for my name to be even associated with the New York Yankees. 

Q: Have you actually put on the pinstripes? 

A: I’ve put on the pants, I haven’t put on the full uni, but I got to put on the pants for the last couple of days, and it just feels so cool and just it’s such an honor to be able to wear ’em. 

Q: What do you remember about the first time you pitched at Yankee Stadium, April 10, 2024? 

A: One, just the crowd, just how into the game they were. Obviously I was pitching with the Marlins, but you know, getting chirped in the bullpen … that stuff just doesn’t leave your brain. You walk in the Stadium and you see in right center George Steinbrenner’s mural, you got the Judge’s Chambers. It’s such a cool ballpark, it’s just an ode to history of the Yankees. It’s just really cool to pitch there. I cannot wait to be on the home team pitching there. 

Q: When you were getting chirped, what did you hear? 

A: (Laugh) Just normal banter, just whatever, but it just shows you just how into the game the crowd is. What’s cool about Yankee fans is they understand the game, and they want to be a part of the game and it’s just a very neat atmosphere. 

Q: What will it be like pitching on the big stage under the bright lights? 

A: I could not be more excited to pitch, because at the end of the day, you’re either going to throw the ball well or you don’t. If you start worrying about being in New York and … if you let that stuff creep into your mind, it’s just going to take you away from doing your job. My job is go out there and do the best that Ryan Weathers can do and help the New York Yankees win games. Thankfully I’ve been in the big leagues for a couple of years, and I thank the Marlins for letting me get my feet under me, and they let me fail at that level and learn from it. So I cannot be more excited to pitch for the Yankees. 

Q: How does failure weigh on the mind of a pitcher? 

A: If you’re a bullpen guy, you have to have the ability to flush it because you could be in the ballgame the next day. As a starter, it can be tough sometimes because you want to get back out there so bad, but you have to wait four or five days to get back out there. I think the biggest thing I learned from failure was just it’s three games in a row you’ve gotten hit the same way or given up runs the same way, are you going to continue to pitch the same way, or are you going to try to change it up and learn from staying out of a certain part of the plate? I really leaned on my dad a lot just with the failure. Anybody can prep for your whole life, but until you actually have to face failure yourself and look yourself in the mirror … The thing that got me through it is everybody loves you when you’re doing well, and when you’re doing bad, you’re the only person that can bring yourself out from that hole, and you just learn how to just scratch the bottom of the barrel and work yourself out and just put your nose to the grindstone. 

Q: How would you describe your mound mentality? 

A: When the game starts I would definitely say I’m a pitcher that sees red. My biggest goal is it’s good to have the bulldog mentality. There’s times you use it. And then there’s not letting one pitch bleed into the next. That’s what I’ve really been working on the last couple of years. I want when somebody looks out there on the mound, if there was no scoreboard, I don’t want them to know if I’ve been pitching seven shutout or if I’m in the second inning getting crushed. I want to keep the same even keel the whole time I’m out there. 

Q: Never let them see you sweat in other words. 

A: For sure. 

Q: A pitcher who sees red? 

A: I don’t know what it is, but when I get on the mound, I think you just kind of black out and you’re really focused on the task at hand … just want to be aggressive in the zone, want to pitch at 130 pitches (chuckle) whatever it may be, you just want to stay out there. 

Q: What drives you? 

A: I would definitely say my wife [Thayer]. I have a baby boy coming in April. What’s incredible about this game and this job is when you treat it like a job, you can set up generational wealth for your family, you can put your kids through college, sometimes at the age of 40 you can be done, and you can just watch all of your kids play every sport. That’s what my dad [ex-Yankees pitcher David] did for me. I saw the toll that it took off of my mom, and I just want to be able to do the same for my wife. Family drives me in everything. 

Q: Would you want your son to be a pitcher one day? 

A: I want my son to be whatever he wants to (chuckle), but I wouldn’t mind a left-handed pitcher, a switch-hitting catcher though (laugh). 

Q: The Padres drafted you seventh overall in 2018. Was there pressure? 

A: My 19-, 20-year-old year, I kind of had a quick buildup to the big leagues, so I didn’t really have time to listen to any of that, or worry about any of that, because at the age of 20 I just got thrusted into the division series [2020 against the Dodgers] and didn’t really have time (laugh) to worry about any of that. But no, I don’t think it creates any pressure or anything like that. I got teammates from the first round all the way to the 25th round, coming from junior college, high school … you name it. Baseball’s baseball, and it’s always going to be baseball. 

Q: Has your career been what you expected of yourself so far? 

A: I feel like when I’m on the field I feel like that I can help the team win ballgames. Problem is the past year-and-a-half is I haven’t been on the field [left forearm and left lat strains]. I want to pride myself on being available. Recently I have not been available. But hopefully that all changes this year. The Yankees have me on a really good program. We were trending really good in the offseason. We’re trending really good right now in spring training, and hopefully I can stay on the field. 

Q: Why do you believe the best is yet to come for Ryan Weathers? 

A: I can’t really answer that, only the Good Lord knows that. I just know that the Yankees are putting me in a good spot to be healthy. I don’t care what my numbers are, I just want to go out there and be available for [manager Aaron] Booney and the Yankees, and whatever capacity they need me, I just want to be able to pitch from March all the way until whenever our last game is. 

Q: What is your best baseball moment? 

A: If he ever sees this or anything, he’ll kill me, but one of my buddies with the Marlins, Brax Garrett, in 2021 I hit a homer off him in Miami to dead center, and when I got traded [from the Padres on Aug. 1, 2023], we ended up being really, really good friends (laugh). Now that I know him really well, that’s one of the coolest moments I’ve had because he’s a really good dude. We just had so much banter about that in the clubhouse, and it was definitely one of the coolest things. 

Q: Worst baseball moment — would that be catcher Nick Fortes accidentally hitting you last June in the back of the head with a warmup throw to second base? 

A: (Laugh) I wouldn’t say that’s the worst moment. Fortes is one of my boys, we eat breakfast together, we’re hanging out in the locker room all the time playing pool, whatever it may be. That was tough all around, because it was totally unintentional and he didn’t mean to do that. … I would say my worst baseball day was probably … the turning point in my mental part of the game in my career. I just got traded to the Marlins, and I didn’t pitch for about 12 days, and then I got recalled to pitch against the Rangers and I came out of the bullpen, and I got whacked all over the ballpark. I got optioned after the game, and I remember going to my hotel room being like, “I cannot do this game anymore, this is brutal.” I remember my wife told me, she goes, “Are you going to go back to school?” And I was like, “You know what? I’m going to figure this out. I am not going back to school (laugh).” That really gave me perspective in the game, and I went down to Triple-A, and that Triple-A team in Jacksonville made me re-love the game. If I wouldn’t have went through that worst day of my entire career, I don’t think I could be where I’m at now. 

Q: Was that a bigger adversity for you than the injuries? 

A: For sure. The injuries were just so weird. You couldn’t really label them as major injuries. They were in between minor and major just to the point where like I could not pitch through them. I had the finger injury in 2024, the injury only happens in rock climbers, and somehow on a baseball field that happened. … I did not want to not pitch last year, I did not want to have [just] eight starts. 

Q: Do you remember running around the 2004 clubhouse when your father pitched for the Mets? 

A: (Laugh) I very vaguely remember the Mets. That was when I was about 3 and 4 years old. I remember most of my time in Cincinnati. 

Q: Did your father show you his 1996 Yankees World Series ring? 

A: I’ve seen his ring from ’96 and I’ve seen his Toronto one, I think, from ’91. 

Q: Did he tell you stories about the ’96 Yankees? 

A: He told me it’s one of his favorite moments was when he punched out Javy Lopez [Game 6]. He said it was one of the moments in his career that was like, “Holy cow!” Like the whole Yankee Stadium erupting. 

Q: Whatever comes to mind: Aaron Judge. 

A: MVP … Captain. You’re not the Captain of the Yankees by accident. It’s been cool seeing from not being on his team what he’s done for the game of baseball and then being on his team, just how he carries himself. He’s a first-class human being. He’s awesome. Just a really good dude. 

Q: Have you picked Max Fried’s brain yet? 

A: We have these spin balls that we use, you color the ball where you can see your four-seam spin and your breaking ball spin, and he’s got me hooked on those playing catch. 

Q: Gerrit Cole. 

A: Just from my interactions with him and talking to him, like a really, really good knowledge for the game. Obviously Cy Young pitcher, really good dude, really controls the pitching staff, just a good leader for us. His body of work speaks for itself, and it’s cool getting to watch him do that. 

Q: Describe your wife, Thayer, and mom, Kelli. 

A: My wife, she played volleyball at the University of Florida. She’s an athlete. I watched her play on two torn hip labrums. I’ve seen her go through that pain. She’s a rock star, she’s the rock of our family. She’s a wonderful human being, one of the best cooks I know in the entire world. She takes care of the house. She is just a hard worker. … And when I think of my mom, my dad in summer couldn’t be at all of my games, and I remember her taking me every day, every other Tuesday, Thursday in Florence, Kentucky. I played in the machine pitch league one year that when we were in Cincinnati, and her running me around Florence, Kentucky, just playing all these games. 

She’s been the rock of our family. I was always her travel buddy when Dad played. I got to play hoops when I was in high school, and that was what she played when she was in college. So it was cool getting to share that with her. I’m her only son, so that mother-son bond, it’s awesome, and as I get older the more I appreciate what she did for me in my younger years and through high school and even through now … when we’re going from the house and her taking care of our house. She’s a mother, and I love her. 

Q: Other than your dad, who were your favorite baseball players growing up? 

A: Clayton Kershaw’s definitely one, being a left-handed pitcher, first time I had seen him in person I was like a kid in a candy shop, it was so cool. Position players, I loved watching Ken Griffey Jr. Joey Votto was always fun to watch. 

Q: You played basketball in high school. 

A: I was a shooter. I didn’t really play a whole lot of defense. Just put me in the corner and let me fling it. 

Q: Three dinner guests? 

A: Jesus, Tiger Woods, FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt]. I’d like to know how he got us though in the ’40s, that’d be cool. 

Q: Favorite movie? 

A: “Sweet Home Alabama.” 

Q: Favorite actor? 

A: Vince Vaughn. 

Q: Favorite actress? 

A: I love Debra [Patricia Heaton] of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” 

Q: Favorite entertainers” 

A: Toby Keith and Morgan Wallen. 

Q: Favorite meal? 

A: Steak, all day every day of the week. 

Q: How hungry are you to win a World Series? 

A: That’s the pinnacle of the sport. It starts with all of us, one person can’t do it. This is a really fun team to be a part of, really good team camaraderie, and I look forward to pitching for these guys and having them play behind me, and hopefully we can win some ballgames, and just see where it takes us.

The Mets felt it right away when A.J. Minter went down last year. 

The left-hander was brought in to help bridge the gap to closer Edwin Diaz in the late innings, and he did just that before suffering his season-ending lat injury in late May. 

Minter allowed just two runs over his 13 appearances at the time. 

But New York was forced to maneuver the rest of the way without him, and it ended up being a significant blow to a bullpen that was leaned on heavily during the second-half collapse. 

After months of rehabbing, the 32-year-old southpaw is finally closing in on his return. 

Minter is expected to miss at least the first month of the season as he continues progressing his way back, but the Mets have been encouraged by what they’ve seen from him to this point. 

Saturday marked his second bullpen session since reporting for spring training. 

“He’s another guy we have to take care of,” Carlos Mendoza said. “But he looks really good -- watching him in that first bullpen, then the second one today, the way the ball is coming out, it’s with ease, it’s effortless, it’s a good sign.

“I keep telling him to take it easy; we have a long way to go. But he’s a big part of this team, a big part of our bullpen, and we’re counting on him as well.”

Getting Minter back in the mix alongside fellow lefty Brooks Raley will be a huge boost for this group. 

Tyler Callihan enters camp in Goodyear looking to regain a spot on the active roster of the Cincinnati Reds after a devastating broken arm ended his 2025 season prematurely. Callihan also checks in as the #18 prospect in this year’s Community Prospect Rankings thanks to his gap power, good patience at the plate, and ability to man just about half the defensive positions on the field competently.

Now, we take the voting into the final few spots, with #18 next up on the list!

Per usual, you can find the link to the Google Form for voting right here, yet it’s also embedded at the bottom if you want to read through first and not have to embark upon the painstaking process of scrolling all the way back up here. Both link and embed will be removed once voting closes so you can’t stuff the ballot post facto, however, so be advised that this paragraph will make zero sense if you stumble back across it a year from now.

Here’s how the list has materialized so far:

1. Sal Stewart
2. Alfredo Duno
3. Rhett Lowder
4. Hector Rodriguez
5. Edwin Arroyo
6. Cam Collier
7. Steele Hall
8. Tyson Lewis
9. Chase Petty
10. Arnaldo Lantigua
11. Jose Franco
12. Zach Maxwell
13. Leo Balcazar
14. Adolfo Sanchez
15. Carlos Jorge
16. Aaron Watson
17. Julian Aguiar
18. Tyler Callihan

A large list of talented names exists below for spot #19. Have at it with the votes!

Liberts Aponte, SS (18 years old)

2025 at a glance: .247/.368/.461 with 7 HR, 9 SB in 193 PA for DSL Rojos (Dominican Summer League)

Pros: 29/35 K/BB showed greatly improving strike zone awareness; already a plus defender at short where he projects to be excellent both with range and arm long-term

Cons: Still not viewed as a potential plus with the bat, though early returns are already better than original scouting reports; has a long way to go in terms of physically maturing

The Reds doled out $1.9 million to sign Aponte last January, and that marked the single largest contract they doled out in that particular international signing window. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the #18 player overall in that class, noting he was ‘one of the most skilled defenders in his class’ and ‘offers solid wheels’ with ‘magic in his hands’ while doling out a 65 grade on his fielding ability.

The rest, we knew, would take time, as he was just liked at 6’0” and 160 lbs, and that even felt like a slight exaggeration. To his credit, though, he mashed 7 homers as a 17 year old in DSL play while showing more power than anticipated, and if that aspect of his game grows to match what’s already known the Reds have found themselves a gem.

It will be interesting to see if the Reds push him up to Arizona Complex League play at all in 2026 or give him another year in the DSL seeing as he just turned 18 years old in November.

Luke Holman, RHP (23 years old)

2025 at a glance: ER, 2 H, 10 K, 4 BB in 9.0 IP with Daytona Tortugas (Class-A Florida State League

Pros: Two plus breaking pitches (slider, curve)

Cons: Not a ton of velocity on his fastball, which sits 91-94 mph

Luke Holman threw 109 pitches for LSU in a 6-2 loss to North Carolina on June 1st, 2024, a game in which he yielded 4 ER in 6.2 IP with 7 H, 11 K, and a lone walk. Since then, he’s thrown just 9.0 IP on a mound, total.

Holman, Cincinnati’s 2nd round pick in 2024, sat out the remainder of 2024 after being drafted, finishing his calendar year with 91.2 IP of 2.75 ERA ball that included a wonderful 0.98 WHIP and 127/33 K/BB. When his 2025 began in Daytona, all signs looked promising in his first pair of starts only for an elbow issue to subsequently sit him down and require Tommy John surgery, and we’ve not seen him since.

He sat 91-94 with his fastball (and touched 96) before, and has a pair of wicked breaking balls that he uses as his out pitches. If he returns to form in 2026 the way he ways before (or even better!), he still profiles as a back-end starter who should move quickly through Cincinnati’s system after dominating SEC play in stints first with Alabama and later with LSU.

Mason Morris, RHP (22 years old)

2025 at a glance: 9.00 ERA, 7/1 K/BB in 4.0 IP with Class-A Daytona Tortugas; 3.29 ERA, 78/31 K/BB in 54.2 IP with University of Mississippi

Pros: Fastball that can touch 100 mph; four-pitch mix

Cons: Lack of experience

Mason Morris landed with Ole Miss in 2023 primarily as a corner infielder, and the now 6’4” 225 lb righty only recently became a full-time pitcher prior to the Reds selecting him with their 3rd round pick in 2025. He’s got projection through the roof, though, with a 100 mph heater, plus cutter, and a pair of other breaking balls that look like they’ve also got the juice.

The question, though, is how Cincinnati plans to use him.

Morris only got a pair of outings as a pro after being drafted, and it appears the Reds have intentions on seeing if he can develop into a starting pitcher. That’s something he’s never really done before, however, and he’ll turn 23 years old in August of 2026. So, we’ll see how long of a leash the Reds give him with that avenue, since if they want to simply keep him in the bullpen there’s very little reason why he shouldn’t rocket through the minors and give them a legit relief arm at the big league level in short order.

Mason Neville, OF (22 years old)

2025 at a glance: .247/.333/.442 with 1 HR, 2 SB in 90 PA with Class-A Daytona Tortugas (Florida State League); .290/.429/.724 with 26 HR, 9 SB in 280 PA with University of Oregon

Pros: 60-grade power with potential plus arm and plus speed & baserunning; chance to stick in CF, though still profiles as a solid RF if moved to the corner; led Division I with 26 HR in final season at Oregon

Cons: Lots of swing and miss in his game, at times, including a 34.4% rate in his short sample with Daytona

The Reds clearly love Neville, as they drafted him in the 18th round out of high school 2022 only to watch him initially attend the University of Arkansas. After transferring to Oregon and swatting more dingers than anyone else in 2025, the Reds went back to him in the 4th round of the most recent draft.

Neville is incredibly toolsy, his left-handed swing producing significant power when he makes contact. He’s good at working walks despite his swing-and-miss proclivities, and posesses the kind of athleticism and speed to be a legitimate CF.

His tiny sample with Daytona has some red flags with the Ks, but it’s such a small sample that it’s hard to take it with too much certainty. For instance, he hit .298/.365/.526 through his first 17 games there only to go 2 for 20 with 9 Ks across his final 6 games – that could, and likely is, all small-sample noise.

Big tools, that Neville. He could well be the steal of the 2025 draft.

Sheng-En Lin, RHP (20 years old)

2025 at a glance: 3.06 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 61/15 K/BB in 47.0 IP split between ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League) and Class-A Daytona Tortugas (Florida State League); .172/.348/.310 with 2 HR in 113 PA with ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League)

Pros: Former two-way player has tons of athleticism; fastball that runs to 97 mph with three-pitch mix including curve and change; excellent command

Cons: Still building up innings; dropping hitting to focus on being a pitcher

Lin was signed for $1.2 million during the 2023 international signing period, and the Taiwan native spent the last trio of seasons in Arizona attempting to do both hitting and pitching. The hit tool stalled, though, as his K-rate spiked and power never arrived, and on pitching he’ll now focus after making a late-season cameo with Daytona after being promoted to full-season ball for the first time.

In very, very small samples, his work on the mound has been excellent. He’s the owner of an impressive 4.07 K/BB rate for his short career, and that’s with an impressive 11.7 K/9 that shows just how much of a strikeout pitcher he can be. His secondary pitches both flash plus grades, at times, and more consistency there with a fastball that hits 97 mph already (with perhaps more velocity coming as he focuses solely on the mound) could see him rocket up these rankings in short order…if he hits the ground running in April.

Ricky Cabrera, 3B (21 years old)

2025 at a glance: .187/.276/.240 with 0 HR, 0 SB in 89 PA with High-A Dayton Dragons (Midwest League)

Pros: Above-average power, speed, and hit tool, with an arm that’s good enough to play at 3B (if he can find his accuracy)

Cons: An absolutely lost 2025 season that included a season-ending knee injury

The optimist in you sees that Cabrera only just turned 21 years old in October, and in 2024 posted a 110 wRC+ with 11 HR and 19 SB in the pitcher-friendly confines of the Florida State League with Daytona (with said wRC+, along with his OPS, both ranking among that league’s top 10). That same optimist probably would point out that 2025 saw the Venezuela native play in the cold April weather of the Midwest League with Dayton for the first time, and he struggled mightily in those new conditions before a knee injury rendered his 2025 completely lost.

There’s still a lot to like about Cabrera, even though he’s physically matured off shortstop at this juncture and likely profiles as a 3B, or potentially at 2B defensively – with his defense needing just as much improvement as his bat at the moment, too. If the batting cage stuff can begin to translate onto the field again post-injury, there’s still a ton to like about the former $2.7 million signee and Top 5 overall international prospect from the 2022 class.

I’m assuming there is no pessimist in you, for now.

Hansel Jimenez, SS/3B (19 years old)

2025 at a glance: .269/.374/.445 with 5 HR, 12 SB in 147 PA for DSL Reds (Dominican Summer League); .229/.345/.364 with 4 HR, 3 SB in 142 PA for Sydney Blue Sox (Australian Baseball League)

Pros: 70 grade raw power (per FanGraphs) with potential to be a plus runner, fielder, and have a plus arm

Cons: Potential swing and miss issues (25.9% K-rate in the DSL, 64% contact rate); may end up at 3B long term

Signed for an undisclosed amount during the 2024 international signing period, Jimenez has immediately hit the ground running in prospect circles with his mix of potentially elite athleticism and batted-ball metrics that jump right off the page.

After dabbling in DSL play in 2024 at age 17 (6 for 14 with a double and 4 steals in 5 G), he repeated that level in 2025 and more than held his own with an .820 OPS. Those solid surface stats hide his pretty monumental 45% hard-hit rate, 106 mph EV90, and maximum exit velocity of 113 mph – all numbers posted by an 18 year old. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs has him ranked 12th (right behind Tyson Lewis) and notes the multiple similarities between the two, though Jimenez is a full year younger.

If I were to give you no information about a game other than that your team had a pitcher go 8.2 innings and allow one hit and no earned runs, you’d probably be feeling pretty good about what happened. First, that’s all but one out of a complete game. Second, one hit is not very many and even though I said “earned runs” and not just “runs,” chances are good that total isn’t going to be particularly high considering the hit total.

However, especially in baseball, you can’t get the full picture of the game by looking at just one player’s stats. Too many weird things can happen. In one particular game from 1944, the Yankees got a great outing from pitcher Steve Roser. They also lost because he was only one player in the game.

The Yankees were hosting Cleveland for a doubleheader on July 4, 1944. They dropped the opening game of the twin bill 3-1, but did get nine innings out of starter Monk Dubiel. Getting a good, long outing out of a starting pitcher is always needed in at least one of the games, so you don’t have to rely on your bullpen too much, two separate times.

That was also helpful, because you couldn’t say the same for the second game’s starter Joe Page. Page got Cleveland leadoff hitter Mickey Rocco to ground out to start things off, but things quickly went off the rails after that. Following a single and a walk, Lou Boudreau cleared the bases with a triple, coming around to score himself on a Roy Cullenbine single. Ken Keltner then added an RBI double, which brought Yankees’ manager Joe McCarthy out to the mound for a pitching change.

Steve Roser came in to replace Page. He got off to an iffy start, but throwing a wild pitch and walking the first batter he faced. That ended up being costly, as it moved a runner to third, from which they scored on a groundout. Roser eventually got out of the inning, but the Yankees already trailed 5-0.

Cleveland then picked up two more runs in the second, although they weren’t entirely due to Roser’s pitching. Roser made a fielding error on a Myril Hoag grounder, which eventually led to two unearned runs coming around and scoring.

After that inning, Roser was excellent. From the third through ninth inning, he allowed just one baserunner to reach. That was wasn’t even really due to him, as it came on an error from shortstop Mike Milosevich. Including that error, the Yankee reliever retired 21 out of 22 batters over that stretch. Unfortunately, the Yankee offense didn’t do much to back him up.

The Yankees got on the board in the bottom of the second thanks to a Nick Etten home run. After that, they put runners on in all of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, but couldn’t cash in to chip away further. Finally in the ninth inning, Hersh Martin — pinch hitting for Roser — added another home run, but it was too little, too late. Cleveland pitcher Ray Poat just retired the next three hitters to doom the Yankees to a 7-2 loss.

Between the error made and the base runners he did allow, you can’t fully absolve Roser. However, he finished with a pitching line of no earned runs allowed on one hit and two walks in 8.2 innings. Getting that outing from a pitcher would be plenty good enough to win many games. However, Roser wasn’t the first pitcher of the day, and the one that was got dinged with five earned runs, which proved to be the final margin.

This is Cubs infielder Ronny Cedeńo, pretty clearly having been called out on strikes against the Pirates at Wrigley Field. It’s another photo from BCB reader Clark Addison.

The Cubs wore blue jerseys at home on occasion pre-Ricketts ownership, and we are looking at an afternoon game.

I was given a clue here by the file name, which contained the year, 2006.

That helped.

The Cubs played nine games against the Pirates at Wrigley Field in 2006. Three of those were night games, now we’re down to six games. I eliminated two others because the game time weather conditions said “cloudy,” so that leaves four.

It’s clearly a warm summer day, as you can see by the way fans are dressed. That eliminates an early May date where the game time temp was 67. Many would have been in jackets or sweatshirts at that temperature.

Then the task was simply to look through the three remaining games to see if there was more than one time where Cedeño was called out on strikes.

Fortunately, there was only one. It happened in the bottom of the fourth inning, Monday, Sept. 4, 2006, an afternoon contest on Labor Day.

The pitcher was someone who’d become a Cub later on, Paul Maholm.

The Cubs lost the game 5-4. Neither team was very good that year. The Pirates were 55-82 after they won that game and the Cubs 55-83. It could be said that game decided fifth place in the NL Central, because the Pirates finished 67-95 and the Cubs 66-96.

Unfortunately, no video of this game appears to have survived, so this photo will have to serve as the only record of that strikeout.

We’ve all been there. Probably, as D-backs fans, more often than we would like. You reach a certain point in the season, look at the standings and realize that this is not going to be the Diamondbacks’ year. Maybe you keep watching games; maybe you watch fewer of them; maybe you switch over to just checking the box-scores at the end of the night, and find other ways to occupy your free-time. Even here on the SnakePit, I’ll admit that there have been seasons – 2021, most obviously in recent history – where the site has basically been running on the writing equivalent of muscle memory.

What would make you check out on the 2026 season early?

Time to ‘fess up. There’s no denying, it will be an uphill struggle for the D-backs this year. The Dodgers are very heavy favorites to run away with the division – Fangraphs currently projects them to win the NL West by fifteen games. To a certain extent, I’m consequently already checked out – or, at least, less invested in the regular season than I would want to be. Because the outcome of the NL West feels about as close to pre-determined as possible. The wild-card chase is rather more nebulous: I’ll see if we are in the hunt there when we get Corbin Burnes and Justin Martinez back.

But at what point would you find yourself looking at other sports or pastimes?

When Marcus Semien was introduced to the New York media for the first time following his trade from the Rangers, the Mets hadn’t yet acquired their new third baseman, Bo Bichette. 

Arriving in Port St. Lucie for his first day in spring training on Saturday afternoon, the veteran infielder finally had a chance to discuss reuniting with his former Toronto teammate. 

“That’s a big pickup,” Semien said. “I got to play with Bo when he was a 23-year-old shortstop, so now he’s a little older, a little more seasoned, and he’s learning a new position -- I was in that position when I met him too, learning second base. 

“Being in a new place and learning a new position can get uncomfortable at times, but because he’s such a pure hitter and a great hitter, that’s where I know he’s going to be one of the best hitters.”

Semien, Bichette, and Luis Robert Jr. are the big-name additions to this offense. 

While losing some key sluggers like Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso certainly hurts, Semien feels that the new pieces mixing with the returning stars and young bats make for a strong lineup on both sides of the ball. 

“It’s a loaded group,” he said. “We have a lot of All-Stars, guys who have played in big games; World Series champions, Silver Sluggers, all kinds of accolades up and down this lineup -- a good amount of speed, power, good defenders. 

“I look at the whole package, the lineup is one thing, but everyone is playing both sides of the ball. If we all score as many runs as we can, that means we’re running the bases well, we’re getting on-base, we’re slugging, we’re doing those things -- if we can all do that together, we can win a lot of ballgames with our bats.”

Semien himself is coming off back-to-back down seasons at the plate, but the Mets believe he still has the MVP form he showed during the ’23 campaign. 

The 35-year-old was in contact with New York’s staff all offseason, discussing his performance the last couple of years and adjustments he can make to help get back on track. 

“We’ve had a lot of conversations,” he said. “And those conversations were good. I think I’ve been able to control the strike zone for the most part, but it’s about hitting the ball with more authority, and getting my body in the right position to do that more consistently.”

It’s well known that relievers are a volatile bunch. From year to year you don’t usually know quite what to expect, as mediocre relievers suddenly blossom and have career years and the guys you thought you could count on inexplicably struggle.

Sometimes this volatility doesn’t just show up from one season to the next. Relievers often have great months followed by terrible months even though their velocity and arsenal remain unchanged. Case in point, Justin Sterner, April 2025: 14.2 IP, 0 ER. May, 2025: 11.2 IP, 9 ER. September, 2025: 12 IP, 1 ER.

This makes it especially hard to construct a bullpen for an upcoming season, not knowing who will regress or blossom for no apparent reason, and who will pitch with at least some consistency from month to month versus who will ride the proverbial roller coaster.

Why are relievers so prone to this extreme variance? Some possible answers:

They’re Not

Perhaps relievers aren’t that much more volatile from season to season and month to month than other players. Cody Bellinger is a good example of a position player who has vacillated from spectacular to spectacularly awful without warning. In 2025 Cam Smith went from a 116 wRC+ in the first half to a 41 wRC+ in the 2nd half. Is the whole ‘relievers are volatile’ narrative a “perception” thing rather than a reality?

Small Samples Produce Large Variance

Relievers don’t wind up accruing large inning totals and anytime you look at 50 inning samples instead of 150 innings or 500 plate appearances, you are going to see more variance. This is especially true the more you zoom in: the samples cited above for Sterner are all of 11.2 – 14.2 innings each.

Perhaps the difference between a good season and a medium season, at least statistically, boils down to 2-3 gascan appearances totaling 3 IP and 8 ER which inflate the numbers in a 50 inning sample. A starting pitcher with one start out of 30 in which he lasts just 3 innings and serves up 8 ER still has a chance to put up excellent overall numbers.

It’s The Demographic, Stupid

Hey, no insults on AN please. OK I suppose it’s fine to insult yourself. Just don’t do it again, dumba$$. Anyhoo, another theory is that who becomes a reliever is not a random group of pitchers. It’s pitchers who specifically did not make it as a starting pitcher and don’t have the stuff to thrive multiple times through a batting order.

This might mean reliance on 2 pitches, in which case any time one pitch isn’t working you have a “one pitch pitcher” on your hands. Or it might mean not being good enough to crack the “best 5” — including the flaw of not being consistent enough from outing to outing, or from inning to inning.

Perhaps what got a reliever to the bullpen is precisely what makes him more prone to volatility: he has the stuff to pitch in the big leagues, but just enough flaws to require a slot in the bullpen rather than the rotation.

There’s 3 possibilities, any or all of which could be right or wrong. Here’s where you come in (to type a minimum of 3 words, new rules) and weigh in on whether any of these are correct or what other factors might be in play. And if you have truly figured it out, by all means share it with the A’s because I can assure you no one in MLB has all the answers — or relievers would be a lot more consistent and bullpens would be much easier to assemble.

Brendon Little is a 29-year-old, left-handed reliever. The Jays picked him up from the Cubs in November 2023. When we picked him up, he had less than an inning of major league experience. The Jays liked that got ground balls. Lots of ground balls, thinking that would be a nice combination with their good infield defense. He still has an option year left.

He threw 45.2 innings in 2024, with a 18.7% strikeout rate. In 2025, he threw 68.1 innings and had a 30.8% strikeout rate. Unfortunately, the walk rate also increased substantially, from 9.8% to 15.3%.

Little had a 70.9% ground ball rate in 2024, dropping to 59.0% in 2025 (still very high).

There are a few great stats from last season:

• Whiff rate 100th percentile.
• Strikeout rate 92nd percentile.
• Ground ball rate 97th percentile.
• Barrel rate 80th percentile.

But then there was some bad stats:

• Walk rate 1st percentile.
• Hard hit rate 2nd percentile.

And, as we know, he had a great first half of the season (2.03 ERA, .177/.305/.234, in 44.1) than the second half (4.88, .230/.355/.345 in 24 innings). And, of course, the playoffs didn’t go well for him. He allowed two home runs during the regular season and two home runs in the playoffs.

Brendon was part of a story about the Jays in the Athletic this morning (nice timing). In it, he says that he warmed up too often and too vigorously during games last year, and tired himself out. He mentions that he threw in the pen three times, as well as throwing two other times, before coming into the playoff game, where he gave up the home run to Cal Raleigh.

He also said that he is going to warm up at “80%” before coming into games and “70%” before games, feeling that he tired himself out as the season went on.

And, he also said that he is adding a couple of pitches, a slider and a ‘tweaked’ four-seam fastball, to give him more pitches he can throw in the zone.

Last year he threw three pitches: a knuckle curve (46% of the time), sinker (45.6%) and an occasion cutter (7.8%).

Being a two-pitch pitcher worked for the first half of the season, but batters figured out that he tended to throw the knuckle curve below the strike zone most of the time. Once they realized they didn’t have to chase it, it wasn’t as effective (surprising, isn’t it).

The question is ‘Will he be a high-leverage reliever again this year?’

Since he and Mason Fluharty are the only lefty relievers who are on the 40-man (though Eric Lauer may well be a reliever this year), odds are pretty good that Little will be a high-leverage guy again.

Steamer figured Little will pitch in 54 games, with a 3.41 ERA (and 10 holds, he had team leading 30 last year).

In honor of the Philadelphia Phillies playing host to the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, we here at The Good Phight are launching a yearlong series that focuses on the history of the Phillies and the All-Star Game. Check back regularly for posts about the Phillies participation (or lack thereof) in the Midsummer Classic over its history.

Last time in this series, we learned about the three players from the 1930s Phillies era that appeared in one career All-Star game. Today, we’ll move on to the 1940s. To be completely transparent, there were a lot of them in this decade, as the Phillies were not a particularly good ballclub then (shocker I know), so we’re going to break them up into two posts.

Merrill May, 1940

A 5’11 third baseman from Indiana, Merrill “Pinky” May signed with the New York Yankees upon graduating Indiana University in 1932. May was a star centerfielder at his alma mater and served as c0-captain of a Big 10 Championship team his senior year. College was also where he was bestowed the nickname of “Pinky” due to his face often turning bright red when he was angry. The Yankees sent May to the minor leagues to begin his professional career, and unfortunately for May, that is where he would remain throughout his Yankees tenure. May advanced as high as Double-A Newark by 1935, but he was trapped there through the 1938 season.

That was when May was drafted by the Phillies out of the Yankees farm system. He would go on to make his MLB debut with Philadelphia in 1939 at the fresh young age of 28. May appeared in 135 games with the Phillies his rookie year, hitting .287 with 32 extra-base hits, despite suffering a late spring training injury on March 30th when he twisted his spinal column chasing a pop-up.

May got off to a strong start in 1940, as he was hitting .330 with 24 RBIs through the end of June. Despite the Phillies having the worst record in baseball at 23-44 at the time of the All-Star game, the Phillies sent four representatives to the game, and May’s performance was good enough to be one of them. He was joined by pitchers Hugh Mulcahy (more on him later) and Kirby Higbe as well as manager Doc Prothro at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.

None of the Phillies player representatives started, but May did find his way into the game as a defensive replacement in the sixth inning for the Dodgers’ Cookie Lavagetto with the National League leading 3-0. May came to the plate in the bottom half of the inning to face the Tigers’ Bobo Newsom and flew out to center in a full count. The Phillies third baseman got another chance to hit in the bottom of the eighth with a runner on third and two outs. But the first pitch from Cleveland’s Bob Feller hit May, putting runners at the corners for the Cardinals’ own Terry Moore, but Feller erased the threat with a strikeout. Nevertheless, despite the Phillies’ rather small impact, the NL went on to beat the AL by a final score of 4-0.

May went on to finish the 1940 season hitting .293 with a .954 fielding percentage at third. He would play three more years for the Phillies, hitting a very pedestrian .264 with a .667 OPS. Then in 1944, the 33-year-old May enlisted in the Navy where he played for the Great Lakes Naval Station team before being deployed to the Pacific theater of World War II. While there, May played for baseball teams that entertained soldiers fighting on the front lines. He was eventually stationed on the island of Tinian, where his makeshift home was less than 100 yards from an airstrip where he watched American B-29 bombers take off for bombing runs over Japan. One such plane he witnessed take off in 1945 was the Enola Gay leaving on its mission on August 6th to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

After the war, May returned to the Phillies but never again appeared in a Major League game. He was released by Philadelphia on May 7th, 1946, and rather than sign with the Pirates as a third baseman, May decided to pursue a managerial career. He first served as a player-manager for the Pirates Single-A affiliate in Albany before moving to the Cleveland organization through 1962. He then had his final stops in the systems of the Yankees and Reds, during the latter of which May became the last person to manage Satchel Paige in 1966 with the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League. May then made his way back to the Cleveland organization where he managed his son Milt before finally retiring in 1972.

Hugh Mulcahy, 1940

Like his teammate May, Hugh Mulcahy was also a representative of the Phillies at the 1940 All-Star game. Nicknamed “losing pitcher”, Mulcahy led all of baseball in losses twice in six seasons with the Phillies. At the time of the All-Star break in 1940, Mulcahy had a 7-10 record but that was despite a solid 3.44 ERA. That was even after Mulcahy allowed eight runs in just 1.1 IP against the Giants a mere four days before the All-Star game. Luckily for Mulcahy, his numbers were still good enough to get him named to the NL’s team. Unluckily for him however, he did not see the field in the game.

That bad luck seemed to foreshadow much of his next calendar year. Mulcahy returned to the Phillies after the break and won his first five starts, all of which were complete games, to bring his season record above .500 for the first time since June 27th. But the reality of playing on the 1940 Phillies came crashing back down on Mulcahy, as he then embarked on a twelve-game losing streak that started on August 4th and didn’t end until Mulcahy’s last start of the season on September 27th. He didn’t pitch as bad as one might think over such a streak though, as he averaged over 7 innings pitched per start, including two starts where he pitched past the ninth inning, but nevertheless Mulcahy still sported a 4.90 ERA over that span and allowed five or more runs in five of those starts.

The hits kept coming (literally and metaphorically) for Mulcahy. He finished the 1940 season with a respectable 3.60 ERA but led all of baseball in losses with 22 and surrendered the most hits of any pitcher with 283. That season would be Mulcahy’s last until 1945, as his bad luck was capped off by being drafted into the Army on March 8th, 1941, notably becoming the first MLB player drafted into the military. The date of which Mulcahy was drafted had the added touch of bad luck by occurring nine months before the United States’ entry into World War II. It was also right on the eve of Mulcahy possibly being bought by the Brooklyn Dodgers, who finished second in the NL in 1940, for the price of $75,000. The timing ended up costing Mulcahy five full seasons in the Majors, having left for the Army at age 26 and returning at age 31.

Ultimately, Mulcahy would pitch in only 23 more MLB games after being honorably discharged by the Army on August 5th, 1945. He played in Philadelphia until asking for and being granted a release following the 1946 season. Mulcahy then signed with the Pirates who ultimately released him on May 11th after appearing in only two games. He then bounced around the minor leagues for the Chicago White Sox before retiring in 1951 and embarking on a career as a pitching coach.

Danny Litwhiler, 1942

Not many people may have ever heard of Danny Litwhiler, but he continues to impact the game today in ways you wouldn’t expect. A Ringtown, Pennsylvania native and Bloomsburg University graduate, Litwhiler originally signed with the Detroit Tigers organization in 1936. He suffered a pair of major injuries to his ankle and knee over the next few years, resulting in Litwhiler being released by the Tigers in 1939. He joined his brother at a tryout for the Baltimore Orioles, and after waiting for a promised call that never came, finally discovered that the scout that wanted to sign him was John Ogden, who in the meantime had been hired as general manager of the Phillies and wanted to sign him to play in Philadelphia instead.

The Pennsylvania Dutch outfielder made his MLB debut with the Phillies in 1940 after recovering from knee surgery stemming from his injury with the Tigers. He appeared in just 36 games but hit .345 with 5 home runs. Littwhiler got down ballot MVP votes in his first full season in 1941 when he finished the year hitting .305/.350/.466. He wasn’t as impressive in 1942, as he was hitting just .265 by the end of June, but Litwhiler had not yet committed an error in the outfield after having a Major League leading 14 errors the previous year.

That defensive improvement was good enough to earn Litwhiler a spot at the All-Star game as the 21-54 Phillies lone representative at the Polo Grounds. The National League was defeated 3-1 thanks in large part to a two-run homer in the first inning from Rudy York of the Tigers, but Litwhiler was actually able to see some action. He entered the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth and hit the first pitch he saw from Detroit’s Al Benton into right for a single. His effort was quickly erased though, as the Cardinals’ Jimmy Brown grounded into a double play.

Litwhiler returned to the Phillies and finished the season hitting a very pedestrian .271/.310/.389. However, he became the first player in MLB history to play a full season without recording an error, a remarkable accomplishment considering his previous history of poor defense. Perhaps part of that success could be due to his fielding glove’s fingers being tied together by rawhide, the first time any player had done that to a glove in the Majors.

The following year, Litwhiler and fellow outfielder Earl Naylor were traded to the Cardinals in exchange for Herman Coaker Triplett, Dain Clay, and Elvin “Buster” Adams, all of which were also outfielders. The surprise trade of Litwhiler angered the Phillies fanbase who were given a “frothing-at-the-mouth argument that will enable them to take their minds off war worries for a few minutes” according to Stan Baumgartner of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Baumgartner wrote in the paper that fan reaction was very “bitter” and even talked to one man with a Texas accent who remarked “I saw that Clay play in the Texas League- and if he’s a big leaguer, I’m a storm trooper.”

Things worked out pretty good for Litwhiler at least, as he was a member of the 1944 World Series champion Cardinals while the Phillies continued to wallow in loathing and self-pity. Litwhiler, who was previously ineligible for military service due to his knee injury, was accepted for limited service in the Army in 1945 and rose to be recreation director for the 10,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. He returned to the Cardinals in 1946 but was traded to the Boston Braves whom he started for on Opening Day 1947. That day was rather significant, as it was the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team Litwhiler’s Braves were playing against that day.

Litwhiler played for four more seasons in the Majors, having been traded to the Reds in 1948 and playing his last game with Cincinnati in 1951. He then embarked on a coaching career that started in the minor leagues but soon moved to college ball. During his time coaching is when Litwhiler created numerous inventions that are still in use today, such as the JUGGS radar gun and Diamond Grit, the drying agent that grounds crews use during rain delays. His prototype radar gun and his tied rawhide glove are both enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com

Alan Cohen, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography for Pinky May

Evansville Press, June 1st, 1932

The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2nd, 1940

James C. Isaminger, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 7th, 1940

C. Paul Rogers III, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography for Hugh Mulcahy

The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 25th, 1940

John M. Cummings, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2nd, 1941

Glen Vasey, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography for Danny Litwhiler

Pottsville Republican, June 26th, 1942

Stan Baumgartner, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3rd, 1943

The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2nd, 1943

Happy Valentine’s Day. Here’s to hearts, roses, chocolates and Atlanta Braves baseball.

Well, one out of four ain’t bad.

The first week of Spring Training is almost in the books, and there’s already been the notable addition of catcher Jonah Heim and the loss of starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach.

Projecting the Opening Day roster before Spring Training games begin is a fool’s errand, but luckily for you, that’s what we’re going to do.

This projection is based on who is on the Braves’ 40-man roster or in camp with the team and assumes that everyone is “healthy” six weeks from now. All the usual caveats apply related to injuries, acquisitions and the like.

Position Players

Catchers: Drake Baldwin

First base: Matt Olson

Second base: Ozzie Albies

Shortstop: Mauricio Dubón

Third base: Austin Riley

Right field: Ronald Acuña, Jr.

Center field: Micheal Harris II

Left field: Mike Yastrzemski

Designated hitter: Jurickson Profar

Bench: Jonah Heim, Sandy León, Eli White, Jorge Mateo

The only slight surprise here is León. Although Atlanta’s schedule to start the season isn’t menacing as the start to the 2025 campaign, the Braves do play 13 games in-a-row to open the season, including an eight-game west coast road trip, meaning that Atlanta could opt to give León a start or at least have him as an emergency option on the bench.

Heim’s ability to switch-hit and All-Star pedigree means Atlanta could carry three catchers on the 26-man roster once Sean Murphy returns from injury.With Baldwin likely to see a good-bit of time at DH, León gives the team the third catcher to open the season and allow the team to test-run their possible future position player roster breakdown.

Wild Cards: Kyle Farmer, Luke Williams, Chadwick Tromp, Nacho Alvarez, Jr.

Farmer was a late addition to Braves camp, and has played all-over the infield in his career with 300 career games at shortstop, 200+ games at second base, more than 160 appearances at third base and 19 games behind the plate. Yes, Farmer caught 15 games for the Reds in 2019 (although that was also the last time he appeared behind the dish).

Farmer could take the place of León or Mateo but Mateo’s speed and defense at shortstop could make him the more valuable of the two until shortstop Ha-Seong Kim returns from injury.

That note about Atlanta playing 13 consecutive games? Well, chances are at least one of those games will be a blow-out and that’s where Williams shines. Williams can play in the infield and outfield and is an excellent baserunner, but offers nothing with the bat. But as a position-player pitcher, he adds marginal value and being the 13th position player and 14th pitcher with the Braves is a roll he knows well.

Tromp could be an option as a third catcher to start the season over León after returning to the organization in the off-season. It would be a familiar role for the well-liked Tromp, who could get the call should the organization want the respected León to work with the next player on this list at Triple-A.

Nacho Alvarez, Jr. spent time with the catchers in the early days of Spring Training and that’s an interesting development for his long-term future with the Braves. If Atlanta is committed to see if he is capable of picking-up the position with an eye toward a hyper-valuable back-up infielder/third-catcher role at the big league level in the future, he seems almost certain to be ticketed to Gwinnett.

Pitchers

Starting pitchers: Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz

Bullpen: Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley, Aaron Bummer, Dylan Dodd, Joel Payamps

Again with that whole 13 games-in-a-row thing. With Holmes, Elder, Wentz and Dodd all out of options, they all make the team out of Spring Training with the Braves starting the year with a six-man rotation and Dodd who could cover multiple innings in the bullpen. Payamps, who’d been a been a highly-effective reliever until struggling for much of last season, gets the nod as the fourth right-hander in the bullpen.

Wild Cards: Hurston Waldrep, Jose Suaréz, James Karinchak, Martín Peréz, Hayden Harris, Daysbel Hernández

Karinchak’s addition to the Opening Day roster was tempting but may be more sentimental than practical given the team brought back Payamps on a $2.25M deal after a brief audition late in the 2025 regular season. Karinchak, who was a standout reliever with the Cleveland Guardians, has had his career derailed by injuries and hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2023.

Suaréz, who was DFA’d by Atlanta but was re-claimed by the team prior to Spring Training, and Dodd could be in a battle for the third lefty in the bullpen or six starter with Wentz.

Waldrep and Peréz are two players on opposite sides of their careers who face similar challenges to the Opening Day roster. With Holmes, Elder and Wentz all out of options, Waldrep could find himself starting the year at Triple-A just because he has options left. If he shines in Spring Training or if an injury to any of the other starters arises, he could find himself with the big league team to start the season. Based on last season, he’s may be one of the team’s five best starting pitchers, but future roster flexibility may be more important than a few weeks of big league starts.

A late-in-the-off-season signing, Peréz was solid last year in 11 games with the White Sox. He has been an average back-end starter for most of his career outside of his stand-out All-Star season in 2022. Now 34, he’s made 20-or-more starts eight times in his 14-year big league career, and if healthy, could be an alternative to Wentz as a left-handed starter.

Harris offers another third-lefty option with his unique pitch mix, but barring a bombastic performance this spring, he seems likely to be an option for later in the season. Hernández has a big arm and bigger control issues and seems to be on the outside of the Opening Day roster bubble.

Will the Opening Day roster shake out like this? Not of the team finds that mysterious post-season quality starting pitcher or if a few injury bugs bite.

For nearly 20 years, the Yankees had an ace in the hole who gave them an advantage over every other team in the league, boasting the nearest the game has ever known to a true shutdown closer. Of paramount importance, therefore, was establishing a bridge between the team’s starters and Mariano Rivera, who lay in wait should the team hold an advantage entering the ninth inning. That role was filled by an endless stream of arms over the years, including All-Stars, phenoms, and journeymen. And, for one glorious month, Dámaso Marte served as a key plank in the bridge as the Yankees captured their 27th championship.

Dámaso Marte Saviñón
Born: February 14, 1975 (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
Yankees Tenure: 2008-10

Dámaso Marte was born on Valentine’s Day in 1975 in the Dominican Republic’s capital city of Santo Domingo. He signed with the Mariners for $2,500 as a 17-year-old, rising through the ranks of their minor-league system until debuting with Seattle during a five-appearance stint in 1999. But, after a left elbow strain cost him most of the following season, the Mariners cut the southpaw.

It was here that the left-hander would first intersect with the Yankees. “They released me after elbow surgery, and the only team interested was the Yankees,” Marte would later say of his exit from Seattle. “I signed a contract with a clause that [said] I would stay in the big leagues if I could make the team, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t do it and was sent to the minors.”

Assigned to Double-A Norwich, Marte fared well enough in his first extended action after surgery that he drew the attention of the Pirates, who consummated a swap for the reliever that netted the Yankees utilityman Enrique Wilson. In parts of four seasons in New York, Wilson didn’t exactly light up the stat sheet. But he became a fan favorite for one bewildering — and exceedingly valuable — trait. Wilson was the Pedro whisperer, hitting .440 against the Red Sox ace over the course of his career.

After spending the rest of the 2001 season in Pittsburgh’s bullpen, Marte was moved once again, this time to the White Sox. In his late 20s, the reliever finally hit his stride, making 279 appearances with a 2.78 ERA over four seasons. This included a pivotal outing in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series in which he tossed 1.2 innings of scoreless ball during a 14-inning marathon in Houston, taking home the victory as the White Sox pulled ahead to a 3-0 series lead en route to a sweep.

Ever the nomad, Marte was traded again before the 2006 campaign, this time back to Pittsburgh. After two-and-a-half seasons in their bullpen, the Yankees pulled the trigger midway through the 2008 season on a move that would bring him back to their organization. GM Brian Cashman parted with prospects José Tábata, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen to bring back Marte and outfielder Xavier Nady. “It was hard to give up the players we did. I like those players,” Cashman said at the time. “[But] the players we got back – Marte and Nady – both will hopefully contribute to the 2008 season, and we have them for ’09.”

But Marte’s transition back to the AL would not be a smooth one. He posted a 5.40 ERA down the stretch in ‘08 as the Yankees stumbled and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993. After losing the lion’s share of the ‘09 season to injury — and allowing more than a run per inning while healthy — Marte hardly figured to be a key element of the team’s postseason plans. But he did crack the playoff roster, pairing with Phil Coke as the team’s top left-handed options out of the bullpen. His role as a lefty specialist got off to a rough start in the ALDS, when he allowed singles to Minnesota’s top two lefties — Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel — in his sole appearance and was pulled by manager Joe Girardi before recording an out.

Fortunately for Marte, he would get a second chance to help form the bridge to Mariano in the next round. And, fortunately for the Yankees, he would take full advantage of that opportunity. In Game 2 of the ALCS, with the Yankees up a game and Coke already burned in the seventh, Marte entered in extras to face Kendrys Morales, a switch-hitter who’d hit 30 of his 34 homers that season against righties. Marte induced a groundout from the Angels first baseman before giving way to David Robertson, who would record the victory when Melky Cabrera walked the game off. He was back in Game 3 and, while it was the Angels who would walk that game off, Marte came on to retire another switch-hitter who struggled against lefties, Chone Figgins, and strand a runner in scoring position. Likewise in Game 5, when he retired Figgins and the left-handed Bobby Abreu.

But it was after the Yankees advanced to the World Series that Marte would truly distinguish himself as a lefty specialist par excellence. He appeared in four games, facing eight batters and retiring all eight. He gave particular fits to the left-handed heart of the Phillies’ order, with Chase Utley and Ryan Howard going a combined 0-for-6 with four punchouts.

Marte’s ability to neutralize Utley — who hit five home runs that series, four of which came against his fellow lefties — was a major factor in the Yankees’ ability to prevail. Marte’s heroics garnered him high praise from his manager.

“When we think about the 2009 World Series, we think of Hideki Matsui, who was the MVP,” said Girardi. “But, to me, the MVP in that World Series was Dámaso Marte. The Phillies [had] really good left-handed hitters. In the top of the eighth inning of Game One, the first two batters get on and I bring in Dámaso and he strikes out Utley and I go, ‘Uh, oh!’ Then Game Three in Philly, he strikes out Howard, he strikes out Jayson Werth. … I’ve got a super weapon here. Then Game Six. There’s two on in the top of the seventh, [and he strikes out Utley]. Dámaso Marte was the unsung hero of that World Series, and I’ll never forget it.”

Marte never reached those heights again. He pitched to a 4.08 ERA while limited to 17.2 innings with the Yankees in 2010 and spent all of the following season recovering from shoulder labrum surgery. At the age of 36, the injuries which had plagued him throughout his career led him to walk away from the game of baseball. He’s now a pastor at the Ministerio Refugio de Fe y Esperanza in Santo Domingo. But, for one incredible run, he was an irreplaceable cog in the Yankees’ bullpen and, in the eyes of his manager, the most valuable player on a championship squad.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

It’s Valentine’s Day today, so I hope you will all spend your Saturday thinking about Bobby Valentine, who played for the Dodgers from 1969-72, or maybe 2005 third baseman and shortstop José Valentín, or perhaps Tom Lovett, a pitcher for Brooklyn in the 19th century.

Or maybe Sandy Amorós can get you in the mood after watching his incredible catch from Game 7 of the 1955 World Series.

Today’s question is a simple one: Who or what made you fall in love with baseball?