Category: MLB

The Tampa Bay Rays have announced they will also celebrate former Rays third baseman Evan Longoria with a weekend of events and recognition dubbed, “Longo’s Legacy Weekend.”

The team will honor Longoria by inducting him into the Rays Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 11 and will retire his No. 3 jersey on Sunday, July 12.

During his time with Tampa Bay, Longoria was a three-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner. He was named AL Rookie of the Year in 2008 and was the 2009 AL Silver Slugger recipient at third base, becoming the second player in team history to earn a Silver Slugger.

Longoria’s contributions helped send the Rays to the first four postseason appearances in franchise history, including a World Series run during his rookie season in 2008. He delivered a legendary walk-off home run in “Game 162” against the Yankees in 2011, securing the American League Wild Card. In 2025, Longoria signed a ceremonial one-day contract to retire from the game as a Tampa Bay Ray.

Previous Rays Hall of Fame inductees include former Devil Rays third baseman Wade Boggs (2023), former Rays outfielder Carl Crawford (2023), former Devil Rays first baseman Fred McGriff (2024), Rays Radio broadcaster Dave Wills (2024), and former player, manager and Rays senior advisor Don Zimmer (2023). Both Wills and Zimmer were inducted posthumously.

A lefty masher who finished last season with the Yankees will not return to The Bronx.

Veteran outfielder Austin Slater has agreed to a minor league deal with the Tigers, The Post’s Jon Heyman first reported Tuesday.

The deal, which includes an invitation to major league spring training, is worth $2 million if Slater makes the team, with an additional $500,000 in incentives, per Fansided.

Slater, 33, was acquired from the White Sox at the trade deadline last season to provide some right-handed punch for a lefty-heavy Yankees lineup.

From 2017-23, Slater hit an outstanding .285/.374/.463 with an .837 OPS against lefties.

He suffered a hamstring injury in his second start with the Yankees and missed more than a month of action after hitting the injured list.

The nine-year veteran, who sported an .814 OPS versus lefties at the time of the injury, finished his Yankees stint just 1-for-16 with 11 strikeouts against southpaws. 

In 53 games between New York and Chicago last season, Slater slashed .216/.270/.372 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.

In search of a right-handed outfielder for the bench, the Yankees pursued a reunion with Slater, offering a one-year, $1 million deal, Heyman reported last week.

The sides could not reach an agreement, however, and the Yankees instead reunited with another lefty masher, Paul Goldschmidt.

“[Goldshmidt] wasn’t necessarily the perfect fit, like we’d probably want the right-handed outfielder with more flexibility,” manager Aaron Boone said on MLB Network Radio on Sunday.

“Inevitably, things happen over the course of spring and the course of the season to where having the better player, especially a guy who has performed here and been part of the culture, it was a really good day for us.”

Instead, Slater, who wields a career .248/.336/.384 line with 45 homers and 184 RBIs between the Giants, Reds, Orioles, White Sox and Yankees, has a chance to make more than double what New York offered.

Slater was part of a busy day for the Tigers, who also reunited with legendary pitcher Justin Verlander on a one-year, $13 million deal.

Joe Thon is in his second year coaching in the Dodgers’ system, serving this year as the bench coach for Triple-A Oklahoma City after holding the same job for High-A Great Lakes in 2025.

During part of last season, Thon was undergoing kidney dialysis, and needed a kidney transplant in December. The donor was his father, Dickie Thon, a major league shortstop for 15 years. From Brian McTaggart at MLB.com:

Joe, 34, was a bit hesitant at first to take his father’s kidney, and for good reason. Dickie is 67 years old and healthy, but the idea of taking a kidney from his father made Joe uncomfortable. It took urging from his dad and doctors to convince him it was the right course of action.

“I didn’t want to put him in a tough spot, either,” Joe said. “But the doctors assured me that everything was good. It wouldn’t really take too much of a toll physically, but you hate to put somebody in a spot like that. But it was best for me and my family, too. Dad was really adamant he wanted to do it.”

Dodgers minor league pitcher Michael Vilchez, a 22-year-old right-hander out of Curacao who pitched last season for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, was among the pitchers listed in reserve for The Netherlands as part of the designated pitcher pool for the World Baseball Classic. Michael Clair at MLB.com has more info on the complete list.

Neil de Mause writes about the economics of publicly-financed sports stadiums at Field of Schemes, and he talked to Marc Normandin about that in relation to MLB’s labor battle and the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations:

The books are never opened for a reason, and MLB teams insisting that real estate revenue made at a baseball stadium isn’t baseball revenue is another reason to keep them closed. Having to open the books and argue about what is or isn’t revenue would take longer than the rest of bargaining combined, and it’s not even clear if the owners would agree with each other, never mind the players, about what constitutes baseball revenue.

Spring Training Hope Comes With a Familiar Astros Fear

This is the week baseball fans have been waiting for. Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training, and with that, the long offseason finally gives way to possibility. For Astros fans, it’s the chance to put last season firmly in the rearview mirror and focus on what still lies ahead during another year of the Golden Era of Houston baseball.

But as much as I want to lean fully into optimism, there’s already a familiar knot forming in my stomach.

The excitement of a fresh start is real. So is the hope that this team, one that played quality baseball for most of last season, can bounce back and reassert itself as a legitimate contender. Yet before workouts have even started, one lingering issue from the past has already resurfaced, and it’s the same one that has haunted this franchise for the last several years: injuries and how they’re handled.

On Monday, ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that All-Star closer Josh Hader has begun throwing lightly on flat ground, with the Astros expecting to learn more about his readiness for the season sometime midweek. On the surface, that may not sound alarming. But for those of us who have lived through the Astros’ recent medical misadventures, it was enough to make us cringe.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Over the past several seasons, the Astros have been plagued not just by injuries, but by what felt like repeated missteps, vague timelines, and frustrating outcomes tied to player health. Whether it was pitchers, position players, or cornerstone stars, too many situations ended with prolonged absences and more questions than answers. Last year, it cost the team dearly, contributing to an unthinkable finish: a strong regular season that still ended with Houston on the outside looking in at the postseason.

That’s why the organization’s decision to clean house and make wholesale changes to the medical staff this offseason felt like a necessary reset. For the first time in a while, there was real hope that the Astros were finally ready to turn the page on the constant cycle of setbacks, misdiagnoses, and lost time.

Which is why hearing even a mildly concerning update on Hader this early hits differently.

When you start stacking the names, Isaac Paredes, multiple pitchers including Christian Javier and Luis Garcia, Josh Hader, Jake Meyers, and even Kyle Tucker the year before, it’s hard not to feel exhausted and disgusted by the pattern. Astros fans have been conditioned to brace for the worst, not because we want to, but because history has taught us to.

Call it PTSD. Call it precedent. Whatever the label, it’s hard to shake.

To be clear, this may amount to nothing. Hader could ramp up without issue, be fully ready for Opening Day, and anchor the bullpen the way he’s supposed to. That’s the outcome everyone is hoping for, and I genuinely want to believe that the Astros are better positioned, both on and off the field, when it comes to player health moving forward.

But until we actually see a noticeable difference, skepticism is fair.

Spring training is supposed to be about clean slates and renewed belief. Starting the season with injury uncertainty, especially involving a key arm like Hader, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and stay hopeful for positive news in the coming weeks.

Just don’t blame me if, for now, I’m already fearing the worst.

Alejandro Kirk is a 27-year-old, right-handed hitting catcher from Tijuana, Mexico. He’s played the last five seasons (plus 9 games) with the Jays.

In 564 MLB games, he has a .268/.345/.398 batting line with 51 home runs, 1 stolen base and a 11.3 bWAR (fWAR likes him better, 14.9 career).

When he came up, we thought he would be a good bat/ok glove catcher, but his defense has been terrific. Baseball Savant has him at the 100th percentile for ‘Fielding Run Value’, as well as 100th percentile for Blocks Above Average (as much as we continue to be told that the one-knee-down catching cause more wild pitches/passed balls) and 98th percentile for Framing.

Kirk wasn’t all that great at throwing out baserunners this year, 56th percentile. He was great early, through the end of June he had thrown out 15 of 49 stealers (31%). The rest of the way he was 2 of 37 (5%). I don’t know what happened; maybe there was an injury that we didn’t know about.

On the season he threw out 22% of base streals, in 2024 he threw out 31%.

And, of course, he’s slow. Baseball Savant has him at the 1st percentile in Baserunning Run Value, and Sprint Speed is 2nd percentile. I tend to think the talk about his speed is overblown, If I have to choose between a fast catcher and a great defensive catcher, I’ll take the latter.

I think the same thing when people complain that he’s heavy. I’d rather have a very good catcher than a catcher in great shape. As John Kruk said ‘He’s a baseball player, not an athlete’. Again, I’d rather the ballplayer than the athlete. Of course, he’s my middle son’s favourite players, my son says he can relate to Krik, he can’t relate to

Kirk is in the 91st percentile in hard hit balls, squared-up balls and expected batting average. He’s 95th percentile in strikeout percentage.

His best season with the bat was 2022, when he hit .285/372/.415. I think he’s going to have a season where he puts it all together with the bat and his .300+ with 20+ home runs.

Steamer thinks he’ll play 106 games this year, with a .276/.354/.435 line and 14 home runs for a 4.2 fWAR.

The first time Andrew Friedman reached the World Series as a general manager, his upstart 2008 Tampa Bay Rays team had a payroll of $43 million, the second-smallest in the majors that year.

When last year’s Friedman-built Dodgers squad won its second-consecutive World Series title, the club’s star-studded roster cost almost 10 times that amount, with a record-setting $415 million payroll that incurred another $169 million in luxury tax penalties on top of it all.

Looking back at that juxtaposition now, Friedman can’t help but chuckle.

“(When I got to the Dodgers), I didn’t even know what the CBT really was, or how it exactly worked,” he said. “And even to think back to where we were then, to where we are now, is comical.”

Indeed, such has been the transformation of not only the Dodgers in recent years, but also their longtime president of baseball operations.

Once the posterboy for small-market success, sustainable spending, and an analytically-driven approach that was supposed to help negate the traditional financial disparities within the salary cap-less sport, Friedman has a new reputation now:

Architect of a villainous Dodgers dynasty widely criticized as being “bad for baseball.”

“I’ve heard that over the last couple years,” Friedman deadpanned last month, when asked about public outcries over the Dodgers’ near-limitless spending. “For us, all we’re consumed with is the partnership that we have with our fans … That’s our only focus.”

For much of his 20-year front office career, of course, Friedman operated differently.

In Tampa Bay, he built a consistent winner on shoestring budgets, pioneering a value-based operation to work around the club’s financial limitations. Even early in his Dodgers tenure, he practiced fiscal constraint when constructing his teams, occasionally dipping under the luxury tax threshold while avoiding many big-money free-agent signings.

That all changed when the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani two offseasons ago –– turning the team into a revenue-generating machine with resources unmatched by any other club in baseball.

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Since then, Friedman has embraced his new financial reality, completing one star signing after another, including additions of Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker this winter that have pushed the team’s 2026 payroll back over the $400 million mark.

“The moment that we signed Shohei, it was important to back that up and continue to show our commitment to winning and reinvesting in the team,” Friedman said in a recent interview with The California Post. “How that has played out, in conjunction with having Shohei, I think has increased (our willingness to spend) and made it an even more aggressive plan than we initially thought. But again, we didn’t sit down and say, ‘OK, now it can be X instead of Y.’ It was more like, let’s be more aggressive. And as we’ve done that, aggressiveness has beget more aggressiveness.”

Friedman didn’t always envision, or even seek, this kind of opportunity. During his time in Tampa Bay, “I thought I was going to be with the Rays forever,” he said.

Coming to the Dodgers in 2014, however, represented what he described as a “perfect situation” –– in large part because it meant “throwing myself in the deep end and activating a totally different part of my brain.”

A decade later, it has led more of Friedman’s offseason focus to now be on pursuing top free agents with eye-popping financial proposals, rather than more marginal maneuvers with payroll management in mind.

And while the Dodgers “are doing some things that probably aren’t sustainable, or we probably wouldn’t do for 10, 15, 20 years,” he acknowledged, the opportunity to capitalize on this current window has warranted such a drastic change in spending habits.

“(We are) appreciating this moment in time and the talent we have on our roster,” he said, “and not being flippant about the fact that it will always be like this.”

When asked if such unprecedented resources has made his job any less stressful, Friedman paused to consider his career path.

“Whatever the rules are, whatever the unique challenges of your market and situation are, my focus has always been on just doing the best that we can to put the best team on the field and give us the best chance to win a championship,” he said. “So while it’s been very different in my two experiences, the pressure you feel, the work you put in, feels very similar. Because the constraints are given to you, and then you do your best within them to do the best you can.”

Still, the fact that the constraints are so much less now has led to a marked shift –– turning the man who once represented the antithesis to the Dodgers’ current style of spending, the face of a deep-pocketed dynasty sparing no expense in its hunts for more championships.

“I think it speaks to the success that we’ve been able to enjoy organizationally,” Friedman said. “And our mindset is to pump that back into our team on the field.”

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

Spring training is almost here! Despite a winter that moved at a glacial pace, we’ve somehow already arrived at pitchers and catchers reporting to camp, the Yankees contingent arriving in Tampa on Wednesday. But before the warmer weather arrives, we ought to take one final look back at the business conducted by the Yankees during a frigid offseason and the man pulling the strings behind those decisions, general manager Brian Cashman.

The Yankees’ offseason began just over four months ago with their unceremonious dumping out of the ALDS at the hands of the Blue Jays. From that point forward, focus turned to 2026 and the calculus it would require to get the Yankees back to the playoffs. The team could boast a solid foundation of players — one which produced the best offense in baseball — and the question became whether to run in back and hope for better results vs. taking a more proactive approach to improving the roster.

Four months later, we know the answer to that question. Despite his public protests to the contrary, Cashman held firm to a policy of rolling the dice with largely the same group of players that fell well short of the ultimate prize in 2025, hoping that better luck might bring improved results. Let’s review the decisions he made before I hand the floor over to you to voice your opinions on the course charted by the front office.

Upon the conclusion of the World Series, eight players became free agents — Trent Grisham, Paul Goldschmidt, Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, Amed Rosario, Austin Slater, Ryan Yarbrough, and Paul Blackburn — with Cody Bellinger joining them a day later when he declined his player option for 2026. You’d be forgiven if you missed the Yankees’ opening moves of the offseason, the team picking up their club option on Tim Hill while declining the option on Jonathan Loáisiga. In a similar vein, their first free agent signing was Yarbrough, retained on a one-year, $2.5 million deal to reprise his swingman role from 2025. The focus remained on the margins of the bullpen in the early weeks of November, the front office trimming the fat by non-tendering Mark Leiter Jr., Ian Hamilton, Jake Cousins, and Scott Effross.

Then came the Rule 5 Draft, the Yankees selecting righty pitcher Cade Winquest from the Cardinals while adding Spencer Jones, Elmer Rodríguez, and Chase Hampton to the 40-man roster to protect them from departing. “Operation: Run it Back” kicked into another gear as the Yankees focused on returning even the fringe role players from 2025, both Rosario and Blackburn re-signed on one-year pacts. Shortly thereafter, the Yankees came to agreements with all of their remaining arbitration-eligible players — Clarke Schmidt, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jazz Chisholm Jr., David Bednar, Anthony Volpe, Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, Luis Gil, José Caballero, and Jake Bird. (The final piece of the ”Run it Back” puzzle fell into place this past week with the reunion with Paul Goldschmidt for one year and $4 million.)

The first real contentious decision of the offseason actually occurred a few weeks prior to the arb calls, when the Yankees extended the $22.025 million qualifying offer to Trent Grisham. The 29-year-old center fielder accepted it pretty quickly. Focusing solely on the player, one could make the argument that it’s a high-reward, low-risk move — he either repeats his career year from 2025 and plays for a relative bargain, or he regresses in which case he’s only on the books for one season. However, in the broader context of the offseason’s overall budget, many fans worried that his salary would dissuade ownership from authorizing spending on a potential foundational piece for the future.

The majority of the Yankees’ rumors were dominated by the dance between Bellinger and the front office — Cashman adamant in his desire to keep Bellinger in the Bronx, and Bellinger and Scott Boras holding out for an unattainable jackpot before returning to reality when a seven-year offer failed to materialize. The two sides reunited on a five-year, $162.5 million contract with Bellinger possessing opt-outs after each of the first two seasons. Because of how much money is front-loaded in the terms, Bellinger will be the Yankees’ most expensive player in 2026 and 2027 carrying a luxury tax hit of $44.75 million — almost $5 million more than the AAV of Aaron Judge’s contract and roughly $6 million less than Juan Soto’s AAV with the Mets.

While not an identical roster to 2025, the Yankees’ external additions could still be construed as lateral moves at best. They traded for lefty starter Ryan Weathers from the Marlins, but he’s effectively replacing Schmidt in the rotation as the latter recovers from Tommy John surgery. They lost two of their highest leverage relievers in Williams and Weaver, but filled their vacancies with a Rule 5 dice roll (Winquest) and the worst qualified reliever in baseball in 2025 (no matter how tantalizing the stuff might be) in Angel Chivilli. And of course, true to form, Cashman likened Gerrit Cole’s return from Tommy John rehab to a big-ticket acquisition despite the now-35-year-old starter having pitched just 95 innings since the end of 2023. Cashman also cited the 2025 Trade Deadline additions as 2026 pickups as well, given that the likes of Bednar and Doval will now have full seasons in the Bronx.

Obviously, all of these decisions have to be viewed in the context of the needs of the roster and the players they declined to pursue to upgrade it. Cashman somewhat oddly labeled Kyle Tucker as the backup plan to re-signing Bellinger despite the former being the younger, more superior player and settling for a short-term (albeit a record-high-AAV) deal with the Dodgers. They were vaguely linked to Bo Bichette before he signed his own short-term, high-AAV deal with the Mets, but seemingly felt that the defensives upside and cheaper cost offered by Ryan McMahon and Anthony Volpe justified passing on Bichette’s superior offensive profile.

The same goes on the pitching side. They were never players in the markets for the top-end names like Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, and Ranger Suárez. They passed on Tatsuya Imai, who joined Astros for a surprisingly cheap three years and $54 million. They had varying levels of interest in trading for Freddy Peralta, MacKenzie Gore, and Edward Cabrera, but opted for the less expensive option in Weathers, despite the expectation that Cole, Schmidt, and Carlos Rodón will miss the start of the season as they rehab from their respective elbow surgeries. For whatever it’s worth, at the end of the day, both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus project the Yankees as the 2026 AL East winners, though both also project the Mariners and Dodgers for better records and World Series odds.

So now I would like to turn it over to you. Do you approve of the job Yankees GM Brian Cashman has done this winter in filling out the roster? Additionally, we are asking that you assign a letter grade to the Yankees’ offseason, giving us a slightly more concrete understanding of how the fanbase is feeling heading into spring training. Vote in our poll below:

Baseball Prospectus has released its PECOTA projections for 2026. PECOTA projects the 2026 Mets to win 88.4 games and come in second place in the National League East, and it puts the Mets’ chances of making the playoffs at 78.3% with a 28.5% chance of winning the division and a 49.8% chance of finishing with an NL Wild Card berth.

As for the rest of the NL East, PECOTA taps the Braves as the likeliest division winners, projecting Atlanta for 92.2 wins and over 90% playoff odds. The top three teams in the NL East are once again tightly packed with the Phillies projected for 85.1 wins with 58.9% playoff odds. Not surprisingly, there is a large gap between those top three teams and the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals, who are projected for 75.2 and 65.6 wins, respectively.

Taking a deeper dive into what PECOTA likes and doesn’t like about the 2026 Mets, the short answer is that the lineup is headlined by two very good players in Juan Soto (156 DRC+, 5.7 WARP projection—behind only Shohei Ohtani for all hitters) and Francisco Lindor (121 DRC+, 3.7 WARP projection). Going further down the depth chart, PECOTA predicts a bounce back season from Marcus Semien offensively (101 DRC+) and projects above average offensive production from all of Bo Bichette, Francisco Alvarez, Jorge Polanco, and even Mark Vientos. PECOTA also notably thinks Luis Robert Jr. will have a fully healthy season, penciling him in for 535 plate appearances of roughly average output with the bat, which would put him at 2 WARP and would represent a huge upgrade over what the Mets got out of the center field position last year.

On the other hand, PECOTA projects only 14.8 WARP from the Mets’ pitching staff—ten wins less than what it projects from their position players. Though it is quite bullish on the Mets’ bullpen and thinks Devin Williams projects similarly to Edwin Díaz in 2026, PECOTA is not enamored with Nolan McLean, despite his prospect ranking and big league success last year. McLean is projected to throw just 150 innings and put up a 100 DRA- and less than 2 WARP—pretty pedestrian numbers for what the Mets are hoping is a top of the rotation starter. McLean is probably the most obvious candidate to overperform his PECOTA projections. PECOTA does think Freddy Peralta (91 DRA-, 2.8 WARP projection) will have a very Freddy Peralta season—the exact boon to the rotation the Mets hoped for when they traded for him. And it is also intriguingly optimistic about Sean Manaea (90 DRA-, 1.3 WARP projection), but has him down for only 80 innings. PECOTA is less optimistic about the rest of the Mets’ rotation, which it projects as below average outside of Jonah Tong, who PECOTA thinks will make 11 starts with a 91 DRA-.

Both the Mets and the Atlanta Braves had disappointing finishes in 2025. The Mets turned over a significant chunk of their roster in response while the Braves are trusting their core and more or less running it back in 2026—an approach the other major competitor in the division in the Philadelphia Phillies is also taking this season. PECOTA projects a bounce back for both the Mets and the Braves, but a much more significant one for Atlanta, whose position player core outside of the shortstop position PECOTA likes quite a bit, expecting a regression to the mean for many of the Braves’ key players.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a former Yankee in his own right, said on Tuesday that the Toronto Blue Jays were "a lot happier" to face the Yankees instead of the Boston Red Sox in their 2025 American League Division series matchup.

“I don’t know if people were expecting Boston to get in last year. But I know in Toronto we were happy they lost because we weren’t ready for (Garrett) Crochet and all those guys,” said Kiner-Falefa, via Lauren Campbell of MassLive.com.

“One-hundred percent,” he answered when asked if that was truly a topic in the Jays clubhouse. “We thought it was a better matchup for us the other way. We were watching Crochet just dice up. ... We definitely felt like it was a tougher matchup for us. So, once we saw the other team (win), we were a lot happier. It was definitely a topic.”

Now a member of the Red Sox, the 30-year-old Kiner-Falefa played two seasons in the Bronx from 2022-23, slashing .253/.311/.333 with 10 home runs, 85 RBI, and 105 runs scored. He was the starting shortstop in 2022 before serving in more of a super-utility role in 2023, when Anthony Volpe won the starting job out of spring training.

IKF played with Toronto in 2024 and ended up back with the Blue Jays late in 2025, as Toronto went on to beat the Yankees in the ALDS in four games before eventually having its dreams crushed in Game 7 of the World Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Kiner-Falefa went 0-for-6 with a strikeout against the Yankees in the ALDS.

The Yankees, of course, defeated the Red Sox in the Wild Card Round, despite losing to Crochet and the Red Sox in Game 1.

Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training is no longer the only early sign that baseball is around the corner. Now, the year might as well officially begin with fans figuring out what subscriptions they need to stream MLB games. 

In 2026, the answers are more complicated. Starting Tuesday, ESPN manages MLB’s out-of-market streaming package for the first time, as MLB.TV went on sale for $150/season or $30/month. However, as the local sports TV industry crumbles, the league is handling in-market rights for more than a dozen teams, leading to a split of viewing—and purchase—opportunities across MLB and ESPN apps. Add in the transition of numerous bundle and discount offers, and at least some confusion is nothing to be ashamed about.

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Here are the most common questions fans might have and what we know for now…

I’m an existing MLB.TV subscriber. What changes this year?

Potentially nothing. MLB will continue handling billing for fans whose accounts are set to renew normally. This year, viewers can still watch games in the MLB app, or they can authenticate their subscription to watch in ESPN’s app as well. 

“The proposition here for this year and moving forward, we believe, is pretty simple,” ESPN direct to consumer SVP John Lasker said. “We’re creating more flexibility, more accessibility and enhancing the entire experience for baseball fans.”

Do I need ESPN Unlimited to access MLB.TV?

No, despite what you may have read. Again, existing subscribers won’t need to do anything to continue accessing MLB.TV. And for a service that’s been around for two decades, that’s likely most viewers. 

Those existing MLB.TV subscribers who auto-renew their accounts through MLB platforms will also receive the option to sign up for a one-month free trial offer for ESPN Unlimited.

New MLB.TV subscribers or those who didn’t auto-renew, meanwhile, will be signed up for an ESPN Unlimited account, including a free month to start, before purchasing MLB.TV. People can immediately cancel their Unlimited subscription before being billed, without impacting their MLB.TV access, though they can’t opt-out of being enrolled in the first place, much to the chagrin of a few online posters. 

If new MLB.TV users already have ESPN Unlimited, which is included in many cable packages or costs $30/month, they can get a 10% discount on MLB.TV ($135/year). That means if you have a cable subscription and are an annual MLB.TV buyer, it’s worth looking into turning off that auto-renewal so you can get the discount via ESPN.  

Those currently paying for Unlimited need to end their membership and wait for their current pay term to end if they want to get a free month of ESPN’s all-in-one product along with MLB.TV.

(I warned you this might get complicated!)

ESPN has also promised to continue offering discounted MLB.TV subscriptions beginning mid-season. In those cases, fans will similarly be enrolled for ESPN Unlimited, with a free month to start, as part of the checkout process. As for future years, ESPN has not yet announced whether the free Unlimited month promotion will carry over into 2027, or whether fans would need to have ESPN Unlimited at that point to either renew or sign up for MLB.TV.

What about T-Mobile’s free MLB.TV promotion?

Still around! After activating T-Mobile’s offer, fans can watch in the MLB or ESPN app. As in the past, that deal does not include MLB Network access, which otherwise comes with the MLB.TV all-team product. MLB will still allow fans to buy standalone MLB Network access. MLB.TV won’t be available on other platforms, such as Amazon Prime Video.

Any other changes to be aware of?

One downside of the new agreement is that MLB.TV apparently no longer offers a free game each day. Instead, ESPN Unlimited subscribers will be able to watch one game each day, even without an MLB.TV subscription. The same is true for Peacock subs. 

Several cable replacement services, such as YouTube TV, are integrating ESPN Unlimited content into their platforms. All of MLB.TV likely won’t be available within those interfaces, though the daily free game could potentially flow through, alongside traditional TV channels. 

MLB.TV handles my team’s local streaming rights. How’s that going to work?

With Main Street Sports on the brink of collapse—again—MLB now handles the in-market broadcast and streaming rights for 14 teams and counting. Local fans can subscribe to watch those games online for $20/month or $100/season within the MLB app. That will still be the case this year, though ESPN hopes to offer those local packages starting next year. If and when ESPN sells the full suite of local and out-of-market packages, it’s unclear what will become of the league’s own app offering.

For now, MLB will also directly sell bundled packages of local and national streaming rights. For example, fans in San Diego can watch every MLB game, including Padres contests (but still excluding blacked out nationally televised games), for $200 via MLB.

ESPN VP of programming and acquisitions Ashley O’Connor said ESPN is not actively involved in conversations with local teams such as the Atlanta Braves that are currently determining their local media futures. However, the company’s deal with MLB accounts for any new teams whose rights might fall under league control. 

Why is ESPN/MLB doing this?

ESPN’s takeover of MLB.TV emerged from rights talks last year after the company opted out of its Sunday Night Baseball deal, leading to new agreements between MLB and ESPN, NBC and Netflix. 

Lasker said ESPN’s goal is to both extend the distribution of MLB.TV to more fans—links to watch games are already live on ESPN’s baseball schedule and scores pages—while also generating additional engagement with the six-month-old ESPN Unlimited product.

“Our streaming ambitions are to make sure that ESPN is serving sports fans in the best possible way with the most valuable and comprehensive offerings,” Lasker said. 

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With one day before pitchers and catchers report to camp, Paul Toboni made a move. He traded the recently DFA’d George Soriano for Cardinals reliever Andre Granillo. This is just an exchange of two players on the fringes of 40 man rosters, but it is one the Nats did well in. Granillo has some interesting traits as a slider heavy reliever.

This is an interesting trade because the Cardinals could have waited to claim Soriano, but wanted to jump the line. They probably gave Toboni the choice of a few players on the edge of the 40 man roster and gave him a choice. Granillo might have been the one the Cardinals DFA’d if they decided to just claim Soriano.

Granillo is a 25 year old reliever who has some intriguing qualities. His primary pitch is his slider, which he just spams. In the MLB, he threw the pitch 65% of the time in his 14 outings. At the AAA level, he threw it 55% of the time. Despite the heavy usage, the pitch was still dominant. 

MLB hitters only batted .245 against the pitch with an expected batting average of .188. Granillo also got whiffs at nearly a 35% clip. The slider was even more dominant in the minors with a .139 expected batting average and a 47.5% whiff rate. Here is a look at the pitch. 

While Granillo is very slider heavy, his fastball has enough life for hitters to respect it. He averaged 94.6 MPH on the pitch, but his fastball shape is not very good. It can be used as a pitch to keep hitters off guard though.

Granillo had a 4.71 ERA in 14 outings at the MLB level, but he showed some promising flashes. He only struck out 19.8% of hitters, but his whiff rate was excellent at 31.5%. Granillo also limited hard contact well with an average exit velocity of 86.7 MPH and a hard hit rate of just 27.7%. These are some things for the 25 year old to build on.

While the results in the MLB were mixed, he was dominant in AAA. He posted a 1.29 ERA in 42 innings with 58 strikeouts. Getting a pitcher that is that productive, who is still pretty young is a major win for Toboni. 

I am also interested to see what Toboni can do with Granillo. He might try to diversify Granillo’s pitch mix. There is an intriguing changeup that Granillo threw that could be used as a third pitch more frequently. He also experimented with a sinker, which could be a good idea given his lack of ground balls and sub-optimal fastball shape.

It feels like Toboni may have fleeced his former boss Chaim Bloom here. Granillo is not likely to ever be a closer, but he looks like a solid medium leverage option who is young  and has options. 

The corresponding move to this was sending Trevor Williams to the 60-day IL. This is unsurprising given that Williams is coming back from elbow surgery. It also underscores the Nats need for starting pitching. 

The Nats will be able to open up at least one more 40-man spot with DJ Herz likely to start the year on the 60-day IL. Hopefully that spot can go to a starting pitcher. Picking up Granillo is a nice move, but the Nats still need more pitching.

Francisco Lindor has a stress reaction in his left hamate bone, New York Mets president David Stearns said Feb. 10, and the All-Star shortstop is expected to miss six weeks, putting his status for Opening Day in doubt.

Lindor, 32, had already been ruled out of competing for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic due to insurance concerns regarding past offseason surgeries, but Stearns said this injury emerged recently and wasn't part of the WBC decision. Lindor will see a hand specialist Feb. 11, says Stearns, which should determine whether Lindor requires surgery.

Hitters often have surgery to remove the hamate bone once it fractures, with recoveries ranging from a few weeks to a couple of months. Lindor is coming off his fifth All-Star season, and the fourth consecutive year he's finished in the National League's top 10 in MVP voting.

"Knowing Francisco, I’m optimistic, even if he has to go the surgery route," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said on a video call with news reporters. "Found out a couple days ago and didn’t think much of it because this is a guy who’s played through a lot. For him to say something this early, I was like, hmm.

"But if he has to go that route, I’m optimistic he’ll play shortstop for us on Opening Day."

If you are wholly unfamiliar with how Major League Baseball arbitration cases work, this headline could sound somewhat ominous. The reality, though, is that MLB’s arb system is something of a binary system if salaries for eligible players are not hammered out and finalized by a certain date, and an independent arbiter simply gets to pick which side – the player, or the team – has a number that is most deserved.

That’s precisely what went down today between Tyler Stephenson and the Cincinnati Reds. The team’s veteran catcher had submitted a $6.8 million request for the upcoming 2026 season, and the Reds had come in with a $6.55 million number, and despite those two being incredibly close (by baseball salary standards) it was up to an arbiter to decide between the two. And, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed, they picked Stephenson’s $6.8 million mark.

The $250K is even less significant in the grand scheme given that the 2026 season will be Stephenson’s final year of team control before he reaches free agency. Since arb salaries become benchmarks on which future year salaries are built, a difference of even that amount in a first year of arbitration could end up escalating further in each of the subsequent trips through the process, but in Stephenson’s case, this is obviously the last time he’ll be doing that.

It remains to be seen whether this February will also be the final time he reports to Goodyear, Arizona as a catcher in a Reds uniform. The Reds went out and acquired Jose Trevino this time last winter to augment the catching mix and immediately signed him to a contract extension through at least 2027 (and potentially 2028), and top catching prospect Alfredo Duno has rocketed up the rankings after his monster 2025 in the minors. That means the writing may be on the wall for Cincinnati’s 1st round pick from back in 2015, but it could also be the right kind of fuel for him to do everything he can to have a monster platform season in 2026 before hitting free agency.

Regardless, one final, major piece of the roster puzzle for 2026 has been adjudicated.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns opened his first availability of spring training by sharing two pieces of big news.

On the injury front, Francisco Lindor has a hamate injury that could require surgery. Even if Lindor needs surgery, Stearns said he's confident the shortstop will be ready for Opening Day, which is on March 26 at Citi Field.

On the position change front, Juan Sotois moving from right field to left field -- something Stearns explained in depth.

Here are the other key topics Stearns hit on...

Carson Benge the right fielder?

With Soto shifting to left field, that leaves right field as Benge's spot to potentially win.

Benge has plenty of experience in right field, including 26 games last season. And he was primarily a right fielder during his college career with Oklahoma State. 

"We've been consistent throughout the offseason that Carson's gonna come to camp with a chance to make our team -- that remains the same," Stearns said. "He's played a lot of right field during his time in the minor leagues. We're confident with him out there. We also think Brett (Baty) is gonna be able to adjust out there just fine. Tyrone Taylor we're confident is a very quality right fielder. So we feel like we've pretty good options to work through there. MJ Melendez, who may become official here shortly, could potentially be another option."

Benge was tremendous last season across three minor league levels, ending the year with Triple-A Syracuse.

Regarding how the Mets will determine whether Benge makes the team or not, Stearns said the decision will be layered. 

"I think evaluations in spring are always a little bit fraught, and we know that," Stearns noted. "We want to see quality at-bats, we want to see him handle the outfield. It's also gonna depend on what some other guys do, right? It's not all going to be dependent on how Carson looks. 

"We're not gonna get too preoccupied with surface line results one way or the other, and we'll make the best decision that we can on Opening Day -- recognizing that Opening Day is one day, and rosters can change pretty quickly."

Will Mets use a six-man rotation?

As things currently stand, the Mets have six major league starting pitchers -- Freddy Peralta, Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, David Peterson, and Kodai Senga.

To Stearns, that's a good "problem" to have.

"I think we'll cross that bridge if we get to it," Stearns explained about utilizing a potential six-man rotation. "We've got six healthy guys feeling really good right now. If we have six healthy guys feeling really good on Opening Day, I will gladly work through that challenge at that point.

"And we may decide at times to go with a six-man, or we may not. We'll figure that out. That's a really good problem to have if that's where we are on Opening Day."

New York's other rotation options include Tobias Myers (who is stretching out as a starter), Jonah Tong, and Christian Scott.

A.J. Minter's timeline

The expectation all winter has been that Minter, who is recovering from season-ending lat surgery, will not be ready for Opening Day.

Speaking on Tuesday, Stearns said a "realistic return" date for Minter is early May.

Minter is at camp, and was throwing on the field on Tuesday.

Brooks Raley is the only left-hander viewed as a lock to make the Opening Day bullpen.

The Mets added depth there earlier Tuesday, acquiring left-handed reliever Bryan Hudson from the White Sox in exchange for cash considerations.

Hudson, 28, had a 4.80 ERA (5.34 FIP) and 1.86 WHIP in 15.0 innings last season for the Brewers and White Sox. 

He was tremendous in 2024 for Milwaukee, during what was his first full big league season. In 62.1 innings over 43 games, Hudson had a 1.73 ERA (3.60 FIP) and 0.72 WHIP while striking out 62.

Standing at 6'8", Hudson gets elite extension from a low-angle delivery (he was in the 99th percentile last season). He featured mainly a four-seam fastball and sweeper in 2025. In 2024, he also relied heavily on a cutter, which he threw 24 percent of the time (Hudson threw the cutter just three percent of the time last season).

Hudson is out of minor league options, which means the Mets cannot send him to the minors without exposing him to waivers. 

PORT ST. LUCIE — Juan Soto is moving across the field.

After spending his first season in Queens as the right fielder, the franchise player has agreed to begin playing left field full-time, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday.

Soto is slated to play left field for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. It led in recent weeks to conversations between Soto and manager Carlos Mendoza about a switch to left field for the Mets, according to Stearns.

“It made sense for us from a roster perspective so we’re going to go forward with everyone on board with it,” Stearns said. “It’s not something we really contemplated coming into the offseason, but as we had conversations over the last month it made sense.”

With Soto in left field and Luis Robert Jr. in center, right field is now the unclaimed outfield position. Candidates for the spot include Carson Benge, the organization’s top prospect among position players, Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor and MJ Melendez, who was signed to a major league contract Sunday.

“We have got a lot of athletic outfielders at or near the major league level, so having right field available to them isn’t a bad outcome,” Stearns said. “[Soto] is comfortable in left and it fits our roster.”

Soto has considerable left field experience — he last played there regularly with the Padres in 2023. He was also the starting left fielder for the Nationals in his first two major league seasons. All told, he’s appeared in 460 games as a left fielder and 603 in right field. Soto has started 22 games as a DH in his career, but has previously indicated that spot is not preferable to him.

“Early in the offseason we didn’t know how rosters for the WBC were going to shake out,” Mendoza said. “Once we started [getting] closer to the teams announcing their rosters … the left field conversation came up and he took me down the road of when he first came up [playing left]. He also mentioned that with the Yankees, they had him playing left field when they were playing the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He was very honest and very genuine about it, so that is how I decided.”

Soto was among MLB’s worst defenders last season, when he ranked in only the first percentile for range, at minus-12 outs above average, according to Statcast. He rated better in arm strength, landing in the 66th percentile. But his arm value was only in the 18th percentile.

But the Mets signed Soto to a record $765 million contract over 15 years mainly because of his bat, and in that regard he produced: Soto finished third in the National League MVP voting (behind Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber) after posting a .263/.396/.525 slash line with 43 homers and a career-best 38 stolen bases (which led the NL).

The Mets roster overhaul this winter made the possibility of Soto switching positions more palatable: Brandon Nimmo was traded to Texas for Marcus Semien, leaving the vacancy in left field.

Semien, a Gold Glove winner last season, should improve the Mets defensively at second base. The larger questions are whether Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, who are set to start at third base and first base, respectively, will seamlessly adapt. Bichette, a former shortstop, has not played third base in the major leagues. Polanco has one inning of major league experience at first base. But Stearns has indicated the infield’s athleticism has improved, leaving him optimistic that the unit will bolster the team’s run prevention. Robert, a former Gold Glove winner with the White Sox, will also potentially boost the team’s defense.