Category: MLB

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.

Welcome to Larissa’s Lessons, a weekly takeaways series in which some combination of Karen, True and Dylan will break down the biggest takeaways from the weekend’s games. We love an alliteration and puns around here, so be prepared for some word play.

Because the Tigers are playing a ridiculous number of games in a weekend and most of aren’t televised, this will be a look at more of a big picture of a bunch of games as opposed to a recap of each game. Once the home opener comes around in March, this will likely go in a different direction, but we’ll see!

It was a pure delight to hear the metallic ping of a ball hitting a bat or the sound of a fastball smacking into a catcher’s glove again. Softball is BACK, friends. Enjoy!

Mizzou Loves Liberty

Well, to beat down on Liberty, anyway. For the second year in a row, the Tigers doused the ranked Liberty Flames, this time by a score of 13-2 in six innings. We love to see it. The Tigers took an early lead in this one thanks to the bat of Abby Hay, who hit Mizzou’s first homer of the season. In the 3rd, they tacked on another run as freshman Sidney Forrester doubled, scoring fellow freshie Addy Waits. In the 4th, RBI doubles by Madison Uptegrove and Kayley Lenger made it 4-0, before yet another double, this time by Hay, made it 5-0. In the 6th, Stefania Abruscato’s bases loaded single made it 6-0, before Forrester’s bases-clearing double made it 9-0. Just for funsies, the Tigers tacked on three more after the other Abby (Carr) walked, Lenger was HBP — is Bruiser back?!? — and so was Waits. To top it off, Lenger then scored on a wild pitch to make it 13-0. The Flames would avoid the shutout with a two-run single in the bottom of the 6th, but those Flames were already extinguished. Love a fiery pun, y’all. I could do this all day.

Abby Carr: As Advertised

We knew she was going to be one to watch coming into the season, with all her high school accolades, but you never truly know how a freshman will adjust. Turns out, it was pretty darn well!

It’s been quite some time since Missouri has utilized a true two-way player, and as only a freshman, albeit one of her talent, it will be important to do a bit of load management, just as Shannon Welker has done with fellow freshman Kimarra Echols on the gymnastics mats.

“We’ve talked about her a lot, and we know what her potential is going to be, but I think the biggest challenge is, how do we manage the two-way player?” Anderson said. “How do we get her to so she’s able to get time in the bullpen to put her in game situations that she’s prepared for if she’s in the starting lineup?”

She continued. “But we got to manage her workload. That’s the biggest thing is being able to manage how much training she does and not burn her out mentally as a freshman, trying to be a two-way player.”

It will be hard not to go to her, however, as she’s a solid bat in the lineup and she’s the Tigers’ best pitcher through five games, posting a 1.35 ERA in 10.1 innings.

In the 13-2 Liberty win, Carr threw all six innings and had a no hitter heading into the final inning before allowing two hits and a couple runs.

Against South Alabama, she got in on the hitting AND pitching action, launching her first home run, and then also coming in in relief and pitching 4.1 innings of one-hit ball.

While hitting .200 in 10 at-bats, she’s got a .933 OPS (top 3 on team), a run scored, two hits, a double, the aforementioned home run, two walks, and four RBI. Not too shabby. Good enough that between the hitting and the pitching, the freshman was the lone Missouri Tiger named to the NFCA Leadoff Classic All-Tournament team.

Of her performance, Anderson was effusive in her praise. “It was great for her. I was so glad with her pitching outing out there, [showing] great composure in some really, really tough situations that she battled through and just really stayed true to who she was. She didn’t deviate from that, and then being able to get some offensive numbers out of her.”

What I hadn’t thought of is the creativity having someone like her available. Anderson, of course, noted this.

“What I absolutely love about it is my creativity that I can manage the game. I love being able to have her being in one through nine as the DP and put someone else in the flex position, and being more creative and making some double switches defensively. Then I’m able to have some stronger nine hitters in the lineup, and then being able to flip it to have nine different defensive players out there, it gives me a lot more creativity that I can get more people in the game and maximize how they’re going to contribute.”

Welcome Back, Abby Hay!

It’s great to see a healthy Abby Hay, eh?

There were flashes of it last season at times, but to see it in the season-opening weekend is quite exciting. Hay finished the weekend as Mizzou’s top hitter, leading in about every category. Hay opened Day 2 with the Tigers’ first home run of the season, a solo bomb in the second inning against Liberty. Then she added another one in the second inning of Mizzou’s matchup against BYU. Two home runs, two wins.

“You know, she’s simplified some things, and it’s great, because we obviously need her,” Anderson said.

Aside from the bombs, she also had two big RBI in extras against South Alabama. Obviously it didn’t end the way the Tigers would have liked, but, it wasn’t because of the Rock Bridge alum.

If Hay can stay consistent this season, it’d be HUGE for Missouri. There’s plenty of upside with younger players but Hay is a junior now, she’s only got a couple years left. It’s time for her to start showing why HCLA recruited her so early in high school.

“Being able to make the adjustments not only what pitch you’re looking for, but what pitch you’re trying to eliminate. I think Abby did that extremely well this weekend,” Anderson said.

Start ‘em Young

When HCLA said “The game doesn’t care what grade you’re in” during the preseason press conference. She wasn’t kidding.

It took 0 seconds for freshmen to make their debuts for the Tigers, and guess what? Neither of them were Carr. Yes, we all knew Abby Carr would be starting out of the gates — and she showed why on Day 2 — but I think everybody was pretty surprised when Addy Waits and Sidney Forrester were batting first and third, respectively, out of the gates. They also held these batting spots throughout the entire weekend.

The two players had quite different tales.

Forrester finished the weekend with the Tigers’ third highest batting average and tied for the second most RBI. Extremely impressive from a true freshman. Waits on the other hand has had some major struggles adjusting to collegiate ball. She is 1-for-14 with a lone RBI. The one upside is she has been walked five times so she has some plate discipline. I’d be surprised if HCLA doesn’t test out adjustments but we do know one thing for sure: She doesn’t think the game matters what grade you’re in.

The Donahue Experiment Continues

Maybe I’m being too harsh, y’all, as it is early, but I’m kinda over the Courtney Donahue experiment, sorry. In the season opener loss to Penn State, the former JuCo transfer entered after starter Cierra Harrison went five innings of three-run ball, and proceeded to give up three hits and four runs (two earned) in five innings of work, including the dagger that did ultimately did them in the 10th.

In the team’s final game against South Alabama, she actually got the start, lasting just three innings and allowing four hits, two earned runs, a walk and two wild pitches. After allowing back-to-back singles which plated two runs and allowed the Jaguars to take the lead, she was relieved by Abby Carr in the 4th, who was removed from the DP role and slotted into the circle, who went four innings.

Familiar Issues Remain

Remember when the Tigers were unable to close out games last year? Yeah, well, turns out that’s still a thing. Two times over the course of the team’s first five games, Mizzou went to extras, and two times, they just couldn’t get it done.

Against Penn State, there were four ties and the back-and-forth scoring was enough to give you whiplash. The Tigers struck first in the 2nd, taking a 1-0 lead before Penn State plated two in top of the 3rd. In the home-half, Mizzou tied it up on a bases-loaded Abby Hay walk, but the Nittany Lions regained the lead in the 5th on an RBI double. In the home-half, again Mizzou tied it up with a Madison Uptegrove RBI single. Would it last? NOPE. In extras, Penn State again re-took the lead in the 8th on a sac fly before a Kayley Lenger single tied it up once again 4-4. It wasn’t until the 10th that the Nittany Lions put down the death blow, scoring three runs an RBI double and a two-run shot. The Tigers had no answer for that offense this time.

Against South Alabama, the Tigers nabbed an early 1-0 lead on a homerun by Abby Carr, only to allow two unanswered and go cold until the 6th, when they tied it up. Both teams scored in extras in the 8th to knot it at 3-3, and again in the 10th to make it 4-4, before the Jags got the last laugh, scoring in the home-half of the 11th.

I’d also like to bring up the Oregon game, as even though they were facing AA pitcher Lyndsey Grein, they wasted a what ended up being a really nice complete game outing by Marissa McCann by being unable to get something — anything — going. They managed just two baserunners, both on walks, but that was IT. McCann held the Ducks at bay until the 6th inning, and then started to falter, breaking up the 0-0 tie on a sac fly, before allowing a two-run double in the 7th to seal the 3-0 victory. The team has to learn to take HELP their pitchers.

Talking with Anderson, however, she was happy they didn’t give in, which is a familiar trait of HCLA-coached teams, but definitely had some opportunities for improvement with the team.

“I would have liked to see two things. I would have liked to see us put up double or 12, two or three runs in those innings, rather than just one,” she said. “I don’t want to have to always sacrifice that runner to get to third base to try to get a fly ball.”

She continued. “I wanted to have better quality at bats. So that’s the first thing. And the second, I would like to see our pitchers get some more strikeouts in those situations. You know, we have the pitching staff that can get strikeouts. And if they’re getting the ball in play, like yesterday, for instance, McCann had a lot of balls put in play on the ground. She is not a ground ball pitcher, so if she’s creating ground balls, then the ball is not spinning the right way, so it’s making sure that her pitchers are spinning the ball the right way so she can get some strikeouts in those situations.”

Offensive & Pitching Leaders thru 5 games

• Abby Hay: .375 BA | 1.287 OPS | 16 AB | 4 R | 6 H | 1 2B | 2 HR | 6 RBI | .813 SLG% | 3 BB | 5 K
• Kayley Lenger: .333 BA | .941 OPS | 15 AB | 3 R | 5 H | 2 2B | 3 RBI | .467 SLG% | 1 BB | 3 HBP | 4 K
• Sidney Forrester: .294 BA | .780 OPS | 17 AB | 5 H | 2 2B | 4 RBI | .412 SLG% | 2 BB | 3 K

Overall, the team is batting just .238 with a .753 OPS. They’ve scored 30 runs, had 35 hits, 11 doubles (that seems good!), and 3 homers (2x Hay, 1x Carr). They’re slugging just .374. They’ve walked 27 times but also struck out 41. Their on-base % is .379.

• Abby Carr: 1.35 ERA | 1.06 WHIP | 10.1 IP | 5 H | 3 R | 2 ER | 6 BB | 8 K | 1 XBH | .143 Opp BA
• Courtney Donahue: 3.50 ERA | 1.13 WHIP | 8 IP | 7 H | 6 R | 4 ER | 2 BB | 5 K | 2 XBH | .259 Opp BA
• CC Harrison: 3.75 ERA | 1.50 WHIP | 9.1 IP | 12 H | 5 R | 5 ER | 2 BB | 11 K | 5 XBH | .300 Opp BA
• Marissa McCann: 3.97 ERA | 1.22 WHIP | 12.1 IP | 13 H | 9 R | 7 ER | 2 BB | 4 XBH | .283 Opp BA

Overall, the team ERA is 3.15 through 5 games and 40 IP. They’ve allowed 37 hits, 23 runs (18 earned), 12 walks, 35 strikeouts, 6 doubles, 3 triples, and 3 home runs. Opponents are batting .250 against them.

What’s to Come

After facing UCF on Wednesday night, the Tigers will head back to St. Pete/Clearwater for the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. Here’s who they’re facing and how their seasons have started:

• UCF (Feb 11 at 5pm on ESPN+): 5-1 at Black & Gold Classic (home) | W 13-0 (5 in.) v. Boston U | W 10-0 (5 in.) v. CSU Bakersfield | L 2-5 v. #16 Duke | W 15-7 (5 in.) & W 9-1 (5 in.) v. Maryland | W 12-2 (5 in.) v. Buffalo
  • In case you’re keeping track, the Knights played six games and run-ruled their opponent in FIVE of them. That’s crazy, crazy.
  • They’re hitting .360 with a 1.178 OPS. In six games, they’ve scored 61 runs, had 49 hits, 13 doubles, 2 triples, and 9 homeruns. They’re slugging .684.
  • Pitching-wise, the staff has a 2.41 ERA in 32 innings, and have allowed 21 hits, just 15 runs (11 earned). They’ve walked 23 batters but struck out 26, and allowed just 5 extra bases (3 home runs). Opponents are batting just .184.
• NC State (Feb. 13 at 11:30am on ACCN): 2-3 at Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge | W 7-1 v. Lamar | L 3-11 (5in.) & L 5-7 v. #16/13 LSU | W 9-4 v. Illinois | L 0-1 v. Nevada
  • The Wolfpack is hitting .281 with a .809 OPS. They’ve scored just 24 runs, had 34 hits, 7 doubles and 3 home runs. They’re slugging just .413. They’ve walked 22 times while striking out 25.
  • On the pitching side, their team ERA is 4.79 in 30.2 IP. They’ve allowed 32 hits, 24 runs (21 earned), 23 walks with 21 strikeouts, and a lot of extra bases (8x doubles, 3x triples, 2x HR). Opponents are hitting .258 against them.
• #7UCLA (Feb. 13 at 5pm on ESPN+): 5-0 at Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament (home) & Mark Campbell Invitational (Irvine) | W 18-1 (5 in.) v. UC-SB | W 10-1 (5 in.) v. Northern Colorado | W 12-4 (5in.) v. Oregon State | W 11-0 (5 in.) v. Utah | W 17-0 (5 in.) v. UC-Riverside
  • Like the other opponent that starts with UC (UCF, duh), the Bruins won 4 of their 5 games via run-rule. Neat!
  • As a team they are batting a whopping .487 with a gawdy 1.751 OPS. They scored 68 runes, added 58 hits, 9 doubles, a triple, and TWENTY-THREE HOME RUNS. No, that’s not a typo. They are slugging 1.160%. They’ve also walked 27 times and struck out JUST FIVE. Their OB% is .591…. I’m laughing so I don’t cry, you guys. I know it wasn’t against the best competition, but wow. Just wow. Against UC-Riverside, they had 8 HR from 5 different Bruins.
  • Oh, and their pitching is really good, too, with an ERA of just 1.68 and 0.92 WHIP in 25 innings. They allowed 16 hits and just 6 runs (all earned). They’ve walked just 7 while striking out 32, and have allowed 7 extra bases (3 HR). Opponents are batting just .182.
  • Jordan Woolery earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors after a team-high 10 hits — she was 10/15 at the plate — with 14 RBI and 5 HR. Read it (and weep) here.
• Northwestern(Feb. 14 at 9am on ESPN+): 3-2 at Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, AZ | W 9-1 (5 in.) v. Toledo | L 3-4 & W 7-1 v. Texas State | L 0-8 (6 in.) v. AZ State | W 14-5 (5 in.) v. Memphis
  • The Wildcats are batting .333 with a 1.069 OPS. They’ve scored 33 runs and added 41 hits, including 9 doubles, 2 triples, and 9 homers. They’re slugging .659. They don’t walk much — just 12 BB, but do strike out a lot (29), with an OB% of .410.
  • The NW pitching staff has a sub-3.00 ERA (2.93) in 28.2 IP. They’ve allowed 30 hits and 19 runs (12 earned) to go with a 16 BB : 22 K ratio. They’ve allowed 8 extra bases (4 HR), and opponents are hitting .261.
• FAU(Feb. 14 at 2pm on ESPN+): 5-0 at Paradise Classic (home) | W 8-0 v. Indiana | W 10-6 v. Ohio State | W 4-3 v. Wisconsin | W 10-0 v. Stonehill | W 4-2 v. Delaware
  • As a team, the Owls are batting .382 with a 1.064 OPS, to go with 36 runs scored and 42 hits, including 10 doubles and 5 homers. They’re slugging .609. They’ve walked 16 times to 19 strikeouts, and their OB% is .455.
  • On the pitching side, their ERA is a miniscule 2.03 in 31 IP. They’ve allowed 25 hits, but only 11 runs (9 earned). Their BB:K ratio is impressive, sitting at 13 : 34, and they’ve allowed just 5 extra base hits (3 HR). Opponents are hitting just .217 so far this season.
  • With their strong start, the Owls swept the American Conference weekly awards with Lily Holtjie named Player of the Week and Autumn Courtney as Pitcher of the Week. Holtjie had a .688 OB% this weekend, with 5 hits (4 for extra bases) and 6 walks. Her weekend average was .556. Courtney, the reigning unanimous American conference pitcher of the year, earned two wins in the Owls’ first three games and had a save. She led the team with a 1.40 ERA with a AC-best 16 punchouts. This included a complete game in the IU opener, with 8 strikeouts and just 2 hits.
• #19Duke(Feb. 15 at 8am on ACCN): 4-1 at UCF Tournament | L 1-2 v. Boston U | W 5-2 v. UCF | W 3-1 v. Buffalo | W 13-4 (5 in.) & 9-0 (5 in.) v. CSU-B
  • The Blue Devils are batting .336 with a .943 OPS, to go along with 31 runs scored, 42 hits (16 for extra bases, including 4 HR), and a .552 SLG%. They’ve walked 11 times while striking out just 12, but have a pretty weak .391 OB%.
  • The pitching staff’s ERA is just 2.12 in 29.2 IP, allowing 21 hit but just 9 earned runs. They’ve allowed 12 walks but also whiffed 22 batters and allowed 7 extra base hits (4x 2B, 3 HR) for a .196 opponent batting average.
  • Per the Duke SB site: The Blue Devils also welcomed 10 newcomers, including transfers Layla Lamar (Florida), Larissa Jacquez (Incarnate Word), Tyrina Jones (Purdue) and Mallory Wheeler (Louisiana). The senior duo of Cassidy Curd and Aminah Vega were among the 53 players to earn a spot on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List. Three Dukies earned Preseason All-ACC honors in Kairi Rodriguez, Jennings, and Vega.

Surprise, surprise: Kris Bryant is headed to injury reserve. 

The Rockies slugger was placed on the 60-day IL on Tuesday with a lingering lower back issue in the latest setback for the former National League MVP. 

Bryant, 34, has struggled mightily to stay on the field since coming to Colorado five years ago. 

Since signing a massive seven-year, $182 million free agent contract with the Rockies after the 2021 season, Bryant has played in just 170 out of a possible 648 games over four seasons with various injuries. 

Last season, Bryant appeared in just 11 games before being sidelined with lumbar degenerative disc disease, which is a lower back issue associated with wear and tear of the spine.

The latest stint is the 10th time he’s been placed on the IL since coming to the Mile High City.

Bryant hasn’t looked the part of the star worthy contract he signed when on the field either, hitting .244 with 17 home runs, 61 RBIs and an OPS of .695 when in the lineup. 

The development is the latest setback in what had at one point looked like a potential Hall of Fame career. 

Debuting for the Cubs in 2015, Bryant won the NL Rookie of the Year award that season while making the All-Star team and garnering some down-ballot MVP votes. 

A season later, Bryant won the MVP award at just 24 years old for the historic 2016 World Series champion Cubs team. 

Bryant would show some signs of wear over the next few seasons, although he still made two more All-Star teams for Chicago before being dealt to the Giants before the 2021 MLB trade deadline. 

Now, it appears his career is on life support.