Category: MLB

Morning everyone and happy Friday!

This year’s Spring Breakout Game for the Athletics is quickly approaching. In just over two weeks we’ll see some of the Athletics’ top prospects take on the Milwaukee Brewers’ top prospects in some head-to-head action of what could be and ultimately is a peak into the future of both organizations.

The A’s announced a few of their players that will be participating in this year’s contest. In no surprise to any A’s fan, top farmhand Leo De Vries is set to don the Green & Gold against the Brew Crew. The 19-year-old shortstop is seemingly on the cusp of the majors after crushing the ball last year between Double and Triple-A. It’s important to remember he’s still extremely young for his age but that hasn’t seemed to faze him during his first camp with the A’s. So far he’s 6-for-16 this spring, though all singles. Encouragingly he’s also avoided the punchout with just three so far, which could be one of the things he’s been working on during camp.

Joining De Vries in the Breakout will be outfielder Henry Bolte, currently ranked #5 according to MLB Pipeline but #6 according to A’s fans. A top high school draft choice by the A’s in 2022, he was young when he joined the organization but has steadily climbed the minor league ladder over the past few seasons and is now also on the cusp of the big leagues. He’ll be joining De Vries in the Breakout Game, Triple-A, and before long they’ll be teammates on the Athletics hoping to lead us to the Promised Land. He’s also had a good camp so far with the A’s, going 7-for-20 (but also worryingly with six strikeouts).

Another notable prospect, but one that is much further away from The Show than the previously mentioned two, is two-way player Shotaro Morii. The 2025 international signee last year decided to skip the regular career path of Japanese players and decided to come directly over stateside at just 18 years of age. There was a lot of excitement when the A’s nabbed him, not only because he’s a two-way player but because he’s legitimately talented on both sides of the ball. The A’s promised to develop him as both a shortstop and a pitcher and that seemed to have been the deciding factor for him joining up with us last year. The club decided to slow-roll his development on the pitching side of things but plan to “unleash” him this coming season.

On the pitching side of things for the A’s in the Breakout Game, it should come as no surprise that left-hander Jamie Arnold will be getting the ball at some point in that contest. The Athletics’ first-round pick during the most recent draft looks like the real deal here in camp. It’s just spring and he’s likely to start on the lower end of the minor league ladder but he’s looked good in camp so far in short relief bursts. He won’t be the only top lefty though as he’ll be joined by Gage Jump on the roster. Like Arnold, the 22-year-old Jump has a high ceiling of a #2 or #3 starter on a contending team. Unlike Arnold however Jump is further along in his development and could be an option for the big league squad as soon as this summer. Exciting times to be a left-hander in the A’s system!

Here’s how the full preliminary roster for the Breakout Game looks:

PITCHERS (19)
Jamie Arnold, LHP, No. 2/MLB No. 41
Corey Avant, RHP, NR
Henry Baez, RHP, No. 14
Mason Barnett, RHP, No. 17
Samuel Dutton, RHP, NR
Steven Echavarria, RHP, No. 16
Jackson Finley, RHP, NR
Gunnar Hoglund, RHP, No. 18
Kenya Huggins, RHP, No. 24
Gage Jump, LHP, No. 3/MLB No. 57
Wei-En Lin, LHP, No. 4
Cole Miller, RHP, No. 25
Kade Morris, RHP, No. 12
Braden Nett, RHP, No. 6
Eduarniel Núñez, RHP, No. 22
Grant Richardson, LHP, NR
Tzu-Chen Sha, RHP, NR
Zane Taylor, RHP, No. 19
Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang, RHP, No. 27

TWO-WAY PLAYERS (1)
Shotaro Morii, SS/RHP, No. 13

CATCHERS (3)
Cole Conn, C, NR
Davis Diaz, C, NR
Dylan Fien, C, NR

INFIELDERS (8)
Bobby Boser, 3B/SS, No. 30
Leo De Vries, SS, No. 1/MLB No. 4
Colby Halter, , INF, NR
Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, SS, No. 10
Luke Mann, INF, NR
Edgar Montero, SS, No. 11
Drew Swift, INF, NR
Tommy White, 3B, No. 9

OUTFIELDERS (9)
Henry Bolte, OF, No. 5
Rodney Green, OF, NR
Breyson Guedez, OF, No. 23
Nate Nankil, OF, No. 26
Ryan Lasko, OF, No. 21
Cameron Leary, OF, No. 29
Junior Perez, OF, No. 20
Devin Taylor, OF, No. 8
Gavin Turley, OF, No. 15

Lots of other interesting and exciting prospects will be available for that game and it truly is a sneak-peak at the future. Just think: current Athletics Nick Kurtz, Luis Morales, Max Muncy, Denzel Clarke, and Gunnar Hoglund were all featured in last year’s Breakout game and finished the year with the big league squad. Which prospects from this year’s contest will be in the majors by season’s end?

In other news, the World Baseball Classic is officially underway! The A’s have six players participating in the tournament but so far none have gotten into official games. In the two exhibition games for Canada we saw Denzel Clarke go 1-for-5 with a walk and three strikeouts. In two Puerto Rico games outfielder Carlos Cortes has gone 3-for-3 and 0-for-2, respectively, while his teammate Darell Hernaiz has gone just 0-for-5 across the two contests.

The three A’s pitchers participating in the tournament meanwhile have been quiet. Starting pitcher and staff leader Luis Severino got two innings of work in for the Dominican Republic in an exhibition against the Detroit Tigers, getting touched up for three runs (including a solo homer to top prospect Kevin McGonigle). Teammate and fellow Athletic Elvis Alvarado made a scoreless appearance the next day with two strikeouts against those same Tigers in their team’s final tune-up. And righty prospect Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang, on the Chinese Taipei National Team, has yet to make an appearance but likely will today.

Have a good weekend A’s fans. And enjoy the World Baseball Classic!

A’s Coverage:

• A’s Beat Angels 16-11 In Wild One!
• Athletics Community Prospect List: Yunior Tur
• A’s have best ABS challenge success rates so far this spring
• Still Need To Put The “Fun” In Fundamentals
• A’s matchup with Padres a homecoming for No. 1 prospect De Vries
• Young, talented Athletics need veterans to show the way
• Athletics coaching staff enthusiastic about Bolte’s pathway to Majors
• Medina eager to get back on track after nearly 2-year absence
• A’s to follow casinos’ playbook on how to treat Las Vegas season ticket holders
• Price to Watch A’s Baseball in Las Vegas this year revealed
• Where Does Tommy White Fit in the A’s Mix at Third Base?
• Only a little polish needed before Jump could be ready for The Show
• Butler ramps up recovery efforts, eyes mid-Spring Training return
• Why are A’s using personal seat licenses for Las Vegas stadium?
• Circa Las Vegas bringing in A’s legend for baseball opening day festitivies
• A’s spending on $2B Vegas stadium passes $300m mark, is Fisher’s folly really happening?
• Bob Melvin opens up: A Giants firing, an A’s hiring, and what comes next

MLB News and Interest:

• Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena breaks finger, out for WBC; Opening Day in jeopardy
• Reds right-hander Hunter Greene undergoes MRI on elbow
• Dave Roberts: “Hard to imagine” infielder Santiago Espinal not making Dodgers’ roster
• Ex-Pirate Andrew McCutchen joins Texas Rangers on minor league deal
• There’s a new #1 in farm system rankings
• Dodgers outright outfielder Jack Suwinski
• Jesus Luzardo promised he wouldn’t use a challenge all year. One inning later…
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Box score from yesterday’s barrage:

A’S TODAY (3/5)
C Wynns: 2-3, HR, 2B
RF Rooker: 2-3, HR, 2B
LF Soderstrom: 1-2, Grand Slam, BB
CF Perez: 1-1, HR, BB, 2 RBI
RF Elliott: 1-3, HR, 3 RBI
RHP Morales: 3.2 IP/4 H/2 ER/3 BB/4 K/Win
LHP Basso: 1.1 IP/4 H/2 ER/0 BB/0 K
LHP Arnold: 2 IP/2 H/1 ER/1 BB/2 K
A’s win 16-11

— Bill Moriarity – A's Farm (@AthleticsFarm) March 6, 2026

If Buster Olney says it, it will come true:

Judge. Ohtani. Schwarber… Kurtz? 🤯@Buster_ESPN with a bold prediction for Nick Kurtz this season pic.twitter.com/gf76rJkAy9

— SleeperAthletics (@SleeperAth) March 5, 2026

When pigs fly…

Athletics GM David Forst shared the team is open to reuniting with former MLB draft pick Kyler Murray 🤝https://t.co/T4NxmsyCWm

— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) March 5, 2026

Kotsay on De Vries:

Kotsay on Leo De Vries (No. 4) in 2026@MLBNetwork👇
pic.twitter.com/3s5teunOSKhttps://t.co/0LiUVn6d56

— SleeperAthletics (@SleeperAth) March 5, 2026

Good morning, LSB.

The Rangers are adding on former MVP and longtime Pittsburgh Pirate, Andrew McCutchen.

Jeff Wilson says McCutchen will get a shot at securing a part-time role on the opening day roster.

Evan Grant has observations from the Rangers’ first spring training night game where Jake Burger homered off Cole Ragans.

The DMN’s prospect countdown continues with No. 19 Jacob Johnson. His name is my name, too.

Caden Scarborough and Jose Corniell are among those in the Rangers’ player pool for the annual spring breakout.

And Shawn McFarland names his spring training superlatives including the biggest eye opener, best dressed, cutest couple, etc.

That’s all for this morning. Happy Friday. (:

Shohei Ohtani had three hits, including a grand slam and double to drive in five runs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in Japan’s 13-0 drubbing of Chinese Taipei on Friday morning to open pool play in the World Baseball Classic.

Ohtani doubled to open the game in the first, then hit a grand slam and an RBI single in a 10-run second inning that put the opener to bed for Japan, the favorite to come out of Pool C in Tokyo.

SHOHEI OHTANI GRAND SLAM! #WORLDBASEBALLCLASSICpic.twitter.com/z0BXjlYInF

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 6, 2026

Ohtani’s five RBI in one inning are the most in World Baseball Classic history, per Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

That provided a great deal of run support for Yamamoto, who was slated to pitch three innings in the WBC opener, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters at Camelback Ranch on Thursday. Yamamoto would have gotten there were it not for an error and bout of wildness in the third.

After a perfect first inning, Yamamoto walked the leadoff batter in the second but immediately erased him on a double play. He got a groundout to open the third, followed by a throwing error by third baseman Kazuma Okamoto. That meant the strikeout by Yamamoto that followed didn’t end the third but rather was the second out.

He then walked the next two batters on 12 pitches to load the bases and was replaced on the mound by Shoma Fujihara, who earned a strikeout to escape the inning.

In all, Yamamoto threw 55 pitches in 2 2/3 innings in his third start this spring. He threw three innings and 52 pitches for the Dodgers last Friday against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale before leaving to join Japan.

Japan’s next game is Saturday morning at 2 a.m. PT against Korea, who is also 1-0 in Pool C. That game will be televised by FS1.

Walker Buehler made his first start as a member of the San Diego Padres organization against the Seattle Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday. That was supposed to be the lead story of the game as Buehler, JP Sears and Triston McKenzie, who are all battling for the final spot in the San Diego rotation pitched in the game. Instead, the Padres offense exploded with 27 runs and 28 hits in a 27-6 drubbing of the Mariners.

The entire lineup contributed to the end result with one of the top offensive performances coming from Freddy Fermin. The catcher recorded a single, a double and a home run. He also had six RBI and three runs scored. Sung-Mun Song hit his first home run as a Padres with a 430-foot blast. Other San Diego players to homer in the game were Jake Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill, Miguel Andijar, Tirso Ornelas, Bryce Johnson and Nick Schnell.

Buehler completed three innings in his Padres debut. He allowed two runs on two hits and recorded four strikeouts and allowed one walk. Sears also completed three innings and allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts, three walks and two home runs allowed. McKenzie completed 1.2 innings and allowed a run on four hits with two strikeouts three walks and one home run allowed.

Padres News:

• Song started the game against the Mariners as the Padres shortstop but left earlier than expected and it was revealed that he may not have been fully over an oblique injury he suffered during the offseason. The decision to take him out of the game was described as precautionary.

• San Diego released its roster for Spring Breakout and the top players from the minor league system are Ethan Salas, Kruz Schoolcraft and Miguel Mendez.

• With his breakout performance against the Mariners, Fermin who joined the Padres at the 2025 trade deadline, appears ready to be the primary catcher for San Diego handling all the duties and responsibilities that entails heading into the 2026 season.

Baseball News:

• Lincoln Zdunich of Gaslamp Ball looks at the fall of former Padre and first overall pick Jurickson Profar who received a 162-game ban earlier this week.

• Australia improved to 2-0 in World Baseball Classic play with a win over Czechia.

• The Milwaukee Brewers take over as the top farm system in MLB.

• The Atlanta Braves walked off the Toronto Blue Jays with an ABS challenge that ruled a called ball on an 0-2 pitch was a strike, ending the game and securing the win for the Braves.

• USA takes on Brazil in their WBC opener at Daiken Park in Houston today at 5 PM.

• Nicaragua and Dominican Republic play today at 4 p.m.

The last time the Orioles were in need of a closer in free agency before this past offseason, they signed Craig Kimbrel, who was once quite good but had his most recent season before that end in a memorable disaster. It didn’t work out. Needing a closer heading into 2026, the Orioles signed Ryan Helsley, who was once quite good but had his most recent season end in a memorable disaster. Maybe it’ll go better this time around.

One thing working in Helsley’s favor is that he’s not as old as Kimbrel was. This is his age 31 season and up to this point he’s maintained a fastball in the 99mph range. The Orioles signed him for $14 million this year and the same amount next year, although if he’s good, he can opt out of the contract. This kind of contract structure didn’t pay off for the Orioles when they signed Tyler O’Neill before last season. Maybe it’ll go better this time around.

Here’s what two of the big projection systems see on average from Helsley this season:

• ZiPS: 64 IP, 3.28 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 3.4 K/BB, 26 saves
• PECOTA: 55.1 IP, 3.56 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 2.8 K/BB, 34 saves

Neither system expects a return to the elite results Helsley was getting in the 2022-24 range. That’s not too surprising. Although a lot of attention is paid to his repeated meltdown games after being traded to the Mets, Helsley wasn’t that same elite guy prior to being traded by the Cardinals either. He had an ERA of exactly 3, with batters hitting him better than they’d ever done before.

If Helsley is around the above projected results, he’ll get some clutch saves where you were sure the Orioles were going to lose, and he’ll have some blown saves that make you wish Mike Elias signed someone better. With the chaos in the bullpen behind him, the Orioles could sure use some ninth inning stability.

What are you expecting from Helsley this year? Do you think he’ll still be around for 2027?

The last time Shohei Ohtani was seen wearing a World Baseball Classic uniform with "Japan" across his chest, he was striking out Mike Trout of the United States on a ninth-inning, full-count slider to give his country a victory in the championship game three years ago.

So much has happened in Ohtani's life between then and now. He has a wife and a daughter, a new interpreter, a new Major League team, two World Series championships and three more Most Valuable Player awards.

Yet unforgettable WBC memories continue. This time, he delivered from the batter's box instead of the pitcher's mound.

In the second inning of Japan's WBC opener against Chinese Taipei on Friday at the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani smacked a hanging curve a few feet over the right-field wall for a grand slam, triggering an offensive onslaught that resulted in a 13-0 victory.

"I thought it might land as an out, so above all, I really wanted to get the first run on the board," Ohtani told reporters afterward.

Read more:Dodgers work with Andrew Toles' family to continue supporting former outfielder

Ohtani led off the game with a double and singled in his second at-bat of the second inning, when Japan put up a WBC-record 10 runs. He added a run-scoring single in the third inning, giving him five runs batted in.

In 2023, Ohtani hit and pitched Japan to the WBC title, batting .435 with eight RBIs and allowing only two earned runs in 9 2/3 innings on the mound. This year, he will only bat, saving his pitching for the Dodgers, who begin their quest for a third consecutive World Series title in three weeks.

Japan's starting pitcher Friday was a decorated Dodger nevertheless. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, MVP of the 2025 World Series, threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, walking three and striking out two while giving up no hits.

His command wasn't pinpoint — he threw 53 pitches, 33 for strikes — but it is still spring training, even though the atmosphere was electric for Japanese players competing in front of a crowd of 42,314 that included actor Timothy Chalamet and superstar Bad Bunny.

"I know there will be some tough battles ahead, but if the fans and the team can unite and everyone can help build the excitement together, it will really encourage us," Ohtani said.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

As we pass through the diamond, I should note that I have been playing a little footloose and fancy free with the outfield distinctions. In point of fact, just about every outfielder outside of Yordan Alvarez is capable of playing all three spots and most of them likely will play multiple positions. So, who I choose to put where largely depends on where we might expect them to play, but also as a way to space it out so we get the same number of guys in each lab.

For our purposes here, we are looking at Jake Meyers and Zach Cole, but we should acknowledge that Joey Loperfido and Cam Smith could also see time in center. Like we did, I will include a player not on the Astros (or currently in MLB) as a frame of reference for Zach Cole. We are not necessarily predicting that he will have this player’s career, but I’m sure we would be in for it if he did.

• Chase rate: This is the percentage of balls a player swings at outside of the zone. The league average normally lives around 30 percent, but we will be looking at three year intervals and we should notice trends more than where a player is in relationship to the league average.

• Hard hit percentage: This is simply the percentage of balls that a player hits hard. Hard hit balls become hits and extra base hits more often than softer contact. Typically 35 percent is around the league average in this category.

• BABIP: This is batting average on balls in play. Home runs are obviously excluded since they are not in play. The league average tends to hover around .300 but it will largely depend on hard hit percentages and breakdowns between groundballs, flyballs, and line drives.

• Contact percentage: This is the percentage of swings that turn into contact. Typically 75 percent is around league average.

• HR/FB percentage: This is the percentage of flyballs that result in home runs. Ten percent is typically around the league average.

Jake Meyers

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2023	26.6	27.9	.283	74.1	11.2
2024	30.3	37.0	.263	74.2	9.8
2025	23.7	38.9	.353	81.1	3.8
Aggregate	26.9	34.6	.300	76.5	8.3

There were a number of people (me included) who were critical of the Astros hitting coaches the last few years, but it has to be noted that not everyone got worse under those guys. Meyers made real gains in his chase rate, hard hit rate, and contact rate last season. At least some of that is likely to carry over into this season. So, in all likelihood, Meyers is a better offensive player in 2026 than he was in 2023 and 2024. However, he might not be quite as good he was last season.

That is largely because of the out of context BABIP. Even with gains in hard contact, that kind of jump is not sustainable. At best, he might live between .310 and .320 in that category and that is assuming a return to career norms in home runs per flyball. If you give him positive regression in that category then he might be roughly on par with last season overall.

However, the likelihood is a hitter that lives around .250 or .260 with decent speed numbers and okay power numbers. So, that could end up being something in the neighborhood of .250/.300/.380. Couple that with very good defensive metrics and you have an above average regular overall, but in all likelihood you will not see 2025 Meyers again.

Zach Cole

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2023	—-	—-	.366	64.3	20.4
2024	—-	—-	.336	67.2	14.9
2025	20.0	44.1	.418	64.9	31.1
Aggregate	20.0	44.1	.373	65.5	22.1

These are all minor league numbers for Cole. Cole has four of the five tools in spades. If we add plate discipline as a tool then he has five of the six tools in spades. Unfortunately, that sixth tool might be the most important one. Like Matthews and Dezenzo before him, there is just a ton of swing and miss in his game. Players have succeeded at the big league level while missing the hit tool, but they are fewer and further between. The question will be if he can make enough gains in contact to give those other tools enough room to breathe.

As we noted above, there is a player that Cole has been compared to that we can profile here. Joey Gallo is no longer playing in the big leagues, but he had some big seasons with the Rangers before washing out. In short, the lack of contact eventually caught up with him, but he might be the apex of what Cole can accomplish at the big league level. Between 2017 and 2019, Gallo hit more than 100 home runs. Cole has more speed than Gallo, so he could be even more. Just look at the numbers and see what you notice.

	Chase	Hardhit	BABIP	Contact	HR/FB
2017	26.5	53.0	.250	59.0	30.1
2018	27.6	49.5	.249	61.7	27.6
2019	22.6	52.7	.368	59.7	37.3
Career	24.2	49.1	.254	60.6	25.8

The career numbers showed he tapered off a little in hard hit and pure power after those three initial seasons. Simply put, you cannot survive long with a contact rate like that. I do not have a minor league to major league decoder ring, but most players do not make more contact at the big league level initially. So, Gallo seems like a reasonably comp for Cole.

Gallo reached a career high of 4.4 FWAR in 2021, so I think most people would be pleasantly surprised if the Astros got that out of Cole. Keep in mind, he adds a speed element that Gallo did not. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have quite the power rate or hard hit rate that Gallo did. Perhaps he makes a bit more contact and ends up approximating the numbers above overall. The question will be whether Astros fans want to stomach the swing and miss in order to tap into the impressive power and speed. What do you think?

For most of 2025, Zach Eflin was just not himself. The effort was undeniable. But something was badly, visibly wrong. In 14 starts, he went 6–5 with a 5.93 ERA, a 1.42 WHIP, and a K:BB ratio of 50:13 across just 71⅓ innings. He made three separate trips to the injured list before finally undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy surgery in August — a procedure that removes part of a herniated disc pressing on spinal nerves. When Eflin hit the market in free agency, the thought might have crossed your mind that he wouldn’t be back.

Well, good thing Mike Elias kept his agent’s number. On Thursday, in Eflin’s first spring training appearance of 2026, the righty offered a bracing reminder of what he can be when everything is working — and what the Orioles paid $10 million this winter to get back.

Against his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, Eflin spun two-plus scoreless innings with three strikeouts, lighting up the radar gun and flaunting a command that looked nothing like the labored pitcher who gritted through 2025. He worked with six different pitches — sinker, sweeper, curveball, four-seamer, cutter, changeup — and got six whiffs in fourteen swings. Most excitingly, his sinker and fastball touched 94 MPH, several miles better than last season.

It’s just one spring start, I know. But the velocity, the pitch mix, the swinging strikes — it all points toward a pitcher who has been genuinely fixed, not merely managed.

Eflin agrees. His 2025 numbers were ugly in ways that the box score couldn’t fully capture, especially the four IL trips. Speaking in December, Eflin revealed that back problems had haunted him on and off for ten years in his pro career, but 2025 was when the pain turned debilitating, convincing him to finally go in for surgery to “clean it up.” Now, he reports feeling like he has a “brand-new back.”

This is good news for all of us. With Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, and Shane Baz ahead of Eflin in the rotation, the Orioles aren’t depending on an Eflin resurgence, but seeing him approach his ceiling would be a wonderful thing. That would look something like 2023, a season when Eflin was arguably the most underrated starting pitcher in the American League as a member of Tampa Bay’s staff. That year, he made 31 starts, went 16–8, posted a 3.50 ERA, struck out 186 batters over 177⅔ innings, finishing sixth in AL Cy Young voting. His 1.02 WHIP ranked second in the entire American League, behind only Gerrit Cole. The Rays went 23–8 in his starts — a team winning percentage that, per historical records, tied David Price’s 2014 season for the best in franchise history in a starting pitcher’s qualified starts.

That is a genuine ace-adjacent performance. Not a fluke, not a warm stretch — a full-season demonstration of what a healthy Eflin looks like.

Eflin will never be a strikeout-rate marvel. He’s a contact pitcher who works with heavy sinkers and lateral break, generating soft contact and keeping the ball in the park. When his stuff plays at full strength, he profiles as a legitimate number-two or number-three starter capable of eating 175–180 innings with an ERA in the mid-threes. That is, in the current pitching landscape, genuinely valuable. The Orioles, who ranked near the bottom of the AL in rotation ERA last season, need that stabilizing presence badly.

The case for Eflin bouncing back rests on a straightforward premise: the problem was structural, and the structure has been repaired. A lumbar microdiscectomy isn’t a band-aid; it removes the source of nerve compression. Eflin himself says the chronic pain is gone in a way it hadn’t been in years. The early evidence from the mound — the velocity restored, the arm angle presumably returning toward its 2023 level, the whiff-generating breaking ball — suggests the surgery worked.

Baltimore re-signed him to a prove-it deal worth $10 million with a mutual option that could extend to $30 million total. The incentive structure is perfectly aligned. Eflin has everything to prove and, finally, a back that will let him prove it.

The vagaries of scheduling made yesterday a day chock full of Czechia baseball action… but unfortunately, it went pretty terribly for them.

The early-morning (at least here on the East Coast of the United States) contest saw Czechia get absolutely clobbered by Korea. Starter Daniel Padysak didn’t even escape the first inning — two walks and a single loaded the bases, and then Bo Gyeong Moon unloaded them with a grand slam. The game got kind of closer (6-3) when Terrin Vavra (I think the only guy on Team Czechia with MLB experience) hit a three-run homer in the fifth, but Korea’s onslaught continued and the game ended with a 11-4 tally. Korea hit four homers in total, including two by Astros infielder Shay Whitcomb. Overall, it was about as unbalanced as you’d probably expect when glancing at the matchup: Czechia pitchers had a combined 6/5 K/BB ratio to go with those four homers; Korea’s pitching slate had a 12/3 K/BB ratio.

There was a very quick turnaround of only about 14 hours before Czechia had to get on the horse again, this time against Australia. This game didn’t go much better for them. Though they did take an early lead on a sac fly, White Sox infielder Curtis Mead bashed a three-run homer off starter Tomas Ondra, and that was basically the game. (Southern Thunder added a couple of more runs in the ninth, including an Alex Hall homer.) The game was heavy on balls in play, as there were only a combined ten strikeouts across the two teams.

Czechia is now in pretty unfortunate territory, since the remaining pool-mates they haven’t played include Japan.

Speaking of haven’t played, Friday’s slate is massive:

• Japan-Taiwan (spoiler alert, Japan already won 13-0)
• Cuba-Panama
• Netherlands-Venezuela (aka, the Braves Best Buds Cup)
• Mexico-Great Britain
• Puerto Rico-Colombia
• Nicaragua-Dominican Republic
• USA-Brazil
• Taiwan-Czechia (yes, a short turnaround for Taiwan this time)

Which of those matchups are you most looking forward to? It’s probably the Braves Best Buds Cup, but maybe you really want to see Team USA or the Dominican Republic smash their underdog bracketmates instead.

The remaining games start at 11 am ET and progress basically all through the day, so there’s a lot of WBC action if you’re so inclined.

On May 3, 2025, Anthony Volpe’s luck took a turn for the worse. That day, he hurt his left shoulder while diving for a ball in the performance of his defensive duties. He felt a pop that turned out to be a torn labrum, re-aggravating the injury in September and managing the discomfort while playing.

Volpe received cortisone shots in June and September. After putting up a 115 wRC+ since the first day of the season until May 3rd, he finished with a highly disappointing 83 mark for the year, adding 19 homers and 18 stolen bases. Even his defense, which earned him a Gold Glove in 2023, suffered in the process. He underwent surgery to repair his torn labrum in October and is likely to miss the entire first month of the season at the very least. Can he become an offensive threat in 2026, or is his time in the Bronx coming to an end?

2025 statistics: 153 games, 596 PA, .212/.272/.391, 19 HR, 72 RBI, 83 wRC+, 7.2 BB%, 25.2 K%, 2 Defensive Runs Saved, -7 Outs Above Average, 1.0 fWAR

2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 109 games, 469 PA, .228/.293/.391, 14 HR, 53 RBI, 91 wRC+, 7.8 BB%, 23.9 K%, 1.9 fWAR

While saying that Volpe’s presence in the Yankees’ future plans is in jeopardy if he doesn’t perform would be premature, it’s clear that he will have a lot to prove this year when he returns, and it might not be entirely fair to expect immediate results after such a major surgery. And if he fails to bounce back, the Bombers might start seeking other alternatives; that’s the truth. The Bronx rarely waits for anyone.

The reality is that, injury or not, the former first-rounder is running out of time. He has failed to return even league-average offensive production in any of his three seasons in The Show, as his career-high wRC+ was 87 in 2024. His excellent defense used to make up for the lack of offensive consistency and on-base ability, but that also evaporated last year, presumably affected by the bum shoulder.

José Caballero prepares to enter the 2026 campaign as the shortstop, having focused his offseason training on improving his bat speed. On the other hand, Volpe started his hitting program by taking dry swings in mid-February. He is significantly behind his counterpart, but right on schedule according to the team’s estimates. Volpe will likely need a lot of at-bats to even approach his top form. The question here is how long the Yankees are willing to wait for him to regain full health or even approach a point at which he can fully trust his shoulder.

A healthy version of Volpe is a much better defender than what he showed last year, but we are not so sure if it’s a big upgrade offensively over his 2025 self. He is still young, though, and has a lot of room to grow and improve. He is, after all, just 24, younger than some of the highest-profile prospects in the game. Volpe does contribute some power and speed, but it will all come down to contact and plate discipline. There are some encouraging signs, though.

For a hitter who ranked in the 76th percentile in chase rate per Baseball Savant, he should be able to rank higher than the 36th percentile in walk rate. He is also in the 64th percentile in barrel rate. With some work, a sound gameplan, and a bit of luck, Volpe can take off if he’s fully healthy. Labrum surgery is no joke, though: ask Miguel Andújar, who needed five years to have an above-average offensive season over a significant sample after going under the knife in 2019.

That’s not to say that Volpe is necessarily doomed just because Andújar had a hard time returning to top form, but it’s a perfect example of how things can go south with labrum tears. It’s impossible to remove his current health status from any 2026 analysis. As a counterpoint to Andújar, there is Fernando Tatis Jr.: after undergoing labrum surgery in 2022, his performance diminished for one year (111 wRC+ in 2023 after three campaigns over 150) before settling in the 130 range in 2024 and 2025. Volpe clearly doesn’t have the sky-high ceiling that Tatis does, but he exists as a data point for pure injury recovery nonetheless.

The shoulder issues aren’t a death sentence for Volpe. However, combined with the urgency of playing for the Yankees, their perennial need for immediate results, and three disappointing seasons with the bat, they could definitely complicate things in 2026 and beyond.

---

See more of the Yankees Previews series here.

We got into Jupiter Wednesday 2/25 and stayed through Monday 3/2. Here is a rundown of various discoveries and observations outside of the game reports. This will be a fair amount of surface level observations. I will follow up with a couple more in-depth articles where it appears more attention is deserving. Ask questions, and I will put a little more detail, in comments, where the questions come up.

Getting out of the blocks

Turns out I know a guy (Doc) who set me up to get press credentials with the Cardinals in advance of my visit.

I think the connections were a bit circuitous (he knew a guy, who knew a guy, etc.), but it worked out in the end. They gave me press badges, one for each day (see example above), access to the back fields, the press box and the media room (where Oli does his pre- and post-game interviews). Thank you Doc!

They were reluctant to give me clubhouse access, understandably since they don’t know me, and as a blogger I’m a bit different. They figured out in their research that I’m more a big picture guy anyway, so their reluctance was not an imposition. Overall, they were very gracious and accommodating. Hopefully they saw it as a positive thing and perhaps another avenue to reach a portion of the fanbase.

The media room was populated by the usual suspects. Feinsand. Goold. Guerrero. Jones. A few others I didn’t recognize but will try to get introductions as the week goes on. I’m a closet introvert, so that is not my favorite part, but still a group that obviously likes to talk baseball. Never a bad thing.

In the press room, they pass out a schedule of who is in which group and which group is on which field doing which drill. They certainly keep them moving. Lots of small print. Sometimes in the details there is a story lurking.

The construction

I’ll touch on this lightly since there has already been lots put out about the improvements at RDS. Mostly things that might be helpful to people heading down later this month. There is lots of new square footage added for player development work. Their new hitting building is enormous. I got to see the Trajekt machine in operation as Walker was prepping for the Astros game. It is very realistic. That part of the complex is a no fans area right now.

Access to the quads (backfields 2-5) is temporarily (for fans) re-routed through the Marlins side, using the Marlins entrance to their quads. It is a bit of a trek. FYI, they closed up that access at noon. I don’t know if that will continue deeper into spring. Fields 1 and 6 were largely inaccessible to fans. It appears due to the hangover in construction work (there are certainly punch list items and clean-up to be done yet), so I’m hopeful access to the fields the MLBers work out on will be restored for fans by next spring.

The camp – day#1

With the orientation I got and getting settled, I didn’t get a lot of time on the back fields on the first day.

The MLB players were almost all working out inside the stadium. I did not go watch. Fans can buy early entrance to RDS on home games and see the MLBers take BP. I focused on the back fields. All the MiLBers are in, so the camp itself is in the neighborhood of 240 players! 40-man roster, plus 28-ish NRIs, plus 165 MiLB roster guys plus a few more development guys. Lots to watch. Not many names on back of MiLB jerseys yet, so hard to discern who is who. The groups are telling. As are the uniform numbers and names (or lack of).

If you wonder how exactly they fit 165 two-digit numbers on MiLB unis, there are lots of guys with duplicate numbers.

I looked but didn’t see Raniel Rodriguez on the back fields. I guessed he might be in the stadium working with the MLBers, but not sure. He was not listed anywhere on the schedule, on either the MiLB or MLB sides. Lots going on. It is quite a logistical challenge.

I watched Deniel Ortiz take BP. Nice stroke. Nice sound coming off the bat. Mautz and McGreevy threw bullpens today. Honeyman was out there. Perhaps he is past the injury woes that plagued him.

The camp – day#2

Couple of guys on the rehab track got BP sessions in. Saw B. Holiday with P. Graham. Graham threw some breaking balls, so he must be further along. Watched Ethan Young throw in live BP. Seems to have a pretty live sinker. No tech on his field, so I didn’t see the Trackman read outs on it. You get VEB bucks if you can answer the trivia question of “Who is Ethan Young?”

Watched May throw a sim game, opposed by Bradt. The tech readings seemed pretty strong for early spring. Velo 96-98, horizontal break on his breaking pitch got up to -27”. His change had good fade, too. Herrera was his catcher. They had runners on most of the time (so May was out of the stretch most of the time). They worked Ivan in the running game pretty hard. Bradt had good stuff, too. Consistent 96 with sharp slider. Command is a work in progress, particularly with pitches on the inner half. An uncomfortable AB for the hitters. Walker, Scott, Moore, Prieto were the hitters.

MLB has a reference card on ABS. A good read. One thing I did not know. If a manager wants to challenge the results of a play AND there is a challenge on the ball/strike call, the ball/strike must come first. They can’t ask for an ABS challenge after a ruling on a play in the field that results challenge.

Today, I discovered an additional info sheet in the RDS pressbox that listed “minor league extras” for today’s game. Sure enough, I find Raniel Rodriguez on it. He doesn’t appear anywhere else in the lists. He seems like the rare guy we had in High School football who was a freshman but worked out with Varsity.

On the business side, I hear a lot of comments that the crowds aren’t what they used to be. To-date, the Cardinals are well ahead of the Grapefruit League average attendance, with almost 4,000 per game, versus ~3,200 on the road. Today’s 4,600 will boost that. Fair number of Mets fans here, though.

The camp – day#3

Saturday. Marlin’s home game, so I head down to the Marlin’s clubhouse to get a Marlin’s authorized press box credential. The Marlins had sent me an email with some very specific instructions, all of which were incorrect, so there was a bit of a run-around there. They got it all figured out in good time. I’m getting my steps in!

Lots going on today. Watched a Cinjtje bullpen. Lots to like. Dobbins had a “live BP”. He looked comfortable. Oli talked in the pre-game that they are keeping him in the backfields just for protection because there are still things (like covering first) that they don’t want him doing yet. The pitching side is coming along, although they are intentionally bringing him along more slowly.

The MLB group (29 non-pitchers if anyone is counting) went through an “execution game” where they set up situations and awarded points for hitters taking (and executing the correct approach). Ex. 1st and 3rd, 1 out, infield back. What do they want out of that hitter? And then if the infielders creep in just before the pitched, does the hitter recognize and switch to the new, correct approach? One point if he does. Competitors being competitors, they took it seriously and argued pretty much everything. Lots of hooting and hollering. Spring fun. More on that tomorrow.

Got a peek in at a bullpen by Franklin, while trying to watch Doyle and Fajardo in live BP against Levenson, Mendlinger, Madris, Peete, Gazdar and Ledbetter.

Fitts and Zimmerman threw bullpens, as well. I see on the schedule that Lin was to throw off the NewtForce mound (which is inside the MiLB batting cage building). I have inquired about what this is, exactly. On Franklin, I’ve seen some pundits suggest he might be the steal of the 2025 draft, or something like that. Watching him throw BP, I can see why someone might say that.

Camp day#4

Today is not a total quiet day, but close. The MiLBers have the full day off, so the back fields are closed down. Some scrimmage action on the MLB side for guys not playing today. A bit of a dreary morning, giving away to clearing skies and cooling into the 70’s.

The press conference announcing Oli’s extension took center stage. Quite a few players attended and applauded. Some will poo-poo culture and chemistry. I get it. Performance and wins count. That said, trying to incorporate winning habits requires some degree of culture that is not tolerant of mediocrity, incomplete effort or lack of attention to details. I get that, too. In the firefighting world I live and work in, minor failures in execution can get people hurt.

Oli described this morning that they expect players to take pride at being really good at the mundane things (I had used PFP as an example). In my view, one guy at the top doesn’t set that tone alone, it’s got to be throughout the org. Coaches, top players, etc. He talked about the fun the players had in the execution game yesterday as another example. One team won 17-16 in a very spirited competition with lots of hooting and hollering. Brotherly love, we used to call it. Inside all of that, you could hear whispers of the culture … when Brant Brown awarded an execution point for a guy who tried to hit a groundball in a GB situation (runner on third, fielders back, 1 out). The young hitter actually hit a laser about 3 feet off the ground that was caught. Burleson was quick to observe that everyone had the right intent, the point was to execute perfectly. Sort of out of Yoda’s Master Jedi playbook. “Either do, or do not. There is no try”. I’d put Pages, Nootbaar and Burleson as the vocal leaders of this group. Oli says they are all close knit. He described it as it seems to be because they are in the same boat and realize they will be together for a while.

Camp Day#5

Last day. Will wander the backfields as a fan only. Using only my eyes. I won’t be at the game today and will stay out of the press room. I need to get some more pics. Do our readers like the kind of pics I’m putting in here? I’m no photographer.

This catcher appears set to start at High-A. I don’t think he will end there.

As compared to the last couple of years, you can definitely see/hear/feel the presence of more coaches, trainers and technicians. Perceptibly more instruction in Spanish this year as well. Both, I thought, were pretty noticeable.

More players were wearing “wearable” tech. The visible ones were all not pitchers. Catapault wearable technology as shown below…

Watched what I expect to be the AA rotation do some PFP type drills. Noted Doyle and Lin in this group. Will Cinjtje be here, too, or AAA?

I watched Won-Bin Cho hit for a bit. Man, there are a lot of left-handed hitters in these parts. He is starting to fill out. I am very curious about him. This will be a big year for him.

One last thought. Today, I wandered through the Marlins side just to get a sense of how the other half lives. I thought the differences were noticeable. Maybe even almost stark. Across 6 fields, all I saw were a handful of guys taking BP under the mobile cages. Since the trek in and out is lengthy, this was more than just a point-in-time view. Didn’t see a single Trackman device, iPad, or anything like that. No tech guys running around setting up cameras. Just coaches throwing BP pitches from behind the L screen. Not even many guys out shagging balls or working on fielding skills. In the end, it seemed like the Marlins side had a tech and organizational feel more akin to high school than the Cardinals side. Interesting how different the approaches are.

That a rundown of what my eyes took in. More detail next week.

Three years ago, the Dodgers took a chance on outfielder Jason Heyward after a disappointing finish to his seven-year tenure with the Chicago Cubs. Although signed to a minor-league deal, Heyward eventually broke camp, had a bounce back season in 2023 and was able to prolong his career for another two years afterwards.

Now, the Dodgers find themselves in a similar situation with Santiago Espinal.

After two seasons playing at a below replacement level rate with the Cincinnati Reds, Espinal latched on a minor league deal with the Dodgers, uncertain of whether or not he could continue his time in Major League Baseball. So far this spring, he is leading the Dodgers in both batting average and OPS (.625, 1.761 OPS), most recently wrecking havoc against his old team with a two home run, five RBI game in Thursday’s loss to the Reds.

With 20 days to go until the Dodgers’ home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Dave Roberts commented that it’d be hard to not see Espinal on the opening day roster, with the utility man adding that he’s not thinking too far ahead in the future despite the positive results this spring, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“It’d be hard to imagine him not being on the team,” Roberts said of Espinal… “It would be amazing,” Espinal said. “I’ve just got to let my work talk for it. So far, that’s what I’m doing, and I’m just going to keep working for it, but I’m not worrying about that.”

Links

Hyeseong Kim made quite the audition for the starting second base gig this spring before departing for the World Baseball Classic, but Alex Freeland is now being handed an equal opportunity to assume the role as well.

Freeland is trying to make the most of his opportunities both at second base and shortstop this spring as he attempts to increase his chances of cracking the opening day roster, per Jack Vita of the Los Angeles Times.

“Opportunity is present, so I’m trying to make the most of it,” Freeland said. “It sucks that Tommy’s not ready and he won’t be ready for the beginning of the season. He’s a big part of this team, so I wish him a super speedy recovery and I hope that he gets out there as quickly as possible. But yeah, with Hyeseong being gone, I am getting more reps at second and short, so I’m just trying to make the most of them.”

Despite a horrible second half in 2025 and with just one year left on his current contract, Blake Treinen does not want to go out on a whimper, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

“I don’t think God would have given me a two-year contract for me to just have the year I had last year,” Treinen said. “I’m praying my whole life that I’m able to go out on top as the best version of myself. I don’t think I’m done.”

Another week, another Book Club. How else to get through February & March in MN besides baseball books and catching up on movies?! This time: Baseball in the Roaring Twenties by Thomas Wolf.

The title is actually a misnomer, as the book focuses specifically on the year 1926. Overall, I found it to be a great examination of the key events both on the diamond and off it. Without delving into as much detail as Wolf, I thought it would be fun to hit some of the key points of what MLB was like a literal century ago.

To set the scene, we’re talking about a league year in which…

• No team resided west of St. Louis
• The rosin bag was introduced
• The sacrifice fly came into being
• Satchel Paige made his debut for the still-developing Negro Leagues (they would draw between 3,000-5,000 fans for their World Series contests that year)

In the wider world of sports, Gertrude Ederle attempted the first-ever female English Channel swim (a feat immortalized in this under-the-radar but surprisingly effective film) while Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney traded fisticuffs in the squared circle. Perhaps the biggest baseball fan to ever reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave was in office: not Calvin Coolidge—wife Grace.

A game-fixing scandal involving star players Ty Cobb & Tris Speaker was an extremely sensitive topic for MLB officials in the wake of the 1919 World Series. Though neither player was convicted in a court of law—some conveniently-lost documents saw to that—they both received a harsh reprimand from Commisioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis and were ostensibly forced to leave their long-standing clubs to finish up their careers.

Between the white lines…

• Heinie Manush (DET) led the league with a .378 BA
• Babe Ruth (NYY) swept all the power categories: 1.253 OPS, 47 HR, 153 RBI, 139 R
• George Uhle (CLE) was the wins (27) & IP (318.1) king
• Lefty Grove (PHA) presided over Ks (194) & ERA (2.51)

The respective league MVPs were quite interesting as well…

• Somehow, 1B George Burns (CLE) ousted the AL’s Bambino with this line: 5.2 WAR, 216 H, 64 2B, 115 RBI, .358 BA, 130 OPS+
• In the NL, C Bob O’Farrell (STL) (3.9 WAR, 144 H, 30 2B, 9 3B, .293 BA, 112 OPS+) took home hardware in large part due to his handling of the Cardinals pitching staff

When the dust settled, it was a Yankees (91-63) versus Cardinals (89-65) World Series.

Through six games, the Fall Classic had been a taut, thrilling affair. As usual, the Sultan of Swat presided. In Game 1, he ripped his pants sliding and the team tailor ran onto the field to sew them up, causing a 15 minute delay. Before Game 4, Ruth promised a critically-ill 11-year old boy—Johnny Sylvester—that he’d sock a home run for him. The Maharajah of Might mashed three dingers just to be safe.

The season’s most indelible moment would occur in Game 7. With the Cards up 3-2, the Yanks loaded the bases with two outs in the 7th inning. Despite pitching a complete game the day before, veteran Grover Cleveland Alexander was summoned from the pen. Ambling to the bump without so much as a stretch, Ol’ Pete tossed three spheres toward the dish and called his arm good.

Tony Lazzari—a rookie on the verge of stardom—dug in and sent an Alexander attempt deep, far, and…foul. Whether by inches or feet is known only to the 38,093 paid at the House That Ruth Built. Reprieve given, Grover got a third strike by Tony and STL escaped the jam.

With the visitors still clinging to a one-run lead and riding Alexander to the finish, Ruth represented the last hope for the Bronx Bombers. On a 3-2 count, the STL ace did the smart thing and let the Babe trot to first base (instead of tie the game). What happened next is one of the most inexplicable plays in the history of the World Series.

With Bob Meusel (120 OPS+) & Lou Gehrig (153 OPS+) due up, the Big Fella—he of 11 SB & 9 CS in ’26—decamped for second base on the first pitch! O’Farrell threw a seed to Rogers Hornsby who slapped the tag down on Ruth. Game over. World Series over. Theeeeeee Yankees lose.

Imagine the second-guessing in today’s media landscape?! In that more innocent time: Ruth got up, shook the Rajah’s hand, and jogged off the field.

That was baseball in 1926.

In 2025, 13 different Rockies made their MLB debuts. The list includes

• OF Zac Veen (No. 9 PuRP)
• LHP Ryan Rolison
• INF Ryan Ritter
• LHP Carson Palmquist (No. 19 PuRP)
• RHP Juan Mejia
• 3B Kyle Karros
• C Braxton Fulford
• RF/DH Yanquiel Fernández
• RHP Chase Dollander
• LHP Dougan Darnell
• RHP McCade Brown (No. 18 PuRP)
• 1B Warming Bernabel
• RHP Zach Agnos. 

Of the 13, eight were sent back down to Triple-A Albuquerque for performance issues or as part of rehab assignments for injuries or bereavement (Agnos). While it’s not unusual to yo-yo a bit in the course of an MLB player’s development, for the Rockies, some players were forced to come up before they were ready because of lack of depth.

Only seven of the 13 ended the season on the 26-man roster.

Of the 13, only nine remain with the team this spring.

• Rolison was traded to the Braves.
• Fernández was released and is now in the Yankees minor league system.
• Darnell was waived and is now in the Tigers farm syst…
• Bernabel elected free agency and is now in the farm system for the Washington Nationals. 

As spring training continues, the Rockies’ new front office and revamped coaching staff will be making hard decisions about who makes the roster, especially in terms of which prospects might be ready and who might need more time to develop. 

When to make the call

When it comes to deciding when a player is ready to be promoted to the Major League roster, Rockies new GM Josh Byrnes said there aren’t “hard and fast rules.” It’s just a matter of going back to the plan that the player has been tracking toward and making sure they are ready for the harsh reality of life in The Show.

He wants to make sure that players get a fair shake and at least 40 plate appearances at the MLB level.

“Hitting is so hard in the big leagues. It’s not easy … it’s turbo stuff, game planning, defense, everything, making it hard on you. There’s no soft spots. So it’s just even the mental game of baseball,” Brynes said. “It’s like, you’re going to go have 40 plate appearances, and there’s no soft underbelly. It’s just not how the Major Leagues is.” 

At Rockies Fest in January, new assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas also talked about the importance of having a process to know when a player is ready. He, too, emphasized the value of communication and talking with the player and staff throughout the organization, so that the decision isn’t just based on a player’s recent Minor League performance.

“[We also look at] player playing goals, some work ethic things, routines, if they have enough chronic workload buildup. But you also do want to see him perform, right? So there is a process that needs to lead to winning and competitiveness and all of those things,” Ribas said, adding that there isn’t a computer screen that lights up green when a player is ready.

“There’s a human element. They’re taking into account their development path, their interaction with coaches, what their hard skills are, what their soft skills are.”

Brian Jones, Colorado’s director of research and development, believes it’s important to look at elements off the field as well. 

“There’s other things going on, right? Are they a good teammate? Are they doing the things in the weight room like they’re supposed to? So there’s a lot of factors we talk about, like, is this guy mature enough to handle these responsibilities?” Jones said at Rockies Fest.

“It’s not just having some success on the field and looking like he should be called up. So there’s a ton of things that go into being Major League ready. It’s not just looking at the stats.” 

Who to look for

When it comes to thinking about which prospects the Rockies have in their farm system, Ribas is encouraged — especially when it comes to pitchers.

He specifically said 23-year-old RHP Brody Brecht (No. 3 PuRP) — the Rockies’ No. 38 overall pick from the 2024 Draft, who played in Single-A Fresno in 2025 — and Sean Sullivan (No. 8 PuRP) — the Rockies’ second-round pick from 2023 who played for the Single-A Grizzlies and Double-A Yard Goats last season — stand out.

He also has high hopes for Gabriel Hughes (No. 12 PuRP), who has had a bumpy path with injuries, but still has the stuff that made him the No. 10 overall pick in the 2022 Draft.

“I have three years of experience of being in the draft room, and every year I walked away from our Tigers draft saying the Rockies had a great pitching class. Like, there are real arms coming out of here,” Ribas said.

“Everybody in this room should be really excited about some of the pitchers that are going to show up here in Denver this year because I think the draft strategy has been good. It will be refined. We’ll communicate and collaborate more frequently, but there has been a lot of exciting arms infused into this organization. So get to know their names. There’s a lot of good ones.”

Jones shares the same excitement.

“I think there’s a lot of unique guys that we have that are gonna be fun to see how they develop,” Jones said. “I mean, you have guys that are hard throwers and guys that are deceptive.”

Jones also highlighted Sullivan, who doesn’t have the velocity like some young arms, but has traits that don’t rely on movement as much — like a later release point — that are altitude-friendly. 

“The slot is unique and he’s left handed, so it’s coming from the A [slot], that you typically don’t see,” Jones said. “You saw Jimmy Herget last year. [He’s] not the hardest thrower, but has some weirdness to him. So weird is pretty good.” 

Jones also shouted out Welinton Herrera (No. 17 PuRP), the 21-year-old LHP who the Rockies signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2021.

“One guy you might see sooner than some others could be Welinton Herrera,” Jones said. “He throws really hard. He also has a slider that he’s been working on, so you will see that show up here.”

For a team that struggled with promoting young pitchers in 2025, hopefully, Rockies pitching prospects fare better in 2026.

---

Rockies 2026 Spring Breakout rosters announced | Purple Row

Charlie Condon (no. 1 PuRP), Ethan Holliday (no. 2 PuRP), and several other top prospects will be in action for the Spring Breakout game on March 21 vs. the top prospects from the Arizona Diamondbacks. This year’s showdown will be the third installment of the new spring training tradition that gives fans a glimpse into what their future rosters might look like.

Ranking all 30 teams by tiers, 1-9 | MLB.com

Rockies fans are accustomed to finding their team at the bottom of MLB lists — and for good reason. After all, the Rockies lost 119 games last year. Heading into the 2026 season, the Rockies aren’t at the bottom of Mike Petriello’s list. Instead, they are one of four teams in Tier 8, one that is dubbed “Lots of losses ahead, but finally headed in the right direction.”

---

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Anne Rogers has the skinny on the Royals Spring Breakout roster:

What is Spring Breakout?

In 2026, MLB Spring Breakout will again be a four-day event showcasing baseball’s future — the current stars of Minor League Baseball – in 16 exhibition games played between teams composed of each MLB organization’s top prospects. The third edition will be held from March 19-22 at Grapefruit and Cactus League stadiums during Spring Training.

In 2027, Spring Breakout will be expanded into a single-elimination tournament format, with champions being crowned in both the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues.

I give Manfred a lot of grief for, well, the giant pile of stuff he’s earned it for. But I like the Spring Breakout game – it’s a cool idea. And I like that they’re tinkering with it to make it even better. Next year’s format will give something to half pay attention to during that time when Spring Training starts to drag on in the second half of March.

Lots of World Baseball Classic talk. At MLB.com, Mark Feinsand wrote: “There are lots of stars on Team Venezuela — and they all look up to Salvy” and it’s easy to understand why:

“When you play representing your country, it’s different,” Perez said. “It’s a unique feeling. It’s like a seventh game in a World Series; something that players have to be there and to get excited when they hear the fans or the people from Venezuela supporting you, when you hear the national anthem.”

At The Athletic ($), Jason Jones profiles Bobby Witt Jr ahead of the WBC:

In one of the true great American debates, Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has taken his stance.

It’s Whataburger over In-N-Out. Regardless of what his West Coast teammates say.

“They’re always on me, like In-N-Out is better, this and that,” Witt said. “I don’t really give them time of day. I know in my heart what I taste.”

We’re going to talk about this for a second. Thankfully, this isn’t a California-based blog or I might get some hate mail. But I don’t get the love for In-N-Out. And I’m grading it against other fast-food burgers – I’m not expecting to find culinary nirvana here. But even on that scale, it’s a really generic hamburger. But, hey, if you speak some secret code language, you can make it slightly less generic. Slightly. Best I can tell is that it’s the local childhood comfort food for a lot of people on the West Coast. And they attach that sentimental value to a really mediocre food product.*

_{*I could link to all the silliness of us plebes dunking on CEOs awkwardly trying their own food. But it got Mickey D’s more publicity than if they had spent millions on a Super Bowl ad so who really is the sucker, here.}

It sounds highly unlikely to pass (as governments love handouts to billionaires), but a Missouri state senator is trying to pull back some of the state’s funding offer for the Royals:

Sen. Tracy McCreery, a St. Louis Democrat, introduced a bill repealing the “Show Me Sports Investment Act,” a bill passed during a special session last year offering state funding for up to 50% of stadium costs for professional sports teams.

The bill was the state’s largest effort to retain the teams after Jackson County voters rejected a proposal to renew a ⅜ cent sales tax from 2031 to 2071 to build a new Royals stadium and renovate Arrowhead.

“The Chiefs have announced they’re moving to Kansas, and as far as I can tell, the Royals have not indicated that this legislation is going to help them stay in the state,” McCreery said.

There were a couple of posts from the Royals about Royals.tv being available starting yesterday. Do with that what you will:

The Royals official Reddit account talked about it, too. (I think that’s the Royals official Reddit account – I guess I have no way of verifying that)

I don’t think anyone linked to this Davy Andews Fangraphs story from yesterday about the Royals signing Starling Marte:

Still, you can see what the Royals are doing here. Caglianone is young and exciting, and despite the ugly numbers, he ran a .321 xwOBA last year, miles above his .239 wOBA. If he learns some plate discipline and breaks out, he’ll break out in a big way, and his ugly outfield defense is likely to improve regardless. If Collins can play at something approaching his 2025 level, if Thomas can raise the meager offensive bar in center, if Marte can chip in some above-average hitting, this outfield could be good. Like, actually good. None of this is guaranteed. Some of it is unlikely. But it’s possible, and it creates a lot more margin for error than the Kansas City outfield has had in a long time.

It’s listicle season.

Also at Fangraphs, but in their fantasy section, Vlad Selder makes bold predictions:

First Base – Vinnie Pasquantino hits 40 home runs

It’s possible we have not yet seen the best of Pasquatch. Pasquantino is a popular player and an easy guy to root for. The big guy is friendly, active on social media, and has a love for baseball analytics. He is one of just eight hitters averaging 105 or more RBIs over the last two seasons, and that’s with missing 33 games. He maintained a BB/K over 1.00 in the minors, and though it’s 0.61 in the majors, that is still above big-league average, and he’s a tough guy to punch out (13.5% career strikeout rate). Pasquantino set a career high in homers with 32 last season. Models project a slight regression, around 27, which is a very reasonable expectation. Those doubting 40 is possible would point toward league-average power metrics, such as a 91 average EV, 9% barrel rate, 45% hard-hit rate, and .191 ISO.

Moreover, his bat speed (72.5) is mediocre, and his launch angle of 16.6 degrees over the last two seasons could use a slight increase. Pasquantino’s plate discipline has been slowly waning over these past few years, and with Kauffman Stadium’s outfield walls moving in, Vinnie P might be interested in selling out a bit of contact (85% career) for more power. Kauffman’s dimension shifts are a big deal. The left and right field fences are coming in by 9-10 feet, and the wall heights are reduced by up to 18 inches. There is no debate about more homers being hit there in 2026 than in past seasons. Vinnie P may not be a batting average stalwart like he was in the minors and his rookie season, but that’s ok because the HR/RBI numbers will be epic. I believe the Royals will win the AL Central, and that Pasquantino crushes 40 this year.

At CBS Sports, Dayn Perry with an AL Central preview. He asks one question about every team:

Biggest question: Will Jac Caglianone be the hitter they need?

There’s a lot to like about the Royals as they angle to notch a third straight winning season in 2026. There’s rotation depth, and ace Cole Ragans is a bounce-back candidate this season. The Matt Strahm signing was a nice targeted strike that improves the bullpen. Bobby Witt Jr. will likely be in the American League MVP race once again and Maikel Garcia is one of the most underrated players in the game. They could, however, use additional power to complement what’s provided by Witt, Salvador Perez, and Vinnie Pasquantino. That brings us to Caglianone. The University of Florida product and the No. 6 overall pick of the 2024 Draft has big-time power, but getting to that power against more advanced competition is an issue thanks to his occasional swing-and-miss problems. Across 232 plate appearances with KC last season as a rookie, Cags had an OPS+ of just 49 and chased pitches outside the zone way too often. None of this is overly concerning for a 22 year old who was facing big-league pitching for the first time, but the Royals need Caglianone to flip the switch in 2026. Last season, KC ranked 26th in MLB in home runs and 18th in slugging, and Caglianone could address those deficits in direct fashion if he finds something close to his expected level of production in 2026.

At MLB, Mike Petriello puts all 30 teams into tiers.

Tier 6: The “what if you have a top-5 pitcher and hitter” zone?

The rosters have questions, but having a pair of superstars would sure paper over a lot of issues.
Royals
Pirates

It’s now been more than a decade since either of these teams did anything of note; the 2015 season where the Pirates won 98 games and the Royals won 95 and a ring seems like it came a century ago. But nor are we in the darkest days of 100-loss rebuild seasons, either, and a big part of that is simple: Superstars…

The Royals already have the hitting superstar in Bobby Witt Jr., potentially a second in Jac Caglianone, who is impressing this spring, and possibly even a third, depending on how strongly you feel about Maikel Garcia’s breakout. What they’re missing is a true ace to lead a rotation that has pretty good depth, but no one you ideally want starting Game 1 of a playoff series. Unless, of course, they do. Two seasons ago, Cole Ragans looked like that ace. Last year, he missed time with a shoulder issue, but also seemingly took a big step back with a 4.67 ERA. But he also increased his strikeout rate by a lot, and the underlying metrics were excellent (2.67 xERA), and so far as the health goes – so far, so good this spring. A healthy, productive Ragans changes everything.

---

Blogs!

At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky tries to project the pitching half of the roster:

Overall, I think the pitching will continue to be the number one strength of this club. There are regression candidates at both levels, but I also think there’s enough depth with this group that if someone does struggle or get hurt that there is an ability to cover the innings. I think the two guys who are absolutely needed, and Soren and I talked about this on a recent podcast, are Ragans and Erceg. Losing either is a bigger blow than losing any other pitcher on the staff. I’d argue Strahm could be in there as well, given that he’s the lefty who can get strikeouts, but I think they can figure out how to cover that too. And, truly, they’d cover Ragans or Erceg, but I don’t think anyone has the upside for the season of either of those two. Even with that, the Royals should find themselves in games because of this group, and if the offense can reach its potential, it’ll be enough to win a lot of games.

Cool to see that Mike Gillespie found a new home. They’re assembling quite a writing team over at Royals Keep. Today, Gillespie does roster projections:

No matter what happens in spring games, at least four things are certain about the outfield. Isbel will start in center, Caglianone will get a shot at right field redemption after his horrendous 2025 debut (so far, so good — he’s slashing .400/.550/.733 this spring), newcomer Isaac Collins is the left fielder, and Starling Marte is here to play. Isbel’s defense is too good to pass up, and Caglianone’s potential is too great to ignore. The club acquired Collins to boost its everyday outfield offense, not its bench depth, and newcomer Marte’s .270/.335/.410 line and nine homers in 98 games with the 2025 Mets prove he has something left to offer. Marte and Thomas won’t play every day, but expect Quatraro to get them in the lineup often.

Blog Roundup:

• Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep: Carter Jensen, Kendry Chourio, David Shields, and Blake Mitchell Headline Royals’ Spring Breakout Player Pool
• Jacob Milham at KOK: Royals History: Every straight steal of home in franchise history
• Caleb Moody at KOK: Sports Illustrated ranking of Royals’ Cole Ragans among MLB aces feels disrespectful

---

We’re going to do a traditional Friday Rumblings OT down below. But if video games aren’t your jam, let’s throw something else out there.

We’re starting to get well clear of the holiday season and into Spring, even if the weather doesn’t feel like it

Do you have travel planning for the upcoming year that you want to share with everyone? Where are you going? Where would you like to go? Anything on that pesky bucket list that you’d like to mark off?

---

As mentioned above, we’re going to do an old school Friday OT and look at a video game we haven’t before.

Considering the franchise’s place in video game history, we haven’t looked at Super Mario Bros all that much:

• July 14, 2017: Super Mario Bros Theme
• December 8, 2017: Super Mario Bros 2
• May 11, 2018: Super Mario Bros 3
• February 7, 2020: Super Mario 3D Land

My son caught me playing Super Mario Bros 3 one day and he wanted to try. While it’s an amazing game, it’s relentlessly hard with the steep learning curve that many (most) NES games had.

After some frustration, he wanted to know if there was an easier Mario game. While he wanted to try SMB2, it’s not really a true Mario game (Doki Doki Panic reskin). So I suggested Super Mario World, which is (a little) more forgiving. Also, I’m always happy to introduce him to games that have appeared on “greatest games ever created” lists.

He’s had a lot of fun with it, particularly with dad’s help. I’ve caught him trying to grind levels without me, which makes “dad me” proud and “12-year-old me” give a nod of respect. We’re still barely halfway through the game and that’s not even counting the 96 exits. I’m just talking about the levels without the secret exits.

It changed the flying mechanic from SMB3’s raccoon tail to a feather that gives Mario a cape. The cape feather can first be found in Donut Plains 1, and it had a perfect tutorial area to practice flying and get extra lives.

Of course, this is the game that introduced the iconic Yoshi. I loved that different shells gave him four different powers. Then, when you get to Star World, you could get Yoshis of different colors.

Speaking of Star World, anyone who got there remembered what came after that. Yes, it was the Special Zone. Those were the hard levels with 90s names like Gnarly, Tubular, and Mondo.

Finally, there was World 7. There were multiple ways you could get to Bowser. You could go through the straightforward Front Door . Or take secret exits to the Back Door.

For our Song of the Day, you can just skip straight to the end of the game: