The Yankees followed up their first World Series appearance in 15 years with a season that fell far short of expectations.

Sure, injuries marred what would have been an incredible starting rotation featuring Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon, but that same rotation crumbled in the postseason, and the Yanks could not even make it back to the ALCS, falling to the eventual American League winners, the Toronto Blue Jays. 

It's a tough pill to swallow for GM Brian Cashman and the rest of the organization, especially after Aaron Judge put together his second consecutive MVP season -- and his 2025 was arguably the best season he's ever had. 

But many saw the flaws in the 2025 Yanks before the ousting, disregarding key injuries to Cole and the departure of Juan Soto in free agency. To Cashman's credit, he addressed those issues at the trade deadline, and the Yankees were healthy and near-complete headed into the postseason. But they could not get it done.

Entering 2026, Cashman and the brass saw that the team that lost to Toronto in four games and essentially decided to run it back.

Whether you agree or not, this is what the Yankees are starting the season with. Don't forget, this is the team that finished tied with the Blue Jays for the most wins in the AL (94) and were 18-8 in September -- the second-best record in baseball. 

Will the "run-it-back" Yanks get over the hump this time?

With the Yankees starting the season on the road in San Francisco to take on the Giants, here are five big storylines to watch...

Returns of Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon

The Yankees made it through 2025 without their ace throwing a pitch in the regular season. A big part of that was Fried's dominance and Rodon having his best season in pinstripes -- along with the emergence of some young hurlers. 

While Cole is still weeks away from returning, his recovery from Tommy John surgery is, by all accounts, going swimmingly. Cole pitched in a Grapefruit League game and was effective, showing he still has a high-90s fastball, which is very encouraging. But baseball fans know returning from TJS is always tricky.

How much can the Yanks depend on Cole, and how do they plan to limit his workload? 

Luckily for the Yankees, they have more than enough starters to perhaps even use a six-man rotation. With days off, it will be a four-man rotation to start, with Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Ryan Weathers. The Yankees also have Luis Gil, Ryan Yarbrough and even Paul Blackburn. 

On a similar note, Rodon will also start the season on the IL.

The southpaw has an expected return date sometime in April.

Rodon had a bone spur shaved down and loose bodies removed from his throwing arm, so it's not as intensive as Cole's recovery, but getting Rodon back and seeing if he can return to his 2025 form will be something to look out for. Don't forget, Rodon had a 3.09 ERA across a career-high 33 starts. 

Anthony Volpe's future

Volpe is another starter who will begin the season on the IL, but this is a different situation from Cole and Rodon. Those two have their spots in the rotation ready for them when they return. The same can't be said for Volpe.

Sure, the Yanks will likely give Volpe back the starting shortstop job -- barring insane production from Jose Caballero -- but that leash won't be as long as it was last season.

Volpe regressed both offensively and defensively in 2025, and although the youngster played through a shoulder injury that likely affected his play on both sides of the ball, he'll need to show something when he returns. With his shoulder fixed, Volpe will need to hit the ground running, or at least show that his Gold Glove-level defense has returned. 

A season ago, Volpe committed a career-high 19 errors, and the play of Paul Goldschmidt at first base certainly kept that number from eclipsing 20. 

In addition to Caballero, the Yankees have George Lombard Jr. lurking in the minors. The Yankees' top prospect has shown this spring that his defense is major league ready, and if he can do some damage offensively in Triple-A, his timeline could be pushed up. There's also the trade market to solve the team's shortstop problem if Volpe proves he can't be reliable as an everyday starter.

A CJ Abrams deal with the Nationals could be possible. Abrams batted .257 with an OPS of .748 to go along with 19 home runs, 60 RBI and 31 stolen bases last season. While not a perfect player, Abrams would give the Yanks lineup a lift, especially at their left-hander-friendly stadium.

Perhaps a deal for an established shortstop like Abrams or someone else at the deadline could spell the end of Volpe's tenure.

Aaron Judge MV3?

There have only been two players in MLB history to win three consecutive MVP awards, the most recent being Shohei Ohtani (2023-25). Barry Bonds (2001-04) was the first, but Judge could add his name to that illustrious list this season. 

Why not? 

Judge followed up a crazy 2024 campaign, where he launched 58 homers and drove in 144 runs, with a 2025 season that was arguably better. A year ago, Judge batted .331, winning the AL batting title, smashing 53 homers and driving in 114 runs. The captain has not shown any sign of slowing down, and with his closest peers (Ohtani, Soto, etc.) being in the National League, who could pry the MVP away from him?

Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals is an intriguing option. He was runner-up to Judge in 2024 and the young infielder could see his production increase with Kansas City bringing in its outfield walls. The Royals could also return to the postseason after missing out in 2025, and Witt would be a big reason why. And then we had Cal Raleigh in 2025. The Mariners catcher gave Judge his best shot, breaking all sorts of MLB records while hitting 60 homers as a catcher and helping Seattle capture the AL West title. 

Barring any injuries to Judge, if a record-setting performance from Raleigh couldn't knock Judge off his perch, it might take something truly special -- or voter fatigue -- to unseat him. 

Follow-ups to justify the run-back

One key factor to the "run-it-back" mantra is that a lot of young and surprise players stepped up in 2025. However, if they want to get back to the World Series, they'll need a follow-up that matches or exceeds what they did prior.

First and foremost, the rotation to start will have youngsters the club will need to keep the ship afloat until Cole and Rodon return. A lot is expected of Warren, Schlittler, and Gil, and those expectations are warranted.

Gil won the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year before injuries nearly wiped out his entire 2025. The right-hander will need to find his groove again, as spring training was not kind. Taking his last spring start out, Gil pitched to a 6.28 ERA.

Warren was the opposite of Gil, pitching the entire 2025 season without injury -- to varying degrees of success -- and the second-year starter has had a magnificent spring. Heading into his final spring start, Warren has allowed just four earned runs while striking out 16 batters across 20.1 innings.

And then we have Schlittler, the hero of the Wild Card round last year.

The electric right-hander had a setback early in spring, but since his return, he's just as advertised. He's allowed just one run and struck out 11 batters across 9.2 IP (three starts).

On the offensive side, Ben Rice will be given the reins at first base. The left-handed slugger had a great second half last year, and continues to show his plate discipline and power this spring, all while showing more comfortability playing the position. 

Austin Wells is entering his third year and took a step back in his sophomore season. While his defense behind the plate is still very good, the Yankees hope to get more out of him -- he has 20-homer power -- to lengthen the lineup. Wells showed that potential playing for Team DR in this year's WBC, hitting .267 and smashing two home runs, including a walk-off. 

And while Trent Grisham isn't a youngster, the Yanks will see if they'll get similar production out of the 29-year-old. Now, it's unreasonable to expect the 34 home runs and 74 RBI out of the leadoff spot they got from Grisham a year ago, but the Yankees hope their $22 million man can produce. If not, it'll be interesting to see how patient the team will be before Jasson Dominguez or even Spencer Jones gets a shot. 

Reclaiming the AL East

The Blue Jays were a bad matchup for the 2025 Yankees, it was as simple as that. However, if the Yanks won the division and had home-field advantage, then perhaps the series could have been different.

While we can talk hypotheticals all day, the road back to the World Series is easier as a division winner and preferably as the top seed. New York used that advantage in 2024 and they should do whatever it takes for that again.

Now, the AL East is going to be more difficult than a year ago -- at least on paper. 

The Red Sox will have another year of experience for their youngsters, while they acquired Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez to build a rotation on par with the Yankees. The Blue Jays have a similar team to a year ago, but did add Dylan Cease and Kazuma Okamoto, who could be in the Rookie of the Year conversation.

The Orioles signed Pete Alonso, are healthier and still have some of the most talented youngsters (Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday) in the league. And the Rays will also be a pest and somehow always find a way to be in the mix. 

It'll be tough, but it's imperative that the Yankees win the division. Scoreboard watching will be a daily routine this season.

Meet the Mets

Mike Tauchman’s MRI revealed a torn meniscus that will require surgery to repair and keep him sidelined for the foreseeable future.

For at least the first two go-arounds, the Mets will run with a five-man rotation where Sean Manaea will be the odd man out, piggybacking when needed.

In his time as a New York Met, Francisco Lindor takes pride in the fact that you can break his bones and still not keep him off of the field for very long, if at all.

MLB dot com’s Anthony DiComo took to the Mets subreddit for an Ask Me Anything prior to the 2026 season’s kickoff.

Craig Kimbrel, for the moment at least, will not join Jose Valverde, Jason Isringhausen 2.0, David Robertson, and countless other elder closers in the realm of “Hey, He Was A Met?”

Around the National League East

Cristopher Sanchez and the Phillies ripped up his old extension from last season and agreed to a new one, adding up to $103M in new money over six years.

The Nationals acquired infielder Jorbit Vivas from the Yankees in exchange for minor league pitcher Sean Paul Liñan.

Just as 2025 ended, Marlins All Star Kyle Stowers will start 2026 on the injured list, this time with a hamstring strain suffered earlier in camp.

Around Major League Baseball

Despite Team USA’s loss in the World Baseball Classic, the tournament was a smashing success in America and beyond.

As the Yankees open the 2026 season with a four-man rotation for the first couple of turns, former Rookie of the Year Luis Gil finds himself as the man on the outside looking in.

In one of their final roster-cutting moves before the season begins, the Dodgers demoted Hyeseong Kim to AAA and decided to keep Alex Freeland on the roster.

Reportedly, the Orioles offered infielder Gunnar Henderson an extension at some point last Spring, but he declined and it’s unknown if talks have continued since then.

This Spring was the first time ABS has been used in active major league competition and it’s safe to say that the players have learned some lessons during this time.

Old Friend Michael Conforto officially made the Chicago Cubs Opening Day roster after Seiya Suzuki’s knee injury was deemed severe enough to rule him out for the season’s first games.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Linus Lawrence took us through the Sweet Sixteen of Mets Madness.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 1978, the Mets shipped Bud Harrelson off to Philadelphia.

Among decisions to be made throughout spring training, the ones that can change the most as the preseason progresses is the bullpen. Often, the low-leverage arms will be the 25th or 26th guys on an Opening Day roster, and are not immune to trips back-and-forth to the minors. For the Yankees, Cade Winquest may end up fitting the spirit of that description quite well — albeit with a catch.

Acquired this offseason, the 25-year-old righty has not pitched in The Show to this point in his career, and has worked primarily as a starter in various levels of the Cardinals’ organization. In the 2026 season, both are likely to change. Although he won’t be getting any high-leverage appearances out of the ’pen (especially early on), he’s likely to get some work, and the Yankees clearly had enough interest to bring him aboard back in December.

2025 Stats (High-A, Double-A): 25 games (23 starts), 106.0 IP, 5-7, 3.99 ERA, 3.57 FIP, 23.9% K%, 8.5 BB%, 1.36 WHIP

2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 30 appearances, 30 IP, 4.87 ERA, 4.85 FIP, 18.0% K%, 8.9% BB%, 1.33 HR/9, 1.40 WHIP, 0.0 fWAR

In the 2025 Rule 5 Draft, the Yankees selected Winquest from the Cardinals. Again, he has no MLB experience as of yet, but has been a respectable run preventor between A-ball and Double-A, relying on a solid fastball-curveball combination that clearly sparked a baseline level of interest from New York in the righty, if they already considered them potentially big-league ready.

During the 2025 season between High-A and Double-A in the Cards’ system, Winquest worked easily the most innings of his professional career with 106. He did so while striking out more than a batter per inning, and did enough to warrant the Yankees taking him via the Rule 5 in December. Almost any player acquired in this fashion is a flier, but in this case, there is a good chance that Winquest will see MLB time in his first season in the Yankees organization.

New York partially rebuilt the back end of their bullpen at the trade deadline last year, when they acquired David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird. All three righties remain with the Yankees for 2026, and at least Bednar and Doval figure to get plenty of high-leverage work, not to mention the presence of Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill, who played key roles in out of the ’pen in 2025.

Winquest is the youngest pitcher projected to be a part of the Opening Day bullpen, and the only one with under three years of service time. All of that considered, along with the talent at the top of the depth chart, meaningful innings may be hard to come by for Winquest. That being said, there’s a reason bullpens run so deep, assuming he’s actually in the fold, he’ll get his opportunities.

It is theoretically not out of the question that Winquest makes a spot start here or there as well, but there are several others in the projected bullpen with starting experience, namely Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough. Tellingly, the Yankees haven’t started him once this spring, preferring to use him in relief.

The right-hander did a solid job last season, managing a 3.57 FIP in over 100 innings as a starter, though that was in the lower levels of the minors, and big league lineups could prove to be an issue for him. He features a solid curveball, with a fastball and slider that leave some room to be desired, as well as a cutter, all of which the Yankees will likely try to develop and optimize while he’s in the Bronx. His eight spring training appearances have been forgettable, as he’s allowed six runs and three homers, but it’s a small enough sample that hope hasn’t completely run out. At worst, Winquest offers immediate depth, and if they don’t like what they see when the games count, then they can just return him to the Cardinals (he will have to stick with the Yankees all year to remain in the organization past 2026). It’s a relatively low-risk endeavor, and the Yankees’ decision to roster him or not will be a signal about what they think about his stuff.

Getting any meaningful or high-leverage work will be an uphill battle for Winquest with the Yankees this season, but their acquisition of him says something of their interest. He will surely get some looks in the early part of the season; the onus will just be on him to capitalize on the rare opportunity to be an impactful Yankees Rule 5 pick.

See more of the Yankees Previews series here.

Following a 2025 season where the Mets went from the team with the best record in baseball to one that missed the playoffs, president of baseball operations David Stearns overhauled the roster, which included trading or letting go of a bunch of its core players.

While the club led in part by Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil helped make New York go during its magical run to the 2024 NLCS, that group was also part of the incredibly disappointing 2025 season, the massive failure that was 2023, and the 2022 team that squandered the division lead late and was eliminated in the Wild Card Series at home to the Padres.

Also gone from the recent core is Edwin Diaz, though his departure seemed less intentional from the Mets' end and more like a negotiation gone wrong.

In any event, out are Diaz, Alonso, Nimmo, McNeil, and most of last year's bullpen. 

In are Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta, Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., and others. 

With the Mets opening the regular season this week at Citi Field against the Pirates, here are five big storylines to watch...

Is the starting rotation a strength?

It was the rotation that was largely responsible for the Mets' downfall last season.

While injuries impacted things, the starting staff in 2025 was a debilitating combination of ineffective and allergic to pitching deep into games.

The group heading into 2026 has been bolstered in a big way by the addition of Peralta, and should be further transformed by getting a full season from Nolan McLean -- who made eight starts toward the end of last season in what was his first taste of the bigs. 

Back are Clay Holmes and David Peterson, with the latter's struggles late in 2025 possibly attributable to fatigue as he tossed a career-high 168.2 innings.

Also back: Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea, whose campaigns last year were marred by injury and underperformance.

Senga looked terrific in spring training, with his fastball routinely reaching the high-90s, and Carlos Mendoza repeatedly said Senga simply looks like a healthy player again.

Manaea's spring was up and down, with his decreased fastball velocity (which hovered around 88 mph) being the main focus.

If you squint just a bit, you can see a staff that could have three top-of-the-rotation starters and three solid mid-rotation starters.

But it's fair to wonder how Manaea's stuff will play in the regular season and whether Senga will stay healthy. And the Mets are seemingly wondering about Manaea, too, with the lefty in a bullpen/piggyback role to start the season. 

Fortunately for the Mets, their depth is very good, including Christian Scott (who is healthy after recovering from Tommy John surgery), Jonah Tong, and Jack Wenninger.

How will Carson Benge acclimate to the majors?

While the Mets haven't announced Benge is on the team, it will be a massive shock if he doesn't come north. He has earned the right field job and is the clear best option. 

Stearns said last November that Benge would get a real chance to win a starting job out of camp, and held that position all throughout the offseason and spring training, including when Juan Soto unexpectedly shifted to left field.

And Benge, who has played just 24 games above Double-A, looked the part all spring.

It wasn't just the results (which were great). It was Benge's approach at the plate, his long at-bats, his ability to hit the ball with authority to all fields, his defense, and his demeanor.

Most of the focus has been on Benge's offense, but he's also a plus outfield defender, which includes a cannon of an arm.

While there will be pressure on Benge to perform, he should have a bit of a soft landing since he won't be viewed as a lineup anchor from the jump, with him likely hitting in the lower third of the order. 

Francisco Lindor's power

Lindor returned to game action over a week before Opening Day, as he completed his recovery from hamate surgery in his left hand.

The shortstop's presence in the lineup for the start of the season was never really in doubt, but it's fair to wonder how the surgery might impact his power -- at least in the short-term.

Earlier this spring, SNY spoke with Deepak Chona, MD, a Stanford and Harvard-trained orthopedic sports surgeon and founder of SportsMedAnalytics, to get insight regarding Lindor's surgery and what it could mean for his 2026 season.

"The amount of time varies," Chona said about the power aspect, "but generally projects to six weeks after returning."

In other words, while the impact to Lindor's power should not be significant, it could still be notable -- as was the case with Francisco Alvarez last season.

"Most likely, this timing correlates with the recovery of grip strength and control of the bat," Chona explained. "This dips after surgery (1) because of the generalized trauma/swelling to the muscles of the hand and (2) because the part of the bone (called the hook of the hamate) that they cut out to treat the fracture is involved in generating grip force as well."

Chona added:

"The area near the hamate sees greater force on a left hand when batting right-handed, so it’s possible – if not likely – that Lindor being a switch hitter may help him bounce back faster than other batters.

"Limited data exists, but we’d anticipate a greater effect when he bats right-handed early on in the recovery. By one-to-two months post-return, most data suggests he’d be near his baseline level from both sides of the plate."

Will Devin Williams bounce back?

The Mets' bullpen would undoubtedly be more fearsome if it had Williams and Diaz. 

But Williams' relative struggles last season should not cloud the kind of reliever he was for his entire career before that.

Over the first six seasons of his career, Williams had a 1.83 ERA (2.39 FIP) and 1.02 WHIP in 235.2 innings while striking out 375 batters -- a rate of 14.3 per nine.

While he didn't perform up to his standards in 2025, with a 4.79 ERA over 62.0 innings, pretty much all of Williams' underlying metrics suggest it was largely a fluke.

Specifically, Williams' 2.68 FIP was more indicative of how his stuff played than his top line numbers. Meanwhile, his WHIP, HR/9, BB/9, and SO/9 were all near his career rates. 

As far as the stuff? Williams' fastball remained an above average offering, and his vaunted changeup was in the 95th percentile.

Put it all together, and it's fair to expect Williams to be elite again in 2026. 

The first base plan

Jorge Polanco got lots of time at first base in spring training games as he learns a position he has yet to play in a regular season game.

And in those games, Polanco looked pretty comfortable.

However, Brett Baty also got a significant amount of burn at first base in Grapefruit League play as he also learns the position.

With Baty frozen out at third base byBo Bichette and at second base by Marcus Semien, it's fair to believe he'll be mainly at designated hitter or first base when he's in the lineup.

Add to that the mild health concerns surrounding Polanco and you get a situation where it might make sense to use Baty at first base and Polanco at DH more often than not -- if he handles the position as well or better than Polanco. 

Now that the roster is (unofficially) set, here is what we can find.

There are a lot of moves here that are unsurprising. Much of this team has been set for a while now, but there are still at least maybe a few eyebrow raisers here. Among them

• Dylan Moore getting to keep his 26th man spot, giving the team really only three true outfielders
• Tim Mayza getting the nod over Rule 5 pick Zack McCambley as the last member of the bullpen to be added before either Orion Kerkering or Max Lazar come off the injured list
• Rob Thomson coming to his senses and not keeping Garrett Stubbs over Rafael Marchan

I’m sure there are thoughts about this roster, so let’s share them. What thoughts do you have about this Opening Day roster right now?

Results were not kind to Reynaldo Lopez in his final Spring start on Sunday. His velocity was down while the Twins production at the plate was up. Lopez has seen mixed results this Spring, including less than ideal velocity on his fastball. While there are no reports of injury, it is fair to wonder how effective Lopez can be as the season starts. Hopefully results will be better once the games start to count.

Braves News

In the initial Opening Day Power Rankings from MLB.com, the Braves are ranked 13th.

The Braves and Delta Airlines ironed out a new extension to their partnership.

MLB News

Christopher Sanchez and the Phillies agreed to a new six-year contract extension.

The Blue Jays Extended both manager John Schneider and Ross Atkins.

In the third inning on Sunday night in Anaheim, the Dodgers plated 10 runs against the Angels thanks to seven walks (five in a row at one point) and four hits (Teoscar Hernández had the first two hits in the frame, including a home run).

The last time the Dodgers scored double-digit runs in an inning in a game that counted was June 2, 2021 against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, putting up 11 in the first inning.

Hyeseong Kim was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday, with Alex Freeland earning the heavy side of a platoon at second base to open the regular season. Manager Dave Roberts explained the roster move on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

“There’s no doubt that Hyeseong at some point is going to come help us out. I think the driver, as far as at the outset, is giving Hyeseong an opportunity to play every day, play all over the diamond,” Roberts said Sunday, as shown on SportsNet LA. “He’s going to play some short, some center, some second base there. Whereas here, he wouldn’t have the runway to do that, to play more frequently.

“I think with Alex, with what he’s done in Triple-A already, he’s really played well. There’s nothing left for him to prove there. For us to give him a little bit of runway to see what we’ve got in him, to give him an opportunity to play here for us against right-handed pitching, and just kind of see where it goes.”

Dan Szymborski at FanGraphs last week identified potential booms and busts for 2026 based on his ZiPS projection system, with first baseman Freddie Freeman in the latter at age 36:

While his stats haven’t really reflected it yet, his contact rate took a big dip in 2025, and a change in contact rate is one of those Statcast indicators that is predictive of big downside risk. I’m hoping this isn’t how things play out, but I think this might be the first year in a long time in which Freeman won’t have a case for being the NL’s best first baseman. Either way, I look forward to checking his name on a Hall of Fame ballot sometime in the 2030s.

Freeman walked twice and doubled in Sunday night’s win in Anaheim, his first game this spring not played at Camelback Ranch. He’s up to 44 total plate appearances this spring, for those of you keeping track of Project 47.

Good morning, baseball fans!

Welcome to the first week of the regular season! It’s time to take a look at what’s on deck for the San Francisco Giants this week.

Monday

The Giants welcome the Sultanes de Monterrey to Oracle Park for an exhibition game tonight at 6:45 p.m. PT. The game will have television coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area and radio coverage on KNBR.

Tuesday

The exhibition series with the Sultanes continues Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. PT. The game will have television coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area and radio coverage on KNBR and KSFN.

Wednesday

OPENING DAY! The Giants will welcome the New York Yankees to Oracle Park for Opening Day at 5:05 p.m. PT. This will be the only game on Wednesday, which means you can only watch it on Netflix. Naturally. Radio coverage will be available on KNBR and KSFN.

Thursday

Off Day

Friday

The Yankees series continues on Friday, starting at 1:35 p.m. PT. The game will have television coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area and radio coverage on KNBR and KSFN.

Saturday

The final game of the Yankees series will start at 4:15 p.m. PT. This will be a national broadcast on Fox, with radio coverage available on KNBR and KSFN.

Sunday

An extremely rare Sunday off. What a weird schedule to start the season.

It's the Dodgers, and everyone else, in the National League West this season.

The two-time defending World Series champions ponied up a combined $309 million to sign two free agents, world-class closer Edwin Díaz and four-time All-Star corner outfielder Kyle Tucker.

The second-place San Diego Padres continued to cut payroll, bidding farewell to free agents Dylan Cease, Robert Suarez, Luis Arraez and Ryan O’Hearn. The San Francisco Giants' offseason highlight: becoming the first MLB team to make a college coach with no professional baseball coaching experience their manager. The 47-year-old Tony Vitello comes on board after coaching the Tennessee Volunteers for the past eight seasons.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are attempting to bounce back after following up a 2023 World Series appearance with two underwhelming seasons. And the Colorado Rockies are starting fresh yet again, replacing general manager Bill Schmidt with Paul DePodesta, who, after working for the Dodgers and other MLB teams, most recently served as the Cleveland Browns' chief strategy officer for the past 10 years.

1 | Dodgers

2025 | 93-69, 1st in West

Last year in playoffs | 2025

The Dodgers will open the season with a record payroll, to go with sky-high expectations, as the team vies for baseball’s first three-peat since the New York Yankees won three straight World Series titles between 1998 and 2000. The Dodgers remain the steady favorites, but seven of their nine regular position players are on the other side of 30. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández all showed signs of regression last season. The Dodgers have been bitten by the injury bug over the past two years, especially in their rotation and bullpen. Pitchers Blake Snell, Gavin Stone, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips will all open the season on the injured list. How will Roki Sasaki’s second try as a member of the pitching rotation go? With all this in mind, expect Dave Roberts to manage his club accordingly. Don’t expect the Dodgers to gun for the 2001 Seattle Mariners’ win record of 116. Expect load management, as the Dodgers pace themselves with the goal of a healthy roster entering postseason play.

2 | San Diego Padres

2025 | 90-72, 2nd in West

Last year in playoffs | 2025

Despite a middling September — the Padres went 14-11 in the final month of the season — the club finished only three games back of the Dodgers. Though the club lost some key pieces over the winter, the Padres still boast a lockdown bullpen featuring Mason Miller, and a potent lineup starring Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. After an impressive rookie season, Jackson Merrill struggled to find his footing in his second year, landing on the IL three separate times. Merrill could be this season’s breakout star in the National League. If he takes a leap and the Padres stay healthy, this club could surprise.

3 | San Francisco Giants

2025 | 81-81, 3rd in West

Last year in playoffs | 2021

Since the Chicago Cubs eliminated the Giants from the 2016 NLDS, the club has made the postseason just once. Newcomers Luis Arraez and Harrison Bader should provide length to their lineup. Bader enjoyed a resurgent 2025 where he slashed .277/.347/.449 while playing plus-defense, earning himself a two-year, $20.5-million deal. Arraez saw a 22-point dip in batting average last season from 2024, but maintained a low-strikeout rate (3.1%). Right-side infield defense will be a question mark with Arraez returning to second base and Rafael Devers manning first. The Giants should get good length out of starting pitchers Robbie Ray and Logan Webb. Webb led the National League in innings pitched for the third straight season.

4 | Arizona Diamondbacks

2025 | 80-82, 4th in West

Last year in playoffs | 2023

Since their miraculous run to the World Series in 2023 — a postseason in which they bludgeoned the Dodgers, outscoring their divisional foes 19-6 in a three-game sweep in the NLDS — the Diamondbacks have missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. The club will likely be without two of their best three starting pitchers to open the season, as Corbin Burnes works his way back from Tommy John surgery and Merrill Kelly deals with lingering intercostal nerve irritation. With manager Torey Lovullo entering his 10th season with the club and the final year of his contract, could his seat be heating up?

5 | Colorado Rockies

2025 | 43-119, 5th in West

Last year in playoffs | 2018

Under new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta, the Rockies will look to turn the page from a season to forget in 2025. Having played just 170 games through his first four seasons with the Rockies — posting a minus-WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in three of them — Kris Bryant’s future remains in question as he deals with a degenerative disk disease. He will open the season on the 60-day IL. The club saw promise last year from 25-year-old catcher Hunter Goodman and 27-year-old Mickey Moniak. The club will hope to see continued growth from youngsters Ezequiel Tovar, Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle, with top prospect and 2024 Golden Spikes Award winner Charlie Condon eyeing a potential big-league debut this summer.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Of course, projecting the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens roster is also a sneaky excuse for one more final projection of the Detroit Tigers Opening Day roster. Nothing has really changed at the major league level. I expect Kevin McGonigle and Parker Meadows to be with the Tigers on Opening Day, and for some combination of Enmanuel de Jesus, Brant Hurter, Sean Guenther, and Brenan Hanifee to start the season with the three open spots in the Tigers’ bullpen.

We got news on Saturday night that second ranked Tigers’ prospect, center fielder Max Clark, will start the season in Triple-A Toledo. That move has consequences, indicating that almost certainly Parker Meadows has made the Opening Day roster. They can’t both play center field in Toledo, although it’s at least plausible that they could share center and right field duties or something. Trei Cruz will also need to stay sharp in center field, though he’ll also split some time at the shortstop position.

Either way, here is our crack at the players manager Gabe Alvarez and pitching coach Doug Bochtler will be working with to start the 2026 season. They can carry 28 players on the active roster.

The Hens open on Thursday the 26th, just as the Tigers do. They’ll be on the road as well, taking on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in a short series to begin the regular season. Then they’ll spend a week in Syracuse, before returning to the Fifth Third Field on April 7th for their home opener against the St. Paul Saints.

Starting rotation

RHP Keider Montero

RHP Ty Madden

LHP Bryan Sammons

LHP Carlos Pena

RHP Dylan File

RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long – IL

RHP Troy Watson – IL

Sawyer Gipson-Long, and Troy Watson are all working their way back off the injured list. Gipson-Long suffered an oblique strain at the beginning of camp and is throwing bullpens. He should return shortly, perhaps in time to take the fifth spot in the rotation right out of the gate. Watson had arthoscopic surgery on his right elbow and may be a while longer.

We’ll probably see a pitcher or two released from the relief ranks before the season starts. Depending on Gipson-Long’s status, they will likely spot start their final rotation spot out of a deep group of veteran minor league relief arms until one of the two is ready to go.

Jake Miller is close to a return after a lost 2025 season in Erie with back issues and then surgery on both hips to correct the underlying labrum tears that contributed to his back trouble. The Tigers assigned him to Toledo back on March 6, but seem likely to send him back to Erie to get back into form before he makes the jump to Toledo. Fellow lefty starter Andrew Sears had some kind of issue that kept him from seeing major league camp, but is reportedly throwing bullpens. We’ll see how long it takes for him to get on the mound again, but he’s not too far from a promotion to Toledo either.

Bullpen

RHP Dylan Smith

RHP Tyler Mattison

RHP Tanner Rainey

RHP Jack Little

RHP Matt Seelinger

LHP Sean Guenther

LHP Konnor Pilkington

LHP Colin Poche

RHP Woo-Suk Go

RHP Ricky Vanasco

RHP Scott Effross- IL

RHP Tyler Owens – IL

LHP Bailey Horn – IL

RHP Dugan Darnell – IL

RHP Phil Bickford – IL

The bullpen is pretty full, though a veteran or two might end up opting out, but really only Dylan Smith and Tyler Mattison are notably exciting. Bailey Horn fits the bill in terms of good stuff, but he’ll be a little while before returning from right elbow arthroscopy. With minimal information available, it’s impossible to know when guys will come off the injured list. Sean Guenther has had a good camp and should get a look again this year and could possibly take a spot on the Opening Day roster instead, bumping Brant Hurter or Enmanuel de Jesus to Triple-A for a while.

Drew Sommers could be a quality lefty reliever if his command comes together, and he’s still young at 25 years of age. I expect he’s bound for Erie to start the year to keep working on his command. It’s just hard to imagine them carrying four lefties in the pen to start the year, and Pilkington, Poche, and Guenther feel like bigger priorities as major league depth until Sommers levels up a bit more.

RHP Cole Waites is still trying to rebuild his velo after his return from Tommy John last year. He used to be 98 mph, but was 92-93 mph for the most part in camp. I will guess he’s going to Erie until it comes back, but they could keep him in Toledo instead, and send RHP Woo-Suk Go to Erie instead. Otherwise it’s a collection of veterans with enough quality stuff to succeed, but not enough command, and in most cases, no huge carrying pitch to lean on if they don’t improve that command.

The Tigers have added minor league veterans like RHP Yendy Gomez, RHP Wandisson Charles, RHP Luke Taggart, RHP Jan Carabello, and RHP John Stankiewicz, along with a few younger free agent signings who will be in Lakeland. Since we haven’t seen them, it’s pretty impossible to know where the Tigers will play the older minor league veterans in that group. Gonez and Carabello are young though, and project for West Michigan or Erie to start the season.

Either way, leaving out the injured list guys, that gives them a five-man rotation and an 10-man bullpen to start with on the 28-man roster.

Position players

CF Max Clark

OF Wenceel Pérez

OF Ben Malgeri

OF Corey Julks

OF Cal Stevenson

1B Jace Jung

2B Max Anderson

SS Trei Cruz

3B Hao-Yu Lee

UT Chris Meyers

UT Gage Workman

C Tomas Nido

C/1B Eduardo Valencia

SS Trey Sweeney -IL

Obviously, we’re assuming Parker Meadows is with the Tigers on Opening Day, moving Wenceel Pérez, Trei Cruz, and Corey Julks to Toledo. It sounds like Hao-Yu Lee is just about healed from his oblique injury. If not, the Tigers could add a veteran minor leaguer like 1B/LF types, Chris Meyers or Justice Bigbie. Whenever Lee is ready, he and Anderson will split days between second and third base together.

We’ll see what the Tigers decide to do with John Peck. There’s a good chance he goes back to Double-A if only to keep both he and Trei Cruz playing shortstop most days. Still, Peck has had a great camp, and while he’s only spent about a month and change at the Double-A level, the Tigers clearly are impressed as he’s travelling to Arizona with the club for the final two exhibition games. I wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up in Toledo either, in which case veteran minor leaguer Chris Meyers can easily be bumped back to Erie. Peck can play all over the infield, and so if Cruz gets a lot of time at shortstop it isn’t going to hinder Peck’s development as a versatile right-handed hitting infielder who has some power and is pretty good at shortstop to boot.

If Peck is starting the year as the Hens’ shortstop, splitting some of that time with Trei Cruz, that might spell the end for Trey Sweeney. The Tigers will need a 40-man spot for Kevin McGonigle sooner rather than later, and it’s just hard to see Sweeney doing anything without a major overhaul to his swing. Of course, they could also drop Workman at this point and keep Sweeney as a utility infielder, and that’s probably more the move as Workman has aged out and couldn’t take advantage of his major league look with Cubs last year. Still, they’re both 26 this year, so pick your poison I suppose. They’re young enough not to totally give up on, but not important enough to worry about at the same time.

Overall, this is a really good group of position players with Clark as the headliner. Wenceel Pérez is a solid MLB caliber hitter who just doesn’t stand out in terms of power or defense. Anderson and Lee are just outside of top 100 consideration. Jung and Cruz are older minor league former prospects who had pretty good camps. Valencia isn’t much of a catcher in MLB terms but he bat did erupt in a big way last year and he could provide some power and lefty mashing depth to the Tigers along the way.

The Tigers have a far stronger supporting cast in case of injury or ineffectiveness from their position player group than we’ve really even seen before. It’s just unfortunate that they don’t really have an ace pitching prospect or at least a fearsome relief prospect waiting in the wings. Keider Montero may be able to help out, but until his command takes another step he’s still just quality depth for the rotation and bullpen. Tyler Mattison has the stuff, as does Tanner Kohlhepp, but they’re now deep into their mid-20’s and neither has been able to develop enough command to reach the major league level yet. Hopefully Troy Melton, and maybe by late July or August, Jackson Jobe, can ultimately provide some more impressive help, while top pitching prospects like Miller and Sears get in position to contribute spot starts or long relief work this summer.

Anne Rogers writes that the Royals are putting the finishing touches on their roster.

Massey will stay back in Arizona as the team heads to Texas, allowing him to get more at-bats in Minor League Spring Training games and fully test his running. He played second base on Saturday and is scheduled to play the outfield on Sunday. By Tuesday, the Royals hope to have a better idea of whether they can have him on the roster, which has to be set by Wednesday because of the Yankees and Giants beginning the 2026 season that night.

“If Massey’s ready, he’ll be on the team,” general manager J.J. Picollo said. “It may affect which way we go if he’s not on the team. We’ve got Drew Waters, we’ve got Nick Loftin. Trying to figure out how they fit. The good thing is we’re confident in anybody. We’d like to have Michael on the team. But it’s a deeper roster, and that’s a good thing. We’re in a good spot either way.”

David Lesky raises the alarm on Carlos Estévez.

He did throw a scoreless inning, but it was ugly. He threw 28 pitches but literally seven were in the zone. That’s brutal. He got just two chases on the 21 pitches outside the zone. His average velocity was 89.0, which was better than we’d seen when he was last in camp, but not good enough. And he maxed out at 90.7 MPH. I was concerned, but when it was going up somewhat steadily, I figured it was just something to monitor. We’re a week from Opening Day and he has two more outings to get this figured out. Look, maybe he does and we look back on this the same way we looked back on spring last year. But this is also worse than last year. Not every game had Statcast last year, but he pitched on March 17, March 20, March 22 and March 25 that was tracked. His average velocities were 92.8, 92.5, 93.9 and 93.2. He hasn’t touched any of those numbers on any pitch this spring.

Eno Sarris at The Athletic has ten bold predictions about the season.

Royals offense is top-10

In 2024, my bold prediction was the Kansas City Royals to make the playoffs on the strength of their emerging young offense. Bold Predictions HQ took a win on that one despite the fact that their playoff berth was more due to pitching than anything else. But we’re going back to the well and being more specific this time. The offense. It’s ready to bust out.

Pitchers List ranks Noah Cameron as having one of the top cutters in baseball.

Cameron’s cutter is key to his success—the pitch comes in fairly slow at just 88 mph on average, but it’s got loads of induced horizontal break to it and it works beautifully, posting a 33% chase rate (78th percentile among cutters) a 34.5% ICR (71st percentile), and a 47.1% groundball rate (76th percentile).

Craig Brown looks at how the pitching staff may shape up to begin the season.

The Phillies sign pitcher Cristopher Sanchez to a six-year contract worth over $100 million.

The Pirates send top prospect Konnor Griffin to Triple-A.

Former All-Star reliever Craig Kimbrel won’t make the Mets roster.

Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh have buried the hatchet after their World Baseball Classic spat.

Mets outfielder Mike Tauchman suffers a torn meniscus and will need surgery.

Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez will begin the season on the Injured List.

The Yankees go with a four-man rotation, leaving Luis Gil out.

Sometimes, hitters peak in spring training with their power.

A hot mic catches an umpire saying, “please be a strike” during an ABS challenge.

A look at the oldest minor league franchises in baseball.

How Kevin Harlan became one of the most well-traveled broadcasters.

Syracuse hires Gerry McNamara as its head men’s basketball coach.

Meta backtracks on its decision to end Horizon Worlds VR.

The U.S. government registers the website aliens.gov.

With Banksy unmasked, is anonymity valauble in the art world?

Your song of the day is Operation Ivy with Sound System.

As most of you know, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Winter Warmup as a reporter. Last year, I used that experience to write several season previews. Due to the late start of the top 20 prospect series (caused by waiting for Brendan Donovan to be traded), my Winter Warmup stories have been pushed to now instead of at the beginning of spring training. Thus technically, these could also be called season previews, but there’s a good chance I write a couple of these after the season has already started. I’ll try to pick stories that are not outdated for the ones during the season.

If you’re dissatisfied with Victor Scott’s offense, I have some good news. Victor Scott agrees with you.

“I do a lot of reflecting and a lot of looking at myself in the mirror so I like to see where there are areas I can grow, but I told them I wanted to come back a totally different player,” Victor Scott said. “I know I have two calling cards: the defense and the speed aspect, but I’m not complete without my offense.”

And yes, from a performance standpoint, Scott’s spring training has not gone well, but we all understand how important spring training stats are: they’re not. Especially if a player is working on a new swing. Because he wanted his offense to get better, he looked at why his swing was not working the way he wanted it to.

“What I didn’t realize is what a lot of what my swing was doing before, I was loading the ball of my foot which was basically cheating my rotation, so with that my knee would drive the rotation which then spins my upper half off the ball,” Scott said.  “I had no idea I was doing that.  That’s why you kind of get that pull-across swing and you start to pull groundballs to second base.  For me, groundballs aren’t necessarily a bad thing, they are when they are at 2nd base because I can’t run that out.”

He and the coaches, as he describes it, knew he had to crawl before he walked. He went to West Virginia for motion capture and force plate testing to see how his body was moving. In other words, he was trying to see if he was doing something wrong and if there was something he could do.

“We found out that some of my movements were kind of inefficient and didn’t really help me with being adjustable which I thought they did, but they got exposed,” Scott said.

He did movement prep to get his hips to rotate the right way and to create better shin angles. These would give him a firmer front ankle so that he could better use his energy.

“We’re to the point where we are hitting lives, the swing is much shorter, much more compact and I’m able to be more adjustable and more athletic, so that’s fun for me.”

His slow decline as the season went along means that he was not doing a good job adjusting once pitchers figured out how to pitch to him. There are reasons for optimism on how he should be better positioned to make adjustments due to a couple factors. The Cardinals have made a serious investment in tech and coaching.

“That speeds up development and a lot of things can be done in-house instead of going outside and having to get that information. That’s kind of how I viewed this offseason working with Casey (Chenoweth) and working with Brownie (Brant Brown), so when I need help or when I need to make an adjustment or something is a smidgen off, I can correct it faster.”

Chenoweth in particular is a new addition to the MLB staff. He will be an assistant hitting coach, but Scott worked with him before back in 2023 when Chenowith was the hitting coach for the Peoria Chiefs. That year, Scott had a 117 wRC+ and got promoted midseason to Springfield.

“He’s a guy who understands what he’s talking about, he understands the swing, he understands kind of how to talk to the player and present that information, so that’s a guy I like to use for assistance for help.”

One person who does not need to be sold about Victor Scott is his manager. Oliver Marmol brought up Victor Scott twice during his Winter Warmup interview and Scott’s named was not brought up in any question by a reporter. He went out of his way to talk about Scott. He was asked a question about the rotation and after sharing how he was excited about that group, he then specifically called out Victor Scott.

“When I’m going into spring training, that’s one of the things I’m most excited about, in addition to our centerfielder,” Marmol said. “I’m excited to see Victor Scott and see what he’s capable of this year. Those two things excite me daily.”

Nobody asked a follow-up about Scott, but clearly Marmol wanted to talk about Victor Scott, because later on in the interview, he was asked a question about Masyn Winn and how he wanted to become a more well-rounded player and not just a “defense” guy. And in the process of answering the question about Winn, he decided to give another shout-out to Victor Scott.

“Like Vic, the ceiling is so high for both those guys offensively, I don’t think we’re close to seeing what they’re capable of doing, but I do think because of the way they’re going about it, they’ll close that gap sooner or later,” Marmol said.

These comments were made towards the end of the interview and I think he was genuinely disappointed nobody asked about Victor Scott. So instead of waiting for a question that never came, he wanted to make sure we knew that he believed in Scott. The reason I am emphasizing this is because this is bad news for anyone who thinks Nathan Church should play CF over Scott. I don’t think you’re going to get your wish.

Old school fans should love what Victor Scott wants to be this upcoming season. One of his personal goals this season, with the logic that he plans to get on base more, is to steal twice as many bases as last season. His personal goal is 70 bases. The last time a Cardinal stole 70 bases, it was Vince Coleman in 1988 when he stole 81 bases. To put it another way: I’ve never personally seen a Cardinal steal 70 bases, so that would be cool to experience.

“When this works this year, I’ll be on base more, stealing bases,” Scott said.  “That’s what I like to do.  I like to put myself into scoring positions in order to score more runs.  Driving the ball in the gap more; homers is not in my cards, that’s not me.  I can do it every now and then, but I’m a guy who is a line drive guy; gets on base, hits the ball the other way.  That’s my brand of baseball.”

And this will annoy some of you, I am sure, but still he plans to bunt. I think the difference between the average fan’s thinking and Victor Scott’s thinking is that fans see how successful Scott was at bunting last season (not very) and think “this is his true talent success rate at bunting” while Scott thinks he is capable of getting bunt hits more often.

“This shorter and more compact swing is going to help me utilize those abilities and I don’t want to miss the fact that I’ve been bunting like crazy this offseason,” Scott said.

If you want a little insight into why he was still bunting in spring training, I believe that is why. And for now, I am personally okay with it for two reasons. First, this is the season to do it. This is a season of experimenting to some extent and honestly he was a very good at bunt hits in the minors. I am willing to accept the possibility that he underperformed last year in his bunt attempts.

Secondly, at least for now, he’s pretty much a singles hitter anyway so I don’t see some huge missed opportunity that he’s not actually swinging the bat. He needs to improve on his bunt attempts no question, but it’s not a terribly high bar he has to reach for a bunt to make sense. He batted .216 last season with not much power. Obviously if his changes to his swing work like he hopes, this argument will not apply and I would honestly love to face that reality.

Masyn Winn

Another player who hopes to steal more bases is Masyn Winn, who is under no illusions that he has no shot at stealing as many bases as Scott.

“Vic is track speed,” Winn said.  There’s a difference between track speed and baseball speed.  Now if I could be within five, I would love that.”

Sadly, we can not interpret that as Winn saying he’d love to steal 65 bases. There’s a very good chance he did not know Scott’s personal goal was to steal 70 bases or that Scott would say that to the media later. Since Scott stole 35 bases last season however, I do think something like 30 bases is what Winn is hoping for.

“I need to take my shots – in the right situation of course – but I didn’t even give myself a chance last year,” Winn said.  “This year, with a healthy knee, I’ve been working a lot on running in PT, getting it back for a reason, I want to be able to use that speed.”

Winn is also redirecting his offensive goals for this upcoming season. Last season, he wanted more homers. This year he just wants to get on base more.

“I wanted to hit a bomb every time and that’s just not gonna happen,” Winn said. “That’s something I need to take pride in, is just being annoying at the plate, a guy pitchers don’t want to throw to, just cause they’re going to waste pitches.”

One cannot also underestimate what a healthy knee can do for Winn’s offense. He played through a slight meniscus tear and it required arthroscopic surgery. Only after the surgery was Winn able to realize how much it hampered his game.

“I walked out of surgery and it was almost like a week after, I was like “this is what it’s supposed to feel like to walk” and I had just gotten so used to the pain of playing through it that I was like this is my normal,“ Winn said.  ”I do think last year, looking back on it, probably affected me more than I thought it did.”

After Nolan Arenado got traded and Arenado said his goodbyes to the Cardinals group chat, Winn joked to Arenado that if Arenado robbed him of a hit, he would slide in cleats first. Arenado told him that he’d try to rob Winn like he robbed Andrew Knizner.

“I’m sure he’s gonna hit one over to me,” Winn said. “I’m going to rob it, take my time, let him get down to first base, make him think he’s got a hit. I’m sure he’ll do the same.”

(Winn was the most effusive in last year’s Winter Warmup about wanting to play next to Arenado, so in case it wasn’t clear, this is joking with your friends, not any kind of dig at Arenado. Well except his speed. I do think it’s clear, but I know how easy it is for people to misinterpret these kind of things.)

Here we are on the eve of the 2026 MLB season, and we’ll have Colorado Rockies baseball this weekend. Finally, we will get to see the Paul DePodesta–Josh Byrnes rebuild strategy in action.

That also means it’s time for my yearly SWOT analysis. (Read 2024’s here and 2025’s here.)

As a refresher, my preference is to write a (very rough) SWOT analysis that examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This year’s column poses a challenge. After all, these 2026 Rockies are a very different team than they were in September of 2025. With a new front office and coaching staff, deeper roster, enhanced analytics capabilities, and an updated approach to the game, it’s an exciting, albeit unpredictable, time.

That’s a long way of saying that we don’t really know what 2026 will look like, but we do know (with some certainty) that it will be different.

With that said, here’s my best attempt to evaluate the 2026 Rockies though I would add one caveat. I am not confident of the categories in which I have placed the evidence. Is the new front office a strength or an opportunity? I’m not sure, but I went with strength. You get the idea. And one of the things I hope we discuss in the comments is how these factors should be evaluated and which ones I’ve missed.

(And for those of you who do this professionally, please forgive my amateur application of the form.)

Strengths: Characteristics that give an organization an advantage over others

• A new front office — This is not exactly a strength since the Rockies are playing catchup to other organizations, and they won’t be caught up in six months when the season ends. However, the Rockies now have a serious MLB front office. While we should expect to see improvement from players on the field, the real changes will be happening behind the scenes, and it will be some time before we know their effectiveness. This front office is going to rely on more than “guys playing better,” and they may even surprise folks.
• A coaching staff the players like — The players have been clear — pretty much all of them — that they like manager Warren Schaeffer and the ways in which the coaching staff is working with them. After a miserable 2025, Schaeffer earned their trust and managed to get young players through an unforgettable (derogatory) season. This is no small feat. That terrible season gave Schaeffer a chance to hone his skills and build trust, and this season, he should be able to capitalize on that investment. Someone commented a couple of weeks ago that if Schaeffer can get this team under 100 losses, he should be under consideration for Manager of the Year. I agree.

• The bullpen — Bullpens are, of course, volatile conglomerations, but the potential is there for the Rockies to have a bullpen that much of MLB overlooks. That may prove valuable during the season and certainly as the trade deadline approaches.
• Hunter Goodman — I suspect the Rockies All-Star and Silver Slugger came as a bit of a surprise to MLB, but Rockies fans always knew the bat was for real. Will Goodman regress? We don’t know. But if he doesn’t, the Rockies will have a catcher with significant offensive upside, which is a valuable commodity.

Weaknesses: Characteristics that place the organization at a disadvantage relative to others

• The Rockies are behind — For all those strengths outlined in the previous section, the fact remains that the Rockies are woefully behind their peers. Should fans expect losing? Yes. Should they expect a lot of it? Also, yes. But should things be improved? Probably. Still, losing is hard on professional athletes, and while DePodesta and Byrnes implement their system, there will surely be some grim games lying in wait.
• The offense is bad — This may change, but based on what we saw last season, the Rockies had an offense that couldn’t hit and struck out a lot. That’s no way to win baseball games. Hopefully this is an area in which the Rockies will improve, but based on what we saw last season, there’s work to be done.
• The starting rotation will have its work cut out — Last year’s starting rotation was historically bad, and it’s not possible for the Rockies (or any team) to win without at least a replacement-level rotation. To their credit, DePodesta and Byrnes have set out to correct this by signing veterans with diverse arsenals who aren’t afraid of pitching at elevation.

• The farm system is marginal — Ranking systems have been down on Rockies prospects since last year. The question remains whether this is a lack of talent or a lack of player development. By September, we will have a better idea.
• Kris Bryant’s contract — We’ve written words — so many words — about Byrant’s seven year, $182 million dollar contract. It is increasingly clear that Bryant’s playing days are over. Until the Rockies have resolved the KB conundrum, they will have a level of uncertainty in their ability to plan financially.

Opportunities: Elements in the environment that the organization could exploit to its advantage

• Coors Field should be weaponized — We’ve talked about the “Coors Effect” ad nauseam, and the Rockies talk a lot about the challenges of playing at elevation. This year, it feels like, finally, they have a front office ready to transform Coors Field into a visiting pitchers’ house of horrors.
• The Rockies will have players to deal at the trade deadline — I expect the Rockies to be very active at the trade deadline — as in, “I-wonder-if-Purple-Row-will-be-able-to-keep-up” active. DePodesta and Byrnes have said that they will listen to offers on any player, and the Rockies may have players — especially pitchers — to move in July. Add to that the possibility of trading Brenton Doyle, Mickey Moniak, and Ezequiel Tovar, and the Rockies can begin rebuilding their farm.

• A curious fan base — We hear a lot about how “Rockies fans show up no matter the team’s record,” but serious fans know that’s a fiction. Much of the gate is driven by fans of visiting teams who are either transplants or taking a three-day weekend. Just go to any series with the Chicago Cubs or the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Houston Astros or the Baltimore Orioles . . . I could go on, but you get the idea. One thing that has happened because of the front office and coaching changes is a fan base that is ready for winning and a front office that is ready to answer questions and build relationships. The Rockies need to spend this capital wisely.

Threats: Elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the organization

• The NL West — The Dodgers have built a juggernaut. They want a third consecutive World Series (and to their credit, who wouldn’t?). They made offseason moves in signing Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz to load up to take another run at it. The Rockies luck against the Dodgers has rarely been good, and that trend will probably continue in 2026. In addition, I think the Arizona Diamondbacks are sneaky good. In addition, the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are solid. Before the Rockies can contend, they must find a way to win in the NL West.
• The looming lockout — Strictly speaking, this is beyond the scope of the 2026 season, but any momentum the Rockies build they risk losing in the event of a lockout that extends into the 2027 season. Certainly, no team would be immune from its effects, but for a young and rebuilding team, the impact might be especially devastating.

Predictions

Okay, so here are my (probably wrong) predictions.

• The Rockies will go 63-99. That would mean three additional wins per month, and that strikes me as reasonable given the improvements the front office has made. Any record that includes fewer than 100 losses is an unquestioned win for this organization.
• Three players will surpass 30 home runs: Hunter Goodman, Ezequiel Tovar, and T.J. Rumfield.
• The Rockies will be in the top 10 teams in terms of stolen bases.

So that’s what I’ve got.

Let me know what you think.

This week on the internet

I know the World Baseball Classic happened last week, but I feel compelled to share this Ezequiel Tovar video:

May that energy carry on into the season.

Rockies stay connected on mound with coach calling pitches from dugout | MLB.com

Thomas Harding talked with Rockies coaching, pitching, and catching staffs to get their takes on pitching “suggestions” coming from the dugout. Truly, this one is worth your time.

Four months ago, this Rockies prospect couldn’t speak. Now, he’s back in baseball | The Athletic ($)

Catch up with Braylen Wimmer in a pretty terrific article. (I think I’ve provided a gift link.)

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

Our contributors at Brew Crew Ball are excited to get the 2026 season underway after an offseason that featured a few big moves, including trading away Freddy Peralta and several others to reload with a younger roster. Here are our team award predictions for the Brewers in 2026.

Team MVP

Paul Dietrich: Brice Turang

I’m tempted to go with Jackson Chourio here, because it does feel like a leap is coming soon. But Turang has been one of the team’s most valuable players for two straight years, he was just named the best second baseman of the World Baseball Classic, and he was killing the ball in spring training before he took off to play for Team USA. Ever since Turang’s power breakout last August, we’ve had to consider what could happen if he’s a guy with 30 homer potential who could steal 30 bases and play Gold-Glove-level defense. I don’t know if he’ll put all of that together this season, but I think he might end up as Milwaukee’s best player.

Harrison Freuck: Brice Turang

I don’t think Turang is the best offensive player for Milwaukee (that title probably belongs to William Contreras, or, if 2026 is finally the breakout, Jackson Chourio), but Turang’s combination of strong defense and offense makes him the most valuable player for this team. Coming off an impressive season that garnered him some MVP votes, followed by a great performance in the World Baseball Classic, Turang is poised to take another step forward this year.

Dave Gasper: Brice Turang

During the World Baseball Classic, John Smoltz declared he thought Brice Turang was the MVP of Team USA. If Turang can be the MVP on a team filled with actual MVPs, then he certainly can be the MVP of the Milwaukee Brewers this year. Turang has some of the best raw power at this time, and he has finally learned how to tap into it in games. He’s improved every year in the major leagues, and heading into his age-26 season, he’s primed to be even better and could even be a 30/30 threat.

Pair that power/speed combo with still being able to hit for a high average and Platinum Glove defense at second base, and you have a star that will get plenty of MVP votes.

Jason Paczkowski: Brice Turang

The rise of Brice Turang is going to continue in 2026. After leading the team in WAR (both bWAR and fWAR) in 2025, Turang is still improving. He’s starting the season well with a strong performance in the World Baseball Classic, and he’s on track to continue that into the regular season. With just a little more power, as well as a return to his strong defense from 2024, he could easily be a top 10 candidate in the NL MVP vote after finishing 14th last season.

Adam Zimmer: Brice Turang

I’m buying into the hype. Turang played well enough down the stretch last season to earn himself some down-ballot MVP votes. He hit 13 home runs post-July 1 and finished the season with 5.6 bWAR. In this month’s World Baseball Classic, he posted a.936 OPS in 22 at-bats. 

I already wrote an article last November detailing why I think the new version of Turang is here to stay.  If Turang can indeed carry his late-season form into 2026, he could very well end up hitting 30-plus home runs. He already posted almost 6 WAR last season with an OPS under .800. Improvement over a full season would make him a legitimate MVP candidate, especially when you consider his stellar defense at second. 

Most Improved Player

Paul Dietrich: Jacob Misiorowski

Is this cheating? I’m not sure. Miz only threw 66 innings in the big leagues during last year’s regular season, and then 12 more in the postseason, and at times — especially in the postseason — he looked like the Brewers’ best pitcher. But it’s easy to forget how much of a roller coaster his regular season was; he actually finished with a below-league-average ERA at 4.36, and while his walks are trending in the right direction, he still walked guys at a rate higher than all but two of the qualifying starting pitchers last season. I think he’s going to keep improving that walk rate, and I think experience is going to make him a little better at handling pitching with guys on base, and I suspect he’ll be well above average this year. I’m not going to predict full-blown stardom, but I’m also not going to NOT predict that.

Harrison Freuck: Jake Bauers

I’m not one to read too much into spring training results, but Jake Bauers has been playing great for longer than just spring training. In 22 games (16 starts) in the final month of the season, Bauers hit .360/.458/.560 with a pair of homers, nine RBIs, 11 runs, and three steals across 59 plate appearances. He’s been even better this spring, hitting .471/.581/1.147 with six homers, five doubles, eight RBIs, 11 runs, and three steals in just 13 games (43 plate appearances). While he’ll split time with Andrew Vaughn at first base, it isn’t out of the question for him to turn in his best season yet, as last year’s 0.7 bWAR is his career-high.

Dave Gasper: Garrett Mitchell

I’m hoping and praying this is the year we get to see a fully healthy Garrett Mitchell. He has played in parts of four MLB seasons but has just 390 ABs over 141 games played. The best way to improve is to get reps, and getting a full season of reps should help Mitchell improve tremendously as he goes along. When he had that healthy three-month stretch in the second half of 2024, Mitchell posted a 124 OPS+ and a 2.0 bWAR. A full season at that pace would make him a 4 WAR player. The upside is tremendous; he just needs the ABs to get there.

Jason Paczkowski: Robert Gasser

This is a tricky pick after a 2026 season where most of the Brewers had a strong season. As a result, I’m going to go with a player who missed most of the season due to injury. Robert Gasser had a great start to his major league career in 2024, but elbow surgery ended his season and took most of 2025 as well. He made it back on the roster late in the season and even pitched in a couple of postseason games. As he enters 2026 healthy, he’s looking good and ready to contribute in the majors. Even if he does begin the season in the minor leagues, he should still have a strong impact on the Brewers this season.

Adam Zimmer: Joey Ortiz

Call me delusional, call me ignorant, call me what you want. I’m choosing to be an optimist here. For one, Ortiz quite literally cannot get worse at the plate than the numbers he put up last season. He had the worst OPS in baseball last season, and his Statcast data, by and large, supported his numbers. The bar is the floor. Ortiz is also playing for his job, as the Brewers have a few uber-talented middle-infield prospects breathing down his neck. 

However, there remain signs that Ortiz could still become a serviceable hitter. Over the last 92 games of the season (from June 1 onward), he hit .261. Ortiz would need to show improved plate discipline while maintaining his contact rates, but that could push his OPS into normal, albeit below‑average, territory. In that case, he’ll have improved more than any other Brewer compared to last season.

Newcomer of the Year

Paul Dietrich: Ángel Zerpa

The choices here are basically Luis Rengifo, David Hamilton, or a bunch of young pitchers who we’re not totally sure when they’ll be on the big-league roster… or Zerpa, who I’m going to go with after he looked good in the WBC. His numbers weren’t great last season, but if the Brewers gave up both Isaac Collins and Nick Mears for him, they obviously saw something they liked. And I like it when the Brewers’ front office and pitching gurus see something they like.

Harrison Freuck: Luis Rengifo

Entering 2026, it seemed like the Brewers had found their third base solution in the form of Caleb Durbin. But Matt Arnold and Co. did what they do best, surprising everyone and shipping Durbin (as well as the rest of the third base depth chart) to Boston in February. A week later, they added Luis Rengifo in free agency.

Rengifo, who turned 29 last month, was a solid major leaguer just a few seasons ago, and he can also hold his own defensively. While he may not be the flashiest player, if he can replicate his 2022/2023 seasons — when he hit 33 homers and drove in 103 over 253 games — he’ll provide the Brewers with a solid stopgap as they wait for their infield prospects to develop.

Dave Gasper: Ángel Zerpa

While the acquisition of Ángel Zerpa from the Royals may have gone under the radar, especially after the Freddy Peralta and Caleb Durbin trades, Zerpa could have a big impact on this bullpen. The Brewers traded two very productive players from last year’s squad, Nick Mears and Isaac Collins, in order to get Zerpa, who has a career 3.97 ERA. While his ERA hasn’t been overly impressive, the Brewers see untapped potential in him and believe they can tap into it.

Zerpa pitched for Venezuela in the WBC, and in their path to the title, he struck out Shohei Ohtani looking by painting 97 mph on the outside corner. Zerpa opened some eyes with his WBC performance, including mine. It may not be long before he’s a trusted high-leverage option for Pat Murphy.

Jason Paczkowski: Kyle Harrison

Though his Opening Day status is up in the air after he left his last spring start with a blister, Kyle Harrison is going to be in the Brewers’ starting rotation. The Brewers believed in him enough to acquire him from the Red Sox in the Caleb Durbin trade. The overall spring numbers don’t look great, but his strikeout rate is strong. The Brewers grabbed a gem from the Red Sox last season with Quinn Priester. Have they done it again with Harrison?

Adam Zimmer: Kyle Harrison

As I wrote about last month, Harrison can be a middle-of-the-rotation starter — or better — if he develops an effective secondary pitch (or two). His fastball will always be a plus pitch, but his changeup has been quite effective this spring after he tweaked it over the offseason. Expect him to show fans why he was once a top prospect in all of baseball. 

I almost chose Ángel Zerpa, who looked electric in the WBC and is a prime candidate to benefit from the Brewers’ famed “pitching lab.”

Good morning.

• With Opening Day just three days away, Buster Olney has seven things he’s learned in Spring Training.
• The MLB dot com beat writers have the most important thing each team has learned in Spring Training.
• Jared Greenspan has four things that players have learned about the Automatic Ball/Strike (ABS) system this Spring.
• Umpire Bill Miller learned to be sure his microphone was off before he wished to be overruled by the ABS system. Unfortunately for Bill, he’s too good of an umpire.

• Thomas Harrington has ten players who could seize the opportunity after others getting injured in Spring Training.
• Davy Andrews looks at the weird collection of players who have hit more home runs in Spring Training than the regular season.
• Chad Jennings writes that players returning from World Baseball Classic duty are trying hard to catch up on the time they missed in Spring Training. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Team USA captain Aaron Judge defended his team from charges that they didn’t have any fun during the WBC. (The Athletic sub. req.) Judge also said he’d play for Team USA anytime they asked, including the 2028 Olympics.
• Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena said he apologized to teammate Cal Raleigh after Arozarena’s angry tirade after Raleigh wouldn’t shake his hand during a WBC game.
• Dayn Perry builds his “Dream Team” USA for the 2030 World Baseball Classic.
• Maria Guardado speaks with Will Clark about his memories of playing for Team USA in the 1984 Olympics.
• J.J. Cooper writes that the WBC has always been great, but now that everyone else has realized that, the WBC has gone mainstream.
• The Phillies and Cristopher Sánchez have agreed to a new six-year contract extension.
• Phillies reliever Daniel Robert is “stable and alert” after suffering a “cardiac event” while throwing a bullpen on Sunday.
• The Pirates announced that top prospect Konnor Griffin will start the season in the minor leagues.
• Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon explain why the Pirates decided to send Griffin to the minor leagues. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Last year, Dean Kremer led the Orioles in innings pitched and strikeouts. Baltimore just sent Kremer down to Triple-A to start the season.
• The Yankees sent outfielder Jasson Dominguez down to Triple-A, despite a strong Spring Training.
• Instead, veteran Randal Grichuk will make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. Bryan Hoch reports.
• Reliever Craig Kimbrel will not make the Mets Opening Day roster. Anthony DiComo with the story, and he writes that it’s unclear if Kimbrel is willing to remain in the organization.
• Ten teams still do not have distribution deals for the broadcasts of their games this year.
• Eno Sarris has ten bold predictions for the 2026 season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The MLB dot com writers have their predictions for who will end up on top of the big statistical categories in each league.
• Mike Axisa has some sleeper candidates for breakout seasons in 2026.
• Mike Petriello has seven hitters who could break out this year.
• Bradford Doolittle explains why Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford is his sleeper pick for American League Most Valuable Player this season.
• A preview of the AL East.
• Paige Leckie reports on the “friendly rivalry” between two close friends, Orioles manager Craig Albernaz and Nationals manager Blake Butera.
• Andy McCullough, Will Sammon and Sahadev Sharma break down a survey of experts on who are the top aces in MLB and who are just back-end guys. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Mariners are back with their humorous ads for the new season. The first one this year, with all the new fathers on the team, is “TriDads Up,” with the players balancing their duties as ballplayers and fathers.

• Finally, Charlotte Varnes has the story of Rockies outfield prospect Braylen Wimmer, who is back in Spring Training just four months after having a cancerous brain tumor removed. (The Athletic sub. req.) The story covers the problems that Wimmer had to overcome, like being temporarily unable to speak, and how baseball is coming back to him.