Category: Baseball

Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Konnor Griffin is one of the most intriguing players in minor league baseball, as he sits at number one in MLB.com’s top 100 prospect rankings.

Griffin, 19, batted .333 in 122 games last season with Bradenton, Greensboro and Altoona, making him someone to watch right out of the gates. He is a big reason why the Pirates rank No. 3 in ESPN insider Kiley McDaniel’s farm system rankings.

“The way these dollar figures and thus the farm rankings are calculated is based on work by Craig Edwards at FanGraphs (now of the MLBPA), using historical outcomes married to the FV (future value) system that my colleagues and I used at FanGraphs and that I continue to use here. An interesting but not surprising result of this system is that the top prospect in baseball is worth a lot more than the next few, like over 40% more. Sometimes, the gap between those two prospects isn’t that big; sometimes, it’s huge. Obviously, future Hall of Famers tend to be at the top spot, so you can see how this occurred in the empirical data,“ McDaniel wrote.

“Because of that, the Pirates’ figure is boosted by Griffin residing in the top spot in the whole sport. And my point here is that he is the top prospect by a lot — he basically broke the algorithm I made to help with this process — so the gap between him and the next few prospects feels correct this time. If you were to simply take Griffin out of the Pirates’ system, they’d drop to the middle of these rankings; and since Griffin might break camp with the big league team, that could happen as soon as a few months into the major league season. And second-ranked prospect Bubba Chandler (12th in the top 100) likely graduates early in the season too.“

The only teams that ranked ahead of the Pirates on the list were the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Guardians. While Griffin is an outlier for the Pirates, it gives the team a lot to look forward to in the future. Griffin’s early returns have been excellent, and that’s why the Pirates felt comfortable moving him all the way to Double-A just months after he was drafted.

Baseball teams aren’t built off of one or two players, but finding a way to land a superstar is difficult. If Pittsburgh has a pitcher in Paul Skenes and a hitter in Griffin, that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

BD community, what are your thoughts on Griffin and the team’s ranking in the minor league rankings? Chime off in the comments section below.

Becoming a major league baseball player is extremely difficult. I know, breaking news… It definitely helps if a major league team signs you to a professional contract and sends you to one of their minor league affiliates, but even so, the odds are against you. With the recent excitement in Cardinals nation around the signing of top 10 international prospect, outfielder, Emanuel Luna, I wanted to dig into some data and see how often players, position players specifically, were able to make the trek all the way from the lowest rung of professional baseball, the Dominican Summer League (DSL), to a major league field. Going back to 2006, 7,655 players have gotten a plate appearance in the DSL. 226, or roughly 3%, of these young men have eventually made a major league debut. This 3% of players end up making a huge impact on major league rosters accounting for roughly 16% of total position player WAR produced over the last five seasons. Fortunately for the Cardinals, their last two international signing classes are off to terrific starts. Everyone has been following Rainiel Rodriguez and Yairo Padilla from the 2024 class, but the 2025 class has at least seven interesting names on the position player side of things too. Today I want to focus on these seven players and evaluate if they really only have a 3% chance each of making it to St. Louis. 

Before we get to our prospect discussion, I want to provide a bit of historical context for the Cardinals DSL hitter production. All of the aforementioned players will be following in the illustrious footsteps of Cardinals legend Ildemaro Vargas as the next superstar to make the long journey from the DSL to St. Louis. Just kidding, but only barely.. The Cardinals have had a tough time getting any position player talent out of their DSL programs over the last several decades. Since 2006, Vargas ranks behind only Edmundo Sosa and Ivan Herrera as noteworthy alumni from the lowest level of the Cardinals system. Oscar Taveras would have likely changed the narrative drastically had his story not ended so sadly. Herrera along with fellow catchers Leonardo Bernal and Rainiel Rodriguez will try to break the trend, but there is no denying that the Cardinals have struggled in this department. If you total up the career WAR of all the DSL (and now defunct Venezuelan Summer League) players since 2006, the Cardinals rank 26th in baseball with a grand total of 8 WAR produced (inclusive of all career WAR, not just with the signing team). The top teams in this department have found multiple star-level players. Houston leads the way with 106 WAR with notable contributions from Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, and Teoscar Hernandez. Boston is next led by Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers.

Alright, back to the Cardinals 2025 DSL standouts. A quick summary before we dive into some more macro data. 

Sebastian Dos Santos signed for only $75K and as an unheralded member of the 2025 international class, but had the most impressive debut of the group. His 158 wRC+ was ninth in the DSL and third among players 17 or younger. He walked more than he struck out and led all first-year DSL players with a .258 isolated slugging percentage (fifth overall). Dos Santos is noted as having a great approach at the plate and feel for hitting. While he does not have monster exit velocity numbers yet, his 21 extra-base hits in 38 games are extremely encouraging. While his season strikeout percentage was solid at 17.5%, Dos Santos finished on an incredible run striking out only one time in his final 51 plate appearances. 

Yeferson Portolatin signed for $450K and had an excellent DSL debut. His 145 wRC+ was driven in large part by a 29.3% walk rate. He played mostly second base with a few appearances at short and third. 

Yaxson Lucena is the only player on this list repeating the DSL. He put up an 89 wRC+ across 130 plate appearances in his age 16 season in 2024, and then crushed the league in 2025 with a 1.5 BB/K ratio and 140 wRC+. Lucena is another player with a great plate approach and excellent contact skills, but it remains to be seen how much power he can get to. He has played exclusively corner outfield and DH thus far in his career. 

Kenly Hunter received the third-largest bonus in the 2025 class at $700K. He had an excellent debut as well putting up a 131 wRC+ while stealing 25 bases as the center fielder for the DSL squad. While he showed minimal power, Hunter is starting to pop up on some Cardinals prospect lists because of his pedigree and solid first professional season. 

Miguel Hernandez is one of the younger players in the 2025 class and had an excellent debut with a 124 wRC+. Despite being seen as a hit-over-power prospect, he popped 5 home runs in 36 games while serving as the team’s primary shortstop. 

Juan Rujano is a bat first catcher that signed for $750K out of Panama. While his K rate was slightly elevated at 23%, he still managed a 121 wRC+ with solid walk and power numbers. 

Royelny Strop was the most heralded member of the 2025 class signing for $1.4M. The son of former Cubs reliever Pedro, struggled with injuries and performance for most of the year. Strop turned it on over his last six games collecting seven extra-base hits (out of nine on the season) and hitting for the cycle in his final game. The late barrage brought his season wRC+ up to 89. 

Now, back to the question: do all of these seemingly promising prospects really only have a 3% chance each of making it to St. Louis? How much do their (mostly) promising starts at such young ages change their odds moving forward. The first thing working to the whole group’s advantage is age. All seven of these prospects were in their age 17 season in 2025. Below are the updated odds based on age for all players that accrued at least 100 plate appearances in a given season.

Note that this is showing individual seasons, so a player that played both his age 17 and 18 season in the DSL would be counted twice. I also cut the data off after the 2019 season. The 2020 season was canceled due to COVID and the more recent seasons have not started to see a meaningful number of players make major league debuts. These numbers aren’t surprising as we would expect players good enough to get to 100 plate appearances at a younger age are more likely to succeed relative to their older counterparts. For me the big takeaway is that it is a big red flag if a prospect is held back after his age 17 season and not advanced to the next level.

With the obvious age filter out of the way, we can move to performance. It is tricky evaluating DSL statistics  for a couple of reasons. First, the seasons are short. Most of the seasons in our dataset are in the 100-200 plate appearance range, which creates triple slash lines heavily influenced by batted-ball luck. Second, there has been significant change in the DSL environment over the years. The league-wide walk rate was 14.7% in 2025 after hovering closer to 10% prior to 2018. To mitigate the sample-size issue, I will look at BB%, K%, and isolated slugging. While not perfect, these metrics stabilize in far fewer plate appearances than batting average or on-base percentage. To try to account for the change in playing environment, I converted the rate stats to plus stats relative to the league average that year. For example, Kenley Hunter had a strikeout percentage of 11.6% compared to the league average of 20.4% which works out to a K%+ of 176. 

Here is a look at how the three plus statistics relate to chance of a debut:

Strikeout rate and isolated slugging have a very obvious relationship to debut rate. Striking out at an above-average (in a bad way) rate doesn’t preclude a player from making a debut but it more than cuts his chances in half relative to the overall average. The walk rate relationship is all over the place. Players that walk at half the league average or less actually debut slightly more often than the entire pool. This validates a common theme you will hear in scouting reports that talented players tend to swing more because they can hit anything at the lower levels. Our own Yohel Pozo shows up on the list of low walk players after pulling off a 5% walk rate back in 2014 in the Rangers system. Despite Pozo’s presence, I am comfortable throwing out walk rate as overly predictive at this stage. 

Here are how the aforementioned redbird farmhands stack up on these metrics:

The obvious question looking at these two tables is how does a player that excels in multiple categories see their likelihood of a debut change. Because all of the Cardinals prospects here played their age 17 season, I will look exclusively at that cohort while throwing out the BB+ metric as a factor (sorry Yeferson). The grid below maps K%+ against ISO+. Using Kenly Hunter as the example again, he would slot into the fourth row down (150-200 K%+) and the second column from the left (50-100 ISO+). This maps him to a group of players that have historically made it for at least one big-league at-bat 9% of the time.

This table of all the 17-year-old prospects to receive 100 plate appearances in a season between 2006 and 2019 includes 1,901 player seasons. The extreme performances have relatively low numbers of players, but looking at the ranges gives a good sense of how these players have historically performed. The only player in the 200-250 bucket for both K%+ and ISO+ is Andres Gimenez. 

Where the Cardinals Prospects Fit In

Sebastian Dos Santos fits in a cohort that has made a big-league debut 57% of the time as 14 players have had K%+ between 100 and 150 with ISO+ rates between 200 and 250. This group is led by Rafael Devers and Julio Rodriguez and also includes former top prospect Noelvi Marte. 

Yaxson Lucena falls in the 33% bucket with a couple of former top prospects in Oscar Taveras and Victor Robles, but no huge major league success. It is fair to knock Lucena back a notch because he is the only player repeating the DSL. 

Yeferson Portalatin falls in the 9% bucket with both metrics between 100 and 150. 14 of his 151 comparables have debuted with Xander Bogaerts, Gregory Polanco, and Ivan Herrera leading the pack. I know we cannot get excited about walks in the DSL, but it will be fun to see how Portalatin’s patient approach translates and evolves as he moves up the ladder. 

Miguel Hernandez just missed the 100-and-up strikeout rate club. Only 6 of the 112 players in his bucket made it big but there are some fun ones with Oneil Cruz and Marcell Ozuna.

Our metric gives Kenly Hunter a 9% chance of making the show with Jean Segura as the most prominent player to come out of the high contact, low-power group. 

Both Royelny Strop and Juan Rujano fall in the 50-100 K%+ and 100 to 150 ISO+ group that has historically made it 5% of the time. Willson Contreras is by far the best of this 225 player pool, but he is joined by Cardinals legends Yairo Munoz and Elehuris Montero. 

All of these players should be stateside this spring preparing to start in the Florida Complex League. Best case scenario, a couple of them break out and make it to low-A before the season’s end. While none of this group is threatening the Cardinals’ top 10 or even 20 prospect list yet, the path from the DSL to prospect prominence has been well worn over the last year. In 2024, current top 100 prospects Jesus Made, Luis Pena, Rainiel Rodriguez, Edward Florentino, and Emil Morales were all excelling in the DSL. 

I’m actually kind of surprised how close we are to spring training. Had you asked me, I would have told you it was still like a month and a half away, but it’s kind of snuck up on us.

Which is a good thing since we’re all sick of waiting for it to arrive.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• In this version of the mailbag ($), there are questions answered about Aidan Miller breaking camp with the team and Justin Crawford’s defense.
• The same infield is returning to the Phillies in 2026. Since they’re talented, this kind of running back is a good thing.

MLB news:

• The A’s continued locking up their core offensive players, giving Jacob Wilson a seven-year extension for about $70 million.
• Derek Falvey and the Twins have mutually agreed to part ways. Kind of a stunner out of Minnesota, but maybe not really?
• Joey Votto, Anthony Rizzo and Clayton Kershaw will join NBC to help anchor their newfound baseball coverage.
• San Francisco has dealt Kai-Wei Teng to the Astros as Houston tries to accumulate more pitching depth.

For those of you who can’t read all the hundreds of comments in the links posts every day, we’re hoping to isolate some of the most interesting conversations from the Moose Tracks and open them up to broader discussion, giving a little more space and time to issues that we feel especially deserve conversation. Yesterday, commenter USSDumper (an excellent username, indeed) posed this question:

Who of the following players would help the Mariners most by putting up a 3-4 win season next year:

• Cole Young
• Luke Raley
• Colt Emerson
• Ben Williamson
• Victor Robles
• Bryce Miller
• Dom Canzone

I really enjoyed the conversation that stemmed from this prompt in the Moose Tracks, which gave me avenues to think about that I wouldn’t have originally taken into consideration—like the idea that a 3-4 win season from Colt Emerson not only helps the Mariners at a supposed position of weakness, but also potentially pays dividends down the line with an extra draft pick. My gut reaction, given yesterday’s injury news about Logan Evans, is to pick stability in the rotation with Bryce Miller. But honestly, I can see an argument for any player on the list. It was such a good conversation that I felt it deserved better than being buried in a links post on a Friday morning.

So, going forward, if this is something you’re interested in—even if not this particular prompt—please participate here. Maybe we’ll do this weekly, or semiweekly. In a time when authentic conversations are becoming less common in online spaces, we don’t take our community for granted, and we want to give space for the organic ideas brought up by community members to grow.

The Athletics locked up a piece of their young core.

All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson and the A’s reached an agreement on a seven-year extension that includes a club option for a potential eighth year, the team announced on Friday.

The deal is worth $70 million, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed.

Wilson, 23, is coming off a stellar rookie season where he put up a slash line of .311/.355/.444 with 26 doubles and 13 home runs.

Wilson’s .311 batting average was tied for second in the American League with Bo Bichette, trailing just Aaron Judge (.331).

His efforts earned him his first career All-Star appearance as he finished second for American League Rookie of the Year race fellow A’s teammate Nick Kurtz.

Wilson’s extension comes as the Athletics continue to build their young offensive core, with the team already having outfielders Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler under contract until at least 2030.

The Athletics selected Wilson with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he quickly made his way to the big leagues, spending just 83 games in the minors before being called up at the end of 2024.

When speaking to reporters at the end of this past season, Wilson said that it was “an honor” to be in the AL batting title discussion alongside Judge.

“I’ve been trailing that guy all year,” Wilson said in September. “It’s definitely an honor to be in the same category as him with the year he’s had. It’s awesome just to be able to compete with him.

“I’m still a couple of points behind him, but I’m just going out there every day having fun playing baseball with these guys for the last time this season.”

SoxFest Live kicked off Friday night at the Ramova Theatre as the baseball offseason wraps up and pitchers and catchers prepare to report for Spring Training. The White Sox had a decent rebound season last year while sporting a very young team in 2025 and coming off a historically horrific 2024. However, the vibes were high all night on the South Side, as fans feel more optimistic about the organization’s future.

Of course, the part of the night that drove the most buzz was the announcement of the 2026 promo items, and trust me, they are SHARP.

Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, and Kyle Teel all opened a gift bag on stage that featured their own bobbleheads, including a catcher’s duo bobblehead with Teel and his counterpart, Edgar Quero. While all of them are awesome, in my opinion, the real star of the show is the Bobby Jenks and A.J. Pierzynski bobblehead as they celebrate winning the 2005 World Series. A perfect tribute to the glue of the championship-winning team and to Bobby, who was lost way too soon last year.

Home opening weekend is full of fun giveaways, including the Bobby and A.J. bobble, an Opening Day t-shirt featuring Munetaka Murakami, a few jackets, and plenty of City Connect swag. I know I initially talked some smack about the new City Connect jerseys’ lack of creativity, but they do make some pretty epic gear. And let’s not forget the Mexican heritage items because every year these games are beyond fun with a sellout crowd, and the Los White Sox jersey is always a hit.

When chatting with several season ticket holders, the consensus is that they have more faith in the front office over the last year, and there is heightened positivity around the Rebuild 2.0 that GM Chris Getz has been forced to undertake. Many players seem to share the same sentiment, as every player we were able to speak with said they were “excited to get back together with the guys, and get back to playing and working on being consistent.”

There were 10 South Siders in the building on Friday night. The legendary Gene Honda began the evening by introducing everyone, with his smooth, iconic voice easily hyping up the crowd as if it were a Saturday night game at the Rate, and he’s announcing the starting lineup. A sort of frightening starting lineup considering there were just four position players and six pitchers, but perhaps Davis Martin or Shane Smith is a secret weapon at the plate, though I’m not sure I want to find out.

First up was the broadcast team, with in-game reporters Brooke Fletcher and Connor McKnight, followed by the TV and radio crew, featuring Chuck Garfein, Len Kasper, and John Schriffen. Getz and manager Will Venable repped the front office and coaching staff, followed by two minor league prospects who joined this year: infielder Sam Antonacci and righthander Tanner McDougal.

Last up were the major leaguers — the stars of the show. Grant Taylor, Anthony Kay, Davis Martin, and Shane Smith represented the South Side pitching staff. Kay joined the team for the first time this offseason, signing out of the NPB in Japan, and is thrilled to be meeting some of the guys and looking forward to Spring Training and another chance in MLB.

Last but certainly not least: infielders Vargas, Meidroth, and Montgomery, and catcher Teel, who recently committed to playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic this March. There was, however, one player who was unable to attend, but Munetaka Murakami was there in spirit and shared a message to fans, earning a roar from the crowd upon hearing “Go White Sox!”

Fans were also able to ask questions to Getz and Venable in a segment called “Pardon the Pitch Clock”, which gave them four minutes to answer some questions from the crowd. The five categories before a final “lightning round” were: the 2026 outlook, offseason acquisitions and roster philosophy, players to watch, new initiatives and innovations, and clubhouse culture and leadership. This year was probably much easier to manage, considering they aren’t coming off of the worst season ever, but the positivity and buy-in from Getz and Venable seem to reinforce the fans’ hope for the future of the team.

Props to the White Sox for putting on a great event for the first day, and a big thank you to the players for being so welcoming and willing to talk with us and answer questions. We’ll be back with more coverage throughout the rest of the event!

One Mets star won’t be participating in the World Baseball Classic after all.

Francisco Lindor will not represent Team Puerto Rico this spring because of an elbow procedure he underwent in October and “insurance constraints” of the international tournament, according to a statement from the MLB Players Association.

Lindor underwent debridement surgery to clean up his right elbow, and the Mets said in the fall that he would be ready for the start of spring training, a sentiment reiterated by the MLBPA.

“Francisco is obviously disappointed that he will be unable to participate,” the players’ association statement read. “However, because of WBC insurance constraints, he is ineligible to play in WBC games.

“He will participate fully in all spring training activities.”

Lindor was the captain of the Puerto Rican squad in 2023 and was picked last spring to reprise that role in 2026.

He paced the team’s offense last time around with a .450 average, collecting a triple and five RBIs. Puerto Rico went 3-1 in the opening round but fell to Mexico in the quarterfinals.

It’s not clear who will replace Lindor as captain.

The debridement procedure marked Lindor’s third offseason surgery with the Mets after he had a bone spur removed from his right elbow in 2023 and an appendectomy the year before.

The Mets are expected to have some representation in the WBC, even with Lindor sitting this one out. Right-handed pitchers Clay Holmes and Nolan McLean have confirmed they will be on Team USA’s staff.

Outfielder Juan Soto, who played for the Dominican Republic last tournament, said in May that he hoped to represent his country again but did not confirm his commitment.

Newly acquired third baseman Bo Bichette, fresh off signing a three-year deal worth $126 million with the Amazin’s, reportedly mulled an opportunity to play for Team Brazil but will not participate, according to ESPN Brasil.

All 20 rosters will be announced on Thursday during a live show on MLB Network at 7 p.m. ET.

MLB.com | Sweeny Murti: Two-time Yankees reliever David Robertson has announced his retirement at the age of 40 after 17 big league seasons. It marks the end of an era, as Robertson was the last remaining active player in MLB from the Yankees 2009 World Series winning roster. The Yankees drafted Robertson in 2006, and he played seven seasons in his first stint in the Bronx. After two-and-a-half years with the White Sox, the Yankees brought Robertson back near the 2017 trade deadline as part of a deal that also brought Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle to the Bronx. Robertson played six more seasons after departing the Yankees for a second time in 2018, and you can read a full tribute to his time in pinstripes here. Congratulations, D-Rob, on a fantastic career and best of luck with your future endeavors!

MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: Earlier this week, we reported on the Yankees’ interest in a reunion with Paul Goldschmidt, and it appears the Yankees have stepped up their engagement with his representatives. Goldschmidt slashed .274/.328/.403 with ten home runs and a 103 wRC+ in 146 games with the Yankees after signing a one-year, $12.5 million deal last offseason. Goldschmidt was far more productive against lefties (169 wRC+) and could be brought back as the short side of a first base platoon with Ben Rice. However, he’s entering his age-38 season, and would futher clog up a bench that already includes J.C. Escarra and Amed Rosario.

Goldschmidt isn’t the only player the Yankees have checked in with this week. They are rumored to have interest in swingman Nick Martinez, who could help cover in the rotation at the start of the season before transitioning to the bullpen as their injured starters get healthy. They’ve also been linked to reliever Michael Kopech, who won a World Series with the Dodgers two years ago before missing most of 2025 to injury. As for outfield depth, there are rumors of a reunion with Austin Slater and interest in Randal Grichuk.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: Brian Cashman believes that his new-look bullpen can emerge as a strength of the team in 2026. He acknowledged the subtractions of Devin Williams and Luke Weaver to the Mets in free agency, but held firm in his belief that they have the people in place to fill those voids. He cited Rule 5 draftee Cade Winquest and trade acquisition Angel Chivilli as a pair of examples of the guys who could step up, as well as younger pitchers they have developed including Carlos Lagrange and Brent Headrick.

SNY | Phillip Martinez: With the Yankees running it back with their 2025 outfield, Aaron Boone admitted that the outlook for Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones has changed. Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham are back in the fold, reducing the number of opportunities available to the Yankees’ pair of former top prospects. Rumors of the Yankees dangling either Domínguez or Jones in pursuit of pitching grew after Bellinger re-upped, though many of the top starting pitching trade candidates have already been dealt.

The Athletic | Chris Kirschner ($): Kirschner answers a handful of questions in his end-of-the-month mailbag, and Domínguez’s future features heavily, with Kirschner predicting that the Yankees will retain him as an option off the bench rather that trade him away. He also touches on the $42.5 million the Yankees will be paying Bellinger in each of the next two seasons and why the team did not allocate that money to a different player (mostly, Bellinger’s fit on the roster). Kirschner backs the front office’s decision to run it back with last year’s offense given the unit had the highest wRC+ (119) in MLB in 2025, though he also admits that it is impossible to know what version of Anthony Volpe the Yankees are going to get once he returns from his shoulder surgery rehab.

Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor will not participate in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

In a statement released through the Major League Baseball Players Association on behalf of Lindor, the All-Star's recent elbow procedure is the culprit.

“Due to the cleanup procedure that Francisco Lindor had on his right elbow earlier this offseason, he will not be participating for team Puerto Rico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic," the statement read. " Francisco is obviously disappointed that he will be unable to participate. However, because of WBC insurance constraints, he is ineligible to play in WBC games. He will participate fully in all spring training activities.”

Lindor was set to reprise his role as Puerto Rico's captain in the upcoming tournament. During the 2023 WBC, Lindor batted .450 with five RBI and helped his team to the quarterfinals, where they were bested by Team Mexico. 

The Mets shortstop is coming off a big year for New York. He had an .811 OPS, 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases and was named a National League All-Star starter. 

Lindor was not the only Mets representative set to take part in the WBC this time around. Pitchers Nolan McLean and Clay Holmes are prepared to suit up for Team USA.

The 2026 World Baseball Classic is set to run from March 5-17. 

After signing with the Astros ahead of the 2019 season, it didn’t take long for former All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley to hear about his new organization’s top prospect.

“They were comparing this kid to Ted Williams,” Brantley recalled. “And I was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of special.’ I want to see this.”

The kid, Brantley would soon learn, was named Kyle Tucker.

And the comparison, he still marvels at now, was shockingly apt.

“It made me laugh at first, because he does a lot of things that are unorthodox,” Brantley said. “But when you actually break down his swing, he gets into such great positions.”

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Long before he became a touted young talent, then a four-time All-Star slugger, then a blockbuster $240 million signing with the Dodgers this offseason, Tucker’s baseball career began in the backyard of his Tampa-area home — where childhood games of stick and Wiffle ball with his older brother, Preston, first helped mold one of the most complete hitters in Major League Baseball today.

The origin story is simple. Growing up, Tucker would emulate Preston (who was six years his elder, and destined for his own MLB career) in their backyard games. Because Preston hit right-handed, Tucker would mirror him from the left side of the plate. And because Preston had a similarly unusual swing, Tucker’s mechanics naturally followed suit.

Some days, the boys would pitch a small ball of cork to each other, letting natural instinct take over as they whacked at it with the handle of a broomstick. Other times, they used a standard-issue Wiffle ball set, learning how to adjust to the serpentine movement of the perforated plastic sphere.

“All they had time to do was just use their hands,” said Dennis Braun, Tucker’s high school coach at Plant High in Tampa. “That’s how they learned how to hit.”

For Tucker, the result was a swing with seemingly flawed fundamentals.

He’d step up to the plate with the wrong foot. His hands would drop low as he started to attack the ball. His bat path had an atypically sweepy motion. He would drop his back knee and almost scissor his legs as he made contact and completed his follow-through.

Years of practice, however, had taught him how to sync it all together; giving him the ability to hit for power, adjust to breaking pitches and most importantly keep his hands inside the ball consistently on every pitch.

“You can’t teach somebody to do it,” Braun said. “But I told him, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t hit that way, because I think it’s a thing.’ ”

All along, the comparisons to Williams — who earned the moniker of “the greatest hitter who ever lived” with an eerily similar swing — steadily grew.

When Tucker was a high school freshman, one of Braun’s assistant coaches, former Yankees catcher John Ramos, first bestowed him with the “Ted Williams” nickname.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute,’ ” Braun recalled with a laugh, “the kid’s got nowhere to go but down.’ ”

As Tucker became a top draft prospect in the 2015 class, eventually going fifth overall to the Astros (who also had Preston in their organization), scouts began drawing parallels in their reports, too.

“I’m not one of those guys who thinks anybody’s gonna be a first-rounder when they show up as a freshman,” Braun said. “But as we went along each year, he got bigger and bigger. By the time he got to his senior year, the amount of people that were out here watching BP was in the hundreds.”

In 2018, a few months before making his highly anticipated MLB debut as a 21-year-old, Tucker was even enlisted to impersonate Williams in a PBS documentary about the late Hall of Famer, donning a 1950s-era uniform as filmmakers captured slow-motion shots of his swing.

“He’s tweaked it a little bit over the years,” Tucker’s mom, Lisa, said. “But if it’s gotten you to where you’re at, it’s like, ‘Why change?’ ”

That was also Brantley’s initial impression after meeting Tucker for the first time and watching him swing up close.

“It doesn’t always look as pretty as a normal swing would,” Brantley said. “But if you really break down the science of the swing, and see where his hands get to, his foot is at the time of contact, and the position at contact, it is very special.”

And over the last five years, Tucker has used the swing to make his own name in the majors.

In 2020, he cemented himself as an everyday player for a contending Astros team, flashing plus outfield defense and an ability to steal bases to go along with offensive production. In 2021, he received MVP votes after batting a career-best .294 with 30 home runs. In 2022, he earned what would become the first of four consecutive All-Star selections. And now, he has established himself as one of the most consistent players in the sport, one of only four big-leaguers to post at least 4.5 wins above replacement every year since 2021, per Baseball Reference.

For that, Tucker has given much credit to Brantley.

When the veteran first arrived in Houston, he made a point of taking Tucker under his wing, becoming his catch partner, his hitting cage confidant, and his locker-mate in the clubhouse.

During spring training, he’d challenge Tucker to beat him to the facility in the mornings. “I’d usually get to the field around 7 a.m.” Brantley joked. “And Tuck’s not a morning guy.” Yet, Tucker would be there, ready to warm-up in the gym and get to work early on the field.

Brantley retired from the majors at the end of the 2023 season. Tucker left Houston a year later, getting traded to the Cubs in his final season before free agency. But the two remain close. So much so, Tucker said he will wear Brantley’s old jersey number, 23, with the Dodgers as a nod to his former teammate.

To Brantley, that was a “very special” gesture. However, he emphasized that Tucker’s success has been all his own doing — going back to the superstar’s five-tool skillset, a deep “passion” for the game that goes overlooked by his outwardly quiet demeanor, and of course the Ted Williams-esque swing that remains universally admired and largely unchanged.

“He just settled into his own, and took the world by storm,” Brantley said. “As he should have, because he was such a big prospect. But he panned out because of the hard work he put in.”

Look at Leo Balcazar running away with the vote for spot #13 in this year’s edition of the Community Prospect Rankings!

Perhaps that’s an indictment of which prospects I included in this particular round of voting. Or, perhaps it’s an indication that you fine voters here at Red Reporter are awfully high on Balcazar’s prospects as, well, a prospect once again.

There was a time when that was something of a no-brainer. He mauled Dominican Summer League play with an .882 OPS in 2021 at just 17 years of age, and he backed it up the following year with an equally impressive .886 OPS in Arizona Complex League play in his first season in the states. Then, in a 19 game sample to begin the 2023 season with Class-A Daytona in the pitching-friendly Florida State League, he roared out of the gate with an .897 OPS only to tear his ACL and miss the remainder of the year.

When he returned in 2024, he was a shell of his former self. He’d been an athletic shortstop whose quickness helped make up for an average arm, but his quickness had been sapped. His work at the plate slumped, too, and suddenly there was wonder whether he’d be able to work his way back.

2025 was a much more positive step in the right direction. He posted a modest .720 OPS as he reached AA Chattanooga, but the athleticism began to return – as did some of the excellent exit velocities off his bat. He finished the year with a positive showing in 24 Arizona Fall League games, and he still won’t even turn 22 until this summer.

There’s beginning to be some buzz again about Balcazar, and I think it’s warranted, even if he’s destined to stick at 2B long term.

He’s the #13 prospect in this year’s CPR!

I hope everybody has a lovely start to their weekend. Please stay warm and safe out there if you’re in the path of the second winter storm in as many weekends! Here’s a random clip for you:

After a long career that started with the Yankees and included a late stop with the Mets, David Robertson has thrown his final pitch. 

The 40-year-old reliever announced his retirement Friday following 17 seasons and 881 games in the big leagues, during which he won a World Series with the Yankees in 2009, posted a 2.93 ERA and recorded 179 saves.

“I’ve decided it’s time for me to hang up my spikes and retire from the game I’ve loved for as long as I can remember,” Robertson wrote in a statement posted to social media. “Baseball has given me more than I ever dreamed possible over the last 19 seasons. From winning a World Series, to pitching in an All-Star game, to representing the United States and bringing home a World Baseball Classic Gold and an Olympic silver.

“I’ve had the privilege of playing alongside amazing teammates, learning from outstanding coaches, and being welcomed into organizations that felt like family. To the trainers, clubhouse staff, front offices, and everyone behind the scenes, thank you for all that you do. And to the fans who supported me, thank you, your passion fueled me every single day.”

The Alabama native said he was looking forward to being home with his family and focusing on their farms.

In parts of nine seasons in The Bronx — including a return there in 2017 following a midseason trade from the White Sox — Robertson appeared in 501 games.

He made the All-Star team in 2011 while recording a 1.08 ERA in 70 games, and later succeeded Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera as the Yankees closer in 2014.

Robertson pitched for the Mets in 2023, posting a 2.05 ERA in 40 games before they dealt him to the Marlins in a trade deadline sell-off.