Ryne Nelson not taking pitching role for granted in 2026 “I feel the exact same coming into camp this year as I did last year,” Nelson said. “I think the second you get comfortable, and you think that things are going to be easy or whatnot, you start to let what got you here slip. I’m just coming in, getting good work in, and trying to be the best version of myself. And whatever role I end up in, it’s not going to be because I didn’t work hard enough. I’m gonna do everything I can to put myself in the best position to succeed.” https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/ryne-nelson-discusses-d-backs-role-2026
Until it blows against something, wind makes no sound.
Ready for more did you know facts? The sounds you hear during a windy day are due to the speed of the wind coming into contact with various objects at the same time. The process of friction can also cause sounds at higher pitches depending on the speed of the wind.
Apart from Vitamin C, eggs contain every single vitamin.
It also contains high traces of protein, fat, and minerals. The egg yolk is also one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.
Gold never erodes.
This is because it is chemically inert. This means that it does not react to the oxygen found in the atmosphere.
Chris Getz chuckles through more repetition of the party line. | (Photo by Matt Dirksen/Getty Images)
“We’ve got some financial flexibility now to continue to bring in talent.”
Talk about a real knee-slapper. The White Sox GM sure knows how to tell ’em.
Chris Getz made that remark after the trade of Luis Robert, Jr. to the Mets, a move that not only forced everybody covering the team to figure out how to type the ñ in Luisangel Acuña’s name but got Robert’s $20 million salary off of the books. Most of the coverage had to do with the trade itself, of course, which is understandable, but which left little to no reporting on Getz’s little joke about financial flexibility.
That’s a sad omission, though not the only one. Both the Mets and Rangers (who had originally drafted Ronald Acuña’s little brother) had given up on him as a center fielder despite his elite speed due to a tendency to take, er, shall we say “creative” routes in the more-or-less (mostly less) general direction of fly balls coming his way.
(Forgive an aside: Acquiring a star player’s brother may be a big step better than acquiring a brother-in-law, but it’s still another giant step for Soxkind to actually get the star himself.)
Both teams settled on Luisangel as a middle infielder, a category the White Sox have in abundance, what with Colson Montgomery at short, a slew of shortstops working their way though the system (or about to be drafted?), and a big pile of utility infielders who themselves had hopes to start at second or third. Since Acuña is out of options, Chase Meidroth, Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa, Curtis Mead, Bryan Ramos, etc. may not have been thrilled about the trade. (Yes, it’s probably better to have too many middle infielders than too many 1B/DH types like a few years ago, and we all have dreadful memories of Jacob Amaya, but such overstock is still not particularly useful.)
Of course, we shouldn’t forget the Sox also picked up a low-minors pitcher out of Harvard, who should be able to help the other players with their homework.
The really big deal, though, is the Getz quote. Let’s look at it again, in case you already forgot it, as apparently pretty much everybody covering the White Sox did.
“We’ve got some financial flexibility now to continue to bring in talent.”
On any other team, that might be a serious statement. On the White Sox? Not so much.
Sure, saving 20 million smackers is a big chunk, even bigger than the $17 million headed to Munetaka Murakami. It doesn’t also cover the $10 million then offered to Seranthony Dominguez to be the 2026 closer — a move that probably didn’t make Grant Taylor’s day, but toss in the savings on Josh Rojas, Aaron Civale, Martín Pérez and Mike Tauchman, and there’s plenty left over for the other offseason pick-ups.
Which gets us to why it’s all just a joke:
What financial flexibility was missing before the trade, Chris? Can you remove your lips from Jerry Reinsdorf’s butt long enough to answer that?
Different sites come up with different team payroll numbers, what with measuring at different times in different ways, but let’s go with USA Today because they used 2025 Opening Day figures adjusted for other stuff. They had the Sox at 27th — more generous than most listings — at $82,279,825.
That’s higher only than the two teams who played the season in minor league parks and the Marlins, and half the level they would have needed to reach 15th of the 30 teams (Orioles). It’s almost $120 million below 10th place, which happened to be a team that also plays in Chicago. It’s so low that the White Sox could have signed both Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Tucker and had plenty of room under the salary cap. Heck, add in Juan Soto and they’d still not be near the top.
Want to look at what’s still possible? The Athletic this week listed its top seven remaining free agents, and the money gap beween the Sox and the Top 10 would let them sign every single one, including old buddy Lucas Giolito.
Financial flexibility? The financial flexibility on the South Side is almost infinite! Or it would be, if they had real ownership instead of being run by a player-, fan- and media-hating control freak who will be leading the charge for a lockout in December, 2027 season be damned.
With de-Scrooge-ification Getz’s line wouldn’t just be a bad joke. But we all know the only thing that will make that come to pass.
A Chicago market P.S.
The White Sox, or at least Reinsdorf, love to cry poor and claim to be just the lowly second team in the No. 3 market. So be it today. But in 1981, the year MLB screwed White Sox fans by refusing a sale to Ed DeBartolo and Bill Veeck instead had to sell to Reinsdorf and the Tribune Corp. bought the Cubs, Sox attendance was almost double the Cubs — 946,651 to 565,637 — and it stayed higher until 1985, three years before Wrigley Field got lights.
It’s not just recently that Mr. Potter has poisoned everything he touches.
He’s Tyler Samaniego, and he has only a slightly easier name to pronounce than Jhostynxon “The Password” Garcia, whom he was traded for along with Johan Oviedo. Samaniego has not yet cracked a Major League roster, but his status as a lefty arm with a 98 mile per hour fastball on a roster of guys that are, well, not that, coupled with the fact that the Red Sox traded for him knowing they’d need to carry him on the 40-man roster, as Pittsburgh protected him from the Rule 5 draft, leads to some speculation that he’ll be cracking a Major League roster in 2026.
Is he any good?
We’re not sure yet! He has some promising aspects to his game, though. Besides that fastball, his notable extension is surely a factor in his status as a prospect. And if that’s not enough, he also has finished with fewer than one strikeout an inning in the minors just once, in 2022 (and even then he finished with 8.84 K/9). He also has a great ground ball percentage and has allowed just nine home runs since being drafted in 2021 out of South Alabama.
He’s also a lefty — one of only five lefty pitchers with relief experience on the Red Sox’s 40-man roster, and the second-youngest of those four behind Payton Tolle. And he’s the only one — aside from certain 2026 closer Aroldis Chapman — to have been used as a closer at all in 2025. It’s not entirely comforting that he hasn’t pitched higher than Double-A yet, nor that he’s battled control issues for most of his time in the minors. But maybe he’s a late bloomer.
Show me a cool highlight.
Here are some of his more impressive pitches. Samaniego has a shot of reaching 100 with that fastball at some point in his career. You can definitely see, with that three quarter arm movement, why hitters struggle to take it out of the park.
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
I got nothing in the humor department for this one. I just want to point out how cool the throwing motion looks.
What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?
Given the lack of lefties currently on the Red Sox, it really wouldn’t shock me to see Samaniego make a good impression in spring training against some less seasoned bats and then eventually make somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-30 appearances if he’s solid in Triple-A. Think 2023 Chris Murphy for reference. How he performs around that time could be important to the condition the team finds themselves in come late September, especially if he can eat a few more innings than anticipated. If he’s used in any higher of a capacity than that, it may signal a failure on the part of analyzing the depth on the roster, including parts that have already departed for other pastures in 2026. But Samaniego has a perfect opportunity to develop things he already does really well, keep the walks down, and emerge as a viable arm down the stretch for a playoff contender.
39 years ago, Major League Baseball held the final of four free-agent compensation drafts. Blue Jays picked Tom Henke from the Texas Rangers, grabbing a big piece of their future contending teams in the form of the shutdown closer.
What isn’t usually mentioned is the huge stroke of good fortune involved in them landing Henke because he was not their first pick. That instead was reliever Donnie Moore of the Atlanta Braves, and it was only because the Angels had priority over the Jays that they got Moore so the Jays had to settle for Henke. In fact, Henke was so unheralded or undesired that the Jays immediately turned around and sent him outright off the 40-man roster that same day, not to require tying up a spot on the 40-man.
The broader historical context around the Henke is interesting, so what follows is an overview of the free agent compensation draft, the 1985 compensation draft specifically, what the Jays were doing that winter, and the aftermath for the involved parties.
When free agency was negotiated in the 1976 collective agreement, it was a very different system than we’re familiar with today. Until it was abolished in the 1985 collective agreement, there was a “free agent re-entry draft” every November, in which teams drafted the rights to negotiate with free agents (who could only sign with teams drafting them in most cases).
In addition to that restriction, the owners insisted on compensation for losing a free agent, wanting a system like the one in the NFL, where teams selected a player off the other team’s roster. That system greatly discouraged pursuing other teams’ free agents and diminished player movement, and accordingly, it was a non-starter for the MLBPA. The compromise was draft pick compensation, whereby a signing team would lose its first-round pick to the former team (second-round pick if in the top half).
That did little to restrain the free agent market, and with salaries exploding, the biggest priority for owners in the next agreement was securing stronger compensation. The MLBPA was equally adamant about not having direct compensation in the form of major league players, and the stalemate resulted in the two-month strike of June/July 1981.
The compromise that ended the strike was a convoluted system for compensation in which players would be ranked statistically (by the Elias Sports Bureau), with the top 20% at a position designated Type A, and the next 10% Type B. Compensation was as follows:
Type A free agent: the signing team’s top draft pick plus a pick from a compensation pool
Type B free agent: the signing team’s top draft pick, plus a special supplemental pick at the end of the first round (what became known as sandwich picks)
Unranked free agent: the signing team’s top draft pick only
In all cases, the former team only received the other team’s draft pick if the player was drafted by at least other four teams in the re-entry draft, otherwise it was just the other element of compensation (of none in the case of an unranked player).
The compensation pool was drawn from all teams after they had protected 26 players from their organizations or 24 if they had signed a Type A free agent. Up to five teams could opt out of signing any Type A free agents for three years and having to contribute to the pool (seven teams applied, the Jays not among them; the Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Twins and Mariners were chosen by lot). A team losing a player got $150,000 from a central fund and was exempt from contributing to future pools.
One final point about the compensation pool relates to Henke. It is frequently said that the Jays took him from Texas with their pick because Texas had signed Cliff Johnson from them. But this was purely co-incidental; the MLBPA only begrudgingly agreed to the compensation pool in the first place because it linked signing a player to losing. In fact, it was the only time that a team signed a free agent and lost a player through the pool for that signing.
The White Sox were the only team to lose a 1981 Type A free agent (Ed Farmer) and chose catcher Joel Skinner from Pittsburgh in return. The next year, there were two, with the White Sox losing Steve Kemp and the Mariners losing Brian Bannister. The White Sox again failed to get a decent player, selecting Steve Mura from St. Louis, but Seattle was shrewder and nabbed long-time future big leaguer Danny Tartabull from Cincinnati’s system.
But it was in January 1984 that all hell broke loose with the system. After the Jays signed Type A free agent Dennis Lamp, the White Sox were again entitled to choose from the pool. The Mets had gambled and left 39-year-old Tom Seaver unprotected, given his large salary, but that did not deter the White Sox and the selection of an all-time great sent shock waves through baseball and especially New York.
A couple of weeks later, Tom Underwood signed with Baltimore and Oakland was entitled to a pick. They selected pitcher Tim Belcher from the Yankees, an uber-prospect who had just been the first overall pick in the January draft (and had not signed with Minnesota as the first overall pick of the June 1983 draft). They exploited a loophole in that he had just signed the week before the Yankees had to submit their protected list (for the White Sox pick). So, the Yankees lost a player they literally could not protect.
These two picks turned sentiment against the compensation pool—this was the result teams had endured a 50-day strike to achieve. Not surprisingly, after 1985, the compensation pool was done away, replaced by the system of compensation that endured various tweaks until 2012, when it, in turn, was replaced by the qualifying offer system.
In any event, by 1985, teams were paying a lot closer attention to their lists. Nonetheless, Atlanta opted not to protect reliever Donnie Smith, who had posted a 2.94 ERA in 1984, as he was demanding a huge raise in arbitration (and they had shelled out huge bucks for Bruce Sutter).
That was no obstacle for the Jays, desperate to upgrade the bullpen to challenge Detroit in the AL East and their back end of Willie Hernandez, Aurelio Lopez and Doug Bair. In December, they had moved Dave Collins and Alfredo Griffin for Bill Caudill to be their closer, despite him being in line for over a million dollars in arbitration.
But they were not the only team drafting. In the 1984 off-season, five free agents rated Type A. Rick Thornton (Cubs) and Andre Thornton (Cleveland) re-signed. Bruce Sutter (Cardinals) and Fred Lynn (Angels) were bona fide stars, so it was no surprise they ranked as Type A. Cliff Johnson was a 37-year-old platoon DH with just 899 PA the previous two years, but that platooning had made him very productive (137 wRC+), and he qualified as Type A.
Being a DH limited Johnson’s market, and in fact, only three other teams drafted his negotiating rights (Orioles, Rangers, White Sox), and the Jays retained them. That meant the Jays were not eligible to receive a first-round pick from the signing team, just the pick from the pool. The Jays wanted Johnson back but balked at going beyond one year guaranteed. When Texas ponied up two years and more money ($1.5 million guaranteed vs. $600,000) as well as the opportunity to play every day, he was gone.
The precise procedure of the compensation draft actually wasn’t a draft in terms of being sequential picks. The 17 teams contributing to the pool submitted their protection lists by January 16th, the three selecting weeks had a week to review them, and then all three teams simultaneously submitted the names they wanted.
If multiple teams took the same player, priority was determined by how teams had drafted the free agent they had lost. Thus, St. Louis (six teams drafted by Sutter) had priority over California (Lynn by five) over Toronto (Johnson by three). In terms of Moore, the Cardinals were not an issue, choosing minor league shortstop Angel Salazar from the Expos (according to their GM, the 27th player they would have protected).
But California also selected Moore and thus was awarded him, leaving the Jays to pivot to Henke. This was viewed as a surprising pick, even skeptically in the media, given the number of veterans available and Henke’s modest 4.20 ERA in 60 career innings. But that didn’t matter to Gillick, telling Allan Ryan of the Toronto Star, “You’re looking at the stats, that’s all you’re looking at,” and the Globe and Mail, “We scout tools. We don’t scout statistics…we were shocked he was available.”
Those tools? “He’s got an outstanding arm, a good live fastball,” Gillick told Ryan, and he was certainly proved right.
Two days after getting Henke, the Jays went out and added another veteran arm to the bullpen to complement Caudill, acquiring Gary Lavelle from San Francisco and extending his contract. Perhaps had they got Moore, they wouldn’t have done that. Caudill and Lavelle produced decent results in 1985 but were expensive flops thereafter. Meanwhile, Henke emerged midway through 1985 and seized the closer role. Of the three relief acquisitions, it was the least heralded and costly and the biggest factor in 1985 and the long run.
For his part, Moore wasn’t exactly a pumpkin either. He posted a 1.92 ERA in 103 innings in 1985 and was very good in 1986 before giving up a crucial home run to Dave Henderson in the ALCS. He battled injuries thereafter and declined and committed suicide in July 1989 after shooting his wife three times following an argument.
As for Cliff Johnson, he would find his way back to Toronto in short order. After the likes of Willie Aikens, Len Matsuzek, and Jeff Burroughs failed to plug the DH hole in August, despite Johnson’s production tailing off in Texas from 1983-84, the Jays decided his new contract was not too bloated after all and re-acquired him to bolster the “Drive for ‘85” stretch run. Alas, he hit just .274/.349/.315. In 1986 he hit .250/.355/.426.
The Mets signed veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel to a minor league deal with an invite to big league spring training.
For his Mets Beat newsletter, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com wrote about how patience paid off for the Mets this offseason.
Mike Petriello of MLB.com took a deep dive into whether the Mets have improved defensively and characterized himself as “cautiously optimistic” that the Mets achieved their goal of improving their run prevention.
The Mets’ offseason was full of star-studded moves that look good on paper, but for franchise that once assembled “The Worst Team Money Could Buy,” history is working against them, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
David Stearns has now made a roster that is entirely his own and it will have to win to prove the merits of his philosophy and approach, writes Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News.
Around the National League East
The Braves signed utility man Luke Williams to a minor league contract.
Coming away from the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up event, there was plenty of buzz among fans about how excited they are to see the young guns get their opportunity to light up Busch Stadium. Even in a season that is sure to be full of growing pains, Cardinals Nation is ready for Spring Training to start so we can get a glimpse at the future of St. Louis.
While Chaim Bloom has provided some clarity on the roster by dealing veterans Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, and Nolan Arenado, other spots on the team are still unsettled a month before Spring Training. Brendan Donovan remains on the team and his trade picture is still cloudy, Lars Nootbaar does not have a rehab update but is hopeful to grab hold of the left field spot, and Ivan Herrera is expected to be the near-everyday catcher. Surprising to me, at least, was the fact that Herrera announced he had not yet been 100% cleared to throw or hit as of Winter Warm-Up, so his participation in Spring Training and the World Baseball Classic for Team Panama is unclear.
The Cardinals appear ready to stand pat with their current catching set up
There was positivity around Herrera, though, with manager Oli Marmol crediting the catcher’s throwing struggles to the arm injury and Herrera himself sharing his excitement to catch because that was he was brought in to do. Without knowing how far back he was having these arm troubles, it may be too much to suggest that the surgery is going to completely overhaul his command of the running game. His best defensive season came in 2019 in Single-A when he 24 runners stealing, but also had 10 passed balls that season.
Since then, he has kept the ball in front of him better, but he has not had a caught stealing percentage above 25% at any level. Through his major league career behind the dish, Herrera has thrown out a total of six baserunners out of 75 attempts.
Before I get harassed for being too down on Herrera, I am in 100% agreement that he should be the near-everyday catcher next season, grabbing 3-4 starts a week as long as his body can handle it. His value to the team may be highest there, especially if his throwing does improve. Herrera was named a Top 100 player in all of baseball, and that was without a position. If he can solidify the position for 90-100 games and handle the pitching staff, there is little reason to believe he would not be a front runner for the NL Silver Slugger Award as a catcher.
In the scenario that Herrera gets banged up or continues to struggle behind the plate, Pedro Pages has shown he is more than capable to handle a pitching staff as far as receiving and calling a game go. Outside of an otherworldly month of August, Pages’ performance at the plate left plenty to be desired for a team that may continue to struggle offensively this season. Besides his ridiculous 202 wRC+ during August, Pages never had another month above 82, averaging out at an abysmal 49 wRC+, thanks to a July where he put up a -19 value.
For his ability to support pitchers on the base paths, Pages has a career 30.8% caught stealing rate as he improved significantly from his rookie season in 2024. Mix in his ability to play second base (/s), and Pages’ role as a major league backup catcher, with a few extended starting opportunities mixed in, can be solidified for the length of his career.
Providing an unknown level of support to the major league roster is fan favorite Yohel Pozo, who received plenty of fan outcry when the team made what I thought to be an easy choice to non-tender the catcher. He was quickly re-signed on a split major league deal that still provides him with a 40-man roster spot, so his movement throughout the organization is one to keep an eye on as the rest of the catching situation takes shape. Pozo showed value as a clutch bat off the bench, but the 28-year-old may not have much a future in St. Louis beyond settling for that role. For what it is worth, Pozo was aware and accepting of that reality as he re-signed due to enjoying his time playing for the organization that gave him another shot.
The youngster excitement continues behind Pozo, with the Cardinals having multiple catchers falling among the game’s top prospects. Because of the hype surrounding Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, and Rainiel Rodriguez, it seemed that the Cardinals could have used this offseason to dangle those prospects in trade talks in an effort to fortify the major league roster. Being years away from contention, though, likely figured into Chaim Bloom’s decision to hold onto all six catchers for now.
This is the best strategy at the current time, in my opinion. Even though there appears to be depth, there are plenty of big question marks around the future of the position. The news that Yadier Molina will be returning to the organization full-time could do wonders to help settle these concerns, but there is no harm in continuing to develop each of Crooks, Bernal, and Rodriguez at their own pace.
If there were a move to be made, I would personally see what Pages could receive on the trade market and use that space as an opportunity to create a mini major league platoon with Herrera and Crooks. Crooks, a left-handed hitter, has been praised for his defense, so he could supplant Pages in a backup role while continuing to get his feet wet at the big league level. The risk level, to me, is low in this type of move, albeit being made earlier than needed. Pages has not shown the offensive potential that would worry Cardinals fans about a post-St. Louis resurgence, but he is definitely a capable big league backstop. With minor league Gold Glove winner Leonardo Bernal progressing through the minors, there is the upper level support if things were to get ugly.
Bernal was pushed into MLB Pipeline’s top-100 prospects, checking in at #98, although Baseball America left the switch hitter off of their 2026 list. FanGraphs was even higher on Bernal, with the Panamanian skyrocketing up to #40 on the outlet’s 2025 updated rankings. That wide range of outcomes narrowed greatly when looking at 19-year-old Rainiel Rodriguez.
All three of those outlets have Rodriguez in the top 100 across the league, with MLB ranking him 37th, Baseball America having him 35th, and FanGraphs plugging him in at #71. As an 18-year-old Rodriguez made a name for himself in A-ball with a .276 batting average a .954 OPS across 84 games. He swatted a total of 20 homers and struck out nearly as often as he walked in his second professional season. The bat is Rodriguez’ most exciting tool, although he has shown enough to forecast him to stick as a catcher long-term.
With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in less than a month, we are surely to receive rave reviews about each of these six catchers. Because of how young the entire roster, but especially the pitching staff, is, how the catchers handle the arms could mean more than it would in a rotation full of veterans. Since they figure to be around for the long haul, there will be plenty of time for both pitchers and catchers to have a hand in the development of the next era of Cardinals baseball.
The Braves only managed 76 wins last season. It’s hard to imagine the Braves doing worse than that. And that 76 win team had a 10 game winning streak in September. That team lost their Opening Day starting rotation. Well, you all know all that.
But was 2025 as bad as it will get? At least for this competitive window anyway? Fangraphs’ Depth Charts thinks the Braves are the third best team in the National League. They were second until the Mets went on a spending spree. Maybe when the Braves add another starting pitcher they might grab that second spot again.
Bruce Rondón may have been down during his horrible 2018 season in Chicago, but on this day four years ago, a saved a title-clincher in Venezuela. | (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
1985 The first Australian ever to play for the White Sox, Shane Lindsay, was born in Melbourne.
Lindsay only had a four-game, 10-day major league career. He was called up as the season spiraled down the drain in 2011, with a solid debut in Detroit on September 4 (one scoreless inning, with a walk and a strikeout). His mother had made an arduous journey from Australia to see his debut — and succeeded, getting to Comerica Park in time after 20-odd hours of flights.
Lindsay’s encore, on September 6, was not so sweet, as he pitched the sixth inning of an 18-2 mauling, giving up seven earned on eight hits. That one outing swelled his ERA from 0.00 to 31.50.
Two much more “normal” outings that year nearly trimmed that ERA by a third, but he would never see the majors again. Not for lack of trying, though: Lindsay pitched in the White Sox, Cubs and Dodgers organizations in 2012 and got roughed up over our winter in 2012-13 pitching with a 10.05 ERA for the Melbourne Aces down in Australia.
Three years later, Lindsay made a comeback with Melbourne, pitching from 2015-17 over two seasons, to a 2.70 ERA over 10 games.
2015 White Sox farmhand Leury García helped the Gigantes de Cibao win their first-ever Dominican League title. In the Game 8 clincher, Cibao won, 12-5, with García scoring three times.
Leury has yet to make his mark in the majors, debuting in 2013 for Texas and getting into 74 games the next year with the White Sox, but at this point he was coming off of a year spent mostly at Triple-A, hitting .298/.340/.395 with the Charlotte Knights.
The next year would provide García more Dominican League World Series heroics, as well as more time spent mostly in the minors, before the superutilityman paused his Winter League play and started making more significant and full-time contributions in the majors.
2022 Just four years after clocking in with an atrocious -1.3 WAR (fueled by an 8.49 ERA in 35 games) for the 2018 White Sox, Bruce Rondón saved the Venezuelan League title for the Navegantes del Magallanes.
Yesterday, Guardians’ fans got another special treat from the reliable source of happiness on their favorite baseball team – Jose Ramirez – as he agreed to an extension to keep him with the Guardians through 2032, his age 40 season.
I found it helpful to listen to Zack Meisel explain the deal, on the Selby is Godcast with T.J. Zuppe, which pays Jose $15M per year, then defers an extra $10M to be paid out over 10 years 10 years from now, then the same thing for 2027-2032. It was encouraging to hear that David Blitzer was heavily involved in negotations as he will, assumedly, be the one paying Jose through 2052. I think it’s also important to note that Jose will very likely be a goodwill ambassador – if not MORE – for the Guardians as long as he lives. Or, as long as the planet/society exists, whichever end comes first. Long live, Jose!
MLB Trade Rumors, as usual, does a good job summarizing the news here. Jose has bonuses built in for MVP’s and MVP voting finishes, Gold Gloves, All-Star Games and LCS or World Series MVP’s. May he collect them all. He also gets a private jet ride per year, and to and from the All-Star game if he makes it, and an extra private hotel room on road trips. Hopefully, he also gets an upgraded Mario Kart set-up in the dugout.
Of course, the responses have ranged from unbridled joy, to performative virtue-signaling that “this doesn’t change the fact that ownership needs to invest in the team” (yes, Captain Obvious. Now, be happy for three seconds), to deranged resentment that Jose will be paid a ridiculously reasonable $15M per year to finish his Hall of Fame Career entirely as a Cleveland Guardian because Miguel Cabrera was paid twice as much and hampered a Tigers’ team whose fans still absolutely loved seeing him play out the last part of his Hall of Fame career in Detroit. Choose unbridled joy, folks.
It’s quite cold outside and snowy, but we only have 18 days until pitchers and catchers report and 27 days until the first Spring Training game. Keep your head up! Jose Ramirez loves you!
During last year’s New York Baseball Writers’ Awards Gala, Shohei Ohtani was unable to attend the event despite being awarded his 2024 NL MVP plaque. This time around, in receiving his second consecutive NL MVP and third consecutive MVP, Ohtani was in person to present his acceptance speech. Just as he did when he accepted his second MVP award with Angels, Ohtani decided to present his speech in English with a bit of a comedic twist wrapped within.
“To all the writers who voted for me, thank you,” Ohtani said. “This MVP award is very meaningful, and winning it again means so much to me… To the ‘86 Mets team, I now know the feeling of what it’s like to become a world champion— and it’s great— so congratulations on your 40-year anniversary. Thank you to the Dodgers organization for believing in me and embracing my vision.”
Former Dodger and current San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish is at a crossroads in his playing career. Darvish only made 15 starts with San Diego this past season as he dealt with right elbow inflammation to begin the year. He will miss most, if not all, of the 2026 season after undergoing UCL repair surgery.
Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune reported that Darvish intended to retire and that he would forfeit the remaining three years and $43 million still left on his extension that he signed back in Feb. 2023. Darvish later refuted Acee’s claim by taking to his Twitter (X) account to announce that his retirement was a premature report. Should Darvish fail to complete his rehab, he will announce his retirement.
“You may have seen an article, and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there’s still a lot that has to be talked over with the Padres so the finer details are yet to be decided. Also I will not be announcing my retirement yet. Right now I am fully focused on my rehab for my elbow, and if I get to a point where I can throw again, I will start from scratch again to compete. If once I get to that point I feel I can’t do that, I will announce my retirement.”
Old friend Craig Kimbrel will try to play in his 17th big league season, as the reliever signed a minor league deal with the New York Mets. Jon Heyman of the New York Post was the first to report the signing.
Kimbrel most recently had a short-lived reunion with the Atlanta Braves that last all of an inning before spending the rest of the season with the Houston Astros. Between Atlanta and Houston, he posted a 2.25 ERA across 12 innings of work.
Not every big move is created equally. Sometimes necessity meets opportunity, and you get the ideal scenario for a deal, something we recently saw with Cody Bellinger and an agreement to return to the Bronx that made too much sense for every party involved. Other times, as a team like the Dodgers has routinely shown, a big market club can and should take advantage of opportunities that present themselves to upgrade their roster with an unexpected maneuver.
The best available bat on the market is Eugenio Suárez, and if we scroll through his likeliest suitors on any number of lists currently out there, the Yankees won’t feature. But if we stop and think about it, should that really be the case?
As things currently stand, the Yankees will start the season with Ryan McMahon as the team’s primary third baseman. McMahon is, by all accounts, a solid player and a better defender than Suárez, but still a below league-average hitter—that’s not even contemplating a comparison with Suárez, one of the better power bats in the big leagues over the last five seasons. In the most basic of analyses, there shouldn’t be a situation in which the Yankees completely exclude themselves from checking in on what would be a significant improvement to their lineup.
If we start to peel back the layers a little more, you have the potential advantages of using McMahon as a depth piece, particularly when we acknowledge the Yankees have lacked reliable bench options in the last however many years, with infield depth a particular problem. Beyond that, look no further than the DH role, where you have Giancarlo Stanton as the projected starter—even removed from fielding obligations, Stanton is very likely to not deliver a full season, which will inevitably open up a decent chunk of at-bats to be spread around. Suárez could fill that role occasionally with McMahon at third whenever you want to prioritize defense.
Are the Yankees already a good offense without Suárez? Yes. Do they particularly need him? Not really. Would he make them better right now? Definitely. There is no way you could reasonably argue that the Dodgers needed Kyle Tucker, but they signed him anyway, exercising their position of financial strength, to make it happen. Signing Suárez would have an impact, but it’d hardly represent an unreasonable ask. With his age and a market that isn’t as open with other big names having already signed, Suárez might be more inclined to take a shorter deal with a higher AAV.
When it comes to assessing Suárez the player, he comes with a great track record of health, with 143 games being his single-season lowest mark since establishing himself as an everyday player back in 2016. While Suárez is not necessarily the world beater he seemed to be with the Diamondbacks for the first half of 2025, he is one of the biggest locks to hit 30+ bombs in any given season. Dating back to the start of the 2022 season, Suárez has a 119 wRC+. For the most part, we’re talking about a proven commodity. Why not be aggressive?
The gloves are still on. But the Cubs are ‘going for it’, and there aren’t so many kids playing. Maybe Kevin Alcantara breaks camp with the big kids. Otherwise, it’s pretty much a veteran squad. Jaxon Wiggins might change that some, but he isn’t expected any time soon.
He’ll be handled with the proverbial sartorial accessory until then. Matt Shaw and Kevin Alcántara likely make the cut — if they do, then they and Cade Horton can be the younger generation and have their say.
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Under Armour*: First Basemen: Key roles & responsibilities. “The average height of a first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) is slightly over 6-foot-2 while their average weight is 222 pounds.“
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Chicago Cubs All-Star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong returned to Harvard-Westlake's baseball field with his parents on Saturday to see his jersey number hanging on the outfield wall. (Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
It was alumni day on Saturday at Harvard-Westlake's O'Malley Family Field, and the Wolverines unveiled a new way to honor their nine former players who made it to the major leagues. They have posted jerseys of the players on the outfield walls. Let's just say they might run out of room the way things are going.
"That's a good problem," coach Jared Halpert said.
Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Detroit Tigers pitcher Jack Flaherty joined former major leaguers Nik Turley and Josh Satin in being honored before a winter baseball game.
Such great wisdom from Pete Crow-Armstrong on trying to succeed in the game of baseball. https://t.co/N6MLm0HlB9
Youth players were there seeking autographs, and lots of former Harvard-Westlake players showed up.
Jack Flaherty with his mother at O'Malley Family Field on Saturday. (Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Halpert said two more former Harvard-Westlake players are close to reaching the majors and first-round draft pick Bryce Rainer of the Tigers will surely see his jersey on the wall one day.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
There are now 60 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. WBC-participating pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota in just 15 days. I don’t normally derive much excitement out of spring training is approaching milestones but in the midst of the current snow/ice and with the possibility of not seeing above-freezing temperatures for several days, the idea of approaching baseball does bring a certain mental warmth, if not physical warmth. I hope that if you are in the path of this weather, that it goes by with minimal inconvenience and no harm.
The aforementioned snow has deprived us of the chance to have any kind of fresh Birdland Caravan-related stuff to talk about today. The team acted with perhaps an excessive amount of caution in canceling the entire Saturday lineup of activities. It seems like at least the first wave of planned things could have gone off. I figure that was driven as much by the players wanting to get out of the area ahead of the arrival of the weather as it was by any safety concerns about having local fans on the road. I can’t really blame them if that’s the case, but anyone who is disappointed to miss out on unique opportunities to see the players outside their uniforms and open to fans is totally fair to feel that way.
Henderson further explained that this happened at some point early in the season when diving for a ball and it also caused inflammation, which caused him to use a sub-optimal swing plane for driving the ball. This all remains a plausible story for why Henderson only hit 17 homers last year and why he could be poised for a monster bounce-back. I got burned believing in a coming Adley Rutschman revival this time a year ago. We’ve heard more specifics from Henderson himself than we ever did about Rutschman, so it’s probably not as crazy to believe in that one, but still… I’ve heard all this before and sometimes it amounted to nothing.
On Friday night, another one of the big top prospect lists released its preseason top 100 for the year. That was MLB Pipeline, freshly updated for 2026 with three Orioles on its top 100. They’ve got Samuel Basallo high on the list at #8, Dylan Beavers at #69, and last year’s breakout outfielder Nate George at #93. Those three were also on the recent Baseball America top 100 prospects list, with BA also ranking two pitching prospects, Trey Gibson and Luis De León, who were left off the Pipeline list.
Albernaz on 2026 Orioles: ‘I feel good about this club’ (Baltimore Baseball) It might not end up meaning anything that he says this, but I’m reminded again that if Albernaz got a bad vibe about the Orioles, he could have told them to take a hike and that he’d look for open manager’s jobs next year.
Why Basallo, Beavers being ranked top 100 prospects again matters (The Baltimore Sun) The Sun reminds us of the Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick potential, for which Basallo and Beavers are now officially qualified after being on both the BA and Pipeline lists.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Nothing of particular note in Orioles history is recorded for this day. I don’t imagine Mike Elias, trapped by the snow, is going to change that in 2026.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1998 two-game pitcher Richie Lewis, 1989 infielder Francisco Meléndez, and 1963-68 pitcher Wally Bunker. Today is Bunker’s 81st birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736), author Virginia Woolf (1882), President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (1978), musician Alicia Keys (1981), and actress/musician Ariana DeBose (1991).
On this day in history…
In 750, rebels fought against the reigning Umayyad Caliphate in the Battle of the Zab in modern-day Iraq. The victory by these rebels led to the overthrow of the Umayyad, which was replaced with the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasids ruled in Baghdad until the Mongols arrived close to 500 years later.
In 1945, during World War II, the Battle of the Bulge came to an end about a month after the surprise German attack on Allied lines, with the German offensive being repelled and turned back.
In 1971, Charles Manson as well as four members of his so-called “Family” were found guilty of a series of eight murders across two nights in August 1969.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a little book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask one question in this space each time it’s my turn until I run out of questions or forget. The book is multiple choice but I’m not providing the choices because it would be too easy.
Who led the Orioles in home runs during the 1970 season?
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on January 25. Have a safe Sunday.
