Category: Baseball

Gooooood morning friends! Happy Friday.

Yesterday, the Mariners staved off a late-game surge by the Guardians, pulling out a close 8-7 victory.

I received live play-by-play updates via text for this one from my dad, who, like many of you, makes a regular pilgrimage to the Phoenix area this time of year. My conversation with him reminded me of my childhood tradition of always getting Krispy Kreme donuts (doughnuts?) with him after games at Safeco. We’d call them “celebration donuts” if they won and “misery donuts” if they lost, so there was always an excuse to get them.

Do you have any pregame or postgame traditions when you attend Mariners games in-person? Are there any traditions you had in the past?

In Mariners news…

• Matt Brash has been slowed down this spring due to a cracked tooth, from which he is mostly healed but is still suffering from some swelling. Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times has the report.
• Zac Hereth at Seattle Sports outlined the roster spots that are actually up for grabs this spring in Mariners camp.
• MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams provided a recap of what the Mariners accomplished this offseason.
• Jesús Cano at Baseball America spoke to M’s farm director Justin Toole about what Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan have been up to this offseason and what his impression of them is as games get underway. ($)

Around the league…

• Eight members of Team Cuba were denied entry into the United States for WBC games, though the team still plans to participate in the tournament. Evan Drellich at The Athletic has the report. ($)
• The A’s, who have signed several contract extensions with young players over the last two years, have reportedly offered one to star first baseman Nick Kurtz.
• The Padres’s Seidler Family is reportedly mulling over five different offers to purchase the organization.
• Baseball Savant already added a dashboard for ABS challenge data. It will be fun to track which players end up being the most successful in this new aspect of the game.
• Eno Sarris, Dan Hayes, and C. Trent Rosecrans at The Athletic looked into the data to determine which pitchers will benefit the most from the ABS challenge system. ($)
• Keith Law at The Athletic listed the 20 prospects most likely to make an impact in the big leagues this season. ($)
• Longtime Angels correspondent Sam Blum is leaving the Anaheim beat to shift to a national baseball reporting role for The Athletic. While it’ll be nice to read Sam’s coverage of national news, I will miss his insight into the league’s most chaotic franchise. ($)
• The Red Sox are kind of a mess, but the vibes appear to be better than they were this time last year.

• Caltrain, a California public transportation system, won an award for a commercial posted last summer that dunked on Dodgers fans.
• David Schoenfield at ESPN shared his too-early predictions for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game rosters.
• Marc Normandin at Baseball Prospectus wonders if expanded revenue sharing could be the key to MLB finally giving the green light to expand. ($)

Anders’ picks…

• Today is the 30th anniversary for Pokémon. If you’re a fan, keep track of all of the latest Pokémon Day announcements on their website!
• If you have teenage daughters, you may know this already, but torn ACLs are rampant among that particular demographic. Craig Welch at The New York Times dove into the data behind this unfortunate trend.
• Man, how about that The Traitorsfinale? I will say no more to avoid spoiling folks, but you can check out this link if you’re curious what happened. Two part question for you all:
  • 1. What did you think of the finale and Season 4 as a whole? (NOTE: Please be extremely generous with spoiler tags and clearly label your comment as a The Traitors post if answering this prompt in the comments)
  • 2. Which Mariner (past or present) would make the best Faithful? Who would make the best Traitor?

With Garrett Crochet taking the mound yesterday, I was reminded of how exciting it was to have two new stars on the 2025 Red Sox. Getting to know a new star — particularly an ace pitcher — is one of the most exciting things baseball fans get to do over the course of 162 games.

The Red Sox have brought in a lot of new talent for 2026. But I’m not sure the term “exciting” is a good fit for any of Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, or Willson Contreras. They all fall closer to the “very good” bucket than the “great” one, and they’ve all been around for so long that most Sox fans are already pretty familiar with them. For a player to be truly “exciting” I think there has to be an element of the unknown, a sense that watching that player carries the possibility of discovery.

So the question of the day is: which player are you most excited to watch on the 2026 Red Sox?

The easy answer is probably the guy most of us expect to be the best player on the 2026 Red Sox: Roman Anthony. And in this case, the easy is probably the right answer. But it’s worth considering that we did already get an extended look at Roman last year, and we already got a reasonable idea at just how good he already is. He’s not necessarily an unknown. There’s arguably more room for the possibility of discovery in guys like Marcelo Mayer, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu, all of whom have more question marks in their game than Anthony.

Maybe the answer is, once again, Garrett Crochet. There’s less to discover with him, but he also has the potential to be the single best pitcher on the planet, which is what made Pedro the most exciting player on the Red Sox for years.

But for me, I’m going with this guy:

And now a presentation from Payton Tolle: pic.twitter.com/hHgEUeLtLR

— Red Sox (@RedSox) February 26, 2026

Payton Tolle’s debut against Paul Skenes last year was easily my favorite game of the season. And while his subsequent struggles show that he’s not quite ready to be penciled into the top half of a big league rotation — and likely won’t even start with the big league team — I’ll be glued to every pitch he throws in hopes that we’ll see more of that magic from him. This is the guy I want to watch more than anyone else.

Talk about that and whatever else you want and, as always, be good to one another.

Good morning, LSB.

Evan Grant has arrived with a list of ideas to prevent the MLB’s looming work stoppage.

Shawn McFarland has observations from another spring training matchup.

Kennedi Landry writes about impressive Rule 5 draft pick Carter Baumler.

Kumar Rocker has made some tweaks to his game in an effort to build more consistency in 2026.

And the team’s top pitching prospect Caden Scarborough has arrived at camp after a bit of a melanoma scare. Yeesh.

That’s all for this morning. Happy Friday. 🙂

For many teams, it would be a death sentence to lose their ace for the season before games had even begun. However, when the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole for the entirety of the 2025 campaign to Tommy John surgery, their pair of co-deputy-aces stepped up in a big way, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón pitching brilliantly as two of the best starters in the AL when it came to durability and run prevention. Fried is almost certainly this year’s Opening Day starter, while offseason elbow surgery for Rodón clouds the start of his season, creating some uncertainty for the 33-year-old southpaw as he enters his fourth season in pinstripes.

2025 Stats: 33 starts, 195.1 IP, 18-9, 3.09 ERA (132 ERA+), 3.78 FIP, 3.89 xFIP, 25.7% K%, 9.3% BB%, 1.01 HR/9, 1.05 WHIP, 3.2 fWAR

2026 ZiPS Projections: 24 starts, 129.1 IP, 10-8, 4.04 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 24.1% K%, 8.7% BB%, 1.11 HR/9, 1.24 WHIP, 2.1 fWAR

2025 was undoubtedly Rodón’s best season with the Yankees, continuing a pattern of the lefty improving dramatically in each subsequent campaign with the team. He posted for the entire regular season, logging a career-high 33 starts and 195.1 innings, allowing him to rack up over 200 strikeouts for just the second time in his career. Home runs had been an issue his first two seasons with the Yankees, but he slashed those down to yield right around one per nine innings, allowing him to post a sub-four FIP and xFIP for the first time in pinstripes.

This success accompanied a philosophical shift from a pure power pitcher to a more well-rounded starter with more ways to get hitters out — a shift that began in 2024 as a way to prevent a repeat of his disastrous debut season with the Yankees. Last season saw Rodón continue to deepen his arsenal, deploying the changeup and sinker at the highest rate of his Yankees tenure in exchange for reducing his four-seamer usage rate. With this more varied repertoire, Rodón was one of only a handful of starters in the league to place in the 90th percentile or higher in fastball, breaking ball, and offspeed Run Value as measured by Statcast.

Rodón’s slider remained one of the best in baseball, tying for the fifth-highest Statcast Run Value at +12 runs by racking up an impressive 40.3-percent whiff rate, 39.2-percent strikeout rate, and 32.7-percent chase rate. His changeup became elite in 2024 and that remained the case in 2025, with a 35-percent whiff rate, 22.6-percent strikeout rate, and 38.7-percent chase rate. The pitch that intrigued me most was the sinker, used significantly for the first time since 2018 with the White Sox, and it looks like a serious weapon to neutralize lefties, limiting same-handed batters to a .119 batting average, .143 slugging, and .208 wOBA.

Becoming less predictable allowed Rodón to mitigate the batted ball woes that plagued his first two seasons in the Bronx. Relative to those first two seasons, Rodón’s exit velocity dropped from around 91 mph to 88.6 mph, his barrel rate slashed from about 11.5-percent to 7.5-percent, and his expected wOBA on contact from roughly .400 to .335. Most importantly, Rodón cut down significantly on the rate of pulled fly balls he allowed, going from about 22-percent between 2023 and 2024 to 15.3-percent in 2025. This evolution into a more complete pitcher is the number one factor in why I believe Rodón can maintain this level of performance in the upcoming season and well into his 30s.

However, the multi-million dollar question for Rodón (and Cole) is when he will make his return from offseason elbow surgery and what version of pitcher that will end up being. He underwent a procedure in mid-October to remove bone spurs and loose bodies from his pitching elbow, and it is worth wondering what effect that ailment had on his shelling at the hands of the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALDS. He and the team are targeting a late-April return, and by all accounts this spring he is right on schedule with that timetable. If all goes according to plan, he could miss just three to four starts, giving him an outside shot at making at least 30 starts for the third year in a row.

The projection systems can’t agree on the amount of time Rodón will miss. ZiPS provides one of the more pessimistic forecasts, skeptical that he will even reach 25 starts or 130 innings pitched. I suppose one saving grace is that they and the other projection systems expect him to pitch with the same effectiveness as last season when he returns. I also feel that none of the systems give Rodón proper credit for suppressing hits the way he did in 2025 — his .187 opponents’ batting average allowed was the lowest among any qualified starter in the AL — and this plus personal optimism over an on-schedule return to play lead me to remain bullish that Rodón’s 2026 can look at lot closer to his 2025 results than ZiPS predicts.

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See more of the Yankees Previews series here.

Four of the five groups that have submitted bids to become the new owners of the San Diego Padres have been identified, but the fifth group or individual is unknown. It was reported Thursday that former San Diego Chargers quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer Drew Brees is a part of one of the groups that have submitted bids. The sale process is expected to move quickly and the new owners reportedly could be in place sometime soon after the start of the 2026 regular season.

Padres News:

• The Padres lost to the Cincinnati Reds 11-10 on Thursday, but Manny Machado was the story. The third baseman crushed two game-tying home runs, one of which was a grand slam. Sung-Mun Song recorded his first hit as a member of the Padres and Nick Pivetta made his first start of Spring Training. San Diego continues play today with a matchup against the Colorado Rockies.
• Padres reliever Yuki Matsui, who is recovering from a groin injury, was officially removed from the World Baseball Classic roster for Team Japan on Thursday.
• David Morgan is already established as another elite arm in arguably the top bullpen in baseball in San Diego. However, he is looking to improve his standing in the bullpen with a strong Spring Training.
• Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Joe Musgrove had a solid outing in a simulated game and that he could be close to making his first start since his Tommy John surgery.
• Dennis Lin of The Athletic answered questions from readers regarding the Padres. He touched on multiple topics including the sale of the team, A.J. Preller’s contract extension, salary and free agency and the catching position.

Baseball News:

• Pitcher Tatsuya Imai made his first spring appearance for the Houston Astros and it went well according to reports.
• New York Mets pitcher Nolan McLean made his first start of the spring as he gets ready to compete for Team USA in the WBC.
• Long-time former MLB umpire Bruce Froemming died Wednesday at the age of 86.
• The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown opened a new exhibit that features the WBC.
• The Athletics have approached Nick Kurtz about a possible contract extension after his breakout 2025 season.
• Minnesota Twins third baseman Royce Lewis was scratched from Thursday’s lineup due to right side tightness.

A year ago, Cade Povich was the answer to one of the Orioles’ most pressing questions. On the final day of spring training in March 2025, the club named him their fifth starter. He was 25 years old, making his first Opening Day roster, and stepping into a rotation that needed him.

Twelve months later, despite making 20 starts for this team the year before, Povich’s place on this roster has become a question mark.

The shape of the rotation has changed dramatically. Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers are at the top of the rotation. Chris Bassitt, signed for $18.5 million this winter, gives Baltimore a veteran presence with a 3.64 career ERA and four straight seasons of 170-plus innings. Shane Baz, acquired in a trade, occupies another spot. Zach Eflin, who had back surgery in August, is back on a one-year deal and expected to join the rotation once he’s fully ramped up. That’s five starters with legitimate claims to roster spots before you even get to Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, and Brandon Young — all of whom made starts last season.

Povich, who logged a 5.06 ERA across 21 appearances in 2025, is now competing for a role that the organization hasn’t quite defined for him yet.

“We’ve got a lot of great guys in the rotation and in the bullpen,” Povich said earlier this week in Sarasota after throwing two scoreless innings against Atlanta. “I think competition is always good.”

He knows what the situation is. Asked about the bullpen, he was refreshingly candid: “If they say, ‘we think this is going to help the team the best,’ I’m all for it.”

That flexibility matters, because right now the bullpen looks like the more realistic path to a roster spot than the rotation. The team lacks a pure left-on-left specialist. Southpaws Keegan Akin and Dietrich Enns are useful arms who can get out right-handed hitters, but neither is a shutdown weapon against same-handed batters. Povich could theoretically fill that gap, though his career splits haven’t been markedly better against lefties than righties.

One thing is making Povich’s spring more interesting than it might be: a gyro slider. A tightly spun offering with rotation like a tight football spiral, the pitch tunnels like his four-seamer before dropping just enough to induce weak contact or a whiff. In the offseason, Povich studied how Blake Snell deployed his slider last year (a pitch with a 54% whiff rate on it) and has been integrating his own version to address what has always been his most glaring vulnerability: being behind in counts.

Good timing: opponents hold a .710 OPS against Povich when he’s ahead in counts; when batters get ahead, that balloons to 1.072. The gyro slider is designed to change that equation, giving him something he can throw in the zone at 2-0 or 3-1 instead of grooving a fastball.

He’s also refined his kick change, which was his best swing-and-miss weapon in 2025 with a 34.3% whiff rate but was maddeningly unpredictable in its movement. Sometimes it cut glove-side; sometimes it ran arm-side. Catchers had trouble framing it, and Povich had trouble locating it.

Early spring results have been encouraging. Two scoreless innings against the Braves, a hit and a walk, no real damage. But these are early days against split-squad lineups, and what matters more is the stuff than the line. Manager Craig Albernaz said Povich looked good and was right where he needed to be.

The most realistic outcome for the lefty is probably a hybrid role — not quite a starter, not quite a traditional reliever, but something in between that gives the Orioles flexibility. A bulk innings guy behind an opener, or a sixth arm when the rotation needs it.

The rotation math is what it is. Bradish and Rogers are locks. Bassitt, Baz, and Eflin were brought in to stabilize things, and Elias described Bassitt specifically as someone who would give the rotation “strength in numbers.” With Kremer and Wells also pushing for spots, Povich simply isn’t going to be a regular starter on Opening Day barring an injury.

What he can control is whether he makes himself hard to cut. The gyro slider and and improvement changeup are a nice start. Showing he can get lefties out consistently would help, too. So would improved control early in counts, and staying healthy through camp, come to think of it.

Povich remains on the 40-man roster and the Orioles clearly see something in him. He’s been asked to compete, not released. For a player who was handed an Opening Day start just twelve months ago, it’s a humbling recalibration. But if the new pitch plays, and if he can carve out a role as a versatile left-hander on a team that needs exactly that, there’s still a meaningful career to be built here.

The Birds have a crowded house this spring. Povich’s job is to make himself the one they can’t send away.

With top 20 voting for Cleveland Guardians prospects in 2026 in our rear view, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the players our readers selected and see what trends and other potential information stands out about them.

Before we get started, here’s the top 20 in its entirety:

1. Chase DeLauter, LHH OF
2. Travis Bazzana, LHH 2B
3. Parker Messick, LHP
4. Ralphy Velazquez, LHH 1B/RF
5. Angel Genao, SH SS
6. Braylon Doughty, RHP
7. Cooper Ingle, LHH C
8. Khal Stephen, RHP
9. Juan Brito, SH 2B/1B/RF/3B
10. Jaison Chourio, SH OF
11. Kahlil Watson, LHH OF
12. Daniel Espino, RHP
13. George Valera, LHH OF
14. Jace LaViolette, LHH OF
15. Joey Oakie, RHP
16. Alfonsin Rosario, RHH OF
17. Juneiker Caceres, LHH OF
18. Yorman Gomez, RHP
19. Josh Hartle, LHP
20. Andrew Walters, RHP

So how does the top 20 break down?

By position

Catcher: One.

Outfield: Nine (DeLauter, Velazquez, Brito, Chourio, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Rosario, Caceres).

Infield: Four (w/ Bazzana, Velazquez, Genao, Brito).

Starting pitcher: Seven (Messick, Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Hartle).

Relievers: Two (Daniel Espino, Andrew Walters).

By age

19 and under: Two (Caceres, Oakie).

20-21: Five (Velazquez, Genao, Doughty, Chourio, Rosario).

22-23: Seven (Bazzana, Stephen, Ingle, Watson, LaViolette, Hartle, Gomez).

24 and up: Six (DeLauter, Messick, Brito, Espino, Valera, Walters).

By proximity (highest level played)

MLB: Four (DeLauter, Messick, Valera, Walters).

AAA: Five (Bazzana, Ingle, Brito, Watson, Espino).

AA: Six (Velazquez, Genao, Stephen, Rosario, Gomez, Hartle).

A+: One (Chourio).

A: Three (Doughty, Oakie, Caceres).

DNP: One (LaViolette).

Positions players batting stance

RHH: One (Rosario).

LHH: Eight (DeLauter, Bazzana, Velazquez, Ingle, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Caceres).

SH: Three (Genao, Brito, Chourio).

Pitchers throwing arm

RHP: Six (Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Walters).

LHP: Two (Messick, Hartle).

What stands out?

To me, it’s the number of outfield prospects in our top 20. After years of hearing Cleveland can’t develop outfielders, the system suddenly is flush with them, having nine that can technically play there in the top 20 prospects (counting Velazquez and Brito, who have taken some reps there). That also doesn’t include players outside the top 20 like Petey Halpin, who already got the call to MLB last year and held his own as a rookie in a small sample size.

Another standout is the lack of right-handed bats. Cleveland has one right-handed hitter in its top 20, outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. We’re a long way from having right-handed sluggers Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez in the lineup. Technically, three others can hit right-handed with three switch hitters in the top 20, but the system’s position players definitely lean left-centric when it comes to batting stance.

Starting pitching depth could be an issue as well. Parker Messick is the only pitcher in the team’s top 20 prospects who played at the Triple-A or MLB level last year (technically, Daniel Espino’s 0.2 innings count, but do they? And will he be able to start?). There are some solid arms in the system, but Khal Stephen, Yorman Gomez and Josh Hartle all finished last year at Double-A and still need some seasoning while youngsters like Joey Oakie and Braylon Doughty are a ways away yet.

Making any kind of conclusion this early into Spring Training is foolhardy. There’s not much that occurs before the calendar even flips to March that can be used to glean insight on how a player will perform once the games begin to count. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be something that catches your eye this early and causes you to look a little closer the rest of the spring.

One such thing is Justin Crawford and his new swing. Crawford’s swing looks drastically different than it did when he was in camp a year ago, as our Anthony Esbensen pointed out in his notes column from last weekend. Crawford seemingly altering his swing to add more lift to the ball is encouraging, even if it’s way too early to tell if the adjustment will finally help him cure his groundball issues. Again, it’s hard to judge anything on the first spring game of the season, but Crawford ripped a home run foul in his first at-bat before hitting a 104 MPH double off the wall in the opposite field gap in the same at-bat. Overall, Crawford is 2-9 with three strikeouts in three spring games.

On the pitching side, Kyle Backhus has caught some eyes with his velocity jump. The funky left-hander’s name has been mentioned by some of those in camo as someone who has impressed so far, and after his first performance, it’s easy to see why. Backhus’ sinker averaged 91 MPH last season, but in his first Grapefruit League appearance, Backhus averaged 92 MPH and touched 94. He quickly retired the side in that appearance on just 10 pitches, nine of which were strikes. He followed that up with another good performance in his second appearance, tossing another scoreless inning and erasing a single with a double play. Backhus is in contention for one of the last two spots in the Phillies bullpen and the third left hander role. If he continues to pitch like that, it will be hard to not put him on the Opening Day roster.

It’s the little things that can capture your attention this early. Not necessarily harbingers of what’s to come, but things that could potentially bode well. So, what has earned your attention so far in Phillies camp?

A quick one, off a stray thought.

When the Braves ran out their lineup of regulars-ish a couple of days ago in a home Spring Training contest, Mauricio Dubon was hitting ninth, even behind Jonah Heim. Two days before that, Dubon was hitting ninth behind Aaron Schunk, of all people. It’s early in Spring Training, but it looks like Dubon is essentially being told he’s going to be hitting ninth when present while filling in for Ha-Seong Kim. (This is where we cross our fingers that no other injury that somehow makes Dubon not the default choice for ninth occurs.)

But, Dubon isn’t meant to be a starter. Kim will be back eventually.

So, the question really comes down to: will Dubon be a super-sub enough and always hit ninth to be the answer to this question, or will it warp into someone else? And, if so, who?

The Florida State baseball team is off the schneid but the vibes still aren’t entirely immaculate entering the third weekend of the regular season.

The Seminoles (5-2) snapped their two-game skid with a 14-9 win over UNF Wednesday night in a bullpen game. They’ll hope for more stability on the mound this weekend when they host The Citadel (4-2) for a three-game series beginning with a Saturday doubleheader at 11 a.m., due to inclement weather on Friday, and concluding with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.

In the last three games, FSU’s pitching staff has allowed eight or more runs in each game, a combined 27. In Wednesday’s bullpen game, nine different pitchers combined to walk nine batters and hit two.

There’s at least some reason for optimism with what was expected to be the weekend rotation fully available to all start for the first time this season.

Wes Mendes, who has started the season with a pair of wins and 10 1/3 scoreless innings, will start Friday. FAU transfer LHP Trey Beard will make his first start as a Seminole after missing the start of the season with an illness and debuting in last Sunday’s game out of the bullpen. Virginia transfer RHP Bryson Moore will move to the Sunday spot after starting the first two Saturday games.

They’ll face a team which enters on a hot streak. The Citadel started the season losing two of three to Liberty, but bounced back with a weekend sweep last week, beating Marshall twice by a combined score of 14-9 and then beating Army 14-8 on Sunday.

The Bulldogs also have a rest and likely a pitching-depth advantage, having not played since Sunday.

Saturday February 28th, 11:00 a.m. ET vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. LHP Wes Mendes (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. North Florida Gr. LHP Will Holmes (1-1, 5.59 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Saturday, February 28th, 45 minutes after Game 1 vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. LHP Trey Beard (0-0, 11.57 ERA) vs. North Florida Jr. RHP Bryce Coulter (0-0, 6.75 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Sunday, March 1st, 1:00 p.m. ET vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. RHP Bryson Moore (0-0, 7.50 ERA) vs. North Florida Sr. RHP Michael Gibson (2-0, 6.14 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Bulldog hitters to know

• Sr, 3B Phillips Daniels: Slashing .409/.458/.636 in six games. The only regular contributor hitting over .333 with nine hits, three of them the extra-base variety (two doubles and a homer)
• Jr. 1B Zach Hunt: Slashing .304/.360/.739 in six games. The early-season slugger, with two of the team’s four home runs and eight RBIs, five more than anyone else
• Fr. OF Jayden Williams: Slashing .318/.423/.419 in six games. Not a huge power threat (one triple in six games) but gets on base at a high rate and is 5-for-5 on steal attempts.

The Orioles answered a lot of questions this offseason. The question marks surrounding the offense were addressed via the signing of Pete Alonso and the trade for Taylor Ward. Starting pitching was addressed with Shane Baz, Chris Bassitt and the resigning of Zach Eflin. The bullpen added Ryan Helsley and brought back Andrew Kittredge.

But one gigantic question still hangs over the Orioles’ heads: Is Baltimore truly a contender in 2026? 

After back-to-back playoff seasons in 2023 and 2024, there was plenty of hope that the 2025 Orioles would be contenders again. Instead, a mountain of injuries and failed offseason gambles doomed the O’s to a 16-win regression and a last-place finish. 

The Orioles undoubtedly had a better offseason this year.  However, questions surrounding pitching and a steadily growing pile of new injuries are still here to cast doubt over the Orioles’ playoff hopes. 

FanGraphs currently gives the Orioles a 51.6% chance to play October baseball, sixth best among all AL teams but only 4th in a loaded AL East. FanDuel also gives the O’s the sixth-best odds to earn a postseason birth at -115, though the gap between them and the Red Sox (-170), Blue Jays (-172) and Yankees (-265) is perhaps seen as even bigger in the betting market. 

The optimistic case for the Orioles’ chances at a Wildcard berth revolves largely around their offense. The additions of Alonso and Ward, and predictable positive regression from Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, could see this O’s team challenge for the MLB home run lead and title of best offense in the AL. And that’s before factoring in the potential growth of younger players like Jackson Holliday, Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers. 

The pessimists will point to the lack of top-end starters, injuries to Holliday, Basallo and Jordan Westburg and the gauntlet that is the AL East as reasons why Baltimore will miss the playoffs again. The rotation is deeper, but heavily reliant on healthy seasons from Bradish, Rogers and Baz to give Baltimore a prayer at keeping up with deep rotations in New York, Toronto and Boston. 

The injuries are frustrating but perhaps surmountable. Holliday should be back sometime in April. Basallo will hopefully not be shelved for long after leaving yesterday’s game after an awkward play at the plate. Westburg’s UCL injury means he may miss the entire season, but a leap from Coby Mayo should mitigate that loss (at least offensively). And yet, having to deal with so many injuries before playing a single regular-season game could certainly dent the optimism around an Orioles return to the postseason. 

Playing in the AL East is not as daunting as it once was, thanks to a reduced number of division games, but the O’s still face a challenging climb out of the basement of baseball’s toughest division. The flip side to the challenge of the AL East is that Baltimore will have plenty of opportunities to steal games from their biggest competitors in the Wild Card (or division) race. 

Since the move to three Wild Card teams, the last Wild Card spot in the AL has averaged 87 wins. Most books have the Orioles over/under at 86 wins. By all accounts, this should be a team that can make the playoffs. But do they have enough juice to truly distinguish themselves as contenders? Let us hear your opinion in the comments below.

With Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández both sidelined to begin the regular season, the second base position looks open for the taking on paper. So far this spring, Hyeseong Kim is proving to the Dodgers that he is the guy to get the nod.

Kim added another highlight to his already impressive spring with a home run against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, and he is hitting a remarkable .462 (6-13) this spring while flashing the leather both at second base and in center field. His hot spring will be coming to an abrupt end soon, as he is set to join Team Korea in the World Baseball Classic.

Instead of looking back fondly at the numbers he displayed over a short period of time this spring, Kim is focused on contributing consistently in the regular season, notes Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“I don’t think there’s any full satisfaction that comes from [spring results],” Kim said. “I’m just trying to focus on the things that I’m working on. Just working on my movement quality and my swing mechanics. And, yeah, just try to play every day, and hopefully it shows during the season.”

Links

Tyler Glasnow impressed in his first start of the spring, tossing 33 pitches over 2+ innings while giving up just one hit, striking out four and allowing no walks. The ultimate test this season will be if he can stay healthy, something that has alluded him since being acquired by the Dodgers in late 2023, per Jack Vita of the Los Angeles Times.

“Pitching well and staying healthy,” Glasnow said when asked about goals. “Just doing all that and trying to make as many starts as I can, and just executing every start and being healthy in the postseason.”

So far this spring, eight of the nine regulars in the Dodgers starting lineup have appeared in at least one game this spring. The odd man out— Mookie Betts.

Dave Roberts noted that Betts will not be playing in any of the games this weekend, and it might be another week until Betts sees some playing time, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

“I wanted Mookie to start a little bit later as far as not getting into spring training ready to go, and kind of use spring training to build up given it’s six weeks,” Roberts said Thursday. “He’s building up nicely.”

We are beginning to see the 2026 roster shape up – now it’s time to get your time machines out.

What Cleveland baseball player from the past would make the biggest impact on the 2026 Cleveland Guardians?

Is it 2017 Francisco Lindor anchoring the team from the shortstop position? Or 1948 Lou Boudreau?

Is it 2002 Jim Thome or 2006 Travis Hafner providing thump in the middle of the lineup? Maybe 1953 Al Rosen gets to DH and spell Jose at third?

Is it 2014 Michael Brantely in right field? 1994 Kenny Lofton in center? 2006 Grady Sizemore in center? 1920 Tris Speaker in center?

1995 Albert Belle providing a shock to the system in left?

Or do you want an ace – maybe 2017 Corey Kluber, 1946 Bob Feller, 2008 CC Sabathia, 1969 Sam McDowell, 1972 Gaylord Perry, 2008 Cliff Lee or 1968 Luis Tiant?

Let us know your choice in the comments below!

Meet the Mets

Nolan McLean’s first outing of the spring was fantastic, and the Mets won their exhibition game against the Astros.

Mets minor league pitcher Ryan Lambert is fanatical about his dietary beliefs and once consumed thirty raw eggs per day for an entire month.

“Everybody says first base is easy, but it’s harder than what you expect,” said Jorge Polanco following some work the Mets had him doing at the position in an intrasquad game.

Around the National League East

Carlos Carrasco got rocked in a spring training start for the Braves as he faced the Yankees.

The Good Phight asked about realistic expectations for Zack Wheeler in 2026.

Federal Baseball asked what spring training numbers should matter to Nationals fans.

Pitching prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling, who are roommates and consensus top-100 prospects in baseball entering the 2026 season, are eyeing their big league debuts with the Marlins.

Around Major League Baseball

Giancarlo Stanton is determined to play through the pain caused by tennis elbow in both of his arms—pain that prevents him from being able to open a bottle or a bag of chips.

Max Scherzer’s daughter wrote a letter to the Blue Jays in hopes that her dad would be back on the team this season, and she’s presumably very happy now that he’s signed a one-year deal to return to Toronto.

Drew Brees is among the people involved in the bidding to buy the Padres.

Dan Szymborski wrote about greatness, WAR, and Jacob deGrom.

Former major league umpire Bruce Froemming passed away at the age of 86.

Jon Heyman writes that baseball could be in a for a longer lockout because of Tony Clark’s ouster.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Thomas Henderson looked at MJ Melendez as he tries to keep his major league career going heading into the 2026 season.

We asked which one of Gary, Keith, or Ron you’d choose to have lunch with if you had to pick just one of them.

This Date in Mets History

The sacrifice fly was introduced to baseball on this date in 1908, long before the Mets’ first season.

Good morning.

• Three-time Cy Young Award winner and future Hall-of-Famer Max Scherzer has agreed to re-sign with the Toronto Blue Jays on a one-year, $3 million deal.
• There are some incentives in the deal as well.

Details of Max Scherzer's one-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays:
$3 million base salary
$1 million when he reaches 65 innings
$1M for 75IP
$1M for 85IP
$1M for 95IP
$1M for 105IP
$1M for 115IP
$1M for 125IP
$1M for 135IP
$1M for 145IP
$1M for 155IP
He can receive a total of…

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 26, 2026

• After the news broke, it was revealed that Scherzer’s young daughter wrote a letter to the Blue Jays asking them to bring back her dad. Keegan Matheson reports.
• Michael Baumann looks at what the 41-year-old Scherzer still has to offer the Blue Jays.
• Keegan Matheson looks at what the Blue Jays rotation looks like with Scherzer’s return.
• Davy Andrews has a positive reaction to the two-year (one year and a team option) extension that lefty Chris Sale signed with the Braves.
• The Athletics have approached first baseman Nick Kurtz about a long-term contract extension.
• Tyler Kepner reports that Kurtz is open to a deal. (The Athletic sub. req.) Kepner also goes into detail about why Kurtz is worth a lot to the A’s—or any other team.
• Baseball’s top prospect, Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin, says he is open to a long-term extension with Pittsburgh. Mike Axisa tries to calculate what a deal for Griffin would look like.
• Ken Rosenthal reports that Griffin is impressing everyone in Spring Training (The Athletic sub. req.) as he makes his case for the Opening Day roster.
• Sad news as longtime umpire Bruce Froemming has died at age 86. Or condolences go out to Froemming’s friends and family.
• Those friends and family, as every longtime Cubs fan knows, does not include Milt Pappas. Tyler Kepner explains why and has a recap of Froemming’s career. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The State Department denied visas to eight members of Cuba’s World Baseball Classic traveling party, reports Bob Nightengale. All of the players and on-field coaches did receive visas.
• Aaron Judge speaks with Brendan Kuty about captaining Team USA in the WBC and what it means to represent his country. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jordan Schusterman has a preview of Group C in the WBC.
• Brian Murphy has 12 players in the Hall of Fame who played in the WBC. Hard to believe the WBC is 20 years old now and on its sixth edition.
• Dennis Lim and Ken Rosenthal report on five bids to buy the San Diego Padres (The Athletic free reg. req.). one of which includes former NFL quarterback Drew Brees as a minority owner. Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob is also reportedly a bidder on the Padres.
• The Yankees are retiring CC Sabathia’s number 52. The Yankees are going to be wearing jerseys with numbers in triple digits and/or fractions in the near future with all their retired numbers.
• Brian Murphy reports that even though Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton “can’t open a bottle” because of tennis elbow, he’s determined to play through the pain.
• Mike Axisa has every team’s most interesting non-roster invitee to Spring Training.
• Keith Law lists the 20 prospects most likely to make an impact in the majors this season. (The Athletic sub. req.) Mo Baller is one of them.
• Bob Nightengale reports that the rough spring of Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki is cause for concern.
• The MLB Pipeline team has the best power-hitting prospect for each team.
• Matt Snyder lists the teams who lost the most in free agency this past winter.
• Buster Olney has the top ten corner outfielders and the top ten center fielders coming into 2026.
• Michael Baumann thinks Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy needs to stop trying to hit for power. I forgot the Diamondbacks traded McCarthy to Colorado this winter.
• David Schoenfield tries to predict the 2026 All-Star Game lineups. Even Schoenfield calls this “way-too-early,” but really? Are we already concerned about All-Star Game rosters?
• Davy Andrews explains why he thinks its unlikely that Mets outfielder Juan Soto ever wins an MVP Award.
• Tyler Kepner profiles the career of Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff, the ultimate comeback player as he attempts to come back one more time (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Dan Szymborski looks where Rangers pitcher Jacob DeGrom fits in all of the standards of the Hall of Fame.
• Melissa Lockard reports on a former Giants executive who left the organization to take on the challenge of running the minor league Oakland Ballers. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The family of late Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs talk to Sam Blum about the lawsuit against the team. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor greeted and shook hands with Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire an MLB game, during a Spring Training game. As Naylor said “Kindness is free.” Daniel Kramer with the story.
• Mike Petriello has an in-depth look at what the data tells us about challenging pitches with the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) system.
• New Giants outfielder Harrison Bader hit his first home run in Spring Training—and it dented a food truck in the parking lot. Maria Guardado with the story.
• On top of that, Bader signed the dent!

Harrison Bader signed the food truck he hit on the fly with his homer today, lol “Sorry”: pic.twitter.com/CBuprTjlx1

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) February 25, 2026

• And finally, this is my favorite story of the year so far and probably my favorite story in a while. Zack Meisel writes about the end of a 30-year quest by one Guardians fan to collect a photography of every one who had ever played in the organization when he finally found a photo of Charles “Shorty” Gallagher, who played one day for Cleveland in 1901. (The Athletic sub. req.)