Baseball News
Well, the Reds hired Guardians’ assistant hitting coach, Joe Torres, to be their pitching coach.
Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase opened their case arguing they were deceived by a bettor and that the pitches bet on were called by their catchers and just incidentally happened to help the bettor hit. I feel like this is not a great defense so far.
Other than that, man, it’s dead in the world of baseball.
It didn’t have to be this way. Two years ago, I argued that we needed to vote as many as we could into the Royals Hall of Fame for fear they’d fall off the ballot. Last year, those fears were realized to some degree, with Jarrod Dyson falling off the ballot. This year, Yordano Ventura has fallen off. Maybe you don’t think either of those guys should have been elected – I would argue with you about Dyson – but because other players on those ballots weren’t elected, we are now faced with a nasty conundrum.
There are 12 former Royals on this year’s ballot. I believe that 11 of them likely deserve to be inducted, all but Ian Kennedy. Unfortunately, because voters can only select up to five and candidates must receive 75% of the vote to be inducted, not all of them will be added this year. In the best-case scenario, six players could be elected, but only if the ballots were nearly perfectly divided among those six, and likely most, if not all, of the remaining six would fall off the ballot forever.
Realistically, it would be a stretch to even see three of these guys voted in this year. That makes me want to try to organize voters around three guys to make sure they get in, but a lot of these cases are so good that even if I could reach every single Royals fan, I’m not at all sure that I could convince everyone to rally around those three. Honestly, I’m not sure I can convince myself to rally around just three guys. How am I supposed to pick?
If you listened to the latest episode of the Royals Rundown podcast, you know that I really did struggle with this. I figured out my top four pretty quickly.
It’s insane to me that Wade Davis is still on the ballot. I was so sure he would be elected that I decided not to vote for him when he first became eligible following the 2024 season. I voted for him last season as I thought we might get all of HDH in all at once, with Greg Holland becoming eligible for the first time. Kelvin Herrera has been on there as long as Davis and while I believe he is completely deserving, I can understand why he might not get elected. Davis stands out as an absolute travesty to me. From 2014-2016, he put together three of the most dominant relief seasons we have ever seen in baseball, posting a 1.18 ERA and 2.38 SIERA.” He allowed exactly THREE home runs over those three seasons, all in 2015. Mason Miller, who had one of the best individual seasons by a reliever of all time this year, also gave up three home runs, despite pitching in a much less hitter-friendly environment.
Hosmer, Moustakas, and Cain are all newcomers to the ballot this year. And while I know many of you will plan to vote for HDH as your first three, I choose to vote for them as the two biggest leaders of the 2014-2017 squads and the most talented player on those teams, respectively. It’s been interesting to see opinion morph over time to suggest that Salvador Perez has always been a leader on this team, but I was there in 2014, and I assure you he was not then a leader. He was one of the hearts, maybe the most important heart, of that roster. But those clubs belonged to Moose and Hos, or at least that’s how the story was told at the time. There were all kinds of stories of things Moose or Hos said or did to inspire or lead the club. I don’t say any of this to take anything away from Sal, but I don’t want people to forget just how important these corner infielders were to their teams.
Cain, of course, hit in the heart of the order and defined 2015 with his third-place MVP finish, while convincing every kid in the KC metro area that the best way to swing was the LoCain Lean-Back. He was also perpetually seen hanging around Salvador Perez, both sporting their giant smiles. I said Sal was the heart of those squads, Lorenzo was his twin, the two beating in harmony.
So how do I choose the final vote? This is the hard part. I can no more choose Holland over Herrera than Ernie could choose rubber over ducky. To me, Davis can stand above them, but it’s still an absolute sham that they didn’t all get inducted together last season. That leaves me debating between the current Cooperstown resident, Carlos Beltrán and future resident Zack Greinke.
Of course, that means I’ve already written off Alcides Escobar, Billy Butler, and Joakim Soria in addition to the ones I’ve already discussed. But what else can I do?
Ultimately, I think my choice has to be Zack Greinke. Carlos brought home a Rookie of the Year award, and he was part of “Dos Carlos”, which was a lot of fun. But Greinke brought home the team’s only Cy Young Award of my lifetime, and he did so with one of the greatest pitching seasons we’ve ever seen. He is tied for the 58th-best single-season fWAR of all time with 8.7. There have only been six better pitching performances this century, and three of them are Randy Johnson. Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, and Jacob DeGrom each have one. Roy Halladay tied the mark one year.
I hate leaving off six extremely deserving candidates, but what else can I do?
Well, I thought of one thing. Something to sate my curiosity at least. I created a ranked-choice poll with all 12 Hall of Fame candidates on it so everyone could rank them in order, and I can see how Royals fans would rank them all if they weren’t just selecting five in any order. I hope you’ll go vote on it. If we get enough votes, I’ll write about the results.
Team News
Diamondbacks prospects Demetrio Crisantes, Joe Ariola make Fall Stars Gamehttps://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/diamondbacks-prospects-demetrio-crisantes-joe-ariola-make-fall-stars-game
Former Diamondbacks Top Prospect Departs Without Getting Shot in MLBhttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/former-diamondbacks-prospect-mlb-robinson
What D-backs are looking for from AFL, winter ball participants
https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/demetrio-crisantes-patrick-forbes-in-d-backs-arizona-fall-league
Other Baseball
Angels Yet To Begin Interviewing GM Candidates While Awaiting Sale Approvalhttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/11/angels-yet-to-begin-interviewing-gm-candidates-while-awaiting-sale-approval.html
Albert Pujols to interview for Astros’ managerial job, sources sayhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50381841/sources-albert-pujols-interview-astros-managerial-job
Guardians’ Clase, Ortiz described as ‘cheaters’ at pitch-rigging trialhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50381638/guardians-clase-ortiz-described-cheaters-pitch-rigging-trial
MLB proposes delaying salary cap until 2028 seasonhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50370860/mlb-proposes-delaying-salary-cap-2028-season
Former MLB star Mark Teixeira wins U.S. House seat in Texashttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/50376245/former-mlb-star-mark-teixeira-wins-us-house-seat-texas
What does the latest labor proposal from MLB actually mean?https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/what-does-the-latest-labor-proposal-from-mlb-actually-mean-210558498.html
Anything Goes
This day in history:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-5
This day in baseball:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/November_5
It is also the shallowest and the coldest ocean among the world’s five ocean basins. The Arctic ocean is about 1.5 times the size of the United States.
In other units of measurements, it is 298-293K or 59-77°F.
You’ve heard of post-mortem photo opps and cocaine toothache drops, but another peculiar Victorian Era thing is the mustache shield. Patented in 1876 by Virgil A Gates, the mustache shield was designed to keep facial hair out of the way when eating and drinking.
Few players have had a true Jekyll and Hyde relationship with the Yankees quite like Johnny Damon. I personally never thought I’d be able to move past his role in helping end the curse back in 2004. However, the gritty, fun-loving Damon cleanup up his look and image before playing his way into the positive side of Yankees history.
Johnny David Damon
Born: November 5, 1973 (Fort Riley, KS)
Yankees Tenure: 2006-09
Damon was born on a military base in Kansas but bounced around quite a bit during his childhood. His father was a sergeant in the United States Army, and his mother was a Thai immigrant. Growing up with a stutter, Damon was a quiet child but eventually came into his own through sports. In addition to his baseball talents, he flashed elite athleticism on the track at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, finishing as the runner-up in the 200-meter dash during his senior year.
In 1992, Damon was rated the top high school prospect in the country by Baseball America. That led to him being selected by the Kansas City Royals with the 35th overall pick in the supplemental first round of the MLB Draft. Damon worked his way through the minors and made his major league debut on August 12, 1995.
Kansas City was Damon’s home for six seasons. Over that stretch, he developed into a solid big leaguer, using his left-handed swing to produce 17.3 WAR while hitting 65 home runs, stealing 156 bases, and slashing .292/.351/.438. He also established himself as a versatile outfielder. In his final season with the Royals, Damon led the American League in both runs scored with 136 and stolen bases with 46. KC traded him that offseason, with only one year of team control remaining, to the Oakland Athletics as part of a three-team deal that also involved the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Damon spent one season, 2001, in Oakland. His production slipped some, but for the first time in his career, he got to play postseason baseball. Facing the Yankees in the ALDS, Damon made a great first impression, collecting nine hits over the five games and slashing .409/.435/.591. The Yankees prevailed, with the series highlighted by Derek Jeter’s famous flip to home in Game 3.
Reaching free agency for the first time ahead of the 2002 season, Damon agreed to a four-year deal with the Red Sox. Those four years would be some of the best of his career, as he made his only two All-Star teams in 2002 and 2005 while helping Boston end the Curse of the Bambino in 2004 with 20 homers and some memorable ALCS moments against New York. When he reached free agency following the 2005 season, it seemed likely that the beloved Caveman would stay with his fellow Idiots in Boston. However, the Yankees and their purse strings had other plans.
In December 2005, Damon signed a four-year, $52 million deal to switch sides and join the Bombers. At a time when the Yankees’ hair and grooming policies were still firmly in place, it was a big deal. Damon shaved his iconic beard and cut his flowing locks to fit in with his new teammates. With a new look, Damon hit .285 with 24 home runs in 2006 while playing 131 games in center field. He also joined legends Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial in the record books by posting his ninth consecutive season with at least 100 runs scored and 30 doubles. The Yankees finally had a leadoff hitter to insert at the top of the order, and things looked promising as the team won the AL East. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get out of the Division Series, falling to Detroit in four games.
The 2007 campaign saw Damon’s numbers slip some as he took on a different role, splitting time between left field, center field, and designated hitter. He hit .270 with 144 hits, 27 doubles, 12 home runs, 63 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases in 141 games. The team again flamed out in the ALDS, but Damon did all he could in the losing effort, batting .278 with two home runs.
After years of disappointment in the playoffs, the Yankees missed the 2008 postseason altogether. However, the 34-year-old still played well, even as he dealt with injuries. In a testament to his availability and durability, Damon landed on the disabled list for the first time in his career with a shoulder sprain suffered on a wall collision. Despite that setback, he still played 143 games and slashed .303/.375/.461 with 17 home runs, and he went a career-best 6-for-6 on June 7th against the Royals, capping it off with a walk-off hit to right. Damon is one of only three Yankees in MLB history to register a six-hit game, alongside Myril Hoag and Gerald Williams.
Still serving as the table setter, Damon helped the reloaded 2009 Yankees return to October. The veteran took a liking to the new Yankee Stadium and became a regular Short Porch threat, tying his career high with 24 homers and a 118 OPS+.
All told, Damon hit .282 with 155 hits, 36 doubles, 24 home runs, 82 RBIs, and 107 runs scored. Despite a sluggish ALDS against Minnesota, he recovered to hit .300 with a a big homer in the ALCS as the Yankees brushed past the Angels to win the pennant.
Damon continued to deliver in the Fall Classic, as he collected eight hits, scored six runs, and drove in four with an .895 OPS as the Yankees prevailed in six games over the Phillies. One of Damon’s most memorable moments in pinstripes came during game four when he grinded out an single with two outs and then stole second and third before scoring what would be the winning run. Despite his contributions to the championship run, the Yankees decided to let Damon walk as a free agent, instead trading for Curtis Granderson and allowing an up-and-comer named Brett Gardner to take on a bigger role.
In free agency, Damon signed a one-year deal with the Tigers for the 2010 season, where he remained productive but saw his power deep away from the Short Porch. The next year, he joined the Rays for the 2011 campaign, posting his last productive season and notably hitting his final career postseason home run during their ALDS loss to Texas. Chasing a dark-horse bid for 3,000 hits, Damon found a spot with Cleveland in 2012, but he was out of gas and released in August with a .610 OPS. He couldn’t find another taker and settled into retirement.
Over his 18-season MLB career, Damon built a reputation as one of baseball’s premier leadoff hitters and most durable outfielders. He finished his career with a .284 batting average, 2,769 hits, 235 home runs, 1,139 RBIs, 1,668 runs scored, and 408 stolen bases across 2,490 games. Damon garnered only eight votes in his only Hall of Fame ballot appearance in 2018, too few for future consideration by the BBWAA. Still, plenty agree that, despite some controversies after his playing days, he belongs as a first-ballot member of the Hall of Very Good.
Happy birthday, Johnny!
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
Good morning everyone!
The Mariners introduced Jason Kanzler as their new manager, while the Astros and Angels look to fill out their group of decision-makers. Let’s get to all of that and more.
The offseason has barely begun and yet it has already been an eventful one for the Colorado Rockies.
On October 15, they fired pitching coach Alon Leichman after just a single year with the team. This past Monday, they hired Ethan Katz as his replacement.
On the surface this all seems pretty simple:
When just looking at the basic facts, the Rockies have simply pivoted from a coach whose first results were poor to one with more experience; totally mundane.
The drama, however, comes from the details.
Some of those details may have come out in the latest edition of the DNVR podcast in which host Christian Saez shared a summary of conversations with both Leichman and unnamed members of the Rockies front office.
According to DNVR, the reason for the Rockies moving on from Leichman wasn’t purely results based but instead part of a fundamental inability for Leichman and the other members of the coaching staff to align on a shared vision for Rockies pitching.
Last offseason, the newly-appointed Rockies front office took the approach of bringing in the best pitching minds they could find, assuming that a melting pot of different approaches and ideas would lead to the best results. Instead, it appears as though competing ideas simply led to players getting mixed messages over the course of the season.
The variety of “experiments” that the Rockies came into the 2026 season attempting to run with their pitching staff (pitch suggestions from the dugout, heavy use of openers, etc.) were reportedly Leichman-led efforts. Leichman, as quoted on the DNVR podcast, characterized his tenure this way: “I felt like they brought me in and then after the month of May we struggled, they ditched everything that I wanted. I couldn’t get one voice to the players and ultimately paid for it.”
According to DNVR, the coaching staff spent a full week after the season attempting to resolve their differences in philosophies and to create a consensus about the path forward. When they were unable to arrive at a resolution, the front office essentially chose which side to move forward with in order to make sure that they had a unified plan in place next season.
The odd thing about this, from the outside perspective, is that the Rockies best pitching results in 2026 were very clearly during the early portion of the season when their experimentation was in full swing. If the front office was choosing between two sides of an internal debate, it is confusing, given our limited information, why the side that yielded the worse results this season was ultimately chosen.
The thing is, while we have a fairly robust picture of what Leichman’s vision for pitching in the organization was, we don’t have as clear an idea of what the alternative vision being espoused, presumably, by some mixture of director of pitching Matt Daniels, assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas, and bullpen coach Matt Buschmann actually entails.
The initial external reaction to the DNVR podcast I’ve seen has likened the organization’s rebuke of Leichman’s ideas as a return to the Bud Black era of pitching philosophy. Given that Black, and everyone from his pitching department, are gone this seems overblown.
For instance, Buschmann (along with Brandon Stone, Rockies manager of performance science) appears to be at the forefront of the team’s recent adoption of wearable tech in the form of Catapult Vests and Plantiga inserts to track and measure player biomechanics.
Those sort of efforts are less visible on the broadcast than something like the use of openers, but are tangible steps into the world of modern baseball. The Rockies don’t seem poised to mimic the cutting edge style of the Brewers and Rays that many would like, but let’s be clear that this is still an organization years ahead of where it was in 2025.
What’s more, as far as I can tell, there is no current indication that new pitching coach Katz is anti-analytics or preaches a Bud Black style one-size-fits-all sinker forward approach.
In a lengthy interview with SoxOn35th.com from 2022 when he was with the White Sox, Katz described himself as “very hungry for information” and “very open-minded.” The key part, from Katz’ perspective is effectively communicating that information with his players: “You got to get to know the person and the player and basically understand, okay, he could handle this information, or he can’t handle this information. [For some], this might be too much. I’m going to save this for the right time, or if he has a question, dumb it down for him if he needs it.”
Granted, those are all pretty standard, non-specific answers. I tend to think that interview does more to show that Katz has had media training than it does to give a deep insight into his relationship with modern analytics. There is something to be said, however, for him knowing the right things to say for a public audience.
While the overall record of the White Sox declined over the course of Katz’s tenure as pitching coach, there were still many success stories on the mound.
While the team as a whole was falling apart, Katz managed to help all four of these pitchers perform on the field and become appealing trade targets for contenders. The Crochet and Fedde trades in particular brought back many of the 2026 White Sox key contributors.
This is all to say, Katz has many more recent examples of successfully getting results from his pitchers than anyone that the Rockies had employed in the Bud Black era. His methodology may not be as obviously boundary pushing as Leichman’s, but that doesn’t mean he represents a clear step backwards in terms of tangible results.
Regardless of whether or not the front office chose the optimal side of the pitching philosophy divide, it is necessary for the organization to have a unified vision. Having multiple different coaches telling players to do radically different things can only lead to confusion or mistrust.
“I was really young [31] at the time. What I knew how to do at that point, or what I felt I knew how to do, was build a roster that could win. I had been incredibly fortunate — I had been in Cleveland, had been in Oakland, and both of those teams had done nothing but win. So I had an idea of ‘This is what it’s going to take to win, and that’s the job.’ And we did it the first year.
“Then it didn’t take long after that to realize that’s not the whole job. It’s a necessary part of the job — it’s why you do it. But it really isn’t the whole job. The whole job is actually building an organization, not just a team. I look back on that now and realize I made a lot of mistakes in terms of bringing that organization along, being able to bring in people from different departments, tying together baseball and business.”
Leichman himself seemed to agree with the sentiment that it was not productive to have different members of the coaching staff pulling the players in different directions. As quoted on DNVR, Leichman said that ultimately “My job was to get everyone on the same page, and I couldn’t.”
Let’s just hope that under Katz, the Rockies are now all on the same page.
Sign up for a user account and get:
Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!
Happy Friday Junior everyone!
The Athletics have decided on Brewers executive Cam Castro as their next General Manager. Like most modern front offices in the sport these days, the GM title isn’t what it once was. The top job is now President of Baseball Operations, the job that went to Taylor Smith recently. Even with that being said, the GM job is an important one one way or the other, and it looks like the A’s landed on a good pick for their next one.
Castro’s time with the Brewers saw him help draft and develop tons of talented pitchers. Just looking at a list of former pitchers for the Brew Crew over the past decade and you see tons of quality starting pitching such Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, and more recently Jacob Misiorowski. And then you have studs in the bullpen seemingly every year, with the team able to say bye to Josh Hader and Devin Williams and simply plug in Trevor Megill, who had a dominant season as Milwaukee’s closer (and could be on the trade market).
Smith himself comes from more of an analytical background but also oversaw good pitching development at his previous stops in Tampa and Boston. It’s likely Smith is going to be the big-picture voice of the front office moving forward while Castro is in charge of the pitching development. That’s a tall task for this organization, one that has struggled to produce consistent pitching at the big league level.
While Castro’s primary focus is likely to be on revamping the farm and the development system, don’t be surprised to see the A’s connected to names he might be familiar with from his days in Milwaukee. If baseball ends up with a salary floor, could we see the A’s make a play for former Brewers ace Freddy Peralta? That’d sure be one way to soak up all that sudden payroll space. Maybe the team is enamored with one of Milwaukee’s young pitchers like Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser or Aaron Ashby, all of whom are young and fit the A’s timeline. Could Castro convince Smith that trading four years of first baseman Nick Kurtz in exchange for four years of an ace in Henderson? If the A’s believe in Tommy White, that’s not the worst trade idea in the world.
The A’s are going to be making moves in their pitching department this offseason. Trades, signings, under-the-radar additions that will end up paying huge dividends during the dog days of August and beyond. One thing A’s fans can know is that Castro has a good track record, and he’ll be directly linked to any and all pitching additions the Athletics begin making over the coming months and years.
Have a great Thursday A’s fans.
This is coming from a Brewers guy:
The correct take:
Love love love it!
AFL update:
One candidate that lost out on the A’s GM gig:
Jyun-Yue Tseng was born on November 7, 2001 in Taichung, Taiwan’s second-largest city behind Taipei. He attended the verbosely named Taichung Municipal Taichung Industrial High School and developed into a standout baseball player, at first as an infielder and later as a pitcher. On July 20, 2020, he was one of 123 amateur players to enter into the CPBL Draft, and the right-hander was one of 48 players who were selected by a professional club, with the Fubon Guardians picking him in the seventh round of the process.
The 19-year-old Tseng made his professional debut in 2021 and quickly established himself as one of the preeminent relievers in the league, appearing in 57 games and posting a 1.80 ERA in 55.0 innings, allowing 36 hits, walking 16, and striking out 62 while saving 12 games. For his efforts, he was named the 2021 Rookie of the Year.
He followed up his Rookie of the Year campaign with statistically similar seasons over the next few years, cementing himself as one of Taiwan’s best relief pitchers. In 2022, he posted a 2.86 ERA in 50.1 innings over 47 games, allowing 35 hits, walking 18, and striking out 64 while saving 20 games. In 2023, he posted a 1.22 ERA in 51.2 innings over 54 appearances, allowing 29 hits, walking 17, and striking out 60 while saving 18 games.
After the 2023 season ended, Tseng was able to get the Guardians to post him, but he did not find much of a market outside of Taiwan and opted to remained with Fubon. In 2024, he posted a 1.52 ERA in 47.1 innings, allowing 36 hits, walking 14, and striking out 63 while saving 6 games. His streak of utter dominance ended in 2025, when he posted a 3.00 ERA in 36.0 innings over 34 games, allowing 30 hits, walking 13, and striking out 28.
Yue returned to the Taiwanese National Team in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, appearing in a pair of games and notching a single save, throwing 2.0 scoreless innings, not allowing a hit or a walk while striking out two. Returning to the Guardians for the regular season, the right-hander would go on to post a 1.57 ERA in 51.2 innings, allowing 48 hits, walking 13, and striking out 65 while saving 25 games.
After the season ended, the 24-year-old right-hander filed for international free agency and the posting request was approved by the Guardians.
The 5’8”, 150-pound right-hander would be one of the shortest pitchers in Major League Baseball. He throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot with a long arm action through the back, utilizing a hitch in his leg lift and wrapping his wrist during the full extension of his arm circle.
Tseng throws a fastball, cutter, slider, and splitter, with the latter being an exceptional pitch in Taiwan. The right-hander sits in the low-to-mid-90s with the pitch and tops out in the high-90s, flirting with triple digits. While the spin rate for the pitch is merely average for a four-seam fastball, hovering around 2300 RPM, the right-hander attacks batters from a flat approach angle thanks to his size and release point, heightening the pitch’s perceived induced vertical break that it otherwise does not produce through spin.
Tseng’s cutter, slider, and splitter are all pedestrian pitches, with all three sitting in the mid-to-high-80s. He is able to command all three, and the pitches tunnel well with one another and his fastball, but none have any standout pitch characteristics.
This morning, the great folks at Baseball America released an updated top 10 list of Washington Nationals prospects. I really respect the work that BA does, so this list holds a lot of weight to me. While most of the list consisted of familiar names, there were a couple surprises as well.
As you can see, Eli Willits was ranked as the Nats number one prospect, and his tool grades are very impressive. His hitting ability and speed are considered elite tools. Meanwhile, his fielding and arm are above average while his power is seen as average. Willits is a well-rounded player, who also has standout tools.
In the writeup, BA said that his pure bat to ball skills were merely above average instead of elite. However, his plate discipline is so good that it helps boost his hit tool. We saw that in his first full professional season, where Willits walked at a 17.7% clip. Power has always been seen as his weakest tool, but even that was better than expected in 2026.
The 18 year old hit 14 homers, 27 doubles and 8 triples in 114 games this year. Willits posted a 100.4 MPH 90th percentile EV, which is below average, but some of the other numbers are more encouraging. His average exit velocity was 89.2 MPH, which is actually slightly above big league average. Meanwhile, his max exit velocity was over 110 MPH, which is very good for an 18 year old. Power will never be the best part of his game, but this season Willits showed he has plenty of juice.
At the end of his writeup, BA said that Willits is tracking like an All-Star shortstop who could lead the league in stolen bases and runs. With 62 steals on the season, Willits’ base running ability is elite. When I saw him in person, that aggression on the basepaths was one of my main takeaways.
We already know a lot about Eli Willits though. He was the number one overall pick in the draft and is a player Nats fans have been following. However, Samil Serrano is a teenaged prospect fans might not be as aware of. The biggest surprise of this BA list is that Serrano was ranked as the Nats 5th best prospect. He was ahead of bigger names such as Devin Fitz-Gerald and Chris Hacopian.
Serrano is a very young player, having just turned 18 a few days ago. He was the Nats biggest international signing this past year, inking a deal with $1.97 million. His stock only rose in the Dominican Summer League this year. He put up great surface level numbers, but his underlying data was even better.
In 48 DSL games, Serrano hit .310 with a .968 OPS and became a DSL All-Star. Impressively, Serrano walked more than he struck out this season. He might be the best pure hitter to come from the Nats international ranks since Juan Soto. The only competition would be Luis Garcia Jr., but Serrano has better plate discipline and power at this stage.
There was one stat in Baseball America’s writeup that made me pop up in my seat. Serrano ranked in the 90th percentile of DSL hitters in contact rate, chase rate and 90th percentile exit velocity. The only other player to meet that criteria in the statcast era is Jesus Made, who is now the best prospect in baseball.
We still need to see how he does when he arrives in the US this year, but it is easy to see why BA is so bullish on him. Even at this early stage, it is clear to see that he is a special offensive talent. Serrano has the ability to hit for average and power. While he is not some exceptional athlete, his hitting ability is good enough to carry his profile.
On the defensive side of the ball, Serrano plays center field right now. He is seen as having good instincts in the outfield, but average speed means he is likely to be a corner outfielder. However, he has enough athleticism and arm strength to be a good defender in right field.
The Nats have not had a lot of great international prospects in recent years, but Serrano is one. His stateside debut is something I will be watching very closely. He will probably start the season in rookie ball, but do not be surprised if he is with the Fred-Nats and putting up solid numbers in the summer.
This is the type of prospect who could rise on to top 100 lists before too long. On MLB Pipeline’s rankings, he is the Nats 16th best prospect, but I assume he will rise when that is updated.
Putting Serrano in the top 5 is an aggressive ranking from BA. There are safer prospects who have a much longer track record that are behind him in the rankings. However, this boldness shows just how high the industry is on Serrano. By this time next year, we could be saying some things about Serrano that sound outlandish right now.
Baseball America is behind a paywall, so I do not want to spoil the entire list. They do great work though and if you are passionate about prospects, I would highly recommend subscribing to them. This list was fascinating. It made me even higher on Willits and made me think about Samil Serrano in a different light.
Maybe the best moment of the 2026 season was Joe Musgrove’s return to the San Diego Padres. He spent two seasons away from the sport rehabilitating his right elbow after Tommy John surgery. Musgrove re-entered at the most important time, pitching in the postseason.
Unfortunately, there was no storybook ending because the Padres were eliminated from the playoffs in the division round. But his season debut was well worth the wait.
His bullpen entrance re-energized Petco Park. The Friar Faithful gave the hometown boy a resounding hero’s welcome. The love affair began when Musgrove came home to play for his childhood team.
He cemented his place in the hearts of the Friar Faithful on April 9, 2021, throwing the franchise’s first-ever no-hitter in just his second start with the Padres. But he elevated his legendary status the following year, delivering a dominant road performance to eliminate the New York Mets in the Wild Card round.
His season debut was a night Musgrove once feared might never come. Other starting pitchers have come back to pitch effectively after Tommy John surgery. However, his rehab struggles were alarming. Every time Musgrove’s return to the mound appeared imminent, an unexpected injury pushed back his return date.
The physical setbacks were the darkest days of his rehab.
The rehab program was one step at a time; sometimes, Musgrove needed to go backward to move forward. For him, the biggest challenge was staying patient and allowing his elbow to heal because the right-hander was tired of sitting on the sidelines.
If you have ever been sidelined with a sports injury, your return to the sport is replayed endlessly in your mind throughout rehab. Rarely do expectations align with reality.
Musgrove’s road to recovery was a grueling two-year process. It was bumpy with a few detours, but he kept his emotions in check when speaking with the press after every rehabilitation setback. It is hard to remain calm when your career is hanging in the balance.
Hoping for a smooth debut, Padres manager Craig Stammen brought Musgrove in to start a clean inning rather than enter the game with runners on base. However, the appearance did not begin well; Musgrove gave up two hits and a walk before settling down to strike out two batters, preserving an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the National League Wildcard Series. He came back to pitch two innings against the eventual World Series champions, the Milwaukee Brewers, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
In that outing, Musgrove fanned two and hit a batter, which mirrors his style of pitching. The right-hander loves challenging hitters by throwing inside without hesitation.
Yes, Musgrove has some areas that need improvement, including becoming more consistent in repeating his delivery. This will allow him to execute his pitches better. Musgrove is looking forward to the challenge and expects to be better next season.
The Friar Faithful embraced his return, and the night could not have gone better.
Musgrove’s return to the roster was a proud moment for all.
Padres News:
Baseball News:
Major League Baseball on Wednesday announced rosters for the Fall Stars Game, with two Dodgers and the possibility of more for the All-Star Game for the Arizona Fall League.
Third baseman Chase Harlan and pitcher Luke Fox were named to the National League roster for the Fall Stars Game, which will be played on Sunday night at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, a 5 p.m. PT game that will be carried by MLB Network.
There is also a final vote, in which fans will be able to select one more player for both the National League and American League teams. The three choices for the final NL roster spot includes Dodgers prospects Eduardo Quintero and Charles Davalan, plus San Diego Padres infielder Justin DeCriscio. Voting runs on MLB.com through Friday at 5 p.m. PT.
You might recognize most of these names from the Baseball Prospectus top Dodgers prospect list, which was unveiled on Wednesday. Quintero is ranked the third-best prospect in the system, Davalan is seventh, and Harlan is eighth.
Harlan is hitting .276/.403/.586 with 17 RBI in 16 games for the Glendale Desert Dogs in the AFL, with five home runs, two of them coming since the calendar flipped to November. Fox has a 4.09 ERA in five appearances and 11 innings in the AFL, with 14 strikeouts (28.6-percent strikeout rate) and four walks, and no home runs allowed.
Harlan and Quintero did not play on Wednesday for Glendale, but Davalan did, continuing to log innings at second base as the outfielder tries to add to his toolbox. Davalan walked on Wednesday but was otherwise hitless in three at-bats.
Davalan on Wednesday was one of 10 hitting prospects from the Arizona Fall League analyzed by Ian Cundall at Baseball America, specifically with his move to second base in the circuit.
“He has made most of the routine plays, but his lack of range was noticeable, and his reads off the bat were a step slow,” Cundall wrote. “It will be interesting to see if the Dodgers continue to pursue this route with him heading into 2027, as it could slow down his ascension to the big leagues. With his offensive potential, however, it would maximize his value if he can develop into at least a playable second baseman in a part-time role.”
12:30 p.m. PT: Glendale vs. Mesa
Well, Tim Hyers has survived another season presiding over a not-particularly-good Atlanta Braves offense.
His predecessor more or less fired himself. (Or resigned, I guess, you could say.) Other coaching staff turnovers often happen when a team brings on a new manager, but that already happened and Hyers was the one holdover.
So, what will it take? A third not-particularly-inspiring offensive season? A teamwide collapse that takes Walt Weiss and his coaching staff down?
Maybe the answer, the only answer, is “Tim Hyers resigns like Kevin Seitzer did.”
Maybe the Braves are just waiting for the bottom to drop out of the aggregate. Across 2025-2026, the team is still ninth in xwOBA, though they’re 15th in wOBA / 16th in wRC+ due to underhitting their inputs a bit. (The park effect probably isn’t a particularly big deal for two-year teamwide input ranks.) They’re also just inside the top ten across those two years in runs, and nearly dead average in walk and strikeout rates.
I think the issue is the feeling of, “The Braves are fine-ish, but not as good as they could be.” So, I guess things have to get not-fine for there to be a change. If you look at the arc of team batting stats over the past two years combined, it feels amoeba-y in terms of still ranking towards the top in various metrics a la exit velocity, but no longer at pretty much the apex of MLB in all of them.
Anyway, now that the Braves have apparently opted to retain Hyers despite a middling offensive performance in 2026, it’s just interesting to think about what marker would need to change substantially for them to not do so in the future.
May 21, 2022. That’s the day that was supposed to forever change the course of the Orioles’ franchise.
It was the day that Adley Rutschman, the Orioles’ wunderkind catcher, made his major league debut. The 24-year-old received a raucous standing ovation from the Camden Yards crowd as he took the field, and few could forget the indelible image of Rutschman doing a 360 to soak in the atmosphere before donning his mask, giving a slight nod as if to say, “Yeah, I belong here.”
Rutschman brought the kind of pedigree that few O’s rookies could ever match. He was a former #1 draft pick, only the second in Orioles history, and was the top-ranked prospect in baseball as he destroyed minor league pitching all the way up the ladder. In an O’s minor league system that had been replenished with young talent since the hiring of Mike Elias in 2018, Rutschman was the leader of the pack, the franchise cornerstone who would usher in an era of perennially contending Orioles teams. The future of Baltimore baseball was incredibly bright.
Now look at us. Four years later, the Orioles still haven’t won a postseason game in the Elias era. And Rutschman, the linchpin of the Birds’ expected renaissance, is gone, traded away to a division rival while he was on the injured list. All that’s left in Birdland is a big old mess.
It’s safe to say that the Adley Rutschman Experience in Baltimore didn’t turn out as anyone expected. Which is not to say he was a bust. In fact, the first three years of his career could hardly have been more successful in terms of his on-field production. Adley racked up 12.9 bWAR from 2022-24, the third-most in Orioles history for a player in his first three seasons (behind Gunnar Henderson’s 15.8 and Nick Markakis’ 14.0). Rutschman was AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2022, and collected a Silver Slugger award, two All-Star selections, and two top-12 AL MVP finishes in that three-year span.
You could make a legitimate case that Adley was the best catcher in baseball at the time, or at least the one with the brightest career in front of him. And his arrival did, indeed, usher in an era of homegrown O’s prospects who brought postseason baseball back to Baltimore for two years, including a 103-win season and an AL East crown in 2023. But in both seasons, the Birds were swept out of the postseason.
As Orioles fans are all too painfully aware, though, Rutschman’s career — and the Orioles’ fortunes — took a nosedive starting in mid-2024. From June 22 to the end of the season, Rutschman batted a horrendous .192 with a .574 OPS in 77 games as the O’s limped into the playoffs. A prevailing theory among O’s fans is that Adley was battling a secret injury during that time, though Rutschman never admitted as much. Distressingly, his 2025 was even worse: oblique strains in both his legs landed him on the IL twice, and in 90 games he batted just .220/.307/.366 with nine home runs, a major reason why the Orioles collapsed to a last-place finish.
Rutschman entered the 2026 season with something to prove. A few things, actually. He needed to prove he could still hit like the Adley of 2022-23. He needed to prove he was still the Orioles’ go-to catcher even after the O’s committed an eight-year contract to Samuel Basallo in 2025. And he needed to prove he could still be the bedrock of the Birds’ return to contention.
Rutschman was unsuccessful on the last of those points and only somewhat so on the other two. He played the lion’s share behind the plate while he was on the team, starting 49 of the Orioles’ first 98 games. And his bat was the best it’s been in three years. He posted a 116 OPS+ for the Birds, batting .251 with a .764 OPS, sparking gleeful cries of “Adley is so back!” from O’s fans who’d been long awaiting his return to form. His defense, too, was vastly improved over the past couple of years, particularly when throwing out basestealers. Rutschman’s 33.9 CS% was the best mark of his career and far outpaced the MLB average of 22.7. He led all AL catchers with 21 caught stealings.
Adley’s early-season heroics earned him his third career All-Star selection, serving as the Orioles’ lone representative at the Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia on July 14. It turned out to be his third-to-last game in an O’s uniform. During the Birds’ series in Houston to start the second half, Rutschman suffered left wrist inflammation that landed him on the 10-day IL — and, though we didn’t know it at the time, wrapped up his Orioles career.
As the O’s continued to wallow in mediocrity at the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Rutschman’s name was bandied about as a trade candidate. Logically it made sense, due to the Orioles’ commitment to Basallo and Adley’s 1.5 years until free agency, but still it came as a shock to much of Birdland when Elias actually pulled the trigger on a deal. Especially shocking is that the O’s traded him to division rival Boston, of all places, for Carlos Narváez and four prospects.
And just like that, it was over. Adley Rutschman, the one-time face of the franchise, was unceremoniously jettisoned by the Birds while on the injured list, leaving so much unfinished business with the team he was supposed to lead to the promised land. He’ll always be remembered fondly by most O’s fans, and his up-and-down five-year Orioles career brought more highlights than lowlights. Ultimately, though, Adley Rutschman never quite lived up to the inordinate hype that accompanied him. And the Orioles’ early success after his arrival in the majors didn’t last.
The return package for Rutschman, which featured top Red Sox pitching prospect Anthony Eyanson and several other highly-regarded youngsters, was widely praised. Still, to see a much-ballyhooed #1 draft pick come and go from Baltimore without the O’s ever winning even one playoff game is a rather damning indictment of Elias’s vision for the organization, and if I were the owner of the team he’d have gotten his pink slip some time ago. But David Rubenstein doesn’t see it that way, and so Elias remains, albeit with a heavily restructured front office. Perhaps someday the Orioles will finally find that cornerstone player who can return to the franchise to championship glory.
As for Rutschman, he’s surely got more years ahead of him to torment the Orioles, as he did in his return to Camden Yards with the Red Sox on Sept. 3 when he smacked two home runs to beat the Birds. He’ll be under contract with Boston for 2027 before reaching free agency at age 30, and I’ll be fascinated to see what kind of contract he gets. How much will teams be willing to pay for an aging catcher whose offense has fluctuated wildly from year to year?
It’s strange to think that the Orioles will open the 2027 season without Rutschman behind the plate for the first time in five years. And it’s frustrating that his tenure with the Birds didn’t pan out like we’d dreamed of. But thanks for the memories all the same, Adley.
Earlier this week, MLB officially announced the finalists for the major end of season awards. The Phillies have some representation despite the disappointing end to their season, as Cristopher Sánchez, Don Mattingly, and Jhoan Duran all are among the nominees. Here’s the full layout of who is a finalist for what award:
So, what are your predictions for the winners? Will the Phillies bring home any individual awards?
According to Will Sammon of The Athleticthe Mets are adding former catcher A.J. Ellis to their major league coaching staff as a strategy coordinator.
The Mets have other options for the rotation should they miss out on Tarik Skubal.
The Skubal sweepstakes isn’t the only challenge facing David Stearns when it comes to next year’s rotation.
The Braves are bringing back their entire coaching staff for the 2027 season.
The Marlins could be one of the teams interested in signing Cubs starter Shota Imanaga this offseason.
There are plenty of options for the Phillies to improve their roster but unfortunately for them the options won’t come cheap.
The Nationals released righty Zak Kent.
Albert Pujols will reportedly interview for the vacant managerial position in Houston.
Defense attorneys for Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz argued that the two pitchers were victims during their opening statements of the pair’s pitch-rigging trial.
The Athletics hired Brewers’ senior vice president of player development and performance Cam Castro as their new general manager.
The Orioles are reportedly open to trading everyone not named Pete Alonso this offseason.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. struggled at the plate last season but he could make a few adjustments to recapture the power that alluded him in 2026.
Steve Sypa profiled international free agent Kaima Taira.
Micah Noe discussed A.J Ellis joining the coaching staff.
On this date in 1990, Darryl Strawberry left New York and signed a five-year deal with the Dodgers.