Category: Baseball

The Vikings aren’t the only Minnesota team to shake things up at an odd time Friday.

The Twins and president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey “mutually” split roughly two weeks before spring training, the team announced.

The Vikings also axed general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Friday, with his dismissal coming on the opposite end of the spectrum since the team’s offseason just started.

“Following a series of thoughtful conversations with (executive chair) Tom (Pohlad) that began after the ownership transition and progressed over the past few weeks, we both agreed it was the right time for us to party ways,” Falvey said in a statement. “Ownership transitions naturally create moments for reflection and honest dialogue about leadership, vision, and how an organization wants to move forward.

“Over the past several weeks we had those conversations open and constructively and ultimately reached a shared understanding that this was the right step both for the organization and for me personally.”

Splitting with your top baseball and business executive with spring training right around the corner is a rather odd move, even if its labeled as a mutual decision.

The Athletic noted that Falvey served as the lead speaker at the team’s media luncheon one week ago, indicating the sudden nature of this move.

It seem that Pohlad being named the controlling owner in December 2025 factored into this decision, with ESPN reporting at the time that never worked in baseball before.

There could be different visions for the team at play, and the Twins are now without an executive who helped build a competitive roster over the past decade.

The Twins made Falvey their Chief Baseball Officer in October 2016 and promoted him to president of baseball operations in 2019.

He earned another bump to president of baseball and business operations this past March.

Falvey’s tenure included four postseason berths and three AL Central titles, the latest coming in 2023.

The Twins announced general manager Jeremy Zoll will continue “leading” the baseball department and Pohlad will have “interim” duties overseeing business duties.

Pohlad said the team will immediately conduct a search for a new president of baseball operations.

“We reached a shared understanding that the needs of the organizations are evolving and that a leadership transition is the best way to move forward,” Pohlad said in a statement.

Falvey said in his statement he doesn’t have any immediate plans, but will enjoy being with his family while he considers his next step.

The Twins are coming off a disappointing 70-92 season that landed them in fourth place in the AL Central, but have done little to improve this offseason.

They hired ex-Pirates manager Derek Shelton to be their next skipper.

In another sign that spring training is drawing closer, today the Mariners announced their 2026 NRIs. If you’ve been with us for a while, you know that NRI stands for “non-roster invite”: that is, the players who are not on the 40-man who nonetheless receive an invite to spring training, and the perks (and per diems) thereof. This group tends to be divided between top prospects getting a taste of life in the bigs and minor-leaguers or veterans looking to catch on with a new club. At least, that’s how we have them divided below. We’ll be updating this article with blurbs about each of the players, so check back, and make sure to bookmark this for when you inevitably say “wait, who?” during spring training.

The invites are divided between 15 pitchers and 19 position players. Of the 34, 24 spent time in the Mariners organization last year, either as prospects or minor-league signings. One of the names that might jump out to fans of the Tacoma Rainiers is Bryan O’Keefe, a long-tenured catcher for Tacoma. Other familiar names include established big-leaguers Dane Dunning, Randy Dobnak, and former Mariner Patrick Wisdom, as well as former first-rounder Will Wilson, taken 15th overall by the Angels in 2019.

Seven of the invited players appear on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects. Those players are marked with a star.

A few things of note: Jurrangelo Cijntje, who was drafted as a switch-pitcher and has been announced as that previously, is listed here as a right-handed pitcher. Also, former top prospect Felnin Celesten, who fell out of the Top 100 rankings this season after struggling with injuries, did not receive an invite to camp. The Mariners’ top two 2025 draftees, pitcher Kade Anderson and catcher Luke Stevenson, both received invites; the two have been rooming together and working out in Arizona, and it will be exciting to (hopefully) see the battery of top draft picks this spring.

Pitchers:

LHPs (2):

Kade Anderson*, Austin Kitchen

RHPs (13):

Charlie Beilenson, Jurrangelo Cijntje*, Tyler Cleveland, Nick Davila, Randy Dobnak, Dane Dunning, Casey Lawrence, Teddy McGraw, Michael Morales, Gabe Mosser, Michael Rucker, Ryan Sloan*, Guillo Zuñiga

Position Players:

INF (6):

Michael Arroyo*, Colt Emerson*, Brock Rodden, Carson Taylor, Will Wilson, Patrick Wisdom

OF (6):

Brennen Davis, Jonny Farmelo*, Victor Labrada, Lazaro Montes*, Spencer Packard, Jared Sundstrom

INF/OF (1):

Blake Rambusch

C (6):

Josh Caron, Connor Charping, Bryan O’Keefe, Nick Raposo, Jakson Reetz, Luke Stevenson

We’re so close to Spring Training! So close! And we’re surprisingly close to finishing our ranking of the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization, too. The list marches on, as we gear up for real baseball once more.

The next name on the list is a newcomer: it’s outfielder Cam Maldonado, who makes his CPL debut as the No. 34 prospect in the system. Maldonado, who hits and fields right-handed, was the team’s seventh-round pick in July’s draft out of Northeastern, and received a signing bonus ($287,400) right in line with his draft position.

He got into 17 games after being drafted, all with Low-A San Jose, where he hit .237/.352/.339 for a .691 OPS and a 92 wRC+.

Maldonado, who turned 22 in November, has some big time tools, notably his speed. He stole five bases in his short stint with the Baby Giants (without getting caught), and in his three years of college ball he swiped 90 bags, while being caught just 13 times. But he’s no tweener: he also has some exciting power, and bopped 15 home runs in just 60 games in his final season with Northeastern, while sporting a .631 slugging percentage and a .279 isolated slugging.

The downsides are ones that are shared by a few of his prospects in this area of the list. The biggest hole in Maldonado’s game is that there’s a large amount of swing and miss. He K’d in 18.8% of his at-bats last year with Northeastern which, on the one hand, represented huge improvement over his 25.9% rate the year prior but, on the other hand, is still a way-too-high number for college, especially outside of a power conference.

Maldonado also has, despite his speed, some question marks surrounding his center field defense, though those question marks are more of the “unknown” variety than the “red flag” variety, which is the case with most outfielders getting ready for their first full season of affiliated ball. Needless to say, we’ll likely get some clarity on his defensive abilities in the upcoming year, and if he can play decently in center, that will make his offensive profile a lot greener. I’d expect him to return to San Jose to start the year, where he should play every day in the outfield, and hopefully see a lot of time in the center of the grass.

Now let’s add to the list, and we’ve got some new names to vote on today.

The list so far

1. Bryce Eldridge — 1B
2. Josuar González — SS
3. Jhonny Level — SS
4. Bo Davidson — CF
5. Dakota Jordan — CF
6. Luis Hernandez — SS
7. Gavin Kilen — SS
8. Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
9. Blade Tidwell — RHP
10. Keyner Martinez — RHP
11. Jacob Bresnahan — LHP
12. Trevor McDonald — RHP
13. Argenis Cayama — RHP
14. Luis De La Torre — LHP
15. Trevor Cohen — OF
16. Jesús Rodríguez — C
17. Parks Harber — OF/3B
18. Carlos Gutierrez — OF
19. Drew Cavanaugh — C
20. Daniel Susac — C
21. Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP
22. Josh Bostick — RHP
23. Lorenzo Meola — SS/2B
24. Will Bednar — RHP
25. Yunior Marte — RHP
26. Joe Whitman — LHP
27. Joel Peguero — RHP
28. Alberto Laroche — RHP
29. Trent Harris — RHP
30. Carlos De La Rosa — LHP
31. Diego Velasquez — 2B
32. Lisbel Diaz — OF
33. Maui Ahuna — SS
34. Cam Maldonado — OF

Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.

No. 35 prospect nominees

Rayner Arias — 19.9-year old OF — .173 OPS/-42 wRC+ in Low-A (30 PA); .699 OPS/87 wRC+ in ACL (178 PA)

VictorBericoto — 24.1-year old OF/1B — .478 OPS/16 wRC+ in AAA (46 PA); .784 OPS/130 wRC+ in AA (393 PA)

SabinCeballos — 23.5-year old 3B — .670 OPS/102 wRC+ in AA (420 PA)

JackChoate — 24.9-year old LHP — 3.51 ERA/4.17 FIP in AA (102.2 IP)

JakobChristian — 23.4-year old OF/1B — .950 OPS/155 wRC+ in High-A (92 PA); .815 OPS/119 wRC+ in Low-A (318 PA)

Reggie Crawford — 25.1-year old LHP — did not pitch in 2025; 1.04 ERA/4.07 FIP in AAA in 2024 (8.2 IP); 4.66 ERA/4.93 FIP in AA in 2024 (9.2 IP)

Reid Worley — 19.6-year old RHP — yet to debut

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2025 season.

Patrick Wisdom had an interesting four years (plus two at-bats in the 2020 pandemic season) as a Cub.

He hit 28 home runs in just 106 games and 338 at-bats in 2021, setting a franchise rookie record. In a nine-game stretch not long after being called up from Triple-A Iowa, he hit .379/.438/1.138 (11-for-29) with seven home runs. That got him named NL Player of the Week. But he also struck out 12 times in that stretch, and as was the case for Matt Mervis, the K’s were his undoing.

Wisdom certainly had his moments. He hit 23 or more homers three straight years, and for a time played a decent third base. But his defense started to slip and so did his playing time. By 2024 he was a bit player, appearing in just 75 games and hitting .175 with eight home runs.

One of those 75 games included his pitching appearance in relief of Mervis in that awful April 27, 2024 game in Boston.

Pablo Reyes, the first hitter Wisdom faced, singled. That scored the sixth run of the inning, charged to Mervis. Then Wisdom walked Tyler O’Neill, which loaded the bases.

That brought up Wilyer Abreu, who had singled earlier in the inning off Mervis.

Wisdom got him to hit a comebacker to end the inning [VIDEO].

As you can see, the first baseman taking the throw was… Mervis, who moved back there after his disastrous pitching stint.

Wisdom played the 2025 season for the Kia Tigers in KBO. He batted .236/.321/.535 with 35 home runs in 119 games… and 142 strikeouts. That was enough for him to get a minor-league deal with the Mariners with a NRI to Spring Training, so we could potentially see him play against the Cubs March 12 at Sloan Park.

I wish Wisdom well. He was well-liked as a Cub and his 84 home runs in blue pinstripes rank 35th in franchise history (tied with Ron Cey and Moose Moryn).

While it lacks the thump it once had when James Wood and Dylan Crews were atop the rankings, the Nationals’ farm system is currently the deepest it has ever been, and certainly in a better spot than where it was this time last year. Opinions on the farm range, as Keith Law of The Athletic ranked the Nats farm 6th best in baseball, and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN ranked it 14th, but the overall sentiment remains: the future looks brighter than before for the Nats, even if the present is not where they hoped to be.

The farm system has seen a big boost this offseason from prospects acquired in deals for players such as MacKenzie Gore, Jose A. Ferrer, and Jake Bennett, and there is still the potential of more to come, with Paul Toboni taking calls on other major leaguers such as CJ Abrams and Jacob Young. While I don’t expect a deal to get done this winter, perhaps being a move that happens at the trade deadline or next winter, I fully support Toboni looking to maximize this team’s farm system, setting them up for a future run at contention better.

Given all the young talent in the farm system, the fact very little Nats prospects will be graduating from prospect status soon, the potential for one or both of CJ Abrams and Jacob Young to be moved this year, and the Nationals picking 11th in the 2026 MLB Draft, it’s fair to assume this farm system will be in an even better spot at the end of 2026 than it is now. Let’s take a look at how the top of this hypothetical Nationals farm could shake out.

Graduating From Prospect Status

C Harry Ford

1B/DH Abimelec Ortiz

OF Christian Franklin

RHP Luis Perales

1B Yohandy Morales

OF Andrew Pinckney

Given that most of the talent in the Nationals’ farm system is accumulated in the lower levels of the minor leagues, there are very few prospects who are going to lose prospect status in the 2026 season. The only players who are locks to graduate prospect status this season are catcher Harry Ford and first baseman Abimelec Ortiz, both likely to be in the lineup on Opening Day, or soon afterwards at the very least.

Outside of those 2, there are very few prospects near the top of the Nationals’ farm system who I see losing prospect status in 2026, with Luis Perales having the best chance if he lights up Triple-A and debuts midway through the year. After him, it’s an assortment of lower-ranked prospects, such as outfielder Christian Franklin, outfielder Andrew Pinckney, and first baseman Yohandy Morales, who could end up getting enough time in the bigs to make them no longer prospects.

Top 100 Prospects

SS Eli Willits

RHP Travis Sykora

RHP Jarlin Susana

3B Gavin Fien

One of Devin Fitz-Gerald/Seaver King/Landon Harmon/Other

While the Nationals have 4 top 100 prospects currently, with one soon to graduate in Harry Ford, they also have a ton of high upside prospects who could jump into top 100 lists with a strong 2026 campaign. One prospect who I’m highly confident in cementing himself as a top 100 prospect soon is Gavin Fien, the headliner of the return in the MacKenzie Gore trade. While he wasn’t dominant in his 10 professional games in 2025 following the draft, he showed promise and why many analysts are so incredibly high on his bat.

After Fien, there is a long line of young prospects in the Nationals’ farm system who could make the leap from interesting to exciting in 2026. Top of that list may be second baseman Devin Fitz-Gerald, who was scorching Low A pitching in 2025 before a shoulder injury ended his season. After him, plenty of names jump to mind, with Seaver King, who is already a top 100 prospect according to Keith Law, standing out as a prospect who could see a big breakthrough in 2026 with the new coaching staffs in the minor leagues.

New Additions

Prospects From CJ Abrams Trade (Top 100 Prospect + More)

Prospects From Jacob Young Trade (Top 250ish Prospect)

11th Overall Pick (Top 100-150 Prospect)

42nd Overall Pick

78th Overall Pick

There are numerous avenues Paul Toboni and his front office could take to boost the Nat’s farm system, many that us fans wouldn’t even think of right now, but as of now, these are the most likely ways they can do so. If the report that the Nationals turned down a package led by Shortstop Josuar Gonzalez from the Giants, a top 50 prospect in the sport according to some outlets, for CJ Abrams, then we can make the eventual trade return for him to be at the very least in the same ballpark.

Perhaps that does mean getting a deal done for Gonzalez and others with the Giants, perhaps it means a deal centered around a top-ranked pitcher like Bubba Chandler, Seth Hernandez, or Hunter Barco from the Pirates, but whatever it is, I trust this front office to not give in on their demands in the sake of making a deal happen.

The Nationals will also have the opportunity to add a strongly touted prospect in the MLB Draft this July, as they hold the 11th overall pick. While it’s unfortunate that the new lottery rules have once again knocked the Nats out of the top 10, there will still be plenty of highly regarded prospects available at 11th overall, with Bryce Rainer and Braden Montgomery, both consensus top 100 prospects currently, both being selected 11th or later in the 2024 MLB Draft.

While he favored prospects who played up-the-middle positions with his first-rounders during his time in Boston, anything could be on the table for Toboni and his staff this year, depending on how the draft class and draft board shake out.

Mock End of 2026 Top 10Nationals Prospects

1. SS Eli Willits
2. SS Josuar Gonzalez
3. RHP Travis Sykora
4. RHP Jarlin Susana
5. 3B Gavin Fien
6. 2B Devin Fitz-Gerald
7. RHP Cameron Flukey
8. SS Seaver King
9. RHP Landon Harmon
10. OF Bo Davidson

From this hypothetical list, you have 4 surefire top 100 prospects, 3 very close to being top 100s, and 3 more with the talent to be top 100s. While prospect rankings are irrelevant once these players reach the bigs, as then it becomes about your performance and not your potential, the more lottery tickets you can stock up to cash in the big leagues, the better. I’m excited to see what more tricks Paul Toboni has up his sleeve, and how else he’ll stock up the Nationals’ farm system for years to come.

The Tampa Bay Rays have announced their non-roster invitees to Spring Training and the list is made up of several top prospects and former top draft picks as well as several players with big league experience.

The most notable player to receive an invite is Brody Hopkins, whom many consider to be the team’s top pitching prospect. The 24-year is considered a sensational athlete and Baseball America thinks his curveball may be one of the best in the entire game. The hurler was a 6th round draft by the Seattle Mariners in 2023 and then he was dealt to the Rays at the 2024 trade deadline in the deal that ended Randy Arozarena’s much beloved tenure in Tampa Bay. This past season, Hopkins compiled a 2.72 | 3.33 FIP with a 28.7 K% & 12.2 BB% over 116 IP in Double-A; he is projected to begin the 2026 season in Triple-A.

Hopkins is joined by a couple of other exciting starting pitching prospects in the Rays system: Ty Johnson and TJ Nichols. Both had incredible seasons in 2026 with Johnson effectively being one of the best starting pitchers in all of minor league baseball.

Other notables include former first round draft picks Brayden Taylor and Xavier Isaac, both of whom had years to forget in 2025. Taylor dealt with poor performance all season long in Double-A while Xavier Isaac underwent surgery in July to remove a brain tumor, ending his season.

As of now, the Rays will have 25 non-roster invitees joining the players already on the 40-man roster in camp, giving the Rays spring roster of 65 players. Several players will be partaking in the World Baseball Classic and thus will be later arrivals.

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to hold their first workouts on Thursday, February 12th while the rest of the roster will officially begin on Tuesday, February 17th. The Rays will play their first game on Saturday, February 21st against the Atlanta Braves at 1:05.

The full list of non-roster invites are below

• PITCHERS:
  • Luis Guerrero, Brody Hopkins, Ty Johnson, Trevor Martin, TJ Nichols, Austin Vernon, Andrew Wantz, Kodi Whitley, Logan Workman, Cam Booser, John Rooney, Chase Solesky, Jake Woodford
• CATCHERS:
  • Blake Sabol, Logan Driscoll, Tatem Levins, Kenny Piper
• INFIELDERS:
  • Logan Davidson, Raynel Delgado, Gregory Barrios, Xavier Isaac, Cooper Kinney, Tre’ Morgan, Brayden Taylor
• OUTFIELDERS: 
  • Edward Olivares

Why new Giant Harrison Bader is confident good things to come in San Francisco originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — When Harrison Bader would come to Oracle Park as an opponent, he would head out to center field and watch as balls took random bounces off the bricks and walls in Triples Alley. Bader wouldn’t have to worry much about learning the intricacies, knowing that he would be gone in three or four days. 

“Now, I don’t really have the luxury,” he said on a Zoom call Friday night. “I’m definitely going to map out that field as well as I can.”

The Giants know that Bader will quickly get up to speed defensively. A former Gold Glove Award winner, he’ll start in center field, and he’s being counted on to help a bad outfield defense take massive steps in 2026.

Buster Posey confirmed that Harrison Bader will play center field. Tony Vitello and Zack Minasian talked to Jung Hoo Lee, who will move to right field. Posey said he took it well and may still get some reps in CF at times.

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) January 30, 2026

Bader could be headed for the bottom third of the lineup, but the Giants certainly don’t view him as a glove-only player. The 31-year-old hit a career-high 17 homers last season and posted a 122 wRC+ easily the highest of his career. On Friday, president of baseball operations Buster Posey said he’s confident there’s “staying power” to the offensive improvements. 

Bader feels the same way, in part because he’s fully healthy after adductor surgery in 2023, and in part because he feels his approach has come a long way after nine years in the big leagues. 

“I think I just kind of ran with the feel,” he said of last season’s breakthrough. “We also were just doing really good things last year in terms of just understanding what the pitcher is trying to do to us and identifying what his strong suits are and making that our Plan A. I have this old-school coach (from college at the University of Florida) who I can hear his voice in my head … he always said you’ve got to go to the plate looking for what you’re going to get, not what you want to see.

“I think just being adjustable, making box adjustments, trusting your eyes and setting yourself on the track to be successful offensively, if you just repeat that over the course of a season and you remain healthy, which I did last year, you’ll have good results. I’m just going to build off of last year and build off the success and continue to work on all the things that I got exposed to, because nobody is perfect in this game, and I got exposed last year as well. It was a lot of work. It was a day by day process.”

While few free-agent position players choose Oracle Park, Bader actually might be a good fit for the dimensions. He doesn’t have a long track record of above-average success at the plate, and he can be strikeout-heavy at times. However, he’s also a right-handed pull hitter, and the ballpark is much more fair to those types than the Brandon Belts of the world. Bader’s bat speed has increased in recent years, showing physical skills that shouldn’t decline too much over a two-year contract. 

Bader also has a good track record in San Francisco, albeit in a small sample size. In 15 career games at Oracle Park, he has a .791 OPS and four homers. While those outfield walls might be tricky, another part of the ballpark has always helped him. 

“I think the biggest thing, regardless of the field, is how well you see the baseball,” he said. “For whatever reason, I do happen to see the ball very well (at Oracle Park) because the backdrop is set up very well there, so that certainly helps.”

The Giants believe Bader will be a good fit offensively at Oracle, but that will be determined over two years. There are no doubts about the way he will fit with Tony Vitello’s style, though. 

A native of New York, Bader is known as the kind of tough play-with-your-hair-on-fire outfielder that Vitello has loved in the past. He said he has heard good things about his new manager and is confident that he’ll be able to make the transition to MLB.

“I’m excited for him,” Bader said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for us all. I just can’t wait to be in the dugout with him, just taking this thing one game at a time, just trying to win after nine innings. That’s it. He has a lot of experience with that at a different level, but the game is the same at every level.

“There’s a little more speed, a little more media, a little more fans, but it’s the same game. He knows how to do it, and I’m excited to be part of his group.”

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Part of the spring training ritual is figuring out which pitchers are a little behind the curve, and who might not be ready for the start of the season. It’s inevitable and happens with every team.

The first domino for the Dodgers fell on Thursday, when Blake Snell at a team community event at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach said his offseason throwing program has been limited after a taxing final few months of 2025. That puts his readiness for opening day in question.

This shouldn’t be a surprise with Snell, a classic excellent-when-healthy pitcher who rarely pitches a full season. He has pitched at least 130 innings twice in his 10 major league seasons (2018, 2023), and won a Cy Young Award in both years.

Don’t take this as a knock on Snell. The Dodgers knew what they were getting into when they signed Snell to a five-year contract. Just like they knew who they were getting when they traded for and extended Tyler Glasnow, who has pitched 100 innings three times in his 10 seasons. Both Snell and Glasnow were healthy down the stretch last season and into October, and the Dodgers rode their rotation to a second straight championship.

Last year was the idealization of the Dodgers’ annual goal, to have the big names all healthy in October. This strategy also requires the depth necessary to fill in the gaps for the six months of the regular season. To that end, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman on the Dodgers Territory podcast Thursday said of the 2026 roster, “It’s the deepest and best collection of arms I’ve ever been around.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki are the top six on the depth chart, but there are plenty of other starting pitchers potentially available as well.

Gavin Stone and River Ryan are back after rehabbing from surgeries and missing all of 2025. Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius have pitched in hybrid roles in the majors, and could start if needed. Landon Knack has another year of options to fill in when called upon.

If recent history is any guide, the Dodgers will need all of these pitchers, and likely more, in 2026.

Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw were second and third on the 2025 Dodgers in innings pitched during the regular season. May was dealt at the trade deadline, and Kershaw pitched only twice in 17 postseason games. In 2024, Stone and Glasnow were the only Dodgers to top 90 innings and neither were available in the postseason.

At least seven Dodgers pitchers have started 10 games in each of the last five seasons, and at least 10 Dodgers have started five games in each of the last four seasons. In each of the last two years, only two Dodgers started 20 games during the regular season.

Year	Starters	20 starts	10 starts	5 starts	Top 6 starts
2025	17	2	7	11	116
2024	17	2	8	10	112
2023	17	4	8	10	111
2022	12	4	7	10	131
2021	19	3	7	8	128

Those current top six on the 2026 depth chart combined for 93 starts last season. In the last five seasons, the most the top six starters combined for is 131 starts, with an average of 120 starts per year. That still leaves a lot of other starts to account for. But the Dodgers are used to that.

The Dodgers this week signed Ryder Ryan to a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to spring training, per multiple reports. The pitcher if he makes the majors would earn a salary of $800,000, per both Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic and Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Ryan pitched parts of two seasons in the majors, in 2023 with the Seattle Mariners and in 2024 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, putting up a combined 5.40 ERA in 16 relief appearances, with 19 strikeouts and 10 walks in 21 2/3 innings. In 2025, Ryan had a 4.73 ERA in 42 games for Triple-A Indianapolis, with 61 strikeouts and 38 walks in 72 1/3 innings.

He turns 31 in May.

I buried the lede a little bit here, as Ryan is the older brother River Ryan, who debuted with the Dodgers with four starts in 2024 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Ryan missed all of the 2025 season, and is part of the Dodgers rotation depth mix heading into 2026.

River Ryan was at Glendale Recreation Center on Thursday in a Dodgers community outing, and talked about his brother’s signing. From Blake Williams at Dodger Blue:

“I’m excited to get out to big league camp and be on the same team again,” River Ryan said. “The last time we were on the same team was in high school, so it’s been a long time. But it’s really cool to be on a team like the Dodgers with your brother.”

When Ryder Ryan made his major league debut in August 2023 with the Mariners, the Dodgers allowed River — then in Double-A Tulsa — to travel to Seattle to see his brother’s debut in person. Eleven months later, the Pirates allowed Ryder to go to Los Angeles to see River’s major league debut at Dodger Stadium, along with several members of the family.

“It was truly a blessing to have all them make it out. Their support has been unbelievable throughout my entire career, starting when I was little,” River Ryan said after his major league debut. “I’m extremely happy they were able to make it here.”

Should the elder Ryan reach the majors with the Dodgers, he still has one option year remaining, having used options in 2023 and 2024.

Well, it’s not really a solution to a perceived need for additional heft in the starting pitching department, but it’s a move anyway:

The Braves and LHP Martin Perez have agreed to a Minor League deal, sources tell @JustBB_Media.

Perez, 35 in April, pitched to a 3.54 ERA in 56 IP with the White Sox in 2025. Owns a career 4.41 ERA over 14 seasons. Was an All Star with the Rangers in 2022.

— Aram Leighton (@AramLeighton8) January 30, 2026

A 14-year MLB veteran, the Venezuelan left-hander has 17.1 career fWAR across over 1,630 career innings. His career pitching line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) is 100/103/107 — basically a fourth-ish starter over the arc of a decade and a half. That said, Perez had a career year in 2022 (3.9 fWAR on a 74/81/96 line), but has fallen on hard times since. He’s thrown 332 2/3 innings after that season, never exceeding 0.8 fWAR in a season, and with a moribund 104/115/114 line, which is basically fifth starter territory. He’s pitched for four different teams in that span, and missed a bunch of time last season due to a (gulp) shoulder strain.

Given that he’s aging, Perez having the worst xFIP- of his career last season isn’t really surprising. His success generally relies on not getting smashed by HR/FB, but he doesn’t seem to have any propensity for actually limiting homers (groundball pitchers often have high HR/FB rates because the fly balls they allow are crushed at a greater rate). The Braves probably don’t need to be adding additional risk exposure via HR/FB rate given what happened last year, but they’re probably not going to rely on Perez all that much anyway.

On the plus side, Perez is a sinker-changeup-cutter guy who showed good command of the first two last year. If he carries that over and stops relying on his cutter so much (as it has been consistently crushed in 2022), there may be something there. For now, though, this is just pure depth — just amassed in the offseason, as opposed to in a panic a la the Carlos Carrascos and Cal Quantrills of yesteryear.

Miguel Rojas is the latest Dodger to withdraw from consideration for the World Baseball Classic, joining Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages, Andy Ibáñez and perhaps other players. MLB Network will reveal all 20 team rosters Thursday at 4 p.m. PT.

Rojas, 37, will not represent his native Venezuela because of difficulty obtaining insurance. The versatile World Series star expressed regret that he cannot play in an Instagram story that included a photo of himself with the Venezuelan flag draped over his shoulders.

Read more:Why some MLB players are deemed 'uninsurable' for the World Baseball Classic

"Today I am very sad," he wrote in Spanish. "A real pity to not be able to represent my country and wear that flag on my chest. On this occasion, age wasn’t just a number.”

Insurance was required to guarantee his $5.5-million salary in case he missed Dodgers games because of injuries incurred during the WBC, which will take place from March 5-17 in Tokyo, Miami, Houston and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Rojas' situation is similar to that of Clayton Kershaw ahead of the 2023 WBC. The pitcher was disappointed that he couldn't play for Team USA because his injury history made obtaining insurance impossible. The Dodgers declined to waive his insurance requirement and assume financial risk in case Kershaw got hurt during the tournament.

“I’m frustrated,” Kershaw said at the time. “They should make it easy for guys that want to play to play.”

Read more:One last roundup for Clayton Kershaw: He'll pitch in World Baseball Classic

Insurance coverage protects teams from having to pay a player for time missed because of an injury stemming from the WBC, which requires participants to undergo entrance and exit physicals to document injury information.

Players can be deemed uninsurable for several reasons, a source told The Times in 2023. Included are players who finished the previous season on the injured list or spent considerable time on the injured list. Also uninsurable are players diagnosed with a “chronic condition.”

Rojas, who has said this will be his last season major league season as a player, has sustained a succession of lower-body injuries in recent years. The 12-year veteran utility infielder began his career with the Dodgers in 2014 then played for the Miami Marlins for eight years before rejoining the Dodgers in 2023.

He will always be remembered by Dodgers fans for his game-tying home run in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. The baseball Rojas struck sold for $156,000 at auction.

Read more:Hernández: WBC will never be the World Cup of baseball if paperwork bars stars from playing

This will mark the second WBC in a row that Rojas has missed. He was on Venezuela’s 2023 roster but withdrew after fellow infielder Gavin Lux tore his ACL during spring training, increasing Rojas' role with the Dodgers.

Hernández has elected not to play for the Dominican Republic while Pages and Ibáñez — who signed a one-year, $1.2-million contract with the Dodgers this offseason — won't suit up for Cuba. It is unclear whether insurance concerns were factors in their decisions.

However, Houston Astros stars Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa were forced to withdraw because of their inability to obtain insurance. Altuve would have played for Venezuela and Correa for Puerto Rico.

Dodgers who plan to play in the WBC include World Series heroes Will Smith of Team USA and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Team Japan. Shohei Ohtani announced in November that he would play for Japan, although the two-way superstar has not decided whether he will pitch.

Read more:Why Dodgers face a ‘delicate’ situation with their Japanese stars ahead of the WBC

Smith will be a teammate of Kershaw, who because he retired from the Dodgers doesn't need insurance now to participate in the WBC. In fact, he's gone from needing insurance to being insurance.

“I just want to be the insurance policy,” Kershaw told MLB Network. “If anybody needs a breather, or if they need me to pitch back-to-back-to-back, or if they don’t need me to pitch at all, I’m just there to be there. I just want to be a part of this group.

“I learned a long time ago, you just want to be a part of great things.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

There is no sugar coating it: The Atlanta Braves largely underperformed last season. There were unforeseen circumstances like injuries and a suspension, but pure underperformance played a role for some players on the roster.

There are some players on the roster that also fell victim to some bad luck with the bat. What is meant by that is based on the underlying metrics if they were to continue to swing the bat the exact same way, their numbers would have positive regression to the mean over time.

You could spend hours digging deep into a player’s profile and identifying reasons why they have good fortune or bad fortune, but in this article, we are going to look at a high-level view of three players. There are few areas you can look right off the bat on to help determine if a player has had bad fortune at the plate. First you can look at a player’s weighted on base average (wOBA) versus their expected wOBA (xwOBA). In a nutshell wOBA is a better version of OPS because it values each method of reaching base rather than just reaching base. A good example is that it recognizes that a walk is not worth quite as much as a single in terms of run creation.

If there is a noticeable gap where a player’s xwOBA is higher than their wOBA then that is a good indicator to look deeper into their metrics because they are likely a good candidate for a bounce back.

Another number to look at is a player’s batting average of balls in play (BABIP). The key here is to look at a player’s history, not compare them to other players across the league. For example, if a player has a five-year career and they average a BABIP of .302, but last year they had a .260, odds are it was poor luck in terms of having balls drop for hits.

These stats alone do not mean a player will have a breakout but they are tools in a toolbox to dig deeper into their numbers and see what is going on.

It just so happens that the Atlanta Braves have three players that stand out as hitters who have a good chance of having a positive regression to the mean. This exercise won’t be perfect, but it will highlight players to keep an eye on.

Mike Yastrzemski

The Braves made a splash when they brought in Yastrzemski. He had a solid year last season by his standards with a wRC+ of 106, which was slightly lower than his career average of 111.

One of the reasons the front office may have signed him is because he shows some signs of positive regression to the mean. Last season he had a wOBA of .321, but his xwOBA was a .329. Not a massive gap, but it is notable. His biggest gap was among fastballs. His wOBA on fastballs in 2025 was .322, but his xwOBA was much higher at .344.

If you combine that with the fact that he had terrible luck in the BABIP department, it points even more to a leap forward. Last season his BABIP luck was poor with a measly .263 against his career average of .282. We can make an educated guess that he will have better luck with balls dropping for hits in 2026. His walk rate of 12.9 percent was his best in a season since the COVID shortened 2020. It should be noted that his walk rate was in the top ten percent of qualified hitters.

This grandson of HOFer Carl Yastrzemski has many signs to a better year offensively than last.

Sean Murphy

Murphy is injured and won’t start the season playing, so there is always the chance of a lingering injury, but to be fair his offensive drop-off last year could have been from a lingering injury too.

That being said, he had some terrible luck with BABIP. He has never had a BABIP that is close to league average and is a good example of why you should not use the league average as a measuring tool for trying to predict the future when looking at a single player. Depending on the season, the league average BABIP hovers around .302, Murphy has a career .268. 2025 was much lower than that with a .243. His walk rate has stayed steady. His 10.4 percent last season is right on track with his career 10.3, showing that an increase in BABIP could result in a considerable jump in wRC+.

From a high level view we can also look and see his wOBA of .309 was lower than his xwOBA of .314. Not a massive difference, but it is absolutely a variable to consider. He only saw off speed 10.0 percent of the time, but he had terrible luck. He had a wOBA of .282, but an xwOBA of .378. against fastballs, his most seen pitch, the difference was minimal but was .341 wOBA to .346 xwOBA.

A lot will depend on how his injury plays into his performance, but from a pure numbers perspective, look for an offensive jump forward in Murphy.

Michael Harris II

Saving the most obvious for last, Harris easily is primed for better numbers this season. Beyond hearing his teammates talk about his raw talent, the numbers paint a picture too. Harris struggled last year, and he had to make adjustments to his swing midway through the season. Harris underperformed by his standards, but he also had poor luck. When looking at all the players on the roster, he stuck out as easily the unluckiest.

Harris had the largest gap of all starting players for the Braves between his wOBA and xwOBA. To put it in perspective Ozzie Albies and Eli White both had lower wOBA than xwOBA, yet Harris’ wOBA of .289 was lower than both of theirs yet his xwOBA of .315 was higher than both of theirs. In other words, a massive gap. Harris had terrible BABIP luck. He has a career BABIP of .315, but last season he had a .281.

We can see by his expected batting average (xBA) further evidence that his BABIP will likely go up next season even if he swings the bat the exact same way as he did in 2025. When we look at fastballs he had an xBA of .289, but his actual average was a much lower .252. Considering he saw fastballs 54.9 percent of the time, this is notable. It is a similar story with off speed. He had an xBA of .249, but actual batting average of .227. Odds favor some serious positive to regression to the mean on these pitch types.

In Summary

Just looking at wOBA, xwOBA, and BABIP does not tell the whole story of a player’s fortune, but it does give a good thirty-thousand-foot view. With our binoculars we can see some good signs that Michael Harris, Sean Murphy, and Mike Yastrzemski will have better seasons with the bat than they did in 2025.

Everything comes down to winning. This is something we hear constantly in the world of sports—the sacrifices to win, the ability to do so, all of it. But, in some instances, one might argue there are bigger things than winning, and for the Yankees in the 2010 offseason, bringing back Mariano Rivera meant more than just improving their chances at a World Series in 2011 and beyond. It meant keeping intact a part of history, a part that’s now looked back on fondly by the player, the fans, and the organization. Rivera stayed a Yankee his whole career, like it was meant to be, and you can’t put a price on that.

Mariano Rivera
Signing Date: December 14, 2010
Contract: 2 years, $30,000,000

The man with the single most lethal pitch in the history of the sport, Mariano Rivera, had already built an entire career as the best closer ever when he reached the open market at the end of the 2010 season. Already into his 40s, Rivera hadn’t missed a beat, having pitched to the tune of a sub-2.00 ERA in each of the past three seasons, accumulating over 110 saves during that period.

Reviewing the Yankees bullpen in 2010, it was particularly reliant on Rivera’s outstanding performance as Joba Chamberlain and Chad Gaudin severely underwhelmed as two of the team’s top setup options, leaving it to the resurgent Kerry Wood to carry a decent chunk of the load. Losing Wood in free agency, the Yankees didn’t have many options, and as we know now, Rivera came much closer to potentially leaving than it originally appeared. An example of these teams’ shortcomings on the pitching side of things came in the 2010 ALCS, when Yankee pitchers accumulated an ERA of 6.57 as they were eliminated by the Texas Rangers in six games. Rivera, as it was customary, did his thing, tossing three scoreless frames, but Phil Hughes struggled as a starter, and a few blowups by the bullpen were enough to kill the Yankees’ chances.

Having spent over 15 years with the Yankees, still pitching at the highest level and for a contender with the biggest pockets in the league, and one that needed him quite desperately, all the pieces seemed to be there for a return without fuss. The only problem was that the rest of the league was also very aware of Rivera’s outstanding abilities, even as a 40-year-old. Previously having spoken about a desire to take things one year at a time, Rivera was entertaining multiyear offers, and while the Yankees topped out at two years, some other teams offered him a three-year commitment.

One can never fully tell what’s exactly going on in a player’s head, and the reasons are there to choose any path they’d like, but there is a certain disconnect in the story of how these events unfolded. While Rivera did receive offers for a longer contract to sign elsewhere, the whole narrative after he re-signed was that he felt compelled to stay with the Yankees, given his long history with the club and all that came with it. Then again, speaking on it shortly thereafter, the Hall of Fame closer was rather open about how close he came to signing with the Red Sox, who—according to Jon Heyman—gave him a three-year offer.

#redsox tried to steal rivera with 3-year offer, im hearing. 2 more teams also offered 3. but rivera is close to $30-mil deal with #yankees

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 3, 2010

Having already re-signed with the Yankees, Rivera could’ve easily been dismissive about his possibilities of ever leaving, yet he chose to be upfront about discussing the possibility of a contract that wouldn’t have been just any other contract. Rivera pitching for the Red Sox, for however long it could’ve been, would be the type of thing etched in baseball history, given the magnitude of this rivalry, not to mention the impact on the field for that particular period, as he was still the best in the business.

Remember that classic image of Rivera striking out Chris Parmelee looking on a backdoor 0-2 cutter to isolate himself atop the all-time saves leaderboard with 602?

Imagine not only not having that moment but also seeing Rivera set this historic mark in a Boston Red Sox uniform. Thankfully, it didn’t come to pass.

Back for the 2011 season, Rivera wasn’t able to help the Yankees get over the hump through no fault of his own, once again delivering an outstanding campaign. This time, the Yankees were knocked out earlier in the postseason, losing the ALDS to the Tigers in five games. Rivera recorded 44 of the team’s 47 saves, tying a season-high since his 53 saves back in 2004, all of it with a 1.91 ERA, the last of his 11 seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA. What was different from the 2010 season was that Rivera had a superior supporting relief cast, propelled by David Robertson’s breakout campaign, with the then-young right-hander even earning MVP votes with a 1.08 ERA in over 60 innings.

During the second year of his two-year deal, Rivera looked set for another dominant campaign, when a freak injury in Kansas City ended his season early and even threatened his career, given he was already 42 at the time of it. Before a game on the road against the Royals, Rivera was playing around in the outfield tracking fly balls when he felt something in his knee, suffering a torn ACL, ruling him out for the remainder of the campaign. In his early 40s, the all-time saves leader, Rivera, could’ve walked away with nothing left to prove, but the right-hander wouldn’t be denied one more season. Speaking on the subject later on, Rivera made it clear he didn’t want to go out like that, with an injury, instead attempting to return and be able to leave on his own terms.

While the Yankees ultimately dealt quite well with Rivera’s absence in 2012, having Rafael Soriano bounce back from a solid albeit unspectacular 2011 campaign to put up outstanding numbers in 2012, he was a free agent in his own right. Before Soriano signed with the Nationals on a two-year deal, the Yankees had already inked Rivera to a one-year contract to return as the team’s closer this time without all the fuss of other potential suitors. Even in his age-43 season, Rivera drastically outperformed Soriano in 2013, pitching to a 2.11 ERA, a full run lower than Soriano’s 3.11 mark.

Sadly, despite a 13th All-Star campaign, Rivera couldn’t make one final postseason appearance with the Yankees, as the injury-riddled and aging club missed the playoffs in 2013 for only the second time in the 21st century. Still, that return in 2010 lives on as one of the more fortunate, correct, and whatever other adjective you can sum up, decisions the Yankees have made on the open market. At the same time, regardless of the specifics, it’s equally fortunate that Rivera decided to stick around. These free-agent negotiations were, and always are, a two-way street.

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See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.

Players who are good every year end up getting a giant bag of cash when they hit free agency. Now, that range can be pretty wide, but it’s not uncommon for these players to sign multi-year contracts worth eight figures a year. 

The supply of these players is not very high, so some of those players end up inking deals that bring their total free agent compensation into the nine-figure range. Those that don’t may not be worse so much as they are less reliable.”

When less reliable players hit the free agent market, they are usually one of two types. The first type of player had been good, but most recently was not. The second type of player is the opposite: they had some seasons in the not-so-distant past of mediocre performance, but most recently they were good.

Which one would you rather have? 

We don’t have to look very far to find a perfect example of this. New Royals outfielder Lane Thomas had a recent season in which he hit .268/.315/.468 and accrued 2.9 Wins Above Replacement per Fangraphs. Former Phillies and Twins outfielder Harrison Bader just signed a free agent contract; he had a recent season in which he hit .277/.347/.449 and accrued 3.3 WAR. 

The Royals chose Thomas. That 2.9 WAR season was in 2023; Thomas followed that up with a significantly less successful 2024 and suffered through an injury-filled 2025 season that’s better just to be forgotten. That history secured Thomas a one-year, $6 million deal.

The Giants, on the other hand, chose Bader. From 2022 through 2024, Bader was a right-handed Kyle Isbel who hit a rather abysmal .239/.284/.360. But Bader’s breakthrough season was just last year, when he was effective for Minnesota and Philadelphia alike. That history secured Bader a two-year, $20.5 million deal.

“What have you done for me lately?” is the motto for professional sports in general, and so it makes sense that Bader would be the one who ended up with that contract instead of Thomas. It also helps that Bader’s best year of the last three was better than that of Thomas; to go back to supply and demand, there just aren’t a lot of true center fielders with the offensive talent to put up a wRC+ of 122.

But while Bader is getting paid roughly twice what Thomas will this year, I’m not sure that I’d be willing to wager that Bader will certainly be twice as good. I think Bader will probably be better than Thomas. For what it’s worth, the ZiPS projection system has Bader at 2.1 WAR next year and Thomas at 0.8 WAR, and ZiPS is smarter than me. 

Still, I’m spooked by Bader’s extended run as a light-hitting center fielder. I’m also spooked by Thomas only being able to play 39 games last year, and that he turns 31 this August. I might just be spooked by a lot of things these days. Who knows.

If you’re expecting a grand argument or a definitive opinion on this particular issue, prepare to be disappointed. Most recently, Bader has been the better player, and at a two-year contract, that’s probably a gamble the Royals should have made. And yet, Bader is primed for a fall back to earth, and the Royals could have had to eat $20 million of mostly dead money, which screams “Hunter Renfroe.” Meanwhile, while Thomas has less upside, the Royals aren’t relying on a $6 million guy in the same way they’d be relying on a $10.25 million guy for twice as long.

At any rate, it’ll be interesting to see if the Royals made the right decision here. Wake me up in about five months to see how we’re doing. 

After signing Bo Bichette and trading for Luis Robert Jr., the Mets had one more big move in a week. On January 21, they traded Jett Willliams and Brandon Sproat to the Brewers in exchange for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers. While Peralta was the bigger name and centerpiece of the trade, Tobias Myers isn’t just some random throw-in. He’s a major piece worthy of acclaim.

Most Mets fans know Tobias Myers from his time with the Brewers, which the Mets have been on the unfortunate end of at times. But his career has been a long, winding road to his major league success in Milwaukee. Hailing from Winter Haven, Florida, he was drafted out of high school by the Baltimore Orioles in the sixth round of the draft. After a little over a year in the Orioles organization he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Tim Beckham.

From 2017 to 2021, Myers climbed through the Rays system, making it to Triple-A before being traded once again to the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for Junior Caminero. He struggled when on the Guardians Triple-A team in 2022, with a 6.00 ERA in 60 innings, with 40 strikeouts and 33 walks. He was designated for assignment and subsequently traded to the Giants, where he made only two appearances, with a 9.00 ERA in just three innings with the Sacramento River Cats. After being designated for assignment a second time, he spent most of the rest of the season on the Chicago White Sox Triple-A team, putting up a 15.92 ERA in 13 innings.

He was released by the White Sox at the end of September 2022, and in November 2022 was signed to a minor league contract by the Brewers. After putting up alright stats across both Double-A and Triple-A in 2023, he had a great stint in Triple-A in 204, putting up a 1.45 ERA in 18.2 innings across five games (three of them starts). He bounced back and forth between the majors and Triple-A at the start of 2024, before being called up to the majors for good on June 5, 2024.

In 27 games with the Brewers in 2024, Myers had a 3.00 ERA across 138 innings. He had 127 strikeouts to 36 walks, with a 8.3 K/9, 138 ERA+, and he accumulated 2.7 bWAR. Of his 27 games with Milwaukee in 2024, 25 of them were starts. He also made a postseason start, starting the third game of the Wild Card series against the Mets. He went five innings with just two hits and five strikeouts, and when he was on the mound it wasn’t looking good for the Mets chances of advancing (and it didn’t look good until fellow future Met Devin Williams took the mound).

2025 was a bit more of a struggle for Myers. He suffered a left oblique strain that caused him to miss most of the first month of the season. After that, he bounced back and forth several times between Triple-A and the major league team. In 22 games with the Brewers, he had a 3.55 ERA across 50.2 innings, with 38 strikeouts to 15 walks, a 6.8 K/9, 117 ERA+, and accumulated only 0.7 bWAR. Of his 22 games, only six were starts, and he finished eight games, though he didn’t get any saves. His Triple-A stats were similar, with a 3.77 ERA in twelve games (all starts), 55 strikeouts and 17 walks in 59.2 innings, with a K/9 of 8.3, matching his 2024 major league average.

Now that he’s with the Mets, there’s some versatility in his role. They lost some bullpen options to injury, including Reed Garrett and Dedniel Núñez. They traded Brandon Sproat in the very trade that got them Tobias Myers, and Tylor Megill is also out for the season, so there’s also some more opportunity for rotation depth. And Myers could find use in the in between, a long reliever in the bullpen with rotational flexibility. And there’s time for him to grow into a more defined role in New York, since he’s under team control until 2031.

Freddy Peralta may have headlined the trade with the Brewers, but in acquiring Tobias Myers they got a very good pitcher with tons of flexibility and control. Even with a few more struggles last season, he’s a good starter and relief option, and should he be more like the pitcher he was in 2024 he could very easily find himself in the Mets rotation at some point in the next five years.