Category: Sports News

“I mean, it was a weird day.“

That’s recent Arizona Diamondback and now Colorado Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy when asked about scoring the Rockies first run of 2026 against the team that traded him away back in January.

“I’m used to coming out that other down the left field foul pole, and then being in the other dugout,” McCarthy said. “And there were some funny, funny faces that they were making at me. So, yeah, it was a weird day, but I’m excited to be here playing baseball again.”

Then he added this: “It was good.“

Clearly, playing for a new team is always a challenge, but for McCarthy, the adjustment has been relatively modest so far.

He’s still in the same spring training complex he played in as a D-back, given that the Snakes and the Rockies share Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. As he commented at Rockies Fest, the biggest adjustment would be turning into the correct parking lot when he went to camp.

“I kind of like going in the way I’ve always gone. So every now and then I see one of those guys, and I’ll just lay on the horn or something,” McCarthy said. “It’s a funny part of my commute every day.”

But so far, he’s impressed what’s happening on the Colorado side of Salt River Fields.

“I think there’s a lot of good energy around here, and a lot of talented players who are excited to make their marks,” McCarthy said. “So, I’m really happy to be a part of it, and I want to play a big role in it.“

Plus, given that the D-backs and Rockies play each other a lot during the course of an MLB season, Coors Field is not unfamiliar to him. Over the course of his career, McCarthy has played 14 games at Coors, and he’s accumulated a .375/.423/.500 slashline that includes seven stolen bases on 18 hits. (He’s had 48 at-bats.)

Then there’s the fact that McCarthy is fast — really fast — “one of the fastest players in Major League Baseball,” Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta commented after the trade became public. “He’s been a very good base runner.”

McCarthy’s sprint speed is 29.9 feet/second, the eighth best in MLB. (The very speedy Benton Doyle clocks in at 29.5 feet/second.)

Currently, McCarthy is getting to know his new outfield colleagues though he is quick to point out their familiarity.

“I think we all know each other pretty well through playing against each other for so long,” McCarthy said.

Right now, though, they’re working on becoming an outfield unit, something McCarthy sees strengthened by their diverse experiences.

“A guy like Mickey, he’s played for a couple teams. I just came from Arizona. Tyler Freeman was with Cleveland. So I think we all have different things: ‘Hey, I worked on this over at this spot that I really like.’ So it’s cool. We have conversations every day, just about things that help us get a little bit better.”

For McCarthy, this marks a change from his time with the D-backs when the outfielders had all come up together.

“For the most part, we had been D-backs for five or six years. So that was all that we knew — not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s cool hearing different sides of it.”

Fellow outfielder Mickey Moniak sees things coming together.

Of McCarthy, Moniak said, “He’s dynamic,” then added, “I think that’s the best way to describe our outfield unit as a whole – dynamic.”

After all, having McCarthy on the roster gives the outfield more options.

“We’ve got four guys who can play center field, along with [Tyler] Freeman when he’s out there – he can also play center field in the big leagues,” Moniak said.

Manager Warren Schaeffer is clear about what he sees in McCarthy:

And don’t overlook the experience McCarthy brings with him.

“[He’s] a guy who gets on base a lot,” Moniak said. “He’s had success in the big leagues, and brings that experience. He’s been in the postseason and been to the World Series. He fit right in from day one. I think it’s clear that bringing him in was a great move, and getting to play alongside of him is going to be a lot of fun.”

Center fielder Brenton Doyle referred to McCarthy as “awesome,” and said that the two are neighbors in the clubhouse. “

“I’ve had a lot of good opportunities to talk with him,” Doyle said, “and he’s a super, super awesome guy — great clubhouse guy — and super easy to get along with. So I think that play to our advantage on the field.”

And even though Coors Field will be his new home, it’s not unfamiliar.

“I think [the D-backs] did a pretty good job over there understanding that obviously with the elevation, the ball is going to go a little farther, and it’s a bigger outfield,” McCarthry said. “But I’ve always taken pride in playing defense, so in the 10 or whatever games I’ve played there, I think I’ve done a decent job of accounting for all of that. But I’m excited to play 81 games there, so it’ll be cool.”

Perhaps McCarthy’s biggest challenge over the course of his career has been its unevenness.

• 2022 — .283/.342/.427; 23 stolen bases; 2.2 fWAR
• 2023 — .245/.318/.326; 26 stolen bases; 0.1 fWAR
• 2o24 – .285/.349/.400; 25 stolen bases; 3.0 fWAR
• 2025 — .204/.247/.345; 6 stolen bases; 0.1 fWAR

It’s easy to see the difference between the even and odd years of McCarthy’s career.

At Rockies Fest, he said his focus was “just getting back to what makes [him] go as a baseball player.”

Then he added, “I think it could be dynamic, and I think that means getting on base for guys like [Hunter Goodman] and playing good defense, especially in a field like this. I think there were parts of last season that maybe I got away from that a little bit. So again, just eager — eager to kind of get back on track.”

In a way, McCarthy and a rebuilding Colorado Rockies are a good pair for each other when it comes to “getting back on track.”

“I think it’s a great opportunity to sort of prove people wrong,” McCarthy said.

“I think it’s really exciting to be on the way up and be a part of something. So I just think everyone in this room has a great opportunity.”

This week on the internet

Okay, here’s today’s question: Would you give the Rockies a fist bump or keep walking?

2026 MLB Team Preview Series: Colorado Rockies | Pinstripe Alley

I am always curious about how fans of other teams see the Rockies. This is from our SBN sister site for the New York Yankees, Pinstripe Alley.

Dugout-called pitches? Giants under Tony Vitello might give it the old college try | The Athletic ($)

Are other teams exploring the possibility of calling pitches from the dugout? The Marlins and Giants are thinking about it, and Warren Schaeffer is quoted in the article:

My new pitching coach feels very strongly about it, and he’s presented me with the reasons why, and they are very intriguing reasons,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It’s something that’s being discussed across the game internally. It’s the most important part of the game, what pitches are thrown. There’s nuance there in terms of trusting your catcher and all the preparation he puts into the game. But at the end of the day, I’m definitely open to it. It would take a lot of communication. The whole team would have to be in on it. And there’s lots of ways to go about it. The pitcher still makes the ultimate decision on what to throw.

This is surely a topic we will discuss in more detail later, but what are your initial thoughts?

Introducing the FanGraphs Lab | FanGraphs

FanGraphs has added a very cool data visualization tool. Nerds, this one’s for you.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

On January 2, 2020, Jeff Passan posted on Twitter a list of twelve members of the Chicago White Sox who were under team control for multiple seasons, saying, “If everything falls right, this has a chance to be a sustained run for the Chicago White Sox.” At the time, this was a normal, rather uncontroversial statement; although they had won only 72 games in 2019, their farm system was considered one of the best in the game, and that farm system was all reaching The Show at the same time. Two years later, that squad won 93 games, losing in the ALDS to the Houston Astros, and looked to all the world to be the next team to rule the American League Central.

Oh, how the baseball gods are merciless. That 2021 team would prove to be the entire extent of the window. Chicago went just .500 in 2022, lost 100 games in 2023, and then set the Major League record for losses in a season with 121 in 2024. Of the twelve players Passan listed in his now-infamous tweet, none of them remain with the organization, and several of them — including Tim Anderson, Dallas Keuchel, and Yasmani Grandal — are currently out of baseball. At the moment, only one thing has gone right for the White Sox in recent years, and that is the fact that Pope Leo XIV, is a diehard White Sox fan.

In his ZiPS projections back in November, Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs summed up the 2025 White Sox in the best way possible: “The 2025 White Sox performed the very weird dual feat of being one of baseball’s most improved teams compared to 2024 and losing more than a 100 games.” It is important to keep that in mind when looking ahead to 2026, because though the names have changed — e.g., gone is Luis Robert Jr., who Chicago finally found a buyer for in the New York Mets — the expectations remain the same. FanGraphs’ Depth Chart projections have the White Sox at 93 losses, and honestly, that might be a tad optimistic.

Despite the low expectations, however, Chicago did have a fairly good offseason. In addition to trading Robert, and getting an actual prospect in Luisangel Acuña as the return, they made a flurry of moves bringing in players on short-term contracts both in free agency and via the trade market, with the headline of course being Japanese corner infielder Munetaka Murakami.

This is exactly the type of offseason a team like the White Sox should be having. On paper, they are a better team than last year. Are they going to be a contender? Probably not. After all, FanGraphs has just one projected starter with a wRC+ above 105 (Murakami, at 120), and their starting rotation is headed by a trio of pitchers under the age of 30 with barely a year experience apiece (Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke) — not exactly a recipe for success. But at this stage of the rebuild, being able to put a team that looks remotely competitive on the diamond day in and day out, with the possibility of flipping some players on short-term deals to contenders at the deadline for prospects to restock a farm system that ranks among the league’s bottom-third.

But hey, at least they have the pope on their side.

More Pinstripe Alley MLB team season previews will be available here.

Do you remember how you felt when you heard that the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to a five-year contract? Shock was my biggest feeling. Alonso is an actual star and not the kind of player the Orioles have gone after in a long time.

Alonso has been an All-Star for the last four seasons. He’s played at least 150 games in each of those seasons and, including 162 in both 2024 and 2025. Last year, he hit 38 home runs and 41 doubles. In the last five seasons, he has slugged 195 home runs, ranging from 34-46 each year. The dude can flat out hit.

There is a question of Alonso’s defense at first base. He has been a below-average fielder his entire career, and last season he posted a Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) of -9. Statcast rates his range and arm both poorly, though at least at first base he won’t be making a lot of tough throws.

Multiple projection systems point to another strong season for Alonso:

• ZiPS: 152 games, 38 HR, .274/.348/.536, wRC+ 143
• Baseball Reference: 648 PA, 33 HR, .247/.331/.484

Do any of those numbers stack up to your expectations? How many home runs do you think our new home run king will hit? Will his durability continue, or will he finally fall to injury? ZiPs, which is higher on Alonso than BRef, projects an fWAR of 4.1. That would be the second-best of his career. Is that realistic?

Since he signed with the Orioles in December, Pete Alonso has said and done all the right things. But until we see his performance on the field, I will be nervous. That has less to do with Alonso’s history and more to do with my personal insecurity as an Orioles fan.

How do you feel?

Today, let’s put our optimist hats on. It’s spring training, after all — the possibilities seem endless! I’m going to go player-by-player through the position players likely to be on the major league team this season (with a few bonuses at the end) and think about what a season looks like for them if everything goes right. In some cases, it’s a result, and in some cases, it’s going to be a “goal,” but these are all related to that central question: what if things go well?

There’s a hypothetical companion piece to this article about worst-case scenarios, but let’s just say that everyone’s entry is “gets injured” and not worry about it.

William Contreras: Top three MVP?

I originally wanted to ask if Contreras could be a top-five MVP candidate, but he’s already done that — he finished fifth in 2024. So let’s turn it a little bit higher. With Shohei Ohtani back to his fully-operational self, it’s going to be difficult for non-Ohtani players to get into the top National League spot, but what about second or third?

One of my bold predictions last year was that Contreras was going to get into that conversation, and I thought my reasoning was sound: the Brewers were likely to be good, I thought they would win the NL Central, and their best player should get some love in the MVP race.

Well, Contreras started poorly last year, which pretty much killed any chance of that happening… but there was definitely some room at the top of the NL — Kyle Schwarber finished second in MVP voting and didn’t even crack five WAR.

I’m going to stick to my reasoning, here: even if I don’t think Contreras has much of a chance to actually win the MVP, if he has his best season (at age 28, typically the start of the baseball “prime”) and the Brewers again compete for “best team in the league” status, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where he finishes as high as second.

Gary Sánchez: Have an ISO of at least .200

From 2016-2021, Sánchez never had an isolated power (slugging minus batting average) number lower than .218. (For reference, Christian Yelich, who led the Brewers in homers in 2025, had a .188 ISO last season.) Since then, Sánchez’s isolated power has dipped: numbers of .172, .171, and .187 surrounded a good 2023 season in which he had 19 homers in 75 games (and a .275 ISO).

As the backup to one of the best catchers in the league on a team that has a more-or-less full-time DH, Sánchez is not likely to get very many opportunities this season, but if he can hit some tanks — which he’s certainly still capable of — in his limited playing time, it will be a successful season for him.

Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers: Show us that last season wasn’t a fluke

Andrew Vaughn’s journey has been spoken about at length. He was an immensely talented prospect who reached the White Sox early and held his own… but whose progress stalled, and then went in reverse. He was sent to the minors in 2025, and his career looked to have reached a dead end. Then the Brewers traded for hi,m and he returned to the big leagues and performed as the player that everyone thought Andrew Vaughn would be in 2025 when he was drafted in 2019.

Bauers doesn’t have the same pedigree as Vaughn, but he was a top 100 prospect back in 2017 and 2018 who never really clicked in the majors. But last year, shortly before turning 30, Bauers seemed to figure something out. After an IL stint in July and August, Bauers hit .360/.458/.560 in 59 plate appearances from September first until the end of the season and, crucially, looked dangerous in the postseason. It’s a tiny sample, but it somehow felt sustainable.

The two sides of Milwaukee’s 2026 first base platoon have a lot to prove. The samples of big production are small for both. A rational person would expect both to return closer to the production levels of earlier in their careers. But if these gains in production are real, and the Brewers can get a full season out of the sluggers they had at the end of last year, it would help answer the question of where Milwaukee’s power will come from in 2026.

Brice Turang: Combine the last two seasons into one monster

In 2024, Brice Turang played Platinum-Glove-level defense and was one of the best baserunners in the league with 50 stolen bases in 56 attempts. In 2025, he leveled up at the plate and improved his power to a place that we didn’t really think was possible, with 28 doubles, 18 homers, and a 124 wRC+… but his defense and baserunning both took a step back.

What happens if you combine the offense of 2025 with the defense and baserunning of 2024?

You get a legitimate MVP candidate.

Joey Ortiz and Blake Perkins: Have a 90 wRC+

In 2024, Ortiz had a 105 wRC+. In 2025, it was 67. Given the quality of his glove, Ortiz does not have to offer much offensively in order to be a valuable player, but he needs to offer more than he did. A 90 wRC+ would still be quite a bit below 2024, but it would get him back into the realm of respectability; Ozzie Smith became a first-ballot Hall of Famer because of the quality of his glove. His career wRC+? 90. (For Ortiz, Monday’s game was a good start!)

Perkins is in very much the same boat. His ideal role is as a fourth outfielder, where he can hit from either side of the plate and be a defensive ace when he comes into the game. With Garrett Mitchell hurt last season, Perkins was a bit overexposed offensively, and the postseason made it clear that he was overmatched. But if he can figure out a way to hit a little bit, whether that’s by hitting a few more homers (could he hit 10 in 400 plate appearances?) or trying to become a more effective slap hitter, he’ll give himself more of a shot at getting important playing time.

Luis Rengifo: Hit at least 15 homers

Rengifo hit 17 homers in 2022 and 16 in 2023, but he’s managed just 15 in 225 games since then. Getting that power back up (he needs to elevate the ball) will go a long way toward re-establishing Rengifo as an offensive weapon; if he can’t do that, he’s unlikely to play good enough defense to justify his place on the team.

David Hamilton: Do the little things, and hit righties a little

I’m not expecting a whole lot from Hamilton at the plate. Like Ortiz, he was pretty good there in 2024 and dreadful in 2025. I don’t see a ton of upside for Hamilton, though using him strictly against right-handed pitching is a good place to start; his career OPS is 177 points higher versus righties. But he can do the veteran utility player thing and make himself a big part of the team by playing good defense, taking walks, and running the bases well.

Christian Yelich: Keep the back healthy and hit 30 homers

It’s easy to forget that even though he struggled with his back down the stretch (concerning!) and looked helpless in the postseason, Yelich managed to play in 150 games in 2025 and hit 29 homers, the third-highest total of his career. At 34, it’s easy to imagine negative scenarios where Yelich’s health and declining athleticism prevent him from producing reliably ever again. But if he can keep his back healthy, he’s got a real shot at hitting 30 homers for the first time since his second-place MVP finish in 2019, and it would be huge for this power-starved team.

Jackson Chourio: Make The Leap

While it may have felt like 2025 was a mild disappointment for Chourio, whose overall production level was very much in line with his 2024 season, it is important to remember that he will still be one of the league’s youngest players when he enters his age-22 season in 2026. His production to this point — 6.0 WAR via Baseball Reference and 6.9 via FanGraphs — is in extremely rare air for a player his age.

Now, let’s see the leap. There were glimpses in the postseason last year, when Chourio looked up to the moment even as the rest of the offense floundered around him. It’s not difficult to see that Chourio can do things that not every other player can do; it’s just a matter of those tools maturing into steady production.

Maybe this is the year. Superstar arcs are not linear, something that I’ve explored before, but it sure feels like a Chourio breakout is coming sometime soon.

Garrett Mitchell: Play 130 games

We’re going to start there. Mitchell’s talent is intriguing, and before 2025, he was a popular candidate for “player on the verge of a breakout.” But that somehow feels like an incredibly long time ago: he has not been able to stay healthy for any meaningful length of time thus far in his career, and no matter how intriguing his tools and production have been, it does not matter if he can’t stay on the field.

Let’s do that first. I don’t really even care what the production is. We need to know what the Brewers have with Mitchell, and in order to do that, he needs to stay healthy.

Sal Frelick: Hit .300 with 30 doubles

Frelick showed steady improvement from 2024 to 2025, when he managed to put himself on the fringes of the batting title conversation by hitting .288 (seventh in the NL). Frelick is not going to become a power hitter. But he is already a useful offensive player — he had a 114 wRC+ last season, which is quite good. His walk rate has been steady the past couple of seasons, around 7.5%, which is fine. He hit 12 homers in 2025, which is pretty good for a player like Frelick. Can he bump that up just a little more?

Where I’d really like to see Frelick improve, though, is in doubles. Frelick may not profile as a home run hitter, but he only hit 20 doubles in 2025, and a player with Frelick’s profile — fast, a lot of contact — should do better than that. If Frelick could hit 30-40 doubles, that would really make him an offensive threat, even if he hits only 12-15 homers.

Let’s also get him to the .300 plateau, which only one National League hitter reached in 2025. A .300 hitter with 30 doubles, 15 homers, and a 7.5% walk rate is a dangerous offensive player, and likely an All-Star, given his quality in the field.

Brandon Lockridge: Outhit Perkins

Lockridge isn’t likely to start in the big leagues if everyone is healthy, but he’ll be just a phone call away. Lockridge is sort of like Perkins but without the switch-hitting; he’s not a very good hitter, but he’s fast and plays excellent outfield defense. But if he can do something offensively — he has two home runs through the first three days of spring training, and had back-to-back minor league seasons with double-digit homers in 2021-22 — he could create some difficult questions for the Brewers’ front office.

Meanwhile, some quick goal-oriented questions for some guys who’ll start in the minors:

Jett Williams: Is your defense ready for primetime, no matter where that is?

Jesús Made: Can you stay on the trajectory?

Jeferson Quero: Can you throw?

Cooper Pratt: The defense is ready; can you hit?

Brock Wilken: Can you be the second coming of Gene Tenace?

Luis Peña: Can you keep pace with your more-heralded teammate?

Andrew Fischer: How soon can you make them think about you as a big leaguer?

Who is he, and where does he come from?

He’s Brendan Rodgers. He was an everyday starter for the lowly Rockies in 2024, leading some to believe he was heading our way at that year’s trade deadline, before we learned that Craig Breslow only makes deals for winning players in the offseason.

Subsequently, Rodgers’ age (and injury history) caught up to him while his raw ability to hit a baseball also declined. He was unceremoniously dumped by the Rockies following the 2024 campaign and bounced between the Astros, Triple-A Sugar Land, and the injury list last season.

The Red Sox have, in “pennies on the dollar” fashion, signed him to a minor-league deal for 2026. Rodgers still a solid depth pickup, though (stop me if you’ve heard me say that before).

Is he any good?

If you asked me this on, say, February 14, 2024, I’d have certainly been more enthusiastic. Now, I’d say no, but this isn’t a bad minor league signing. While never a hitter that tears the cover off the ball, slashing .267/.313/.401 in 7 Major League seasons, Rodgers’ biggest offensive weakness is simply that he strikes out too much. This was never more true than in 2025 when he struck out in 35.9% of his at-bats, which, had he qualified, would have placed him amongst the very worst in the league.

Rodgers is also familiar with several doctors’ offices in his career, as he’s been on the IL 18 total times since 2019. 2025 was no exception; he landed on the IL for separate stints with a concussion, oblique issues, and a broken nose, and was hitting under the Mendoza line when he was healthy.

Still, the second baseman is on the right side of 30 until August 9. He’s also very good defensively, something obviously very important to the Red Sox as they’ve been league leaders in errors in recent years. Rodgers was a Gold Glover in 2022. And, for what it’s worth, he’s a righty who has performed well against lefties for most of his career, slashing .295/.356/.481 against them, so he fills a team need there.

Tl:dr; give me his 2025 stats.

Yeah, about that…

43 G, 2 HR, 11 RBI, .191/.266/.278, -0.3 WAR

Show me a cool highlight.

Here’s that defensive prowess coming to use.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Hanging out with a former teammate we all know! Trevor Story and Rodgers were pieces of a Rockies infield that showed promise before what those in Denver refer to as “the dark ages.”

What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?

If he’s in Boston for too long, especially with the other pieces that Breslow has also acquired for bargain prices, there’s probably an issue. Still, you can’t count out a redemption arc for a guy just three years removed from a Gold Glove, especially if there are defensive issues on this Red Sox team of infielders who are playing with each other for the first time.

It’s hard not to get frustrated at this signing when thinking back on how much the 2024 version of Rodgers may have helped a 2024 Red Sox team that ended the season with an uninspiring 81-81 record. But this is 2026 and Rodgers can help in the club house in more ways than one. And if someone can bring back old Rodgers, that’s even better!

This post is part of a series of daily questions that we’ll ask the community here at Amazin’ Avenue throughout the month of February. We hope you find the questions engaging and that our prompts can spark some fun conversations in the comments. We’ll see you there and plan to have staff chiming in, too.

With the Mets’ roster having undergone a whole lot of turnover as several long-tenured players departed in free agency or trades, we’re curious: Who’s your favorite current Met?

“All progress occurs because people dare to be different” is what the fortune cookie from my lunch said last week. That little sliver of paper with a generic response now sits on my work desk as a reminder to think outside the box and to challenge the minds of Cardinals fans, including myself. The 2026 St. Louis Cardinals project to feature a roster that is unlike anything this generation of Cardinals fans is used to. No All-Stars, no household names, no future Hall of Fame-bound members. The only universal aspect of this team that’s true across all of baseball is that half the fan base wants the Manager fired. No numbers, no graphs, no charts this week, just thoughts.

The highest-paid player entering the season (that’s still rostered) is Starting Pitcher Dustin May, and the oldest player projected to make the roster is 33-year-old Relief Pitcher Ryne Stanek. These are stark differences from teams we’ve watched over the previous decade-plus of Redbird baseball. The players that Cardinals fans ARE aware of each come with real question marks: Can Herrera stay healthy and be a factor as a Catcher? Can Masyn Winn take the next step offensively and be the 5+ win player and be the next face of this team? Can Victor Scott, Jordan Walker, or Nolan Gorman find offensive consistency and plant their flag as long-term members of the future? What’s realistic to expect from rookie sensation JJ Wetherholt? What if all of the IF’s become answers and the Cardinals wind up being better than everyone expects?

Same with the pitching staff; what if Dustin May makes good on his rebound and re-establishes himself as the pitcher amateur scouts drooled over? What if Liberatore puts together a full season of exceptional pitching and not just half of one? What if Pallante regains his 2024 form? Can McGreevy, Fitts, Dobbins, Leahy, and Matthews all take the next steps and provide the major rotation depth the Cardinals haven’t had in years? What if Riley O’Brien has a career year as a closer, and the other pieces of the bullpen settle into roles that create a new formula for the Cardinals to lock down games with a late lead?

What if it doesn’t matter if the Cardinals don’t look anything like the previous 30 years of Cardinals baseball and still find a way to be in a competitive mix at the end of the season, and knocking on the door of the playoffs?

The Cardinals will never be a team that can financially compete with the LA Dodgers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, or Chicago Cubs (If Ricketts ever realizes what a financial advantage he has in the NL Central from a media market size standpoint). The Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, and Tampa Bay Rays, despite being in the bottom third of baseball in payroll, have found unique ways to perennially find themselves in the mix for an October berth, thanks to unheralded talent nobody projected to be as good as they were.

So, I ask whether the Cardinals are actually rebuilding? Because they themselves have pushed back against that notion time and time again this offseason, and maybe it’s not actually a PR strategy, and the team has had more up its sleeve than we have been led to believe. To paraphrase: “We will stay long-term focused but concede nothing.” Continues to be a message that echoes in my head from Chaim Bloom’s introductory press conference.

Most readers on this site would concede that this team is not devoid of talent but rather devoid of proven production. Chaim Bloom has placed a large number of small bets on this team, and it just takes two or three to hit to alter the trajectory of the 2026 team. In the reader mailbag articles, I ask you, the readers, for your best, most pressing questions, to help me create content that’s centered around what you’re interested in from a Cardinals perspective.

So, I will flip the script on all of you and ask, are the Cardinals rebuilding, and this is a lost year? Or are we watching, in real time, the Cardinals rebrand themselves into one of the other major league teams that win differently, and more might be in store for 2026 than we all initially thought?

“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” -Michael Jordan

-Thanks for reading

Phillies News:

• Justin Crawford, Otto Kemp on Crawford playing CF (Video)
• PhilliesNation talks to Kevin Long in Spring Training
• ICYMI, Schwarber had his first Schwarbomb of ST, hopefully of many more to come
• Dark Horse candidates from Todd Zolecki to make the Opening Day Roster has him pondering Genesis Cabrera for the Phillies
• Taryn Hatcher won’t be providing commentary from CBP this season, sadly
• Breakouts the Phillies need according to David Murphy at the Inquirer ($$)

MLB News:

• Former Met Michael Conforto’s career isn’t quite over yet, signs minor league deal with Cubs
• Is Utah the frontrunner for the next MLB expansion? ($$)
• Power Rankings just a couple games into Spring Training because why not
• Keep buying those baseball cards, they could be worth millions one day!
• We’ve already had a triple play this season, and it is NOT pretty
• Rockies taking a new approach to pitching in 2026 [insert joke]