Category: Sports News

Vince Velasquez is the latest MiLB signing for our Cubs, it has been reported. This is in addition to Owen Miller, who has officially adorned the dotted line. The Cubs are filling up around the edges.

I used to love Javy Báez. I still do, but I used to, too. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has filled Boston’s infield hole and so it is more likely that Matt Shaw will remain with the Cubs, at least for now.

Former Cub Michael Hermosillo has joined the Dodgers as a coach, sources reveal. Ryan Brasier is rumored to be heading to Texas. Zac Gallen is said by many to still be on the table. Others say it’s just his agent operating.

And so it goes.

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Javier Báez was suspended from the World Baseball Classic … because of Weed. Evan Petzold* reports that Báez is serving a suspension for a drug test he took back in March of 2023.
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs enter spring training 2026 with high expectations: ‘Thrilled for what’s ahead’. “The first official workout of spring-training camp is next Wednesday.”
• Andres Chavez (North Side Baseball*): What to make of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s second-half decline. “The young Cubs star’s production tailed off badly after the All-Star break in 2025. Should fans be worried?“
• Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball*): Why the Cubs should bring back outfielder Mike Tauchman. “… the Cubs need lots of left-handed at-bats from their outfield and DH spots.”

Food For Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We will not wittingly publish A. I. – driven articles or clickbait, and insist on unimpeachable sources.

Good morning Birdland,

Spring training starts in just a few days, and there is work to be done on the Orioles roster. They need bullpen improvements. They might still be in search of a starting pitcher. And odds are that Mike Elias makes a few more waiver claims because why not.

The trio of Zac Gallen, Justin Verlander, and Lucas Giolito are the guys that most people in the fanbase are holding out hope for at this point. Gallen has the most upside, but perhaps the most risk as well. He will certainly be the most expensive, including a draft pick. Verlander and Giolito have less of a chance to raise the ceiling for the Orioles, but they would solidify things, and that has value.

What’s unclear is how another signing will impact the Orioles in-season maneuvering. If the Orioles are in the playoff mix, we should expect Elias to make some trade deadline additions. Since they haven’t added a “frontline” starter in the offseason, that would likely be their top priority come July. Those sorts of players are expensive, both in terms of prospects and salary. The front office will want to leave some space to add.

According to the latest report from MLB Trade Rumors, the Orioles are at a luxury tax number of $189 million. That is $10 million higher than where they ended the 2025 season, but that was after they had sold off a bunch of players. And it’s not as if they are anywhere close to the luxury tax penalties. Those don’t kick in until $244 million. David Rubenstein said at Pete Alonso’s introductory press conference in December that there was no firm budget for assembling the roster. So, in theory, there is plenty of room to spend.

At the moment, there is no one to spend that money on that makes sense and will make the 2026 Orioles better. That will need to wait until the summer at the earliest.

Unless the Orioles are cooking up another player extension? But even that wouldn’t really impact the 2026 luxury tax number anyway. We can dream.

Links

Blaze Alexander sets fire to early roster projections | Roch Kubatko
Roch works on an Opening Day roster, admitting that the bullpen is a bit of a mess at the moment. My guess is that an addition or two takes places before the first regular season game of the season.

Missing out on Framber Valdez isn’t the end of the world, but it’s not good | Baltimore Baseball
Valdez would have made the team better, but it won’t matter if the Orioles can instead pull off a trade sometime in the summer. They will need to win some games and put themselves in a position to make that kind of move first.

Orioles Outright Weston Wilson | MLB Trade Rumors

Cardinals Claim Bryan Ramos | MLB Trade Rumors
It seems the Orioles wanted to get at least one of Wilson or Ramos through waivers to keep them in the organization. It worked with Wilson. Right now he seems ticketed for Triple-A Norfolk. Ramos will head to St. Louis for now, but he could always end up back with the Orioles. We know Elias keeps a close eye on the waiver wire.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Scott Feldman turns 43 today. He, along with Steve Clevenger, was the return the Orioles got from the Cubs when trading away Jake Arrieta (and Pedro Strop). Feldman had a 4.27 ERA over 15 starts for the Orioles in 2013. Arrieta was…better.
• Jon Leicester celebrates his 47th birthday. He pitched in 10 games for the 2007 Orioles.
• Endy Chavez is 48 years old. The outfielder played 64 games for the 2012 Orioles that returned to the playoffs for the first time in a generation and made the Sports Illustrated cover along with Adam Jones and Nick Markakis.
• Dave Borkowski turns 49. He had a 17-game stint with the Orioles during the 2004 campaign.
• Benny Ayala is 75. His stay with the Orioles went from 1979 through ‘84. During that time he appeared in two World Series, including a key pinch-hit single in Game 3 of the ‘83 Series.
• The late Al Smith (b. 1928, d. 2002) was born on this day. He spent one season in Baltimore, 1963. He posted a 111 OPS+ with 10 home runs that year.

This day in O’s history

2012 – The KBO files a protest against the Orioles for their signing of 17-year-old pitcher Seong-min Kim. The protest alleges that the O’s failed to inform the KBO of its negotiations with Kim, which they are required to do. In the days to come, MLB will void Kim’s contract to maintain a positive relationship with Korea and the KBO.

The sixth iteration of the World Baseball Classic will begin soon, continuing one HELL of a sports stretch over the next few weeks. I mean, we’ve got the Olympics, Super Bowl, and Grapefruit League action–the holy trinity, if you ask me–coming right up.

WBC rosters were released Thursday night, exactly a month before the action starts on March 5. Luckily for us, the Red Sox will be sending a healthy delegation to represent a total of 13 of the 20 teams competing in the international competition. 14 players across the Sox’s major and minor league levels will be playing in the WBC; that’s an increase over the 11 players we sent for the 2023 tourney, so I guess that’s cool.

If you’re looking for a guide to point to where your rooting interest should lie — with regards to the Red Sox — then look no further.

United States: Garrett Whitlock

Just one player in Boston’s system will be representing the Stars and Stripes in 2026, but it’s one of our better players. Whitlock earned his way onto Team USA on the back of a 183 ERA+ in 2025. The runners-up in the previous tourney will hope that execution will carry over to give the Americans their second WBC title.

Mexico: Jarren Duran

The speedy outfielder will once again represent our neighbors to the south. Mexico acted as a sort of Cinderella last time around; they nearly knocked off the eventual champions in the semifinals back in 2023. No official word on whether or not Duran will be bringing the sombrero back into the dugout next month.

Venezuela: Wilyer Abreu, Willson Contreras, and Ranger Suárez

Venezuela boasts the most amount of Boston-based talent in the 2026 WBC, as a trio of Sox will represent their home country. It’ll be fun to watch new additions Contreras and Suárez in action, while I’m hoping that Wilyer will be able to display some power to get me excited for the upcoming MLB season. 

Dominican Republic: Brayan Bello

After a (generally speaking) solid 2025 campaign, the 26-year-old righty got the nod from one of the tournament’s favorites. La República Dominicana certainly has the offensive firepower to hang with the best of the best, but Bello could play a very important role in their title chase; will he be able to elevate his game and get off to the best start possible in 2026 after a frustrating end to the previous season?

Japan: Masataka Yoshida

The Macho Man himself is back with the defending champs. We were getting our first taste of Yoshida back in the last WBC in 2023, after he inked his deal with the Sox in December of 2022. Since then, things haven’t been………….consistent, let’s leave it at that. Regardless, he’ll have a chance to help Samurai Japan win their second straight WBC championship and fourth overall.

Netherlands: Ceddanne Rafaela

The Dutch are the quintessential “Hey, they could make a big run” WBC team. Maybe the Netherlands seems like an unassuming baseball nation, but all of the islands that make up the lion’s share of the team (Xander Bogaerts’ home of Aruba and Ceddy’s home of Curaçao, for example) have some incredible players. Perhaps the best center fielder in the world will be representing Holland in 2026 — maybe we can call him “The Flying Dutchman” for this tourney?

Italy: Greg Weissert

G-Reg knows a thing or two about this thing of ours. After posting a sub-3.00 ERA across 67 (don’t laugh) innings, Weissert will be one of the key components of the Italians’ bullpen. Gli Azzurri has some legit names (Vinnie Pasquantino, Aaron Nola if he ever decides to snap out of whatever funk he’s in, etc.). They could be a dark horse.

Puerto Rico: Jovani Morán

While he only pitched in four innings for the Red Sox in 2025, Morán still qualifies for the list as he’ll be representing the home island of manager Alex Cora. He hasn’t had a ton of run in the majors, but he can initiate more than his fair share of swing-and-misses. If we see more of him in 2026, maybe the WBC will offer a glimmer into our future. I dunno, wishful thinking.

Great Britain: Nate Eaton and Jack Anderson

Nate Eaton could end up being more of a pivotal player for the Sox in 2026 than we currently foresee; he’s shaping up to be a top backup option for our current crop of outfielders, and injuries are to be expected across 162+ games. Before that, though, he’s going to be playing for the Union Jack. Right-handed pitcher Jack Anderson of the AAA WooSox will be as well. In 75.1 innings in Portland last year, the fourth round pick in the 2024 minor league Rule 5 draft had a 3.58 ERA. That’s neat, I guess!

Colombia: Tayron Guerrero

35-year-old Tayron Guerrero hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2019, but he gets a shout-out here because he signed a minor league deal with us last month and he will be playing for Colombia. Cool!

Chinese Taipei: Tsung-Che Cheng

A late addition to this article, as he was just claimed by the Red Sox from the Washington Nationals on Friday! The latest member of Boston’s 40-man roster will be playing for Chinese Tapei on the heels of a .209/.307/.271 campaign across nearly 400 plate appearance while playing for Pittsburgh’s AAA club in Indianapolis. Stay tuned for his “Meet The New Guy” article on OTM.

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.

What would a successful 2026 season look like for the Mets?

Baseball season is, finally, just around the corner. It’s also Saturday, a perfect time to fire up some baseball movies to get you ready for spring training.

I am, in addition to my life as a musician and my baseball fandom, a Movie Guy. I teach classes about movies, I have a crippling physical media addiction, and I spend too much time on Letterboxd. Naturally, I am a big fan of baseball movies, as they represent an intersection of my biggest interests.

So I’m here today to give you my personal top five baseball movies. You aren’t going to agree with it, in all likelihood; I batted around some options with friends before writing this and they all vehemently disagreed about something, whether it was something I included or, more often, an omission. Head to the comment section to tell me how you feel, but also, it’s my list — it can’t be wrong!

We’ll get to some honorable and not-so-honorable mentions at the end. Starting at No. 5:

5. A League of Their Own (1992, directed by Penny Marshall)

In anticipation of a possible shutdown of Major League Baseball due to World War II, a women’s baseball league is launched; we follow the Rockford Peaches, with their star catcher Dottie (Geena Davis) and her little sister Kit (Lori Petty), who pitches. Their manager is a drunken ex-MLB star, Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks and loosely based on Jimmie Foxx).

This is a wonderful film with a lot of baseball, and for large sections it’s very funny; Jon Lovitz has a hilarious brief appearance as a scout, and there’s nice comedic rapport between Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell, two of Dottie and Kit’s teammates. (They’re good, honest!) It has its moments of drama, as well, and thankfully avoids a contrived romance between Dottie (who is married) and Jimmy, despite the studio trying to shoehorn one in (which can be found in a deleted scene that would’ve been a disastrous inclusion).

Dottie is a legitimately fascinating character, someone who is extremely closed off to the point of harming the people around her and who doesn’t really believe women should be playing baseball, but she’s smack in the middle of a film with legitimate feminist credentials.

4. Major League (1989, directed by David S. Ward)

One of the more popular baseball films of all time, this is a story with a somewhat convoluted MacGuffin about a team owner wanting to move the Cleveland Indians to a warmer climate and thus bringing in players who will be terrible, thus tanking attendance and giving her a platform on which to move the team. Of course, this band of misfits — including the aging Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), the recently incarcerated Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), the athletic but not exactly talented Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), a formerly good pretty boy, Roger Dorn, who’s afraid to get dirty (Corbin Bernsen), and a powerful hitter with a serious hole in his swing, Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) — comes together and wildly outperforms expectations.

For Brewer fans, this one is especially notable: while it ostensibly takes place in Cleveland, it was filmed in County Stadium and features Bob Uecker in what was arguably his most legendary on-screen appearance as the team’s very funny play-by-play announcer, Harry Doyle. That’s not all, though: Pete Vuckovich, who won the 1982 Cy Young while pitching for the Brewers, plays the film’s “villain,” Haywood, the big slugger for the Yankees. (Former Dodger catcher Steve Yeager also appears as Duke Temple, an assistant coach.)

The off-the-field stuff in this is kind of lame (there’s a love story between Jake and his ex-wife, played by Rene Russo, and some drama including Wild Thing and Dorn’s wife) but there’s a lot of baseball, a lot of big stars, and Uecker’s important role. I’m also just a huge fan of some of the crowd banter; I still say “too high” about once every other game during the season.

3. Field of Dreams (1989, directed by Phil Alden Robinson)

This would top the list for a lot of people, a fantasy drama about a Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield because he thinks it will allow the long-deceased Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) to come back and play. Amy Madigan also stars as Ray’s wife, James Earl Jones is here as a reclusive ex-writer that’s sort of a cross between James Baldwin and J.D. Salinger, and the legendary Burt Lancaster makes his final feature film appearance before his death in 1994.

There are certainly some nits that can be picked with this film (check out Nick Offerman’s hilarious rant, courtesy of the PosCast), but it also contains an undeniable magic (both literally and figuratively, you might say). It also made a lot of people aware of the story of Shoeless Joe and the Black Sox, even if it’s not completely accurate, and the ending will forever be a moment for dads and sons everywhere.

A missed opportunity: when all the old ballplayers come back at the end (we hear the names Mel Ott, Gil Hodges, and Smoky Joe Wood), it would’ve been a cool twist if some Negro Leagues players were included. Imagine Joe Jackson and Mel Ott playing against Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson!

This film holds a pretty firm place in American pop culture. You can still visit the field, which is in northeast Iowa (not a long drive from many places in Wisconsin), and they’re now staging major league games there every now and then — in 2026, the Phillies and Twins will play a game there in mid-August.

2. Moneyball (2011, directed by Bennett Miller)

Who would’ve thought that a book about obscure baseball stats and economics would make for a compelling film?

This is arguably the highest-quality movie on this list. It’s beautiful to look at, has an excellent score by Mychael Danna, and has two Oscar-nominated acting performances, from Brad Pitt as Athletics general manager Billy Beane and Jonah Hill as his top assistant, a fictional character that seems to be based mostly on the real-life Paul DePodesta, who was just hired as the GM of the Colorado Rockies. Some call it the best performance of Pitt’s career.

There are other stars here: Robin Wright plays Beane’s ex-wife, a young Chris Pratt plays the catcher-turned-first baseman Scott Hatteberg, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won an Oscar playing Truman Capote in Miller’s earlier film Capote, plays A’s manager Art Howe.

As for picking nits, the common baseball-related complaint about this movie is that there is nary a mention of the three-headed monster that led the early-2000s A’s rotation, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder, nor the 2002 American League MVP, Miguel Tejada. An uninformed viewer might be led to believe that Hatteberg, 36-year-old David Justice, and middle reliever Chad Bradford were solely responsible for the 103 games that team won.

But honestly if the exclusion of Hudson, Zito, Mulder, and Tejada is ruining this movie for you, you’re a curmudgeon.

1. Bull Durham (1988, directed by Ron Shelton)

Bull Durham is simultaneously a hilarious baseball movie, a romantic comedy, and a moving and rather profound meditation on how we deal with the changing seasons of life. On the surface, it’s a story about a love triangle between a local woman (Susan Sarandon) and two players on opposite ends of their minor league careers: Costner again as Crash Davis, who has had a long and successful minor league career but couldn’t quite make it in the big leagues, and Tim Robbins as a young, stupid, and talented pitcher — this is where the “million-dollar arm and ten-cent head” line comes from.

Ron Shelton, who played minor league baseball, was the writer and director, and the fact that he spent time in the minor leagues is obvious. You will not find a place with funnier or more real-feeling banter between players, and the way it discusses and depicts baseball is intelligent and accurate. The film features a couple of legendary baseball scenes: nothing dramatic, just things like the meeting on the mound (“we’re dealing with a lot of s***!”).

But it’s in the way it seamlessly shifts from a hilarious sports rom-com to an introspective look at a very relatable feeling: well, that’s over, now what? I don’t think I would’ve appreciated this aspect of the film as much when I was younger, but as a guy in his late 30s, I identify deeply with the way Crash must come face-to-face with the end of his playing career and face the next phase of his life.

But even without that, it’s a great romantic comedy and in my opinion the funniest of all baseball movies. One of my favorite movies ever made, of any genre.

Honorable Mentions

The hardest cut for me is The Sandlot, the best of all the 1990s baseball movies for kids. That list also includes Rookie of the Year, Little Big League, and Angels in the Outfield, but The Sandlot is a far superior film. I didn’t see Rookie of the Year until I was an adult, and while there are certain entertaining and/or funny aspects, the baseball is ludicrous and the climactic play is a blatant rule violation. Little Big League is automatically excluded because it stars Pete Crow-Armstrong’s mom. (It does benefit from the inclusion of a large number of real players, including Ken Griffey Jr., Iván Rodríguez, Randy Johnson, Rafael Palmeiro, Tim Raines, and more.) I haven’t seen Angels in the Outfieldsince I was a little kid. I don’t remember liking it.

The Sandlot, though, is pure childhood magic, a mix of the sort of To Kill A Mockingbird-style vignettes of kids in summertime with the fun central story of a kid who doesn’t know ball learning ball. The movie itself knows ball, too, which makes it all the more enjoyable, and it has one of the most memorable ensemble casts in kids’ movie history. Also, an incredible Ray Charles needle drop.

Eight Men Out is another movie from the late 1980s about the Black Sox, this one based on the Eliot Asinof book of the same name that covers the 1919 scandal (a book which, it must be said, has been accused of massaging the truth). The film sort of centers around Buck Weaver (played by John Cusack), who is painted as a mostly innocent participant, and gives a pretty sympathetic view to most of the players involved. It’s good.

Not included because I don’t think it really counts as a baseball movie is another late-80s film, the wonderful The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad. You will see this on lists of baseball movies and it does spend a tremendous amount of time at the ballpark, as the film’s whole climax centers around an elaborate scheme where a brainwashed Reggie Jackson is supposed to assassinate the queen of England. A childhood favorite and one of the great 1980s comedies, just not a real baseball movie.

Speaking of non-baseball movies that feature a lot of baseball, check out Blake Edwards’ Experiment in Terror, a 1962 Hitchcock-esque thriller starring Lee Remick and Glenn Ford. This film also features a climax at a ballpark — in this case Candlestick Park in San Francisco, where the climactic events occur during a Giants/Dodgers game, and we see game action that includes Hall-of-Famer Don Drysdale, star outfielder and unibrow owner Wally Moon, and John Roseboro, the catcher most famous for being the guy Juan Marichal hit with a baseball bat. Anyway, it’s good, and Edwards — who sandwiched this movie in between two major hits, Breakfast at Tiffany’s the year before and The Pink Panther the year after — knew how to make movies.

Those of you looking for something from classic Hollywood might consider checking out 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, the film made to lionize Lou Gehrig, released just a year after his death. Gary Cooper plays Gehrig, and Babe Ruth appears as himself (alongside a few other Yankees), and it was nominated for a whole bunch of Oscars including Best Actor for Cooper and Best Picture. For some time, Cooper’s version of the “luckiest man” speech was more well-known than the actual Gehrig one, of which we have actual footage (though not of the whole speech). Gehrig delivers it better, in my opinion.

A lesser-known, excellent film that is more a movie about guys who happen to play baseball than it is a baseball movie is 1973’s Bang the Drum Slowly, a drama about a pitcher and catcher for a fictional version of the Yankees who are trying to hide the fact that the catcher is severely ill. The most notable aspect of the film is that the catcher is played by a relatively unknown young actor named Robert De Niro. Six weeks after Bang the Drum Slowly was released in 1973, Mean Streets came out, which kicked off one of the most successful decades in the history of Hollywood, as De Niro would star in The Godfather: Part II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy all within the next nine years.

While it doesn’t fit with the rest because it’s not a traditional narrative film, I’m going to give a shoutout to Ken Burns’ Baseball, the 1994 documentary (that had a postscript added in 2010) that does what it does better than any other doc about baseball out there. The number of legendary players included, balanced with (mostly) good journalists and writers, paints a comprehensive picture of baseball from its earliest days to the present. It’s also how the incomparable Buck O’Neil was introduced to much of America, which is possibly its greatest legacy.

Others

First, I will confess a major blind spot in my baseball-movie-watching history: I’ve never seen The Bad News Bears, neither the original 1976 version nor its 2005 remake. I understand that this movie has a loyal following, and it does seem like something I’d like. I tried to watch it this week, but it wasn’t streaming anywhere and I didn’t have enough time to order it. I promise I will get to it!

Some of you are going to yell at me, but I’m going to say it anyway: The Natural is a completely bonkers movie. This film not only asks us to accept 48-year-old Robert Redford as a 19-year-old boy, but it also includes a serial killer who preys on famous athletes, a gambling plot clearly inspired by the Black Sox, a weird love triangle that includes a long-lost son, and a Major League-esque race to win the pennant in order to stick it to an evil owner. There’s also the absurdity that Redford’s Roy Hobbs is given his chance when the guy blocking him from getting into games in the outfield crashes into the fence and dies. It’s basically Eight Men Out, Major League, and The Rookie combined into a single movie, with an added dash of ludicrousness.

I’ll give a quick shout to 2001’s Hardball, a movie where Keanu Reeves plays a degenerate gambler who, in order to pay off his debts, must coach an inner-city baseball team. It’s melodramatic but it’s pretty good, and it features 14-year-old Michael B. Jordan, right before he showed everyone why he’d eventually be a star on HBO’s The Wire.

The Jackie Robinson story was adequately told in 2013’s 42, a not bad but somewhat forgettable film starring the late Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as the Dodgers’ GM, Branch Rickey.

Lastly, I’ll mention Mr. 3000, a movie I have never seen. As far as I know it’s the only major film to ever feature the Milwaukee Brewers prominently. Harrison says he loves it but it isn’t good. You can all let me know in the comments.

FWIW, a national SB Nation Reacts survey produced the following results:

Victor Scott II is one of the most interesting players the Cardinals have rostered in quite some time. He has plus-plus speed, elite defense, and swings the bat with the ferocity of a house cat playing with a ball of yarn. While the Redbird infield has players in place that you could envision playing for the next World Series contending team, the outfield is a series of question marks. Lars Nootbaar has never had the breakout many hoped for and is now two years away from free agency, and could be moved by the trade deadline. Jordan Walker continues his quest to regain the lost luster of his prospect pedigree. Scott had an up-and-down 2025 season, but showed big improvements on both sides of the ball, setting him up as a potential breakout candidate for 2026.

2025 Recap

Scott carried a 94 wRC+ through June and had posted 1.7 fWAR in just 283 plate appearances. The WAR was, of course, propped up by excellent defense and baserunning, but he was playing at a borderline All-Star pace for most of the first half. There were signs that this would be difficult to sustain as he was running a 27.2% strikeout rate and had a high .337 BABIP. The rest of the season did not go as well. Over his final 59 games, Scott was exactly replacement level and saw his batting average fall below the Mendoza line as he scraped along with a 46 wRC+. Despite the poor results offensively, there were positives. His xwOBA, which measures his expected results, was virtually unchanged in the second half. More importantly, he cut his strikeout rate to 18.9%. His overall batting line was torpedoed by a .210 BABIP. On the season, he ranked fifth among all outfielders in FanGraphs’ defensive value metric. His value on the basepaths was 13th in all of baseball, sandwiched between Chandler Simpson and Fernando Tatis II. Scott trailed only Trea Turner in sprint speed at 30.2 feet per second. 

Without belaboring the point, Scott is awesome at baseball except when he is standing in the batters box. If he can find a way to scrape together a league-average batting line, he will be a certifiable weapon and establish himself as one of the most valuable center fielders in baseball. To be fair, this same thing applies to many defensive specialist types. We saw the version of this actually working out with Tommy Edman putting up 15 WAR on the back of his speed and defense. Harrison Bader would fit in this bucket of recent Cardinals as well. Without some offensive production, you are left with Peter Bourjos or Michael Siani, players that may fit on a roster, but cannot hold down a starting job long term. 

You can count Oli Marmol as one of Scott’s believers. When he was interviewed at Winter Warmup, he twice brought Scott up, without being prompted, as a player he was excited about coming into the season. He spoke glowingly about Scott’s work ethic and maturity, giving him a real chance to make the necessary adjustments offensively. Scott himself spoke openly at Winter Warmup saying, “I told them I wanted to come back a totally different player.” Scott went on to detail how he had returned to West Virginia over the offseason for a panel of motion capture and force plate testing to try and diagnose his offensive woes. The testing showed that his movements were inefficient and hurt his ability to be “adjustable.” He went on to say that his mechanics caused him to spin off the ball and sweep too many grounders to second base. He did not go into too much depth on what the specific changes to his mechanics would be, although he did mention better shin angles and more efficient rotation via getting into his front side better. I will leave the mechanical analysis to people with a better eye for scouting, but Scott was explicit in what he wanted the outcome of the adjustments to be. Going into 2026, his stated focus will be on being shorter to the ball, being more adjustable (particularly to breaking balls), taking the ball the other way, and trying to drive the ball into the gaps rather than over the fence.

Key Things That Define Scott as a Hitter

To evaluate the adjustments Scott is attempting to make, we need a clear understanding of who he is as a hitter today. There are three specific things in Scott’s profile that, when combined, make him an incredibly unique hitter. 

Exit Velocity – His average exit velocity ranks 167th out of 177 players with at least 450 plate appearances. This by itself is not a problem, as the bottom of the rankings are populated by plenty of productive hitters like Jacob Wilson, Luis Arraez, and Steven Kwan. With Scott saying specifically he is going to focus more on gap-to-gap line drive and opposite field coverage, he is prioritizing improving his hit tool rather than maximizing his power. With Scott’s long track record of limited power output, this approach is more achievable than trying to be a poor man’s Cody Bellinger or Cedric Mullins, lefty swingers who maximize limited bat speed by hitting at higher launch angles. 

Out-of-Zone Contact – Scott’s overall contact rate is 75.6%, which is roughly league average. His contact rate on pitches outside the zone, however, is an abysmal 46.6%, about 9% lower than league average. Similarly to ranking low in the power department, this does not preclude hitters from being successful. In fact, Aaron Judge ranked last in baseball in this metric. Right behind Scott in the rankings are Jeremy Pena, Michael Busch, and Mike Trout. Directly ahead of him are Fernando Tatis II, Jo Adell, and Elly De La Cruz. You don’t have to be a genius analyst to spot the outlier here. It is OK to swing and miss, but only if you scorch the ball when you do connect.

Swing Decisions – To round out Scott’s unusual profile, he makes fantastic swing decisions. He is excellent at laying off balls, which helps mitigate his contact issues, and he swings aggressively at pitches in the zone. His zone swing % minus his out-of-zone swing % is 13th in all of baseball.

The combination of poor contact and excellent swing decisions give Scott the profile and approach of a slugger who is sitting back trying to punish pitches in the zone, even at the expense of some strikeouts. The icing on the cake is that Scott also has a launch angle that is several points above league average. Scott is basically Shohei Ohtani trapped in, well, Victor Scott’s body… Since writing an article titled “Victor Scott Is the Next Shohei Ohtani” would get me banned from the internet and banished from polite society, I will focus on the more realistic path. 

The eight softest-hitting (by exit velocity), left-handed swinging players in baseball last year were: Adam Frazier, Sal Frelick, Zach McKinstry, Luis Arraez, Victor Scott II, Steven Kwan, Jung Hoo Lee, and TJ Friedl.  The average wRC+ of the lefty slapper comp group is 105 with a pretty tight range of 89 to 114 (excluding Scott). For Scott, anything in this range would be a huge success. Looking at this group of players, the underlying metrics are remarkably similar. You have a few outliers, like Arraez’s ultra-high contact or McKinstry getting to slightly higher max exit velocities and producing a decent slugging percentage, but overall, these players get to their production in similar ways.  Scott’s contact rate kept him from equaling the production of this group as it was ten points below the next man on the list, TJ Friedl. Digging into the data a bit further, his abysmal contact rate on balls outside the zone is driven by a 24% contact rate on breaking balls. To provide some context on just how dreadful this is, the rest of the group had a contact rate of 62% on breaking balls outside the zone. Scott’s struggles against breaking balls help explain how he has run such a high strikeout rate despite making great swing decisions and an average amount of contact overall.

Reasons for Optimism

Contact Rate Can Be Improved

For players that received at least 450 MLB plate appearances in both 2024 and 2025, the largest improvement in contact rate was 7% by our old friend Paul Goldschmidt. Seven players out of the 115-player sample had an increase of 5% or greater. Scott needs to see this level of improvement, at a minimum. It is a lot to ask, but he has a plan in place specifically to address his struggles with off-speed pitches and breaking balls, so this will be a metric worth following in the early going.  

The Bunting Can’t Get Worse

At Winter Warmup, Scott said that he had been bunting like crazy this offseason. I know bunting can be a divisive topic, so I will just share some numbers and not plant a flag. Scott was 7 for 26 in bunt attempts for a .269 average. Beyond the bunting-for-hits results, Scott also laid down 10 sac bunts and fouled off or missed an additional 32 bunts. Within our comp group, Friedl was successful on a shocking 11 of his 18 bunt attempts for a cool .611 batting average. Kwan was the second most prolific bunter, reaching safely on six of 13 attempts. Overall, Scott was by far the worst bunter despite attempting to bunt far more frequently than his peers, so there is plenty of upside here in just improving on a poor baseline. If he is going to keep bunting in 2026, I am glad he has been working on it. 

There Are Already Some Skills in Place

While Scott’s issues making contact, particularly on breaking balls, are his biggest obstacle, there are some things working in his favor too. He is excellent at laying off pitches outside the zone, which helps mitigate his swing-and-miss issues. He maintains this discipline not by being passive, as he is extremely aggressive in swinging at pitches in the zone. This is a great starting point and could make him an absolute pest to deal with if he can make more contact. He also ran solid contact rates in the minor leagues right around 80%, so there is some precedent of better performance. 

Looking Ahead

I am just as skeptical as the next person when it comes to offseason hype around player adjustments, trips to Driveline, and new conditioning regimens. I do put real weight behind Marmol’s confidence in Scott. I also think Scott’s stated goals for improving his offensive production are right in line with what the data shows. Diving into underlying metrics with players often leads to the conclusion, whether true or not, that they are actually better than their surface-level stats or that they are one small tweak away from making a jump forward. With Scott, I had the opposite reaction; he needed a massive overhaul to his approach and improvements to key parts of his game, or he would be relegated to being a fourth or fifth outfielder. Thankfully, we are just a few short weeks away from getting our first glimpse of the new Victor Scott II in game action.

DRaysBay works best as a place for community and conversation. Accordingly, in the lead up to the new season, we are posting “Daily Questions” in the month of February. I look forward to seeing you in the comment section!

For years folks have said baseball belongs outdoors and not on artificial turf made from coconuts. Playing in the elements on Dale Mabry had its perks, but for the players on the field in particular, also some key draw backs. So be honest, will you miss it?

The Super Bo—

I mean “Big Game” is tomorrow, which means as an Eagles fan, I can only say they are reigning champs for something like 40 more hours.

Which is fine because I am ready for baseball season.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Babe, wake up. Keith Law just released his top twenty Phillies prospects ($). Spoiler: it’s Aidan Miler leading the way.
• Speaking of Miller, the hype around him is growing with each passing prospect list. Will he be able to live up to said hype?
• Good story: Dickie Thon, former Phillies shortstop, donated his kidney in order to save his son’s life.

MLB news:

• The World Baseball Classic is almost here, but Javier Baez will not be taking part due to marijuana usage….in 2023.
• Spring training is due to open up in about a week, but there are a lot of players that are still available. Here is a list of all the good ones at each position ($).
• Emmanuel Clase, if the indictment is to be believed, was a little more busy making bets that originally thought.
• Buck Martinez has retired as Blue Jays broadcaster.

I just read Bill Shaikin's excellent column contrasting the Dodgers' option to visit the White House with Jackie Robinson's legendary civil rights stands throughout his life.

As a lifetime Dodger fan who has tried to stay as apolitical as possible, I would be absolutely ashamed of my Dodgers if they were to attend this photo op. I was ashamed last year, too. But nowhere near as much as this year.

Please don't go.

Eric Monson
Temecula

Just to let Dave Roberts know, there is something bigger than baseball. On the wall in my den are my father’s medals: a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star from when the United States sent my father, Marcelo Villanueva, and others like him, to fight Adolf Hitler.

When our freedoms are being taken away, it’s not OK if you go to the White House and visit the man who is taking them away. Which means my father fought for nothing. You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t deserve to wear the same uniform Jackie Robinson did.

Ed Villanueva
Chino Hills

I agree with Bill Shaikin that for the world champion Dodgers to visit the fascist friendly White House would be an implicit contradiction of Jackie Robinson’s legacy. Most of the players probably don’t care, but you wish a manager like Dave Roberts (in L.A.!) were as smart and sensible as Steve Kerr. Apparently he is not.

Sean Mitchell
Dallas

I couldn’t disagree more with Bill Shaikin and his stance that the Dodgers should decline the opportunity to visit the White House. In a world of increasing stresses and dangers, sports is, or should be, a reprieve from the news reported on the front pages. After 9/11, for example, we celebrated the return of baseball as a valued respite from the tragedies we were dealing with. Allow baseball to continue to be this respite, Bill, and stop trying to drag sports into the fray.

Steve Kaye
Oro Valley, Ariz.

Bad look, Dave. It doesn’t help to invoke Jackie Robinson, then in the next breath, “I am (just) a baseball manager.”

Can’t have it both ways. Shaikin is right. Decline.

Joel Soffer
Long Beach

If Roberts feels he needs to go, he should. But the rest of the team should not. Dodger management should support them. Roberts conveniently thinks that going is not a political statement. It is. Roberts’ going supports Trump. The man who raised him and served this country did not do so to see it under the thumb of a corrupt man who attacks all that it has stood for. Today we are all politically identified by the choices we make. There’s no avoiding it.

Eric Nelson
Encinitas

Bill Shaikin nailed it when he talked about and quoted Jackie Robinson and compared him to Dave Roberts' spineless decision to take the Dodgers to the White House. It's "only" sports? A team of this renown, in a city terrorized by ICE, in a state directly harmed by Trump? Thank you, Mr. Shaikin, for calling Roberts out.

Ellen Butler
Long Beach

Thank you, Dave Roberts, for making the decision to go to the White House and celebrate our Dodgers' victory in the World Series. It’s a thing called respect for the office of the president no matter what political party is involved. I don’t care about the L.A. Times sports writers' politics, so keep your political opinions out of the Sports pages.

Lance Oedekerk
Upland

No defense for Lakers

With the return of Austin Reaves, the Lakers are back to their three scoring leaders, who can't play defense, which doesn't bode well for the Lakers' playoff chances.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

By trading for Luke Kennard, who is an excellent shooter but inadequate defender, it seems as though the Lakers will disregard defense in the hopes of outscoring opponents. What's the Lakers' next move, rehiring Mike D'Antoni?

Richard Raffalow
Valley Glen

Curses! Clippers fans say

The Bill Plaschke curse is alive and well as described last week. The other one in L.A. is the Clipper curse. With the trade of James Harden to Cleveland for Darius Garland, the curse will be Harden finally winning an NBA championship and Garland continuing to be injury prone and not playing comparable to his past.

Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos

We pause this 17-4 sprint by the Clippers, who are passing teams and headed for playoff contention, for this message from Steve Ballmer and Lawrence Frank: “This is fool's gold. We’re trading away our top players. The season is officially over.”

These trades would have been available at season’s end, maybe even with a better return not under the gun of the trade deadline. Instead, the best of James Harden, Ivica Zubac and a finally healthy Kawhi Leonard has been flushed. Unless there is more to the Leonard story indicating an impending punishment from the NBA, this is an absolute disservice to Clippers fans this year and in immediate years to come.

Robert Goldstone
Corona del Mar

High scores for this pair

Your piece on Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner was heartwarming and most enjoyable. My favorite part of their story is simply that, through everything, they’re still good friends.

Anthony Moretti
Lomita

Speaking of curses

Since Bill Plaschke is picking the Patriots, I'll select the Seahawks and Sam Darnold to win Super Bowl LX.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

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