Category: Sports News

Jaylon Thompson wrote about the first full-squad workout on Monday.

The Royals expect most of the spring competition to be reserve roles. The starting lineup is pretty much set with Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez leading the way.

“I mean, without naming names, it’s very obvious who some of the everyday guys are,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “The competition is going to be how we fill out the last, you know, I’ll say 10 through 13. You know, we have some guys that have more experience than others, but it’ll play out in spring training. And I think our guys are hungry. I think they understand what the competition is like. They want to go out and win.”

Anne Rogers writes about the team testing out the new ABS challenge system.

“We are going to talk about that a little bit to see who’s going to challenge,” catcher Salvador Perez said Saturday. “Early in the game, if we lose a challenge, we may need it later in the game. It’s like, ‘Should we wait?’ Even if the umpire makes a little mistake, you have to be 100% right to challenge in the first three innings. That’s kind of what I think. But I have to wait for Skip [manager Matt Quatraro] and see what Bobby [Witt Jr.], Vinnie and Maikel [Garcia] think about that.”

Stephen Kolek will start the Cactus League opener on Friday against the Rangers.

Union reps came to Royals camp following the resignation of head Tony Clark.

“It was a good meeting,” said John Schreiber, who is the Royals’ player representative. “A lot of questions from guys and a lot of positive feedback. So feeling good about where we are right now. Obviously, it’s a little bit of a disappointment. A little bit of a challenge with what came out yesterday and all that stuff. But, you know, the unity and strength we have from this union from the players is what it’s about.”

David Schoenfield at ESPN gives the Royals a “C” for their offseason.

Kansas City outfielders hit a miserable .225/.285/.348 last season, which isn’t going to work if the Royals want to return to the postseason. They acquired Collins from the Brewers after he hit .263/.368/.411 and finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting, but he was a 27-year-old rookie, so there isn’t any growth potential there — more likely some regression. Still, if he can get on base at a reasonable clip, he’ll give the Royals the leadoff hitter they lacked a season ago. Thomas hasn’t been good since 2023, so it’s unclear why the Royals would give him $5.25 million coming off a season in which he hit .160. Call it a ho-hum offseason that gets a boost with the underrated Maikel Garcia signing an extension that runs through 2031.

Philip Ruo at Royals Keep wonders who will lead off for the Royals in 2026.

Dan Szymborski has Carter Jensen at #15 and Blake Mitchell at #96 in his ZIPS top prospects.

The Astros sign former Royals infielder CJ Alexander to a minor league deal.

The Braves will be without pitchers Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep for the first two months.

The Mariners sign catcher Mitch Garver to a minor league deal.

Ten positional battles in MLB camps to be decided in spring training.

The Astros have interest in free agent outfielder Michael Conforto.

The key player for each World Baseball Classic team.

Bruce Meyer is named Executive Director of the MLBPA.

Aaron Judge wants to improve his baserunning.

Why the Orioles may not want to trade Coby Mayo or Ryan Mountcastle.

The Mets will never have a team captain under owner Steve Cohen.

How ten teams can overcome their playoff odds.

The Chiefs restructure Patrick Mahomes’ contract to free up more cap space.

The winners and losers from the first week of the Winter Olympics.

Antarctica has a gravity hole.

Cocaine is having a comeback.

The first worldwide Tic Tac Toe championship will be at SXSW.

Your song of the day is Built to Spill with The Plan.

Now that Spring Training is getting into full swing, various interviews are popping up ahead of Saturday’s games. Foul Territory posted many interviews from Guardians camp. The full, two-hour video is available on YouTube.

GM Mike Chernoff talked Travis Bazanna timetable, off season signings (and the lack thereof), and signing José. Players Gavin Williams, Slade Cecconi, Hunter Gaddis, and Cade Smith also made appearances.

Mason Horodyski of Channel 5 News also had a few interviews posted on his Twitter page. Gavin Williams spoke on his bond with Carl Willis. Slade Cecconi talked his mystic prediction powers and the power of friendship. Parker Messick is toying with a cutter. Hunter Gaddis gave his thoughts on how the new gaggle of bullpen pitchers are fitting in.

It was already announced the Logan T. Allen and Joey Cantillo will be getting the starts on Saturday. LTA will start at home against the Reds and Cantillo on the road against the Brewers.

As of yesterday, it is official perpetual baseball season:

Good morning baseball fans!

As we approach the beginning of the season, we’re going to be doing some questions for y’all about your thoughts about the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general!

Today’s question: What would be the darkest timeline for this season?

For those unfamiliar with the premise of the “darkest timeline,” it’s based on the episode of Community titled “Remedial Chaos Theory” in which a storyline plays out in various alternate realities based on the decision of which one of the main characters would go downstairs to get pizza.

You’ve probably seen the bit where Donald Glover’s character re-enters the scene with the pizzas while everything around him is on fire. And that wasn’t even the darkest timeline, just the most memorable (and meme-able) moment.

Basically the darkest timeline is the worst possible outcome with everything going as wrong as it could possibly go based on one factor changing.

A Giants example of this would be kind of like the 2021 team busting their butts, winning every game they possibly could win, only to have the Los Angeles Dodgers keep pace with them until the bitter end and ultimately overtake them in the first round of the playoffs because they were all tired as heck. And the Dodgers are like the monster in a horror movie.

You could also make a case for the 2011 season going pear-shaped after Buster Posey was injured. Or simply Game 6 of the 2002 World Series.

But in keeping with the spirit of the prompt, I’m going to go in a comical direction (read: joke. this is going to be a joke) and lay out my scenario for what could be the darkest timeline for the 2026 team.

On Opening Day, Tony Vitello is being hounded by the press after his recent statements about the handling of the announcement of his hiring, which causes a few too many people to be in a pre-game press conference in the dugout.

One of the attendees tries to toss a banana peel into the trash on their way out, but doesn’t realize they missed because they’re distracted by Lou Seal carrying a tray of drinks, dancing on the top of the dugout. Raphael Devers then slips on the banana peel, in cartoonish fashion, leading to a season ending injury.

Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames try to help, but Devers knocked over the water cooler on his way down and everything is slippery, so they crash into each other and end up on the concussion protocol for weeks.

Logan Webb attempts to set a good example to the rest of his team, and goes to warm up for the game. Unfortunately, he gets stung by a bee, causing him to throw an errant pitch directly into the knee of Matt Chapman, sidelining him for several days or even weeks, depending on the results of his MRI.

Lou Seal attempts to help boost morale by bringing the tray of drinks to the remaining players in the dugout, but trips on his way down the steps and spills hot coffee everywhere, as Patrick Bailey yells: “My eyes! The doctor said I’m not supposed to get coffee in them!”

The entirety of the infield and half of the relievers are now down with third degree burns, so Vitello begs the ownership to make corresponding moves immediately so they can actually field a team. But they’ve already spent too much money on real estate developments for the year, so they just send him deeds to various properties to shove into gloves and he tells them to take the field. And the season is over before it’s even started.

Annnnd, scene.

Feel free to come up with your own comical scenario, or go with something more realistic and depressing. Up to you!

What would be the darkest timeline for this season?

There was a time, not so long ago, when bullpen roles felt rigid. The setup man handled the eighth. The closer handled the ninth. Everyone else filled in the gaps and tried not to make a mess of things. But if there’s one quiet constant of Brewers baseball over the last several years, it’s this: they’ve understood the value of the multi-inning reliever better than most.

This isn’t some trendy, Rays-style opener experiment. It’s more practical than that. The Brewers have consistently built bullpens that don’t just survive when a starter exits in the fifth inning; they stabilize the game. And that stability often comes from the guy who throws the sixth and seventh instead of just one clean inning with the bases empty.

Modern starting pitching just doesn’t last the way it used to. Even good starters are carefully managed the third time through the order. Injuries pile up. Pitch counts climb. October-style urgency seeps into random Tuesday nights in June. If your bullpen is constructed entirely of one-inning specialists, you’re asking for burnout by August.

The Brewers have largely avoided that trap.

Think back to how they’ve deployed arms over the past several seasons. Whether it was a converted starter finding new life in relief or a swingman shuttling between roles, Milwaukee has consistently found ways to squeeze two or three innings out of pitchers who might be pigeonholed elsewhere. When a starter exits after four innings, it’s not a scramble. It’s often a bridge.

And that bridge matters more than the ninth inning sometimes.

We spend a lot of time talking about closers, and understandably so. High-leverage outs are dramatic. But the highest leverage point in a game frequently arrives in the sixth with two on and one out, not the ninth with the bases empty. The Brewers have shown a willingness to let their better non-closer arms handle those spots and keep going if they’re efficient. That’s not old-school long relief. That’s targeted aggression.

It also protects the bullpen as a whole. If one reliever can give you 2 1/3 clean innings on 28 pitches, that’s two other arms who get a full day off. Over 162 games, those saved bullets add up. Milwaukee’s ability to keep its late-inning arms fresh deep into seasons hasn’t been accidental. The approach fits the organization’s broader identity.

The Brewers are rarely the team with the deepest rotation on paper. They don’t wade into the top tier of free agency for 200-inning workhorses — just look at them trading aces like Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta before they inevitably lose them to free agency.

Instead, they build layers of pitching. Optionable depth. Pitchers with starter backgrounds who can slide into relief. Relievers who can stretch beyond the standard three outs if the matchup and pitch count allow it.

It’s flexible, and flexibility is currency in today’s game.

There’s also a developmental angle here. Milwaukee has long shown a knack for identifying pitchers with one or two standout traits and maximizing them. A fastball with unusual ride. A breaking ball with elite spin. In shorter bursts, those traits can dominate. But when those pitchers prove capable of turning a lineup over once without losing effectiveness, the Brewers don’t rush to cap them at a single inning. They experiment. They stretch them to 30 or 40 pitches. They see what happens.

Often, what happens is that the middle innings stop being a liability.

That might not show up in the save column, but it shows up in win expectancy. It shows up in series wins where the bullpen doesn’t feel fried by Sunday afternoon. It shows up in September when key relievers still have life on their fastballs.

If you want some easy current examples, look at Aaron Ashby and Jared Koenig, not to mention the now-departed Tobias Myers, all of whom filled that role at different points in 2025.

None of this means the Brewers have reinvented bullpen strategy. Plenty of teams deploy multi-inning arms. But Milwaukee has made it a habit rather than a contingency plan. When things go sideways early, they don’t panic. They patch the game together with purpose.

In a division that rarely offers much margin for error, that matters.

The art of the multi-inning reliever isn’t flashy. It won’t generate jersey sales. But it’s one of the reasons the Brewers so often feel competitive even when a game starts tilting in the wrong direction. They don’t just chase the final three outs. They control the gray area in the middle, and more often than not, that’s where games are actually decided.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – The Colorado Rockies invited 20 non-roster players to join Major League camp this year. Chief among them is their 2025 No. 2 prospect Charlie Condon (No. 2 Mid-Season PuRP).

The IF/OF was drafted third-overall in the 2024 MLB Draft out of the University of Georgia and has had a meteoric rise through the system. He finished 2025 in Double-A Hartford before being selected to the Arizona Fall League. While in the AFL, Condon was also selected as a Fall Star and as the winner of the Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award winner. (In case you’re wondering, he said he put the award “on a dresser in [his] bedroom” but is also hoping to “one day…expand the trophy closet a little more.”)

This year, he made his debut in big-league camp.

“It’s great,” Condon said last weekend of his initial experience. “[It’s] just nice to be around the guys of the big-league group. They’ve been very welcoming to me so far. It’s been a good experience…I know all the guys here are really excited to work.”

Condon has been using the time to get to know all of the teammates he might start playing alongside soon.

“There have been a handful of guys that I’ve overlapped with in the minor league system here,” Condon said, “but just getting to know the guys that I haven’t played with yet [and] getting to know some of the new guys that we brought in this offseason…we’ve got a good group of position players. Just hanging out at first base the past couple of days, we’ve got some great guys over there. So it’s been fun to continue to get to know the guys I have played with and create relationships with the guys I haven’t.”

In addition to meeting his teammates, Condon is also eager to try out some of his offseason adjustments.

“I just worked on adjustability at the plate,” he said. “I brought my hands up a little bit higher to feel a little bit more of a natural turn.

“I felt like I hit well in the Fall League for average, but it’s got to kind of get that OPS and better ball flight [and] kind of feeling more of a natural turn in my swing. So hopefully that’ll lead to some more power production this year and things like that. But other than that, just getting stronger, staying healthy and being ready to go for today.”

In addition to his own personal adjustments, he’s also staying ready for the Rockies in whatever position they might need him to play – either strictly at first base or in the outfield.

“I’m kind of day-to-day wherever they need me,” he said. 

“The majority of my work has been at first base recently, but I still get out in the outfield and shag some balls during BP. [I] keep getting routes in and things like that so the corner outfields are never foreign to me, so [I’m] just keeping those in my back pocket. Wherever they need me – I feel comfortable at first base, I feel comfortable in the corner outfields, and [I’ll] just keep going from there.”

Condon is most looking forward to “the challenge” of big league camp.

“I feel like this is the best competition I’m going to have seen so far in my career, and I’m excited for it,” he said, smiling. 

“I feel like I’ve shown well against some of the other competition in the minor leagues, but [this is] as high as you can get to face the best competition you can. I’m excited about that, and I’m excited about growing closer with this group of guys as well.”

And most of all, he – like many others – is taking note of the clubhouse vibes.

“Obviously I wasn’t in big league camp last year, but there feels to be a different energy amongst the guys around here with the new leadership that we have,” he said. “There’s a lot of optimism, which is great. I think we’ve got some people in the right places and [we’re] just going to continue to keep moving forward and pushing the rock a little bit further.”

Rockies embrace ‘Camp Schaeffer’ as franchise tries new methods to turn things around | Denver Post ($)

After being lauded as “insular” for many years, the Rockies are doing things differently this year — they’re opening camp up. On Tuesday, they sent out footage of a base-running drill; yesterday, they were very intentional about showing the media what a ‘day in the life’ looks like under the new regime. Schaeffer and DePodesta have said repeatedly that they value transparency and communication — and this is more proof of that.

RJ Petit aims to make impact with Rockies after Rule 5 draft selection | Denver Gazette ($)

RJ Petit was taken in the Rule 5 Draft by the Colorado Rockies in December and will be part of the Rockies’ bullpen in 2026. Kevin Henry profiles the towering 6-foot-8, 300-pound right-hander and what he could bring to the table.

Grading The Colorado Rockies Potential Starting Rotation For 2026 | Sports Illustrated

As we’ve discussed at length recently, grades are always arbitrary, especially when it comes to the national media and the Colorado Rockies. However, Jeremy Gretzer gave the Rockies’ rotation a B- for their efforts to retool and bolster a young rotation, even though they have a long way to go to completely rebuild the thing. He predicts the rotation as Kyle Freeland, José Quintana, Michael Lorenzen, Tomoyuki Sugano and Ryan Feltner. Do you agree with his grade and rotation?

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

We need to start this with an acknowledgement that Anthony Volpe will turn 25 on April 28th, the same age Aaron Judge was in his breakout season, so we can’t write the Yankee shortstop off just yet. Ok, age acknowledged.

I do still think the Yankees have an Anthony Volpe problem. The club has given him all the runway in the world — 472 games played out of a possible 486 to start his career. In that time he has never been a league average hitter, and while his 2024 was above average, entirely due to his strong defense, the onetime Top 10 prospect in baseball hasn’t exactly lived up to his billing.

And as Yogi said, it gets late early out there. Volpe has just three years of team control left, admittedly with players’ contract status ahead of a possible work stoppage next season up in the air. If his baseline is an 85ish wRC+ and you’re relying on defense, that’s not exactly something you want to bank on as arbitration raises creep up.

Volpe has also never been optioned to Triple-A, which is what we’re here to talk about today. He’s not going to be ready for Opening Day, as he continues to recover from shoulder surgery in the offseason. It’s tempting to bank on his healthy return being enough for a step forward, except for his remarkable consistency in producing a .660 OPS over three seasons. A rehab assignment is all but guaranteed, but I think the Yankees should go further than that.

I’m willing to concede that Volpe’s shoulder injury contributed to his poor defense, but his approach at the plate has been all over the place throughout his career. He’s vacillated between a contact-heavy attitude and one that prioritizes driving the ball in the air, and neither have really stuck. He runs into troughs where he steps in the bucket on every swing for three weeks that guts his overall production, even when he manages to establish some kind of average-or-better batting line.

Two months with Scranton allows Volpe to fully recover from labrum surgery, as well as work out those persistent mechanical failures in a much-lower-stakes environment. José Caballero, who will be at shortstop on Opening Day, is projected to produce exactly the same as Tony Fox’s 2025, and five points of wRC+ shy of Volpe’s 2026 projections. In effect, the Yankees have two Anthony Volpes on the roster already — Caballero shined in his post-trade-deadline time with the Yankees, so giving him some room to run starting the season may help him stay on that higher level, while giving Volpe time to correct his habitual swing failures can help HIM in the long run.

There is an icky factor to this suggestion, of course. A player accrues a year of MLB service after 172 days on either the 26 man roster or the injured list. Rehab assignments come within the scope of an IL stint, so Volpe would continue to accrue service on a brief trip to Scranton. Wheat I’m proposing is a much longer time at Triple-A, one that would make it impossible for Volpe to be on the 26-man roster for 172 days. This will delay Volpe’s free agency, ticketing him for the 2030 class instead of 2029.

That’s no small sacrifice to ask of a player, especially a player who could have his age-26 season wiped out by a work stoppage. You don’t need a player’s consent for a minor league option until he has five years of MLB service, but being clear with Volpe about the expectations, and the investment in his long-term success, would be crucial to this kind of decision.

I believe there is a world where Anthony Volpe could be an above-average MLB hitter. I believe that he has strange mechanical deviations and I also believe he has gotten into his own head on more than one occasion. Giving him a real Triple-A run, with a real chance at fixing what’s broken in his offensive approach, is the best way to square that complicated circle.

The Orioles outfield is completely remade going into the 2026 season, with Colton Cowser now the full time CF and Taylor Ward brought in to man LF. However, the Orioles outfielder I am most excited to see take the field in 2026 is rookie Dylan Beavers.

The 24-year-old former Cal Golden Bear comes into 2026 after a 2025 season that saw him take a massive leap as a player. Beavers finished the 2024 season as the Orioles No. 8 prospect, seemingly destined to remain stuck behind Heston Kjerstad and Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the O’s prospect pecking order. Instead, Beavers parlayed a Triple-A season that saw him hit .304 with a .934 OPS, 15 HRs and 31 SBs into an August MLB debut and clear status as the Orioles best OF prospect.

However, his rise to Top 100 prospect status and encouraging Major League cameo doesn’t guarantee him a starting spot with the 2026 O’s. With Ward and Cowser set for a lion share of the playing time in left and center, Beavers is set to battle it out with Tyler O’Neill for the RF job.

If O’Neill can stay healthy, the two may form a platoon with Beavers playing against right handed pitchers and TON playing against lefties. Beavers was particularly strong against righties in his short debut, posting a .798 OPS with eight extra-base hits in 90 ABs. If he can improve upon those numbers, he may force manager Craig Albernaz to give him the every-day RF role.

Major projection sites seem differ on how they think Beavers’ season will play out:

• ZiPS: .249/.336/.414 with 17 HR and 15 SB in 550 PA
• BRef: .247/.347/.407 with 8 HR and 5 SB in 269 PA

FanGraphs’ ZiPS projection paints a picture of Beavers playing a major role in the Orioles outfield, getting close to a 20/20 season while taking a slight step back from the .375 on-base percentage he posted in 2025. It helps that ZiPS projects the oft-injured O’Neill to only play 89 games in 2026.

Baseball Reference projects Beavers as more of a part-time player who splits time all season with O’Neill. Each projection service projects the 24-year-old to take a jump in his batting average, while taking a dip on on-base percentage and maintaining his slugging output.

If Beavers outperforms the modest projections, he could become the exact hitter the exact hitter the Orioles need at the top of their lineup. In his 35 games last season, he posted an elite chase rate and BB%, suggesting the .375 OPS is something that he can maintain as he gains more Major League exposure. He also showcased near elite speed that could make 25+ SB a real possibility. If everything breaks right, the O’s could have a faster version of Nick Markakis patrolling RF for years to come.

Tom Ricketts is making World Series noises, which ring like endorsing a manager before changing faces. There’s a real spring game tomorrow. Kris Bryant is having a hard time with his chronic pain condition.

*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.

• Marisa Rodriguez (WGN9*): Chicago Cubs to drop life-sized bobbleheads across city on Thursday with a chance to win game tickets. “According to the Cubs, the first 150 people who find a bobblehead or bobblehead box will win a pair of tickets to a regular season game.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs react to Tony Clark resigning as MLBPA executive director: ‘The strength of the union is in the players’. “With the collective-bargaining agreement expiring Dec. 1, the timing isn’t ideal.”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): ‘We have to win more World Series’: Chicago Cubs’ Tom Ricketts has high expectations for 2026 and beyond. “I mean, it’s about winning. All this other stuff, it all leads to one thing, and that’s about winning. We just have to put the kind of teams on the field that can be in the playoffs every year and get back on top.” More from Sahadev Sharma{$}.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Veteran-laden Cubs could ‘do something really special’ after reaching NLDS in ’25. “They expect to make the playoffs this year and hope there is a World Series trophy at the end of the ride.”
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): A look at what three pitchers are working on as the Cubs build rotation depth. “Once a team starts to feel settled, that is usually the moment something goes awry.”
• Randy Holt (North Side Baseball*): Cubs’ bullpen will be better because the Front Office abandoned their usual practices this offseason. “Typically building out a relief corps via waiver claims, reclamation types, and low-risk signings, will the Cubs’ different approach to their bullpen yield anything more in 2026?”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): How USA Baseball shaped Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong long before his first WBC. “… it won’t be the first time he dons Team USA’s stars and stripes. He has been in USA Baseball’s system since 12-and-unders.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Shaw’s focus on basics — and the right glove size — easing move to OF. “… the Cubs are confident that the 24-year-old Shaw will take to the outfield just fine.“
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Could Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki carry postseason momentum through WBC for hot start to 2026? “Suzuki is set to represent Japan in the World Baseball Classic, where he’ll play center field. He leaves Monday to join his national team.” More Suzuki from Forbes* {$}.
• Tommy Birch (Des Moines Register* {$}): Marty Pevey returning for 14th-straight season managing Iowa Cubs. “The winningest and longest tenured manager in Iowa Cubs history will be back in Des Moines this year.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Kris Bryant talks about his pain, and what comes next. “Some days it’s hard to grab the toothpaste in front of me. It’s not like that every day, but those days it’s like you just wish you had some type of answer.”

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.

It’s funny that Tanner Franklin ended up at 12, because that’s about where I thought he’d end up when we started this, and yet it took him a rather long time to actually be added to the voting because he lost two initial votes to players who still haven’t been selected to the top 20. That’s a little odd, and tells me there are certain players where the head-to-head against individual guys may not exactly tell me about his chances to be added to the top 20. Franklin must just be a unique enough pitcher that normal voting rules don’t seem to apply. The current top 20 stands at:

1. JJ Wetherholt
2. Liam Doyle
3. Rainiel Rodriguez
4. Quinn Mathews
5. Jurrangelo Cjintje
6. Joshua Baez
7. Leonardo Bernal
8. Jimmy Crooks
9. Brandon Clarke
10. Tink Hence
11. Tekoah Roby
12. Tanner Franklin

Comparable Player Poll

We’re going to stick to the same theme as yesterday’s polls and run three outfield prospects together and see which player ends up on top. It’s an easy way to turn three potential names that I am considering adding and making it just one name. Makes my job easier later.

Won-Bin Cho has seen some ups and some downs in his short pro career. Things started well enough. He hit reasonably well with a great approach in both the complex league and Low A. He’s had a lot more trouble at High A. He whiffed like crazy and had no power in his first attempt. In his second attempt, his approach was much better, but the results weren’t quite there until a very strong finish to the season. He will either repeat High A with the intention of a quick promotion so long as results are there or he’ll start the year in AA. He’ll be 22.

Colton Ledbetter was the third piece of the Brendan Donovan return. Drafted 55th overall in 2023, Ledbetter played well enough in that draft season at Low A to start his first full pro season in High A. He played there well too, albeit with some strikeout issues. With his promotion to AA, he may have made an emphasis on cutting down his K rate, which he did, but he did see a noticeable drop in power while still managing an above average hitting line. He will be 24 and probably in AAA.

Zach Levenson was drafted in the 5th round of the 2023 draft. While he did well enough in his initial debut season at Low A, he was not particularly impressive in his first attempt at High A. It was almost an average line, but he repeated High A in 2025. This time, he was quite good thanks primarily to an excellent K/BB ratio. He finished the season in AA with a strong showing in 26 games. He will be 24 and probably repeat AA.

VOTE HERE

New Add

There are obviously still prospects who could arguably be on the poll, but I think we’re in a good place where there’s nobody missing that I feel is kind of egregious. That means I think it’s okay to re-add Ryan Mitchell back to the voting. I think he’s going to be on the voting for good and considering everyone on the current list got at least 9 votes, I feel like there’s no real contenders left who could get removed. Never say never, but I probably won’t have to go to that well again just because honestly there won’t be much time to do it.

Jesus Baez, IF – 21

Stats (High A): 416 PAs, .244/.327/.397, 10.3 BB%, 18.5 K%, .153 ISO, .270 BABIP, 116 wRC+, 121 DRC+

Scouting (FG): 30/45 Hit, 35/50 Game Power, 50/55 Raw Power, 40/40 Speed, 40/45 Fielding

The biggest weakness, near as I can tell, is that Baez is immature. He is also about to be 21-years-old. I’ll be very interesting to see how Baez pans out specifically because I kind of want to know how much weight to put on when a scout like Keith Law essentially goes after his character. It’s one sample, so I shouldn’t use his example for all prospects like him but nonetheless I really am not sure how to handle it.

Nathan Church, OF – 25

Stats (AA): 129 PAs, .336/.380/.563, 6.2 BB%, 7.8 K%, .227 ISO, .327 BABIP, 157 wRC+, 136 DRC+

AAA: 242 PAs, .335/.400/.521, 9.9 BB%, 10.3 K%, .186 ISO, .338 BABIP 144 wRC+, 132 DRC+

MLB: 65 PAs, .179/.254/.250, 4.6 BB%, 27.7 K%, .071 ISO, .237 BABIP, 46 wRC+, 78 DRC+

Scouting: 55/55 Hit, 35/35 Game Power, 40/40 Raw Power, 55/55 Speed, 45/45 Field

I know that scouts can’t constantly update their numbers, but I feel like you are clearly out of date if you’re giving Nathan Church a 45 fielding grade. You don’t want to overrate the small sample of fielding numbers that Church currently has, but I will say when a player posts an 84 percentile sprint speed, has a 92 percentile arm speed, and posts a fairly high OAA, we can probably write off him being a below average fielder. That doesn’t feel like asking much. I’m not convinced he’s as good as his numbers were, mind you, but I am convinced he’s an above average fielder at the least.

Yhoiker Fajardo, RHP – 19

Stats (CPX): 6 G, 20.2 IP, 31.6 K%, 9.2 BB%, 51.2 GB%, .205 BABIP, 0.44 ERA/2.41 FIP/3.29 xFIP

Low A: 13 GS, 51.1 IP, 27.8 K%, 9.4 BB%, 50 GB%, .326 BABIP, 2.98 ERA/2.50 FIP/3.14 xFIP

Scouting: 40/45 Fastball, 55/60 Slider, 30/50 Change, 35/50 Command

Acquired in the trade for Willson Contreras, Fajardo is an unusual 19-year-old, because he’s already built up his innings to throw 100 or so innings for the 2026 season. He’s also probably going to be in High A and that is a fairly rare group. His next step is maintaining what he’s been doing, because though he’s a hitter, we saw an example of a very young player struggling to get past High A in Won-Bin Cho these past two seasons. Wouldn’t be totally shocking if he had an adjustment period.

Ixan Henderson, 24 – LHP

Stats (AA): 25 GS, 132 IP, 25.2 K%, 9.6 BB%, 37.1 GB%, .278 BABIP, 2.59 ERA/3.16 FIP/4.00 xFIP/4.51 DRA

Scouting: 50/60 Fastball, 45/50 Slider, 30/40 Change, 40/45 Cutter, 40/50 Command

I’m happy that the voting for Henderson seems to have been unaffected by the recent news of him getting shut down for the moment from throwing. I think that’s the right call. Even if he does end up missing a significant amount of time, it’ll feel more like a hiccup than if say, Tink Hence got injured again. It’s not an injury prone guy who can’t stay healthy, but someone going through the typical injury that just about every starting pitcher seems to face at some point.

Cooper Hjerpe, 25 – LHP

Didn’t pitch

Scouting: 55/55 Fastball, 55/60 Slider, 50/50 Change, 45/50 Cutter, 45/50 Command

Good news about Hjerpe: he had Tommy John surgery in April of last season. That is not a statement that is usually said, but basically it means Hjerpe’s Tommy John recovery should put him in line to throw half a season or so of innings. A very reasonable timeframe of returning in fact would have him in line to throw his career high in professional innings. That’s the bad news about Hjerpe: he hasn’t given us a lot of faith in staying healthy.

Brycen Mautz, 24 – LHP

Stats (AA): 25 GS, 114.2 IP, 28.6 K%, 7.1 BB%. 41.2 GB%, .286 BABIP, 2.98 ERA/3.58 FIP/3.20 xFIP/4.54 DRA

Scouting: 45/45 Fastball, 55/55 Slider, 45/50 Curve, 30/35 Change, 50/55 Command

Mautz has reasonably good scouting, but I’ve always kind of felt like he was almost a scouts versus stats prospect where if scouts were more convinced he would start for sure, then his stats would be good enough to become a legit prospect. What I’m saying is that his stats are strong. He struck out guys, didn’t walk much, got enough groundballs. If he has that exact same line in AAA, he’s an MLB caliber starter I would think.

Ryan Mitchell, 19 – OF

I do not have stats to share with you – I’m sure I can find high school stats, but they aren’t a lot of use on this kind of list. It doesn’t appear Fangraphs has given him scouting grades, I can’t find MLB Pipeline (and I don’t like how they give grades anyway, too high generally). I have access to Baseball Prospectus’ top 20, and while they don’t give Mitchell a scouting grade, I thought just sharing their blurb would suffice:

“Mitchell, a toolsy overslot second-rounder, didn’t play after the draft. For much of his high school career, he would rotate so early that he was more or less standing up when making contact, but his swing became one of the most fun to watch in the class. He dips down a bit and explodes from the lower half. There is some risk he won’t be able to get around against higher velocity fastballs, but his contact rates on the circuit were adequate, and there’s enough athleticism, present bat speed, and physical projection to expect some power. Defensively, he has good actions but could be forced to second base in pro ball. There aren’t any elite tools here, but he presents a pretty well-rounded infield profile and had an arrow up coming into the draft.”

Deniel Ortiz, 21 – 1B/3B

Stats (Low A): 320 PAs, .285/.406/.446, 15.3 BB%, 27.5 K%, .162 ISO, .386 BABIP, 145 wRC+, 119 DRC+

High A: 130 PAs, .336/.438/.500, 13.8 BB%, 22.3 K%, .164 ISO, .436 BABIP, 168 wRC+, 97 DRC+

It feels weird that a player as young as Ortiz playing at two separate levels who dominated both levels was not considered a good enough prospect to give an actual scouting report. I feel like the fact that I’m not sharing any scouting numbers with you makes him harder to grade. He has some swing-and-miss and those lines are uncomfortably BABIP-driven, but he was also 20 at High A who had a 168 wRC+.

Yairo Padilla, 19 – SS

Stats (CPX): 38 G, 148 PAs, .283/.396/.367, 12.2 BB%, 14.2 K%, .083 ISO, .340 BABIP, 119 wRC+

Scouting: 25/55 Hit, 20/55 Game Power, 40/60 Raw Power, 50/40 Speed, 30/40 Field

On the flipside of the scouts versus stats is Padilla on the scouting side. Which is slightly misleading, because as you can see, he does actually have good stats. It’s not necessarily a line that would stand out to me, but an 18-year-old shortstop prospect with a 119 wRC+ in rookie leagues would most likely be a prospect in nearly all outcomes. But clearly there is more power expected specifically and that’s where the scouting part of it comes more into play.

Tai Peete, OF – 20

Stats (High A): 529 PAs, .217/.288/.404, 8.7 BB%, 30.6 K%, .187 ISO, .282 BABIP, 79 wRC+, 79 DRC+

Scouting: 20/30 Hit, 30/50 Game Power, 50/60 Raw Power, 60/60 Speed, 45/55 Fielding

And here we have your classic “if only he could make contact a little bit more” prospect. One quick fix and he’s a super prospect. That fix might be the most difficult thing to fix though. Even with his swing-and-miss stuff, he still had 19 homers in 125 games and had a .189 ISO as a 19-year-old playing in High A. That is not that common. Unfortunately, that pesky contact tool. You’ll see that speed and he did steal 25 bases, although he also got caught an unacceptable 11 times. The year before he stole 45 bases and got 6 times. Not really sure why he was such a worse base stealer, but there is base stealing potential in his future.

VOTE HERE

It’s pitching preview time, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next several days, I’ll be writing 10,000 words or so about everyone you might see pitching for the Red Sox to start the season. I’ve put the team’s starting options into tiers because that’s how my brain works. Don’t think of them as rankings, but rather buckets based on some similarities I see.

Yesterday we started with a look at Garrett Crochet, one of the best pitchers in baseball. Today we move on to..

Tier Two: Been Around The Block

This next tier consists of Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray, the two guys who are getting paid a lot of money to be in the Red Sox rotation. Suarez is entering his eighth season, while Gray is entering his 14th. While labeling guys as “a decent two” or “a three for a playoff team” is a silly endeavor in my opinion, these guys will likely start on the second and third day of the season.

Ranger Suárez

2025 in a sentence: Suarez started the season on the IL, but was rock solid once he got back on the field in May.

Ranger Suarez has been remarkably consistent over the past four seasons. He’s averaging 26 starts, 147 innings, and a 3.59 ERA over that span. 2026 will be his first season with a team not named the Philadelphia Phillies, but you can expect more of the same from Suarez.

For Suarez, it’s all about command. He’s going to be really tough on lefties and won’t see many of them as a result. He pounds the inside part of the plate with sinkers and four-seamers, before turning to his curveball and slider out of the zone to put hitters away. The curveball is particularly effective at getting hitters to expand the zone; the chase rate on the pitch over the last three seasons is nearly 50%. He’ll also mix in his changeup with two strikes, though the Red Sox have generally avoided same-handed changeups. It’s been incredibly effective in small samples, though, so they might allow him to keep that arrow in his quiver.

On the other side, it’s a much more even mix, with each of his five pitches accounting for 15% and 25% of his offerings. His sinker still leads the way and gets early strikes, but the contact against it from righties is better than lefties, while his cutter is a reliable strike-getter early in at-bats as well and avoids hard contact. A kind of fun, or at least fun to me, testament to his command is that only two non-four-seam pitches generated a higher percentage of foul balls than Suarez’s cutter (27.7%). Because he doesn’t use the pitch in two-strike counts very often, those are almost entirely productive pitches.

While Suarez will throw any pitch in any count, he turns to his changeup and curveball most often as his strikeout pitches against righties. The changeup is incredibly effective with a two-strike chase rate of 43%. The curveball isn’t as devastating, but he avoids mistakes with it and can drop it in the zone for free strikes. He uses the four-seam at the top of the zone as well, and it’s outperformed what one might expect given the shape over the past three seasons, with putaway rates over 20% thanks to impeccable command.

Suarez has his approach, and when he executes, he’s as good as anyone. He’s slated to pitch in the World Baseball Classic for Venezuela, which will give us a good look at any tweaks he made to his arsenal over the offseason. It’d be nice to see him gain a tick or two of velocity as well. He was at about 93 mph just two years ago, but a sudden drop has him sitting closer to 90 mph today. Suarez is your favorite pitcher’s favorite pitcher and has shown the ability to survive without premium velocity. I’d expect more of the same from him in 2026.

More Suarez: How new Red Sox pitcher Ranger Suárez finesses his way through a lineup

Sonny Gray

2025 in a sentence: Gray’s season line was marred by a number of blow-up outings, but the underlying numbers paint a better picture.

Sonny Gray had five games with six or more earned runs allowed last season. I hate excluding games from a line because they all count, but I feel comfortable calling that a fluke. His 26.7% strikeout rate was among the best in baseball, as was his 5% walk rate.

Gray had reverse splits in 2025, but is roughly platoon-neutral for his career. He used six different pitches in 2025, with significant differences against each side of the plate. Early in at-bats, righties primarily saw sinkers and cutters, with occasional curveballs dropped in for called strikes. With two strikes, he went to his sweeper. Gray called himself one of the best spinners in the league, and his sweeper supports that. Against righties, nearly one in every four pitches resulted in a whiff. They also swung at over 50% of the sweepers he threw out of the zone. He pairs it with a backdoor sinker that freezes hitters as they give up on the pitch, expecting it to spin off the plate.

Against lefties, Gray used more four-seam fastballs and curveballs early in counts. Each pitch had a strike rate over 65%, but the ideal contact rate against each was on the high side, though opponents hit the ball on the ground frequently. A changeup accounted for 15% of his pitches to lefties, primarily early in at-bats, but a 55% strike rate and 43% ideal contact rate make it a candidate to be replaced by something else. His cutter and sinker each earned strikes at a high rate in a small sample, but were also hit hard. With two strikes, his sweeper was again the star, getting whiffs on 26% of pitches, as well as a huge chase rate (48.7%). The contact quality from lefties is somewhat of a concern, but his ability to miss bats compensates for it.

I mentioned blow-up outings, and home runs were the culprit for many of them. He allowed 25 on the season, though his 22.7% home run per fly ball rate should come down closer to league average. Overall, for Gray, I’d expect his splits to flip, with righties having a more difficult time than lefties, based on his ability to pitch to the glove side. RedSoxStats on Twitter pointed out that over the last two seasons, most of his hard contact allowed has come to right center field, where the Red Sox have two Gold Glove outfielders stationed on a nightly basis.

Gray isn’t the flashiest pitcher in the rotation, but he’s a veteran who will mix his pitches, sequence, and compete each time he takes the mound.

More Gray: Meet the New Guy: Sonny Gray