Category: Sports News

After revealing the Purple Row community’s Colorado Rockies top prospect list over the last several weeks, it’s time to show the whole list at once with some voting stats. I’ll also have some thoughts on the state of the system as a whole soon to conclude the series.

Without further ado, here is the full pre-season 2026 Top 30 PuRPs list, including some voting stats:

Rank	Player	Total	# Ballots	High Ballot	Mode Ballot	Position	ETA
1	Charlie Condon	563	19	1 (12)	1	1B/OF	2026
2	Ethan Holliday	554	19	1 (6)	2	SS/3B	2029
3	Brody Brecht	511	19	2	3	RHP	2028
4	Cole Carrigg	476	19	3	5	OF/SS	2026
5	Jared Thomas	476	19	3	4	OF	2026
6	Robert Calaz	470	19	3	4,6	OF	2028
7	JB Middleton	409	19	4	11	RHP	2028
8	Sean Sullivan	398	19	4	7	LHP	2026
9	Zac Veen	388	19	4	9,11	OF	Now
10	Griffin Herring	368	19	6	10	LHP	2027
11	Roldy Brito	352	18	3	16	OF/2B	2028
12	Gabriel Hughes	340	18	1 (1)	12	RHP	2026
13	Sterlin Thompson	314	19	6	13,14,15	OF	2026
14	Roc Riggio	294	19	6	13,14,26	2B	2026
15	Max Belyeu	293	19	8	9	OF	2027
16	Jackson Cox	284	19	4	13,16	RHP	2027
17	Welinton Herrera	282	19	7	18	LHP	2026
18	McCade Brown	275	18	3	19,20	RHP	Now
19	Carson Palmquist	201	16	13	14	LHP	Now
20	Ashly Andujar	197	18	13	15,17,20	SS	2029
21	Jordy Vargas	161	14	16	18,20	RHP	2027
22	Yujanyer Herrera	115	15	12	25,26,28	RHP	2027
23	RJ Petit	115	12	14	23	RHP	Now
24	Wilder Dalis	93	11	14	14,27	SS/3B	2028
25	Michael Prosecky	89	12	20	21,22,24,25	LHP	2027
26	Cole Messina	86	14	17	23	C	2027
27	Riley Kelly	79	10	17	17,21,22,28	RHP	2029
28	Konner Eaton	75	12	21	24	LHP	2027
29	Ethan Hedges	58	12	19	30	3B	2028
30	Oscar Pujols	55	9	15	27	RHP	2030

Charlie Condon, first baseman/outfielder and Colorado’s first round pick in 2024, received 12 of the 19 first place votes to top the list. That bested Colorado’s 2025 first rounder, shortstop Ethan Holliday, who got six first place votes. Pitcher Brody Brecht, outfielder Cole Carrigg, and outfielder Jared Thomas rounded out the top five, with number 12 Gabriel Hughes receiving the other first place vote.

As a reminder, 30 points were granted for a first place vote, 29 for second, etc. Until a player was named on seven ballots, his vote totals were modified on a sliding scale to avoid an individual ballot having too much say over the community forecast — though that wasn’t a factor this time around in the top 30. There were two ties on the top 30, one of which was broken by number of ballots and the other by the mode ballot tiebreaker. Other ties were broken for non top-30 players according to voting rules. Polling concluded in early January right around the time of the Josh Grosz trade (for Jake McCarthy), so his votes were allocated elsewhere.

For more info on voting numbers for players that didn’t quite make the top 30, please check out the intro post to this edition of the PuRPs list, two articles’ worth of multi-ballot players (Part I and Part II) as well as the write-ups of the honorable mention PuRPs.

Some more notes:

• The top 18 players were listed on at least 18 of the 19 ballots — 15 were named on each ballot. Beyond that, the entire top 22 was listed on at least 15 of the 19 ballots.
• 55 players received at least one vote for this PuRPs list (down from 65 last time), 46 got mentioned on multiple ballots (down from 50), while 31 were named on at least seven ballots (and therefore were unmodified). Here is a link to the polling thread.
• In this edition of the PuRPs list, there were eight new names compared to the mid-season 2025 list, all of which ranking 22 or lower.
• Among those who were on the mid-season list, the biggest risers were Roldy Brito (up 18 slots) and McCade Brown (up 8 slots), while there were no big fallers with a large amount of new slots available.
• Breaking the list down by position, there are 16 pitchers (two of whom are definitely relievers; ten are righties, six are southpaws, only one is in the top five, and just five are in the top half of the list), two corner infielders, seven outfielders, four middle infielders, and one catcher — there’s some positional flexibility in there of course.

I’ll have more on the overall system in my concluding post soon!

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The NL East could have several strong teams this year. The Phillies appear to be in win-now mode. The Mets have made major changes. The Braves should recover from a down year in 2025. Even the Marlins could make some noise. The Nationals? Well, they are here.

Atlanta Braves

Key departures: Jarred Kelenic, Marcell Ozuna, Pierce Johnson, Nick Allen

Key arrivals: Mauricio Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski, James Karinchak, Martin Perez, Jonah Heim

The Braves had their first losing season since 2017 last year, largely because of massive injuries to their starting rotation. Bryce Elder was the only Braves starter to make more than 23 starts and he had a 5.30 ERA and… well, I think you can see the problem.

Otherwise Atlanta returns pretty much everyone, including re-signing closer Raisel Iglesias. They’ll have a full year of Ronald Acuña Jr., which should help.

At Wrigley Field: Sept. 14-15-16

At Atlanta: May 12-13-14

SB Nation team site: Battery Power

Miami Marlins

Key departures: Valente Bellozo, Joey Wiemer, Eric Wagaman, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers, George Soriano

Key arrivals: Zach Brzycky, Pete Fairbanks, Esteury Ruiz, Owen Caissie, Chris Paddack

The Marlins won 79 games last year. That might not sound too great, but it put them just four games out of the last wild-card spot and they seem improved this year, despite trading Edward Cabrera to the Cubs for Owen Caissie and prospects. Caissie gets a chance to play every day. This, hopefully, is a trade that helps both teams.

The key to Marlins success this year will likely be Sandy Alcántara and whether his first full year back from Tommy John surgery is successful. Overall his numbers don’t look great but over his last 12 starts he posted a 3.13 ERA and 0.991 WHIP, with 18 walks and 69 strikeouts in 77.2 innings. Keep that up and the Marlins could be a wild-card contender.

And they could look very different by the time the Cubs face them, which won’t be until September.

At Wrigley Field: Sept. 22-23-24

At Miami: Sept. 4-5-6

New York Mets

Key departures: Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil, Ryan Helsley, Cedric Mullins, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, Ryne Stanek, Richard Lovelady, Drew Smith, Frankie Montas

Key arrivals: Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr., Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette, Luke Weaver, Jose Rojas, Carl Edwards Jr., Vidal Bruján, Austin Barnes, Craig Kimbrel, Ben Rortvedt

The story of the 2026 Mets is those two lists. The Mets finally admitted that what they had been doing the last couple of years wasn’t working and blew it up. You’ll definitely need a scorecard to ID most of these new Mets.

The thing is, they traded for and signed a lot of guys but… some of them are going to be playing out of position. They expect Jorge Polanco to be their first baseman and he has played exactly zero MLB games there. Bo Bichette’s going to third and… well, same, zero MLB games at third.

Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. It will sure be interesting to watch.

At Wrigley Field: April 17-18-19

At New York: June 22-23-24-25

SB Nation team site: Amazin’ Avenue

Philadelphia Phillies

Key departures: Max Kepler, David Robertson, Jordan Romano, Ranger Suárez, Harrison Bader, Matt Strahm, Nick Castellanos

Key arrivals: Adolis Garcia, Brad Keller, Genesis Cabrera, Chase Shugart, Tim Mayza

The Phillies are running back much the same crew that won 96 games last year and 95 the year before. They’ve made the postseason four straight years, but haven’t gotten back to the World Series since they lost to the Astros there in 2022.

So maybe it’ll work again, but these guys are all getting older and there’s some controversy surrounding some comments ownership made about Bryce Harper.

Kyle Schwarber seems like he can still keep hitting homers for some time, though, and the Phillies rewarded the free agent DH with a five-year deal, so he’ll likely finish his career in Philadelphia. That’s a monument to Jed Hoyer’s worst decision as Cubs POBO.

As you can see here, the Cubs will face the Phillies seven times in an 11-day span in April and then not again until… well, maybe the postseason. That’d be fun.

At Wrigley Field: April 20-21-22-23

At Philadelphia: April 13-14-15

SB Nation team site: The Good Phight

Washington Nationals

Key departures: Zach Brzykcy, Jose A. Ferrer, MacKenzie Gore,

Key arrivals: Harry Ford, Warming Bernabel, Matt Mervis, Joey Wiemer, Gus Varland, Sergio Alcántara, Richard Lovelady, Andre Granillo, Miles Mikolas

I am not sure what the Nats are doing here, but yikes, look at that “arrivals” list. It looks like a random August waiver-wire list. They haven’t had a winning season since their World Series win in 2019.

And they have replaced MacKenzie Gore in their rotation essentially with Miles Mikolas, who I thought was going to retire at the end of 2025. Instead we could see Mikolas at Wrigley Field in the season-opening series.

The only really interesting thing the Nats did was trade for Harry Ford, a former No. 1 pick of the Mariners who was blocked by Cal Raleigh in Seattle. Ford hit .283/.408/.460 with 16 home runs in just 97 games with Triple-A Tacoma last year. He turned 23 last week and will be installed as Washington’s No. 1 catcher. He’s a Rookie of the Year candidate. So the Nats have that, if nothing else, as they are a candidate to lose 100 games this year.

At Wrigley Field: March 26-28-29

At Washington: Aug. 11-12-13

SB Nation team site: Federal Baseball

This series will resume on Monday.

Gooooood morning friends! Happy Friday.

Yesterday, the Mariners staved off a late-game surge by the Guardians, pulling out a close 8-7 victory.

I received live play-by-play updates via text for this one from my dad, who, like many of you, makes a regular pilgrimage to the Phoenix area this time of year. My conversation with him reminded me of my childhood tradition of always getting Krispy Kreme donuts (doughnuts?) with him after games at Safeco. We’d call them “celebration donuts” if they won and “misery donuts” if they lost, so there was always an excuse to get them.

Do you have any pregame or postgame traditions when you attend Mariners games in-person? Are there any traditions you had in the past?

In Mariners news…

• Matt Brash has been slowed down this spring due to a cracked tooth, from which he is mostly healed but is still suffering from some swelling. Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times has the report.
• Zac Hereth at Seattle Sports outlined the roster spots that are actually up for grabs this spring in Mariners camp.
• MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams provided a recap of what the Mariners accomplished this offseason.
• Jesús Cano at Baseball America spoke to M’s farm director Justin Toole about what Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan have been up to this offseason and what his impression of them is as games get underway. ($)

Around the league…

• Eight members of Team Cuba were denied entry into the United States for WBC games, though the team still plans to participate in the tournament. Evan Drellich at The Athletic has the report. ($)
• The A’s, who have signed several contract extensions with young players over the last two years, have reportedly offered one to star first baseman Nick Kurtz.
• The Padres’s Seidler Family is reportedly mulling over five different offers to purchase the organization.
• Baseball Savant already added a dashboard for ABS challenge data. It will be fun to track which players end up being the most successful in this new aspect of the game.
• Eno Sarris, Dan Hayes, and C. Trent Rosecrans at The Athletic looked into the data to determine which pitchers will benefit the most from the ABS challenge system. ($)
• Keith Law at The Athletic listed the 20 prospects most likely to make an impact in the big leagues this season. ($)
• Longtime Angels correspondent Sam Blum is leaving the Anaheim beat to shift to a national baseball reporting role for The Athletic. While it’ll be nice to read Sam’s coverage of national news, I will miss his insight into the league’s most chaotic franchise. ($)
• The Red Sox are kind of a mess, but the vibes appear to be better than they were this time last year.

• Caltrain, a California public transportation system, won an award for a commercial posted last summer that dunked on Dodgers fans.
• David Schoenfield at ESPN shared his too-early predictions for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game rosters.
• Marc Normandin at Baseball Prospectus wonders if expanded revenue sharing could be the key to MLB finally giving the green light to expand. ($)

Anders’ picks…

• Today is the 30th anniversary for Pokémon. If you’re a fan, keep track of all of the latest Pokémon Day announcements on their website!
• If you have teenage daughters, you may know this already, but torn ACLs are rampant among that particular demographic. Craig Welch at The New York Times dove into the data behind this unfortunate trend.
• Man, how about that The Traitorsfinale? I will say no more to avoid spoiling folks, but you can check out this link if you’re curious what happened. Two part question for you all:
  • 1. What did you think of the finale and Season 4 as a whole? (NOTE: Please be extremely generous with spoiler tags and clearly label your comment as a The Traitors post if answering this prompt in the comments)
  • 2. Which Mariner (past or present) would make the best Faithful? Who would make the best Traitor?

With Garrett Crochet taking the mound yesterday, I was reminded of how exciting it was to have two new stars on the 2025 Red Sox. Getting to know a new star — particularly an ace pitcher — is one of the most exciting things baseball fans get to do over the course of 162 games.

The Red Sox have brought in a lot of new talent for 2026. But I’m not sure the term “exciting” is a good fit for any of Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, or Willson Contreras. They all fall closer to the “very good” bucket than the “great” one, and they’ve all been around for so long that most Sox fans are already pretty familiar with them. For a player to be truly “exciting” I think there has to be an element of the unknown, a sense that watching that player carries the possibility of discovery.

So the question of the day is: which player are you most excited to watch on the 2026 Red Sox?

The easy answer is probably the guy most of us expect to be the best player on the 2026 Red Sox: Roman Anthony. And in this case, the easy is probably the right answer. But it’s worth considering that we did already get an extended look at Roman last year, and we already got a reasonable idea at just how good he already is. He’s not necessarily an unknown. There’s arguably more room for the possibility of discovery in guys like Marcelo Mayer, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu, all of whom have more question marks in their game than Anthony.

Maybe the answer is, once again, Garrett Crochet. There’s less to discover with him, but he also has the potential to be the single best pitcher on the planet, which is what made Pedro the most exciting player on the Red Sox for years.

But for me, I’m going with this guy:

And now a presentation from Payton Tolle: pic.twitter.com/hHgEUeLtLR

— Red Sox (@RedSox) February 26, 2026

Payton Tolle’s debut against Paul Skenes last year was easily my favorite game of the season. And while his subsequent struggles show that he’s not quite ready to be penciled into the top half of a big league rotation — and likely won’t even start with the big league team — I’ll be glued to every pitch he throws in hopes that we’ll see more of that magic from him. This is the guy I want to watch more than anyone else.

Talk about that and whatever else you want and, as always, be good to one another.

Good morning, LSB.

Evan Grant has arrived with a list of ideas to prevent the MLB’s looming work stoppage.

Shawn McFarland has observations from another spring training matchup.

Kennedi Landry writes about impressive Rule 5 draft pick Carter Baumler.

Kumar Rocker has made some tweaks to his game in an effort to build more consistency in 2026.

And the team’s top pitching prospect Caden Scarborough has arrived at camp after a bit of a melanoma scare. Yeesh.

That’s all for this morning. Happy Friday. 🙂

Four of the five groups that have submitted bids to become the new owners of the San Diego Padres have been identified, but the fifth group or individual is unknown. It was reported Thursday that former San Diego Chargers quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer Drew Brees is a part of one of the groups that have submitted bids. The sale process is expected to move quickly and the new owners reportedly could be in place sometime soon after the start of the 2026 regular season.

Padres News:

• The Padres lost to the Cincinnati Reds 11-10 on Thursday, but Manny Machado was the story. The third baseman crushed two game-tying home runs, one of which was a grand slam. Sung-Mun Song recorded his first hit as a member of the Padres and Nick Pivetta made his first start of Spring Training. San Diego continues play today with a matchup against the Colorado Rockies.
• Padres reliever Yuki Matsui, who is recovering from a groin injury, was officially removed from the World Baseball Classic roster for Team Japan on Thursday.
• David Morgan is already established as another elite arm in arguably the top bullpen in baseball in San Diego. However, he is looking to improve his standing in the bullpen with a strong Spring Training.
• Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Joe Musgrove had a solid outing in a simulated game and that he could be close to making his first start since his Tommy John surgery.
• Dennis Lin of The Athletic answered questions from readers regarding the Padres. He touched on multiple topics including the sale of the team, A.J. Preller’s contract extension, salary and free agency and the catching position.

Baseball News:

• Pitcher Tatsuya Imai made his first spring appearance for the Houston Astros and it went well according to reports.
• New York Mets pitcher Nolan McLean made his first start of the spring as he gets ready to compete for Team USA in the WBC.
• Long-time former MLB umpire Bruce Froemming died Wednesday at the age of 86.
• The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown opened a new exhibit that features the WBC.
• The Athletics have approached Nick Kurtz about a possible contract extension after his breakout 2025 season.
• Minnesota Twins third baseman Royce Lewis was scratched from Thursday’s lineup due to right side tightness.

For many teams, it would be a death sentence to lose their ace for the season before games had even begun. However, when the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole for the entirety of the 2025 campaign to Tommy John surgery, their pair of co-deputy-aces stepped up in a big way, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón pitching brilliantly as two of the best starters in the AL when it came to durability and run prevention. Fried is almost certainly this year’s Opening Day starter, while offseason elbow surgery for Rodón clouds the start of his season, creating some uncertainty for the 33-year-old southpaw as he enters his fourth season in pinstripes.

2025 Stats: 33 starts, 195.1 IP, 18-9, 3.09 ERA (132 ERA+), 3.78 FIP, 3.89 xFIP, 25.7% K%, 9.3% BB%, 1.01 HR/9, 1.05 WHIP, 3.2 fWAR

2026 ZiPS Projections: 24 starts, 129.1 IP, 10-8, 4.04 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 24.1% K%, 8.7% BB%, 1.11 HR/9, 1.24 WHIP, 2.1 fWAR

2025 was undoubtedly Rodón’s best season with the Yankees, continuing a pattern of the lefty improving dramatically in each subsequent campaign with the team. He posted for the entire regular season, logging a career-high 33 starts and 195.1 innings, allowing him to rack up over 200 strikeouts for just the second time in his career. Home runs had been an issue his first two seasons with the Yankees, but he slashed those down to yield right around one per nine innings, allowing him to post a sub-four FIP and xFIP for the first time in pinstripes.

This success accompanied a philosophical shift from a pure power pitcher to a more well-rounded starter with more ways to get hitters out — a shift that began in 2024 as a way to prevent a repeat of his disastrous debut season with the Yankees. Last season saw Rodón continue to deepen his arsenal, deploying the changeup and sinker at the highest rate of his Yankees tenure in exchange for reducing his four-seamer usage rate. With this more varied repertoire, Rodón was one of only a handful of starters in the league to place in the 90th percentile or higher in fastball, breaking ball, and offspeed Run Value as measured by Statcast.

Rodón’s slider remained one of the best in baseball, tying for the fifth-highest Statcast Run Value at +12 runs by racking up an impressive 40.3-percent whiff rate, 39.2-percent strikeout rate, and 32.7-percent chase rate. His changeup became elite in 2024 and that remained the case in 2025, with a 35-percent whiff rate, 22.6-percent strikeout rate, and 38.7-percent chase rate. The pitch that intrigued me most was the sinker, used significantly for the first time since 2018 with the White Sox, and it looks like a serious weapon to neutralize lefties, limiting same-handed batters to a .119 batting average, .143 slugging, and .208 wOBA.

Becoming less predictable allowed Rodón to mitigate the batted ball woes that plagued his first two seasons in the Bronx. Relative to those first two seasons, Rodón’s exit velocity dropped from around 91 mph to 88.6 mph, his barrel rate slashed from about 11.5-percent to 7.5-percent, and his expected wOBA on contact from roughly .400 to .335. Most importantly, Rodón cut down significantly on the rate of pulled fly balls he allowed, going from about 22-percent between 2023 and 2024 to 15.3-percent in 2025. This evolution into a more complete pitcher is the number one factor in why I believe Rodón can maintain this level of performance in the upcoming season and well into his 30s.

However, the multi-million dollar question for Rodón (and Cole) is when he will make his return from offseason elbow surgery and what version of pitcher that will end up being. He underwent a procedure in mid-October to remove bone spurs and loose bodies from his pitching elbow, and it is worth wondering what effect that ailment had on his shelling at the hands of the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALDS. He and the team are targeting a late-April return, and by all accounts this spring he is right on schedule with that timetable. If all goes according to plan, he could miss just three to four starts, giving him an outside shot at making at least 30 starts for the third year in a row.

The projection systems can’t agree on the amount of time Rodón will miss. ZiPS provides one of the more pessimistic forecasts, skeptical that he will even reach 25 starts or 130 innings pitched. I suppose one saving grace is that they and the other projection systems expect him to pitch with the same effectiveness as last season when he returns. I also feel that none of the systems give Rodón proper credit for suppressing hits the way he did in 2025 — his .187 opponents’ batting average allowed was the lowest among any qualified starter in the AL — and this plus personal optimism over an on-schedule return to play lead me to remain bullish that Rodón’s 2026 can look at lot closer to his 2025 results than ZiPS predicts.

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See more of the Yankees Previews series here.

A year ago, Cade Povich was the answer to one of the Orioles’ most pressing questions. On the final day of spring training in March 2025, the club named him their fifth starter. He was 25 years old, making his first Opening Day roster, and stepping into a rotation that needed him.

Twelve months later, despite making 20 starts for this team the year before, Povich’s place on this roster has become a question mark.

The shape of the rotation has changed dramatically. Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers are at the top of the rotation. Chris Bassitt, signed for $18.5 million this winter, gives Baltimore a veteran presence with a 3.64 career ERA and four straight seasons of 170-plus innings. Shane Baz, acquired in a trade, occupies another spot. Zach Eflin, who had back surgery in August, is back on a one-year deal and expected to join the rotation once he’s fully ramped up. That’s five starters with legitimate claims to roster spots before you even get to Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, and Brandon Young — all of whom made starts last season.

Povich, who logged a 5.06 ERA across 21 appearances in 2025, is now competing for a role that the organization hasn’t quite defined for him yet.

“We’ve got a lot of great guys in the rotation and in the bullpen,” Povich said earlier this week in Sarasota after throwing two scoreless innings against Atlanta. “I think competition is always good.”

He knows what the situation is. Asked about the bullpen, he was refreshingly candid: “If they say, ‘we think this is going to help the team the best,’ I’m all for it.”

That flexibility matters, because right now the bullpen looks like the more realistic path to a roster spot than the rotation. The team lacks a pure left-on-left specialist. Southpaws Keegan Akin and Dietrich Enns are useful arms who can get out right-handed hitters, but neither is a shutdown weapon against same-handed batters. Povich could theoretically fill that gap, though his career splits haven’t been markedly better against lefties than righties.

One thing is making Povich’s spring more interesting than it might be: a gyro slider. A tightly spun offering with rotation like a tight football spiral, the pitch tunnels like his four-seamer before dropping just enough to induce weak contact or a whiff. In the offseason, Povich studied how Blake Snell deployed his slider last year (a pitch with a 54% whiff rate on it) and has been integrating his own version to address what has always been his most glaring vulnerability: being behind in counts.

Good timing: opponents hold a .710 OPS against Povich when he’s ahead in counts; when batters get ahead, that balloons to 1.072. The gyro slider is designed to change that equation, giving him something he can throw in the zone at 2-0 or 3-1 instead of grooving a fastball.

He’s also refined his kick change, which was his best swing-and-miss weapon in 2025 with a 34.3% whiff rate but was maddeningly unpredictable in its movement. Sometimes it cut glove-side; sometimes it ran arm-side. Catchers had trouble framing it, and Povich had trouble locating it.

Early spring results have been encouraging. Two scoreless innings against the Braves, a hit and a walk, no real damage. But these are early days against split-squad lineups, and what matters more is the stuff than the line. Manager Craig Albernaz said Povich looked good and was right where he needed to be.

The most realistic outcome for the lefty is probably a hybrid role — not quite a starter, not quite a traditional reliever, but something in between that gives the Orioles flexibility. A bulk innings guy behind an opener, or a sixth arm when the rotation needs it.

The rotation math is what it is. Bradish and Rogers are locks. Bassitt, Baz, and Eflin were brought in to stabilize things, and Elias described Bassitt specifically as someone who would give the rotation “strength in numbers.” With Kremer and Wells also pushing for spots, Povich simply isn’t going to be a regular starter on Opening Day barring an injury.

What he can control is whether he makes himself hard to cut. The gyro slider and and improvement changeup are a nice start. Showing he can get lefties out consistently would help, too. So would improved control early in counts, and staying healthy through camp, come to think of it.

Povich remains on the 40-man roster and the Orioles clearly see something in him. He’s been asked to compete, not released. For a player who was handed an Opening Day start just twelve months ago, it’s a humbling recalibration. But if the new pitch plays, and if he can carve out a role as a versatile left-hander on a team that needs exactly that, there’s still a meaningful career to be built here.

The Birds have a crowded house this spring. Povich’s job is to make himself the one they can’t send away.

With top 20 voting for Cleveland Guardians prospects in 2026 in our rear view, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the players our readers selected and see what trends and other potential information stands out about them.

Before we get started, here’s the top 20 in its entirety:

1. Chase DeLauter, LHH OF
2. Travis Bazzana, LHH 2B
3. Parker Messick, LHP
4. Ralphy Velazquez, LHH 1B/RF
5. Angel Genao, SH SS
6. Braylon Doughty, RHP
7. Cooper Ingle, LHH C
8. Khal Stephen, RHP
9. Juan Brito, SH 2B/1B/RF/3B
10. Jaison Chourio, SH OF
11. Kahlil Watson, LHH OF
12. Daniel Espino, RHP
13. George Valera, LHH OF
14. Jace LaViolette, LHH OF
15. Joey Oakie, RHP
16. Alfonsin Rosario, RHH OF
17. Juneiker Caceres, LHH OF
18. Yorman Gomez, RHP
19. Josh Hartle, LHP
20. Andrew Walters, RHP

So how does the top 20 break down?

By position

Catcher: One.

Outfield: Nine (DeLauter, Velazquez, Brito, Chourio, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Rosario, Caceres).

Infield: Four (w/ Bazzana, Velazquez, Genao, Brito).

Starting pitcher: Seven (Messick, Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Hartle).

Relievers: Two (Daniel Espino, Andrew Walters).

By age

19 and under: Two (Caceres, Oakie).

20-21: Five (Velazquez, Genao, Doughty, Chourio, Rosario).

22-23: Seven (Bazzana, Stephen, Ingle, Watson, LaViolette, Hartle, Gomez).

24 and up: Six (DeLauter, Messick, Brito, Espino, Valera, Walters).

By proximity (highest level played)

MLB: Four (DeLauter, Messick, Valera, Walters).

AAA: Five (Bazzana, Ingle, Brito, Watson, Espino).

AA: Six (Velazquez, Genao, Stephen, Rosario, Gomez, Hartle).

A+: One (Chourio).

A: Three (Doughty, Oakie, Caceres).

DNP: One (LaViolette).

Positions players batting stance

RHH: One (Rosario).

LHH: Eight (DeLauter, Bazzana, Velazquez, Ingle, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Caceres).

SH: Three (Genao, Brito, Chourio).

Pitchers throwing arm

RHP: Six (Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Walters).

LHP: Two (Messick, Hartle).

What stands out?

To me, it’s the number of outfield prospects in our top 20. After years of hearing Cleveland can’t develop outfielders, the system suddenly is flush with them, having nine that can technically play there in the top 20 prospects (counting Velazquez and Brito, who have taken some reps there). That also doesn’t include players outside the top 20 like Petey Halpin, who already got the call to MLB last year and held his own as a rookie in a small sample size.

Another standout is the lack of right-handed bats. Cleveland has one right-handed hitter in its top 20, outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. We’re a long way from having right-handed sluggers Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez in the lineup. Technically, three others can hit right-handed with three switch hitters in the top 20, but the system’s position players definitely lean left-centric when it comes to batting stance.

Starting pitching depth could be an issue as well. Parker Messick is the only pitcher in the team’s top 20 prospects who played at the Triple-A or MLB level last year (technically, Daniel Espino’s 0.2 innings count, but do they? And will he be able to start?). There are some solid arms in the system, but Khal Stephen, Yorman Gomez and Josh Hartle all finished last year at Double-A and still need some seasoning while youngsters like Joey Oakie and Braylon Doughty are a ways away yet.

Making any kind of conclusion this early into Spring Training is foolhardy. There’s not much that occurs before the calendar even flips to March that can be used to glean insight on how a player will perform once the games begin to count. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be something that catches your eye this early and causes you to look a little closer the rest of the spring.

One such thing is Justin Crawford and his new swing. Crawford’s swing looks drastically different than it did when he was in camp a year ago, as our Anthony Esbensen pointed out in his notes column from last weekend. Crawford seemingly altering his swing to add more lift to the ball is encouraging, even if it’s way too early to tell if the adjustment will finally help him cure his groundball issues. Again, it’s hard to judge anything on the first spring game of the season, but Crawford ripped a home run foul in his first at-bat before hitting a 104 MPH double off the wall in the opposite field gap in the same at-bat. Overall, Crawford is 2-9 with three strikeouts in three spring games.

On the pitching side, Kyle Backhus has caught some eyes with his velocity jump. The funky left-hander’s name has been mentioned by some of those in camo as someone who has impressed so far, and after his first performance, it’s easy to see why. Backhus’ sinker averaged 91 MPH last season, but in his first Grapefruit League appearance, Backhus averaged 92 MPH and touched 94. He quickly retired the side in that appearance on just 10 pitches, nine of which were strikes. He followed that up with another good performance in his second appearance, tossing another scoreless inning and erasing a single with a double play. Backhus is in contention for one of the last two spots in the Phillies bullpen and the third left hander role. If he continues to pitch like that, it will be hard to not put him on the Opening Day roster.

It’s the little things that can capture your attention this early. Not necessarily harbingers of what’s to come, but things that could potentially bode well. So, what has earned your attention so far in Phillies camp?

A quick one, off a stray thought.

When the Braves ran out their lineup of regulars-ish a couple of days ago in a home Spring Training contest, Mauricio Dubon was hitting ninth, even behind Jonah Heim. Two days before that, Dubon was hitting ninth behind Aaron Schunk, of all people. It’s early in Spring Training, but it looks like Dubon is essentially being told he’s going to be hitting ninth when present while filling in for Ha-Seong Kim. (This is where we cross our fingers that no other injury that somehow makes Dubon not the default choice for ninth occurs.)

But, Dubon isn’t meant to be a starter. Kim will be back eventually.

So, the question really comes down to: will Dubon be a super-sub enough and always hit ninth to be the answer to this question, or will it warp into someone else? And, if so, who?

The Florida State baseball team is off the schneid but the vibes still aren’t entirely immaculate entering the third weekend of the regular season.

The Seminoles (5-2) snapped their two-game skid with a 14-9 win over UNF Wednesday night in a bullpen game. They’ll hope for more stability on the mound this weekend when they host The Citadel (4-2) for a three-game series beginning with a Saturday doubleheader at 11 a.m., due to inclement weather on Friday, and concluding with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.

In the last three games, FSU’s pitching staff has allowed eight or more runs in each game, a combined 27. In Wednesday’s bullpen game, nine different pitchers combined to walk nine batters and hit two.

There’s at least some reason for optimism with what was expected to be the weekend rotation fully available to all start for the first time this season.

Wes Mendes, who has started the season with a pair of wins and 10 1/3 scoreless innings, will start Friday. FAU transfer LHP Trey Beard will make his first start as a Seminole after missing the start of the season with an illness and debuting in last Sunday’s game out of the bullpen. Virginia transfer RHP Bryson Moore will move to the Sunday spot after starting the first two Saturday games.

They’ll face a team which enters on a hot streak. The Citadel started the season losing two of three to Liberty, but bounced back with a weekend sweep last week, beating Marshall twice by a combined score of 14-9 and then beating Army 14-8 on Sunday.

The Bulldogs also have a rest and likely a pitching-depth advantage, having not played since Sunday.

Saturday February 28th, 11:00 a.m. ET vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. LHP Wes Mendes (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. North Florida Gr. LHP Will Holmes (1-1, 5.59 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Saturday, February 28th, 45 minutes after Game 1 vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. LHP Trey Beard (0-0, 11.57 ERA) vs. North Florida Jr. RHP Bryce Coulter (0-0, 6.75 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Sunday, March 1st, 1:00 p.m. ET vs. The Citadel

• Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. RHP Bryson Moore (0-0, 7.50 ERA) vs. North Florida Sr. RHP Michael Gibson (2-0, 6.14 ERA)
• How to watch: ACCNX
• How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM

Bulldog hitters to know

• Sr, 3B Phillips Daniels: Slashing .409/.458/.636 in six games. The only regular contributor hitting over .333 with nine hits, three of them the extra-base variety (two doubles and a homer)
• Jr. 1B Zach Hunt: Slashing .304/.360/.739 in six games. The early-season slugger, with two of the team’s four home runs and eight RBIs, five more than anyone else
• Fr. OF Jayden Williams: Slashing .318/.423/.419 in six games. Not a huge power threat (one triple in six games) but gets on base at a high rate and is 5-for-5 on steal attempts.