Category: Sports News

In this episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jeremy “Hokius” Greco is joined by Royals Review Managing Editor Max Rieper to go over a hodgepodge of baseball news ahead of Spring Training.

They touch on a few trade ideas for the Royals both before the season starts and perhaps at the deadline. They also remind everyone that the Royals are making it free to go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum all month long! Is the WBC in trouble after banning players at or over the age of 37 from participating this year? Which Non-Roster Invitees have a real chance to impact the Royals roster in 2026? And finally, who will be in the Royals’ Opening Day rotation and what will they do with some of the guys who miss?

Email Jacob directly at: jm17971047@gmail.com

Need your Royals fix? Head to royalsreview.com for news, analysis, and to engage with Royals fans around the world! Follow us online:

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– Jeremy Greco: @hokius.fromthehawkseye.com
– Jacob Milham: @jacobmilhkc.bsky.social

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– Podcast: @RoyalRundownPod

A native of Markham, Ontario, Canada, Jonah Tong grew up in a family of athletes. His skill at baseball quickly became apparent, but given that the family lived in Ontario, there was a distinct lack of opportunities for him to learn, grow, and highlight his skills to professional scouts and evaluators. A student at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham, he transferred to the Georgia Premier Academy for his senior season in 2022.

Tong had a commitment to North Dakota State University but ended up signing with the Mets after they drafted him in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft and offered him a $225,800 signing bonus, exactly slot value. He did not pitch in 2022 and his 2023 season got off to a late start when the Mets initially held him out from organized games until late June. Assigned to the FCL Mets, the 20-year-old finally made his professional debut on June 30. He made 7 appearances for the team, pitching roughly once a week, and threw a total of 12.2 innings, allowing 9 earned runs, giving up 9 hits, walking 13, and striking out 25. He was promoted to Single-A St. Lucie at the end of August and made three appearances with them, allowing 5 earned runs in 8.1 innings, allowing 8 hits, walking 9, and striking out 13. All in all, it was a forgettable first year as a professional, Tong posted a 6.00 ERA in 21.0 innings over 10 games, allowing 17 hits, walking 22, and striking out 38. Despite the poor results, data collected from his pitches showed that the young right-hander was exceptionally talented as a pitcher, and that he had major potential.

That off-season, seeking to improve his control, Tong adopted a new mentality of not attempting to fine-tune his pitch placement. He also added a new slider to his pitching repertoire, seeking to add a pitch to his arsenal to be a middle-ground bridge between his overhand fastball and his big 12-6 curveball. When the 2024 season began, the changes to his mentality and repertoire were immediately apparent. Assigned to the St. Lucie Mets, he went unscored for 18.2 innings, scattering just 7 hits, giving up 5 unintentional walks, and striking out 36 of the 68 total batters he faced. He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn at the beginning of May, and while he had his share of growing pains there, he added his name to the annals of great Brooklyn Cyclone pitchers, posting a 3.71 ERA in 85.0 innings with 74 hits allowed, 38 walks, and 110 strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton at the beginning of September and ended his season just as strong as he started it, allowing 3 earned runs in 9.1 innings with 4 hits, 4 walks, and 14 strikeouts. In 113.0 cumulative innings between Single-A, High-A, and Double-A, he posted a 3.03 ERA with 85 hits allowed, 47 walks, and 160 strikeouts, the most of any Mets minor leaguer in 2024.

Ranked as the Mets’ 4th top prospect coming into the season, the 22-year-old quickly picked up where he left off when the season began. The right-hander needed a few weeks to get his pitching legs under him, but by the end of April, he embarked on a magical season, the kind where any start was liable to be a no-hitter (and twice, Tong threw six or more no-hit innings). By the time the organization promoted him to Triple-A Syracuse, the right-hander had a 1.59 ERA in 102.0 innings with the Rumble Ponies with 50 hits allowed, 44 walks, and 162 strikeouts. Tong dominated Double-A hitters and it quickly became apparent that Triple-A hitters would stand no chance against him. In two starts with the Syracuse Mets, Tong threw 11.2 innings and did not allow a run, scattering 8 hots, walking 3, and striking out 17.

On August 26, Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns announced that the 22-year-old would be called up to the Mets, joining the recently promoted Nolan McLean, citing how dominant the right-hander had been and how he had exceeded all expectations set for him. On August 29, he made his first major league start, facing the Miami Marlins. The right-hander allowed one earned run over five innings, scattering 6 hits, walking 0, and striking out 6. That was the high-water mark for Tong in his late-season cup-of-coffee. Heralded as a savior for a floundering, moribund team, Tong simply was not up to the task, highlighting that beneath it all, he was still just a fallible 22-year-old kid. In his next four starts against the Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Chicago Cubs, Tong posted a 9.88 ERA in 13.2 innings, allowing 18 hits, walking 9, and striking out 16. In those games, there were flashes of brilliance but not enough to be the change the Mets needed. In the end, Tong posted a 7.71 ERA in 18.2 innings in Queens, allowing 24 hits, walking 9, and striking out 22. With Binghamton and Syracuse combined, the 22-year-old posted a combined 1.43 ERA in 113.2 innings, allowing 58 hits, walking 47, and striking out 179, and was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year by various baseball outlets. His 162 strikeouts with Binghamton set a Rumble Ponies record and were the most by a Binghamton player since Jesus Sanchez struck out 176 batters in 165.1 innings in 1997; his strikeout total is third in Binghamton franchise history, behind the aforementioned Sanchez and Bill Pulsipher, who struck out 171 in 201.0 innings in 1993.

Tong throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot, standing from the far third base side of the rubber. As he pushes and drives off of the mound, extending 6.8’, his torso rotates towards first base, effectively raising his arm slot; the 64-degree arm angle that Tong throws from was third only to San Diego Padres right-hander Jeremiah Estrada and his 66-degree arm angle and Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia and his 65-degree arm angle. Between his lithe stature, the long stride and extension off the mound, and the near over-the-top release point, his mechanics are reminiscent of Tim Lincecum. The similarities are more than just coincidence, as Tong modeled his pitching mechanics after the two-time Cy Young Award winner. While the violence in his delivery contributed, to one degree or another, to the hip and back issues that ultimately ended his career, Tong’s mechanics are not as violent as Lincecum’s were, and his 6’1”, 180-pound frame is able to ergonomically carry the kinetic energy produced by his pitching motions better than the 5’11”, 170-pound Freak.

Tong has a full four pitch repertoire consisting of a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup. In his five-game sample size with the Mets, he threw his four-seam fastball 57% of the time, his changeup 28% of the time, his curveball 12% of the time, and his slider 3% of the time. His slider was recently incorporated into his arsenal in 2024 and his changeup revamped in 2025.

His four-seam fastball sits in the mid-90s, ranging 92-98 MPH, averaging 95 MPH, improved as compared to 2024, when the pitch sat in the low-to-mid-90s. While the pitch’s 2270 RPM spin rate is roughly average for a four-seam fastball, it was devastatingly effective in the minor leagues and extremely effective at the major league level as well. With a spin efficiency of 99% at a 12:30 spin axis, Tong was able to generate 19 inches of induced vertical break from those 2270 RPM, putting him in the top 1%. Additionally, the 3.5 inches of natural cut put the pitch in the top 10% among four-seam fastballs as well. In his limited major league innings, the pitch resulted in a 17% Whiff%, and when thrown upstairs, a 38.2% Whiff%.

During the 2024 off-season, Tong developed a new grip for his changeup, a pitch that he used sparingly as compared to his slider and curveball and mainly to neutralize left-handers. Now using not just a Vulcan grip, but a modified two-seam Vulcan grip as opposed to the ordinary four-seam Vulcan grip, Tong unlocked a pitch that quickly ascended and has become his best secondary pitch. Sitting in the mid-80s, the pitch averages 1700 RPM with a 99% spin efficiency from a 1:45 spin axis. This gives his changeup roughly 28.5 inches of vertical drop and 14 inches of horizontal arm-side movement, the latter number atypical for a changeup coming from an arm slot as high as Tong’s. The right-hander does not telegraph the pitch by maintaining his arm speed and maintained a 22.2% Whiff% with the pitch in the limited MLB innings that he threw in 2025.

His curveball sits in the mid-to-high-70s, ranging 75-79 MPH and averaging 77.5 MPH. Averaging a spin rate of 2,600 RPM with an 81% active spin percentage and enhanced by his release point, the pitch saw a whopping 62.7” of vertical drop, making it a massive 12-6 bender. While the optics of the pitch are impressive, it doesn’t have much bite to it and is not so much a strikeout pitch as it is a change-of-pace offering or a strike stealer, dropping into the zone for a called strike. Tong throws it about equally to left-handers and right-handers, and it has been slightly more effective against left-handers than right-handers.

His slider, which was developed over the 2023 off-season, was a weapon for the right-hander during the 2024 season but was less effective and used more sparingly in 2025. In 2024, when it was at its best, the mid-to-high-80s pitch featured hard, gyroscopic break that was almost cutter-like in its sudden horizontal slice with roughly 34 inches of vertical movement and 5.7 inches of glove-side horizontal movement. In his limited major league innings, Tong barely used the pitch, but when he did use it in the minors in 2024 and 2025, it is used as an east-west weapon to use against batters for swings-and-misses and a bridge his fastball and curve.

Tong’s control is leagues better than it was when he was drafted, but he can still have bouts of command problems and have trouble hitting the strike zone. He maintained a 16.3% line drive rate, 52.9% groundball rate, and 30.8% flyball rate over the course of his time in Binghamton and Syracuse and a 25.0% line drive rate, 37.5% flyball rate, and 37.5% groundball rate in his limited major league innings. He was hit harder at the major league level, but his propensity for keeping the ball on the ground and limiting damage combined with his high-octane strikeout stuff is why he was the 2025 MiLB Pitcher of the Year and why he has legitimate top of the rotation potential.

The story need not be repeated. You are already familiar with the tale of Alec Bohm’s irritated mutterings, and the camera that caught them, the ensuing apology and appreciative ovation that followed. This article is not going to be about that. It’s not going to be about the psychology of being an athlete in the spotlight or the sociology of fandom. It’s going to be about meteorology, and why it might give Bohm good reason to dislike playing at Citizens Bank Park.

Backing up for a moment: earlier this week, wanting to take a walk but not being able to stroll through the streets of beautiful Philadelphia on account of the snow, ice, and my own general clumsiness, I was instead taking a stroll through Baseball Savant. This sort of wandering does not offer the charm of birdsong, old buildings, or conversations with strangers that more traditional flâneuring does, but it does offer the opportunity to notice something odd or eye-catching on the page of one Phillie or another. On this occasion, I noticed that Alec Bohm’s performance at the plate on the road had been better than his performance at Citizens Bank Park for each of the past three seasons.

Those differences aren’t huge. And it’s worth noting that he was better at home than on the road in 2021 and 2022. Nevertheless, I was stuck at home, and, in truth, in need of something to write about. So I decided to poke around a little more, just in case those small differences were hiding something interesting.

There isn’t an immediately obvious reason to suspect that calling CBP home may be a negative for Bohm. It is a better park for lefties than for righties, but that has more to do with dimensions that are exceptionally conducive for lefties to hit home runs than any sort of hostility to the non-sinisters. Per Statcast’s park factors, the Bank plays as neutral for right-handed hitters. That being said, there is something unusual about CBP.

Over at MLB.com, Mike Petriello recently wrote an interesting article about how Kyle Tucker’s performance as a Cub had been dramatically better when outside the (apparently not-so-) Friendly Confines of Wrigley. This was, in part, due to the brutal breezes of the Windy City. That got me wondering if, perhaps, Bohm’s superior performance on the road over the past three seasons might be influenced by the winds. Though Citizens Bank Park doesn’t have Wrigley’s reputation for weather-related chaos, it is a sufficiently breezy place. The wind at CBP tends to rob players of homers, to a greater degree than most stadiums league-wide. That may come as a bit of a surprise, given that (again per Statcast) CBP has been more homer-happy than all but a trio of other stadiums (Dodger Stadium, Great American Ballpark, Yankee Stadium and her horizontally-challenged right field porch) over the past three years. But these facts can coexist happily; it simply means that CBP would be even more conducive to round-trippers were it not for the wind.

So I decided to look at how Alec Bohm performs against the wind, with his fellow righties added in for comparison.

Here’s how all the Phillies righties (min 250 PA) did, 2021-2025, when the wind was blowing in vs. when the wind was blowing out, since 2021 (appearances as a Phillie only). For the moment, we’re looking at overall performance, without home/road splits.

Bohm does better when the wind is blowing out versus when it’s blowing in, and that makes sense: wind blows out, ball travels farther, batter does better (Oddly, J.T. Realmuto does significantly worse when the wind is blowing out— but that’s a question for another time). What’s unusual here is how much better Bohm does when the wind is blowing out. wRC+ is standardized so that 100 is average, and each point above or below 100 indicates being one percent better or worse than average. When the wind is blowing in, Bohm is a significantly below-average hitter. When it’s blowing out, he’s above-average. He’s 53% better when the wind is in his favor. That’s enormous. I won’t bore you with the full chart, but suffice it to say Bohm’s gap between wind-out and wind-in performance is by far the largest of any current Phillie.

Now let’s look at the combination of wind splits and home/road splits.

Here’s the same chart, but only for plate appearances at CBP:

And here’s only plate appearances away from CBP:

Bohm performs better with the wind blowing out than with the wind blowing in at home and on the road, but the gap at CBP is 4.6 times as big as the gap on the road. When the wind is blowing in at CBP, Bohm’s wRC+ is a truly dismal 37. For what it’s worth, that puts Bohm at 397th of 407 players (min 7o PA) for performance at home with the wind blowing in. I have a feeling that statistic is a little too finely sliced to be all that meaningful, but it does illustrate just how rough Bohm’s performance under those conditions has been.

So we know that Bohm struggles, and struggles severely, when the wind is blowing towards him at home. Much more so than his teammates. As further evidence of this, take a look at his Batting Average on Balls in Play (2021-Present) broken out by wind in/out and home/road. The gap between his performance with the wind out and the wind in is twice as big at home than it is on the road.

But why? Is there something about Bohm’s performance at the plate that sets him apart from his teammates, and makes his batted balls particularly vulnerable to the impact of wind blowing in at home?

My first thought is that it might have something to do with the direction Bohm hits the ball. Bohm is disproportionately likely to hit the ball straight. Last season, 47.4 % of his batted balls went right back up the middle, putting him at #1 league-wide; the MLB average was 36.4% . It would stand to reason that a player who is especially likely to hit the ball up the middle would be especially vulnerable to the impact of wind blowing right back down the middle. But upon further investigation, I don’t think that explanation holds up. That 47.4% figure combines all types of batted balls. If we look only at batted balls in the air, Bohm is slightly more likely than average to hit them straight, but not to a huge degree. And he’s also less likely than average to hit the ball in the air at all. His exceedingly high percentage of batted balls up the middle is mostly the result of him hitting a lot of grounders straight, and I don’t see much reason to believe that the wind would have a large impact on those. On top of that, Bohm was more likely than average to hit the ball straight in the 2021 and 2022 seasons where his performance at home outstripped his performance on the road.

At this point, I have to consider the possibility that this may all be illusion. When you’re slicing up statistics with by using multiple splits, you’re looking at relatively small sample sizes. And small sample sizes produce odd results that often turn out to be nothing more than chance. There’s a statistical concept called p-hacking, which means looking at comparisons until you find one that, by pure chance, happens to seem significant, then reporting it as if it really means something. The fact is that Bohm’s superior performance on the road has only been the case for three seasons, and he produced the opposite splits in the two seasons to that. This could be nothing more than small sample size, and I might be putting a Phillies P in p-hacking.

But there is one more thing I want to look at before I wrap up. There’s another way that Bohm differs from all of his teammates— from nearly all of MLB. His swing. His attack angle (per Statcast, the “vertical angle at which sweet spot is traveling at the point of impact”) is 5°, which is exceedingly low. The average across MLB is 10°, and only 12 qualified batters had a lower attack angle than Bohm in 2025. On top of that, Bohm’s attack angle seems to have dropped over the past few seasons, going from 7° in 2023, to 6° in 2024, to the aforementioned 5°. Unfortunately, Statcast only started recording bat tracking data in 2023, so we can’t confirm that the pattern stretches back to 2021. Is it possible that the angle at which Bohm swings makes his batted balls particularly vulnerable to the winds at CBP? And is it possible that the change in Home/Road splits he experienced was the result of his attack angle declining?

I don’t quite have the data or expertise needed to check on that. And even if I did, there’s a good chance that I’m entirely off-base there. We’ll learn more as time passes. Perhaps Bohm’s performance with the wind at home will stay on the current trajectory. Or perhaps he’ll start hitting better at home, buffeted by the winds of change.

Errors and strikeouts. If you’re a Red Sox fan you’re probably sick of seeing both of those things. The 2025 Red Sox led all of baseball in errors last year, after committing the second-most errors in 2024 and the fourth-most in 2023.

The strikeout numbers don’t look much better, as Red Sox hitters finished with the eighth-most strikeouts in the baseball last year and the third-most in 2024.

Errors and strikeouts are the two principal reasons why I was lukewarm on Eugenio Suarez, the third baseman who just signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds. Suarez’s 17 errors were the eighth-most in baseball last year, while his 196 Ks were the fourth-most. He would have made the Red Sox worse in two areas where they are already pretty poor.

But here’s the flip side: it’s also quite possible that he would have hit so many home runs over the monster that walking down Lansdowne Street would be considered a health hazard:

The 2025 Red Sox finished just 15th in home runs and adding power was explicitly stated as one of Craig Breslow’s goals coming into the offseason. Suffice it to say, he hasn’t really done that yet. Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman are gone. Willson Contreras is here, but his career high in homers is just 24, and he hit those before the pandemic. Roman Anthony will play a full season in 2026 (like he should have last year…) but the home run power seems to be lagging just a bit behind the rest of his outstanding all-around game. So if the Red Sox are going to hit more home runs they did last year, they’ll probably need that extra power to come from Tristan Casas, who likely won’t even be healthy to start the season and still has yet to establish himself as a reliable power bat.

So for as much as I don’t want to see more errors ands strikeouts in the Red Sox lineup, it’s really hard for me stomach the Sox not matching the Reds on a one-year deal for a guy who might hit twice as many homers as anyone else in the Sox lineup.

Did the Sox mess this up? Let us know what you think in the comments.