Category: Sports News

Although the Royals have added Isaac Collins and Lane Thomas to their lineup, the offseason still feels incomplete. The Royals could use another outfielder to provide depth and give more options on offense. Reports are that a trade for Jarren Duran of the Red Sox or Brendan Donovan of the Cardinals are “increasingly unlikely,” the Royals may have to turn to a thin free agent market.

One of the outfield bats still available is 30-year-old Miguel Andujar. Andujar is coming off a career resurgence, in which he hit .318/.352/.470 with 10 home runs in 341 plate appearances with the Athletics and Reds last season. According to New York Post reporter Jon Heyman, the right-handed hitting outfielder is drawing “significant interest” with Rangers, Padres, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, and Athletics among the teams “in play.”

Miguel Andujar, off big 2025 season (.318 BA, .822 OPS), is drawing significant interest. Rangers, Padres, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, A’s among many in play.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 19, 2026

Andujar was once a highly-touted top 100 prospect with the Yankees. In 2018, he hit .297/.328/.527 with 27 home runs as a rookie, finishing behind only Shohei Ohtani, then of the Angels, in Rookie of the Year voting. He missed most of the next season following shoulder surgery, and struggled to hit the next few years with the Yankees. The Pirates claimed him off waivers in 2022, and the Athletics picked him up after the 2023 season.

After a wrist injury set him back to begin the year, Andujar’s got off to a hot start in 2024. He hit .285/.320/.377 in 75 games with the A’s, but he missed the final month with a core muscle injury that would require surgery. In 2025, he got off to a decent start but went on an absolute tear over the last two months. After July 25, he hit .372/.411/.620 with seven home runs in his last 39 games.

Andujar obliterated lefties last year, hitting .389/.409/.578 against them, and he hit .411 against southpaws in 2024, although in just 61 plate appearances.

He also puts the ball in play. Andujar has a strikeout rate of just 13.8 percent over the last two seasons, 21st-lowest among players with at least 600 plate appearances. He has a 92.9 percent contact rate on pitches in the strike zone in that time, one of the highest rates in baseball. He hardly ever walks, but he is a tough out – over the last two seasons, he has hit .269 with two strikes on him, the fifth-highest average in baseball in those situations.

Andujar is not particularly fast, and he has negative Baserunning Runs in each of the last two seasons. He split his time mostly between third base and left field last year, and was a poor defender at each position.

Andujar is probably looking for a two-year deal, but at this point in the offseason, he will likely have to settle for a one-year contract, even with the alleged suitors Heyman mentions. He has value as a role player, likely in a platoon role, but is not worth investing in long-term. The Royals may be up against their budgetary limitations, but Andujar shouldn’t break the bank. I would expect him to sign for between $6-8 million, with maybe a $9-10 million club or mutual option for 2027 with a $1 million buyout.

The Royals have two left-handed-hitting outfielder with Kyle Isbel and Jac Caglianone. Isaac Collins is a switch-hitter without much of a platoon split, and Lane Thomas is a right-hander. Andujar could slot in there and spell Isbel and occasionally Caglianone (unless his reverse split last year was for real) and give the Royals a weapon against lefties. It isn’t the impact bat the Royals are looking for, but even incremental upgrades can help and the Royals can always reassess the market this summer if they are in contention.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a successful offseason. There’s not too many out there that wouldn’t grade their moves relatively highly. However, there’s more work still to be done, and the Bucs have a glaring need at third base, where the current depth chart lists Jared Triolo as the only one currently on the roster. A recent report, however, still has the Pirates in hot pursuit of one of the top third baseman still out there.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on his podcast that the Bucs are still interested in Eugenio Suarez. He hit .228 last season with 49 homers and 118 RBIs while playing with the Seattle Mariners and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Rosenthal had this to say about Pittsburgh’s pursuit:

“I would certainly expect, and actually know that the Pirates are interested in Eugenio Suárez and the problem they’re going to face is the problem they’ve faced with other free agents as well… If Eugenio Suárez has chance to play for a more competitive team, in his opinion, he’s going to choose that team. If Eugenio Suárez can go to Boston, if he can return to one of his former teams, Seattle or Arizona, that might be his preference.”

So despite the Pirates’ interest, it sounds like an overpay might be in order to convince Suarez to come to the Steel City. The Bucs are definitely going to be improved this year, and Suarez could very well the bat that takes them from competitive to real players in the division, but other teams still have more attractive situations. In addition, the Bucs still need one or two more arms for their pitching staff as well as potentially another outfielder, so overpaying for Suarez just might not be in the cards.

Nonetheless, Rosenthal says the Bucs are legitimately interested, and as we head down the home stretch into Spring Training, they may have an outside shot at securing another big bat.

Earlier this offseason, we were all a little surprised to hear that the Red Sox were rumored to be interested in catcher J.T. Realmuto. He’s since resigned with the Phillies, but the Sox are reportedly still interested in upgrading at catcher. While the catching position doesn’t feel like a priority given Carlos Narvaez’s successful rookie campaign, the team may simply see upgrading from Connor Wong as low-hanging fruit. Admittedly, though, there isn’t much catching talent out there right now. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)

But the catching spot should take a backseat to upgrading the infield. As of today, it looks like Marcelo Mayer is being penciled in at third. After yet another season-ending injury, Mayer recently provided an injury update: “I feel good. I’m pretty much doing full baseball activities like a normal ramp-up. I feel like I’m in a good spot.” (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)

And don’t forget: while nothing seems imminent, things can come together quickly. For example, the Ranger Suárez deal was apparently negotiated over the length of a single afternoon. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

Suárez is one of three big acquisitions the Sox have made so far. As for on of the others, Willson Contreras, get ready to enjoy a fiery ballplayer: “I play to win. I don’t play to mess around. I don’t play to make friends on other teams. That’s the way I play, and I’m going to keep showing my emotions.” (Ian Browne, MLB.com)

While it’s going to be hard to find a decent catcher or upgrade the infield, it’s not hard to sign international free agents. The international amateur signing period opened last week and the Sox have already signed 17 players, all of whom are expected to head to the player development academy in the Dominican Republic. It’s quite possible, if not probable, that none of these players will ever make it to the big leagues, but here’s a rundown of some of the top names, including two players who were ranked in the top-50 of international amateurs and one player out of Brazil, which is still emerging as a baseball hotbed, powered by Japanese immigration. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)

And look: we’ve got new minor league coaches! Not the most exciting news in the world, but we just don’t have a lot going on right now, folks. Interestingly, several of them have a history with Driveline. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)

Gavin Sheets was given the opportunity to make the San Diego Padres roster in Spring Training last season, and he took full advantage of it. He quickly become a fan favorite and chants of “Holy Sheets!” could be heard throughout Petco Park during his at-bats. Sheets even earned himself the nickname “Dairy Bonds” thanks some timely and powerful homeruns. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune looks at what Sheets has done since becoming a member of the Padres and what he can do during the 2026 season to build on the success of last season.

Padres News:

• Centerfielder Jackson Merrill signed a nine-year extension with the Padres early in the 2025 season. Some baseball pundits thought he sold himself short by excepting what was by all accounts a team-friendly contract, but Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball talks about how Merrill wants to be in San Diego, much like Mr. Padre.
• Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball covers detail about the oblique injury suffered by Sung-Mun Song and provides readers with an idea of what to expect regarding the recovery timeline, rehab process and possible setbacks.
• AJ Cassavell of Padres.com provides his list of the best Padres players by number, which includes former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy with No. 44. Joe Musgrove still has time to change that, but since he wears 44 because of Peavy it may not happen.
• According to reports, the Padres are one of many teams interested in adding free agent infielder Miguel Andujar to their roster.

Baseball News:

• Recently retired reliever Ryan Pressly was hired by the Minnesota Twins for a player development role.
• The Atlanta Braves responded to the injury to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim by signing Jorge Mateo to a one-year deal.
• MLB.com provides a rundown of the latest news and notes regarding the top seven remaining free agents, including Cody Bellinger and Framber Valdez.
• Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star Mookie Betts confirmed reports that 2032 will be his last season.
• Could the Boston Red Sox look to trade Masataka Yoshida?

Good morning! Boston saw its first significant snow storm of 2026 yesterday, and it’s well below freezing today. In other words, it very much does not feel like baseball season here. But baseball is being played all around the world, including in the Dominican, where a spot in the LIDOM championship series was decided by a walkoff walk:

Así fue como los @TorosdelEste sellaron su pase a la #SerieFinalLIDOM 🔥#CopaBanreservaspic.twitter.com/T5NBqPvTGG

— LIDOM (@LIDOMRD) January 20, 2026

Game 1 of the championship series is on Wednesday and you can stream it on MLB.TV.

Talk about what you want, offer congratulations to the Toros del Este fans in your life, and be good to one another.

Good morning.

Evan Grant ponders how having a set every day position at second base could impact Josh Smith and the Texas Rangers.

Jeff Wilson checks out how the rebooted bullpen is shaping up after the Rangers make the signing of Jakob Junis official.

Shawn McFarland writes that rehabbing lefty Cody Bradford is aiming to be an early-season addition to the rotation for the Rangers.

At The Athletic, Chad Jennings has a “trying” tier list where, as you might expect in his lean winter, the Rangers aren’t listed particularly high.

And, Matt Snyder predicts how things might shake out tonight as the next Hall of Fame class is set to be announced.

Have a nice day!

Prior entries:

• Matt Olson
• Michael Harris II
• Ozzie Albies
• Bryce Elder
• Austin Riley
• Drake Baldwin

Forecasting most players has, well… constrained error bounds. A pretty good player with a point estimate of about 3 WAR might give you a couple more in a great year or lose you three wins in a worse-than-forgettable campaign.

Ronald Acuña Jr., though? He can make your season by himself, if things go his (and your) way. The difference between his MVP-winning 2023 and his unfortunate 2024 was over eight wins in fWAR terms. Eight wins turns a .500 team into a likely playoff entrant. Forecasting Acuña is probably less scary than facing him as a pitcher, but neither should strike you with confidence or zeal.

Career-to-date, status

Oh boy, how to summarize this? Acuña hit the ground running with over 9 fWAR in his first 1,200 career PAs, and then found another gear offensively in 2022-2021, approaching 7 fWAR in under 600 PAs. Unfortunately, there was that whole ACL injury thing suffered in 2021, and 2022 was an uncomfortably pedestrian season. He rebounded with an MVP campaign (9.2 fWAR) in 2023, socking 41 homers, stealing 73 bags, and putting up an absurd .460 xwOBA — he and Aaron Judge were the only two players that year to eclipse even .450 in xwOBA, and Judge only managed 458 PAs that year. 2024 ended up being a weirdly uncomfortable season for him (a career-worst .350 xwOBA) and he never got a change to dig out of that hole, as he tore his other ACL.

His defense also never really returned to anything useful after his first ACL injury — whether due to his own tentativeness, a direction for him to take it easy in the field, or some combination of the two.

Acuña is in the final guaranteed year of an eight-year, $100 million extension he signed early in the 2019 season, which was the largest contract at that time for a player with less than a year of service time. The Braves hold a couple of $17 million options for him in 2027 and 2028, which they’ll certainly exercise — unless they can somehow find a way to layer on an extension in the process. That seems to be in their favor for the obvious reason that Acuña can change an entire season around for a team given how good he can be, but, of course, the cost effectiveness of any deal that would get him to forgo a shot at free agency looms large. As we’ll see below, forecasting him is kind of a nightmare, so it requires a lot of risk tolerance to work out a solution that will result in fresh ink on contract pages (are MLB contracts e-signed now? I have no idea).

Recent performance

Acuña’s 2025 was weird. He approached a .400 xwOBA, and actually outhit it, the first time he’s outhit his xwOBA since his rookie year. (He has a sizable career xwOBA underperformance.) Still, his “new gear” offensively was notably higher than “just” .400. On top of that, it’s hard to make heads or tails of what exactly he changed (or didn’t) in 2025. He walked a ton, and he explicitly credited Tim Hyers and the team’s changed offensive approach to his ability to garner those walks… but the reality is that his chase rate didn’t really budge, and he had a bunch of contact issues, especially on changeups for whatever reason. When Acuña is going berserk, he’s crushing changeups and sliders as well as fastballs, but the changes he made in 2025 made him much more of a fastball-eviscerator. As noted, he really struggled to connect with changeups, while his contact quality on sliders straight-up died as he was fighting them off and flicking them rather than destroying them like he did earlier in his career. What does any of this mean for the future? I have no idea. Acuña’s ability to make on-the-fly adjustments is one of the many things that makes him a phenom, so there’s no reason he’s locked in to any system or mode of performance.

On the flip side, we can probably figure he’s going to continue to be tentative in the field, and might see a bunch of DH time, especially with Sean Murphy apparently not making it back for Opening Day. Acuña hasn’t been a positively defensively in an outfield corner relative to his peers since before the first ACL tear, and last season was as big of a mess defensively as you’ll see from a guy that isn’t miscast as an outfielder in the first place. Suffice to say: his ability to generate value is entirely on his bat, and moreover, on how well his hitting outpaces whatever he gives away WAR-wise from hanging out in right field or appearing as a DH.

All in all, Acuña managed 3.5 fWAR in 412 PAs last year. Nothing to sneeze at, and really, laudable numbers for nearly any MLBer. His 161 wRC+ was the second-highest of his career, but again, (slight) xwOBA overperformance helped there.

Forecasting

Yeah, I don’t know. To do this well, you not only have to somehow figure whether there’s going to be another catastrophic injury, how many small nagging injuries he’ll get breaks for, how much rest is baked in to his schedule, and even aside from all that, which offensive version of the guy you’re going to get. We’ve had two struggle-y seasons, one coming off injury (2022) and one before an injury struck (2024). Those sandwiched an MVP campaign. As noted above, his 2025 was weird but still good despite the weirdness.

If you’re struck by those numbers being “low” — they aren’t — except the PA tally, which resembles 2025 in point estimate terms. The wRC+ is basically in line with his career, and yeah, the defense is a drag, but it is what it is. My interpretation here is that the big question for Acuña is health — there’s basically a 1.5 WAR swing between figuring he misses up to seven weeks with issues, and he plays pretty regularly, and that matters.

And nowhere is that more evident than in the above chart, where, like Austin Riley before him, there’s this giant gap between the rate of production (which looks normal-ish, if skewed towards lower rates a bit) and how that actually translates into production given that he might once again miss a bunch of time. This bimodal distribution is the stuff of nightmares because of how far apart the two peaks are — that’s basically an entire meaty part of the win curve right there, as a result of one ultra-talented 28-year-old. Oof.

With regard to other systems:

• Steamer has Acuña at a 148 wRC+ and basically the same WAR/600 as IWAG. The issue is, again, whether you discount his playing time at all given his track record.
• ZiPS has him hitting notably better than IWAG/Steamer, and basically a half-win better on a per-600 basis — but also has a PA point estimate of well below 550 PAs. I don’t really know what to do with this, I’m just throwing it out there.

Your turn

Alright, I’ve given you the info. Well, some info. You may have your own info. With that, I ask you:

• Rounded to the nearest fWAR, how much will Ronald Acuña Jr. produce in 2026?
• How confident are you in your choice? Go with a scale from 1-5, where 3 is “I dunno, reasonably confident,” 5 is certain, and 1 is “I am participating but have no confidence in my choice and don’t want the fact that it will likely be incorrect to affect my place in any theoretical standings all that much.”

There are big expectations for Baltimore backstop Samuel Basallo as he heads into his official rookie season. The 21-year-old out of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, doesn’t just represent the leader of a new wave of talent graduating from the Orioles’ farm system. Basallo represents the first real fruits of an increased emphasis on developing talent through the international free agent market.

Basallo signed with the Orioles in 2021 for a then-club record $1.3M signing bonus. After a relative sprint through the minors that saw him make his big league debut at 20, the now-No. 1 catching prospect in baseball showed flashes of his immense potential in 31 games last season. Highlights included a walk-off homer against the eventual World Series champion Dodgers, another walk-off winner four days later against the Pirates and a moonshot against the Yankees for his final long ball of the year.

That’s not to say that the rookie didn’t have his struggles. In the first 109 ABs of his career, Basallo posted a .165 average and .559 OPS and struggled with strikeouts. The 6’4” catcher certainly faded down the stretch of his first major league cameo. Over his first 15 games, he posted a modest .204 average with a .660 OPS and 24% strikeout rate—decent returns for a 20-year-old rookie. Over the following 16 games, that average dipped to .127, the OPS plummeted to .459 and his strikeout rate spiked to 31%.

One of the big tasks for Craig Albernaz and his staff will be getting Basallo to tap into his excellent tools on a more consistent basis. The big Dominican showed elite bad speed in his first month-plus in the big leagues; his 75.5mph average swing speed would rank top 20 in all of baseball and is on par with star SS Gunnar Henderson. If Basallo can start to make more consistent contact, that bat speed should lead to the hard hit rates and exit velocities that lead to the upper echelon power output we’ve seen from Henderson.

The new manager will also have to figure out the best role for his young backstop in 2026. Injuries to Adley Rutschman and Gary Sánchez meant that Basallo spent a lot more time at catcher last season than most could have anticipated. Twenty of his 29 starts came behind the dish as Basallo quieted some of those who doubted his ability to provide major-league-caliber defense.

With Sánchez not brought back and Alex Jackson traded to the Twins, Basallo comes into the upcoming season as the undisputed backup to Rutschman. Given that Rutschman’s OPS is over 100 points higher when he’s DH’ing instead of catching, and given Basallo’s undeniable offensive upside, the Orioles may elect to rotate Rutschman and Basallo between catcher and DH while keeping both in the lineup. Basallo is also currently the Orioles’ only left-handed-hitting 1B option, so he should see some starts to spell righties Pete Alonso, Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo.

If a combination of Basallo’s hard work, additional exposure to major league pitching and the benefits of the new coaching staff helps him take a leap, it’ll represent a success on two fronts for the Orioles. A fully-realized Basallo (or close to it) can provide a similar offensive boost to new additions Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward. However, Basallo’s success would also represent the first major success of Mike Elias’ efforts to overhaul the Orioles approach in the international free agent market.

Under Elias’ predecessor, Dan Duquette, the O’s largely ignored international free agent prospects. Over Duquette’s eight seasons at the helm (2011 — 2018), Baltimore only had three former international free agent signings crack their top 10 prospects. Jonathan Schoop was a mainstay on the Orioles’ top 10 prospect list from 2011 until his debut in 2013. Eduardo Rodriguez was the Orioles’ No. 3 prospect when they flipped him for reliever Andrew Miller at the 2014 trade deadline. However, both of those players also predated Duquette, with Schoop signing out of Curaçao in 2008 and Rodríguez signing out of Venezuela in 2010.

The only player Duquette signed that ever cracked the Orioles’ top 10 prospects was infielder Jomar Reyes. Signed out of the Dominican Republic, Reyes rose as high as the Orioles’ No. 3 prospect in 2016. Injuries and inconsistent performance then derailed his progress through the minors, ultimately leading to his release in 2020. Reyes’ failure to launch was an example of Duquette’s approach to developing foreign talent. While teams like the Astros, Dodgers and Braves were using the international free agent market to propel them to World Series titles, the Orioles fell further and further behind competitive organizations.

Since Elias took charge, the organization has done a complete 180 in the international market. The O’s have committed major resources to revamping their international scouting, opened a state-of-the-art academy in the Dominican Republic and continue to sign more and more top international prospects. Baltimore’s most recent class featured five players in MLB.com’s Top 50 international prospects, 10 total signings and saw the Orioles hand out a club-record $2.3M signing bonus to Dominican shortstop Jose Luis Acevedo.

It’s hard to say what impact Basallo’s ascension to the big leagues and subsequent contract extension had on the most recent class of international free agents, but it couldn’t have hurt. Should the Orioles’ No. 1 prospect reward the front office’s faith in him, it would be a signal to other budding stars in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and beyond that Baltimore is now a serious player when it comes to developing premier international talent.

The Orioles already have other top international prospects rocketing up their farm system. Many evaluators view Orioles’ top pitching prospect Esteban Mejia as a player who can develop into a top-of-the-rotation pitcher. Infielder Aron Estrada and LHP Luis De León both have outside shots at making it to the majors in 2026. Fellow top 30 prospects RHP Keeler Morfe and OF Stiven Martinez also present as high-upside prospects that still need plenty of development.

However, Basallo is undoubtedly the face of this new wave of Orioles international talent. A breakout during his rookie season can not just help the 2026 Orioles but also serve as a massive domino in turning this wave into a constant flow of international talent to Baltimore.