If there’s one thing we can safely predict about the 2026 Dodgers, it’s that they will use many different arms to get through the 186 days of the regular season. In 2023 they set a franchise record by using 39 different pitchers, then topped that by using 40 pitchers in each of the last two seasons.

The Dodgers are not alone in this regard among major league teams. Their 39 pitchers used in 2023 were tied for fourth in MLB, then in 2024 they were tied for second, and were sixth last year. There have been 23 teams in major league history to use at least 40 pitchers in a season, with 20 of those seasons coming since 2021.

We’ve gone over how the Dodgers have plenty of starting pitching depth in addition to their Big Four in the rotation. So let’s look at the bullpen options today.

On the sideline (3)

Evan Phillips is already on the 60-day injured list and isn’t expected back until midseason after Tommy John surgery last June. Brock Stewart is coming off shoulder surgery in October, and will likely open the season on the injured list.

Same for Brusdar Graterol, who is coming off November 2024 shoulder surgery and did not pitch at all last season. He’s being slow-played this spring.

Roster locks (5)

Edwin Díaz and Tanner Scott each signed big contracts. Veteran Blake Treinen is in the second and final year of his deal. Alex Vesia has been a bullpen staple the last four years and with over five years of service time can’t be sent to the minors without his consent.

Jack Dreyer was a rookie last year and could be optioned. But he also lasted on the roster all of last season and the postseason, joining Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the only Dodgers pitchers to remain active from last March through November. So we’ll include him here among the locks.

Swing men (2)

Ben Casparius and Justin Wrobleski were both starters in the minors but have pitched more in relief during their parts of two seasons in the majors. If there isn’t room in the rotation, having either one in the bullpen would be a welcome addition, with both having such experience in the postseason. Both can be optioned.

Other relievers with options (6)

From the right side, this includes Edgardo Henriquez, Kyle Hurt, Paul Gervase, and Bobby Miller, plus left-hander Ronan Kopp, who was added to the 40-man roster in November.

Another right-hander, Will Klein, has been called a “World Series hero” every time he has been mentioned in the Dodgers game notes this spring, after his four scoreless innings in the marathon Game 3 last October.

That’s 16 potential relievers on the 40-man roster, but as we’ve seen in recent years the Dodgers’ pool to choose from extends far beyond that. Twenty-two of the 42 non-roster pitchers in Dodgers camp from 2023-25 ended up pitching for them in the majors in that season, for instance.

Last year the Dodgers had 13 different pitchers appear at least 10 games in relief:

• Anthony Banda 70 games relieved
• Alex Vesia 68
• Jack Dreyer 62
• Tanner Scott 61
• Kirby Yates 50
• Ben Casparius 43
• Blake Treinen 32
• Luis García 28
• Lou Trivino 24
• Edgardo Henriquez 22
• Justin Wrobleski 22
• Will Klein 14
• Michael Kopech 14

Garcia was a non-roster invitee last spring, while Klein and Trivino started 2025 in other organizations. The two Dodgers pitchers last year with nine games in relief were in the same boat, as Alexis Díaz was acquired in May and Matt Sauer was a non-roster invitee.

In other words, we’ll see quite a few different pitchers this season, many of whom aren’t currently on the 40-man roster. That brings us to today’s question: How many Dodgers will pitch at least 10 games in relief in 2026?

Welcome back to our preview of 2026 Red Sox starting pitching. If you missed the bulk of the preview last week, check it out below.

Today, we turn our attention to the back of the back of the rotation: the depth starters.

Now that we’ve been through the nine pitchers who are fighting for spots in the opening day rotation, we can turn our attention to the depth. In theory, those nine arms I already went through will make the bulk of the starts for the Red Sox this season. This is major league baseball we’re talking about, though, and pitching injuries are bound to happen. Last season, 15 different pitchers started games for the Red Sox, and Brennan Bernardino was the only true “opener” they used. Come August, when the rotation has been through the wringer and is run down, look for one of these names to provide five innings or so.

Tyler Uberstine

Of the options on this list, Tyler Uberstine is probably first in line to make a spot start, although there are several pitchers ahead of him (covered here and here).

Uberstine, who reached Triple-A last season, was added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft this winter. Like many Red Sox pitchers, he has a low release point that creates a flat approach angle for his mid-90s fastball. Over about 90 innings at Worcester, he struck out a very respectable 26% of hitters, but struggled with walks, handing out free passes at a 9.4% clip. He uses multiple breaking balls, with his slider and changeup showing the most potential. His ceiling is likely a back-of-the-rotation arm, but there’s nothing wrong with eating innings to help carry the load through a very long season.

Jake Bennett

Jake Bennett is 6’6”, 235 pounds and throws with his left hand. He has seven feet of extension. In his first Spring Training outing, his fastball averaged 95 mph and reached 98 mph. According to SoxProspects, he has “advanced command and control” of said fastball.

My scouting report is based on the numbers and other people’s scouting reports, but I’m buying all the Jake Bennett stock I can get. His best secondary pitch is a changeup, which will neutralize righties, while he also has a slider and a curveball. He’ll mix in sinkers and cutters to fill up the zone, and has a slider and a curveball as well. That’s six pitches from a huge lefty who gets down the mound well. He’s at least a back-of-the-rotation arm with a chance to be much more.

While there’s a long list of pitchers ahead of him for turns in the rotation, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Bennett knocking on the door of the majors for some leverage relief appearances late in the season. He’s the pitching prospect I’m most excited about.

Kyson Witherspoon

After the ascent of Payton Tolle and Trey Yesavage, flying through the minor leagues is all the rage. As such, many have tabbed 2025 first-round pick Kyson Witherspoon to debut a year after being drafted, despite not pitching in the minor leagues in 2025.

He has a huge fastball that’s already up to 97 mph in camp, along with a cutter and slider that he executes consistently. Fangraphs labeled his curveball and changeup as his nastiest pitches, but said they need polish to be viable weapons. His high 70s curveball was described as “hitter-pantsing” when thrown in the dirt. Because there are so many names ahead of him on the depth chart, I’m going to guess Witherspoon debuts in mid-2027, but crazier things have happened, and he’s a fun name to monitor going forward.

Tanner Houck

Houck is the only guy on this list that we’ve seen in action before, but he’s last because we won’t see him until September, if at all. He had Tommy John Surgery last season after an ugly start to his campaign. He threw a baseball for the first time this spring, but is still a long way from returning to game action.

While he might fill some innings down the stretch, don’t expect Houck to become a key contributor. At his best, Houck is in the zone with everything he throws, keeping hitters on the back foot. His splitter is particularly important against left-handed hitters, and while it’s somewhat of an anecdote, finding a feel for offspeed and breaking pitches seems to lag behind fastballs when returning from TJS. I can’t support that evidence, but I feel like James Paxton said it once, and I’ve taken it as gospel. If Houck returns in 2026, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in a relief role with a focus on returning to the rotation in 2027.

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.

Morning A’s fans and happy Friday! Ready for a relaxing weekend with some A’s baseball?

The front office has been busy in recent months working out long-term extensions with key members of this core. First beginning with Brent Rooker’s 5-year, $60 million contract in January 2025, the team then turned to outfielder Lawrence Butler and came to a deal with him just a couple months after Rooker’s deal, inking Butler to a 7-year, $65.5 million contract. Things went quiet during the season but extensions continued this winter, first with left fielder Tyler Soderstrom signing a 7-year, $86 million extension and then with shortstop Jacob Wilson getting his own deal just a few weeks ago, a well-deserved 7-year, $70 million payout. This has been the largest and most expensive investment the front office has ever done for a core. While it’s a fantastic development and a great achievement to be locking down these guys, there was one name that A’s fans have been hoping to see sign his own extension sooner rather than later.

Getting first baseman Nick Kurtz locked down would be the cherry on top of all of these recent extensions, and the front office has reportedly been working on a deal all offseason long. There’s been some skepticism regarding Kurtz and an extension with the A’s, mainly because of agent Scott Boras. Boras isn’t known to advise his clients to sign early-career extensions, though that hasn’t been a hard-and-fast rule and he has seen some of his clients ink long-term deals before hitting the free agent market.

Kurtz could be the newest member of that small group. The lefty slugger is reportedly “definitely open and interested” in a deal to remain with the A’s and be a building block when the team opens the new Vegas stadium. Seeing all of his teammates get their money and getting comfortable seems to have made Kurtz a little jealous/anxious to get his own money coming his way soon. That is music to A’s fans ears because there’s little doubt that Kurtz prices himself out of the A’s budget in five seasons if they go year-to-year with him.

The front office recognizes that, which is why it’s no surprise that they’ve reportedly already made the first baseman a contract offer:

While none of the details have leaked out, it’s fair to assume it’s into the $100 million range. The record for a player with less than a full year of service time is Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who bagged himself a 12-year, $210 million in guaranteed money (with the potential to increase to 17/470 with bonuses and options). That comes out to $17.5 million average a season, which is looking like a steal of a deal at this point. Rodriguez was coming off his own Rookie of the Year campaign and also placed 7th in MVP voting. Kurtz’s rookie slash line was better in every category and he finished 12th in the MVP race in just over half a season, but he’s also a first baseman compared to a premium position like center field. Rodriguez’s deal might be a good idea of what it might take to lock Kurtz in for the long haul.

It’s important to remember that the A’s aren’t technically in any sort of time crunch to get a deal done. While he’s set to be earning the league minimum for the next couple of seasons, thanks to winning the American League Rookie of the Year award he was awarded a full year of service. That takes away some bargaining power but still means the Athletics have five seasons of control over their prized hitter and have time to work out a deal. The longer they wait though the more expensive any contract will likely become.

The 22-year-old later added near the end of his comments, “It’s just about timing.” If he’s one of those players that doesn’t like negotiations taking place during the season then any contract extension would be coming in the next few weeks. Signing Kurtz to a long contract would be a franchise-altering move. Fingers crossed we can see him put pen to paper before March 26th, which is just under a month away.

Have a good day everyone!

A’s Coverage:

• Spring Training Interviews Ahead, But With Whom?
• Butler ramps up recovery efforts, eyes mid-Spring Training return
• Athletics Drop Fourth Straight Spring Contest, Fall To Brewers 10-0
• Prospect Wei-En Lin Making an Impression at A’s Spring Training
• 1st results for Ginn’s new windup? 3 K’s over 2 perfect frames
• Athletics Community Prospect List: 18th Spot Goes To Junior Perez
• A’s Make First Cut of Camp
• A’s Top Pitching Prospect Jamie Arnold Set to Debut Later This Week
• Circa Las Vegas bringing in A’s legend for baseball opening day festitivies
• A’s spending on $2B Vegas stadium passes $300m mark, is Fisher’s folly really happening?
• Bob Melvin opens up: A Giants firing, an A’s hiring, and what comes next
• See you later, soda: A’s Perkins ditches sugar for science
• Can The A’s Young Core Turn Defense Into a Strength?
• Pesky Drawback Of “Closer By Committee” (It Never Really Works)
• “Relievers Are Volatile”… But Why?
• Are The Final Two Rotation Spots Really Up For Grabs?
• Story Lines To Watch As Spring Training Unfolds

MLB News and Interest:

• Way-too-early predications for 2026 All-Star Game starters
• Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo exits game with abdominal discomfort
• Injuries: Lindor, Yanks, Twins, Kelly, Woodruff, Basallo
• U.S. denies visas for 8 in Cuba’s WBC delegation
• Padres reliever Yuki Matsui out of WBC for Japan, uncertain for Padres’ opener
• What does Scherzer’s return mean for Jays’ packed rotation?
• Comparing the industry’s 2026 Top 100 prospects lists
• CC Sabathia to have number retired by Yankees
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Need Lopez healthy for the season, so hopefully the A’s take their time with the lefty. Hoglund news is…. unsurprising:

Some performances from yesterday’s spring exhibition game:

Sneak peak of the next big thing coming:

Probably the guy who hit 36 as a 22-year-old rookie in just 114 games played:

Not enough!

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:

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!

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

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:

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. 🙂

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.

See more of the Yankees Previews series here.

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.