Category: Sports News

Happy Friday everyone! We’re light on Tigers news, but there are still some big baseball stories to check in on. The Hall of Fame inductees were announced this week, and Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones will be heading to Cooperstown. We also check in on Matt Vierling, plus a big move for the White Sox, and some major trades involving starting pitchers (but thankfully none of them named Tarik Skubal).

Let’s just get right into today’s news bites.

Detroit Tigers News

• The Tigers have signed outfielder Corey Julks to a minor-league deal.
• A look at the Tigers’ Venezuelan pipeline, which is working stronger than ever right now.
• The Detroit News look at where Matt Vierling is currently, and his hopes for the coming season.

AL Central News

• Luis Robert Jr. has drawn a lot of attention over the last two seasons as to whether he would be traded by the White Sox, and now he’s a New York Met.
• Taylor Rogers is reuniting with the Twins.

MLB News

• Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones will be headed to the Hall of Fame.
• A look at the deal that sent MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers.
• And a deeper dive into the prospect return that the Nationals hope will shape their future.
• A candidate-by-candidate look at everyone who was on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot.
• Michael Baumann has some very strong opinions about pitchers wearing single-digit jersey numbers.
• Which starting pitcher might be traded next? (Hint: It likely won’t be Tarik Skubal)
• A look at the “win-win” Freddy Peralta trade.
• Which team’s cap will the new Hall of Fame inductees be wearing when they’re immortalized in Cooperstown?
• Yadier Molina will be taking on a new role with the Cardinals.
• Three teams with the most confusing offseasons.
• Bob Costas will host the pre-game show for Sunday Night Baseball.
• Does the Hall of Fame have a starting pitcher problem?
• Is MLB parity possible without a salary cap?
• This is wild.

• A look at the potential first-timers who could be on next year’s Hall of Fame ballot.

• This is an interesting fact!

Last time, we took a look at starting pitcher projections for ERA. We will do the same here for relief pitchers. Obviously, there is a ton to get into here and before we dive in we need to talk about some issues that come up with all pitchers. Certainly, hitting and pitching is partially reliant on luck. Over the last decade, there have been exciting advancements in data primarily from a company called Statcast. They essentially can pinpoint exit velocities on batted balls and therefore can better predict trends in performance.

Chuck Palahniuk (the author of “Fight Club”) wrote one of my favorite lines in literature: “on a long enough timeline, the survival rate drops to zero.” Generally speaking the more data we receive the more reliable that data is going to be. We can predict outcomes and the underlying data (like Statcast) will match the manifesting data. In other words, pitchers that miss bats and induce weak contact will perform better than pitchers that don’t.

However, when you condense a 200 inning season into a 50 inning season, there are fewer opportunities for the data to normalize itself. This is why we often see wide variations from one season to the next for relief pitchers. They themselves are likely not radically different. They are getting different results because when sample sizes are smaller, there is more variance with luck.

This has two immediate implications for us today. First, the idea of giving a relief pitcher a multiyear contract is a risky proposition because of this variance. That’s why we don’t see them very often and it is much rarer for teams to get consistent bang for their buck. Secondly, the ERA predictions will seem higher for some players than what is likely to happen. When we go with batted ball statistics we tend to see a narrowing in projections across different pitchers because we cannot predict good or bad luck. For starting pitchers, that usually is not as big an issue. For relievers we will see wider variation in these numbers when the season ends.

The Numbers

Just like with the starters, we have more relievers than spots. MLB rules dictate that you can only have 13 pitchers on your ML roster. If the Astros go with a six man rotation then that means only spots for seven relievers. Naturally, at least one of those starters would probably double as a long reliever. However, there are eleven names here and all of them have unique situations as it pertains to options and status. For instance, Munoz looks like the worst candidate, but he was a Rule V draft choice, so he would need to remain on the roster or be sent back.

You will also notice that four of the top five relievers are lefties (in bold and italics). That creates some interesting roster construction issues as the Astros will need to prioritize right handed middle relief if they are to make any changes to the staff. Most organizations have only two lefties in their pen, so the Astros appear to be dealing from a position of strength. It is certainly possible for one or more of them to be dealt in a theoretical deal to add to other parts of the roster.

Roster Flexibility

As we noted in the last piece, Nate Pearson was projected as a reliever, but the Astros have labeled him as a candidate for the rotation. Similarly, Miguel Ullola and AJ Blubaugh were starters in the minors, so they could easily serve in that capacity. We also should note that JP France was a prominent start on the 2023 club before arm injuries limited him. He could also return to the rotation in Sugar Land to provide more depth in case of injuries.

As much as we would like to see the very best 26 guys on the final roster, teams often have to make difficult decisions at the end of the rotation and bullpen. As previously mentioned, Munoz has to make the final roster or be sent back. If they feel he is reasonably close in quality to a player with options then those players with options will likely be optioned back to Sugar Land. Teams use err on the side of keeping as many of their guys as they possibly can.

Fans and analysts also often forget the fourth dimension: time. Just because someone starts in AAA doesn’t mean they will end up there. Sometimes players need a little seasoning before coming up or they need to wait for a logjam to clear itself. We saw that with the rotation last season as there were even a couple of rotation arms I left off of the final list. Odds are pretty good that every name above will see some time at the big league level.

Future Considerations

I mentioned the reluctance to sign players to multi-year contracts. That will be put to the test following the season when Bryan Abreu becomes a free agent. Abreu is the only relief pitcher in baseball with 100 or more strikeouts in each of the last three seasons. He has averaged nearly 100 a season for the last four years. Add in a fifth season this year and there will be a ton of pressure to sign him to a Rafael Montero like deal.

However, we should note what happened with Montero. Obviously, Abreu has a longer track record of success than Montero did, but the question remains. How long will he be able to hold up this level of performance? Some team will likely offer him closer money and it is hard to imagine paying two players closer money. So, a large part of the season will be trying to find that guy that can eventually become the 8th inning guy when Abreu walks in free agency.

I hesitate to suggest it because the names above are generally unproven, but the Astros might consider moving him before the deadline. If they do not foresee re-signing him then it makes sense to consider getting something long-term to help your team. However, leaving your team without an effective 8th inning reliever is not conducive to contending, so the Astros will need to either be out of the race or have someone that can immediately take his place.

When it comes to the starting rotation, the Orioles’ 40-man roster currently includes these names: Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Brandon Young, Tyler Wells, Trevor Rogers, Cade Povich, Dean Kremer, and Zach Eflin.

True to GM Mike Elias’s promises, the Orioles have been beefing up the offense with some new bats, notably the Polar Bear, Pete Alonso himself. They even added a new starter in Baz, acquired from Tampa for a hefty passel of prospects. But if 2026 is to go well, the Orioles need to complement their rebooted offense with a return-to-form from one or more of Povich, Kremer, and Young, plus a successful return-from-injury from Baz, Bradish, Wells, and certainly, Zach Eflin.

You may recall that the Orioles acquired Eflin from the Rays in July 2024. He joined a rotation helmed by Corbin Burnes, but suffering from the loss, due to injury, of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Grayson Rodriguez. Eflin was really good down the stretch, exceeding expectations with a 5-2 record, 2.60 ERA, and 149 ERA+ over nine starts. The Orioles fell flat in the playoffs, but it was hardly his fault.

Eflin’s dominance, paired with the loss of free agent Burnes, made him the clear choice to be Baltimore’s Opening Day starter in 2025. He make that start, but then things quickly went sideways.

Eflin struggled to stay healthy last year (he wasn’t the only one). After just three starts, the righty went down with a right lat strain on April 9. He returned a month later but couldn’t find a groove. By mid-May, this team was in freefall, and a healthy Eflin could have provided a stabilizing presence for the roster. Instead, he hit the IL again on June 30 with lower back discomfort. It’d prove his last start of 2025, as he eventually underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy in August.

All in all, Eflin would do four stints on the IL while pitching to a 5.93 ERA in just fourteen starts.

As a pending free agent, Eflin could have been a trade chip in a season going nowhere. Instead, injuries prevented the Birds from flipping the starter for any value, and he elected free agency at season’s end. Though it wasn’t clear whether a reunion was in the cards, on December 29, the Orioles announced they were bringing him back on a one-year, $10 million deal, with a mutual option for 2027.

In a December Zoom call with the media, Eflin spoke candidly about his back issues. The injury, he explained, dated back roughly a decade, but last year it had progressively worsened, and it was the first time he couldn’t manage it at all. Surgeons discovered a bone spur pressing into a nerve—which explained the shooting pains Eflin had been dealing with. And unlike a Tommy John recovery, which can take fourteen-to-eighteen months, Eflin said he felt immediate relief after the operation, and now says he’s now in the best physical condition of his life. His first bullpen was scheduled for January 6 and his goal is to be ready for Opening Day.

So what to expect from this new-and-improved Zach Eflin?

The pessimist’s version: A guy who’s started more than 25 games only three of ten seasons in his career and who just posted a 5.93 ERA in an injury-shortened season.

The optimist’s version: The guy we saw in 2023 with Tampa Bay, when he went 16-8 with a 3.50 ERA, led the American League in wins, and finished sixth in Cy Young voting. That season, his first in Tampa, Eflin set career highs in starts (31), innings (177.2), and strikeouts (186), while posting career-best marks in ERA and WHIP (1.02). Then he outdid himself the next year!

I think the bet here is reasonable, although a one-year deal certainly suggests caution by the front office. If the back pain really was a substantial part of why Eflin had an ERA near 6 for the 2025 season—his time missed strongly suggests it was—and it was corrected by a reasonably simple surgery, then there’s a plausible story where 2026 looks for him a lot more like 2023.

Plus the Orioles don’t need Eflin to be their ace this time around. Bradish, Rogers, and Baz should occupy the top spots. Guys like Eflin, Wells, and Kremer can fill out the rotation. In that role, the pressure is lower. A healthy Eflin as your No. 4 starter? Teams would kill for that.

This doesn’t mean the Orioles should stop looking for pitching. They shouldn’t. Free agents like Framber Valdez would obviously upgrade the rotation. But a healthy and effective Eflin represents a scenario where the Orioles might not need to make a splashy signing to have a good rotation. If he bounces back, if Bradish returns well from Tommy John, if Baz fulfills his potential—that’s a rotation that can compete in October. The margin for error is thin, but it exists.

Eflin himself seems to understand the stakes. “[I didn’t want] to be the guy they traded for and get hurt and not be the guy that they wanted,” he said. “That really weighed on me.” He wants to prove something. He’s motivated. And for the first time in years, he’s pain-free.

Championship windows don’t stay open indefinitely. “We want to win the World Series,” says Eflin. The Orioles know this; it’s why they signed Alonso, traded for Ward and Baz, brought in Ryan Helsley, and resigned their No. 4 starter. A bounce-back Zach Eflin might be one of the quieter pieces of this puzzle, but he could end up being one of the most important.

The Atlanta Braves snuck this through the transaction wire earlier this week, but the team has brought back utility player/pitcher Luke Williams on a minor league deal. The moved happened the same day the team announced that Ha-Seong Kim will be lost for most of the first half of the regular seasons. The move to bring back Williams – who the Braves listed as a shortstop on their transaction – was speculated in the linked article.

While the Braves signed Jorge Mateo mid-week as a back-up shortstop option behind now presumed starter Mauricio Dubon, that doesn’t mean that Williams doesn’t have a path to a big-league roster spot at some point during the season.

As it stands now, the Braves do have one open position player spot on the 26-man roster. The addition of right-handed power-hitting reserve of some kind – Justin Turner, Gary Sanchez, maybe even Marcell Ozuna – seems like a more valuable addition to the roster than Williams.

Williams is not a good hitter. Full stop. He had a 0 (zero) wRC+ last year and for his career has a 63 wRC+. But, he is a good and versatile defender who can play in the middle infield and outfield. He is also a good base runner, making him an often-used pinch-runner option during his 221 games with Atlanta going back to 2023.

Here’s the punch-line to the joke that isn’t really a joke. Williams is also a useful pitcher. As a position player, he has pitched in 10 career games – including nine over the past two seasons with Atlanta.

In 2025, he made six appearances, tossing six innings and striking out four while allowing only two earned runs. His career WHIP is 1.18 with an xERA of 4.25 against an actual ERA of 3.27. His FIP and xFIP aren’t as good but this is a position player, not an actual full-time pitcher. Last year, if not for his own injury, he likely would have pitched in at least two more games.

Williams is-what-he-is. A player who can be useful as the 26th an on a roster where his positive attributes can be utilized if the other position players are going to see the majority of the playing time during the season. This has been something he has been able to do the last couple of season with Atlanta.

Is there a chance he is nothing more but break-in-case-of-emergency depth at Triple-A this season? Absolutely, and hopefully so. But don’t be surprised if Williams doesn’t appear with Atlanta at some point this season.

Dundee head coach Steven Pressley believes there are similarities between the progress Rangers have made under Danny Rohl and that of his own side over the past few months.

The teams meet at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday aiming to continue strong form.

Rohl, having replaced Russell Martin in October, has Rangers on a seven-game winning run while Dundee have four victories in their past five fixtures.

"Rangers' situation on a greater scale is similar to our own," said Pressley.

"Danny went in there, they became a little bit more pragmatic, they addressed some of the outstanding issues like their vulnerability from set-plays and now that is a real strength.

"I think once you start taking small steps and seeing the results from that, a confidence grows within the team and just organically things improve. I think Rangers, it is a bit like our own journey.

"So very similar but a really good Rangers team just now."

Dundee drew 1-1 at Ibrox last August during Martin's calamitous Rangers tenure.

"Any time you go to Ibrox it is a really big challenge for ourselves," added Pressley.

"But to face a Rangers team that are on the back of six [now seven] straight wins, five of those in the league, that are growing in confidence, have a lot of momentum and have just recruited a number of very talented players makes the job in hand very difficult.

"But equally we go there with a little bit of form ourselves so it is a game we are excited about. Like we did the last time we went there, we need everything to go right and if that happens you never know."

While Dundee are deservedly getting plenty of plaudits, Pressley is keeping his feet on the ground.

"There are so many other aspects that we still need to improve around the club and in our own performance," he said.

"That is what excites me, we are making progress but a lot more to come."

Wednesday was quite a baseball day in New York. The Yankees signed Cody Bellinger back to their squad for $162 million, and the Mets acquired Freddy Peralta from the Brewers in exchange for prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat.

This has ramifications for the Red Sox on a few fronts: First, the deal for Bellinger again verifies the price for free agent outfielders remains astronomically high. Second, the Yankees retained another piece of their 2025 outfield that hit a combined 112 home runs (it’s a good thing the Sox have a bunch of high ceiling lefty pitchers if they need to go in there next fall). And lastly, the Mets are becoming a less ideal trade candidate as they continue to clear out interesting young players and also traded for Luis Robert earlier in the week.

So where do the Red Sox go from here?

Couple the Bellinger money with the $240 million Kyle Tucker got from the Dodgers last week, and in theory, the Red Sox should be sitting pretty with their surplus of outfielders. But my guess is, and this is purely a guess, Craig Breslow and the front office are not finding a certain left handed starting major league outfielder valued as high on the trade market as he probably would be if he was a free agent. Thus, the hold up.

If this is the case, it puts them in a difficult spot. They can either trade for 80 cents on the dollar and get a badly needed infield piece that works for this roster right now, or they can hold out until their demands are met. Unfortunately, the problem with holding out is you might be left without a dancing partner, and looking at the landscape after this Mets’ deals this week, the herd is thinning.

We’re much closer to the start of spring training than we are to the end of the 2025 season, and the enormous log jam across the outfield and DH positions still hasn’t been addressed. The Red Sox roster remains stacked with Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran as headliners in the outfield. Then there’s Kristian Campbell, who may need to ultimately end up out there. And the club still hasn’t sorted out how Masataka Yoshida and Triston Casas, who seem destined to battle for their share of DH at bats, fit into the equation.

Conventional wisdom says a trade partner must be found soon to clear out this mess and address the infield hole, but conventional wisdom has been screaming into the void on this topic for months without a response. Making matters murkier is the unfortunate darkness surrounding any details when it comes trade rumors in modern MLB. We typically have no clue how these things progress until Jeff Passan drops a tweet with the final product. As a result, we don’t know the structure of any proposed deals, making it hard to evaluate whether Craig Breslow and company are valuing players too high, or if the rest of the league is refusing to play ball at a fair price.

For now, we remain stuck waiting in winter’s cold darkness.

For the second consecutive year and for the fourth time since 2022, Shohei Ohtani was named as the best player in baseball by MLB Network entering the 2026 season. Ohtani beat out Aaron Judge for a second consecutive year, with Bobby Witt Jr. once again placing third behind the pair of two-time reigning MVPs.

Ohtani has had arguably the best start to his Dodgers tenure over his first two seasons, as he won the NL MVP in both 2024 and 2025 while helping the Dodgers become the first repeat champions in 25 years. He became the first Dodger to hit 50 home runs in a season in 2024 (finishing with 54) and outdid himself this past season with a new franchise single-season home run record of 55. Not to mention the fact that he became the founding member of the 50-50 club, a feat that no other player has come close to achieving thus far.

Ohtani was named the best player in baseball following the 2021 and 2022 season, but finished as runner-up to Ronald Acuña Jr. following the 2023 season after the latter posted the first 40-70 season in baseball history. Three other Dodgers finished in the top-20 of MLB Network’s list, with Will Smith ranked at no. 20, Mookie Betts at no. 18 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at no. 13. Both Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker placed just outside the top-20, coming in at no. 22 and 21 respectively.

Links

Dylan Hernandez and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (soon to be with the California Post) appeared on The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman to discuss the Dodgers offseason. During the episode, the four discussed the enigmatic Ohtani and how it’s been a challenge to understand what he is like as a person and off the field.

Per Hernandez: “In all this time that I’ve known [Ohtani], I’ve never had a human-to-human conversation with him— it’s always been athlete-to-reporter. That’s very rare… He’s a complete mystery. I’ve never seen anybody quite like this.”

Jayson Stark of The Athletic provides a sneak peak into the 2027 Hall of Fame class, with notable names such as Buster Posey and Jon Lester entering their first year of eligibility. Chase Utley, who finished with 59.1 percent of votes on the 2026 ballot, still has a long ways to go, but Stark argues that Utley’s career hit total could give him a compelling case considering Posey, a three-time champion and the 2012 NL MVP, retired with 1500 hits to his name.

It’s a big leap from 59.1 percent to 75 percent, so 2027 might be a longshot for election. But if Posey is about to get elected with only 1,500 hits, Utley’s 1,855 won’t feel like much of an obstacle anymore.

Baseball, in many cases, can serve as a very effective microcosm for the world and the country it inhabits. From social progression, justice, or the dawn of the information age, baseball has often travelled right along with the world surrounding it. Looking back, that means we can find stories that are nearly impossible to imagine in the modern world, a description the would fit that of Johnny Sturm quite well.

Born in 1916, Sturm played a mostly full season in his rookie campaign with the Yankees, and would never again play on a major league field after. It was due to circumstances mostly out of his control, in an unfortunate story, as Sturm’s Yankee tenure would last just a single year. His performance on its own was unimpressive, but Sturm stands as in interesting landmark for a time that feels long gone.

Johnny Sturm
Born: January 23, 1916 (St. Louis, MO)
Died: October 8, 2004 (St. Louis, MO)
Yankees Tenure: 1941

Johnny Sturm grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and began his professional career in the minor leagues in 1936. After five seasons at various levels in the Yankees’ organization, Sturm would finally get his chance with the big club in 1941. In the post-Lou Gehrig era, the team had struggled to fill the impossibly large void. Babe Dahlgren, who replaced Gehrig, was sent to Boston after the 1940 season, which prompted another change at the position. The Yankees first moved Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Gordon over to first, though it was a move that proved ineffective.

The Yankees eventually moved Gordon back to second, opening a spot for Sturm at first base. The club had struggled out of the gate, and likely hoped the move would help them take a step forward. Incidentally, the day the Yankees slid Sturm into the lineup was also the day Joe DiMaggio began his record-setting hitting streak.

On the whole, Sturm’s performance at the plate during the ‘41 season left plenty to be desired. The Yankee first baseman slashed .239/.293/.300 for just a 58 OPS+ in his rookie season. But, the season didn’t come without its bright spots. In June of ‘41, Sturm belted a two-run homer in the second game of a double-header, which kickstarted a run of 40 home runs in 25 games for the Bombers as a squad.

He also played a role in the World Series that year. Sturm went 6-for-21 in the five games, pitching in with a pair of RBI in the victorious Fall Classic effort for New York. It wasn’t the flashiest of campaigns, but doing his part for a winning World Series squad is certainly something on its own.

The offseason that followed was an eventful one for Sturm. He was married shortly after the successful World Series, and not long after, with the United States then fully entrenched in World War II, Sturm enlisted in the military. He was stationed at a base in Missouri and, fittingly, assumed the duty of building baseball fields and managing the post’s baseball team.

Sturm was obviously away from the team on Opening Day the following year, when his career took a turn for the worse. While operating a tractor, he made an ill-fated move which ultimately caused the amputation of the tip of his index finger on his right arm.

Post-recovery, Sturm served until November of 1945, stationed overseas for the latter part of his service. He attempted to make a return to professional baseball in 1946, with plenty of factors working against him. Having missed four seasons of play, and now playing with a significantly altered right hand, it was an uphill battle for Sturm.

Now 30 years old, Sturm had trouble reacclimating, and was unable to reclaim his former spot, and was forced to toil in the minor leagues. He remained in the Yankees organization through the 1949 season, eventually as a player-manager for the Joplin Miners (and actually putting up some solid numbers).

That would be the end of professional baseball for Sturm, however, as the missed time and injury trouble were too much to overcome for the first baseman. It was a stint with the Yankees cut too short by unfortunate circumstances, and it creates an interesting looking resume, as he was the last of just six players in MLB history to have 500-plus plate appearances in their lone season. A career like Sturm’s feels like something that only could have happened in the past, and serves as an interesting piece of baseball history.

Despite his turbulent experience in professional baseball, Sturm lived to be 88 years old. Born on this day in 1916, his story is one of a kind in Yankees history.

Research:

SABR Bio