Worldwide Sports News

On Monday, the it was reported that the Braves could be joining with a few other pro teams in the Southeast on a new RSN for the games in 2026 and perhaps beyond. Well moments ago, the Braves officially announced the new home for their games this season, BravesVision:

Obviously, there will be more to come on this exciting new venture for the Braves and the future of their TV Broadcasts. Make sure to stick with Battery Power for the latest.

Braves News

Mark Bowman looks at some early Spring observations for the Braves, including the current setup for the top of the lineup and the starting rotation.

MLB News

Juan Soto has set his sights on beating Shohei Ohtani for the 2026 NL MVP.

Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers may not be ready for Opening Day but is on track for full health.

The Diamondbacks and Merrill Kelly continue to await the latest on MRI results after he experienced arm discomfort over the weekend.

Alex Vesia pitched a scoreless inning on Monday against the Seattle Mariners at Camelback Ranch, which in itself wasn’t all that irregular. After all, the left-hander has been a staple in the Dodgers bullpen for four years, including 142 scoreless appearances lasting at least one inning last season during that time, most on the Dodgers.

But this was his first game action since last season, and the first since he and his wife Kayla lost their newborn baby in October. That was not lost on Vesia, nor was it lost on the fans in Arizona, who gave him a nice ovation after finishing the 17-pitch inning.

Vesia spoke with reporters on Monday after his outing, which was recapped by Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register:

“It’s been hard, actually. Hard in a good way. Because I want to interact with the fans and all that, but I know I have a job to do,” Vesia said. “Even on the back fields the first day, we walk out the doors, and (there were) cheers and lots of love.

“It means a lot to myself, and Kay too.”

News & notes

Outfielder Alex Call has yet to play in any of the three Dodgers Cactus League games this spring. He’s being slow-played with “a minor foot issue,” per Jack Harris of The California Post.

Blake Snell hasn’t yet pitched off a mound yet this spring, consistent with his slow offseason having him behind to start camp. Katie Woo at The Athletic with an update on the left-hander:

Gavin Stone gets the ball for the Dodgers on Tuesday, in his first game action in 542 days. Roki Sasaki starts Wednesday on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks and, per Plunkett, Tyler Glasnow will start Thursday against the Chicago White Sox.

Old friend Brent Honeywell Jr., who did not pitch in 2025 after pitching whenever needed the year before, signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants, per Justice delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News.

Today, let’s put our optimist hats on. It’s spring training, after all — the possibilities seem endless! I’m going to go player-by-player through the position players likely to be on the major league team this season (with a few bonuses at the end) and think about what a season looks like for them if everything goes right. In some cases, it’s a result, and in some cases, it’s going to be a “goal,” but these are all related to that central question: what if things go well?

There’s a hypothetical companion piece to this article about worst-case scenarios, but let’s just say that everyone’s entry is “gets injured” and not worry about it.

William Contreras: Top three MVP?

I originally wanted to ask if Contreras could be a top-five MVP candidate, but he’s already done that — he finished fifth in 2024. So let’s turn it a little bit higher. With Shohei Ohtani back to his fully-operational self, it’s going to be difficult for non-Ohtani players to get into the top National League spot, but what about second or third?

One of my bold predictions last year was that Contreras was going to get into that conversation, and I thought my reasoning was sound: the Brewers were likely to be good, I thought they would win the NL Central, and their best player should get some love in the MVP race.

Well, Contreras started poorly last year, which pretty much killed any chance of that happening… but there was definitely some room at the top of the NL — Kyle Schwarber finished second in MVP voting and didn’t even crack five WAR.

I’m going to stick to my reasoning, here: even if I don’t think Contreras has much of a chance to actually win the MVP, if he has his best season (at age 28, typically the start of the baseball “prime”) and the Brewers again compete for “best team in the league” status, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where he finishes as high as second.

Gary Sánchez: Have an ISO of at least .200

From 2016-2021, Sánchez never had an isolated power (slugging minus batting average) number lower than .218. (For reference, Christian Yelich, who led the Brewers in homers in 2025, had a .188 ISO last season.) Since then, Sánchez’s isolated power has dipped: numbers of .172, .171, and .187 surrounded a good 2023 season in which he had 19 homers in 75 games (and a .275 ISO).

As the backup to one of the best catchers in the league on a team that has a more-or-less full-time DH, Sánchez is not likely to get very many opportunities this season, but if he can hit some tanks — which he’s certainly still capable of — in his limited playing time, it will be a successful season for him.

Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers: Show us that last season wasn’t a fluke

Andrew Vaughn’s journey has been spoken about at length. He was an immensely talented prospect who reached the White Sox early and held his own… but whose progress stalled, and then went in reverse. He was sent to the minors in 2025, and his career looked to have reached a dead end. Then the Brewers traded for hi,m and he returned to the big leagues and performed as the player that everyone thought Andrew Vaughn would be in 2025 when he was drafted in 2019.

Bauers doesn’t have the same pedigree as Vaughn, but he was a top 100 prospect back in 2017 and 2018 who never really clicked in the majors. But last year, shortly before turning 30, Bauers seemed to figure something out. After an IL stint in July and August, Bauers hit .360/.458/.560 in 59 plate appearances from September first until the end of the season and, crucially, looked dangerous in the postseason. It’s a tiny sample, but it somehow felt sustainable.

The two sides of Milwaukee’s 2026 first base platoon have a lot to prove. The samples of big production are small for both. A rational person would expect both to return closer to the production levels of earlier in their careers. But if these gains in production are real, and the Brewers can get a full season out of the sluggers they had at the end of last year, it would help answer the question of where Milwaukee’s power will come from in 2026.

Brice Turang: Combine the last two seasons into one monster

In 2024, Brice Turang played Platinum-Glove-level defense and was one of the best baserunners in the league with 50 stolen bases in 56 attempts. In 2025, he leveled up at the plate and improved his power to a place that we didn’t really think was possible, with 28 doubles, 18 homers, and a 124 wRC+… but his defense and baserunning both took a step back.

What happens if you combine the offense of 2025 with the defense and baserunning of 2024?

You get a legitimate MVP candidate.

Joey Ortiz and Blake Perkins: Have a 90 wRC+

In 2024, Ortiz had a 105 wRC+. In 2025, it was 67. Given the quality of his glove, Ortiz does not have to offer much offensively in order to be a valuable player, but he needs to offer more than he did. A 90 wRC+ would still be quite a bit below 2024, but it would get him back into the realm of respectability; Ozzie Smith became a first-ballot Hall of Famer because of the quality of his glove. His career wRC+? 90. (For Ortiz, Monday’s game was a good start!)

Perkins is in very much the same boat. His ideal role is as a fourth outfielder, where he can hit from either side of the plate and be a defensive ace when he comes into the game. With Garrett Mitchell hurt last season, Perkins was a bit overexposed offensively, and the postseason made it clear that he was overmatched. But if he can figure out a way to hit a little bit, whether that’s by hitting a few more homers (could he hit 10 in 400 plate appearances?) or trying to become a more effective slap hitter, he’ll give himself more of a shot at getting important playing time.

Luis Rengifo: Hit at least 15 homers

Rengifo hit 17 homers in 2022 and 16 in 2023, but he’s managed just 15 in 225 games since then. Getting that power back up (he needs to elevate the ball) will go a long way toward re-establishing Rengifo as an offensive weapon; if he can’t do that, he’s unlikely to play good enough defense to justify his place on the team.

David Hamilton: Do the little things, and hit righties a little

I’m not expecting a whole lot from Hamilton at the plate. Like Ortiz, he was pretty good there in 2024 and dreadful in 2025. I don’t see a ton of upside for Hamilton, though using him strictly against right-handed pitching is a good place to start; his career OPS is 177 points higher versus righties. But he can do the veteran utility player thing and make himself a big part of the team by playing good defense, taking walks, and running the bases well.

Christian Yelich: Keep the back healthy and hit 30 homers

It’s easy to forget that even though he struggled with his back down the stretch (concerning!) and looked helpless in the postseason, Yelich managed to play in 150 games in 2025 and hit 29 homers, the third-highest total of his career. At 34, it’s easy to imagine negative scenarios where Yelich’s health and declining athleticism prevent him from producing reliably ever again. But if he can keep his back healthy, he’s got a real shot at hitting 30 homers for the first time since his second-place MVP finish in 2019, and it would be huge for this power-starved team.

Jackson Chourio: Make The Leap

While it may have felt like 2025 was a mild disappointment for Chourio, whose overall production level was very much in line with his 2024 season, it is important to remember that he will still be one of the league’s youngest players when he enters his age-22 season in 2026. His production to this point — 6.0 WAR via Baseball Reference and 6.9 via FanGraphs — is in extremely rare air for a player his age.

Now, let’s see the leap. There were glimpses in the postseason last year, when Chourio looked up to the moment even as the rest of the offense floundered around him. It’s not difficult to see that Chourio can do things that not every other player can do; it’s just a matter of those tools maturing into steady production.

Maybe this is the year. Superstar arcs are not linear, something that I’ve explored before, but it sure feels like a Chourio breakout is coming sometime soon.

Garrett Mitchell: Play 130 games

We’re going to start there. Mitchell’s talent is intriguing, and before 2025, he was a popular candidate for “player on the verge of a breakout.” But that somehow feels like an incredibly long time ago: he has not been able to stay healthy for any meaningful length of time thus far in his career, and no matter how intriguing his tools and production have been, it does not matter if he can’t stay on the field.

Let’s do that first. I don’t really even care what the production is. We need to know what the Brewers have with Mitchell, and in order to do that, he needs to stay healthy.

Sal Frelick: Hit .300 with 30 doubles

Frelick showed steady improvement from 2024 to 2025, when he managed to put himself on the fringes of the batting title conversation by hitting .288 (seventh in the NL). Frelick is not going to become a power hitter. But he is already a useful offensive player — he had a 114 wRC+ last season, which is quite good. His walk rate has been steady the past couple of seasons, around 7.5%, which is fine. He hit 12 homers in 2025, which is pretty good for a player like Frelick. Can he bump that up just a little more?

Where I’d really like to see Frelick improve, though, is in doubles. Frelick may not profile as a home run hitter, but he only hit 20 doubles in 2025, and a player with Frelick’s profile — fast, a lot of contact — should do better than that. If Frelick could hit 30-40 doubles, that would really make him an offensive threat, even if he hits only 12-15 homers.

Let’s also get him to the .300 plateau, which only one National League hitter reached in 2025. A .300 hitter with 30 doubles, 15 homers, and a 7.5% walk rate is a dangerous offensive player, and likely an All-Star, given his quality in the field.

Brandon Lockridge: Outhit Perkins

Lockridge isn’t likely to start in the big leagues if everyone is healthy, but he’ll be just a phone call away. Lockridge is sort of like Perkins but without the switch-hitting; he’s not a very good hitter, but he’s fast and plays excellent outfield defense. But if he can do something offensively — he has two home runs through the first three days of spring training, and had back-to-back minor league seasons with double-digit homers in 2021-22 — he could create some difficult questions for the Brewers’ front office.

Meanwhile, some quick goal-oriented questions for some guys who’ll start in the minors:

Jett Williams: Is your defense ready for primetime, no matter where that is?

Jesús Made: Can you stay on the trajectory?

Jeferson Quero: Can you throw?

Cooper Pratt: The defense is ready; can you hit?

Brock Wilken: Can you be the second coming of Gene Tenace?

Luis Peña: Can you keep pace with your more-heralded teammate?

Andrew Fischer: How soon can you make them think about you as a big leaguer?

Do you remember how you felt when you heard that the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to a five-year contract? Shock was my biggest feeling. Alonso is an actual star and not the kind of player the Orioles have gone after in a long time.

Alonso has been an All-Star for the last four seasons. He’s played at least 150 games in each of those seasons and, including 162 in both 2024 and 2025. Last year, he hit 38 home runs and 41 doubles. In the last five seasons, he has slugged 195 home runs, ranging from 34-46 each year. The dude can flat out hit.

There is a question of Alonso’s defense at first base. He has been a below-average fielder his entire career, and last season he posted a Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) of -9. Statcast rates his range and arm both poorly, though at least at first base he won’t be making a lot of tough throws.

Multiple projection systems point to another strong season for Alonso:

• ZiPS: 152 games, 38 HR, .274/.348/.536, wRC+ 143
• Baseball Reference: 648 PA, 33 HR, .247/.331/.484

Do any of those numbers stack up to your expectations? How many home runs do you think our new home run king will hit? Will his durability continue, or will he finally fall to injury? ZiPs, which is higher on Alonso than BRef, projects an fWAR of 4.1. That would be the second-best of his career. Is that realistic?

Since he signed with the Orioles in December, Pete Alonso has said and done all the right things. But until we see his performance on the field, I will be nervous. That has less to do with Alonso’s history and more to do with my personal insecurity as an Orioles fan.

How do you feel?

On January 2, 2020, Jeff Passan posted on Twitter a list of twelve members of the Chicago White Sox who were under team control for multiple seasons, saying, “If everything falls right, this has a chance to be a sustained run for the Chicago White Sox.” At the time, this was a normal, rather uncontroversial statement; although they had won only 72 games in 2019, their farm system was considered one of the best in the game, and that farm system was all reaching The Show at the same time. Two years later, that squad won 93 games, losing in the ALDS to the Houston Astros, and looked to all the world to be the next team to rule the American League Central.

Oh, how the baseball gods are merciless. That 2021 team would prove to be the entire extent of the window. Chicago went just .500 in 2022, lost 100 games in 2023, and then set the Major League record for losses in a season with 121 in 2024. Of the twelve players Passan listed in his now-infamous tweet, none of them remain with the organization, and several of them — including Tim Anderson, Dallas Keuchel, and Yasmani Grandal — are currently out of baseball. At the moment, only one thing has gone right for the White Sox in recent years, and that is the fact that Pope Leo XIV, is a diehard White Sox fan.

In his ZiPS projections back in November, Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs summed up the 2025 White Sox in the best way possible: “The 2025 White Sox performed the very weird dual feat of being one of baseball’s most improved teams compared to 2024 and losing more than a 100 games.” It is important to keep that in mind when looking ahead to 2026, because though the names have changed — e.g., gone is Luis Robert Jr., who Chicago finally found a buyer for in the New York Mets — the expectations remain the same. FanGraphs’ Depth Chart projections have the White Sox at 93 losses, and honestly, that might be a tad optimistic.

Despite the low expectations, however, Chicago did have a fairly good offseason. In addition to trading Robert, and getting an actual prospect in Luisangel Acuña as the return, they made a flurry of moves bringing in players on short-term contracts both in free agency and via the trade market, with the headline of course being Japanese corner infielder Munetaka Murakami.

This is exactly the type of offseason a team like the White Sox should be having. On paper, they are a better team than last year. Are they going to be a contender? Probably not. After all, FanGraphs has just one projected starter with a wRC+ above 105 (Murakami, at 120), and their starting rotation is headed by a trio of pitchers under the age of 30 with barely a year experience apiece (Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke) — not exactly a recipe for success. But at this stage of the rebuild, being able to put a team that looks remotely competitive on the diamond day in and day out, with the possibility of flipping some players on short-term deals to contenders at the deadline for prospects to restock a farm system that ranks among the league’s bottom-third.

But hey, at least they have the pope on their side.

More Pinstripe Alley MLB team season previews will be available here.

“I mean, it was a weird day.“

That’s recent Arizona Diamondback and now Colorado Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy when asked about scoring the Rockies first run of 2026 against the team that traded him away back in January.

“I’m used to coming out that other down the left field foul pole, and then being in the other dugout,” McCarthy said. “And there were some funny, funny faces that they were making at me. So, yeah, it was a weird day, but I’m excited to be here playing baseball again.”

Then he added this: “It was good.“

Clearly, playing for a new team is always a challenge, but for McCarthy, the adjustment has been relatively modest so far.

He’s still in the same spring training complex he played in as a D-back, given that the Snakes and the Rockies share Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. As he commented at Rockies Fest, the biggest adjustment would be turning into the correct parking lot when he went to camp.

“I kind of like going in the way I’ve always gone. So every now and then I see one of those guys, and I’ll just lay on the horn or something,” McCarthy said. “It’s a funny part of my commute every day.”

But so far, he’s impressed what’s happening on the Colorado side of Salt River Fields.

“I think there’s a lot of good energy around here, and a lot of talented players who are excited to make their marks,” McCarthy said. “So, I’m really happy to be a part of it, and I want to play a big role in it.“

Plus, given that the D-backs and Rockies play each other a lot during the course of an MLB season, Coors Field is not unfamiliar to him. Over the course of his career, McCarthy has played 14 games at Coors, and he’s accumulated a .375/.423/.500 slashline that includes seven stolen bases on 18 hits. (He’s had 48 at-bats.)

Then there’s the fact that McCarthy is fast — really fast — “one of the fastest players in Major League Baseball,” Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta commented after the trade became public. “He’s been a very good base runner.”

McCarthy’s sprint speed is 29.9 feet/second, the eighth best in MLB. (The very speedy Benton Doyle clocks in at 29.5 feet/second.)

Currently, McCarthy is getting to know his new outfield colleagues though he is quick to point out their familiarity.

“I think we all know each other pretty well through playing against each other for so long,” McCarthy said.

Right now, though, they’re working on becoming an outfield unit, something McCarthy sees strengthened by their diverse experiences.

“A guy like Mickey, he’s played for a couple teams. I just came from Arizona. Tyler Freeman was with Cleveland. So I think we all have different things: ‘Hey, I worked on this over at this spot that I really like.’ So it’s cool. We have conversations every day, just about things that help us get a little bit better.”

For McCarthy, this marks a change from his time with the D-backs when the outfielders had all come up together.

“For the most part, we had been D-backs for five or six years. So that was all that we knew — not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s cool hearing different sides of it.”

Fellow outfielder Mickey Moniak sees things coming together.

Of McCarthy, Moniak said, “He’s dynamic,” then added, “I think that’s the best way to describe our outfield unit as a whole – dynamic.”

After all, having McCarthy on the roster gives the outfield more options.

“We’ve got four guys who can play center field, along with [Tyler] Freeman when he’s out there – he can also play center field in the big leagues,” Moniak said.

Manager Warren Schaeffer is clear about what he sees in McCarthy:

And don’t overlook the experience McCarthy brings with him.

“[He’s] a guy who gets on base a lot,” Moniak said. “He’s had success in the big leagues, and brings that experience. He’s been in the postseason and been to the World Series. He fit right in from day one. I think it’s clear that bringing him in was a great move, and getting to play alongside of him is going to be a lot of fun.”

Center fielder Brenton Doyle referred to McCarthy as “awesome,” and said that the two are neighbors in the clubhouse. “

“I’ve had a lot of good opportunities to talk with him,” Doyle said, “and he’s a super, super awesome guy — great clubhouse guy — and super easy to get along with. So I think that play to our advantage on the field.”

And even though Coors Field will be his new home, it’s not unfamiliar.

“I think [the D-backs] did a pretty good job over there understanding that obviously with the elevation, the ball is going to go a little farther, and it’s a bigger outfield,” McCarthry said. “But I’ve always taken pride in playing defense, so in the 10 or whatever games I’ve played there, I think I’ve done a decent job of accounting for all of that. But I’m excited to play 81 games there, so it’ll be cool.”

Perhaps McCarthy’s biggest challenge over the course of his career has been its unevenness.

• 2022 — .283/.342/.427; 23 stolen bases; 2.2 fWAR
• 2023 — .245/.318/.326; 26 stolen bases; 0.1 fWAR
• 2o24 – .285/.349/.400; 25 stolen bases; 3.0 fWAR
• 2025 — .204/.247/.345; 6 stolen bases; 0.1 fWAR

It’s easy to see the difference between the even and odd years of McCarthy’s career.

At Rockies Fest, he said his focus was “just getting back to what makes [him] go as a baseball player.”

Then he added, “I think it could be dynamic, and I think that means getting on base for guys like [Hunter Goodman] and playing good defense, especially in a field like this. I think there were parts of last season that maybe I got away from that a little bit. So again, just eager — eager to kind of get back on track.”

In a way, McCarthy and a rebuilding Colorado Rockies are a good pair for each other when it comes to “getting back on track.”

“I think it’s a great opportunity to sort of prove people wrong,” McCarthy said.

“I think it’s really exciting to be on the way up and be a part of something. So I just think everyone in this room has a great opportunity.”

This week on the internet

Okay, here’s today’s question: Would you give the Rockies a fist bump or keep walking?

2026 MLB Team Preview Series: Colorado Rockies | Pinstripe Alley

I am always curious about how fans of other teams see the Rockies. This is from our SBN sister site for the New York Yankees, Pinstripe Alley.

Dugout-called pitches? Giants under Tony Vitello might give it the old college try | The Athletic ($)

Are other teams exploring the possibility of calling pitches from the dugout? The Marlins and Giants are thinking about it, and Warren Schaeffer is quoted in the article:

My new pitching coach feels very strongly about it, and he’s presented me with the reasons why, and they are very intriguing reasons,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It’s something that’s being discussed across the game internally. It’s the most important part of the game, what pitches are thrown. There’s nuance there in terms of trusting your catcher and all the preparation he puts into the game. But at the end of the day, I’m definitely open to it. It would take a lot of communication. The whole team would have to be in on it. And there’s lots of ways to go about it. The pitcher still makes the ultimate decision on what to throw.

This is surely a topic we will discuss in more detail later, but what are your initial thoughts?

Introducing the FanGraphs Lab | FanGraphs

FanGraphs has added a very cool data visualization tool. Nerds, this one’s for you.

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

Some surprises out in Surprise? Possibly. I mean, the surprise for us right now would be a Cubs victory… the team was 0-3, started a lineup of Triple-A players and PCA, with Ben Brown on the mound, against the Royals ‘A’ lineup.

Brown worked two scoreless innings and that was good. Javier Assad took the ball and followed suit with a scoreless frame. They were supported by a Jefferson Rojas big fly in the fourth. Jackson Kirkpatrick, a decent-looking prospect, followed Assad. Porter Hodge, Ryan Rolison, and others threw for the cause. Tyler Ras gave up a solo shot to KC’s Josh Rojas in the eighth.

Former Cubs prospect Alex Lange pitched for KC. and didn’t throw enough strikes. He loaded the bases with one out and James Triantos liked one of his offerings enough to pound into the outfield between first and second for two runs.

In the end, the Cubs prevailed for their first victory of the spring. Al has details in his recap.

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Inside Cubs camp: How elite talent, data and discipline are shaping spring training. “On the backfields, it’s impossible to miss the technology that has proliferated across the game.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}) Cubs reliever Phil Maton still showcasing passion for development in Year 10. “Maton is adding a new pitch to his arsenal.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): 4 takeaways from Chicago Cubs spring training, including another low-risk signing to bolster the bench. “Counsell said he’s not considering Matt Shaw as a potential backup at first.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Visa issues resolved, Cubs catcher Moises Ballesteros reports to camp. “Ballesteros likely won’t appear in the first week of spring-training games as he ramps up.” Jordan Bastian has more Mo.
• Wayne Drehs (Chicago*): Welcome to the PCA Show. “Cubs fan favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong is one of baseball’s most exciting young talents — and his own biggest critic.“
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): World Baseball Classic, contract year with Cubs present opportunities for Seiya Suzuki. “Playing the field helps me with the rhythm of the game,” Suzuki said. “But it’s up to the coaches.”

Food For Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We will not wittingly publish A. I. – driven articles or clickbait, and insist on unimpeachable sources.

Something the Detroit Tigers have lacked for a long, long time is speed. Sure, they have some players who can run and plenty who grade out around average, but I’m talking about a real burner. A guy who is a threat to steal a bag every time he gets on base. At various times over the past two decades, the Tigers have brought in a player like Cameron Maybin in 2017, or you’ll recall Quintin Berry back in 2012, but they haven’t really developed that kind of player. The fact that we have to go back a good ways just to find two free agent acquisitions who fit the bill says it all. Perhaps, center field prospect Seth Stephenson will finally be the homegrown player who provides elite speed off the bench.

The 25-year-old right handed hitter has racked up a whopping 179 stolen bases over the past three seasons in the minor leagues. His 5’9” 165 pound frame isn’t built for power, it’s built for quick jumps, and high end straightline speed. That was his strength when the Tigers selected him in the seventh round out of Tennessee, where he was a star defensive center fielder. After some slow early progress, Stephenson has done a great job over the past two years in building a hitting foundation from which his speed can play a decisive role for his teams.

The element of excitement at West Michigan Whitecaps and Erie SeaWolves games when Stephenson was on base was palpable in 2025. He has not only the speed, the ability to get good reads on pitchers and jumps that make even courtesy throws to second base from minor league catchers ill-advised. Even better, he finally got stronger and developed some batspeed, moving from slap-hitting fringe prospect you might want as the 26th man on the roster solely to pinch-run, into more of a quality contact oriented hitter who can make things happen with his legs. As a result, Stephenson looks more like a player who may be able to hold down a full-time bench role in the future. Think of him as potentially a right-handed hitting Jarrod Dyson from the Royals run circa 2014-2015

Boasting 70 grade speed, Stephenson profiles as a plus defender. Stephenson has a solid arm as well, fitting into right field well on top of being a good center fielder. His role as a future major leaguer would mainly be to start against left-handers, though his splits are nicely balanced, and otherwise come in to pinch-hit and boost the outfield defense in close, late game situations. He’s very well suited to that task.

At the plate, Stephenson puts the ball in play a ton, and has really worked hard to build himself up physically over the past two seasons. His batspeed has perked up, and more and more he’s been on time to pull the ball while still spraying the ball around to all fields with a little more authority. Not only does he have the speed to beat out singles on throws from shortstops and third baseman going into the hole on the left side of the infield, routine singles down the line or up the gaps can turn into doubles as he regularly beats throws into second from outfielders who don’t hustle or can’t make strong accurate throws to second base. Over a quarter of his knocks in 2025 were extra base hits as a result, despite 45 FV power grades.

Stephenson struck out just 14.2 percent of the time in 2025, and actually cut his strikeouts down two percent when he moved up to Double-A Erie after the All-Star break. His walk rates are just average, but again, as long as Stephenson is putting the ball in play a lot, he’s a menace on the basepaths for any defensive unit in the game.

Over the past two years he’s worked to develop a little more power, and while he hit 8 home runs in 2025 after never topping 5 in a season, that’s clearly not his game. Stephenson hits the ball in the air a good amount, but his swing is built to hit the ball hard on a line, and he tends to hit a ton of pop-ups if pitchers get him swinging up in the zone or chasing pull side power too much. It’s good that he’s trying to develop some pop, but the sweet spot for him is line drives and gap power. His max exit velocities say it just isn’t worth it for him to try and hit like a light-hitter with good HR totals, like Isaac Paredes. The more balls in play that aren’t routine fly outs or easy pop-ups, the better for Stephenson’s speed game.

The increased strength doesn’t need to translate into much more over the fence power. It’s more about having the batspeed to handle velocity and still turn on inside pitches. Stephenson accomplished that much in 2025, and he’ll be looking to solidify himself at the Double-A level this season and get into a position where the Tigers might value him enough for his defense and havoc wreaking speed on the bases to call him up as a bench weapon sometime this summer.

The road to a full-time gig is probably closed at this point. The road to a part-time gig where he brings plus defense and high end base-stealing ability with plenty of contact at the plate, is wide open to him. ZIPS projection systems is a big fan, forecasting a part-time role in which Stephenson racks up 25-30 stolen bases a year, puts the ball in play a lot, and plays plus defense in the outfield. That’s good enough for 1.3-1.4 fWAR projections in the big leagues in the years ahead.

That’s a bit optimistic in terms of his likely playing time, but it does lay out the upper floors of his potential impact. All he needed was a quicker bat to handle better stuff, and the strength gains produced that jump in 2025. Now we’ll see how far he can take it as he tries to break into the major leagues in 2026-2027.

Good morning baseball fans!

As we approach the beginning of the season, we’re going to be doing some questions for y’all about your thoughts about the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general!

Keeping with the theme of the week (the potential work stoppage after the upcoming season), today’s question: Who would be to blame if there is another work stoppage?

This is a tricky question, because there’s politics involved. Theoretically, if both parties are operating in good faith, the blame would fall equally if they failed to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

But that is rarely the way these things play out.

So for me, I look at who has the power. While the players ultimately have the ability to strike if a deal can’t be reached, they are (generally speaking) approaching negotiations in good faith. But I don’t feel like I can say the same of the other side. And they have the power.

They have the power to push a media narrative about players just being “greedy,” or “difficult,” or whatever else they want to say about them to get fans to turn on them. They have the power to implement a lockout if they want to. And they have the ultimate power to get a deal done either way; they just tend to choose not to in order to wear the players down and extract concessions from the union.

As always, that’s just my opinion after watching the way things have played out over the last decade or so for both the sport, and labor issues in general.

Who would be to blame for another work stoppage?