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Rob Refsnyder was one of the worst players in MLB from 2015-2021. He’s now a crucial member of the Mariners’ title run.

Refsnyder posted -1.0 fWAR in the seven years that followed his MLB debut in 2015. It wasn’t just one bad season but the slow accumulation of negative value across several years and teams. He was 31 years old with a career 71 wRC+ and no discernible skills when he signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in 2022, his ninth organization in 10 years.

Then he got good:

From 2022 to 2025, Refsynder posted a 124 wRC+ in 936 plate appearances. Sure, he wasn’t a full-time player, averaging fewer than 250 plate appearances a season. But he found his niche as a short-side platoon option, with a 155 wRC+ against lefties, sixth best in MLB.

Refsnyder’s slow ascent is a nice story. He spoke in multiple interviews about changes he made to his stance, swing and approach to hitting. He accumulated bits of wisdom from dozens of coaches and analysts, slowly piecing piece together an MLB-worthy skillset. His interview with David Laurila at FanGraphs is worth reading in full, but I think this quote sums him up best:

“I really don’t know why [it’s taken so long]. I mean, I’ve never stopped working along the way. I’ve always understood that I had to be objective and recognize when my swing wasn’t good, or that my results weren’t good. I’ve always known that I had to improve as a hitter.”

Just before Christmas, the Mariners gave Refsnyder his first real payday, a bit more than $6 million for one year; modest by the standards of free agency, but still a near doubling of his career earnings at the age of 35, now with his 11th organization.

He’s become crucial, too. One of the biggest concerns for the Mariners’ roster right now is the handedness of their lineup. They have six everyday players:

• Three lefties: Josh Naylor, Brendan Donovan, J.P. Crawford
• Two righties: Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena
• One switch hitter: Cal Raleigh

Then they have three spots up for grabs. The top options are all lefties: Dom Canzone, Luke Raley, Cole Young and Colt Emerson each provide big upside with a variety of skillsets. The righty options are likely lesser: Victor Robles, Ryan Bliss, Leo Rivas and Andrew Knizner have more tenuous futures in MLB. Refsnyder provides necessary length against lefties while offering positional versatility, having played six positions throughout his career.

To be clear, the Mariners aren’t projected to be bad against lefties. Rodríguez, Raleigh, Arozarena and now Refsnyder are a competitive group on their own. Even with the handedness concerns, the Mariners are still projected 10th in MLB with a 106 wRC+ against lefties. That’s a bit worse than their projected 114 wRC+ against righties (second only to the Dodgers’ extraordinary mark of 121), but it’s still enough to make them one of the top lineups in MLB. That’s to say, Mariners’ weaknesses at this point are relatively minor; “handedness” is the type of thing only great teams get to worry about.

While Refsnyder doesn’t quite move the needle, he’s not really meant to. His inclusion on this roster is a sign the Mariners are serious about contending in 2026. He’s spent a decade desperate to get better anyway he can. It seems the Mariners are finally on board.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, L.A. Metro voted to approve the L.A. Aerial Rapid Transit project, also known as the Dodgers Gondola project, after a rowdy meeting reminiscent of Parks and Recreation on December 3.

Declarations from the uninformed aside, it was a bit of an ask for the agency working with Zero Emissions Transit, the non-profit running the Dodgers Gondola project, to kill the project.

The writing was on the wall when the vote on this project was placed on the Consent calendar at the Metro Board meeting. Consent calendars generally include noncontroversial items or those a governing body wants to vote on with little to no debate.

While the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-1 to urge L.A. Metro to terminate the project in the weeks before the meeting, there was uncertainty about whether Mayor Bass would approve or veto the resolution, given that she sits on the Metro Board. We finally have an answer as to what she did: nothing.

After the L.A. Metro vote, Mayor Bass gave a statement to the Los Angeles Times:

“The way the council feels is important to me,” Bass told The Times. “But, if a member from that district is passionate about a project, then the other members are in support of that.

“There is much more time for things to be worked out. I just did not feel that it was appropriate to stop it now.”

The above are certainly words in a sentence that would make Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Ministerproud in how incomprehensible they are.

The backers of the Dodgers Gondola project must still obtain approval from various local and state agencies before the LA City Council has the final say. The project was projected to cost $500 million in 2023; it is an open question how much it will cost now. While the Bass Compromise of 2024 states that no public funds will be used for the project, the project’s financing plan has not yet been made public.

Accordingly, it seems increasingly likely that Metro will use its bus fleet rather than the Gondola during the rapidly approaching 2028 Olympic Games, given the near impossibility of obtaining all required approvals and completing construction in time.

As it stands, the project will limp on in the background as the 2026 Spring wears on until its next reckoning at a relevant agency.

Johnson’s September Remarks to LASEC

As an aside, it is time to address comments by Magic Johnson that largely went unnoticed by the Dodgers fanbase before the recent rounds of votes on the status of getting to and from Dodger Stadium. Specifically, Johnson was a speaker at the 11th Annual Dodgers All-Access Gala, hosted by the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission (LASEC).

Senior Editor of Dodger Blue Matt Borelli first reported Johnson’s comments back in September. Unfortunately, I could find no video of Johnson’s comments to the LASEC, so we will have to rely entirely on Mr. Borelli’s reporting:

Dodgers part-owner and Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson recently conceded that the Dodger Stadium parking lots will likely always be an issue.

“There’s so many memories about coming to this stadium,” Johnson began in response to a fan’s question at the 11th annual Dodgers All-Access event.

“Thank God that we kept this stadium. You go to a lot of new ballparks, but they don’t have what we have. It’s special. You know who you’re sitting next to. We’re never going to solve the parking thing, so let’s not talk about it. We can’t solve it.

“Every minute that we’re in the car, it’s worth it when we get here and watch this game. Now, we all have the same issue going home, so we ain’t going to solve that either. Don’t ask me about those two situations. They haven’t solved it since we’ve been here, we’re not going to solve it because we’re the owners now.

“But, what would you rather have? A competitive team winning the division every year, or going home early? Getting to the park earlier, easier. I think I’d rather have the team that’s won our division 11 out of 12 years. Two World Series, been to the World Series four times. I think I’d rather have that and I’ll deal with the other things.

“But when we go to other cities like New York and Atlanta, that traffic is bad too. Everybody thinks we’re the only ones that have bad traffic. Like I said, I’m going to take that as long as we’re winning.”

[emphasis added.]

For starters, even in the most charitable light, Johnson’s statement about the parking lots is wrong and borders on nonsensical. By that logic, Johnson’s statement, if hypothetically applied to other aspects of running Dodger Stadium, amounts to learned helplessness (and arguably negligence), which is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances.

• “Ope – some concrete fell on someone – better not talk about it because there is nothing we can do about that.”
• “Ope – Dodger Stadium security beat someone up again – better not talk about it because there is nothing we can do about that.”

While I vehemently disagree with what Johnson said, if forced to play Devil’s Advocate, I can see where he is coming from on a single point.

Dodger Stadium has certain traffic issues inherent to its location and construction. When you build a stadium on a hill next to a residential neighborhood, with various bottlenecks of traffic on the hill, with freeway layouts that would not even pass muster in the computer game SimCity in a major metropolitan area, traffic is a given.

However, simply saying you cannot solve it or saying fans and ownership should not talk about it, while implicitly supporting the Dodgers Gondola project by having a gondola car on stadium property for nearly three years now, is laughable.

In the above hypotheticals, ownership would likely be pilloried by the press and the fanbase, and rightfully so. Moreover, we have a concrete example to the contrary; ownership implemented subsequent remedial measures to prevent further falling concrete, and, by all accounts, even with how loud Dodger Stadium was during the 2025 postseason, there were no additional incidents.

Short of herculean and borderline impossible efforts by the City and County of Los Angeles, not to mention using multiple state and federal agencies, while Johnson does have a point about there being issues getting to and from Dodger Stadium, things can be done, provided there is buy-in from multiple stakeholders, including the citizen neighbors of Dodger Stadium.

If this series of essays has had a fault, it has been being too focused on why the Gondola Project is generally a bad idea and less on alternatives or conversations that the city and team should be having. While the City of Los Angeles waits for the Gondola Project to reemerge into the public sphere, the next series of essays on this topic shall focus on certain unsaid truths, alternatives like Dodger Stadium Express, and what could and should be done about what most would say is the worst part about being a Dodgers fan: getting to and from Dodger Stadium.

Spring training for the Rockies this year is surprisingly full of hope on multiple levels, but for Kris Bryant, last year’s struggles continue.

Bryant has been plagued with injuries since arriving in Colorado, but the most severe has been a debilitating degenerative lower back condition. Somedays Bryant is unable to lift even simple household items, let alone swing a bat and run the bases.

“Some days it’s hard to grab the toothpaste in front of me,” he told the media on Tuesday. “It’s not like that every day, but those days it’s like you just wish you had some type of answer.”

Bryant reported to the Colorado Rockies complex in Scottsdale, Arizona today with the rest of the position players in preparation for the first full team workout of the spring. He is entering the fifth season of a seven-year, $182 million contract signed prior to the 2022 season following the departure of franchise stalwarts Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story.

The former National League Rookie of the Year, MVP, and World Series champion vowed the struggling Rockies could turn things around with his help when he first arrived. Now, after playing just 170 games to the tune of -1.6 wins above replacement, that vow has evaporated and Bryant is unsure of his own future.

Bryant has undergone multiple treatments since his diagnosis, including a spinal ablation and multiple rounds of physical therapy. However, he hasn’t performed any baseball activities since he was shut down last April and his progress has been limited.

“Usually in the progression you start with the exercises, then you move to running,” Bryant said. “Any time my feet hit the ground, I just feel like I could probably fall over.”

While Bryant isn’t ready to give up on returning to baseball just yet, it’s difficult to foresee him back on the field when he describes the pain he experiences every day.

“There are a lot of different sensations I’m feeling,” he said. “It just feels like I’m being electrocuted in my whole body. It’s not ideal. It’s pretty miserable. Maybe this is part of old age, even though I’m not even old.”

The 34-year-old Bryant is starting the season on the 60-day injured list and will likely return home to Las Vegas later this week to continue his treatments and search for a way to alleviate his pain. However, Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer suggested he will still have a presence with the club, even if he isn’t playing.

“KB has done so much in this game, and he has gone through so many experiences; of course, he can help young players when he’s around,” Schaeffer said. “It’s to the benefit of the young players, just his willingness to talk with them about hitting in certain situations and how to handle their business on a daily basis. He’s been through it at a very high level. He’s done big things in this game. There’s no taking that away and there’s huge value in that.”

Schaeffer also made sure the media knew Bryant has the team supporting him.

“I know there are various opinions out there, but it’s really hard for him to not be able to play, to want to play, and just not be able to feel good,” he said. “It affects him at home. He wants to be a father to his kids, and he’s having a tough time even bending over. It’s just a really hard thing to go through. 

“Everybody in our clubhouse is going to support Kris Bryant.” 

Despite a clear desire to return to baseball, Bryant has also avoided—at least publicly—addressing his future in depth.

“I honestly try not to let myself get there, because when you’re going through it every single day, you just try to make it day to day,” he said. “A lot of people out there with chronic pain, you don’t want to think so far in the future because you’re just trying to get through the day. So I haven’t let myself get there.”

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Who will pitch in the bullpen?

The answer to that question changed after my third draft of this article.

• Part one is my first snapshot of opening day bullpen pitchers from FanGraphs.
• Part two is my latest prediction of the opening day bullpen pitchers, which is mostly the same as FanGraphs, but with differences.

PART ONE – FIRST SNAPSHOT.

Per FanGraph’s Roster Resource, a snapshot of the opening day bullpen included:

• Ryan Thompson
• Andrew Saalfrank
• Kevin Ginkel
• Brandyn Garcia
• Andrew Hoffman
• Drey Jameson
• Taylor Clarke
• Jonathan Loáisiga

Let’s focus on those eight pitchers. 

Two team-specific ways to look at bullpen results.

At a top level, each pitcher’s team specific results from last season will provide insight into this season.

For the pitchers expected to be in the bullpen, two basic statistics are:

• limiting homers.
• maximizing strikeouts per walk. 

Data was obtained from Stathead and Baseball Reference.

As a starting point, let’s look at their 2025 pitching against the top three teams for homers and top three teams for minimizing strikeouts per walk.  For each statistic, each pitchers’ results against the other teams were excluded.

Homers per PA.  The best batters played for the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mariners.  These three teams know best how to hit homers.  The three-team average was .041 homers per PA. 

When the eight Diamondbacks’ bullpen pitchers pitched against those three teams, their combined homers per PA was .054.  My conclusion is that the bullpen was worse than average in preventing homers, when homers were a strength of the other team. 

(Strike Outs minus Walks) per PA.   The best batters played for the Blue Jays, Padres, and Royals. These three teams know best how to minimize strikeouts compared to walks.  The three-team average was .103 (K-BB)/PA. 

When the eight Diamondbacks’ bullpen pitchers pitched against those teams, their combined (K-BB)/PA was .045.  My conclusion is that the bullpen was very much worse than average in maximizing strikeouts compared to walks, when doing the opposite was a strength of the other team. 

So far, the 2025 results of anticipated bullpen pitchers are not encouraging.  But the Diamondbacks don’t often play the best teams (except in the playoffs).  In general, most games will be pitched against teams in the NL West.  The next step is to compare the bullpen pitchers’ results against other teams in the NL West.

Will the bullpen limit homers against teams in the NL West?

In general, most games will be pitched against teams in the NL West.  The next step is to compare the bullpen pitchers’ homers allowed against other teams in the NL West.

Homers per PA. In the NL West (excluding the Diamondbacks) the four-team average was batting .030 homers per PA.  When the eight Diamondbacks’ bullpen pitchers pitched against those four teams, their combined homers per PA was .030.  In the NL West, the eight bullpen pitchers were average.

Homers per PA, if Dodgers are excluded.  It is arguable that the Dodgers are a home run powerhouse, and therefore NL West results against non-Dodgers teams could be more impactful.  The next step is to compare the bullpen pitchers’ homers allowed against the other three teams in the NL West, (excluded the Dodgers). 

In the NL West (excluding the Diamondbacks and Dodgers) the three-team average was batting .027 homers per PA.  When the eight Diamondbacks’ bullpen pitchers pitched against the remaining three teams, their combined homers per PA was .019.  In the NL West excluding the Dodgers, the eight bullpen pitchers were very much better than average.

Will the bullpen limit (K-BB)/PA against teams in the NL West?

In the NL West (excluding the Diamondbacks) the four-team average was .14 (K-BB)/PA.  When the eight Diamondbacks’ bullpen pitchers pitched against those four teams, their combined (K-BB)/PA was .09.  In the NL West, the eight bullpen pitchers were worse than average in maximizing strikeouts compared to walks.

PART TWO – LATEST PREDICTION.

My view of who will be the opening day bullpen pitchers follows.

• Ryan Thompson
• Kevin Ginkel
• Brandyn Garcia
• Taylor Clarke
• Jonathan Loáisiga
• Kade Strowd
• Paul Sewald
• Michael Soroka

The biggest assumptions are that Jameson gets optioned to AAA, Loáisiga makes the opening day roster, and Soroka gets pushed from the rotation to the bullpen. The assumptions are reasonable, but by no means certain. Let’s focus on these eight pitchers. The big question is whether they would outperform the first snapshot despite the loss of Saalfrank.

The following table compares the first snapshot pitchers to my latest predicted pitchers. The remarkable improvement is in strikeouts minus balls [(K-BB)/PA]. Circled in green is the NL West stat, which shows that the latest bullpen moves made a significant predicted impact. Data from Stathead, Baseball Reference.

To answer our overall question, unlike the earlier bullpen snapshot, my latest predicted pitchers will make a significant positive impact in games against teams in the NL West.

Summary.

PART ONE. Based on a preliminary first snapshot of who will be the opening day bullpen pitchers, looking at limiting homers and maximizing strikeouts minus walks, two conclusions were:

• The eight bullpen pitchers as a group were worse than average in preventing homers, when homers were a strength of the other team.
• The eight bullpen pitchers as a group were worse than average in maximizing strikeouts compared to walks, when doing the opposite was a strength of the other team. 

Looking at the bullpen pitching in the NL West, conclusions were:

• The eight bullpen pitchers as a group were average in preventing homers.
• Excluding the Dodgers, the eight bullpen pitchers as a group were very much better than average in preventing homers.
• The eight bullpen pitchers as a group were worse than average in maximizing strikeouts compared to walks.

PART TWO. Several changes happened; Saalfrank was injured, Sewald & Stowd were acquired, and Gallen was acquired. Based my latest prediction of who will be pitching in the bullpen, the changes in who will pitch in the bullpen made a significant positive impact on predicted strikeouts minus walks, especially for the NL West.

The Yankees almost always have one of the highest payrolls in the sport. Even as the Mets and Dodgers have shown them that there’s another level to spending, the Yankees routinely are big players in free agency, and some of the greatest free agent signings in history have signed on to play in the Bronx.

Some of those signings, as you’ve seen earlier in this series, were the Yankees trying to retain their own talent. A downside to the way the Yankees operate is that a lot of their stars hit free agency. Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Robinson Cano had all hit free agency in the 25 years prior, and while the first three were all retained, Robbie Cano went to Seattle for a contract that didn’t age well.

So when Aaron Judge declined an extension offer in spring training and bet on himself, only to put up one of the greatest seasons in modern history, the Yankees were forced into winning a bidding war for an MVP superstar hitting free agency. There were some tense moments along the way, but Judge was wooed back to his chambers in the end.

Aaron Judge
Signing Date: December 7, 2022
Contract: 9 years, $360 million

We all know the story of Judge’s path to free agency, but for the sake of posterity, here’s a quick refresher. A three-sport athlete in high school, the 6-foot-7 behemoth attended Fresno State and flashed incredible raw tools that made him a first-round pick in 2013.

After being a low-level top-100 prospect in the minors, Judge was promoted to the majors on August 13, 2016, as the corresponding move to Alex Rodriguez’s retirement. He would homer in his first at-bat in a memorable moment with Tyler Austin, but otherwise struggled in his first cup of coffee in the bigs.

An offseason of uncertainty was all there would be for his career, as he snagged the starting right field spot in spring training and had one of the greatest rookie seasons in MLB history, smashing a then-rookie record 52 home runs and coming second in a controversial AL MVP race.

A few injury-plagued seasons and a healthy, solid 2021 season later, Judge was one year away from free agency. He was one of MLB’s best hitters and a very good defender in right field when healthy, but the health was still a question, as was the fact he was going to be 31 at the start of his next contract. How would his body hold up?

After almost no contract negotiations prior, things heated up prior to the 2022 season. Judge and the Yankees nearly went to a messy arbitration, but avoided it (unlike a certain team from Detroit with their star in 2025). After unsuccessful negotiations that spring, Judge shut down the possibility of an in-season extension and Brian Cashman made a bold move: going public with a contract offer.

Was a seven-year, $213 million pact a fair deal for Judge’s resume entering the 2022 season? I think you can make the case, but this was an interesting leverage ploy for the long-tenured GM, trying to get fans to side against Judge and provide a negotiating cushion if the hulking all-star faltered and came back to the table.

This ploy… did not work. Despite a slow April by his standards, Judge unlocked something new with his game, going from a perennial 40-home run, 5-6 WAR hitter to the best hitter in the world overnight. 62 home runs, 11 WAR, his long-awaiting first AL MVP award. A man who was known early in his career for striking out way too much nearly won the Triple Crown, that’s how sensational he was.

This was, objectively, a disaster for Yankees’ brass. By going public in spring, they hurt their relationship with Judge and his agent, Page Odle, and now would have to pay up for a player who had suddenly become the best free agent in a generation.

There were several suitors. Fortunately, one of them wasn’t newly-minted Mets’ owner Steve Cohen, for whatever reason. In hindsight, maybe Cohen should’ve used his tremendous wealth to go after Judge instead of giving Justin Verlander even more AAV at the exact same time.

The most logical suitor? His hometown San Francisco Giants, who he grew up rooting for as a kid. They wanted to make a big free agent splash, and he was the logical choice. They were willing to give him the godfather offer, nine years and $360 million. It would be the biggest free agent contract in MLB history.

The second big suitor was the late Peter Seidler and the San Diego Padres, who met with Judge at December’s Winter Meetings. An official offer being given out is disputed, but several reports in the years since have suggested that Judge was presented with a deal worth over $400 million. While Seidler’s relentless desire to make his team better, regardless of market size, is admirable, Judge never seemed that interested.

There was relative silence aside from this on Judge’s free agency early on. That was until Tuesday night, when Jon Heyman shocked the baseball world… with a typo.

“Arson Judge” was quickly deleted and corrected, but the message stood. Judge was heading to San Francisco. Mass panic ensued… for about five minutes. Heyman corrected and apologized for jumping the gun. Nobody knows who leaked the information to Heyman, but for those who were online during that time, it was potentially the most panic-inducing few minutes in Internet history for Yankees fans.

The Yankees had an eight-year, $320 million offer on the table for Judge, but with better offers from the Giants and Padres on the table, he wasn’t accepting that. Impatient, and probably fearful after the Heyman news, Hal Steinbrenner called Judge from Italy, wanting to get this done right now. Using his unbridled authority, he went around Cashman and directly offered Judge the ninth year and the captaincy. For the first time since Jeter hung up the cleats in 2014, the Yankees had a captain. Judge agreed to the deal, which was announced Wednesday morning.

On a personal note, I remember exactly where I was when I got the notification. I was in a high school history class. My history teacher was also a big Yankees fan, and we had talked about the team and Judge’s free agency before and after class. After he talked about the anniversary of Pearl Harbor to start the class, I blurted out that Judge had re-signed. It was definitely bad timing, and that’s on me, but it’s something that I’ll remember as part of the frantic process for a long time.

Judge is well on his way to not only having his No. 99 retired and enshrined in Monument Park, but being a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Despite Dodger Stadium severely injuring his toe in 2023, Judge has picked up two more MVPs and logged back-to-back 10 WAR seasons in his first three seasons of the nine-year deal, while continuing to be the face of baseball’s most historic franchise.

See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.

We all have regrets. That includes baseball teams like the Royals, who have the moves that didn’t pan out, the moments that didn’t go their way, the pivotal decisions that could have worked out differently.

Time travel stories and alternate histories are some of my favorite genres of fiction. What if a man decides to take the subway instead of a cab, does he miss meeting the love of his life? If a butterfly flaps its wings in China, does that lead does that somehow lead to a tornado halfway across the world? Small choices can echo in ways we never anticipate.

Baseball is like that, too. A draft pick goes one slot earlier. A manager sticks with a pitcher one batter too long. A front office pulls the trigger on a trade, or decides not to. A runner is held up, or maybe he’s sent and is thrown out.

Royals history is full of “sliding door” moments. What moment in Royals history would you change? Would it be Game 7 of the 2014 World Series? Would you pull Dan Quisenberry in the 1980 World Series? Or perhaps you’d like to change a small transaction that could have allowed the team to be competitive in seasons that didn’t pan out. Re-do a draft? Pull the trigger on a trade? Keep a manager who was fired?

Go back in time and alter the course of history!

The outfield figures to be a position of strength for the Atlanta Braves as they head into the 2026 season. The signing of Mike Yastrzemski could end up being a bit of a coup, as Yaz can provide some solid production at any part of the outfield. As a matter of fact, Yaz figures to play a major role in the outfield this season. As mentioned in my article from Friday centered around Alex Anthopoulos talking to the media, the Braves figure that he’ll be starting in the outfield against right-handers. Yaz is a career .246/.336/.473, 120 wRC+ hitter against right-handers with numbers that aren’t particularly comparable against left-handers, so it makes sense that he’d be getting more of a look against right-handed pitchers.

Naturally, this means that Jurickson Profar won’t be an everyday starter in left field. He could still fill in those gaps with DH appearances, since that also appears to be part of the plans that both Alex Anhtopoulos and Walt Weiss have in store for him in 2026. Let’s check in (via this report from Braves beat writer Mark Bowman of MLB.com) and see how Profar, himself, feels about potentially being more of a DH going forward:

…He certainly doesn’t seem thrilled about the likelihood he will open this season as the Braves’ primary designated hitter.

Asked if he was familiar with the DH spot, Profar chuckled and said, “I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Profar was then asked, “DH isn’t your favorite spot?” This time, he grimaced, laughed and said, “Let’s see. Let’s see. Let’s see. I’m just here to help the team.”

Braves manager Wait Weiss understood and appreciated Profar’s response.

“To be honest, I don’t think any player is raising their hand, unless they’re a full-time DH, to say, ‘Yeah, I mean, that’s what I want to do,'” Weiss said. “He’s a great teammate. We’ve had this conversation. [Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos] even called him before he signed [outfielder Mike] Yastrzemski to clear it with him.”

The good news is that even if he doesn’t particularly seem thrilled about it, Profar is going to give this a shot and try to make sure that everything works out. He may not be excited about it but it still seems like the right move to make. Even though Profar certainly made his fair share of highlight-reel catches during his first half-season as a member of the Braves, those were the outlier plays in a season where he finished with -8 Outs Above Average as an outfielder — good for placing in just the eighth percentile of all outfielders in 2025. Profar has never graded out well as a defender so this feels like an ideal shift for Profar to make from playing in the outfield to transitioning into more of a DH.

With that being said, you still don’t play the game on paper and while Profar seems like a great fit for the role, it won’t work if he’s not willing to help make it work. Again, there’s no tangible signs that he’s going to be anything less than professional in this regard but it still could be one of those things that could come to mind if he has a rough patch as a DH during the upcoming season.

There’s also the idea that Yaz wouldn’t be strictly replacing Profar in the outfield as well. Yastrzemski can play the entire outfield, which means he’d be available to give Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr. a break in the outfield so that they could DH as well. It’s not like this’ll be an exclusive situation for Profar and that’ll definitely be the case once Ha-Seong Kim returns and that could allow Marucio Dubón to start branching out into the outfield (center field in particular) instead of simply focusing on being the starting shortstop. There are plenty of options out there for the Braves to best utilize their squad once they’re completely healthy — even now with Kim gone, this is still a deeper team than last season.

Still, it’ll be very interesting to see how this goes with Mike Yastrzemski and Jurickson Profar going forward. The plan for Yaz to start and bat against right-handers while Profar moves to the DH seems like an ideal one in theory but we’ll have to see how it plays out on the field. What do y’all think would be the best way to go about deploying these players once the season rolls around? Let us know!