This offseason, the Orioles acted like a team focused on the present. They gave out a big contract to a slugger on the “wrong side” of thirty. They traded a pitcher with four years of control for an outfielder that will be gone in a year. And they swapped a package of four prospects and one pick for a pitcher they hope will work out. It was a lot of movement, and much of it was done with 2026 in mind.

But as the team’s president of baseball operations Mike Elias has explained throughout his tenure, he doesn’t make moves without considering the ripple effects. Trading away too many young players at once in pursuit of a short-term advantage will weaken the future. And Elias has told the fanbase that the full teardown and rebuild of the organization we experienced from 2019-21 was a one-time thing. Moving forward, he wants to win at the big league level while maintaining a “pipeline” of talent that constantly replenishes the roster in Baltimore.

The degree to which all of that has panned out to this point can be argued. The Orioles organization certainly feels stronger now than it was when Elias entered the fold. But the team’s lack of a playoff win and their steep dropoff in 2025 may have left a sour taste in the mouth of those that are tired of Elias’ theory of team building. A bounce back in the season ahead, including a deep-ish playoff run, could win him back some supporters.

On paper (which is all we have until games start), the Orioles are a solid major league squad entering the 2026 campaign. Most outlets project them for 85-87 wins, which would represent at least a 10-win improvement from 2025. If they are competitive, you would imagine Elias will supplement them with a few in-season additions that could add to that total. So in Elias’ mind, he has checked the box of building a competitive big league roster.

As the O’s have improved in the majors, the focus locally has understandably shifted away from the minors. But the talent level down on the farm is just as crucial to Elias’ philosophy. They don’t need to have the absolute top-ranked prospects, as they did when the likes of Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman were coming up, but the organization does need to churn out worthwhile youngsters in order to avoid any of those lengthy dips in form up in Baltimore.

So, how does the future look? Not bad!

Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers are widely considered Top 100 prospects. Basallo has already signed a long-term deal to be a slugger in the middle of the Orioles lineup for years to come. He’s got a solid .333/.455/444 line this spring. Beavers had a huge season in Triple-A last year, forcing those in the industry to take notice. Both of them are among the favorites to win Rookie of the Year, which would net the Orioles a draft pick in the process.

Don’t forget about Coby Mayo, a former top prospect in his own right, has plenty of years of team control remaining. Suddenly, the 24-year-old looks like one of the most important players on the team. He is going to get lots of playing time with Jordan Westburg on the shelf. So far this spring he is 8-for-19 with only one strikeout.

Outfielder Nate George and pitcher Trey Gibson won’t make as immediate of an impact, but they have both made it onto radars around the league in the last year. Some outlets have them listed among their “Top 100” prospects, or thereabouts. The Orioles have given each a taste of big league camp this year and they are viewed as future impact players for the club

Some newer faces are also flashing. Ike Irish, the O’s top pick in last year’s draft, is 4-for-4 in big league camp. Wehiwa Aloy, another high pick from 2025, is 2-for-3 with a walk and has gotten rave reviews out of camp. And there is, of course, the crazy line from Vance Honeycutt; 5-for-6 with four home runs.

On top of that, we are still waiting for the wave of talent to come from the Orioles, led by Elias, finally getting involved in Latin America. Basallo is the first major arrival, but more are coming. Lefty Luis De León could make it to Baltimore this summer. Infielder Aron Estrada could be here the year after. And big righty Esteban Mejia is one to watch with his big fastball. Oh, and the Orioles just signed one of the best classes of international free agents back in January.

Although it is an imperfect measure (and a few months out of date at this point), FanGraphs attempts to quantify the value of each minor league system. It is based on their perceived quality of each prospect. The Orioles have the most players that FG actually considers to be prospects, and they have the seventh-most valuable farm system in all of baseball. The average value of those prospects is below average, indicating that the Orioles are loaded up on fringier talents, but those sorts of players can be useful depth or packaged together for an impact player.

The main goal of Elias and the Orioles has to be to win games at the major league level. They didn’t do that enough in 2025, which forced them to adjust their approach to this past offseason. We saw a more aggressive version of the team’s front office. But they did it without abandoning the future. In fact, the players coming down the pike are pretty exciting. Hopefully they will be supplementing a contending team in the years to come.

Good morning.

Shawn McFarland has observations from camp for the Texas Rangers as manager Skip Schumaker has tough decisions to make.

Evan Grant checks out how the Rangers fared in a messy game against the Angels yesterday in Cactus League action.

Grant writes that Schumaker injected a dose of perspective into camp by bringing brain tumor survivor Cade Spinello in as a guest over the weekend.

Fred Zinkie offers up an AL West preview ahead of the 2026 season, as does Matt Snyder at CBS Sports.

Grant writes about roster hopeful Peyton Gray having a standout spring for Texas as the 31-year-old longshot hopes to grab a spot in the bullpen

Grant notes that the Rangers moved Jordan Montgomery to the 60-day IL and claimed the speedy Dairon Blanco from KC.

Kennedi Landry writes that the No. 5 spot in the rotation is still up for grabs in a battle that has been between Jacob Latz and Kumar Rocker this spring.

Grant writes that, after throwing live batting practice on Saturday, Marc Church is nearing the end of a long string of injuries.

And, McFarland names infield prospect Jack Wheeler as a powerful No. 16 on the DMN top 30 Rangers prospects list.

Have a nice day!

Hello and happy Monday, folks. It’s amazing that we can finally see grass again. I was going to make “How happy are you that the snow is melting?” my question of the day, but there are more pressing matters for the Boston Red Sox to attend to.

What in the world is up with Romy Gonzalez, man? As our fearless leader Dan Secatore wrote in his news and links story this weekend, the infielder is exploring the possibility of surgery to remedy the issue with his shoulder that’s been present since September. That sucks, man. Obviously we wish him nothing but good health, but is anybody here a doctor? Can someone clue me into what the hell is going on here? Fingers crossed, I suppose.

Talk about what you want, be good to each other, and go Sox.

Meet the Mets

In the televised Spring Subway Series, Freddy Peralta and the Mets defeated Ryan Weathers and the Yankees by the score of 10-4.

Freddy Peralta isn’t just an incredibly good pitcher, he’s also a pretty solid hang in the clubhouse.

In International Met News, Juan Soto hit a mercy rule walk off home run for the Dominican Republic in the seventh inning of their win over the Netherlands.

Around the National League East

Coming off 186.2 innings of above average ball, starting pitcher Zack Littell and the Nationals came to terms on a one-year deal for a currently unknown amount of money.

Though serious enough to get him carted off the field, initial tests by the Braves on Joey Wentz haven’t showed any catastrophic injury to his leg.

For Justin Crawford and Don Mattingly, crossing paths on the Phillies is an encounter nearly 14 years in the making.

Around Major League Baseball

In the World Baseball Classic, Japan defeated Australia, undefeated Cuba took down Columbia, Italy moved to 2-0 with a win over Great Britain, Israel beat Nicaragua, Panama edged out Canada, and Mexico absolutely pummeled Brazil.

Tonight, Paul Skenes and the United States will face off against equally-undefeated Mexico at 8:00 PM eastern on Fox.

Not only is World Baseball Classic glory up for grabs for the Central American countries, but Olympic dreams hinge on these games too.

Presenting the ultimate National Anthem Standoff: Logan Allen vs. Logan Allen.

Now 44 years old and playing for the same Cuban team he represented in the inaugural WBC in 2006, Alexei Ramirez just can’t quit baseball.

It’s easy to say that you’re only going to make one start for Team USA, but for Tarik Skubal, actually committing to that is a bit harder.

The Texas Rangers moved Jordan Montgomery to the 60-day injured list and picked up Dairon Blanco off of waivers from the Royals.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 2013, Captain America hit a go-ahead grand slam to put the United States ahead of Team Italy.

Louis Varland is a 28-year-old, right-handed reliever. He was a 15th round draft pick by the Twins, in 2019.

Louis has one option year left. He will likely be arbitration eligible after this season (Super 2) and he would be free agent eligible after the 2030 season. He could be a Blue Jay for a long time

He made it to the majors with the Twins in 2022, making 5 starts, with a 3.81 ERA. In 2023, he pitched in 17 games, 10 starts with a 4.63 ERA. Then, in 2024, 16 more games, 7 starts, with a 7.61 ERA.

We traded Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas to the Twins to get Varland and Ty France. Roden played in 12 games for the Twins with a .158/.200/.263 average. Rojas finished last year in Triple-A St. Paul, with a 6.59 ERA in 8 games, 23 walks and 28 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.

Last year, he became a full-time reliever, pitching in 74 games, 1 start (as the opener). with a 2.97 ERA and 22 holds. Batters hit .244/.304/.383 against him. He doesn’t have much for left/right splits, against right-handed batters he had a .662 OPS, .716 vs left-handed batters.

And, of course, he pitched a lot in the playoffs. He threw in 15 of our 18 playoff games. I’m sure he warmed up at least once in the other three. Louis had a 3.94 ERA with 17 strikeouts, 3 walks and 4 home runs, in the 16 innings. Once you get your manager’s confidence, he’s going to use you until your arms falls off in the playoffs.

He throws a lot of pitches, for a reliever. A Four Seamer (45.3% of the time, averaging 98.1 mph), a Knuckle curve (37.4%), a Slider (7.1%) Sinker (5.5%) and Changeup (4.6%). If I could throw a ball 98 mph, I don’t think I’d do anything else. The slider got hit hard, .677 slugging average against.

Baseball Savant tells us that Varland was very good in:

• Fastball Velocity: 95th percentile.
• Chase %: 86th percentile.
• Strikeout %: 65th percentile.
• Groundball %: 90th percentile.
• Extension: 92nd percentile.

But he wasn’t good at:

• Hard Hit %: 23rd percentile.
• Barrell %: 36th percentile.
• Average Exit velocity: 26th percentile.

Steamer thinks he’ll pitch in 67 games, 67 innings, with a 3.38 ERA.

Japan winning Pool C puts them in the final eight of the World Baseball Classic, and locks them into a quarterfinal matchup on Saturday night in Miami against the Pool D runner-up, likely either the Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.

Though nothing has yet been announced regarding Japan’s pitching plans for the next round, Saturday would presumably be when Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his next start, after throwing 55 pitches in 2 2/3 innings in Friday’s tournament opener.

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In other potential Dodgers rotation forecasting, Roki Sasaki threw a bullpen session on Sunday at Camelback Ranch and will make his next start on the backfields rather than in a Cactus League game, per Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic.

Sasaki’s spring thus far has been a mixed bag, incorporating new pitches into his repertoire. He has as many walks (five) as strikeouts in his two games, during which he allowed seven runs in 3 1/3 innings. Sasaki last pitched last Tuesday, which would likely line him up for his next outing, wherever it is, to come on Monday or Tuesday.

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Andrew Toles last played professional in 2018, his third season with the Dodgers. In the next seven seasons since then, the Dodgers renewed Toles’ contract and placed him on the restricted list. Toles did not earn a salary in those years nor did he count against the 40-man roster, but was able to receive health insurance, as he dealt with various mental health issues.

This year the Dodgers cannot similarly renew Toles’ contract and place him on the restricted list according to major league rules, per Ed Guzman at the Los Angeles Times, to whom the Dodgers released his statement:

“We’ve been in contact with the Toles family and have worked together on how to best move forward,” the Dodgers said in a statement to The Times. “Continuing with the previous setup was no longer possible due to eligibility. The Toles family has asked that Andrew’s privacy be respected. Out of respect to the Toles family, we will not comment any further.”

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Walker Buehler, who pitched last season for the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, is in San Diego Padres camp this year as a non-roster invitee. I found this note from last week illuminating regarding the length of recovery time after Tommy John surgery, and the general taxing nature of pitching. From Dennis Lin at The Athletic:

Walker Buehler, who had his second Tommy John surgery in August 2022, said that after trying a variety of treatments, vitamins and supplements, his elbow “just stopped hurting” about four weeks ago. https://t.co/espJ3Jm8Ns

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) March 5, 2026

Jaylon Thompson reviews Seth Lugo’s outing in the World Baseball Classic.

Lugo looked sharp in the early going. He recorded two strikeouts in the first inning while displaying his extensive pitching arsenal. There was an emphasis to utilize his slurve and four-seam fastball.

Both pitches were effective. Lugo registered six swings and five called strikes with his slurve. Meanwhile, the fastball averaged 92.7 mph, an uptick from earlier in spring training.

At times, Lugo touched 95 mph while navigating the Colombia lineup.

Lugo entered this offseason looking to pitch with more velocity. He was able to command the strike zone with his fastball early in counts on Friday. As a result, he finished his outing with a combined 28% whiff rate on his pitches.

The Royals also made the first wave of reassignments, sending catchers Blake Mitchell and Ramon Ramirez, outfielder Carson Roccaforte, and pitchers Ben Kudrna, Chazz Martinez, and Steven Zobac to minor league camp.

Perla Paredes at MLB.com writes that younger players are amazed by Salvador Perez’s work ethic.

“He’s an amazing leader,” Jensen said of Perez. “[I’ve learned] how to prepare myself every day and the work ethic. To play as long as he’s played and continue to be playing, it takes preparation, it takes taking care of your body.”

While the young catchers are learning Perez’s preparation from the plate, the Royals’ pitchers see his influence from the mound. For left-hander Matt Strahm, Perez is a great target, and his presence immediately threatens the running game.

“It’s been my favorite. I’ve thrown to some great catchers … but the target Salvy gives you is just massive, and none of them can replicate that,” said Strahm, Perez’s locker neighbor.

And that Mitch Spence is showing increased velocity.

For Royals manager Matt Quatraro, the difference was immediately noticeable.

“He’s thrown three to four miles an hour harder. That’s a huge jump,” Quatraro said. “And that gives hitters a lot less time to react.”

Spence said the increase in velocity is the result of offseason work focused on refining his mechanics and strengthening his arm.

“The biggest thing this offseason was just cleaning up some stuff with my mechanics,” Spence said. “I started going to physical therapy and just kind of got my arm stronger from the workout program. I think it just kind of clicked.”

She also writes that shortstop Daniel Vazquez is progressing in his development.

Vazquez said he is focusing less on results and more on the daily process that could shape the next step in his development. That includes physical conditioning, discipline and mental preparation — the same elements that fueled his surge last season.

“I’ve taken a lot from that,” Vazquez said. “Always respect the game, always play hard. And everything is about winning.”

Preston Farr looks at whiff rates in spring training for Royals pitchers.

How 2024 draftees, including Jac Caglianone, could impact this season.

Vinnie Pasquantino is keeping the espressos flowing for Team Italy.

The sons of Jose Contreras and Manny Ramirez impressed scouts in the WBC.

The Nationals sign pitcher Zack Littell to a one-year deal.

The Astros sign catcher Christian Vazquez to a minor league deal.

Kansas City native Joey Wentz injures his leg covering first base.

The Braves could target Ryan Mountcastle to replace Jurickson Profar.

Andrew Abbott will start on Opening Day for the Reds.

Logan Allen wins a national anthem standoff against Logan Allen.

Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta is looking for a seven- or eight-year deal.

Baseball teams are increasingly focusing on the mental side of the game.

The Tigers never made Tarik Skubal a long-term offer this offseason.

Ernest Hemingway was a big baseball fan.

Travis Kelce hits free agency today.

More people are watching the NHL in the weeks after the Olympics.

A report indicates that contractors with Meta are able to see intimate moments of users of AI glasses.

Climate change could lead to more turbulence on airplanes.

The future of horror movies is on YouTube.

Your song of the day is George Michael with Faith.

It’s kind of unfortunate for Yairo Padilla that he came up at the same time as Rainiel Rodriguez. Some sites had him as the better prospect entering 2025. And then, well, 2025 happened. I think the perception of Padilla was certainly negatively affected by Rodriguez’s rise, even though that doesn’t really make sense, just because they were bunched together and then they very much weren’t. Now, I don’t know that Padilla will rank radically different for me, but he also wasn’t on my top 20 last year, so I don’t feel like I’ve downgraded him after a pretty positive year. Here’s the list:

1. JJ Wetherholt
2. Liam Doyle
3. Rainiel Rodriguez
4. Quinn Mathews
5. Jurrangelo Cjintje
6. Joshua Baez
7. Leonardo Bernal
8. Jimmy Crooks
9. Brandon Clarke
10. Tink Hence
11. Tekoah Roby
12. Tanner Franklin
13. Brycen Mautz
14. Nathan Church
15. Cooper Hjerpe
16. Ixan Henderson
17. Yairo Padilla

Comparable Player Poll

I think this is going to be the last comparable player poll. I already know the next two players I will add. Or I should say, I know two of the three people I will be adding to the vote. Obviously, one of them is this vote, so I certainly would hope I know who I’m adding right now. The third is between the two people below you. I haven’t decided if the winner of this vote is going on the next vote or the last vote. Both of these players have won comparable player polls and short of removing a player from the voting, which I might honestly still do, I’d kind of be guessing which one to add, which I’d prefer not to do.

Blake Aita was a 6th round draft pick in the same draft as Dutkanych, but not by the Cardinals. Drafted by the Red Sox, his command-oriented approach led him to play about half the season in Low A and half in High A. He posted average K rates, but didn’t walk many. He pitched well enough to earn a trip to AA, but I suspect the depth of the pitching will see him in High A to begin the year. He’ll be 23.

Andrew Dutkanych is someone you guys are very familiar with if you’ve been voting on every poll. He’s already been in two of these and won both of them. He was a 7th round draft pick, drafted with the full knowledge that he had recently undergone Tommy John surgery and thus was not going to be able to pitch much last year. He pitch in both rookie league and Low A, basically a glorified reliever, but missed some bats and some of the strike zone. He will be 22 and probably repeating Low A.

VOTE HERE

New Add

I always try to add a relief prospect by the 18th vote, and I do that because we’ve actually had a relief prospect be the 18th prospect in the system twice. If I add any doubt whatsoever about adding a relief prospect, it was removed when Luis Gastelum completely dominated the vote. Like he received 123 votes and the next highest total was 12. He should be in the voting for sure.

Jesus Baez, IF – 21

Stats (High A): 416 PAs, .244/.327/.397, 10.3 BB%, 18.5 K%, .153 ISO, .270 BABIP, 116 wRC+, 121 DRC+

Scouting (FG): 30/45 Hit, 35/50 Game Power, 50/55 Raw Power, 40/40 Speed, 40/45 Fielding

There’s always one guy who I add to the voting too early. There’s a high upside, but high variance prospect who I’m not totally sure how this crowd feels about, and I add them as early as possible just so that I don’t add them too late. Well Baez has been on the vote since the 6th vote and I have long since run out of things to say about Baez. You get the picture. Jesus Baez personally ran Keith Law’s mother over with a car, he has a rep for chasing, and yet statistically, nothing looks bad from my eyes.

Yhoiker Fajardo, RHP – 19

Stats (CPX): 6 G, 20.2 IP, 31.6 K%, 9.2 BB%, 51.2 GB%, .205 BABIP, 0.44 ERA/2.41 FIP/3.29 xFIP

Low A: 13 GS, 51.1 IP, 27.8 K%, 9.4 BB%, 50 GB%, .326 BABIP, 2.98 ERA/2.50 FIP/3.14 xFIP

Scouting: 40/45 Fastball, 55/60 Slider, 30/50 Change, 35/50 Command

It is kind of crazy to be this late in the game and have guys like Baez and Fajardo still be in the voting and it not be some gross misjustice. Like just think about the fact that there is a 19-year-old who pitched very well in both rookie league and Low A and you can still vote for this guy at 18 or 19 or 20 and I just think this guy is already on the list in the other three years I’ve done this. I don’t think this group was even that high on Padilla, but by 15 last year, the other options were just not that exciting. We still have kind of exciting options at 18!

Luis Gastelum, 24 – RHP

Stats (AA): 46 G, 62.2 IP, 35.4 K%, 6.5 BB%, 48.3 GB%, .343 BABIP, 4.02 ERA/2.19 FIP/2.31 xFIP

Scouting: 45/45 Fastball, 40/40 Slider, 65/65 Change, 50/55 Command

Yes, Gastelum is posting those numbers with effectively one pitch. I mean yeah you can see he has other pitches, but the changeup is how he strikes out over a third of batters he faces. As one can imagine, when you imagine someone throwing a changeup in your mind, it’s not going to look like Gastelum’s change. It looks more like what you expect a breaking ball to do. That is in fact what Mets’ announcer Gary Cohen called it in a recent spring training game.

Pete Hansen, LHP – 25

Stats (AA): 26 GS, 137.1 IP, 21.1 K%, 6.3 BB%, 46.2 GB%, .306 BABIP, 3.93 ERA/3.65 FIP/3.71 xFIP

Scouting: 35/35 Fastball, 45/50 Slider, 40/40 Curve, 50/55 Change, 55/60 Command

What I find particularly fascinating about Hansen’s scouting report is that one would think Fangraphs was low on him, but they aren’t. They definitely aren’t. They ranked him 10th in the system last season. But that 35 fastball grade kind of pops out at you. It’s the kind of grade you give to a prospect that you aren’t typically high on, so I suppose it provides an insight into what FG thinks of the importance of command. You don’t usually see 60 command prospects.

Blaze Jordan, 23 – 1B/3B

Stats (AA): 176 PAs, .320/.415/.513, 12.5 BB%, 10.8 K%, .193 ISO, .333 BABIP, 167 wRC+, 145 DRC+

AAA: 368 PAs, .248/.291/.423, 5.7 BB%, 11.1 K%, .175 ISO, .247 BABIP, 83 wRC+, 101 DRC+

Scouting: 40/50 Hit, 40/50 Game Power, 60/60 Raw Power, 30/30 Speed, 40/45 Fielding

The problems that Blaze Jordan needs to overcome in order to be a productive hitter strike me as very similar to the problems that Alec Burleson once had. Burleson flew through the minors, had a better hit tool, and had the platoon advantage in the majority of his plate appearances, but broadly speaking – guy who doesn’t strike out much needs to be more selective with his swing choices – that describes Blaze Jordan too.

Colton Ledbetter, 24 – OF

Stats (AA): 535 PAs, .265/.337/.378, 9.5 BB%, 23.9 K%, .114 ISO, .339 BABIP, 112 wRC+

Scouting: 30/35 Hit, 40/50 Game Power, 55/55 Raw Power, 50/40 Speed, 50/50 Fielding

Story is pretty clear cut on Ledbetter. He previously had a bit of a strikeout problem, but with the strikeouts came a lot of power. At AA last season, Ledbetter managed to get his strikeouts to a more reasonable level, but it did come with significantly less power. His goal I assume will be to merge the power with a more reasonable strikeout rate.

Chen-Wei Lin, 24 – RHP

Stats (Low A): 12 GS, 38.2 IP, 27.2 K%, 17.2 BB%, 50 GB%, .283 BABIP, 4.89 ERA/3.69 FIP/4.17 xFIP

High A: 4 GS, 9.2 IP, 41.7 K%, 18.8 BB%, 50 GB%, .412 BABIP, 9.31 ERA/4.80 FIP/2.76 xFIP

Scouting: 60/70 Fastball, 40/45 Slider, 40/60 Change, 30/40 Command

The scouting is definitely reflective of a relief prospect, but by no means are the Cardinals giving up on him starting. Mostly because you can actually start if you have a 70 fastball and a 60 change, that is a lethal combo. As you can also see by the scouting, he’s not there yet with either pitch. The slider isn’t great, but just having a third option to go to with two elite pitches can still work as a starter. He’ll need better command of course.

Ryan Mitchell, 19 – OF

No stats

Scouting: 25/55 Hit, 25/50 Game Power, 40/55 Raw Power, 60/60 Speed, 25/50 Fielding

No one carrying tool for Mitchell, but just an overall well-rounded profile, which also happens to be kind of a boring scouting profile. You can dream on a better power tool even if it came with a worse hit tool, but everything being average or above average all adds up to a potentially great player, just not real eye-popping in the way ranking prospects tends to reward.

Deniel Ortiz, 21 – 1B/3B

Stats (Low A): 320 PAs, .285/.406/.446, 15.3 BB%, 27.5 K%, .162 ISO, .386 BABIP, 145 wRC+, 119 DRC+

High A: 130 PAs, .336/.438/.500, 13.8 BB%, 22.3 K%, .164 ISO, .436 BABIP, 168 wRC+, 97 DRC+

Scouting (Baseball Savant): /45 Hit, /55 Power, /55 Arm, /45 Field

I will once again mention that those scouting grades are his potential, but that Savant has not posted the “current” scouting grades. Although if you think about it, the current is not super relevant for a guy in High A. You can kind of draw your own conclusions based on the stats to some extent. Also you don’t necessarily care if they don’t have trouble with swing-and-miss at the lower levels, you want to know if he will have trouble. Ortiz cutting down his K rate upon promotion strikes me as a fairly good sign.

Tai Peete, OF – 20

Stats (High A): 529 PAs, .217/.288/.404, 8.7 BB%, 30.6 K%, .187 ISO, .282 BABIP, 79 wRC+, 79 DRC+

Scouting: 20/30 Hit, 30/50 Game Power, 50/60 Raw Power, 60/60 Speed, 45/55 Fielding

One thing I’ll note about scouting grades, and this is super relevant to Peete I think, is that the potential isn’t necessarily static. That does not mean his 30 grade potential hit tool is always going to be a 30 grade. From where the hit tool stands now, the scout can’t see better than a 30 in his future. But Peete can make improvements and changes. Joshua Baez probably had a 30 hit tool as his potential before last season. But he changed and made improvements.

VOTE HERE

It has been a roller coaster offseason at the hot corner in Milwaukee. It was a big question at the beginning of last season, too, but Caleb Durbin quickly snagged the job once given an opportunity and put up a very nice rookie season in which he was about a league-average hitter, stole 18 bases, and played better-than-expected defense on his way to a third-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting.

Well, things change quickly sometimes in Milwaukee. Sensing an opportunity, the Brewers shipped Durbin (along with Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler, who were the primary backups to all three of the Brewers’ non-first-base infield positions last season) to the Boston Red Sox for a pair of starting pitchers, Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan, and utility infielder David Hamilton. The Milwaukee front office perhaps also felt a bit squeamish about some of Durbin’s underlying metrics — there are some definite parallels between Durbin’s 2025 season and Joey Ortiz’s 2024 season, and of course, we know what happened to Ortiz in his second year.

While the Hamilton part of the return from Boston surely answered some of the question of “who is going to play third base now that we traded our entire 2025 depth chart in one deal,” it did not answer them all. That led to a week of wild speculation: was Jett Williams going to start the season at third? Could we be shocked by an aggressive promotion of someone else, like Brock Wilken or Cooper Pratt?

Well, no. The Brewers signed a real, actual major league third baseman exactly one week after trading Durbin, and he tops the depth chart, even if he comes with some questions.

Luis Rengifo

Rengifo comes to the Brewers after seven seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. Returns from Rengifo have been mixed, but he had three straight seasons from 2022-24 where he was an above-average offensive player, and he’s got two major league seasons on his record of more than 15 homers.

Those seasons are fading into the rearview mirror at this point, though: he last hit double-digit homers in 2023. While Rengifo is still in what we’d consider his “prime” based on his age, he struggled badly at the plate in 2025 after missing half of the 2024 season. I went pretty deep in the wake of the trade to try to figure out whether Rengifo’s bad 2025 was the new normal or whether we should expect him to return to the offensive levels of earlier in his career. (The conclusion there: if he can get his launch angle back up — it was around 9-10 degrees in 2022 & 2023 and around 6-7 degrees in 2024 & 2025 — then the homers might return, but we shouldn’t expect him to hit .300 like he did in 2024, a fluky BABIP year.)

Defense is a question with Rengifo, too. The advanced metrics, which should always be taken with a grain of salt, are all over the place. He’s played more second base than third in his career, and has sometimes graded out as a good defensive player and sometimes as a bad one.

The mathematician in me says that we should expect Rengifo to be about a league-average player on both sides of the ball (but please keep in mind that I haven’t had a math class since 2006). The Brewers can handle that. Rengifo is on a one-year deal, he’s not making a ton of money, and there are exciting reinforcements coming from the minor league system, maybe even this year. Rengifo should be able to handle things until the next generation is ready.

David Hamilton

Here I am talking about David Hamilton, third baseman. Guess how many times Hamilton has played third base in a regular-season game as a professional?

If you said “one,” then yes, you are correct, even if one is generous: he played third base for 1 1/3 innings of a game last season. That’s it. Never once in the minor leagues, nor in college, nor in the Arizona Fall League, nor in summer ball in the Cape Cod League.

Hamilton is likely to replace Monasterio as Milwaukee’s true utility infielder this season — in Hamilton’s two-plus seasons, he’s appeared almost equally at second base and shortstop. The Brewers are pretty set at those two positions, barring a continuing collapse of Ortiz’s offense; if they feel comfortable keeping Ortiz’s bat in the lineup regularly, then Hamilton’s opportunities are going to come most often at third. Hamilton is quite a good defensive middle infielder, so there is no reason to think that he won’t take to third, where he has been playing almost exclusively this spring (six of his seven starts have been at third base).

There aren’t a ton of reasons for optimism in Hamilton’s offensive game — he was almost a league-average offensive player in 2024, but he was bad in 2025, and the biggest difference between those seasons was not in anything you’d see on Statcast but in BABIP (.316 in 2024, .234 in 2025). Hamilton is pretty good at not chasing bad pitches, something the Brewers surely liked about him, and there’s a little bit more power in there than you might expect (he has 14 home runs in 511 plate appearances across the last two seasons).

The other thing the Brewers can (and will) do to help Hamilton is to essentially never let him face a left-handed pitcher: for his career, Hamilton is a .200/.233/.257 hitter against lefties and .226/.291/.376 against righties. Rengifo, a switch-hitter, has a career OPS that is 84 points higher against left-handed pitching, so a soft platoon is certainly in play (though it should be noted that Rengifo’s .665 career OPS against right-handed pitching is essentially the same as Hamilton’s career .667 OPS against righties). Regardless of how much platooning happens at third, Hamilton will never start against lefties.

Hamilton should function well as an occasional starter against right-handed pitching at third while backing up both Ortiz and Brice Turang in the middle of the infield. If he has to do more than that, the Brewers will likely be asking too much of him.

Who else?

I mentioned earlier the people who were being speculated about as being in the mix after the Brewers traded Durbin: Jett Williams’ future probably lies in the outfield, but he’s certainly capable of playing in the infield somewhere, and he is the furthest along of any of the Brewers’ big infield prospects. I went more in-depth on Williams in our second base preview, but I expect he’ll play somewhere (or, maybe, everywhere) in Milwaukee before the 2026 season ends.

I also mentioned Eddys Leonard in the second base preview. He’s played more at second in his career, but he’s appeared often at third as well. We’ll see if Leonard is even still in the organization when the season starts — there probably isn’t a place for him on the Brewers’ major league roster, and he’s an accomplished enough minor leaguer that he might be someone who can get a better opportunity elsewhere.

As far as prospects, Dave also looked atBrock Wilken as a long shot to get the job after Durbin was traded and before Rengifo was signed. Wilken has never played above Double-A, and while he’s probably okay as a defensive player, he’s not going to be nearly as good as Hamilton and likely not as good as Rengifo. Wilken has shown real power and patience in the minors, but he likely needs more seasoning.

Long term, the most likely answer here is that one of the Brewers’ big shortstop prospects ends up at third base. Who will that be? The consensus at this point seems to be that between Cooper Pratt, Jesús Made, and Luis Peña, Pratt is the best defensive player (though some think Made could get there). And while we’ve gotten used to the rocketship trajectory of Made and Jackson Chourio the last couple years, Peña is very young, and while he has shown some advanced offensive skills, if you say he won’t make the majors until he’s 22 — still young! — that still pushes him back to 2029. That puts this question off for a while, at least for him.

Maybe the 2027 Brewers have some sort of Turang-Pratt-Made alignment. Maybe Ortiz is still in the picture. Maybe Pratt gets traded. This will work itself out, but I don’t think we need to give a whole lot of thought to Pratt or Made as it relates to the 2026 Milwaukee Brewers season.

Conclusion

Expect to see Rengifo most often, with Hamilton starting a couple of times a week against right-handed pitching. I’m hopeful that Rengifo’s production will bounce back to about league average. Hamilton will likely not get there, but he can run into them occasionally, and he’ll be a good, reliable defensive player.

If Rengifo continues to struggle as he did in 2025, especially if he’s not playing high-level defense, Milwaukee will start looking to their minor league system for alternatives, but I think we’d need to get close to two full bad months from him before that happens. Hopefully, though, his bad BABIP luck from last season turns around and he starts hitting fly balls again, giving the Brewers a credible power threat in the lower part of their batting order.