Familiar face, Erick Fedde, is returning to the White Sox for another stint on the South Side. | Kamil Krzaczynski/Imagn Images
White Sox pitchers and catchers officially reported to camp yesterday, beginning their Spring Training preparations for the 2026 season at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz. There, they’ll ease into throwing routines and conditioning ahead of full-squad workouts later this month with their first Cactus League game scheduled on Feb. 20 against the Chicago Cubs.
For South Side fans, camp is more than just formality. It’s the first chance to see how the pitching staff comes together, with both new and returning faces. Veterans like Erick Fedde, who just signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract to compete for a rotation spot, and Anthony Kay, looking to make his MLB comeback, will join young arm prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith. Don’t forget about some of last year’s most consistent performers in Shane Smith, Davis Martin and Mike Vasil. Meanwhile, there are injury recovery stories to follow for hurlers Prelander Berroa, Mason Adams and Drew Thorpe as they work back from Tommy John surgery. Lastly, there are two Rule 5 Draft picks, Jedixson Paez and Alexander Alberto, in the mix. All will build up their innings and look to prove themselves to new pitching coach Zach Bove and his staff.
From the backstop perspective, there’s a plethora of depth at the position. Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero are one of the most fascinating young catching duos in baseball. Teel flashed plenty of bat with plus hit tools during his rookie campaign. He hit .273 with eight home runs and 35 RBI at just 23 years old and is considered a high ceiling OBP bat behind the dish. Teaming him up with fellow-year catching prospect Quero has allowed Chicago to have one of the deepest young tandems in the league. The 22-year-old Cuban rookie also stood his ground at the MLB level in 2025. Having posted a .268 batting average with five home runs and 36 RBI as a switch-hitter in his first year, Quero provides Chicago with a nice complementary catching profile. While having two solid catchers is a good problem to have, juggling playing time will be a significant challenge for second-year manager Will Venable.
Then there’s also still the issue of Korey Lee, and it’s doubtful that the Sox head into the season carrying three catchers. Lee is out of minor league options, so while three catchers certainly allows for flexibility, it just doesn’t seem like a very sensible roster move. It’s possible that GM Chris Getz is waiting to showcase Lee’s ability in Spring Training and working behind the scenes to get a trade done before the season starts.
Overall, Spring Training feels a bit more significant this year. There’s real arm competition in the starting rotation and meaningful decisions to be made behind the plate. These first few weeks in Glendale won’t just be about loosening up those arms and knocking off the rust. They’ll be about answering questions about who fits where, what players can be expected to do, and which guys will be factors as we look to upgrade on last year’s squad. Of course, these things will start to sort themselves out as camp progresses and games start getting put on the schedule. But for now, pitchers and catchers reporting gets us one step closer to baseball and Opening Day!
FORT MYERS, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 19: Boston Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow and Garrett Crochet #35 of the Boston Red Sox look on in the bullpen during a Spring Training workout at JetBlue Park at Fenway South on February 19, 2025 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) | Getty Images
On Friday night, just a few days before the New England Patriots attempt to assume their rightful position as the class of the NFL (narrator: they did not), I was doing what any 28-year-old man does on a Friday night: talking about relief pitching. As I was scrolling Twitter, I ran into a tweet from Sammy James, a co-host of the Play Tessie Podcast. Sammy is always thinking outside the box when it comes to roster moves, and pitched old friend Jalen Beeks as a potential fit for the left-handed relief role in the bullpen.
I wonder if the Red Sox could have any interest in a reunion with FA Jalen Beeks. His changeup was elite in 2025—opponents hit .067 with an .080 SLG off of that pitch. Fastball sits between 94-95 MPH, pretty solid. Plenty for the pitching lab to work with. Red Sox need a LHP. pic.twitter.com/BQfQb441x7
He highlighted Beeks’ changeup, noting the remarkably low batting average and slugging percentage against it. If you look at those numbers and nothing else, it appears to be an elite pitch. I dug in a little bit further, and while I found that the pitch was solid, I wouldn’t place it among the league’s best changeups.
Not that the changeup is a bad pitch, but I’d be careful using BAA and SLG at the pitch type level here. 30% zone rate and almost never throwing it behind in the count is doing a lot of work there. A 55% strike rate and fairly average movement means probably can’t throw it much…
None of this is a knock on Sammy. He’s got great insights and has as many ideas on how to improve the roster as anyone. At the same time, I’ve written what feels like 1,500 pitcher evaluations, and don’t think I’ve ever broken down my methodology.
The Red Sox could use a left-handed reliever. Last season, Justin Wilson, Brennan Bernardino, and Chris Murphy were the first lefties out of the pen for the Red Sox. As it stands, none of those three is on the 40-man roster. Outside of Aroldis Chapman, there aren’t many left-handed relievers with major league experience on the team, making an addition to the group before the season begins likely.
There’s not necessarily a rush to acquire a reliever. While it’s definitely a hole, as teams cut down their rosters, there will be opportunities to find a lefty, and they won’t need much time to stretch out before the season. Still, having bodies in camp to see what you have is a good thing. So, with all that being said, let’s look at one option and see what he might bring to the table for Boston.
Jalen Beeks
The bulk of my analysis is done with three websites: Pitcher List, Baseball Savant, and FanGraphs. Baseball Savant is always a decent starting point, just for their dashboard information.
I focus on the left and right panels, although the middle panel is probably the most popular among people who pretend that they know what they’re talking about (that’s another rant for another day). On the left, we see the pitch usage chart, broken out by handedness. Handedness is everything. Garrett Crochet throws his sinker 16% of the time, which makes it appear to be a secondary offering. When we split it, we see it’s his most thrown pitch by a wide margin to lefties at 37%. For Beeks, we can see he’s a pretty fastball-heavy pitcher, using a changeup most often as a change of pace, and mixing in a cutter against lefties. On the right, I like to see the arm angle, because it provides some context about pitch usages. Beeks is more over the top, which means he’ll likely have a harder time generating East-West movement. The movement chart helps see how much of the plate a pitcher can cover, but it’s hard to draw conclusions from movement alone.
Pitching is about getting outs. The best way to get outs is to throw strikes. That’s what we look for next: what pitches does he throw for strikes, and how does he end at-bats? Beeks is a left-handed reliever, and while the three-batter minimum rule means he’ll have to get righties out as well, I’m mostly concerned with what he does in same-handed matchups.
Going over to Pitcher List, we can filter by handedness and see when Beeks is throwing each pitch.
The right side of the Counts tab is categorized into three sections: Early, Behind, and Two-Strike. Early consists of the first two pitches of an at-bat as well as 1-1 pitches, behind consists of 2-0, 2-1, 3-0, and 3-1 counts, and two-strike is any two-strike count (duh). If it were up to me, I’d have an additional view showing the percentage of each bucket by pitch type, but we can use Baseball Savant’s search function to find that. Beeks, for example, throws a four-seam fastball 58.3% of the time in “early” counts. Putting all of this together, it looks like he uses his four-seam fastball and cutter to get strikes, and his changeup to put hitters away.
Now that we understand what Beeks is trying to do, we can assess his effectiveness. The overview tab on Pitcher List is great for this.
Paring it down to one pitch, we get nice percentiles and averages, although sometimes I’m skeptical of how accurate the percentiles are (They’re based on total stats and don’t change based on the handedness filter, for example). Regardless, strike rate is always the first place I look, and Beeks fastball has a huge number. It also comes with a massive 60% zone rate, as well as a mediocre 9.5% swinging strike rate and 15.2% called strike rate. A 70% strike rate with swinging and called strike numbers that low likely means the ball is in play a lot. So how’s the contact?
Here’s where you might be tempted to look at batting average or slugging percentage, but those can lead you astray because they’re only considering the final pitch of an at-bat. A pitch that’s thrown only in two-strike counts out of the zone is going to have a low batting average, because it will result in strikeouts, weak contact, or be taken for a ball. I like to use Ideal Contact Rate (ICR) because the denominator is total batted ball events, removing strikeouts from the equation. For a fastball, we want to see a number below 40%. In Beeks’ case, the 53.5% mark against lefties is high. That’s in part because the pitch is in the zone so often, but also because the shape isn’t much of an outlier.
Beeks also throws the majority of his cutters early in counts, although 34% usage in two-strike counts is fairly high as well. A look at the metrics shows a 15.8% swinging strike rate and a 17.1% called strike rate. The strike rate is incredibly low at 51%, while the zone rate is also fairly low at 38%. Because it’s able to return both called strikes and swinging strikes, my assumption is he’s deploying it more as a slider in two-strike counts. Looking at the heatmaps (below) that appears to be the case. Further, if you look at the movements, he throws some cutters as hard as 88 mph with less vertical drop, while others are as slow as 82 mph.
The pitch returned a 44.4% ideal contact rate, which is high for an off-speed pitch that isn’t in the zone much. It didn’t induce many chases either. It was able to generate whiffs at a decent rate, but it was a pitch that lefties handled well for the most part. Overall, when looking at the pitches designed to be strike-getters, both are hit fairly hard, and only the four-seam returns consistent strikes.
We’ll circle back to the strike-getting pitches, but let’s jump ahead to the changeup. Same-handed changeups are controversial. Some people hate them, some people are fine with them. I think it depends on the changeup, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Beeks throws his changeup 26.6% of the time to lefites, most of which are in two-strike counts. He throws it primarily down and inside to lefties, which always gives me pause, but it appears to work for him. While it’s only in the zone 35% of the time, the 42% chase rate and 20% swinging strike rate are both excellent. The ICR rate was 0%, but the sample was incredibly small. It’s been a solid pitch throughout his career, though, so it’s safe to say that hitters will continue to struggle with it.
While his changeup is a good pitch, I’ll again caution against using plate appearance level stats such as batting average against as your barometer. Take Jojo Romero, for example. He throws his changeup 22.3% of the time, and opponents hit just .167 against it. At the same time, it was never in the zone and only returned a 14% swinging strike rate and 50% called strike rate. While the pitch wasn’t getting punished, it also wasn’t doing its job by generating whiffs; batters were just letting it go for a ball. A .167 batting average might make you think it’s one of the best changeups in baseball, but it’s wildly inefficient.
So now that we’ve looked at all three of his pitches against lefties, what I see is a pitcher with a good putaway pitch, but one who needs to find a way to get ahead in counts. While his four-seam returns strikes, it gets hit too hard for him to throw it 50% of the time. His 2025 cutter shows some promise in its swinging and called strike numbers, but it doesn’t get enough chase to support a 38% zone rate.
He was very successful against lefties in 2025, so there isn’t necessarily a need to make changes, but there’s room for improvement early in counts. I’m speculating at this point, but a return to his 2024 cutter, which featured more vertical lift and was slightly harder, could pay dividends. He used the pitch more often, and while it wasn’t returning strikes at a high rate, the contact against it was poor. High cutters can often drop back into the zone for called strikes, which would play well off his four-seam fastball. Again, Beeks was great against lefties in 2025, but the contact stats against his fastball suggest some regression there if he doesn’t make changes.
I’ve written 1,500 words about Jalen Beeks so far, so I won’t repeat the process, but you should. Use Pitcher List and Baseball Savant, and tell me what you think about Beeks against righties. It’s fun. I promise.
There’s one more part I haven’t mentioned, and it’s arguably the most important. Watch the pitcher pitch. While a huge swinging strike rate can’t be faked, you might see a pitcher who’s missing spots over and over again and posit that they won’t have the same success consistently. In the case of Beeks, you’ll find an unorthodox delivery that looks to be deceptive. It reminds me of Kutter Crawford, but the ball is hidden at his hip rather than his ear. Nerds (like myself) run baseball (not me), but the game is still played on the field. There’s a lot to learn by watching.
DENVER, COLORADO - FEBRUARY 04: A young fan of the Colorado Avalanche cheers against the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena on February 04, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
THIS IS A GUEST ROCKPILE BY EVAN LIU (@evanliu.bsky.social)
Unfortunately, the Colorado Rockies have been an afterthought in MLB in terms of competitiveness. The only way they garnered national attention was by going on massive losing streaks and contending for the worst record in MLB history.
Just one mile down Blake Street at Ball Arena, the Colorado Avalanche went through a similar rebuild and scenario around a decade ago.
There have been some striking similarities in the Rockies’ path to today.
A surprising playoff run leading to nothing
In the 2013-14 season, the Avs made a surprising push for the Stanley Cup. With team legend Patrick Roy making his coaching debut, he shocked and stunned several folks around the NHL with his wild style.
A 52-22-8 record led Colorado to the top of the Central Division in dramatic fashion, which no one expected. Ultimately, they were bounced in the first round in heartbreaking fashion in overtime at home in Game 7 against the Minnesota Wild.
Similarly, the Rockies made the playoffs in two straight seasons in 2017 and 2018. An 87-75 record in 2017 saw them play in the then-one-game Wild Card Game on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They battled hard, coming out on the losing side of an offensive battle 11-8.
The next year, Colorado took the Los Angeles Dodgers to Game 163 for the NL West. While they fell in LA, the next night at the Friendly Confines saw them win a playoff game for the first time in nearly a decade. Tony Wolters’ historic single in the 13th inning gave the Rockies the 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs.
While they were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS, there was hope about going further in the coming years. The same was said about the Avalanche in 2014. Both teams had capable players to build around and push for another chance at the chip. But the following years would not be pretty for either group.
The awkwardly-timed departure of a coach
At Ball Arena, Roy’s tenure came to an abrupt end. Just a month before the 2016-17 season, the Avs announced his resignation as head coach. Colorado was left scrambling for a new man at the helm, who would eventually be Jared Bednar.
Meanwhile, at Coors Field, last season saw Bud Black finally be on the chopping block. His departure would come a month into the start of the new season, though. Both of the coaches leaving at the times they did just made things that much harder for each team.
The Rockies announce they have relieved Bud Black of duties as manager. Third base coach Warren Schaeffer has been named interim manager, hitting coach Clint Hurdle has been named bench coach. pic.twitter.com/Yb8XVpcW1A
Bednar had less than a month to prepare for the 2016-17 season for the Avalanche. It showed, as they scored only 48 points with a record of 22-56-4. It marked the worst season in franchise history since they moved from Quebec City.
While they did not make history as the Chicago White Sox did just a year before, the Colorado Rockies dropped over 100 games in three straight seasons. The latter of the three smashed the franchise record for most losses in a single season.
A -424 run differential was made up by the worst 50-game start to a season, with an 8-42 record. Even after Warren Schaeffer was made interim manager, it didn’t get much better. The Rox rebounded but were still in the basement of the league by season’s end.
Big-name moves to change the team
Both the Avalanche and the Rockies made big moves to change course.
The Avs traded away Matt Duchene, a fan favorite and third-overall pick in 2009, at the start of the 2017-18 season after voicing his displeasure with the team and their trajectory. The move actually heavily benefited the Avs, as young defenseman Samuel Girard blossomed into a nice addition on the blue line, still to this day.
Meanwhile, the Rockies let go of another fan favorite recently: Ryan McMahon. The Rox only got two prospect relievers in the form of Josh Grosz and Griffin Herring. Grosz was dealt for Jake McCarthy last month, but Herring could blossom into a nice addition in the coming years.
The Avalanche were able to bounce back from their worst season on record to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs the next year. Since then, they haven’t missed the postseason and took home the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Meanwhile, should the Rockies continue following a similar pattern to their neighbors down the street, a first World Series ring is coming in 2031! All jokes aside, the purple pinstripes have some work ahead of them to follow a similar trajectory to the Avalanche and their striking similarities thus far.
The Rockies got a new arm in the rotation with the surprising signing of Tomoyuki Sugano. He’s the first Japanese player joining Colorado since 2007 – conincidentally the last time the Rox made it to the World Series. The former Baltimore Orioles starter has joined for one year at $5.1 million, sure to bring an interesting spin to the rotation. In a corresponding move, Kris Bryant was added to the 60-day IL.
The Rox released a beautiful spring training hat to kick off pitchers and catchers reporting to Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. There are several Arizona-desert themes alongside the typical purple ‘C’ and ‘R’ like a flowery cactus. In just over a week’s time, the hats will be in action for all to see – and perhaps flying off the shelves.
Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report put out a spicy trade the Colorado Rockies could make before the regular season begins. It involves a major name from the Phiadelphia Phillies: Nick Castellanos. With his fallout with the Phillies organization and the Rockies looking to add another right-handed man, perhaps they could take a chance on him in hopes of either sticking in the side or becoming trade bait come July.
Now is prime time for the first stab at a Kansas City Royals roster projection. David Lesky started his take over at Inside the Crown with a good layout of the process.
Every year at the start of spring, I like to take stock of where the Royals roster is at that moment. What we see on February 10 (or whatever day I’ve started in the past) is generally a good chunk of what we’ll see on Opening Day, but there are always some surprise entrants. This year’s Royals roster is filled with some guaranteed spots, but there are still roster battles, both on the bench and among starters. Some of those battles may be more ceremonial than anything, but sometimes those become very real.
Today I’m going to start with the position players and tomorrow I’ll shift to the pitchers. Today, I’m going to include last year’s stats with each player. In another round, I’ll shift to some projections, including maybe even my own if I ever get those done. I look at this as a running piece that I’ll do every couple of weeks or when there’s a reason to make a shift and I’ll run it right up to probably around March 19 or so.
The offense should make a significant leap in 2026. That is due to both the new additions and the club’s decision to move the outfield fences in at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals expect an influx of extra-base hits as the changes are tailored to their lineup.
In the same vein, the pitchers welcome the new challenge. “I’m not even thinking about it really,” Wacha said. “As a pitcher, at least for me, you know, I’m going to stick to what’s worked for me. I tend to be more of a flyball pitcher, but I feel like I’m able to get weak contact at times as well. Hopefully, rely on that weak contact and get a bit more swing and miss than I did last year. I’m not too worried about it though.”
With an influx of teams being available through mlb.tv adjacent services, there is rightfully a flood of questions with few answers. How do you prefer your explanation? Perhaps from the source itself, MLB.com.
“We are proud of the award-winning production MLB has offered clubs while increasing the reach of the games, enhancing production features, and offering greater access to the players and game,” MLB Deputy Commissioner for business and media Noah Garden said in a release. “Additionally, we are listening to our fans who want blackouts eliminated. MLB’s in-market streaming option allows us to remove a point of friction for the fans.”
For the 15 non-RSN teams, MLB.TV subscription prices will be the same as last year — $99.99 per season or $19.99 per month. Fans can bundle a club’s local streaming service with an MLB.TV out-of-market subscription — giving them access to the entire league’s local games — for $199.99 per season or $39.99 per month, a 20% savings off individual pricing of the two services.
Those who subscribe to Spectrum, DirecTV, Fubo TV, Hulu Live TV and Verizon Fios have access to ESPN Unlimited subscription as a part of their TV plan. The rest, including cord-cutters, pay $29.25 per month for all of the ESPN networks. The local in-market streaming products for 14 teams whose games are produced by MLB will be available on the MLB site and through the teams. So far those teams are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Dieg
Technically There’s No Double-Dip Subscription Required There has been some reporting that, under this new agreement, customers are locked into a dual-subscription model to access MLB.TV. Users may choose to retain ESPN Unlimited and access the wide range of other sports options available there, but there’s no requirement. Again, you have the option to opt out at any time.
As with Rogers, this is an aggressive rank that Bubic will have to earn — with both quality and quantity. He’s thrown 162 innings total at the big-league level over the last three seasons, with nearly three-quarters of those coming in 2025. Bubic was sensational when he was healthy, but he had his campaign end prematurely on account of a strained rotator cuff. Stay tuned.
For the Royals, a name like Durbin would’ve given even more cover at second over their questionable duo of Jonathan India and Michael Massey and Monasterio and his 111 wRC+ in 2025 provided a versatile infield upgrade over current utility options like Nick Loftin and Tyler Tolbert.
And while the Royals top trade piece from their starting pitching surplus, Kris Bubic, may not exactly match the Brewers return of Harrison – given the latter’s remaining team control and prior prospect pedigree – it’s not as if Bubic is their only tradeable starter.
An encouraging trend is that Jensen has bounced back in minimizing passed balls in his repeat of a level the following season. He improved by 15 points in High-A from 2023 to 2024. He improved by 16 points from 2024 to 2025 in Double-A. An encouraging part of his trend was that, while he had some regression in Omaha, he kept it below 0.20 (unlike his first stints in High-A and Double-A in 2023 and 2024, respectively).
Thus, while Jensen has some work to do, he will have plenty of time to improve his blocking skills during Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona. Thus, he should see some improved blocking metrics at the MLB level as a result, especially as he gets a bigger sample of innings behind the plate for the Royals in 2026.
Is he an old friend if he never pitched for the big-league club?
Kyle Wright to the Cubs. Minors deal with MLB camp invite. Wright is the majors’ last 20-game winner.
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Tigers fans got an unexpected surprise yesterday when the team announced a one-year deal with Justin Verlander. Verlander, who began his career in Detroit, was a beloved former ace for the club, and the reunion—that might be more of a farewell tour—feels like an appropriate next chapter for both Verlander and the club.
In today’s news bites we’ll also look at Paul Goldschmidt’s reunion with the Yankees, plus the lockout-proof contract Cody Bellinger signed with the Bronx Bombers. We’ll also explore how the World Baseball Classic managed to help form some of the best pitching we’ve seen in MLB, and also puzzle out precisely how we’re all supposed to watch baseball this season.
We loved Kris here, but this is starting to look like it wasn’t the best signing for the Rockies…
The Rockies placed Kris Bryant on the 60-Day IL. Bryant did not play after April 12th last season, and has only played in 170 games since signing his seven-year, $182M contract with Colorado in 2022. pic.twitter.com/9MLFViuSjX
Down South, one big conspiracy theory has nothing to do with the moon or JFK.
Instead, the yearslong whopper that ran rampant within SEC terrain centered on conference commissioner Greg Sankey being an “Alabama homer.” A native New Yorker turned elephant backer. Secretly wrote all of his “A’s” in script handwriting.
Professional provocateur James Carville once alleged “collusion” between the SEC office and Alabama. Some might say the Ragin’ Cajun, an LSU alumnus, was the one suffering from bias, but I digress.
Here lately, Sankey sure is acting funny for a supposed “Alabama homer.” He must have forgotten his SEC office in Birmingham, aka East Tuscaloosa, operates as a Roll Tide cabal.
Or, maybe Sankey was just never the full-fledged Alabama homer some fans of rival teams made him out to be. Like most conspiracy theories, this one lacked sufficient proof.
Those old Alabama-SEC collusion claims shriveled last week. Sankey turned heel on Alabama and sided with the NCAA in a lawsuit to determine whether the Tide could continue playing former pro basketball player Charles Bediako in their march toward March.
Days after Sankey filed an affidavit supporting the NCAA, a judge in Alabama ruled against Bediako and in favor of the NCAA. This halted the NBA G League dropout’s days of dunking on college dudes.
Judge Daniel Pruet used legalese to explain his decision, language like Bediako “failed to establish that he would suffer irreparable harm” if he did not receive his desired ruling. He also cited NCAA bylaws.
NCAA “rules do not permit a student-athlete to participate in collegiate basketball, leave for the NBA, and return to the collegiate arena,” Pruet wrote. “All the evidence in the record indicates that the (NCAA) has consistently applied this specific rule.”
Left unwritten: The SEC commish casting his lot with the NCAA surely didn’t help Bediako.
Greg Sankey as 'Alabama homer' theory loses steam
So, what gives? Is Sankey an Alabama homer or a hater?
Neither.
He’s an SEC homer. That comes with the job. If Sankey and his office seemed like an Alabama homer before, maybe that’s because Nick Saban ruled college football. Saban’s high tides (and bountiful trophies) lifted the SEC’s boats.
If Sankey had to stump and maneuver a bit on behalf of Saban’s Alabama, well, that’s just good business.
Three years ago, Sankey summoned every ounce of propaganda he could muster while campaigning for the SEC’s champion, which wound up being Alabama, to get the final College Football Playoff spot, at the expense of undefeated Florida State.
Playoff rejection would have been costly to the SEC’s brand, ego, prestige and earnings. Anyway, what was good for Alabama also was good for the SEC, and it wasn’t particularly bad for college sports. It was just bad for Florida State and the ACC.
What Greg Sankey wrote in Charles Bediako affidavit
In this case, Bediako playing was fine for Alabama, but not especially beneficial to the SEC, on the whole. He didn’t even transform Alabama into a top national championship contender. He just made Alabama better than it was without him.
Bediako playing wasn’t ideal for Auburn when the former pro scored 12 points in Alabama’s 96-92 rivalry win, his final game before the judge’s ruling.
Other SEC teams aren’t playing guys who left college, declared for the NBA draft, played in the G League, and returned to college hoops years later, in violation of NCAA bylaws. As other teams follow the rules, Bediako and Alabama tried to sidestep them in court.
“Permitting former professional athletes to return to (college) competition creates a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness for current student-athletes,” Sankey wrote in his affidavit in support of the NCAA.
Sankey has spent his career working within college sports. He worked in compliance on his way up the ladder. I suspect, at his core, he believes rules are good, a lack of rules is bad, rule-by-lawsuit is messy, and an ability to enforce eligibility rules is key to successful operation of any league.
Alabama coach Nate Oats and Bediako’s lawyer will point to the duplicity of the NCAA restricting Bediako from playing while permitting international players who previously played in foreign pro leagues or in the NBA G League, before later enrolling in college.
Hypocritical? Maybe.
Muddy? Absolutely.
Grounds for an injunction? Not according to an Alabama judge.
When Bediako left Alabama, declared for the draft and signed an NBA contract, NCAA rules said he wouldn’t be allowed to return to college ball. The rules still say that.
A healthy debate can be had about what it really means to be a pro athlete, when an NBA G Leaguer sues to get back in a college uniform, where he can earn more money. Amateurism is dead. Bediako wanted to leave one paycheck from the NBA G League for a better paycheck in college.
An Alabama homer would say, what’s the problem with that?
Sankey saw a problem. He’s no Alabama homer, after all.
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 18: A general view outside the stadium prior to Game 5 of the NLCS presented by loanDepot between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets at Citi Field on Friday, October 18, 2024 in New York, New York. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
This post is part of a series of daily questions that we’ll ask the community here at Amazin’ Avenue throughout the month of February. We hope you find the questions engaging and that our prompts can spark some fun conversations in the comments. We’ll see you there and plan to have staff chiming in, too.
If you could only attend one regular season Mets game this year, which one would it be?
TAMPA, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Senior vice president and general manager Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees speaks during the 2024 Grapefruit League Spring Training Media Day at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Thursday, February 15, 2024 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Good morning, all! It’s a welcome day in Yankeeland, as pitchers and catchers officially report to spring training today. Of course, that oft-cited countdown following the last out of the World Series only means so much since plenty were already in camp a little early and dudes jogging around and lifting weights hardly feels like the true siren sound of baseball on the horizon. But it is a milestone nonetheless! Exhibition games will begin the Friday after next, and Opening Day on March 25th in San Francisco will be here in a blink.
On to today’s question. The offseason isn’t fully in the books since some notable players like Zac Gallen, Rhys Hoskins, Lucas Giolito, and Zack Littell remain available. But for the Yankees’ sake, it probably is; they don’t seem likely to make any further additions, barring a surprise trade or an end-of-spring swap to supplement the bench/back of the bullpen. So we can start to look in the rearview mirror with more confidence.
The Yankees made a number of different decisions this offseason that run the gamut on roster spots from “passive acceptance” to “active choice.” So which one makes you most nervous for the sake of the 2026 season? Is it not adding to the rotation depth beyond Ryan Weathers? Rolling the dice on outfielders Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham to remain as good as they were in 2025 while sitting out the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes? Losing two key relievers from the already-shaky 2025 bullpen and declining to make any obvious impact moves out there? Retaining Aaron Boone as manager?
There’s no shortage of options. I think leaving the rotation in such a dodgy place is the winner for me, given that all of Carlos Rodón, Gerrit Cole, and Clarke Schmidt will begin 2026 on the IL, and both Weathers and Luis Gil absolutely qualify as injury risks on their own.
Today on the site, Matt will remember a minor-but-infamous Yankees reliever from the early 2010s as part of our Yankees Birthdays series, Josh will critique The Shredder’s list of top MLB first basemen, and Peter will welcome back Cole in his 2026 Yankees preview post.
NEWARK, NJ - OCTOBER 18: New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes #86 celebrates with New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes #43 after scoring a goal during a game between the Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on October 18, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The New Jersey Devils season has not gone according to plan. They’re unlikely to make the playoffs when they return from the Olympic break. And because this is supposedly a “win now” team, missing the playoffs entirely is an unacceptable result. People are looking for someone to point the finger at and blame for the shortcomings of the team.
We can all agree that there are issues with this team. Where we don’t necessarily agree is where the biggest issues lie and the way to go about fixing it. I think I’ve made my viewpoint perfectly clear where I blame Tom Fitzgerald more than anyone, and I don’t think any of this changes until the Devils clean house with their front office and scouting departments. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t think Sheldon Keefe is a big part of the problem (he is) or that the players are blameless (they’re not), but much like when weeds pop up in your front lawn, you’re not going to get rid of them until you literally get to the root of the issue. To me, that’s Fitzgerald.
Where I struggle to get on the same page as some of my Devils fan brethren is when it comes to blaming the players. I would agree that there are very few players, if any, on the Devils that have had a good year. My list would probably be Cody Glass and maybe Arseny Gritsyuk and that’s about it. I would also agree that when it comes to the “core players”, they haven’t been anywhere near good enough this season. And with all due respect to the supporting cast, its the Devils “core players” that would significantly move the needle one way or the other in regards to how good this team actually is. It’s not surprising with them all having bad years that the team is bad.
Where I disagree is wanting to cut bait with said players.
For reasons that I don’t quite understand, there are Devils fans who don’t like Jack and Luke Hughes. There are Devils fans who suggest that Nico Hischier is a “bad captain”, whatever that means. Depending upon how wide-ranging you want your “core” to be, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, and others have had their flaws as hockey players picked apart as much as anybody else on the roster, because that’s what we do as fans when the team underperforms. It has to be someone’s fault, after all. And with the core of this team being together for several seasons now and only have one (1) second round appearance to show for it, fans get restless, throw their arms up in disgust, declare that you can’t win with these guys, and it’s time to trade them.
Never mind the fact that if the player(s) is as bad as you’re telling me he is, why would any other team want them?
Never mind the fact that you’re telling me that the player(s) is bad and needs to be traded while also simultaneously trying to tell me this other team will definitely give up their superstar player in exchange for him.
I’m not saying that the Devils should continue what they’re doing indefinitely when it hasn’t worked. But it also doesn’t take a genius to suggest that trading away good players isn’t the answer either. So this week, I’m going to take a brief historical look at trades where a team gave away a star player for one reason or another, why it hasn’t worked out for them, and why it also won’t work out for the Devils if they were foolish enough to go down that road.
For purposes of this exercise, I’m only going to include deals in the salary cap era. I’m not really all that interested in going back to when the Oilers traded away Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier, but spoiler alert, the Oilers didn’t win those deals when they got rid of future first-ballot Hall of Famers. Shocking, I know.
Maple Leafs Trade Mitch Marner to the Golden Knights for Nic Roy
This one feels a little bit like cheating since Marner was technically a free agent who was clearly leaving, but the circumstances leading up to it actually share a lot of parallels to what the Devils are currently going through.
The Maple Leafs went through season after season of being unable to to reach a Conference Final, let alone a Stanley Cup Final. They changed the coach several times. They changed the GM. They changed the supporting cast on the roster time and time again. But the core was essentially the same throughout with Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Reilly as the constants for the Leafs from the late 2010s up until last season.
The Leafs had yet another season where they came up short and “something simply had to change because you can’t keep running it back” in regards to the core. After all, they’ve already changed the GM, the coach, and the supporting cast several times over. Matthews is the new captain and he recently re-signed so he’s not going anywhere. Nylander is signed long-term so neither was he. Same goes for Reilly. So the only pieces that could theoretically change were pending UFAs Tavares (who took a discount to stay) and Marner. Marner was deemed the whipping boy or scapegoat or however you want to phrase it, and he was as ready to move on from the Leafs as the Leafs were ready to move on from him.
How’s that working out for Toronto this season? Not great.
There are other reasons why Toronto will likely miss the playoffs this season….Anthony Stolarz has been injured and hasn’t been very good when he has played, and the Leafs supporting cast is still average. But perhaps no reason is bigger than Toronto essentially letting a player who was a consistent 25-30 goal scorer and chipped in 60+ assists leave for essentially nothing but a bottom six center.
I like Nic Roy. He’s a solid option to have further down in your lineup. But he’s no Mitch Marner, who is having a typical Mitch Marner season in Vegas for a team that is likely playoff-bound. And while it remains to be seen what Marner and the Knights do once they get there, I doubt he’s all that upset about getting out of the Toronto pressure cooker. Especially given where he wound up.
Toronto failed to replace the production that a departing Marner provided, and it’s a big part of the reason why they’re going to miss the playoffs. That’s not to say that they still can’t eventually replace Marner’s production going forward, but as we already know, there’s no player with Marner’s level of production that is hitting the UFA or trade market this summer, and even if there were, there’s no guarantee Toronto gets them.
Maple Leafs Trade Phil Kessel (And Stuff) to the Penguins for Mostly Spare Parts
Long before Marner was the scapegoat for Toronto’s failures, there was Phil Kessel.
Toronto missed the playoffs during Kessel’s last few years there. “It was time to move on” from a player like Kessel, who has a mercurial personality to begin with. Add in the fact that the Toronto media did everything they could to run Kessel out of town and Leafs management finally obliged with this doozy of a trade.
Toronto sent Kessel, Tyler Biggs, Tim Erixon, and a conditional 2nd round pick to the Penguins for Kasperi Kapanen, one-time almost a Devil Scott Harrington (who was later in the Timo Meier trade), Nick Spaling, a conditional first round pick (later flipped for Frederik Andersen), and a third round pick (James Greenway).
Kapanen was the most notable piece that the Leafs got back, and he was ok with 90 points over 202 games for Toronto before being later dealt back to Pittsburgh. Harrington was later dealt to Columbus and was a journeyman defenseman. Spaling was a checking line forward who was flipped at the deadline later that year. Greenway never played in the NHL, and the first round pick was flipped for Frederik Andersen who was mostly good for Toronto before he too was eventually run out of town for Toronto’s failures as a team. Toronto hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since making this trade, and actually tanked for a couple seasons in the immediate aftermath of said deal, which did land them Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Is a handful of good seasons by the goaltender and a handful of ok seasons by Kapanen enough of a return for a top line scoring winger in his prime who fit the Penguins like a glove and was a key part of two Stanley Cup winning teams there (and three if we count his final season in Vegas?). Especially when the Leafs wound up accomplishing nothing of significance for the period that Andersen and Kapanen were there before they were eventually moved? Who’s to say?
Sabres Trade Jack Eichel to Golden Knights for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, and Picks
The backstory with Eichel’s falling out with the Sabres is well documented. The Sabres were a perennial loser with him. Eichel got injured and needed neck surgery. Both sides disagreed on how to proceed with the specific neck surgery that Eichel would get. Eichel, who was already annoyed with the organization given the state of the team throughout his tenure there, got fed up and requested a trade. The Sabres eventually obliged once the situation became untenable, sending him (along with a 3rd rd pick) to Vegas for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a first round pick (eventually used on Noah Ostlund) and a second round pick (later flipped to Minnesota for Jordan Greenway).
Eichel eventually got the surgery he wanted, returned to the lineup for the Golden Knights, and has been been better than a PPG #1 center for the Golden Knights since. Eichel was a key member of their championship team in 2022-23 and had a legitimate case for the Conn Smythe award that eventually went to Jonathan Marchessault.
Buffalo got an excellent player on a good contract in Tuch, although he is a pending UFA so it remains to be seen where his future lies. But Krebs hasn’t really developed into anything more than a fourth line center. Ostlund has been ok in his first full NHL season and Greenway has been an average at best bottom six winger. That’s not exactly the type of return you’re looking for when you’re trading away a borderline Top 5 center in the entire league.
Needless to say, Buffalo has mostly struggled since trading Eichel. Their playoff drought will probably come to an end this season, as they’ve been white hot since firing the GM who made that trade. Which is weird, because I’ve been told time and time again that you can’t possibly expect the team to play better after making a change like that.
Generally speaking though, I would disagree with anyone who suggests that Buffalo has been better off without Eichel. They’ll probably make the playoffs this year, but the Eichel trade isn’t the reason why. That’s not to say that Tuch hasn’t been good, because he certainly has been. But Vegas winning a Cup almost immediately with Eichel and Eichel remaining an elite level center for them for the remainder of his prime trumps anything Buffalo has accomplished post-trade.
Bruins Trade Joe Thornton to the Sharks for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and Brad Stuart
People in Boston might retroactively try to claim that trading away Joe Thornton was the catalyst for the Stanley Cup championship team they would eventually build that won in 2011.
They’re entitled to their opinion, but that would be revisionist history.
Thornton, who was Boston’s captain when traded and had just signed a 3-year deal the previous offseason, became a punching bag in Boston due to his leadership style and Boston’s failures in the playoffs. The two sides had a contentious contract negotiation the previous summer with each side unhappy with the other, but Thornton eventually put pen to paper on a new three year deal.
With the Bruins struggling in the first season post-lockout, they traded Thornton to the Sharks for three players and no draft picks. Sturm was ok as a Bruin, with 193 points in 302 games over parts of five seasons. But Primeau and Stuart were depth pieces who ultimately left Boston as free agents.
Meanwhile, Thornton immediately turned the Sharks season around with a Hart Trophy season and a playoff appearance. Including the split season between Boston and San Jose, Thornton totaled 970 points over his next 937 games, which is a Hall of Fame-caliber career in and of itself. The Sharks never won a Stanley Cup while Thornton was there….call it a byproduct of playing in the same era as Chicago and Los Angeles when they were winning championships if you want….but the Sharks were a consistent playoff team throughout his 15 years in Northern California. Meanwhile, Boston got nothing of note in return for a future first ballot Hall of Famer in his prime.
None of us have a crystal ball to tell us whether or not Boston eventually wins a Cup had they kept Thornton. We know they won one in 2011 without him, but that team was also significantly better than the ones Thornton was on. Tim Thomas won a Vezina that year. They had Hall of Famers up and down their lineup with a young Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand playing alongside Zdeno Chara and Mark Recchi. Guys like Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Nathan Horton were young and in their primes. Blake Wheeler and Tyler Seguin would go on to become stars in the league themselves. That Boston team was loaded.
If the argument is that trading Thornton allowed Boston to sink to the bottom of the standings and allocate resources elsewhere, I would disagree with that. Boston was really only bad for a two year stretch in the mid 00s. Bergeron and Thomas were already on the roster when Thornton was dealt. Marchand was drafted in the third round the following season. They did wind up signing Chara that following offseason. While it would be foolish to suggest Chara wasn’t a big part of why the Bruins turned things around, who Boston later acquired after the fact doesn’t exactly make up for what has been universally accepted as one of the worst trades in modern NHL history.
Flames Trade Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 first round pick (Cullen Potter)
Of course, I fully expect the one trade everyone in the comments section who wants to trade Jack and Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt to point to would be this one.
Context matters however.
The Flames didn’t necessarily want to trade Matthew Tkachuk. They knew how good he is. But the Flames found themselves in that position where they didn’t have much of a choice after Johnny Gaudreau left in free agency and Tkachuk made it clear that he wasn’t going to re-sign in Calgary when his contract was up in a year. Tkachuk had a fairly limited list of teams he was willing to sign a contract extension with (side note, New Jersey wasn’t one of those teams on his list even though his cousin is Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald). And even with that, Calgary probably did better than most of the other teams on this list in terms of getting quality NHL players in return.
That’s not to necessarily say they did great though. Huberdeau has been unable to replicate the 115 point season he had in his final season in South Florida and is in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him which pays him $10.5M AAV. Weegar has been a top pairing defenseman for the Flames but has struggled this year and is also in the middle of a long-term deal that Calgary handed him. Schwindt hasn’t really taken off as an NHL player and is now back with Florida while the jury is out on what Potter will be. But in the bigger picture, Calgary has been doing their own retool or rebuild or whatever one wants to call it since Tkachuk and Gaudreau left. They haven’t made the playoffs since this trade, and probably aren’t heading there anytime soon as they continue to shop veteran players like Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman, among others.
Of course, all of that pales in comparison to Tkachuk, who was a key member of a Florida Panthers team that reached the Stanley Cup Final in three consecutive seasons since he arrived and won twice.
I don’t know if in an alternate universe if Bill Zito and the Panthers wind up winning a Stanley Cup had Tkachuk gone to St. Louis or Vegas or Tampa Bay instead. Saying they might have won anyways diminishes Tkachuk’s contributions when he was a key piece of that team. But it’s not like Florida didn’t have a good team prior to that trade. A lot of key players like Sasha Barkov, Sam Bennett, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad, Gus Forsling, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, and Carter Verhaeghe were already there. Huberdeau and Weegar were the odd men out, but it’s also in a trade to get Matthew Tkachuk.
Zito had an opportunity to make a franchise-defining trade and certainly has no regrets after the fact. Nor should he. But this is also a particularly perfect set of circumstances that played out in his favor and Calgary still wound up doing better than most teams in terms of getting an actual return for trading away a star player. I don’t think this is one that is easily duplicated, in part because most teams aren’t looking to trade away a “Tkachuk-type” if they have one. And even if a team is trading that type away, its usually because they know they’re going to lose the player if they don’t trade him, and the list of destinations is fairly limited.
How Does This Pertain To the Devils?
I could keep going on bad trades that sent a star player out of town, such as the deal that sent Jeff Carter to Los Angeles (helping spur two championship runs for the Kings) or the Roberto Luongo trade that sent him from Florida to Vancouver (where he was runner up for the Hart and Vezina in his first year and helped lead Vancouver to a Cup Final appearance), but I think you get the point.
The purpose of this article isn’t to say the Devils should definitely not trade (insert player name here). When you’ve been as mediocre as the Devils have been for the last several years, I do think you should approach this situation with an open mind.
That said, there’s quite a few things that need to be said.
It’s hard to get talented players in this league. The Devils have never historically been a premiere free agent destination, and as we’re seeing with the Devils the last few years, building a team through free agency is tough to do. You’re paying market rate for said players who are more of the supporting cast types than franchise players, you’re in a position where you probably have to get a little uncomfortable by giving them an extra year and/or no-trade protection, and we’re dealing with players in their 30s when their best years might already be behind them. The superstar players that actually move the needle rarely make it to free agency in their prime, and in the rare cases they do, they’re not picking New Jersey. That includes Dougie Hamilton, who is closer to being a really good supporting cast member than a true #1 defenseman.
Teams that have star players aren’t going to easily give them up. There’s usually extenuating circumstances that lead to the “why” the trade is happening. The team wants to cut costs, or they know the player is going to be a free agent and they’re unlikely to keep them. Maybe there’s bad blood between management and the player for whatever reason, such as the one I pointed out with Eichel. Maybe its a situation where in a hockey-crazy market, the team listens to their fanbase in regards to who not to bring back because its easier to run a smear campaign after the player left town than it is to build a winner around said player. Giving up on talent should be viewed as a last resort, and should only be considered once other options have been exhausted.
And even when you do decide to give up on said player? You’re probably not going to come close to winning said trade. You’re probably going to get a late first round pick back. Maybe two if you’re lucky because one of the picks may have a “if the team wins the Stanley Cup, you get a first round pick” condition attached to it. You’ll likely get a prospect back, but it probably won’t be THE prospect you want from said team because that player has been deemed untouchable by his current team. And you might get a young player back, but that player won’t be nearly as good as the one you’re trading away.
While all this is going on, you’ll continue to lose hockey games because it turns out said player you’re giving up on wasn’t actually part of the problem in the first place. To make matters worse, you’ll probably see said player celebrate newfound success with their new team because their management team and/or coaching staff actually knows what they’re doing and knows how to put players like that in a position to succeed. Tom Fitzgerald has made plenty of mistakes in his time as Devils general manager, but how much worse would things be if he had given up on difference makers like, say, Sam Bennett or Carter Verhaeghe too early instead of Jesper Boqvist and Vitek Vanecek. But hey, maybe those prospects and magic beans you’re getting back will pan out someday.
Nobody is saying that Jack or Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, or whoever else you want to consider to be a “core” piece of the Devils moving forward is as good as the players listed in the historical examples above. But when you start giving up on players, you better be right about that because the consequences if you are wrong are more significant than giving up on a coach, or a GM, or changing around the supporting cast. Especially when there’s been zero inclination of said players actually wanting out of this situation. The Devils shouldn’t be looking to push their so-called core pieces out the door. Those are the types of unforced errors that can set the franchise back half a decade or longer.
This isn’t the NHL video game where you can propose trading the Hughes brothers to Minnesota to complete the Hughes triforce there, or try pawning off Jesper Bratt on Ottawa for Brady Tkachuk because “we need a Tkachuk-type”. Star player for star player trades aren’t commonplace for a reason. And no, I’m not interested in trading Jack Hughes for some draft picks and a B-level prospect because “you gotta shake up the core” or because he’s “always hurt” or you don’t like the answers he gives to the media. I’d rather have Jack Hughes, who we all know can be a game-breaking talent, flaws and all. If Luke Hughes is as bad as everyone has told me he was this year (and he’s not nearly that bad, to be clear), who is giving you anything worthwhile that’s worth accepting when he’s making $9M AAV for six more years? I’d rather bet on the player and that he’ll ultimately be the player the Devils projected him to be when they drafted him than sell on the player for 30 cents on the dollar.
Nico Hischier might be different in that he’ll be entering his contract year next year. I would expect that he ultimately signs a contract extension, but its not a lock that he does. If, and only if, he decides not to sign would I even entertain a trade pertaining to the Devils captain. But what I’m not doing is trading a guy that people tell me is a bad captain when those people have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to dynamics in the room when they’re not actually in said room.
I’m not drawing a definitive line in the sand when it comes to everybody else in the Devils roster because I do think there’s something to the idea that the mix itself isn’t working and hasn’t worked. But I also believe the Devils have good players on this roster who are having bad years. I don’t know what the reason for that necessarily is, whether its injury-related, a coaching structure that is way too conservative, bad luck, or some combination of the above. But we’ve seen enough good hockey from Jesper Bratt, for example, over the years to where I don’t think he just forgot how to play hockey in his age-27 season.
I’m not saying the Devils shouldn’t consider trading Bratt, or Hamilton, or Meier, or Dawson Mercer, or Simon Nemec, or whoever. I’m not even saying any or all of them are “core players”. I’m saying that it’s easier to change everything else around the players. It’s easier to find a new GM who actually does think skill is important and isn’t just loading up on grinders who play “playoff style hockey”. It’s easier to find a coach who strikes the right balance where maybe you’re not always selling out for offense like they did under Lindy Ruff, but you’re also not suppressing offense for the sake of defense either like they are under Sheldon Keefe. It’s easier to swap out your supporting cast until you find a better mix of players to compliment the skill players you do have.
At the end of the day, you need talented players in order to win in this league. You’re not winning without good players. One shouldn’t be so quick to discard said players because you don’t think they don’t fit the mold of what you think a winning hockey player looks like.
But with that said, if you want to go ahead and trust the regime that whiffed on the Alex Holtz and Chase Stillman picks with more draft capital that they’ll get it right this time, by all means. If you want to trust the regime that can’t figure out how to build a winning team at the AHL level or develop that favorite prospect of yours that definitely would’ve made it if he only got a chance, go for it.
I’d rather keep the bird in the hand than take my chances with the two in the bush.
Final Thoughts
It’s true that the Devils best players need to be better than what we’ve seen this year. You’re only going to go as far as your best players take you. But the reality of the situation is that almost across the board, the majority of the team is having a bad year. Nobody has been good enough.
It’s also true that the Devils need to do a better job of building a team around the handful of good players they do have instead of kicking those players to the curb because you’re sick of them like a petulant child would be with a toy he got on Christmas that he didn’t like. If it means a GM change and bringing in somebody who has a better vision of what a winning team looks like than the crew currently in charge, so be it. If it means bringing in a coach who knows how to allow the team’s best players to be their best players, so be it.
Maybe the Devils ultimately don’t wind up winning anything with this particular “core”, regardless of who is in it, when its all said and done years from now. But they haven’t exhausted all of their options yet trying to build around said core either. Selling low on good players who are all having a bad year isn’t the answer. The Devils shouldn’t consider trading any core player until it’s absolutely necessary.
As bad as things are, we’re not even close to that point yet.
Captain sidelined out by testicular injury in the nets
Champion batter rushed to Sri Lanka as squad cover
Steve Smith has answered a last-minute SOS and could make a shock appearance at the T20 World Cup following a testicular injury to skipper Mitch Marsh.
Marsh has been ruled out of Australia’s T20 World Cup opener against Ireland in Colombo after sustaining a direct hit to the box at training earlier this week.
Former Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez is greeted by Justin Verlander after he threw out the first pitch before the game against the Red Sox on Friday, April 7, 2017, at Comerica Park. Tigers 040717 Kd 9 | Kirthmon F. Dozier via Imagn Content Services, LLC
On Tuesday, it was announced that pitcher Justin Verlander had signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers, reuniting him with the team that drafted him a mere 22 years ago. Verlander was traded from Detroit to Houston in 2017, where he won a pair of World Series, before joining the San Francisco Giants last year. Now he returns to Detroit after nine years away in the hopes of winning one more World Series for a franchise that hasn’t won a title since 1984.
The Detroit Lions are similarly trying to make a jump from playoff contender to champion. And while the league isn’t rife with former Lions players who could help the team get over the hump in a reunion, there are certainly some familiar faces who could help.
So today’s Question of the Day is:
Which former Lions player would you welcome back for a one-year re-signing?
My answer: I won’t give a comprehensive list, because that would take away all the fun from you guys, but here are three that jump to mind for me, all of whom are unrestricted free agents in 2026:
G Kevin Zeitler
S Ifeatu Melifonwu
DL Da’Shawn Hand
Do I expect any of those players to re-sign with Detroit? Seems unlikely, although Melifonwu would certainly make sense given Detroit’s uncertainty at safety.
Let me hear which former Lions you’d love to see the Lions reunite with. Doesn’t matter if they’re free agents or not! Scroll down to the comment section and share your answer!
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan is set to receive some new bling on Wednesday from his junior club, the OHL's London Knights.
The 20-year-old, along with former London teammates Denver Barkey, Sam Dickinson, and Kasper Halttunen, will be given their 2025 Championship rings before the Knights' game against the OHL's Guelph Storm.
Welcoming back some London legends on Wednesday night 🌟
Prior to puck drop we'll present Denver, Easton, Kasper and Sam with their 2025 Championship rings! pic.twitter.com/8fQjS6nLOe
London won both the OHL Championship and the Memorial Cup last spring.
The Knights unveiled both rings on Jan. 15. One sported the Knights' logo surrounded by what looks to be diamonds, and the other was engraved with the player's number in the centre.
Cowan tallied three goals and seven points in five games at the Memorial Cup, earning the tournament's MVP honor.
Cowan played parts of four seasons with the Knights from 2022 to 2025. In 175 games with London, Cowan tallied 84 goals and 220 points. He holds the Knights' record for playoff points, tallying 32 goals and 64 assists for 96 points in 60 postseason games.
The Mount Brydges, Ontario, native also had a historic (unofficial) point streak in his final season with London, scoring points in 65 consecutive games. The OHL deemed the streak unofficial because it spanned across two seasons.
Now in the NHL with the Maple Leafs, Cowan's debut season has had its ups and downs.
The rookie has seven goals and 10 assists through 43 games this season, while averaging 13:31 of ice time. He's played on every forward line with the Maple Leafs and also gets power play time.
However, the forward was a healthy scratch in Toronto's final three games before the Olympic break.
"As we talked about, (Cowan) needed a little bit of a reset. I think the break will do him well. Nothing changes there," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said ahead of Toronto's final game before the break against the Edmonton Oilers.
"There are young guys in the league who don't play all the time. There are times they do, but there are times when they don't, and they have little breaks here and there. They benefit from it."
Nevertheless, Wednesday will be a night Cowan will remember for a long time as he caps off a historic junior career with the Knights.
Both Balinskis and Vilmanis appear poised to see plenty of ice time with Latvia.
During early practices, Balinskis was seen skating on the top Latvian defensive pairing with Kristians Rubins while Vilmanis was placed on the left side of the top forward line, along with winger Eduards Tralmaks and Girgensons at center.
Formace Lotyšska na dnešním tréninkovém zápasu proti Švýcarsku! 🇱🇻
Latvia opens their Olympic schedule on Thursday against the United States at 3:10 p.m. ET, followed by a matchup with Germany on Saturday at 6:10 a.m. ET and then a battle with Denmark on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. ET.
Photo caption: Jan 16, 2026; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis (26) celebrates his goal with left wing Sandis Vilmanis (95) against the Carolina Hurricanes during the second period at Lenovo Center. (James Guillory-Imagn Images)
TORONTO, CANADA - SEPTEMBER 28: Ian Seymour #61 of the Tampa Bay Rays pitches in the first inning of their MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on September 28, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images) | Getty Images
DRaysBay works best as a place for community and conversation. Accordingly, in the lead up to the new season, we are posting “Daily Questions” in the month of February. I look forward to seeing you in the comment section!
Pitchers & Catchers begin to report to Spring Training today, so I can think of no more timely a question than this! Who do expect to make the Rays starting rotation?
Orioles President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias welcomes the media and VIPs to the new facility. The Baltimore Orioles unveiled their new Player Development Complex to the media on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. The 47,700 square-foot facility includes indoor batting cages and infield, a biomechanics lab, new outdoor covered batting cages and more fan access areas. | Mike Lang / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Good Morning Birdland,
Pitchers and catchers have arrived to Sarasota! Spring is here (kind of). We can soon stop worrying about all of the offseason storylines, and instead talk about actual baseball.
Get a look at these guys! In this post from the Orioles’ Instragram alone, you can see Dean Kremer, Samuel Basallo, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz, Yennier Cano, Luis De Léon, Ryan Helsley, Trey Gibson, and Yaramil Hiraldo. And the in this one you can also see Adley Rutschman, Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, Rico Garcia, Cade Povich, and Maverick Handley, among others already mentioned.
By the end of September, I was annoyed by all of them! The season was a disappointment and a drag. But the winter weather has cooled my anger. I am ready to be hurt again.
But before we get to that, there is still the settling of the rotation to sort out. We got some news there on Tuesday.
We learned that Justin Verlander will not be joining the team. He is headed back to Detroit, where he spent the first 13 seasons of his career. That’s nice for him.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported yesterday that the Orioles are one of four teams still in the mix for free agent pitcher Zac Gallen. Nightengale is the same guy that reported Gallen had already agreed to a deal with the Cubs way back in December, so take his words with a boulder of salt.
Mike Elias told the media yesterday that his front office continues to be “plugged in” on the pitcher market, but also said that he believes the existing rotation is “very strong and very talented.” That sounds like a guy that doesn’t love the available external options, and would prefer to wait for an in-season trade.
That logic is fine if the team can actually make it to July in a competitive position. He made a similar bet a year ago, and it didn’t pan out. This roster does feel better prepared to make a run than the one 12 months ago, but nothing is guaranteed.
A variable to consider in this are the Orioles young pitchers. We have seen Povich and Brandon Young. Both can fill in here and there, but I’m not sure anyone wants them to be full-time members of the rotation. Next up is Gibson and De Leon. Gibson is likely to get a chance at some point in 2026. If he is the real deal, all that talk of adding another pitcher will seem silly. But we won’t know that until June at the earliest. De Leon is a bit farther off, but potentially even more talented. Odds are that both of them could be in the rotation by sometime in 2027. But how much that helps the team in the near term is unclear, and that is frustrating for those that want the team to strike now.
Links
Time for the first Orioles workout | Roch Kubatko A whole bunch of quotes from new skipper Craig Albernaz. He sounds confident in his crew! But what else is he going to say? On the first day of spring training every team feels like a World Series winner.
Mike Elias has confidence in Orioles pitching staff but doesn’t rule out an addition | The Baltimore Banner If the Orioles are good, they are going to add to the pitching staff. But it has always felt like that addition was going to come from a trade, rather than the free agent market. Elias doesn’t like paying top-dollar for arms. He has said as much. If a discount isn’t available, he is usually going to prefer to make a swap for a younger option with team control.
Coby Mayo’s future with the Orioles feels more uncertain than ever | The Baltimore Sun The fact that Mayo hasn’t been moved, paired with the trade for Blaze Alexander last week, feels like something could be afoot. Is someone hurt? Or do the Orioles just plain to cycle through infielders all summer? It is odd. But it is also not uncommon for Elias to let prospects wilt on the vine a bit rather than dealing them.
Gregory Soto turns 31 today. The lefty just spent parts of two seasons with the Orioles from 2024-25, accumulating a 4.33 ERA and 0.2 bWAR over 68 total appearances. He was traded to the Mets last summer and is now with the Pirates.
César Cabral is 37. His Orioles career lasted two games, both of which came in 2015 as a reliever.
The late Brian Matusz (b. 1987, d. 2025) was born on this day. Selected fourth overall in 2008, Matusz transitioned to a bullpen role early in his big league career, eventually turning into one of the game’s better lefty specialists. He was particularly dominant against Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who went 4-for-29 with 13 strikeouts against Matusz in his career.
Matt Lindstrom is 46 years old. The reliever’s time in Baltimore was short, spanning just 34 games in 2012. He was eventually dealt to the Diamondbacks in exchange for postseason hero Joe Saunders.
This day in O’s history
1987 – The Orioles sign Ray Knight, the MVP of the Mets’ recent World Series win, to a one-year, $475,000 deal plus incentives. Knight had turned down an $800,000 offer from the Mets earlier in the offseason.
