Worldwide Sports News

Sportswriter Joon Lee recently posted a video to YouTube where he tries to shed light on why the Los Angeles Dodgers seem to have an endless stream of money with which to pay the top players in the game. The back-to-back World Series Champions made waves in MLB with the signing of free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract. Chari Bell of Gaslamp Ball documents what Lee says is a major disparity in favor of the Dodgers that is not available to the 29 other MLB teams.

Padres News:

• Randy Jones was a legendary pitcher for the Padres, but he may be most remembered for being an ambassador for San Diego. He could often be found around Petco Park meeting fans and promoting the Padres and the game of baseball. Jones died this offseason and the Padres will hold a celebration of life for him at Petco Park today for fans to pay their respects.
• Padres fans watched the season come to an end for one of the dominant relievers in the San Diego bullpen when Jason Adam ruptured his quadriceps and feel on the front of the mound. Adam’s recovery and rehabilitation by all accounts have been going well and his return in 2026 will be much anticipated.
• AJ Cassavell of Padres.com looks at the Padres’ history of having dominant closers, adding three are Hall of Famers, one won a Cy Young Award, and many were All-Stars.
• Dennis Lin of The Athletic breaks down the numbers and makes a case for Manny Machado becoming a Hall of Famer by the time his career comes to an end. Lin notes Machado is owed $301 million over the next eight seasons, so the end is not near, which means Machado has plenty of time to continue to add to his resume.

Baseball News:

• Free agent pitcher Max Scherzer says he is not going to rush his decision on where he will sign. It was also noted that Scherzer may wait until after Opening Day to choose his team.
• The top two remaining free agent hitters according to MLB.com are Eugenio Suarez and Luis Arraez and they have completely different approaches at the plate.
• The New York Yankees finally agreed to a new contract with Cody Bellinger, but that may not be the last free agent deal they make this offseason. The also Yankees claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Dodgers.
• Seranthony Dominguez and the Chicago White Sox agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal.
• The Seattle Mariners acquired right-handed pitcher Cooper Criswell from the New York Mets for cash considerations.
• The San Francisco Giants made a push to land C.J. Abrams from the Washington Nationals, but the teams were unable to reach an agreement for the talented shortstop.

Well… Jose Ramirez MAY have just guaranteed he will be a Guardian through the end of his major league career.

As you may remember, we have had our issues with Hector Gomez, baseball insider, who claimed the Guardians had multiple pitchers being investigated for gambling aside from Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz. Well… Gomez is reporting on Twitter that Jose has signed a 7/$175M deal with the Guardians taking him through 2032, his age 40 season, and making sure he will retire as a Guardian and likely holding almost every franchise record.

I don’t think Gomez would report this if he didn’t know it to be true as it would completely destroy his reputation. I also know Jose’s agent posted a photo earlier this week of him and Jose in Cleveland together. And now Zack Meisel of the Athletic is reporting the team and Ramirez are nearing a $106M extension through 2032, with $70M deferred.

I will bury the hatchet with Gomez if this is true, as it appears it is. Stinks what he did, but I will forgive him and let it go.

Also, I am done complaining about this offseason if this means I get to watch my favorite baseball player of all time play his entire career in Cleveland in front of me and my children.

Let it be true.

Unless you missed the news on The Weather Channel, local news channels, national news channels, from Facebook, Twitter, your co-workers, your mama and your grandma; there’s a storm brewing. Anywhere from four to eighteen inches of snow is headed. The grocery stores in my part of Braves Country were at DEFCON 2 on Thursday and it’s supposed to be completely to the north of us. I can’t imagine what it’s like where it is actually going to snow.

Makes me wonder if we’ll get a snow out this year. The Braves will be either at home or in warm weather spots to start the year. So no Ozzie Albies in a balaclava this year. So will there be a MLB snow out this season? Baseball really ought to play exclusively in warm weather sites the first week anyway.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to be a better ballclub in 2026 after finishing last place in the NL Central standings in 2025.

The Pirates made moves to boost their offense, which should help aid a pitching staff led by Cy Young award winner Paul Skenes. Bleacher Report writer Joel Reuter conducted power rankings and placed the Pirates at No. 23.

“The Pirates have made a legitimate effort to bolster their lackluster offense this winter, adding 2025 All-Stars Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn, signing the latter to the largest free agency deal (two years, $29 million) in club history. They might still be a year or two away from legitimate contention, but a lineup that averaged a MLB-worst 3.6 runs per game in 2025 has undoubtedly improved,“ Reuter wrote.

The teams that ranked below the Pirates and the Power Rankings are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies.

The Pirates are viewed as a team that is on the rise, but that’s because they didn’t have a high bar to begin with. They made some improvements this off-season, but that won’t be enough to gain them much more respect around the league. The Pirates will have to prove themselves on the field this season and outperform the expectations that have been placed upon them.

BD community, what do you think of the placement of the Pirates in the power rankings? Let us know your thoughts by chiming off in the comment section below.

A lot of people around the team’s fanbase are expecting the Phillies to have a worse season in 2026 than they had in 2025. Whether that be though lack of moves on the free agent/trade market or a natural regression to their true talent, there seems to be a bunch of things people see going wrong when peering into their own crystal ball.

However, if we had to look at the positive side of things, what is something that is most likely to bounce back from being a disappointment in 2025 this upcoming season? There are quite a few options:

• Aaron Nola coming back to being a good major league starter, a league average one at worst
• Bryce Harper being angry at everyone and regaining MVP status
• Alec Bohm enjoying a platform season before he enters free agency after the season

These are just a few options as there could be many more, so let’s dwell on the positive today.

It feels like the MLB roster is all but set for the Yankees. With Cody Bellinger back in the fold, and backing up Aaron Judge, the club will more or less return the same nine or ten everyday players that we saw last season. The other major position player signing this winter was of course Trent Grisham, who picked up the qualifying offer, and I’ve seen a growing consensus that the Yankees won’t just run back the same first-stringers, but they’ll run back eseentially the same lineup with Grisham in the leadoff spot.

To his credit, Grisham did just fine for himself atop the Yankees’ order last year. A 129 wRC+ while slotted into leadoff 88 times in 2025 is nothing to sneeze at, and six times throughout the year he started the game with a home run, putting the Yanks on the board in an instant. Still, there’s something to worry about whenever a guy has such an outstanding year by his own standards, and as good as Grish was in his contract season, I think there’s a guy that makes a little more sense to pencil into the No. 1 spot.

Ben Rice also had a breakout year in 2025, a 133 wRC+ season that finally brought some life to a first base position that’s generally struggled to find thump over the last decade or so. While he may still see some time as the Yankees’ third catcher behind Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra, he’s probably best utilized as the full-time first baseman — both to maximize his offensive output, and allow him to work out some of those defensive warts we saw last year.

Rice did lead off 21 times this past season, but I think keeping him there full-time in 2026 gives the Yankees just a few more runs squeezed out, even without factoring in what I think is likely regression from Grisham. Although the center fielder reached base by about 15 points more than Rice, but we’re not talking about what has happened, we’re talking about what we can reasonably expect to happen going forward.

We already know about Rice’s extraordinary batted-ball data, how hard he makes contact, and how frequently he gets the ball in the air. He’s actually walked less in the majors than he did during his time as a prospect, sacrificing some of his patience in order to club pitches. I don’t think that’s necessarily a liability though — you need your leadoff hitter to get on base while remaining a real threat should you make a mistake, it’s not really relevant whether you walk or hit your way aboard.

That said, I think there’s a level of OBP yet to be unlocked in Rice. The key to that is the strategy of the opposing pitcher, as Aaron Judge typically hits second or third in the lineup. “Protection” is a little slippery as a concept, but last year Grisham saw more pitches in the zone hitting ahead of Judge than he did in any seasons with the Padres. Pitchers want to make you force your way aboard before they have to deal with the game’s finest hitter, so you’re likely to see an uptick in pitches in-zone. Ben Rice posts a superior xBA, xSLG, exit velo, squared-up rate, barrel percentage, and hard-hit rate than Grisham — in short, when they offer at pitches, Rice does more damage.

Grisham is slightly better at not chasing, even though Rice makes more contact overall, an edge that I think would be negated should Rice see a tick up from 52 percent of pitches in-zone that he saw in 2025 to the 54-percent mark Grisham saw as a leadoff hitter. Rice isn’t quite as good at avoiding the chase, but if he gets more pitches in the strike zone, he’ll crush them more effectively than Grisham.

In a way, we’re designing a middle-class Kyle Schwarber. War Bear was never considered the prototypical leadoff bat before slotting atop the Phillies lineup beginning in their pennant-winning 2022 and being arguably the most dangerous hitter not named Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani in recent years. Still, the Phillies trusted the gonzo contact data that Schwarber produced, and pitchers began to learn — from 2023-25 Schwarber has walked more than his career baseline, because pitchers either have to come in the zone and risk his bat, or give him easy takes out of the zone. Even though the Phillies elected to deploy Trea Turner at leadoff for much of 2025 instead of Schwarber,a similar kind of situation is the goal with Rice.

Grisham’s 2025 was a marvel, making us almost forget that he was an add-on in the Juan Soto trade. Ben Rice’s better batted-ball numbers, alongside his likelihood of seeing more pitches in the zone, make him the best candidate to start games with a bang in 2026.

The recent talk about Dustin Pedroia on the Hall of Fame ballot has only further increased my desire for a capable, reliable Red Sox infield. We’ve seen it before, and we could get there again.

Alex Bregman’s departure not only opened up a hole which the front office thought it had solved in 2025, but it deepened the mystery of what we have in Marcelo Mayer. Mayer will continue to be an unknown quantity until he spends more time in the majors and proves he can stay on the field for a full season. Not only is he young and untested, but he can play second and third base as well as shortstop. What position he’ll more or less settle into in 2026 has been one of the more enigmatic questions of the offseason.

While Mayer’s “wherever they need me is where I’m gonna play” attitude will endear him to Red Sox Nation, there may be recent indications that Mayer may be favored to play third.

One piece of circumstantial evidence—and that’s sometimes all we’ve got in the offseason, until the process completely unfolds—is that Mayer has said: “Second base, you’re doing everything backwards.” To some, this may sound like a degree of discomfort, but it also conjures up the grace and confidence of a Ginger Rogers, doing everything Fred Astaire did—but backwards (and in heels). For someone working to transition from one side of the infield to the other, I have no doubt that’s what it might feel like.

A recent post on Bluesky from Alex Speier may do more to illuminate the front office’s thinking.

If this is to be believed (and I’ve been taken in a few times over the years), this might suggest that Eugenio Suárez will not end up on the dirt for the Sox. Our own Mike Carlucci said so in our Slack chat, and others have noted this on the socials too. (Even as Suárez is considered a good overall fit for the team.)

This defense-forward thinking should also have implications for second base. It could reasonably be said that being “very mindful of defense” should preclude an in-house platoon at second of Romy González, Nick Sogard, or David Hamilton. With the possible exception of Sogard, who is also young without a lot of time in the majors, we know those players, and they’re not the answer. Romy can be successful coming off the bench. Hamilton might be best as a pinch runner.

While the rumors are going this way and that, it sounds like second base is still open. So who’s it gonna be?

1939
It was the early years of the Hall of Fame, so voting results could still tend to be pretty weird. Case in point, Eddie Collins was voted into the Hall of Fame — on his fourth try.

Collins, by his 124.4 WAR the best second baseman in baseball history, had fallen 110 votes short of election in the inaugural Hall of Fame vote (1936), 36 votes short in 1937, and 22 short in 1938 before breaking through with … 77.7% support in 1939. Collins received 213 of 274 votes, clearing the bar for election by … seven tallies.

Joining Collins in the 1939 class was George Sisler, who endured a similar wait, and Willie Keeler, whose 207 votes made him the first Hall of Fame member to be elected by just a one-vote margin.

Collins’ 67.0 WAR as a member of the White Sox places him as the fourth-best overall and third-best position player (behind Luke Appling and Frank Thomas) in team history.

1962
Due substantially to its refusal to integrate (just one Black player had ever graced the rosters over 61 seasons), the Southern Association disbanded. The Nashville Vols and current White Sox affiliate Birmingham Barons played the entire 1901-61 run of the SA. White Sox affiliate in the 1950s the Memphis Chicks, managed by both Luke Appling and Ted Lyons during the decade and seeing the star rise of Luis Aparicio, played all but the final season.

By 1964 the Southern League had formed, giving new and permanent homes to SA teams like the Barons and Chattanooga Lookouts, which still exist and thrive in that league to this day.

2003
Sometimes luck plays a part in things … sometimes a very big part. 

On this date, Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams signed free agent pitcher Esteban Loaiza to a $500,000 contract, a massive discount from the $6.05 million he’d made in 2002 with the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Loaiza was expected to round out the back end of the rotation — but he did much more than that. By season’s end he had won 21 games, started the All-Star Game in front of his hometown White Sox fans, and led the American League in strikeouts. Loaiza could have won the Cy Young, but a pair of 1-0 losses to Detroit appeared to be the difference in doing so; he ended up second in the voting.

Even better, with Loaiza’s contract jumping to $4 million in 2004, Williams flipped the starter at close to maximum value (the righthander was also a 2004 All-Star). Loaiza was swapped to the Yankees at midseason, for pitcher José Contreras … another deal that worked out as a huge White Sox advantage!

2018
Former White Sox DH and Peoria native Jim Thome was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try, getting 89.8% of the vote. He was joined by a healthy class: Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman, along with Alan Trammell and Jack Morris from the Veterans’ Committee.

Thome’s Hall of Fame track was stalled by injury that ran him out of Philadelphia and into the arms of the White Sox in 2006. Thome revitalized his career and boosted the 90-win Sox with a 4.9 WAR season at DH. His full White Sox career saw him put up 12.1 WAR over three-plus seasons; Thome would also hit his 500th career homer as a member of the White Sox.

2025
The White Sox sold reliever Ron Marinaccio to the Padres. The righthander was a waiver claim in September from the the New York Yankees, and never ended up pitching a single inning, majors or minors, with the White Sox. He did have a short and successful stint with the Padres in 2025, and in his first four years managed a tidy 2.1 WAR in just 125 1/3 MLB innings.

Major League Baseball announced game times for the full 2026 schedule this week, which includes a 5:30 p.m. PT start for the Dodgers on opening day against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. That game will be televised exclusively by NBC and streamed on Peacock.

NBC’s coverage on March 26 begins at 5 p.m. PT, and on Thursday the network announced that Bob Costas will return to NBC Sports to host that pregame show, as well as the pregame show for the network’s Sunday Night Baseball telecasts during the season.

“As appreciative as I am of other aspects of my career, especially HBO and the MLB Network, for 40 years, my true broadcasting home was NBC,” Costas said in a press release.

Links

Joshua Rodrigues at Baseball Prospectus looked at bat speed aging curves in relation to some of the bigger free agent contracts this offseason. Kyle Tucker, having just turned 29 and signed a contract that will last a maximum of four years, is less likely to decline precipitously during this deal with the Dodgers, Rodrigues argues.

“He’s still operating within a window where modest growth is reasonable before settling into a long-term plateau,” Rodrigues wrote. “From a bat speed perspective, he profiles as a player who should age into a stable, roughly league-average range rather than fall off a cliff.”

Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus analyzed Tucker’s $240 million Dodgers contract, noting that Tucker will actually earn more than had he simply been paid $60 million per year in salary. That’s largely because Tucker got a $64 million signing bonus and $30 million in deferred salaries, which are both taxed in a player’s state of residence, and there’s no state income tax in Florida.

Blake Snell wears number seven with the Dodgers, and new closer Edwin Díaz will wear number three in Los Angeles. Michael Baumann at FanGraphs wrote about the recent upswing of single-digit numbers worn by pitchers, and he hates it aesthetically.

“The pitcher is the only player in baseball — maybe the only athlete in all of team sports — who spends most of the game with his back to the TV camera,” Baumann wrote. “And pitchers are big dudes, by and large; even a skinny two-digit number, like 11, feels inadequate for a pitcher’s broad thorax.”

Rockies Fest is here, which is the unofficial kick off to the 2026 Rockies season. Numerous players, prospects, coaches and alumni will be attendance, and many of them will depart for Scottsdale after the festival is over. Pitchers and catchers report in just about three weeks on February 12; everyone else reports on February 17; and the first game will take place on February 20.

Notably absent, though, are Ezequiel Tovar, Brenton Doyle, Zac Veen and Adael Amador. Tovar might be held up in Venezuela, but the absence of the other three is notable. However, new faces such as Michael Lorenzen and Jake McCarthy are already on the roster for the day.

A few of our Purple Row staff will also be in attendance, and will have some takeaways in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, this will serve as a place to discuss the day’s festivities.

But before things kick off, here’s what our writers had to say this week:

To Read (Rockpiles)

• Monday: What Michael Lorenzen has revealed about the rebuilding Rockies | Renee Dechert
• Tuesday: Evaluating Willi Castro’s role with the Rockies | Evan Lang
• Wednesday: Tyler Anderson could fit the bill for new look Rockies | Skyler Timmins
• Thursday: Goodman poised to break a bad Rockies trend in 2026 | Joelle Milholm
• Friday: How do the 2026 Rockies fare against the 2016 Rockies? | Sam Bradfield

To Read (PuRPs)

Full Stream

• No. 29, Ethan Hedges
• No. 28, Konner Eaton
• No. 27, Riley Kelly
• No. 26, Cole Messina
• No. 25, Michael Prosecky

Weekend Discussion Topics

Will you be attending Rockies Fest? What are you most looking forward to? Which panels are most intriguing? Will you be playing “Rockies Family Feud” with some players? Let us know in the comments!

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