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Jake Cronenworth has been talked about as a potential trade piece for the past couple of seasons. He has value in that he can play multiple positions and is steady at the plate. For now, Cronenworth is projected to be the second baseman for the San Diego Padres on opening day although that could change in the coming weeks. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune looks at Cronenworth and what he can bring to the 2026 team as part of his ongoing Padres roster review.

Baseball News:

• MacKenzie Gore is moving to Arlington to become a member of the Texas Rangers after the Washington Nationals traded their ace pitcher for five minor league prospects.
• Reliever Taylor Rogers and the Minnesota Twins agreed to a one-year deal. The Twins also sent utility infielder Vidal Brujan to the New York Mets in exchange for cash considerations. In a corresponding move the Mets designated reliever Richard Lovelady for assignment.
• A day after agreeing to terms with Cody Bellinger, the New York Yankees made another addition claiming Marco Luciano off waivers.

Baseball America just announced their top 100 prospects in baseball heading into the 2026 season. Let’s take a look at which Brewers prospects made the cut:

4. SS Jesus Made

I’ve written about Made a lot over the last year (and this offseason), so there isn’t a lot to say about him that hasn’t already been said. BA considers him a 70-grade (!) prospect with average risk, but nothing he’s shown so far has indicated that he won’t be able to adjust as he continues to rise through the minor league system.

Made is pretty much the complete package at the plate, showing above-average speed, power, and contact throughout three different levels of minor league ball. He may not stick at shortstop long-term, but that’s mainly due to Cooper Pratt’s presence as opposed to any inherent defensive deficiency. He made some errors over the course of the year, but his defense improved significantly — he projects to be, at the very least, a slightly-above-average defender.

After a hot start with Low-A Carolina in 2025, Made earned a mid-season promotion and hit even better (.915 OPS) before being promoted again — just in time for the Double-A playoffs. If he keeps improving (he should), he’ll be knocking on the door of the Brewers’ clubhouse in no time. He’s the best prospect Milwaukee has had since Jackson Chourio and should be very fun to watch in a Brewers uniform someday.

47. SS/2B Luis Peña

Peña has just as high of an offensive ceiling as Made despite questions surrounding his plate discipline and long-term defensive abilities. He’s an “athletic, aggressive hitter who tracks pitches well with excellent hand-eye coordination.” He also doesn’t strike out all that much (8.2% in 2025) despite often swinging at pitches that maybe he shouldn’t. Peña frequently posts high-level exit velocities (up to 106 mph), although his swing is geared toward top-spin line drives — meaning that his home run numbers (1 HR in 2025) are somewhat lacking despite having tons of raw power.

Peña’s ranking, per BA, is honestly quite a bit lower than I thought it would be. Peña got promoted to High-A alongside Made, but while Made improved on his Low-A stats, Peña faltered a bit (.844 OPS with Carolina, .517 over 101 at-bats with Wisconsin). He’ll need to show improvement on his numbers to justify ranking him this high, but if he starts the season off hot, he’ll probably rise significantly up BA’s rankings.

50. SS Cooper Pratt

Out of the three shortstops at the top of the Brewers’ farm system, Pratt is the best defensive prospect. I’ve said it before, but I genuinely think he’d be an above-average shortstop at the major league level in 2026. I absolutely love his defensive game. He gets to balls a lot of other shortstops don’t get to and doesn’t make many mistakes.

The bat is still a work in progress, although Pratt shows traits that hint at his bat developing further. Per BA, swing is simple, balanced and stays short to the ball for a 6-foot-3 hitter. Pratt will expand the strike zone a touch more often than he should, particularly against sliders down and away, but he has a good sense of timing with the hand-eye coordination that leads to a low swing-and-miss rate.“ For what it’s worth, scouts don’t think he’ll develop much power due to his low top-end exit velocities and lack of bat speed. Still, if he develops as hoped, a defensive wizard shortstop who can hit for average is a highly valuable player.

71. SS/2B/OF Jett Williams

Williams and his former teammate in the Mets organization, Brandon Sproat, deserve their own article once I have the time to watch some film. For now:

There was a reason many Mets fans are disappointed that Williams, the No. 14 overall pick back in 2022, was part of the return for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers. He could be very good, very soon. His best traits at the plate are his on base ability and swing decisions, both of which sound very Brewers. Unlike most recent Brewers acquisitions, he comes with a ton of accolades. Williams was BA’s No. 1 overall Mets prospect coming into last season. Also according to BA, Williams was the best baserunner and had the strongest infield arm in the Mets organization. After the 2025 season, Williams was named the Eastern League’s top Major League prospect.

Williams also boasts significant power (17 home runs in 130 combined games last year) and should be able to hit for power at the next level, despite his diminutive stature (5’6”). Williams’ final standout trait is his versatility — while he’s mostly played shortstop as a member of the Mets organization, he’s notched at least 33 career starts at both second base and center field.

Williams had an .868 OPS in 96 games for the Mets’ Double-A affiliate last year. Upon his promotion to Triple-A, his OPS dropped a little bit (.718 OPS in 36 games), but I’d bet on his numbers bouncing back up somewhere closer to where they were in Double-A once he spends significant time at that level. It doesn’t hurt that the Brewers front office clearly thinks he could be someone (remember Caleb Durbin…).

81. RHP Brandon Sproat

Sproat, the other player that the Brewers got in return for Peralta and Myers, is going to fit in great with the Brewers’ “pitching lab.” Fun fact about the 25-year-old righty — the Mets actually drafted him twice, selecting him in the third round in 2022 and second round in 2023. He more than lived up to that draft capital through Double-A, but eventually hit a bit of a wall in Triple-A. Through his first 22 starts in Triple-A, Sproat posted an abysmal 6.45 ERA. His last 11 starts, however? A 2.44 ERA and 30% (!!) strikeout rate. He was called up in September and made four starts with the Mets before the end of the season, with varying results.

While he’s not quite as highly ranked of a prospect as Williams, he’s a legitimate talent. Sproat only posted a 4.24 ERA in 26 games (25 starts) at Triple-A Syracuse last season, but the underlying peripherals — 113 strikeouts in 121 innings pitched, .218 opponent batting average — point to a pitcher who could find success in the big leagues. Per BA, his standout traits are his control (“good enough to start” in the majors) and his breaking balls, which “stand out.” Sproat threw his mid-80s sweeper and high-70s curveball about a third of the time in his MLB debut and leaned on them as putaway pitches. He also throws a harder slider. Sproat’s sinker sits 94-96 mph, but despite that velocity, it operates as a groundball or set-up pitch rather than a whiff pitch.

96. RHP Logan Henderson

Most of you saw Henderson in his stint with the Brewers last year, a stint that was cut short due to right elbow inflammation. Despite the injury, the promise that he showed in 25 1/3 IP (1.78 ERA) with Milwaukee was enough to land him on BA’s Top 100. Henderson isn’t going to blow anyone away, but he’s a smart pitcher who gets good movement on his pitches. His standout pitch is his 80-ish mph “Nintendo pitch” changeup, which played off his fastball effectively both in Triple-A and in the majors. It’s fair to wonder whether he’ll have the same level of success once major league teams get a full year of film on him, and he certainly (almost certainly?) won’t post an ERA under 2.00 next year.

Still, Milwaukee trading Peralta and Myers shows that they have confidence in their pitching depth heading into 2026, and Henderson looks to be a significant part of the Brewers’ rotation plans for 2026. He won’t be on this list next year.

Others Receiving Votes

• RHP Bishop Letson
• OF Luis Lara
• C Jeferson Quero
• C Marco Dinges
• 2B/OF Josh Adamczewski
• 3B Andrew Fischer
• RHP Tyson Hardin

Last time, we took a look at starting pitcher projections for ERA. We will do the same here for relief pitchers. Obviously, there is a ton to get into here and before we dive in we need to talk about some issues that come up with all pitchers. Certainly, hitting and pitching is partially reliant on luck. Over the last decade, there have been exciting advancements in data primarily from a company called Statcast. They essentially can pinpoint exit velocities on batted balls and therefore can better predict trends in performance.

Chuck Palahniuk (the author of “Fight Club”) wrote one of my favorite lines in literature: “on a long enough timeline, the survival rate drops to zero.” Generally speaking the more data we receive the more reliable that data is going to be. We can predict outcomes and the underlying data (like Statcast) will match the manifesting data. In other words, pitchers that miss bats and induce weak contact will perform better than pitchers that don’t.

However, when you condense a 200 inning season into a 50 inning season, there are fewer opportunities for the data to normalize itself. This is why we often see wide variations from one season to the next for relief pitchers. They themselves are likely not radically different. They are getting different results because when sample sizes are smaller, there is more variance with luck.

This has two immediate implications for us today. First, the idea of giving a relief pitcher a multiyear contract is a risky proposition because of this variance. That’s why we don’t see them very often and it is much rarer for teams to get consistent bang for their buck. Secondly, the ERA predictions will seem higher for some players than what is likely to happen. When we go with batted ball statistics we tend to see a narrowing in projections across different pitchers because we cannot predict good or bad luck. For starting pitchers, that usually is not as big an issue. For relievers we will see wider variation in these numbers when the season ends.

The Numbers

Just like with the starters, we have more relievers than spots. MLB rules dictate that you can only have 13 pitchers on your ML roster. If the Astros go with a six man rotation then that means only spots for seven relievers. Naturally, at least one of those starters would probably double as a long reliever. However, there are eleven names here and all of them have unique situations as it pertains to options and status. For instance, Munoz looks like the worst candidate, but he was a Rule V draft choice, so he would need to remain on the roster or be sent back.

You will also notice that four of the top five relievers are lefties (in bold and italics). That creates some interesting roster construction issues as the Astros will need to prioritize right handed middle relief if they are to make any changes to the staff. Most organizations have only two lefties in their pen, so the Astros appear to be dealing from a position of strength. It is certainly possible for one or more of them to be dealt in a theoretical deal to add to other parts of the roster.

Roster Flexibility

As we noted in the last piece, Nate Pearson was projected as a reliever, but the Astros have labeled him as a candidate for the rotation. Similarly, Miguel Ullola and AJ Blubaugh were starters in the minors, so they could easily serve in that capacity. We also should note that JP France was a prominent start on the 2023 club before arm injuries limited him. He could also return to the rotation in Sugar Land to provide more depth in case of injuries.

As much as we would like to see the very best 26 guys on the final roster, teams often have to make difficult decisions at the end of the rotation and bullpen. As previously mentioned, Munoz has to make the final roster or be sent back. If they feel he is reasonably close in quality to a player with options then those players with options will likely be optioned back to Sugar Land. Teams use err on the side of keeping as many of their guys as they possibly can.

Fans and analysts also often forget the fourth dimension: time. Just because someone starts in AAA doesn’t mean they will end up there. Sometimes players need a little seasoning before coming up or they need to wait for a logjam to clear itself. We saw that with the rotation last season as there were even a couple of rotation arms I left off of the final list. Odds are pretty good that every name above will see some time at the big league level.

Future Considerations

I mentioned the reluctance to sign players to multi-year contracts. That will be put to the test following the season when Bryan Abreu becomes a free agent. Abreu is the only relief pitcher in baseball with 100 or more strikeouts in each of the last three seasons. He has averaged nearly 100 a season for the last four years. Add in a fifth season this year and there will be a ton of pressure to sign him to a Rafael Montero like deal.

However, we should note what happened with Montero. Obviously, Abreu has a longer track record of success than Montero did, but the question remains. How long will he be able to hold up this level of performance? Some team will likely offer him closer money and it is hard to imagine paying two players closer money. So, a large part of the season will be trying to find that guy that can eventually become the 8th inning guy when Abreu walks in free agency.

I hesitate to suggest it because the names above are generally unproven, but the Astros might consider moving him before the deadline. If they do not foresee re-signing him then it makes sense to consider getting something long-term to help your team. However, leaving your team without an effective 8th inning reliever is not conducive to contending, so the Astros will need to either be out of the race or have someone that can immediately take his place.

Happy Friday everyone! We’re light on Tigers news, but there are still some big baseball stories to check in on. The Hall of Fame inductees were announced this week, and Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones will be heading to Cooperstown. We also check in on Matt Vierling, plus a big move for the White Sox, and some major trades involving starting pitchers (but thankfully none of them named Tarik Skubal).

Let’s just get right into today’s news bites.

Detroit Tigers News

• The Tigers have signed outfielder Corey Julks to a minor-league deal.
• A look at the Tigers’ Venezuelan pipeline, which is working stronger than ever right now.
• The Detroit News look at where Matt Vierling is currently, and his hopes for the coming season.

AL Central News

• Luis Robert Jr. has drawn a lot of attention over the last two seasons as to whether he would be traded by the White Sox, and now he’s a New York Met.
• Taylor Rogers is reuniting with the Twins.

MLB News

• Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones will be headed to the Hall of Fame.
• A look at the deal that sent MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers.
• And a deeper dive into the prospect return that the Nationals hope will shape their future.
• A candidate-by-candidate look at everyone who was on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot.
• Michael Baumann has some very strong opinions about pitchers wearing single-digit jersey numbers.
• Which starting pitcher might be traded next? (Hint: It likely won’t be Tarik Skubal)
• A look at the “win-win” Freddy Peralta trade.
• Which team’s cap will the new Hall of Fame inductees be wearing when they’re immortalized in Cooperstown?
• Yadier Molina will be taking on a new role with the Cardinals.
• Three teams with the most confusing offseasons.
• Bob Costas will host the pre-game show for Sunday Night Baseball.
• Does the Hall of Fame have a starting pitcher problem?
• Is MLB parity possible without a salary cap?
• This is wild.

• A look at the potential first-timers who could be on next year’s Hall of Fame ballot.

• This is an interesting fact!

When it comes to the starting rotation, the Orioles’ 40-man roster currently includes these names: Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Brandon Young, Tyler Wells, Trevor Rogers, Cade Povich, Dean Kremer, and Zach Eflin.

True to GM Mike Elias’s promises, the Orioles have been beefing up the offense with some new bats, notably the Polar Bear, Pete Alonso himself. They even added a new starter in Baz, acquired from Tampa for a hefty passel of prospects. But if 2026 is to go well, the Orioles need to complement their rebooted offense with a return-to-form from one or more of Povich, Kremer, and Young, plus a successful return-from-injury from Baz, Bradish, Wells, and certainly, Zach Eflin.

You may recall that the Orioles acquired Eflin from the Rays in July 2024. He joined a rotation helmed by Corbin Burnes, but suffering from the loss, due to injury, of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Grayson Rodriguez. Eflin was really good down the stretch, exceeding expectations with a 5-2 record, 2.60 ERA, and 149 ERA+ over nine starts. The Orioles fell flat in the playoffs, but it was hardly his fault.

Eflin’s dominance, paired with the loss of free agent Burnes, made him the clear choice to be Baltimore’s Opening Day starter in 2025. He make that start, but then things quickly went sideways.

Eflin struggled to stay healthy last year (he wasn’t the only one). After just three starts, the righty went down with a right lat strain on April 9. He returned a month later but couldn’t find a groove. By mid-May, this team was in freefall, and a healthy Eflin could have provided a stabilizing presence for the roster. Instead, he hit the IL again on June 30 with lower back discomfort. It’d prove his last start of 2025, as he eventually underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy in August.

All in all, Eflin would do four stints on the IL while pitching to a 5.93 ERA in just fourteen starts.

As a pending free agent, Eflin could have been a trade chip in a season going nowhere. Instead, injuries prevented the Birds from flipping the starter for any value, and he elected free agency at season’s end. Though it wasn’t clear whether a reunion was in the cards, on December 29, the Orioles announced they were bringing him back on a one-year, $10 million deal, with a mutual option for 2027.

In a December Zoom call with the media, Eflin spoke candidly about his back issues. The injury, he explained, dated back roughly a decade, but last year it had progressively worsened, and it was the first time he couldn’t manage it at all. Surgeons discovered a bone spur pressing into a nerve—which explained the shooting pains Eflin had been dealing with. And unlike a Tommy John recovery, which can take fourteen-to-eighteen months, Eflin said he felt immediate relief after the operation, and now says he’s now in the best physical condition of his life. His first bullpen was scheduled for January 6 and his goal is to be ready for Opening Day.

So what to expect from this new-and-improved Zach Eflin?

The pessimist’s version: A guy who’s started more than 25 games only three of ten seasons in his career and who just posted a 5.93 ERA in an injury-shortened season.

The optimist’s version: The guy we saw in 2023 with Tampa Bay, when he went 16-8 with a 3.50 ERA, led the American League in wins, and finished sixth in Cy Young voting. That season, his first in Tampa, Eflin set career highs in starts (31), innings (177.2), and strikeouts (186), while posting career-best marks in ERA and WHIP (1.02). Then he outdid himself the next year!

I think the bet here is reasonable, although a one-year deal certainly suggests caution by the front office. If the back pain really was a substantial part of why Eflin had an ERA near 6 for the 2025 season—his time missed strongly suggests it was—and it was corrected by a reasonably simple surgery, then there’s a plausible story where 2026 looks for him a lot more like 2023.

Plus the Orioles don’t need Eflin to be their ace this time around. Bradish, Rogers, and Baz should occupy the top spots. Guys like Eflin, Wells, and Kremer can fill out the rotation. In that role, the pressure is lower. A healthy Eflin as your No. 4 starter? Teams would kill for that.

This doesn’t mean the Orioles should stop looking for pitching. They shouldn’t. Free agents like Framber Valdez would obviously upgrade the rotation. But a healthy and effective Eflin represents a scenario where the Orioles might not need to make a splashy signing to have a good rotation. If he bounces back, if Bradish returns well from Tommy John, if Baz fulfills his potential—that’s a rotation that can compete in October. The margin for error is thin, but it exists.

Eflin himself seems to understand the stakes. “[I didn’t want] to be the guy they traded for and get hurt and not be the guy that they wanted,” he said. “That really weighed on me.” He wants to prove something. He’s motivated. And for the first time in years, he’s pain-free.

Championship windows don’t stay open indefinitely. “We want to win the World Series,” says Eflin. The Orioles know this; it’s why they signed Alonso, traded for Ward and Baz, brought in Ryan Helsley, and resigned their No. 4 starter. A bounce-back Zach Eflin might be one of the quieter pieces of this puzzle, but he could end up being one of the most important.

The Atlanta Braves snuck this through the transaction wire earlier this week, but the team has brought back utility player/pitcher Luke Williams on a minor league deal. The moved happened the same day the team announced that Ha-Seong Kim will be lost for most of the first half of the regular seasons. The move to bring back Williams – who the Braves listed as a shortstop on their transaction – was speculated in the linked article.

While the Braves signed Jorge Mateo mid-week as a back-up shortstop option behind now presumed starter Mauricio Dubon, that doesn’t mean that Williams doesn’t have a path to a big-league roster spot at some point during the season.

As it stands now, the Braves do have one open position player spot on the 26-man roster. The addition of right-handed power-hitting reserve of some kind – Justin Turner, Gary Sanchez, maybe even Marcell Ozuna – seems like a more valuable addition to the roster than Williams.

Williams is not a good hitter. Full stop. He had a 0 (zero) wRC+ last year and for his career has a 63 wRC+. But, he is a good and versatile defender who can play in the middle infield and outfield. He is also a good base runner, making him an often-used pinch-runner option during his 221 games with Atlanta going back to 2023.

Here’s the punch-line to the joke that isn’t really a joke. Williams is also a useful pitcher. As a position player, he has pitched in 10 career games – including nine over the past two seasons with Atlanta.

In 2025, he made six appearances, tossing six innings and striking out four while allowing only two earned runs. His career WHIP is 1.18 with an xERA of 4.25 against an actual ERA of 3.27. His FIP and xFIP aren’t as good but this is a position player, not an actual full-time pitcher. Last year, if not for his own injury, he likely would have pitched in at least two more games.

Williams is-what-he-is. A player who can be useful as the 26th an on a roster where his positive attributes can be utilized if the other position players are going to see the majority of the playing time during the season. This has been something he has been able to do the last couple of season with Atlanta.

Is there a chance he is nothing more but break-in-case-of-emergency depth at Triple-A this season? Absolutely, and hopefully so. But don’t be surprised if Williams doesn’t appear with Atlanta at some point this season.