Worldwide Sports News

At The Star, Jaylon Thompson writes that we shouldn’t sleep on Nick Mears, the other player acquired in the Angel Zerpa trade:

Mears has great analytical numbers. Per Statcast, he recorded a 33.5% chase rate — ranking in the 93rd percentile among qualified major-league pitchers. He also demonstrated good command, with just 2.1 walks allowed per nine innings.

Mears is effective with his fastball and slider. The heater averaged 95.4 mph while the slider— which registered a 38.4% whiff rate last year — is his put-away pitch.

Pete Grathoff collected some Sopranos memes concerning Vinnie’s three-homer game at the WBC.

Need more Vinnie (and Bobby) goofiness? Dino nuggets? Mac-n-cheese? Vinnie wearing the apron for cooking that? Shut the box?

Here’s the whole video. About 6 minutes in is the clip they released a couple of weeks ago where Vinnie tries to guess the type of pitch. He’s wrong almost every time. For being a student of hitting and a really enjoyable one to listen to, he’s awful at guessing them.

Dillon Seckington at Fox 4 KC tracks how well the Royals are doing at the WBC.

AT MLB.com, Brian Murphy and Thomas Harrigan make a (dubious) list of their Top 10 WBC moments (so far). Somehow an Aaron Judge groundout is on the list, but nothing from the Netherlands v Nicaragua list is on it. If you didn’t see it, NIC led NED 3-1 with 2 outs in the 9th when Ozzie Albies hit the first walkoff homer in WBC history.

We don’t have a lot of feature stories. Aside from the reliable Jaylon Thompson, you can probably tell I was reaching a bit. How about some listicles?

Matt Synder at CBS Sports lists two Royals in his ace tiers:

Looking to return to ace form – Cole Ragans, Royals – After a 3.14 ERA and 223 strikeouts in 186 ⅓ innings in 2024, I threw Ragans all the way up to the top tier. He was ravaged by injury and poor fortune last season. He also struck out 98 in just 61 ⅔ innings.

Possibly an ace, possibly not – Kris Bubic, Royals – He looked every bit an ace last season with a 2.55 ERA and essentially a strikeout per inning. A shoulder injury ended his season in July, though. He only made 20 starts.

At MLB.com, Bradford Doolittle looks at what teams has busy winters and which had more boring ones and what it says about the team:

Tier 2: Middle of the pack teams –

Passive offseason with no major splashes

Description: We believe in our squad, based either on a longer-term track record or the progress of a young group that’s maturing. Despite a so-so season, we’re riding with these guys.

2026 teams: Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals

What it means: The most successful teams from this group have been clubs that have knocked on the door for several seasons before breaking through. This includes the 1979 Pirates, 1980 Phillies, 1985 Royals and, to a lesser extent, the 2010 Giants…

At Fangraphs, Michael Baumann looks at “When Chases and Whiffs Don’t Lead to Outs” and a 2025 Royal made the list:

What was wrong with Ragans might be even more simple; he tweaked his groin early in 2025, then strained his rotator cuff in his first start after coming back from the first injury. That shoulder issue kept him out until mid-September, leaving the Royals’ presumptive no. 1 starter with a highly disjointed and injury-plagued record. Assuming his shoulder and groin remain in working order, he should be just fine in 2026.

Blog time!

At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky mailbags.

Do you have any concerns about the outfield given the lackluster performances of Lane Thomas and Isaac Collins this Spring? -Hokius

…But, honestly, to have watched a team have the worst outfield offense in baseball last year and then not bring in someone who was more of a sure thing had me concerned the whole time. The reality is what I wrote a few weeks ago. The outfield being anything more than fine depends on Jac Caglianone a whole lot more than it depends on any of their acquisitions. It’s both a scary spot to be because relying on young players is risky and relying on a guy who looked so bad last year is scary, but also an exciting spot because of the upside Caglianone has. So yes, I’d say concerns is the right word. I’m not exactly worried, but I have concerns.

Hokius, you say? Most of the questions are about the outfield. Then again, that could be the title of any Royals offensive preview this year: “Most of the questions are about the outfield”.

This was from a couple of days ago, but I didn’t see a link to it. Craig Brown looks at a potential rotation battle:

With Noah Cameron’s struggles this spring (7.2 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO), there’s an opportunity for Bergert to push his way into a conversation for the fifth starter role. There’s obviously still some work to do on his part and if Cameron gets right over his next couple of outings it’s a moot competition anyway, but there’s a scenario that’s not so far-fetched where a battle for that final rotation start gets hot.

Royals Data Dugout with a new hitting model: Lumber+

Lumber+ is my new Statcast-based hitter skill model that’s free to use — just click the image above. Designed to measure talent rather than production, it’s scaled so 100 = league average and each standard deviation roughly = 5.

…The big question you might (or should) ask — does it work and does it mean anything?

The answer: Yes, or at least I believe so. In backtesting 2023 and 2024 data, Lumber+ proved to be quite predictive of next-season success, using wRC+ as the end target.

At Royals Keep, Kevin O’Brien looks at Pasquantino’s big night at the WBC:

Pasquantino has traditionally been known to be a slow starter at the plate. Last season, he hit .177 with a 49 wRC+ in 124 plate appearances in March/April, according to Fangraphs splits. That said, he was fine for the remainder of the year, as evidenced by his 116 wRC+ in 2025. It was the same story in 2024 to a degree. His 96 wRC+ in March/April was the worst monthly wRC+ of the 2024 season (his overall wRC+ was 109).

Perhaps the World Baseball Classic has allowed Pasquantino to knock off the rust earlier in the spring (he has more at-bats to go in the knockout round, as they play Puerto Rico in the first round). Hopefully, with this experience and historic surge at the plate, he will be more ready to produce in the first month of play for the Royals, which would be atypical of his career norms.

Blog Roundup:

• Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep: Royals Position Players Standing Out in Various Ways in World Baseball Classic
• Cory Sparks at Royals Keep: Royals Top 20 Prospects Breakdown, 16-20 (video)
• Caleb Moody at KOK: Vinnie Pasquantino put poor spring training start behind him with massive WBC night
• Jacob Milham at KOK: Royals farm system currently defined by intriguing wave of teenaged prospects

Unfortunately, I’m punting on OT this week. I looked at the calendar and realized I’m just going to be watching basketball for 12 hours next Thursday. My current OT was still only about half done and there’s going to be little time to work on a new one next week so it’s just getting delayed. Here’s our potential schedule for the next few weeks:

• 2026.03.20 Movie reviews
• 2026.03.27 Opening Day Recap around MLB
• 2026.04.03 Asian Baseball I: CPBL
• 2026.04.10 Asian Baseball I: KBO
• 2026.04.17 Asian Baseball I: NPB
• 2026.04.24 (working on a couple of ideas – I’ve been wanting to do an art-themed one for a while, but it’s nowhere near finished)
• 2026.05.01 Movie reviews
• 2026.05.08 (OUT)

Let’s revisit Star Fox as we haven’t in a while. We listed all previous levels used back in 2024.

How about Sector X?

An immediate caveat to that title:

I am excited for Minnesota Twins baseball to return. It is my favorite professional sport and I welcome it back into my daily routine each spring like an old friend. I can’t wait to flip on the tube each night or get out to the ballpark(s) this summer. I already have flights booked for Washington, D.C. & Phoenix, AZ road trips.

All my family members would tell you that I am the eternal Twins optimist—just not at the moment. It has been a while since I’ve been as down on the competitive prospects of our hometown nine.

The Pablo Lopez day-one-of-spring-training injury was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. All offseason, I had convinced myself this squad could compete with a strong starting rotation, speed on the bases, and a little luck from the young-ish bats. Alas, without the SP linchpin of that strategy, all seems lost.

Now I look at the rotation and see one solid bet—Joe Ryan—plus a collection of injury risks & unproven appendages (Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, David Festa, & Zebby Matthews).

Combine this with a relief corps we tabbed the Bullpen of Doom (TM) last year post-deadline. Maybe some of the roughly 100 arms (most lefty) brought in on small or minor league contracts will hit and rejuvenate the place beyond the LCF fence. But with the exception of Anthony Banda, major investments were not made in firemen.

Aside from genuine superstar Byron Buxton, the offense is absolutely loaded with guys harboring wild potential 2026 outcomes: Ryan Jeffers, Kody Clemens, Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnach, Austin Martin, Alan Roden, & Matt Wallner. At their best, all those players have looked like solid pieces of a nice offense. At their worst? All have been, at one time or another, disastrous at the plate or in the field. Only Josh Bell (1B/DH) & Victor Caratini (C) were brought in from outside the org to make an immediate impact, and neither name moves the needle all that much.

Maybe the “next wave” of prospects will ascend to The Show in ‘26: Emmanuel Rodriguez (OF), Walker Jenkins (OF), Kaelen Culpepper (SS), Connor Prielipp (LHP), or Kendry Rojas (LHP). But it is of course exceedingly rare for everything to perfectly meld together in one fell swoop and produce a contender.

I know that FanGraphs gives the ‘26 Twins a 11.4% chance to win the AL Central and a 23.7% chance to make the playoffs. But I tend to be Han Solo-ish with odds:

Ultimately, for me it comes down to the unlikelihood of the ‘26 Twins having everything come up aces: Buxton & Ryan health, complete bullpen transformation, positive regression on all batters, & prospects making an impact. The nature of MLB’s grind usually necessitates some things inevitably bust. This squad needs to hit on every 21.

The shred of hope I’m clinging to: fun seasons like ‘15, ‘19, & ‘22 (until Sept) came from little expectations. Perhaps the ‘26 gang can do something similar. They better bring their lucky deck of cards.

Getting to the Major League level is hard, even for talented players who have excelled at baseball their whole lives.

Staying and playing consistently well is even harder. In addition to the higher level of competition, players also have to adjust to the grind of the MLB schedule. Even with all the talent in the world, a 162-game season is longer than most prospects have ever played before. Finding out how to ensure their bodies handle the grind can be a bit of a learning curve.

This is where Colorado’s training staff comes into play.

They have to monitor and help players make the adjustments for playing in the Big Leagues. According to Scott Murayama, the Rockies coordinator of Major League rehabilitation, it can be a significant shift for some players.

“A lot of times, with younger players, as they’re coming up in minors, they are beat up a little bit. They’re protected a little bit more. Coaches and staff will take them off the field when they have complaints,” Scott Murayama said at Rockies Fest.

“And when they get up here [to the big leagues], they find out, they’re the young guy, and they’ve got to play through. For some of them, it’s a rude awakening because they’re not used to being forced to fight through their soreness or whatever they need. But there’s nobody out on the field who plays 162 games that feels good. You have to figure out what you can play through and what you can’t, and the younger players learn that pretty quick.” 

One of the better 2025 MLB debuts came from Kyle Karros, the Rockies fifth-round pick from the 2023 MLB Draft. Son of former Dodger and Rockies killer Eric Karros, Kyle was called up on Aug. 8. In 43 games, Karros hit .226/.308/.277 with 20 runs scored, nine RBI, one homer and four doubles. He didn’t have the power he flashed in the Minor Leagues, but provided a decent bat and solid glove at third base after Ryan McMahon was traded to the Yankees.

After playing all of 2024 with the High-A Spokane Indians (472 at-bats in 123 games), Karros started 2025 in Double-A Hartford. On July 18, after 55 games with the Yard Goats, he was promoted to the Triple-A Isotopes, where he played 16 games before getting the call.

He started his first eight games on his way to making 40 total starts, and played in 43 of the Rockies final 47 games of the season. It was a lot, even for a player who Colorado’s head athletic trainer and director of medical operations, Keith Dugger, calls “a tremendous young kid.”

“We played 16 days in a row. He’d never done that in his entire life, and he was gassed. [He said] ‘I thought the Big Leagues were just going to be, like normal baseball, you know?’ So we had to teach him,” Dugger said at Rockies Fest.

“Charlie [Blackmon], we had to teach him prior to that. So it’s really good when you have some of these older guys, like Charlie, who’s around some of these young prospects, so they can learn their kind of process that helps them throughout the day.”

Off to a strong start this spring training, hitting .417/.481/.750 with seven RBI, two homers, and seven runs scored in 24 at-bats in nine games, Karros is now primed to be the starting third baseman this season.

Jordan Beck, the Rockies No. 38 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, made his Big League debut on April 30, 2024. He only played in 55 games in his rookie campaign, largely due to suffering a fractured left hand. In 2025, he played in 148 games, which was the most for any Rockie. Beck led the team in stolen bases (19) and was second in hits (139), doubles (27) and runs scored (tied with Mickey Moniak at 62). He was third on the team with 16 homers.

At Rockeis Fest, Beck said the increased playing time made a difference. 

“Seeing guys multiple times, you start playing against guys multiple times, you just start knowing, ‘alright, this is what it looks like.’ You can train as much as you want, but until you get into the box and see what it looks like, you really don’t know,” Beck said. “…I do believe that getting out there and playing and getting consistent at-bats is a huge deal.” 

Beck is part of a group of 12 Rockies who made their debuts in 2024, which tied a team record for most at that time. Colorado immediately broke that record in 2025 as Karros was one of 13 Rockies to make their MLB debuts in 2025.

For a young, rebuilding team, the Rockies will likely see more debuts, as well as the biggest workloads young players have ever experienced in their lives. How the players hold up, mentally and physically, in that process will not only have a big impact on how 2026 plays out, but also on many individual careers and the Rockies long-term success as well.

Can rebuilt Rockies win 70 games in 2026? | Mailbag | Denver Post ($)

A reader asks Patrick Saunders if he thinks the Rockies can win 27 more times in 2026 than they did in 2025. The Denver Post Rockies beat writer doesn’t think so, saying even 17 more would be a lot of progress. Patrick also shares thoughts on which young Rockie might have the biggest breakout season, what he hopes to see before he retires and more.

Johnston ‘controlling the controllables’ as he fights for roster spot | MLB.com

This is a cool feature on Troy Johnston’s focus on controlling what’s in his hands and letting go of what is not as he battles for a spot with the Rockies at first base. Coming from a successful 2023 season in the Marlins farm system, Johnson now focuses on his bat, glove, preparation and more, in addition to his presence in the clubhouse as a good teammate. The best part is when Johnston talks about his daughter.

Mark Kiszla: ‘I want to be one of best third basemen ever,’ declares Rockies’ Kyle Karros | Denver Gazette ($)

A good feature on the ambitions of the Rockies promising young third baseman and his relationship with his father, Eric Karros. Very relatable and touching.

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

Good morning. We’re still mostly World Baseball Classic here.

• The big news is still the controversy over Team USA’s manager Mark DeRosa and his handling of the game against Italy. DeRosa tried to defend himself from charges that he didn’t know the situation, but then he got more facts wrong later. Jack Baer with the story.
• Ken Rosenthal seems dubious of DeRosa’s defense, but he writes that Team USA has gotten a second chance and DeRosa needs to stop treating it like an exhibition. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Team USA made three substitutions after pool play, with Will Vest, Tyler Rogers and Tim Hill joining the team.
• DeRosa also announced that Twins ace Joe Ryan will join Team USA if they beat Canada in the quarterfinals.
• Jake Mintz loved the Dominican Republic/Venezuela game, calling it a celebration of Latin American baseball.
• Matt Martell has a recap of the Dominican/Venezuela game for those of us who missed it watching Italy put Team USA into the elimination rounds.
• Buster Olney profiles Junior Caminero, believing his terrific WBC tournament is just a preview of what the budding superstar will do in the near future.
• Brian Murphy and Thomas Harrington have the top highlights from pool play in the WBC.
• What we’ve learned so far in the WBC. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Johnny Flores Jr. ranks the next four WBC games by watchability. (The Athletic free reg. req.)
• Over in Japan, they’re worried that putting all the games on Netflix is hurting the tournament’s popularity. (The Athletic free reg. req.)
• Michael Clair profiles Dane Dunning, who feels the heritage of his American father and Korean mother equally Dunning’s kids got to meet their Korean grandmother for the first time as well.
• Jayson Stark offers his plan to “fix” the World Baseball Classic. (The Athletic sub. req.) It seems like we get these articles every tournament. His plan is the same one that always gets suggested—hold the knockout rounds in July during All-Star Week.
• Maria Torres looks back at the brawl between Canada and Mexico in the 2013 WBC and how it led to changes that have strengthened Canadian baseball. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Yadier Molina hopes that his time managing Puerto Rico will lead to him managing a major league team. Anthony Castrovince with the story. Is Yadi the only person on the planet who doesn’t know that he’s going to manage the Cardinals as soon as they fire Oli Marmol?
• Stepping away from the WBC for a moment, the Reds got bad news as Hunter Greene is expected to be out until July after an operation to remove bone chips in his right elbow. Honestly, I thought that was good news as it mean he didn’t need Tommy John again. But yeah, Reds fans were hoping for better than that.
• Astros closer Josh Hader will start the year on the injured list with biceps inflammation.
• Diamondback Corbin Carroll has started swinging a bat again after hamate surgery. Steve Gilbert reports Carroll is using an axe-handle bat for now.
• R.J. Anderson has ten players returning from injury-filled 2025 seasons.
• Mets left-hander Sean Manaea says he’s not concerned about the drop in velocity this spring. Matt Sullivan with the story.
• Rhett Bollinger checks in on Angels camp and has five takeaways.
• Ryan Blake traces the decline in the Angels to the decline of Mike Trout from superstar to just good.
• Paul Casella looks at how great Pirates top prospect Konnor Griffin has been in Spring Training and what the Pirates still need to see out of him. Sounds like an excuse to game another year of service time out of Griffin.
• Ben Clemens examines how much longer can Aaron Judge be the best hitter in baseball.
• Kiley McDaniel has one breakout player for every MLB team.
• Dan Szymborski has one thing that could go wrong for every projected playoff team. Unsurpringly for the Cubs, it’s starting pitching.
• Bradford Doolittle categorizes every team by both how much they improved over the winter and how many moves they made.
• Matt Snyder ranks the top starting pitchers in the game as to how close they are to being an “ace.”
• Returning to the WBC, Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh says there’s “no beef” between him and teammate Randy Arozarena.
• Maybe. But finally, Patrick Dubuque went and got Jane Austen to write about the incident between Raleigh and Arozarena. Never knew Jane was a baseball fan, but it’s good to see her writing again 209 years after she died. Other great writers would use that as an excuse.

Meet the Mets

Sean Manaea wasn’t at his best against the Cardinals yesterday, and the Mets’ lineup only scored when Jorge Polanco hit a solo home run in the team’s spring training loss.

Manaea’s fastball velocity is down. Carlos Mendoza says he’s not concerned about it.

The Mets are planning to retire number 15 for Carlos Beltrán this summer.

Clay Holmes has returned from his brief stint with the US team in the WBC because he wasn’t guaranteed enough playing time to continue ramping up for the regular season.

Luis Robert Jr. made his spring debut yesterday, and the Mets plan to keep him on the field this year by giving him regular days off.

Bobby Ojeda won the Munson award last night.

Nolan McLean is one of the US team’s options for the start in the WBC final on March 17 if the team makes it that far.

Laura Albanese looks at five Mets players other than Franciso Lindor and Juan Soto who could be x-factors for the team this season.

Around the National League East

Grant Holmes dazzled in a spring training appearance for the Braves yesterday.

The Good Phight writes about Aaron Nola’s outing in Italy’s big win over Mexico in the WBC.

Here are some bold predictions about the 2026 Marlins.

Federal Baseball looks at what Brad Lord’s role will be with the 2026 Nationals.

Around Major League Baseball

An Aaaron Judge card from 2013 recently sold for $5.2 million.

Mark DeRosa acknowledged that Italy bailed the United States out with their big win over Mexico after he and the rest of the US team failed to understand the rules about advancing to the quarter-final round.

Speaking of the US team, Clayton Kershaw will be removed from the roster after the quarter-final game against Canada tonight. The team is also adding three relievers now that the pool play stage is over.

Here’s how Brian Cashman blocks out the noise.

Jeff Gold looks at how the WBC managers ranked in their careers as players.

José Berríos was scratched from his spring training start against the Phillies yesterday, and a recent MRI revealed inflammation in his elbow.

Like Clay Holmes, Matt Boyd is leaving the US team so he can continue preparing for the season as a starter with the Cubs.

Jayson Stark has ideas about changing the timing of the WBC and spoke to Tarik Skubal on the subject.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Allison McCague shared the second installment of one of our favorite things about spring training: the King of Spring Training competition.

Brian Salvatore previewed Marcus Semien’s 2026 season.

This Date in Mets History

Happy birthday, Johan Santana! The only pitcher in Mets history to throw a complete game no-hitter turns 47 today.

Introduction

As part of my 6 days in Jupiter, I collected lots of observations and I’ve given to breaking them down and passing them along in manageable (ie. readable) chunks. I passed along some nuggets in game recaps if they were short and relevant to pre-, in- or post-game happenings. Last week, I published an article that summarizes what I saw on the back fields in more or less a stream of consciousness format. That left a handful of items that seem to call for more detail, for which I have chosen a short-form article where I focus on a particular topic that may deserve focused attention, but not enough for a full on daily VEB post. I will have two articles up today (this one and one after the game), then two more next week to finish the series.

Short Topic of the Day

The Cardinals signed Ramon Urias to a 1 year, $2m contract after the start of camp. Feb. 21 to be exact. He made his first field appearance in a game less than a week later.

Not everyone had a clear understanding of why they brought him on board. Some questioned the reasoning behind adding to an already crowded infielder docket. Would it take PAs away from another young infielder? Others wondered if a lifetime .686 OPS represented enough thump to meet the Cardinals need to add power from the RH side. I suspected some of this would become more obvious as time rolled by and became something I tried to watch more intently while I was down there.

Initially, I took the signing as a recognition that the Cardinals were not going to find the RH hitting OFer they appeared to desire (and need). Given the lack of depth in that market, this was not a shock. My “hot take” of this move was that it was the proverbial “pivot” off the initial strategy that was not going to bear fruit. As I tried to get a better read, it appeared that there were other nuances to this signing that began to take on the aura that is often associated with a team acquiring a “glue guy”. Reminds me of why I avoid the “hot take” discussions.

One thing not to be overlooked here is that Urias spent 2 years in the Cardinals’ system (2018-2019). That is not a reason to sign a guy in and of itself, but I think it contributes to the broader picture of why they signed him. They know him and they should have a strong understanding the “fit” side of things. Given the aforementioned logjam, that might turn out to be a key consideration.

As I listened to Oli talk about what he is looking for out of this club and various aspects of it, one thing I picked up is he sees pitching as the strength of his team and sees good defense as a way to leverage and protect that strength. In that sense, Urias fits the bill on the defensive side of the ball over at third. He can pick it. He and Winn would make quite a tandem, which would be especially useful with left-handed pitching ground ball getters, of which there are a few on the cusp of MLB in this system. “Protect it”, he says (of the pitching). I get it.

I didn’t get a chance to really see Urias play second, but I suspect he won’t embarrass himself over there, either. His D is real. JJ’s transition to MLB could get choppy at times and a good glove, average hit, good fit kinda guy seems like pretty much what a manager might want to have to backstop that, too.

So, with two young and as yet unproven prospects at third and second, both left-handed hitters, Urias begins to look like pretty good fit. Enough of a good fit that it didn’t take me too much squinting to realize that he may well push both Saggese and Fermin out of the primary back-up infielder role, and he may well push for even more PT on top of that depending now Gorman and/or JJW are doing.

One thing yet to be determined before Spring Training ends is how functional Urias might be at shortstop. He hasn’t played there in several seasons. Saggese played credibly there last summer after Winn went on the IL, but beyond that it is not clear who else could back Winn up. When healthy, Winn doesn’t give up many starts, but teams must always have a Plan B. If Urias can be that it would open a path for Saggese to play every day at Memphis. If not, that would seem to make Fermin’s spot on the roster possibly more tenuous. Thus, some background about why you see those two guys getting reps out in the grass and begin to get a sense that their offensive profile and how they adapt defensively could well drive the final outcome.

As I watched, the more I liked this acquisition. We will see how it all plays out.

In an interview Thursday March 12, longtime MLB insider Bob Nightengale had some direct statements regarding his thoughts on the 2026 Houston Astros.

Thursday, longtime MLB reporter and insider Bob Nightengale joined AREA 45 on Sportsradio 610. He had a lot of thoughts on the state of the Houston Astros heading into the 2026 season.

You can listen to the full interview here:

https://www.audacy.com/stations/sportsradio610/shows/area-45-with-bijani-and-creighton-0091d/episodes/d8b6a226ec7e

Click the 10pm chapter – Bob Nightengale joins the show.

Among the highlights of what Bob had to say about the Astros:

Remember 2022? We kept waiting for the Orioles to call up Adley Rutschman, the 2019 #1 draft pick. When Mike Elias chose to bring him up, there was little time to prepare. The move was announced at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, the same day as Preakness.

Rutschman went hitless in that first game, but heated up quickly after that. In 113 games as a rookie, he had an OPS of .806, looked great behind the plate, and put up a bWAR of 5.4. He was a revelation.

Things have gone downhill since then. Rutschman had a good 2023, but it wasn’t quite as good as his rookie season. He started off well in 2024, but was terrible in the second half. It seemed logical that he was playing with an injury, though he didn’t own up to it.

If he had bounced back in 2025, 2024 could have been written off. But he did not. In fact, he had his worst year as a major leaguer with a bWAR of just 1.9. He hit .220/.307/.366 and was limited to just 90 games due to multiple trips to the IL with oblique strains.

Rutschman felt like a franchise savior in 2022, but he has gotten worse each year. And our young star isn’t so young anymore. He turned 28 years old last month and will be a free agent in just two years.

I am a hopeless Adley dreamer. I just can’t believe that his time as an impact player on the Orioles is already over. Thus, I have high hopes for his 2026 season, even if it makes me nervous to do so. Let’s check out some projections:

• ZiPS: 133 G, 559 PA, 19 HR, 62 BB, .254/.338/.441, 4.7 fWAR
• Baseball Reference: 446 PA, 13 HR, 48 BB, .232/.333/.402

ZiPS is more optimistic here and puts his performance close to his 2023 numbers, although with fewer games played. I would be very happy with that ZiPS line from Rutschman this year. It’s not a superstar year, but it’s very good year. A borderline All-Star year, depending on other factors. Sign me up, although the dreamer in me also hopes for more.

Baseball Reference paints a less friendly picture. 446 plate appearances would shake out to just over 100 games played. And while a SLG% of .402 would be either than he had in either 2024 or 2025, it would still be a disappointing number.

So what are you expecting for Adley Rutschman in 2027? Will he bounce back to be more like the player we hoped to see? Or will he continue to disappoint?

One of the most anticipated minor league debuts this season will be Zach Swanson embarking on his first pro season. The right-hander is another in the Detroit Tigers stash of prep pitchers they’ve drafted over the last three years who immediately went down with a major injury. The theory is that they can add a lot more high end pitching talent by taking multiple prep pitchers for overslot bonuses beyond the early rounds, rather than paying full price for just a few college arms each draft. That makes some sense, but it’s a long-term play and so far the risk seems to be heavily outweighing the potential rewards. It will take a few more years to really know, but we’ll be curious to see if the draft strategy starts to tip back toward JUCO and college junior pitchers this year.

Is this the new market inefficiency? Get the big injury out of the way early and go from there? No, no it is not, but the point of taking risky prep pitchers is the chance of hitting a home run because of their upside, and Swanson, like all of them, has a lot of upside. The Tigers are going to need this to pay off over the next few years with a couple of them developing into starters and relievers. For Swanson, that process should begin this season, hopefully by June.

Swanson was taken in the ninth round of the 2024 draft, but the Tigers paid him roughly late third round money, $722,500 to forgo his commitment to Oregon State. The Washington state, Toutle HS, grad is yet another pitcher taken out of the Pacific northwest over the past few years, as the Tigers scout that area heavily.

The 6’3” right-hander was pretty well known on the national senior circuit, but had an inconsistent final year of high school ball. At his best, he showcased big-time stuff with the potential to develop into a very good power pitcher. His delivery was still fairly raw, but Swanson was a reasonably good basketball player as well, and the Tigers like that well rounded athleticism as a predictor of the ability to make mechanical adjustments and develop good balance and a repeatable delivery.

Swanson was up to 95-96 mph as a senior, though more typically sitting 92-94 mph. He has high spin rates on his fourseam fastball, and can spin the slider up to 2800 rpms, which is borderline elite. It’s a two plane, frisbee style slider in the low to mid 80’s, sometimes looking more sweeperish, and at other times snapped off for more bat missing depth. Swanson wasn’t always getting consistent break on it in high school but with consistently it looks like a future plus breaking ball. He has a decent curveball and changeup combination as well, but on draft day they were both somewhat crude by comparison.

The Tigers will presumably be working with Swanson on raising his arm angle, improving his stride, and learning to block himself better with his lead leg. In high school he had a fairly simple delivery without a ton of push off the rubber. As a result he tended to fly open with some excessive head whack, while his arm angle dropped into a low three-quarters position through release. That delivery required a lot of upper body effort to throw hard, and comes with a tendency to sail pitches to his armside. That’s not ideal for efficient velocity and command, and it doesn’t help him use his ability to spin the baseball that well, so adjustments will be required.

In high school, he looked a little bit like long-time farmhand and former Tigers pitcher, Alex Faedo. Despite being a top college starter and a first round pick, Faedo needed a lot of work to use his lower half more effectively and improve his fastball shape with a higher arm slot in the minor leagues. Fortunately, Swanson projects to be a better athlete on the mound, with more velocity projection and a similar quality slider to Faedo. There’s certainly plenty of relief risk in the fact that Swanson has two strong offerings and needs to develop a third pitch, but he’s got a long road ahead just to develop his command. They can worry about his future role later.

Swanson worked in camp after the 2024 draft, so the Tigers did have an opportunity to start coaching him up before his UCL tear in the buildup to the 2025 season. He went on the full season minor league injured list in mid-March last year, but the surgery seems to have occurred before spring camp opened, so hopefully by May or June we’ll see him out in the Complex League, or even in Lakeland if he’s made some nice strides during the rehab process.

We haven’t seen Swanson on a mound since the spring of 2024. At the time he was a hard throwing right-hander with a nasty slider at his best, who generally threw strikes, and who has a lot of physical projection ahead. With nearly two years elapsed, and likely a full two years between his final high school start and his pro debut sometime later this spring, a lot may have changed. At a minimum, we’d like to see Swanson built up physically during the rehab process. There’s a lot of work that can be accomplished without throwing, and we’ll be looking for strength gains and better use of his legs to power his delivery when he returns to action. Without some advancement in that regard, and with a lot of time lost to injury, Swanson’s projections will turn to more of a control over command relief project than the power starting pitcher the Tigers were looking for when they drafted him.

Of course, pitching is a bulk business. The Tigers have paid well overslot bonuses to roughly a dozen prep pitchers in three drafts under Scott Harris. They’ve stockpiled a lot of talented young arms and so far have struggled to keep them healthy and developing. Meanwhile, they’ve done a lot better to date hunting undervalued college and JUCO pitchers. Troy Melton, Jaden Hamm, Jake Miller, and Andrew Sears have all moved quickly into the upper minors, with Melton already having some success, while Hamm’s rough 2025 sinking his stock somewhat for now. It will be interesting to see if the Tigers are encouraged to alter their draft strategy somewhat, while still expecting that some of this youth group will put the injuries behind them and start making progress.

Right now we’re still working with little more information on Swanson than we had on draft day. Anyone can lose a year to injury, so we’ll hold the line here. However, further setbacks will push his grades and projection down, and we really need to see at least some of the expected physical development this year. For now, there’s nothing to do but wait for Swanson’s pro debut and see what has changed and what hasn’t in the interim. Hopefully we see a stronger, more refined young pitcher on the mound, ready to start the work of developing his command and a third pitch to round out his arsenal. The potential in his fastball and slider are really intriguing. Now he needs to start making up for lost time.

Good morning, baseball fans!

Per reporting from John Shea of The San Francisco Standard, the San Francisco Giants will get the honor of hosting Netflix’s first baseball broadcast this season on Opening Day.

Now, I’m not the best person to write on this. I have been crusading against the streaming wars taking over baseball one app at a time for several years now. However, I will say that this broadcast, specifically, should be a cool one. Even if it’s probably only happening because they will be playing the New York Yankees for their opening series (and it’s one of the only games being played on March 25th).

Netflix is planning to take to the cove, McCovey Cove that is, where they are set to have 73 branded red kayaks to represent the number of home runs that Barry Bonds hit to break the MLB record back in 2001. It sounds like these will be available for fans to use, with McCovey Cove Dave (Dave Edlund) assisting Netflix in recruitment efforts.

Per Shea’s reporting, Netflix is hoping to involve Bonds in the broadcast in some capacity as well. We’ll get you more information on the game as it gets closer.

Every MLB season gives us something new, but 2026’s changes will be quite drastic. The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will take center stage this year, as pitchers, catchers, and hitters will all have the ability to double-check whether or not a called strike was actually a strike. I’m a big fan of the challenge system over pure roboumps, in large part because it introduces a new tactic: who gets to challenge, how frequently does a team challenge, and how good are you at it?

In short, a team’s approach to ABS will fall somewhere inside this matrix:

For our definitions, we’ll use liberal and conservative to describe how many players on a given team are allowed to challenge at all. Some of the early returns in spring training have indicated that pitchers, because they’re naturally falling away from the plate, have poor angles of view and shouldn’t be allowed to challenge. Some hitters have excellent command of the strike zone and others are free swingers; Juan Soto should be allowed to ask for reviews on close pitches, but I’m not sure Javy Baez should.

How readily you challenge falls on that x-axis, rarely or frequently. Every team has a limited number of challenges, but some — or indeed even some individuals — will no doubt choose to keep a challenge in reserve for a hypothetical scenario later in the game. I’m not a fan of this personally. Yes, you may want to have a review in your pocket for a 50/50 call in the ninth inning when you’re down by a run, but if an overturned strike gives you a 3-1 count in the 5th and you break the frame open with a big hit, you never run into that close ninth inning. There’s no way of telling when the Big At Bat is in a game, so don’t let a possible moment go by and end the game with a challenge to give.

And then of course there’s the thing that matters most, our inclined axis, are you good at challenging? Your approach to the two above axes probably derives from where you are here. If your team consistently wins more challenges than it loses, you should probably allow more hitters and catchers to call for review, and you should probably be more ready to use those reviews earlier in the game. If your team consistently gets these reviews wrong, the opposite will happen — pare down who is allowed to challenge, and keep one in your pocket.

I think for April most teams will be pretty high on our x and y axis, to determine where on our inclined axis they fall. For the Yankees in particular, I expect them for most of the season to be pretty liberal in who is allowed to challenge, but in the midpoint in how readily they do it. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman are far from the most aggressive people running MLB teams, and whether you like it or not the Yankee teams they’ve constructed have always had multiple redundancies — Paul Goldschmidt back again just in case Ben Rice can’t hit lefties, things like that. That kind of behavior indicates to me that they’ll prefer to keep a challenge in hand in case of that big ninth inning moment, even if just about anyone 1-through-9 will be allowed to use one review earlier in the game.

Since the last round of changes to the replay review system in 2015, Aaron Boone has been the fifth-most-successful manager, with just over 60 percent of his challenges being won, and he’s had far more games under his belt than anyone else in the top 10 except Alex Cora. Now this isn’t really credit to Boone himself but rather the group the Yankees have assembled that advise the manager on whether to challenge or not, but it should give us confidence that the ABS review will be a strength for the club in 2026. There’s also the small factor of them rostering the player who has had more incorrect strikes called against him than any other player since he debuted, and I’m holding out hope for a .600 OBP season from a challenge-enabled Aaron Judge.