Worldwide Sports News

The first big question to be answered in every spring training is this: Who got hurt before reporting to camp? Mike Elias’s first media availability with local reporters answered the question on Wednesday morning. It’s not a great report this year. The big news is that Jackson Holliday suffered a broken hamate bone while taking live batting practice on February 6. Additionally, Jordan Westburg has been dealing with some oblique soreness for about three weeks, although for the time being Elias claims Westburg will be ready for Opening Day.

The February 5 acquisition of Blaze Alexander from the Diamondbacks has a bit more of a clear rationale now that we know Westburg has the oblique issue. The team needed to firm up its infield depth if there was any kind of question mark for any of its key players.

This need for depth only became more apparent the very next day with Holliday’s broken hamate bone. According to Elias, Holliday will be having surgery that will remove the hamate tomorrow. If Holliday is able to recover on a typical timeline, it might be Opening Day before he’s even ready to resume baseball activities, and then he’ll need to start building up like he would have done in spring training from that point.

Hamate injuries are notorious for continuing to sap power for some time even after the player is able to play, so we can probably already rule out a big power breakout for Holliday in 2026. He’ll likely be back off the IL at some point in May, even if the full strength doesn’t come back right away. Alexander is going to get a good chance to get some playing time early in the season.

One piece of good news from Elias’s conference is that there were no major pitching injuries. If anything, this news turned out better than expected, as Elias said that Zach Eflin is a full go to start out in spring training. I had been assuming he might be a few weeks behind in his routine after last year’s back surgery. With apologies to Colin Selby, the fact that he has shoulder inflammation and will be hitting the injured list is not a major shakeup to anyone’s imagined Orioles roster. This does still create a roster opening, since Selby was in the projected bullpen especially after Kade Strowd was included in that Arizona trade. It’s not immediately clear who will fill that spot.

Elias also addressed the topic of pitchers who could have gone either way as a starting pitcher or a reliever. For camp, Tyler Wells will be preparing with a starting pitcher’s workload. Chayce McDermott is headed for the bullpen. Neither of these are too surprising, so it’s more notable that they’ve been confirmed by Elias.

Wells doesn’t have a clear path to the Opening Day rotation in my eyes unless someone ahead of him gets hurt. I think he’s the #6 guy around, so the team does need him to be ready for that workload if it becomes necessary due to anything that happens with another player in camp. I’m not going to pretend that I think McDermott might be anything or that it would be a good news if we ever see him on the big league roster for any length of time.

The next step is to get everybody through spring training with as few injuries as possible. The offseason injury report was pretty good in spring training last year and the Orioles still ended up with a whole bunch of problems by the time Opening Day rolled around and afterwards.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting, and so are public projection systems. Baseball Prospectus has released their 2026 projections from PECOTA, with a glowing 93.6-win aggregated projection for the Seattle Mariners that is the best in the American League by a sizable margin. Not only is Seattle projected to repeat as AL West champions, but they hold the highest playoff odds and World Series odds of any club in the AL, and are second in all totals only to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It’s a ringing endorsement for Seattle, who boast an above-average lineup and pitching staff, bolstered significantly by their willingness to add Brendan Donovan to the fold. Between Donovan, 5-win projections for both Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, and each of Seattle’s five presumed rotation members projecting from average to All-Star caliber, PECOTA tells us plenty we know already. What is helpful however, is how these M’s contrast to the rest of the league.

The AL West features three genuine contenders, with both Lone Star State clubs checking in as near-coin flips for a playoff spot. They remain a tier below Seattle, however, with Houston around an 86 win pace and Texas at 84. Striking distance, to be sure, but set in such a way to be Seattle’s to lose. Only the Cubs above their thrifty compatriots and the Dodgers above their mortal competitors feature a greater gap between the 1st and 2nd place clubs in their divisions in terms of projected wins as the AL West.

The crowded AL East is its own worst enemy, with all five clubs set at a >.500 pace, albeit more comfortably for the Yankees and Blue Jays than their compatriots. There’s plucky promise from the Kansas City Royals in PECOTA’s eyes as well, with the AL Central continuing to remain the second division of the sport’s highest level.

On the heels of a near dead heat projection by ZiPS in late January, prior to Seattle’s acquisition of Donovan, Seattle has now a formidable expectation of superiority from the major public projections, with FanGraphs presently showing Seattle around an 87-88 win club that’s 6-7 wins ahead of their Texan competition. On the day of triumphant celebration in downtown Seattle for one SoDo club, there’s reason to think more high-level play impends on the corner of Occidental.

Good morning everyone and happy Mariners Pitchers and Catchers Report Day! We should get a healthy dose of news today for the M’s — hopefully all of it good news — as we learn what everyone has been up to over the winter.

Let’s check in on the rest of the league, where some camps have already gotten underway.

In Mariners news…

• The Mariners have agreed to minor league deals with outfielder Connor Joe and left-hander Jhonathan Díaz.

Around the league…

• The 42-year-old Justin Verlander is headed back to Detroit for the first time since 2017, signing a one-year, $13M deal with the Tigers.
• The Braves agreed to a one-year, $1.5M deal with former Rangers backstop Jonah Heim.
• The A’s inked righty starter Aaron Civale too a one-year, $6M contract. He is expected to slot in as their No.3 starter.
• The Rockies signed 36-year-old Japanese righty Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $5.1M contract — a wild fit considering Sugano led the American League in homers surrendered in 2025.
• The Blue Jays got brutal news on the injury front to start spring training: slugger Anthony Santander will miss 5-6 months while he recovers from shoulder surgery; right-hander Shane Bieber will begin the season on the injured list; and righty Bowden Francis will miss the season to get Tommy John surgery.
• Tigers right-hander Reese Olson will miss the entire 2026 campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery.
• Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor may require surgery to repair a broken hamate bone. Even if he undergoes the procedure, he’s expected to be ready for Opening Day.
• Baseball Prospectus unveiled its 2026 PECOTA projections, which give the Mariners the second-most projected wins of any team in the sport.
• Jorge Castillo at ESPN told the behind-the-scenes story of how Team USA managed to woo both Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal.

12. Gabriel Hughes (340 points, 18 ballots)

Hughes is now over two years removed from a Tommy John surgery that cut a promising first full professional season short for Colorado’s first pick in 2022 (10th overall with an under-slot $4 million bonus). The 24-year-old 6’4” right-hander was ranked more as a late-first rounder than a top-10 pick by national prospect watchers at the time, but the Rockies obviously liked the starter’s frame, feel for pitching and the three-pitch mix. The former two-way player has a fastball that sits in the low-mid 90s and a bulldog mentality that has been compared to Max Scherzer (you can see some of that in the video below).

Hughes pitched well in High-A in his first full professional season in 2023. He threw 37 2⁄3 innings across eight starts with a 5.50 ERA (3.48 xFIP), 1.20 WHIP, 12.9 K/9 rate, and 3.6 BB/9 rate. The xFIP and high K/9 rate indicate better stuff than the raw results delivered, and the Rockies agreed by promoting Hughes to Double-A Hartford in early June. Hughes was 3.4 years younger than league average, but he mostly held his own, even if the ERA didn’t bear that out. In 29 innings over six starts, Hughes had a 7.14 ERA but a 4.06 xFIP with a 1.55 WHIP, 9.0 K/9 rate, and 3.4 BB/9 rate for Hartford. It was a good first full professional season for Hughes, but unfortunately it ended due to the injury that necessitated Tommy John surgery in July.

Hughes rehabbed the injury throughout the 2024 season but was able to make Colorado’s Arizona Fall League roster. He started six games, throwing 17 ¹⁄₃ innings with a 8.31 ERA, 1.73 WHIP, 7.3 K/9 rate, and 5.2 BB/9 rate. The numbers weren’t impressive, but scouts at the AFL reported his stuff had largely returned post-surgery and he was working on developing his breaking balls.

In 2025, Hughes returned to Hartford, where he was still 1.7 years younger than average. In nine starts there, Hughes got good results in short bursts (he was limited to five innings per start), throwing 41 innings with a 3.07 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 7.7 K/9 rate, and 1.8 BB/9 rate — earning him a late May promotion to Triple-A Albuquerque.

In the tough Pacific Coast League, Hughes faced an uphill climb. In 14 starts there, Hughes (as expected) posted worse run prevention numbers across the board (5.11 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 7.0 K/9 rate, 4.2 BB/9 rate) in 61 2/3 innings. These starts were interrupted by a month-long IL stint between mid June and late July (and a brief rehab start in the ACL). After returning, Hughes ramped up his pitch count (the highest was 96) and pitched into the sixth inning in three straight starts.

Though Hughes didn’t blow upper minors hitting away in 2025 or go super deep into games, his blended 4.19 ERA in 105 1/3 innings in 24 starts was an encouraging sign in his first full season post-Tommy John. It was enough for the Rockies to add Hughes to the 40 man roster this offseason.

Here’s some video on Hughes from 2024 instructs and the AFL courtesy of FanGraphs:

In the report accompanying the above video, Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs grades Hughes as a 40 FV player (down from 45 preseason), 18th in the system with a 55 future grade on the changeup and a 50 future grade on command and slider:

Hughes attacks with a 93-94 mph fastball that often has a little bit of natural cut. His breaking stuff has plateaued; his 85-88 mph slider/cutter is average and lives off of his command, while his 79-82 mph curveball is well below average. Toss out Hughes’ surface-level AFL stats because he was clearly working on this curveball a ton during that stretch. His changeup, a tailing upper-80s offering, is getting better and might be his best pitch at peak. It often has enough tail to run off the front hip of lefty batters and back into the zone. Hughes’ prototypical size, athleticism, and arm action augur more changeup growth, as well as strikes and efficient innings. Hughes won’t be dominant, and I’m perhaps not appreciating how homer prone he’ll be sitting 93 in Colorado, but he should work efficiently and eat innings enough to be a team’s no. 4/5 starter during the regular season.

Keith Law of the Athletic recently listed Hughes 18th in the system:

Hughes’ stuff is down from pre-surgery, as he was sitting 90-92 in Triple A last year with fringe-average breaking stuff, bearing in mind that Albuquerque is about a mile high (with help from Walter White) and that may be contributing to Hughes’ problems. It was Hughes’ first year back post-surgery, so I want to believe the stuff will tick up with another year; as is, he’s a reliever, and probably would be better off in the majors than going back to pitch on the surface of a small Jovian moon again.

MLB Pipeline ranks Hughes 14th on the system list last year as a 45 FV player with a 55 slider grade to pair with 50 grades on the fastball, curveball, and control:

Hughes was able to use his 17 1/3 innings in the AFL to shake some of the rust off and the good news is that his stuff looked pretty much back to where it was pre-injury. His fastball averaged 93 mph and touched 96, thrown with good sink to frequently get ground-ball contact. His cutter-like slider was regularly in the mid 80s, a hard breaker that flashed plus in the past, and he has some feel to spin a slower 80-82 mph curve, though it’s behind the harder breaking ball. His upper-80s changeup is starting to improve as well.

Throw out Hughes’ surface numbers in the AFL given they came from his first post-surgery innings. He generally was around the zone previously, though his up-tempo delivery could get out of sync and cause timing issues, which in turn would lead to control problems. His ceiling might be somewhat limited, but once he really puts TJ behind him, he could be a big league back-end starter soon.

John Trupin of Baseball Prospectus ranked Hughes 15th last January:

At his healthiest, Hughes has looked like an efficient, mid-rotation workhorse, befitting his 10th overall selection in the 2022 draft. That’s meant low to mid-90s fastballs and a medley of off-speed that all plays up thanks to plus command. That all evaporated in mid-2023, as Hughes saw his velocity and stuff fall off, a sure sign of concerns that led ultimately to the surgeon’s table. Out recovering and rehabbing all of 2024, Hughes can hopefully return to the mound in full in 2025. He’ll have plenty of company in the rehabbing circuit, with several of the most promising arms in the system making their way back from TJ alongside him. His physicality and athleticism is encouraging in spite of the surgery, as the 6-foot-4 righty has the frame to flesh out a more durable existence.

Hughes is a starting pitcher prospect with pedigree and polish, though he probably won’t be a star, which is why I ranked him as a 40 FV player, 18th on my list. His 2025 Hartford performance and late-season run in Albuquerque was encouraging given how he’s working to fully trust his stuff post-surgery. As a 40-man roster spot holder, Hughes will be a candidate for the Rockies’ rotation this spring, though I expect him to be an up-and-down contributor to the team in 2026.

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Spring training always brings a mix of optimism, overreactions, and genuine roster dilemmas, especially when young players are pushing for jobs, and the front office has real decisions to make at the margins. So let’s turn it over to you. If you were setting the roster for Opening Day, who makes your 26 and why?

Lock in your lineup, rotation, bullpen, and bench, and defend your choices before reality inevitably ruins all of our carefully constructed plans.

Here’s who’s in camp:

*-denotes non-roster invitee

Catchers (10): Jorge Alfaro*, Canyon Brown*, Omar Hernandez*, Carter Jensen, Luke Maile*, Elih Marrero*, Blake Mitchell*, Salvador Pérez, Ramon Ramirez*, Luca Tresh*

Infielders (13): Brandon Drury*, Maikel Garcia, Jonathan India, Connor Kaiser*, Michael Massey, Kevin Newman*, Vinnie Pasquantino, Josh Rojas*, Tyler Tolbert, Abraham Toro*, Daniel Vazquez*, Peyton Wilson*, Bobby Witt Jr.

Outfielders (11): Dairon Blanco, Jac Caglianone, Gavin Cross*, Isaac Collins, Kyle Isbel, Nick Loftin, Kameron Misner, John Rave, Carson Roccaforte*, Lane Thomas, Drew Waters

Pitchers (33): Luinder Avila, Ryan Bergert, Mason Black, Kris Bubic, Noah Cameron, A.J. Causey*, Eric Cerantola, Dennis Colleran*, Steven Cruz, Jose Cuas*, Lucas Erceg, Carlos Estévez, Bailey Falter, Stephen Kolek, Ben Kudrna, Alex Lange, Seth Lugo, Daniel Lynch IV, Alec Marsh, Chazz Martinez*, James McArthur, Nick Mears, Frank Mozzicato*, Héctor Neris*, Helcris Olivárez*, Shane Panzini*, Hunter Patteson*, Cole Ragans, Aaron Sanchez*, John Schreiber, Matt Strahm, Michael Wacha, Steven Zobac

Marsh is likely to miss most of the year with a shoulder injury. Among the players out of options are Bailey Falter, Nick Mears, and Drew Waters.

Give me your 26 players that begin the season in Atlanta on March 27!

Good morning fellow A’s fans.

Pitchers and catchers report today to officially kick off camp! They’ll get a few days of work in before the team’s first scheduled full-squad workout on Monday.

This time of year is always exciting for baseball fans, and this spring marks the first chance to see whether the A’s young squad can build on the momentum from its strong finish to last season.

Unlike the past couple of years, the A’s lineup is mostly set and full of returning contributors. A year ago, Nick Kurtz was a top prospect taking part in his first professional camp. Now, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year is one of the top first basemen in baseball and a key cog of an offense that expects to score often this season.

For two hitters, this will be their first time in an A’s uniform. The club acquired Jeff McNeil and Andy Ibanez to further strengthen the offense, with McNeil in particular representing a clear upgrade from the roving cast of second basemen the A’s employed last year.

With Denzel Clarke likely to man center field assuming he comes through the World Baseball Classic and camp healthy, that leaves third base as the team’s lone position battle. Ibanez could start at the hot corner or slide into a utility role if Max Muncy or Darrell Hernaiz comes out on top. Muncy, the A’s first-round pick in 2021, showed some promise in his rookie season and may have the highest ceiling of the group.

The team’s ability to return to playoff contention will largely depend on the performance of its pitching staff. Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs and free-agent signee Aaron Civale are locked into rotation spots. It would be hard to justify not rewarding Luis Morales and Jacob Lopez with the final two slots given how well both pitched last season.

The bullpen figures to look similar to how it did at the end of last year, with the addition of new signee Scott Barlow and potentially one of the young arms such as Jack Perkins or Luis Medina. That said, the A’s could still use another late-inning option. Left-hander Danny Coulombe would be a quality addition, as would right-hander Michael Kopech.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing this spring? Would you rather the A’s stick with the current roster or make another move to fortify the pitching staff? Will elite shortstop prospect Leo De Vries live up to the hype in his first spring training with the A’s?

A’s Coverage

• A’s Sign Starter Aaron Civale
• Athletics add developmental leaguer in trade with Yankees
• Athletics Community Prospect List: Taylor Rounds Out Top 10
• Little Signings Everywhere
• A’s Claim Andy Ibanez, Add Scott Barlow In Busy Roster Shuffle
• Athletics Sign Jacob Wilson to Extension
• Athletics Community Prospect List: Echavarria Takes #9 Spot
• Extensions For Everyone! (Except Kurtz)
• Wilson extension signals shift for A’s ahead of Vegas move
• Managers & Top Front Office Executives On Expiring Contracts
• De Vries (No. 4 overall) leads Athletics trio on Top 100 Prospects list
• A’s Spring Training Report Date, and everything you need to know
• After monster stats as rookie, Nick Kurtz has a new number in mind: 162
• A’s 2026 Roster Prediction

MLB News and Interest:

• Justin Verlander Signs with the Detroit Tigers
• Pirates to sign Marcell Ozuna
• Francisco Lindor injured his hamate bone
• Red Sox acquire Caleb Durbin in six-player trade
• Phillies Looking to move Nick Castellanos this week
• Angels to sign Hunter Strickland to Minor League Deal
• Mets sign outfielder MJ Melendez to 1-year contract
• Pirates, Red Sox among teams interested in Isaac Paredes
• Former speedster Terrance Gore passes away at 34
• Examining Jordan Hicks’ future with the White Sox
• Yasiel Puig found guilty in gambling probe
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

The A’s need Severino to pitch a bit better this year. Can he live up to expectations?

In June, the A’s will play the Brewers and Rockies at their Triple-A affiliate’s ballpark, part of the team’s ongoing push into Las Vegas ahead of their new stadium.

What do you think of the team’s decision to designate Grant Holman and Mitch Spence for assignment? Was it the right call or not?

When the Mets inked Adbert Alzolay to a two-year minor league deal ahead of the 2025 season, it was always with an eye toward the 2026 season. The right-handed reliever had undergone Tommy John surgery late in the 2024 season, and while pitchers sometimes return within a year, the Mets didn’t have him pitch in any minor league games last year.

Alzolay did, however, pitch four innings in the Venezuelan Winter League after the conclusion of the 2025 season, and he’s coming into spring training as a fully healthy pitcher. And given the fact that he’s out of options, he figures to have a leg up on some of his competition in spring training.

Having made the Baseball Prospectus 101 ahead of the 2018 season, Alzolay made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2019. He made a handful appearances that year and a few more in the abbreviated 2020 season before making 29 appearances, 21 of them starts, in 2021. In total, he had a 4.58 ERA and a 4.68 FIP through his first 159.1 innings at the major league level.

A right lat injury derailed the vast majority of Alzolay’s 2022 season, but when he made it back to the mound in September, the Cubs used him as a multi-inning reliever. His 2023 season was undoubtedly the best of his career thus far, as he was healthy and finished the year with a 2.67 ERA and a 3.02 FIP in 64.0 innings of work.

Things didn’t go smoothly in 2024, though. Alzolay struggled mightily through 17.1 innings to start the year, and by mid-May, he had made his final major league appearance of the season because of the elbow injury. And he made just three minor league appearances on a rehab assignment in July of that year before ultimately requiring the aforementioned Tommy John surgery that August.

The hope here is that Alzolay can return to his 2023 form, as that’s the only season for which he was both healthy and working exclusively as a reliever. His strikeout rate was solid if unspectacular, but his walk rate was fantastic at just 5.1 percent. For reference, the major league average for relievers that year was 9.5 percent.

While the Mets didn’t retain Brooks Raley for the entirety of his rehab from Tommy John surgery, they did sign him to a one-year deal with a team option as he was in the final stages of that recovery process. They’ll be thrilled if Alzolay returns to form anywhere near as well as Raley did last year, and if he looks anywhere near that good by the end of the Grapefruit League schedule, you have to figure he’ll be on the Mets’ roster come Opening Day.

As for projections, all of the systems published at FanGraphs have Alzolay throwing forty-something innings this year with an ERA in the vicinity of four. Even that would be a success given what’s happened over the past two years, but a higher-percentile outcome would be a big win for the Mets.

What do you expect to see from Alzolay this year? Jump into the comments to chat about it, or register for an account if you’re new to the comment section!

I’ll have a more detailed look into the other four teams in the NL Central coming up soon.

But today, I simply want you to give your gut feelings about the Brewers, Reds, Pirates and Cardinals. How will the division wind up this year?

We can get an idea of how these teams line up from the first 2026 PECOTA standings, which were released Tuesday.

PECOTA has the Cubs at about a 90-72 record, which is pretty close to the 92-70 from 2025. (Personally, I think they’re better than that.)

The Brewers are next at approximately 80-82. PECOTA has underestimated the Brewers many times in recent years. Personally, I think the Brewers are better than that, though they have traded away a couple of key players (Freddy Peralta, Caleb Durbin) from last year’s 97-win team.

The Pirates, who have made some noise through free-agent signings (Marcell Ozuna, Ryan O’Hearn), are listed next at 79-83. That might be a bit too optimistic, in my view.

The Reds made the postseason last year with an 83-79 record and proceeded to get swept by the Dodgers in the wild-card round. PECOTA also has them at about 79-83. The Reds should be better than that. That pitching rotation can be scary.

The Cardinals are in full rebuild mode after trading away Sonny Gray, Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras. PECOTA has them as a 96-loss team. The Cardinals haven’t lost that many games since 1913 (!), when they lost 99. This could be a 100-loss Cardinals team.

Where do you see these teams finishing this year?

We need to start this article with an acknowledgement: Any list or stack ranking posted on social media is intended to generate engagement. Well, congratulations Major League Baseball, I have become engaged. On Monday night, MLB Network continued their coverage of the Top 10 Right Now, ranking various position groups. Someone—or perhaps something—called The Shredder presented this Top 10 First Basemen list:

1. Freddie Freeman
2. Nick Kurtz
3. Matt Olson
4. Bryce Harper
5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
6. Rafael Devers
7. Yandy Díaz
8. Pete Alonso
9. Michael Busch
10. William Contreras

According to MLB itself, The Shredder is not the leader of the Foot Clan, but is in fact “MLB Network research team’s collective system of research and analysis that uses traditional and advanced metrics and takes into account previous player performance to determine who makes the lists.” The more you know.

Anyway, all of these players are fine, representative MLBers. There’s a name here that’s missing though, a name that was the sixth-best hitting first baseman in baseball last year even as his own team continued to give time to Paul Goldschmidt. That player is Ben Rice, and when I saw what The Shredder had presented, my first thought was “How many of these guys would I rather have Rice over?”

When thinking about this I’m not worried about contracts or salaries — the fact that Rice is making the MLB minimum immediately makes him one of the top three most “valuable” first basemen, alongside Nick Kurtz and Michael Busch. Let’s just talk about who I think would provide the most on-field production in 2026, whether that costs $780,000 or $25,000,000. To wit, give me Rice instead of Bryce Harper, Rafael Devers, Yandy Díaz, and Willson Contreras.

To start, Díaz isn’t really the Rays’ first baseman, with All-Star Jonathan Aranda expected to get the lion’s share of time at the cold corner while Yandy is deployed as the primary DH. Moreover, he, Harper, and Rice were all pretty well equal in 2025, in a tight band between 130-135 wRC+ and 25-27 home runs. Rice gets the edge because he’ll be 27 on Opening Day, and while that’s older than you’d expect for a guy about to start his second full season, it’s six and seven years younger than Harper and Díaz respectively. Father Time is the only undefeated champion, and we’ll return to him in a moment.

Devers is a little trickier simply because for the better part of the last decade, he’s been one of the finest pure hitters in baseball … except he went from Fenway Park to Oracle out in San Francisco. He actually did OK for himself in the power department — famously a challenge for left-handed hitters in that stadium — going yard every 19.75 PA as a Giant compared to every 22.27 PA while with the Red Sox. Overall though, he saw steps back in ISO and all three triple slash categories, and how much of that is a “new team” tax and how much is moving from the second-best ballpark for hitters to the 22nd best is part of the story of the 2026 season. I’m going to hedge to the latter though, not to mention San Fran has to be more than a little worried about first base defense. Edge to Rice in my book, long track record be damned.

Ben Rice was better than Willson Contreras in 2025 at everything but two points of batting average. Contreras is moving into Fenway which should help him out especially as a right-handed hitter, but his Statcast page, were it a rash, would demand a soothing oatmeal ointment and not an immediate course of antibiotics like in Rice’s case.

So those are the four guys I would slot below Ben Rice. I’m willing to concede that Nick Kurtz is probably a better hitter — in fact, I’m not that far from being convinced Nick Kurtz is like, one of the five or so best hitters in baseball, period. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seems to be a more complicated case, as his production was very similar to Rice’s in 2025, he plays a little more of a leadership role than the young Yankee, and occupies more space in the cultural weight of their respective franchises. I’d lean towards a wash but sure, we can slot Vlad over top. Pete Alonso’s raw power probably makes him a better bet in ‘26, but beyond that I’d be betting Rice all day. Still, we’re just thinking about this coming year.

We come to a couple of pushes — Michael Busch and Matt Olson. Busch was the best hitter of the three but not by much, and Rice’s underlying metrics are the most impressive of the trio but again, not by much. Olson gets the nod as the best defender, buttttttttt I generally don’t care about first base defense. We have a three-way tie for my 2026 expectations here.

That leaves the head of the table, Freddie Freeman. For most of my adult life he’s been the gold standard of play at first base, and while 2025 was a step back from his own lofty track record, it was still a 139 wRC+ and a four-win season. Here’s where we move beyond educated guesses about performance and into straight speculation, where I’ll say that the future Hall of Famer is my breakdown pick of the year, the opposite of the ever-so-popular breakout pick. He will turn 37 midseason, has dropped out of the World Baseball Classic for personal reasons, and while he does have a 138 wRC+ over his past two seasons, it was 153 in the five before that stretch. I don’t think he outright collapses, but Father Time is winning on the judges’ cards.

So I’m confident that Rice is a better pick than four of the so-called Shredder’s top 10, maybe five depending on Freeman’s aging curve. The Yankees drafted a guy in the 12th round out of a school more proficient at churning out diplomats than sluggers, and you have a very good argument he’s one of the four or five best in the world at his position. Not a bad piece of business.

The day has finally arrived. Washington Nationals pitchers and catchers are officially reporting to camp today. After a long winter, the baseball season is finally here. While the weather is still chilly in DC, the first sign of spring is here. The expectations for this team are not very high, but it is still exciting to see the Nats back in action.

This is one of the best days on the baseball calendar. I can’t help but feel so alive when I hear the crack of the bat or the pop of the catchers mitt. This Spring Training is going to be different for the Nats. It is the first camp without Davey Martinez and Mike Rizzo running the show for a long time. Instead, we have the youthful duo of Paul Toboni and Blake Butera.

Pitchers and catchers are the only ones who officially report today. However, there are plenty of early arrivals to Nats camp. The Nats social media pages put out plenty of content yesterday, and a lot of players were already in West Palm Beach. Brady House, Luis Garcia Jr., Dylan Crews and more were spotted in West Palm yesterday.

This does not surprise me one bit. The Nationals are a young roster and these players have a lot to prove. They are also going to want to impress their new bosses. Paul Toboni is not as directly tied to these players as Mike Rizzo was, which makes them more disposable. Toboni was not the person who drafted or signed most of these players. That means these players will want to make a strong first impression.

For guys like Garcia, House and Crews, 2026 will be a major year for their careers. All of them had disappointing 2025 seasons, at least at the MLB level. Garcia is looking to bounce back, while House and Crews are looking to establish themselves. The new bosses seem very open to competition, and these guys want to prove themselves.

Speaking of the new bosses, both Toboni and Butera did a press conference before setting sail for West Palm Beach. There was nothing overly newsworthy in it, but both men talked about what they wanted to see this spring, as well as their philosophies. I also got to ask a question to Butera, which was fun.

Speaking of those philosophies, they will be meaningfully different from the last regime. There is going to be more of a focus on analytics and using technology. For the first time, the Nats will have a Trajekt Arc machine at their Spring Training facility. I am sure that is not the only new piece of technology we see.

It will be  interesting to see what kind of changes these players make based on the new data. I would not be surprised if a bunch of Nationals pitchers add new pitches or tweak their arsenals. A potential big storyline this spring will be Nats pitchers throwing fewer fastballs.

The Red Sox have been leading the way on cutting fastball usage, and that is where Toboni comes from. A lot of Nats pitchers were throwing mediocre fastballs too much. That should change in 2026, and we will see the first signs of that this spring.

It is so exciting to see baseball back. The clips the Nats media team puts out of the boys in action will just warm my heart. Sure, the team may not be good, but a bad baseball team is better than no baseball team. There are also going to be plenty of great storylines to follow in the drama that is the baseball season. Buckle up, because the boys are back in town.