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Kuyashii.

There isn’t an English equivalent to this Japanese word, which covers a wide range of emotions related to frustration.

You can feel kuyashii because you failed. Or because you gave your best and it wasn’t enough. Or because you didn’t give your best. Or because you were upset by what someone said. Or because you were humiliated.

Whatever the source of the anguish, ultimately you feel kuyashii because you can’t accept what happened.

In a television special by NHK that was aired in Japan last month, Shohei Ohtani reflected on his pitching performance against the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series.

Only four days removed from his previous start, Ohtani looked gassed. He barely escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. In the third, disaster struck, as he served up a three-run home run to Bo Bichette. The Dodgers were down, 3-0. With only one out in the inning, Ohtani was replaced by Justin Wrobleski.

Slipping into the past tense, Ohtani said to NHK of the home run by Bichette: “Kuyashikatta.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sensed what Ohtani was feeling when he removed the ball from his hand on the Rogers Centre mound.

“There was a lot of frustration,” Roberts said, “maybe some anger.”

Reaching greater heights

Before leaving his home country in late 2017, Ohtani staged a news conference in Tokyo. There, he clearly articulated his goal for his upcoming MLB adventure.

“As long as you’re playing baseball,” Ohtani said, “I think it’s natural to want to be the No. 1 player.”

That designation has belonged to him for the last five years, a period in which he has won four MVP awards. His move to the Dodgers two years ago helped him fill the most significant gap in his resume. The Dodgers recovered from his 2 ⅓-inning start in Game 7 and went on to beat the Blue Jays, making him a back-to-back World Series champion.

But what makes a four-time MVP is an ability to discover new forms of inspiration, and Roberts thinks Ohtani’s memories of his final start will propel him to greater heights.

“There’s always something that Shohei needs to fuel him,” Roberts said. “He’s already the best player in the game, most likely, probably, the best to ever lace them up. So, how does he keep motivated? Things that have frustrated him or angered him. And going short in Game 7 probably is something that he’s not gonna let happen again.”

Ohtani is extremely polite in formal environments and playful when interacting with his teammates, his demeanor concealing the intensity described by Roberts. But it’s there.

Ohtani is Kobe Bryant with a glove and a bat.

Roberts thinks it’s entirely possible this is the year in which Ohtani wins the only major prize that has eluded his grasp in his first eight seasons: the Cy Young Award.

“I would not be surprised to see him and (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto both vying for a Cy Young in ‘26 and be (in) the top-three conversation all year,” Roberts said.

Responding to challenges

Ohtani was made available by the Dodgers in a news conference between games 2 and 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Brewers. Because he was in an offensive slump, he was asked multiple questions about how his pitching affected his hitting. The viability of his two-way role was being questioned. 

Two days later, Ohtani shut up his skeptics, blasting three home runs and striking out 10 batters over six scoreless innings.

Ohtani has said he isn’t motivated by what reporters say or write about him. However, when he’s in situations that would make the average person feel kuyashii, he responds with performances that redefine the boundaries of reality.

When he joined the Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Japanese league out of high school, his decision to be a two-way player was criticized by the country’s baseball establishment, which accused him of underestimating professional competition.

Within a few years, he was the best player in the league — as a two-way player.

When Ohtani moved to the United States, he struggled at the plate in his first spring training with the Angels, inspiring questions of whether he could hit in the majors.

In the season that followed, he was named the Rookie of the Year — primarily as a hitter because an elbow injury limited him to 10 games pitched.

When he was told by Angels management before the 2021 season that he wouldn’t have any days off built into his schedule — he previously didn’t play the days before and after he pitched — he thought the team was trying to force him to give up either pitching or hitting.

Ohtani went on to win his first MVP award.

People familiar with Ohtani’s history, including Roberts, know what this means. Ohtani will be a monster of a pitcher this year.

Pushing the boundaries

Ohtani was the No. 3 starter on a Dodgers postseason rotation that included Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, and Yamamoto, the World Series MVP.

Outside of that last start against the Blue Jays, Ohtani performed well as a pitcher, going 2-1 with a 3.50 ERA in the three other games he started. The team’s reliance on him obscured what Ohtani was up against last season, spending most of the year rehabilitating.

Ohtani didn’t throw a pitch in his first season with the Dodgers in 2024, as he was recovering from an elbow operation he underwent the previous year. He returned to the mound in mid-June of last year, but even then, he was in recovery mode. His overwhelming talent allowed him to rehabilitate in major league games, first by pitching just an inning, then two, then three. His first five-inning start was in the last week of August.

Studying data about the control problems of pitchers in their first year back from Tommy John surgery, Ohtani adjusted his delivery to generate more velocity on his pitches. Previously, he placed more emphasis on control than speed, he told NHK.

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Now, in his second year back from his second elbow reconstruction, the 31-year-old Ohtani should be able to pitch in a way that he believes is most effective.

Roberts doesn’t expect Ohtani to make the 28 to 32 starts generally required for a pitcher to be considered for the Cy Young Award — the manager said he wants to be mindful of Ohtani’s pitching future — but the two-way star could be ready to have the most complete season of his career. 

He’s healthy. He’s in his prime. And, considering how last season ended, he might have the inducement to once again push the boundaries of what’s possible.

The Mets have added some catching depth, signing Austin Barnes to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to big league spring training.

Barnes, 36, is an 11-year veteran, having spent his entire career to this point with the Dodgers -- mainly in a backup role.

He had a .518 OPS in 44 plate appearances over 13 games last season.

For his career, Barnes has slashed .223/.322/.338 (.660 OPS) with 35 home runs, 63 doubles, and 162 RBI.

Defensively, Barnes has typically been above average when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt and framing.

Francisco Alvarez is expected to be New York's starting catcher this season, with Luis Torrens slated to be the backup. 

Outside T-Mobile Park, at the corner of Edgar and Dave, a small crowd gathers.

They wear well-loved King’s Court t-shirts, increasingly esoteric shirseys and BreakingT collabs whose pit stains betray their age. One of them has on a few different variations of leopard print, some are festooned in arboreal paraphernalia, another a MacDougall Bats polo. There is no evidence of Night Court, but there are many pairs of glasses.

“One of us, one of us, one of us!” they chant gleefully as the 6’5” figure of Ryan Loutos disappears inside the ballpark.

A computer science graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, where all the best, brightest and most beautiful people go to school (Hi Claire! I love you! Does this very public shout-out make up for the fact I’m very delinquent in returning your phone call?), Loutos signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cardinals in 2021. His fastball velo bloomed from 92 to 97 MPH in their system, and he made his big league debut in 2024. Midway through 2025, the Cardinals designated him for assignment, then sent him to the Dodgers for cash. Shortly after that, Los Angeles DFA’d him and the Nationals picked him up. 2025 produced an objectively catastrophic performance from Loutos, but in November the Mariners scooped him up off waivers.

Every time Loutos has surfaced in the news, there’s been some heralding of his non-baseball skills. Namely, he’s a big ‘ol nerd. He used his computer science degree to develop a pitching analytics software while pitching for the WashU bears, and before the Cardinals signed him he had plans to accept a job offer as a software engineer in Chicago. The winter after joining the Cards, Loutos partnered with their front office to create a similar software to be used throughout their minor league system (called “Chirp,” which is extremely cute). He also became the de facto tech support in the locker rooms.

“I’ve definitely been that guy for all my minor league teammates,” Loutos told MLB.com after he was promoted back in 2024. “The players will come to me first because I’m their friend and they’re comfortable around me. Because I know the ins and outs of the app, I was always the guy players would go to. The number one question was always ‘Why is my velocity so low on here?’. But it was good to know the app and be able to help out.” 

He’s since worked in the offseason with Premier Pitching, helping them develop similar software for pitching analytics. With the Mariners’ reputation as a pitching analytics powerhouse, Loutos is a natural fit, particularly in continuing to build connection between the front office and the data they generate and the players who are producing the, ahem, raw material.

To be honest, I couldn’t find much of notable interest in his pitching profiles, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I queried John Trupin, who, as podcast listeners know, is incapable of delivering a succinct answer. He noted that Loutos’ four-seamer is similar to Justus Sheffield’s (oof) in that it has hardly any spin to it, and that his sweeper has scarcely any sweep, presenting so convincingly like a 12-6 curveball that some write-ups on him note a curve as part of his arsenal. 

A little more from John: “My initial sentiment on Loutos is that there’s a little Taylor Williams in him – his sweeper and slider are both astonishingly close to purely vertical/12-6 curveballs that do not actually sweep. For Williams that was a “gyro” slider that didn’t break but just dropped and spun like it should break. His four-seamer is really just a sinker, I’m struggling to ID who it reminds me of. They may try to get him to expand use of his split-change, he’s been working on it for a couple years.”

From a pure pitching standpoint, Loutos is clearly just another arm for the pile. But with his analytical knowledge and background, there could be some interesting ways for him to grow within the Mariners system. (And a shared high school alma mater with skipper Dan Wilson certainly doesn’t hurt either!)

The Washington Nationals just released their 2026 Minor League coaching staff. With Paul Toboni taking the reins, there are naturally a lot of new faces. However, there are also some returning staff members. The staffs are also bigger than they have been in the past, which is an example of Toboni’s focus on player development.

Every minor league team is going to have more staff members than they did last year. To build a player development machine like Paul Toboni wants, you need plenty of cogs. That is what he is trying to build here. 

There are going to be new staff positions this year. Last year, there was only one trainer and one conditioning coach at each level. This year there will be an assistant trainer and an assistant conditioning coach at each level. There will also be a defense coach at each level, something we did not have last year. Lastly, there are assistant hitting and pitching coaches at each level as well.

All of this is very exciting for an organization that will be built on player development. These new hires also show a real commitment to Paul Toboni’s vision. While they may not be spending in free agency, ownership is putting their money where their mouth is here.

Despite all the new faces, the Double-A and Triple-A managers will remain the same. Matt LeCroy has been a beloved minor league manager for a long time now. This will be his sixth season managing Triple-A Rochester and his 18th season in the Nationals organization. From all of the clips you see of him, LeCroy seems like a wonderful person. He was also in the mix to be the Nats interim manager last year.

Double-A manager Delino DeShields will also be back. This will be his fourth season managing the Harrisburg Senators. However, the Nats are bringing in new managers for both A ball clubs. Chris O’Neill will serve as the Fred Nats manager. He was previously the hitting coach at VCU. The High-A manager will be Ted Tom, who also served in the college ranks. He was most recently the hitting coach at UCF. 

There are going to be so many new voices in the organization, which I love to see. These staffers have a mix of youth and experience, though the Low-A staff is very young. The pitching coach for the Fred Nats is only 27 and the assistant pitching coach is even younger at 24. Both have experience working in pitching labs, such as Driveline. The physical therapists name is also James Wood, which I found funny.

As you get into the upper minors, the coaches are usually older, which makes sense. Most of the Triple-A staff is in their 40’s or 50’s. Following the progress of the minor league teams should be very exciting this year.

The Nats have a deep pool of prospects after their offseason trades. The system is especially deep at the lower levels. With this revamped development team, we should see prospects have breakout years. I am excited to see who will be helped the most by these changes. This kind of stuff is why the Paul Toboni hire is so exciting.

Giants trade Kai-Wei Teng to Astros for minor-league catcher Jancel Villarroel originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants haven’t announced the Harrison Bader move yet, but when they do, they’ll need an open 40-man spot. They made room with a minor trade on Thursday.

The Giants sent right-hander Kai-Wei Teng to the Houston Astros for minor league catcher Jancel Villarroel and international slot money. The trade cuts into their pitching depth a bit, but they needed the spot for Bader, who agreed to a two-year, $20.5 million deal earlier this week. 

Teng, 27, made 12 appearances for the Giants the past two seasons, including seven starts last year. But the Giants added two free agents to what currently is a full rotation, and they have plenty of young depth. There are high hopes for Hayden Birdsong, who had his 2025 season go off the rails, and Teng likely would have entered camp behind Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell and Trevor McDonald, who opened eyes in two late-season appearances. 

Teng’s path to a roster spot would have been as a reliever, and there are reasons to think that might have been successful. While he struggled with his command as a starter and had some wild innings, he also struck out 39 batters in 29 2/3 innings.

The trade closes the door on the Sam Dyson trade, which ultimately favored the Giants. Dyson made just 12 appearances for the Twins and then never pitched in MLB again. The Giants got Teng, along with outfielder Jaylin Davis, who recently retired, and right-hander Prelander Berroa, who got traded to Seattle for Donovan Walton.

Villarroel, 21, was No. 13 on MLB Pipeline’s Astros top 30 last year and is currently ranked 20th on their Baseball America list. He has a .378 on-base percentage in four minor league seasons and finished last season in High-A. 

The Giants have been light on minor league catching depth, and they also got international slot money, which could be helpful at a time when they’re hoping to add to their 2026 class that originally included just three players because Luis Hernandez got a $5 million bonus.

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I’m taking a break from looking at players on the 40-man roster, because there is one man outside it, who increasingly appears to be a candidate to make the Opening Day 2026 squad for the Diamondbacks. Ryan Waldschmidt was selected in the draft barely eighteen months ago, being picked by Arizona in the 1st round (31st overall) of the 2024 event. We largely have Corbin Carroll to thank for Waldschmidt’s presence, because that was the pick the team gained for Carroll’s Rookie of the Year win. Ryan signed on July 23rd, getting the full slot value for a #31 pick, of just over $2.9 million.

He had a brief stay in A-ball Visalia after getting signed, playing just fourteen games for the Rawhide. The following spring, he was put in High-A Hillsboro, and found that not much of a challenge. His .862 OPS was the best on the team, Waldschmidt batting .268 with almost as many walks (51) as strikeouts (53). In late June, Ryan was promoted to Double-A Amarillo. As we previously discussed, that’s the most hitter-friendly park in the minors, but even allowing for that, Waldschmidt’s numbers impressed. He had a line for the Sod Poodles across 66 games of .309/.423/.498 for a .921 OPS – the team average was almost 150 points less, at .777 – and a K:BB of 53:45.

There, for the moment, his progression rests. Ryan has already been named the team’s top prospect by both Fangraphs and Prospects 1500 this winter: I fully expect MLB Pipeline to follow suit when they publish their list. He was also recently the only D-back to be listed in the top hundred prospects list by Kiley McDaniel (ESPN) and Keith Law (The Athletic). Worth quoting the blurb from some of them in more depth:

• Fangraphs: “While he lacks a signature plus-plus tool, the 23-year-old does just about everything you want at the plate and he looks the part of a bat-first future regular in the box… The bat should carry Waldschmidt to a productive career, and he projects as a middle-of-the-order hitter. It’s a power-and-OBP-over-hit skill set, but Waldschmidt’s median outcome is as a regular, and there’s 30-homer upside if everything clicks.”
• McDaniel: “I still think Waldschmidt is a long-term left fielder, but now he looks pretty good out there defensively. He looks like he’ll hit 20 to 25 homers with a roughly average on-base percentage and some value on the bases.”
• Law: “He has excellent feel for the strike zone, chasing pitches well out of the zone just 12% of the time, although Double-A pitchers showed that he needs to work on picking up spin.. He looks like a solid regular with above-average defense in an outfield corner who could get to All-Star level in years when he gets to 20-plus homers.”

Going into his age 23 season, and with less than 150 games in his professional career, the general expectation would be to have Ryan advance to Triple-A, and if he does well, perhaps look to have him make his debut as a September call-up. However, the team’s needs suggest that timeline could end up being brought forward. Because after the trade of Jake McCarthy to Colorado, the D-backs have only four outfielders on the 40-man roster – and that includes Lourdes Gurriell Jr, who is currently rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn ACL. It also includes Jorge Barrosa, who hit barely a buck forty across 33 appearances last season.

The D-backs have certainly seen young outfielders become everyday players before, and experience good results there. Obviously, Corbin Carroll was 22 when he made 645 PA during his rookie season. And he was positively geriatric, compared to Justin Upton, who debuted while still a teenager, and was an All-Star in his age 21 campaign. Chris Young was, like Waldschmidt is going to be this season, 23 when he came fourth in Rookie of the Year in 2007. Other outfielders that age or younger, to have trod the field at Chase with some success, include Ender Inciarte, Brandon Drury and Alek Thomas.

Nor is it unprecedented for an Arizona prospect to skip (or almost skip) Triple-A on his way to the majors. The first to come to mind is Mark Reynolds, who not only skipped AAA, he only made 67 appearances in AA ball, before reaching the big leagues at age 23. In 2011, Ryan’s neo-namesake Paul Goldschmidt also went straight from Double-A to the show. Carroll made just 33 appearances for Reno, before never enduring bus travel again. Outside of the D-backs, Manny Machado and Juan Soto also bypassed Triple-A. Indeed, the latter almost skipped Double-A and High-A too, with just eight and fifteen games respectively at those levels.

It is still possible the team may sign an experienced major-leaguer to play left field until Gurriel returns, and be a fourth outfielder thereafter. However, we’re now less than two weeks from the start of spring training, and every day that passes seems to make this less likely. They could also use Blaze Alexander, who acquitted himself very well in left field last year. After the signing of Nolan Arenado to play third (probably… but let’s not get into that here!), this might be the most likely scenario. Tim Tawa or Jordan Lawlar are other candidates for the position, with varying degrees of experience in the outfield.

In the slightly longer term, once Gurriel comes back, he is being paid $13 million so will have a place in the line-up. But if the ACL issue hampers his defense, he could end up moving to DH, and whoever is playing left could take over on a full-time basis. If Alek Thomas doesn’t improve on his career 76 OPS+, and if Waldschmidt’s bat represents a clear upturn, then the team could decide to use Ryan in center. That would depend on his defense there being serviceable, and not outweighing the offensive positives. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the team opts to handle things in 2026, with Carroll in right about the only certainty.

Remember when everyone was excited about Matt “Mash” Mervis making the major leagues?

In 2022, he had batted .309/.379/.605 with 36 home runs at three levels of the Cubs system, and got off to a good start at Triple-A Iowa in 2023. When both Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini were found somewhat wanting at first base, Mervis was called up to make his MLB debut.

I’ll never forget the sight of fans wearing Mervis jerseys at Wrigley Field that day — before he had played a single MLB game.

He went 1-for-4, an RBI single, in his debut game. And got a hit the next day, and two the day after — but also struck out six times in 14 at-bats. And that would be his undoing. In 27 games and 99 plate appearances for the Cubs in 2023, Mervis batted .167/.242/.289 with three home runs — and 32 strikeouts. He was sent back down.

Called up about three weeks into the 2024 season, Mervis was pressed into service as a pitcher April 27 at Fenway Park, with the Cubs down 11-0 to the Red Sox going to the bottom of the eighth.

He began with a ground out, allowed two singles, then a line drive to left.

And then… things spiraled out of control. The next five Red Sox got hits, with five runs scoring. Here is one of those hits, a two-run double by Bobby Dalbec [VIDEO].

The Cubs trailed 16-0 when Mervis was replaced by Patrick Wisdom. We’ll cover that in the next installment of this series.

Mervis never did hit for the Cubs, batting .155/.222/.259 with three home runs in 36 games and 127 plate appearances. He was traded to the Marlins before the 2025 season for Vidal Bruján. There’s a trade that didn’t work for either team. Bruján rarely played for the Cubs and departed in August. Mervis had a hot streak in April and over a 12-game span hit .263/.364/.763 (10-for-38) with six home runs.

Had he turned a corner? Nope; Mervis batted .134/.205/.224 (9-for-67) with 26 strikeouts through the end of May, at which time he was sent to Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville. The Marlins released him in August — literally one day after Bruján was claimed on waivers by the Orioles. Mervis wound up with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate in Reno. where he hit 13 home runs in 35 games — the kind of guy often called a “Quad-A hitter,” someone who could wear out Triple-A pitching but not hit in the majors.

Mervis signed a minor-league deal with a NRI with the Nationals for this year. He grew up in the DC area, so it would be a nice story if he could make the Nats roster, and with Washington seemingly rebuilding again, he might have a chance to do that. If so, we’ll see him at Wrigley Field on Opening Day.