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If I were to name every championship team from Yankee history and ask you to name some players from that year, any fan worth their salt could probably get at least a couple. The lore of the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and plenty others is large enough that their names echo through even to Yankees’ fans born decades after any of them played.

However, just a couple stars does not a team make. Every Yankee team, successful or no, had players whose names you might only know in passing. Lyn Lary might be one of those names, who was a very solid player who helped the Yankees to the 1932 World Series title.

Lynford Hobart “Lyn” Lary
Born: January 28, 1906 (Armona, CA)
Died: January 9, 1973 (Downey, CA)
Yankee Tenure: 1929-34

Over a century before a 6-foot-7 fella from Linden would first make his mark on the Fresno State baseball team, Lary was born and raised in the Fresno area of California. His family later settled in Long Beach, where he was a multi-sport athlete in high school and planned to attend the University of Southern California. However at the last second, he instead opted to sign with a local semi-pro baseball team.

In 1925, he began his career in organized baseball when he was picked up by the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League at just 19 years old. Lary had a breakout season two years later, playing shortstop and helping the Oaks win the PCL pennant, as he finished second in league MVP voting. He had caught the eyes of several major league teams, and the Yankees decided to pick up him, as well as middle infield partner Jimmie Reese.

Over in the majors, the Yankees were come off a historically good 1927 season, so they elected to let the pair play another year with the Oaks in 1928. After another good year in the PCL in 1928, the Yankees brought Lary over for 1929. He mostly spent his first MLB season playing second fiddle to future MLB manager Leo Durocher, but Lary showed his potential, with his season grading out at a 113 OPS+ and 2.2 rWAR in only 80 games.

That led to the Yankees trading Durocher to the Reds ahead of 1930 (aided by the Babe’s annoyance with “Leo the Lip”) and letting Lary take the full-time reins at shortstop. Lary’s early career at the position wasn’t the smoothest defensively, but he showed plenty of potential at the plate. That eventually shone through with a career best year in 1931.

Appearing in every game for the Yankees in 1931, Lary hit .280/.376/.416, with 10 home runs (the only season in his career where he cracked double figures) and 107 RBI. He put up 4.9 WAR according to Baseball Reference and 4.7 according to FanGraphs.

The one thing the Yankees hadn’t managed to do in Lary’s career to that point was win the World Series, but he would help them there the following year. The 1932 Yankees are arguably the most underrated team in franchise history, as they went 107-47 and then swept the Cubs in the World Series. Hampered a bit by injuries, Lary only appeared in 91 games and put up a 86 OPS+, although he did win a ring as a member of the team, seeing time at all four infield positions and left field as well.

However, 1932 also ended up being the beginning of the end of his Yankees’ career. Yes, injuries partially limited Lary to 91 games, but so did the emergence of another young shortstop from California. Frankie Crosetti joined the Yankees in 1932, and seized the most of his opportunity, taking the full-time shortstop job from Lary, who — while solid — had never quite lived up to the potential he had shown in his PCL days.

The Yankees held on to Lary in 1933, hoping he could return to 1931 form, but his hitting stats never quite got back. After appearing in just one game at the start of the 1934 season, the Yankees decided to deal Lary to the Red Sox.

Over the rest of his career, Lary played for a variety of team and had some ups, but also some downs. He played through 1940, and performed well enough to get MVP votes in two different seasons (pacing the AL in stolen bases in 1936 with 37 for the St. Louis Browns), but never ended up living up to his full potential. A large part of what doomed him was mental mistakes. As mentioned, his fielding could be a bit sloppy, but miscues didn’t stop there. In one 1931 game, he apparently ran into the dugout instead of touching home on a game-tying, ninth inning home run from Lou Gehrig, leading to Gehrig passing him on the basepaths and instead only being credited with a triple with Lary being ruled out. Neither run scored and the Yankees lost. Lary claimed that the ball had bounced back into play after going over the fence, and he believed the ball had been caught, but that’s still a bad mistake.

Lary was a bit of a character off the field too. Babe Ruth had given him the nickname “Broadway,” and he tried to act accordingly, dressing snappy and driving flashy cars. Amusingly, he married actress Mary Lawlor, who had been in the play “No No Nanette” of Babe Ruth trade and “Curse of the Bambino” fame.

After his playing career, Lary returned to his native California, and passed away from heart failure in 1973.

You might only know the name Lyn Lary from looking at old Yankees’ stats, but as usual, the story goes far deeper than that.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

22. Yujanyer Herrera (115 points, 15 ballots)

Herrera turned 22 a few months ago, but he has been a professional for over six years, having been signed in August 2019 out of Venezuela by the Brewers for only a $10k bonus. Due to the pandemic, Herrera didn’t throw a pitch in affiliated ball until 2021 and he didn’t come stateside until the next year. Indeed, the 6’3” right-hander was Rule 5 eligible after the 2023 season but not selected. I don’t blame teams, as Herrera truly didn’t pop up on the prospect radar until 2024. He seemed like a strong candidate to be added to the Rockies’ 40-man roster after the 2024 season, but unfortunately he underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2024 and missed the 2025 season.

Herrera began his breakout 2024 back in Low-A Carolina for the third-straight year (though he was still 1.6 years younger than league average), where he quickly showed that he was ready for a new challenge with 17 innings of 2.12 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 14.3 K/9 rate ball over four games. A promotion to High-A Wisconsin followed, where he was 3.1 years younger than league average. In 12 games there, Herrera threw 51 innings with a 3.18 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 8.8 K/9 rate, and 3.0 BB/9 rate.

That was enough for the Rockies to acquire Herrera as part of the Nick Mears trade (along with Bradley Blalock) in July. After the trade, Herrera made six starts with Spokane, throwing 32 ²⁄₃ innings with a 3.31 ERA (3.41 xFIP), 1.13 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 rate, and 3.0 BB/9 rate. Those were strong results that pointed toward an upper minors placement before his arm injury scuttled those plans.

Here is Herrera being dominant in April 2024 in the Brewers system:

Herrera is currently 18th in the system as a 40 FV player according to MLB.com with a 55 grade on his slider:

The 6-foot-3 right-hander has three pitches in his arsenal that he was just starting to really learn how to use effectively when he went down. He typically throws his fastball in the 92-94 mph range and uses his hard above-average slider with bite as his go-to pitch. He misses plenty of bats with the pitch, showing the ability to backfoot lefties with it. He has a changeup, but it’s behind the other two offerings.

Because of that slider, Herrera’s strikeout rate took a nice step forward in 2024 and he uses the two-seam variation of his heater to get a lot of ground-ball outs. He threw a lot more strikes as well last year, but the Rockies will have to wait until 2026 to see if that sticks and if he can refine a third pitch so that he can stick in a rotation.

Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs was bullish on Herrera at the time of the Mears trade, ranking him as easily the best of the prospects Colorado received at the deadline (11th out of 92) as a 45 FV prospect despite not even ranking him in the Brewers system back in March. The injury caused him to back off that grade somewhat — he ranked Herrera 27th in the system as a 40 FV player last January with a 60 slider grade:

Herrera is listed at 175 pounds but is more like 250. He’s a below-average athlete who has struggled to throw strikes at various points during his career, and he still looks like he has below-average command despite his reasonable walk total from 2024. Herrera’s best pitch is his slider, a tight mid-80s hellraiser with late bite and good length for how hard it is. Still, too many of his sliders back up on him right now. He has a well-demarcated four-seam/two-seam fastball mix, but no cogent third pitch yet. Herrera’s velo keeled off at the very end of the year and he was put on the IL with elbow inflammation in September (he also had a hamstring issue last season); the Rockies left him off the 40-man roster. There’s a little too much development needed here to comfortably project Herrera as a starter, but he should be a fine sinker/slider middle reliever in time.

Herrera represents the kind of pitching prospect the system needs more of and I’m excited to see how he reacts to the challenge of Double-A once he is fully recovered from the Tommy John surgery — at least, that’s where I assume he will be. If his stuff is still there and he does well against upper minors batters, Herrera could be a rotation option for the Rockies soon and will be a no-brainer 40 man roster add this off-season. Due to the uncertainty, I couldn’t rank Herrera higher than a 35+ FV player, 25th on my list, though I love his potential to stick in the rotation and the quality of his slider.

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Good morning friends! It’s Wednesday once more, and we’ve got some news and analysis to dig into.

In Mariners news…

• In case you missed it, the Mariners announced their full broadcast team for the 2026 season.
• Another reminder to go vote for Ryan Blake for the SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards! Let’s get our guy some much-deserved hardware.

Around the league…

• Mark your calendars: Major League Baseball set August 3 as this year’s trade deadline date.
• Astros stars Carlos Correa and José Altuve will not be participating in the World Baseball Classic after both players failed to receive injury insurance on their big league contracts.
• Nolan Arenado opened up about his decision last winter to block a trade to Houston.
• For the second time in his career, Aaron Judge will grace the cover of MLB The Show.
• With just a couple of weeks to go until spring training, there are plenty of big names still on the board. The MLB.com staff broke down the top remaining free agents.
• Davy Andrews at Fangraphs offered his thoughts on José Ramírez’s latest deal with the Guardians, projecting out the rest of his career and where he may line up for Hall of Fame consideration when all is said and done.

Good morning! MLB Network is conducting its annual exercise in ranking the best players at each position. Yesterday, they tackled left field, and the top of the list is quite interesting:

Yes, the man that many Red Sox fans have been shipping out the door in imaginary trade scenarios all offseason is, according to MLB Network, the best left fielder in the game. Of course, the reason why so many fans are keen to ship him out is because of the guy that MLB has at number two on the list — not to mention a couple other guys who will end up on the center and right field lists to be published in a few days.

Is Duran really that good and does it still make sense to move him if so?

Talk about what you want, keep imagining trades that aren’t happening, and be good to one another.

Diamondbacks News

Nolan Arenado to Play for Puerto Rico in WBC
Somehow, I don’t think anyone will have an issue with this particular decision to play.

Examining the Potential Return of Gallen
What does it look like and what would it mean?

Marte, the Diamondbacks, and the Offseason
Has there been a bigger nothing-burger story propping up the offseason rumour mill?

Other MLB News

The Mets are Having a Swell Offseason
While there were a lot of eyebrows raised early in the winter, the Mets are shaping into a serious threat and are starting to resemble a big-money version of the Milwaukee Brewers.

2026 top MLB Prospect Rankings: Superlatives for 101-200
If even remotely accurate, this list does not bode well for the Diamondbacks, though Tommy Troy could change much of that, especially with a bit of help from Kohl Drake and Kayson Cunningham. It shouldn’t take long at all to see if pundits are sleeping on David Hagaman or have him pegged right.

Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa to Miss WBC Due to Insurance Issues
Houston’s Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa were expecting to represent Venezuela and Puerto Rico respectively in the WBC. Neither player was able to land insurance for their 2026 contracts though, so both are being prohibited from participating in the event. Stuff like this is what keeps the WBC from growing in stature faster. Hopefully, this won’t become a widespread problem for the rest of the stars.

Is MLB Parity Possible Without a Salary Cap?
Probably, though it seems highly unlikely as there would need to be too many things restructured. It is certainly the easiest and most straight-forward approach to finding parity of opportunity.

Jake Cronenworth has been a mainstay in the San Diego Padres organization since 2020 when he came to San Diego in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. Cronenworth has proven himself to be a versatile defender who can play multiple positions at a high level. His offense has been an area of inconsistency during his time with the Padres and he has been unable to recreate the success he had at the plate in 2021. Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball looks at the value Cronenworth brings to the major league roster and how he can be a key to the team’s success in 2026.

Padres News:

• Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote a story about Padres pitcher Yu Darvish walking away from baseball and his contract, but the report was deemed premature. Acee himself stated the wording used in the report could have been better. No matter when Darvish decides to call it a career, Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball says fans should appreciate Darvish for the player he has been with the Padres and the man he has shown himself to be.
• The Padres announced their 2026 promotional schedule and some of the hottest items each year are the bobbleheads. There are nine bobblehead giveaways this year with six regular season ticket items and three theme game ticket items. Gaslamp Ball asked readers which bobblehead would get them to Petco Park.
• Shaun O’Neill of Padres.com says that if Joe Musgrove can return to the pitcher he was from 2021 to 2024 following Tommy John surgery that kept him out all of 2025, he might be the most important player on the current Padres roster.
• 2025 was a breakout year for reliever Adrian Morejon. He established himself not only as the top left-hander in the Padres’ bullpen, but he might well be the best left-handed reliever in MLB. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune looks at how Morejon can be more dominant in 2026 in his latest Padres roster review.

Baseball News:

• New Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Nolan Arenado waived his no-trade clause to be shipped from the St. Louis Cardinals to Arizona this offseason. He had the opportunity to change teams in 2024 with a trade to the Houston Astros but blocked the deal with his no-trade clause. Arenado sheds light on what went into his decision making then and now.
• Aaron Judge will return to the cover of MLB The Show 26 after being the cover athlete in 2018. Judge is just the second player in the game’s history to make the cover more than once.
• Willi Castro was announced as the latest player to be added to the Puerto Rico World Baseball Classic Team.
• The trade deadline for the 2026 MLB season has been set for Aug. 3 according to MLB Trade Rumors.

In the dead of winter, when I’m not refreshing MLB Trade Rumors or yelling at Siri to ask if my Jeff Passan Twitter alerts are broken, I like to look at player projections on Fangraphs. Despite the fact that they are a complete fantasy land, they provide a good baseline for our expectations for the upcoming season. Drawing from past performances of players, the various systems weigh more heavily towards the most recent seasons, while also using historical data of career trends of previous players with similar age, experience, and skill level.

Today, we’re kicking off a series that digs into 2026 projections by taking a look at what they say about the Red Sox starting staff. I looked at three systems:

• Steamer: Created and maintained by Jared Cross, these are always the first projections released, usually not long after the World Series wraps up. They’ve been around for a long time and are widely considered to be among the best systems for projections. 
• The BAT: Derek Carty’s projection system, which is very popular in fantasy baseball and DFS circles.
• OOPSY: Created by Jordan Rosenblum over the last couple of years. While I cannot approve of the name of this system, Jordan and I wrote together at a fantasy baseball site called The Dynasty Guru for several years, and he was the first person to try to convince me to trust projection models, so I’m going to give him a pass on the name. 

This comes with the obvious caveat that it still feels likely that there is still a trade to come. Moreever, with so many starting candidates, it’s hard to predict innings totals, so looking at the rate stats is probably a more worthwhile task than playing time at this point. 

1. Garrett Crochet

These may not look like the dominant numbers that you’re expecting from Garrett Crochet in 2026, but it’s important to remember that projection systems rely on “regression,” and try to predict 50th percentile outcomes. If you sort any of these three projection models by ERA, the list goes: Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, Garrett Crochet, (big gap), everyone else. Skubal’s projection of 2.63 on OOPSY is the best on any list, even though it’s very likely that the eventual ERA league leader will beat that number. The only pitchers, including relievers, who best Crochet in K-BB% are Skubal, Mason Miller, and Edwin Diaz. Expectations are high and there’s no reason to think that Crochet can’t deliver again, if healthy. 

2. Ranger Suarez

The hope for Suarez is that he will keep his walk rate closer to the past two seasons (6.2%) than in his first six seasons (8.4%, which was still a solid number) as the projections split the difference on that walk percentage. OOPSY is most bearish on the Suarez projection, adding three more home runs allowed than the others. With a 3.38 career ERA, we would hope for an output close to that, but The BAT’s projection of 3.78 is actually 12th-best among AL starting pitchers, and Steamer’s projection of 3.73 is 16th in the AL. That would be the “number two starter” outcome that we were looking for. 

3. Sonny Gray

Slightly ahead of Suarez on Steamer’s list is Sonny Gray, whose 3.68 ERA projection would be 14th in the AL and would round out a strong top three in Boston’s rotation. Those top three pitchers can match up with any team in the American League in a short playoff series, although Seattle’s rotation one-through-five likely has an edge. Gray has a 1.20 WHIP over 13 career seasons, and much like Suarez, his walk rate over the past two seasons (5.4% combined) has been the best of his career.

4. Brayan Bello

Bello’s career K-BB rate of 11.5% is closer to Steamer and OOPSY, where The BAT seems to think that his paltry rate of 9.3% in 2025 is a sign of what’s to come. Bello has started 28+ games in all three of his full seasons in the big leagues, and there is something to be said for that. With a .234 batting average allowed, thanks to a .268 BABIP in 2025, Bello needs to have a strong infield defense behind him to repeat a 3.35 ERA output. Projections expect closer to a .260 BA allowed in 2026, which would bring his ERA back up into the mid-4’s, closer to his xFIP and xERA a year ago. 

The #5 (through #10) Candidates:

A little conditional formatting never hurt anybody. 

When Steamer was released back in November, one of the most eye-opening projections in all of baseball was Connelly Early’s. Perhaps it’s the five pitches that all had a 20% Whiff Rate or better in his four regular-season starts a year ago. There are very few rookies who pop in projections before they’ve had much of a chance to show it on the field. Moreover, The BAT is notoriously harsh on rookie projections, with the great Derek Carty needing to fight off the Twitter prospect trolls on a weekly basis. 

Early’s 16% K-BB, and near-3.50 ERA in both projections, is startling. Of course, thanks to the logjam of pitchers on this team, he’s projected for only 50-60 innings at the moment. That being said, there are only six starting pitchers on The BAT, and seven starting pitchers on Steamer who are projected to have a better ERA than Connelly Early in the American League. I don’t know what to make of this, but as Rick James once said, “Now, THAT is ABSURD.”

OOPSY is more partial to the other starting pitcher who made his debut in the final month of last season, Payton Tolle. Its projected 27.2 K% for Tolle is bested in the American League by only Skubal, Crochet, Cole Ragans, Trey Yesavage, Dylan Cease, and Joe Boyle (arguably a Quad-A guy) among starting pitchers. The BAT didn’t have time for Payton Tolle, apparently, nor Kutter Crawford. 

Johan Oviedo was enough of an attraction for Craig Breslow to move Jhostynxon Garcia, even though Oviedo has just two years of control left. For that reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if Oviedo made more starts for the Red Sox in 2026 than both Early and Tolle, and he does have a higher projected innings total than the rest of the bunch. However, the projections are fairly low on Oviedo, with the highest ERA and highest walk rate across all of the candidates. 

Both Kutter Crawford and Kyle Harrison have a decent output on Steamer. Crawford’s 17.6 K-BB% is very impressive, and not all that shocking for someone with a 16.6 career rate, which topped out at 18.8 in 2023. Harrison’s 3.91 ERA with a 16.6% K-BB projection would be more than serviceable. The other systems are not as kind to either of them. 

Lastly, there’s Patrick Sandoval. It should be mentioned daily that Sandoval was signed by the Red Sox to an $18.25 million contract over “two years”. You should mention it daily in your work meetings, if necessary, regardless of your line of work. Would the front office acknowledge that the team has nine better starting pitchers this season and take the L, selling Sandoval for half of his salary to help with payroll flexibility this year? Regardless, Sandoval has not pitched well since 2022 and hasn’t thrown a pitch in a game since early 2024, so it’s not surprising to see the projections be as low as they are on him, even though he is only 29 years old. The WHIP projections are ugly, but to be fair, OOPSY and Steamer both have Sandoval a shade under 4 in the ERA column. 

The last time that I did this exercise was heading into the 2024 season. After reviewing the hitters in Part One, my concluding sentence was, “Next week, we’ll take a look at the pitching projections and then all collectively vomit into a bucket.” Amazing what a difference two years makes. 

In Part Two we’ll examine the Red Sox lineup. And with the “ZIPS” projections coming out this week, there’s another robot we can be add to the mix!