Wales captain wants energy from home supporters
Galthié beefs up pack for visit of in-form Italy
The Wales captain, Dewi Lake, has urged fans in Cardiff to lift his side for the Six Nations meeting with Scotland on Saturday.
After last week’s record thrashing by France, Wales have lost 13 consecutive Six Nations matches, while Scotland arrive at the Principality Stadium in upbeat mood after their handsome Calcutta Cup triumph over England.
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The Yankees had a big decision to make at the start of the offseason. While retaining Cody Bellinger on a long-term deal was high on the priority list, it was unclear what the team thought of their other starting outfielder, Trent Grisham, hitting the open market after a career year. With a questionable résumé prior to his breakout 2025 and a pair of young outfielders on the farm that could take over, there didn’t seem to be much urgency to reward the 29-year-old with a multi-year deal.
Still, they extended him a $22 million qualifying offer, which would provide the Yankees a compensatory fourth-round pick if he signed elsewhere. Whether they counted on him to decline it for more security or not, Grisham accepted the deal, possibly worrying his market would be depressed with the prohibitive qualifying offer and skepticism about his 2025 season being replicated.
With Grisham penciled into center field to start the season, he will have an opportunity to silence his doubters and enter a shallow free agent hitter’s pool next offseason, looking for a big payday.
2025 statistics: 143 games, 581 plate appearances, .235/.348/.464, 34 HR, 84 RBI, 129 wRC+, 14.1 BB%, 23.6 K%, -11 Defensive Runs Saved, -2 Outs Above Average, 3.2 fWAR
2026 ZiPS DC projections: 130 games, 560 plate appearances, .216/.329/.416, 25 HR, 72 RBI, 111 wRC+, 13.6 BB%, 24.7 K%, 3.1 fWAR
A lot has been said on social media about the Yankees reuniting with Grisham. There’s been a great deal of “it’s an overpay” or “he’s a one-year wonder.” In fact, it feels like more fans expect him to be under the Mendoza Line than to repeat his 2025 season.
So can Grisham replicate his terrific 2025? It’s hard to say. It would be foolish to fully expect him to replicate an incredible year where he had a case to be named to the All-Star team, but he showed enough progression in his offensive profile that it can make you truly believe he will continue to be one of the better-hitting center fielders in the game.
For one, he’s 29, not 33. If a guy randomly progresses in his mid-to-late 30s (looking at you, George Springer), you can probably assume some regression to the mean. For Grisham, he’s still in his athletic prime. His xwOBA has absolutely exploded from mediocre to the 91st percentile, indicating he’s doing things to back up his offensive numbers. He’s also improved his strikeout rate, which, while still mediocre, is no longer a serious problem.
A lot of what Grisham has improved, however, has been taking his already good offensive traits and making them elite. He’s historically been above average in barrel rate, average exit velocity, chase rate, and walk rate. In all four areas, he’s raised those numbers to elite. His chase rate, especially, has improved. It’s now in the 99th percentile. He obliterated fastballs in 2025 and used his pull-side power to abuse the short porch.
Grisham’s elite chase and walk rates are what make him the early favorite to be the team’s leadoff hitter on Opening Day. Now, you might want someone who’s a better contact hitter and baserunner to hit in front of the likes of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton, but Grisham’s ability to get on base makes him good enough with the current roster.
It’s actually funny to think about how Grisham, a perennial Gold Glove contender whose bat is the reason he couldn’t stick in starting lineups, completely flipped that script in 2025.
It used to be a given that Grisham would give you that defense, and while he still showed flashes of brilliance last year, he was really bad most of the season. He did play through a hamstring strain during the summer that killed his mobility, but the defense was suspect from start to finish. It’s concerning that a relatively healthy 29-year-old has gone from 88th percentile sprint speed to 32nd in just three years, but he managed to be a terrific defender in 2024 with a similar sprint speed, so maybe there’s still something there. Half the battle is instincts, which Grisham has in abundance.
There’s enough to like in Grisham’s profile to suggest that he’s more likely to be close to the offensive threat he was in 2025, especially considering his contract situation. A good season and he’ll be the top outfielder on the market next offseason, even with the lockout, with no qualifying offer attached. But if he slips up, the Yankees will have options behind him. How long is the leash? We’ll see.
See more of the Yankees Previews series here.
Spring is back — and so is Royals baseball.
In this episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jacob Milham and Jeremy “Hokius” Greco dive into the excitement surrounding Kansas City Royals spring training and what fans can expect as the new season approaches. From the buzz around camp to the practical implications of updated strike zone rules and broadcasting changes, the hosts unpack how the viewing experience — and the game itself — is evolving.
The conversation also highlights the Royals’ continued support of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, underscoring the organization’s role in preserving baseball history and strengthening community ties. Jacob and Jeremy break down recent roster updates, player movement news, and leadership changes within the MLB Players Association — exploring how those shifts could influence future negotiations and league dynamics.
To close, the hosts offer thoughtful cultural reflections through a review of Mr. Baseball, using film as a lens to examine how the sport intersects with identity, globalization, and tradition.
Whether you’re following roster battles, adapting to new broadcasting elements, or simply ready for baseball to return, this episode delivers insight, context, and enthusiasm for the Royals and the game at large.
Email Jacob directly at: jm17971047@gmail.com
Need your Royals fix? Head to royalsreview.com for news, analysis, and to engage with Royals fans around the world! Follow us online:
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– Jeremy Greco: @hokius.fromthehawkseye.com
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Listen folks, we’re getting to the end of the list here, but c’mon. Even squinting doesn’t really make this one make sense.
Devin Saltiban – 88
Griffin Burkholder – 23
Keaton Anthony – 11
Carson DeMartini – 11
Seth Johnson – 10
Yoniel Curet – 8
Alex McFarlane – 7
Mavis Graves – 5
Ramon Marquez – 4
Zach McCambley – 2
Yeah, I don’t get this one. Probably a lot of fake voting going on here, but at least there are still plenty of people that like him. The below scouting report is at least mildly interested in him, as is Matt Winkelman, who has him 16th on his list. The “slow burn” description is probably rather apt at this point, but he’s going to have to show quite a bit of improvement this season, else he finds himself off a bunch of lists completely.
2025 stats (w/ Clearwater and Lakewood)
341 PA, .180/.259/.305, 7 HR, 26 RBI, 19 SB, 6.7 BB%, 27.9%, 72 wRC+
He’s a plus runner and packs a powerful pull-side punch for a smaller guy, but Saltiban remains a high-risk prospect because of his strikeout issues, which stem from a lack of breaking ball recognition. Saltiban played second base in 2024, then a mix of second and center field in 2025. He is a flub-prone infielder and was still struggling to read the ball off the bat in center at the end of last season, but the timeshare and injury limited him to just 37 games out there. He only played center field in Australia and nearly doubled his career start total at the position. It’s imperative for his defense to improve out there; Saltiban needs to be able to make an impact in the field to give his strikeouts room to breath. This is a toolsy, slow-burning prospect who turns 21 in February.
With each new post, we’ll reveal who won the voting for that particular slot, then post new players for you to vote on, adding another one to the list each time until we get to our final tally of 20. Once we get to 20 top prospects, we’ll do an honorable mention post at the end. If a player gets traded to another team, we’ll just chuck him right on outta here and all the players will move up a spot. If a prospect gets acquired, we’ll ask where he should go on the list.
Probably the most important thing about this whole process – please vote. Give us a few minutes of your time, just click a button and then we can discuss other players and things in the comment section, but don’t forget – VOTE!
With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.
Today we are looking at pitcher Jacob deGrom.
Jacob deGrom made 30 starts for the Texas Rangers in 2025.
That, in and of itself, is a success of sorts. When the Texas Rangers signed Jacob deGrom after the 2022 season, there were many dire predictions that the Rangers wouldn’t get a full season from him, that he might not make 30 starts in the entirety of his Ranger career, much less in a single season.
The thing about the “deGrom isn’t durable” narrative is that went from non-existent to conventional wisdom in roughly 18 months. From 2017 through 2020, deGrom made 107 starts, tied with Jon Lester for the 6th most in MLB in that span. Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke and Rick Porcello each had 110 starts, Patrick Corbin had 109 starts, and Lance Lynn had 108 starts. He was first in innings pitched in that span, with 690.1.
Then in 2021 he had one of the weirdest great seasons ever, putting up a 1.08 ERA in 15 starts. He followed that up with 11 starts in 2022. The missed time over those two campaigns resulted in deGrom going from a workhorse to unreliable in the public’s eyes.
Then 2023 and 2024 and deGrom made just 9 starts for the Rangers due to undergoing his second Tommy John surgery. The haters said deGrom couldn’t stay healthy. And they were correct. Honestly great call from the haters.
Until this past year, when deGrom made his 30 starts and threw 172 innings and put concerns — immediate concerns, anyway — about his ability to stay healthy to rest.
And that was the important thing, because if Jacob deGrom is healthy, he’s going to be really good. There was not really any question about that. Which is kind of funny, given his background as a ninth round pick out of Stetson who didn’t pitch until his junior year, someone who had his first Tommy John surgery soon after being drafted, someone who never was hyped coming up, who topped out at #10 on the BA Mets prospect lists.
A couple of digressions real quick…
First of all, something I’ve theorized before is that guys who transition from being a position player to pitching have a higher than usual risk of UCL damage right after making the switch. I haven’t studied this, its just anecdotal in nature, but it seems like we see a lot of instances of players converting to pitching, showing promise, and then having to go under the knife for Tommy John surgery. I would guess that the change in stress on the elbow for someone in their 20s makes them more likely to tear the UCL. That said, as I mentioned in the Sam Haggerty writeup yesterday, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even play one on TV.
Secondly, Jacob deGrom made his major league debut one month before his 26th birthday. That’s incredibly late for a player who is legitimately great. Whenever deGrom retires, he’s going to have a fascinating Hall of Fame case. He’s not going to have big compiler numbers — hell, he doesn’t even have 100 career wins yet — but he still has the aura of a Hall of Famer, with a stretch of being historically dominant. His JAWS score, right now, is almost identical to Felix Hernandez, who looks like he’s going to get voted into the Hall in the next few years. (Though he does trail Johan Santana, and I’m still angry about him being one-and-done.)
Getting back on point…I think it is fair to ask, how good was Jacob deGrom, really, in 2025? Ace good, or solid mid-rotation starter good?
deGrom’s 2.97 ERA is impressive, the 13th best among the 70 major league pitchers with at least 150 innings pitched in 2025. His ERA+ of 123, however, ranked him 21st — a byproduct of B-R’s park factors treating the Shed as extremely pitcher-friendly. And his 2.9 bWAR had him tied for 27th in the majors, tied with Quinn Priester and, ironically, Merrill Kelly, and one slot behind his new teammate MacKenzie Gore, due to the credit that the Rangers defense (which B-R’s numbers have as easily the best in the majors in 2025) gets towards his run prevention.
Interestingly, deGrom didn’t allow an unearned run all season. Well, maybe that’s not interesting to you, but it is to me.
If you prefer fWAR, deGrom does better there, with his 3.4 fWAR being 21st in the majors among the 70 pitchers with at least 150 innings in 2025. And his xERA (3.36) ordinal ranking was even better, as he slotted in at 11th overall.
So its kind of complicated.
deGrom isn’t the same pitcher he was when he was with the Mets. His K rate — 27.7% in 2025 — is just great, not otherworldly (in that ridiculous 2021 season, he struck out 45% of the batters he faced). His walk rate is also great, not unworldly, though the combination of great K rate and great walk rate is still pretty special. His velocity is down a tad from his final years with the Mets (though higher, interestingly, than it was in his earlier years in New York), though with a fastball that average 97.5 mph in 2025 he’s still one of the hardest throwing starting pitchers in the game.
deGrom in 2025, though, did have issues with allowing loud contact. And, of course, he had issues with the long ball in 2025, allowing the highest HR/9 rate of his career, and the 16th highest of our 70 pitchers with at least 150 innings.
One of the interesting evolutions deGrom has undergone since joining the Rangers is that he has become a fly ball pitcher. That evolution has actually been in progress for a while — his first four seasons with the Mets, he had a ground ball rate of 47.4% to 48.0%. From 2019 to 2022 it dropped from 45.2% to 40.3%, and has been below 40% all three seasons with the Rangers, including 38.1% in 2025, per Statcast. As a point of reference, Statcast has the MLB average during deGrom’s career at 44.2%.
Really, deGrom’s homer issues didn’t become an issue until the back end of the 2025 season. Through the end of June, deGrom was sporting a 2.08 ERA and 3.08 FIP in 16 games, with just 9 homers allowed. For July through September, deGrom allowed 17 homers in 10 starts, resulting in a 4.07 ERA and a 4.34 FIP.
Weirdly, deGrom’s K rate actually improve somewhat in the final three months, while his walk rate stayed the same. His BABIP, which was miniscule all year — .230, 2nd best in our 70 pitcher sample — dipped slightly. He just went from giving up fewer than 1 home run per 9 innings in the first three months of the season to almost 2 bombs per 9 innings in the final three months.
Is it a cause for concern? Is this a trend, where we are going to be seeing deGrom feeding his gopher more and more often in 2026? Is it a matter of him just wearing down in his first season back after Tommy John surgery?
I do think its not unreasonable to think that the workload caught up to deGrom over the course of the 2025 season. The 172 innings he threw were more than he had thrown in the previous three seasons, majors and minors, combined. It was almost twice as many innings as he’d thrown in any single season, majors and minors combined, since 2019. And of course, he’s 37.
I’m not sure what to expect from deGrom in 2026. I expect he will be good. If he’s as good as he was in the first half of 2025, the Rangers will have one of the best pitchers in baseball.
I’d really like for that to be the case.
Previously:
Along with comedian, podcaster and new author John Cullen, we remember Rob Davison, who had one major moment against a marquee opponent in his very short stint on Long Island.
Like a lot of defensive defensemen, Rob Davison was not a player most people would remember. His job was preventing goals, not scoring them, for a very good San Jose Sharks team in the early 2000’s. When he was dealt to the Islanders at the tail end of the 2007-08 season, it barely registered with the fanbase and was more about filling a giant injury hole than anything else. He arrived late to his first game and would eventually leave the team after that playoff-free season.
BUT! In those 19-games, Rob Davison – of all people – scored a goal so crazy, so unbelievable, so memorable that we’re still talking about it 25 years later. In an otherwise pointless game at Nassau Coliseum between two teams going nowhere, Davison launched the puck 190-feet down the ice and ended up with one of the most ludicrous shorthanded goals in NHL history, forever tying him to former Sharks teammate Vesa Toskala in a moment of infamy no one who watched it will ever forget.
Instead of finding a Sharks fan to talk about Davison, we asked John – a fan of the hated Maple Leafs – to talk about that game, that goal and Toskala’s legacy in Toronto. Ironically, we all find a degree of sympathy for the goalie who faced an impossible play and whiffed on it the way just about anyone would have. We talk about his reaction to his friend Davison scoring a goal like that on him, and about how trading Davison helped the Sharks draft an upgrade, who has a goofy connection to the Islanders decades later. We also enjoy a rarely remembered fact about that famous game (that the Islanders still lost).
We can’t thank John enough for coming on. He’s a very busy man between his many podcasts, his new book – Curling Rocks! – being out (and recording its audio version) and his work for CBC covering curling at the Olympics. Check out his shows Broomgate, A Curling Scandal, What is…? A Jeopardy! Podcast (with Emily Heller), The POD Kast (with Bryan Quinby) and Blocked Party (with Stefen Heck).
A Weird Islanders Extra! bonus episode with us and John discussing the Islanders/Leafs/Tavares thing was released back in January.
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LaMelo Ball isn’t a child anymore. This was the justification used to hand-wave away Ball’s careless, stupid, reckless driving when he first entered the NBA, but now he’s the 24-year-old leader of the Charlotte Hornets and there’s no room for excuses. Ball is behaving like an asshole, and this was capped off Thursday night when the point guard refused to take questions from the media about his latest car accident.
Ball was behind the wheel of his custom Hummer this week when he swerved into oncoming traffic in the middle of uptown Charlotte, before hitting another vehicle and coming to a stop. Nobody was injured in the incident, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean it was okay, especially after seeing video of the speed at which the crash occurred.
This is not an isolated incident. Melo’s reckless driving has been well-documented ever since he entered the NBA. Routinely peeling out of the player parking lot at a high rate of speed in an array of exotic cars, Ball has been filmed coming close to cutting off other motorists, sideswiping fans, running red lights, and effectively being a danger to himself and others.
Ball was asked about the crash after Thursday night’s game and immediately got up and left the podium:
In 2024, the family of an 11-year-old needed police intervention to get insurance information from Ball after he sped out of the Spectrum Center and allegely ran over the boy’s foot while he was seeking an autograph. It led to the family filing a lawsuit against LaMelo to seek reimbursement for medical bills, with’s Ball’s lawyers arguing it was the child’s fault for getting too close to the vehicle — and asserting that the family should pay LaMelo’s legal fees as a result. That case is still ongoing, with the next court date scheduled for May 11, 2026.
Regardless of whether or not a court finds that the injury to the autograph-seeking child was really Ball’s fault or not, this latest wreck is just another chapter in an established pattern of dangerous driving by the player. It also happens at the worst possible time for a Hornets organization, which is finally showing signs of life, playing the best basketball the team has in over a decade, and legitimately looks like a dangerous team if they can close out the regular season and find a way into the playoffs. At a time when every ounce of focus from players should be on basketball, Ball has brought in a massive distraction.
Seeing a star player for the Hornets get into a wreck also opens old wounds for the organization, fans, and the city of Charlotte. January 12, 2000 was the day that Bobby Phills died. The shooting guard for the Charlotte Hornets and the team leader at the time, Phills embodied the ultimate underdog story as he failed in the NBA, went to Europe, then returned to Charlotte in 1997 to become one of the best dogged on-ball defenders of his time.
A player always hailed for doing things “the right way” and giving back to the community, all it took was one horrible lapse in judgment to end his life. In the early hours of January 12, Phills was goofing around on the road with teammate David Wesley in their sports cars, when Phills lost control of his Porsche going over 100 mph. He struck two vehicles, and was pronounced dead on the scene, with the other drivers lucky to only have sustained minor injuries.
It was a loss that did immeasurable damage, not only for a city that mourned an athlete, but for the Charlotte Hornets organization. The 30-year-old’s role as the veteran leader of the team at the time was to nurture and help develop a young Ricky Davis, whom the Hornets took with an eye towards him being the future of the organization alongside Baron Davis. Ricky Davis regressed without Phills being a steadying force; he was traded, the team fell apart, and relocated to New Orleans following the 2001-02 season. It’s not that Phills’ death directly led to the team moving, but there is an alternate, unrealized timeline where the Hornets of that era reach their potential, return to their early-90s zenith, which gives way to the organization getting a new arena deal, and staying in Charlotte.
That’s a footnote to this, but underscores the inexorable link between traffic accidents and the Charlotte Hornets, and why it was triggering for older fans to see Ball driving recklessly even before this latest incident. Every single player on the Hornets knows the story of Bobby Phills. They see his jersey in the rafters of every home game. His cautionary tale is preached to every rookie upon arriving, and constant reminders remain in the community of his legacy.
LaMelo Ball has grown significantly on the court this season, evolving from a shoot-first point guard who tried to do everything himself to becoming a willing piece in a larger puzzle that has led to immense success. Now he needs to grow the hell up off the court. The dangerous driving isn’t just an aside, or a punchline anymore — and he needs to realize that. Too much is at stake, not in basketball, but for his life. Far too many times fate has smiled on him while he careens out of the arena like Mr. Toad, and this latest accident needs to be the final wake up call for a 24-year-old who somehow still doesn’t get it when he’s on the road.
The Brooklyn Nets returned to action last night and faced off against a potential NBA title contender in the Cleveland Cavaliers. As you’d expect, the Cavs showed why they’re contenders and the Nets are not as they cut the Nets up by 28 points.
From facing title contenders to facing the reigning, defending NBA Champions. The Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t going to set the single season wins record, but they are on top of a tough Western Conference. They went into the All Star break with a 110-93 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
YES Network on TV. Gotham Sports on streaming. WFAN on radio. Tip after 8 PM.
No Nic Claxton. Night two of a back-to-back so don’t be surprised if there are more absences.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Thomas Sorber, and Ajay Mitchell are out.
In a fun twist, the Cavs and Thunder will play each other Sunday afternoon on ABC.
We mentioned that the Thunder aren’t going to set the win record since that was the early discussion when they got off to their hot start. However, they’re still one of the major favorites to win the NBA championship. From Ricky O’Donnell at the mothership:
When they’re healthy, we’ll see if they can get back to their top form.
The Thunder started this season at 24-1 and looked like they would be a heavy favorite to win the championship. Since then, OKC went 18-13 into the All-Star break, and looked a lot more beatable. Likely MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently sidelined with an abdominal injury, Jalen Williams is battling a hamstring strain after being kept out with a wrist injury to start the year, and breakout sophomore Ajay Mitchell has also been in and out of the lineup lately.
OKC needs to know if Williams can get back to the All-NBA level he played at this year, because he just hasn’t been the same player this season. SGA can still take this team over the finish line, but his teammates need to hit some shots. The Thunder are still a pretty average shooting team from deep, and that can catch up to them in the playoffs. The defense will still be elite if Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Alex Caruso can all stay healthy for the playoffs, and that alone should make them the favorites before it starts. I really think SGA is a special player, and one of the three or four best guards the league has seen since Michael Jordan retired. He can carry the Thunder across the finish line to become the league’s first back-to-back champ since Kevin Durant was on the Golden State Warriors. It just doesn’t feel like this is an undeniable dynasty at this point.
We’ll see what they look like once they’re back at full strength.
We’ll see more of the kids tonight. Danny Wolf filled up the stat sheet in his 28 minutes last night, and in the event Porter Jr is out tonight, he’ll get more time on the court. Like the other rookies, Wolf needs as many minutes as possible so he can continue to grow.
Speaking of young players, Jared McCain is looking to find his way on his new team. He came over from the Philadelphia 76ers prior to the deadline, and he’s slotting in to a nice role where he gets 20 minutes a night while the big dogs heal up. If he makes the most of this opportunity, Mark Daigneault could turn to him to provide some shooting in the playoffs.
For the Nets, they’ve had to consistently find ways to pick themselves up from blowout losses. Four out of their last five losses have been by at least 16 points. You learn a lot during the course of a long season, and for this young Nets team, they hope the lessons (and losses) from this year will carry them into 2027 and beyond.
The Thunder’s core is still incredibly young, and Holmgren’s continued growth plays a big part in OKC’s present and future success. Holmgren’s at a career high 56 percent from the field, thanks in part to the team finding more shots for him on the inside. He’s taking more shots inside of three feet, and he’s shooting a blistering 81.5 percent on the inside. Getting easy buckets always makes life easier and while Gilgeous-Alexander heals up, OKC can lean on Holmgren a bit more and trust him to make something good happen every team he has the ball on the inside.
Day’ron Sharpe will have his hands full tonight. Brooklyn got outrebounded by 20 last night and if they want to be competitive tonight, that’s going to have to change. Sharpe has done well on the boards and has a soft touch at the rim so he’s always down to give Jordi Fernandez some good minutes.
Ones in the air for Eric Dane
More reading: Daily Thunder, SB Nation NBA, New York Post, New York Daily News, Clutch Points, Nets Wire, Steve’s Newsletter
Towards the end of the offseason, Paul Toboni went on a spree of waiver claims. In particular, he added quite a few bullpen arms to the mix. With the number of guys he got, odds are that at least one of them hits and makes an impact for the team. I took a look at my three favorite claims he made.
My favorite pitcher Toboni acquired from this process is Andre Granillo. While he technically was not a waiver claim, he came to the Nats as part of the waiver process. The Nats claimed pitcher George Soriano from the Braves on January 30th, then quickly DFA’d him on February 5th.
However, the Cardinals wanted to cut the waiver line to get Soriano. To do that, they just traded reliever Andre Granillo to the Nats in exchange for Soriano. Honestly, I do not really get this move from the Cardinals perspective because I think Granillo is the much better pitcher. In his first taste of MLB action last year, Granillo posted a 4.74 ERA, much better than Soriano’s 8.35 ERA. Granillo is also the younger pitcher.
In addition to mostly holding his own at the MLB level, Granillo was dominant in AAA. He posted a 1.29 ERA in 42 innings at the Triple-A level. Granillo’s bread and butter is a wipeout slider he throws well over half the time. At the MLB level, Granillo threw the slider 65% of the time. Despite the heavy usage, the pitch was still effective and got whiffs almost 35% of the time in the MLB.
While Granillo’s fastball sits at about 95 MPH, the quality of the pitch is not great, so he has to rely on that slider. However, that slider is good enough to make him a solid middle reliever. Granillo also showed an occasional changeup to lefties which had some promise. If that can become a real weapon, there could be higher leverage upside for the 25 year old.
I just think Granillo has everything you want in a waiver claim reliever. He dominated in the minors, is still young, has intriguing stuff, has minor league options and held his own at the MLB level. At worst, Granillo will be a solid up and down relief arm. However, I think he is fully capable of grabbing a full time spot in the bullpen.
Another pitcher who has the talent to grab a full time bullpen spot is Gus Varland. He looked like he was on his way to doing that with the White Sox back in 2024. That season, he posted a 3.42 ERA in 26.1 innings with 27 strikeouts. However, Varland’s 2025 was ravaged by injuries.
He did not appear in the MLB and only made 8 appearances in the minors. If he can get back to what he was in 2024, that is a big league reliever though. Unlike Granillo, Varland’s bread and butter is the fastball. He sits 95-96 MPH and the pitch has great shape. It has explosive life at the top of the zone at its best.
Varland’s heater gets both run and ride. It has 18 inches of ride and 11 inches of run. Both of those numbers are above average. That life is why he was able to throw his heater 55.6% of the time and still get quality results. To go with the heater, Varland has a hard slider that is a bit inconsistent. It can be good at times, but is also susceptible to damage.
Like Granillo, Varland has experimented with a changeup, and making that a consistent third pitch would be helpful. I just think Varland has the ability to be a solid middle reliever who can make 60 appearances in a season and put up an ERA around 3.50. That is nothing flashy, but the Nats need guys like that.
The last potentially impactful waiver claim I want to talk about is a slightly different profile. Paxton Schultz, who the Nats claimed from the Blue Jays, is more of a multi-inning relief arm. He is even able to make some spot starts if needed.
The 28 year old was solid when called upon for the Blue Jays last year. He posted a decent 4.38 ERA in 24.2 innings. Schultz struck out 28 batters and only walked 8 in that time as well. He does not have elite stuff, so he got hit at times, but he always competed out there.
Schultz also performed in multiple roles. He made 13 appearances for the Jays last year, with two of them being starts. Schultz went at least two innings in 6 of his 13 outings. Like Varland, Schultz has a fastball with good carry. He does not get as much ride as Varland, but he also throws from a lower slot. The lower slot and still good ride makes his fastball shape strong.
The heater averages just under 94 MPH, but that shape helps it play up. As someone who goes multiple innings, Schultz has a deeper pitch mix than most relievers. In addition to the heater, Schultz throws a cutter, a changeup and a slider. None of them are elite, but the cutter and changeup are good pitches.
Schultz is a bit like Brad Lord. He can just do whatever you need him to in a bullpen and can even make starts. Lord is more of a real starter than Schultz, but you get the point. The Nats have quite a few pitchers who can fill that long relief role, so Schultz needs to pitch well to make the team.
Even if he does not make the team out of camp, I have a hard time believing he will not make an impact at some point. Schultz is a very valuable optionable arm to have. When the bullpen is tired, you can call him up and he can absorb innings for you.
In a sea of waiver claims this offseason, I think Andre Granillo, Gus Varland and Paxton Schultz will be the most impactful. They all have a history at the MLB level and do not require much projection. None are likely to be stars, but all of them are capable of being solid contributors.
Yesterday, The Baltimore Banner reported that Jordan Westburg has undergone elbow imaging, indicating that there was concern about damage to ligaments. On Friday morning, Orioles GM Mike Elias delivered the official news about what’s going on with Westburg’s elbow. The infielder has been diagnosed with a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. That’s the ligament that requires Tommy John surgery after a full tear.
According to Elias, the initial treatment for Westburg is going to be a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection. At a minimum, he will be out through the end of April and things will be re-evaluated at that point. The PRP injection is an option to avoid surgery for only a partial tear. It doesn’t always work, as was demonstrated two years ago now when Kyle Bradish tried to avoid TJ by getting the PRP injection. In Bradish’s case, it worked for eight starts and then he needed the surgery anyway.
If you’re not optimistic about the PRP working and Westburg avoiding the surgery, I don’t blame you. In this case, for a position player, there’s not really a lot of downside to trying it. While position player rehab times for Tommy John are typically quicker than pitchers, Westburg would be done for the year if he decided he was getting the surgery tomorrow. He would also have a good shot of being fully ready to return for the start of next year’s spring training. That should still be the case even if he ends up deciding on May 1 that the only option is surgery. Trying the PRP injection is a longshot with almost no cost and a decent upside.
Westburg felt the elbow soreness while rehabbing for his oblique issue, Elias said. The imaging done on his elbow suggested that Westburg has probably had the partial tear in the UCL for a while. The throwing done by a position player just doesn’t do the same kind of stress on the elbow as pitching, so he could probably play through the issue and maybe not even think of it as much of an issue until this month when he suddenly could not. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
This is not good news. About all you can say about it is that at least now the Orioles have some clarity, in the sense that they know Westburg is going to miss at least a month, so they’ve got the remainder of spring training to figure out a solution to this absence. Between Jackson Holliday’s broken hamate bone and this, two of the four infield spots will be covered by backup options as the season begins. Holliday, at least, shouldn’t be out for as long, and his playing at all this season is less in doubt.
Whether the Orioles have readily-available solutions based on who is in camp already is another thing. Coby Mayo is taking aspirational grounders at third base and recently-acquired infielder Blaze Alexander might be able to be the guy for second base. Mayo needs some work at third and maybe he can’t be good enough no matter how much work he puts in. He also needs to hit enough to be worth playing at any position.
I hope the Orioles don’t get too invested in believing that Westburg will be back on May 1. I also don’t think that they will do this. They will know the PRP success rate even better than any of us. There’s only so much they can do on February 20 to adjust. “Use the backup plan we already had in place” is probably going to look the same as “do nothing.” As spring training moves along, we’ll get a sense of what that backup plan is and on Opening Day we’ll start to see how well it works.
Spring Training games still haven’t begun but that didn’t stop Kevin Cash from declaring the team’s Opening Day starter.
Taking the mound on March 26th in St Louis for the Tampa Bay Rays on Opening Day will be Drew Rasmussen.
“I’m really honored. It’s really cool to get the opportunity to pitch on opening day. Just being given the opportunity, it is a blessing, and it is humbling. And I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Rasmussen, 30, was originally selected by the Rays with the 31st overall selection in the 2017 draft but the right-handed pitcher went unsigned; a year later, Rasmussen was taken in the 6th round by the Milwaukee Brewers. He’d quickly make his big league debut in the 2020 season and then eventually find his way to the Rays as he would be traded to Tampa Bay for Willy Adames in 2021. He had a breakout campaign in 2022 and looked tobe a possible Cy Young candidate early in 2023 before his arm decided to explode and he would mis the majority of the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
This past year, Rasmussen made his return to be being a full time starting pitcher and enjoyed an All-Star campaign, compiling a 2.76 ERA | 3.84 FIP with a 21.7 K% & 6.3 BB% 0ver 150 innings pitched; due to Rasmussen’s injury history, the Rays limited his workload throughout the season, never permitting him to throw more than six innings in a game despite stellar performances.
The plan seems to be different in 2026 with Kyle Snyder saying that he think it’s “very reasonable” to expect Rasmussen to provide 170 innings this season, and bestowing upon him a starring role, in addition to his new clubhouse responsibilities as the clubhouse’s MLBPA representative.
The Knicks aren’t winning it all this season.
Assuming they finish the regular season with a top-three seed, they’ll only meet the Pistons in the ECF.
That’s it, that’s where everything will end. The season won’t last past that.
On Towns’ comfort in offense:
“He’s comfortable. We’re continuing to try to do different things to help free him up. And we’ll continue to search to try to do different things to free him up throughout the course of the year.”
On choosing Shamet over Bridges to close the game:
“Landry had hit a couple shots. We needed to score. They’re both really good defenders. And so I just stayed with Landry. But it wasn’t anything where, ‘Oh, I’m going to sit Mikal because he’s not doing this, or he’s not doing that.’ We were looking to score points and Landry was the only one to make a shot from behind the arc.”
On the Pistons’ defensive adjustments:
“In the first half, too, [the Pistons] switch a lot. So, with [Mitchell Robinson], they’re going to blitz or double-team the ball. With KAT, they’re going to switch, especially if they create separation. And so we tried running some of the same actions they switched, and he didn’t get as many good looks as he did in the second half. We opened it up and tried to set the screen a little bit higher and a little bit quicker in that second half, so we can get right to it, which freed him up at times.”
On defending Cade Cunningham’s size:
“He can do a lot for a guy his size and puts teams in predicaments with the stuff that he’s doing because really your guy is [6-foot-2], 6-1 and is on a guy who is 6-7 doing it. And you’re putting a small forward on him. Most of the time the small forward isn’t used to navigating the stuff that he does on the floor.”
On failing to keep ball out of the middle:
“We want to try to keep the ball off the middle of the floor. And we didn’t do a good job of it. We allowed him to get to the middle of the floor often. And when he got to the middle of the floor he hurt us. So we have to do a better job of trying to keep the ball on the sidelines and not allowing it to get to the middle of the floor.”
On the three-point shooting struggles on Thursday:
“We did a great job of generating some wide-open looks, especially from the 3-point line. They just didn’t go in tonight.”
On Sochan’s debut minutes:
“I thought his minutes were pretty good. It gives us the ability to give a guy like Cade [Cunningham] a different look. You know with his length and his strength and his athleticism, and we want to be physical.”
On Sochan’s physical defense:
“He hadn’t played in a while, but most of the time that he was on the floor and guarding Cade, there was a physicality to it, and we liked that. We need it.”
On overall debut evaluation:
“I thought for him, not having played in a while and him only being here for a couple of days, I thought he did a pretty good job.”
On the locker room disappointment following another lose:
“Nobody wants to lose. And everybody is disappointed. And I’m sure everybody is trying to figure out how they could’ve played better to help the team win. So it’s not a fun feeling. It shouldn’t be a fun feeling for me or anybody else in that locker room. But for sure it’s not the end of the world. We got to regroup, watch the film to see how to get better and get the next one.”
On Adam Silver’s tanking fixes:
“Definitely trying to make somebody fight for it at the end of the season. Whether you have a small tournament before the playoffs start or something like that to where it’s not just guaranteed that the team with the worst record gets the best odds. That may change it a little bit.
“Adam’s a smart guy and he’s figured out a lot of really good things for this league, so I have a ton of faith in him that he will figure it out.”
On the Pistons’ regular season sweep:
“Playoffs is a whole different ballgame. We’re not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, they beat us in the regular season.’ We’re not thinking like that.”
On Pistons’ regular-season dominance:
“It’s a new year.”
On another loss to the Pistons:
“They play great against us. I think today was not as bad as the first two losses. But it’s just not up to our standards.”
On failing to slow Cunningham:
“We just didn’t slow him down fast enough, or even at all.”
On yet another loss to Detroit:
“It builds a confidence going into a series. You also have great film to see what did work.”
On his role on the Brown’s offense:
“I mean, our offense is our offense. It’s been that way all year. So we have our system and we’re gonna — regardless of who’s in the game or not in the game — we run the system that we have implemented for our team to the best of our abilities.”
On his third-quarter aggressiveness:
“Just trying to make a play, be aggressive with play-making. Got a chance to get a shot up and wanted to capitalize on those opportunities. And hopefully get us a spark, start the third quarter on a strong note. What I definitely wanted to, if I could control anything in the third, was get us off to a quick start. I’m happy I was able to do that and find chances to impose my will in the game.”
On no moral victories in losing to Detroit by fewer than 90 points:
“There’s no moral victories or one New York wants to see. But we got a lot of film and we’ll see each other in the playoffs, and we got to be ready.”
On his role uncertainty after Sochan’s addition:
“I’m just gonna continue what I was doing. Keep working and being ready for each opportunity that I’m gonna get. I’m not worried about that. I know the coaching staff and the team is gonna do whatever is good for the team, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
On his mindset amid his rookie season:
“I’m a rookie, rookie year, first year in the league. The league, anything can happen, so I’m just gonna take what I have to take and not take anything for granted and just keep working until I’m gonna be that player [I want to be].”
On where he’s improved the most in the NBA:
“I think my 3-point shot. I think my 3-point shot became a little bit more consistent. I think that’s the biggest thing, and maybe my defense too, a little bit.”
On his MVP candidacy:
“It comes from doing the things I said, what I needed to do to be in that conversation. Now that we’re getting closer, there’s more [talk] like ‘What is your case? You should speak on it.’ I don’t really care to speak on it. I want the people that vote on it to be smart enough to look at the game for themselves.”
On sweeping the Knicks:
“To sweep a team as good as them, they play high-level basketball. To beat them, we’re trying to win tiebreaker and stuff, that means something. Just competing against the Eastern teams, beating a good team, means a lot.”
On making a statement on Thursday:
“What is it? I mean we’re the best team in the East, I don’t know what statement. The statement is coming to play every night, and we’re going to compete until you lay down for us.”
One of the my favorite bits in Mets discourse these days is that the only part of roster building that David Stearns is actually excited about is dumpster diving for relief arms. Signing a young superstar to a record-setting contract? Boring. Trading for a potentially electric center fielder or a very affordable #2 starter? Grunt work. Digging into NPB stats to pick out some minor league guys to invite to camp? There we go, that’s the good stuff.
Enter Mike Baumann (not to be confused with Michael Baumann the Fangraphs writer). A third round pick out of Jacksonville University in 2017, Baumann was never a top prospect not even a particularly notable one; even in the dog days of the Orioles rebuild, his stuff was never good enough to merit an extended chance in the rotation, nor was he very good out of the bullpen. The Orioles eventually cut him loose during the 2024 season, and he’d wind up bouncing between not one, not two, but four other teams before heading off to Japan for the 2025 season. After 15 mediocre innings with the Yakult Swallows (where he walked 7.2 batters per nine), he’s now back stateside on a minor league deal with an invite to camp.
What did the Mets see here? Well it’s definitely not the top-line performance as we just discussed, so it must be the underlying stuff. And indeed, all the public-facing stuff models have something positive to say about Baumann’s 2024 arsenal. His knuckle-curve was scored a 67 by PitchingBot (20-80 scale), a 118 by Stuff+ (100 is average), a 122 (100 is average) by Rob Orr’s metrics, and -1.1 by Baseball Prospectus’s StuffPro (negative is better). The movement profile isn’t amazing, but he throws it hard for a curve at 87.8 MPH. You can catch a couple shots of this pitch proving to be an effective put away offering in this 2024 compilation – watch out for the Miguel Sano jump scare at the start.
Baumann also has a fastball that’s consistently graded out as slightly above average (ignoring what I assume is a calibration or small sample size issue from PitchingBot in 2024), so you can see the potential building blocks. Maybe it’s a tweak to the fastball shape to make it a more effective offering and get Baumann two above average pitches. Maybe it’s an adjustment to his mix to focus more on the knuckle curve. Perhaps it’s a new third pitch or an improvement to his current slider or changeup that makes it all work better together. It could even be that some of this has already happened in Japan last year and we just can’t see it because we don’t have the data. There are a lot of different directions this could go.
Most minor league signings of this type never amount to much – a single appearance or three in the dog days of summer, or potentially only a couple of Spring Training outings before the club goes in a different direction. The success the Mets have had recently with pitching development is infectious though, as is David Stearns’ track record with building bullpens. You almost believe that everything they touch will turn to gold. Maybe that will be the case for Mike Baumann, providing him a respite from his professional odyssey and the Mets meme creators more fuel for their most reliable bit.
With actual (spring training) games about to start, all the major prospect lists entering 2026 are in, which allows us to form a consensus of sorts. For the Dodgers prospects, the outfielders lead the way.
Josue De Paula is the top-rated Dodgers prospect at Baseball Prospectus, MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs, and ESPN. Eduardo Quintero is the top-rated prospect in the system according to The Athletic and Baseball America. De Paula’s average prospect rank in baseball at those six sites is 18.5, with Quintero averaging 27.7.
Zyhir Hope is the other Dodgers prospect named in the top 100 at all six of those national outlets, ranging from 18th to 63rd with an average of 37.5. Mike Sirota, completing the Dodgers outfield quartet, was ranked between 34th and 60th at five of the six sites, but was outside of the top 110 at FanGraphs.
Those six sites have the longest track record of national prospect rankings, but the Dodgers outfielders lead the way elsewhere, too. Thomas Nestico at his TJ Stats newsletter ranked the four Dodgers outfielders among his top 52 prospects, while Aram Leighton had the outfield quartet among his top 41 prospects at Just Baseball.
Shortstop Emil Morales was also named to five top-100 lists, ranging between 56th and 92nd on those lists, missing out only on the Baseball America list.
Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic, and ESPN all have standard top-100 lists, while Baseball Prospectus ranked the top 101 and FanGraphs went 110 deep. But there were also a few “just missed”lists of 10 or 20extra prospects, while Kiley McDaniel at ESPN decided to also rank his 101 through 200 prospects, too.
In all, 10 different Dodgers prospects were ranked within the top 111 in baseball entering 2026. If we limit it to top 100 only, seven Dodgers were included on at least one of those lists.
| Player | Pos | 2026 age | BA | MLB | Athletic | ESPN | BP | FG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josue De Paula | OF | 21 | 24 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 14 | 17 |
| Eduardo Quintero | OF | 20 | 20 | 30 | 9 | 37 | 27 | 43 |
| Zyhir Hope | OF | 21 | 63 | 27 | 36 | 40 | 18 | 41 |
| Mike Sirota | OF | 23 | 45 | 60 | 51 | 55 | 34 | |
| Emil Morales | SS | 19 | 92 | 65 | 65 | 56 | 61 | |
| River Ryan | SP | 27 | 55 | 125 | 107 | |||
| Alex Freeland | SS | 24 | 87 | 103 | 102-111 | |||
| Jackson Ferris | SP | 22 | 101-110 | 128 | ||||
| Ching-Hsien Ko | OF | 19 | 101-110 | |||||
| Zach Ehrhard | OF | 23 | 111 |
LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — American freeskier Hunter Hess and three of his teammates have qualified for Friday’s 12-man halfpipe Olympic final, when they will have a shot at delivering the first gold medal in nearly two weeks of freeskiing or snowboarding at the Livigno snow park.
Hess was thrust into the spotlight at the Milan Cortina Games when U.S. President Donald Trump called him a “loser” after the athlete had said that "just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
Hess made a “L” sign with his hand, with L meaning “loser,” against his helmet after his first qualifying run on Friday. He then told reporters that he stands by the statement that had drawn Trump's ire, while also reiterating that he loves his country.
Hess will be joined by fellow Americans Alex Ferreira, Nick Goepper and Birk Irving in the final.
Brendan MacKay of Canada topped qualifying, when skiers got two runs down the halfpipe, with their best score counting. Two other Canadians also advanced.
Reigning world champion Finley Melville Ives of New Zealand missed the cut after crashing on both of his qualifying runs.
Elizabeth Lemley won gold in women’s moguls freeskiing at the Winter Games, but the moguls events are held at a separate venue in Livigno. The Livigno snow park hosts the halfpipe, slopestyle and big air events for freeski and snowboarding.
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics