Worldwide Sports News

1922
The White Sox purchased right-handed reliever José Acosta from the Washington Senators. Acosta, born in La Habana in 1891, was the 33rd Cuban player in major league history and the first ever to play for the White Sox.

Acosta went 0-2 with an 8.40 ERA and -0.4 over five games for the 1922 White Sox. He would pitch for six more years, until age 38, finishing with 195 professional wins across MLB, the minors and foreign leagues.

1971
Another year … another Acosta?

The White Sox purchased pitcher Cecilio “Cy” Acosta from the Mexican League — no doubt aided by White Sox legend Minnie Miñoso, who was then a player-manager for Acosta’s Jalisco club.

Acosta’s U.S. debut came that summer, in 24 games for the Triple-A Tucson Toros, struggling with the transition to the upper minors by logging a 5.27 ERA. However, that was his last unsightly season in the White Sox organization, as Acosta was almost unbelievably good in a short career with the White Sox. The righthander compiled a 153 ERA+ and 5.7 WAR in just 186 innings from 1972-74, including the (tied for) sixth-best relief season in White Sox history (4.1 WAR in 1973). Acosta was sold to Philadelphia for the 1974 season and pitched in just six more games in his MLB career.

Acosta also was the first AL pitcher to bat after the institution of the DH rule, striking out in Dick Allen’s place on June 20, 1973.

Before and after his MLB stint, Acosta was a Mexican League stalwart. He pitched 17 seasons (1968-71, 1975-86), going 122-137 with a 3.42 ERA. He was elected to the Salón de la Fama de Beisbol (Hall of Fame) in Monterrey, Nueva León in Mexico in 2005.

1985
Chicago native and Niles prep school product Greg Luzinski, who signed with the White Sox in 1981 and revitalized his career in the DH spot, retired.

Luzinski was dumped at the end of Spring Training 1981 by his lifelong franchise, the Philadelphia Phillies — and the White Sox were all too happy to snap him up. “Bull” hit the ground running, clubbing his way through the strike-shortened 1981 campaign well enough to pile up 21 homers, 68 RBIs, an .841 OPS and a 23rd-place finish in MVP voting. He was every bit as good in 1982, and then had his best traditional-stats season for the White Sox in 1983 (32 homers, 95 RBIs, .854 OPS, 17th in MVP voting) and helped push the South Siders to 99 wins.

Among many White Sox to take a step back in 1984, Luzinski was as bad as any, dropping from 2.3 WAR to -0.3, and an 89 OPS+ that was by far the worst of his career. Thus, the Bull hung up his spikes, winding up his career with 307 homers and a 130 OPS+. Per JAWS, Luzinski remains the 91st best left fielder in major league history. And coincidentally, Luzinski’s closest similarity scores are of two former White Sox: Roy Sievers (94.3%) and Jermaine Dye (93.6%).

1990
Two former White Sox factor into the first and only championship of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. Both Lamar Johnson and Steve Kemp homered in a 12-4 win for the St. Petersburg Pelicans over the West Palm Beach Tropics. Johnson had three RBIs in the game and was named the Star of Stars for the game.

The league lost four teams in Florida for the 1990-91 season and added two in Arizona, with the league schedule shortening from 72 to 56 games. On December 28, it folded and did not re-form for 1991-92.

Congratulations to Carlos Santana on finding a team for the 2026 season.

The Diamondbacks will be his 9th team, which is crazy for a guy who has spent 11 years with one of those.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers showed off just how full their free agency haul has gotten, by DFAing one of the guys they signed this offseason.

The rest of baseball really needs to wake up. Presumably LA will start adding depth by giving out MILB contracts that are $1M+.

Hello everyone! Welcome to our new Daily Question series for the month of February. With Spring Training around the corner, we want to hear what you think 2026 holds for your Minnesota Twins. Let’s get excited for baseball!

Yesterday we talked trades, today, let’s talk free agents.

The reason I wanted to hit trades first is that the remaining 2026 free agent options are fairly bleak. There’s some great options on the market if you need starting pitching, but unfortunately for the Twins, that’s the one area of relative strength on this team. Plus, Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen are well out of Tom Pohlad’s price range.

Using FanGraphs’ handy free agent tracker, you can sort by projected 2026 WAR and see there’s very little left for the Twins’ needs. Just like with the trades, the Twins need right-handed relievers, right-handed hitting outfielders, and a utility man who can reasonably play shortstop 2-3 times per week, given Brooks Lee’s injury history.

In my opinion, there’s three players the Twins should be prioritizing.

1. Miguel Andujar, OF: the former Yankees top prospect has carved out a nice career for himself with the A’s over the past few seasons. He doesn’t offer much value defensively or on the base paths, but he crushes lefties and has a strong arm in the outfield. At this point of the offseason, you could do a lot worse.
2. Dauri Moreta, RHP: Moreta looked to be the Pirates’ future closer as recently as 2023 before he missed all of 2024 and most of 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He flashed good stuff in the second half of last season, and would be controllable for two additional seasons if the Twins want to keep him around. Another year removed from surgery, he could be closing games in Minnesota by midseason.
3. Ramon Urias, IF: Urias was one of the league’s better utility men from 2021-2024 with the Orioles, but his offensive production slipped between Baltimore and Houston in 2025. He hasn’t played short since 2022, but that’s more due to ironman Gunnar Henderson taking over in 2023 and never looking back. If the Twins feel he can still handle shortstop, he’s the best option from a very limited remaining selection.

Take a look at FanGraphs’ list and let me know if there’s anyone you think the Twins should still pursue. It’s not great, but there may still be ways to upgrade on the margins.

Welcome to Wednesday. The Yankees’ pitchers and catchers will officially report to spring training a week from today! Hurrah. There’s not much else going on though, so we’ll get into today’s discussion prompt.

The Yankees have won 27 championships of course, but there have still been plenty of seasons that ended with frustrating results. Here’s just a smattering that come to mind:

• The 1960 Yanks bludgeoned the Pirates in the World Series in terms of run differential; it didn’t matter when they lost in seven games on Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off bomb.
• Prior to their long playoff drought, the 1980 and 1981 Yanks saw their seasons ended by two postseason opponents from the previous decade who flipped the script (the Royals and Dodgers).
• The 1985 Yanks won 97 games in Don Mattingly’s MVP season and Rickey Henderson’s superb New York debut, but missed the playoffs since the Wild Card did not yet exist and Toronto beat them out for the AL East.
• No AL team had a better record in mid-August of 1994 than the ascendant Yankees. A labor dispute cut the season short on August 11th and the World Series was cancelled. Fans never got to know if this Mattingly team would have gotten him to that Fall Classic.
• The Yanks did return to the playoffs at last in 1995, but after jumping out to a 2-0 series lead over the Mariners, they lost three in a row in Seattle to get eliminated with Edgar Martinez delivering a dagger of a double for the final walk-off blow. David Cone still curses the Kingdome.
• Can one really complain after a three-peat dynasty finally ends in 2001? Well, despite some downright thrilling playoff heroics in wake of 9/11, it did end in brutal fashion thanks to a shocking Mariano Rivera blown save that featured bad defense, an inexplicable Tony Womack double, and Luis Gonzalez winning the World Series for Arizona on a bloop to shortstop with the infield in.
• The 2003 Yanks might have been the best team in franchise history to not win a World Series. They won a playoff series for the ages too, as an ALCS Game 7 rally off Pedro Martinez and Aaron Boone’s walk-off homer created an all-time moment. Instead of riding that wave to a championship, they got clowned by the Marlins of all teams in a six-game World Series loss that ended in Josh Beckett’s Yankee Stadium shutout.
• 2004. There have been 10,000 sports documentaries about this one, and they’re still being churned out. NEXT.
• Although the Yankees had four deeply frustrating first-round exits during the first decade of this century, 2006 might take the cake. The Tigers had stumbled badly down the stretch to squander their 10-game AL Central lead and fall into a Wild Card spot. The Yankees were “Murderers’ Row and Canó,” in the words of Detroit skipper Jim Leyland. Guess which one of these teams fell apart in the ALDS?
• The Yankees’ post-Derek Jeter youth movement hit the jackpot in 2017 with rookie Aaron Judge suddenly turning into a 50-homer MVP candidate. This popular team went from low preseason expectations all the way to Game 7 of the ALCS, which they lost to an Astros club that soon became infamous.
• Take your pick from the Aaron Boone Era. 2019, when the 103-win “Next Man Up” Yanks went down in the flames to the Astros in the ALCS again, this time in Jose Altuve walk-off fashion? 2022, when another ALCS rematch with Houston ended in a thoroughly uncompetitive sweep? Or perhaps 2024, when one year of Juan Soto got New York back to the Fall Classic, but a previously supernova Judge went cold in October and the World Series against the Dodgers was lost with questionable managing and awful Game 5 defense?

The contenders are fierce. My old colleague Greg Kirkland always pointed to ’94 due to never getting to find out the true ending for what that team deserved. I was too young for that, but I think that’s entirely fair. Among the teams I watched most closely, 2001 was the most heartbreaking and 2004 the most embarrassing — though boy did the very end of 2024 give that a run for its money. What about you?

Today on the site, we’ll have two particular articles that will work in tandem with each other about a contentious topic at the moment: the Yankees’ bullpen. Andrés will take the optimistic view and argue why this group is being overlooked and could turn out to be quite good, while Jeff will be the opposition and detail why it’s a point of weakness at the moment that should have been improved. Elsewhere, we’ll have our Peter celebrate a forgotten
“Lefty” from Yankees history for our Birthdays series, and Nick will be on double duty for a season preview post on Paul Blackburn and a look book at Andy Pettitte’s shocking-but-welcome unretirement in spring 2012 as part of our 50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agents.

Continuing our February Daily Question series, we’re beginning today’s conversation with the question, “What is the thing you’re afraid to say out loud about this team?”

For the third consecutive offseason, the Brewers have swapped one of their key pitchers (Corbin Burnes in February 2024, Devin Williams in December 2024, Freddy Peralta this January) to reload with young players. This time it came in the form of Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, two of the team’s top prospects entering the year.

Beyond that obvious major change, this squad isn’t much different from the one that finished in first place in the NL Central with 97 wins last season. Brandon Woodruff is back as is most of the rest of the pitching staff. Isaac Collins and Nick Mears are now with the Royals, but the Brewers added another lefty arm in the form of Ángel Zerpa. Akil Baddoo adds some further depth to the outfield, while catcher Reese McGuire will compete with Jeferson Quero for the backup job.

But what is the thing you’re scared to say about this team?

Weigh in in the comments, and join us throughout the month as we keep these conversations rolling into spring training. Have a question you’d like to ask in a future BCB Daily Question? Drop one in the comments and we may use it later this month.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are going into the 2026 MLB season with a lot of optimism, largely in part due to an improving star pitcher in Paul Skenes and an offense that projects to be better than it was a year ago.

Trading for Tampa Bay Rays infielder Brandon Lowe and signing Ryan O’Hearn in free agency gives the Pirates reason to be hopeful when it comes to the offense, but there is a possibility that these offensive upgrades just aren’t enough.

The Pirates know that they are entering a potential contending window with Skenes approaching the prime of his career. Once they have No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin coming up, the Pirates will have the foundation for a true contender. However, there is a legitimate possibility that it all falls apart like it has in the past.

Gerrit Cole comes to mind when looking at a premier Pirates pitching prospect that was traded because the team couldn’t build a contender around him. The Pirates need to do everything in their power to ensure that Skenes doesn’t become the next iteration of Cole.

The moves this offseason indicate that the Pirates are committed to turning things around and trying to build a contender around Skenes. It isn’t something that can be built overnight, and the team still has several years of control when it comes to his contract. So, there is no immediate need for this trade to happen.

It’s something to think about in the back of the mind, but with Skenes under team control until 2029, the Pirates will only hear the noise get louder if the team doesn’t start winning more.

Framber Valdez should have been wined, dined and extolled at a lavish press conference, signed to a contract with enough zeroes to assure lifetime wealth and picking out furniture for his new home.

Instead, less than one week before the start of spring training, he sits unemployed.

Valdez, 32, the two-time All-Star who has averaged 30 starts a year the past four seasons, with Cy Young votes in three of them, was arguably the best pitcher on the free-agent market.

He was projected to be the highest-paid player this winter outside his former Houston Astros teammate, Kyle Tucker. Yet, three full months have come and gone, and Valdez continues to wait with questions abound throughout the game.

Is he asking for too much money? Are teams concerned about the wear and tear on his arm, pitching 809 innings in the regular season and postseason the past four years?

Do they wonder whether Valdez intentionally hit his own catcher, Cesar Salazar, in the chest with a 93-mph fastball out of frustration in September after giving up a grand slam against the New York Yankees?

Whatever the reason, or if it’s simply a matter of a slow developing market for free agent pitchers, Valdez is easily the best player remaining on the market.

With time running out, in a survey of scouts, executives and agents, here are their predictions for the top six candidates to sign Valdez:

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles remain the heavy favorite to sign Valdez, and could turn a fabulous winter into a spectacular one. And let’s face it, if they’re going to have a real chance to bounce back and win the AL East, they need another front-line starter.

Valdez would give them a formidable rotation with Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Dean Kremer and Zach Eflin already in the mix. And remember, they were aggressive in the bidding for Ranger Suarez before he signed a five-year, $130 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.

The Orioles are clearly the team to beat in the Valdez sweepstakes, executives believe.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Orioles’ biggest threat to signing Valdez is the Blue Jays. They’ve had perhaps the best winter of any team in baseball, spending $337 million to give them every chance for a return trip to the World Series. So why not push it closer to $500 million?

If they signed Valdez, they will have locked up the top two starters on the market, having already signed Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million contract. They would be even further flush with starters with Valdez, Cease, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce and Jose Berrios. Considering that Gausman and Bieber are free agents after the 2026 season, the signing of Valdez makes perfect sense.

Besides, if they had $350 million to sign Kyle Tucker before he went to the Dodgers, why not give up a chunk of that to Valdez?

With the transfer window now closed Rangers know exactly what they have to do to overhaul Hearts and Celtic at the top of the table to recapture the league title.

The deadline day signing of Ryan Naderi is an intriguing one. A lot of fans were crying out for another striker, with neither Youssef Chermiti nor Bojan Miovski delivering goals in huge quantities.

But I can't help thinking it was a goal creator, rather than goalscorer, that was most urgently required to aid Danny Rohl's quest for glory.

Take the Hibs game at the weekend as an example: Chermiti led the line well enough but ultimately Rangers didn't create sufficient opportunities either for him or anyone else and Raphael Sallinger was barely troubled in the home goal.

That, for me, is what will be Rangers' undoing this season unless they can solve the conundrum of how to break teams down, regardless of who is playing up front.

They badly need players like Andreas Skov Olsen to start producing the goods if they are to come out on top in the three-way contest for the title.

Olsen's pedigree is unquestionable but in his two games so far there have been no signs of the player Rangers thought they were getting.

Rangers need him to quickly find top form, starting with the game at home to Kilmarnock.

It will be interesting to see if Naderi is thrown straight into the team as Rangers aim to narrow the gap to just three points behind the leaders.