Worldwide Sports News

Pitchers and catchers report to Peoria, Ariz. today to open Spring Training for the San Diego Padres. There are still questions about both groups and there are several ways to get answers according to Lincoln Zdunich of Gaslamp Ball. Will the fourth and fifth starters be players already on the Padres roster or will someone be added via free agency or trade? Does Luis Campusano finally fulfill the expectations that have allowed him to be one of very few minor leaguers under San Diego general manager A.J. Preller to remain in the system and not be traded elsewhere? These questions and others will be addressed in the coming weeks and with camp opening for the Padres we can officially say baseball is back.

Padres News:

• Miguel Andujar might not have been what the Friar Faithful wanted, but he is what we got – for now. Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball says fans should be excited about the signing and adds the Padres are in a better place with Andujar in the lineup than they were last year with the likes of Jason Heyward and Connor Joe.
• AJ Cassavell of Padres.com took a look at the players on the 40-man roster and took a shot at building the roster that Padres fans might see when the team opens the regular season. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribuneperformed the same exercise as both writers attempted to forecast their best guesses for manager Craig Stammen’s 2026 team.
• Speaking of Stammen, he opens his first season with the Padres as the manager after he got the position following a lengthy search, which included candidates like Ruben Niebla and Albert Pujols. Stammen pitched out of the bullpen for San Diego and has never coached at the big-league level and will now lead his former team from the top step of the dugout. He is already getting support from players like Joe Musgrove, Gavin Sheets, Michael King and Jake Cronenworth, but as Stammen recently stated, he hasn’t had to make a decision yet.

Baseball News:

• The Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers reached an agreement on a six-player trade that sent Caleb Durbin, who was the runner-up in 2025 National League Rookie of the Year voting, to Boston. The Red Sox also received two other players and a Competitive Balance Round B pick. The Brewers got left-hander Kyle Harrison and two additional players in return.
• The Philadelphia Phillies are looking to trade outfielder Nick Castellanos and they would reportedly like to do so before the first full-squad workout for the Phillies. Philadelphia also does not expect ace Zack Wheeler to be ready for Opening Day.
• One of the biggest free agent signings of the offseason for the Chicago White Sox was Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami. The organization made a great impression Monday when the nameplate above his locker in their Spring Training facility read, “Munetaki Murakami.”
• The New York Yankees and Athletics agreed to a trade Monday that sent Max Schuemann to New York in exchange for a minor league pitcher.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates made another free agent addition to their roster when they agreed to a one-year contract with Marcell Ozuna.
• Free agent right-hander Nick Martinez agreed to a one-year, $13 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Free agent right-hander Chris Paddack and the Miami Marlins agreed to a deal that will allow Paddack to return to the organization that drafted him.
• Free agent right-hander Eric Fedde and the White Sox agreed to a one-year deal.

It’s time for our annual prospect write-ups looking over the Mariners system, voted on by our prospect team here at Lookout Landing (Max Ellingsen, John Trupin, and myself). Last week, we introduced our honorable mentions groups of both pitchers and position players who just fell outside of our top 20. Now we’ll be working through individual profiles of those 20, publishing two a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so check back then for the countdown.

Starting us out, Luis Suisbel lands on our list at #20, primarily through a strong push by me, hence why I am doing this writeup. Suisbel is a polarizing prospect, for those who even consider him a prospect. Part of this is tied to his boom-or-bust offensive profile, and part to his defensive value and whether or not an evaluator believes he can stick at third base. He’s also been a slow advancer through the Mariners system, needing to repeat levels before moving on. Understanding Suisbel’s developmental path, I think, helps explain why his progress up the ladder has been somewhat hesitant, and offers optimism on what he might be able to do in 2026.

Signed out of Venezuela in July 2019, Suisbel is part of the generation of young ballplayers who had their developmental paths interrupted by COVID. Having not been brought to minor-league camp yet in March of 2020, Suisbel remained in Venezuela, lacking access to formal training facilities. “It was a really hard situation for everybody, for the world in general,” he told me this August in an interview conducted at Everett, partially translated by AquaSox bench coach Hecmart Nieves.

“During the COVID season I was just trying to get better so I’d be ready for the next season. I was trying to practice however I could. We had a few balls, some bats, and my father was helping me.“

Suisbel spent his age-18 and age-19 seasons in the DSL complex, having already lost a year-plus of development to the pandemic. While he doesn’t want to blame some of his early struggles on the COVID year, he’s realistic about the challenges posed by the loss of developmental time. “Baseball is hard. We have good and bad moments. With the COVID year, it was a slow process for us.”

As a Venezuelan prospect, Suisbel also faced different challenges than some of his fellow international signees. While not uniform across the island, the Dominican Republic generally offers more robust training academies and infrastructure for the business of baseball. Venezuela has been a trickier climate, both economically and politically. When COVID hit in March of 2020, some of the higher-level Venezuelan prospects—like former Mariners prospect and now Texas Ranger Luis Curvelo—opted to stay at the facility even with no formal training, working out alone in Peoria just to have access to the Mariners resources. That wasn’t an option for Suisbel, who hadn’t even played stateside yet at the time.

“Being in Venezuela with COVID wasn’t ideal because I didn’t have the facilities to improve my skills,” he said. “It took until I traveled to the United States where I felt like I had everything that I needed and I could kind of take off.”

Finally after playing a pair of seasons in the DSL, Suisbel was intent to get stateside and prove himself as a ballplayer.

“I know early in my career, my first years, I didn’t have great numbers, but I know who I am and what my abilities are. When I saw my numbers in 2022 I thought about it and tried to make an adjustment that off-season, and then 2023 was a different story.”

In 2023, Suisbel started swinging for more damage, something that was easier to do thanks to a pro training regimen that helped him build more lean muscle and strength. He still struck out, a lot, but in his first season playing in the ACL and Low-A he hit twice as many home runs in about as many plate appearances as he did during his first two years in the DSL. Suisbel credits that to a change in his mentality after making the move from the DSL to stateside ball.

“Before I was in the Dominican, living in the complex, everyone there is on the same level. But when I flew to America, and I was in the Arizona complex, it was different there. I had different teammates at different levels. I watched my friends, my countrymen like Curvelo who were in Low-A, High-A, move up, and that was my inspiration. I wanted to be right there with them, moving up.”

If seeing his fellow Venezuelan prospects move up lit a fire under Suisbel, it was nothing like the heady excitement of sharing a complex – and sometimes even a locker room – with the big league players. The proximity to big-leaguers and ability to wander over and watch a spring training game made everything feel much closer than they had back in the Mariners Boca Chica complex.

But despite this new vision, it continued to be a slow climb for Suisbel. He spent all of 2024 at Low-A with the Modesto Nuts, where his strikeout issues persisted, if somewhat less egregiously, and spent all of 2025 with Everett, destroying a career-high 23 homers but not showing much in the way of average. Suisbel has shown power, adopting a more uppercut stroke, but that’s caused him to become even more vulnerable to strikeouts, historically an issue in his game.

Still, three true outcomes are easier to tolerate when paired with some solid defense at the hot corner, and while he remains a ways from that, Suisbel has been steadily increasing his share of time at third base after playing most of his time at first earlier in the Mariners system. Part of what’s helped him step into the role is his experience playing winter ball for the Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he’s been steadily handed the reins at third. It was enough of a turnaround that Mariners infield coach Perry Hill praised Suisbel among a group of infielders last spring training. Despite having a bigger frame, the 6’1” Suisbel shows good body control, able to center himself even on off-balance throws and remain mechanically clean, something for which Hill, the Mariners’ infield guru, praised Suisbel.

His throws aren’t always perfectly on-target but they have plenty of arm, and he has quick feet.

Suisbel says he’s built a lot of confidence at third base, calling it his “favorite” position to play now. He credits his newfound confidence with the time he’s spent in extra camps with Perry Hill (apparently referred to as “Bone Camp”) but his own experience having more opportunities to play at the hot corner, especially in the pressure cooker of the winter leagues.

However, that’s to say Suisbel can’t also be a plus first baseman, if necessary:

Closer than he’s ever been to the big leagues, even on a delayed-release schedule, Suisbel says he knows what he has to do to take the next step.

“The goals are clear, and now it’s just working towards that every day. Keep attacking my goals every day and making them into a reality.

I can’t control anything, I don’t know when I’ll get to Double-A, or even the big leagues. But my goal for every day is to try to be better every day, try to give 100%, and probably I will play right there where I want to be.”

Major League Baseball and ESPN may have ended their Sunday night marriage, but they remain a couple with the announcement Tuesday that ESPN will be the streaming home for MLB.TV.

“We’re really excited about this partnership," Rosalyn Durant, ESPN executive vice president of programming & acquisitions, tells USA TODAY Sports. “I can tell you that it’s been a journey with them, but we’ve never been closer than we are now, and nor have we ever been more deeply connected than we are now.’’

Current ESPN Unlimited plan subscribers can purchase MLB.TV for $135 for the season, or those without an ESPN unlimited plan can purchase it for $150. They also are providing monthly plan options for $30, which would include a free month of ESPN for new subscribers. For new MLB.TV subscribers, signing up on the ESPN app provides the option of watching MLB.TV on ESPN or MLB platforms.

Prior entries:

• Matt Olson
• Michael Harris II
• Ozzie Albies
• Bryce Elder
• Austin Riley
• Drake Baldwin
• Ronald Acuña Jr.
• Chris Sale
• Spencer Strider
• Jurickson Profar

Back when I was working on IWAG a lot, I noticed a dichotomy of sorts. For position players, IWAG did basically about as well as Steamer and ZiPS, which wasn’t really surprising, given that it was made to try and replicate them. No matter what year I looked at, no system really beat the others, and IWAG was right there with them, generally with the same misses and successes. In unison or individually, the systems basically gave you “the right” idea about what the position players you looked at would do, even when restricting yourself to a small group of names.

For pitchers, though, it was all over the place. Sometimes one system clearly did better than the others, but more to the point, pitchers had breakouts and lost seasons that deviated from their central estimate (or even their distribution, insofar as I could generate or infer it) more often.

Why this dichotomy? My guess — an educated guess based on me tinkering with IWAG to little avail — is that hitters playing through or affected by injury tend to just kind of look like less effective versions of themselves, but pitcher injuries completely upend both availability and effectiveness. On the flip side, I can’t really confirm that a pitcher feeling “really” healthy can set a new performance baseline, so maybe that’s just attributable to pitch design and mechanics cleanup things. Either way, though, pitchers were less predictable.

Which brings me to Grant Holmes, the subject of today’s post. There’s a lot of uncertainty with Holmes! He went down with elbow troubles last year, but didn’t have Tommy John Surgery. Is he going to be healthy enough to contribute? Well there be a rotation spot for him? He’s out of options, so short of additional minor league rehab, there’s not really anywhere to “put him.” He’s already served as a reliever, but that shoved him into the rotation, and maybe he’ll be forcibly shoved out of it by others, who knows. (And then, will other injuries pull him back in.) What’s going on with his HR/FB, which was to his benefit in 2024 but very much to his detriment in 2025? How many innings will he get, and how effective will be, depending on role and considering all of the above? Oy.

I’m not saying every pitcher is Grant Holmes, but when you consider this laundry list of “issues” with thinking about Holmes’ future versus that of your run-of-the-mill potential-starter-quality position player, you get where I was going with the intro paragraphs, hopefully.

Career-to-date, status

A first-round pick all the way back in 2014, Holmes spent seemingly forever in the minors until the Braves gave him a chance in the bigs last year. He pitched incredibly well for about five weeks as a reliever, then got a shot to start and kept up the good work. He transitioned back to a shorter-stint relief role and faltered, but finished the year fairly strong in his final four (and especially his final three) outings, most of which were starts. (He even did something pretty crazy, getting five outs in relief on September 29, before pitching four innings as a starter in a must-win-to-make-playoffs game for the Braves on September 30 — though the Mets were likely taking it very easy by that point.)

All in all, Holmes had an 86/81/87 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) as a swingman in 68 1/3 innings in 2024, which is an insanely good outcome considering he was a minor league journeyman who hadn’t gotten a shot to that point. He still has under two years of service time, so the Braves have him for quite a while… provided they don’t lose him to a roster crunch given his out-of-options status.

Recent performance

Holmes made (and kept his spot in) the obliterated Braves’ 2025 rotation — at least until he was the last guy to go down when his own elbow started barking. He struggled out of the gate with some pretty clunky pitching in his first five starts of the year, but then got it together and had an awesome nine-start stretch that was marred only by the fact that he ran a HR/FB over 20 percent in that span. That good run culminated in a 15-strikeout performance in just 6 1/3 innings against the Rockies, but then he faded again, and he was really struggling by the time his season ended in late July. Specifically, by ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-:

• First five starts: 110/141/123
• Middle nine starts: 87/98/71
• Last seven starts: 95/102/120

Put those things together with a single dominant relief appearance he had early in the year before making a start, and Holmes finished with a 94/108/98 line in 115 innings, good for 0.9 fWAR. If not for the HR/FB, that would’ve been solid #2ish/#3ish starter production. (Alas, the homers were a problem, for him and many of his teammates.)

Forecasting

Forecasting for Holmes (and any other pitcher with an uncertain role) is tough. I theoretically should build in some module in IWAG about how to handle this separately, since it’s not exactly a pure starter or pure reliever profile, but instead, I’m going to shortcut it by assuming that Holmes completes roughly 80 percent of his 2026 innings as a starter. That can artificially inflate his WAR, since it’s technically harder to be a starter than a reliever as far as replacement level goes, so just keep that in mind…

Basically, IWAG’s point estimate is that Holmes is a guy capable of preventing runs at a roughly league-average rate when used as a swingman. If a lot of that usage is as a starter, that’s about 1 WAR for 100 innings, which is not all that exciting but also far better than letting someone bleed value.

As you can see from the projections above, this is not an off-kilter take on Holmes. Steamer has him at 0.8 WAR in 87 innings, mostly relieving. ZiPS is a little lower, but still in the same-range-ish, again, mostly seeing Holmes as a reliever. IWAG’s higher WAR total is, in part, due to the assumption above about how much Holmes will start.

I would describe this curve as “cute.” An actual curve! Neat. Basically, the main question for Holmes is availability and usage. Which, yeah, we kind of figured.

Your turn

Alright, I’ve given you the info. Well, some info. You may have your own info. With that, I ask you:

• Rounded to the nearest fWAR, how much will Grant Holmes produce in 2026?
• How confident are you in your choice? Go with a scale from 1-5, where 3 is “I dunno, reasonably confident,” 5 is certain, and 1 is “I am participating but have no confidence in my choice and don’t want the fact that it will likely be incorrect to affect my place in any theoretical standings all that much.”

Good morning. Texas Rangers pitchers and catchers are reporting to Surprise, Arizona today. Welcome back, baseball.

With the Rangers officially beginning their quest for glory in 2026, Kennedi Landry takes an early stab at a potential Opening Day roster.

Evan Grant lists a handful of Rangers hurlers who have the ability to gain the most from their time in Surprise this spring.

Jeff Wilson writes that one of the main battles this spring will be a duel between Kumar Rocker and Jacob Latz for the fifth spot in the rotation.

MLB dot com’s David Adler names new Texas addition MacKenzie Gore near the top of the list for arms to watch this spring.

And, Matt Snyder writes that, when it comes to the Rangers, it is the rotation that is the reason to be most excited for the upcoming season. Strange days, no?

Have a nice day!

We are launching a new daily article here at South Side Sox, more prominently than our items that pop up on The Feed. It falls under the category of White Sox Discussions, which you’ll see in a few weeks will also be our new branding for Game Threads.

Today, we’re tackling another deeply personal Sox fan dilemma: the player you refuse to even hear in trade talks. Baseball is a business, or so we’re told. Prospects are currency. Windows open and close. But every now and then, logic runs straight into a brick wall labeled hands off. This is the guy you don’t include in mock trades, the name you scroll past in rumors with a scoff, the player you’d rather rebuild around than flip for “value.” You know the arguments — sell high, roster flexibility, timeline alignment — and you adamantly reject all of them.

Some players mean more than surplus WAR or controllable years. They represent belief, direction, or the faint outline of what you hope the next good White Sox team looks like. Trading them might make sense on paper, but emotionally, it feels like waving a white flag. So we’re asking you to tell us which White Sox player should be absolutely off limits, no matter the return? Who’s untouchable, and why is that the line you refuse to cross?

Over the past ten years the Phillies have had a lot of good, and even great, players who have since moved on either to other teams or to retirement. Many of those players would have provided a boost to this year’s roster. For today’s question of the day: Which player from the past decade do you think would most help this year’s roster?

Would you lean into more bullpen assistance with someone like Hector Neris, or add another starter like Jake Arrieta? Would you add consistency to the lineup with someone like Jean Segura, or add some defensive depth with Roman Quinn? Would you bring back a clubhouse leader like Andrew McCutchen, or take another chance on someone whose career didn’t pan out the way it was expected like Scott Kingery? Who would you add, and why?

Diamondbacks News

Report: D-backs’ Andrew Saalfrank out for season after shoulder surgery by Tyler Drake [Arizona Sports]

‘I want to be here’: After offseason of uncertainty, Marte happy to still be with D-backs by Steve Gilbert [DBacks.com]

“It’s baseball, I understand the business side of it and how it works,” Marte said. “There were a few comments out there on social media that I wasn’t happy with, but I love the D-backs and I want to be here.”

Hazen said over the winter that he didn’t talk to Marte about the rumors because he didn’t think anything would come to fruition, but he made it a point to sit down with Marte face-to-face once he announced he would no longer listen to offers for him.

“We talked a lot and hashed some things out, talked it all through and everything is great,” Marte said. “Mike knows I love the D-backs, I love my teammates. Everyone knows what type of player I am, and I’m just happy it all worked out and I’m here.”

Diamondbacks’ Asking Price for Ketel Marte Revealed in Red Sox Trade Talks by Michael McDermott [Heavy]

“According to multiple league sources, the Sox were open to dealing a package headlined by Franklin Arias and either Payton Tolle or Connelly Early in exchange for Marte,” wrote Speier. “However, when Arizona sought a package led by Marcelo Mayer and one of the pitchers, the Sox declined.”

Ketel Marte Opens Up on Offseason Trade Rumors by Alex D’Agostino [SI]

Hazen told Gilbert he apologized to Marte for the process — not for exploring trade options, but for how widespread and public they became.

“[Trade rumors are] not an easy thing for a player to constantly read,” Hazen said. “I apologized for that part of it, and look, Ketel was great about it. I feel like the conversation with him was good and we’ll continue to have an open dialogue as we always do. 

“He’s out here working his butt off already. We’ll continue to demonstrate to him that we appreciate him and did not want to trade him. He’s a superstar in the game and I think he’s gonna have another great year for us.”

Around the League

Red Sox acquire Caleb Durbin in 6-player trade with Brewers by Jeff Passan [ESPN]

The Red Sox acquired third baseman Caleb Durbin from Milwaukee in a six-player trade Monday that sent left-hander Kyle Harrison back to the Brewers, ending Boston’s winter-long search for a right-handed-hitting infielder on the eve of spring training opening.

Boston also acquired infielder Andruw Monasterio, utility man Anthony Seigler and a competitive balance round B draft pick (67th overall) while sending infielder David Hamilton and left-hander Shane Drohan to Milwaukee.

Durbin, 25, finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year after winning Milwaukee’s third-base job in the wake of a trade from the New York Yankees, who had sent him to the Brewers in the Devin Williams trade. With a surfeit of young infielders, Milwaukee lined up with the pitching-abundant Red Sox as they sought to fill their third-base hole vacated by free agent Alex Bregmansigning with the Chicago Cubs.

‘Fun-loving’ Murakami laughs off nameplate snafu by Scott Merkin [MLB]

What a difference one letter can make.

When Munetaka Murakami first arrived at Camelback Ranch on Sunday morning, the nameplate above his home White Sox clubhouse locker read “Munetaki Murakami.”

It unofficially goes down as the first error of Spring Training.

Murakami posted the mistake on his Instagram stories at ys_munetaka55, with a “thinking” emoji followed by a “laughing” emoji.

One More Ride for Paul Goldschmidt by Ben Clemens [FanGraphs]

On Friday afternoon, the Yankees and Paul Goldschmidt agreed to a one-year deal worth $4 million, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported. Friday in the early evening, I began contemplating how I’d like my career to end. These are related incidents.

Three years ago, Goldschmidt stood at the pinnacle of the game. He’d just won NL MVP on the back of a spectacular all-around offensive season, carrying the Cardinals to the playoffs in a rousing capper to his long, decorated career. It was his eighth straight season receiving MVP votes, and brought his career WAR total to 52. Have you ever considered retiring at the top of your game? With two years left on his contract, Goldschmidt must have given the idea some thought. Finish those two out well, get a bit more hardware, and ride off into the sunset toward Cooperstown.

Phillies Looking To Move Nick Castellanos This Week by Anthony Franco [MLB Trade Rumors]

Phillies position players are scheduled for their first official workout next Monday. It’d make for an awkward situation if Nick Castellanos is still on the team. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported at the end of last season that the Phils would trade or release the outfielder. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has all but confirmed as much on the record, pointing to the need for a change of scenery.

Keeping Castellanos on the 40-man roster into Spring Training would be a needless distraction. It comes as little surprise that the Phils are motivated to get something done within the next week. “We’re doing everything we can to make a move by (Monday),” Dombrowski told reporters (link via Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer). “I’ll leave it at that right now.”

As a whole, the 2026 offseason stands in stark contrast to the disappointing winter that preceded a disappointing 2025 season. The Orioles made a major signing in slugger Peter Alonso, made major trades for Taylor Ward and Shane Baz and acquired Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley to bolster the bullpen. However, one feeling remains the same from last offseason: the starting rotation still seems unfinished.

Despite the addition of Baz, the Orioles’ front office has failed to add a pitcher who can push Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers for the top spot in the Baltimore rotation. There have been some swings and misses, too. The O’s were reportedly interested in Ranger Suárez before the lefty landed in Boston on a five-year, $130M deal. The Orioles were also seen as potential front-runners in the race for former Astros southpaw Framber Valdez, before he signed with Detroit for $115M over three years.

With other starters like Dylan Cease, Michael King and Tatsuya Imai long off the board, there is one pitcher left who has the potential to truly upgrade the Orioles rotation. Enter former Diamondbacks’ All-Star Zac Gallen. While the right-hander is far from a sure thing, he offers an upside unmatched by the remaining free agents—a potential I believe the Orioles can unlock.

All-Star upside with room for improvement

Unlike Suárez and Valdez, Gallen is not coming off a good 2025 season. Arguably, the whole reason the Diamondbacks let Gallen reach free agency was the disappointment of this past season, when the former Cy Young finalist posted a 4.83 ERA, saw his K/9 drop to a career-low 8.2 and had his H/9 and HR/9 balloon to career-worsts.

Trying to explain Gallen’s sudden dip in form is tricky. His batting average against was largely unchanged from the previous seasons, while his BABIP actually went down. His average exit velocity and hard-hit rate also remained largely unchanged when compared to his previous, more successful seasons. His pitch velocities also remained largely unchanged.

What stands out as a potential cause of his regression was a trend that saw him leave the ball up and over the middle of the plate more. When Gallen was consistently a Top 5 pitcher in the NL in 2022 and 2023, he attacked the zone with his fastball and cutter while using his knuckle curve and changeup to attack below the zone and generate strikeouts. Last year, Gallen saw his fastball catch too much of the plate while also leaving his curveball up more than he’d ever done. These struggles to command the right parts of the zones led to a career-high 30.3% fly ball rate, which in turn saw his home run rate and slugging percentage against rise to career-worsts.

Gallen also seems to be in the midst of a minor identity crisis when it comes to how he uses his five-pitch mix. Declining confidence in his fastball and cutter saw him lean more than ever on his changeup last year, with the off-speed offering ranking as his best pitch for the first time in his career. Whether that increased change up usage can be refined to return to All-Star form is yet to be determined.

However, we’ve seen the Orioles help pitchers like Bradish, Rogers and Zach Eflin tinker with their pitch mix to great effect. If the pitching coaches and analytics can get their hands on Gallen, there’s reason to believe they can unlock the version of him that put up a 3.20 ERA while averaging 9.4 K/9 across 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Best fit for the Orioles’ timeline

As he heads into his age-30 season, Gallen is two years younger than Valdez and at least seven years younger than other rumored Orioles targets Chris Bassitt and Justin Verlander. While the Orioles may be one move in the rotation from truly being able to compete for an AL East title, AL pennant and World Series title in 2026, they’re also not only trying to compete in this upcoming season.

Of the Orioles’ current projected starters, only Zach Eflin is over 30 and only Rogers is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the 2026 season. A consistent frustration throughout Birdland is the front office treating the rotation as a patchwork quilt that needs to be cut up and reimagined every offseason. Signing Gallen to a multi-year deal would give the rotation the foundation it needs to open a window for prolonged contention—something that’s eluded the Orioles since the 70s.

Gallen also carries less injury risk than a lot of the remaining free agent starters. Other reported Orioles target Lucas Giolito missed the first month of last season with a hamstring injury and has two Tommy John surgeries in his medical history. On top of being 43, Verlander has missed time in each of the last three seasons with a variety of leg, shoulder and neck injuries.

Comparatively, Gallen has been the picture of health. The 6’2” right-hander has only had two significant injuries in his career, a hamstring strain that cost him most of June in 2024 and an elbow sprain that shelved him for five weeks in 2021. Given the lengthy medical files of several other Orioles starters, adding a proven workhorse would be a big boon for the Baltimore rotation.

PORT ST. LUCIE — It’s telling of how precipitously the Mets starting rotation plummeted last year that if the team reached the postseason, three rookies with a combined 17 major league appearances would have been scheduled to start in the wild-card round.

Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong were those pitchers.

The Mets dropped their season finale in Miami, rendering the point moot after losing a tiebreaker to the Reds in the race for the NL’s third and final wild card.

It left president of baseball operations David Stearns to also focus on the rotation as he was overhauling the lineup this winter.

Mission may have been accomplished with the January trade that brought Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers from the Brewers for Sproat and Jett Williams.

In Peralta, the Mets appear to finally have the true ace they lacked as their season was spiraling last August and September.

Peralta, 29, pitched to a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts for the Brewers last season, in which he logged 176 ²/₃ innings.

Twice an All-Star, he finished fifth in last year’s National League Cy Young Award voting.

But was Peralta’s addition alone enough to transform a rotation that cratered down the stretch last season?

Kodai Senga struggled enough that he agreed to accept a minor league assignment in early September and finished his season with Triple-A Syracuse.

Sean Manaea strained an oblique in spring training and didn’t pitch for the Mets until July, and then hardly resembled the dominant force he was a year earlier.

The left-hander pitched to a 5.64 ERA in 15 appearances, raising questions about the decision to give him a three-year contract worth $75 million before last season.

And then there was David Peterson, selected to the NL All-Star team before pitching to a 6.34 ERA over 12 starts in the second half.

As pitchers and catchers report this week for spring training, there might not be a larger question surrounding the team than whether the Mets have fixed their fatal flaw.

“We like our rotation,” Stearns said. “I think adding Freddy as somewhat of a stabilizing force to help lead our rotation probably gives a little bit of space to some of our younger pitchers and keeps the opportunity to get real bounce-back seasons from guys like Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga — who we are still going to rely upon and still believe are going to give us some real quality innings this year — so we like where our rotation is. I think it’s got a nice combination of youth and established major league veterans.”

There is McLean, who dazzled in his eight starts — all the while maintaining his rookie status as he pitched to a 2.06 ERA over 48 innings.

Sproat’s subtraction perhaps can be offset by Christian Scott’s return from Tommy John surgery, and Tong (who like Scott figures to begin the season at Triple-A Syracuse) completes the talented young trifecta.

Clay Holmes was the one veteran starter on whom the Mets could rely in last season’s second half.

In his transition from reliever to starter, the right-hander pitched to a 3.53 ERA over a career-high 165 ²/₃ innings.

For insurance, the Mets acquired the swingman Myers, who started six games for the Brewers last season.

Peralta alone might be enough to change perceptions, but can he change results?

That will likely depend on the other “aces” in house.

“We have got multiple starters in our rotation who at various points in their career have pitched as a No. 1 starter and certainly Freddy qualifies as that,” Stearns said. “We saw Nolan flash potential as a No. 1 starter last year. We have seen Sean Manaea pitch as an ace. Before I got here Kodai Senga pitched as an ace. We have multiple pitchers in our rotation right now that have pitched as an ace, and I would certainly put Freddy in that category.”

Spring training begins this week, and with it will come a new season’s worth of storylines. Which players are in the best shape of their lives? Are there any secret injuries or surgeries that happened over the off-season? What are they going to do with all those first basemen?

Making predictions about an upcoming season is half the fun of spring training. It’s a time of year when anything can be imagined, and only after the year is over can we know if our guesses were prescient or foolish. If you had predicted the Orioles to win 100 games or go to the World Series last year, it wouldn’t have turned out so well for you in the end. But if you guessed the team would sign one of their big prospects to an extension, you would have looked like a genius!

This offseason, the Orioles have acquired some players, sent a few players packing, and are relying on big seasons from their returning core. Taking all those things into consideration, not to mention the improvements made by other AL East teams, what is one prediction you have about this season?

Do you think one player will be particularly bad or good? How many wins do you expect to see? Will the Orioles have their first pitcher with 200 innings pitched since 2014, or will another one need Tommy John surgery?

No prediction is too big or too small. What do you think will happen?

As for my prediction for 2026…I think Gunnar Henderson will hit over 30 home runs.