ANAHEIM, CA - SEPTEMBER 25: Bobby Witt Jr. #7 of the Kansas City Royals celebrates after the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on Thursday, September 25, 2025 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Nicole Vasquez/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
At this time of year, I tend to start thinking through what my expectations are for the coming season. Having a base model in my head helps me avoid overreacting to early-season noise. Part of that process includes looking at the AL Central, the main competition the Royals need to beat to reach the playoffs. It is not typically considered a very strong division, as the coastal, big-money teams are in the West or East in both leagues, with the possible exception of the two Chicago teams, who play in big media markets but have not traditionally acted like it.
I’m going to start with the weakest team and work through the other non-Royals clubs before getting to how Kansas City matches up.
Both systems agree that the White Sox are going to need some very fortunate bounces to compete for even the last wild-card slot. They have some individually talented players, but there are simply too many holes in the roster to take them seriously as a contender. They don’t really have a unit that qualifies as a strength.
Their rotation features Shane Smith, who had a genuinely nice 2025 season but profiles more as a solid third starter than an Opening Day, top-of-the-rotation arm. After him, there are several back-end types who are really fifth or sixth starters unless Anthony Kay learned something in NPB that unlocked another level, or Erick Fedde rediscovers the weird magic that made him good for that stretch in 2024. Maybe Noah Schultz or Hagen Smith can come up from the prospect ranks and improve things.
The bullpen is very similar. I think Grant Taylor is really good, and there are a few other decent arms, but not enough, and none who are true back-end anchors. Seranthony Domínguez as your seventh-inning guy is probably fine; as your closer, it leaves a lot to be desired. His inconsistency over the years is concerning for that role. The pitching staff is almost certainly going to be in the bottom half of the league.
The offense is not much better. They again have a couple of interesting bats. Colson Montgomery had a very nice debut at age 23. Projection systems don’t believe he can come close to repeating it, but there’s some hope. Kyle Teel is similarly interesting as a catcher who should provide value at the plate. The outfield, outside of Luis Robert Jr., is rough. When Andrew Benintendi (still only 31!?) is hitting in the middle of your lineup, things are probably not going well. This unit is going to need a lot of luck to score enough runs to be competitive.
I still don’t really get how the Guardians did what they did last season, and the projection systems seem to agree. This is a flawed team — especially offensively — that somehow rides its pitching well enough to reach the playoffs on a recurring basis.
They don’t have anyone you’d call a true ace, but Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams are both good. Maybe Parker Messick can give them a reliable third option at the top of the rotation, but this is not a scary group. There’s enough depth and competence to be middle-of-the-pack or slightly better, though.
The bullpen has been their strength the last few years and might continue to be. Cade Smith is a beast, though Hunter Gaddis backed up quite a bit last year after his dominant 2024. And of course, there’s no more Clase. I could see a scenario where this ends up below league average, but I’ll give the organization the benefit of the doubt, given its track record of building bullpens. They have eight or so other arms from which they’ll likely cobble together a third and fourth option, plus depth.
The lineup, on the other hand, is just bad. They’ve struggled to score runs for years. José Ramírez and Steven Kwan give them stability, and I think Kyle Manzardo provides a third consistently above-average bat. After that, it’s a lot of wishing. Can they find a way to score enough runs to stay competitive? They may need Travis Bazzana, Cooper Ingle, or maybe Ralphy Velazquez to come up and add a quality bat, but none of them are sure things. (Still love the name Ralphy.)
Projection systems consistently seem to love the Twins. And the Twins love disappointing them — at least that’s how it has felt in recent years.
After the fire sale at last year’s deadline, many would assume they have little to no shot, but these probabilities disagree. I think it’s mostly a function of a very good rotation. Pablo López and Joe Ryan make a nice one-two punch. Add quality depth behind them, and you have one of the better starting fives in baseball.
For me, the problems arise in the bullpen. There’s no clear top-end arm anymore. Maybe Taylor Rogers or Justin Topa recaptures some of their previous dominance, but I wouldn’t bet on anyone in this bullpen as a true slam-the-door option. The depth was also thinned out at the deadline. It looks like an inconsistent group.
There are talented hitters. Byron Buxton is very, very good — and we also know he tends to disappear from the lineup. You can realistically hope for 100–110 games of his production. Luke Keaschall had a good 2025 debut and looks like a nice long-term piece, but he’s more of a table-setter than a top-tier bat, especially since that .340 BABIP is unlikely to repeat. Matt Wallner and Ryan Jeffers are solid, and maybe Royce Lewis finally pulls it all together (I sincerely doubt it).
They’ll score some runs, but I doubt they’ll finish in the top half of the league offensively. Left field, shortstop, first base, and DH are all considerable issues that bringing in Josh Bell does not fix. His projections are odd — I’m not sure why systems expect his best season since 2022 at age 33, but they do. One true middle-of-the-order bat is not enough, and there’s always the threat of ownership shedding more payroll.
Now we get to the favorites. The Tigers have a lot going for them and have added a couple of large pieces to get even stronger.
Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez might be the best one-two punch in baseball, and a back end of Jack Flaherty, Verlander, and Casey Mize is solid. I have concerns about Verlander, but he really just needs to be serviceable. The Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe injuries reduce their depth, which does hurt, but they’re still positioned to have one of the best rotations in the league.
The bullpen is significantly less intimidating. Will Vest was dominant for stretches last year, but counting on that for a full season feels risky. Any team planning on Kenley Jansen as its closer at this stage has questions. Nothing against Jansen, but last year feels a bit like fool’s gold statistically. Can they get reliable back-end production from Tyler Holton, Kyle Finnegan, and others? It feels like they’ll have a lot of serviceable arms without true top-end dominance. That creates risk — and it contributed to their inability to hold the division late.
The other issue was consistent run scoring. That’s a theme in the Central: solid starting pitching, inconsistent bats. The Tigers probably have the most stable lineup top to bottom. Riley Greene has become a stalwart, and Spencer Torkelson finally put it together to add thump. I believe in those two, and adding Gleyber Torres helps.
It’s the Colt Keith, Dillon Dingler, Wenceel Pérez, and Zack McKinstry group I’m less sold on. Most outperformed their underlying metrics last year. Javier Báez had a strange renaissance before reverting to below-average production. This is a good offense if those supporting pieces hold. If not, it becomes pedestrian. If Kevin McGonigle or Max Clark forces the issue, that would help considerably.
Given the rotation strength, they have to be considered favorites, regardless of BP slightly preferring the Royals.
After looking at everyone else, I’m more optimistic about the Royals than I was initially.
Their starting pitching strength and depth match up well within the division. Injuries are the biggest risk, as we saw last year. Cole Ragans likely needs to return to Cy Young-level form for this team to reach its ceiling, but the rotation should be second or third in the division at worst.
I also like the bullpen more now. The back end of Carlos Estévez, Lucas Erceg, and Matt Strahm is better than any other in the division. I don’t even think that’s particularly arguable, though I do have mild concerns about both Erceg and Estévez. The depth — John Schreiber, Nick Mears, possibly displaced starters, and Luinder Avila focusing solely on relief — gives them the strongest bullpen depth in the Central. This may be the best bullpen KC has had in some time. Hopefully that’s not just spring hopium.
Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best player in the division, and Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez, and Maikel Garcia give the Royals the strongest top-of-the-lineup core in the Central. The questions come at leadoff and in the back half. There aren’t as many internal solutions as Detroit has, and there aren’t elite prospects waiting in the wings. Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone may determine whether this lineup is good enough. Isaac Collins, Jonathan India, and Lane Thomas matter too — but mostly they just need to be useful and outproduce last year’s black holes.
I’m probably closer to the Fangraphs division odds – around 25% – because I think Detroit is slightly better overall. But I also believe this front office will add if needed, which could push that toward 30–35%. On overall playoff odds, I’m closer to BP.
The AL as a whole feels open. I see only five clearly better teams: the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers, and Mariners. That puts the Royals somewhere near 50% to make the playoffs — and I’m ready for the season to begin.
Houston, TX: New York Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu (26) smacks a homer in the ninth inning to tie the game in Game 6 of the ALCS against Houston Astros on October 19, 2019, at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams, Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images) | Newsday via Getty Images
Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat. The Yanks’ initial free agent contract for DJ LeMahieu will go down as one of the smartest moves they have ever made. We’ve sung its praises before! Pilfering the second baseman from the Rockies on a two-year, $24 million contract in October 2018, New York could not have imagined the bang they’d receive for their buck. It just wasn’t as notable at the time of its signing as the one we’re discussing today.
Anyway, back to the bargain for a moment. Over the next two seasons (the latter shortened by COVID-19), DJLM hit a combined .336/.386/.536, good for a 146 OPS+. He led the Junior Circuit in batting average, on-base percentage, and on-base plus slugging percentage in 2020, and compiled 7.1 bWAR per 162 games. If you subscribe to the theory that 1 WAR is worth about $10 million, 2019-20 DJ provided $62 million in surplus value, a number that would have certainly been even higher had the 2020 season not been capped at 60 games.
Oh, and DJ provided one of the biggest playoff moments in recent Yankee history in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS, smashing a clutch, game-tying, two-run home run in Houston with two outs to go against Roberto Osuna. He saved the season … for a whole 15 minutes or so. It was all for naught, of course, “thanks” to Aroldis Chapman.
But still. What an absolute steal that first contract was. When the Yankees 2020 season ended, ignominiously, at the hands of the Rays (oh hey, thanks again Chappy), so did DJ’s first contract with the Yanks. What would the Yankees do?
DJ LeMahieu Signing Date: January 27, 2021 Contract: 6 years, $90 million
In the least surprising turn of events imaginable, the Yankees tendered LeMahieu the qualifying offer and he rejected it. Coming off that COVID-shortened campaign when he hit .364 to pace the Junior Circuit and finished third for the AL MVP (which he may have deserved with a league-leading 3.0 rWAR), it would have been stunning had DJ accepted the QO. It would have been equally unimaginable for the Yankees to let DJLM walk, as he was versatile with the ability to man second, third, and first, and he was arguably as central to the entire offensive operation as Aaron Judge.
So, off to free agency he went. And, like entirely too many free agent sagas in MLB, this one dragged on much too long. Thanksgiving, the Winter Meetings, Christmas, and the turn of the calendar all came and went with LeMahieu unsigned.
By mid-December, the Yankees and their star were roughly $25 million apart in negotiations, according to reports. Everyone and their dog knew DJ was their number one priority, but with the gap, news leaked that LeMahieu was ready to engage with other clubs. Meanwhile, our own Peter Brody wrote a cogent analysis of why the Yankees could (should?) pass on LeMahieu, given their self-imposed financial constraints.
Obviously, his flirtations came to nothing. In late January, the hot stove really heated up where DJ was concerned. Ominously, reports emerged that the Yankees’ priorities were perhaps askew. Jim Bowden reported (accurately) in the days prior to LeMahieu’s signing that the front office was concerned with the luxury tax implications of signing DJ.
“According to a source the #Yankees deal with LeMahieu will be for more than 4 years……now question is it 5 or 6 years… According to a source the #Yankees preferred more years and less AAV in LeMahieu deal for luxury tax issues. Deal will be for more than 4 years.”
LeMahieu was about to enter his age-32 season. A six-year pact would lock the Yankees in financially through his age-37 campaign. And lest readers wonder if this is all hindsight being 2020, it has long been a truism that second basemen have rough aging curves. Nate Silver touched on this as far back as 2005 in Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs revisited the topic in the context of the Yankees’ efforts in early 2013 to extend Robinson Canó before that superstar Yankees second baseman hit free agency. Anecdotally, it feels like one of those adages I’ve known my entire adult life.
Alas, Bowden was right. Instead of a four-year deal with a higher AAV, the Yanks opted for frugality and extended the total cost over six years. A fully functional Death Star, indeed.
The deal was agreed upon in mid-January but not until January 27th did it become official. New York had to keep DJ and they did, while minimizing the annual hit to their payroll. And as Lindsey Adler pointed out in the pages of The Athletic, DJ got a long-term deal likely to take him through to the end of his career. For his part, DJ was happy to be back in pinstripes.
The thought exercise here is fascinating. This article, and Yankee fandom’s historical memory of DJLM, likely looks very different if the Yanks had inked him to a shorter-term, higher AAV deal. Imagine a four-year pact. When injury and underperformance caused LeMahieu to crater in 2024, New York could have parted ways with him at any point, with no money remaining on the books past that season.
Instead, DJ was back last season because the Yankees were too reluctant to admit that they were getting nothing for their $30 million across the final two years of the deal. And while he was considerably better than in ’24, that’s not saying much. New York parted ways with him last July, but because of the decision to pursue a longer-term deal that lowered LeMahieu’s AAV, they’re still on the hook paying him in 2026.*
*He hasn’t retired, but no team has signed him in seven months and it feels distinctly possible that his long-term deal will have indeed taken him to the end of his career. So at least he has that, I suppose.
It boggles the mind that the Yankees, who boast resources and revenues few other teams can match, insist on pinching pennies at the weirdest possible times. The fatal miscalculation they made while garnering any luxury tax savings enabled by this deal was that there was an opportunity cost in the desire to keep running LeMahieu out there when he had long since been a productive ballplayer, just to try to get something. Superior present options could have been pursued, or at the very least, they could have stopped playing Jazz Chisholm Jr. out of position at third just to accommodate the hobbled LeMahieu, no longer physically able to man the hot corner.
Back on the field, it wasn’t all doom and gloom at the start of the new contract. LeMahieu did come back to Earth in 2021, but even a nearly 100-point regression in his batting average left him a league-average hitter who played a solid second base and provided veteran leadership. Part of it could even be blamed on a sports hernia that he was playing through down the stretch, which got to be so painful that LeMahieu was unable to appear in the 2021 AL Wild Card Game loss to the Red Sox.
LeMahieu’s 2022 season was even better. He had a 110 OPS+ and by bWAR, it was the third-best season of his career (ignoring the giant COVID-shaped elephant in the room that was 2020). He appropriately won the first-ever AL Gold Glove for a utilityman as well.
But it all went to hell in the middle of August, when LeMahieu broke a sesamoid bone in his right big toe — a mouthful of an injury that only got worse when he also suffered ligament damage in his second toe. Unable to generate any drive and with a brief IL stint not helping matters, he again missed the postseason. As it turned out, he would never appear in a playoff game on this contract.
In 2023, LeMahieu was fine, even showing signs of resurgence in the second half with an .809 OPS. But there were signs that it was a bit luck-driven, and in 2024, that train came completely off the tracks. I know we’re harping on it, but Aaron Boone and the Yankees stubbornly kept running him out there, and even ran it back in 2025 before finally admitting defeat and releasing him last summer.
The second DJ LeMahieu deal never even came close to the lofty returns of its predecessor. But, to a certain extent, that is the Yankees’ own fault. Letting DJ walk after his sensational 2019-20 was likely never an option and would have drawn the ire of the vast majority of their fans.
But choosing to extend the tenure of his contract over six years rather than a shorter term was an unmitigated disaster that has soured fans’ opinions of the front office and their memories of LeMahieu, who deserved a better fate given his initial smashing success.
References
Blum, Ronald. “After 4 straight injury-marred seasons, DJ LeMahieu hopes to regain former form as batting champion.” Associates Press. February 18, 2025.
Brody, Peter. “The case against re-signing DJ LeMahieu.” Pinstripe Alley. December 18, 2020.
Cameron, Dave. “Robinson Cano and Second Base Aging Curves.” FanGraphs. March 1, 2013.
DJ LeMahieu. Baseball-Reference.
DJ LeMahieu. FanGraphs.
Harding, Thomas. “Fan favorite LeMahieu signs with Yankees.” MLB. January 11, 2019.
Hoch, Bryan. “LeMahieu placed on injured list.” MLB. October 3, 2021.
DALLAS, TX - OCTOBER 24: Anthony Davis #3 of the Dallas Mavericks drives to the basket as Alexandre Sarr #20 of the Washington Wizards plays defense during the game on October 24, 2025 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Sam Hodde/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Washington Wizards post Anthony Davis has yet to play a game for his new team. And he realistically won’t play again until the start of the 2026-27 season when the Wizards are poised to make the postseason for the first time since 2020-21, at least on paper.
Davis has suffered a number of injuries in recent years. But not long before his trade to Washington, Davis injured his left hand and finger in a game for the Dallas Mavericks when they were playing the Utah Jazz on Jan. 8, 2026. He sustained ligament damage and faced the possibility of having surgery, though Davis ultimately refused.
To break down hand and finger injuries, we spoke with Dr. Noah Raizman, an orthopaedic surgeon for The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, specializing in hand and upper extremity surgery. Dr. Raizman has worked with athletes at the high school, NCAA Division I and professional levels, including for active players on the PGA Tour, the MLB’s Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians, and the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
As a disclaimer, Dr. Volk’s statements are spoke in the aggregate and aren’t specific to Young’s situation. They are also not official diagnoses. Please consult your physician for your situation.
BF: What kind of injury did Davis have within his hand?
Dr. Raizman: While the Dallas Mavericks [Davis’ team at the time of injury] did not disclose what specific injury is, it is likely a volar plate injury on one of the small joints in the metacarpal phalange.
(Note: In plain English, what Dr. Raizman wrote is that Davis may have injured his hand by jamming a finger and getting a torn or stretched ligament at the knuckle joint in the process.)
BF: What is the typical recovery time for this type of injury?
Dr. Raizman: It typically takes 6-8 weeks for the ligament to solidly heal, and there is conditioning work that can help support it. To support NBA caliber play, longer than 6 weeks is the best recovery timeline.
BF: Should Davis be worried about repeating this injury again once he’s back?
Dr. Raizman: This injury does not put Davis at a higher risk for other similar injuries, but there is a risk of further injury if he returns too early, not allowing the finger to fully heal.
BF: Anything else to note about this injury?
Given how the Wizards are performing this season and their potential to get a high 2026 draft pick, it does not seem like they are in a major rush to get him back on the court. Again, since Davis could risk reinjury if he returns too early, the Wizards should hold off on playing him, ensuring that the injury is fully healed.
Dec 7, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat forward Haywood Highsmith (24) is fouled by Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen (8) during the second half at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
The Phoenix Suns went 1-1 in their two games before the All-Star Break this week, defeating the Dallas Mavericks and losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder. While the team had off, Devin Booker participated in the three-point contest and was a member of the winning All-Star squad. Meanwhile, management signed free agent forward Haywood High to a multi-year deal.
Here are the main questions for Week 17 that we want your thoughts on:
What do you think of the Haywood Highsmith Signing?
Highsmith didn’t play at all for the Brooklyn Nets this season before he was waived, but before he was traded to to them in the offseason, he played in 35 playoff games in four seasons for the Miami Heat, and was a bench contributor to their 2022-2033 Finals team that became one of the only eight-seeds to ever make the finals.
Standing at 6’5”, Highsmith is an undersized forward known for his defensive and shooting abilities. In his last two seasons, he shot at least 38% from three, and averaged a steal and a block per 48 minutes.
With Cole Anthony likely to be waived, and the open roster spot to be used to convert Jamaree Bouyea’s two-way contract into a standard one, Highsmith looks to be the only new player the Suns will sign the rest of the season. Highsmith will be returning from a torn meniscus he suffered but was slated to make his season debut with Brooklyn before he was waived.
Do you think the Suns should have signed someone else with the roster spot or was Highsmith the right choice?
What did you think of the new All-Star game format?
The format helped the Suns, as Devin Booker came away victorious, but many seemed to like the three teams involved in the game with one of them being filled with players not from the US.
Three out of the four games were one-possession contests and we saw some spectacular performances, like Kawhi Leonard scoring 31 out of Team Stripes’ 48 points in the third game. Players appeared to be playing harder than they had been in recent All-Star games, and one match even went to overtime.
Do you think the new format is a sustainable one that will keep the game quality as strong as it was this year?
The All-Star game is returning to Phoenix
For the first time in 18 years, the NBA All-Star game will be played in Phoenix next season, when Mortgage Matchup Center will be the host of All-Star weekend. No current Sun was active the last time the game was played in Arizona, and Devin Booker is sure to be representing the team if he has a strong year next season.
What does it mean to the city of Phoenix to be hosting another All-Star game? Will you be in attendance?
For more questions on the Suns follow @HoldenSherman1 on X for content after every game.
6 Suns scored in double figures tonight.
How was Phoenix able to have such a balanced attack? The team’s leading scorer Dillon Brooks had just 23.
Sep 18, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Garrett Cleavinger (60) throws a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic dropped a surprising note that the Rays lone lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger is evidently drawing strong trade interest this week, in sourcing likely derived from a couple teams pushing for the acquisition.
In a vacuum, this is totally something the old Rays would do, as Cleavinger is a short-arm reliever making $2.4 million with yet another pay increase coming next season in his final year of arbitration. Short of paying for a lights out closer, the Rays usually build their bullpen in a cave with some scraps, and Cleavinger has eight saves since his 2020 major league debut.
The modern Rays, at lease of the last couple seasons, wait and see how the season will go before removing any key pieces. The logic would go: If there’s a 20% chance this team is competitive for the playoffs, you see if you’re in that 1/5 chance before moving on from your best relievers.
Rosenthal doesn’t throw his weight around lightly, and given that this rumor is here at all, it would seem to indicate the Rays also think they have enough left handed support to part with a fireman southpaw and that the team didn’t give a hard no upon inquiry.
If the Rays acquiesce, it could indicate that 40-man left-handed starters Ian Seymour and Joe Rock might start getting more swing-man assignments or time in the bullpen to maximize their value on the roster. In camp the Rays will also have journeyman LHP Cam Booser, who I’m willing to bet already had a strong shot to make the Rays roster this Spring.
Cleavinger sported a 2.35 ERA last season over 61.1 IP, his second consecutive season of sixty innings thrown, with a 33.7% strikeout rate (96th percentile in MLB) with a 36.0% whiff rate (97th percentile) and 7.4% walk rate (63rd percentile).
MEXICO CITY, MEX- FEBRUARY 24: A Mexico City Capitanes fan stands for the National Anthem before the game against the Long Island Nets on February 24, 2024 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading end/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright NBAE (photo by Trecy Wuattier/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
MEXICO CITY — For decades, talk of an NBA franchise in Mexico was not fringe speculation but a recurring thought experiment in league discourse, especially as the league deepened its ties with Mexican basketball fans and infrastructure as years passed.
The NBA first staged an international game on Mexican soil back in 1992 — its third-ever matchup outside of the United States — when the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets faced each other at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. So great was the experience that the league sent the Rockets and, this time, the New York Knicks for another preseason matchup one year later.
Ultimately, Mexico went on to put together a five-year run of hosting exhibition games for the NBA, then welcomed American teams sparsely in 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2012. The first regular-season NBA game to take place in Mexico happened in 1997, and the south-of-the-border country has hosted such games every season since the 2014-15 one, barring the COVID-impacted campaigns.
The arrival of the CDMX Capitanes to the G League only intensified the Mexican belief of belonging, giving fans their closest link yet to the NBA when they joined the NBA’s developmental league in 2021-22 after they were officially welcomed two years earlier, in 2019.
And for a major segment of those supporters — call them dreamers, idealists, or any other optimistic descriptor you can find for them — the ones convinced that an NBA franchise belongs here almost by birthright, the expectation now feels like set-in-stone destiny rather than a mere, perhaps even distant, possibility.
Those fans talk about expansion not as a remote outcome, but as something that could, or for some, should, happen as early as “tomorrow.” In their minds, the city formerly known as Distrito Federal and politically rebranded into — coincidentally or not — much more internationalized CDMX is huge, vibrant, full of passionate fans, and simply the right place for the NBA to land next.
“Mexican fans bring more passion than people think,” said a supporter named Alex, pointing to how soccer culture has translated naturally into basketball fandom.
At different points in time, during press conferences tied to NBA Global Games in Mexico City, commissioner Adam Silver publicly described the city as a potential site for future expansion.
“We think there’s an enormous opportunity to continue growing the game of basketball here in Mexico City and throughout the country,” Silver said in Nov. 2023. “And we also see this as a gateway essentially to the rest of Latin America.”
But even at the height of that buzz, the conversation was not one of imminent commitment to expanding south of the American border. By late 2024, Silver was clear that Mexico City’s place in expansion was still behind compelling proposals from other American markets.
“Personally, I would love to have a team [in CDMX],” Silver said then. “[But it] would be more difficult to expand to Mexico City than it would be to expand to U.S. cities that have very publicly sought NBA teams.
“Being direct, it’s highly unlikely Mexico City would jump above U.S. cities that are currently under consideration.”
Capitanes, for one, keep proving Silver right (in making a strong case as a proper fit for NBA expansion) and wrong (as a team based in a place still far from being an NBA-level hub).
The team’s games take place in cavernous Arena CDMX (opened in 2012 and with a maximum capacity of 22,300) and are packed with families, fans pounding drums, Latin American flags representing the multinational talent showcased on the court, and a level of emotional attachment that does not exist anywhere else in the G League.
Many Capitanes supporters attending the team’s home opener for the 2025-26 season against the OKC Blue insist the city is ready for the NBA in every way that matters: culture, passion, atmosphere, and symbolic weight. They describe Capitanes games as proof that Mexico City can be a “basketball destination,” a place where fan noise, family crowds, and a growing sense of belonging are enough to convince the league to plant a flag here permanently.
“Mexico City is ready,” claimed a middle-aged fan named Adrian. “With the team we have, any players would adapt to it tomorrow.” For him and many others, the city’s size, diversity, and infrastructure already solve everything the NBA or outsiders might be worrying about.
“The atmosphere here is special,” said Leo, a longtime fan who attended the opener along with his wife and three kids. “People feel connected to the team. It’s a family thing, and the fans give everything. We already support this like an NBA team.”
The CDMX team steadily leads the league in attendance, and although it took some ruthless and conniving marketing related to LeBron James’ son Bronny to break the all-time record, they destroyed the prior mark — one that already belonged to them — by bringing 19,328 souls to the arena for a developmental-league game held on Jan. 4, 2025 (that ended up not featuring Bronny after all).
Capitanes’ jerseys and all other merchandise sales are unparalleled, and the social engagement the team generates is on another level. They are the only unaffiliated G League team after the Ignite project vanished, but that fact only helped Ciudad de Mexico Capitanes feel like a true national project.
On the surface, one could believe Capitanes simply has outgrown and outpaced the G League structure. It feels like a leap from a player-development league and its surroundings to a full-blown competition, such as the NBA, is the most natural of moves. So much so, that a Capitanes PR member just confirmed tickets for international NBA games staged in CDMX always fly off of selling platforms the minute they go up for sale.
To many fans, the conclusion is simple: if Mexico City can fill the building for a one-off game in the middle of the NBA season, it can fill it 41 times a year with a local team calling Arena CDMX home.
But the closer the NBA gets to defining its future, the clearer it becomes that Mexico City’s biggest obstacles are not emotional or cultural. They have everything to do with infrastructural and financial hurdles, and they are, inevitably, deeply tied to the Association’s global strategy.
People who work inside Capitanes — the staffers, the media members who cover them daily, the executives who deal with the League (NBA or G) on a daily basis, and even the most fervent of super-fans who have earned unique access to all things Capitanes and call themselves Familia Capitan, understand the scale of these challenges far better than the dreamy fans who can only imagine a seamless transition into the largest stages basketball has to offer.
For some around the organization, the idea of a near-term NBA franchise is outright impossible to entertain.
“No,” Capitanes PR staffer Raúl Bravo told SB Nation when asked whether an NBA expansion could happen in the short term. “There are a few reasons. There’s competition from other cities like Las Vegas and Seattle. And even if the NBA called us and said ‘let’s go,’ the financial power needed to operate an NBA team is enormous — more games, more hotels, more staff, more everything.
“NBA player salaries are way above those of the G League players, so the investment would be magnified incredibly, and out of reach.”
The most common thread among insiders navigates the understanding that, beneath the NBA-level arena and the international buzz generated by the team and their approach to roster building in what most consider “the team of Latin America,” Capitanes operate on a reality completely different from what an NBA franchise requires.
When Bravo describes the problem, he is not talking about the fanbase or the Mexican culture being roadblocks on CDMX’s path to the NBA. Bravo is talking about the organization-wide budgets, high-end salaries, top-tier facilities, and fine-tuned logistics needed to be in place in order to make the jump. The gap in all of those areas, sadly, cannot be closed by the immeasurable passion and the emotional pull of Capitanes.
Capitanes head coach Vítor Galbani, in his first season at the helm, framed the gap directly when discussing the day-to-day competitive realities the team faces shortly after earning his first win of the season, in front of the Arena CDMX crowd.
“We have fewer resources than other teams,” Galbani said. “We’re at the mercy of call-ups. Other teams can send NBA players down and bring them back up. We can’t. Our roster is built differently — younger, mostly Latin American — and that makes the challenge bigger.”
Galbani’s view also speaks to a deeper truth that fans still don’t quite grasp: Capitanes are designed as a development platform, not a contender, as independent as they might be.
From the fans’ perspective, there’s a powerful emotional component at play that trumps it all, given the fact — acknowledged and proudly communicated by the organization itself — that Capitanes represents not just Mexico City, but the whole Latin American landscape.
The feeling, which extends well beyond Mexico’s borders, is what makes Capitanes what it is and has always been, and in the eyes and hearts of most fans, it’s not going anywhere — expansion or not.
“Capitanes, even if they’re not full of Mexicans, represent Latin Americans,” said Gerardo, a fan whose kid is honing his skills at the Capitanes’ underage developmental team. “It’s a platform for the player who wants to reach the NBA and sees Capitanes as a trampoline.”
The Latin American identity of the team is a core branding element, a selling point for fans, and a genuine pipeline for players with dreams of making it to the NBA or hooping overseas. But if the Capitanes were ever to become an NBA franchise, that identity would disappear almost instantly.
One staff member stated clearly: “There’s no way to keep five Latinos on an NBA roster — the level isn’t there.”
“That core wouldn’t survive,” said Rubén Calderón, who works both for Capitanes PR and NBA Mexico. “It’s impossible. Fans don’t see it — maybe because they don’t understand how the NBA works — but you can’t have five or six Latin American players on an NBA roster unless they’re truly NBA-level.
“There’s not enough Mexican and Latin American talent to keep an NBA team competitive.”
A fellow Capitanes PR member echoed that sentiment: “People don’t see that. Maybe because they don’t really know the NBA level.”
The human contradiction is as obvious as it is disheartening. Capitanes fans love the team for the most part because it represents them, from cultural traits to the region, starting in the northernmost Baja California and spanning all the way down south to Chile’s Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region.
“People from Latin American countries — Brazil, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico — they’re not going to fly to the NBA to watch a random game,” says Capitanes superfan Sinuhe Yepez. “But they’d come here and pack the arena to root for their colleagues and to watch teams that come from the United States.
“They’d be paying a fifth of the cost in CDMX compared to attending a game in the USA, and they’d get the same experience.”
An NBA franchise built in Mexico City would not represent that at all. The Association tipped off in October with a record 135 international players from 43 different countries across six continents.
The Atlanta Hawks, with 10 international players, led the league on that front. None of them was born south of the United States of America.
Multiple media members, including national reporters Erick Aguirre and Mario Alberto Castro, brought this up immediately.
“There would be a loss of identity,” they said. Both agreed that a roster built on Americans, as any NBA roster has its foundation in, would change the heart of what Capitanes currently are.
“You need a Latin icon,” they argued. “A Jaime Jaquez Jr. or a Juan Toscano Anderson. Ideally, someone like [NBA prospect] Karim López.” Without that, they fear fans would lose their rooting anchor and thus their interest in attending Capitanes games and following the team so closely and passionately as they currently do.
None of the conversations above, however, addresses the largest barrier of all: the humongous financial effort needed to make it to the NBA.
Every person inside the organization who deals with logistics on a weekly basis mentioned the facilities problem currently hurting CDMX’s case for landing an expansion team.
“To have an NBA franchise, you need a place where the entire team — offices, staff, medical, athletes — can spend their time and operate,” Calderón said. “Capitanes don’t have that. They train at the Comité Olímpico Mexicano (around 6.5 miles from Arena CDMX). Offices are split into COM and a separate building in the southern part of the city. Capitanes don’t own the arena, and everything is scattered.”
More worryingly, a few staffers revealed that there is nowhere in the city to build centralized facilities akin to what the NBA would require, or at the very least prefer.
“In the Valle de México area, there is no land left of that size,” Calderón said. “Not with the location needed. Around the arena, there’s nothing — you can find train yards, old neighborhoods, and then the poshest in Polanco. But there’s no open space.
“To build such facilities, you would need to build a new arena with everything in one place, and that means finding land far away from the current location and the city center — let alone the massive investment and the amount of money that’d take.”
It is a view echoed by people who see the team every day, such as Rodrigo Goyeneche, one of Mexico’s most reputed up-and-coming media voices and a longtime analyst for both Capitanes and fellow CDMX basketball team Diablos Rojos of Mexico’s Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional.
“Being fully honest, right now, we’re not ready for something like that,” Goyeneche said. “Not structurally, not logistically. The arena is huge, but the NBA needs more exclusivity. And here, the arena is privately owned and used for concerts and many other events. It’s not built for hosting a team every other day.”
The “exclusivity” of becoming the freshest member of the NBA family would inevitably bring a larger expense with it. Many supporters attend Capitanes games, and surely all of them adore the NBA Mexico Game, but they don’t attend it because it’s cheap — they attend because it happens just once a year.
Tickets for this season’s Mavericks vs. Pistons game on Dia de Muertos ranged from 850 pesos (around $46 USD ) to nearly 20,000 (approaching $1,090 USD), sitting courtside. Capitanes’ G League games are affordable, with the cheapest tickets available for 50 pesos (less than $3 USD). For a single event, people save, plan, and spend. But a season of 41 home games at that rate, the equation would change entirely.
“A lot of fans struggle to get to the arena,” one Capitanes staff member acknowledged. “They only come on weekends. Between weekday and weekend sales, the difference is huge.”
Local fans who save for months to attend a single NBA Mexico game, or who buy Capitanes jerseys knowing the player may leave next month, would suddenly face a season with 41 home games and consistently NBA-level prices. Most of them simply could not afford NBA prices or frequency. Yepez, one of the most passionate and active fans of Capitanes, acknowledged he’s stopped attending so many games already for financial reasons and an increase in prices.
“I need to earn a lot of money to afford attending,” Yepez said. “Back then, I got full-season tickets close to courtise for 7,000 pesos. Now, I need to pay close to 2,500 pesos per game to sit in the same area. I’d probably need to sell an eye and a kidney to afford that.”
Goyeneche also pointed out the competitive reality that many fans often overlook when rooting for their home team, which has to do with the developmental nature of the G League compared to the NBA.
“The goal now isn’t to win a championship,” Goyeneche said. “It’s to develop talent. But people want a champion. They want their stars to stay. And with Capitanes, the roster changes every year. Yet the fans still come. That’s unique, but it has everything to do with the core values of the organization.”
While fans would get more familiar with the team’s faces and supposedly know Arena CDMX like the back of their hands, would they be able to pony up the money needed to root for their squad at the court level three times a week?
That tension is reflected in talking with fans who follow the team closely but acknowledge the financial limits already in place while being part of the lesser, more affordable G League.
Ivan, a longtime Capitanes and Oklahoma City Thunder fan, envisions the dream clearly but understands the barrier.
“There’s still not a big enough basketball fan base in Mexico for the NBA to give the country its own team,” Ivan said. “Capitanes helped grow the fanbase. More people follow the sport now, but there’s a long way to go.”
For Ivan and many others, travel is another point to consider. Flying from Mexico City to Texas doesn’t pose a big challenge. Flights to Cleveland or Toronto, in Ivan’s eyes and pocket, are long and costly.
From a logistics standpoint, the NBA solved the concern years ago. While it’s been proven that travel isn’t an operational barrier these days, for franchise ownership, staff, and operations, the expenses related to it could become unmanageable quickly.
And that is exactly why NBA discourse has pivoted heavily toward planting a flag in Europe rather than exploring home expansion, let alone looking south of the border.
Although Silver said after September’s Board of Governors meeting that the league was on “parallel tracks” regarding potential expansion involving both national and international moves, things appear to have changed of late.
While there has been resurgent buzz about Las Vegas and Seattle in recent weeks, over the past few months, the league has signaled that its most urgent expansion opportunity is not in Mexico or the U.S., but across the Atlantic. The “NBA Europe” project, tentatively targeted for a 2027-28 proper launch, would include up to 16 teams in cities like London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, and Istanbul. Then, in late December, both the NBA and FIBA made their “joint exploration” of a new league based in Europe official.
The NBA has already hired JPMorgan Chase and The Raine Group to secure investors. The conversations, according to multiple reports, have involved sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, and ultra-wealthy family groups. The Middle East has shown particular interest, given that it could finally find a way to circumvent the current rules capping foreign passive ownership at 20 percent in NBA teams.
What Europe offers is simple: enormous capital, established sports corporations arriving from the soccer sphere, existing arenas already owned by world-renowned organizations such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich, massive markets with a foothold in the continent’s premier competition — the Euroleague — and global investment appetite to tie their names to the NBA.
According to the NBA’s Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East, the NBA sees a “$50 billion European sports market” and noted that basketball barely captures “0.5 percent of it.” Not to mention, some NBA owners — most notably Knicks steward James Dolan, according to rumors — are hesitant to dilute U.S. media revenue further unless expansion fees are astronomical, while the European model would offer them a parallel revenue stream with no media dilution at all.
None of these incentives points toward Mexico City landing a team for the time being.
The immediate implications of the European move are unmistakable. If the NBA arrives in Europe by 2028, the move could delay U.S. expansion for years. And if ownership groups with the deepest of pockets push billions into the project, Ciudad de México will inevitably slip further away — not because it lacks passion, but because the NBA’s financial thirst will lie elsewhere.
Even the most optimistic insiders acknowledge the financial gap. NBA Mexico managing director Raúl Zárraga, speaking before the 2024 NBA Mexico Game, praised Capitanes’ success in building a collective Mexican and, by extension, Latin American identity.
“When you are in the arena, you’ll see that the people are rooting not for Mexico City Capitanes, they’re rooting for Mexico’s Capitanes,” Zárraga said.
He also praised their competitiveness, merchandise leadership, and visibility throughout multiple channels. But even Zárraga, with at least some partial, inside knowledge of the NBA’s operations, offered no timeline for NBA expansion into Mexico.
“There’s no plan in action to look for a potential owner or potential group of people dedicated to get a new team in Mexico or in any other place in Latin America,” Zárraga said. “So there’s nothing new to announce or confirm about Mexico being considered.
“It’s a complicated process. You can imagine the international locations, all the different cities, but there is no doubt that many cities will be participating, including Mexico City.”
In the sharpest corners and deepest streets of Ciudad de México, the people closest to the Capitanes project understand that better than anyone. When asked whether an NBA roster could adapt to living in Mexico full-time, staff members repeatedly said yes — but with caveats.
Calderón said players would “live in good zones, with a good quality of life,” as they do now as members of the G League squad. That said, he cautioned they’d effectively be forced to live in a bubble, having personal chefs, security, private routes, and minimal city interaction.
Others mentioned that Capitanes already house players in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the most expensive areas in Latin America, hosting the most expensive street in Mexico, and believe that the model could scale to host a full NBA operation.
Idealistic Capitanes fans, meanwhile, don’t deny the challenges; they simply believe everything will sort itself out. Cultural adaptation? “They will adapt.” Travel? “Distances aren’t worse than some NBA-to-NBA trips.” Roster identity? “Capitanes represents Latin America.” Financial strain? “It’s the NBA — they’ll make it work.” Player discomfort? “They’ll live in Polanco.”
These solutions, however, highlight another gap. For an NBA franchise, such bubbles must be permanent, secure, and supported by a full organizational machine, bringing back to the table one more financial hurdle to clear and invest in.
Even the city’s biggest strengths, like Arena CDMX’s size and ambience, come with their own challenges. Bravo pointed out that weeknight attendance is a problem already in the G League.
Some fans, who attend games clad in bootleg clothes available for purchase at pirate-market prices — snapback hats at 100 pesos or $5 USD, and screen-printed jerseys selling at 150 pesos or barely $9 USD — right outside the stadium, admitted that Capitanes games scheduled on working days noticeably have “less atmosphere.”
Going from barely 20 home games to double that figure if in the NBA is an entirely different sales reality.
A longtime superfan from Europe, but who has lived in CDMX for a few years, put the economic tension bluntly. “Tickets for the annual NBA game can cost 20,000 pesos courtside,” he said. “Capitanes’ games remain accessible, but an NBA season? Only if the NBA puts in money to help the organization. With a single owner here, it’s difficult.”
Across interviews, one underlying thread emerged from insiders, journalists, and staff, in that they all agree about the collective desire to keep Capitanes grounded in what they currently are — not an NBA team, but a gateway to the League.
A development hub for Latin American talent, a cultural point of pride, a bridge between the NBA and a region that hungers for representation in the biggest stages, and is eager to announce itself to the world. A team whose power comes from being different, not similar.
And ironically, that difference is exactly what would disappear in the jump to the NBA.
The players would be mostly from United States towns and come with American upbringings. The structure of the organization would be more centralized, the roster rules won’t allow Capitanes to rotate the cast of Latin talents, the operations would be much more strict, and the culture and atmosphere risk getting under heavy control and within stiff boundaries.
One fan admitted he fears the NBA would water down the true Mexican spirit that currently exists in the arena for a more Americanized audience, and risk the loss of Spanish chants, the charming presence of team mascot Juanjolote and other sponsor-affiliated wild characters, the cameos of paper-built Alebrijes, and the use of other local traditions, tunes, or Mexican descriptions of what’s going on on the court, from coaches’ challenging plays, to (Silencio! Sshhhhh…) tense moments at the free-throw line.
Asked if expansion could maintain the team’s Latin American identity, a fan named Roberto paused before offering his most honest answer.
“It would hurt a little,” he said. “It’d take away part of the fanbase.”
The drums? Might be muted. The Spanish chants? Curated. The fans who love the chaos and identity that make Capitanes a unique entity in the world of basketball would face a polished entertainment product built for global, if not American, consumption.
The people who work inside the organization know this truth intimately. They also know Mexico City is not ready. Not because it lacks heart, but because it lacks the dollars, acres of land, modern NBA facilities, an owner willing — and capable —to fund a multi-billion-dollar project, and a league that sees Europe as a more strategic and profitable next step.
So while Mexico City is closer to the NBA than ever before in history, the NBA, however, is moving somewhere else in its global strategy.
Capitanes may have already proven that Mexico is a basketball country. They have proven that the fans will come to the games, fill the arena with deafening noise, and build a culture that can sustain the sport. What CDMX cannot prove is that the infrastructure exists to support the most powerful league in the world and the business of the NBA — at least not yet.
Until that gap closes, the vision remains what it has always been: an emotion-fueled dream, just out of reach.
Mets owner Steve Cohen addressed a number of topics Monday morning in Port St. Lucie…
Shaking up the core
Change was needed with this core simply because…
“We haven’t won, and I really want to win,” Cohen emphasized. “Each year that goes by, I get more annoyed. It’s hard to know what to make of those chances, and sometimes they happen in a way that you don’t fully anticipate or expect.
“But the other side of it is, we have a really sharp baseball management group, and these guys were prepared and had alternatives, and like I said -- saying goodbye is always tough, but saying hello is kind of fun.”
Say hello to Bo…
One of those new faces the Mets brought in was Bo Bichette.
They, of course, landed Bichette shortly after losing out on Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers.
Cohen explained how he went to bed annoyed about missing the star outfielder, but the front office moved quickly to land a strong alternative shortly thereafter.
“The way I describe it is, when the news came down with Kyle, literally the body was still warm and we were getting calls from agents, literally within five minutes later -- I was like ‘the body is still warm here,’” he said.
“I went to bed annoyed, but the agent for Bo called us right after and discussions started -- you never know how they’re going to go, but they moved real quickly.”
In Bichette, the Mets pick up one of the league's premier hitters with RISP.
“It’s always better to have players that have performed in the clutch,” Cohen explained. “He’s not a home run guy, but he led the league in doubles last year, and doubles score runs too -- having those players who have preformed under pressure is usually a pretty good sign.”
Them pesky Dodgers…
Speaking of the Dodgers, Cohen was asked if he feels the Mets closed the gap between them and the two-time defending champs.
“They’re formidable, they have the ability to spend -- so do I, by the way,” he joked. “They’ve built a great team, but I think we’ve built a great team too. I think we’re going to be really competitive this year, and the goal is to meet them somewhere along the way.”
Impressions of the 2026 team… so far
Cohen only arrived in PSL on Monday, but he feels a different vibe around this club.
“I feel like there’s a different energy here than last year,” he said. “I don’t know what it is, it just feels really optimistic -- a lot of new faces, so I’m really excited by this team, I’m excited by the energy of this team, and we’ll see what happens.”
His goal for this team, though…
“Table stakes is making the playoffs, gotta make the playoffs,” Cohen explained. “I missed the playoffs last year, missing the playoffs two years in a row, that’s not good -- and then obviously you want to go deep.
“You can’t lose lose a short series, you can’t control what goes on, anything can happen in those short series -- but I think the idea is keep putting yourself in that position year in and year out, which we haven’t done.
“It’s been off and on, so we have to do better, and those are the goals I’m seeking.”
Confidence in Mendy…
Even after a down 2025 season, Cohen remains confident Carlos Mendoza is the manager they need to achieve his goals.
“Carlos is a great manager, he’s a great guy and a great motivator,” he said. “I believe a manager’s main job is the culture, obviously there are in-game decisions, but it’s really about creating the right culture, and I think Carlos does it really well.”
Mendoza is heading into the final year of his contract with the club.
Thoughts on Carson Benge...
Benge is one of the young pieces who could help Mendoza and the Mets return to the postseason.
The top prospect is being given every chance to make the Opening Day roster out of camp this spring...
"Obviously there's a great deal of expectation with Carson," Cohen said. "You've got to give him a bit of a break, right? He hasn't played in Triple-A yet, so it's hard to know how that's going to go, but he certainly has preformed in a way that would make you excited about the possibilities."
Benge, and the organization's other young pieces, will certainly benefit from being around the club's veterans.
Thoughts on a potential salary cap...
Cohen insisted he is solely focused on the 2026 season, and isn't worried about what may come in 2027.
As far as where he stands on a potential salary floor/cap...
"I'm listening to all of the arguments, but I've always been a league-first owner," he said. "I haven't made up my mind yet, but we'll see where it goes -- sometimes I put the league's interest above my own interest."
Roman Anthony will have plenty on his shoulders this upcoming Boston Red Sox season, and the budding superstar arrived in Fort Myers prepared to carry the load.
Anthony showed up to spring training with noticeably more muscle on his 6-foot-3 frame. After flashing MVP potential as a rookie last season, he’ll be counted on to supply much of the power for a Red Sox lineup that isn’t expected to hit many balls over the fence in 2026.
ZiPS projects the Red Sox will be the only MLB club without a player hitting 20-plus home runs next season. Anthony, Trevor Story, and Wilyer Abreu are tied for the team lead with a projected 18 homers, and Anthony also owns the highest projected OPS (.812) among Boston hitters.
The Red Sox front office’s inability to land another big bat this offseason has put the burden on Anthony to exceed even those lofty expectations. Fortunately, the laid-back 21-year-old appears unbothered by the spotlight.
“I’m not really worried about anything like that, never really was. Just going to continue to learn from my teammates around me and find ways to make everyone better.”
That mindset is part of what makes Anthony such a compelling centerpiece for Boston’s future. With elite bat speed, advanced plate discipline, and power to all fields, his talent has never been in question. His even-keeled approach may prove to be just as valuable as the production itself. If the Red Sox are going to outperform their modest power projections, it will likely start with their former No. 1 prospect taking another leap mentally and physically.
Anthony earned his long-awaited call-up to the big leagues in June. After raking at every minor-league level, he wasted little time making his presence felt in Boston, slashing .292/.396/.463 with eight homers and 32 RBI in 71 games before an oblique strain ended his season prematurely in early September. He finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year race.
If he stays healthy in 2026, it isn’t a stretch to say Anthony could be in the AL Most Valuable Player conversation. An MVP-level season from Anthony may be necessary for the Red Sox to compete in the tough AL East and make a deep postseason run.
Although much of the commentary surrounding this year’s Red Sox squad touts the improved pitching staff while questioning the lineup, Anthony is a believer in the group.
“I think we’ve got a great squad offensively,” he said. “I haven’t really looked into it much as to what people have to say about us, but I think we know what the end goal is, and we know how we’re gonna try and piece it together to make everything work.
“I think we have a very complete lineup. It just feels very tight-knit in there. So I think as far as the offensive side goes, I think we’re gonna be just fine.”
Even if Anthony is confident the Red Sox offense will surprise people, there’s no question the club is asking a lot from him heading into his first full season. He ranks near the top of the list of players they can’t afford to lose to injury, which makes his addition to Team USA for the 2026 World Baseball Classic a polarizing topic among Sox fans. While it’ll be fun to watch the future face of the franchise perform on an international stage, it will also come with understandable anxiety.
Ultimately, the Red Sox are placing a significant bet on growth. When it comes to the lineup, they’re betting that internal development, more than offseason spending, will power their next postseason push. At the center of that wager stands Roman Anthony.
He doesn’t need to be perfect, nor does he have to do it alone. But if he continues on his current trajectory, it’ll go a long way toward quieting the critiques of the lackluster offense, and it could make all the difference between another letdown season and October baseball in Boston.
CLEVELAND, OH - APRIL 20 : General view of Cleveland Municipal Stadium as the Cleveland Indians play the Texas Rangers in Opening Day on April 20, 1982 in the Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by John Reid III/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Today, for our daily question, we are going to ask you to look back on your history with the Cleveland baseball team.
I will not be surprised if you have multiple memories you want to share, and that’s fine, but tell us which one stands out above the others, if you can.
Whether it’s:
-Games you saw in person -Games you saw from your couch -Encounters with players or coaches -Life experiences that intertwined with the team and its accomplishments -Memories from trips to the stadium and city
We want to hear about it all in the comments below. Share some Indians/Guardians memories with us!
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 12, 2026: Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) plays tight defense on Dallas Mavericks guard Klay Thompson (31) in the first half at Crypto.com Arena on February 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Six and a half minutes remained in the second quarter of a dog fight between the Lakers and a shorthanded Dallas Mavericks team. With a timeout, head coach J.J. Redick calls for a switch in their defense from traditional man coverage to zone, leading to three straight stops and pushing a six-point lead to a more comfortable 13 en route to an eventual blowout win behind a triple-double from LeBron James.
LA heads into the All-Star break ranked 23rd in defense, a position that puts a clear ceiling on any hopeful contender. While it’s not a long-term solution, increased zone implementation has given the team a counter to some of the natural defensive liabilities on the roster while simplifying responsibilities.
When you are a defense ranked in the bottom seven, you clearly need a shakeup not just with personnel but in schematics or style.
Since playing the Raptors on January 18, the Lakers increased their zone usage to 17.6%, a number that would lead the league by a mile, as revealed in the graphic shown below during Amazon Prime’s NBA coverage.
The team’s zone is allowing stingy 0.86 points per possession and while that’s not a sustainable level of production on that end of the floor, it reveals the new look defense is having some success.
LA mainly relies on a 2-3 zone defense, featuring two perimeter players and three backside players, moving from man-to-man responsibility to defending an area of the floor.
Watch below as the Lakers settle into their 2-3 zone against the Mavs following a timeout. LA, who struggles with dribble penetration, forces the offense to keep moving the ball across the perimeter while shutting off driving lanes and eating up the clock.
It’s a protection against getting beat off the dribble, which happens frequently as the Lakers play a host of slow perimeter players, and it provides certainty about where defensive help comes from. Jaxson Hayes operates from the middle here but shifts across the floor in sync with his team.
“I feel like it gives all of us a better vision of the offense,” Hayes said postgame. “We are all a little back some more, so we all can see and communicate a little better. We’re not just hugged up on our mans. The paint is a little more crowded, so it’s harder for teams that struggle with shooting to score on it.”
The Lakers give up the highest field goal percentage at the rim at 72.4%. One way to alleviate some of the damage is to prevent teams from getting there in the first place.
The Raptors, who came in with the fourth-highest percentage of points in the paint, were held in check and flummoxed by the Lakers’ zone defense.
One of the points of the zone is to force the offense into multiple passes, creating more opportunities for indecision and mistakes. It can be especially useful for two big lineups that otherwise lack foot speed, helping them stay in front of defenders.
Watch below as Redick uses it against the Raptors with a Drew Timme and Deandre Ayton frontline, leveraging their size alongside LeBron James and Jared Vanderbilt.
Once again, as the ball swings on the perimeter, all five guys on the floor shift into their correct positions. The Lakers close out the driving lanes, fly around, and force a tough, contested step back three from Gradey Dick.
“We’ve ran it a few times a game recently,” Redick said after the Toronto win. “Sometimes it’s hard, both as a coach and as a player, when you run it, and it’s a good possession of defense, and the other team hits an off-the-dribble three, which has happened this week. One game it happened three times and it can kind of deflate you.
“But we think it could be a weapon for us tonight, we talked pregame about something that I certainly wanted to do and we wanted to do as a staff and the players were bought into it.”
A zone, no doubt, has loud weaknesses, and there’s a reason teams go to it in spurts as a change of pace. Zone busters, or high-volume 3-point shooters, also exist across the league, waiting for the open shot opportunities they create for offenses. In addition, teams running zone can give up more offensive rebounds as box out responsibilities become disoriented.
The first hurdle to get over in a defensive scheme is buy-in from the players, something Redick seems to have in this group.
“Yeah, that thing got us going,” Ayton said of the zone. “I think really just talking and communicating, getting the blood flowing, knowing who got your back out there and the coaches seeing what works here. Just seeing different coverages thrown at the team and seeing what they could throw back at us.”
This defense has provided an unexpected jolt for the Lakers and even if it has flaws, it might be enough to keep them going for the rest of the season, especially if health allows their high-powered offense to find a similar groove.
Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter | Nate Ulrich / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Zack Meisel published a great article today about Chase DeLauter’s debut and his approach to this coming season. He, again, emphasizes that the organization was planning for DeLauter to break camp with the major league team in 2025 before his injury. So… one would have to assume the plan is for him to break camp this season. Right? Right?!
There was a rumor that Ty France was on the Guardians’ radar. He signed a minor-league deal with the Padres today. Rhys Hoskins is still out there. The Guardians will not sign him.
In case you missed it, Hoynes had a quote from Stephen Vogt saying that David Fry isn’t going to play right field or third base yet. This complicates the roster situation and will be interesting to follow.
Will Brennan signed a split contract with the San Francisco Giants. We wish Brennan all the best.
The Guardians have their first full-squad workout tomorrow. Jose Ramirez was the only player not yet in camp, but should be there as of today.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - JUNE 19: Drew Smith #33 of the New York Mets pitches during the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on June 19, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After signing Cionel Perez a couple days ago, the Nats picked up another veteran reliever on an incentive-laden minor league deal. This time Paul Toboni and the Nats picked up Drew Smith, who was a mainstay in the Mets bullpen for a few years. From 2021 to 2024, Smith featured prominently in the Mets bullpen, but missed last season recovering from Tommy John.
Former Met reliever Drew Smith stays in the NL East agreeing to a minor league deal with the Nats. $1.75M if he makes the team, with $1.25M in performance bonuses, according to sources
However, he should be ready to go right away. The surgery was back in July of 2024, so plenty of time has passed. This is Smith’s second Tommy John, so it is not a given that he looks like his old self. If he does bounce back, the $1.75 million price tag if he makes the team could be a steal.
Back when he was on the Mets, Smith was known for his swing and miss stuff. His fastball sat around 95 MPH and he had a strong feel for spin. Smith throws a cutter, a slider, a curveball and an occasional changeup to go with his lively heater. He can be susceptible to hard contact, but he makes up for it by getting swing and miss.
Earlier this offseason, I actually brought up Smith as a potential under the radar target. His career 3.48 ERA and his ability to generate whiffs stuck out to me. It seems like Toboni was also impressed by those skills.
Spring Training will be huge for Smith though. He will need to prove that his stuff is still good after a second major surgery. There are examples of pitchers who have succeeded after a second Tommy John, but there are also plenty of guys who struggle to bounce back from that second surgery. Hopefully Smith can be part of the former group.
Importantly, he will be ready to go immediately. There was some optimism that he could return at the end of the Mets season, but he just could not quite make it. Given how far removed he is from the surgery, this offseason was probably relatively normal for Smith.
It's still far too early to know with any certainty, but Mets reliever Drew Smith (recovery from Tommy John surgery) has some optimism that he'll be able to return in late September or October. He's on track to begin throwing bullpen sessions next month — a good sign.
Due to his injury status, Smith is less likely to break camp with the team than Cionel Perez. However, he might have more upside to his ability to generate whiffs. This is another worthwhile dart throw from Toboni. If Smith does not look like the same pitcher, he can just be a depth arm in Rochester. However, if the stuff does return, he could be an important veteran in the Nats bullpen.
At 32 years old, Smith should have gas in the tank if he is fully recovered from the injury. He also provides some experience and veteran leadership to a Nats bullpen that does not have much of that.
If Smith can pitch to a 3.48 ERA, which is his career mark, this would be a great pickup. There is also no risk because this is a minor league deal. I like these small bullpen moves Toboni has made in the last few days.
While Anthony may be a bit of a downgrade in terms of outfield coverage from Carroll, he will bring a stronger arm and he can make up for the difference in bat pop. Anthony joins teammate Garrett Whitlock, one of the best aces in baseball, on the WBC roster.
Anthony signed an eight-year contract worth $130 million with the Red Sox last August, and the deal has escalators up to $230 million. Though he missed out on $1 million for not finishing top two in Rookie of the Year voting, he can make $2 million for winning MVP, $1 million for finishing second or third in MVP voting, with descending numbers down to top-10 in voting.
The USA outfield will now have Anthony, Byron Buxton, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and captain Aaron Judge.
How old is Roman Anthony?
Born May 13, 2004, Anthony is 21 years old and will be 22 in May. He is the youngest player on the Team USA roster.
Anthony became the youngest Red Sox player to make his debut since Rafael Devers at 21 years and 27 days on June 9 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Roman Anthony stats
Anthony slashed .292/.396/.463 last season with eight home runs.
In terms of other metrics, the only spots where Anthony fell under league average at the plate were in whiff percentage and strikeout percentage.
Team USA World Baseball Classic roster
The World Baseball Classic roster is again filled out now, with Anthony joining Buxton, Crow-Armstrong, and Judge in the outfield.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 27: Cody Freeman #39 of the Texas Rangers looks on prior to a game against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on September 27, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
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 infielder Cody Freeman.
Cody Freeman spent more time in the major leagues in 2025 than I think any of us expected to be the case. Or wanted to be the case, for that matter.
Freeman had a short stint in the bigs right after the All Star Break when Sam Haggerty went on the injured list, and then was sent back down after about a week when Haggerty returned. A little less than a month later, Freeman was called back up again in mid-August, once again taking the place of Sam Haggerty, and ultimately sticking around until the end of the season due to, you know, everyone being injured.
Freeman had the role of “young-ish guy in AAA who can play a lot of positions who can be pressed into duty in the big leagues if need be” in the second half of 2025. That role had previously been held by Jonathan Ornelas, who was designated for assignment in May and then sold to Atlanta, because that’s where all the players DFA’d by the Rangers end up.
Freeman’s time in the majors in 2025 was relatively uneventful. he slashed .228/.258/.342 and played a variety of positions, none of them particularly well according to the advanced defensive metrics.
Freeman wasn’t on the 40 man roster until he was summoned in July, and would have been a free agent at the end of the season had he not been added to the 40 man at some point before season’s end. He ended up with a -0.3 WAR of both the f and b varieties. He seemed to generate a degree of enthusiasm among Rangers fans that was disproportionate to his actual performance.
Really, though, what is more interesting to me than Freeman’s 2025 major league performance is Freeman’s 2025 minor league performance. He appeared to be a completely different hitter in AAA than he had been throughout his entire minor league career up to that point.
In 71 career games in low-A, Cody Freeman has slashed .247/.357/.383.
In 196 career games in high-A, Cody Freeman has slashed .235/.308/.384.
In 124 career games in AA, Cody Freeman has slashed .262/.318/.428.
In 97 career games in AAA, Cody Freeman has slashed .336/.382/.549.
That’s a big jump! And yes, the PCL is a great league for hitters, and yes, Freeman had been one of the Rangers’ infielder-to-catcher conversion projects and was catching at least some of the time until the 2024 season, and so not catching anymore probably helped him.
But even so…that’s a big, big jump in performance.
In looking at his historical minor league data, one can see how that change manifested. Here’s Freeman’s K rates in the minors by year:
2021 — 15.8%
2022 — 16.1%
2023 — 18.4%
2024 — 18.1%
2025 — 8.7%
That’s a huge drop in Freeman’s strikeout rate in 2025 compared to prior years. And its at AAA, where he is seeing more experienced pitchers, and where one would expect his K rate to go up rather than down.
One would expect that Freeman was swinging less frequently once he got to AAA, but that wasn’t the case. He swung at 44.4% of pitches with Round Rock in 2025, compared to 44.2% and 46.3% the previous two seasons.
The difference is in contact rate — after putting up contact rates a little above 80% in his career prior to 2025, with a high of 82.8% in AA in 2024, Freeman had an 89.9% contact rate at AAA in 2025.
To put these numbers in perspective, Steven Kwan had an 8.7% K rate in the majors in 2025, which was the fourth lowest K% among qualified hitters.
Nico Hoerner had an 89.9% contact rate in the majors in 2025. That was the fourth highest contact rate among qualified hitters.
Freeman was able to maintain an elite contact rate — 88.5% — in his time in the majors. His K rate jumped up to 15.7%, which is still well above average in terms of avoiding strikeouts.
The problem was, though, that Freeman didn’t walk in the majors — he had a well below average 4.1% walk rate — and he didn’t make quality contact. His hard hit rate and average exit velocity were both near the bottom of the league, and almost 60% of his balls in play were either ground balls or infield pop ups.
Freeman has two options remaining, and seems most likely to start the year back at AAA as infield depth. It will be interesting to see, should he be in Round Rock for the bulk of the year, whether he can replicate the offensive success he had there in 2025.
With the Rangers needing a righthanded bench bat, there’s been talk about Freeman possibly filling that role. However, Freeman has not performed especially well against lefties — in fact, he has reverse splits over the last three seasons. That makes it hard for him to have value in a big league bench role at this point.
2025 was a big step forward for Freeman. He had a successful year at AAA and got regular playing time in the bigs in the final six weeks of the season. Now we just need to see if he can build on that for 2026.
In this special Spring 2026 preview episode of the Royals Rundown Podcast, Jacob Milham and Jeremy Greco sit down with Kansas City Royals pitching coach Brian Sweeney for an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how the organization is building its staff for the upcoming season.
Sweeney walks us through his daily routine during spring training — from 6 a.m. physicals and data review to individualized bullpen sessions and game-day preparation. Sweeney’s candid stories about player personalities, in-game adjustments, and clubhouse culture provide rare access to the human side of pitching development. For fans who want more than surface-level analysis, this episode delivers insider insight into how the Royals are preparing to compete in 2026.
Jacob and Jeremy also dive into bullpen construction, including why Lucas Erceg is viewed as a high-ceiling, swing-and-miss weapon, how Carlos Estevez factors into late-inning strategy, and which emerging arms — including Steven Cruz, Alex Lange, Nick Mears, Luinder Avila, and others — are pushing for meaningful roles in 2026.
Whether you’re a longtime Royals supporter or a baseball enthusiast interested in pitching strategy and player development, this conversation offers a valuable perspective on what it truly takes to build a modern MLB pitching staff.
