Maybe it’s just a runoff from my olympic fever, but the WBC being right around the corner has me so deeply excited. More than anything I’m looking forward to having a little baseball background noise in my life. The best form of past time exists prominently from spring to fall, and this year we’re getting an extra little something-something from the (Gage) jump.

Circle March 3rd on your calendars, folks — right before all the WBC tournament action, the A’s will be going head to head with Team Brazil in what’s likely to be a matinee classic. You have know idea how so absolutely seated I am for something like this. It’s taking care of an itch only scratched by the occasional pointlessness of MLB scheduling. Though with the game taking place so early in spring training, I’m fascinated in how the A’s will approach it. What’re the odds they lose to a team headlined by Manny Ramirez’s son?

On the bump. three innings from Jack Perkins just might not be on the table unfortunately,. They’re more than likely to throw Eduraniel Nunez and Kenya Huggins and pray they don’t get shelled. Either way, it’s a total drop-everything-you’re-doing-and-get-out-to-Hohokam type game. One of the more mildly fascinating ones I can think of in recent history.

What’s a total obscure curio game you would’ve liked to have caught in person? Playoff games obviously don’t count here, I’m more referring to an oddball giveaway day or matchup. The 1999 A’s vs Angels Turn-Ahead-The-Clock’s of the world. I was fortunate enough to experience the MC Hammer bobblehead giveaway back in 2011. Not only was it already an all-timer from a promotional sense, but the A’s also schwooped the Daniel Pinero led Angels 9-1 in the throwbacks. That day, I’m pretty sure Gio Gonzalez shoved for six to seven frames. I know for a fact Conor Jackson hit a grandy in like the first inning. All of this unfolded on an overcast sunday in Oakland. Forget their 42-54 record, you could’ve told me we were in heaven.

Now obviously I can’t expect an A’s-Brazil exhibition to be all full of whimsy like that, but it can at the very least provide charm — which is all I really care about. The older I get, the more I feel like The Pat Venditte’s big league debut type games really prevail sentimentally in the long run. Who needs ESPN’s Sunday night baseball when you could have a Coco Crisp chia pet?

A’s Coverage:

• How a WBC Roster Could Impact the A’s Third Base Competition
• Athletics add developmental leaguer in trade with Yankees
• Athletics Community Prospect List: Taylor Rounds Out Top 10
• Little Signings Everywhere
• A’s Claim Andy Ibanez, Add Scott Barlow In Busy Roster Shuffle
• Athletics Sign Jacob Wilson to Extension
• Athletics Community Prospect List: Echavarria Takes #9 Spot
• Extensions For Everyone! (Except Kurtz)
• Wilson extension signals shift for A’s ahead of Vegas move
• Managers & Top Front Office Executives On Expiring Contracts
• De Vries (No. 4 overall) leads Athletics trio on Top 100 Prospects list
• A’s Spring Training Report Date, and everything you need to know
• After monster stats as rookie, Nick Kurtz has a new number in mind: 162

MLB News and Interest:

• Pirates to sign Marcell Ozuna
• Red Sox acquire Caleb Durbin in six-player trade
• Phillies Looking to move Nick Castellanos this week
• Angels to sign Hunter Strickland to Minor League Deal
• Mets sign outfielder MJ Melendez to 1-year contract
• Pirates, Red Sox among teams interested in Isaac Paredes
• Former speedster Terrance Gore passes away at 34
• Examining Jordan Hicks’ future with the White Sox
• Yasiel Puig found guilty in gambling probe
• Looking at the Angels’ internal infield options
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

It’s 2033 and Luis Burgos has just secured the final out in the ALCS, sending the A’s to their third World Series appearance in five years.

Max Schuemann is the third base coach.

Good for Kurtz, but I am literally so over these lists. Spring training needs to finally get here so MLB Network can stop recycling the same five narratives to death.

We talking about Lawrence Butler, right?

More than anything, I’m a bit concerned on who will be filling out these games. What’s the fandom going to look like? Who will be able to afford a ticket to an A’s game and what type of fan base will that cultivate?

I hope this is the last time we ever have to see Gio Urshela in an A’s jersey

I blame Daric Barton (everything is his fault)

The 2022 A’s were so bad they had the director of Mallrats out there playing the hot corner

Atlanta Braves pitchers and catchers have officially reported to spring training and as it turns out, there’s another catcher who has joined the Braves for the first day of camp. I suppose that things have been hectic down there in North Port because we didn’t get the usual Braves tweet with a block of white text on a navy blue background announcing their latest out-of-the-blue acquisition.

Instead, we got it the “old-fashioned” way: Via sources. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com was the first to report that the Braves had signed veteran catcher Jonah Heim to a one-year deal. We don’t have the financial numbers yet but MLB.com Braves beat writer Mark Bowman (who is in Florida to report on spring training, as usual) also confirmed that Heim was in camp, so this appears to be happening.

Jonah Heim was a free agent in the first place after he got non-tendered by the Texas Rangers following two underwhelming seasons. He hit .213/.271/.332 with a .266 wOBA and 69 wRC+ last season, which would be an acceptable amount of production for a catcher if their defense was good. Unfortunately for Heim, his defense was not good in 2025 as he graded below average in plenty of defensive catching metrics in 2025. This continued a trend from 2024 where his defense started to decline while putting up similarly anemic numbers at the plate as well.

However, Heim is not-that-far removed from a breakout season in 2023 where he hit .258/.317/.438 with a .324 wOBA, 107 wRC+ and 18 home runs. His defense was also excellent during that 2023 season, as he finished in the 92nd percentile of catchers when it came to Caught Stealing Above Average and in the 95th percentile in terms of Framing. If there’s an way that he can bounce back to anywhere approaching that level of performance behind the plate then whatever he does at the plate will at least be acceptable.

Either way, it sure seems like he’s got a very good chance of making the Opening Day roster as the backup. With Sean Murphy being out and the other two options being non-roster invitees in the form of Chadwick Tromp and Sandy León, Jonah Heim appears to be in the drivers’ seat to lock down a spot as the backup behind Drake Baldwin as we head into the regular season. He’ll still have to have a productive spring but even if things go sideways for him personally on the field, Baldwin should still benefit from being around an experienced catcher like Heim.

The Cincinnati Reds have aged out of their rebuild.

This club that they put together from the draft, international signings, and prospects brought in via trade first assembled when they were mostly young, mostly inexperienced players breaking into the big leagues for the first time. That’s not at all so anymore.

Spencer Steer is now 28 and entering the fifth season in which he’ll don a Reds uniform. He played with the likes of Tommy Pham, Brandon Drury, and Donovan Solano, and has just one fewer dinger as a Red than Dmitri Young. Another 20+ homer year for him in 2026 and he’ll pass guys like Ken Griffey, Edwin Encarnacion, Austin Kearns, and Hal Morris on the team’s all-time leaderboard, and will almost certainly pass Todd Frazier and even Tucker Barnhart on the team’s all-time PA list.

Along the way, we’ve seen flashes of brilliance from a handful of these now-prime Reds. Andrew Abbott surged to a 5.6 bWAR season last year, Matt McLain kicked the doors down in his 2023 rookie year, and even TJ Friedl tossed in a nearly ~4 WAR season in 2023, too. Still, aside from Elly De La Cruz flirting with superstardom at just about every turn, we’ve not yet seen any of the players around him break out in a way that has sustained itself for a full year (or beyond), with Hunter Greene – injuries and all – being the closest thing to it.

The question today is who, if anyone, will see 2026 be the year in which they launch?

Might it be McLain, for real, now that he’s two years beyond major shoulder surgery?

Could 2026 be the year Nick Lodolo puts everything together?

Will Noelvi Marte live up to the hype now that he’s found a more cozy home in RF?

Can Sal Stewart really be as good as his minor league numbers have looked?

Sometimes, these breakouts come out of nowhere, though. That’s where Scooter Gennett came from, fresh off the scrap heap. Maybe it’s JJ Bleday now that he’s in a park that suits his strengths, the former top draft pick now in the stage of his career where he’s got to scrape and claw to get his opportunities. Maybe it’s Will Benson finally getting a bit of luck with the pitches he’s been smashing, luck that somehow eluded him all through 2025.

It could even be Tyler Stephenson, who appears to be entering 2026 with no contract extension and therefore has this as a platform year into free agency. Or, it could be the season where Elly finally wreaks havoc on his opposition for a full six months.

What say you? Which Cincinnati Red is poised for a 2026 breakout?

Dave Dombrowski spoke on Monday to reporters about a variety of topics. Discussing the state of the pitching staff, how top prospects are expected to get playing time and other things were on the docket, but one of the main things Dombrowski talked about was Nick Castellanos. The “right fielder” and his place on the roster has been largely in doubt as soon as Adolis Garcia was brought into the fold to handle the position and Kyle Schwarber was re-upped for five more years, to say nothing of the spat he had with Rob Thomson last year when removed for a defensive replacement. However, spring training camp opens next week and still, Castellanos remains.

When Dombrowski spoke, it wasn’t hard to glean that the team is going to move on from him as soon as they can, preferably before position players have to report to camp.

“That’s our focus prior to the start of spring training,” Dombrowski said Monday. “So, that’s something that we’ll continue to work on this week.” Asked whether Castellanos will be in camp if he isn’t traded or released by the time position players are scheduled to report, Dombrowski said: “Well, at this point, we’re doing everything we can to make a move by that time period. So, I’ll leave it at that right now.”

So yes, the team is going to move him one way or another. That they would have to eat essentially all of the money owed him is likely something they have accepted and are willing to do if it means getting something back in return. However, it is not easy to find a team that would want to have Castellanos on their roster. His inability to play right field in even an average capacity renders him a DH-only option who can masquerade as a right fielder a few times during the year. Teams increasingly prefer to have that spot open to rotate members in and out of the lineup for rest reasons, so locking in one player that is barely an average one at the bat isn’t a luxury many wish to afford. It’s probably why the Phillies have had trouble finding a trade partner to dance with (to say nothing of the idea that any even slightly interested teams are probably just waiting for the team to release him).

A few teams, though, may consider moving him if the price is absolutely right. There is still a chance that without the burden of having to carry a glove, Castellanos might revive his bat and have a decent season. He’s not far removed from posting back to back >100 wRC+ seasons, so it’s at least conceivable that he can do that again. For the acquiring team, it would be cheap to have that, so there might be someone who says, “Why not?” Let’s guess at who those teams might be.

Minnesota Twins

Last season, the Twins had one of the worst wRC+ numbers (92) coming from their DH spot in the game. One would have thought that with all of the trades they made at the deadline, the team was going for some sort of painful rebuild with their organization, yet they have actually added a few pieces this winter. Maybe respectability is something they have their sights set on? After all, they do reside in the AL Central, where anything can happen. If so, getting something better for that DH spot would behoove them. Right now, their depth chart has Trevor Larnach as the main option there, cycling in with Josh Bell and Ryan Jeffers to presumably keep people fresh. Castellanos might be a fit at that position while also backing up Bell at first base, if we’re to accept the reports that he was working out there this offseason.

The Twins also have Victor Caratini in camp to take some plate appearances at DH as well, meaning the fit for Castellanos becomes a bit narrower. He would have to show that he can handle playing right field and/or first base at least once a week, something that would hide his defensive deficiencies a bit more.

Miami Marlins

Always a rumored destination for Castellanos thanks to his personal ties there, Miami was actually worse by DH wRC+ in 2025 (91) than the Twins. Adding Castellanos would give them another right handed bat to help there, but the situation is complicated a bit by Agustin Ramirez and Owen Cassie.

Ramirez is known in some circles to be a catcher, but by at least one measure, he was one of the worst defensive catchers in the game. There is plenty of thunder in his bat, so it would make sense for the Marlins to continue trying to develop him behind the plate, but keeping that DH spot open for him as much as possible is a sensible piece of roster construction. That would push Castellanos, in theory, back to right field, but that is where Cassie resides. Cassie was the main piece that came back to the Marlins in return for Edward Cabrera and his reputation as a prospect is such that the Marlins would probably give him a decent amount of time to see what they have in him. The Marlins also have Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernandez slated to get some at bats at DH, but both possess strikeout rates over 30%. While Castellanos doesn’t exactly have the most patient approaches at the plate, he’s also striking out far less often than either of these two.

A Ramirez-Cassie-Castellanos-Conine rotation would work in some form, so maybe Miami could make it work if they were interested. It’s just starting to feel more “square peg/round hole”-ish the more one tries to make it work.

Colorado Rockies

This might be something worth pursuing. The Rockies are in the middle of an organizational transformation. The hiring of Paul DePodesta signals that they understand they have to do things differently. Playing catchup with the Dodgers is fool’s errand, so they are going to have to do things a different way. Acquiring Castellanos is something that definitely qualifies as different, but hear me out. Right now, according to Fangraphs, the Rockies are going to give the bulk of the DH plate appearances to Mickey Moniak.

Fine, defensible even.

Moniak also projects to split playing time with Jake McCarthy in right field for the Rockies, so in theory, the DH spot can be filled with Castellanos on days that Moniak is putting a glove on while also serving as part of a platoon if necessary. Castellanos has always been more of a gap power hitter anyway, miscast a bit as someone on whom the lineup should depend for home run power. Coors Field would fit that type of hitter to perfection, perhaps allowing Castellanos’ numbers to play up a bit more than his sea level numbers would.

The more one looks at the depth charts of teams around the game, the more apparent it is why they haven’t found a trade partner yet. The likelihood that they actually do diminishes with each minute that ticks closer to the opening of spring training. Maybe someone emerges, maybe someone doesn’t. At least we know that a resolution is coming.

The people have spoken and right-handed reliever Andrew Walters is our No. 20 Cleveland Guardians prospect for 2026. It was a tough final vote, but Walters came out on top with 26.2% of the vote, defeating the likes of the likes of Dauri Fernandez (15.5%), Austin Peterson (11.9%), Jacob Cozart (16.7%) and Petey Halpin (10.7%). Walters drops nine spots after being the No. 11 prospect in 2025.

Walters was selected by Cleveland in the competitive balance portion of the second round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of the University of Miami. Unlike many pitching prospects, he had always been a reliever, even in college.

He made his pro debut by beginning the 2024 season at Double-A Akron where he flat out dominated to the tune of a 1.35 ERA and a ridiculous 17.1 K/9 with a puny 3.6 BB/9 over 17 appearances spanning 20 innings pitched. Walters quickly was promoted to Triple-A Columbus, where he had a wake-up call, giving up four runs in his first appearance with the Clippers.

He quickly put the jitters aside, however, putting up a 1.84 ERA over 32 games at Triple-A, striking out 41 batters in 29.1 innings pitched.

Walters earned a trip to Cleveland upon the conclusion of the Triple-A season, where he did not allow a run over nine appearances at the MLB level, although his command wasn’t quite as effective and his strikeout rate dipped. This still earned him an opportunity to pitch on Cleveland’s postseason roster. He made four appearances in the playoffs, allowing one run in 3.0 innings with four strikeouts, proving he was ready for primetime.

The flamethrowing right-hander was expected to be a key Cog in Cleveland’s bullpen for 2025, but it turned into a lost season. He battled shoulder soreness throughout Spring Training, which forced him to begin the year at Triple-A. Then he pitched just 1.1 innings in Cleveland before tearing his right lat tendon, which ended his season and required surgery.

Depending on his recovery timetable, Walters could miss the beginning of the 2026 campaign as well, but as long as he returns at 100%, he’ll slot right back in as a reliever the team will hopefully be able to rely on for years to come.

Thank you all for voting for this year’s top 20 Cleveland Guardians prospects!

Our list:
1. Chase DeLauter, LHH OF
2. Travis Bazzana, LHH 2B
3. Parker Messick, LHP
4. Ralphy Velazquez, LHH 1B/RF
5. Angel Genao, SH SS
6. Braylon Doughty, RHP
7. Cooper Ingle, LHH C
8. Khal Stephen, RHP
9. Juan Brito, SH 2B/1B/RF/3B
10. Jaison Chourio, SH OF
11. Kahlil Watson, LHH OF
12. Daniel Espino, RHP
13. George Valera, LHH OF
14. Jace LaViolette, LHH OF
15. Joey Oakie, RHP
16. Alfonsin Rosario, RHH OF
17. Juneiker Caceres, LHH OF
18. Yorman Gomez, RHP
19. Josh Hartle, LHP
20. Andrew Walters, RHP