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The Boston Red Sox pulled off one of their more questionable trades of the offseason, where they managed to move Jordan Hicks to the Chicago White Sox. Going with Hicks to Chicago was David Sandlin, two players to be named later and $8 million. Returning to Boston was pitcher Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later. Ziehl, who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2024 draft by the New York Yankees, is now with his third organization in three years after being traded to the White Sox for Austin Slater. The right-hander appeared in 22 games, making 21 starts as he split time between Single-A, High-A, and Double-A. He tossed 107 innings while striking out 90 batters and walking just 19. Ziehl doesn’t follow the typical profile that Craig Breslow tends to target in pitching as he stands just six feet tall and doesn't possess elite extension, but he has been described as “compact but strong and durable”. The right-hander holds a deep arsenal, featuring a cutter, sweeper, slider, four-seam fastball, changeup, and curveball all thrown with a repeatable high three-quarters delivery. Doing so has allowed him to locate his pitches with precision. Of all his pitches, the changeup stands out as his premier offering. In 2025, batters whiffed on 24% of his changeups, with the pitch generating a 34% strikeout rate. Batters also only managed an average exit velocity of 81 mph. Despite that, the pitch was only thrown eight percent of the time, a number that should see an increase under Boston’s pitching development program. While Ziehl may not be overpowering (his fastball averaged just 92.2 mph last season), he showed an ability to throw strikes (67.7 strike percent) while limiting walks (4.2% rate), two traits that will allow him to move through the minors quickly. Dependent on contact management, Ziehl relies on his assortment of secondary offerings to help generate weak contact. His Baseball America scouting report states that his fastball was “tweaked to generate more cut in 2025." It also suggests that he won't be able to add a ton of velocity down the line, though that may not matter since “Ziehl relies on his mid-80s sweeper and 89 mph cutter, throwing those two pitches nearly 70% of the time with near-even distribution. His sweeper has above-average spin rates and is his best swing-and-miss offering." Unless Ziehl’s secondaries can make a leap in quality, he’s likely destined as an up-and-down starter or long-relief reliever at best. At worst, he would provide organizational depth for the upper minors and be an emergency call-up. After a strong campaign in 2025, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him open the 2026 season with Double-A Portland. View the full article

If you followed the 2025 Blue Jays, you probably lived and died with their ups and downs, and you knew exactly what that team was about. Sure, some people will say they were defined by their throwback, contact‑heavy offense. Others will point to the depth, the way the 24th man on the roster mattered just as much as the fourth. Or maybe the team’s focus on chemistry, which emerged as the engine that drove their high-energy, defense-forward playoff run. Yet, there’s little question that the 2025 Jays were the comeback team. They came back from a last‑place finish one year earlier. They came back from a rotation that looked like it was being held together with duct tape and crossed fingers. They consistently came back in games, as highlighted by their league-leading 49 comeback wins. And they came back individually: George Springer turned back the clock, Bo Bichette rediscovered his swagger, and half the roster seemed to find a second life. That was their identity. That was their heartbeat. That was the story. It might be best illustrated by an article from The Athletic in late May entitled "Why the 2025 Blue Jays are still searching for their ‘true identity.” They overcame that early-season inconsistency and re-emerged as contenders. Like most sports, baseball doesn’t let you live in last year’s story for long. And as the Jays step into 2026, the vibe and roster are considerably different. This isn’t a comeback year. This isn’t a “prove we’re not terrible” year. This isn’t even a “we’re contenders now” year. This is the year of possibilities. Gone are any questions of rebuilding. The Blue Jays are the reigning AL champions, and Rogers has opened the purse strings. At the same time, some new players will need to fill the shoes or roles of departing players like Bichette, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer, Seranthony Domínguez, Ty France, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It's a roster full of players who could take real steps forward. A rotation that could be sneaky great or quietly shaky. A lineup that could hit for both contact and power. A team that could be anything from a 90‑win threat to a frustrating middle‑of‑the‑pack group. This is the “infinite possibilities” Jays. It is a premise that is both exciting and terrifying. Winning helps gel chemistry. It provides shaky teams with confidence and lowers the pressure that all major league teams have to handle in their own way. When the 2025 Jays started to win consistently, they did so by sharing the load and relying on each other. It didn’t hurt that moves like trading for Domínguez and Shane Bieber paid quick dividends. Not to mention the immediate impact of Trey Yesavage when he was called up. The signing of Dylan Cease, and to a lesser extent Cody Ponce, might serve to lessen the high expectations for both Yesavage and Bieber this upcoming season. Maybe, but maybe not. If Cease’s return to the American League doesn’t go smoothly, or Ponce’s return to MLB, then it will be paramount that Yesavage meets or exceeds expectations. On top of that, it is still unclear whether Bieber will be available when the season starts. Bieber doesn’t have to be the Cy Young version of himself anymore, but the Jays need him to be healthy and solid. If Bieber rebounds, the team suddenly has a veteran anchor to complement Yesavage’s upside and Kevin Gausman’s reliability. The Jays have a wealth of starting pitching, with some arms like Ricky Tiedemann waiting in the wings. Even if injuries become an issue, there might be some breathing room. The success of the starting rotation will also impact the effectiveness and success of the bullpen. If starters can consistently get into the sixth or seventh inning, then the bullpen will stay healthier and stronger as the season progresses. The biggest unknown when it comes to the Jays’ identity in 2026 is the offense. No Bichette (or Kyle Tucker) means the Jays will be leaning on players that had career years in 2025 or need a bounce-back season. In addition, they’ll be relying on an everyday player (Kazuma Okamoto) who has never played in MLB. When the Jays signed Anthony Santander to a big contract before last season, they must have been thinking about all the success he’d had against the Jays as a member of the Orioles. In 45 games versus the Jays, he hit .314 with 50 hits, including 15 home runs. The whole idea was that he’d either set up Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., or they’d set him up while providing no breathing room for pitchers to navigate the heart of the team’s order. Instead, he sputtered in 2025. He hit .175 with six home runs and 18 RBIs. If he can hit the way he did in 2024 again, the Jays have the potential to be unstoppable offensively. Daulton Varsho was already elite defensively. He seemed to come into form at the plate last season. If that carries over into 2026, the Jays suddenly have a legitimate two‑way threat in the outfield. The same can be said for Addison Barger, who broke out in 2025 and seems to have the potential to become a superstar. That potential can only come to fruition if he gets a chance to play. John Schneider is going to have to figure out how to juggle his surplus of outfielders. Springer’s outstanding 2025 campaign was in large part due to staying healthy by DH-ing more than playing in the outfield. But even if Springer is the everyday DH, that leaves Santander, Varsho, Barger, Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider, Myles Straw, and possibly even Okamoto vying for outfield reps. In the infield, can Ernie Clement maintain the momentum he built through the regular season and especially the playoffs? Will Andrés Giménez be able to find consistency at the plate while still settling in at shortstop? And what about Vladdy and Alejandro Kirk? What does 2026 hold for them? The thing about a roster with “infinite possibilities” is that it can turn into a sort of “what if” team. The range of outcomes is frustratingly massive. In 2025, the Jays marched back from a terrible 2024 and surprised people. They played with heart and grit and chaos. This season is all about discovering what their true potential is. They could take a leap. They could stall out. They could dominate the AL East. Fans could be wearing paper bags over their heads by August. Last year was about redemption. This year is about potential. The 2025 Jays were easy to root for because they were easy to understand. They were the underdogs who refused to quit. The 2026 Jays are harder to define. They’re not underdogs anymore. They’re not favourites either. They’re something in between. They are a team with a wide range of possible futures. That’s what makes them compelling. That’s what makes them nerve‑wracking. That’s what makes them the “infinite possibilities” Jays. The 2026 Blue Jays could be great. They could be average. They could be maddening. They could be magical. But they won’t be boring. This is a team built on possibility. And possibility is the most dangerous and thrilling thing in sports. View the full article

Right-hander Riley Pint, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2016 draft, has a minor-league deal with the San Diego Padres. It is likely to include an invitation to spring training, which begins next week. Selected by the Colorado Rockies out of a Kansas high school, the now 28-year-old Pint didn't take the mound at all in 2025 in his only season with the Cleveland Guardians' organization due to an undisclosed injury. Pint had spent all of his previous career with the Rockies, but made only five MLB appearances over the 2023 (one game) and 2024 seasons (four) as a reliever. Pint's journey also included a retirement during the 2021 season, but he returned the following year. In his minor-league career, Pint put up a 5.30 ERA with two eye-popping rates of 13.5 walks and 18.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 193 games, including 40 starts. But Pint went to Driveline this offseason, which included a pro day in which he hit 97.4 mph on his fastball and a 95 mph sinker. He also threw a sweeper and a slider. Driveline helps train players through state-of-the-art techniques. He will definitely be an interesting arm to watch this spring. View the full article

Nick Mears describes himself as a calm guy who, off the field, loves the peace and quiet of nature and rural areas. But in contrast, he admits — and former teammates confirm — that he’s incredibly intense when he takes the mound. As is true for many players, his path to the majors was full of challenges. Mears pitched for Rocklin High School near Sacramento. He blew out his elbow in his senior year of high school, but, not wanting to miss this special year in any young player’s trajectory, he played through it without an intact ligament, still throwing 92. He went on to have Tommy John surgery after high school, gray-shirting in his first year at Sacramento City College to rehab. He missed his second year of college due to injury as well, this time involving an off-field dirt bike accident that snapped his collarbone in half. Mears had mixed success in his final years of college, but, after an impressive stint with Minnesota’s Northwoods League, he had his eye on getting drafted. In his final college year, his effectiveness increased, as did attention from pro scouts. Then, in a span of a few months, life hit him hard: a grandfather-like figure passed away, his uncle took his own life, another grandpa passed away, and a former teammate committed suicide. In speaking candidly about this series of losses in interviews, Mears describes not being able to handle all of it at once. He tried to suppress the feelings, but says those feelings were eating him up from the inside. His life was slowly falling apart, and he felt depressed. His coaches, seeing him struggle, called his parents without Mears' knowledge and brought everyone together for a meeting. They told him they loved him and knew he could still contribute to the team, but suggested it might be best for him personally to take some time away from baseball. Because baseball was such a core part of his identity, Mears felt somewhat thrown that stepping away from the sport was even an option. This was a pivotal learning experience, and Mears credits his coaches for having his back and helping him see how important it was to take care of his well-being off the field. He did take some time away from baseball, but found his way back via a second successful stretch in the Northwoods League. This led to offers from a handful of MLB teams, and the right-handed reliever eventually signed with the Pirates as an undrafted minor-league free agent in August of 2018. Mears came up through the Pirates organization relatively quickly, making his big league debut in August of 2020. After appearing in 36 games across the 2020-22 seasons, he was designated for assignment and picked up by the Rockies. He started the 2023 season in Triple A, but was called up again in April. He bounced back and forth between Triple A and the big league club all year, in part because of two stints on the IL and associated rehab assignments thanks to a nagging left oblique strain. All told, he pitched in 57 big league games for the Rockies before they traded him to the Brewers at the 2024 trade deadline. It was in the full 2025 season with the Brewers, an exciting crew that had the winningest regular season in baseball that year, that Mears really seemed to find his stride. Relying mostly on his fastball and slider combo, with an occasional curve thrown in, he posted a 3.49 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and 14.9 K-BB% — the best marks of his career so far — across 63 appearances. He also garnered an elite chase rate that ranked in the 93rd percentile across MLB. This success was part of what made him an enticing trade piece. He was traded, along with Isaac Collins, to the Royals in December 2025, so he’s about to settle in with his fourth MLB organization in his career. Mears has spoken openly about the ups and downs of his career and how important it is to keep the mental side of the game healthy. For him, that starts with setting very lofty but attainable goals, maintaining his high work ethic, and also seeing himself as a whole person first and as a baseball player as just one part of his identity. He also says the key is to go back out each night with an edge, even if you got your teeth kicked in the night before. Mears says some of the players he has the most respect for in baseball are the guys grinding for years in the minors who still have an extraordinary work ethic and who are still chasing their dreams. It’s this resiliency, this day in and day out grind, that is an essential ingredient of a baseball player. As he begins 2026 with the Royals at 29 years old, he’ll be heading into his seventh season in the big leagues (even though many of those years have included bounces back and forth to the minors). According to MLB Royals beat reporter Anne Rogers, the Royals have had interest in Mears going back to 2023 during his time with the Rockies, and the organization anticipates him pitching mid- to high-leverage innings out of the pen. He’ll be arb-eligible and under team control through the 2027 season, and he has no options remaining. So, how does Mears come into a new season? What’s his mindset? Two years ago in February, as he was about to start a season with the Rockies, he spoke on the To the Show podcast about coming in hungry. “It’s easy for me to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I have a job.’ But then, at least for myself, I feel like I get complacent with that, and I want to be hungry. I want to go out there and prove it again, because nothing in this career is guaranteed. There are more guys just like me in the minor leagues who want my job. So in my eyes, I think, I got to come in, I got to prove it again. I want to prove it to not only the coaches and the team, but I want to prove it to myself.” View the full article

As any veteran of the baseball industry will tell you, the hardest tool to scout is the feel to hit. There's so much reactivity, so fragile a balance in it, that it's hard to gauge what a hitter can do over just a few games. It's hard to project how a player who can dominate at one level might do at the next. It's hard, even, to tell when a player has established a skill, and when they're due for regression. It was easier to scout power and arm strength and speed and defensive ability even in the days before advanced technology captured players' movements in fine detail, but it's even truer now. While we now know on what percentage of swings a batter makes contact and how often they chase outside the zone, every hitter has different ideal contact and chase rates, and those numbers don't tell us about the quality of contact a player is making. We have bat speed and exit velocity and launch angle and pull rate, but those things more reliably help us measure power than hit tool. There remains a bit of magic in baseball, and it lives in the moment between the release of the pitch and the moment it reaches the plate. That's when a batter has to make incredibly rapid, subconscious decisions, adjust their finely tuned and extraordinarily fast swing, and find the center of the ball with the barrel of their bat. Of course, now, we also have a number for that. It's far from perfect, but it does give us some useful information. Today, let's consider Statcast's Squared Up rate, and the data (both signal and noise) it provides us for the purposes of projecting two key Cubs hitters for 2026. First, we need to define our terms. Statcast tags a batted ball as Squared Up if it leaves the bat with at least 80% of the possible exit velocity, given the speed of the swing and the incoming pitch. Physics gives us a knowable maximum exit velocity, once we have the speeds and approximate masses of bat and ball, so basically, Squared Up balls are just that: ones on which the batter successfully put lots of wood on the ball, so that they got as much out of their swing as they could. Generally speaking, the guys you'd expect to run high Squared Up rates do so. Luis Arraez has led the league in each of the last two seasons, with roughly 40% of his swings resulting not only in contact, but in meeting the ball squarely. That it's Arraez atop the list illustrates the drawback and the broader nature of this skill, though. Usually, guys trade some bat speed for the bat control that allows them to make such solid contact, which means that a squared-up ball can also be a relatively weakly hit or low-value one. It's undeniably good to run a high Squared Up rate, but that skill tends to belong to slow swingers, and compensates (with varying degrees of success) for a dearth of power. Specifically, the Cubs have two players for whom squaring the ball up is vital—whose games hinge on doing it consistently. Nico Hoerner is one of the best sheer contact hitters in baseball, but if he were prone to mishitting the ball, that wouldn't make him a good player. With new metrics, we can see more clearly than ever that he's an elite pure hitter, because he squared the ball up on roughly a third of his swings last year, ranking very near the top of the league. Hoerner lacks power, because his bat speed is well below average and he doesn't have an approach that lends itself well to pulling the ball in the air. As last year progressed, though, he proved that he can hit the ball squarely with enough consistency to be a plus-plus hitter, even without either a high walk rate or average pop. Alex Bregman brings even more to the party. He uses an extremely patient approach to inform and augment his own sky-high Squared Up rate, and his swing is geared to lift the ball to the pull field. He, too, has subpar bat speed, a concern I noted rather dourly earlier this winter. However, he makes some of the most efficient contact in baseball—even topping Hoerner. Because of the things they don't do well, Hoerner and Bregman have to show an elite feel for hitting. Happily, both of them do. The question is: Will that skill stick? To answer it (in part), I took all 211 hitters who had at least 500 swings in both 2024 and 2025, and compared the percentages of those swings that resulted in Squared Up balls in play for each player from year to year. Here's the resulting chart. The R² of this plot is 0.685, which implies a very strong correlation from year to year. In other words, for the limited data we have so far, squaring the ball up is an extremely sticky skill. We might well find that it gets less neat and tidy over time, and with more seasons of data, we could do a more robust study of aging curves, but intriguingly, this population of players got better, as a group, from 2024 to 2025. Their Squared Up rate went from an average of 22.5% to 23.6%. Bat speed tends to deteriorate as a player ages, so one explanation for the increase in squaring the ball up is hitters consciously trading the bat speed they can't hold onto for better bat control. It's probably more complicated than that. There's something to be said for the theory that the proliferation of these numbers in clubhouses and hitters' meetings has helped players train better for efficient contact, but it's also probably more complicated than that. All we can say for sure, at this moment, is that how you did last year does a fine job of predicting how you'll do this year, when it comes to squaring the ball up. That sounds like very good news for Bregman and Hoerner, and it probably is. However, there's another wrinkle we need to consider. Go back to the chart above, and notice that Bregman and Hoerner are further from the trend line than most of the rest of the league. They each improved significantly at meeting the ball squarely in 2025, even though they were above average even before making that leap. Hoerner will be 29 this year; Bregman will be 32. Most of the time, when hitters past the age of 26 or so go from good to elite at something, they're due for regression. That invites the real concern that they'll each come back to Earth in 2026, and square the ball up less often. This is why, for instance, all the advanced projection systems (PECOTA: .289; ZiPS: .293; Steamer: .304) expect Hoerner to run a lower BABIP than his career mark of .307, let alone the .313 he put up in his stellar 2025 campaign. It's hard to call anything about this luck, because we're so far down to the process aspect of hitting, studying how well a hitter's hand-eye coordination manages the task of getting lumber on leather. Still, there's variance and entropy at work, here. Pitchers will make adjustments, to both Hoerner and Bregman. It won't be easy for either to sustain the level of success they've had at squaring up the ball lately. To figure out which is more likely to retain their skills and have a successful 2026, we can approach this in a slightly different, better way. Kyle Bland of PitcherList created an app to display bat-tracking data back in 2024, and one of its features is a more continuous measurement of squared-up contact. Rather than creating a binary and tagging a ball as either squared up or not, his model tracks the specific percentage of the maximum possible exit velocity on each batted ball. Here's the distribution of Hoerner's batted balls by Squared Up%, for (most of) 2025. He's very, very good at hitting the ball squarely, and though he rarely gets all of a pitch—he's just ok at generating contact efficiency north of about 92%—he also rarely mishits one at all. That's a steady hitter. Bregman's distribution is a bit more impressive, and almost laughable: Bregman creates a whole lot of extremely efficient contact, though he's also considerably more likely to whiff altogether (Squared Up%: 0) than is Hoerner. Which of these two is more likely to sustain their success at squaring it up, going forward? Hoerner, being younger, gets a certain edge. Bregman's swing is flatter, too, and flat swings generally lead to lower Squared Up rates. However, Bregman has honed his approach so well that he's locked in to swing only at pitches he can consistently square up. Hoerner's is a more expansive, aggressive, all-fields approach. We should also consider what happens if each player's suite of swings gets a tiny bit less efficient, across the board. For Hoerner, he would slosh back much closer to league average. Bregman might see his strikeout rate spike a bit, because his swings getting less efficient would mean getting out of the top end of the league in overall contact rate, but he has that big bulge in the upper 80s and 90s for Squared Up% that would come down only to the low and middle 80s. In other words, he can stay efficient with his contact even if he loses some efficiency in his swing. Hoerner lacks that luxury. Bregman is a safer bet than Hoerner to hold onto this skill, but each of them did something at an elite level last year that tends to stay good once a hitter has shown they can do it. That makes it worth mentioning one more player of whom the same things are true: Michael Busch. He was much more prone to sub-80% contact efficiency than were Hoerner and Bregman last year, but he was also better than they were at getting the crosshairs on a ball and achieving perfect (or virtually perfect) Squared Up-itude. This is a slugger with great feel for contact, in profile. Note the dearth of swings that generated less than 70% contact efficiency. If he was going to be that wrong, he stayed committed to his 'A' swing and came up empty. When he got one right, though, he gave himself a chance to get it especially right. Bland's app also tracks rolling Squared Up% for hitters throughout the season, and Busch's timeline tells a great story. In early May, he simply locked in on the ball, and never ceased to be so. Like Hoerner and Bregman, Busch lacks elite bat speed, especially for a player who needs to produce more power than either of the others do. However, from May 15 through the end of the season, he slugged .539, and then he went on an October power binge, to boot. Much of that can be attributed to his ability to square the ball up, and he's another good candidate to do so again in 2026. We still have a lot to learn about hitting, but the data are making it a bit easier to say some things with confidence. If nothing else, these numbers prove that Hoerner, Busch and Bregman have plus hit tools, albeit in ways unique to each of them. They're the anchors of the Cubs lineup for the coming season, and by the end of the year, we'll know even more about how each of them do it—and therefore, more about how the thing is done by everyone. View the full article

Milwaukee Brewers pitching prospect Frank Cairone posted an Instagram story of him throwing a ball just a month after being involved in a serious vehicle collision that left him hospitalized. The 18-year-old left-hander, who was a second-round draft choice by the Crew last summer, was involved in a two-vehicle collision Jan. 3 late at night in Franklin, N.J., and flown to an Atlantic City, N.J., hospital. According to police, Cairone was the driver of a vehicle that was hit by another vehicle that blew through a stop sign. In the Instagram update, Cairone is in sweats and a baseball cap and slowly throws a yellow ball against a wall. While that is certainly a terrific sign for Cairone, it is unknown whether he will report to spring training, let alone pitch this season, as he continues to recover from the serious injuries he sustained. A passenger in Cairone's vehicle was also hospitalized with leg injuries. Cairone, a 6-foot-2, 195-pounder, was the 68th overall pick in the 2025 draft out of Delsea Regional High School and turned down a commitment from Coastal Carolina to sign with the Brewers for a $1.1 million signing bonus. He did not pitch for any Brewers affiliate, instead working out in Arizona in anticipation of making his professional debut in 2026. View the full article

The Twins dipped back into the waiver wire this week, grabbing right-handed pitcher Jackson Kowar after he was cut loose by Seattle. Minnesota had room to make the move and plenty of motivation, continuing a busy stretch of roster shuffling that keeps the back end of the pitching staff very much in flux. Kowar’s path to Minnesota is a winding one. Seattle designated him for assignment shortly after acquiring catcher Jhonny Pereda from the Twins, creating an odd bit of organizational overlap. Minnesota, meanwhile, had recently cleared space on the 40-man roster through a pair of trades with Colorado, moving Edouard Julien and Pierson Ohl for Jace Kaminska and cash considerations. That left one open 40-man spot, and the Twins chose to use it on a familiar type of gamble: big arm, big questions. Entering his age-29 season, Kowar still brings eye-catching velocity. His four seamer and sinker live in the upper 90s, and the raw stuff has never really been the concern. Translating that power into outs has been another story. Across 91 major league innings with Kansas City and Seattle, Kowar has been hit hard, posting an ERA north of 8.00, but his FIP is below 6.00. His walk rate sits in the low teens, which is not unheard of for power relievers, but the strikeouts have lagged behind expectations. Even in the high minors, results have been uneven, with an ERA hovering near five. Seattle also exhausted Kowar’s final minor league option last season, leaving him without roster flexibility. That reality often shortens the leash, especially for a pitcher still searching for consistency. Once the Mariners needed space, Kowar became expendable. From the Twins' perspective, the fit is obvious. The bullpen has open spots and needs arms that can fill the void after last season’s trade deadline selloff. While the front office has talked about a return to contention in 2026, the relief group remains light on proven arms. Beyond the reunion with Taylor Rogers and the addition of Eric Orze, there has not been much reinforcement. That context makes Kowar an understandable add. Minnesota can afford to see if a new environment and some mechanical tweaks unlock something closer to the pitcher scouts once dreamed on. The opportunity will be there, simply because innings need to be covered. There is also very little long-term commitment. Kowar is out of options, and that makes it tough to stick on a big-league roster without a proven track record. If the experiment fails, the Twins can move on just as easily as they claimed him. For now, this looks like another low-risk attempt to plug a hole with upside. The stuff gives you a reason to watch, even if the track record urges caution. In a bullpen full of question marks, Kowar becomes one more name trying to turn raw velocity into something the Twins can actually trust. View the full article

Charlotte Christian High School in North Carolina has some impressive alumni in the world of sports. If you want to start with basketball, Seth and Steph Curry went to the school. Daniel Bard and his younger brother, former Twins first-round pick Luke Bard, went to the private school. Former Vikings center Garrett Bradbury started on the gridiron and the baseball field for the Knights. He was a legit power-hitting catcher prospect. In 2013, he found himself catching future Twins starter Bailey Ober. And now the newest member of the Twins organization was a sophomore on that 2013 Charlotte Christian Knights baseball team. On Tuesday afternoon, the Twins claimed right-handed pitcher Jackson Kowar from the Seattle Mariners. They had DFAd him when they acquired Jhonny Pereda from the Twins last week. Bradbury went to North Carolina State and played football. Wise choice for him. Ober went to the College of Charleston where he was a freshman All American and a 2017 draft pick. Kowar was the top prospect of the group. In 2015, he was drafted by the Tigers but instead went to the University of Florida. In 2018, the Royals used their first five draft picks on college pitchers. Their first pick (18th overall) was fellow Gators starter Brady Singer. Kowar was the 33rd overall pick. One pick later, they took Daniel Lynch out of the University of Virginia. With the 40th pick (another Competitive Balance pick), the selected lefty Kris Bubic from Stanford. Their second-round pick (58th overall) was Jonathan Bowlan from the University of Memphis. Things haven't gone easily for any of those picks. Singer has had a solid career; He's been work at least 3.0 bWAR in three of the past four seasons. He spent five seasons with the Royals before getting traded to Cincinnati for Jonathan India. Lynch made 51 starts for the Royals between 2021 and 2023. The past two seasons, he has pitched in 68 games out of the Royals bullpen. Bubic has spent parts of the past six seasons with the Royals. He missed significant time in 2023 and 2024 due to Tommy John, but he's been really good since returning, a new pitcher. He made the All-Star team in 2025 and posted a 2.55 ERA over 116 1/3 innings. Bowlan pitched in three games for the Royals between 2023 and 2024. In 2025, he worked in 34 games, all but one out of the bullpen. In December, he was traded to the Phillies for Matt Strahm. While his upside and talent were as high as any college pitchers from that 2018 draft, Jackson Kowar has been unable to find any sustained success in the big leagues. He debuted with eight starts and a relief appearance in 2021. He went 0-6 with an 11.27 ERA. In 2022, he pitched in seven games out of the bullpen and posted a 9.77 ERA. In 23 games in 2023, he went 2-0 despite a 6.43 ERA. He missed the entire 2024 season after Tommy John surgery. He returned in 2025 with the Mariners. In 15 games, he posted a solid 4.24 ERA. Combined in 54 MLB games and 91 innings, he has an 8.21 ERA, a 1.93 WHIP. 8.9 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9. Kowar has always thrown hard. Before the injury, his fastball averaged 95-96 mph. That jumped to 96.9 mph in 2023. Upon his return in 2025, he averaged 97.3 mph with the fastball. He threw more fastballs in 2025, and he also threw more sliders where came in at an average of 86.2 mph. Previously, he had always thrown between 30 and 43% changeups. The Mariners had him nearly completely drop the pitch (threw it just 5% of the time). With the addition of Kowar, the Twins 40-man roster is full. View the full article

Despite the rest of the division jockeying for pole position in the NL Central, the Chicago Cubs have one of the most lethal offenses in professional baseball, capable of setting the tone in the Senior Circuit. Michael Busch, the North Side's powerful yet underrated first baseman, impressed insiders with a scorching star turn in the late goings of his club's 2025 regular season and playoff run. We're about to get our first look at a Cubs lineup that, if it stays healthy, could be excessively difficult to get through, like the extended version of a Peter Jackson film. With the likes of Alex Bregman and Pete Crow-Armstrong holding down the middle of the lineup, Busch's early placement in Craig Counsell's lineup aligns the club for early offensive outbursts against opponents that would find themselves playing catch-up, looking on as the North Siders exchange high fives in the middle of the diamond. Teams in the majors average a barrel rate of 8.6%; factoring in Bregman and Moises Ballesteros, your Chicago Cubs sport a barrel rate of 10.9%. Though he rarely gets credit for it, Ian Happ is one of the more proficient leadoff men in the game, with a career OBP of .343. Putting that kind of proficiency in front of a slugging Busch in the two-hole opens up a window for early offensive production likely to produce a rally and create situations for the opposition where they'd have little choice but to pitch to other power hitters like Bregman and Crow-Armstrong. There are no easy outs in this lineup. It's easy and quite a lot of fun to witness Busch step into the batter's box. A lot like the "C" in his club's primary logo, his Baseball Savant page is bright red. His 76% hard-hit rate backs up his slug and his overall power numbers from 2025. Though his All-Star teammate in centerfield overshadowed his output, Busch smacked 34 home runs, 25 doubles, and five triples in 2025. His vision, timing, and swing decisions are elite. By extension of that, his whole club figures to be elite in 2026. Good teams don't just have big names — they have balance. The 2026 version of this Cubs lineup is one of the most balanced in years. Last year, Busch was kept from a resoundingly splendid season due to his performance against left-handed pitching. But, not only did he trounce all pitching hands in his dominant postseason run, thanks to Jed Hoyer, he's got all kinds of insurance surrounding him to make sure he gets some good stuff to offer on. For the 150th time in baseball history, Chicago's North Side team is about to embark on a new season. Myriad pieces are in place to assure that version of this club is a memorable one for all the right reasons. Chief among those reasons will be whatever Michael Busch can accomplish atop the lineup. View the full article

On Tuesday, the Miami Marlins announced that they have claimed right-handed pitcher Garrett Acton off waivers from the Colorado Rockies. To create a spot for him on the 40-man roster, the Marlins designated outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. for assignment. Acton, 27, spent the 2025 season in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Aside from one scoreless relief appearance at the major league level, he pitched for their Triple-A Durham affiliate. In 58 ⅔ innings pitched against AAA competition, he posted a 3.68 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 10.89 K/9 and 4.14 BB/9. He made 45 appearances (four starts). He also picked up some MLB experience with the 2023 Athletics, where he made six appearances, posting a 12.71 ERA. The Rays designated Acton for assignment at the end of the 2025 season. He was then claimed by the Rockies and remained on their roster until they DFA'd him as well on January 22. The right-hander's arsenal consists of a four-seam fastball, slider and changeup. Knowing the Marlins organization and how they are with pitchers, it wouldn't be shocking if they tried teaching him additional pitches. Perhaps being an additional year removed from Tommy John surgery will benefit Acton, whose average fastball velocity dipped from 95.4 mph in 2023 to 93.7 mph last season. He still has two minor league options left. Mesa, 24, signed with the Marlins organization for $1M as an international free agent in 2018. After several injury setbacks, he made his major league debut in 2025. In 16 games for the Marlins, he slashed .188/.297/.344/.641 with one home run, six RBI and an 81 wRC+. This past season in AAA, he slashed .286/.352/.460/.813 with seven home runs, 33 RBI and a 121 wRC+ in 52 games played. Just two years ago, Mesa was considered one of the top position player prospects in the Marlins system, but a handful of outfielders have surpassed him on the depth chart since then. Even with the ability to play all three outfield spots and a solid hit tool, he was unlikely to crack Miami's Opening Day roster. Now with one minor league option remaining, Mesa will hope to land somewhere with a clearer path to consistent playing time. The Marlins have seven days to negotiate a trade with interested teams. View the full article

Rick Renick, a former Minnesota Twins player and a key member of the coaching staff during the franchise’s first World Series championship, died Saturday, January 31, at the age of 81. Renick was living in Sarasota, Florida, at the time of his passing. His baseball life touched the Twins organization across multiple generations. Renick’s connection to Minnesota began on the field. Signed out of Ohio State University in 1964, he climbed the Twins minor league system and made his major league debut on July 11, 1968, at Metropolitan Stadium. The assignment was not an easy one, as he faced Detroit Tigers left-hander Mickey Lolich, who had led the American League in shutouts the previous season. Renick responded in memorable fashion, homering in his first major league at-bat and becoming the first Twins player to do so. Primarily a third baseman and left fielder, Renick played five seasons with the Twins from 1968 through 1972, appearing in 276 games. He finished his Twins career as a .221 hitter with 20 home runs and 71 RBI, and his best season came in 1970 when he set career highs with seven home runs, 25 RBI, 81 games played, and a .708 OPS. That season also coincided with a division title, giving Renick his first taste of an AL West championship. By 1973, Renick’s playing days in the majors had come to an end, but baseball was far from done with him. He transitioned into coaching, first as a coach in the Twins farm system before moving on to a long and winding second career that included stops with the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Florida Marlins. Along the way, he also managed nine seasons in the minor leagues and earned American Association Manager of the Year honors twice at Triple-A Nashville. Renick’s most enduring legacy in Minnesota came in 1987. After Ray Miller was fired late in the 1986 season, Tom Kelly took over as interim manager and was later retained for the following year. When assembling his staff, Kelly passed over ownership’s preferred candidate and instead chose Renick, his former minor league teammate who was then working in the Expos organization. Renick became the lone new coach on the staff, taking over duties at third base. The Twins defied expectations and captured their first division title since 1970, the last time Renick himself had been part of a championship team in Minnesota. The magic did not stop there. Minnesota went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series and then beat the St. Louis Cardinals to secure the first World Series title in franchise history. Renick’s aggressive instincts at third base and his work with hitters were part of a coaching staff that maximized a roster few believed could reach that height. Renick remained with the Twins through the 1990 season, but after a last-place finish that year, he was let go by General Manager Andy MacPhail. He declined an opportunity to stay in the organization at the minor league level and instead continued his career elsewhere, returning to the majors in various roles through 2002. In total, Renick spent 13 seasons as a major league coach and left an imprint on multiple organizations. Still, his place in Twins history is unique. He was there for two AL West titles separated by 17 years, first as an underestimated utility player and later as a trusted voice on a championship coaching staff. Renick is survived by three sons, including Josh Renick , who was drafted by the Twins in 2001 and later played for the St. Paul Saints. His wife, Libby, passed away last March at the age of 80. For the Twins, Renick will be remembered as someone who helped guide one of the most improbable and beloved teams in franchise history to the top of the baseball world. View the full article

When I tell people I write about baseball for a living, they tend to ask how I stay busy during the winter. "What do you have to write about when there aren't any games?" My response has become something I say so often it almost feels scripted. "The offseason can be just as busy for me," I explain. "There are trades and free agent signings, of course. But there is also endless speculation preceding every move and endless analysis that follows. I write about the season that was, the season that's soon to come, and what we learned from the former that will matter in the latter." All of that is true, except perhaps for how eloquent I made myself sound. When the offseason begins, there's no shortage of topics to choose from. It's also nice to be able to write without worrying about stats going out of date or a catastrophic injury changing everything. In early fall, I sometimes even catch myself saying that I prefer writing about baseball during the offseason. Then February rolls around. Today marks one month since the Blue Jays added a player to their 40-man roster. It's been 31 days of writing about minor league signings, arbitration cases, and spring training invitations. The glass-half-empty voice in my head wants to scream. I'm bored! Thankfully, I also have a glass-half-full side to my personality. That part of me is grateful for projections. I may not have real baseball to write about, but at least I have hypothetical data from tens of thousands of simulated seasons. Playoff odds went live at FanGraphs this week. These odds are calculated by simulating the upcoming season 20,000 times using the FG Depth Charts player projections. The player projections provide an estimate of how many runs each team will score and allow. The simulations show the many different ways those runs could translate into wins and losses. As I write this, the Blue Jays' playoff odds are 61.5%. In other words, the Jays made the playoffs in roughly 12,300 of FanGraphs's simulated seasons. Their 85 projected wins (technically 84.9) are the average of their win total in each simulation. In half of the simulated seasons, they finished somewhere between 81 and 89 wins. FanGraphs gives them a one-in-four shot of finishing with 89 or more wins, but also one-in-four odds to finish at or below .500. Their chances of winning the AL East are also about one-in-four (23.4%). If 85 wins and 23.4% division odds feel low to you, I promise you aren't alone. Last year, the Blue Jays entered the season with 83 projected wins and 15.6% division odds. Considering the difference between Toronto's 2024 and 2025 seasons, and taking into account all the front office has done this winter, it really seems like the Blue Jays should have the best odds to win the AL East and a projection closer to 90 wins. That would have been my guess before any projections came out, and last week's ZiPS projected standings support that prognostication. Yet, as I pointed out when I wrote about the ZiPS standings, the most meaningful takeaway from those projections wasn't that the Blue Jays were the best team in their division, but that the AL East is going to be a tight race. The FanGraphs playoff odds indicate the same thing. The AL East is the only division in which all five teams have a projected strength of schedule above .500. None of the teams in this division will make things easy for any of the others. FanGraphs gives the Yankees the highest odds to win the division, but those odds are worse than one-in-three. That means it's more than twice as likely that someone other than the favourite wins the AL East. And while New York's division odds are about seven percentage points higher than Toronto's and Boston's, the Yankees' projected win total is only 86.2. The projected spread between the Yankees in first and the Orioles in fourth is only 2.4 wins. Heck, even the Rays aren't that far behind. Tampa Bay has the worst projections in the AL East, but the Rays still have about a one-in-five chance to play in October (21.0%). The FanGraphs odds suggest it's basically just as likely that the Rays make the playoffs as it is that the Blue Jays repeat as division champs. With that said, I can't deny that the FanGraphs odds are less optimistic about the Blue Jays than ZiPS is. Only one team, the Astros, sees a bigger drop-off between their ZiPS projected win total and their FanGraphs playoff odds projected win total. That said, the FanGraphs odds are less enamoured with the AL East in general, projecting worse records for every team except the Rays. Altogether, the five AL East teams have 12 fewer wins according to the FanGraphs playoff odds than ZiPS. Now, five days have passed since Dan Szymborski put out the ZiPS standings, and the projections will have already changed a tad. But it's not as if the teams in the AL East have been particularly busy over the last few days. So, where did those 12 wins go? For the most part, they went to the National League. The ZiPS standings have the 15 AL teams collectively winning six more games than the 15 NL teams. On the other hand, the FanGraphs playoff odds have the clubs in the Senior Circuit winning 16 more games than the clubs in the Junior Circuit. FanGraphs is also higher on last-place teams. According to both systems, the best team in each division has an average of 89 projected wins. However, the worst team in each division has an average median projection three wins higher according to FanGraphs. The basement-dwellers have an average of 68 projected wins according to ZiPS and 71 projected wins according to the FanGraphs playoff odds. This is particularly relevant for the Blue Jays, because no division has a stronger weakest link than the AL East. The ZiPS projected standings all but write off the Rays, putting their postseason odds at 11.7% and their division odds at 1.1%. The FanGraphs playoff odds, however, think the Rays are almost twice as likely to make the playoffs and almost four times as likely to win the division. They're still long shots, but the FanGraphs playoff odds suggest they're much more "dark horse" than "punching bag." Finally, it's worth noting that despite the Blue Jays' differing win total projections and division odds, their World Series odds are almost identical according to ZiPS (4.8%) and FanGraphs (4.7%). Per FanGraphs, the Blue Jays have the seventh-best odds to win it all, although the Yankees and Red Sox are only just above them, and the Phillies and Tigers are only just below. View the full article

The Colorado Rockies avoided last-place finishes during their first two years of existence because the Padres had undergone a “fire sale” during the final two years of the Werner ownership group. The Padres’ previous last-place season, which was in 1987 and included a 12-42 start for the first third of the season, should send both a caution and some encouragement to current Rockies fans. Calls for the Monfort brothers to sell the Rockies might be unwise, since the potential buyer might not be any better. Ray Kroc was a hero for buying the Padres and keeping them in San Diego after a planned sale would have moved the team to Washington. He was not afraid to spend money on free agents or star players acquired in trades, although his final general manager initiated periodic housecleaning when those older players weren’t providing the desired success, and the 1987 season was the first year of the second cycle of such housecleaning. After Ray Kroc died in January 1984, his widow took over the Padres as well as McDonald’s, but Joan Kroc was more interested in humanitarian pursuits than in baseball or fast-food restaurants. In 1987, she planned to sell the Padres to Seattle Mariners owner George Argyros (prompting a local Greek restaurant to create a sign reading, “It’s no Kroc; try our gyros”), whose lack of spending on the Mariners led fans to urge Joan Kroc not to sell the team. That planned sale encountered obstacles and did not occur. In 1990, Joan Kroc sold the team to a group led by Tom Werner, who would clean house for financial reasons before selling it to John Moores at the end of 1994 for less than what they had paid for the Padres. The failure of the 1980 Padres veterans to succeed led to the mid-season firing of the general manager, and Jack McKeon became the new general manager. The Padres were in last place at the time and stayed there for the rest of the season in part due to McKeon’s philosophy. Before the Rockies and Marlins joined the National League in 1993, the league had two divisions of six teams apiece. McKeon’s philosophy was that the team should spend top dollar for a free agent who could take the Padres from third or second to first but not from sixth place to fifth or fourth. Dave Winfield became a free agent after the 1980 season and signed with the Yankees for an average of $1.5 million a year. McKeon felt that such money was better spent on the Padres’ farm system and scouting; he added minor-league affiliates and scouts. Many of the older 1980 players were traded or released by 1981. The mid-season players’ strike in 1981 created a split season, and the Padres finished last both times. During 1982 and 1983, the Padres were competitive for part of the season but eventually fell out of contention. The 1982 showing caused the Padres to sign Steve Garvey as a free agent after the season. After the 1983 season, the Padres signed Rich Gossage as a free agent. The Padres had enough young pitchers during Spring Training in 1984 that they traded one of them to the Yankees for third baseman Graig Nettles. Other than Bruce Bochy, who was the backup catcher for the 1980 Houston Astros, Garvey, Gossage, and Nettles were the only Padres with postseason experience prior to 1984. The Padres won their first division championship in 1984 – in fact, it was the first time the Padres had ever finished in the top half of the division – and then defeated the Cubs in the National League playoffs before losing to the Tigers in the 1984 World Series. The Padres were competitive for much of 1985 but barely avoided last place in 1986. Another housecleaning was in order. Nettles and Jerry Royster, who played third base as well as second base, were not offered new contracts and became free agents. The Padres traded outfielder Kevin McReynolds, along with a relief pitcher and a minor league player, to the Mets for third baseman Kevin Mitchell, two outfielders who turned out to be busts, and two minor league players who never made the majors. Starting catcher Terry Kennedy was traded to the Orioles for a pitcher who wouldn’t last the entire 1987 season with the Padres. (It should be noted that one of the outfielder busts, Shawn Abner, had been an overall first draft pick. The 2025 Rockies fared better with Mickey Moniak, who was the overall first draft pick in 2016 and who attended high school in San Diego County.) The 1986 Padres who were not with the team in 1987 also included second baseman Bip Roberts, a Rule 5 draft pick who had to spend 1986 with the major league team. He returned to the minor leagues for 1987, and rookie Joey Cora was the Padres’ second baseman that year. Starting pitcher LaMarr Hoyt, who had two drug arrests prior to the 1986 season, had a third after that season and never played professional baseball again. An arbiter ruled that the Padres were still required to pay Hoyt’s salary for 1987, so he was one of the four Padres that year receiving at least $1,000,000. Tony Gwynn, who had three previous full seasons along with two partial seasons with the Padres prior to 1987 and had only one previous batting championship, was not one of those players. Garvey, who had a season-ending injury in May 1987, which became a career-ending injury, was one of the players receiving $1,000,000. The other two, Gossage and Garry Templeton, had poor seasons in 1987. Mitchell was raised in San Diego, and being so close to his childhood friends wasn’t the best situation for him. In July, he was part of a seven-player trade with the Giants. Ironically, the two key players didn’t pan out, though in Dave Dravecky's case, it was due to his injury and tumor. The third baseman the Padres acquired, Chris Brown, would earn the reputation of being a malingerer. Two years after the trade, Mitchell would become the league’s most valuable player, while Padres acquisition Mark Davis would win the Cy Young Award. The trade also brought the Padres pitcher Mark Grant, who is now one of the team’s television broadcasters. After a Montreal Expos sweep gave the Padres a 12-42 record, the team won its next two games against Atlanta. In late June, a three-game winning streak moved the Padres to above .333. The team was 64-87 before a nine-game losing streak, which was followed by a win in the second-to-last game of the season, and the Padres’ final record was 65‑97. That final win also ended the 34-game hitting streak of Benito Santiago, which was the longest in Major League Baseball history by a catcher, by a rookie, or by a Latin American player (that one was later broken by Luis Castillo). Santiago was the unanimous Rookie of the Year, and Gwynn won his second batting championship. The Padres finished in third place and above .500 in 1988. The 1989 Padres were in contention until the final week of the season and finished second, three games behind the Giants. Success is built gradually, not magically. What developed from the Padres’ 1987 start could be replicated in the near future with the Rockies or other teams. View the full article

Brandon Woodruff had to transform in 2025, to make up for diminished velocity. Averaging between 96-97 mph since his debut on his four-seam fastball, there were concerns he might be sitting at 91-92 mph in 2025, and that mandated a total change in his arsenal. Instead of blowing fastballs past hitters with impunity, Woodruff had to add wrinkles to his arsenal. The main alteration was to separate his slider into a hard cutter and a sweeper. Instead of leaning more into his breaking pitches (as you might expect with the lower average velocity), Woodruff continued to lead with his two primary fastballs—the sinker and four-seamer—to begin the year. However, as the season progressed,an interesting change occurred. From the middle of August on, Woodruff's cutter usage surged: Despite his marvelous surface-level numbers upon returning to the majors, there were some lurking problems. His four-seamer was proving tough to make contact with, but when hitters managed to touch it, they were doing more damage than one would like. In fact, both the sinker and four-seam fastball regressed in August, showing higher xwOBAs in the time during which Woodruff reduced his cutter usage. The Tunnelling Effect The main reason for the hard slider/cutter's introduction was to give hitters a third hard pitch for which to look, loosening their focal point and making it harder to barrel him up. If we look at Pitch Profiler's match+ diagram and decision point matrix below, you can see two things: The first observation is that, at the decision point, if all pitches begin at the same location, the only slight deviation is in the changeup (green) and curveball (blue). The other three pitches are so on top of one another that you can hardly differentiate which is which. If we see the same arsenal at the point the pitch passes the plate, all three fastballs are in vastly different locations. Secondly, studying the Match+ heatmap, you can see a glowing red box in the bottom right, which shows how each fastball (FC, FF, SI) interacts with its counterparts. This model estimates that the deceptiveness of these offerings is 10-12% above league average. In short, the cutter worked in its initial role as a wrinkle, helping both his sinker and four-seam fastball play up. At that point, the Brewers and Woodruff appeared to realize that the shape and command of the cutter was far better than they had expected. Just How Good Is Brandon Woodruff's Cutter? Over the last month of the season, Woodruff's cutter emerged as his primary fastball, culminating in his positively cutter-happy final September start. It's possible he relied on the pitch partially because of fatigue that day, but even prior to that, we saw it with around the same usage as his other fastball variants. Out of all cutters that comprised at least 15% of a starting pitcher's arsenal and were thrown over 150 times in 2025, Woodruff's ranked 15th in whiff rate. That would place him in the 82nd percentile—not bad for a player throwing the offering for the first time. Above, you can see the expected movement (shaded areas) compared to the actual movement (circles) for his pitches, and note the cutter, in brown. Woodruff has a tendency to get more rise on nearly all of his offerings than expected based on his velocity and arm angles. That's one reason for the massive swing-and-miss rate he can get, even when pounding the strike zone. Woodruff's cutter leads the way with almost five inches more induced vertical break than the model would consider "dead zone" for his physical characteristics—a figure that will directly correlate with more swings and misses, even when hitters pick up the pitch. As a standalone pitch, he doesn't have many plus grades, coming in around a 50 grade across the stuff+ metrics on average, but again, it's how the pitch plays with the rest of his arsenal, especially the four-seam fastball: The cutter tunnels beautifully, but comes in roughly 4 mph slower than his four-seamer, with five inches more drop and five inches more movement to the glove side. Over this period (the chart above is over his final month), hitters were routinely making weaker contact with the cutter, while they were getting underneath the four-seamer for lazier fly balls. It also opened up the strike zone with some routine targets: Woodruff appears to start nearly all of his pitches over the heart of the plate, and let the movement do its magic from there. The cutter breaks in toward left-handed batters, the sinker away from them, and the four-seamer has enough movement to avoid barrels and still garner whiffs even on meatballs down the middle. He might like to throw the four-seamer higher in the zone, but his three-fastball mix gives him a lot of cover. To put all of this in perspective, Woodruff's cutter had a better whiff rate and better quality of contact metrics in 2025 than Corbin Burnes managed in 2024. What Can We Expect In 2026? Losing Woodruff to a lat injury near the end of the regular season was tough to bear for the NLCS-bound team, but the conversations suggested that this was an injury bound to occur at some point in the rehab process. The timing was merely unfortunate. There's hope of a resurgence in his velocity, similar to what Aaron Ashby experienced in 2024 in the wake of a very similar procedure on his shoulder. Factoring that across his three fastballs suggests a very fascinating mix for Woodruff to play with, should it come to fruition in 2026, with just a couple of extra ticks to each fastball and the changeup: Even with his diminished arsenal, Woodruff ranked fifth among starters with over 500 pitches thrown in 2025 for in-zone whiff rates, putting him in the company of pitchers like Blake Snell, Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes and Zack Wheeler. If Woodruff can stay healthy, the ceiling could be even greater than what we saw in 2021. Even if the velocity never fully returns, Woodruff has showcased the variety and command to be a successful leader of the rotation, producing the lowest expected batting average, slugging, wOBA and wOBACON of his career, as well as a career-low walk rate. He's older, and his raw stuff has been diminished by his age and injuries, but he's also learned quite a bit about his craft and evolved into a better overall pitcher. With the return of his arm speed,. the sky is his only limit. View the full article

Walker Jenkins has the potential to be a top-three prospect in MLB, but he remains ranked between 10 and 20 on industry lists as the 2026 season is on the horizon. Jeremy and Jamie go over the hurdles that have kept him from reaching higher heights going into the new season. View the full article

Miami Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee will represent Team Italy in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, a source told Fish On First. Italy's final 30-man roster for the tournament was submitted on Tuesday morning. Expect Marsee to play center field and potentially bat leadoff for manager Francisco Cervelli. His teammates will include fellow major leaguers Vinnie Pasquantino, Aaron Nola, Kyle Teel and Jac Caglianone. Marsee, 24, was one of four players acquired by the Marlins in the trade that sent Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres. He struggled offensively in 2024, but enjoyed a great 2025 season. In Triple-A, where Marsee played 98 games, he slashed .246/.379/.438/.817 with 14 home runs, 37 RBI, 47 stolen bases and a 126 wRC+. He was even better in 55 games after being called up, slashing .292/.363/.478/.842 with five home runs, 33 RBI, 14 stolen bases and a 133 wRC+. The Central Michigan product was named the National League Rookie of the Month for August. Marsee was born and raised in the United States. However, his great grandparents on both his mother's and father's side are Italian, which granted him eligibility to represent Italy in the WBC. The tournament's eligibility rules are intentionally broad to help grow the game globally. Fellow Marlins Sandy Alcantara (Dominican Republic), Otto Lopez (Canada), Liam Hicks (Canada) and Owen Caissie (Canada) are confirmed to be participating in the WBC, and additional players from the Marlins org are likely to join them. The full rosters will be revealed on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET on MLB Network. Italy is in Pool B, which will take place in Houston, Texas, beginning on March 6. The United States, Mexico, Great Britain and Brazil are also in that pool, with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals. For Marsee to compete at loanDepot park, Italy would need to reach the semifinals for the first time in WBC history. View the full article

Former Red Sox pitcher (and current White Sox pitcher) David Sandlin joins Talk Sox to discuss what he was doing when the trade sending him to Chicago went down, why Revenge Of The Sith is the best Star Wars movie, and how being traded from Kansas City to Boston back in 2024 felt. View the full article

Six different Chicago Cubs hitters smacked 20 or more home runs in 2025. Now, with recent offseason transactions considered, who deserves to be the team's main slugger for the 2026 season? We review the various cases for Pete Crow-Armstrong coming off a 30-30 season, Seiya Suzuki after his career year, a surging first baseman in Michael Busch, and the new kid in town, Alex Bregman. Follow North Side Baseball for more content and breakdowns just like this! View the full article

The San Diego Padres were pretty bad defensively at second base in 2025. Only the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies, the two worst teams in MLB last year, were worse. At minus-15 defensive runs saved, per the Fielding Bible, the Friars barely outpaced those two cellar dwellars. Second base was also the worst position for the Padres, who ranked 14th in DRS with +28. The middle-infield defense was poor overall, with shortstop the next-worst position on the team at minus-8 (Xander Bogaerts was minus-4). While Friars fans love Jake Cronenworth, he was the worst offender on the entire team at minus-8 at second base. Among every player in MLB who played second, even for just a few innings, Cronenworth ranked 178th. Which is why second base needs a defensive upgrade. Even improving by 10 DRS at second would have put the Friars at No. 9 in team defense last year. The book is out on Sung Mun Song, signed this offseason out of the Korea Baseball Organization and who will get time at second base during spring training, with the job perhaps his to lose. Song was a third baseman in the KBO while also seeing action at second base, so the position is familiar to him. But what if there was a better option out there? There isn't much in terms of free agency, so any worthy upgrade is going to come from president of baseball operations A.J. Preller hitting the phones of other teams. Three names are out there worth considering: Brendan Donovan, Nico Hoerner and Isaac Paredes. All three have been the subject of trade chatter this offseason. Donovan because the St. Louis Cardinals are rebuilding and he is the last significant piece remaining; Hoerner's name has been bandied about since he is entering his final year of club control by the Chicago Cubs and is a two-time Gold Glove winner and there is an infield squeeze following the signing of third baseman Alex Bregman; while Paredes' path to playing time with the Houston Astros has been squeezed with Carlos Correa back on the roster at third base and Jose Altuve focusing back on second base. Paredes would probably be the easiest to acquire due to the lack of playing time and his salary ($8.75 million or $9.95 million, pending his arbitration hearing). But Paredes, who is under club control through 2027, hasn't played second base since 2023 and even then it was for just 14 games, putting up a minus-2 DRS. Certainly not ideal. Hoerner would be a superb addition simply from a defensive point of view, having won two of the last three NL Gold Gloves at the position. But he also brings some reliable offense to the table. Last year, he had a .297/.345/.394 slash line with seven homers, 69 RBIs and 29 stolen bases. That resulted in a career-best 4.8 fWAR. While Hoerner is in a walk year in 2026 and making $12 million, he would command a good return that the Padres' depleted farm system would struggle to satisfy. That leaves Donovan. Like Paredes, Donovan comes with two years of control remaining. He also makes less than the other two as he is set to earn $5.8 million in 2026. Donovan is average at best defensively, having posted a minus-5 DRS over the last three seasons. Still, he has been a consistent offensive performer in his four MLB seasons, with a career slash line of .282/.361/.411 with 40 homers and 202 RBIs. Donovan would need a quality return in a trade, which is again where the Padres might fall short. With the top levels of their system lacking prospects who are MLB-ready or will be by the end of the year, the Friars could put together a package of lower-level prospects. The question is whether or not the Cardinals would accept such a deal for one of the marquee names still on the trade block. Unless there is a trade, the Padres are looking at a complicated platoon of Cronenworth and Song at second base, with the former likely the favorite to start come Opening Day. View the full article

The Brewers have announced their non-roster invitee list, and among the full run of names, we found five guys you should have an extra vested interest in. Reese McGuire's contributions to this team could directly impact the debut time of the team's top catching prospect, Jeferson Quero. Luke Adams could be the cornerstone of a power surge on the Brewers' infield of the future. Jesús Made, the top prospect in the farm, needs to be introduced at the age of 18 years old. Brock Wilken, a former first-round pick, could be the Robin to Luke Adams' Batman, and of course, newly acquired utility option Jett Williams' performance will be under a microscope after Milwaukee traded the rights of their ace pitcher, Freddy Peralta, to the Big Apple. Follow Brewer Fanatic for more full breakdowns like this! View the full article

Former Miami Marlins outfielder Avisaíl García has hung up his cleats. Here is García's full retirement announcement, which was posted to his Instagram account on Monday: Today I formally announce the end of my career in Major League Baseball after 12 seasons of dedication and hard work. Thank you to God for the blessing of fulfilling my childhood dream—of playing baseball at its highest level. To my family: my eternal gratitude for your unconditional love, constant support, and sacrifices that made every step of this journey possible. To my agent, Gene Mato, and the Mato Sports Management team: thank you for your professional guidance, loyalty, and unwavering support throughout my career. To my teammates, coaches, and staff: thank you for the brotherhood, respect, and shared lessons day in and day out. These good memories will stay in my heart forever… To the teams that trusted me and gave me the opportunity to compete at the highest level… Thank you… Baseball gave me far more than I could have dreamed: achievements, experiences, and values I will carry with me always. I close this chapter with pride and gratitude, ready for new chapters in life. With respect and appreciation, Avisail Garcia The 34-year-old native of Anaco, Venezuela, played for the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers prior to joining the Fish. With the 2021 Brewers, he set new career-highs in home runs (29) and walks (38). Starved for offense, Miami signed García to a four-year, $53 million free agent contract during the ensuing offseason, which would account for the majority of his career earnings as it turned out. Almost immediately, the signing looked regrettable. Limited to 153 Marlins games due to injuries, García slashed .217/.260/.322 with 13 home runs, six stolen bases and a 59 wRC+. His -1.4 fWAR is tied with Tim Anderson for the worst mark among all Marlins hitters since 2022. The Marlins released García on June 9, 2024. He underwent lower back surgery in October of that year in an attempt to extend his career, but never played another professional game. May the next chapter of García's life bring him fulfillment and success. View the full article

After his deal with the New York Mets, let's take a look at the legacy that Bo Bichette is leaving behind in Toronto, from his relationship with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., to growing up alongside Cavan Biggio and Teoscar Hernández, to playing with Marcus Semien and George Springer. How is Bo going to be remembered in Toronto? View the full article

Sweet Lou, Comrade Cody, and Ol Gregg are joined by 7-timer Theo Tollefson of Zone Coverage to discuss Derek Falvey and the Twins mutually agreeing to part ways. The fellas name each Derek Falvey draft pick who made it to the Twins by memory, as well. Listen using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twins-off-daily-podcast/id1741266056 Listen using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4tb78XlurcPTYYSsARdbD7 Listen using iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-twins-off-daily-podcas-167548600/ Listen using Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/nvclbt0w Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@twinsdaily View the full article

The Kansas City Royals’ offense was in the middle to bottom half of Major League Baseball for many of the offensive categories. To name a few, the Royals finished 26th in runs, 18th in hits, 26th in home runs, 15th in average, 22nd in on-base percentage, and 18th in slugging. The 82-80 record in 2025 was a reflection of the poor offense at times, but there is reason to believe that the lineup in 2026 could help lead to better results for a Royals team looking to get back to playoff baseball. The Silver Slugger Group Last season, the Royals had four players nominated for an American League Silver Slugger Award. Salvador Perez was nominated at the catcher position, Vinnie Pasquantino was nominated at first base, Bobby Witt Jr. was nominated at shortstop, and Maikel Garcia was nominated for the utility position. These four combined to hit 101 of the Royals’ 159 total home runs, really driving the force for a team that lacked offensive firepower. Speaking at the Royals rally on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium, Royals general manager J.J. Picollo spoke about the level of production from this group and how they continue forward. “Trying to evaluate our offense, it’s like the tale of two stories,” Picollo said. “You’ve got an outfield that didn’t produce at all, and then you’ve got an infield that was the best infield in baseball.” The Royals were one of only three teams that had at least four players nominated for the Silver Slugger award, showing that the top end of their lineup can produce with the best teams in baseball Perez, Pasquantino, and Witt Jr. have all hit 30-plus home runs in a season before. Mixed in with the power-speed combo that Garcia brings, these four give the Royals a chance to have a special top half of the lineup in 2026. The Recent Acquisitions In the past two offseasons, the Royals have brought in Jonathan India and Isaac Collins by way of trade and Lane Thomas on a one-year, $5.25 million contract. These three players are going to be key to help lengthen the Royals’ lineup in 2026. India’s first season as a Royal didn’t go as he or the team alike had hoped for when they acquired the former Rookie of the Year from the Cincinnati Reds. India batted .233 with nine home runs and 45 RBIs, while also posting a career low .346 OBP. A career .249 hitter, the Royals need India to find that 15-20 home run range, which could only get easier with the recent dimension change at Kauffman Stadium. Collins was brought in along with reliever Nick Mears in December for reliever Ángel Zerpa in mid-December. In Collins’ first full season at the MLB level, the outfielder batted .263 with nine home runs, 54 RBIs, and a .368 OBP. Part of what Picollo was talking about this past Saturday is the need for more outfield production, and the hope is that Collins can provide that from the left side of the plate. One cause for concern is the second-half slump Collins entered. Over the 28-year-old’s final 30 games, the average dipped to .189 with one home run and 13 driven in. Where Collins struggled with the bat at times, the sharp eye remained, finishing the season in the top 10 percentile in MLB for base on ball rate, walking at a 12.9% clip. Thomas was brought in to help bring more production to an outfield that struggled for much of 2025. A bounce-back candidate after a tough 2025 that saw Thomas appear in only 39 games, batting .160, with four home runs and 11 RBIs. The three seasons prior, Thomas blasted 17, 28, and 15 home runs, so the power threat is there. A career .292 hitter against left-handed pitchers, Thomas brings what Picollo was looking for to the Royals lineup. “Going back to the beginning of the offseason, I think we were pretty clear that we needed to address our outfield,” Picollo said at the time of the signing. “The more we had our meetings, the more we dove into things, the more we talked about what players fit us well, right-handed became very apparent to us. And then versatility. Somebody who could play all three outfield spots, and more importantly, take time in center field. We went through several meetings with our pro personnel department and front office,e and we kept coming back to Lane.” The Rookies 2025 saw both Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen make their MLB debuts. Both players flashed potential that could help make them mainstays in the Royals’ lineup for years to come. Caglianone went through struggles many power-hitting rookies face while adjusting to pitching at the MLB level. The 22-year-old batted .157, with a .237 OBP, slugging seven home runs and driving in 18 runs. The 22.8% strikeout rate is concerning, but the outfielder flashed the ability to drive the ball, posting a max exit velocity of 114.1 MPH, which slots in the 10th percentile for all MLB batters. Jensen was called up to make his MLB debut on September 1 and impressed during the final month of the regular season. The catcher batted .300 across 60 plate appearances, swatting three home runs and driving in 13 runs, to go along with an impressive .391 OBP. In the 20 games, Jensen’s barrel percentage was 20.8%, a strong number for the 22-year-old. If Jensen builds on what was a strong September showing, the Royals will find ways to keep both Perez’s and Jensen’s bat in the lineup by utilizing catcher, first base, and designated hitter to bring a steadier offense to the lineup. The Rest Of The Offense The rest of the Royals’ lineup will be made up of Michael Massey, Kyle Isbel, and a couple of Dairon Blanco, Nick Loftin, Kameron Misner, John Rave, and Drew Waters as the Royals hunt for better offensive results in 2026. View the full article

It’s officially the final month without regular season baseball, and thus, it’s time for another Cubs opening day roster projection. Besides, there have been important changes lately. The North Siders have made a pair of seismic moves for Edward Cabrera (trade) and Alex Bregman (free agent) since the last version of our roster projection came out. In this article, we’ll recap how those moves have had a domino effect on the rest of this roster makeup and who will have to battle extra hard for their spot in spring training. Pitchers (13) Shota Imanaga - SP Matthew Boyd - SP Cade Horton - SP Jameson Taillon - SP Edward Cabrera - SP Colin Rea - RP Javier Assad - RP Phil Maton - RP Caleb Thielbar - RP Hoby Milner - RP Jacob Webb - RP Hunter Harvey - RP Daniel Palencia - RP The huge change here comes from Chicago acquiring former Miami right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera for top prospect Owen Caissie and a pair of infielders, in Christian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon. The first domino to fall is Colin Rea. He’ll easily make the Opening Day roster, but his starting spot turns into more of a swingman role, similar to what he had to start the 2025 campaign. This doesn’t mean he’ll stay out of the rotation, though. No Cubs starter has a clean health history. Who leaves the 13-man depth chart? Porter Hodge is the most sensible option. Hodge struggled mightily with his command in 2025, posting an ERA above 6.00 in both the majors and Triple-A Iowa. The walks (18 in 33 innings of big-league ball) were a major concern. Hodge will likely continue to work on his stuff in Iowa, but he won’t be alone. Luke Little and top pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins will be in the fight, with major-league aspirations of their own. Javier Assad could also end up there, depending on how the team's bevy of minor-league signings look in camp. Catchers (2) Carson Kelly Miguel Amaya The catching situation seems locked in, at least for now. If the summer of Carson Kelly doesn’t yield a satisfying sequel, top catching prospect Moisés Ballesteros is waiting in the wings and could shift back to his traditional spot to platoon with Amaya in the future. For now, though, a timeshare seems like the most likely outcome, and Ballesteros looks to be ticketed for DH duty. Infielders (5) Michael Busch - 1B Tyler Austin - 1B Nico Hoerner - 2B Dansby Swanson - SS Alex Bregman - 3B When a team signs their new third baseman to a 5-year, $175 =-million deal, it’s an ‘act now and react later’ situation. Alex Bregman, a three-time all-star, will take Matt Shaw’s spot at the hot corner. The rest of the infield remains the same, for now, although Nico Hoerner, who was near the top of the league in WAR (6.2) last year, will be playing on an expiring contract. Outfielders (5) Ian Happ Pete Crow-Armstrong Seiya Suzuki Matt Shaw Kevin Alcántara While the Cubs built up their rotation by taking a swing for Edward Cabrera, their pack of outfield prospects lost its top dog in Owen Caissie. This opened up an opportunity for Kevin Alcántara, who has flashed his power/speed combo at the Triple-A level. It also opens the door up for Shaw. Keep in mind that Kyle Tucker not coming back opened up another spot, and Shaw is taking on a utility role that includes some outfield work. Alcántara gets a shot to operate with an expanded role, and if Shaw isn't traded, he could get significant playing time in the grass. However, Justin Dean, Chas McCormick and Dylan Carlson will all be in camp, too, bying for versions of Alcántara's spot that would reduce Shaw's likelihood of playing in the outfield. Designated Hitter (1) Moisés Ballesteros Ballesteros is in wait-and-see mode, as the Cubs have a plethora of either unproven outfielders (Shaw, Alcantara) or talents on expiring contracts (Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki). His bat will make him hard to ignore, as he hit .298 with nine walks to 12 strikeouts in his first big-league stint. It’s a small sample, but seeing a green bat turn in a 13.6% walk rate and an .868 OPS should bode well for his chances in 2026. Who did we miss, and what would you change about our Opening Day roster projection? Be sure to leave a comment, and we will get back to you. View the full article