DiamondCentric

On Thursday, the Kansas City Royals announced on social media that they had come to an agreement with six of their remaining arbitration-eligible players. According to Roster Resource payroll data, the following Royals players agreed to the listed salary amounts for the 2026 season. All agreed to one-year deals. Kyle Isbel: $2.7 million. Bailey Falter: $3.6 million. John Schreiber: $3.715 million. Nick Mears: $1.9 million Michael Massey: $1.57 million. Daniel Lynch IV: $1.025 million. The inclusion of these six puts the Royals' estimated payroll at $150 million for the 2026 season. That is $12 million higher than their final 2025 payroll. That said, it's likely that the payroll amount will get even higher, especially with pitcher Kris Bubic and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino remaining without an agreement. Unless an announcement is made soon, it is likely that both players will head to arbitration. Maddie Landis of TalkSox and DiamondCentric wrote a pretty comprehensive review today of what arbitration means and how the process unfolds in Major League Baseball. Here is a key bit from Landis' article that outlines the next steps Bubic and Pasquantino will take with the Royals if no agreement is announced. MLB Trade Rumors made arbitration predictions in the offseason, expecting Bubic to command $6 million and Pasquantino to get $5.4 million. Both had solid seasons, but certainly had some issues that could explain why the Royals have balked at the players' initial asking prices. Bubic posted a 2.55 ERA, accumulated a 3.3 fWAR, and made his first All-Star team in 2025. However, he only pitched 116.1 IP and missed most of the second half due to a shoulder issue. Bubic will also be a free agent after the upcoming season, and he's been mentioned in numerous trade talks, suggesting he may not be in Kansas City's long-term plans. As for Pasquantino, he led the Royals with 32 home runs and 113 RBI. Conversely, he posted only 1.5 fWAR last year due to lackluster baserunning and defense at first base. For context, Isbel's fWAR was only 0.4 lower than Pasquantino's, and he's making half of Pasquantino's estimated amount. The last time the Royals had an arbitration hearing with a player was in 2023, when they prevailed against Brady Singer. The former Florida Gator had a letdown year after the hearing, going from a 3.23 ERA and 3.0 fWAR in 153.1 IP in 2022 (pre-hearing) to a 5.52 ERA and 1.9 fWAR in 159.2 IP in 2023 (post-hearing). Hopefully, a deal can be reached soon with Bubic and Pasquantino to avoid hearings, which can often be messy and affect long-term relationships with players. View the full article

It's time for the Brewers to decide whether they can and should extend William Contreras, and over the next two months, that will be the biggest drama around the team. That became clearer Thursday, as the team agreed to deals with five players to avoid arbitration, leaving just one of their seven arbitration-eligible players without a contract for 2026 and seemingly en route to an arbitration hearing: Contreras. As they always do, the Brewers made out well in the nickel-and-dime game of securing deals with arbitration-eligible players without overspending. They signed Trevor Megill for $4.7 million, which was $500,000 more than MLB Trade Rumors projected him to earn at the outset of the offseason. That came after they'd paid Jake Bauers $2.7 million in November, topping his projection by $700,000. When they got Brice Turang done for $4.15 million, however, they saved $250,000, and Andrew Vaughn's $7.65 million saves them $150,000. Garrett Mitchell came in at $950,000, which was almost exactly the $1 million projected for him. The real savings, however, come when one weighs and measures the Nick Mears-for-Ángel Zerpa trade. Mears had been projected to sign for $1.6 million, but the Crew got Zerpa to agree to a deal worth $1.095 million. MLB Trade Rumors had projected Zerpa to earn more than Mears, but Mears ended up with the $1.9 million Zerpa was projected to get. The team saved at least $500,000 in that transaction, gained the optionality of being able to send Zerpa to the minors if they so choose, and believe they upgraded that spot on the bullpen depth chart, anyway. All told, the team will pay about $250,000 more for their arbitration class than was expected, not counting Contreras, but that's good work when you consider that they had to buy a closer with a high saves total out of a possible hearing and will get at least 1,500 plate appearances from the position players they've already signed. Every penny counts right now, as the team terminated its contract with FanDuel Sports Network and might end up having MLB produce and distribute its broadcasts sooner than expected. They've done well to keep costs down with this group, so far. Obviously, though, everything hinges on Contreras. Now two years from free agency, he's in line for an eight-figure payday in 2026 and will make at least $25 million before the end of 2027. By not agreeing to a deal before the deadline Thursday, the Brewers moved a step closer to an arbitration hearing with him, which would in and of itself be a significant step toward eventually trading him or losing him via free agency. That was already a looming decision, though. This scrap of news merely brings it to the surface. Waiting to see whether Jeferson Quero can be the catcher of the future is a viable option, but it comes loaded with risk. If he proves not to be the backstop the team hopes he can be, on this side of a major injury, they'll be left in scramble mode, with Contreras having all the leverage in negotiations over a potential extension next winter. Such a deal would end up being a market-rate, massive contract, and is probably beyond the Brewers' means. If they want to keep Contreras around beyond 2027, the Brewers probably need to sign him now. Thus, Thursday began a high-stakes staring contest. Either the sides will agree on a long-term deal, or Contreras is likely to end up on the trade block next winter. Which way they intend to go on that front could even influence the decision about whether to trade Freddy Peralta, so the clock is ticking on multiple major organizational decisions at once. View the full article

In his review of the 2005 film “Elizabethtown,” film critic Nathan Rabin coined the phrase “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” a term that has since become common in contemporary society to identify a stock character type in fiction novels and films. For those out of the loop, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is usually a young woman with eccentric, often quirky personality traits who serves as the romantic interest of the straight male protagonist. Well-known adaptations include Zooey Deschanel’s character in “500 Days of Summer,” Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," and almost every female character in a John Green novel (don’t get me wrong, I love Looking for Alaska, but the point still stands). Rooted in misogyny, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype is harmful and destructive, creating the false narrative that straight men will always be the primary protagonists in stories and that women are nothing but supporting characters whose value resides in how different they are from other straight women. Interestingly, a similar (albeit less destructive) archetype exists amid the baseball sphere: the “Manic Pixie Right-Handed Hitting Corner Bat.” Did I just make that term up? Yes. However, the oft-desired archetype of a right-handed-hitting veteran who hits left-handed pitching well and plays a corner infield or corner outfield spot has long been sought by baseball fans and pundits alike, particularly those in Twins Territory. Veteran players like Randal Grichuk, Tommy Pham, and Austin Hays have taken turns as the platonic ideal form of the Manic Pixie Right-Handed Hitting Corner Bat. Yet, the Twins front office has never taken the initiative to acquire them. Shame! Instead, the Ivy League-educated bunch exclusively peruses the bargain bin, taking fliers on underachieving, league minimum-earning players of that mold. Recent examples include the club acquiring Jordan Luplow almost immediately after the 2023 MLB trade deadline. In theory, Luplow was acquired to fill the Manic Pixie Right-Handed Hitting Corner Bat role for the contending club. Instead, the then-29-year-old generated a measly 87 wRC+ over 73 plate appearances with Minnesota, hitting only eight percentage points better than average against left-handed pitching. Jonah Bride was acquired to fulfill the role last season. However, the right-handed veteran struggled mightily with the Twins, generating a well below-average 39 wRC+ over 67 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. Luplow and Bride could serve as cautionary tales for front offices, advising them to avoid giving meaningful plate appearances to struggling players ostracized by other organizations. Yet, Minnesota does have a recent success story of providing significant opportunities to a player of that ilk: Kyle Garlick. Claimed off waivers from Atlanta in February 2021, Garlick performed well for Minnesota during the 2021 and 2022 regular seasons, generating a combined 102 wRC+ over 269 plate appearances. As advertised, Garlick mashed left-handed pitching, posting a 133 wRC+ over 63 plate appearances against lefties in 2021 and a 127 wRC+ over 82 plate appearances against them in 2022. The former Twin quickly fell from grace in 2023, with an uninspiring 74 wRC+ before being designated for assignment in late June. Still, Minnesota got considerable value from a MaPiRiCoBa for two consecutive seasons, constituting a noteworthy success story. Three years later, Minnesota could have its next productive, league minimum-earning, right-handed hitting corner bat in Eric Wagaman. Acquired from the Miami Marlins for minor-league reliever Kade Bragg on Jan. 2, Wagaman joins the Twins' 40-man roster, expected to compete with Edouard Julien and Orlando Arcia for the club’s final infield utility bench spot. Since Wagaman has three minor-league options remaining, the 28-year-old could justifiably begin his 2026 campaign with Triple-A St. Paul. Yet, given how thin Minnesota’s infield corner infield depth is, those who follow the club should expect to see Wagaman don a Twins jersey early next season. Hitting .250/.296/.378 with nine home runs, 28 doubles, and an 85 wRC+ over 514 plate appearances last season, the righty also sported defensive versatility, playing 117 games at first base, 19 in left field, three at third base, and three in right field, while netting 10 starts at designated hitter. He was serviceable at all four positions. Like Garlick, however, most of his value resided in his ability to hit left-handed pitching, to the tune of a 114 wRC+ over 184 plate appearances. The former Marlin struggled against same-handed pitching, with a 69 wRC+ over 330 plate appearances. However, given that Minnesota has an abundance of left-handed hitting corner outfield and infield talent, the club should be able to shield Wagaman from same-handed pitching. They could deploy him similarly to how they used Garlick in 2021 and 2022, maximizing his offensive skillset and positional flexibility. Despite falling under the inherently derogatory “bargain bin” category of acquisition, Wagaman could provide meaningful value for Minnesota in 2026, making him the club’s first successful version of a Manic Pixie Right-Handed Hitting Corner Bat since Garlick four seasons ago. View the full article

Essentially, Jameson Taillon throws two different curveballs. He rarely uses one of them—the slanting, two-plane breaker that twists away from right-handed batters—and leans much more on the other, but there really are two different pitches. The hook he throws to righties is just a rare variant on his much more common sweeper, to force hitters to look for something else. The one he throws to lefties is more vertical, and he throws it to the other side of the plate. Jameson Taillon Curveballs Split Velocity (MPH) Hor. Mvmt. (in.) Vert. Mvmt. (in.) Spin Rate (RPM) Spin Axis Arm Angle (Deg.) v. RHH 79.2 11.8 -6.9 2691 7:37 48.5 v. LHH 79.7 9.2 -9.5 2573 7:21 49.3 Taillon's curveball is his main breaking ball to lefties. He throws his four-seamer to the upper, outer quadrant of the zone against them, and his new kick-change and that curve play off that pitch. The changeup fades to the edge of the plate, or off of it. The curve dives to the bottom of the zone, after looking like a ball out of the hand. It's meant to lock up lefties and earn called strikes, and it did that job quite well in 2025. Taillon, though, just got pushed down to fifth in a healthy Cubs rotation for 2026. If everyone is going well, Cade Horton, Edward Cabrera, Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga will be ahead of Taillon in the pecking order, and if and when Justin Steele returns, only other absences will save Taillon a place in the rotation. Why, then, am I telling you about Taillon's curve and its peculiarities? Here's the first part of the reason: This is the number of times each right-handed pitcher threw a curveball for a called strike to a left-handed batter in each season from 2023-25, charted against the percentage of all their curveballs to lefties that had that result. In other words, among righthanders who throw the curveball reasonably often against lefties, how often are they not only landing it in the zone, but freezing a batter for a strike with it? This is one of the two main ways that a curveball works. Some curves are designed to get chases on pitches outside the zone, and to miss bats when the hitter swings. Others, though, are meant to steal strikes without even letting the batter get the lumber off their shoulder. Bigger-breaking curves can be easier to spot out of the hand for opponents, but if done correctly, that can prompt them to take the pitch, because they were primed for a fastball or aren't able to adjust their timing well enough to get off a good swing on the much slower pitch. That hasn't always been Taillon, but as part of his constellation of adjustments in 2025, he got much better at it. As you can see, he was fairly middling in this regard in 2023, and in 2024, he dipped down into the neighborhood of Ben Brown, a classic chase-and-miss curveball guy who doesn't get called strikes with that pitch often at all. Last season, though, he shot up the list. Because they overlapped perfectly, I had to highlight Aaron Civale's 2024 instead of Taillon, but that same dot belongs to Taillon's 2025. He got there, in part, by observing and making some tweaks to mirror the changes Colin Rea made and the way he executed his curve to lefties. Rea is very much a change-of-pace, called-strike curveball guy. That's how he uses the pitch, and why the Cubs were excited about changing Rea's pitch mix to feature the four-seam fastball instead of his sinker. All else equal, the Cubs love a backdoor curveball artist. They want that guy who drops it into the zone in ways the opponent isn't ready for at all. That brings me to the second reason why I brought this up, in the first place. I removed the highlight on Civale's 2024, because it would have made the one for Cabrera harder to read. I also didn't highlight his 2023, because it's right next to that Civale/Taillon dot and would have left a muddle of text, too. The point is still plenty clear: Cabrera has always been this kind of curveball guy. Rather than a pitch designed to rack up whiffs, Cabrera's curve to lefties steals strikes with huge movement. It also misses bats at a dazzling rate (over 45% of swings against it last year), but he goes to that big, freeze-up curve often. This is a gorgeous match between team and new pitcher. Cabrera is, in some other ways, a bit of a push against the grain for the Cubs. They don't normally pay handsomely for velocity and strikeout rate, as they've done here. They normally prize durability, but are rolling the dice on a guy with a long injury history. This illuminates, a bit, why they made this change of tack. Cabrera might not look like a typical Cubs starter on the surface, but in small and important ways, he is one. His breaking stuff also includes a good slider, but the curve is the featured piece, and it fits into the team's preferred plan for curves (especially to opposite-handed batters) perfectly. View the full article

On Thursday, Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix met with the media for about 15 minutes to discuss the moves his team has made up to this point in the offseason. Understandably, most of the questions concerned Wednesday's trade that sent Edward Cabrera to the Chicago Cubs. "I think we're getting somebody who hits the ball very hard and hits for a lot of power—that's a hard thing to find," Bendix said via Zoom regarding the centerpiece of the trade return, Owen Caissie. "It's a hard thing to find in any area. It's usually very expensive to acquire and I think every good team needs power. With him, we're getting someone who has shown the ability to make adjustments as he's gotten older and as he's faced better pitching. He's still very young and has room for improvement offensively and defensively, but his performance to date in his career has been exceptional." Caissie slashed .286/.386/.551/.937 with 22 home runs, 55 RBI and a 139 wRC+ through 99 Triple-A games last season. As a left-handed-hitting corner outfielder, Caissie's similarities to 2025 Marlins All-Star are "pretty easy to see," Bendix admitted. "To have somebody who's on that career trajectory much earlier in their career, who crushed Triple-A pitching at a much younger age, that's really exciting," said Bendix. "It doesn't guarantee anything and doesn't mean that he's necessarily going to step in right away and hit 40 home runs or anything like that. There's certainly risk there, but it is unusual to have a player like Caissie, at his age, perform the way that he did at a high level, and that makes us really excited." Bendix also told the media that Caissie will still go to the World Baseball Classic, which takes place during spring training in March. He previously represented his native country at the 2023 WBC. "I think that's going to be a great experience for him," said Bendix. "I think the more high-level competition he and all of our young guys can get, the better it is for them and for us." Caissie will compete alongside one of his new Marlins teammates in shortstop Otto López. Canada is part of Pool A, which takes place in Puerto Rico. Along with Caissie, the Marlins acquired shortstop prospect Cristian Hernández and Edgardo De Leon, an 18-year-old infield prospect. Hernández, who spent last season in High-A, slashed .252/.329/.365/.694 with seven home runs, 53 RBI, 52 stolen bases and a 99 wRC+. He played 95 games at shortstop, where it seems like he has a chance to stick long term. In 2025, De Leon made the jump from the Dominican Summer League to the Arizona Complex League. In 43 games, he slashed .276/.353/.500/.853 with five home runs, 15 RBI and a 118 wRC+. "I think Cristian Hernández is tooled up, does a lot of things well. Certainly has a lot of things he needs to improve, but he's very young and has a lot of ingredients in place," Bendix said. "Edgardo De Leon, he's even younger and has further to go, but the power that he has shown, the exit velocities that he has shown, the aptitude that he has shown, is really exciting for an 18-year-old. When we were able to get a package of these three players that we think can help us this year and beyond, that ended up being what got us over the line." Cabrera had been the subject of trade rumors throughout the past couple of years. Last offseason, it seemed as if the Pittsburgh Pirates were a potential landing spot, then leading up to the 2025 MLB trade deadline, the Cubs and New York Yankees were among the clubs interested in the right-handed starter. During the Winter Meetings, it was reported that the Marlins and Baltimore Orioles were in discussions for Cabrera. Last Sunday, the Yankees reportedly re-emerged as a serious suitor. In 2025, Cabrera broke out, posting a 3.53 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 9.81 K/9 and 3.14 BB/9 in a career-high 137 ⅔ innings pitched. That marked the first time in his career surpassing the 100-inning threshold. Even then, the injury-prone 27-year-old landed on the IL twice, most notably towards the end of the season with a right elbow sprain, but still made two starts to finish the season. "There's risk with every player in baseball," Bendix said. "There's risk with Edward Cabrera. There's risk with just about anybody. There's no such thing as certainty. I think what we try to do is we try to get players who do things well and also have areas of improvement that we think we can help. That gets to the idea of developing players at all levels, including at the major league level." A source did tell Fish On First that although the Marlins feel comfortable with their current starting pitching options, they still may go out and sign an experienced pitcher who can eat innings, similar to the signing of Cal Quantrill last season. Bendix also did not rule out the possibility of a top prospect like Thomas White or Robby Snelling winning a rotation job out of camp. "I think there’s an opportunity there," said Bendix. "There’s competition there, there’s open space there, and there’s a chance for a lot of guys to step up and earn a spot. There’s nothing we’re writing off at this point." Prior to trading away Cabrera, the Marlins signed right-handed reliever Pete Fairbanks to a one-year deal worth $13M. Fairbanks, who Bendix knows well from this days with the Tampa Bay Rays, posted a 2.83 ERA, 3.63 ERA, 8.80 K/9, 2.69 BB/9 and a career best 27 saves in a career-high 60 ⅓ innings pitched. "I really like him, respect him as a person, and I think he's an excellent pitcher," said Bendix. "I think that there's more upside, even than what he's shown recently. He added a new cutter that has a chance to be really good. I think he's better understanding himself, his body, how to execute his pitches, and really to be a team leader. He's going to step into a situation where he's the veteran, he's the guy in the bullpen, and I trust in him to be able to execute that leadership as well as execute his pitches." The final acquisition which was touched on very quickly was the one of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Esteury Ruiz, who the Marlins acquired in exchange for minor league pitcher Adriano Marrero. In 2025, Ruiz was primarily in AAA, where he slashed .304/.412/.511/.923 with 16 home runs, 61 RBI, 63 stolen bases and a 137 wRC+. During his MLB career, however, Ruiz's career slash line is only .241/.296/.343/.639 with eight homers in 197 games. "We think (Ruiz) is a really helpful, complementary piece, who's got upside beyond that," said Bendix. "He's one of the fastest guys in baseball, an elite base-stealing threat and made some real adjustments to his offensive game that we think are going to pay off huge dividends. We think he needs an opportunity to play and we can help him get a little bit more out of his game. It's the type of skills that are truly elite at the top of the scale that are hard to find and it's somebody who is still young and still improving and really fits our roster really well, too." "I think we're executing on our plan of building a club that we think can be really exciting in 2026 and also continuing on this plan to make our franchise competitive every single year for the foreseeable future," Bendix said. "I think we added a lot of really interesting talent and it's going to be fun to see how some of these competitions play out in spring training." Thursday also marks the deadline to exchange salary figures with arbitration-eligible players. With Cabrera now gone, the Marlins have six players (all pitchers) who they are attempting to reach settlements with. View the full article

The Minnesota Twins and Royce Lewis avoided arbitration on Thursday, agreeing to a one-year contract for the 2026 season. According to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson, Lewis will earn $2.85 million, slightly below the $3 million projection from MLB Trade Rumors. For a player whose recent seasons have been defined by both brilliance and frustration, the Twins have been hyping him up this winter. No one needs to be reminded what Lewis is capable of. He remembers it. Twins fans certainly remember it. Even his new manager remembers it. At his healthiest, Lewis has been one of the most dynamic, most dangerous, and best players in baseball. He keyed the Twins' run to the postseason with a tremendous second-half surge in 2023, and before a late slump in 2024, he was driving them toward another apparent playoff berth. Few players in the organization have shown that kind of ability to change the direction of a season. Since late 2024, Lewis has searched not only for health but for consistent form at the plate. If he can recapture the magic of his first 100 or so big league games, the entire outlook for the 2026 Twins would change. He slashed .309/.372/.548 (.920) in 58 games in 2023 and was slugging .685 in 23 games before the All-Star break in 2024. When Lewis is right, the lineup looks different. Pitchers approach him differently. Games feel shorter. “I truly believe if I play at the level that I’ve shown before, that I can be one of the best hitters in the league, on any team,” Lewis said. The Twins are likely to run back much of the same roster in 2026. Any real optimism for a rebound rests on the young core producing closer to its ceiling. That group includes Brooks Lee and Matt Wallner, but it starts with Lewis. “This guy has a chance to be a superstar,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. Lewis’ struggles have come from a complicated mix of factors, with health chief among them. He suffered a hamstring injury in Spring Training in 2025 and now believes he returned too quickly. That decision led to a slow start at the plate, and just as he appeared to be finding his timing again, he aggravated the injury and missed more time. When Lewis finally had an extended stretch of health in the second half of 2025, the consistency still did not fully return. Soon after being hired, Shelton traveled to Texas to visit Lewis. The gesture resonated. “We definitely vibed really well,” Lewis said. “He came out to Texas to see me, and honestly I told him that meant my whole year. I was blown away that he came out to see me. I didn’t realize that I was that important to him and to the organization. I felt like I was starting to lose that kind of feeling, and I just felt like a different vibe at the end of last year, parts of last year, but he definitely corrected that. And we’re still keeping in touch.” Even during an uneven 2025, Lewis showed signs that matter. Defensively, he looked smooth and athletic down the stretch. He began running again, stealing bases and trusting his body. From a physical standpoint, he finally started to resemble the player the Twins envisioned when they drafted him first overall. Now comes the hard part. Staying healthy. Finding rhythm. Letting confidence snowball instead of doubt. None of that is guaranteed. The Twins still believe in Lewis, and 2026 is the most critical season in his young career. View the full article

According to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson, the Twins and Trevor Larnach have agreed to terms on a $4.475 million contract for next season, avoiding an arbitration hearing. MLB Trade Rumors had projected Larnach to earn $4.7 million, so the final number comes in just under expectations and gives the Twins a bit of financial clarity as they continue to shape the roster for 2026. On the surface, avoiding arbitration feels like standard operating procedure. Dig a little deeper, though, and this agreement says more about the Twins’ current roster crunch than it does about a long-term commitment to Larnach. There had been speculation that Minnesota could non-tender the outfielder altogether, mainly because the organization is flush with younger, cheaper alternatives. While $4.475 million is not the most expensive arbitration salary on the roster, it represents roughly five percent of a payroll estimated to land around $100 million in 2026. For this front office, every dollar still matters. Larnach agreeing to terms with the Twins does not mean his future in Minnesota is secure. In fact, the opposite may be true. The Twins now have six left-handed hitting outfielders on the 40-man roster, and that group includes Larnach, Hendry Mendez, James Outman, Alan Roden, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Matt Wallner. That list does not even include top prospect Walker Jenkins, who is waiting in the wings at Triple-A and is very much part of the long-term plan. As things stand, the Twins favor Wallner and Roden for regular roles early in 2026, with Outman serving as the primary backup to Byron Buxton in center field. Rodriguez and Mendez are expected to open the season in the minors, though Rodriguez in particular has the kind of upside that will force the issue if he is healthy and productive. In that context, it is difficult to find a clear path to consistent playing time for Larnach outside of a shared DH role. With a set salary in place for 2026, Larnach becomes easier to move in a trade than he was during the arbitration guessing game. Cost certainty matters to other clubs, especially those trying to fill a corner outfield need without committing to a long-term deal. From a performance standpoint, Larnach’s 2025 season was steady but unspectacular. He set a career high with 142 games played and led the team in that category, but his overall production landed just below league average. A 99 OPS+, a .250/.323/.404 (.727) slash line, 17 home runs, 60 RBI, a 9.3 BB%, and a 21.5 K% added up to a 0.1 bWAR. There is value there, particularly in durability, but it is not the kind of profile that brings back a significant return on its own. The most realistic recent comparison for a potential Larnach deal is the Twins trading Nick Gordon for Steven Okert during spring training in 2024. That type of modest swap feels far more plausible than anything splashy. The challenge will be finding the right partner. Minnesota needs a team that is thin in the corner outfield and deep in bullpen arms, a combination that is not especially common around the league. In the end, the Twins and Larnach avoiding arbitration is less about stability and more about flexibility. Minnesota gets a known cost on a player who still has some appeal, and Larnach gets paid without the uncertainty of a hearing. Whether he spends that season in a Twins uniform is another question entirely. As the outfield picture continues to crowd itself, this agreement feels like one step toward an eventual resolution rather than the final word. View the full article

The San Diego Padres did well to bring Michael King back to the fold on a three-year deal with escalating salaries every time he opts in, but their rotation picture is far from settled. Incumbent ace Nick Pivetta will surely enjoy having a right-hand(ed) man with which to work in 2026, but unless 33-year-old Joe Musgrove can return from his 18-month layoff with practically no rust or dampened impact, the rotation lacks any semblance of upside outside of its top two. That's what makes the Edward Cabrera trade all the more frustrating from the Padres' perspective. The Chicago Cubs surrendered top-50 prospect Owen Caissie, once-revered international bonus baby Cristian Hernandez, and 18-year-old dart throw Edgardo De Leon in order to pick up the Miami Marlins' 27-year-old starter, an electric arm with immense potential. That package is nothing to scoff at — and Cabrera comes with some noticeable red flags — but that's an offer that anyone, including the Friars, could have beaten. The notable thing in that package is that the Marlins clearly valued offensive prospects at all levels of the food chain. That means that the Padres could have held onto top pitching prospects Miguel Mendez and Kash Mayfield while still bringing in a young, controllable starter for the major-league rotation. Caissie is the big name the Cubs sent, and as a major-league ready hitter with middle-of-the-order upside, he represents the one piece the Padres don't have a suitable replacement for. Perhaps that alone took them out of the running for Cabrera, but there's still enough talent in the system to make up for that gap. Some of the shine has come off Ethan Salas (Padres Mission's No. 2 prospect) after he managed to play just 10 games in an injury-marred campaign, but he's a 19-year-old catcher who has already reached Double-A. His offensive upside remains a bit of a question mark, but his defensive upside behind the plate is astronomical, and bats always tend to come around for backstops later on in the development process. As a centerpiece for Cabrera, he may not scratch the Marlins' big-league-ready-bat itch, but there'd still be a few ways to get across the finish line. Perhaps Jake Cronenworth, coming off a season in which he posted a 117 wRC+, would appeal to Miami as a versatile infielder, though the Friars likely would have had to eat a significant portion of the 32-year-old's remaining contract. Tirso Ornelas is a bit of a post-hype sleeper (perhaps making him a perfect analogue for Hernandez in the actual deal that went through), but he's a power-hitting outfielder with years of control remaining. Luis Campusano fits the same definition as a catcher with a likely future home at first base or as a designated hitter. Plus, the Padres have a ton of young players at the lowest levels of the minor leagues (Kale Fountain, Jorge Quintana, etc.) who could have been perfect stand-ins for De Leon. Would you fork over some combination of those players for a 27-year-old with three years of team control remaining via arbitration who generates a ton of ground balls and strikes out more than a quarter of the hitters he faces? Given the Padres' budget constraints and lack of youthful pitchers, I'm not really sure how you'd answer no to that question. Cabrera does come with serious caveats — he's dealt with numerous injuries and has only completed 100 innings once in his career. But his upside only appears on the trade market once in a blue moon; if the Padres were ever going to pick up an affordable starter with frontline stuff, this was probably their best chance. It's understandable that A.J. Preller didn't want to give up the final quality pieces in a farm system that's been ransacked for win-now moves over the last few years. For all we know, Cabrera's injury history was too much of a red flag for San Diego to look past, and they never seriously entertained the thought of making a legitimate offer. But, when a team promises to leave no stone unturned in an offseason defined by monetary and prospect constraints, it's frustrating to see someone else take a measured swing with home run upside. View the full article

If you're a baseball fan, someone can mention a number in a random conversation and you instantly picture a player or two, possibly related to your favorite team. With the calendar flipping to 2026 a few days ago, I thought I would take a look at which players in Milwaukee Brewers history have worn No. 26. Depending on your Brewers fanaticism, you should have been able to come up with a couple—more if you are a true sicko (complimentary). The Brewers have a pretty solid group of players who have donned the number; most of the top 10 players to wear No. 26 had significant roles. Where this challenge became difficult was filling out a lineup, as some positions don't have much of a history of players wearing it. For one spot, I couldn't find anyone who had the number. This list is in no particular order. Aaron Ashby, LHP We might as well start with the current wearer of the number. Ashby was a much-hyped prospect after being a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft. Originally thought of as a starter, the left-hander has been put in a relief role the last two seasons and excelled. Since returning from the minors in June 2024, Ashby has pitched in 57 games and posted a 2.73 FIP and 176 ERA+. At times this season, it seemed like Ashby was pitching in every game, which demonstrates his ability to bounce back from outing to outing. Ashby is on pace to break the record number of seasons of wearing the number, counting the 2023 season he missed due to left labrum surgery. Jeff Cirillo, 3B For some Brewers fans, Cirillo was the first player they grew to love. Some of that was because when he played for the Crew (1994-99), it was a pretty rough stretch in team history, finishing in fifth place three of those six seasons. Cirillo could hit, and also played pretty good defense at third base. Three times, Cirillo hit better than .320, but he only had modest power, topping out at 15 homers (twice). Languishing on a bad team that was about to move into a new stadium, Cirillo was traded in December 1999 to the Colorado Rockies, along with left-handed starter Scott Karl, in a three-team deal that included the Oakland A's. The Crew received catcher Henry Blanco and right-handers Jamey Wright and Jimmy Haynes. Cirillo currently is the record-holder; he wore No. 26 for six seasons. Manny Parra, LHP Parra came along just as the Brewers were turning the corner. The left-handed starter made his debut in 2007 with nine appearances, including two starts. He joined the rotation in 2008, starting 29 of 32 games and having a 4.16 FIP and 96 ERA+, winning 10 games on the Brewers team that broke the lengthy playoff drought that started after their lone World Series appearance in 1982. However, his first two seasons were wearing No. 43. He switched to No. 26 in 2009. After a rough 2009 in the rotation with a 4.88 FIP and 6.36 ERA, he transitioned into a relief role during the 2010 season, coming out of the bullpen for 26 of his 42 games. He missed the entire 2011 season due to back surgery, with 2012 being his final year with the Crew. Glenn Braggs, LF-RF Like the first three on this list, Braggs was a Brewers draft choice, selected in the second round in 1983. The burly corner outfielder made his big-league debut in 1986, originally as No. 36 but then switching to No. 26. Braggs would be a stalwart in the outfield, flipping between right and left, and put up a .255/.312/.395 slash line before he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in June 1990. Despite his good size (6-foot-3, 210 pounds), Braggs never hit more than 15 homers with the Crew (1989), but did have double-digit steals twice. Damian Miller, C Miller, a Wisconsin native, came to the Crew at the end of his career, signing before the 2005 season as a 35-year-old. He was not only a pretty good catcher, but could still hit a bit. In his three seasons in Milwaukee, Miller had a slash line of .257/.324/.391, not far from his .262/.329/.411 for his 11-year career. Miller only played in 58 games, but had a really cool moment. It was La Crosse Day at the Brewers when the La Crosse-born and former Viterbo College (you guessed it, La Crosse) backstop hit a three-run walk-off homer in the 11th inning. Miller grew up in nearby West Salem, where he went to high school. Kyle Lohse, RHP Like Miller, Lohse came to the Brewers as his career was coming to a close. He signed a three-year, $33-million contract just before Opening Day 2013, one of the first players afflicted by the burden of the qualifying offer. He came over from the St. Louis Cardinals, where he had spent the previous five years and helped eliminate the Brewers in the 2011 NL Championship Series. Lohse proved to be worth the money, particularly the first two seasons. He put up a FIP of 4.08 and 3.95 in 2013 and 2014, respectively, while chewing up nearly 200 innings each year. But 2015 was a struggle, as he posted a 5.14 FIP. That led to him being shifted to the bullpen, as only 22 of his 37 games were starts. Bob Coluccio, CF Coluccio is technically the first Brewers player to wear the number, but not the first in franchise history. In 1969, there were two members of the expansion Seattle Pilots who wore the number before the team moved to Milwaukee just before the 1970 season. The very first one was third baseman Mike Ferraro, who only appeared in five games before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles, who then traded Ferraro back just before Opening Day in 1973 (he then wore 33). Catcher Merritt Ranew wore the number for the rest of the 1969 Pilots season. Coluccio was a 17th-round draft choice of the Pilots in 1969 and made his debut with the Brewers in 1973. He was a good defender who didn't hit much, compiling a .221/.309/.362 slash line. Taylor Jungmann, RHP Jungmann was the first of two top-15 picks the Brewers had in the 2011 draft, taken 12th; left-handed starter Jed Bradley went 15th. (Bradley made six MLB appearances, all in 2016 with Atlanta.) A right-handed starter, Jungmann made it to the majors with the Brewers, with his debut coming in 2015. He had a good rookie season, making 21 starts with a 3.92 FIP and 105 ERA+, including one complete game. In the Opening Day rotation for 2016, Jungmann was roughed up in five April starts, allowing 22 runs in 20⅔ innings, and sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs to right himself. But things only got worse there. He would come back for three late-season appearances. He made one early-season relief appearance the next year before being optioned back to the minors, where he spent the rest of 2017. He was released in January 2018 to pursue an opportunity in Japan. Matt Wise, RHP Wise joined the Brewers for the 2004 season, after being released by the Los Angeles Angels. He only wore No. 26 in his first season, switching to 38 after the Brewers signed Miller before the 2005 season. Wise was a key member of the Crew's bullpen in each of his four seasons. In 175 relief appearances covering 215 innings, Wise put up a 3.91 FIP, good enough for a 112 ERA+. Wise is entering his third season as the bullpen coach for the Chicago White Sox. Dick Davis, LF Davis went wasn't selected in the draft coming out of Compton (Calif.) High School, and signed with the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in 1972. The outfielder worked his way through the minors and had a breakthrough season in 1977, his first with Triple-A Spokane. He put together a .355/.391/.523 slash line in 114 games, earning a July promotion to make his debut. He had two stints with the Brewers that season, compiling a .275/.278/.314 slash line in 22 games. Davis spent the 1978-80 seasons on the MLB roster, carving out a role as a pinch-hitter and backup outfielder. He hit a career-high 12 homers in 1979 and saw his most action with the Brewers in 1980, appearing in 106 games. He finished his Brewers tenure with a .264/.291/.390 slash line. Davis was traded in spring training 1981 to the Philadelphia Phillies, for left-handed starter Randy Lerch. All-26 lineup Catcher: Damian Miller First base: Dick Davis (never played the position, but no one who wore 26 did) Second base: Brian Giles (original flavor) Third base: Jeff Cirillo Shortstop: Juan Bell Left field: Glenn Braggs Center field: Bob Coluccio Right field: Kevin Bass Right-handed starter: Kyle Lohse Left-handed starter: Manny Parra Reliever: Aaron Ashby View the full article

Last season, the Minnesota Twins ranked 23rd out of 30 MLB teams in runs scored and 18th in OPS. The offense was once again a major letdown, and an area where significant improvement will be needed in order to turn around this wayward franchise. To that end, the Twins made some key changes to their coaching staff, which were at least partially aimed at revamping the team's hitter development at the big-league level: they dismissed their hitting coach for a second straight year, replacing Matt Borgschulte with Derek Beauregard, and they hired a new manager in Derek Shelton with a deep background in hitting instruction. These changes are all well and good, but it's the players on the field who will determine whether the lineup can finally find some life and score enough to be competitive. On that front, their offseason additions have been ... quite uninspiring. To their credit, the Twins did make a move to add some legitimate veteran offensive firepower in the form of Josh Bell, who signed a $7 million deal last month. He's got a track record. That's a good start. But since the offseason started, the Twins have added four other position players — via trades, waiver claims and minor-league signings — and to say they've been unproductive at the plate would be an understatement. Admittedly, there are some selective endpoints and thresholds being used below, but I don't think any of them are unfair. I'm trying to provide context about how these hitters have performed compared to their major-league peers over recent timeframes. It's not pretty. Eric Wagaman: Ranked 132nd out of 146 qualified hitters in OPS in 2025 Orlando Arcia: Second-worst OPS among MLB hitters with 700+ PA since 2024 Ryan Kreidler: Ranks dead last in OPS among MLB hitters with 200+ PA since 2022 Alex Jackson: Ranks 588th in OPS out of 592 MLB hitters with 400+ PA since 2021 Yeah, you can make some points in favor of each of these guys. Jackson and Kreidler are a backup catcher and utility infielder respectively, so the bar for hitting is low. Wagaman has shown some promise in the minors and against left-handed pitching. Arcia was an okay hitter prior to the last two years. But these numbers speak for themselves. Desperate to upgrade their offense, the Twins have been taking flyers on players who were given up on by previous organizations largely because of their bats. And this comes on the heels of a trade deadline that saw Minnesota bring in two MLB-ready hitters: Alan Roden (ranked 376th in OPS out of 393 players with 150+ PA last year) and James Outman (ranks 409th out of 417 players with 300+ PA since 2024). On top of that, you've got two key returning players in Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee who are also looking to bounce back from bottom-tier hitting performances in 2025. Among 215 players to make 400+ plate appearances last year, Lewis ranked 180th in OPS and Lee ranked 194th. Again, there are reasons to believe some of these guys can be better than they've been, especially those like Roden and Lee who are relatively young and have crushed in the minors. But when you take a step back and look at the totality of talent the Twins have brought in to try and rejuvenate a lagging offense, it's bleak. These haven't just been bad hitters, they've been atrocious, and there's a good chance they are going to be populating a majority of the Twins' roster in 2026. Beauregard is getting dealt a hell of a hand in his first go as primary hitting coach. View the full article

The Chicago Cubs continue to add pitching depth after recently acquiring one of the best arms in the market. Their most recent moves come in the form of a non-guaranteed, low-risk bullpen arm. Jordan Bastian of MLB.com is reporting that the Chicago Cubs have agreed to a minor league contract with pitcher Jeff Brigham. He also received a non-roster invite to big-league camp. Brigham, 33, has spent parts of six seasons in Major League Baseball with the Miami Marlins, New York Mets, and, most recently, the Arizona Diamondbacks. He threw 3 1/3 innings across four appearances in 2025. Over his career, he has 94 appearances (4 starts) and more than 120 innings pitched. He has a career 4.85 ERA (5.21 FIP) and a below-average 13.1% K-BB rate due to a high walk rate. Obviously, this move doesn't move the needle. At best, he's an arm that will stay game-ready in Triple-A Iowa and be called upon in the event of a doubleheader or if the Cubs' bullpen is down bad with injuries. Like a lot of injuries. View the full article

There’s no doubt that Craig Breslow and the Boston Red Sox failed to capitalize on the trade of Rafael Devers. The much-maligned move has garnered mostly negative conversation from the fanbase, especially based on the return package the team received for their star slugger. While the relationship between the organization and Devers had become fractured and beyond repair, looking back it feels like the return has been a bit of a letdown. Of the four players who were part of the return package, one (James Tibbs III) has already been traded in a separate failed deal, one (Jose Bello) won’t be close to reaching the majors for a few seasons, and the remaining two (Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison) have been mixed bags in Boston. Despite that, Harrison may prove to be both the most intriguing and important piece of the trade from the Red Sox's side of things. Harrison, who spent most of his time with Worcester in 2025, made key changes to his pitch arsenal as he worked on a new changeup grip along with incorporating a cutter into his pitch usage. As always with a learning experience, there were ups and downs, but Harrison looked to have taken to the Red Sox approach, making 12 starts with Worcester while resembling more of his rookie self. Then, needing pitching help in September, he rose to the occasion for the team by pitching both out of the bullpen and making two starts (including the postseason clincher). Overall, in those three appearances, he looked like an arm the team could count on in the future, tossing 12 innings and allowing just four earned runs while striking out 13 batters. However, with the additions of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo along with the presence of young pitchers Connelly Early, Payton Tolle and David Sandlin, Harrison may not be needed for the rotation. With that in mind, many have wondered just what Harrison’s role will be. And considering the level of talent the team gave up acquiring him, it wouldn’t sit well with the fanbase for the Red Sox to just cast him aside. Instead, Harrison’s role may actually be one that didn’t seem like a perfect fit at the start of the offseason. Placing Harrison into a swingman role similar to the one Kutter Crawford filled during 2022 and 2023 could be perfect for the southpaw and the Red Sox at the moment. Currently, the Red Sox have one guaranteed lefty in the bullpen in Aroldis Chapman; while he’s likely to be joined by Jovani Morán, there’s nothing set in stone. Likewise, the team is expecting both Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval to return from their respective injuries, but there’s nothing that guarantees they’ll return to their pre-injury selves immediately. While the Red Sox could plug in both Tolle and Early as left-handed options either in the rotation or bullpen, the team may rather have them open the year in Triple-A to continue their respective developments after seeing how the duo performed in September in the majors. This is especially true for Tolle who, despite displaying a phenomenal fastball, needs more work with his secondary offerings. This is where Harrison steps in. Should the rotation need help, he could fill the role of the fifth starter until another option becomes healthy and then be moved into the bullpen where he becomes a left-handed arm who can provide some length for manager Alex Cora. There are also many cases where the Red Sox could look to incorporate him as an opener who provides two to three innings due to a favorable matchup. The thought of Harrison not having a defined role may be a bit of a turn off for the fanbase, but his versatility between the rotation and bullpen and the flexibility it provides the organization could be rather helpful across an entire season. As everyone saw in 2025, the pitching staff you open the season with never makes it through the entire year. Instead, players will be asked to step up and fill various roles for the organization. Harrison already showed he can pitch both as a starter and reliever and after a full offseason of working with the Red Sox pitching lab on his pitch arsenal, he could look even more comfortable in a swingman role. Harrison is still young — he won’t turn 25 until August — and the swingman role would be temporary until a permanent role in either the bullpen or the rotation is viewed as his final destination by the Red Sox. But for right now, it would be a waste to have him rotting away in Triple-A for the 2026 season when he could be providing support to both the rotation and bullpen by bouncing back and forth between the two. There’s no doubt the Devers’ trade will never be viewed in a positive light here in Boston, but Harrison has a chance to at least soften the blow. Like everything in baseball, there’s no guarantee, but should Harrison take the foundation he built in 2025 with the Red Sox and run with it, he could turn into a key piece of their pitching staff for 2026 and beyond. View the full article

The Toronto Blue Jays have certainly made some big moves so far this offseason. Whether it be securing significant upgrades to their pitching staff or adding some substance to their lineup and increasing their overall offensive potential, the Jays will hope that all their additions are among the difference makers that put them over the top in 2026. But which of the signings that Toronto has accomplished this winter will end up providing the biggest impact in the upcoming season? Without question, many will believe that adding a player with ace-like abilities, namely Dylan Cease, should pay huge dividends. After all, having previously finished in the top five in Cy Young voting twice and boasting a career FIP of 3.67 and an ERA+ of 110, Cease has the skills to win a game almost on his own whenever he is at his best. Moreover, he led the majors in strikeouts per nine innings in 2025 (11.5 K/9), as he blew hitters away with ease. However, as good as Cease can be, he can only impact the Blue Jays once in every five games in a five-man rotation. What happens in the other 80% of Toronto's games will be out of his hands entirely. On the other hand, bullpen stalwart Tyler Rogers can get in on the action a lot more as a reliever. In fact, he has been one of the most utilized arms in the entire league over the past five years, and, most importantly, he has maintained his effectiveness while doing so. Consequently, the Blue Jays should have every intention to deploy Rogers as much as they can in the upcoming season. After all, the 35-year-old veteran is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, having posted a 2.88 FIP and 203 ERA+ while pitching practically every other day (81 total appearances). With bullpen arms required to close out almost every ballgame, Rogers will be able to get in on the action a lot more than Cease, giving him a chance to determine the outcome of many more matches. And how about the intriguing addition of Cody Ponce? Back during his first stint in MLB, Ponce was primarily used as a reliever by the Pittsburgh Pirates (only five starts in 20 appearances). But during this past season with the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO, he excelled as a starter, posting an astonishing 17-1 record with a 1.89 ERA and an especially impressive 12.6 K/9 rate. Given his proven ability to pitch as both a starter and a reliever, could Ponce become a valuable swingman that provides value and impacts games in multiple ways for the Blue Jays in 2026? However, that still wouldn’t beat a player who could be part of the everyday starting lineup and has the potential to play in all 162 games. Free agent signing Kazuma Okamoto could do exactly that for the Blue Jays in 2026. He is coming off an injury-shortened yet stellar 2025 campaign in which he hit .327 with a 1.014 OPS and 210 wRC+. As a well-disciplined player who can hit for a high average with plenty of pop at the plate, Okamoto’s game should translate effectively to the MLB, compared to those who just rely on power with high strikeout rates or contact skills without power. If Okamoto manages to replicate his NPB numbers to some extent as an everyday player with the Jays, he will have the opportunity to impact ballgames on a daily basis, making him the surprising candidate who has the most potential to determine the outcome of games for Toronto throughout the season. As a result, instead of Cease, Rogers, or Ponce, look for Okamoto to be the biggest game-changer for the Blue Jays in 2026. View the full article

Becoming a professional pitcher is very difficult. Not only do you have to work ridiculously hard to even have a chance at the bigs, but you also must go through at least five or six different levels of professional baseball to have a shot at a major league roster. That’s why only 10% of drafted players make it to The Show, with undrafted players having even less of a chance. Impressing scouts could be the difference between your shot at the MLB and sitting on your couch working a real job. There are very few players who may not look the part but will have the talent and the work ethic to make it; Tim Collins is one of those players. When you first look at Tim Collins, all 5’7" and 175 pounds of him, you would never think that he would be a former MLB pitcher, but he was a solid one at that. Collins was born on August 21st, 1989, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He would attend Worcester Technical High School and compile an overall record of 91-5. He would also throw a no-hitter in the district championship game, which was just the second no-hitter in the school's history. Despite his talent, Collins was overlooked by scouts because of his height; however, that would all change. Former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi flew out to Worcester to watch an American Legion game where Keith Landers, a 6’7" left-hander with tremendous upside at the time, was set to start. However, Landers didn’t pitch that day; Collins did. After four innings of work, Collins struck out every batter he faced. This impressed Ricciardi so much that he signed Collins to a contract after he finished high school. Collins would go undrafted and never go to college, and yet he still found himself fighting for his shot at the bigs. Collins' first appearance for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays drew laughter from the opposing team. He would strike out the first batter he saw and get through a clean inning, so he got the last laugh. From 2007 to 2009, when he pitched in Single-A and Double-A, Collins pitched 151 2/3 innings and had a 2.37 ERA, 221 strikeouts on just 69 walks. After 2009, Collins was named Toronto’s Postseason Minor League Player of the Year, and he was recognized by Baseball America as having one of the best curveballs in all baseball. 2010 proved to be a pivotal year for Collins in multiple ways. Collins would start off the year in Double-A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, where he had a solid 2.51 ERA in 43 innings pitched. However, he would be traded to the Atlanta Braves, where he would pitch in their Double-A system for a short while. Twenty-one days later, Collins, along with Jesse Chavez and Gregor Blanco, would be traded to the Royals for Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel. Collins would end the year pitching in Triple-A for the Omaha Stormchasers. Less than a year later, Collins would make it onto the Royals’ opening day roster. Collins would make his debut on March 11th, 2011, against the Los Angeles Angels. He would pitch one inning without giving up a run and struck out Torii Hunter for his first career punchout. Three days later, he earned his first win by pitching three scoreless innings against the Angels in extra innings, striking out five in the process. He would finish 2011 with a solid 3.63 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched. 2012 would be another fruitful year for Collins as he would pitch to a 3.36 ERA with 93 strikeouts, the most in a single season by a left-handed reliever in Royals history. The next two years would be much of the same for Collins as he went 3-9 with an ERA of 3.63. However, he would miss all of 2014 and 2015 due to Tommy John surgery, meaning he wasn’t able to pitch during the Royals’ World Series run. Collins would elect free agency in 2016, ending his run with the Royals. Collins wouldn’t have the same success as he did with the Royals, as he would bounce around multiple teams on minor league contracts. He would get another chance in the bigs with the Nationals in 2018, which was unsuccessful, as his ERA would balloon to 4.37, and he would only pitch 22 2/3 innings before being sent back down to Triple-A. He would sign with the Cubs in 2019, have mild success, but it was short-lived. He would play with the Reds and Rockies before opting out of the Covid-shortened 2020 season; he has not pitched in MLB since. He’s now the pitching coach for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the Philadelphia Phillies’ single-A affiliate. Tim Collins’ success story is one of hard work and a little bit of luck. If he didn’t pitch on that fateful day, he probably wouldn’t have pitched in the bigs at all. But sometimes life works in mysterious ways, and Collins was able to get the chance that so many young baseball players dream of. Will he get into the Hall of Fame? No. But he has something that not many baseball players can say. Despite his small frame and lack of velocity, he made it to the big leagues. No matter what people say, they can never take that away from him. View the full article

For many of us, growing up with baseball meant spending hours on the floor of our bedroom, poring over baseball cards. You might have been one of those who adored the artistry (and especially the creative adventures) of the colorful cardboard collectibles, particularly as various types of special cards became more prevalent in the 1990s. You might have been prone to dog-earing a few copies of Beckett each month, updating the value of your collection by scanning page after page of newsprint-type listings and building skyscrapers in your mind with all your future wealth. No matter what, though, if you loved baseball cards, you spent a lot of time with the numbers. Specifically, of course, you spent a lot of time with outdated numbers. Even by the time I was 11 in 2000, there were publications like Baseball Prospectus and well-known luminaries like Bill James telling everyone who would listen that OBP mattered more than batting average; that RBIs were often a function of opportunity, rather than clutchness or fortitude; and most of all, that pitcher wins are silly. Funnily enough, you'll still find some people who want to make the case for pitcher wins. It's cute. It's like meeting someone obsessed with the question of Zeppelin or Floyd, in 2005. The peak of debate over pitcher wins came a quarter-century ago, now, and it's been a dead issue for at least a decade. No one anyone takes seriously cares what's listed under 'W-L' on a pitcher's baseball card, anymore, because we can all rattle off five or six reasons why those numbers are deceiving, confusing, or just plain useless. It was conceived of at a time when one pitcher usually worked the whole game. Now, it's relatively rare that a pitcher works even two-thirds of one. Given the above, the arbitrary requirement that a starter work at least five innings to earn a win creates an unnecessary distortion in records. For any game in which the lead changes hands late, the person credited with the win is often someone who pitched poorly and left the game while trailing, only to have their offensive teammates seize the lead before someone else took the mound. A starter who pitches a gem but gets outdueled often takes a loss, which is downright foolish. Wins and losses being credited exclusively to pitchers paints the game as much more pitching-dependent than it is. Tough-luck losses and cheap wins can pile up on the records of hurlers, even when (in either direction) it was really a hitter or fielder who decided several games in a sample. Yes, that column has become obsolete for the modern fan. But it's a nice idea, right? One perfectly valid frustration for many fans (especially older ones) is that wins above replacement (WAR), win probability added (WPA) and other 21st-century stats assign value to players by treating all their plate appearances as parts of a continuous seasonal record. This overlooks the fact that each baseball game is a discrete event. While it's very hard to say whether a hitter who delivers 0.1 WPA (i.e., adds 10 percentage points to the team's chances of winning) in six different games is more or less valuable than one who delivers 0.6 WPA in one game and 0 in five others, we can all attest that those things feel very different, and have very different implications for what else needs to happen to get that player's team four wins in the six contests. The won-lost record has value, conceptually. It was just conceived well over a century ago, and doesn't hold up to scrutiny now, both because of how the game has changed and because we understand it so much better and differently now than we did then. So, let's test-drive a still-flawed but more interesting spin on the win (and the loss): WPA W-L. This is radically simple, and not a product of any especially opaque process. I went through all 162 Twins games from 2025, and did the following: If the Twins won: Credited the player with the highest WPA in the game with a win; If the Twins lost: Assigned the player with the lowest WPA in the game a loss; In all cases: Noted the WPA value for the player who earned the decision that day. This takes advantage of the fact that we now have easily searchable WPA values for every game, virtually in real time. There are a few variations between sources' specific WPA values for given games, so for the record, I used Baseball Reference to do this research and leaned on their WPA formula. For those unfamiliar with the idea, WPA simply uses a model informed by historical data to estimate the likelihood of winning for each team entering each plate appearance of a game, and gives credit or blame to the batter and pitcher involved in each encounter based on how those probabilities change from one at-bat to the next. It's far from a perfect system, because it doesn't capture fielding value and only very minimally captures baserunning, but it's something. A pitcher who throws eight innings of one-run ball is extremely unlikely to take a 'loss' under this model, not only because it more directly ties wins and losses to performance by the individual, but because hitters can gets wins and losses in this system, too. Pitchers are still much more likely to do so—hitters took just 52 of the 162 decisions for the 2025 Twins. Now, though, we know the days on which the hitters made the major difference. This still gives us strange quirks. For instance, Brooks Lee had an incredible (although, to fans who were locked in on this team last year, perhaps not an especially surprising) 10 decisions on his own. He went 7-3, showing a remarkable tendency not only to come up with the big hit now and then, but to become the game's main character in either direction. It's very rare for hitters to take losses. It requires a guy not only to go 0-for-4 or so, but to fail in at least one pivotal situation. In the games where hitters got a decision, the 2025 Twins were 37-15, but Lee still managed to lose three games. That he also won seven proves that he disproportionately came to bat in big situations, putting the game on his shoulders. Seven Twins batters had at least three decisions on the season, with most of them being the everyday players you'd expect. Byron Buxton (who, again, gets no credit for his glove and only partial credit for his speed in this framework) went 4-1. Trevor Larnach (not getting penalized for being a DH in this way of studying things, as he is when evaluated by WAR) went 4-2, delivering a bit less game-changing thump than one might have hoped for from a player whose whole game is his bat. Kody Clemens went 5-2, which might surprise his haters. The funniest in this set, though, is Luke Keaschall, who went 3-0 despite losing so much of the season to injury. That's because, in a remarkable streak in mid-August, he won three straight games for the Twins. Keaschall had a WPA of .168 on Aug. 5, a .243 on Aug. 6, and a .143 on Aug. 8. None of those is especially high for a player in a win—the Twins' median WPA for players collecting a win was .269—but he led the way on each of those three days, in his first week back from a broken wrist. If you're particularly sharp-eyed, you'll notice that those three games don't even include his walkoff home run against the Royals, on Aug. 10. It's not his fault; Keaschall was great that day. However, the win went to Michael Tonkin, who held the visitors scoreless in extra innings twice in a row to set up Keaschall's heroics. Tonkin was worth .625 WPA that day; keeping opponents off the board under the automatic-runner rule in startlingly valuable. Speaking of pitchers, it's funny how much this framework emphasizes the fact that their job is simply not to lose. Pitchers can't score, and while hanging zeroes is valuable, team wins often end up being credited to the hitters who produced the runs that decided the outcome. Over half of the Twins' wins went to hitters last year. This framework is unfair to players in a whole different way than standard wins and losses, and most of that unfairness hits relievers. Griffin Jax (0-4) was disappointing in 2025 and certainly wasn't clutch, but Louis Varland (0-4) felt like a more reliable option and gets no better credit than Jax did under this system. Jhoan Duran (1-4) had to pay the price for the fact that he was often pitching at times when a loss was available to him, but a win wasn't. Then again, regular wins and losses inflict some of the same caprices on relievers. Joe Ryan was the decisive influence on the game in about half of his appearances, going 9-7 in 31 games (30 starts). Ditto for Bailey Ober, who went 5-9 in his 27 starts, and Zebby Matthews, who went 3-5 in 16 outings. However, Pablo López (3-2 in 14 starts) and Simeon Woods Richardson (5-3 in 23 games, 22 of them starts) were much less likely to get a decision in a given game. That's not a bad thing; it's a testament to their ability to keep the team in it even when they didn't have their best stuff. That Woods Richardson only took the 'loss' three times is one of the more interesting things I gleaned from this. He really was a competitor. By contrast, you can really see the way the team's evaporated depth killed them late in the season. Beginning with a disastrous Travis Adams loss on Jul. 27, the Twins lost 38 of their final 58 games, and their median WPA by the player who took the loss went from -.277 for their first 54 losses to -.329 the rest of the way. Adams, Mick Abel, Taj Bradley, Noah Davis, Thomas Hatch and Pierson Ohl went a combined 1-12, and several times, they had WPAs of -.400 or worse in those losses, effectively denying the rest of the team a chance to make up for their failures. Players pressed into bigger roles by others' departures couldn't handle it; Justin Topa was 0-6 on the season. Austin Martin and Alan Roden combined to go 0-3. This isn't a robust new stat; it's just a toy. It's fun, though, for the ways it gives us different insights into the unfolding of games than old-fashioned pitcher wins and losses deliver. We'll track this stat in 2026, too, and see where it leads us. For the full list of WPA W-L and the WPAs of the players who got the decision each day, click here. 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We have arrived. If you have been keeping a list of your own, you should know who the five remaining players are on our countdown of top 25 San Diego Padres player assets. These are the players you count on to carry the franchise across a 162-game season. This list ranks the 25 Padres players and prospects with this in mind: Who are the most valuable in the organization's pursuit of building a champion? To make this list, we considered age, upside, and contract. Each player's age and control years are based on his Baseball Reference age for the 2026 season and when Baseball Reference says he can become a free agent. Need a refresher on who we have already ranked? Check out Nos. 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and 21-25. 5. Michael King, RHP 2026 season age: 31 Controlled through: 2028 King made the surprising decision to return to the Padres on a contract that provides him protection and choices after this season. While he signed a three-year, $75 million deal, the right-handed starter will make $17 million in 2026, with $5 million in salary and a $12 million signing bonus. He then has a player opt-out for 2027 or a salary of $28 million, then a player option for 2028 at a $30 million salary. The contract carries more risk for the Padres if King struggles and doesn't produce up to the standards of what those 2027 and '28 salaries portend. In his two seasons with the Padres since being one of the pieces coming back from the New York Yankees in the Juan Soto trade, King has been stellar. In 46 games, all but one as a starter, King has a 3.65 FIP and a 135 ERA+ with an 8.6% walk rate and 26.8% strikeout rate. But his 2025 was marred by two injuries. First, a nerve issue in his right shoulder sidelined him for 2½ months, then some knee inflammation cut short his first start back after two innings, forcing him to miss another month. That could explain why King, who had a qualifying offer from the Padres, had a softer market than expected. But as of now, King will slot in as the Friars' No. 2 starter, a position he has earned through performance. If he uses his nice mix of a four-seamer, sinker, changeup and sweeper (all used between 19% and 30% of the time) and has success, the Padres will likely be in good shape and set himself up for a bigger payday in 2027. Otherwise, he will still cash in by not opting out. 4. Nick Pivetta, RHP 2026 season age: 33 Controlled through: 2028 Pivetta was found money for the Padres in 2025. Literally. Before signing with the Friars, Pivetta had been a very average-at-best pitcher, mainly in a starting role. But after inking a four-year, $55 million after spring training began last year, the right-hander quickly leapt toward the top of the starting rotation. Pivetta had a $1 million salary with a $3 million signing bonus in 2025. All he did was make 31 starts and toss a career-high 181⅔ innings with a career-best 3.49 FIP and 149 ERA+. That led to a sixth-place finish in the NL Cy Young Award voting. He enters 2026 as the No. 1 starter, but also still the subject of trade speculation. That is because Pivetta is still relatively cost-effective at $19 million for 2026 with an opt-out after this season as well as after 2027. What made Pivetta successful in his first season in San Diego? Perhaps it has something to do with Petco Park being more pitcher-friendly than his previous stops in Boston and Philadelphia, but also likely with him ditching his slider and incorporating a sinker and using his cutter a bit more. It is unlikely that his bigger role in the rotation will faze Pivetta. He has experienced enough throughout his 10-year career to be able to handle anything. This will be a big year for the veteran right-hander, as he will have the carrot dangling of a bigger contract. He has the safety net of two more years for a total of $32 million should anything go wrong for him. 3. Jackson Merrill, CF 2026 season age: 23 Controlled through: 2035 After a fantastic rookie season, Merrill took a step back in 2025, yet was still a productive player. That inconsistency could be due to two things: First is the league's adjustment to Merrill, while the other is that he had three stints on the injured list that limited him to 115 games (strained right hamstring, concussion, sprained left ankle). The center fielder put up a .264/.317/.457 slash line with 16 homers and 67 RBIs and just one steal in three chances for a 112 OPS+. This came after a 2024 in which his slash line was .292/.326/.500 with 24 homers, 90 RBIs and 16 steals for a 127 OPS+, earning him a runner-up finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. Merrill signed a nine-year, $135 million contract extension just a few days into the 2025 season, so his Padres future is secure for some time. There isn't much to be concerned about with Merrill, who surprised everyone by jumping into a position, center field, that he had never played before when he made his MLB debut on the Friars' Opening Day roster in 2024. However, it's true that in 2025, his strikeout rate jumped to 22.4%. Concern would grow if his numbers took another step back in the coming season. He will turn 23 in April and the Padres put a lot of faith in Merrill with the extension, which kicks in this year at $2.1 million, then $7.1 million in 2027 and goes up incrementally before surging to $21.1 million in 2030, which would have been his first free-agent season. He was vaulted into the top portion of the lineup in 2025, which could also account for some of his lower numbers, although he also would have had more protection. Merrill is a key part of the Friars' future until he shows otherwise. 2. Mason Miller, RHP 2026 season age: 27 Controlled through: 2029 The most shocking acquisition by any team at the trade deadline was the Friars getting Miller from the A's in a blockbuster deal. Sure, it cost the Padres a highly-touted prospect in shortstop Leo De Vries, but De Vries is still at least a year away from making his MLB debut, while Miller made a lethal bullpen that much more deadly during a run to the postseason. Miller was thought to be almost untradeable at the time and the Padres didn't have a pressing need at the back end of the bullpen. Now, he looks like the key piece in the relief corps. Miller is a fascinating talent and will step into the closer's role vacated by Robert Suarez leaving in free agency. Miller had converted 48 of 54 save opportunities with the A's in 2024 and '25 at the time of the deal and was in a set-up role with the Padres, notching 10 holds and two saves in 22 appearances. The right-hander, who is arbitration-eligible this season for the first time as a Super 2, has some of the most filthy stuff in all of baseball. That shows itself as he ranks in the top percentile league-wide with a 44.4% strikeout rate, 101.2 mph fastball velocity, 22.5% whiff rate, and 37.3% whiff and swinging strike rate. When Miller enters the game to close it out in 2026, there will be as much confidence as the Friar Faithful has had in a closer since the days of Trevor Hoffman and "Hell's Bells" echoed through Petco Park. That is, if the Padres don't trade him before Opening Day. 1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF 2026 season age: 27 Controlled through: 2034 And then there was one. It should be little surprise that Tatis landed in this spot as he has always been an electric player, first as a shortstop and now as a two-time Platinum Glove-winning right fielder. To some, Tatis is still trying to erase the stench from his 2022 suspension for performance-enhancing drugs that tarnished his 42-homer 2021 that led to a third-place finish for NL MVP. But Tatis came back strong in 2023 in his new position and following shoulder surgery, posting a .257/.322/.449 slash line with 25 homers, 78 RBIs and 29 steals, earning down-ballot MVP votes. He missed a good chunk of 2024 with what was at first right quadriceps injury but turned out to be a stress reaction in his right femur. His slash line was still Tatis-like at .276/.340/.492 with 21 homers, 49 RBIs and just 11 steals in 102 games. In 2025, Tatis played in a career-high 155 games, putting up a .268/.368/.446 slash line with 25 homers, 71 RBIs and 32 steals. That added up to a 5.9 bWAR season, his best since the 6.6 mark in that PED-tainted 2021 campaign. Tatis started earning good money in 2025 as the 14-year, $340 million extension he signed in 2021 paid him $20.7 million, the same figure he will make in 2026. This will be Tatis' seventh season (not counting 2022 in which he didn't play due to injury and the suspension). He is the player the front office has built this team around, although others make more money than Tatis does. All of that time and Tatis is just entering his prime years, as he just turned 27 on Jan. 2. If he puts up numbers incrementally better than he did in 2025, he will continue to show why he is a top-15 player in all of MLB and why the Padres invested in his talent. View the full article

Miami Marlins fans have been watching games on the same regional sports network for decades. It has gone by many different names, most recently FanDuel Sports Network Florida. Beginning with the 2026 season, the way that Marlins television broadcasts are distributed may finally change. From Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal regarding Main Street Sports Group, which owns all of the FanDuel Sports Network affiliates: MLB sources said the St. Louis Cardinals—who did not receive their December rights fee payment—have already informed Main Street they are opting out barring a lucrative 11th hour “final, final offer.” Those same sources also expect six of the other eight MLB teams tied to Main Street will similarly leave—the Brewers, Reds, Royals, Tigers, Angels and Marlins—and that the Braves are considering an exit, as well. Main Street had been trying to sell itself to sports streaming platform DAZN, but those talks are collapsing. If unable to complete a sale, Main Street plans to cease operations at the end of the NBA and NHL regular seasons in April, Friend previously reported. In recent years, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers have broken up with Main Street. Their games are now available to be streamed in-market through MLB.TV. Given that precedent and the timing of this news with Opening Day less than three months away, MLB.TV is seemingly the most likely solution for the Marlins. However, there's also the case of the NHL's Florida Panthers—another Main Street defector—that partnered with Scripps Sports beginning in 2024. The club has not commented on their plans as of Thursday morning. View the full article

The Chicago Cubs parted with top prospect Owen Caissie and two other prospects to acquire Marlins' right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera. Let’s break it down from all angles! Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-north-side-baseball-podcast/id1798599313 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75wMGhBwlrDDYPt3kaF453 Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-north-side-baseball-po-268998437/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/eey7h6ih Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@northsidebaseball View the full article

Jed Hoyer got his man on Wednesday, as the Chicago Cubs were able to pull off their long-awaited deal for a starting pitcher, in Miami's Edward Cabrera. He'll join Cade Horton and (eventually) Justin Steele in a formidable trio atop the team's rotation. Naturally, in order to acquire an arm as valuable as Cabrera's, you need to give up value in return. The Cubs sent outfielder Owen Caissie, shortstop prospect Cristian Hernández, and 18-year-old infield prospect Edgardo De Leon to Miami. Caissie is ready to take on the top level on a full-time basis and was expected to challenge heavily for regular time for the 2026 Cubs. Hernández was a massive international prospect signing for the team in January 2021, and checked in at No. 8 on our list of the organization's top prospects. Much of the attention to the Cubs' end of things is, obviously, going to surround what Cabrera adds to the roster. When he's healthy, he can be a frontline arm. Yet, it's also important to explore what the acquisition cost means, in terms of the 2026 roster and the longer-term picture. The most significant component in this deal is Caissie. The 2025 campaign saw his first action at the top level, but he only got 27 big-league plate appearances, so he maintains rookie status ahead of this year (he sat at the top of our list of Cubs prospects). In his cup of coffee with the Cubs, fans got a concentrated dose of what Caissie does both well and poorly. He notched only five hits and struck out 11 times, but added a homer and a 13.3% Barrel rate to the equation. His 27.9% strikeout rate in Iowa was Caissie's lowest in his minor-league career, while the Cubs fanned just 20.7% of the time. Plus-plus raw power is Caissie's hallmark, and there's an argument to be made that he didn't neatly fit the philosophy the Cubs prefer to instill in their hitters, wherein they rely more on efficient swings than loud ones. Nevertheless, Caissie was projected to play a significant role for this group in the upcoming season. Whether right field was a timeshare with Seiya Suzuki or he was serving more as a designated hitter, there was finally a path to playing time upon Kyle Tucker's departure. It's not out of the question that his profile played a role in their willingness to move him. They preferred what Moisés Ballesteros brings at the plate, even if he lacks an actual defensive position. It's likely that with this deal, Suzuki assumes full-time duty in right field, while Ballesteros gets plenty of run as the team's designated hitter. Hernández is an interesting inclusion, as he was certainly a name in the system; he drew Álex Rodríguez comparisons when he was signed out of the Dominican Republic. His bat never got going throughout his time in the system, however, even if he drew rave reviews for his glovework and totaled 97 steals in the last two seasons. His absence will be noteworthy within the system. It'll be interesting to see the shape the team's middle infield takes in the long term now, with Hernández plying his trade in Miami and Nico Hoerner set to hit free agency next winter. Holding onto both Jefferson Rojas and Juan Cabada was key for the Cubs. De Leon is the wild card here, as he'll turn just 19 next month and was a fresh name in the team's system. He turned in impressive numbers in his first year with the organization in the Arizona Complex League, with a .353 on-base percentage and .500 slugging average. He provides the type of upside you often need to complete a deal of this nature, but at this stage of development, it's impossible to know what his trajectory will be. He's not a valuable defensive player. As such, the departure in this trade that immediately impacts the Cubs is Caissie. It makes things easier for Craig Counsell this year (on paper), but also saps some of the power the team was poised to get from the corner outfield spots. They may have to look elsewhere to compensate for that. Overall, though, given Caissie's swing-and-miss profile, Hernández's uncertain offensive future, and the early stages of De Leon's development, the Cubs were able to get a guy they coveted for a long time without cannibalizing their farm system. The needle was threaded, if you will. View the full article

The Kansas City Royals have been aggressively adding to their bullpen this offseason. First, they picked up former Detroit Tiger (and KC Metro area product) Alex Lange. Then, they acquired Nick Mears from the Brewers (along with outfielder Isaac Collins) in a deal for Angel Zerpa. Lastly, Kansas City solidified its late-inning reliever depth by acquiring Matt Strahm from Philadelphia for Jonathan Bowlan. However, it seems like the Royals aren't done adding to the bullpen just yet, as MLB.com Royals beat writer Anne Rogers reported in her latest article. According to Rogers, the Royals are still in the hunt for left-handed bullpen help and are willing to address that need through the trade market. Here's what Rogers said in her article about what they are looking for specifically in regard to bullpen help this offseason. Right now, the only left-handed reliever with Minor League options is Daniel Lynch IV, who has one remaining. Bailey Falter, who moved to the bullpen after struggling in a couple of the starts with the Royals after coming over from Pittsburgh at last year's Trade Deadline, doesn't have one. Thus, the former Pirates lefty would need to stay with the Royals roster all season to avoid being designated for assignment. Thus, with left-handed relievers a priority this offseason, who are some trade targets that could make sense for Kansas City to pursue in the coming weeks? And what would it take from the Royals' end to acquire that much-needed bullpen help? Let's look at three candidates that could be acquired by the Royals and why they would make sense for the Royals in 2026 and possibly beyond. (All graphics and data courtesy of TJ Stats.) Garrett Cleavinger, Tampa Bay Rays The Rays have a bit of a logjam in their closer situation for the upcoming season. With the departure of Pete Fairbanks, the main spot in the ninth inning seems to be up for grabs. The Rays have Edwin Uceta, Griffin Jax, and Cleavinger as possible options in the ninth, and they all bring their fair share of positives and negatives to the role. Cleavinger is an interesting candidate because he posted solid numbers last season. In 61.1 IP, he posted a 2.35 ERA, 33.7% K rate, and 26.3% K-BB%. However, his FIP was high at 3.59, primarily due to an 18.8% HR/FB rate allowed last season. While the move back to Tropicana Field should help suppress that rate a bit, the 31-year-old reliever also saw his hard-hit rate increase from 33.8% in 2024 to 41.2% in 2025, and his average exit velocity allowed go up by 1.9 MPH as well. Hence, he may not be trusted in the ninth as much as Uceta or Jax. The Rays have always been willing to trade relievers to address other needs, and Cleavinger could be an avenue for them to accomplish that goal. Right now, Tampa Bay's situation at second base looks bleak after they traded away Brandon Lowe to Pittsburgh, as Richie Palacios and Ryan Vilade are the only options for now. Could the Royals acquire Cleavinger for Michael Massey, who could provide pop and strong defense at the keystone for the Rays, if healthy? Massey is a much better defender than Palacios, as Massey has a +6 FRV at second base in his career, while Palacios has a -1 FRV. Additionally, while Palacios has a career 100 wRC+, 19 points better than Massey, the Royals' second baseman has a 1.8 fWAR, which is 0.4 better than Palacios'. Thus, Tampa Bay may be interested in a second baseman who could be a "Lowe-Lite," and under team control until 2029. Cleavinger doesn't have any Minor League options, which limits his current roster flexibility. That said, his stuff was stellar last year, as he sported a 102 overall TJ Stuff+ and also sported a chase rate of 31.2% and whiff rate of 35.9%. He likely would be a solid option in the middle innings who could step into high-leverage situations when Strahm is unavailable. Dylan Dodd, Atlanta Braves The Braves have been aggressive in adding to the bullpen this offseason after missing out on the postseason a year ago. They acquired Padres closer Ranger Suarez and Yankees setup man Ian Hamilton to give support to projected closer Raisel Iglesias, who saved 29 games a year ago. They also have strong lefties in Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer who can pitch in high-leverage situations. Thus, an odd man out in the Braves bullpen is Dodd, who posted a 3.60 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 35 IP a season ago. Roster Resource projects that the 27-year-old lefty won't make the Opening Day roster, as he still has a Minor League option remaining. If he were traded to Kansas City, he likely would replace either Lynch or Falter's spot on the roster. Dodd doesn't have great stuff, based on TJ Stats metrics (94 TJ Stuff+ overall). However, he's effective at generating chase (33.5%) and whiffs (30.3%), two areas the Royals are trying to improve in 2026. The Braves could trade Dodd for Nick Loftin, who doesn't seem to have an opportunity for much playing time right now. Loftin is a utility player who could play multiple positions in Atlanta and would strike out a lot less (14.4% K%) than other bench options like Vidal Brujan (22.1% K%) and Eli White (25.8% K%). A trade of Loftin for Dodd would be a win-win for both the Royals and Braves, as well as the two players, who should get more of an opportunity in a fresh new location. Jordan Wicks, Chicago Cubs The Cubs have been buyers when it comes to pitching this offseason. They added free agent relievers Hunter Harvey (a former Royal), Phil Maton, Jacob Webb, and Hoby Milner to boost the bullpen. Furthermore, Chicago acquired Edward Cabrera from the Marlins in a trade on Wednesday, which should solidify the Cubs' rotation for 2026. However, all the additions have bumped the 26-year-old Wicks from the MLB mix, as he is projected to begin the year in Triple-A Iowa, according to Roster Resource. Wicks hasn't been great at the MLB level, posting a 5.21 ERA and 4.79 FIP across 26 games and 95 IP. However, he made the move to the bullpen last year and seemed much better in the role. While his ERA and WHIP were high at 6.28 and 1.74, respectively, his FIP was much better at 3.34. He showed impeccable control with a 54.4% zone rate and 17.9% K-BB%. He also put up the latter despite a 19.4% K%. Another positive about Wicks' profile is that he generates a ton of chase, as he sported a 40.4% chase rate a year ago. The stuff is average at 100, but his slider and sweeper are his best pitches with 105 TJ Stuff+ marks. That works a lot better in relief than as a starter. He is also a local product, having attended Kansas State. The Royals have seemed motivated to get local guys this offseason, as illustrated by the Lange and Kameron Misner (Mizzou) moves. The Cubs could use some help off the bench, and someone like Massey or Tyler Tolbert could fit the bill in exchange for Wicks, especially if Kevin Alcantara's strikeout issues don't improve (33.3% K% in 12 PA with the Cubs last year). Tolbert struck out less than 20% last year (19.3% to be specific), and he can play multiple positions in the infield and outfield. Furthermore, he could be a nice baserunning option off the bench for the Cubs, which is something the Cubs prioritize, as they ranked 3rd in stolen bases a season ago. View the full article

Here at the start of 2026, we're taking stock of talent in the Twins organization by ranking their top 20 player assets. We went over the the ground rules in our introductory post on Monday, but the short version is this: We're trying to answer the question, "Which current players in the organization are most indispensable to fulfilling the vision of building a champion?" You can read Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's posts for breakdowns of each player, but here's a quick glance at the list so far: 20. Marek Houston, SS 19. Ryan Jeffers, C 18. Brooks Lee, SS 17. Bailey Ober, RHP 16. Connor Prielipp, LHP 15. David Festa, RHP 14. Eduardo Tait, C 13. Royce Lewis, 3B 12. Matt Wallner, RF 11. Zebby Matthews, RHP 10. Taj Bradley, RHP 9. Mick Abel, RHP 8. Byron Buxton, CF 7. Emmanuel Rodriguez, CF 6. Simeon Woods Richardson, RHP Now, without further ado, here are the five most important players and prospects for the outlook of the Minnesota Twins, from my view. The Top 20 Twins Player Assets of 2026: 1-5 5. Kaelen Culpepper, SS Age: 23 Controlled through: 2031+ 2025 Ranking: NR The biggest riser of the Twins system in 2025. It came at a very opportune time with Carlos Correa's departure opening up shortstop as the franchise's most critical long-term question mark. Right now Brooks Lee is manning the position but he hasn't shown much, leaving the door open for Culpepper to potentially step in soon if he can keep building on his breakthrough in the minors. The 2024 first-rounder's first full season in the pros was split almost equally between High-A and Double-A. Culpepper raked at both stops, posting a cumulative .289/.375/.469 slash line with 20 homers and 25 steals. He played shortstop almost exclusively, generating some belief that he can stick there in the majors, although that's far from assured. Right now he looks like Minnesota's best long-term bet at shortstop, with third base as a potential fallback if the defensive skills aren't quite sharp enough. That'll be a fine outcome so long as he can keep riding a standout bat. Culpepper is very much in play for a 2026 debut. 4. Pablo López, RHP Age: 29 Controlled through: 2027 2025 Ranking: 5 On one hand, it's really hard to rank López this highly as a player making $42 million over the next two seasons for a team hampered by payroll constraints. Recent injury issues don't help his case. On the other hand, what López brings for Minnesota is almost irreplaceable: a proven frontline starter who has dominated in the playoffs, and is in the heart of his prime coming off a 2.74 ERA. To the extent that the Twins have any aspirations of contending for a title in the next two years, López will be foundational. And if they decide it's not in the cards, then trading him would bring back a level of future value to substantially bolster a rebuild. 3. Joe Ryan, RHP Age: 29 Controlled through: 2027 2025 Ranking: 4 The same things I just said about López basically apply to Ryan as well. He also achieved a high watermark for performance in 2025 (3.42 ERA) while earning his first All-Star nod. Unlike López, he reached a new workload peak too, totaling 171 frames over 30 starts. The financial factor looms large here: Ryan is in line to receive (via arbitration) only a fraction of López's guaranteed commitment in his final two years before free agency. That's obviously a major consideration for a Twins team with capped spending capability, and it makes him generally more desirable for potential trade partners as well. 2. Luke Keaschall, 2B Age: 23 Controlled through: 2031 2025 Ranking: 15 Keaschall's stellar big-league debut was one of the biggest bright spots for the 2025 Twins, obscured somewhat by a broken arm that cost him more than half the season. When on the field, he made a memorable first impression, batting .302 with four homers, 14 doubles and 14 stolen bases in 49 games. Keaschall showed an uncommonly advanced eye at the plate, drawing 19 walks against 29 strikeouts and reaching base at a .382 clip. There are legitimate questions about how much power he'll be able to generate. A potential transition to the outfield might downgrade his value a bit (unless he can really shine defensively, which he didn't at second). But those relative drawbacks pale in comparison to the ability he's already shown. With his speed and his control of the strike zone, you can more or less write Keaschall's name into the top of the lineup for years to come. 1. Walker Jenkins, OF Age: 20 Controlled through: 2031+ 2025 Ranking: 1 It's nearly time. Jenkins has been painted as The Next Big Thing ever since he was drafted fifth overall in 2023, and he's been living up to the hype as a prospect, at least in between injuries. The 20-year-old's meteoric ascent through the minors has only been made more striking by all the time he's missed; there's clearly a ton of faith from the organization in his skills and makeup. Minnesota's decision to promote Jenkins to Triple-A near the end of the season – warranted, but fairly aggressive – signals that they envision him in their big-league plans sooner than later. While it should be emphasized that there's no such thing as a sure thing, and even success stories often take time to materialize ... Jenkins is awfully easy to dream on. The few prospects of his caliber who've come through the system – Joe Mauer, Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis – have all made major impacts in the majors. They've also proven you can't do it alone, which is why even a 99th percentile outcome for Jenkins (first-ballot Hall of Famer, like Mauer) would require others above him on this list to support the cause. There you have it. My ranking of the top 20 player assets in the Twins organization entering the 2026 season. You can find the full list summarized below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Who would you have moved up or down? Who missed the cut that shouldn't have? Who's overhyped and who's underrated? Sound off in the comment section. Walker Jenkins, OF Luke Keaschall, 2B Joe Ryan, RHP Pablo Lopez, RHP Kaelen Culpepper, SS Simeon Woods Richardson, RHP Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF Byron Buxton, OF Mick Abel, RHP Taj Bradley, RHP Zebby Matthews, RHP Matt Wallner, OF Royce Lewis, 3B Eduardo Tait, C David Festa, RHP Connor Prielipp, LHP Bailey Ober, RHP Brooks Lee, SS Ryan Jeffers, C Marek Houston, SS View the full article

Thursday is the deadline for Major League Baseball teams to exchange salary figures with their arbitration-eligible players. The Miami Marlins avoided arbitration hearings in 2025, agreeing to one-year deals with each member of their class. That is once again the likely outcome for them heading into 2026. It is customary for arb-eligible players to receive salary increases from the previous year, even if they struggled. Left-hander Braxton Garrett is an exception—after missing the entire 2025 campaign due to Tommy John surgery, he has settled for an identical salary this season. These negotiations can sometimes culminate in multi-year contract extensions. Marlins fans shouldn't get their hopes up, though, as the club has not extended a single player since March 2022 (Richard Bleier). Edward Cabrera would've been the highest earner in Miami's 2026 arbitration class—MLB Trade Rumors projected him for $3.7 million. Following Wednesday's trade sending Cabrera to the Chicago Cubs, this is poised to be one of the cheapest classes in MLB. RHP Anthony Bender Third year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $2.3 million RHP Calvin Faucher First year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $1.9 million LHP Braxton Garrett Second year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $1.53 million Settled at $1.53 million LHP Ryan Weathers First year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $1.5 million RHP Max Meyer First year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $1.3 million LHP Andrew Nardi First year of arbitration eligibility Projected for $800,000 Hearings for players who don't reach deals will take place in Arizona between January 26 and February 13. View the full article

Davis Schneider has been a utility player over his three-year MLB career with the Toronto Blue Jays. He's handled second and third base, as well as left field. Offensively, he's an adequate contact hitter who walks at a high rate and offers some power. Last season, he slashed .234/.361/.436 with 11 home runs, 33 runs, and 31 runs knocked in over 227 plate appearances. Despite the low batting average, he posted a .280 BABIP and had a 15.9 walk percentage. His .202 isolated power (slugging percentage minus batting average) was 25% better than league average. Surprisingly, as a right-handed hitter, he has struggled against left-handed pitchers over the last two seasons. He posted a .528 and .708 OPS against southpaws in 2024 and '25, respectively, compared to .667 and .915 marks against righties. Last season, 37 of his 60 strikeouts, and only four of his home runs, came against left-handers. These struggles complicate his opportunities for playing time as a right-handed hitter. The signing of Kazuma Okamoto has further muddied Schneider's path to playing time. Okamoto was a primary third baseman in NPB but also spent time at first base and in the outfield. Schneider is now blocked by three right-handed-hitting infielders: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement, and Okamoto. In the outfield, left-handed hitters Addison Barger, Daulton Varsho, Nathan Lukes, and Anthony Santander (switch-hitter) will block Schneider from facing right-handed pitching. Varsho, Lukes, and Santander have outperformed Schneider against lefties over their careers, as well. The only clear-cut route for Schneider to get on the field is if Barger sits against southpaws. Barger has only taken 126 MLB plate appearances against southpaws due to his struggles against them the last two seasons, compared to 601 PA against righties. However, Myles Straw, who is a right-handed hitter and had a .683 OPS against left-handed pitchers last season, could be the preferred candidate to replace Barger. While he isn't likely to be a better hitter than Schneider, he is a far superior defender and baserunner. That means Schneider has no route to regular at-bats unless there's an injury. Toronto's lineup could become even more crowded for the utility player. USA Today's Bob Nightengale is among those to report that Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, and Bo Bichette are still on the table to be signed by the defending American League champions. Nightengale also stated that the Blue Jays' preference "is to make Okamoto a superutility player." If the Jays signed one of Tucker, Bregman, or Bichette, it would make a Schneider trade a near certainty. Schneider will only be 27 years old in 2026, and he has four years of team control remaining. That makes him an appealing trade target. There's a chance he could also be sent down to Triple A, but that would mean wasting his talent to keep him around in case of an injury. Ultimately, there doesn't seem to be a scenario where keeping Schneider makes sense for a team with World Series aspirations. View the full article

Baseball has become an international sport. In 2025, internationally born players made up 27.8% of players on Opening Day rosters across Major League Baseball. The Dominican Republic led the way with 100 players, followed by Venezuela with 63 players. You can read more about the situation in Venezuela and its impact on Major League Baseball here. The Red Sox have four Venezuelan players in the organization: the new kid on the block, first baseman Willson Contreras, catcher Carlos Narváez, right fielder Wilyer Abreu, and shortstop prospect Franklin Arias. Beat writer Marcos Grunfeld reported that the Red Sox are “monitoring the situation” in Venezuela and have confirmed that their players, families, and staff in the country are safe. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe shared an updated list of players attending Fenway Fest this past Saturday. Of the team’s four Venezuelan players, all except Contreras are set to appear. Contreras’s absence caught my attention, especially given the current geopolitical situation. But on Monday morning, Contreras posted an Instagram Story of Cerro El Casupo, a park in Valencia, Venezuela (which I found after a quick reverse Google Image search), so he appears to be doing well. For reference, Valencia is approximately 103.77 miles away from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital and target of U.S. strikes on January 3. Safe travels to players (and any family joining them) traveling to Boston this weekend, and to Contreras ahead of spring training. View the full article

During a Fish On First Twitter space, Isaac Azout, Kevin Barral, Alex Carver and Nate Karzmer share their initial reactions to the Marlins trading Edward Cabrera to the Chicago Cubs for a package of Owen Caissie, Cristian Hernández and Edgardo De Leon.View the full article