FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: January 31, 2026

Hello everyone, and welcome to the final mailbag of January! We’re now less than two months from Opening Day. I, for one, can’t wait.

It was mostly a slow week on the transaction front, with the most notable move being Harrison Bader’s two-year, $20.5 million deal with the Giants. As soon as the news broke, I texted Connor Grossman, who writes the Giants Postcards newsletter, saying: “Is Harrison Bader the most Giants player who has never played for the Giants?” In response, Connor called Bader Kevin Pillar 2.0. Anyway, this week we also learned that two core players from small-market clubs have signed seven-year extensions. First, José Ramírez and the Guardians agreed to a $175 million contract that will keep him in Cleveland through his age-39 season; by the time the deal is done, he could very well be the best Cleveland player that any of us have ever seen — unless some FanGraphs reader was alive to watch Tris Speaker. Then, on Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Jacob Wilson signed a $70 million extension with the A’s. Davy Andrews wrote up the Ramírez deal, and he’ll do the same for Wilson in a piece that will run on Monday.

We won’t be covering Bader, J-Ram, or Wilson for the rest of this mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions on players hitting the same number of home runs in four different seasons, ties in baseball, park effects, and more. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com.