FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: March 14, 2026
I’ve covered Red October playoff games in Philadelphia, and white out football games at Penn State. I’ve also attended professional games in Panama and covered plenty of Little League World Series games, giving me a taste of how different cultures enjoy baseball. But I have never witnessed a sporting event quite like Wednesday night’s World Baseball Classic game between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
It wasn’t just the chanting, the instruments blaring, or the dancing that made for such an exhilarating experience; all of those things were also a part of the previous Pool D games played by the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. I know what passionate fandom looks and sounds like, and this was something altogether different. Venezuelan and Dominican fans don’t merely watch baseball; they participate in it. It’s kinetic, and when the force of their fandom collided under the closed roof of loanDepot park, it created a unique, unforgettable energy. I hope all of you reading this can experience something like it at some point in your life, because getting to feel that power pulsing through the stadium is one of the great privileges of this job.
That’s the last we’ll talk about the WBC in this week’s mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions on how baseball would change if it were played exclusively left-handed, how often we might see an Ultimate ABS Challenge, and whether the 2026 Angels roster would’ve been a playoff team in 2024. 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.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
That question about rewinding the clock on the Angels is interesting. A list of teams who provided the most PAs to players over the age of 30 last year:
Dodgers (4993)
Phillies (3885)
Mets (3450)
Padres (3350)
Mariners (3190)
Rangers (3023)
This list is kind of dull because this is a group of teams that had most of these players 3 years ago and they were mostly really, really good teams back then. The exception is the Mariners, and it’s not clear that rewinding the clock to 2023 would have helped them that much, especially since the pitching was weaker.
Now if you could assemble a team of players who were available this year based on what they did in 2022 or 2023, you could have a pretty good one. Especially 2022.
For this exercise let’s only pick players entering their age 34 year or older this upcoming year–this means we’re taking guys who have likely already peaked in 2022, so no Dylan Cease or Zac Gallen or Framber Valdez. I’ll put my team in a reply.
Here’s my team. I can only assemble it with free agents or players who were readily available this offseason, so if they’re retiring / retired I can’t use them. And 2026 has to be their age 34 season or older.
The 2022 versions of Verlander, Scherzer, Jose Quintana, Tyler Anderson, and Merrill Kelly would be an awesome rotation. Miles Mikolas and Chris Bassitt were solid innings-eaters in 2022, and they wouldn’t even make the rotation.
Raisel Iglesias, Chris Martin and Liam Hendriks would be a strong late game trio, and left-handers Taylor Rogers and Hoby Milner would help balance the bullpen.
2022 Paul Goldschmidt would anchor the lineup with his 175 wRC+, and the rest of the infield would be fantastic with Eugenio Suarez and Jeff McNeil, with Miguel Rojas being the weak link at shortstop. JT Realmuto would be the catcher.
In the outfield you would have Starling Marte in one corner. Adolis Garcia would play somewhere most days, he could platoon with Yastrzemski in CF and then move to a corner spot when Yastrzemski is playing CF. I think 2022 is probably the last year you could get away with them playing CF though. Hard to find center fielders, it’s a young man’s position. I think Rafael Ortega is still available to serve as a fifth outfielder? I don’t think he retired.
The lineup is too heavy on the right handed side. I’ve only got McNeil and Yastrzemski here, and Rafael Ortega as a backup. And Chris Taylor and Jose Iglesias are the strongest options for utility guys. Guys like Brandon Crawford and David Peralta aren’t available anymore. Might need to have Adam Frazier on hand just to give the lineup some more balance. I bet the Rangers would trade me Joc Pederson though, so I’ll pencil him in as my platoon DH.
Is this the team that would have the biggest difference between their expected 2026 performance and what we would get out of their 2022 performance? I think it would be, at least if you put in Mikolas over Merrill Kelly.