Now that the coal has been shoveled into the steam engine and the gears are moving, the ZiPS projection system is back for the 11th year with its take on the top prospects in baseball. Just in case this is your first time with ZiPS, it’s a computer projection system that uses a whole bunch of algorithms, and more data than you can shake a stick at, to generate a forecast of how baseball players might perform in the future. There’s no truth to the rumors that it also utilizes my obvious disdain for your favorite team; it only harnesses some of that!

ZiPS prospect projections are not designed to replace traditional scouting, but rather to be a supplemental look, one that estimates where things stand if we only had data to work with. ZiPS has a strong history of projecting prospects — it liked players such as Mookie Betts and Pete Alonso far more than the prospecteers who aren’t in my computer — but all models are wrong; it’s just that some are useful. There is a great deal of uncertainty attendant with lower-level minor league stats that isn’t present at the higher levels, so ZiPS tends to be more confident about prospects with more time under their belts. As a result, non-statistical information about players, things ZiPS can’t and doesn’t know, is very relevant to how they’ll progress! This is not the one-prospect-list-to-bring-them-all-and-in-the-darkness-bind-them.

As is tradition, I dialed back a decade to look at the ZiPS Top 100 from 2016 to review its hits and misses:

As expected, there are some good hits and some huge misses. ZiPS was a very early adopter on Trea Turner, Ozzie Albies, and Ryan McMahon, and had more than its share of back-end top 100 prospects who rated more positively than consensus (Brandon Nimmo, Reynaldo López, Jack Flaherty, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman). But naturally there are some splats, most notably AJ Reed, but also José Peraza, Austin Barnes, Brian Johnson, and Renato Nuñez. All but two of the top 100 did in fact play in the majors, with the exceptions being Jomar Reyes and Kevin Ziomek, whose professional career only lasted one more start due to thoracic outlet syndrome.

But let’s get to why you’re here. Presenting the ZiPS 2026 Top 100:

There are a few important things to remember here. First, ZiPS has absolutely no way to consider high school prospects with little or no professional experience. Eli Willits absence from this list isn’t due to anything wrong with his statistics, but simply the fact that ZiPS doesn’t have anything useful to say about a player with 15 professional games and no college experience. ZiPS is a good tool, but I see little point in using it for something it can’t possibly be good at. There are some college-only players on this list, but they do take a hit if the projections are based mostly or exclusively on college data, similar to Nick Kurtz last year.

ZiPS tends to be higher on high-floor/low-ceiling prospects than scouts are, but I’ve minimized that tendency in recent years by using the average of the 80th- and 20th-percentile projections, resulting in Triple-A players who are projected to be safe, middling role players, but who don’t have big upside, ranking lower on the list.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of agreement between the ZiPS and FanGraphs Top 100 lists, with 62 players appearing on both (compared to 63 last year). To keep things apples to apples, I’m not including players from foreign leagues on this list, but you can see their projections in the normal spots.

From a team standpoint, here’s how many prospects each club has among the top 50, 100, 200, and 500 prospects. I’ve highlighted the leaders in each category:

The Pirates and Brewers have moved up considerably since last year, as have the Cardinals. This is probably the best showing for the Angels in years, though they are still only middle of the pack. The Yankees and Padres are really hurting, and while the Orioles still do very well in terms of the ZiPS Top 500 prospects, the computer thinks that aside from Samuel Basallo, their flow of top prospects has slowed considerably.

Looking at a big list of 100 players is a daunting task, so let’s break it down by position, and dig into some of the players who ZiPS does or doesn’t like. We’ll start with the first basemen:

There being five first baseman in the ZiPS Top 100 is actually an unusually large number these days! Bryce Eldridge wasn’t impressive in 2025, and there are some holes in his game, but he was still a very young player in the high minors with serious power upside. Edward Florentino’s A-ball performance was quite impressive for the level, and ZiPS thinks he has huge power upside. ZiPS doesn’t see Ryan Clifford becoming a star, but thinks he’s one of the safer home run bets among prospects today, albeit with low batting average and on-base figures. He does project as well as Pete Alonso at a similar point in their careers, though he probably isn’t going to be that good. Luke Adams and Eric Bitonti give the Brewers interesting options at a position they’ve struggled at lately, and Adams is already fairly high in the minors. ZiPS is a bit lower than our rankings on Ralphy Velazquez, who the system sees as having a good bit of bust potential. Turning to the second basemen:

ZiPS thinks that Kevin McGonigle should be in the majors right now, and would be a strong contender for the Rookie of the Year award in the American League. (As an aging Gen X’er, I also will enjoy years of making McGonigle/McGarnable jokes that 80% of people won’t get.) Yes, Michael Arroyo is a Walks Guy, but he also has really good power at a young age, and isn’t so atrocious defensively that he’s already been exiled to first base or anything. JJ Wetherholt only ranks third on this list because of how highly ZiPS ranks McGonigle and Arroyo, and like the former, he deserves to be a starter in 2026. Travis Bazzana is interesting in that ZiPS is unsure if his batting averages will be enough to make him a big plus in the majors, but the computer also likes his defense more than the general consensus. Jadher Areinamo is the arguable reach on this list, but ZiPS thinks he has reasonable power upside, and that he can stick at second base. To the shortstops:

Shortstop is the position where there is the most agreement between ZiPS and our prospect team. Nine of the top 10 shortstop prospects in ZiPS rank in the FanGraphs top 50. You don’t find a real significant disagreement until Cooper Pratt; ZiPS is giving him a lot of rope for his 2025 because of how young he was.

ZiPS has a weird tendency to flip the prospect team’s top two guys, but this time it’s absolutely convinced on Konnor Griffin. ZiPS thinks that Griffin would be a serious All-Star contender if he starts from Opening Day, and my projections very rarely say that about any prospect. Colt Emerson and Leo De Vries both get bumps up from very good 2025 rankings, and Jesús Made has nearly unlimited upside if his power develops as expected — and maybe even if it doesn’t! ZiPS remains relatively unfazed by Carson Williams’ unimpressive debut. He didn’t make the top 10, but ZiPS is really big on Kaelen Culpepper, enough that it sort of forgives the Twins for sending Carlos Correa back to Houston. Next, to the hot corner:

Third base has really fallen off in the ZiPS projections. Last year, the 10th-ranked third baseman, Cam Smith, was 129th overall; this year, the fifth-ranked third baseman would have been 129th! The top third base prospect, Sal Stewart, is probably a first baseman in the majors — that’s likely where he will play in 2026 — but wherever he ends up long-term, ZiPS is pretty confident that he’ll hit. Jacob Reimer is a big mover this year, and if you read my article from last week, you’ll know he has one of the most improved year-to-year projections, though he may need to be in the outfield to get a shot with the Mets. Mikey Romero isn’t a finished product, but ZiPS thinks he’ll at least hit some homers, albeit without a terribly good batting average. Ethan Holliday didn’t have enough professional time for ZiPS to consider, and the projections are far from sold on Charlie Condon, though he ought to at least be a good role player. ZiPS want to see more progress from Caleb Bonemer beyond walks before it places him as highly as our rankings do. Let’s turn to the catchers:

It remains to be seen if Samuel Basallo actually ends up a catcher, but wherever he plays, ZiPS at least thinks he’ll hit. The same goes for Carter Jensen, who ZiPS thinks ought to be Kansas City’s catcher right now; I suspect he has a better chance at sticking behind the plate than Basallo does. Teenage catchers are dangerous, but Alfredo Duno absolutely torched the minors in 2025, and doesn’t appear to be plagued with any defensive questions. Somehow, the St. Louis Cardinals have three catchers in the ZiPS Top 100, so it’s going to be interesting to see how they give everyone a chance in the minors. It’s no wonder they don’t seem to be in any particular hurry to get Iván Herrera back behind the plate. Most likely someone will end up being traded. Moisés Ballesteros would rank higher purely as a bat, but ZiPS isn’t bullish about his defense staying in the acceptable-ish range in the majors. He could explode very quickly offensively as a DH, however. Lastly for the position players, the outfielders:

Max Clark, who ranked 12th overall last year, jumps into the top 10, remaining quite on target for Detroit. Like McGonigle, he could contribute right now in the majors, though the path isn’t quite as easy for him; the Tigers have a lot of platoon combos that squeeze out value in the outfield. A healthy season keeps Jett Williams ranked highly, and ZiPS likes Emmanuel Rodriguez’s upside so much that he doesn’t take all that much of a hit due to injury. Theo Gillen is a rather unorthodox pick, as ZiPS knows to be skeptical of walk-heavy guys, but the computer thinks his defense is better than most do, and his speed will play especially nicely in Tampa. Owen Caissie isn’t a well-rounded player, but he can hit a giant boatload of home runs, something the Marlins need, and he’s been a fave of ZiPS for a while now. ZiPS sees Yeremy Cabrera as a sneaky-good pickup in the MacKenzie Gore trade.

ZiPS remains more unsure of Walker Jenkins than the scouts, and won’t be on the Zyhir Hope bandwagon until his power either develops further or his contact improves. ZiPS has thought that Joshua Baez is more interesting than Jordan Walker for a while now, and the downside of his contact rate is what has ZiPS relatively low on Spencer Jones, at least compared to his decent overall projection. ZiPS still loves Jace LaViolette’s 2024 minor league performance, which is why it has him so high for a college-only guy; I swear it’s not that I’ve programmed ZiPS to have extra love for a player whose name sounds like that of a the protagonist in a Southern Gothic detective mystery set in a creepy Louisiana mansion, though I should probably consider it. Justin Crawford is probably more interesting than his ranking is; his 20th-percentile projection is quite low, but he does have a high chance, relative to his ranking, of being a real contributor in the majors. Finally, the pitchers:

Thirteen pitchers make the ZiPS top 50, one of the largest groups ever. The system is aware of postseason performance, and Trey Yesavage just barely edges out Nolan McLean among the late-season pitching prospects who showed a lot in the majors, yet still retain rookie status for 2026. You can add another holdover, Bubba Chandler, to that list. Some may roll their eyes about Ryan Sloan ranking so high, especially nudging out Liam Doyle, but excelling at all as a professional is a hurdle Sloan’s already cleared. It’s not like ZiPS doesn’t like Doyle; that’s about as good a projection as I’ve ever seen from ZiPS for a pitcher based mainly on college performance.

ZiPS always seems to like some unexpected pitcher right around 30, with Braylon Doughty being the first pitcher on the ZiPS board to not make the FanGraphs Top 100. ZiPS liked his command in the low minors, and he missed plenty of bats along the way. Like Jacob Reimer, Mitch Bratt made the most-improved projection list, and ZiPS sees him as the rare highly interesting control-heavy prospect. Jonah Tong is a ZiPS favorite, and both Connelly Early and Payton Tolle had some real highlights for Boston; that they are basically depth guys at the moment is one reason ZiPS likes the Red Sox rotation so much. Alex Clemmey still has to lose a walk or two before he’ll make an impact, but young, hard-throwing lefties who get lots of swings and misses are worth watching.

If you’re enjoying the ZiPS Top 100 and the rest of our Prospect Week coverage, why not become a FanGraphs Member, and banish those obnoxious ads to the land of wind and ghosts? Your continued support over the years has been absolutely key to me being able to focus a large percentage of my time to this and related baseball nerdery. While I’d be happy to be paid in tacos, my car insurance company has been frustratingly insistent about being paid in actual currency.

After a long, quiet offseason, Zac Gallen is back where he started. In November, he turned down a qualifying offer, a one-year deal from the Diamondbacks worth $22.025 million. On Friday, Gallen and the Diamondbacks agreed to terms on a new contract. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – it’s for one year and $22.025 million (with deferrals that drop the net present value to $18.75 million). Arizona’s ace is once again at the top of the rotation in the desert.

Gallen was my no. 19 free agent this winter, and I’ll just reproduce the first line of my write-up here: “After looking at Gallen’s résumé for about an hour, I came to an obvious conclusion: I’m glad I’m not a major league GM.” He had a severe case of pumpkinization in 2025. He missed fewer bats, drew fewer chases, walked more batters and struck out fewer, gave up louder contact, didn’t keep the ball on the ground, and lost a bit of velocity. It was the worst season of his career by a large margin; his 4.83 ERA might have been a caricature of his performance, but all of his advanced run prevention estimators surged to career-worst marks, too.

As a platform year, it left something to be desired. But I still think Gallen was right to turn down his QO and survey the landscape. After that didn’t work out, however, he made the obvious choice: Run it back in the same place and try again. Given that he put up a 3.20 ERA (3.22 FIP, 3.47 xFIP) from 2022 through 2024, worth a whopping 12.2 WAR (14.9 rWAR), betting on at least a little bit of bounce-back before a second trip to free agency surely felt very appealing. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas White is one of the game’s top pitching prospects. Drafted 35th overall in 2023 by the Miami Marlins out of an Andover, Massachusetts high school, the 21-year-old southpaw is ranked ninth on our newly-released 2026 Top 100 Prospects list as a 60-FV prospect. Moreover, only two pitchers rank in front of him, neither of whom throws left-handed.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound hurler has grown as a pitcher since he was first featured here at FanGraphs in an August 2024 Sunday Notes column. Which isn’t to say he hadn’t already been making a name for himself. White, who was taking the mound for the High-A Beloit Sky Carp when I first spoke with him, ranked as Miami’s no. 4 prospect that summer, with Eric Longenhagen citing both his mid-90s fastball and plus slider when assigning him a 45+ FV. Our lead prospect analyst did include a caveat in that writeup: “He has impact starter upside and carries with him the risks typical of a volatile teenage pitching prospect.”

A year-and-a-half later, White is coming off of a 2025 season during which he dominated hitters to the tune of a 2.31 ERA, a 2.27 FIP, and an eye-opening 38.6% strikeout rate across three levels. He finished the year with the Triple-A Jacksonville, and while he is expected to return there to start the upcoming campaign, he shouldn’t be a Jumbo Shrimp for long. Possessing one of the highest ceilings among his prospect contemporaries, White is on the doorstep of the big leagues.

White discussed the continued development of his arsenal, and the mechanical tweaks he’s recently made to his delivery, in a recent phone conversation.

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David Laurila: We first talked before a game at West Michigan, when you were playing in the Midwest League. Outside of being 18 months older and presumably 18 months smarter, has anything changed for you as a pitcher?

Thomas White: “I mean, there has been a lot of mechanical stuff and a little bit of approach. Other than that, nothing revolutionary, I would say.” Read the rest of this entry »

Most people have never been traded. Most people find a job and go there until they find a better one (or until they move or they get fired or they can’t take it anymore or they die). I don’t have any friends or relatives who showed up for work one day only to be told, “Oh, you don’t work here anymore. We’ve decided you work for the competition.” It must be even weirder for Joey Loperfido, who got traded from the Astros to the Blue Jays at the deadline in 2024 and is now getting traded back. Somewhere out there is an elephant who got pregnant the day the Astros traded Loperfido to the Jays, and that elephant won’t give birth until June.

The 26-year-old Loperfido is headed back to the Astros in a one-for-one lefty-hitting corner outfielder swap for Jesús Sánchez. Sánchez must be feeling like the subject of buyer’s remorse, too, as the Astros traded for him at the 2025 deadline, a mere 197 days ago. Any humans who got pregnant the day of that trade still have another month or so before they actually have to assemble the crib. As starkly as it outlines the differences between the life of a baseball player and the life of a human with a regular job, the trade makes its own sense. We’re going to start in Toronto, because although it involves a lot of platoon finagling, the situation there is simpler. Read the rest of this entry »

Below is our list of the top 100 prospects in baseball. The scouting summaries were compiled with information provided by available data and our own observations. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.

All of the prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.

And now, a few important things to keep in mind as you’re perusing the Top 100. You’ll note that prospects are ranked by number, but also lie within tiers demarcated by their Future Value grades. The FV grade is more important than the ordinal ranking. For example, the gap between Nolan McLean (no. 3) and Sal Stewart (no. 34) is about 30 spots, and there’s a substantial difference in talent between them. The gap between Stewart and Luis De León (no. 64), meanwhile, is also 30 numerical places, but the difference in talent is relatively small. You may have also noticed that there are more than 100 prospects in the table below, and more than 100 scouting summaries. That’s because we have also included the 50-FV prospects whose ordinal rankings fall outside the top 100, an acknowledgement both that the choice to rank exactly 100 prospects (as opposed to 110 or 210 or some other number entirely) is an arbitrary one, and that there isn’t a ton of daylight between the prospects who appear in that part of the list. Read the rest of this entry »

Cole Mathis is a small-town kid from the South hoping to make it big on Chicago’s North Side. His upside is evident — Mathis possesses projectable tools, including plus raw power — but there are question marks, as well. Drafted 54th overall in 2024 by the Cubs out of the College of Charleston, the 22-year-old corner infielder will enter the 2026 campaign with a smattering of experience above the amateur level. He had Tommy John surgery following his junior season, then was limited to just 194 plate appearances last year (128 with Low-A Myrtle Beach and 66 in the Arizona Fall League) due to a right elbow sprain. The degree to which he’ll have success against professional pitchers as he climbs the minor-league ladder is uncertain.

His future position is also in question. While he was drafted as a third baseman, Mathis was primarily a first baseman in college… when he wasn’t pitching. Prior to going under the knife, Mathis was a two-way player who showed plenty of promise on the mound thanks to a fastball that reached the mid-90s. Over 100 collegiate frames, he fashioned a 3.60 ERA with 90 strikeouts and just 30 walks.

When I caught up to him in the AFL, I asked Mathis if he still thinks about standing atop a clump of dirt sixty feet, six inches away from home plate. I also wanted to hear his thoughts on a what-if:

Had his elbow been healthy, might he have been drafted and developed as a pitcher?

“I mean, yeah, for sure,” Mathis responded to the first question. “It’s something I could fall back on, but hopefully I won’t have to resort to pitching again. At the time of the draft, my hitting skills were farther above where my pitching was, and the Cubs and I saw eye to eye with that, so it’s what we wanted to do moving forward.

“I don’t know,” he said to the second. “I mean, I got to pitch two strong years in college (he was solely a position player in his final collegiate season due to the damaged UCL) and don’t really know what would have happened that junior year. But yeah, I think we made the right decision.”

How well he develops as a hitter — particularly if he ends up at first base rather than at the hot corner — will help determine if it was the right choice. Moreover, his ability to elevate will go a long way toward his reaching, or failing to reach, his ceiling. Mathis understands that.

“We’ve definitely been working on getting the ball in the air a little more,” he told me. “A little bit of it is bat path, but the majority of it is pitch selection, getting pitches that I can drive. I have a flatter swing, so while I’ve had some success on balls down in the zone, pitches up in the zone play more to my swing.”

Mathis went on to say that while he used to have “kind of the same swing, no matter the pitcher,” he has come to realize that adjustability is a necessity against higher-quality hurlers. There is a mental component to it as well as a mechanical.

“I’ve kind of had to change my approach,” said Mathis. “Not so much change my swing, but rather change the thought process behind it. You can’t just have the same approach and swing over and over again. Pitchers watch film as much as we do, so they’re out there playing their pitches off our swings.”

Where he grew up plays into how he approaches the game of baseball itself.

“I come from a small town — it’s called called Cataula — and our county only has one high school [Harris County High School in Hamilton, GA],” Mathis explained. “I don’t know the total population of my hometown, but everybody knows everybody. Knowing that I have a whole town of support behind me, a whole county of support, means a lot. When I go out there, I’m not just playing for me, but for also for them. I’m representing my town.”

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Jason Giambi went 23 for 37 against Darren Oliver.

Al Oliver went 11 for 19 against Vern Ruhle.

Bob Oliver went 11 for 21 against Diego Segui.

Joe Oliver went 8 for 15 against Rheal Cormier.

Ollie Brown went 15 for 30 against Jerry Reuss.

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Jackson Baumeister had a lot of promise when he was drafted 63rd overall by the Baltimore Orioles out of Florida State University in 2023. What he didn’t have was an understanding of pitching analytics. I learned as much when I talked to the 22-year-old right-hander during the Arizona Fall League season, where he was making up for innings lost due to a shoulder ailment.

“In high school, even in college, I had no idea what pitch metrics were,” admitted Baumeister, whom the Tampa Bay Rays acquired from their A.L. East rivals in July 2024 as part of the Zach Eflin deal. “We were a little behind the curve in college when it came to TrackMan, Rapsodo, and stuff like that. I was completely raw coming into pro ball. When I got drafted, it was basically, ‘Hey, I don’t know any of the words or numbers you’re saying to me.’ I basically had to do this whole little master class of pitch metrics.”

Baumeister’s lessons began in Baltimore’s introductory draft meetings, and from there he continued to pick up knowledge, including in bullpen sessions where he would learn about the readings he saw on the iPad. Before long, he “understood what those numbers meant, and what the Orioles were telling me about things like what the sweet spot was for all of my pitches.”

When he signed, Baumeister’s bread and butter pitches were his fastball and curveball, the latter of which has been supplanted by a slider as his primary secondary offering. And while his mid-90s heater remains his best pitch, the way he utilizes it is far different.

“In college, my coaches preached throwing the low-and-away fastball,” explained the erstwhile FSU hurler. “For a guy like me who rides the ball pretty well and gets a lot of induced vertical break, that wasn’t ideal. Getting into pro ball, it became ‘Throw your fastball at the top of the zone.’ I also have a pretty low release, so by locating the ball at the top of the zone, I get a lot of swing-and-misses.

“My release height is lower than six feet,” continued Baumeister. “I get down into the 5-5, 5-6 range, and then I’m around 17 or 18 [inches] of vertical break on average with my fastball. Velo-wise, I think I averaged 95 [mph] this past year, but I can reach back to 97-98 on a good day. It’s my best pitch, no doubt.”

Backing off on his curveball usage and throwing more sliders was a Rays directive. His current organization also altered the shape of his slider. Whereas he used to throw a sweepier version, he now throws more of a gyro. Along with the four-seamer, gyro, and lesser-used curveball, the righty also has a changeup in his arsenal. That has also undergone a tweak. Last season he began working on a kick-change to replace what had been a more traditional two-seam circle.

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A quiz:

Ichiro Suzuki has the most singles since the turn of the century (2000), while Albert Pujols is tops in both doubles and home runs. Which player has the most triples? (A hint: he had 517 stolen bases and 145 home runs.)

The answer can be found below.

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NEWS NOTES

The upcoming SABR Analytics Conversation, which will take place in Phoenix from February 27-March 1, will include a seven-person Arizona Diamondbacks front office panel. More information can be found here.

SABR’s John McMurray recently conducted an oral history interview with Greg Maddux. The transcript and video recording can be found here.

Roy Face, a right-hander who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1953-1968, and then briefly for the Detroit Tigers and Montreal Expos, died earlier this week at age 97. A standout on Pittsburgh’s 1960 World Series championship club, Face is the franchise’s all-time leader in pitching appearances (802), relief wins (94), and saves (188). As mentioned here in Sunday Notes two weeks ago, his 18 relief wins in 1959 are an MLB record.

Gary Blaylock, who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and New Yankees in 1959, died earlier this month at age 94. The Clarkton, Missouri native appeared in 41 games and went 4-6 with a 4.80 ERA. He was the pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals when they captured the World Series in 1985.

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The answer to the quiz is José Reyes, with 131 triples. If you guessed Carl Crawford, he had 123 triples, as well as 480 stolen bases and 136 home runs.

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Mike Daly was featured here at FanGraphs on Wednesday, the subject at hand being the current state of San Diego’s prospect pipeline. Left on the cutting-room floor from my conversation with the club’s assistant director of player development was what he learned from his year as a minor-league manager. Daly was at the helm of the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2024.

“I learned a lot,” said Daly, whose résumé also includes extensive scouting experience. “First and foremost, it gives you a greater appreciation, and empathy, for what players and the staff go through from spring training all the way to the end. And the season is long. You understand that from a front office perspective, but until you’ve lived it, you don’t truly understand it.”

Daly went on to mention the speed of the game, and how managers frequently need to make decisions on short notice. Experiencing that firsthand reinforced the importance of pre-game planning and talking through various scenarios prior to the team’s taking the field. He also received a reminder that patience is a virtue when it comes to development.

“In the past, I was sometimes guilty of coming into an affiliate for a week and maybe trying to expedite, or push, some action with the staff regarding certain development of players,” Daly admitted. “What you learn from being in that dugout for a full season is that the process of development really does take time. It certainly made me better in terms of asking questions.”

Writing the reports that are sent to the front office after a game is a markedly different experience from being on the receiving end.

“Yes,” acknowledged Daly. “When you’re writing that manager report, especially after a tough loss… let’s just say it’s a lot different sitting in the dugout than it is sitting behind the plate [as a scout] or in the office. Until you walk in those shoes… again, you understand, but you don’t truly understand. I’m very thankful to have had an opportunity to do it.”

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

Ice Box Chamberlain had a fascinating career. Born in Warsaw, New York in 1867, the right-hander went on to pitch for six major league teams across the 1886-1896 seasons, registering a record of 157-120. His best year was 1889, when he went 32-15 while throwing 421-and-two-thirds innings for the American Association’s St. Louis Browns.

Chamberlain — his given name was Elton —had some especially notable games. Twice he pitched both right- and left-handed in the same contest, making him, along with Larry Corcoran and Tony Mullane, one of three pre-1900 hurlers to toe the rubber in ambidextrous fashion. On May 30, 1894, Chamberlain not only went the distance for the Cincinnati Reds in a 20-11 loss to the Boston Beaneaters, he was taken deep four times by Bobby Lowe. In doing so, Lowe became the first player in big-league history to hit four home runs in the same game.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

MassLive’s Christopher Smith wrote about Kyle Boddy and how the Boston Red Sox have been implementing Driveline philosophies.

CBS Sports’s Dayn Perry weighed in on Chaim Bloom’s rebuild in St. Louis, and where the Cardinals go from here.

Cy Young was born in a town of roughly 400 people in Ohio’s Tuscarawas County, and his 35-acre boyhood farm is now up for sale. Joey Morona has the story at Cleveland.com.

What would MLB look like with a salary cap? Evan Drellich delved into that question at The Athletic.

The Athletic’s Katie Woo wrote about how “The Harvard of umpire schools” is closing as changing times favor tech over tradition.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Ollie Bejma played for the St. Louis Browns from 1934-1936, and for the Chicago White Sox in 1939, logging 202 hits and a .245 batting average. Humble as those numbers are, they didn’t dissuade legendary cartoonist (and big-time baseball fan) Charles Schultz from featuring him in a February 21, 1974 Peanuts comic strip. Asked who played shortstop for the pennant-winning St. Paul Saints in 1938, Woodstock replied to Snoopy that it was Ollie Bejma.

Blaine Durbin played in 32 games and logged 14 hits in 51 at-bats while suiting up for three teams across the 1907-1909 seasons. His first two seasons were spent with the Chicago Cubs, who won the World Series in each of those years. The last of Durbin’s seasons was split between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, the latter of which won the World Series.

J.D. Martinez had 6,865 PAs, 1,741 hits, and 3,172 total bases.
Nick Castellanos has 6,950 PAs, 1,742 hits, and 2,977 total bases.

Mike Piazza had 7,745 PAs, a .308 BA, and 779 extra base hits.
Magglio Ordonez had 7,745 PAs, a .309 BA, and 741 extra base hits.

The St. Louis Cardinals signed Leon Durham as a free agent on today’s date in 1989. The erstwhile Chicago Cubs slugger — he had 135 home runs and a 125 wRC+ for the Northsiders from 1981-1987 — proceeded to record just one hit in 18 at-bats with the Cardinals. Suspended for failing a drug test, Durham never again played in the majors.

The New York Yankees signed Jeff Reardon as a free agent on today’s date in 1994. The righty reliever, who recorded 367 saves while playing for seven teams across 16 seasons, went on to appear in 11 games for the Yankees, earning a win and two saves in what proved to be his final hurrah. Reardon is the only pitcher in MLB history to allow exactly 1,000 hits in his career.

Players born on today’s date include Larry Yount, who appeared in one MLB game… yet never actually appeared in an MLB game. A right-hander, the older brother of Hall of Famer Robin Yount took the mound for the Houston Astros on September 15, 1971, but was injured while warming up and never delivered a pitch to a batter. Because he had been announced, Yount’s name is in the record books with one official appearance.

Also born on today’s date was Carlton Molesworth, a left-hander who logged a 14.63 ERA while appearing in four games for the Washington Senators in 1895. A teenager when he took the mound in the majors, Molesworth subsequently played 17 seasons in the minors as an outfielder, suiting up for teams including the Binghamton Bingos, Schenectady Electricians, and Shamokin Coal Heavers.

Slicker Parks had a humble MLB career. Appearing in 10 games for the Detroit Tigers in 1921, the right-hander from Dallas Township, Michigan went 3-2 with a 5.68 ERA over 25-and-a-third frames. He fared far better down on the farm. In 1926, Parks went 19-14 with the International League’s Jersey City Skeeters.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone, and welcome to the first mailbag of spring training. It’s fitting that this annual day of love coincides with the return of baseball, because all of us are madly in love with this sport. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be spending part of your Saturday reading a Members-only mailbag on a website dedicated exclusively to covering our game. Really, baseball is the game of love. Our fandom begins as passionate affair, and then like any lasting relationship, it requires daily commitment, growing stronger over time. It rewards patience, hard work, and finding joy in both the mundane and the extraordinary. It isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. How can you not be romantic about baseball?

Speaking of love, nobody I know loves college baseball like Michael Baumann. With Friday marking the start of the college season, he previewed the action to come in two pieces. First, he ran through the seven college teams you need to know in 2026, and then went deep on what he dubbed, “The Ridiculous Firewagon Offenses of College Baseball.” The opening of spring camps also means it’s Prospect Week here at FanGraphs. If you missed any of our coverage, you can find Eric Longenhagen’s audit of our 2019 Top 100 list, David Laurila’s interviews with Cardinals assistant GM Rob Cerfolio and Padres assistant director of player development Mike Daly about their respective farm systems, Brendan Gawlowski’s reflections on what he learned from his worst scouting report during his time as a Pirates pro scout, and Eric’s updated 2026 draft rankings. Early next week, we’ll have our Top 100 Prospects list, as well as those from both ZiPS and OOPSY, along with fantasy rankings and plenty of other prospect coverage. So be sure to come back to the site to check it all out.

That’s the last you’ll read about love and Prospect Week in this week’s mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions about the cost of 1.0 WAR, the legality of a dog playing first base, the number of balls players hit in their careers, and whether a full team of free agents could beat the Rockies. Before we do, though, 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. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring (training) has sprung, and with it comes another chock-full-of-transactions Matrix Reloaded. I’ll keep the weekly roundups going as long as the transaction gods give me things to write about, but the free agent market is all but completely picked over now. As always, summary statistics can be found at the bottom of the Matrix.

A Panoply of Primary Pitchers

With so many starting pitchers signing in the past week, I’ll structure this opening section a little differently than usual, going over each pitcher/team combo in a vacuum and then rounding up which teams could still use starters and who’s left to be signed.

Orioles Sign Chris Bassitt for One Year, $18.5 Million

• Davy Andrews’ Write-Up of the Deal
• Updated Roster Projection
• Updated Payroll Projection

In my head, the Orioles went from being “the team likeliest to sign Framber Valdez” to “well, maybe they’re content with their rotation options because I’m not sure there’s a big enough upgrade left now” to “well, how do they sort this all out with Bassitt?” Nobody deserves to get bumped from the rotation if the sextet of Bassitt, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz, Zach Eflin, and Dean Kremer all make it out of spring training healthy, so it’s no surprise that a six-man rotation is on the table. Read the rest of this entry »

While winning three World Series with the Dodgers, Max Muncy and Enrique Hernández have both made their marks in October, with the former setting the franchise record for postseason home runs (16) and the latter doing so for games played (92). Both will remain in Dodger Blue for awhile longer, with a chance to increase those totals — and chase a third consecutive championship. On Thursday, a day ahead of their pitchers and catchers reporting to Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers announced that Muncy has agreed to an extension for 2027, and that Hernández, a free agent, will again return to the fold. A day earlier, Los Angeles announced that it had re-signed righty Evan Phillips, who missed last year’s postseason run due to Tommy John surgery and was non-tendered in November. Amid the ensuing roster crunch, the Dodgers designated catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment for the second time this winter, and traded previously DFA’d lefty Anthony Banda to the Twins for international bonus money.

That’s a lot to pick through, creating ripples up and down the roster. We’ll start with Muncy, who with the retirement of Clayton Kershaw is now the longest-tenured Dodger, having joined the team in 2018. The 35-year-old slugger was already signed for 2026, because in November the Dodgers picked up the $10 million option on his previous two-year, $24 million extension. His new contract — his fourth extension in the past six years, all of them so team-friendly that he’s never had a base salary above $13.5 million — guarantees him another $10 million, with $7 million for his 2027 salary and another $3 million as a buyout for a $10 million club option for ’28.

Those are bargain prices given the production and track record of Muncy, who has evolved from a cast-off by the A’s into a two-time All-Star and a pillar of the Dodgers lineup. While he was limited to 100 games in 2025 due to a bone bruise in his left knee — suffered on July 2, moments before Kershaw notched his 3,000th career strikeout — and then an oblique strain in mid-August, he hit .243/.376/.470 with 19 home runs in 388 plate appearances. Both his 137 wRC+ and 2.9 WAR were his highest since his All-Star 2021 campaign, but hardly out of character. Limited to 73 games in 2024 due to an oblique strain and a displaced rib, he hit .232/.358/.494 (133 wRC+) with 15 homers and 2.3 WAR in just 293 plate appearances. Read the rest of this entry »