Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Astros pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training tomorrow. The team's roster remains jumbled as camp is soon to get underway. They're still heavily right-handed and have an arguable surplus of infielders with an unimposing outfield mix. Trading an infielder, especially Isaac Paredes, has been the most speculated avenue to balancing the roster. General manager Dana Brown has repeatedly said the Astros aren't motivated to do so.

Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson won his arbitration hearing against the team, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He'll earn the $6.8MM figure submitted by his reps at ACES rather than the $6.55MM figure submitted by the team.

For pitchers, though, it was all over the place. Sometimes one system clearly did better than the others, but more to the point, pitchers had breakouts and lost seasons that deviated from their central estimate (or even their distribution, insofar as I could generate or infer it) more often. Why this dichotomy? My guess - an educated guess based on me tinkering with IWAG to little avail - is that hitters

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on their victory, but all they and the New England Patriots proved is that sometimes the big game is nothing but a big boring slog. Especially compared to the 2025 World Series in which the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers told a story full of drama, excitement and memorable moments over a seven game series that went down to the wire.

The Rays and veteran righty Nick Martinez are in agreement on a deal, per Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Boras Corporation client's deal is pending a physical. Martinez is the second free agent swingman whom the Rays have added this offseason. They signed lefty Steven Matz to a two-year, $15MM deal at the Winter Meetings.

Rays fans have been waiting two years to see Shane McClanahan on a big-league mound. The electric lefty missed all of 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then lost another season to a nerve issue in his triceps. McLanahan is on track to be ready for the 2026 campaign, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, though the southpaw will likely have his workload capped in some fashion.

One area with a range of potential outcomes is the rotation. The group performed quite well in 2025, placing eighth in the league with a combined 13.5 fWAR. and Carlos Rodón were the biggest reasons for that success. Fried excelled in a career-high 195 1/3 innings, showcasing his signature control and groundball tendencies en route to a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young voting.

Back in 2018, the Mexican catcher signed for a bonus of $100,000 with the San Diego Padres. He had a few solid seasons out west, finishing the 2021 season with a 122 wRC+, and hitting a career-high 10 home runs in 2022, but the switch-hitter was always known as a glove-first catcher. He got a cup of tea in Triple-A during the 2024 season, but mainly played the 2025 season in Double-A when he was in the Padres organization.

Scott Hennesy will take the helm for the his second season with the Comets in 2026. On his staff are bench coach Joe Thon, hitting coach Dylan Nasiatka, outfield coach David Dahl, pitching coaches David Anderson and Ryan Dennick, bullpen coach KJ Hallgren, development associate Tyler Hollow, performance coaches Paul Fournier and Ethan Quarles, head athletic trainer Griffin Boyte and athletic trainer Josh DiLoreto.

The Brewers signed Jacob Hurtubise to a minor league deal earlier this week, according to the outfielder's MLB.com profile page. Hurtubise has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville, and his contract doesn't appear to include an invitation to the Brew Crew's big league spring camp. An undrafted free agent who started his pro career by signing with the Reds in 2020, Hurtubise has appeared in 41 MLB games, all with Cincinnati over the last two seasons.

On February 7, 1987, Orel Hershiser signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $800,000, taking a pay cut of 20% from his previous season's salary. It was only the second time since MLB implemented the rule that a player takes less pay due to salary arbitration. During the first Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB and the Players Association in 1968, the max salary reduction allowed was set at 20%.

Born in a Montréal suburb, Pitre attended Félix-Leclerc Secondary School and went undrafted in his first season of eligibility. Honouring his commitment to the University of Kentucky, the middle infielder appeared in just 11 games in his freshman season. He got more playing time in 2023, slashing .318/.440/.413 with a home run in 281 plate appearances for a 104 wRC+.