#prospects

#prospects

The final date that teams can add internal players to the roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft is set for November 18th, just a few days away. Last year, Toronto decided to protect nobody and selected Angel Bastardo, who spent the entire season on the IL while he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery. The only casualty from the Jays' side was Garrett Spain, who was taken in the Minor League portion by the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's a logical target for the club. The outfield in Kansas City has been a weak spot for years. 2025 was no exception. The team's outfielders had a collective .225/.285/.348 batting line this year. That resulted in a 73 wRC+, indicating the club's outfield group was 27% worse than league average. That was easily the worst mark in the majors, with the Guardians' jardineros second-last with a wRC+ of 77.

The Washington Wizards have quietly positioned themselves as one of the most intriguing rebuilding teams in one offseason alone. Looking at the young pieces on the roster, headlined by Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, Bilal Coulibaly and now Kyshawn George as the top prospects on the roster. And that's not even mentioning players like Bub Carrington, Tristan Vukcevic, Will Riley and newly acquired Cam Whitmore.

The catching position in Tampa has been a revolving door for many years now. Mike Zunino got the majority of the playing time back there in the 2019 to 2022 stretch but his performance tailed off in the final year of that span. In 2023, the Rays used Francisco Mejia, Christian Bethancourt and without any of those three taking firm hold of the job.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias to discuss... Elias's promotion from general manager to president of baseball operations (1:45) Why the Orioles underperformed in 2025 (3:30) The club's lack of investment in free agent pitching (5:25) The decision making about playing time for prospects when they don't find immediate big league success (9:20)

Tyler Toffoli assisted on Klingberg's power play goal at the 7:18 mark of the second period that gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Michael Misa, taken second overall by the Sharks at the NHL Draft in June, took the faceoff to start the power play and Toffoli retrieved the puck to the right of the Golden Knights' net. He then sent it to the point for Klingberg, who skated toward the middle of the ice before his shot got past Vegas goalie Carl Lindbom.

While they have almost certainly lost any chance of getting the second best odds and are 3.0 games back of the third best odds, they maintain some separation between the teams "behind" them and remain with the fourth best odds. There is a fairly significant drop-off from the fourth best odds to the fifth, and certainly to the seventh, so that would be a good position to stay in for the rest of the season.

Could (insert pitching prospect here) be the first front-of-the-rotation arm that the Red Sox have drafted and developed since Jon Lester? A question that I, and countless others, have uttered thousands of times in recent years now applies to Payton Tolle. For the first time, that question feels like it could be a "Yes," last night's results notwithstanding. But how many times have we been reeled in by that possibility over the last 20 years?