Around Baseball 2025

[hanton]

Great interview, 

Syndergaard opens up here on his struggles trying to get back to being an elite pitcher.   You can really sense he's hurting...

 

[Jonn]

As soon as Jon Gray is a free agent. Minor League deal and let Pete Walker try to fix him.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Jonn said:

As soon as Jon Gray is a free agent. Minor League deal and let Pete Walker try to fix him.

Start by getting him a haircut. Dude looks like joe dirt

[GoBlue41]

Thankfully Hou, Sea, Bos and Det all lost today. Unfortunately the Yanks won and gained a game in the standings. Houston and Detroit are starting a series tomorrow. Who should Jays fans be rooting for?? 

[Terminator]

Red Sox dumpster diving for Nats castoffs after making minimal moves at the deadline

[G-Snarls]

4 hours ago, GoBlue41 said:

Thankfully Hou, Sea, Bos and Det all lost today. Unfortunately the Yanks won and gained a game in the standings. Houston and Detroit are starting a series tomorrow. Who should Jays fans be rooting for?? 

Detroit 

All that matters is being division winner 1 or 2 so buyring the Astros even further back would be best 

[Masterbather]

5 hours ago, Terminator said:

Red Sox dumpster diving for Nats castoffs after making minimal moves at the deadline

He's been a pretty good player from 2021 to 2024. Don't know what happened to him this year, maybe just some bad luck? There's no real risk for them. Maybe playing in a situation that matters will revive him a bit.

Could work out real well as a platoon option at first.

[glory]

I'm pretty sure Paul Beeston would come out of retirement to demand the Jays remain in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox, but you would think with 32 teams and presumably four 4 team divisions in each league, that the Jays would probably be geographically realigned with the Tigers rather than the Yankees/Red Sox. 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, glory said:

I'm pretty sure Paul Beeston would come out of retirement to demand the Jays remain in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox, but you would think with 32 teams and presumably four 4 team divisions in each league, that the Jays would probably be geographically realigned with the Tigers rather than the Yankees/Red Sox. 

Geographically, the Jays should be realigned with Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago. 

[John_Havok]

3 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Geographically, the Jays should be realigned with Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago. 

Time zones will play into it as well. You wouldn't want a division where half of the teams are in different time zone than the others.

[jaysblue]

American League:

East Coast:

Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Rays 

Great Lakes:

Blue Jays, Tigers, Guardians, White Sox

Midwest:

Twins, Royals, Astros, Rangers

Pacific Coast:

Angels, Mariners, Athletics, expansion team (Salt Lake City or Portland)

 

National League:

East Coast:

Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Marlins

Great Lakes:

Pirates, Brewers, Cubs, Reds

Midwest:

Cardinals, Braves, Rockies, expansion team (Nashville)

Pacific Coast:

Dodgers, Padres, Giants, D'Backs

 

Meh, just off the top of my head if they went to 4 divisions. You might be able to reshuffle some AL and NL teams. 

 

 

[jaysblue]

11 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Time zones will play into it as well. You wouldn't want a division where half of the teams are in different time zone than the others.

Only Chicago would be in a different time zone correct? 1 hour difference. 

Detroit and Cleveland are the same time zone as Toronto. 

If they moved an NL team into the AL, Pittsburgh would actually be better than Chicago. A division of Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Each team is like a 5-6 hour drive from each other haha. 

[Laika]

Thing with Toronto is the flights are so short anywhere on the east coast 

Cleveland/Detroit - 1 hours 15 minutes
Baltimore/New York/Boston - 1 hour 40 minutes
Chicago - 1 hour 55 minutes
Tampa - 2 hours 50 minutes

It doesn't seem to matter much for the Jays. If they end up in a division that does not have Boston, New York, or Tampa or Baltimore, it will be because of travel from the OTHER team's perspective. But most of the northeastern teams don't have heavy travel loads as far as I remember. The teams that get screwed are mostly west coast teams.

[Brownie19]

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40K likes, 730 comments - jomboymedia on August 17, 2025: "That’ll be a suspension for sure".

Victor Robles casually throwing his bat at the pitcher after being plunked (again and again) on a minor league rehab assignment.

Yikes

 

 

[glory]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Geographically, the Jays should be realigned with Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago. 

I think Tigers, Guardians, and Pirates makes more sense. Not sure what Manfred has in mind, but it wouldn't surprise me if the traditional AL/NL alignment is abolished in order to focus on location. With a balanced schedule and every team playing each other now, the traditional AL/NL set up is essentially pointless. Might see a division with the Mets and Yankees in it, and Dodgers and Angels, etc. 

[Terminator]

6 hours ago, Masterbather said:

He's been a pretty good player from 2021 to 2024. Don't know what happened to him this year, maybe just some bad luck? There's no real risk for them. Maybe playing in a situation that matters will revive him a bit.

Could work out real well as a platoon option at first.

He should be an upgrade over the below replacement level stuff they've been running out there

But they are a joke for dumpster diving instead of making actual trades

[Terminator]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/is-all-hope-lost-for-the-atlanta-braves/

The gist of the article is that the Braves only project for 79 wins next season and will need to spend big in FA next year to right the ship. But they haven't spent big in FA in quite some time.

Meanwhile, the Ross Atkins' led Blue Jays have the best record in the American League.

Dumping that chubby idiot AA was the best move Shapiro has made.

[Laika]

24 minutes ago, Terminator said:

He should be an upgrade over the below replacement level stuff they've been running out there

But they are a joke for dumpster diving instead of making actual trades

Extremely pathetic to:

1. Think a -0.8 fWAR 1B upgrades your roster on August 18th AND
2. Make no trade for a bat at the recent deadline 

They are admitting they have a black hole at least on one side of a platoon and they didn't trade for a bat. LMAO. 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, glory said:

I think Tigers, Guardians, and Pirates makes more sense. Not sure what Manfred has in mind, but it wouldn't surprise me if the traditional AL/NL alignment is abolished in order to focus on location. With a balanced schedule and every team playing each other now, the traditional AL/NL set up is essentially pointless. Might see a division with the Mets and Yankees in it, and Dodgers and Angels, etc. 

Yeah agree Pirates make more sense than the White Sox.

Definitely would be a very cool division. Would be fun to have two away series every season in Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for driving purposes. 

[jaysblue]

47 minutes ago, Terminator said:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/is-all-hope-lost-for-the-atlanta-braves/

The gist of the article is that the Braves only project for 79 wins next season and will need to spend big in FA next year to right the ship. But they haven't spent big in FA in quite some time.

Meanwhile, the Ross Atkins' led Blue Jays have the best record in the American League.

Dumping that chubby idiot AA was the best move Shapiro has made.

How many wins were the Jays projected to win in 2025 at the end of last year? Vegas I think had them at 77 or 78. One of my friends made the bet with the over, and is going to cash in soon. 

Atlanta was hit with a lot of injuries this season combined with some mixed results offensively from their star players like Riley, Albies and Harris. 

If healthy and if players play to their expectations (most are still under 30 so not unreasonable to expect), they should be back to being a competitive team in the NL East. 

They will have to be active this offseason whether they spend via free agency or get creative on the trade front. Again, a lot will depend on the health of their core guys, though they will have to add in order to make further improvements. 

From what I read, Dylan Cease is from the Atlanta area and has always wanted to pitch for the Braves. We'll see however if the Braves open up their wallets for him. 

As for their rotation, it's still very solid with a healthy Sale, Schwellenbach, and if Strider returns to his elite form. The rest of the rotation is rounded out with Lopez, Holmes and Hurston Waldrep (who has looked really good thus far). Tough break on losing AJ Smith-Shawver to TJS. Adding a top arm like Cease would definitely negate the risk in the rotation. 

If Vegas is giving you 79 wins for the over/under, would definitely bet the over. 

 

 

[Terminator]

24 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

How many wins were the Jays projected to win in 2025 at the end of last year? Vegas I think had them at 77 or 78. One of my friends made the bet with the over, and is going to cash in soon. 

Atlanta was hit with a lot of injuries this season combined with some mixed results offensively from their star players like Riley, Albies and Harris. 

If healthy and if players play to their expectations (most are still under 30 so not unreasonable to expect), they should be back to being a competitive team in the NL East. 

They will have to be active this offseason whether they spend via free agency or get creative on the trade front. Again, a lot will depend on the health of their core guys, though they will have to add in order to make further improvements. 

From what I read, Dylan Cease is from the Atlanta area and has always wanted to pitch for the Braves. We'll see however if the Braves open up their wallets for him. 

As for their rotation, it's still very solid with a healthy Sale, Schwellenbach, and if Strider returns to his elite form. The rest of the rotation is rounded out with Lopez, Holmes and Hurston Waldrep (who has looked really good thus far). Tough break on losing AJ Smith-Shawver to TJS. Adding a top arm like Cease would definitely negate the risk in the rotation. 

If Vegas is giving you 79 wins for the over/under, would definitely bet the over. 

 

 

Uh oh it looks like I struck a nerve with the AA Fanboys on this one!

Sure, 79 wins might be too low but beating that total by a few games isn't going to do them any good when the high spending Mets and Phillies are projecting for far more. 

In other words, this was supposed to be a potential dynasty that rivaled the Dodgers.

2 years and zero playoff wins later and we are talking about them being a decent bet to finish over .500 because AA teams are always paper thin. Sad!

[Brownie19]

I wonder if the Braves will decline Albies options and let him walk.  For $7M they won't, but he's been pretty awful over his last 1000 PA's.

Riley's now declined for the 3rd straight season and is locked up until 2032.  Michael Harris has also now declined for the 3rd straight season and is locked up until 2030.  Harris probably needs a chance of scenery at this point.

Murphy may never return to his former self and he's locked up until 2028.

Murphy's decline is almost certainly due to injuries, but it's wild to see the other 3 just drop off so much.  AA received a lot of accolades for all the core players he locked up and while most signed for below the expected AAV values (to his credit), it does look like some of them may became anchors.  It's too bad, because it looked like a dynasty in the making.

And while it won't impact the Braves future, is Kelenic and Verdugo finished now?  That's pretty wild.

[Laika]

Players like Albies, Olson, Harris, Schwellenbach, Sale, Acuna, etc. could bounce back, get healthy, or stay healthy, but that does not cure the systemic problems that Atlanta has. 

• Poor prospect acquisition. Bottom 3 farm by every evaluator. Learn to draft. 
• Too aggressive RE: pitching development? They rode Reynaldo Lopez so hard on the RP-SP conversion and he broke. Spencer Schwellenbach was promoted like a prodigy and his elbow just broke. Strider, TJS two years after some aggressive promotions. Didier Fuentes - promoted like crazy this year then had his soul broken in MLB. Waldrep and AJSS - fair to ask if their development or health was negatively impacted by aggressive promotions. They are also presently doing it to JR Ritchie who they flew up to AAA after just 8 AA starts following his significant elbow injury. 
• Too traditional RE: position player usage? Do they ride guys too hard? Is it time to modernize and run more platoons, time shares, and maintenance days for veterans? 
• Some of the "too aggressive" idea could apply to bats too. What is Harris like if he gets more MiLB seasoning? How does he age if he does debut so quickly... 
• Front Office has chronic roster depth assembly issues. When Bryce Elder is your SP6, you are going to have a bad time. 

Lots of rotten process going on. It will take a while to fix the prospect pipeline and get a proper assemblage of healthy pitching depth. 

[Brownie19]

Remember how good that farm system was when AA took over?  That was also right when John Coppolella received his lifetime ban for violating the international signing rules.

AA made his mark when he was able to find loopholes in the CBA to rebuild farm teams.  Looks like he needs to find one again. Luckily for the Braves, farm systems can change in a hurry.

I'm an AA fan and I've always had a soft spot for the Braves as I grew up watching TBS while they were in their glory days - so I'm certainly rooting for them to figure it out.

[Brownie19]

Speaking of Lopez and the Braves converting him to a starter, we've seen this happening more and more within baseball over the past 2-3 seasons and we may have our own potential RP conversions on our hands right now in both Hoffman and Varland (although Hoffman seems doubtful at this point?).

The big names to convert over the past 3 years include:

Michael King - there have been some injuries, but he's clearly the #1 success story, now in his 2nd full season as a starter.

Seth Lugo - his transition has been generally positive, although his velo has dropped almost 2 MPH since he converted and his xFIP has risen each season and he frankly hasn't been very good this year (despite a solid ERA).  

Clay Holmes - it's been "OK" so far.  Fastball is down 4 MPH from where it was as a RPer and his xFIP, FIP and xERA are all in the low 4's.

Jordan Hicks - started out as a great success, but he wore out and finished poorly last year and now has been traded and is back in the bullpen.

Reynaldo Lopez - he was great in 2024, but he died in 2025.

I'm probably missing a couple, but those are the ones that come to mind.  Based on this, do we think teams are going to continue to look for RPers they can convert?  Will this trend continue?  

[Laika]

I think it has been a mini market inefficiency and teams will continue to look for it but it might become too popular, like, immediately. 

Not sure I would put King in that bucket. Wasn't his more of a long term rehab thing? 

It's a thing that has always happened at some level. It's more about identifying arms that could do it than jumping on a trend. It will probably always be a trend at some level because our understanding of what makes a good pitcher, and therefore a good SP, changes over time and some teams have differing opinions. 

The Rays do it all the time. E.g., Zack Littell was not starting when TBR acquired him and he became a full time, good SP. When they trade for guys like Bryan Baker I always half expect that to be a SP candidate the next year. Ostensibly Baker has a decent FB, two decent offspeed pitches, and good command. Why not?

CJ Wilson was a huge success conversion 15 years ago. Texas then tried to do it with Neftali Feliz and it ruined his career. A couple of years before that, Ryan Dempster successfully went back into the rotation after 4 years as a RP. Derek Lowe did it even earlier, at 29 years old, with great success.

Shaun Marcum was a full time closer in College and was abruptly converted into a SP in the minors. 

[jaysblue]

3 hours ago, Terminator said:

Uh oh it looks like I struck a nerve with the AA Fanboys on this one!

Sure, 79 wins might be too low but beating that total by a few games isn't going to do them any good when the high spending Mets and Phillies are projecting for far more. 

In other words, this was supposed to be a potential dynasty that rivaled the Dodgers.

2 years and zero playoff wins later and we are talking about them being a decent bet to finish over .500 because AA teams are always paper thin. Sad!

[jaysblue]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Speaking of Lopez and the Braves converting him to a starter, we've seen this happening more and more within baseball over the past 2-3 seasons and we may have our own potential RP conversions on our hands right now in both Hoffman and Varland (although Hoffman seems doubtful at this point?).

The big names to convert over the past 3 years include:

Michael King - there have been some injuries, but he's clearly the #1 success story, now in his 2nd full season as a starter.

Seth Lugo - his transition has been generally positive, although his velo has dropped almost 2 MPH since he converted and his xFIP has risen each season and he frankly hasn't been very good this year (despite a solid ERA).  

Clay Holmes - it's been "OK" so far.  Fastball is down 4 MPH from where it was as a RPer and his xFIP, FIP and xERA are all in the low 4's.

Jordan Hicks - started out as a great success, but he wore out and finished poorly last year and now has been traded and is back in the bullpen.

Reynaldo Lopez - he was great in 2024, but he died in 2025.

I'm probably missing a couple, but those are the ones that come to mind.  Based on this, do we think teams are going to continue to look for RPers they can convert?  Will this trend continue?  

Cardinals are considering Kyle Leachy for the rotation next season I read. 

Not sure if there are any free agent BP arms this offseason who are open to converting to a starter. 

Kelvim Escobar with the Jays came up as a starter and then went to the pen and then the Jays tried him as a starter again in 2003, and he found success after later that season and with the Angels afterwards. 

[jaysblue]

3 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

I wonder if the Braves will decline Albies options and let him walk.  For $7M they won't, but he's been pretty awful over his last 1000 PA's.

Riley's now declined for the 3rd straight season and is locked up until 2032.  Michael Harris has also now declined for the 3rd straight season and is locked up until 2030.  Harris probably needs a chance of scenery at this point.

Murphy may never return to his former self and he's locked up until 2028.

Murphy's decline is almost certainly due to injuries, but it's wild to see the other 3 just drop off so much.  AA received a lot of accolades for all the core players he locked up and while most signed for below the expected AAV values (to his credit), it does look like some of them may became anchors.  It's too bad, because it looked like a dynasty in the making.

And while it won't impact the Braves future, is Kelenic and Verdugo finished now?  That's pretty wild.

Austin Riley could be the biggest disappointment. 5+ WAR player for three straight years from 2021-2023 and now he looks more like a 2-3 WAR guy the past two seasons. Injuries haven't helped, and he's still young (28) to right the ship, but yeah his decline is a big worry. 

Murphy has produced 2.3 WAR this season so far despite the very poor offensive numbers and luckily the Braves have Drake Baldwin who looks like their No. 1 option behind the plate. Murphy defensively still is really good. I'm guessing the Braves will go with a timeshare behind the plate again in 2026. 

Harris is still just 24 damn haha. Could be a change of scenery guy. He's been starting to turn it around with the bat as of late, but yeah hasn't come close to being the 4-5 WAR player he was in his first two seasons. 

[Brownie19]

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22K likes, 928 comments - jomboymedia on August 13, 2025: "Not great (via @js9innings)".

Yikes - is CBB the new Angel Hernandez?