Around Baseball 2026

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Oh vomit.

$18.5M on a 1 year deal for Bassitt - good coin for him, but you just know he's going to be dealin' when he faces us.

Nah. Jays will pound him out of the by the 3rd inning.

[Spanky__99]

8 hours ago, Jonn said:

Bassit to the Orioles feels weird.

Bassitt man?

 

[jaysblue]

I don't know why, but kind of had a feeling Bassitt would sign with Baltimore. 

Was hoping for the Athletics, since they could have used an innings eater like him and he would have been a nice fit there. 

[Jonn]

13 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Bassitt man?

 

Sorry little bro. I was so disgusted I forgot a T my bad.

[max silver]

14 hours ago, jaysblue said:

I don't know why, but kind of had a feeling Bassitt would sign with Baltimore. 

Was hoping for the Athletics, since they could have used an innings eater like him and he would have been a nice fit there. 

Orioles had a nice little offseason, albeit a year later than they should have given the wasted 2025 season. The AL East looks to be a complete dogfight for the upcoming season as I expect everyone save for the Rays to be highly competitive. 

[max silver]

22 hours ago, Stangstag said:

I am disgusted 

I'm actually surprised he managed to pass the notoriously difficult Orioles physical.

[Spanky__99]

Brew Crew sign Rengifo

Gallen back to the DBacks

Both 1 year deals

[Brownie19]

Rengifo for $3.5M.  Seems like he's a reasonable gamble to rebound and provide a little offense?  He was solid 2022-2024. Balls last year. Only 29?

[Brownie19]

2 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Rengifo for $3.5M.  Seems like he's a reasonable gamble to rebound and provide a little offense?  He was solid 2022-2024. Balls last year. Only 29?

Oh my - his numbers under the hood aren't pretty.  How did he ever have B2B seasons with a wRC+ >115?

[Spanky__99]

Gallen's contract is the same as QO money 22M

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, Spanky__99 said:

Gallen's contract is the same as QO money 22M

That seems like a good outcome for both teams. Gallen needs to prove himself and Arizona doesn't have to commit multiple years to a guy who's thrown some big time innings for them - but who might firmly be in the decline stage of his career.

[Laika]

Gallen agreed to $14m being heavily deferred so he lost millions and should have taken the QO 

I was shocked he turned it down. Was brutal last year and his stuff is down big. Poor decision, poorly advised. 

[Spanky__99]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Gallen agreed to $14m being heavily deferred so he lost millions and should have taken the QO 

I was shocked he turned it down. Was brutal last year and his stuff is down big. Poor decision, poorly advised. 

Yikes, reading it now, 14M deferred, could be good still for both sides if last season was a blip. (Doubt it)

 

[BTS]

 

[Pendleton]

 

[BatFlip]

On 2/15/2026 at 9:00 AM, BTS said:

 

This guy is worse than my wife

[John_Havok]

Tony Clark stepping down as the head of the MLB PA... weird timing given the upcoming contract battle

[mphenhef]

31 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Tony Clark stepping down as the head of the MLB PA... weird timing given the upcoming contract battle

Can we get rid of Manfred too while we are at it?  Maybe then we can avoid losing any games.

[glory]

34 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Tony Clark stepping down as the head of the MLB PA... weird timing given the upcoming contract battle

Clark was apparently being investigated for something (didn’t care enough to read up on it) so I’m guessing it’s related to that. Curious to see what kind of impact it has as far as CBA talks. 

[Brownie19]

50 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

Can we get rid of Manfred too while we are at it?  Maybe then we can avoid losing any games.

Do we think Manfred is doing a bad job?  I think he's done a pretty good job navigating through the evolution of the game and I'm generally in support of all the rule changes they've made.  

It feels like the game is thriving to the extent possible these days - in a world full of competition.

[BTS]

10 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Do we think Manfred is doing a bad job?  I think he's done a pretty good job navigating through the evolution of the game and I'm generally in support of all the rule changes they've made.  

It feels like the game is thriving to the extent possible these days - in a world full of competition.

I kind of agree with this. I don't think he's been bad for the game. As long as he doesn't lose games in 2027. 

[BTS]

Torn UCL for Pablo Lopez 

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, glory said:

Clark was apparently being investigated for something (didn’t care enough to read up on it) so I’m guessing it’s related to that. Curious to see what kind of impact it has as far as CBA talks. 

Ooooh yeah. Something to do with giving himself equity in a program and improperly disclosing money going somewhere....im fuzzy on the details

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, mphenhef said:

Can we get rid of Manfred too while we are at it?  Maybe then we can avoid losing any games.

Manfred has done as good a job as can be expected really. As long as he doesnt lose games in 2027 his record is about as good as it gets

[Spanky__99]

13 minutes ago, BTS said:

Torn UCL for Pablo Lopez 

Ughh...

 

[glory]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Do we think Manfred is doing a bad job?  I think he's done a pretty good job navigating through the evolution of the game and I'm generally in support of all the rule changes they've made.  

It feels like the game is thriving to the extent possible these days - in a world full of competition.

Yeah I think Manfred has mostly done really well, especially post 2020. A lot of his legacy is going to come down to this year's CBA negotiations and what type of media deal he can secure heading into 2029 (which may finally end blackouts), but as far as what he's done for the game the last few years, it's been almost entirely positive. Where the game is now vs 10 years ago is pretty drastic (in a good way). 

[mphenhef]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Do we think Manfred is doing a bad job?  I think he's done a pretty good job navigating through the evolution of the game and I'm generally in support of all the rule changes they've made.  

It feels like the game is thriving to the extent possible these days - in a world full of competition.

I think Manfred is set on some things in this upcoming CBA that he is far too willing to lose games over, which scares me.

As for his record:

* Two of the biggest issues in baseball when he started were the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa.  both of those teams played in minor league stadiums last year.   Oakland no longer had a team and Tampa has no resolution in sight.

* He's got 9 teams with their media rights now under MLB. We'll see how this holds up.  He has stated a goal to get control of all 30.  Does he really think the big teams are going to give back their local TV rights for whatever Manfred wants to do with it.  I can't see that happening.

* He was commissioner during the Astros cheating scandal and I would argue did not handle the punishments well.  Perhaps this was so wide spread there wasn't much to be done.

* He completely gutted the minor leagues removing over a quarter of the affiliates.

* The rule changes.  I think for the most part these have been good for the game of baseball so I'll give him that.  I would have liked to see shifting stay around as I'm a firm believer we would have had youth who grew up playing against shifts become better batters in order to beat it and it would have led to a better game long term.  

Yes, he's done good, but it hasn't been all good.

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

I think Manfred is set on some things in this upcoming CBA that he is far too willing to lose games over, which scares me.

As for his record:

* Two of the biggest issues in baseball when he started were the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa.  both of those teams played in minor league stadiums last year.   Oakland no longer had a team and Tampa has no resolution in sight.

* He's got 9 teams with their media rights now under MLB. We'll see how this holds up.  He has stated a goal to get control of all 30.  Does he really think the big teams are going to give back their local TV rights for whatever Manfred wants to do with it.  I can't see that happening.

* He was commissioner during the Astros cheating scandal and I would argue did not handle the punishments well.  Perhaps this was so wide spread there wasn't much to be done.

* He completely gutted the minor leagues removing over a quarter of the affiliates.

* The rule changes.  I think for the most part these have been good for the game of baseball so I'll give him that.  I would have liked to see shifting stay around as I'm a firm believer we would have had youth who grew up playing against shifts become better batters in order to beat it and it would have led to a better game long term.  

Yes, he's done good, but it hasn't been all good.

I don't think anyone said everything he has done was good. 

It's also not his job to handle Oakland and Tampa stadium deals. 

I think the trimming of the minor league teams was great. The bloatin at the very bottom end of the minors, specifically rookie level leagues was pretty bad. Nobody needed a complex team and 2 rookie level affiliates plus more DSL teams.

Individual negatives aside, the game as a whole is in a much healthier and lucrative place for both the owners and the players since the start of his tenure, and fans are taking it in in greater numbers.  

 

For context, the same could be said for Selig... and he was the biggest, scum-sucking POS human to be commissioner. Manfred presents at least somewhat likeable. 

[Terminator]

I think Manfred has done a pretty good job. Everyone hates him and I think his PR sucks but maybe he just doesn't care and is glad to absorb the hits for the owners.

Casuals seem to hate him more than most. I think the Dodgers spending and his handling of the Astros scandal are probably the two biggest reasons? Maybe the A's leaving too? Moving the All-Star game out of GA over politics (don't worry I just reported myself) was stupid but that's been mostly forgotten. 

I think the rules changes have been great though. Sped up the game without fundamentally changing it. Modern audiences can enjoy it again.

His legacy as commish is going to come down to this next labor deal though and how he handles it. Seems like the owners might finally have some momentum on their side and we will see how they choose to use it.

[max silver]

11 minutes ago, Terminator said:

I think Manfred has done a pretty good job. Everyone hates him and I think his PR sucks but maybe he just doesn't care and is glad to absorb the hits for the owners.

Casuals seem to hate him more than most. I think the Dodgers spending and his handling of the Astros scandal are probably the two biggest reasons? Maybe the A's leaving too? Moving the All-Star game out of GA over politics (don't worry I just reported myself) was stupid but that's been mostly forgotten. 

I think the rules changes have been great though. Sped up the game without fundamentally changing it. Modern audiences can enjoy it again.

His legacy as commish is going to come down to this next labor deal though and how he handles it. Seems like the owners might finally have some momentum on their side and we will see how they choose to use it.

I think that Manfred tends to suffer from the same types of issues as Ross Atkins. They are both lacking in ability to speak to the press without pissing off a good chunk of the fanbase, and as such I think each of these guys takes a lot more flak than they deserve based on the results they've delivered.