Around Baseball 2026

[John_Havok]

31 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

The Craig Carton Show (@thecraigcartonshow) • Instagram reel

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

---

2,879 likes, 142 comments - thecraigcartonshow on February 17, 2026: "THE PHILLIES SIGNED AN 11 YEAR...

Maybe this was already posted and I missed it, but how the heck is this allowed?

 

 

Its not a formal contract, it's an agree to sign when he turns 16. it's totally non-binding. They're just agreeing now to pay him 1.8 million in 2031. Just like all the other teams that already have informal agreements with kids before they turn 16.

 

[Jays24]

On 3/5/2026 at 1:43 PM, Brownie19 said:

For the love of god, please stop.

[mphenhef]

On 3/5/2026 at 11:08 AM, Spanky__99 said:

Ughh... this article right?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7073024/2026/02/27/blue-jays-2026-season-game-7-world-series/

That was such a good, yet painful read.

[Spanky__99]

Wait what...

Isaiah Carranza, a former prospect with the White Sox, just sued the team claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine ended his career 

[Jimcanuck]

7 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Wait what...

Isaiah Carranza, a former prospect with the White Sox, just sued the team claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine ended his career 

good luck with that!

[jaysblue]

On 3/8/2026 at 3:46 PM, Spanky__99 said:

Wait what...

Isaiah Carranza, a former prospect with the White Sox, just sued the team claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine ended his career 

Hope he wins the case. 

[G-Snarls]

https://www.postguam.com/sports/nation/hall-of-fame-cap-saga-finally-ends-for-cubs-great-andre-dawson/article_b080b8f1-89be-43b2-bef8-a95f97972980.html

-

Wtf 

Dawson wants a Cubs hat instead of an Expos one and would rather it be blank if he can't have it?

[Pendleton]

Coulombe is a pretty solid add for the BoSox at just 1M, they didn't have a proven lefty RP besides Chapman 

[mphenhef]

4 hours ago, Pendleton said:

Coulombe is a pretty solid add for the BoSox at just 1M, they didn't have a proven lefty RP besides Chapman 

I wish the Jays had signed that deal and figured out how to make it work on the roster.

[Spanky__99]

Dodgerland, Brewers up 24-9 lol

 

[Laika]

Interesting figure. I can't read the full article on Sportico (paywalled) but the Jays had a revenue surge in 2025 and are trending up, now top 5 or 6 in making money and closing the gap with the Yankees. Keep it going! Sky is the f***ing limit. 

 

[Spanky__99]

Cole pitched in a game for the first time since TJS, peaked at 98.7 MPH...👀 

[philly30]

On 3/18/2026 at 12:33 PM, Laika said:

Interesting figure. I can't read the full article on Sportico (paywalled) but the Jays had a revenue surge in 2025 and are trending up, now top 5 or 6 in making money and closing the gap with the Yankees. Keep it going! Sky is the f***ing limit. 

 

I am not getting a paywall, here it is

Major League Baseball is riding a wave of momentum with three years of attendance gains, soaring TV ratings, a crop of young stars and expanded global appeal. The 2023 rule changes to speed up the game have received near universal acclaim.

Yet, the sport also faces an existential crisis, with a three-headed monster of intertwined issues in revenue disparity, the future of media distribution and a looming labor crisis that hardliners warn will cancel the 2027 season.

Investors recognize the choppy waters ahead for MLB but are increasingly betting on the long-term economic prospects of the sport, as witnessed by a series of control and LP transactions during the past 12 months. That helped push the average franchise value up 12% to $3.17 billion, based on conversations with team executives, bankers, lawyers and investors familiar with team transactions. It is the biggest year-over-year franchise value gain for MLB since Sportico’s baseball valuations launched in 2021, as investors see the value proposition baseball offers relative to other sports team prices.

The one-year gain still trails the recent increases in the other major sports leagues; the NFL ($7.1 billion average) and NBA ($5.5 billion) are both up 20%, and the NHL ($2.1 billion) rose 17%. The WNBA ($269 million) and NWSL ($184 million) are in a very different growth stage, with 180% and 77% gains, respectively.

The New York Yankees are No. 1 for the sixth straight year at $9.4 billion, including their stake in the YES Network and other related business. It is a 12% gain, but the Dodgers continue to narrow the gap behind them, with their value up 17% to $9.05 billion—the Yankees’ value was 46% higher than the Dodgers in 2021, and the difference is now just 4%.

Rounding out the top five are the Boston Red Sox ($6.65 billion), Chicago Cubs ($6.48 billion) and San Francisco Giants ($4.36 billion). These estimates are based on a control transaction versus an LP deal. The 30 teams are collectively worth $95 billion, including real estate and related businesses, such as The Battery in Atlanta.

Click for a ranking of all 30 teams or a data visualization comparing MLB teams to other pro sports franchises.

 

MLB Economics

MLB teams generated an estimated $13.1 billion last year, including non-MLB revenue where team owners operate or own the stadiums. It was up only 3% from the prior year, as the trouble at RSNs dinged overall growth. Big market teams, such as the Yankees and Red Sox, continue to earn hefty rights fees, but financial troubles at what is now Main Street Sports cut local media revenue for many clubs in the bottom half of the valuations table. Overall local cable revenue for the 30 clubs fell roughly 10% in 2025.

Team sponsorships was the best performing major revenue category for last year, rising an estimated 10% to $1.8 billion. Ticketing and national revenue both rose low single-digit percentages.

Baseball was the sport most reliant on RSN rights fees, so teams have been significantly impacted by the meltdown. RSNs were built on the backs of MLB’s massive inventory of 162 games per club. Cable revenue represented 23% of team revenue in 2021 but fell to 16% last year.

The markets that lost their cable deals have been buffered to a degree by MLB’s revenue-sharing system. The transfer of revenue to small clubs has skyrocketed in recent years, with $630 million paid out by the top clubs last year, up from $550 million. The Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays and Athletics had the three lowest attendances in the sport and all received roughly $75 million. The Chicago White Sox had the fourth-lowest attendance but are disqualified from receiving revenue-sharing proceeds based on their big-market status, which puts them at the bottom of MLB’s revenue rankings.

Small market teams also benefitted from spending by the richest franchises—nine teams paid $403 million in luxury tax penalties last season, led by the Dodgers at $169 million. Half of that money is distributed to the clubs that hit revenue growth metrics defined in the CBA but did not exceed the competitive balance tax (CBT). The revenue sharing and CBT payouts mean that most small market clubs turned a profit, while several big market clubs, including the Mets and Phillies, were deep in the red.

The Dodgers, who kicked in about $175 million last year towards revenue sharing, will be on the hook for more than $200 million in 2026, based on the formula that factors in the most recent three years of revenue. The team generated gross revenue of $1.1 billion last year, a threshold previously only hit by the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and LaLiga’s Real Madrid among sports teams. Shohei Ohtani, who has won NL MVP the last two years and led the team to back-to-back World Series wins, has boosted the club’s sponsorship revenue, which should top $200 million this year. Several of Ohtani’s personal sponsors, including Kowa and Kosé, are also team sponsors.

Attendance at Dodger Stadium was a team-record 4,012,470 fans last year, with 46 crowds of 50,000 or better. They were the first team to draw 4 million since the Mets and Yankees both did so in 2008, the final season in their old ballparks. The Colorado Rockies hold the record at 4.5 million from their inaugural season in 1993, when they played at Mile High Stadium.

The Dodgers’ value is up $5 billion since 2022.

 

The Toronto Blue Jays fell to the Dodgers in the World Series last year, but otherwise, the season was a home run for the club owned by Rogers Communications. A multiyear $300 million privately funded renovation of the Rogers Centre modernized the venue with upgraded seating and sponsorship opportunities.

Toronto’s attendance rose 6% last year, and the World Series run pushed net revenue to an estimated $570 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $30 million. The Jays can’t count on 10 home playoff games each year, but the success is fueling strong business ahead of the 2026 season. The Blue Jays’ value is up 21% to $2.9 billion.

Team Sales

Last year, the Rays were sold to a group led by Jacksonville, Fla., developer Patrick Zalupski for $1.7 billion in a story Sportico originally broke. It was only the second MLB control sale since 2020 after David Rubenstein’s group paid $1.73 billion for the Orioles in 2024. The Rays’ deal was at a 26% premium to Sportico’s 2025 valuation, which was dented after a hurricane damaged Tropicana Field and forced the team to play home games in 2025 at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training home.

The pace of MLB team sales has been slowed in part by the troubled RSN market. The Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins and Washington Nationals each hired a bank to sell the franchise but didn’t complete a control deal—the Twins ended up selling LP stakes last year at a $1.75 billion valuation.

However, the sport is on the verge of a record sale. The San Diego Padres’ owners announced the team was for sale in November, during a legal battle between family members of late owner Peter Seidler, who died in 2023. Those legal concerns have since been settled, and San Diego represents an attractive market. The Padres finished 2025 behind only the Dodgers in attendance with 3.4 million fans, and they are also the only team in the four biggest North American sports leagues in the San Diego area after the Chargers moved to Los Angeles.

The team is expected to fetch more than $3 billion, and multiple billionaires have made initial bids, including Clearlake Capital co-founder José E. Feliciano, Everton and AS Roma owner Dan Friedkin and Golden State Warriors managing partner Joe Lacob. Final bids are expected next month.

The Chicago White Sox are in a multiyear process for Justin Ishbia to buy the team. In June, Ishbia reached an agreement with owner Jerry Reinsdorf that can give him control as soon as 2029 and provides the option to buy after 2034. Reinsdorf is MLB’s second-longest tenured owner after the Steinbrenner family.

“This is an investment in the future of the Chicago White Sox, and I am excited for the opportunity to deepen my commitment to the city and the team,” Ishbia told Sportico at the time. Justin and his brother, Mat, first invested in the team in 2021.

There have also been a bevy of LP stake sales since the start of 2025. Private equity giant Sixth Street bought 10% of the San Francisco Giants last year, while PE firm Sportsology Capital Partners recently invested in the Texas Rangers. These sales marked the first institutional funds besides Arctos Partners to buy equity stakes in MLB. Arctos’ MLB portfolio features six MLB teams, including the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Giants, Astros and Padres. Those franchises all rank among the top 10 in baseball.

The Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals each completed transactions in 2025 at formidable valuations, with the Royals at $1.8 billion, Brewers $2.25 billion and Cardinals $2.85 billion.

What’s Next

There is optimism that baseball can solve its labor and revenue disparity problems without the nuclear option of a full season of lost games, which would also be a brutal way to enter media negotiations for pacts to start in 2029 that ideally will also transform baseball’s economic model. It has triggered an uptick in revenue multiples—the basic metric most bankers and owners use to value teams—that have fallen well behind other sports leagues.

 

The average MLB team is now worth 7.2x revenue, up from 6.6x a year ago. But there is a massive range in the sport—the Marlins are at the bottom with 4.5x, the Yankees are at the top with 10.5x and the median is 6.2x. And despite the uptick in overall MLB multiples, it still lags NBA (13.5x), NFL (10.3x), MLS (9.2x) and NHL (8.4x). MLB team values are up 39% during the past four years, same as MLS, but well behind the doubling of team values in the NHL (124%), NBA (113%) and NFL (103%).

Baseball teams are widely viewed as good value right now, but the next 24 months are crucial for the league. Commissioner Rob Manfred’s negotiating skills will be tested as he navigates baseball’s structural problems, which has the Dodgers generating 8x the local gross revenue of the Marlins before revenue sharing.

 

 

 

 

 

[glory]

Sports leagues dream about getting the type of momentum that MLB has right now. There will certainly be a lockout, which is fine I guess because MLB winters are so boring it may not even be noticeable, but they would be absolutely insane to miss games next season. Manfred has done a lot of good for the league the last few years, but his legacy is on the line with this year’s labor war. We could see a scenario where they play a full 2027 season, MLB players are allowed to play in the 2028 Olympics, and then a new media rights deal in 2029 where blackouts are either completely eliminated (local rights consolidated) or severely limited. The league would be incredibly healthy in that scenario even without a cap. The opposite end could be a labor war that impacts the 2027 season, players not in the Olympics, and media rights being devalued due to lost games.
 

If Manfred cares about legacy at all, then the first scenario has to be the end game, but he works for the owners so it’s up to them, ultimately.

[Brownie19]

Dylan Crews optioned to AAA.  He's in his age 24 season and is entering "bust" territory, which is wild.

[G-Snarls]

Rowdy Tellez MILB deal with the Braves

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, G-Snarls said:

Rowdy Tellez MILB deal with the Braves

I saw a Driveline Instagram video of Tellez hitting lasers in the lab.  Just 105+ MPH nukes.  I think he maxed out around 113. 

AA must have been dooms scrolling like I was!!! 

[jaysblue]

18 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Dylan Crews optioned to AAA.  He's in his age 24 season and is entering "bust" territory, which is wild.

Wow, that's a surprise. 

I drafted him in the board redraft league thinking this guy was still young enough and oozing with talent to finally put it all together. 

If the Nats have soured on him, definitely worth a flier maybe at some point. 

[G-Snarls]

TSN

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk has made the New York Yankees’ opening day roster.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters Saturday that Grichuk made the team. The Yankees also announced they reassigned infielder Paul DeJong and utilityman Seth Brown to minor league camp and optioned utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera and infielder Max Schuemann to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Grichuk, 34, is coming off a 2025 season in which he batted .228 with a .273 on-base percentage, nine homers and 27 RBIs in 113 combined games for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals.

[G-Snarls]

Over/under 35 days until Grichuk is DFA

[Spanky__99]

On 3/21/2026 at 4:16 PM, G-Snarls said:

Over/under 35 days until Grichuk is DFA

Way over... he crushes LHP bro. That's a good signing.

[jaysblue]

17 hours ago, G-Snarls said:

Over/under 35 days until Grichuk is DFA

I go with the over. Like Spanky said above, he'll crush LHP and we'll likely see a couple IL stints for Stanton during the season. 

[jaysblue]

Came across a post today about how Salvador Perez could end up being one of the more controversial Hall of Fame cases down the road.

At first, without digging into the numbers, I assumed his longevity, power, and accolades behind the plate would have him sitting somewhere around 40 career WAR - which would put him in that classic borderline Hall of Fame range. Add in the fact that he’s spent his entire career with the Royals and has been one of the most recognizable power-hitting catchers of his era, and it felt like a reasonable case.

Then I checked his FanGraphs page - just 19 career WAR.

That’s honestly shocking. Despite that, he’ll almost certainly be part of Hall of Fame discussions when he retires, but at this pace, he may not even reach 25 career WAR.

[hanton]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Came across a post today about how Salvador Perez could end up being one of the more controversial Hall of Fame cases down the road.

At first, without digging into the numbers, I assumed his longevity, power, and accolades behind the plate would have him sitting somewhere around 40 career WAR - which would put him in that classic borderline Hall of Fame range. Add in the fact that he’s spent his entire career with the Royals and has been one of the most recognizable power-hitting catchers of his era, and it felt like a reasonable case.

Then I checked his FanGraphs page - just 19 career WAR.

That’s honestly shocking. Despite that, he’ll almost certainly be part of Hall of Fame discussions when he retires, but at this pace, he may not even reach 25 career WAR.

don't know which war the hall looks at (if at all) but he has 35.8 bWAR - crazy difference between his fwar and bwar mostly due to framing directly included in the Fangraphs calculation, bwar doesn't use framing.

 playing in KC definitely didn't help him

in comparison, Joe Mauer fWAR 53.5!! 

However FanGraphs formally incorporated pitch framing data into their Wins fWAR calculation in March 2019.  Mauer retired after the 2018 season.

He's well liked but I never considered him a superstar type player - having watched pudge and mauer

[jaysblue]

7 hours ago, hanton said:

don't know which war the hall looks at (if at all) but he has 35.8 bWAR - crazy difference between his fwar and bwar mostly due to framing directly included in the Fangraphs calculation, bwar doesn't use framing.

 playing in KC definitely didn't help him

in comparison, Joe Mauer fWAR 53.5!! 

However FanGraphs formally incorporated pitch framing data into their Wins fWAR calculation in March 2019.  Mauer retired after the 2018 season.

He's well liked but I never considered him a superstar type player - having watched pudge and mauer

Even if the Hall looks at his bWAR - which probably will end up between 40-45 when all is said and done - he likely will get still get votes and I could see him eventually getting in because voters will look at the power seasons he's had, all the awards/accolades and since he stayed in KC for his entire career.

Don't think he deserves to be in the Hall when you compare his career numbers with other catchers, but I could see him getting voted in 🤢

 

[G-Snarls]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Even if the Hall looks at his bWAR - which probably will end up between 40-45 when all is said and done - he likely will get still get votes and I could see him eventually getting in because voters will look at the power seasons he's had, all the awards/accolades and since he stayed in KC for his entire career.

Don't think he deserves to be in the Hall when you compare his career numbers with other catchers, but I could see him getting voted in 🤢

 

If he does then Russell Martin should too 

Completely different career with so many different teams all of whom got to the post season regularly 

Totally different argument 

[jaysblue]

21 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

If he does then Russell Martin should too 

Completely different career with so many different teams all of whom got to the post season regularly 

Totally different argument 

Agreed - Russell Martin should be in, no question.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Salvador Pérez gets into the Hall faster than Martin does.

Which really says everything about how narrative, accolades, and perception can outweigh the actual numbers when it comes to the voters. 

[Spanky__99]

This has been a conversation for years now with Perez.

[Brownie19]

15 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

This has been a conversation for years now with Perez.

Yeah - I've known this for awhile and have always believed Salvy was overrated.  That said, I respect the leader he's been in KC - and we don't see many players spend their entire career with one team.  I don't think he's a HOF player, but he's had a great career for the Royals franchise.

He's a bit like Joe Carter and Tony Batista offensively.  Lots of empty counting stats.  Never walks, but doesn't strike out a ton either.

Massive hot streak with the stick in 2020 and 2021.

[Spanky__99]

26 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Yeah - I've known this for awhile and have always believed Salvy was overrated.  That said, I respect the leader he's been in KC - and we don't see many players spend their entire career with one team.  I don't think he's a HOF player, but he's had a great career for the Royals franchise.

He's a bit like Joe Carter and Tony Batista offensively.  Lots of empty counting stats.  Never walks, but doesn't strike out a ton either.

Massive hot streak with the stick in 2020 and 2021.

I love Salvy the man, but I can't get by him making it, his defense is way overrated as well, he has a cannon but not much else IIRC.

How'd he win a gold glove, lol?

Although s*** like that will help as JB said.