Orgfiller

As much as Pillar was a huge fan favourite, I think this would be a little embarrassing for the team to do this for a player of his calibre. Just bring him back onboard as a TV analyst like Caleb Joseph and co., or as a consultant/assistant coach like KK.

That's a whole lotta throwback names. Sergio Santos, Yunel Escobar, Kelly Johnson. The beginning of the legend that is Encarnacion's tenure with the Jays. Nice writeup as usual Mac.

Over 7 IP.

Silver lining, this bumps up Mason Fluharty significantly in the RP depth chart. Josh Walker (L), Easton Lucas (L) and Dillon Tate (R) are the other 40-man relievers left in the minors. I'm assuming Jacob Barnes is immediately punted whichever of Burr or Swanson is back first. Lovelady actually projects decently, but I'm sure he's on thin ice as well. Yariel could get bumped up to the rotation if Scherzer's thumb thing lingers or Francis struggles out of the gate. Although I'm not sure if Francis would get demoted, likely would just replace Yariel's role as a long/swing-man.

I think more telling is that Springer was already bumped down in the order. Might signal they're slightly concerned about his ST performance. Gimenez-Kirk we're going to see a lot of this season unless Kirk actually does break out with the bat again, or Gimenez struggles out of the gate.

Ross Atkins really replaced Biggio with his opposite. Gimenez doesn't walk much, strikes out little, doesn't hit a lot of flyballs/doesn't sell out for power, plays elite defense and swipes 30 bags a season. And this guy has 5 win upside. Another masterclass.

11 walks and 4 HBP in 46 PAs. He's becoming a bit of an HBP merchant to boost his OBP in recent years, steadily increasing with each passing season. Season Team Level G AB PA BB HBP 2019 TOR MLB 100 354 430 71 2 2020 TOR MLB 59 220 265 41 3 2021 TOR MLB 79 250 294 37 1 2022 TOR MLB 97 257 303 38 6 2023 TOR MLB 111 289 338 40 7 2024 3 Tms MLB 78 188 224 24 8 2025 KCR ST 16 31 46 11 4

Good for him, he's an easy guy to root for. Completely unproblematic, seemingly a hard worker, and always hustles. His Spring line is the most Cavan Biggio thing ever: .194 .457 .355 Hopefully he can find some utility in their bench.

With his age and pedigree (or lack thereof), I think it's pretty fair to claim Roden's ceiling is that of a league average OF. The nice thing about Roden is his ceiling and floor are likely close to each other. He has good bat to ball abilities, a good eye, but lacks premium power, defensive/baserunning utility, and he'll likely have to be platooned. Keep in mind that as good as he's looked, he's pretty much a consensus 45/45+/low end 50 FV prospect, and for a guy with his tools. league average is the likely outcome. Think of Spencer Horwitz. That's pretty much Roden to a tee.

You'd think we let go of Johan Santana with the way people talk about Ryan Yarbrough.

He's constantly injured and was quite poor on both sides of the ball in 2024. Tough to give much of a guarantee to a guy like that, even if I like Jano and would have been fine bringing him back at that price point.

I don't think Houston is in any rush to get rid of Dezenzo, he's cheap young depth with options. He also is no better than Addison Barger, they might as well be the same player except Barger is left handed and has more OF reps.

Sorry but when you've been dreaming about Vlad's exit velos and "if only he could lift the ball more consistently" every year since his debut with, at the time, only one truly good season followed by decent and downright disappointing seasons, I think it was fair to have soured on Vlad's performance at the time. He's never not not hit the ball hard, but it's been a consistent issue throughout his career in that he doesn't get the most out of his hard hit balls because his launch angle is s***. So I'm sorry if I wasn't buying the 54% GB rate with a .400 BABIP leading to positive results and believing that this would somehow turn into him rediscovering how to hit the ball in the air consistently as the season went along. We saw plenty of times where that wasn't the case for Vlad.

Vlad last season was honestly unwatchable until like June. Even in May when he had good numbers he was running a > .400 BABIP with a .112 ISO with only 5 HR at the end of the month. June onwards is when he finally looked like a legitimate offensive force, because up until that point the non-tender/trade him voices were starting to sound pretty reasonable.

The Rangers put Dane Dunning on outright release waivers. Was terrible in 2024 but league average before and the xFIP didn't think he was quite that bad. Gets some Ks as a primary sinker kitchen sink guy with a somewhat livable amount of walks. Not that he cracks our rotation or anything, but he'd be decent depth and I'd rather him over Ryan Yarbrough to eat up innings in long relief. Does have an arb salary of $2.66M so he's not dirt cheap, however.

Man, Yarbrough is a kitchen sink soft tosser who projects terribly and had a nice little stint with the team on the back of some extremely favourable batted ball luck. I promise we won’t miss him. He’s completely replaceable.

Kirk with another bomb, oppo taco to RF-CF.

It's only spring so it doesn't matter, but Guerrero has been putting up a very mediocre camp. Lots of singles, groundballs, hasn't been driving the ball in the air often, .140 ISO. Whatever, as long as he gets it together for the start of the regular season.

Kirk has batted balls of 107.7 and 109.5 mph today. He's scorching the baseball in ST.

Another nice play by Wagner coming in on a slow roller, bare handing the ball and throwing out the runner. He continues making a case for himself.

Haven't they mostly been doing 5th and 6th?

Safe the say Vlad is losing the PR battle badly.

Another frustrating thing about Manoah roller coaster of a career, is that due to his early success and Cy Young votes, we've already lost 2 years of cheap control with most of 2025 being a third one. Now at Arb 1, Manoah will only have two more years of potentially not super cheap arbitration costs past 2025 before becoming a free agent. Ideally he finishes 2025 off strong and is again a legit option for a rotation option for next season with the departures of Bassitt and Scherzer freeing up two spots.

Pop hasn't been replacement level (or above, naturally) since 2022. It's hard to think a literal replacement level reliever wouldn't be an upgrade. Nance, Josh Walker, Dillon Tate, Nick Robertson (who?) are all likely better or at the very least, not worse.

The Orioles are doing it again. They've optioned Coby Mayo to AAA to begin the season. Instead of trading literally anyone away for upgrades, they just let their blocked guys rot in the minors and lose value. God forbid you sell high on Ryan O'Hearn, move Ryan Mountcastle for SP depth, or move Mayo for a top end SP.