Cubs, Pete Crow-Armstrong Agree To Extension
The Cubs and star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong are in agreement on a six-year extension covering the 2027-33 seasons. It’s a $115MM guarantee for the CAA client, who can earn another $18MM via escalators. Crow-Armstrong had been under club control through 2030, so the deal — which doesn’t include any option years — buys out two free agent seasons.
Crow-Arsmtrong will collect a $5MM signing bonus. He’ll make a pre-arbitration salary this year before his salary jumps to $10MM annually between 2027-29. He’ll make $20MM in 2030 and $30MM per season in 2031-32. There’s a $1MM assignment bonus any time he’s traded throughout the contract, while his salaries in the final two seasons can climb depending on his placements in MVP voting between 2027-30.
Chicago tried to get a deal done with Crow-Armstrong during last year’s Spring Training. He was coming off a modest .237/.286/.384 season as a rookie, but the Cubs clearly felt he had another gear offensively. There has never been any doubt regarding his elite center field defense.
The sides couldn’t reach an agreement last spring. Crow-Armstrong’s asking price has certainly jumped 12 months later. He took a huge step forward from a power perspective, connecting on 31 home runs with 72 extra-base hits. He stole 35 bases, making him one of seven players to go 30-30 last year. He also led all outfielders with 24 Outs Above Average, while tying for second among center fielders (behind Ceddanne Rafaela) with 15 Defensive Runs Saved.
For a good portion of the season, Crow-Armstrong looked to be on track for a top three MVP finish. He was on an offensive tear for four months, hitting 27 homers with a .272/.309/.559 slash line through the end of July. His bat went ice cold to close the season, as he stumbled to a .188/.237/.295 mark over his final 200 trips to the plate.
The tough finish “dropped” Crow-Armstrong to ninth in NL MVP balloting. He deservedly earned his first All-Star selection and Gold Glove. He finished the season as a slightly above-average hitter, posting a .247/.287/.481 line across 647 plate appearances. Crow-Armstrong had a tough postseason (batting .185 without an extra-base hit in eight games) but was much better this spring while playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Crow-Armstrong’s late-season slump highlights the remaining concerns about his offensive consistency. He’s one of the most aggressive hitters in the league, swinging at nearly 60% of the pitches he has seen in his career. No other player who took 500 plate appearances last year swung more often.
Only Yainer Diaz and Michael Harris II more frequently chased pitches outside the strike zone. As a result, Crow-Armstrong has walked in fewer than 5% of his career plate appearances. He has gone down on strikes at a slightly elevated 24% rate. The approach leaves him with a low floor from an OBP perspective that’ll probably continue leading to a streaky offensive game.
At the same time, Crow-Armstrong clearly has a ceiling that few players in the league can match. The glove isn’t going to slump. He’s an elite runner and athlete with a fantastic arm and an excellent first step. The defense alone would give him a high floor even if he had minimal offensive upside. Crow-Armstrong can carry a lineup when he’s going well, as he showed for the first two-thirds of last season. He has above-average bat speed and plus power, particularly against right-handed pitching.
The lefty hitter posted a .271/.315/.523 mark with 24 homers when holding the platoon advantage. He struggled against southpaws, batting .188/.217/.376 with seven longballs in 188 plate appearances. The defense is so good that the Cubs won’t use him as a platoon player, but they’re surely hoping to see more competitive at-bats against lefties.
It’s possible that’ll come with experience. Crow-Armstrong is entering his age-24 season. It’s unlikely he’s ever going to become a patient hitter, but it’s fair to project him some improvements to his selectivity as he gets into his mid 20s. If he plateaus at 10-15 percent better than average offensively, he’d remain one of the better all-around players in the National League. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each valued him around 5-6 wins above replacement a year ago. Crow-Armstrong’s all-out playing style has also made him a favorite of the fanbase and arguably the face of the franchise.
Crow-Armstrong is two days shy of having two full years of service time. He would have qualified for early arbitration as a Super Two player next offseason. He was five years away from reaching free agency, when he would have hit the market at age 29.
Jackson Merrill’s nine-year, $135MM extension with the Padres last spring is the top guarantee for a player with between one and two years of MLB service. Merrill and Crow-Armstrong have similar profiles as star center fielders with power but some on-base concerns. Crow-Armstrong is the superior defender, though Merrill is a very good outfielder in his own right. The latter probably has a slightly higher offensive floor because he makes more contact.
Merrill was a year younger than Crow-Armstrong is now. He was not on track to qualify as a Super Two player, but he was trending towards hitting free agency by age 27. Merrill probably left some money on the table, though his deal is the most obvious comparison point for talks between the Cubs and Crow-Armstrong’s camp. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Cubs’ 2025 offer was for $66MM.
Chicago’s long-term outfield is wide open. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are on track to hit free agency next offseason. Nico Hoerner, Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon are also slated to hit the market, and the Cubs surely aren’t bringing everybody back. They traded Owen Caissie to the Marlins as a centerpiece of the Edward Cabrera return. Prospect Kevin Alcántara has power but concerning strikeout rates. Crow-Armstrong would have been in center field either way, but there could be a fair amount of turnover around him in the Wrigley outfield a year from now.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the agreement and the six-year, $115MM guarantee. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the $18MM in escalators. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the escalator specifics and salary breakdown.
Image courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images.
Phillies Extend Cristopher Sanchez
For the second time in less than two years, the Phillies have announced a contract extension with Cristopher Sanchez. The left-hander’s previous extension in June 2024 gave the team control over Sanchez’s services through the 2030 season, but this new contract now locks Sanchez into the fold through at least the 2032 season for $88MM in new money. Sanchez is represented by Mato Sports Management.
The new deal keeps Sanchez’s $3MM salary in place for the 2026 season and adds a $6MM signing bonus. He’ll also earn the $6MM in 2027 and the $9MM in 2028 that was promised to him under the terms of his old extension. The Phillies previously held a $14MM club option on Sanchez for 2029 and a $15MM club option for 2030, but those option years have now been guaranteed under the new extension at those prices. Sanchez will then earn $27MM in each of the 2031 and 2032 seasons, though $10MM is deferred each year. Philadelphia holds a $32.5MM club option for the 2033 campaign. The value of that option can increase based on Cy Young voting from 2027 to 2032, with $2MM for a win, $1MM for second or third place, $750K for fourth or fifth and $500K for sixth through tenth. A buyout would also attach to the option by the same criteria. That becomes a $10MM club option if Sanchez spends 130 consecutive days on the injured list in 2031 or 2032. Sanchez can also earn up to $13MM extra via incentive bonuses over the course of the contract.
Sanchez’s four-year, $22.5MM extension from June 2024 had already proven to be a huge bargain for the Phillies, as the southpaw continued to produce throughout the 2024 campaign and then took a step forward by finishing second in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2025. It would’ve been easy for the Phillies to sit back and continue benefiting from the surplus value created by the extension, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski took the long view towards Sanchez’s future in Philadelphia.
“We kind of assumed years four and five were a no-brainer as far as we were going to pick those up,” Dombrowski told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and other reporters. “So we couldn’t even imagine a scenario in which we wouldn’t. Now we start talking beyond that. And we thought that somebody of Cristopher’s stature, we’d rather get this done now, while he’s still at the age that makes sense for us.”
It naturally isn’t uncommon for teams to sign their stars to multiple extensions over the course of their careers, as we’ve seen recently with the Guardians and Jose Ramirez back in January or the Diamondbacks with Ketel Marte last year. Those deals weren’t quite the same as the Sanchez extension, however. Both Ramirez and Marte had more than a decade of MLB experience under their belt and had already played out significant portions of their initial team-friendly extensions. In addition, those teams had the motive of restructuring their star’s previous deal to include deferred money.
That’s not to say Sanchez is undeserving of his new payday, of course. After earning a trip to the All-Star Game in 2024, Sanchez cemented his ace status with a superb 2025 season. The lefty spun a 2.50 ERA with a 2.55 FIP in 202 innings of work, striking out 212 batters across 32 starts. He paired his 26.3% strikeout rate with a 5.5% walk rate and a 58.3% ground ball rate, giving him a lower SIERA than every qualified starter in the NL and the third-lowest in baseball behind Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet.
By measure of fWAR, Sanchez’s 2025 season was a top-20 campaign by a qualified starter since 2015, tied with Cy Young-winning campaigns by future Hall of Famers like Chris Sale (2024), Max Scherzer (2017), and Justin Verlander (2019). Sanchez ultimately finished second behind Paul Skenes in Cy Young voting last year, but nonetheless established himself as among the upper-echelon of starters in today’s game with that performance.
Clearly, the Phillies are betting on Sanchez to age well like those other elite arms did by signing him to a big-money extension for his mid-thirties. Philadelphia has been unafraid of signing players well past their prime years previously, as shown by the fact that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are under contract through their age-37 seasons, while Jesus Luzardo‘s new contract extension includes a club option for his age-34 campaign.
With this new contract, Sanchez joins Luzardo (2032 club option) and Trea Turner (contract guaranteed through 2033) as the only three players under team control beyond the expiration of Bryce Harper‘s contract in 2031. This restructured contract for Sanchez could be an interesting data point for Harper and agent Scott Boras, as the two-time MVP and future Hall of Famer has previously publicly expressed a desire to extend or restructure his contract with Philadelphia to keep him in town beyond the 2031 campaign. Of course, those previous attempts were before this past offseason’s comments from Dave Dombrowski critical of Harper that drew the superstar’s ire, prompting trade speculation that Dombrowski later firmly shut down.
Sanchez’s extension was first reported by FanSided’s Robert Murray. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reported the total of money involved in the deal, while Francys Romero of Beisbol FR had the details about the performance incentives and Ronald Blum of The Associated Press provided all the financial details.
Inset photo courtesy of Bill Streicher — Imagn Images
Kevin McGonigle Makes Tigers’ Roster; Wenceel Pérez Optioned
12:43pm: The Tigers announced that infielder/outfielder Wenceel Pérez, infielder Jace Jung and outfielder Trei Cruz have all been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Center fielder Parker Meadows has made the Opening Day roster.
The 26-year-old Pérez is the most notable among the cuts. He was a key contributor in Detroit last year, giving Hinch a defensively versatile switch-hitter who could be deployed at various spots in both the infield and outfield. Pérez played exclusively in the outfield last year but has more than 1800 minor league innings at both middle infield slots and another 259 at third base. In 383 MLB plate appearances, he slashed .244/.308/.430 (103 wRC+) with 13 homers, 17 doubles, four triples and eight steals. Pérez will surely get a long major league look this year as injuries and/or poor performance elsewhere on the roster dictate, but for now he’ll open in Toledo.
Pérez didn’t help his case with a dismal .158/.238/.158 showing in 46 spring plate appearances. With better production, he might’ve edged out Meadows, who struggled at the plate in 2025 and batted only .222/.314/.289 in 52 spring plate appearances. Meadows, however, is a plus defender in center field. Given that he nominally outperformed Pérez with the bat and has a clear defensive edge with the glove, he’ll get the nod for an Opening Day roster spot and look to get back to his 2024 form at the plate (.244/.310/.433).
11:28am: It’s official. The Tigers announced Tuesday that infielder Kevin McGonigle, the consensus No. 2 prospect in baseball, will make their Opening Day roster. The 21-year-old will likely begin the season as Detroit’s shortstop after a spring in which he batted .250/.411/.477 with two homers, two doubles, a triple, two steals and more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) in 56 plate appearances. McGonigle is not on the Tigers’ 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a corresponding transaction when they formally select his contract.
Selected with the No. 37 overall pick in the 2023 draft, McGonigle has raced through the minors relative to most high school picks. He’s raked at every level from Rookie ball up through Double-A last season despite being one of the youngest players in the league at the most recent stops on his minor league journey. McGonigle totaled 397 plate appearances across three levels in 2025 and slashed .305/.408/.583 with 19 homers, 31 doubles, two triples, 10 steals and more walks than strikeouts.
Scouts rave about McGonigle’s preternatural feel for hitting. He’s never punched out in more than 12.6% of his plate appearances at any minor league stop, and his overall strikeout rate of 10.6% in 908 professional plate appearances speaks volumes about the advanced nature of that hit tool — especially considering his age. McGonigle only turned 21 in mid-August. He’ll play the vast majority of his rookie season before even celebrating his 22nd birthday.
Some scouting reports express skepticism about his ability to stick at shortstop, though he’s continued to get reps there this spring and could yet develop into a quality option at the position. Even if a move to another position — second base, third base, outfield — becomes a necessity somewhere down the line, McGonigle’s bat is so highly regarded that it doesn’t matter. He’s viewed as a fixture in the top half of the Detroit lineup for the foreseeable future, regardless of his ultimate defensive home.
Since he’s breaking camp with the club and is a consensus top prospect, McGonigle could net the Tigers some future draft considerations via the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program. A Rookie of the Year win in 2026 or a top-three finish in MVP voting in any of McGonigle’s pre-arbitration seasons would net the Tigers an extra draft selection after the first round the following season. (Prospects can only net their team one bonus pick overall.)
Assuming McGonigle sticks on Detroit’s roster all season, he’ll accrue a full year of service and be under club control through the 2031 season. He’d be eligible for arbitration following the 2028 season as things stand. Of course, those timetables are subject to change.
McGonigle will have a full slate of three minor league option years upon being formally added to the roster, and Detroit could always look to extend its window of club control with a long-term deal, be it early in his MLB tenure or during subsequent springs, when McGonigle is still years from the open market. It’ll take a hefty offer to do so in all likelihood, as McGonigle is currently slated to reach free agency ahead of his age-27 season, which would put him in line for a mammoth contract if he reaches his ceiling (or anything close to it).
In addition to his work at shortstop, McGonigle also saw time at third base this spring. Detroit doesn’t have set starters at either position, so he could bounce between both spots. McGonigle, Javier Baez and Zach McKinstry are all capable of playing short and third base. Colt Keith can play third base, second base or first base. Matt Vierling is capable of playing third base or the outfield. Manager A.J. Hinch will have no shortage of matchup-based options with that contingent on hand, but regardless of which defensive spot he occupies on a given day, McGonigle should be expected to be in Hinch’s lineup.
JJ Wetherholt To Make Cardinals’ Opening Day Roster
Infield prospect JJ Wetherholt has made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster. President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom passed the news along to reporters, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Infielders Thomas Saggese and José Fermín as well as outfielder Nathan Church will also break camp with the club, though outfielder Nelson Velázquez will be assigned to Triple-A Memphis. A corresponding move will be necessary to open a spot for Wetherholt.
The news on Wetherholt is notable but not surprising. It has seemed all winter long as though the Cards had planned for him to get a shot in the big leagues. They cleared out their roster this winter by trading guys like Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan. Those trade were partly for cost savings but also to open some playing time for younger players as the Cards are rebuilding and need to assess their young guys in a major league environment.
Wetherholt was one of the main guys who needed some room. The seventh overall pick of the 2024 draft, he climbed to the cusp of the majors last year. He split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, making 496 plate appearances in total. His 14.5% walk rate was excellent and almost as high as his 14.7% strikeout rate. He produced a combined .306/.421/.510 batting line, which translated to a 154 wRC+. He stole 23 bases on the year. His defense at shortstop was considered good enough for him to stay there as a big leaguer but he also played some second and third base.
As the 2026 season drew closer and the annual top 100 lists came out, Wetherholt was in the top 10 of most of them. But at the beginning of the season, the Cards had a fairly crowded infield. Masyn Winn is one of the best defensive shortstops on the majors and is controlled for another four seasons. They had Arenado at third. Donovan could bounce around the diamond but played second base more than any other spot.
As mentioned, the Cards clarified their roster picture over the winter and opened a spot for Wetherholt, though Wynn’s glovework is so strong that he never seemed at risk of being unseated at short. It felt likely that Nolan Gorman would take over at third, with Wetherholt the favorite for the second base gig. In camp, Wetherholt hit two home runs and also drew walks in 20.5% of his 44 plate appearances. Though he was held back by a .200 batting average on balls in play, he still produced a .212/.386/.394 line and 115 wRC+.
That performance was enough to solidify the expected plan, so the Cards will indeed open the season with Wetherholt on the roster. By giving him an Opening Day spot, they will keep the Prospect Promotion Incentive on the table. Since Wetherholt is a consensus top 100 guy, if he spends enough time on the big league roster to earn a full service year this season, he could net the Cards an extra draft pick by winning Rookie of the Year or finishing top three in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.
That will be a secondary concern. For the Cards, the focus is on putting together a core that can get them back to contention. Ideally, Wetherholt will be a big part of that in the long run, though sometimes even the best prospects don’t find immediate success. The Cards are in a position to let him get a lot of reps in order to maximize the chances of him getting acclimated to the big leagues.
As for the other moves, the Velázquez decision is perhaps the most surprising. In the offseason, the Cards had been looking to add a right-handed complement for their outfield, as Lars Nootbaar and Victor Scott II are both lefties. They didn’t sign any such player to a major league deal but brought Velázquez into camp as a non-roster invitee. As of a week ago, it seemed likely that Velázquez would be getting a spot, especially with Nootbaar slated to start the season on the injured list.
Velázquez put up a monster .357/.449/.667 line in spring training but that evidently wasn’t enough. Perhaps that’s due to roster concerns. As mentioned, the Cards need to open one 40-man spot for Wetherholt. Nootbaar is going to start the season on the 10-day IL but there hasn’t been anything to suggest he will need a move to the 60-day IL. Hunter Dobbins is still rehabbing a torn ACL from last year. It’s unclear how much longer it will take for him to be game ready.
Unless Dobbins ends up on the 60-day IL, the Cards will have to remove someone to make room for Wetherholt, whether that’s a trade or designating someone for assignment. Adding Velázquez would have meant another such move. It doesn’t appear Velázquez has any kind of opt-out in his deal, so the Cards will send him to the minors and keep him around without using a roster spot.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Carson Benge To Make Mets’ Roster
Outfield prospect Carson Benge is going to break camp with the Mets, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. He will be the starting right fielder on Opening Day, per Chelsea Janes of SNY. The Mets will need to open a 40-man spot in order to officially select Benge’s contract.
The move is notable but not shocking. During the offseason, president of baseball operations David Stearns consistently said that Benge would have a chance to break camp with the club. The 19th overall pick from 2024, he mashed his way through High-A and Double-A last year.
He seemed to stall out at Triple-A, with a .178/.272/.311 line in 24 games to finish the year, but there were reasons to not worry about that too much. His 18.4% strikeout rate was good and his 8.7% walk rate around average. His .188 batting average on balls in play was tiny. It seemed more like fluky bad luck than a young hitter being overmatched.
The Mets, as mentioned, wanted to leave a path open for him to reach the big leagues. They did bring in some contingency plans. They signed Mike Tauchman to a minor league deal. MJ Melendez got a 40-man spot but still has an option. It felt like the right field job would be Benge’s to lose and he didn’t do anything to lose it. He hit .366/.435/.439 in Grapefruit League action. That line got some help from an unsustainable .469 BABIP but the Mets were trending towards giving Benge the job as long as he didn’t look overwhelmed.
Melendez was optioned to the minors last week. The Mets were perhaps trending towards rostering both Benge and Tauchman, but the latter tore the meniscus in his left knee a few days ago. That only gave Benge a firmer hold on the job.
There’s always risk in handing a job over to a prospect, as even some very talented young players struggle when first called up, but Benge has shown he deserves a shot. Even including his Triple-A swoon, he hit a combined .281/.385/.472 last year for a 150 wRC+. He stole 22 bases. His defensive abilities are considered strong enough for him to be a plus corner outfielder and maybe even a decent center fielder. He’ll begin the season in right but it’s not out of the question that he eventually spends a decent amount of time in the middle spot with center field manned by the oft-injured Luis Robert Jr..
By carrying Benge on the Opening Day roster, the Mets will open up the possibility of the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He’s a consensus top 25 prospect in the league. If he stays in the majors for enough of the campaign to earn a full year of service, he could net the Mets an extra draft pick by winning Rookie of the Year or with a top three finish in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.
If things don’t go well with Benge, then the Mets will have to turn to some backup plans. Tauchman has an opt-out in his minor league deal but presumably won’t trigger it while hurt, so he’ll be back in the mix whenever he’s healthy again. Melendez will be on optional assignment in Triple-A, alongside Jared Young and Nick Morabito. Brett Baty is going to be in a super utility role now that Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien are at third and second base respectively. Tyrone Taylor will be on the bench as a glove-first fourth outfielder. The Tauchman injury might also allow Vidal Bruján to stick on the bench in a utility role.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Mitch Alcala, Imagn Images
Braves To Place Spencer Strider On Injured List
Braves righty Spencer Strider is going to start the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain, manager Walt Weiss announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The team hasn’t provided a formal timeline, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for around a month.
Strider, 27, last pitched a full season in 2023. He made only two starts in 2024 before requiring UCL surgery that would sideline him into the 2025 campaign. The rehab from that surgery, combined with a hamstring strain, limited Strider to 23 starts last year. He pitched 125 1/3 innings but worked with diminished velocity and overall stuff, leading to a 4.45 ERA and rate stats that were markedly worse than their pre-injury levels.
The hope had been for a healthier Strider to bounce back closer to his brilliant 2022-23 form. Instead, he’ll be the latest addition to a list of key players who are unavailable to begin the year. It’s been a nightmare spring for Atlanta. The Braves have lost righties Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep for months following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. Left-hander Joey Wentz tore his ACL and is out for the season. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim suffered a hand injury in a fall before even reporting to camp and will be out for more than a month to begin the year. Left fielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar was suspended for the entire season following a second positive PED test.
Atlanta’s lack of pitching depth has been a story throughout camp. With Strider headed to the injured list, the Braves will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes as their top three starters. Lopez pitched only once last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer and rehabbed it without surgery.
Plans beyond that top trio are murky for the time being. Right-hander Bryce Elder and left-hander José Suarez are out of minor league options and will presumably both make the roster, though either could be bound for the bullpen. Bowman calls Suarez a “likely” starter to begin the season and adds that the club could consider selecting the contract of non-roster veteran Martín Pérez, who’d previously been informed he was not making the club. Right-hander Didier Fuentes is still ticketed for the bullpen, Weiss tells Bowman.
It’s a paper-thin rotation group at this point, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos make some form of addition to further stockpile some depth. There ought to be several veterans opting out of/being released from minor league deals in the final days of camp, and arms of varying quality will be designated for assignment due to the annual Opening Day roster crunch.
Blue Jays Extend Ross Atkins, John Schneider
The Blue Jays announced this morning that they’ve signed GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider to contract extensions. Both were entering the final seasons of their current contracts, but Atkins has re-upped on a five-year deal that will take him through the 2031 season while Schneider will return on a two-year deal that lasts through the 2028 campaign.
The news is hardly surprising following Toronto’s impressive run in the playoffs last year, where they secured the AL pennant and came just shy of besting the Dodgers in seven games during the World Series. While Toronto ultimately lost Game Seven of that series, it’s easy to see that ownership is pleased with the club’s performance. Not only was the team green-lit to acquire Dylan Cease and pursue other big names on the free agent market like Kyle Tucker this winter, but Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers also decided to give team president and CEO Mark Shapiro a five-year contract extension back in December that runs through 2030. Once Shapiro received an extension, both Atkins and Schneider were widely assumed to eventually follow suit around the league.
Atkins joined the Jays prior to the 2016 season, and he’s overseen the beginning of the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. era in Toronto. While Guerrero signed with the organization as an international amateur a few months before Atkins and Shapiro arrived, every professional game he’s played during his career has been with them at the helm of the club. Guerrero has been the face of Toronto’s return to relevance after a rebuilding period early in Atkins’s tenure with the organization, from the second year of his career in 2020 onward the Jays have made the postseason four times in six years with a 472-398 record overall. That’s roughly an 88-win pace over the last six years, and under Schneider’s leadership over the past three years they’ve gone 257-229 they’ve managed a roughly 86-win pace with two playoff berths.
It may have seemed to be a no-brainer that the club would decide to keep the good times rolling with their current group after this year’s run to the World Series, but that was hardly a guarantee this time last year. One year ago, Guerrero had not yet signed an extension, the club had whiffed on both Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in free agency during back-to-back offseasons, and the Jays were coming off a deeply disappointing 88-loss season that saw the club sell at the trade deadline and called their longer-term viability as a contender into question. It’s fortunate that the organization’s banner year in 2025 answered those questions, because it’s not hard to imagine another poor performance on the field from the club last year ending in changes to the front office and dugout rather than contract extensions for the organization’s leadership.
As Atkins, Schneider, and Shapiro head into the 2026 season and look ahead to at least a few more years running the Blue Jays together, long-term deals for Guerrero, Cease, Alejandro Kirk, and Andres Gimenez figure to make them all staples of the organization going forward. Other pieces under long-term control include Trey Yesavage, Anthony Santander, Kazuma Okamoto, Louis Varland, and a collection of young hitting talent headlined by Addison Barger. It’s a solid group overall, though the next few years will also see the team contend with the impending free agencies of George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and other key members of the roster who will need to be replaced.
Hayden Birdsong To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Giants announced that right-hander Hayden Birdsong will undergo Tommy John surgery next week. He will miss the entire 2026 season and part of the 2027 campaign as well. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to pass the info along.
The news is not surprising but is awful for Birdsong and the Giants regardless. It was reported a few days ago that Birdsong had an elbow issue and would be getting a second opinion. He was then diagnosed with a forearm strain and a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament. He took a few days to consider his options but it seems he is destined for the surgeon’s table.
Prior to this injury, Birdsong was slated to be one of the club’s top depth starters. They project to start the season with a starting five of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle, Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp. Due to injuries, teams usually need about a dozen starters to get through a full season. The Giants have Carson Seymour, Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell as optionable depth starters. Birdsong would have been in that group but has now been subtracted.
Birdsong should end up on the 60-day injured list whenever the Giants need a spot on the 40-man roster. The one silver lining of that outcome is that Birdsong will get a full year of service time and pay, more than if he spent the year as a healthy but frequently-optioned depth arm.
The typical recovery timeline for Tommy John surgery is usually 14 months or more. That means Birdsong won’t be available until about midway through the 2027 season, even in a best-case scenario. Ray and Mahle are both scheduled for free agency after 2026, so two rotation spots are potentially opening up. Those could be filled internally if guys like Seymour, Whisenhunt or Tidwell step up. The Giants could also make notable trades between now and then, in addition to potentially signing free agents next winter.
Time will tell what shape the rotation is in when Birdsong is again healthy but he should be a key part of the group regardless. He only has a 4.77 earned run average in his career so far but is only 24 years old and comes with some prospect pedigree. FanGraphs has been especially bullish, as they gave him the #42 overall spot at one point during the 2024 season. Birdsong posted a 2.51 ERA on the farm that year but then had a 6.23 ERA in Triple-A in 2025 and now he’s dealing with this lengthy rehab process.
Photo courtesy of Eakin Howard, Imagn Images
Josh Hader To Begin Season On Injured List
Star Astros closer Josh Hader will begin the 2026 season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). He’s been slowed by a biceps issue this spring after missing the final seven weeks of the 2025 season due to a capsule strain in his shoulder. Hader has progressed to throwing and pitched an encouraging bullpen session yesterday, Kawahara adds, but the team simply won’t have enough time to get him built up before the season begins. Righty Bryan Abreu will very likely be in line to close games for Houston while Hader is shelved.
Hader’s Opening Day status has been an ongoing question throughout camp. Both the left-hander himself and team officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about the manner in which he’s progressing through rehab while simultaneously declining to commit to an Opening Day timetable.
While it’s an obvious blow to the Astros’ early-season fortunes, it’s still relatively good news. There’s no indication that last year’s shoulder injury has carried over into the 2026 season, nor does it seem the biceps injury is particularly nefarious. The Astros’ track record when it comes to framing player injuries is worth keeping in mind, but to this point it seems there’s hope for Hader to be back in Espada’s bullpen relatively early in the season.
Abreu, 29 in April, is among the stronger fallback options any team has for its closer in all of baseball. The 6’1″, 230-pound flamethrower owns a masterful 2.30 earned run average across his past four seasons in Houston. He’s punched out at least 31.7% of his opponents in each of those four seasons and 34.3% overall. Abreu’s 10.4% walk rate could stand to improve, but he’s proven so adept at missing bats that the slightly elevated walk rate hasn’t been a real issue for him. Abreu sat 97.3 mph on his four-seamer last season, and his 16.6% swinging-strike rate since 2022 ranks sixth among the 280 big league pitchers who’ve tossed at least 200 innings in that time (trailing only Hader, Andrés Muñoz, Dylan Lee, Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley).
As for Hader, an exact target date for his return remains up in the air. His 2025 season was shaping up to be one of his best. Prior to his injury, that lanky southpaw tossed 52 2/3 innings with a 2.05 ERA, a 36.9% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate (second-lowest in his career) and 28 saves in 29 opportunities. He’s entering the third season of a five-year, $95MM contract signed prior to the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Greene To Have Bone Chips Removed From Elbow, Likely Out Until July
Reds ace Hunter Greene will undergo surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow today, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The team is hoping to have him back at some point in July. He’ll be placed on the 60-day injured list whenever Cincinnati needs to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
The Reds revealed late last week that they’d sent Greene for multiple waves of imaging and hoped to have further news early this week. Greene himself said at the time that he’s navigated bone spurs for some time but had recently received a clean MRI on his ulnar collateral ligament. Doctors hadn’t recommended surgery for the bone chips until this point. He experienced some pain late last season, and doctors recommended an injection at the time. That allowed Greene to have a normal offseason, but he experienced renewed discomfort upon ramping up in camp and will now head under the knife.
Greene is far from the only pitcher in MLB to pitch through some known bone spurs or loose bodies in his elbow. Most professional pitchers have some degree of wear and tear in their elbow and/or shoulder, be it bone chips or mild damage to a ligament, flexor tendon, rotator cuff, labrum, etc. Reds fans will surely feel frustration that the discomfort dates back to last season but is being addressed in 2026. Surgery is a last-resort option, however, and hadn’t been recommended until this latest wave of discomfort set in.
Losing Greene is a gut-punch for a Reds rotation that had looked like one of the game’s strongest, on paper. He was in line to start Opening Day and be followed by Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer and one of Chase Burns or Rhett Lowder, both former top-10 picks in the draft and highly touted top prospects. Greene’s injury now opens the door for both Burns and Lowder to make the staff — particularly after Chase Petty was optioned yesterday — although left-hander Brandon Williamson remains in camp and could be an option as he returns from a 2025 season lost to injury.
A former No. 2 overall draft pick, Greene has been one of the game’s best pitchers on a rate basis over the past two seasons. However, he’s also missed considerable time due to a pair of groin strains in 2025 and some elbow discomfort in 2024. He’s started 45 games across dating back to ’24 and worked to a 2.76 ERA with a 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 33.5% ground-ball rate. Last year’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate was fourth-best in MLB (min. 100 innings pitched), trailing only Tarik Skubal, Dylan Cease and Logan Gilbert.
Greene is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $53MM extension. The 26-year-old is being paid $8MM this season before making $15MM and $16MM in 2027-28. The Reds hold a $21MM club option (with a $2MM buyout) over his 2029 season. With Greene on the shelf to begin the year, Abbott has been named the Reds’ Opening Day starter. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said last week at the time Greene was being sent for an MRI that he didn’t envision turning to free agency even in the event that Greene would be sidelined for a significant period of time.