Poll: Is Sandy Alcantara Back?
2025 was a season to forget for Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara. The 2022 NL Cy Young award winner looked to be establishing himself as one of the top pitchers in the entire sport just a few years ago, but that reputation has slipped the past few years due to injuries and ineffectiveness. Tommy John surgery Alcantara underwent in late 2023 wiped out his 2024 season. While he returned in time for the start of 2025, he wasn’t an effective starter for most of the year. Overall, he entered 2026 with a 4.73 ERA (95 ERA+) and 4.15 FIP in 59 starts since receiving his aforementioned Cy Young. Those numbers are closer to a fifth starter than an ace and questions over what the righty could really offer a team at this point helped keep him in Miami through last year’s trade deadline and this past winter.
Three starts into his 2026 campaign, Alcantara already seems to be changing the narrative. The righty has posted a sterling 0.74 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work across his trio of outings this season. Those results are obviously excellent, but Alcantara’s trademark ability to pitch deep into games has been on full display as well; he’s averaged more than eight innings per start so far this year. Neither the sub-1.00 ERA nor his 240-inning pace will continue all year, of course, but what can fans expect from the righty this year?
There are some signals that Alcantara’s hot start to the year might be a mirage. The right-hander has limited his opponents to a .159 BABIP that will be impossible to maintain and sits more than a hundred points below his career norm. He’s also enjoyed a very easy schedule for the start of the season, facing off against bottom-feeders like the Rockies and White Sox while catching the Reds at a time where most of their lineup is scuffling badly. Given that level of competition, it would be understandable to exercise caution regarding the righty until he proves effective against some more challenging offenses.
That’s not to say there isn’t reason for optimism, however. The most obvious one is that Alcantara is now a full year removed from his Tommy John rehab, and his last season where he didn’t deal with elbow troubles or the aftermath of that surgery was his Cy Young 2022 campaign. That’s further supported by the fact that Alcantara improved drastically over the course of the 2025 season. After carrying a ghastly 7.22 ERA into last year’s All-Star break, he posted a 3.33 ERA with a 3.89 FIP the rest of the way, including a 2.62 ERA and 24.9% strikeout rate in the final six weeks of the regular season. When looking at the second half of 2025 in conjunction with the start of the 2026 season, Alcantara looks a whole lot like the ace he once was with a 2.75 ERA, 3.53 FIP, 48.6% ground ball rate, and a 15.5 K-BB% in 108 innings of work across 16 starts.
Zooming back in on his performance so far in 2026, Alcantara’s strikeout and walk rates are better than they’ve been since his Cy Young season and his ground ball rate is trending back up after dropping to just 46.5% last year. The most encouraging sign so far is the complete lack of hard contact Alcantara has allowed. That was the righty’s biggest issue in 2023 and ’25, and while those numbers will take some time to stabilize, things look very encouraging so far in 2026. He’s allowed just one barrel so far this year and his 28.6% hard-hit rate is exceptional thus far. It would be a shock to see those rates stay that low all year, but if he can post a barrel rate in the five to six percent range and a hard-hit rate under 40%, that would leave his profile looking a lot more like it did at his peak than in the years surrounding his surgery, when he combined for a 7.8% barrel rate and a 42.6% hard-hit rate.
How do MLBTR readers think Alcantara’s 2026 season will shake out this year? Will he re-establish himself as one of the league’s top pitchers? If not, will he at least return to being a clearly above-average starter in terms of run prevention for the first time since 2022, or is this hot start merely a flash in the pan? Have your say in the poll below:
What will Sandy Alcantara's 2026 season look like?
The Opener: Rooker, Meadows, Corbin
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Rooker to undergo imaging:
The A’s suffered a worrisome injury yesterday when slugger Brent Rooker exited in the first inning of their game against the Yankees. Martin Gallegos of MLB.com writes that Rooker was diagnosed with “right flank discomfort” and that manager Mark Kotsay told reporters they’d have a more detailed update on the veteran’s status today once he’s undergone imaging. Losing Rooker would be a big blow to the A’s. He hasn’t hit much so far this year but has been one of the team’s most reliable sluggers for years now with 99 homers between 2023 and ’25. If Rooker winds up missing time, perhaps the A’s could look to use the DH slot to rest some of their regulars or improve their outfield defense by moving Tyler Soderstrom out of left field temporarily.
2. Meadows being evaluated following collision:
Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows faced a major scare yesterday when he collided in the outfield with Riley Greene. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News notes that Meadows was held overnight at a local hospital after exiting the game. It’s unknown at this point exactly how much time Meadows should be expected to miss, but a trip to the injured list seems likely and the Tigers are already planning for that eventuality. Jason Beck of MLB.com reports that outfielder Wenceel Perez was left out of last night’s lineup for Triple-A Toledo, and as the clear next man up on the Tigers’ outfield depth chart it seems likely he’s already en route to Minneapolis. The switch-hitter turned in league average numbers in 100 games last year and should be a solid stopgap while Meadows recovers.
3. Corbin to make season debut:
Veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin is in line to kick off the 14th MLB season of his career today as he suits up for the Blue Jays for the first time. After turning in a decent season with the Rangers last year where he pitched to a 4.40 ERA with a 4.25 FIP, Corbin will kick off his age-36 season by taking on Simeon Woods Richardson and the Twins in Toronto. A former Jays farmhand, Woods Richardson posted a 4.04 ERA in 111 1/3 innings of work last year. So far this season, he’s turned in 11 2/3 innings of three-run ball but surrendered two homers and struck out just 13.0% of his opponents. Tonight’s game is scheduled for 7:07pm ET in Toronto.
Poll: Is Jordan Walker Finally Breaking Out?
It might not seem like it, but it was just a few years ago that Jordan Walker was a consensus top five prospect in all of baseball. Walker entered the 2023 season as a trendy Rookie of the Year pick in the NL and was widely expected to make a big impact for the Cardinals. That, of course, didn’t pan out. Walker turned in a solid but unspectacular rookie campaign where he posted a 116 wRC+ while struggling badly defensively in the outfield. He followed that up with brutal performances in 2024 and ’25, combining for a .211/.270/.324 (68 wRC+) slash line in 574 plate appearances that left him closer to the bubble of the team’s roster than the middle of the lineup.
12 games into the 2026 season, things could not be more different. The Cardinals entered the year with few expectations of competing as they embark on a rebuild that led them to trade Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, and Brendan Donovan over the winter. With those trades (and Lars Nootbaar beginning the year on the injured list), the Cards had plenty of room in the lineup to give Walker another shot, even in spite of his previous deep struggles. That’s paying off in a big way so far, as Walker has started to look like the player he was expected to be as a prospect. In 49 plate appearances to start the year, Walker has slashed .295/.367/.682 with a wRC+ of 191. He’s already hit five home runs this year after hitting that same number in 51 games during the 2024 season and hitting just one more across 111 games last year.
It’s hard to imagine a better start to the season than Walker has had, but it’s still fair to wonder how much of it is real. After all, 49 plate appearances is a minuscule sample. A 43-PA stretch from July 19 to July 29 last year saw Walker slash .342/.419/.500 with far less fanfare surrounding it. The same can be said of a 51-PA stretch from September 1 to September 18 in 2024, where he hit .271/.314/.583. Those short outbursts of productivity serve as cautionary tales for leaning too far into early-season small samples, and it’s certainly all but guaranteed that Walker’s numbers will come back down to Earth on at least some level in due time.
With that being said, however, it’s worth noting that the underlying metrics are a lot more confident in Walker’s performance now than they have been in the past. That aforementioned stretch from July 2025 saw Walker carry a completely unsustainable .481 BABIP. This year, by contrast, Walker has a .320 BABIP to this point that is more or less in line with his career figure of .310. His 10.2% walk rate is better than it’s ever been in his career, and his 23.3% barrel rate to this point borders on absurd. Walker’s expected batting average (.309) and slugging percentage (.712) are both even better than his actual production this year, and his .453 xwOBA largely supports his .457 wOBA.
Those are all very encouraging signs, but there are still some red flags that will need to be reckoned with. Walker’s 28.6% strikeout rate this year remains very high, and shows no signs of coming down any time soon. It’s not impossible to succeed when punching out that frequently, but it’s certainly more difficult. Of the top 30 qualified hitters in the majors last year by wRC+, just four of them had a strikeout rate north of 26%. Those four players were Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber, Byron Buxton, and Rafael Devers. All of them hit at least 35 homers, with Raleigh and Schwarber famously hitting far more than that. Buxton’s 27.3% strikeout rate led the group, and that’s more than a full point below where Walker’s currently sits.
While Walker may be on a 68-homer pace right now, it’s an open question whether he’ll be able to get into the 40-homer territory that would be necessary to make him one of the league’s top hitters by the end of the year. Of course, he doesn’t need to be among the league’s biggest stars to be a productive major leaguer. Wyatt Langford hit just 22 homers last year with a strikeout rate of 26.9%, and still posted a 118 wRC+ thanks to a high walk rate. Even Lawrence Butler‘s 2025 season, where he struck out 28.4% of the time against a 9.4% walk rate with 21 homers and a wRC+ of 96, would be a big win for Walker considering where he was entering 2026. That all feels attainable at the moment, though all it would take is one big slump for Walker’s hot start to look like yet another flash in the pan from the talented but mercurial 24-year-old.
How do MLBTR readers expect Walker’s 2026 campaign to turn out? Will he emerge as the cornerstone piece the Cardinals thought they had when he flew up prospect rankings a few years ago? Will this prove to be a blip in what otherwise winds up being another disappointing year? Or will he finish somewhere in the middle with optimism that he can be a solid regular going forward? Have your say in the poll below:
What will Jordan Walker's 2026 season look like?
The Opener: Astros, Rockies, Tigers
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Astros roster moves incoming?
The Astros got hit with a double whammy on the injury front yesterday, as both center fielder Jake Meyers and right-hander Cristian Javier exited yesterday’s game due to back and shoulder injuries respectively. There’s likely to be some roster shuffling as a result of those injuries today. In particular, Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle notes that outfielder Taylor Trammell was scratched from the Triple-A lineup last night as Meyers is expected to head to Houston for imaging. That would fairly cleanly replace Meyers on the roster, but it leaves open the question of how the Astros will handle the potential loss of Javier. Hunter Brown is already on the injured list, and the club was seemingly planning to go to a six-man rotation in the coming days. Spencer Arrighetti, Colton Gordon, and Jason Alexander are among the options at Triple-A who could be asked to take up a rotation role moving forward.
2. Rockies going streaking:
The Rockies didn’t enter the 2026 season with much hope for a successful campaign on the field. It will take more than the first couple weeks of the season to change that perception, but the club has put together a bit of a winning streak with wins in each of their last four games to pull them up to .500. That keeps them out of last place in the NL West and makes them the only club in the division besides the Dodgers with a positive run differential. All of that leads into a series against the division rival Padres that opens today wherein Colorado could have a chance to pull themselves into a winning record and perhaps even sole possession of second place in the division. Those efforts will start tonight at 6:40 local time in San Diego when right-hander Randy Vasquez takes the mound for the Padres against an as-of-yet unnamed Rockies starter, though Chase Dollander is expected to get the bulk of today’s innings.
3. Tigers looking to avoid sweep:
Meanwhile, the Tigers entered the season with lofty expectations but have gotten out to a rough start this year. They’re 4-8 to open the season this year, putting them tied for last in the AL Central alongside the White Sox. That’s in large part due to a rough series against the Twins, who have won three straight against the Tigers. Today, Detroit will be looking to avoid a sweep while the Twins will try to finish the job with Mick Abel on the mound against veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty. That game is scheduled for 12:40pm local time at Target Field in Minnesota. Both have struggled badly so far this year, with a 7.56 ERA in two starts for Flaherty while Abel has posted an 11.05 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work. Will one be able to get back on track today?
The Opener: Drohan, Braves, Angels, Pitchers’ Duel
On the heels of this morning’s big Pirates news, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Drohan to make MLB debut:
The Brewers promoted left-hander Shane Drohan to the majors earlier this week, and now he’s poised to make his MLB debut against his former club. Acquired from the Red Sox in the Caleb Durbin trade, Drohan was a fifth-rounder drafted by the Red Sox back in 2020 who posted a 2.27 ERA in 47 2/3 innings of work at Triple-A last year. Drohan made just one start with the Brewers at Triple-A this year before being promoted, but now he’ll face off against veteran righty Sonny Gray (4.28 ERA in 2025) at Fenway Park later today. The game is scheduled for 1:35pm local time in Boston this afternoon.
2. Braves, Angels brawl:
The Braves and Angels got into a brawl yesterday, with right-hander Reynaldo Lopez and slugger Jorge Soler at the center of it. As noted by Rhett Bollinger and Courtney Hollman of MLB.com, Soler hit a home run in his first plate appearance and was plunked in his second. In his third appearance, an up-and-in pitch came close to him, leading to him charging the mound and throwing punches at Lopez, who retaliated by punching back. Both benches cleared as Lopez and Soler fought, and the pair were eventually ejected from the game. Suspensions and fines haven’t yet been handed down from MLB after the brawl, but it seems likely that disciplinary action could come as soon as today. Meanwhile, the clubs will have the opportunity to work out any lingering tensions during this afternoon’s game, where Grant Holmes will face off against Reid Detmers at 1:07pm local time in Anaheim.
3. Pitchers’ Duel today:
A rematch of the 2025 World Series is currently ongoing, and tonight’s game in that rematch features a particularly exciting pitching matchup. Shohei Ohtani will be taking the mound for the World Champion Dodgers in his second start of the season. He threw six scoreless innings in his first outing of the year, racking up six strikeouts while allowing just one hit. His opponent will be newly-signed Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease, whose first two starts in Toronto have seen him post a 2.79 ERA with 18 strikeouts in just 9 2/3 innings of work. The game is scheduled for 3:07pm local time in Toronto and comes as the Jays look to avoid a sweep at the hands of Los Angeles, who won the first two games by a combined score of 18-3.
Pirates Sign Konnor Griffin To Nine-Year Extension
The Pirates have announced that they’ve signed Konnor Griffin to a nine-year extension. The news was first reported by Jon Heyman of The New York Post this morning. The deal runs through the 2034 season, and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that the deal is worth $140MM. Heyman adds that the deal includes incentives that could take the deal up to $150MM for the Excel client, while Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that there are no options or deferred money in the deal. Sherman adds that the deal’s incentives are based on MVP voting for the 2026-31 seasons. According to Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the deal includes a $12MM signing bonus. $5MM of that bonus will be paid out this year, followed by $3.5MM in 2027 and $3.5MM in 2028.
ESPN’s Buster Olney first reported that the sides were working on a deal in the range of nine years and $140MM last week, and now the deal is done. Even as the sides working on an extension has been common knowledge for a while now, it’s still surely a huge relief to Pirates fans that the deal is officially done. The consensus top prospect in the sport is now locked up through the end of the 2034 season, giving Pittsburgh three additional years of team control over their up-and-coming star. The term is convenient for Griffin as well. The youngster is still a few weeks shy of his 20th birthday, meaning that he’ll hit free agency ahead of his age-29 season when the deal wraps up in 2034. That should leave Griffin in line for a massive payday down the line, assuming he plays up to expectations.
Those expectations are certainly lofty. The youngster has gotten rave reviews from prospecting outlets across the board, and he’s viewed as a legitimate five-tool player with MVP-level upside. He’s certainly done everything he can to support those fawning evaluations so far. In his first professional season last year, he slashed .333/.415/.527 across three levels of the minors with 21 homers, 23 doubles, four triples, and a whopping 65 steals in just 122 games. He did all that while playing impressive defense at shortstop, and picked right back up where he left off upon starting the season at Triple-A. He went 7-for-16 (.438 average) with three steals, three doubles, and more walks than strikeouts in five games with the Pirates’ Indianapolis affiliate before they pulled the trigger and called him up to the majors.
Since being promoted to the majors, Griffin has struggled somewhat, with a .176/.300/.235 slash line in his first five games. There’s not much reason to put significant stock into a sample size that small, but it is worth noting that Griffin isn’t exactly guaranteed to hit the ground running in the majors. There’s a reason Juan Soto was the last hitter to reach the majors as a teenager before Griffin, and even Mike Trout was a below-average hitter in the majors at Griffin’s age. For the time being, Griffin’s exceptional speed on the base paths and strong defense at shortstop are already a big asset for the Pirates even if the star-level hitting contributions come later.
The extension makes Griffin the highest-paid Pirates player in franchise history, and puts a bow on a busy offseason where the club got aggressive in its efforts to contend. Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, and Marcell Ozuna were all brought in this winter by the Pirates after the club missed on some much bigger fish like Kyle Schwarber, Kazuma Okamoto, and Eugenio Suarez to whom they were linked. Even with those top-tier pieces signing elsewhere, Pittsburgh has undeniably upgraded their offense in a big way as they try to make the most of the time during which they’ll have both Griffin and reigning NL Cy Young award winner Paul Skenes in the same uniform. All that spending has raised the luxury tax payroll considerably, and RosterResource indicates that their figure sits just under $127MM for luxury tax purposes at the moment. That should rise to the $142MM range once Griffin’s extension is accounted for.
Poll: What Should The Cubs Do With Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki?
The Cubs kicked off the 2026 season with a pair of notable extensions. They locked up star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and veteran second baseman Nico Hoerner on contracts that will keep both players in town through the end of the 2032 season. Even after extending Hoerner (who was a pending free agent prior to signing), however, the Cubs are in position to lose a lot of talent this offseason. Sixty percent of the club’s starting rotation (Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, and Jameson Taillon) is slated to hit free agency after the season. This is also catcher Carson Kelly‘s final year under contract.
The most notable players the team stands to lose to free agency, however, are Crow-Armstrong’s partners in the outfield: left fielder Ian Happ and right fielder Seiya Suzuki. Whether a deal will come together with either Happ or Suzuki remains to be seen. As of two months ago, both Happ and Suzuki indicated that they had not spoken to the Cubs about extensions yet. That can change with one phone call, of course, but there’s been no evidence to this point that the sides have engaged in talks so far. On the surface, the argument for extending one or both of the team’s corner outfielders seems fairly obvious: both have been consistently productive for Chicago.
Happ is now in his tenth season as a major league player, and he’s never posted a below average season by measure of wRC+ in that time. Since the departure of the core that won the World Series in 2016, Happ has been the club’s longest-tenured player and a consistent presence on offense. From 2022 onwards, he’s slashed .250/.346/.435 (119 wRC+) overall with remarkable year-to-year consistency. His wRC+ has fallen between 116 and 122 in each of the last four years, and on defense each of those seasons has ended with him being awarded the NL’s Gold Glove for his work in left field. Aside from his on-field value, Happ also holds a meaningful place in Cubs history with a chance to finish the year in the franchise’s top 10 all time for home runs.
Suzuki, on the other hand, joined the Cubs after coming over from Japan ahead of the 2022 season and has only improved across his four years with the club. A career .269/.346/.472 (127 wRC+) hitter in the majors, he’s been arguably the Cubs’ most productive bat during his time with the club. Since arriving in the majors in 2022, Suzuki’s the 11th-best outfielder in the majors by wRC+ (minimum 1500 plate appearances). That puts him just behind Byron Buxton and Julio Rodriguez, sitting just ahead of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Corbin Carroll. Those are middle-of-the-order superstars that Suzuki is rubbing elbows with from a statistical perspective, and that sort of impact can be tough to replace.
That’s not to say extending either player is necessarily a slam-dunk decision, as both certainly come with flaws. Both will celebrate their 32nd birthdays in August, putting them near the end of their prime years. Neither is exactly a complete player, either. Suzuki’s offensive impact cannot be denied, but his defensive struggles in the outfield are well-documented and led to him spending most of the 2025 campaign as the club’s DH. He’s also struggled to stay healthy in the majors, having only played 150 games once in his career. He already started 2026 on the injured list due to a knee injury he suffered during the World Baseball Classic.
Happ, on the other hand, is a more well-rounded player but the offensive production he offers is a lot easier to come by. Taylor Ward, Teoscar Hernandez, Brendan Donovan, Jarren Duran, Anthony Santander, Randy Arozarena, and Brandon Nimmo are all within three points of Happ’s wRC+ from 2022-25 in one direction or the other. All of those players are quality pieces, but that group is undeniably a step down from the rarefied air Suzuki’s numbers put him in.
One key factor that has not yet been mentioned regarding the Cubs’ decisions on Suzuki and Happ is the availability of quality alternatives. Arozarena is set to reach free agency this year and is comparable to Happ and Suzuki in terms of both age and productivity, but they’re undoubtedly the top three corner outfielders on the market this winter. Players like Trent Grisham and Ramon Laureano lack the lengthy track records offered by Happ and Suzuki, while someone like George Springer comes with even more substantial age-related concerns given that he’ll turn 37 this September. If the Cubs are going to dip into free agency for outfield help this winter, they’ll be hard pressed to find an upgrade over the guys they already have.
In terms of internal options to replace the duo, the Cubs are quite thin. Top outfield prospect Owen Caissie was dealt to Miami over the offseason to land Edward Cabrera. Kevin Alcantara is a well-regarded prospect currently hitting very well at Triple-A, but the 23-year-old has struggled in limited chances in the majors and draws significant value from his defense in center field, a position he won’t play on a team that features Crow-Armstrong. 2025 first-rounder Ethan Conrad is very well-regarded in prospecting circles but still years away from the majors. Matt Shaw was displaced from third base by the addition of Alex Bregman and has gotten some reps in right field while Suzuki is on the shelf, but he was a below-average offensive player last year and had no experience in the outfield before this spring.
How do MLBTR readers think the Cubs should handle the outfield corners going forward? Should they extend one or both of their current veterans, or let them both walk in free agency? Have your say in the poll below:
How should the Cubs approach Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ's futures?
The Opener: Red Sox, Brewers, A’s, MLBTR Chat
Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on throughout the day today:
1. Red Sox, Brewers face off amid tense series:
The Red Sox and Brewers played last night, and right-hander Brandon Woodruff hit veteran first baseman Willson Contreras with a pitch. Contreras, who had spent the entirety of his career prior to this season in the NL Central, has been plunked by the Brewers 24 times in his career, including six by Woodruff specifically. That was enough to raise tensions on the field, and after the game both Contreras and a handful Brewers players commented on the situation (as relayed by Tim Healey of The Boston Globe).
“The 24th time, it’s not [a] coincidence,” Contreras said, as relayed by Healey. “They’re going there with a purpose. And that’s fine, that’s pitching. But next time you hit me, the message is clear: I’m going to take one of them out.”
Brewers veteran Christian Yelich was nonplussed by Contreras’s comments. “We’ve seen that skit for the last 10 years. It’s nothing new. Not surprising. You just keep it rolling. You got a game to win and lock the boys in, rally the troops.”
All of this sets up an interesting game between the clubs later today. At 6:45pm local time in Boston this evening, Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet will take the mound opposite hard-throwing righty Jacob Misiorowski. Crochet fell just shy of the AL Cy Young award last year and has a 3.27 ERA through two starts. Misiorowski, for his part, received an All-Star nod in his rookie season last year and has now posted a 2.45 ERA in his own first two starts of the year.
2. A’s 40-man roster move incoming:
The A’s are expected to select the contract of right-hander Joel Kuhnel later today. Before they can do that, however, they’ll need to create a spot on the 40-man roster for him. Right-hander Gunnar Hoglund is the only player on the club’s injured list at the moment. It’s unclear when exactly the right-hander will return from his current back injury, but he isn’t a known candidate for the 60-day injured list at this point. Barring a surprise transfer for Hoglund or a surprise trade that clears 40-man roster space, the A’s will have to designate a player for assignment today. That move can be expected sometime this afternoon, given that the club is slated to play their next game at 7:05pm local time in New York against the Yankees.
3. MLBTR Chat Today:
The regular season is in full swing at this point, with some clubs (like the 6-5 Angels) exceeding expectations in the early going while others (like the 2-8 Red Sox) have struggled unexpectedly out of the gate. Whether you’re wondering what to expect from your team this year or just trying to separate the contenders from the pretenders, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco has you covered with a live chat at 11:00am CT this morning. You can click here to leave a question in advance. That same link will also allow you to follow along with the chat live when things get underway and view a transcript of the chat after it concludes.
Padres Notes: Adam, Canning, Waldron
The Padres have been without veteran right-hander Jason Adam so far this season as he works his way back from last year’s quadriceps surgery. While that blow to the bullpen has been manageable with elite arms like Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon holding things down, Adam is a big part of the San Diego relief corps after posting a 2.07 ERA with a 3.20 FIP in 256 2/3 innings of work since the start of the 2022 season. Looking more specifically at Adam’s time with the Padres, his numbers are an even more dominant 1.66 ERA and 2.89 FIP.
It’s exciting news, then, for the Padres that Adam is nearing a return. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Adam pitched on back-to-back days over the weekend in his rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso. Sanders adds that Adam could be activated when he’s first eligible to come off the shelf on April 8, but that it’s also possible that the club will wait until April 9, when they’ll be back in San Diego for a series against the Rockies. Whenever Adam does wind up returning, it’ll be a huge boost to a Padres bullpen that has gotten lackluster performances from Jeremiah Estrada and Wandy Peralta in the early going.
As Adam’s rehab assignment nears its conclusion, right-hander Griffin Canning‘s is getting underway. Sanders notes that Canning allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings of work over the weekend with four strikeouts on 51 pitches. That leaves him with some building up left to do before he’s ready to make the jump back to the majors as a starter, but after signing a $2.5MM deal with San Diego during the offseason, the righty seems very likely to be in the Padres’ starting rotation once he is ready to go. That’s for good reason, seeing as he turned in a very respectable 3.77 ERA in 16 starts last year before suffering the achilles injury he’s currently working his way back from. That’s the production of a solid back-of-the-rotation starter, and if he can match those numbers he’ll be a huge asset to a Padres rotation that looks like the team’s biggest weakness early in 2026.
If the Padres are looking for more immediate help in the rotation, however, they might first turn to knuckleballer Matt Waldron. The 29-year-old underwent minor surgery in February and has made two rehab starts to get built up into regular season form after missing some of Spring Training. He’s looked phenomenal in those rehab starts so far, with a 39.1% strikeout rate in seven scoreless innings. Waldron has built up to 61 pitches so far and will be in line for his next rehab start later this week. The righty has a 4.86 ERA for his career in the majors and could be a real option for the club’s rotation either in the event of an injury or continued struggles from the current back-end duo of German Marquez and Walker Buehler after tough starts to the year for both players. JP Sears, Triston McKenzie, and Marco Gonzales are among the other depth options the Padres have at their disposal in the rotation.
Red Sox Send Patrick Galle To Cardinals As PTBNL In Sonny Gray Trade
The Red Sox announced today (as relayed by Chris Cotillo of MassLive, among others) that they’ve sent right-hander Patrick Galle to the Cardinals to complete their trade for veteran righty Sonny Gray from this past offseason. Galle joins right-handers Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke to make up the complete return for Gray. The Cardinals subsequently announced that Galle has been assigned to Single-A Palm Beach.
Galle, who celebrated his 22nd birthday yesterday, joins the Cardinals organization after spending less than a year in the Red Sox organization. A 17th-round pick by the club during last year’s draft, Galle pitched just 11 innings in relief during his two years with the University of Mississippi during college. He’s spent his entire professional career to this point at the Single-A level, and he’s pitched to a 4.91 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work. He’s posted a strikeout rate of just 11.4% with a 20% walk rate. Those are lackluster numbers to be sure, and at 22 years old it’s an open question if Galle will ever develop enough to make it to the majors. With that being said, the righty hasn’t spent much time in professional ball at this point, and it’s possible that getting into a new organization that has pivoted to have such a strong focus on player development could be just what Galle needs to take a big step forward.
The deal completes a trade for Gray that helped to patch up a Red Sox rotation that was not only losing Lucas Giolito to free agency but had too often proven inconsistent in 2025 outside of staff ace Garrett Crochet. Gray’s numbers with Boston don’t exactly jump off the page through two starts, with a 4.50 ERA and 19% strikeout rate in ten unremarkable innings. The veteran’s track record as a consistent and durable above-average arm suggests that he’ll be a productive asset for the Red Sox this year, however, as long as he remains in good health. Turning to the Cardinals, Clarke has not yet made his organizational debut but Fitts has a very impressive 1.74 ERA across two outings for Triple-A Memphis so far this season.