There were some raised eyebrows surrounding Brad Hand last month -- first when the Indians placed him on outright waivers and then when the other 29 MLB teams passed on him and his $10 million option (Cleveland eventually paid a $1 million buyout). This was a three-time All-Star reliever and...

Nolan Arenado is still on the trade block, if you believe the latest rumors, and even if you don't, it's clear that his frosty relationship with the team and its relatively weak outlook for the immediate future has made a dissolution of their partnership seem imminent for some time. It's...

They say the fastball count is dying. Don't tell Liam Hendriks. The reigning American League Reliever of the Year -- the top free-agent closer right now -- got to this point with an old-school approach to attacking hitters. Hendriks pumps fastballs until he gets ahead. Once he gets to two...

MINNEAPOLIS -- As they search for every competitive advantage on their staff behind the watchful eye of pitching coach Wes Johnson, the Twins have assembled a wide array of looks and pitches despite a relative lack of the flamethrowers who are becoming more and more ubiquitous in Major League bullpens....

The White Sox reached the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and finished over .500 in a season for the first time since '12. Here are a few of the more notable Statcast numbers and trends from this 35-25 step forward taken during their '20 campaign. The White Sox...

The oddity of the position player pitching, the sight of a backup catcher or reserve outfielder or -- in those rare occasions where we found ourselves so lucky, a legitimate slugging superstar \-\- taking the mound was once reserved for the descriptive bin of "weird baseball," the kind of thing...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Whenever a slugger crushes a prodigious homer deep into the night these days, social media-savvy fans know to brace themselves for the inevitable flurry of statistical context that will soon rain down on their feeds. Thanks to Statcast, we can now say that a blast was a player’s...

DJ LeMahieu is headed off to free agency, and it's not surprising to note that he is going to be a highly-valued player. In two years with the Yankees, LeMahieu hit .336/.386/.522, a 145 OPS+, while also adding value by moving around between three infield spots. He finished fourth in...

One of the lasting memories from this postseason will be the torrid hitting of Randy Arozarena. But how exactly Arozarena’s amazing run will be remembered is a more interesting question. Will it be viewed as a star’s coming-out party? A total fluke? Or just a historic, well-timed hot streak from...

Hitting is tougher than ever in October. Teams deploy their best pitchers, and the pressure on every pitch ramps up to max intensity. But that hasn't stopped baseball's biggest sluggers from crushing some monster postseason home runs -- and few plays match the adrenaline rush of a grandiose homer in...