Reasons to believe in 5 FAs who underperformed in '23
Not every free agent has the benefit of hitting the open market off his best season -- or even an adequate one.
While it's unfortunate for the player, a poor platform season can present an opportunity for an enterprising team to take a chance on a free agent at a...
Tim Anderson
Lance Lynn
Teoscar Hernandez
Luis Severino
Lucas Giolito
How Nola addressed a big weakness ahead of free agency
Aaron Nola, one of the best free-agent pitchers available, has a problem. Or, at least, he had a problem. But we’ll get back to that.
The problem is easy to identify. Over the past eight seasons, only four pitchers were weaker at holding at first base those baserunners who had...
Aaron Nola
The statistical absurdity – and brilliance – of Snell's Cy Young season
A version of this story was originally published in September....
Blake Snell
5 questions about Bellinger's fascinating free agency
Less than one year ago – Nov. 18, 2022, to be exact – the Dodgers chose not to tender Cody Bellinger a contract for 2023, deciding that his enduring struggles over two previous injury-plagued seasons (.193/.256/.355) made the prospect of paying him approximately $20 million in arbitration untenable.
Twelve months...
Cody Bellinger
New metric tracks how well (or poorly) pitchers prevent basestealing
If the new rules put into place in 2023 were intended to help return some action to the basepaths, then they succeeded. Runners attempted to steal 1,072 additional bases in 2023 than they did in '22, and they were successful 80.2% of the time, the highest mark in AL/NL history....
Each team's offseason roster ranked, 1-30
It hasn't even been a week since the Rangers won the 2023 World Series, but the 2024 season has already begun, in a manner of speaking. Signings have already happened, minor trades have been made, and the rosters that teams have right now already look different than they did just...
How Pfaadt went from 5.72 ERA to World Series starter
For Monday’s Game 3 of the World Series, it’s difficult to imagine a larger difference in the resumes of the starting pitchers. Texas has living legend Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner with a likely place in Cooperstown, who all but single-handedly willed his Nationals team to the 2019...
Brandon Pfaadt
The unknown reliever who became the D-backs' postseason X-factor
The D-backs' pennant run has turned Kevin Ginkel into something of a folk hero.
The 29-year-old reliever has gone from a fungible bullpen cog who was sent down to the Minors in June to the guy who shut down the Phillies ... and the Dodgers ... and the Brewers ......
Kevin Ginkel
Phillies' defense suddenly a surprising postseason strength
The Phillies don’t have a strong defense, you continue to hear, because for most of the past two years, that’s absolutely been true. In 2022, Philadelphia finished 29th in the Majors in Statcast’s Outs Above Average, and the team's run to the World Series was full of tales about how...
Power play: Harper flips switch on slider struggles
Bryce Harper is crushing everything this postseason, including the pitches that were his biggest weakness during the regular season.
Harper has teed off against the D-backs' fastballs in the National League Championship Series. Just watch his monster home run off Zac Gallen in the Phillies' win in Game 5 to...
Bryce Harper
