MLB (Non Phillies) News and Discussion 2025 Season

[bkox]

MLB suspends Julio Urías for second violation of policy against domestic...

[bkox]

BREAKING: Catcher Cal Raleigh and the Seattle Mariners are finalizing a six-year, $105 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN. Deal starts this season and buys out three years of free agency. A huge deal to keep a franchise catcher in Seattle.

— Jeff Passan ( @JeffPassan ) March 25, 2025

Right-hander Ryan Johnson has made the Los Angeles Angels -- without spending a single day in the minor leagues, sources tell ESPN. Johnson, a second-round pick last year, signed for $1.75 million but didn't pitch. The last to debut with no minor league time: Garrett Crochet.

— Jeff Passan ( @JeffPassan ) March 25, 2025

[andyb]

Fangraphs Positional Rankings Summary.

2025 Positional Power Rankings: Summary

Phillies ranking by position:
Catcher - 22nd
1B - 2
2B - 11
3B - 13
SS - 7
RF - 29
CF - 18
LF - 17
DH - 5
SP - 2
RP - 3

Surprised a little at the catcher weakness. RF not a surprise of course with defense considered. LF and CF also relatively weak. Pitching is our strength both in the rotation and the bullpen.

[andyb]

And speaking of Kyle Tucker, the prospect he was traded for is now his replacement. Cam Smith picked 14th overall last year out of Florida State (as a 3B) looks likely to play RF this season for the Astros. It could be an adventure in the OF as former infielders will play lots of LF (Altuve) and RF (Smith).

Fast-rising Smith, 22, makes roster for Astros

[bkeich]

At some point the league needs to fix the divisions. Year after year the Central Divisions are 40-100 games under .500. This year it is already funny, the Cardinals are 0-0, which of course puts them in 1st place since the rest of the division is 0-5.

[andyb]

Big money except for the Cubs is on the East and West coast. No great solution unless you went to 4 divisions instead of 6 - and then the divisional play gets tough with more teams.

[zambonir]

If they started MLB from scratch today most of the small-market Central time zone teams simply wouldn't have baseball,and Chicago probably shouldn't have two teams. At the same time, none of the last four expansion teams which theoretically went into Southern and Western population centers have proved more successful or wealthy than the Reds or Twins etc.

If they expand and realign and go back to four divisions having the playoffs just be conference record like the NBA, or at least all wild cards after the top two teams, could work.

It an also be somewhat cyclical, though maybe not trending that way in current financial reality.

[BostonRoss]

They could realign without respect to geography. Or more radically, arrange the divisions by revenue stream potential. Put the Yankees and Dodgers in the same division!

[allentown]

in NL swap Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

[Philsmania]

in NL swap Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

Atlanta is closer to Cincinnati than any other NLE city though Pittsburgh is nine miles closer to Cincinnati than it is to Philadelphia. In a selfish way, I would love to see the Phillies-Pirates rivalry given new life. It was a pretty intense rivalry in the '70's.

[andyb]

The way to get rid of bad divisions is really to have larger divisions. NFL has had this issue a lot in recent years even though their league has much more parity because of the salary cap.

[zambonir]

I would think it's more likely they do away with the leagues and emphasize geography more, not less, i.e. Mets and Yankees in same division (but also Phillies and Pirates, sure. They already accomplished that in Texas at least). Though they are also currentlly determined to make sure fans in every city see every team in MLB once a year, at the expense of division rivals.

Playoff format could also just be conference ("league") based after the top 2.

[andyb]

One could eliminate the leagues when you go to 32 teams. 4 divisions of 8 teams each. Player 12-13 games in division. Then 3 against the other 24 teams.

Division champs get bye. Second place teams are the home teams against wild card. Seeding based on record since there are no leagues.

I know that getting rid of leagues would upset lots of people. It just gets hard to have enough in-division games when the league grows and one needs to play everybody at least 1 3-game series. Of course if you went with strict geography (like all NY, Boston, and Philly teams in the same division) then you would still have payroll imbalance by market size.

[zambonir]

If they can get rid of the Campbell and Wales conferences they can get rid of the AL and NL

I do think it's still a bit premature to proclaim any one division as week. Some years you have a division where one team dominates and the rest stink (has happened in both the West and East). Others where one is more top-to-bottom mediocre. And the Rays and Blue Jays and O's have never shown up in the current post-season anymore than the NL Central teams (and less than the AL Central teams).

[bkeich]

The only way I think you can fix the geographic problems with revenue (and therefore team records) is the NFL model of hard salary cap. That most likely will never happen.

A odd division idea: Randomly pick the divisions each year. It would be great TV at least.

[Philsmania]

If they can get rid of the Campbell and Wales conferences they can get rid of the AL and NL

That elwould ultimately be a necessity for radical realignment. Eastern Conference and Western Conference. Imagine a division with the Phillies, Nationals, Orioles, Yankees, Mets and Red Sox?

[andyb]

Why do we care that much about precise geographic alignment. We invented something called the airplane and team charters are nice. It is probably about the same time for the Phillies to fly to Atlanta as bus/train to NYC.

If you put all those teams in the East in one division you are only making the revenue disparity among divisions worse.

Share more revenue. It is really the only way to get closer to parity.

[andyb]

Will Carroll puts out a variation on my idea to deaden the baseball. He wants to explore changing the weight which could be risky regarding injuries rather than change the process to make it less lively. But if you want less three outcome baseball, this is the way to do it.

Under The Knife 3/28/25

[andyb]

Braves offense hurting until Acuna comes back:

Jurickson Profar To Receive 80-Game PED Suspension

[zambonir]

And that comes with a postseason ban. Of course they are currently on pace to go 0-162