2026 Misc MLB News Thread

[Frisbee Slider]

7 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Cubs supposedly finalizing agreement on an extension with PCA…..should be interesting to see the numbers.

PCA's glove is obviously elite. He only produced a .634 OPS in the second half last year. 246 PA Plus, .594 OPS against LHP last season, 188 PA. 

That is worse offensive production than Blake Perkins.

Garrett Mitchell's spring training OPS is higher than PCA, too. I realize how that sounds.

I'm fine with Chicago giving PCA $100 million.

 

[sveumrules]

Given his defense, the obvious PCA comp for me coming up was Kevin Kiermaier...

2025 PCA (647 PA | 109 wRC+)
52 BB+ | 109 K+ | 100 AVG+ | 150 ISO+ 
+6.7 BsR | +17.4 DEF | 5.4 WAR

2014-17 KK (per 647 PA | 107 wRC+)
85 BB+ | 96 K+ | 103 AVG+ | 107 ISO+
+6.3 BsR | +19.0 DEF | 5.4 WAR

About as close as it gets overall...two points of wRC+, same WAR, 1.2 run difference on combined base running and defense. PCA has a massive edge in power (but a minuscule walk rate) where Kiermaier got to his value in the box with a more balanced approach.

 

[markedman5]

 

[RWeeksFan23]

12 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Given his defense, the obvious PCA comp for me coming up was Kevin Kiermaier...

2025 PCA (647 PA | 109 wRC+)
52 BB+ | 109 K+ | 100 AVG+ | 150 ISO+ 
+6.7 BsR | +17.4 DEF | 5.4 WAR

2014-17 KK (per 647 PA | 107 wRC+)
85 BB+ | 96 K+ | 103 AVG+ | 107 ISO+
+6.3 BsR | +19.0 DEF | 5.4 WAR

About as close as it gets overall...two points of wRC+, same WAR, 1.2 run difference on combined base running and defense. PCA has a massive edge in power (but a minuscule walk rate) where Kiermaier got to his value in the box with a more balanced approach.

 

Kiermaier was around that long ago? Damn I feel old.

great comparison by the way

[Jopal78]

14 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Given his defense, the obvious PCA comp for me coming up was Kevin Kiermaier...

2025 PCA (647 PA | 109 wRC+)
52 BB+ | 109 K+ | 100 AVG+ | 150 ISO+ 
+6.7 BsR | +17.4 DEF | 5.4 WAR

2014-17 KK (per 647 PA | 107 wRC+)
85 BB+ | 96 K+ | 103 AVG+ | 107 ISO+
+6.3 BsR | +19.0 DEF | 5.4 WAR

About as close as it gets overall...two points of wRC+, same WAR, 1.2 run difference on combined base running and defense. PCA has a massive edge in power (but a minuscule walk rate) where Kiermaier got to his value in the box with a more balanced approach.

 

PCA put up those 2025 stats after just turning 23 years old. 
 

What you’re really showing isn’t a comp, it is that Crow-Armstrong already looks like Kiermaier’s career average before even hitting his prime years, that’s not similarity it’s upside. 

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

PCA put up those 2025 stats after just turning 23 years old. 
 

What you’re really showing isn’t a comp, it is that Crow-Armstrong already looks like Kiermaier’s career average before even hitting his prime years, that’s not similarity it’s upside. 

The first season of Kiermaier's four year peak run came during his age 24 season so the ages are pretty close too. No doubt that PCA has more upside between age and power production, but the extreme nature of his plate approach also presents more downside risk than usual. In his breakout year he still had a .287 OBP.

We already know that Kiemaier put up his 107 wRC+ over 1,734 PA, what will the next couple two tree thousand PA look like for PCA?

At present the entirety of his offense value is coming from that 150 ISO+ that ranked him 22nd out of 215 players with at lest 400 PA last year. But his 52 BB+ (208th) eats into that value considerably.

His extreme fly ball (131 FB+ | 7th) and pull rates (130 Pull+ | 6th) also limit the ceiling on his batting average despite top end sprint speed.

So what is more likely to continue with the accumulation of time, PCA walking 50% less than league average or isolated slugging 50% above league average?

Given the extreme nature of his swing tendencies (59.5 Swing% | 2nd) versus how hard it is to maintain a 150 ISO+ over larger samples (only 11 players with at least 2,000 PA from 2021-25 have a 150 ISO+ or higher), I think that his walk rate will be stickier than his isolated slugging over the course of his contract.

His elite base running and defense make him one of thee highest floor players in the league, but his conversely extreme swing rates and batted ball profile put him in that precarious Javy Baez zone at the plate. And hey, Javy managed a single season peak of a 131 wRC+ and a four year run with 1,988 PA of 113 wRC+ before he fell off.

But Baez also had a much more evenly distributed batted ball profile in that 131 wRC+ season at 101 LD+ | 105 GB+ | 92 FB+ | 101 Pull+ | 96 Cent+ | 104 Oppo+ allowing him to run a 116 BABIP+ and 114 AVG+ that PCA is unlikely to approach with his current tendencies.

[Playing Catch]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

The first season of Kiermaier's four year peak run came during his age 24 season so the ages are pretty close too. No doubt that PCA has more upside between age and power production, but the extreme nature of his plate approach also presents more downside risk than usual. In his breakout year he still had a .287 OBP.

We already know that Kiemaier put up his 107 wRC+ over 1,734 PA, what will the next couple two tree thousand PA look like for PCA?

At present the entirety of his offense value is coming from that 150 ISO+ that ranked him 22nd out of 215 players with at lest 400 PA last year. But his 52 BB+ (208th) eats into that value considerably.

His extreme fly ball (131 FB+ | 7th) and pull rates (130 Pull+ | 6th) also limit the ceiling on his batting average despite top end sprint speed.

So what is more likely to continue with the accumulation of time, PCA walking 50% less than league average or isolated slugging 50% above league average?

Given the extreme nature of his swing tendencies (59.5 Swing% | 2nd) versus how hard it is to maintain a 150 ISO+ over larger samples (only 11 players with at least 2,000 PA from 2021-25 have a 150 ISO+ or higher), I think that his walk rate will be stickier than his isolated slugging over the course of his contract.

His elite base running and defense make him one of thee highest floor players in the league, but his conversely extreme swing rates and batted ball profile put him in that precarious Javy Baez zone at the plate. And hey, Javy managed a single season peak of a 131 wRC+ and a four year run with 1,988 PA of 113 wRC+ before he fell off.

But Baez also had a much more evenly distributed batted ball profile in that 131 wRC+ season at 101 LD+ | 105 GB+ | 92 FB+ | 101 Pull+ | 96 Cent+ | 104 Oppo+ allowing him to run a 116 BABIP+ and 114 AVG+ that PCA is unlikely to approach with his current tendencies.

This is why we keep you around. A top-5 Sveum post, of which there are dozens.

[Underachiever]

PCA will probably be pretty good. 

Edit: I see @sveumrulesposted the exact same thing, only with more words. Tomato, tomahto.

I kid, of course. sveumrules is a gem.

[SeaBass]

1 hour ago, Playing Catch said:

This is why we keep you around. A top-5 Sveum post, of which there are dozens.

It's a shame front offices don't scout fan message boards... better for us here though!

[markedman5]

 

[Dragonbait]

16 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

Desperate for good news after today's blowout.  Probably were planning on announcing it on the off day tomorrow. 

[CheezWizHed]

On 3/24/2026 at 5:53 AM, Frisbee Slider said:

PCA's glove is obviously elite. He only produced a .634 OPS in the second half last year. 246 PA Plus, .594 OPS against LHP last season, 188 PA. 

That is worse offensive production than Blake Perkins.

Garrett Mitchell's spring training OPS is higher than PCA, too. I realize how that sounds.

I'm fine with Chicago giving PCA $100 million.

 

And here we are...loaded with lefties in the BP. 😏

[liveforoctober]

 

Welcome back old friend.

 

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

Overall, I don't see this type of contract torpedoing the Cubs should PCA revert back to being consistently atrocious at the plate.  He was a borderline MVP candidate into the all star break last year and then reverted back to being awful for the final 3 months of the season.  He's always going to have some value as an everyday player because of his defensive abilities - then again...

 

[long ball]

I hate that the cubs locked up Nico Hoerner. He’s awesome and I would’ve preferred to see them trade him in the off season after signing Bregman. 
 

I do wonder how much faith they have in Matt Shaw to develop as a hitter. They’ve slid him into the utility role and was out on RF yesterday (Seiya is on the IL). 
 

The PCA extension has some risk, but ultimately they bought out 2 free agent years and didn’t have to take the deal into his 30s where his premier skills (defense and speed) will likely be starting to fade. Now I hope just like the rest of the commenters here that he stinks at the plate, but the speed/defense/power give him a really high floor. 

[markedman5]

Turang must love seeing these numbers

 

[Matt]

Brice is so far away from free agency the only things he needs to worry about are being healthy and productive.

[sveumrules]

From 2022 to 2025 there were 179 players with at least 1,500 PA, here is how Hoerner stacked up over his 2,495 PA (32nd)...

105 wRC+ (105th) | +19.7 BsR (6th) | +49.5 DEF (9th) | 17.4 WAR (19th)
75 BB+ (148th) | 46 K+ (3rd) | 115 AVG+ (15th) | 66 ISO+ (174th)

The quote from the Passan tweet about Nico doing everything well - defense, base running, contact skill is kinda funny. He is certainly elite at those three things, but typically power is considered part of "everything" and he is severely lacking there. Even with that paucity of pop he has been so good at the rest of it that he cracks the Top Twenty in WAR over the last four years anyway.

The Cubs just signed up for Hoerner's age 30 to 35 seasons, looking at this leaderboard of primary second basemen during the Thirty Team Era from their age 30 to 35 seasons and I'd say these four guys probably represent something like a best case scenario...

Roberto Alomar (3,978 PA | 24.3 WAR)
114 wRC+ | +14.8 BsR | +26.0 DEF

Marcus Semien (3,453 PA | 23.2 WAR)
112 wRC+ | +13.8 BsR | +47.0 DEF
*2026 is his age 35 season

Ian Kinsler (4,038 PA | 22.0 WAR)
106 wRC+ | +14.5 BsR | +35.0 DEF 

Placido Polanco (3,566 PA | 17.9 WAR)
98 wRC+ | 0.0 BsR | +67.8 DEF

For $141M through 2032 something like Mark Ellis with 3,034 PA of 93 wRC+ | +12.7 BsR | +57.4 DEF for 14.7 WAR from age 30 to 35 would probably be in the neighborhood of an even money outcome.

[HarryDoyle]

Beavis and Butthead score more than the Giants do.

[Vgmastr]

Joey Wiemer helping his old team by taking it to the Cubs.  Currenting batting 1.000 in eight plate appearances, including a triple and two home runs.

[Dragonbait]

His 1st career triple 

[liveforoctober]

At this rate we might be able to get Durbin back from the Sox for cash at the all star break. It's early... but they are never trading with us again.

[Jopal78]

11 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

At this rate we might be able to get Durbin back from the Sox for cash at the all star break. It's early... but they are never trading with us again.

They gave up spare parts that were not in their future plans to get Durbin, Monasterio a comp pick and Seigler. I’m sure they’ll be okay with the deal even if Durbin doesn’t play well this year.

[liveforoctober]

17 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

They gave up spare parts that were not in their future plans to get Durbin, Monasterio a comp pick and Seigler. I’m sure they’ll be okay with the deal even if Durbin doesn’t play well this year.

Oh nice, I didn't know that.

[Roderick]

46 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

They gave up spare parts that were not in their future plans to get Durbin, Monasterio a comp pick and Seigler. I’m sure they’ll be okay with the deal even if Durbin doesn’t play well this year.

Harrison is much more than a spare part.  And Drohan looks to be a cheap pen guy sooner than later.  Hamilton would be classified as spare parts for Boston, he didn't hit enough to keep a backup infielder spot.