[jksander]

January 20, 2026: We’ve signed an IAFA player to a contract, sending 17-year-old center fielder Robby Garcia to our International Complex. He’s agreed to a signing bonus worth $1,750,000, and shows exceptional potential as a speedy baserunner with above-average power potential and decent, if not spectacular, outfield range.

January 21, 2026: Nobody got into the Hall of Fame this year ... only Ichiro Suzuki (74%) and Carlos Beltran (70.9%) came close. Manny Ramirez only got 41.8% in his 10th year of eligibility, so he’s been dropped from future consideration. The pressure’s going to be on Andruw Jones (51.7%), the only ninth year eligible player to get significant votes, to prove to voters next year that he’s worthy of getting the nod ... and considering he actually lost votes this year after cracking 60% in the last two years makes it highly unlikely he’ll make the cut. He’ll have to be happy with his 10 National League Gold Glove awards, unless he can get a groundswell of support. Me personally, I’m a “defense first” guy, and I think he should get in, but I’m not part of the voting press, so we’ll see what happens.
 
February 8, 2026: We signed 16-year-old right-handed reliever Danny Ortega from the Dominican Republic to join our International Complex, with a minor league bonus of $1,000,000. He has potentially exceptional control, thanks to a killer cutter he can already throw at 94 miles per hour, but he’s a long shot among long shots, so it may be years (if ever) before you hear of him again. We have $2 million in bonus pool remaining, but it’s looking less likely that we’ll use it all ... the pool in general was weak this year, which has encouraged teams to max-offer guys who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten a second look.

February 12, 2026: We’re sending the Los Angeles Angels 27-year-old first baseman Andrew Vaughn and 22-year-old left fielder prospect Braden Montgomery, in exchange for 25-year-old reliever Ben Joyce and $12,500,000 in cash. Joyce is still on a major league minimum contract and won’t be arbitration eligible until at least next offseason, and last year in LA he put up a 4-4 record with 25 saves and a 3.79 ERA, striking out 41 batters in 35.1 innings of work. He’ll be in the mix to compete for a key spot in our bullpen during spring training, but provides us significant added depth as well ... and though he had a couple injuries last year that kept his playing time down, we think that made the Angels willing to overpay in sending him our way. Works for me ... I like betting on players others overlook, and the cash consideration gives us significant room to wheel and deal later in the season if we need to plug a hole or two.

Reinsdorf is really pleased with what we’ve done this offseason, particularly with signing former MVP Cody Bellinger. Our fan support is up from 37% to 61%, and while it’s going to take time to determine how our team chemistry builds through the season and whether we can keep on track to play close to .500, I think we’ve got the team that can do it ... and if we do, we’re going to shock a lot of people here in the AL Central.

February 17, 2026: It felt at times like this day would never arrive, but it’s officially the start of spring training! We’ve got our invitees down in Glendale getting ready for the slate of 28 practice games, and then I will pare the roster down for our manager, Ozzie Guillen, as we prepare for opening day. The Padres and Cardinals will face off in Korea for a pair March 24-25 to officially open up the baseball season, with spring games wrapping up across the league around the 20th. We drew a horrible opening schedule, facing Cleveland on the road April 2nd, 3rd and 5th, followed by a series in Colorado April 6th through 8th and in Seattle April 10th through 12th. We then get to open our season at Rate Field by facing last year’s champs the Texas Rangers April 14th through 16th, followed by three against Cleveland the 17th through 19th.

February 25, 2026: Noah Schultz has worked hard all offseason and has improved his control significantly, to the point where he now scouts as a four-star player! His fastball and slider are his bread and butter pitches, but his changeup and sinker are good enough to keep batters guessing, and he pitches hard enough that he’s going to be tough for just about anyone to hit against this year. If those two pitches ever fully reach their potential, he’s got Cy Young future written all over him!

Down in the minors, Cody Frietas saw velocity improvement, and he’s ranked 96th nationally by the OSA among all prospects. But our scout is not as bullish on the future of our fourth rounder from last year’s rookie draft, and unless he can prove him wrong in theArizona Complex League this season, we may be better off considering trade offers later in the summer while his value is higher ... I’m not a fan of high risk high school pitching prospects anyway, and our scout Mike Shirley is excellent at evaluating players’ real tools versus their perceived “abilities.” So we’ll see what happens with him.

Brandon Pfaadt, meanwhile, put a lot of work this year into his endurance, significantly improving his ability to pitch deeper into games while also strengthening his arm to the point where our trainers feel he’ll be much more durable long term. He has at least two years left in arbitration, but if he’s able to improve on his performances from last year, we’re definitely going to be interested in potentially locking in a few of his free agency years in a contract later this season, if both sides can come to a reasonable agreement.

Hagen Smith, meanwhile, spent the offseason working on HIS endurance and had the opposite effect. Our trainers now fear he may not have as much potential as a starter, though we’re going to continue to work with the 22-year-old in AA this season to see if he can maximise his talents and reach AAA potential ... the 2024 first rounder remains a top ten prospect, and we’re in a position where we can work with him and not rush his development.
 
March 1, 2026: We’ve got our spring roster pared down to 32 players heading into the month of March, and cuts will come more carefully from here on, particularly among the pitching ranks, where we’re still up in the air on most of our bullpen positioning. We’re 4-6-1 so far in spring games, which of course are statistically meaningless results aside from determining who will or won’t make our final roster.

March 6, 2026: In our first bout of bad news this spring, Heston Kjerstad has suffered a knee contusion that he’s had difficulty healing from. We’re going ahead and putting him on the IL for now, as it has caused him significant issues when moving about in the outfield. We’re still hopeful he’ll be back and fully rested in time for opening day, but treating it as a “day to day” issue has not worked out so far. His absence from the roster will give Michael A. Taylor, Joshua Mears, Austin Slater and Terrell Tatum plenty of reps in left field to determine which of them are likely to be waived in the coming weeks, and who will instead make the roster as Kjerstad’s backup and our utility outfielder in general.

March 12, 2026: With a week of spring games remaining, it’s time we start making some deeper, tougher cuts. We’re 9-9-2 in spring games so far, performing slightly ahead of last-place Kansas City (10-10-1), and we’ve decided to waive Michael A. Taylor, sending Tatum down to the minors as well. All our starters are looking good so far, with Brandon Pfaadt in particular being on a real tear, with an 0.82 ERA through 11 spring innings We’ve sent Eric Adler back down to AA Birmingham, which gets us down to 29 players, but more cuts will be coming as we’re still carrying 15 pitchers on the roster, and preferably would need to cut at least three more. On the offensive side, once Kjerstad is able to come off the IL, we’ll almost certainly be waiving Austin Slater as well to get us down to our final list.

March 14, 2026: We’ve sent Ky Bush back down to the minors, waiving Tyler Gilbert as well since he’s out of options. Our final bullpen cut will either involve sending Rule 5 pick Luis Sanchez back to the Cubs or demoting Jonathan Cannon back down to the minors, but we’ll wait until the remaining spring games have been played before we make that decision. Both players have been playing well ... Cannon has a 1.72 ERA through 15.2 innings while Sanchez has a 1.80 ERA through 15 ... but we only need one long relief option, and Sanchez has stayed in the race because of his gaudy strikeout numbers (he’s fanned 25 batters in those 15 innings, by far the best of any of our pitchers). Tough decisions all around, but that’s why I’m getting paid nearly half a million dollars per year.

March 16, 2026: Michael A. Taylor cleared waivers but has refused to be demoted, so we’ve traded him and 25-year-old minor league reliever Prelander Berroa to the Pirates for $2,500,000 in cash considerations. We’ve waived Austin Slater to make room for Heston Kjerstad, and we’ll make our final pitching decision in a few days.

March 17, 2026: Tyler Gilbert cleared waivers and has been optioned to AAA Charlotte. And we’ve made the decision that keeping our talented rule five pick is more valuable than keeping Cannon at the major league level. He’ll return to AAA Charlotte to start the season, but will be available to return to the roster if we have injury issues ... the 25-year-old was 1-5 last year with a 4.50 ERA, so some time at AAA won’t hurt him in his development, and he has the potential still to be a spot starter if he puts in the work.

March 19, 2026: Austin Slater cleared waivers and will be optioned to AAA Charlotte.

March 21, 2026: We’ve finished spring training, with a record of 14-11-3, good for a third-place finish in the division behind Detroit (15-10-3) and Cleveland (18-7-3). We’ll have our official opening day roster ready to be announced on “International Opening Day” on the 24th, and will then have a week to rest everyone up in preparation for our nine-game road stretch to open the season.