Roster Moves
My new role for Opening Day, and some bonus thoughts on the coming season.
Happy Opening Day! It's been a minute since I got to write to you all a little more directly. There is a post or two coming soon, so don't worry—I've just been insanely busy with school and job applications. (Speaking of which: if your workplace is trying to hire a data scientist/machine learning engineer/baseball nerd of some sort, let me know.)
I've also been busy starting my new position as a staff writer with Baseball Prospectus, which is the main point of this announcement. Have no fear: I am by no means abandoning this blog! I'll still do my regular writing here while also being part of the Box Score Banter rotation at Prospectus, recapping daily games once a week. BSB is available to everyone with a free account, so there won't be a paywall in the way should you choose to check it out.
Before the season starts up, the staff put together predictions for the upcoming year; these aren't quite the same as my preexisting 2026 prediction list, so I figured I'd share them with you all here as well. First, the more formal standings-and-awards ballot (from this free article):
American League Standings:
| AL West | AL Central | AL East |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle Mariners | Detroit Tigers | Toronto Blue Jays |
| Houston Astros (WC) | Kansas City Royals | Boston Red Sox (WC) |
| Sacramento Athletics | Chicago White Sox | New York Yankees (WC) |
| Texas Rangers | Cleveland Guardians | Baltimore Orioles |
| Los Angeles Angels | Minnesota Twins | Tampa Bay Rays |
American League Awards:
| MVP | Cy Young | Rookie of the Year |
|---|---|---|
| Julio Rodríguez | Garrett Crochet | Munetaka Murakami |
| Aaron Judge | Tarik Skubal | Kevin McGonigle |
| Junior Caminero | Bryan Woo | Kazuma Okamoto |
National League Standings:
| NL West | NL Central | NL East |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Milwaukee Brewers | New York Mets |
| San Diego Padres (WC) | Chicago Cubs (WC) | Atlanta Braves (WC) |
| San Francisco Giants | Cincinnati Reds | Philadelphia Phillies |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Pittsburgh Pirates | Miami Marlins |
| Colorado Rockies | St. Louis Cardinals | Washington Nationals |
National League Awards:
| MVP | Cy Young | Rookie of the Year |
|---|---|---|
| Juan Soto | Cristopher Sánchez | Nolan McLean |
| Shohei Ohtani | Paul Skenes | JJ Wetherholt |
| Francisco Lindor | Freddy Peralta | Carson Benge |
WORLD SERIES WINNER: Seattle Mariners
And second, my more daring and verbose prediction for this season, which I don't necessarily think is likely to happen, but it sure would be fun if it did:
The Colorado Rockies will… not finish last in the NL West?
To be a baseball fan is to suspend disbelief. We tell ourselves a lot of things that so rarely turn out to be true: That line drive is catchable. I’ll make it back to my seat by the start of the next inning. The Mets will win the World Series this year. But do any of us have the strength to believe in the 2026 Colorado Rockies? You know as well as I do that anything can happen between the end of March and the beginning of October—maybe the Giants suffer some ill-timed injuries, maybe the Diamondbacks have a terrible slump called August, maybe Dodger Stadium inexplicably dematerializes out of this plane of reality. There’s a world out there where the Rockies make the most of those circumstances to claw their way out of last place, and I think it just might be this one.
You can find this along with the rest of the staff's bold predictions here (with a premium subscription).
As mentioned above, I have a very packed schedule this week, but I'm hoping to find the time to do a quick writeup on why my predictions are what they are; they really aren't that serious, since trying to nail down anything about a baseball season is the height of folly, but I'd like to justify them anyways. I am incredibly grateful for the support all of you have provided me in the brief time I've been publishing FS2S, without which I never would have gotten this opportunity. Everything still feels like a fever dream, but I'm excited to keep writing and, of course, watching baseball with you all.