Weekly Scorecard: Feb. 10 - 17, 2026

Welcome to the inaugural one-day-late edition of the Weekly Scorecard! Thank you for tuning in despite the delay. This week's Scorecard does contain some important administrative news, so make sure to read Home Plate; feel free to skip on down there if you really have to know right this instant.

The Scoreboard

This week was less about who's in and more about who's out. Don't get me wrong, there were still some notable signings—Justin Verlander returning to Detroit, Chris Bassitt on a big deal with the Orioles, Zac Gallen staying with the Diamondbacks, and the Rockies picking up some veteran pitching in the form of Tomoyuki Sugano and Jose Quintana—but really, the blockbuster headlines were all about the drama.

The most recent—and still developing—scandal is that Tony Clark resigned from his position as executive director of the MLBPA, which looked like a big problem for the union when it appeared to be related to financial investigations. Except, um, it's actually because he was sleeping with his sister-in-law? One hopes that MLB has a more difficult time leveraging that against the players.

The hamate bone is everyone else's Achilles heel (...hand?) these days, with Francisco Lindor, Corbin Carroll, and Jackson Holliday all sidelined with injuries already. Carroll and Holliday will evidently miss a little bit of the regular season, but the Mets are optimistic that Lindor will be back on Opening Day. It's worth noting that hamate injuries—or the procedures to fix them—typically result in a meaningful loss of hitting power for a while beyond the initial recovery period, so expect a lot of ignorant whining from "fans" about his performance at the plate for a month or two.

And when it comes to players who aren't injured, the Phillies rather unceremoniously released Nick Castellanos on Thursday—eating $20 million remaining on his contract—amidst a whole load of gossip. In response, he posted two multi-page handwritten notes on his Instagram saying farewell to Philadelphia and explaining the "Miami Incident" from his own perspective. Folks, I know this is shocking information, but I gotta be honest with you: I am not really on the Phillies' side on this one, in part because I support people wasting their money and he's done a spectacular job of that.

Like many people, I'm still hung up on this bit of the Athletic article:

In the clubhouse, as prominent players distanced themselves from Castellanos, everyone agreed to play nice. It was easier for some than others. Many had a difficult time overcoming what they believed was an unforgivable act committed by Castellanos.

This is in reference to him cracking open a beer in the dugout and yelling at the manager. It's very funny to me that that qualified as an unforgivable act, but all the guys doing PEDs over there are fine, I guess? He did get signed by the Padres, so clearly the rest of the league hasn't abandoned him.

Ultimately, this post sums up my feelings on the situation pretty well:

Some other highlights from the flood of Spring Training news:

• Mr. Castellanos was far from the Padres' only acquisition this week: they also picked up Germán Márquez, Ty France, the Mets' own Griffin Canning, and cut a minor league deal with Walker "Piss Hands" Buehler. Not to mention extending the man who strikes fear into the hearts of up-and-coming prospects everywhere, the scourge of the farm system himself: A.J. Preller.
• The spate of injuries across the league has hardly been limited to rogue hamate bones. Other misfortunes making their way into the news:
  • Toronto: OF Anthony Santander will miss up to six months following shoulder surgery, while Bowden Francis is slated for Tommy John and Shane Bieber is dealing with forearm fatigue.
• Atlanta: Spencer Schwellenbach is hitting the 60-day IL for bone spur surgery, with reliever Joe Jiménez still on the IL as well; young RHP Hurston Waldrep is dealing with loose bodies at a minimum.
• Detroit: Righty starter Reese Olson will be out for all of 2026 following an offseason shoulder surgery.
• Minnesota: Pablo López was just diagnosed with a torn UCL, putting another dent in the Twins' already flimsy roster.
• Texas: Top prospect Sebastian Walcott (#7 overall in MLB's rankings) is undergoing elbow surgery.
• The scope of Emmanuel Clase's pitch-rigging scheme continues to expand, with prosecutors now alleging that it included the 2024 playoffs.
• Ludicrous numbers of press conferences and interviews have been coming out of Port St. Lucie (conveniently collated with all the batting practice videos on SNY's YouTube channel), so it would be virtually impossible to sum up all the bits and pieces of Mets news without writing an entirely separate post; some of the more notable things are that Juan Soto is moving to left field and that the team will never have a captain under Steve Cohen's ownership.
• The Mets also paid the White Sox to hand over Bryan Hudson, signed veteran OF Mike Tauchman to a minor league contract, and claimed recent World Series champion Ben Rortvedt off of waivers for good measure.
• You might remember that the Mets traded Luisangel Acuña to the White Sox to get Luis Robert Jr. Hilariously, their GM seems to have been under the impression that Acuña is a switch hitter (which he very much is not), as he repeatedly referred to him as one throughout the offseason until this made the rounds on social media.
• The Blue Jays returned my former classmate Joey Loperfido to the Houston Astros, who originally drafted him back in 2021, in exchange for Jesús Sánchez.
• Max Muncy is now on his fourth extension with the Dodgers, and Kiké Hernández will get to reunite with him after signing a one-year contract with the team.
• New York hit-by-pitch legend Mark Canha got a birthday gift in the form of a minor league contract with the Rangers. Depending on how you feel about the Rangers, this might be a pretty bad present.
• The new ABS system requires accurate, up-to-date player height measurements, so expect to see some players shrinking—like Caleb Durbin, who has already been downsized from 5'8".
• Zack Wheeler had a rib removed as part of his thoracic outlet decompression surgery, so naturally, he's keeping it in a closet in his house. I'm a little worried Bryce Harper will use it in some weird pseudoscientific medical treatment if he finds out.
• Braves 2B Ozzie Albies, well-known for his beloved aquatic pets, visited an Atlanta elementary school to gift them one of his own goldfish and teach them how to care for it.

Home Plate

Some difficult news: this will probably be the last edition of the Weekly Scorecard for at least a little while. This is principally because I have an increasing number of real-life responsibilities that limit my free time and energy, and I want to use the time and energy I do have to publish pieces that aren't the Scorecard. Hopefully this is ultimately a positive change and none of you have developed a deep personal attachment to these weekly newsletters, but I'm sorry if you have.

Tragically, it is my blog, and therefore constrained by my limitations. I am definitely not, however, ruling out the possibility of future installments, whenever they may be. I really like interacting with all of you in the comments on these, and if you have particular things you'll miss from this change, feel free to let me know; I'm open to some flexibility in what I write and finding some space to talk about various pieces of news!

The Backstop

Baseball finds itself immortalized in the strangest of places. There are movies, games, songs, and poems that tell you up front what they're all about, that scream THIS IS BASEBALL in your face—and then there are ones that don't even so much as whisper it, where the crack of a bat echoes only faintly in the distance, the shadow of a glove passing by in the background.

To wit: I've been playing Fallout 4 as a terrible parody of/homage to Ted Williams. The full story of why and how might deserve more space than I can give it here, but in a nutshell: I was going to do a baseball-themed Fallout 4 playthrough with my best friend, because it takes place in post-apocalyptic Boston and therefore prominently features Fenway Park; I then learned the genuinely horrifying story (no, seriously, this article is both gruesome and ethically disturbing) of how Ted Williams came to be cryonically frozen after his death and thought, "Hey, this is basically what happens to the protagonist of Fallout 4".

What said baseball-themed playthrough consists of: principally wielding baseball bats and sniper rifles (due to his unerring eye) as weapons and wearing the Diamond City guards' armor (umpire padding) over a baseball uniform; hoarding all the baseball-related items I can find; and giving running commentary in a completely ridiculous mock-historical accent that in no way approaches anything resembling the way anyone actually spoke. I also thematically name all my modified gear, most often after Ted's teammates:

If Ted's last wishes had to be so profoundly disrespected in the name of "immortality", I hope that he at least gets to hang out with some cool robots in the far-flung future.