Weekly Scorecard: Jan. 5 - 12, 2026

FS2S is back after a week of radio silence! There were plans to post something new sooner, but that ended up not happening for reasons I explain below.

Outside of baseball, the GoFundMe campaign to support Renee Nicole Good's family in the wake of her murder by ICE agents has been closed after successfully being funded well past its initial goal, which means I can't promote it here. Instead, I'd like to encourage supporting mutual aid and legal assistance organizations in your local communities, and continuing to stand against the escalating violence being enacted by the government. It's impossible to keep your eye on literally everything horrific they do as an individual, much less as someone writing a brief sports newsletter, but what matters most is keeping your eyes open at all. It can be tempting to let them stay closed. It's imperative that you don't.

The Scoreboard

What a week, huh?

The Cubs have been particularly busy, in case you hadn't heard: they signed Alex Bregman to one of the biggest contracts in franchise history, following the Red Sox' refusal to offer him a no-trade clause, and snagged RHP Edward Cabrera from the Marlins in exchange for their #1 prospect Owen Caissie and two minor league players. Oh, and they claimed LHP Ryan Rolison off of waivers, adding to their long list of bullpen acquisitions.

The Phillies and Yankees are sort of half-assedly busy; the former were supposed to meet with Bo Bichette today, though there doesn't seem to be any more news on those discussions, and the latter have been making unsuccessful overtures to Cody Bellinger. Five years at $30MM AAV – potentially with opt-outs – sounds pretty reasonable to me for a 30-year-old with a somewhat inconsistent career, but then again, that's the kind of thinking that gets your 1B sent to Baltimore. If Scott Boras actually gets him a seven-year contract at that value, I'll be excited to see which front office agreed to that.

Meanwhile, the Tigers are still doing everything in their power to stop having one of the best pitchers in baseball on their roster, though Skubal's $13MM differential isn't the only thing to come out of the arbitration deadline. Some of the other notable names failing to reach agreements are Mariners pitcher Bryce Miller, Brewers catcher William Contreras, Twins hot topic Joe Ryan, and Royals social media icon Vinnie Pasquantino. Obviously, most players successfully settled, including all the eligible Mets. The only agreement that really jumps out at me is Alec Bohm getting $10.2MM for being... a slightly above average bat and a subpar 3B? The handful of other players with comparable service time and contract values are meaningfully better than him when looking at both 2025 and career results. And I don't regularly do deep dives into Phillies activities, so I'm sure this is partly due to his injury history, but given that Edmundo Sosa's platoon splits aren't that egregious and he's actually a good defender, perhaps he should see more playing time. But who needs fielding, right?

The other biggest pieces of news: free agent Max Kepler tested positive for cattle steroids after a solid [checks notes] 88 OPS+ season with the Phillies and earned himself an 80-game suspension for his troubles; all of the teams who had broadcasting contracts with Main Street Sports, a.k.a. FanDuel Sports Network (yes, sponsored by that FanDuel), have terminated them due to the company's financial turbulence; and Topps 2026 Series 1 preorders will be available soon, with Ken Griffey Jr. featured on the box.

As the offseason continues, obviously the market continues to churn, and plenty of trades and signings have snuck by without being front-page news. I'm choosing to focus on the ones most relevant to me, because otherwise this list would be unfathomably long:

• Several 2025 Mets have moved on to different, though perhaps not greener, pastures: Ryne Stanek is joining the Cardinals, Chris Devenski has signed a minor league deal with the Pirates, and injured list veteran Nick Madrigal is going to the Angels on a minor league contract as well.
• The Mariners signed IF Patrick Wisdom to a minor league deal.
• The Rockies finally made their first signing: RHP Michael Lorenzen. Hopefully he can put up decent numbers at Coors.
• After being claimed first by the Orioles and then the Mets, Rockies 2020 draft pick Drew Romo has been claimed off waivers yet again by the White Sox. Similarly, former Rockies 1B Michael Toglia has signed a minor league deal with the Reds.

A few other non-signing-related morsels:

• Max Kranick is supposed to start throwing again today following his season-ending flexor tendon surgery. I really enjoyed his appearances with the Mets, so I'm rooting for a good recovery (and ideally signing him again).
• Two minor leaguers – one Giants player and one free agent – just received suspensions after testing positive for Stanozolol. Big week for PEDs!
• Jhonkensy Noel has already been DFAed by the Orioles, so it remains to be seen whether Baltimore will still have Big Christmas in July.
• Luisangel Acuña made history as the first player in the LVBP (Venezuelan Winter League) to hit four home runs in a single game.
• The Hartford Yard Goats, the Rockies' AA affiliate, took a rather blatant (but still sort of plausibly deniable) stance against ICE on social media, which was nothing if not a little refreshing.

Home Plate

The past week was actually very rich in terms of baseball in my own life: I visited some friends and gifted them some cards, went to a card store on my trip and spent way too much money (spoiler: there were 46 A-Rods involved), and watched Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS for the first time with the radio broadcast audio (here). It was really wonderfully good, and I'm probably going to rewatch it sometime soon to devote my full attention to it (and maybe even score it). Then, obviously, my car malfunctioned mid-road trip and stranded me a couple hundred miles away from home, which was not particularly conducive to getting any writing done. I did eventually make it to my destination, and things are getting sorted out, but it's been a long weekend. That being said: there is something coming soon!

An interesting tidbit in the meantime: back on Christmas Eve, I visited a new card store and wound up chatting at length with one of the employees about my love for baseball, my parents' favorite teams, etc. The conversation was so good that he very generously gave me a 1987 Junior Mets Club Membership Kit that they'd just gotten in for free! And, dear reader, it was full of really cool stuff:

The coolest part to me, however, is the autographed Clint Hurdle photo card. I'll confess that I didn't have a thorough knowledge of his career previously, but those of you who are familiar probably know that, while not a Hall of Fame player, he went on to manage first the Rockies and then the Pirates to new levels of success in the 2000s and 2010s. Most recently, he's been with the Rockies as their hitting coach/interim bench coach.

Back in July last year, I got to do field access at Fenway when the Rockies came to town, and the first autograph I got was from someone I only registered at the time as one of their coaches. After learning the Clint Hurdle lore, however, I resolved to check my autographs as soon as I got back to my house, and lo and behold:

It may not be Ted Williams memorabilia, but I thought it was a pretty neat coincidence nevertheless.

The Backstop

• The Bills won, despite everyone's best efforts to get Josh Allen torn asunder on the field! This is ostensibly good news for me, except that the Chargers losing means the Bills are going to Denver, and I'm very mad that my father will get to go and I won't. And he'll be rooting for the Broncos. But the interceptions were soooooooo sick.
• My best friend got me a couple worry stones for Christmas – which I can imagine will only be even more useful once the regular season begins – and one of them is shaped like a hot dog, which she got because it reminds her of baseball and therefore me. Look how cute it is:

See you all sooner rather than later!