Mining the News (1/5/26)

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• At MLB.com, there was an article on each team’s breakout candidate. It’s a solid read for fantasy managers looking for upside. Here is the blurb about Jasson Domínguez working on his defense and right-handed swing.

YANKEES: OF Jasson Domínguez

“The Martian” could finally be ready to live up to the immense potential the Yankees have touted for years. Still just 22, the switch-hitting Domínguez lost critical development time to the pandemic and Tommy John surgery, spending most of the second half on the bench in 2025. He went to winter ball to focus on sharpening his defense in left field and his swing from the right side of the plate, which is his natural side. It would be no surprise if Domínguez’s touted blend of speed and strength all comes together in a big way. — Bryan Hoch

American League

Athletics

• Zack Gelof might not be ready for Spring Training and by Opening Day.

Limited to 30 games with the A’s, Gelof hit just .174 with a .502 OPS. To make matters worse, that shoulder issue is likely going to impact Gelof’s availability for the start of 2026 Spring Training.

“The shoulder resets him back a little bit when it comes to whether he makes the Opening Day roster,” said A’s general manager David Forst. “He’s going to be a little bit behind.”

Blue Jays

• Trey Yesavage will have no workload limits next season.

More Blue Jays notes:
• they view Cody Ponce as a starter
• … & Louis Varland as a reliever
• no hard workload limits on Yesavage in 2026 & he's expected to be in Jays' rotation
• they're hoping Yariel builds back command
• Jays not super close to anything as of this moment

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) December 8, 2025

Orioles

• Zach Eflin dealt with a back injury for years.

[Zach Efline on] having surgery: “It’s been like a long thing that I’ve dealt with. I originally hurt it probably 10 years ago and throughout my entire career it’s kind of progressively gotten worse and I never thought it would get to the point where I needed surgery. But pretty much been on the IL every year of my career at some point for my back during the year, and this is the first year that I haven’t been able to manage it. And it came back, which it’s never come back twice in one year. I’ve always been able to manage it and this year I physically couldn’t do it.
…
“So at the stage of my career that I was at and the pain that I was going through, it just kind of made sense to go and clean it up, because it wasn’t gonna be a year-long recovery, 18-month recovery. It was like a four-to-eight-month window of, hey, you’re gonna be feeling much, much better. And even out of surgery, obviously sore from being cut open and stuff, but it was a night-and-day different. I didn’t have that shooting nerve pain.”

Red Sox

• MLB.com’s Ian Browne thinks Kristian Campbell will be on the short side of an outfield platoon.

Though the Red Sox already have a log-jam in the outfield, Boston’s current plan is to have Campbell focus out there rather than the infield, where he looked clunky at times.

With Rob Refsnyder departing to Seattle via free agency, perhaps Campbell can start out as a platoon outfielder against lefties. He can certainly earn more playing time as he goes.

Royals

• I’m reading between the lines a little bit here, but it seems like Isaac Collins could be the team’s leadoff hitter.

Collins has played some second and third base. He’s a switch-hitter, something the Royals felt they needed. Collins isn’t a power hitter, but he brings on-base ability to a lineup that desperately needs it.

“He’s the type of player that we value,” Picollo said. “Versatility, the speed component, there’s a defensive component. Ball in play, on base. It’s a very well-rounded player that I think is what our offense needs. He’ll fit very well.”
…
“I’m not necessarily going to have 100 RBIs every year,” Collins said with a laugh. “But I’m going to get on base for the big dogs and have them knock me in.”

White Sox

• With a new sinker grip, Jonathan Cannon will get another shot at the rotation.

Adjusting the sinker grip was one correction, and Cannon finally got the feel during his scoreless relief inning in the final frame of the season’s final game. Cannon returns with that good feeling, looking at a return to starting.

“Starter, absolutely,” said White Sox manager Will Venable of Cannon. “We’re challenging him to come in, earn a starting job right out of the gate. He knows he’s got work to do, and we’re going to support him in doing those things. But definitely confident that he can be a starting pitcher.”

“I’m completely confident in my ability as a starter,” Cannon said. “I feel really confident in my abilities, and especially with the plan we have in place, being able to make some of those adjustments I need to make and hit the ground running come February.”

Yankees

• Anthony Volpe will start swinging a bat again in mid-February.

Could 2026 be the year we talk about Volpe’s breakout? He’s expected to resume swinging a bat in mid-February, though his spring will be modified. He’ll be unable to dive on the repaired shoulder until mid-April, when he’ll likely be playing in Minor League rehab games.

• I’ve read several season previews on Austin Wells, and none mention his permanent hand issues.

Austin Wells said there is damage to an artery in his index finger, likely from repeated impacts of catching pitches.
“I wasn’t too worried, but I just wanted to make sure,” Wells said. “It just gets cold and changes colors. Now I know it’s nothing life-threatening.”

— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) July 1, 2025

Boone said this has not been something that has bothered Wells playing and hasn’t affected him catching or hitting.

“It’s not something that bothers him from a performance standpoint.”

— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) June 30, 2025

I don’t see any upside for him, especially after posting a career high 26% K%.

National League

Braves

• Sean Murphy will likely start the season in the IL.

C Sean Murphy
Injury: Right hip labral tear
Expected return: 2026
Status: The Braves will have a better feel for Murphy’s progress in January when he reaches the four-month mark following hip surgery. The team is already prepared for the possibility that he will begin the season on the IL.

Cardinals

• Iván Herrera has not thrown a baseball yet this offseason.

Herrera’s availability will come down to the health of his right elbow, which was cleaned out arthroscopically of loose bodies (bone spurs) — something that hindered how often he could catch for the Cardinals in 2025.

At the MLB Winter Meetings, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said that Herrera is in a phase of workouts that focuses on plyometric exercises to improve his explosiveness. Herrera will begin throwing baseballs again “in a couple of weeks,” Bloom said.

Diamondbacks

• Brandon Pfaadt wants to improve his sweeper this Spring Training.

Part of the focus for Pfaadt this offseason and into the spring will be refining his sweeper as well as continuing to develop the cut fastball that he began throwing in 2025.

“I think the [sweeper] has kind of been hit or miss all year,” Pfaadt said after his final start. “I think tightening that up first will go a long way. That’s my best pitch and I felt like I didn’t have it for at least half of the year. So locking in on that, building off that and just executing more pitches.”

Dodgers

• Freddie Freeman has been dealing with a health issue this offseason.

Freddie Freeman wants to play for Canada at the WBC per Greg Hamilton & Ernie Whitt of Baseball Canada.

Freeman dealing with "a little bit of a health issue" after the wear and tear of a long season per Hamilton but "he does want to do it, he really wants to play."

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) December 9, 2025

Marlins

• Connor Norby is working on improving his swing.

Norby is still tinkering this offseason, texting with hitting coach Pedro Guerrero on a daily basis and meeting the new assistant hitting coaches over FaceTime. Early on, he spent three to four days a week lifting, hitting, throwing and fielding to get back into the swing of things. Once Christmas rolled around, Norby only gave himself Sundays off to watch his Minnesota Vikings play.

The toe tap is staying, and so is the swing. Norby is working on more rotation. The idea is if he rotates faster, he will have more time to make better swing decisions and clean up his bat path.

Mets

• Sean Manaea plans to ignore the loose bodies in his elbow.

If nothing else, he finally feels healthy. While he never had an operation to remove the loose body, Manaea has been performing upper-body workouts and throwing without discomfort. He hopes to go the rest of his career without surgical intervention on the elbow.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a thing of the past,” Manaea said last month at a Metsgiving charity event. “I don’t feel anything right now, and I haven’t in a few months now. So until something does, I think I’ll worry about it then. But as far as I’m concerned, I feel like it was never a problem to begin with.”

Manaea paused.

“I mean, it was. But I’m just taking that mindset.”

• Francisco Alvarez adjusted his swing mid-season.

Over the course of the season, Alvarez stood more upright in the box, opened his stance (from 2° in May to 15° in September), and changed the position of his bat.

The other significant change that Alvarez made has to do with the timing of his swing. Recall earlier that Carlos Mendoza said Alvarez wasn’t “in a good position to swing” and that pitchers were throwing fastballs by him. In other words, Alvarez was late. His bat wasn’t moving the right way at the point of contact with the ball.
…
Two additional hand injuries in August curtailed some of Alvarez’s progress; by the end of the year, he was playing through a torn thumb ligament and a fractured pinky. Still, it sure looks like the adjustments that Alvarez made worked out, and they bode well for his future in New York’s new-look lineup.

Nationals

• Luis García Jr. is taking first base reps during winter ball.

The Nats have spoken about the potential scenario with García, who may take reps at first base while playing for Los Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League. It could be a shift that opens up playing time across the infield.

“More than anything, I just think — and this is the exact conversation we’ve had with him — that versatility is a really good thing,” Toboni said. “If you can have that tool in your tool belt, great, you’ll find yourself in the lineup more.

“Then also — not to say this is going to happen, but if it does happen — you can find ways to get others on the bench into the game. So whether it’s [Nasim Nuñez] or someone else, there are ways to get our good players into the game on a regular basis.”

Padres

• Sung Mun Song 송성문 could see some time in the outfield.

After Stammen first mentioned the outfield thing, I asked him about that at the end. His answer:
"It's definitely a possibility. It's something that we will work on in spring training. If it doesn't work out, it's no big deal but it's worth a try. It creates more versatility."

— Jeeho Yoo (@Jeeho_1) December 24, 2025

Phillies

• Otto Kemp is being “hyped” as the short-side platoon partner with Brandon Marsh.

In the other outfield corner, the Phillies are betting Marsh is closer to the .303/.358/.478 slash line he posted after May 1 rather than the dismal 4-for-42 start to his season. They are treating him as a platoon player now, rather than holding onto hope he can produce against lefty pitchers. Dombrowski has continued to hype Otto Kemp as a possible partner, although the Phillies remain active in seeking complementary right-handed bats, league sources said.

Rockies

• Ezequiel Tovar is losing weight.

After playing previously at 198 pounds — quite well in 2024, with a National League-leading 45 doubles and a Gold Glove to show for it — Tovar is now notably chiseled at 191 pounds.

Tovar has sacrificed the foods that bring back happy memories of his Venezuela home of Maracay, where his aunt runs a bakery.

“I used to go to the bakery to buy bread with a two-bolívar bill and walk out with bags full of all kinds of bread in each arm,” Tovar said in Spanish to El Extrabase reporter Daniel Alvarez. “In my house, we’ve always eaten bread. I haven’t completely cut it out. I still like it a lot, but I’ve definitely reduced it quite a bit.”