Spring training is right around the corner. It’s always a positive sign when brief, 10-second video clips of pitchers throwing bullpens at Florida/Arizona complexes start appearing on social media in the days leading up to pitchers and catchers reporting.

Some teams already have numerous players arriving in camp — Pete Abraham at The Boston Globe counted 20 players on Boston’s 40-man roster already in Ft Myers on Wednesday — ahead of next week’s deadline.

The belief for weeks now has been that the Arizona Diamondbacks were looking to add a right-handed bat that could share time at first base with Pavin Smith. Most of that speculation has centered around the team bringing back franchise legend Paul Goldschmidt.

On Tuesday, the D-backs agreed to a one-year, $2 million deal with switch-hitting veteran Carlos Santana instead. Santana’s addition likely closes the door on a Goldschmidt reunion.

The 39-year-old Santana (40 in April) hit just .225/.316/.333 (82 OPS+) in 455 PA with Cleveland last year before being released at the end of August (he spent September with the Cubs, appearing in 8 games). Over a 16-year career (11 of which came in Cleveland), he’s slashed .241/.352/.425 (112 OPS+) with 404 2B, 335 HR, and 1136 RBI.

The 38-year-old Goldschmidt spent the first eight seasons of his career in Arizona. Goldschmit won four Silver Sluggers, three Gold Gloves, and hit .297/.398/.532 (145 OPS+) with 267 2B and 209 HR in that stretch. The 15-year veteran spent the 2025 season in New York, hitting .274/.328/.403 (104 OPS+) for the Yankees, who have also been rumored to have interest in bringing him back. He was likely seeking a deal bigger than the $2 million Santana agreed to sign for.

Tyler Locklear (acquired from Seattle in last summer’s Eugenio Suárez trade) was the favorite for right-handed at-bats at first base, but he’s still recovering from October elbow surgery to repair a torn ligament from a September collision in the field. Non-roster invitees Ivan Melendez and Luken Baker (both also right-handed hitters) will be in spring training, looking to supplant Locklear on the club’s first base depth charts.

Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman will miss next month’s World Baseball Classic, despite prior reports that he would be joining the roster for Team England in the tournament.

Chapman was reportedly invited to join the team last June and planned to accept. December reports even suggested the addition had already been approved: Chapman’s grandparents are from Jamaica, which was a British colony until 1962. Since he is eligible to apply for British citizenship, he would be eligible to play for Great Britain in the WBC.

That report proved incorrect, however (or something changed between then and now), as news was relayed on Tuesday suggesting that Chapman will not be permitted to play in the WBC after “failing to meet eligibility requirements”.

The Cuban-born right-hander is not eligible to play for Team Cuba after defecting from the country.

Long-time Detroit Tigers left-hander Mickey Lolich has passed away, according to an announcement by the team on Wednesday. Lolich was 85.

The southpaw spent 13 years of his 16-year career with the Tigers, winning 207 games with a 3.45 ERA (105 ERA+) over 3361.1 IP while going to three All-Star Games and twice finishing in the top three in AL Cy Young voting. His 2,679 strikeouts were an American League record for a left-hander until CC Sabathia surpassed him in 2017.

Perhaps his biggest moment came in the 1968 World Series, as MLB.com’s Jason Beck writes:

With an already-overloaded starting rotation, the Boston Red Sox made what could be a sneakily good addition to the bullpen mix by signing Kyle Keller to a minor league contract. If the 32-year-old right-hander earns a spot in the Sox bullpen, he’ll earn $1.9 million.

Keller started his career as an 18th-round pick by the Marlins in the 2015 Draft. He’d debut with the team four years later and got into 44 MLB games with the Marlins, Angels, and Pirates over the next three seasons, posting a 5.83 ERA in 46.1 IP. An opportunity to pitch in Japan presented itself, where Keller has reinvented himself as a pitcher. He’s spent the last four seasons in the NPB, two with the Hanshin Tigers and two with the Yomiuri Giants, working exclusively out of the bullpen, with a 2.42 ERA over 152.1 IP with 177 SO (10.5 K/9).

A strong spring training could open a path for Keller to make the Boston bullpen, which likely isn’t set in stone beyond the quartet of Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, and Chapman.

Jonathan Schoop will miss the WBC after an arrest in Curacao on illegal gun charges.

Mississippi State left-hander Jack Bauer has been named Baseball America’s Preseason Freshman of the Year ahead of the 2026 college baseball season (which begins this month). The 6’4” southpaw from Illinois was ranked as the No. 44 prospect in last year’s draft class by MLB Pipeline before he notified teams he intended to follow through on his commitment to MSU instead of turning pro. The Bulldogs begin the season ranked as the No. 6 team in the country in USA Today’s initial coaches poll (behind LSU, UCLA, Texas, Georgia Tech, and Arkansas).

SNY’s broadcast team of Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen, and Ron Darling is among the best in the business and will return for a 21st season together, after Hernandez and the network reached an agreement on a new contract. It never appeared as though Hernandez would not return, but when the two sides engaged in contract discussions for the third time in six years, there was some cause for concern on the part of Mets fans. Hernandez remained adamant that he wouldn’t “accept a hometown discount” on a new contract. As Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes points out, when Steve Cohen purchased the franchise from the Wilpons, the notoriously cheap family still retained control over SNY.

No real surprises in the Hall of Fame’s announcement about which logos will appear on the new plaques for this summer’s inductees: Jeff Kent will have a Giants hat, Andruw Jones a Braves hat, and Carlos Beltrán a Mets hat.

MLB teams moving local broadcast operations from Main Street Sports to the league will face a significant loss of revenue (though it beats the alternative of MSS continuing to miss payments). Per reporting from The Athletic’s Katie Woo and Will Sammon, the Cardinals (as just one example) “are expected to see roughly $20 million in broadcast revenue this season, down significantly from the roughly $60 million they expected last year”.

Brewers left-hander Frank Cairone has resumed “light baseball activities” after being involved in a serious car crash on New Year’s Eve. Cairone was home in northern New Jersey when his car was hit head-on by another vehicle, resulting in the 18-year-old and his girlfriend being airlifted to a local hospital. The Brewers released a simple statement at the time of the crash, but no details regarding Cairone’s injuries have been made public. Still, it’s a good sign to see him resuming workouts so quickly, and it suggests he could return to the mound for the club soon. The 68th-overall pick in last summer’s draft has yet to make his pro debut.