Next week will be Season Preview week here at TBNL. The whole series has been written and will be published throughout the week. All 19,810 words of it (yes, really; as I said previously, I got an idea in my head and ran with it).

Signed as an international amateur free agent in 2009, Jurickson Profar made his MLB debut just three years later at the age of 19. Prospect pundits anointed him the No. 1 prospect in the sport heading into the 2013 season, and with enormous expectations, Profar spent much of the season in Texas with the Rangers, hitting a meager .234/.308/.336 (77 OPS+) in 324 PA.

Profar missed the entire 2014 season due to injury, a recurring theme in his career.

Profar averaged just 100 games a season from 2016 through 2023, slashing .239/.324/.388 (93 OPS+) with 19 2B, 10 HR, and 41 RBI a season.

Things finally came together for him in 2024. It proved to be a career year by almost any metric. Profar hit .280/.380/.459 (134 OPS+) on the season with 29 2B, 24 HR, 85 RBI, and 10 SB. He was an NL All-Star, won a Silver Slugger Award, and even received down-ballot MVP votes (finishing 14th). The season couldn’t have come at a better time for Profar, who reached free agency after and signed a three-year, $42 million deal to join the Braves.

Nothing has gone to plan since.

Four games into the season, Profar was suspended for 82 games following a failed drug test, testing positive for a PED known as human chorionic gonadotropin. Profar hit .245/.353/.434 (121 OPS+) in 371 PA upon his return to the Braves.

On Tuesday, Profar failed a second drug test, this time testing positive for “exogenous testosterone and its metabolites”, per a statement from the league. He has been suspended for the entire 2026 season and will not be permitted to play in the World Baseball Classic (something Team Netherlands learned about just 10 minutes before their scheduled exhibition game against the Orioles on Tuesday). Diamondbacks minor leaguer Jakey Josepha was added to the roster to replace Profar, according to The Athletic’s Chad Jennings. The 21-year-old outfielder has hit .256/.352/.360 over five seasons in the minors, but has yet to play above A-ball.

Profar is appealing the suspension. He’ll forfeit his entire $15M salary this season if he’s unsuccessful in overturning it.

Rob Walton, “sport’s richest owner” with a net worth of roughly $146 billion, quietly purchased a 10% stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks more than two years ago, according to reporting from Sportico. Funds from Walton’s purchase were put towards long-needed stadium improvements at Chase Field, according to sources Sportico spoke with.

Walton is the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and recently stepped down after 23 years on the retail giant’s board of directors. He and his partners still control a 45% stake in the company. Walton purchased the Denver Broncos in 2022 for $4.65 billion, ceding control to his son-in-law in 2023, and invested in the Motor City Golf Club, the first expansion team in the TGL (the “team-based golf league” founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy).

Andrew McCutchen’s absence from the Pirates’ FanFest last month was noted among the team’s fans, who were hoping the long-time franchise stalwart would finish his career with the club. The club had seemingly moved on without McCutchen in its plans, but nobody had informed him as much. Cutch felt spurned, having never been given a chance to properly say goodbye to a fan base that he’s long loved playing in front of (Cutch spent the first nine seasons of his career there, met his wife in Pittsburgh, and still calls the city home).

The trouble is, there was no longer an obvious fit on the Pirates’ roster. The team was shifting gears, finally showing some life and aggression in the offseason in an attempt to boost an offense that needs to better support one of the NL’s better pitching staffs. After adding Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn to the lineup, there was no clear place for McCutchen to see at-bats. Those opportunities became even more limited once the team signed Marcell Ozuna, too.

McCutchen slashed .242/.345/.391 (104 OPS+) over the last three seasons with the Pirates, hitting 59 2B, 45 HR, and stealing 15 bases. He’s only played 20 games in the field over that stretch, however, with his playing time coming almost exclusively as Pittsburgh’s DH.

With the 39-year-old still available on the free agent market, McCutchen was naturally connected to the Braves following the announcement earlier in the week of Jurickson Profar’s suspension. On Thursday, according to Evan Grant at The Dallas Morning News, the Rangers signed him to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training.

Cutch is hardly guaranteed to win a spot on the Rangers’ roster, but there should be ample opportunity to get him playing time. He can platoon at DH with left-handed swinging Joc Pederson. McCutchen could also provide some backup in the outfield corners, which will likely be filled by some combination of Brandon Nimmo and Wyatt Langford. Texas is hoping Evan Carter is healthy and can handle manning center field. If not, Langford will likely be called upon there again, which will free up time in the corners for Michael Helman.

Separately, McCutchen would have been a more-inspiring signing for the Yankees than Randal Grichuk when the club was seeking a right-handed bat. Cutch finished the 2018 season in New York, traded to the Yankees in August for right-hander Juan De Paula and infielder Abiatal Avelino, hitting .253/.421/.471 (145 OPS+) in 114 PA.

The last World Baseball Classic was widely televised in Japan over local broadcast channels, but Netflix retains exclusive rights to this year’s tournament. This is making things more challenging for Japanese fans, as many local sports bars are canceling plans to hold live watch parties. The streaming service sent out reminders to customers in the country, advising them that their accounts are for “personal use only and not commercial benefit”. As Kanako Takahara at The Japan Times explains, it’s left sports bars and other establishments to allow only “private events,” where customers are asked to bring their own streaming devices to watch the games.

Cubs infield prospect Jonathon Long was set to play for Taiwan in the WBC, but has withdrawn after spraining his elbow in a collision on the bases during Cactus League play. There was initially hope that Long’s injury wouldn’t prevent him from missing the tournament, but he hasn’t recovered quite as quickly as hoped. Long slashed .305/.404/.479 in 606 PA at Triple-A last season with 23 2B, 20 HR, and 91 RBI.

Mark Teixeira won the Republican primary for Texas’s 21st congressional district. The long-time first baseman will face off against the Democratic candidate in the election in November.

Awful Announcing’s Manny Soloway makes an excellent argument for better TV coverage of college baseball, particularly in light of the fact that players are moving through the minor leagues at a quicker pace than ever before.