What is the story about?
Good
morning.
- I feel like Oprah is about to show up and say “You get an extension and you get an extension!” In any case, the Brewers signed shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt to an eight-year extension. Pratt has yet to make his major league debut. Adam McCalvy reports.
- Brandan Gawlowski evaluates the Pratt deal, expected to be worth just over $50 million with some team options.
- But that deal is overshadowed by the eight years and $95 million the Mariners gave to shortstop prospect Colt Emerson, which is the largest contract ever given to a player who has yet to make his major league debut. There’s a club option for an ninth year and some escalator clauses that could bring the total deal to over $130 million. Daniel Kramer with the story.
- Michael Baumann evaluates the Orioles extension with right-hander Shane Baz. And yes, Baumann’s “Throwing good money after Baz” is an early candidate for pun of the year.
- Matt Kelly has nine players who signed extensions before making their major league debut.
- J.J. Cooper explains what the Pratt and Emerson deals say about how teams value prospects.
- Jake Mintz wonders who else could sign extensions this spring.
- Chad Jennings believes we are on the verge of a new golden age for MLB shortstops. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Tyler Kepner points out that rookies have made a huge positive impression so far this young season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- David Schoenfield has some thoughts about the first weekend of the season.
- Mike Axisa has his takeaways from the first weekend.
- Jordan Schusterman wonders what some hot starts to the season can tell us.
- Jayson Stark has his weird and wild stat lines from Opening Weekend. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Gabe Lacques has the winners and losers from Opening Weekend.
- Speaking of weird starts to the season, Michael Baumann wonders how long could Nationals outfielder Joey Wiemer (or anyone else) have gone without making an out before we start to think something fishy was happening?
- Jeff Passan collects the everything you need to know about the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) challenges of the first weekend that it’s in use. Who did well? Who didn’t?
- Jake Mintz offers his thoughts on how ABS is working so far.
- Maitreyi Anantharaman points out how much entertainment value ABS adds to the game.
- Sam Blum looks at how ABS has shrunk more than half of MLB players. (The Athletic sub. req.) Many players who used to be listed as 6’1” or 6 even are now being revealed as actually around 5’10”. Blum also goes into detail as to how players get measured.
- Time to pay the butcher’s bill. Blue Jays starter Cody Ponce suffered a sprained ACL in his first start after returning to MLB. The Blue Jays just hope at this point the injury isn’t season-ending.
- Ryan Blake looks at Ponce and the start to the season of all the other players who made the jump from NPB and KBO to MLB this year. The sad part is that Ponce looked really good before he suffered the injury.
- Jay Jaffe looks at the ugly history the Giants made in their first series of the year.
- When the Giants did finally win, new manager Tony Vitello was celebrated by his team.
- However, there are some rumblings in Giantsland about the new manager. Retired Giant Mike LaCoss called up a radio station to criticize the Vitello hiring and slam longtime Giants executive Larry Baer.
- Justin Verlander’s first start back with the Tigers was ugly, but Bob Nightengale reports that the Tigers are confident the 43-year-old will be better soon.
- Cody Stavenhagen reports that Verlander’s Tigers teammates rave about his presence in the clubhouse. (The Athletic sub. req.) Also that he drinks a lot of coffee.
- Jake Mintz writes that the Dodgers were hopeful after Roki Sasaki’s first start of the year.
- The most polarizing teams in 2026.
- There was a trade already as the Brewers acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants for cash.
- And another one! The Marlins picked up infielder Leo Jiménez in exchange for minor league infielder Dub Gleed. Gleed started playing baseball after his career as a bounty hunter went south after he failed to capture Han Solo and Chewbacca.
- He’s not officially retired, but J.D. Martinez has taken a job as a special assistant in the Mets front office.
- Mike Soroka had an immaculate inning and struck out ten in his Diamondbacks debut.
- Andrew McCutchen apologized to a Phillies fan after hitting his first home run for the Rangers. As Kennedi Landry reports, it was someone McCutchen knew from his time with Philadelphia.
- Kiri Oler has the 50 weirdest ballpark promotions coming in 2026.
- And finally, the Royals honored the late Terrance Gore before Monday’s home opener with Gore’s eldest son throwing out the first pitch. Anne Rogers reports.
