Baseball is Back (Sort Of!)

Pitchers and catchers report, Why You Love Baseball returns — and Bob Costas joins the PosCast this week.

Baseball is here! Sort of! Pitchers and catchers started reporting on Tuesday, so let’s offer another Why You Love Baseball daily splash of joy …

Why do you love baseball?

Brilliant Reader Jeff: “The language. Imagine watching your first game and hearing any of these terms casually thrown out: Can of corn, Ducks on the pond, Uncle Charlie, Mendoza line.”

Brilliant Reader Ron: “My very most joyous moment of baseball happened on June 18, 1961 … the White Sox were down 3–1 in the ninth … Nellie Fox came up, using a black bat … I probably made a vow to God that if Nellie hit a home run I’d clean my room every day … and he did. I remember running through the house, shouting with joy.”

Brilliant Reader Kevin Wilkerson: “Probably my earliest stadium memory: going to a game in August 1980, seeing George Brett rocket a double into the gap and raise his helmet to the crowd as the scoreboard showed his batting average reaching .401.”

Brilliant Reader Kerry: “Catching a glimpse of the fun in the Wrigley bleachers, chuckling at some old memories, and realizing the best seat in the house is next to my 10-year-old son as we figure out how to keep score together.”

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The PosCast with Bob Costas

Super fun PosCast this week — Mike is opening up 1974 Topps cards as we search for a Dave Winfield rookie card, and Bob Costas joins in to tell a few baseball stories. What a blast.

Reminder: We are opening cards to raise money for the amazing folks over at Team Gleason. You have donated more than $40,000 so far, which is amazing, but we want to keep going; we are trying to beat last year’s total of $76,000.

If you donate, you are automatically entered into a drawing, and five winners will get giant boxes — curated by Michael Schur himself — filled with baseball cards, autographed books, and all sorts of special surprises. I promise: You will love the box of stuff. But more, you will love supporting Team Gleason. These are good people working relentlessly to improve the lives of people with ALS and their families.

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Ninety-seven days until BIG FAN

I mentioned our search for a Dave Winfield rookie card — there’s a specific reason we chose Winfield: He shows up in the most unlikely place in our book BIG FAN.

There are so many wonderful surprises in BIG FAN, which is one of the big reasons why I cannot wait to share it with you.

You can preorder it now wherever you get your books. And you can get a copy signed by both Mike and me over at Barnes & Noble.

Also, we should be able to start announcing some tour dates in the next couple of weeks. We’ve got some amazing trips planned.

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Ten quick thoughts for the season

I thought for fun today, I’d take a very quick look back at 10 interesting things that happened this baseball offseason while you might have been paying attention to other things (you, being a giant baseball fan, might not have missed any of these):

Justin Verlander in 2006. He’s back! (Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images)

1. Justin Verlander is back with the Tigers.

This just happened, so it’s not something you “missed” … but that’s kind of cool, right? JV turns 43 in a few days, and it’s not clear how much he has left … but he did post a 1.96 ERA in his last seven starts. He might have been a little bit hit lucky over that stretch, but that’s OK. It will be fun to see him back in that Detroit uniform.

2. Pete Alonso is an Oriole now.

Something about this feels right to me … I can’t quite explain it. I mean, yes, I would have preferred if the Mets had kept Alonso forever, but they didn’t, and if he had to go somewhere, Baltimore just feels kind of perfect. Usually, I cannot picture a longtime player wearing another team’s uniform. But with Alonso, for whatever reason, the picture is clear in my mind.

3. Luis Arráez is in San Francisco now.

I don’t really understand what the Giants are doing, and I fully expect them to continue their rather remarkable streak of mediocrity.

• 2022: 81-82

• 2023: 79-83

• 2024: 80-82

• 2025: 81-81

But I fully expect La Regadera — “The Sprinkler” to spray hits all over the place, strike out like 20 times, and win his fourth batting title. That is, of course, assuming the Giants can overcome his defense at second base.

4. Kyle Tucker is with the Dodgers, of course

Yes, this one made a huge splash, but I’m still having a hard time picturing Tucker in Dodgers Blue. That might be because I have a hard time picturing Tucker, period. Who was the last baseball superstar as anonymous as Kyle Tucker?

5. The Kansas City fences are coming in

I talked at some length with Royals general manager J.J. Picollo about the decision and strategy behind moving in the fences … and I’m super-excited to see how it works out.

6. The Pirates signed all-stars Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna

I wouldn’t say I’m “excited” about this — I mean, how excited can you get about a team signing 30-something mid-tier free agents? — but when you’re throwing Paul Skenes out there every few days, and Bubba Chandler looks just about ready to start blowing hitters away too, even a few extra runs can make a huge difference.

7. Dylan Cease is in Toronto

I’m not exactly sure what happened to Cease last year. He struck out 215 batters in 168 innings — the highest strikeout-per-nine for any National League pitcher last year — but he also had an unsightly 4.55 ERA because of all the walks and super high BABIP (.323). My guess is the Blue Jays got themselves a Cy Young candidate, and should go into 2025 as the favorite in the American League.

8. Bo Bichette is moving to third base in Queens

I remember when offensive numbers more or less told you what defensive position someone played. For instance, if you saw a player who hit .283 with 0 home runs, you could guess that they were probably a good defensive second baseman (and also an awesome person). If you saw someone hit .258 with 13 home runs, they might be a good-hitting shortstop or maybe a power-hitting catcher.

And if you saw someone .294 with 24 home runs and 95 RBI, you would probably guess they were an All-Star third baseman.

Well, that’s what Bo Bichette has averaged over 162 games in his career so far. We’ll see how third base fits his spirit with the Mets this year.

9. Munetaka Murakami brings his big bat to the South Side.

They call him “Murakami-sama” in Japan because “kami-sama” is the Japanese word for deity. He has blasted 247 home runs since 2019. Yes, the team misspelled his name on the nameplate above his locker, which is such a White Sox thing to do, but Murakami posted a photo of it on Instagram with a big ol’ thumbs up sign, so he isn’t offended. Scouts have mixed opinions about Murakami’s big-league future, but this feels like a good swing from a down-and-out franchise.

10. Sonny Gray is on the Red Sox

I don’t love much of what the Red Sox did this offseason, but getting Sonny Gray is an early pick for best “sneaky good move” of the offseason. Gray is 36, but here are the pitchers with the lowest FIPs over the last three seasons (minimum 500 innings):

1. Logan Webb, 2.91 FIP

2. Zack Wheeler, 3.10 FIP

3. Sonny Gray, 3.11 FIP

4. George Kirby, 3.32 FIP

5. Framber Valdez, 3.38 FIP

Bonus: What did the Yankees do?

In our family, we often repeat Joe Pantoliano’s line in The Matrix: “I don’t want to remember nothing. Nothing!”

That’s pretty much what the Yankees did this offseason. Nothing! They re-signed basically their whole team from 2025, including Paul Goldschmidt for some reason, and seem to be hoping that with Gerrit Cole coming back sometime in June, and maybe the emergence of a Jasson Dominguez or someone like that, that they will be able to take a step forward.

It’s a plan. The Yankees did win 94 games without Cole last year. But here’s the thing: Everyone is one year older. And time never loses.