What's Old Is New

They’re out.

Each year, baseball’s farm system rankings give us the clearest snapshot of the future — who’s building something sustainable, and who’s swiping the credit card and hoping it clears.

A few things jumped off the page right away.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are quietly doing something right.
After a strong offseason, the Pirates came in fourth. No noise. No chest-thumping.

Just steady accumulation and real depth.

San Diego? Different story.
Prospects out the door.
Short-term moves in.
A payroll built to chase the Dodgers.

No World Series to show for it.

The Padres ranked dead last.

While in Anaheim.

The Angels came in 29th out of 30. According to Keith Law.
Last year?

30th.

So I went back.

In 2015 — more than a decade ago — the Angels were near the bottom then too.

This isn’t bad luck.

It’s a system.

When you don’t develop talent, you overpay for it.
When you overpay for it, you lose flexibility.
And when you lose flexibility, you stay stuck.

Year after year after year.

People still wonder how the Angels wasted a Trout era.
How they burned through Ohtani’s prime.
How October never showed up.

This is why.

Prospects still have to prove it on the big stage. Rankings aren’t trophies.

But they are a barometer.

And right now, they’re screaming who’s building for tomorrow — and who’s buried by yesterday.

Farm rankings/Keith Law
Farm rankings/ESPN

Wild Spring Training moments:

• A swarm of bees once chased Jason Heyward off the field mid-game.

• Doug Melvin — then GM of the Milwaukee Brewers — was bitten by a scorpion and rushed to the ER.

• Kevin Pillar injured himself…

By sneezing.

Spring Training is almost here.

Most rosters are set.

And yet…

An ace pitcher is still unsigned.
A 49-home-run slugger is still unsigned.

Framber Valdez didn’t forget how to pitch.

But one ugly moment last season — crossing up his catcher in anger and firing a pitch into his chest protector — changed everything.

Watch the Video

Valdez was expected to land a massive deal.
Instead, his market cooled.

That moment didn’t erase his talent.

It damaged his image.

And in today’s game, perception matters almost as much as performance.

That big contract?
Probably gone.

So he waits.

Then there’s Eugenio Suárez.

Forty-nine home runs in 2025.

Forty-nine.

In another era, teams would’ve lined up.

Instead?

Silence.

At 34, with declining defensive value at third base, Suárez is viewed more for his bat than his glove — and front offices don’t pay premiums for one-dimensional players anymore.

Flexibility gets paid.
Versatility gets paid.

A bat-only slugger is now a luxury.

Even with 49 bombs.

Different stories.
Same message.

The free-agent market is colder.
Smarter.
And far less sentimental.

Baseball is back on NBC — after a 26-year absence.

For a lot of us, that instantly brings back memories of the NBC Game of the Week.
Vin Scully on the call.
Saturday afternoons that actually felt like events.

Now the Peacock is leaning hard into that nostalgia with Sunday Night Baseball.

Bob Costas is back as the studio host.

And that’s not by accident.

Just like with the NBA, NBC wants older fans to feel at home — familiar voices, familiar energy — while layering in new ways to pull viewers deeper into the game.

But this isn’t just about warm feelings.

It’s strategy.

NBC ran the same throwback playbook with the NBA this season — big production, games that feel important again.

The early ratings?

Up big.

Now baseball is getting the same treatment.

After years of flooding every screen with games, MLB and its broadcast partners are quietly shifting back toward something simpler:

Big games.
Big moments.
One night that matters.

In a world of endless streaming options and random weekday broadcasts, NBC is betting fans still want what worked before.

What’s old is new again.

And it might be exactly what baseball needs.

Finally.

We’ve all seen pitchers celebrate a strikeout.

Sometimes it’s a little much.

But this one?

This one might be the wildest you’ll ever see.

I swear, the guy’s going to hurt himself one of these days.

During the LIDOM championship in the Dominican Republic this week, Leones del Escogido left-hander Jefry Yan came in with two outs in the sixth inning.

He faced exactly one batter.

He struck him out.

And then launched himself into the air with one of the wildest strikeout celebrations you’ll ever see.

Pure electricity.

And it wasn’t random.

Yan says the celebration comes from gratitude — the product of a long, difficult road just to reach this level.

A journey that’s included:

Years in the Angels’ system.
Tommy John surgery.
Six seasons out of affiliated ball.

Still waiting for the call to the show.

But moments like that?

You can feel how much it means.

Baseball’s road is long.

And every now and then, it produces a celebration worth the wait.

Watch the video

That’s all for now.

If you enjoyed this one, tell a friend.
If you didn’t, tell an enemy.

Either way — thanks for riding along.

John Boxley
High N Tight