R.J. Anderson
rjandersonwrites.com
R.J. Anderson
@rjandersonwrites.com
CBS Sports MLB writer
Can’t explain why this exchange has stuck in my head for 14 years, but happy anniversary to those who celebrate Brian Cashman responding to a reporter with "blog it." www.espn.com/blog/new-yor...
November 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Little surprise here: Kelsie Whitmore, who helped make history when she debuted with the Sonoma Stompers in 2016 before going on to play for the FerryHawks, Ballers, and Savannah Bananas, is first off the board.

She'll rep SF next year.
November 21, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Rolison is a more interesting addition than his numbers suggest. No guarantees he sticks on the roster all winter, but underlying traits suggest he should be able to add more swing-and-miss to his game. Landing with an org that has a better handle on that stuff should help.
November 19, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
RIP Randy Jones, 75, one of the most beloved players in San Diego Padres history and the 1976 NL Cy Young Award winner. Here's his SABR bio: sabr.org/bioproj/pers...
November 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Mike Elias might be the most hyperrational executive in MLB history when it comes to pitching—for better and for worse. He’s been in charge of the Orioles for seven full years now and he’s never: 1) signed a pitcher to a guaranteed multi-year contract; or 2) drafted a pitcher with a top-50 pick.
November 19, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
ICYMI last night: The WNBA's latest collective bargaining proposal would include revenue sharing with a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million available to more than one player per team growing each year, per the AP and confirmed by ESPN.

www.espn.com/wnba/story/_...
Source: WNBA proposes max salary over $1.1M
The WNBA's latest CBA proposal would include revenue sharing with a maximum salary of more than $1.1 million and a new league minimum of more than $220,000, a source confirmed to ESPN.
www.espn.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:29 PM
There's a reason Marvin Miller used to say "free agency with compensation is not free agency."
100%. Also a great reason to note that the QO penalizing signing teams is just incredibly stupid. If you want to provide a bonus to teams losing premium players, god bless, throw some picks at em. But there's no good reason to penalize the signing teams. Not to mention it's obnoxiously complicated
Agreed with this. I also think we were overdue for more players accepting the QO. (Less than 10% had taken it entering today.) If you're Grisham or Torres, your market is going to take a real hit with draft-pick compensation. Taking the tender isn’t ideal, but it’s probably the best path forward.
November 18, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Agreed with this. I also think we were overdue for more players accepting the QO. (Less than 10% had taken it entering today.) If you're Grisham or Torres, your market is going to take a real hit with draft-pick compensation. Taking the tender isn’t ideal, but it’s probably the best path forward.
A lot of people seem surprised by the number of guys accepting it but once you see the guys who are doing the accepting it all becomes pretty clear.
so far, four guys who I didn't really think should be offered the QO have accepted it
November 18, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Mo'ne Davis spent years telling people that she was done playing baseball. She did not want to be forever defined by what she did as a 13-year-old in Little League, a decade ago, and she did not feel like there was space for her to do much else. And then she felt differently. On Davis and the WPBL:
Mo’ne Davis Is Finally Ready to Play Baseball Again
More than a decade after becoming a Little League sensation at age 13, Mo’ne Davis is set to make more history as the face of the Women’s Pro Baseball League.
www.si.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Josh Naylor will join Freddie Freeman as the only free-agent first basemen since 2018 to sign for more than four years. Others to do it over the past decade: Eric Hosmer, Chris Davis, and Ian Desmond, per MLB Trade Rumors' contract database.
November 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Sometimes you run across an old quote that stops you cold. From a Jayson Stark article in January 2000:
November 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Good for Andy Pages on getting "championship saving catch" in as a career defining moment before the world heard about "unknowingly foiling gambling plot by swinging at extremely obvious ball"
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Murakami checked in at No. 7. Massive power and swing-and-miss issues. Long-term positional questions, too, but he's young and has middle-of-the-order upside in a weaker free-agent class.
November 7, 2025 at 4:52 PM
DePodesta is, undeniably, a trailblazer directly responsible for the modern executive. He has a whale of a challenge in front of him—modernizing that Rockies organization; solving Coors Field; and so on. Tall task for anyone, let alone somebody nearly a decade removed from an MLB front office.
November 6, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Here's my ranking of this year's top 50 MLB free agents: www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ran...
MLB free agency: Ranking the top 50 players of the 2025-26 offseason
Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Framber Valdez and more top talents are available this winter
www.cbssports.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This season had some obvious borderline mythical moments (including Yamamoto last night). But I keep returning to the idea that if a team had given away an owner bobblehead during a disappointing season, say, 50 or 60 years ago, we’d still be referring to that incident by some cutesy name.
November 2, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...
November 2, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started Game 6, got more outs in Game 7 than starter Shohei Ohtani
November 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
This is the sixth straight season in which a Will Smith wins a World Series:
 
2025: C Will Smith (LAD)
2024: C Will Smith (LAD)
2023: LHP Will Smith (TEX)
2022: LHP Will Smith (HOU)
2021: LHP Will Smith (ATL)
2020: C Will Smith (LAD)
November 2, 2025 at 4:48 AM
How could you not be romantic about baseball, the only sport that requires rulebook citing to explain why the league’s best player is (likely) starting the season’s biggest game.
November 1, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Good stat from @mikeaxisa.bsky.social: "The most swings and misses on a splitter in a single game in the pitch tracking era (since 2008) is 20 by Gausman back in 2023. Only 20 times on record has a guy gotten as many as 15 whiffs on the split in a game. Gausman's at 11 through two innings."
November 1, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
“F the players,” Murray responded, according to the MLBPA documents. “I’m still so pissed off I can’t see straight.”

“We need them to be kissed (sic) off at their leadership,” Courtney replied.

“Believe me, it is priority for me,” Murray said.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/676...
Inside the text messages of the agent who became a ‘mole’ for Rob Manfred and MLB
The MLB Players Association says that in 2020 negotiations, agent Jim Murray “acted as a ‘mole’” for Manfred and his top lieutenants.
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Only 4 pitchers have recorded a Pitcher’s Cycle — striking out every batter in the opposing lineup — in the World Series:

Trey Yesavage, 2025 G5
Randy Johnson, 2001 G2
Bob Gibson, 1968 G1
Jesse Barnes, 1921 G6
Trey Yesavage struck out all 9 Dodgers at least once tonight, a feat that Herm Krabbenhoft dubbed a “pitcher’s cycle”

sabr.org/journal/arti...
The Pitcher’s Cycle: Definition and Achievers (1893–2023) – Society for American Baseball Research
sabr.org
October 30, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
We, as a society, have not solved much recently. But take heart: Blake Snell no longer gets pulled too early in World Series games.
October 30, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by R.J. Anderson
Twins are hiring Derek Shelton as the new manager.

Shelton served as the Twins' bench coach under both Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli before leaving after the 2019 season to become the Pirates' manager.

Shelton had a 306-440 (.410) record during six seasons in Pittsburgh and was fired in mid-May.
October 29, 2025 at 11:03 PM