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The Veeck family is at it again. Before the Frontier League's 2026 season kicks off, the Joliet Slammers are going to play an exhibition at their namesake slammer -- the Old Joliet Prison. The team has announced "The Big House Ballgame" will take place on April 30, giving fans a

Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.

BOSTON -- Prospect-for-prospect swaps aren’t the most common type of transaction in baseball. But sometimes they make sense. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow found a match he liked with his former assistant Paul Toboni on Monday, and that led to Boston acquiring Nationals left-hander Jake Bennett in exchange

ORLANDO, Fla. – If you’re right-handed and make a living throwing from a mound, you had a seemingly good chance of hearing your name called during Wednesday’s Rule 5 Draft. There were a total of 13 players taken during the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft and 12

By 1931, the Marin County court system was sick of dealing with Tony Freitas. Sure, the young pitcher for the Pacific Coast League's Sacramento Senators was becoming a star. He went 19-6 with a 3.24 ERA for the Senators at just 22 years old the year prior. He had already

Call them the lucky 13. Thirteen players -- 12 right-handed pitchers and one catcher -- received their best chances yet to crack a Major League roster upon their selections in the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday. All 13 were Rule 5-eligible because of the length of their careers and were

The World Baseball Classic may not begin until March, but you could be forgiven for thinking that it all kicked off in December. On Tuesday, managers, general managers, and team officials for all 20 teams participating in next year's tournament gathered at the Signia by Hilton Orlando for the 2026

ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s been nearly 50 years since the Chicago White Sox had the No. 1 pick in the Draft. But the last time they did, that selection turned into a Hall of Famer. That was Harold Baines, and perhaps he brought No. 1 pick mojo to the organization

Minor League Baseball announced the Arizona Diamondbacks organization as the recipient of the second annual MiLB Sportsmanship Award. This award is presented to the Major League Baseball organization whose Minor League personnel best exemplify MiLB’s commitment to fostering a culture of sportsmanship and professionalism on the field. Four organizations were

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Astros on Tuesday announced they had agreed to sell three of their Minor League affiliates -- Triple-A Sugar Land, Double-A Corpus Christi and Single-A Fayetteville -- to Diamond Baseball Holdings, which owns dozens of teams affiliated with Major League Baseball. The sale is not expected to

Minor League Baseball announced the selection of longtime baseball executive, manager and coach Dick Scott as the 17th winner of the Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award and Cincinnati Reds Minor League manager Pat Kelly as the recipient of the 17th annual Mike Coolbaugh Award. The Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award is presented

ORLANDO, Fla. -- In an annual highlight of the Winter Meetings, the Scout of the Year program celebrates evaluators and administrators for their contributions to baseball. It did so again Tuesday evening here, with one of the honorees using the occasion to announce his retirement. Padres senior adviser and director

Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.

Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other

The Winter Meetings begin Monday in Orlando, Fla., and prospects are certain to be on the shopping list for some clubs. Which team will get the best holiday-season deal? Who has the prospect capital to make that kind of deal happen?

The Mets’ season didn’t go how anyone in the organization would have hoped, with the reigning National League runners-up missing the postseason entirely in 2025. The recent departures of previous franchise stalwarts Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz and Brandon Nimmo haven’t helped matters with the fanbase either, though the offseason is

The Dodgers usually have to wait a while to make their first Draft selection, not that anyone is feeling sorry for them. Draft position is determined by reverse order of success the previous season, and Los Angeles often moves down 10 spots for exceeding the second competitive balance tax threshold.

While the Yankees are synonymous with big spending, their ability to find talent via the Draft also has played a large role in them making the postseason in eight of the last nine years. Three-time MVP Aaron Judge, one of the most devastating right-handed hitters in the history of the

I still have Draft Fever following the Draft Lottery and publishing my first (way too early) first-round projection for 2026! So let's keep the focus on the Draft in the latest Pipeline Inbox ...

The scouts who had run Red Sox Drafts since 2015 all left the club this year. Mike Rikard (2015-19) took a job with the Diamondbacks as a senior advisor in January. The Nationals hired Paul Toboni (2020-22) as president of baseball operations in October, and he brought Devin Pearson (2023-25)

The Mets had a chance. It was 0.67 percent of a chance, but it was a chance. New York went into the Winter Meetings as one of 15 teams with an opportunity to win the 2026 No. 1 overall pick in the Draft Lottery. Instead, the organization moved to what

When the Cubs ended a four-season playoff drought in 2025 and went on to win their first postseason series in eight years, the Draft played a significant role. First-round picks Ian Happ (2015), Nico Hoerner (2018), Cade Horton (2022) and Matt Shaw (2023) were mainstays in the lineup and rotation.

With the Draft Lottery in the books, the 2026 MLB Draft order is now in place, with some changes possible based on free-agent signings. The lottery didn’t impact the Phillies’ placement in the Draft order, since they were a playoff team, but between the top of the Draft being set