Issue #526
The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!
⚾ Welcome! ⚾
I don’t report here on all offseason minor league signings, as many of those players face long odds to make their respective team’s major league roster. But here is one worth noting from yesterday:
Mets have signed RP Craig Kimbrel. According to an article by Manny Randhawa at MLB, the Mets are signing reliever Craig Kimbrel to a Minor League contract that includes an invitation to Spring Training. According to the report, Kimbrel will earn $2.5 million if he makes the Major League team. Kimbrel has had a 16-year major league career and has been an All-Star nine times. He was the most dominant reliever in the NL early in his career with the Braves, then continued to be effective for four seasons with the Padres and Red Sox. Things became rocky for him starting in 2019, but in 2025 he was fairly effective in both the minors with a 3.69 ERA with 51 K in 39 IP, and for the Astros and Braves with a 3.00 ERA with 17 K in 12 IP.
As I’ve noted previously the Mets are re-building their bullpen after the departures of closer Edwin Díaz and also Tyler Rogers. They have brought in Devin Williams and Luke Weaver from the cross-town Yankees, and also signed Luis Garcia. It remains to be seen what the 37-year old Kimbrel has left in the tank, but with 440 career saves he is second amongst active pitchers (behind Kenley Jansen), and is fifth on the all-time saves leaderboard.
Celebrating 300!
I’ve had reason this past week to celebrate the number 300. This number has long had significance in baseball… a .300 batting average, 300 career wins, even the 300/300 HR/SB club.
For me this past week, 300 was a milestone I reached with The Baseball Buffet, as I surpassed 300 consecutive days of publishing this newsletter! I started on opening day of the 2025 season, and haven’t missed a single day since (the entire archive is available, and can be an interesting resource, e.g., to search for mentions of particular players, etc.)
As I’ve noted before, my goal in 2025 was to publish as close to every day as I could during the season, but I surpassed by continuing on during the postseason and the offseason since too. I want to thank everyone who has subscribed and have been reading, those who have sent me comments or ideas, and especially those who have already upgraded to become All Star or Hall of Fame subscribers. (The latter is the name for the pay-once, lifetime subscription to my writing… for which the cost happens to also be an instance of this magic number, $300.)
Like you, I am very much looking forward to Spring Training and then the 2026 season. I have big goals for The Baseball Buffet for 2026, so stay tuned!
Today’s Trivia Question
As noted above, Craig Kimbrel is fifth on the all-time saves leaderboard. The top four are Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, and the still-active Kenley Jansen. After Kimbrel, can you name next five who round out the top-10 career Saves leaderboard? (Bonus points the closer you can get to naming them in the correct order.)
Baseball Movies
I recently conducted a quick, two-day survey of readers of The Baseball Buffet, asking you two questions about your favorite baseball movies. The first question asked what your favorite movie was from a list of 16 that I provided. I received 269 responses to that question, and here are the results:
82 - Field of Dreams (30%)
37 - The Natural (14%)
26 - Major League
21 - Bull Durham
18 - The Sandlot
16 - Eight Men Out
14 - The Pride of the Yankees
13 - A League of Their Own
11 - 61*
9 - Moneyball
7 - For Love of the Game
5 - 42
4 - The Rookie
3 - The Bad News Bears
2 - Cobb
1 - Fever Pitch
I know that not everyone likes Field of Dreams, but I wasn’t surprised to see it come out on top. My personal favorite is The Natural, so I was glad to see it come in at least second.
I then asked the following as the other survey question: “There have been over 100 baseball movies made over the years. Are there any additional baseball movies, not listed above, that you really liked?”
Some readers responded with some of the above listed films, to emphasize how much they liked them in addition to the one they had chosen as their overall favorite. For movies beyond those listed above, I was pleased to see one of my all-time favorites named by many readers: the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield. That movie featured Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh, and was later remade by Disney in 1994. Seven readers named the 1951 original, one reader called out the remake, and another seven readers just said “Angels in the Outfield”—most of whom I assume meant the original, but I don’t know for sure.
Beyond those two films, here are the many baseball or baseball-related movies that readers mentioned as ones they really liked:
17 - Bang the Drum Slowly
13 - Trouble with the Curve
10 - It Happens Every Spring
10 - The Monty Stratton Story
8 - Long Gone
7 - Fear Strikes Out
6 - Damn Yankees
5 - Sugar
4 - The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings
4 - Little Big League
3 - Soul of the Game
3 - The Babe
3 - The Winning Team
3 - Hardball
3 - Eephus
2 - Mr. Destiny
2 - Brewster's Millions
2 - Safe at Home
2 - Summer Catch
2 - The Hill
2 - Major League 2
2 - The Pride of St. Louis
Talent for the Game
Mr. Baseball
The Final Season
Chasing 3,000
Stealing Home
American Pastime
The Battered Bastards of Baseball
The Catcher Was a Spy
The Last Out
The Perfect Game
The Scout
The Silent Natural
The Slugger's Wife
Rhubarb
The Naked Gun
Cannery Row
Kill the Umpire
Certainly an interesting list, including a few I’ve not seen… and some I should re-watch sometime before the 2026 season gets going.
Countdown to Spring Training!
Continuing with this fun series… Spring Training games are now just 26 days away, so here are some top players who had uniform #26 for extended periods of time (and the teams they wore it with):
3B Wade Boggs - Red Sox (1982-92)
OF Billy Williams - Cubs (1961-74)
2B Chase Utley - Phillies (2003-15), Dodgers (2015-18)
OF Amos Otis - Royals (1979-83), Pirates (1984)
3B Matt Chapman - Athletics (2017-21), Blue Jays (2022-23), Giants (2024-25)
1B/OF Boog Powell - Orioles (1963-74), Indians (1975-76)
OF Joe Rudi - Athletics (1969-76, 82), Angels (1977-80), Red Sox (1981)
SP Orlando Hernández - Yankees (1998-2004) and three other clubs
RP Roy Face - Pirates (1953, 55-68)
RP Raisel Iglesias - Reds (2015-20), Braves (2022-25)
RP Gene Garber - Phillies (1974-78), Braves (1978-87)
1B/3B/OF Dave Kingman - Giants (1972-74), Mets (1975-77, 81-83), and two other clubs
On this day in baseball history…
Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. All quoted descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.
📅 On January 25…
1945: The Yankees are purchased. “Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping and Del Webb purchase the New York Yankees for $2.8 million from the heirs of previous owner Jacob Ruppert. The new owners announce that Ed Barrow will remain in place as general manager, but a month later they will install MacPhail as GM.”
1974: The Padres are purchased. “Ray Kroc, fast-food entrepreneur (McDonald's), buys the San Diego Padres for $12 million, ending talk of a possible move to Washington, DC.”
1978: The Padres trade for Gaylord Perry. “The San Diego Padres acquire well-traveled pitcher Gaylord Perry from the Texas Rangers. San Diego surrenders pitcher Dave Tomlin and $125,000 in cash. Perry will win 21 games for the Padres in 1978 and capture the Cy Young Award.”
🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉
Danny Richardson, Wally Bunker, Derrick Turnbow
Danny Richardson (1863-1926)
11-year major league career, spanning from 1863-1894, mostly with the New York Giants
Had 25+ SB six times, with a high of 41 SB in 1887
Had 100 RBI in 1889, then scored 102 runs in 1890
Was an above-average defensive 2B for his era
Overall had 225 SB and a .254 average
Wally Bunker (1945)
9-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1963-1971, with the Orioles and Royals
Came in second in the AL Rookie of the Year vote in 1964 after posting a 19-5 record and 2.69 ERA
Never reached that level of success again, winning 10-12 games in three subsequent seasons
Overall had a 60-52 (.536) record, a 3.51 ERA, and an even 100 ERA+
Derrick Turnbow (1978)
7-year major league pitching career, spanning from 2000-2008, with the Angels and Brewers
Had a strong season in 2005 with a 1.74 ERA and 39 saves for the Brewers
Had 23 saves in the first half of 2006 and was named an All-Star, but was struggling with his command and earned only one more save that year and ended the season with a 6.87 ERA (the highest ERA ever for a pitcher who had been an All-Star that season)
Command struggles continued, and after the 2009 season he retired
Overall had 65 saves, a 4.30 ERA, and a 106 ERA+
A currently active player who was born on January 25 is CHW Lenyn Sosa.
Baseball Quote of the Day
I recently shared some quotes from one of the CF recently elected to the Hall of Fame, so today I figured I should do the same for the other CF, Andruw Jones:
"I played what I saw... Nobody moved me defensively".
"I love taking hits away from guys and seeing their reaction".
"Injuries are injuries, everybody has them. You play with it. I don't make excuses."
"Every year I try to make adjustments and learn."
Today’s Trivia Answer
Top-10 all-time saves leaderboard is as follows:
652 - Mariano Rivera
601 - Trevor Hoffman
478 - Lee Smith
476 - Kenley Jansen
440 - Craig Kimbrel
437 - Francisco Rodríguez
424 - John Franco
422 - Billy Wagner
390 - Dennis Eckersley
377 - Joe Nathan
Good Reads
Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.
The 10 biggest positional upgrades teams made this offseason, by Thomas Harrigan at MLB, 1/24/2026
Can any NL team dethrone the Dodgers? Sure! Here are the possibilities, by Anthony Castrovince at MB, 1/24/2026
The top two remaining FA bats are polar opposites, by Jared Greenspan at MLB, 1/23/2026
After missing '25 postseason, which teams may get there in '26?, by Will Leitch at MLB, 1/22/2026
Can Yankees take AL East back in '26? Here's what they need, by Manny Randhawa at MLB, 1/24/2026
Career .300 hitters not in the HOF, by Mark Kolier at Almost Cooperstown, 1/23/2026
See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!
How did you like this edition of Now Taking the Field?
Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.
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