The Baseball Buffet for 11/6/2025

Issue #448

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’ll lead off today with the news that MLB has now released the full 2026 Spring Training schedule. Yes, we just finished the 2025 season, but in my view its never too early to look ahead to the next season! So here are a few highlights, with some of the information pulled from MLB’s Paul Casella’s helpful article:

• Most pitchers and catchers are scheduled to first report on February 11th, with those participating in the World Baseball Classic reporting two days prior on February 9th

• A few spring training games get going on February 20th, and then all 30 teams take the field the next day, February 21st

• The North American portion of the World Baseball Classic tournament will begin on March 6th, with games in Miami, Houston, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

• While most spring training games are held within either the Cactus League (Arizona) or the Grapefruit League (Florida), there will be a few trips for crossover games as well.

Today’s Trivia Question

As noted earlier this week, the Red Sox had two outfield Gold Glove Award winners for 2025: Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu. That is not a first for the Red Sox though, in fact it is the fifth time that a pair of Boston outfielders both won a Gold Glove Award in the same year. One pair did it twice, and two other pairs did it once each. Can you name any of these three pairings? (Partial points for naming even just some of the players in each pairing.)

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

Free Agents

I’m going to do a series that draws attention to current free agents, position by position. MLB provides a single webpage that tracks all of them, position by position, so by all means go there for the latest signings overall.

Catchers

If your team could use a 34- or 35-year old backup catcher for 2026, you’re in luck! There are plenty to choose from here. I assume J.T. Realmuto will be the primary catcher wherever he lands, and a few others here could be too or could at least be platoon players. Others I assume will be signed as backup catchers, or signed to minor-league deals and invited to spring training to see what develops. Here are the main catchers on the market (with their most recent team in parentheses):

• J.T. Realmuto (PHI) - 34 years old, played 134 games for Philadelphia in 2025. Last won a Gold Glove in 2022, and was last an All-Star in 2021

• Christian Vázquez (MIN) - 35 years old, played 65 games for the Twins in 2025. Hit 23 HR for the Red Sox in 2019, but hasn’t had more than 9 HR in a season since.

• Danny Jansen (MIL) - 30 years old, played 98 games for the Rays and Brewers in 2025, hitting 14 HR in 288 AB, but only batting .215.

• Victor Caratini (HOU) - 32 years old, played 114 games for Houston in 2025, splitting his time between C, 1B, and DH. Had a career-high 12 HR in 344 AB.

• Elias Diaz (SDP) - 34 years old, played 106 games for the Padres in 2025, hitting 9 HR in 255 AB, but struggling with a .204 average

• James McCann (ARI) - 35 years old, played 41 games at AAA and 42 games for the D-Backs, for whom he had 5 HR in 123 AB with a .260 average

• Gary Sánchez (BAL) - 32 years old, only played 29 major league games with the Orioles in 2025, with 5 HR in 91 AB and a .231 average. Crushed AAA pitching with 6 HR in 49 AB and a .367 average, and hit 19 HR as recently as 2023.

• Mitch Garver (SEA) - 34 years old, played 87 games split between C and DH for Seattle in 2025. Struggled with a .209 average, and hit only .172 in 114 games in 2024.

• Austin Barnes (LAD) - 35 years old, the long-time Dodgers’ backstop played in only 13 games for them this year, as was released on May 20th. Briefly was in the Giants minor leagues, but was then released on August 1st.

• Luke Maile (KCR) - 34 years old, split his time in 2025 between AAA Omaha and the Royals, only playing in 25 games in the majors.

• Jacob Stallings (BAL) - 35 years old, played in 42 games between the Rockies and Orioles, but really struggled offensively with a .134 average in 119 AB.

• Tom Murphy (SFG) - 34 years old, missed the entire 2025 season with a herniated disc in his back. He missed much of 2024 with a knee injury, but in 2023 with the Mariners hit .290 with 8 HR in 145 AB.

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On November 6…

• 1970: Jim Perry wins Cy Young Award in a close four-man race. “Minnesota Twins pitcher Jim Perry wins the American League Cy Young Award in a close race. Perry receives 55 points to edge out Dave McNally (47), Sam McDowell (45) and Mike Cuellar (44).”

• 1974: Mike Marshall is first reliever to win a Cy Young Award. “Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers becomes the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. Ironman Marshall set major league records that still stand with 106 appearances and 208 innings pitched in relief.”

• 1998: Cubs phenom Kerry Wood wins the NL Rookie of the Year Award. “Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Kerry Wood, who posted a 13-6 record, wins the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Wood held batters to a NL best .196 average and finished third in the league in strikeouts with 233 in just 166 2/3 innings pitched.”

• 2001: Gold Glove Awards include several 10+ winners. “Gold Glove Award winners are announced. Ivan Rodriguez wins his tenth straight to tie Johnny Bench for the most by a catcher, Greg Maddux wins his 12th straight to extend his National League record for pitchers, and Roberto Alomar wins for the tenth time, the most ever for a second baseman.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Walter Johnson (1887)

• Hall of Famer (member of the five-man inaugural class)

• 21-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1907-1927, all with the Washington Senators

• Had 20+ wins twelve times, including leading the AL in wins six times, with a 36-7 record and a 1.14 ERA in 1913

• Led the AL in ERA five times, and strikeouts twelve times, including with a career-high 313 K in 1910

• All-time MLB leader with 110 shutouts, is 2nd in wins (417), 3rd in IP (5,914.1), and 10th in strikeouts (3,509)

• Overall had a 417-279 (.599) record, a 2.17 ERA, and a 147 ERA+. From 1907-1919, during the deadball era of his career, he had an amazing 1.65 ERA and 172 ERA+.

John Candelaria (1953)

• 19-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1975-1993, with the first half spent with the Pirates, and the rest spread across seven other clubs

• Had a 2.76 ERA over 18 starts as a rookie, then went 16-7 in 1976 before posting a 20-5 record and NL-leading 2.34 ERA in 1977, his one All-Star campaign

• Was an important member of the Pirates' 1979 World Series championship team, going 14-9 with a 3.22 ERA

• Overall had a 177-122 (.592) record, a 3.33 ERA, and a 114 ERA+

Adam LaRoche (1979)

• 12-year major league career, spanning from 2004-2015, mostly with the Braves, Pirates, and Nationals

• Had 20+ HR nine times, with a high of 33 HR in 2012, the one year he also took home a Gold Glove Award at 1B

• Overall had 255 HR, 882 RBI, a .260/.336/.462 slash line, and a 111 OPS+

• Is the son of major league pitcher Dave LaRoche, and the older brother of major league infielder Andy LaRoche

Chad Curtis (1968)

• 10-year major league career, spanning from 1992-2001, with time spread across the Angels, Tigers, Dodgers, Indians, Yankees, and Rangers

• Had 20+ SB five times, including highs of 43 and 48 SB in his first two seasons

• Had modest power, with a high of 21 HR in 1995

• Mostly played CF and LF

• Overall had 101 HR, 212 SB, and a .264/.349/.396 slash line

Currently active players who were born on November 6 include TOR Alejandro Kirk, CHC Matt Shaw, STL Matthew Liberatore, CHW Fraser Ellard, and AZ Gus Varland.

Baseball Quote of the Day

One of the new features I’m starting up during the offseason is a baseball-related quote of the day. These will include quotes by players or managers that are insightful or funny, and interesting quotes from others about the game itself. I’ll try to mix it up over time.

Second day providing a quote of the day, so I thought I’d go with one from a player that I recently highlighted in the November 3rd Birthday Boys section, and that is also emblematic of my work in creating this daily Baseball Buffet newsletter:

"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is." - Bob Feller

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

The previous Red Sox outfield pairs who won Gold Glove Awards in the same season have been:

• 2018 - Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts

• 1978 and 1979 - Dwight Evans and Fred Lynn

• 1968 - Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Smith

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 most interesting team to watch in each division this offseason, by Will Leitch at MLB, 11/5/2025

• 100 Things I Love About Baseball (Part 1), by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 11/5/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

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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