Can we fast forward to summer already?

With the American anthem being booed at sports venues around the country and visceral hate being directed towards the USA I can’t see too many American players being stoked on being caught in the middle of it and hearing their national anthem being booed before every game.

Examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/UtQ5USPjmW

https://youtu.be/9nApleMbkfM?si=5ffX9z0vXFiQsnWb

https://www.reddit.com/r/canucks/s/6TL2TRoBK5

And yes, I still call it SkyDome, too.

Every time I hear the media talk about Anthony Santander. (To be fair, those joke lived rent-free in my head even when he was with Baltimore)

Let's say the season started tomorrow and all the following things have happened:

1. Vlad didn''t sign an extension with the Jays.
2. Alonso signed with another team, not the Mets.
3. Bregman signed with another team, not the Astros.

Considering the push from teammates and the local fanbases of those teams to sign their homegrown star, which fanbase is most disappointed in their respective outcome on Opening Day this year?

Just curious ^

Personally, for me, I think adding Mad Max, Gimenez, Santander, and Hoffman gives us hope, this is certainly a big improvement for the roster of last season. The Yankees lost Soto too and the Orioles lost Burnes and Santander so the competition is less compared to the previous seasons even when we did make the playoffs.

We can also still sign Bregman or Alonso.....

Many people, including me, have been banging the drum for the Jays to bring in another lefty reliever all offseason.

Coulombe and Chafin are still available and would be great additions. But digging a little deeper, they may not be needed.

In 2024, left handed hitters had a .676 ops against right handed Nick Sandlin. In 2023, they hit .635. In 2022, they hit .634.

Looking at his savant page, it appears he throws his splitter much more to left handed hitters than righties, generating a 48% whiff percentage on the pitch last year. It was by far his most effective pitch.

He profiles similarly to Erik Swanson, who in 2023 was devastating against lefties despite being a RHP by utilizing a splitter. However, Sandlin has a weirder, lower arm slot providing a slightly different look to left handed hitters: https://www.mlb.com/guardians/video/nick-sandlin-in-play-out-s-to-mj-melendez-7tujjh

Sandlin struggled badly against right handed hitters last year but still had great reverse splits. I wonder, with his arm slot and splitter, if Ross already got us a high leverage arm to use against lefties in the Horowitz trade.