LOS ANGELES (AP) — Angela Dugalic scored a season-high 22 points and had a career-high five steals as No. 2 UCLA extended its winning streak to 15 with an 88-65 victory over No. 8 Iowa on Sunday.

Kiki Rice had 17 points and seven assists and Lauren Betts scored 16 points as the Bruins (21-1, 11-0 Big Ten) remained the only undefeated team in conference play while improving to 10-0 at home. UCLA has won both of its games against Iowa since moving to the Big Ten last season.

The Bruins shot 57.8% from the floor and went 6 of 12 from 3-point range after they entered fifth in the nation from distance at 38.4%. Iowa shot 43.4% from the field.

Ava Heiden scored 19 points and Hannah Stuelke added 13 for the Hawkeyes (18-3, 9-2), who went 0-2 on their trip to Los Angeles. They lost 81-69 to Southern California on Thursday.

Taylor Stremlow scored 12 points for Iowa, which fell behind by double digits midway through the second quarter and never threatened the rest of the way.

Iowa led 5-2 just over two minutes into the game before UCLA went on a 6-0 run and never trailed again. The Bruins led 17-13 after one quarter and were up 28-18 near the midway point of the second.

UCLA led 39-28 at halftime, shooting 54.8% from the floor and getting 10 points from Dugalic. The Bruins pushed ahead 58-30 with an 11-0 run in the third quarter.

Iowa got within 66-53 on a 3-pointer from Stremlow with 7:07 remaining before UCLA went on a 14-4 burst.

Up next

Iowa: Hosts Minnesota on Thursday.

UCLA: Hosts Rutgers on Wednesday.

___

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The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is two weeks away, and the rosters for a three-team, “United States versus the World” format are taking shape.

On Sunday, the league announced the reserves NBA head coaches selected this year. LeBron James headlined the group of 14 players. Even though his 21-year streak as an All-Star starter came to an end last month, he’s still on an All-Star team for the 22nd consecutive season.

With his addition to the roster, James extended his own record for most NBA All-Star selections. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the second-most with 19.

Here’s the complete list of reserves:

Eastern Conference

• Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers

• Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks

• Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks

• Pascal Siakam, Indiana Pacers

• Norman Powell, Miami Heat

• Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

• Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons

Western Conference

• Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves

• Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets

• Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder

• Kevin Durant, Houston Rockets

• Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns

• Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers

• LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

The All-Star Game will be played in Inglewood, California, at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome on Feb. 15. 

Voting determined the conference’s starting fives

Fans are responsible for 50% of the vote that picks each conference’s five starters. NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) account for the other slices of the vote.

Just as reserves were selected without regard to position, there were no positional requirements for the conference’s starting fives. That’s a first for the exhibition, which will soon be played in its 75th iteration.

Here are the starting fives for the Eastern and Western Conferences:

Eastern Conference

• Giannis Antetokounmpo, F, Milwaukee Bucks

• Jalen Brunson, G, New York Knicks

• Cade Cunningham, G, Detroit Pistons

• Tyrese Maxey, G, Philadelphia 76ers

• Jaylen Brown, F, Boston Celtics

Western Conference

• Nikola Jokić, C, Denver Nuggets

• Luka Dončić, F, Los Angeles Lakers

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, G, Oklahoma City Thunder

• Stephen Curry, G, Golden State Warriors

• Victor Wembanyama, F, San Antonio Spurs

Here’s how the voting was split across players, fans and media:

It’s important to note that Wembanyama and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards tied for the West’s final starting spot with a 5.75 weighted score. Wembanyama, though, won the tiebreaker because he had 1,965,462 fan votes to Edwards’ 1,960,957.

What you need to know about the All-Star Game’s new format

This year’s All-Star Game will feature three teams: Two will consist of players from the United States, and a third will be made up of players from the rest of the world.

The three eight-player rosters will be announced Tuesday.

In terms of the game itself, there will still technically be four 12-minute quarters, although each will be its own game, as each of the three teams will play twice during round-robin action. The fourth “quarter” will pit the two teams with the best records — point differential will be the post-round-robin tiebreaker if all three teams have 1-1 records — to decide a champion.

We will continue to update this list with new articles as new information/acquisitions occur.

Spring Training is almost here. Astros pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach February 11.

This is the part of the year where that excitement starts to ramp up, it’s almost time for baseball to be back!

Now that the calendar has turned to February, let’s start taking a look at the Astros roster. While I do not believe the roster is a finished product and that Astros GM Dana Brown will continue to make some more moves, these projections will reflect only players currently in the Astros’ organization.

Here is my “as of Feb. 1, 2026” roster projections/depth chart for the Houston Astros:

Pitching Staff:

Starters (6): Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows, Spencer Arrighetti, Ryan Weiss

Bullpen (7): Josh Hader (CL), Bryan Abreu (SU), AJ Blubaugh, Bennett Sousa, Bryan King, Steven Okert, Nate Pearson

AAA Depth: Colton Gordon, Jason Alexander, Miguel Ullola, Jayden Murray, Kai-Wei Teng, Logan VanWey

Decisions looming: Enyel De Los Santos (out of options), Roddery Munoz (Rule V pick, must be on MLB roster or MLB IL or offered back to original team), Lance McCullers Jr. (retirement?)

The Astros top 4 starters are a virtual lock. The back two spots are the ones being battled for, and currently Spencer Arrighetti and Ryan Weiss should have the inside track.

Arrighetti has spent the last 2 seasons on the big league club, although 2025 was a forgettable year due to injury and ineffectiveness. How much of that ineffectiveness after his return was due to lingering injury is yet unknown. He must prove he is healthy and has regained his command. Arrighetti’s significant decrease in strikeout rate year over year (10.6 in 2024, 7.9 in 2025) combined with his very high walk rates (4.1 BB/9 in 2024, 5.0 BB/9 in 2025) and propensity for surrendering the long ball(1.3 HR/9 in 20024, 1.5 HR/9 in 2025) will need to be rectified or he will not stick at the MLB level.

Weiss has never pitched at the MLB level, but his tremendous stats in the KBO in 2025 (16-5, 2.87 ERA, 1.024 WHIP) and his demonstration of being able to pitch an entire season (178.2 IP in 2025) should give him a nod over AJ Blubaugh and Nate Pearson entering Spring Training.

Five of the seven bullpen spots return from last season, with two newcomers in Blubaugh and Pearson. The Astros need righthanded arms in the pen, where they are very lefty heavy. Since the Astros plan on utilizing a 6-man rotation, having multiple relievers capable of going multiple innings will be important for them.

Both Blubaugh and Pearson are capable of giving longer outings out of the pen, and being able to “save the pen” is going to be paramount for team that doesn’t have a lot of maneuverable spots in it’s pen to begin with. While Blubaugh still has options remaining, Pearson does not. If Pearson fails to impress or hold his own early, he could find himself with a one-way ticket to DFA-ville early.

Lance McCullers Jr. is a sentimentally difficult decision but not necessarily difficult from a production standpoint. Lance’s velocity on his fastball last season was not MLB caliber, and both he and the team know it. He will need to show improved velocity and command this spring or it will be time for that “come to the light” meeting where the Astros give him the choice of retiring as an Astro before the season or being DFA’d.

The Astros have shown they are not afraid to DFA players in the final year of their contracts and simply eat the money to free up the roster spot.

McCullers is a fan favorite. I cannot help but have the utmost respect for him as a competitor, watching him year after year work his tail off to recover from repeated injuries. Unfortunately, there comes a point in time where the body can no longer do as the mind and heart command and injuries accelerate that timetable. It may be that time for McCullers.

As this time, I would expect Jason Alexander to be the first man up from Sugar Land if one of the projected arms to start the year with the Astros underperforms or suffers an injury.

With 24 games in the first 26 days of the season, the Astros need some pitchers with options to call up fresh arms when they have to burn a pen arm for any reason.

Blubaugh, Gordon, Alexander, Murray and Teng all have options, and are all players who could be on the “Sugar Land Shuttle” if the Astros need pen reinforcements in the first month. Sousa also has options and has an injury question coming into the season regarding his left flexor tendon, which shut him down last year, though the Astros considered the injury minor and he did not need surgery.

Enyel De Los Santos is out of options and needs to make the club or pass through waivers. Logan VanWey is not on the 40-man roster. Roddery Munoz was a Rule V pick and will have to show monster improvement to make this roster. He has a significant likelihood of being returned to the Cincinnati Reds as Rule V picks must be offered back to the team they were selected from if they are not going to be on the MLB roster or MLB IL for the season.

Position Players:

STARTERS: Yainer Diaz (C), Christian Walker (1B), Jose Altuve (2B), Jeremy Pena (SS), Carlos Correa (3B), Zach Cole (LF), Jake Meyers (CF), Cam Smith (RF), Yordan Alvarez (DH)

BENCH: Isaac Paredes (CO), Cesar Salazar (C), Nick Allen (MI), Jesus Sanchez (OF)

AAA Depth: Zach Dezenzo (OF) Shay Whitcomb (UT), Taylor Trammell (OF), Carlos Perez (C)

There is likely to be some movement among this group before the season starts, as Astros GM Dana Brown has expressed desire for another lefty hitting outfielder and a veteran backup catcher. The Astros publicly deny that their logjam in the infield is an issue but information from around the league tells a different story of the Astros trying to figure out a way to make a deal that alleviates that logjam and improves the team at the same time.

In the meantime, Yainer Diaz projects to get a significant share of the catching reps, perhaps as much as 75% (120 games). That number could change if the Astros bring in a veteran (they have reportedly been exploring talks with Christian Vazquez though Vazquez has been a dreadful hitter since the Astros acquired him at the deadline in 2022), if Diaz struggles at the plate badly, or if they get unexpected production elsewhere. Right now, Cesar Salazar would seem to be the best option as a backup catcher. Houston is concerned about his bat at the MLB level, but if they are concerned about Salazar’s bat then they should be more concerned about Vazquez’ bat. If the rest of the team produces as it should, Salazar’s potential weak bat would not be much of an issue.

Christian Walker will start at 1B, although if Isaac Paredes is on the team and healthy, he may cede some playing time to him.

Paredes and Walker coexisting will be a challenge for Joe Espada, as getting enough ABs for both of those players will not only be a major challenge, but will be something the Astros manager will be asked about every single game.

Paredes can give Walker a day off (or 2) at first, Correa a day off at third, maybe an occasional day out of the field for Altuve at 2B (whether Paredes can truly play 2B is a question right now), and spell Yordan at DH every couple of weeks. That has Paredes in the lineup about 4 days a week, and has a lot of days off for both him and regulars.

Granted, two of those players are older players (Altuve, Walker) and two are injury-prone players (Alvarez, Correa), but if everyone is healthy it can be a pretty tough situation trying to keep everyone happy. (Before you ask, yes, happy matters, especially over 162 games.) Guys need to be accepting of their roles, and the biggest potential problem would be Paredes.

Paredes is the one with the most to gain by playing well and playing often. He has one year of arbitration remaining, and he can get either a long term extension or a big free agent contract if he gets enough opportunity and capitalizes on it. The opportunity may be diminished if he and Walker are both on the team and it forces Espada to use Paredes in a super utility role. The looming work stoppage that could potentially happen at the end of the 2026 season also plays a factor.

The outfield right now breaks down to just four players, as a 4 man bench limits opportunity and the team must use two spots for a backup catcher and backup shortstop, and one for Paredes. That leaves Smith, Meyers, Cole and Sanchez as the outfield.

Sanchez has reportedly been on the trade block all offseason, with the Astros disappointed both by his offensive disappearing act once they acquired him from Miami last year and his defensive deficiencies. However, for his career he is a decent hitter against righthanded pitching.

Sanchez career numbers against RHP (.253/.324/.450 slash line, .774 OPS) are certainly playable at the bottom of the lineup, but his numbers vs. lefties are abysmal (.181/.231/.289 slash line, .520 OPS) for his career, and he is clearly a platoon player.

The Astros are hoping Cam Smith can take a step forward and be a productive hitter for an entire season and against both righties and lefties. While Dana Brown has said Smith is not guaranteed a roster spot to start the season, it’s hard to see who would take that roster spot from him, as competition right now for his spot would come from Zach Dezenzo, Shay Whitcomb and Taylor Trammell. None of those players should be striking fear in the heart of Smith that his spot is truly in jeopardy. Brown just wants more from a player he views as immensely talented in Smith.

Jake Meyers has reportedly been on the trade block all offseason, but he is still on the team. If he is on the team, he starts in center.

Cole impressed the organization with his progress and power last season, and he will get a chance to show his wares plenty in spring.

Potential Lineups:

Pena – SS

Yordan – DH

Altuve – 2B

Correa – 3B

Walker – 1B

Diaz – C

Cole – LF

Smith – RF

Meyers – CF

I believe this can form the baseline of the Astros lineup. Sanchez will get time, solely against RHP, and he will get more time if Smith falters.

Paredes will get time as well, and could find himself hitting behind Correa in the 5 spot or pushing everyone down one slot by batting 2.

Salazar would be the 9 hitter anytime he played, pushing the bottom three hitters up a spot, ditto Allen. I would expect we would never see Allen and Salazar in the same lineup barring something unexpected or catastrophic. In fact, with the current roster, I would expect to see the Astros make Paredes a regular with any infield injury (he would start at 1B/2B/3B, and in the case of an injury to Pena – Correa would slide to SS and Paredes would play 3B).

Of note: Altuve hit .222 with a .316 OBP and .649 OPS batting 2nd (133 PA) and .276 with a .338 OBP and .854 OPS batting 3rd (350 PA) last season.

Yordan for his career is a .312 hitter batting second, with a .383 OBP and .926 OPS. In 2025, Yordan batted .338 with a .409 OBP and .909 OPS in 22 games batting second.

Paredes had his worst slash numbers batting second in 2025, posting a .233 AVG with a .337 OBP and .765 OPS in 58 games. For his career, he a .223 hitter batting 2nd with a .329 OBP and .751 OPS. His best slash line has been batting sixth, where he is a career .293 hitter with a .393 OBP and .999 OPS in 57 games.

Despite a busy weekend hosting a fan convention Sox Fest Live at the Ramova Theatre on the South Side, Chicago White Sox GM Chris Getz was still making moves behind the scenes. Between interacting with fans and answering questions during a town hall, Getz was brewing up a trade with the Boston Red Sox to acquire veteran righthander Jordan Hicks as well as right-handed prospect David Sandlin, in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Gage Ziehl (No. 31 at SSS) and our favorite prospect: Cash Considerations ($8 million).

With both Hicks and Sandlin being added to the White Sox 40-man roster, Chicago made a couple of subsequent moves by designating RHP Jairo Iriarte and catcher Drew Romo for assignment.

Ziehl originally came to Chicago at the 2025 trade deadline, from the New York Yankees in exchange for outfielder Austin Slater. Slater performed well in the first half of last season, and was solid enough for the Yankees to decide to deal a pitching prospect to add outfield depth in the midst of their playoff run. Now, in the course of a half-year they upgraded from Slater to a solid prospect (Ziehl) to a blue-chipper (Sandlin).

The immediate impact of this trade comes in the form of Hicks, a flamethrower who simply hasn’t found footing in the majors.

Drafted in 2015, Hicks debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018 and was fairly dependable out of the bullpen with a 3.59 ERA and 1.339 WHIP in 77 2/3 innings (73 games). He was even better in the first half of 2019, posting a 3.14 ERA while reducing his WHIP down to 0.942 in 28 2/3 innings. Hicks unfortunately tore his UCL and Tommy John surgery knocked him out for the rest of 2019 until late 2021, downgrading him to just a moderately reliable bullpen arm for St. Louis for the remainder of his time there.

Upon joining the San Francisco Giants in 2024 after signing a four-year, $48 million deal, Hicks shifted into a starting role. While he didn’t necessarily dazzle anyone with his 4.10 ERA and 1.450 WHIP in 20 starts (29 total games), he was a serviceable arm with the same tantalizing pedigree.

Hicks, however, experienced a steep drop in production in 2025, accumulating a 6.95 aggregated ERA across 67 1/3 innings with the Giants and the Red Sox — and his performance fell off of a cliff in Boston after being including in the Rafael Devers blockbuster, posting a whopping 8.20 ERA in 18 2/3 innings with the team. His previous performance is likely what Getz and the White Sox are hoping to lean on as someone who can eat innings so some of the prospects can sharpen up a bit before heading to the show — especially given his high fastball velocity (97 mph), and ability to induce ground outs. Outside of avoiding barrels, however, Hicks’ Statcast profile has a bit too much blue on it, and the low chase and whiff rates are definitely a cause for concern,. He is not a long-term solution by any means.

The real star of the trade, and the reason why the White Sox are spending $16 million on a mediocre reliever in Hicks, is Sandlin. The righty ranked eighth per MLB among Red Sox prospects in 2025. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2022 out of the University of Oklahoma and posted a 3.51 ERA across both Low and High-A in his first professional season in 2023. Sandlin wasn’t as strong in 2024, with a 5.34 ERA in 57 1/3 innings in High-A and Double-A. Despite the ERA struggles, Sandlin still struck out batters at a high 33.2% K rate across both levels while maintaining a decent 7.3% walk rate.

His performance greatly improved with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs last season, posting a 3.61 ERA, 3.33 FIP, and a career-best 1.178 WHIP while starting 13 games and appearing in 17 before earning the promotion to Triple-A. Sandlin struggled to quickly adapt to the level, and in his small sample size of 23 2/3 innings he racked up a 7.61 ERA in 14 games out of the bullpen and one start. His strikeout rate decreased from 25.4% to 17.6% with the jump, and his walk rate inflated to 10.9%.

Sandlin has showed plenty of promise and his fastball sits in the upper-90s, averaging around 96 mph, and his secondary pitches are pretty solid, with the slider being his next most-thrown pitch.

Ziehl is a comparable player to Sandlin that has shown that he has a solid mix with his slider and cutter, but he doesn’t have as strong a fastball. Despite not exhibiting an elevated walk rate (4.2% in 2025), Ziehl’s command isn’t fully there yet. Sandlin is likely to be MLB ready much sooner.

While reading through some reactions from Boston fans, it seems they are mostly relieved to be rid of Hicks, but some are unhappy that the prospect capital to salary-dump was as high as Sandlin — a testament to the optimism behind his development as a pitcher at this point in his career. The White Sox have pinpointed some strong, underrated players over the last couple of years (notably Shane Smith and Mike Vasil), and are actually making moves on the market to address the gaps on the team. Maybe we are actually in a new era of White Sox baseball.

It will be interesting to see how Getz and Venable work together to continue to build off of this roster, but at the very least the South Siders are moving in the right direction rather than remaining stagnant.

The Cincinnati Reds awoke from their winterlong slumber long enough to welcome back the oldest of friends: Eugenio Suárez.

The Venezuelan slugger, who pounded 49 home runs last season and hit 189 for the Reds between 2015 and 2021, agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the club Feb. 1, taking the top remaining offensive player off the market.

Suárez, 34, was an All-Star for Cincinnati in 2018, when he hit 34 home runs, and again last season for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was dealt to the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline and was an ideal fit, hitting 13 homers for the Mariners and then three more in the postseason, including a go-ahead Game 5 grand slam that put the Mariners within one game of their first World Series berth.

MLB offseason grades: Dodgers get top marks, plenty of Fs to go around

But the Mariners lost Games 6 and 7 at Toronto and Suárez hit the market. Meanwhile, the Reds whiffed on their efforts to land slugger Kyle Schwarber, then went virtually silent on the offensive front the remainder of the winter, save for trading infielder-outfielder Gavin Lux and taking flyers on outfielders such as JJ Bleday.

In Suárez, they get proven pop accompanied by massive strikeout totals: He fanned 195 times last season and led the AL in 2022 and ’23, punching out 214 tiimes the latter year. Still, he slides seamlessly into the DH spot and can spell the defensively-great Ke’Bryan Hayes at third should the Reds desire a bat-heavy look on certain days.

Suárez’s agreement was first reported by ESPN.

Eugenio Suarez stats

The 34-year-old slugger batted .228 with 49 home runs, 118 RBIs and 91 runs scored in 159 games last season, split between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners.

Eugenio Suarez contract

Suarez is reportedly signing a one-year contract worth $15 million.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eugenio Suárez signs with Reds in MLB free agency

Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images

One of MLB’s biggest power threats has finally landed with a team in 2026. Slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez reportedly agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. 

Suárez, 34, is coming off one of his best seasons in the majors, in which he clubbed 49 home runs between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. The new deal with Cincinnati reportedly includes a mutual option for the 2027 season, too.

Power has always been Suárez’s calling card. In 12 seasons in the majors, he’s clubbed 325 home runs. Since 2014, that number ranks seventh in MLB, ahead of players like Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman.

While Suárez settled in as a player who would hit roughly 30 home runs per season, he managed to take his pop to the next level in 2025. Suárez got off to a tremendous start in Arizona last season, blasting 36 home runs in just 106 games. He posted what would have been a career-high .576 slugging percentage with the team and was voted to the All-Star team for just the second time in his career.

With the D-Backs flailing, however, Suárez was traded to Seattle. While Suárez was able to add 13 more home runs with the Mariners, he struggled following the trade. Suárez hit just .189/.255/.428 with the Mariners. 

It marked the second time in his career in which Suárez faltered with the team. The slugger — who played for the Mariners in 2022 and 2023 — had a .234/.327/.423 slash line, with 53 home runs, during his first stint with the team. Those struggles led to the Mariners trading Suárez to the Diamondbacks following the 2023 MLB season. Suárez quickly rebounded in Arizona, getting his career back on track.

While Suárez is one of the biggest power threats in the game, his approach comes with a few downsides. Strikeouts have been a consistent problem for Suárez, as he’s led the league in the stat in three separate seasons. That approach has fueled Suárez’s poor batting averages. Suárez is a career .246 hitter, though has only exceeded that number once over the past six seasons. He can make up for that somewhat by taking walks, but he’s not an elite plate-discipline guy and posted a lowly .298 on-base percentage last season. That figure ranked near the bottom of the league among qualified hitters. 

That all-or-nothing approach, combined with Suárez’s age, add a fair amount of risk to a player coming off a 49-home run season. The Reds took the plunge on Suárez for his ability to pop home runs at a high rate. 

Despite his age, that seems like a safe bet. Expecting much else from Suárez at this point in his career is a risk, one that will only get worse as he continues to age.

Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images

One of MLB’s biggest power threats has finally landed with a team in 2026. Slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez reportedly agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. 

Suárez, 34, is coming off one of his best seasons in the majors, in which he clubbed 49 home runs between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. The new deal with Cincinnati reportedly includes a mutual option for the 2027 season, too.

Power has always been Suárez’s calling card. In 12 seasons in the majors, he’s clubbed 325 home runs. Since 2014, that number ranks seventh in MLB, ahead of players like Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman.

While Suárez settled in as a player who would hit roughly 30 home runs per season, he managed to take his pop to the next level in 2025. Suárez got off to a tremendous start in Arizona last season, blasting 36 home runs in just 106 games. He posted what would have been a career-high .576 slugging percentage with the team and was voted to the All-Star team for just the second time in his career.

With the D-Backs flailing, however, Suárez was traded to Seattle. While Suárez was able to add 13 more home runs with the Mariners, he struggled following the trade. Suárez hit just .189/.255/.428 with the Mariners. 

It marked the second time in his career in which Suárez faltered with the team. The slugger — who played for the Mariners in 2022 and 2023 — had a .234/.327/.423 slash line, with 53 home runs, during his first stint with the team. Those struggles led to the Mariners trading Suárez to the Diamondbacks following the 2023 MLB season. Suárez quickly rebounded in Arizona, getting his career back on track.

While Suárez is one of the biggest power threats in the game, his approach comes with a few downsides. Strikeouts have been a consistent problem for Suárez, as he’s led the league in the stat in three separate seasons. That approach has fueled Suárez’s poor batting averages. Suárez is a career .246 hitter, though has only exceeded that number once over the past six seasons. He can make up for that somewhat by taking walks, but he’s not an elite plate-discipline guy and posted a lowly .298 on-base percentage last season. That figure ranked near the bottom of the league among qualified hitters. 

That all-or-nothing approach, combined with Suárez’s age, add a fair amount of risk to a player coming off a 49-home run season. The Reds took the plunge on Suárez for his ability to pop home runs at a high rate. 

Despite his age, that seems like a safe bet. Expecting much else from Suárez at this point in his career is a risk, one that will only get worse as he continues to age.

Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis has been added to the injury report for the team’s game Sunday in Washington against the Wizards due to lower back soreness. 

Sabonis last played in Sacramento’s loss to Philadelphia on Thursday and wound up sitting out Friday’s loss to Boston. The Kings are currently in the midst of an eight-game losing streak and own the worst record in the NBA at 12-38. After playing 70 games last season, Sabonis has appeared in just 18 games for the Kings as the All-Star break approaches.

As a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection, Sabonis has been one of the more durable players in the league over the past few years. During the 2023-24 campaign in Sacramento, Sabonis suited up for all 82 regular-season games. In 2022-23, Sabonis played in all but three games, then played seven games in the postseason. 

However, this season has been different for Sabonis. He’d just returned to the lineup earlier this month after missing 27 games due to a knee injury. On top of that, there have been trade rumors swirling around Sacramento, and Sabonis has been at the center of them. While Sabonis hasn’t been moved yet, the Kings did make a move Saturday to acquire forward De’Andre Hunter from Cleveland. 

The Kings seem to be moving toward another rebuild as more moves could be on the horizon with Thursday’s trade deadline looming, and Sabonis could be one of the next veterans on his way out. 

Sabonis’ injuries this season seem to have affected his production. His numbers have declined in points (15.4), rebounds (11.2) and assists (4.2) per game. Sabonis’ field-goal percentage is down a few points, and his 3-point shooting has fallen off a cliff from 41.7% last season to 18.5% this year. When healthy, Sabonis is a difference-maker and could potentially be that missing piece to get a contender over the hump. 

During the 2023 offseason, I put together a little metric I called Pesky+ with the intention of trying to encapsulate and enumerate Geraldo Perdomo’s ability to be a pest in the batter’s box. Back then, Geraldo Perdomo was firmly entrenched as a back of the lineup savant who seemed to always be a tough out even though he never really seemed to be a threat to do much damage himself. His ability to turn the lineup over to Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte seemed to be the spark plug that allowed the Diamondbacks offensive engine to ignite and run at peak efficiency.

For those of you who have been around since 2023, you may remember that in that Pesky+ metric Geraldo Perdomo was the single most pesky player in the entire sport (I’d link the article but it appears to have disappeared somehow). Then when I ran the numbers again in 2024, his peskiness was only surpassed by Steven Kwan. Domo’s ability to only swing at strikes, rarely miss when he did swing, and see a ton of pitches made him truly elite at being a pest in the batter’s box.

Over the last couple years, Domo endeared himself to Diamondbacks fans for this ability to get the job done even though the impact rarely showed up in the box score. We loved him, but he was barely a league average hitter (95 and 100 OPS+ in 2023 and 2024, respectively). We commonly referred to him as the league’s best No. 9 hitter, but we may have secretly wondered if that was all he would ever be: a pesky hitter relegated to the back of the lineup but never a top of the lineup run producer. That all changed in 2025.

Geraldo Perdomo had an incredible breakout in 2025, going from a 2ish WAR player with a career OPS+ of 84 to a 7 WAR MVP candidate with an OPS+ of 136. I doubt anyone, even his most ardent supporters here on the ‘Pit, ever expected that kind of production. Much of this jump in production could be accredited to his jump in power. His slugging percentage jumped up nearly 90 points from 2024 and his ISO was up more than 70 points. In his entire career coming in to 2025, he had hit only 14 home runs; in 2025 he hit 20. For many players, getting a power surge of this magnitude would likely mean that they had to sacrifice swing control. Instead of focusing on getting the bat on the ball, one would focus more on getting a powerful swing off. Very rarely can players do both. Well, friends, I’m here to tell you that Domo somehow pulled that rare feat off.

I ran the Pesky numbers for 2025, and I honestly expected a drop-off in Perdomo’s numbers. I mean, he would probably be in the top-10 or -20, but I didn’t think he would be leading the league. There had to be some consequence of swinging for more power, right? Wrong. In 2025, Geraldo Perdomo led all qualified hitters in peskiness:

Name	O-Swing%	Whiff%	Pitches/PA	Pesky+
Perdomo, Geraldo	19.2	12	4.18	179
Kwan, Steven	22.7	8.7	4.02	172
Torres, Gleyber	17.1	19.5	4.22	155
Meidroth, Chase	22.4	13	4.07	154
Stott, Bryson	23.3	16.7	4.40	148
Friedl, TJ	18.1	17.5	3.86	145
Soto, Juan	15.9	22.4	4.15	145
India, Jonathan	18.6	19.9	4.16	145
Lee, Jung Hoo	22.5	13.1	3.81	143
Garcia, Maikel	20.8	15	3.78	142

A quick refresher on how I calculate peskiness: I take the total percentage of pitches that a hitter swings outside the zone at and the total pitches that a hitter whiffs on then scale that based on how many pitches a hitter is able to see per time in the box. The idea is that pitchers ideally want hitters to swing at pitches that are outside the strike zone and, when they do swing, the more often a hitter misses, the less of a threat they are. The more often a hitter avoids doing those things, and the longer he drags out an at bat, the more of a pain he is to deal with for a pitcher. As you can see in the chart of the top-10 Pesky hitters in MLB for 2025, Geraldo is elite in each of those metrics resulting in him regaining the Pesky throne.

When I saw that Domo was incredibly able to maintain the quality of his at bats, I had to dig a little deeper and see how he was able to add significantly more power. Looking at Baseball Savant data, one number that stood out was the difference between Perdomo’s swing speed on HRs compared with his swing speed on all other swings. Swing speed data is relatively new, with only a couple seasons worth of data available to the public. Here is Geraldo Perdomo’s swing speed data each of the last few seasons:

Year	Handedness	Avg. Swing Speed – All	Avg. Swing Speed – HR only
2023	L	65.6	68.5
2023	R	66.0	N/A
2024	L	66.7	68.5
2024	R	67.4	N/A
2025	L	68.0	72.0
2025	R	68.9	73.9

Looking at this table, we can tell a few things we can tell about Perdomo’s swing. First, while he has consistently swung faster from the right side of the plate, the splits are remarkably consistent. Domo averages about 0.6 MPH difference between his swing speed from the left and right batter’s box. Compare that to Ketel Marte, who had a split of 7 MPH between swing speed on the left and right side of the plate! Secondly, and probably more important to this discussion, Perdomo dramatically increased his swing speed on home run swings. Each of the first 2 seasons, we see that the split in swing speed from home run to non-home run was right around 2-2.5 MPH. This season, those splits grew to 4-5 MPH. How rare is that? The league average swing speed split between homers and non-homers in 2025 was 2.8, basically right where Perdomo has been for the last 2 seasons. In 2025, his overall split of 4.3 MPH was 12th-highest out of over 140 qualified hitters in MLB.

Perdomo’s top-end swing speed hasn’t changed much over the past couple seasons (only 2 swings faster than 80 MPH in each of the last 2 years), but he has shown more ability to harness his power and turn it into positive results on the field. Of Perdomo’s top-10% highest speed swings of 2024, he only registered a hit in 14%. In 2025, that number grew to 22%. As he’s grown older and more into his physical prime, it appears he’s been able to focus more on dialing in his coordination instead of trying to dramatically boost his swing speed. Domo resisted the allure of the long ball and instead refined and built on his already elite foundational skillset and I think this was the biggest reason for Perdomo’s growth from local fan favorite to All-MLB caliber talent.

Geraldo Perdomo’s strong ability to be a pest in the batter’s box used to be his best offensive skill. Now, he’s grown into a more powerful version of himself which has made him one of the best hitters in all of baseball. I used to put a cap on what I thought was possible for Perdomo, but after 2025, I’ve been proven foolish and I’m excited to see how he wows us all in 2026.