The Rundown: Bregman Showing Leadership Immediately, Castellanos Done with Phils, Anthony’s Gains Spark Debate

The world doesn’t need another Total Recall reboot, but maybe I’ll interpolate some of the plot and give it a baseball twist. The protagonist would obviously be Alex Bregman, whose potentially eidetic memory has wowed teammates in the short time he’s been with the Cubs. More than just a baseball rat who gets by on grinding in the cage, Bregman’s baseball IQ is enhanced by an uncanny ability to recall specific sequences from months or even years ago.

That’s something you see with many of the greats, and it was on full display in the One of a Kind documentary about Greg Maddux, when he and Barry Bonds talked about a single battle in 1998. They both knew each pitch of the at-bat, detailing their own strategies in the chess match Bonds ended up winning. I have trouble remembering what I had for dinner two nights ago; I think it was broccoli chicken divan, but it all runs together.

In any case, Bregman has impressed teammates and staff alike with his ability to play back matchups and pull up mental file cards about different pitchers’ tells. Ken Rosenthal detailed how Bregman has already helped Matthew Boyd and Hoby Milner, and how the third baseman coached up Phil Maton years ago with the Astros. Even more important is the way Bregman has taken Pete Crow-Armstrong under his wing.

“He’s excited to see my OBP go up and my swing rate go down,” Crow-Armstrong told Rosenthal. “It’s everything that everybody else probably wants to see. But the way he talks about it is really cool. It’s a nerdy approach to hitting, but it’s never overcomplicated.”

This kind of stuff can’t be quantified, but it’s still far more tangible than the common tropes about veteran leadership. Don’t get me wrong, there’s value in having a guy around who’s been there, done that, and has the rings to prove it. But that only goes so far if he can’t share his knowledge with others in a way they can incorporate for themselves.

By all accounts, Bregman is a player who leads by both showing and telling. His work ethic and winning pedigree grant immediate credence to what he’s saying, then his advice clicks home when players apply it to their own experience. The Cubs aren’t just paying for what Bregman puts up in the box score, but also for how he can improve other players’ numbers.

Unless those players are the pitchers he faces in live BP.

Alex Bregman hits a home run off of Jameson Taillon in live BP ? pic.twitter.com/2WOr6RRW8X

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) February 11, 2026

Jameson Taillon had a little fun with the fallout from the meaningless homer, clapping back at online trolls with a self-congratulatory note about his overall performance. If things go as planned, the Cubs should all enjoy the upcoming season.

Castellanos Being Traded or Released

Remember when Nick Castellanos was easily the most exciting thing about the Cubs? I can’t believe that was almost seven years ago now, but the late summer of 2019 saw the third-baseman-turned-outfielder play the best baseball of his career on the North Side of Chicago. That led to a four-year, $64 million deal with the Reds that he opted out of in 2021 following the best overall season of his career. It may also have been the last good season of his career.

Since signing a five-year, $100 million deal with the Phillies prior to the 2022 season, Castellanos has slashed .260/.306/.426 with 82 homers and a 100 wRC+ that says he’s a perfectly average run-producer. While far from bad, those numbers aren’t nearly enough to make up for what could possibly be the worst defense in baseball over that span. Castellanos has compiled -41 defensive runs saved and -45 outs above average with the Phillies, both second-lowest among all MLB players.

If we zoom out to the start of his MLB career, Nicky Two Bags’ -90 DRS and -77 OAA are the worst marks by a wide margin. Okay, Didi Gregorius is tied with him in OAA, but CJ Abrams is next with -45. On the DRS front, Jose Altuve‘s -70 is the next-closest to Castellanos. Only five players are above -50, and two of them — Altuve and Xander Bogaerts (-61) have played at least 33% more innings. In all of MLB history, only Derek Jeter (-162) and Prince Fielder (-101) have worse DRS numbers than the former Philly.

I say former because, as The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reported, the Phillies told Castellanos not to report to camp as they decide whether to trade or release him. The latter is a more likely outcome, since it would be silly for a team to trade for a guy who they could just pick up for the league minimum after he’s released. It’s hard to see any contenders taking a risk on a guy who’s been worth 0.7 fWAR over the last four seasons.

This wasn’t meant to be a hit piece on Castellanos, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it comes across. It’s more incredulity from realizing just how poorly that contract aged.

Anthony’s New Muscle Mass Spurs Conversation

Best Shape of His Life Season comes around earlier each year, and the latest favorite to take the title in 2026 is Red Sox sophomore outfielder Roman Anthony. Listed at a solid 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, the former top prospect has never been much of a power threat. He hit 18 combined between two different levels in each of the last two seasons, but his offseason work may have been aimed at changing that.

According to NESN’s Lou Merloni, the 21-year-old showed up to camp with an extra 15 pounds of muscle. That prompted an AI edit of an actual photo from BP that made Anthony look like a bodybuilder in a mass-gaining phase, which aggregation accounts signal-boosted to the gullible masses. No one should have believed he turned into Lou Ferrigno, but even those more modest gains stretch the bounds of physiological potential.

Even under optimal conditions, a novice athlete can reasonably expect to gain 1-2 pounds of lean mass per month. As dietitian and sports nutritionist Wendi A. Irlbeck noted on X, a reported gain of 15 pounds over four months is likely aided by a combination of glycogen, water weight, additional fat from the calorie surplus needed to build muscle, and either error or intentional exaggeration of scale readings.

You can absolutely make changes to your body composition, “[b]ut you cannot override the body’s rate of muscle fiber accretion without pharmacological enhancement.” So Anthony is either lying or he’s juicing, and I’m going to bet more on the former. Even that is a bit harsh, as he has surely gained a good deal of lean mass due to his hard work in the gym.

If you want to look at what you can do with a little help from trustees of modern chemistry, go back and look at how Sammy Sosa showed up to camp in the late 90s.

More News and Notes

• Phillies starter Zack Wheeler underwent a rib resection last summer as part of a procedure to relieve vascular thoracic outlet syndrome, which typically has a better prognosis than the more common neurogenic version. As he told reporters, he now has that rib stored in a case somewhere in his home.
• Some might think that sounds really odd, but I dig it. We have keepsakes from my daughter’s spinal fusion ordeal a few years ago: A temporary titanium rod and two screws used to affix it to her spine are in a shadowbox, and the halo implanted in her skull sits above one of our doors like a horseshoe.
• Former Cubs great Ted Lilly also kept bones in his home, but they were from the bodies of his myriad victims. That joke will probably only land for a small percentage of chronically online individuals.
• White Sox GM Chris Getz caught a lot of flak recently when it was revealed that he thought Luisangel Acuña, acquired from the Mets in the Luis Robert trade, was a switch-hitter. Not a great look for the man tasked with building the organization. At least Getz has a sense of humor about it.
• “So I probably have been getting carried away describing his versatility,” read a statement released Thursday. “He can play every position on the field. Why does it have to stop there? I called Luisangel and told him that even though he’s just right-handed, we still love him.”
• A few days after releasing Anthony Banda, the Dodgers have traded him to the Twins for international bonus pool space.
• The Dodgers are also bringing Kiké Hernandez yet again.
• Sticking with LA, the two-time defending champs have agreed to a one-year extension with Max Muncy that guarantees him $10 million for 2027.
• MLB owners have voted to enforce a rule that first and third base coaches must stay in their boxes until a pitch is thrown. This is supposed to prevent them from spotting pitch tips by getting better vantage points from which to discern what grips pitchers are using.
• The World Baseball Classic has released its US broadcast schedule, with games starting Friday, March 6 on FS1 and FS2.

Trailer Time

This movie came out several months ago, but I didn’t clock it at the time. I became aware of Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula story, which was adapted from a Joe Hill short story, when director Natasha Kermani appeared on The Kingcast to discuss a collaboration between Hill and Stephen King. For those who may not know, Joe Hill is the pen name of one Joseph Hillström King, son of the legendary author.

Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts collection features a number of excellent stories, one of which is Abraham’s Boys. It reminded me very much of the movie Frailty, to the extent that I have to imagine Hill was inspired by it. While I have my doubts about this particular adaptation, I’m going to check it out soon.