Bradford DoolittleFeb 25, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseMLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com Been with ESPN since 2013Multiple Authors
Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, not remembered for his soft side, uttered one oft-repeated romantic quote that has stood the test of time:
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball,” Hornsby said. “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
I know the feeling, but rather than staring out my window, I do an adult version of something I loved to do when I was a kid. Back then, I’d take my baseball cards from the previous summer and sort them out into team defensive alignments or primary batting orders, depending on my mood.
Then, when I got my copy of “The Sporting News” that had all the moves from the previous week, I’d swap cards from team to team, envisioning what the next summer would look like. These days, I don’t do that with the cards, but I do love to sketch out projected lineups.
With spring training underway, those projections are starting to come into focus. While there will be further iterations between now and Opening Day, let’s take a snapshot of how each team’s lineup fares in the revised MLB landscape.
Grades: Hit: B+ | Patience: A | Power: A | Baserunning: A- | Durability: B+ | Depth: B | vsR: A+ | vsL: A+ | Stars: 7 | Holes: 1
Grades: Hit: B | Patience: B | Power: B | Baserunning: C | Durability: A- | Depth: C | vsR: A | vsL: B+ | Stars: 6 | Holes: 0
The durability grades are based on playing time forecasts at FanGraphs, and if this one turns out to be accurate, we’ll learn why last year’s Braves fell so far short. But the middling depth grade underscores the need for that to happen.
Grades: Hit: B | Patience: C+ | Power: B+ | Baserunning: B | Durability: B- | Depth: B- | vsR: B+ | vsL: A | Stars: 6 | Holes: 1
The Mets finished fifth by team WRC+ last year, then went out and turned over more than half of the lineup. The bottom line is a slightly more prolific group with a little different profile: more aggression, more average, good balance across the board.
Whatever the middle of the lineup ends up looking like, you get the feeling that this crew carries with it the key to the Mets matching or beating last year’s attack.
Grades: Hit: B- | Patience: B+ | Power: C+ | Baserunning: C+ | Durability: C | Depth: C+ | vsR: A- | vsL: C | Stars: 5 | Holes: 3
The key question revolved around who will be positioned to pick up the slack from a Raleigh drop-off, which seems all but certain. Raleigh should still be among the best, but repeating last year’s historic performances is just such a tall order.
Grades: Hit: A- | Patience: D+ | Power: B- | Baserunning: C- | Durability: B | Depth: A | vsR: B | vsL: B | Stars: 4 | Holes: 3
Now, the Blue Jays are tasked with repeating the breakout with Okamoto filling the lineup shoes of departed Bo Bichette.
Grades: Hit: C+ | Patience: D- | Power: A- | Baserunning: D | Durability: C | Depth: C- | vsR: B | vsL: B- | Stars: 4 | Holes: 4
The patience part of the dossier is not really on brand for the A’s, however, and you do wonder if maybe there is some progress to be made in that department considering the youth up and down the batting order.
Grades: Hit: C | Patience: C | Power: C+ | Baserunning: C+ | Durability: A | Depth: A- | vsR: C+ | vsL: B- | Stars: 5 | Holes: 2
The durability and depth grades are presented together for a reason: Scoring low on the first but high on the latter shows a team is built to withstand some injuries.
The Cubs, it seems, are built to deploy a stable lineup but have plenty of options if the injury bug bites.
Grades: Hit: F | Patience: A+ | Power: A+ | Baserunning: B- | Durability: D | Depth: B+ | vsR: B+ | vsL: C+ | Stars: 3 | Holes: 5
The grading curve hands out three F’s in every category, and the Yankees’ projected No. 28 ranking in park-adjusted batting average lands them a failing grade in that department.
This is exciting news for Yankees fans. No, really. Because with No. 1 rankings in power and patience, a bit of good balls-in-play luck in the average column could mean an especially monster-ish Yankees offense. If healthy, that is, and of course the durability grade suggests that should not be taken for granted.
Grades: Hit: B | Patience: D+ | Power: C- | Baserunning: A+ | Durability: B | Depth: D | vsR: B- | vsL: C- | Stars: 6 | Holes: 2
Most of this is pretty self-evident if you watch the Phillies a lot except, perhaps, the No. 1 ranking in the baserunning category. That one at least caught me off guard despite the presence of Turner.
The Phillies ranked sixth in team BsR in 2025 and led the majors in Statcast’s team-level sprint speed score. Now they are trying to work in the fleet Crawford as a regular.
Grades: Hit: A+ | Patience: F | Power: C- | Baserunning: D+ | Durability: B+ | Depth: B- | vsR: C+ | vsL: B | Stars: 2 | Holes: 0
Tatis and Machado are the standouts. Now the Padres need a bounce-back season from Merrill and a throwback season from Bogaerts to double that star count.
Grades: Hit: B- | Patience: B | Power: C+ | Baserunning: B+ | Durability: D+ | Depth: C | vsR: C+ | vsL: A- | Stars: 3 | Holes: 2
The Diamondbacks had a dangerous offense last season and remained solid even after trading away Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor.
There’s a lot of question marks now, especially with health. Having Arenado and Santana in the order would have been really exciting a few years ago.
Grades: Hit: C- | Patience: A- | Power: B+ | Baserunning: D | Durability: C | Depth: C+ | vsR: B | vsL: C+ | Stars: 2 | Holes: 2
With the acquisitions of Ward and Alonso, the Orioles have fashioned a take-and-rake profile that Earl Weaver would find most agreeable.
Health is already an issue with Holliday and Westburg dealing with maladies, but in addition to staying on the field, Baltimore badly needs Rutschman to rediscover the superstar track he once seemed destined to follow.
Grades: Hit: B+ | Patience: D- | Power: C | Baserunning: D- | Durability: C+ | Depth: F | vsR: C | vsL: B+ | Stars: 3 | Holes: 1
Healthy versions of Pena and Alvarez would paper over a lot of dings, but this is a shaky profile for Houston’s attack. Paper-thin, slow, overly aggressive and dependent on batting average.
Grades: Hit: C+ | Patience: D | Power: C | Baserunning: C- | Durability: C+ | Depth: D- | vsR: C | vsL: C | Stars: 1 | Holes: 3
We will see how it works out in the cold, indifferent world of baseball analytics. Either way, at least the Royals are trying.
Grades: Hit: A | Patience: D | Power: F | Baserunning: B | Durability: B | Depth: C+ | vsR: C | vsL: C | Stars: 3 | Holes: 1
The Brewers lost some of their top walk guys from last season (Isaac Collins, Rhys Hoskins among them) so a dip on offense might be in the offing.
Grades: Hit: C | Patience: B+ | Power: B | Baserunning: C | Durability: D | Depth: C- | vsR: B- | vsL: C | Stars: 1 | Holes: 3
It’s a new-look offense for the Rangers, who are banking on better plate discipline and better health from a group that has struggled to stay on the field.
Can Langford make the leap from good to elite? If so, that would make this portrait a lot more promising.
Grades: Hit: C | Patience: C- | Power: C- | Baserunning: F | Durability: A+ | Depth: D+ | vsR: C- | vsL: D+ | Stars: 5 | Holes: 1
Apparently, the Giants are too slow to get injured, so expect to see a lot of the same players standing around day after day playing station-to-station offense for a team with middling power.
Grades: Hit: C- | Patience: C+ | Power: B | Baserunning: C | Durability: C- | Depth: C- | vsR: C | vsL: B | Stars: 1 | Holes: 3
An atypical season of health might not lift the Twins’ offense into the elite, but it would at least give us a better sense of who they are.
Alas, with the bad early pitching news (Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan), Minnesota’s hopes for contention might hinge on these hitters staying on the field and building on that foundation of above-average power.
Grades: Hit: D+ | Patience: C- | Power: C | Baserunning: B- | Durability: B- | Depth: B | vsR: D+ | vsL: C- | Stars: 3 | Holes: 3
This is the second-most surprising ranking for me, after Detroit a couple of spots down, but after digging into it to make sure it wasn’t a product of baseball analyst error, it is what it is.
There is a lot of upside with this group, from those displayed and others — such as Kristian Campbell, Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida — who are not. But it is a group that a year ago opened with Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers as fixtures in the lineup. Now, they’re not here.
Grades: Hit: F | Patience: B- | Power: B- | Baserunning: D+ | Durability: C- | Depth: F | vsR: D | vsL: C+ | Stars: 3 | Holes: 3
If you squint, you can see some upside from this group of nine hitting the high side of their probability range in the power and patience departments.
But with every injury, the Halos have to dig deeper into a razor-thin depth chart. It’s not the kind of thing that has worked out for them very often.
Grades: Hit: C+ | Patience: D | Power: F | Baserunning: C+ | Durability: F | Depth: D- | vsR: D+ | vsL: D+ | Stars: 2 | Holes: 4
The Rays are the main example of why you might want to think of the durability category as a measure of stability rather than health. It’s both, really.
The Rays spread their playing time around to so many contributors that it makes them look fragile in an exercise like this. But the quality of the depth isn’t great on paper, either, so maybe that doesn’t matter.
As I’ve written before, we’re at the point where the Rays need to prove they are still ahead of the analytical curve.
Grades: Hit: D- | Patience: C- | Power: C | Baserunning: F | Durability: D+ | Depth: A+ | vsR: D | vsL: D | Stars: 1 | Holes: 3
I love this profile because I’m certain it’s going to be wildly off — and I think it’ll be off because the Tigers keep iterating their lineup as the season goes along.
It’s a hard thing to predict. For example, in two weeks it might make sense to plug Kevin McGonigle in as an every-day player. Right now, it’s probably jumping the gun. Yet McGonigle’s forecast is one of the reasons why Detroit’s depth rating is MLB’s best.