Effectively Wild Episode 2287: Season Preview Series: Rangers and Pirates

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the end of the Yankees’ beard ban, the potential end of MLB’s business relationship with ESPN, and whether the World Baseball Classic should imitate the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Then they preview the 2025 Texas Rangers (50:07) with MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry , and the 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates (1:27:23) with Pittsburgh Baseball Now’s John Perrotto , plus a postscript (2:03:57) about Ben’s growing affection for Tigers righty John Brebbia . 2025 EW Season Preview Series AL BAL CHW ATH BOS CLE HOU NYY DET LAA TBR KCR SEA TOR MIN TEX NL ATL CHC ARI MIA CIN COL NYM MIL LAD PHI PIT SDP WSN STL SFG .intro-team, .intro-team td { font-family: lato, Arial, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 20px; } .intro-team .intro-header { /*display: none;*/ text-align: center; } .team-lg { text-align: center; width: 100%; } /* [class^="team-box-"] > div { display: inline-block; width: 48%; } [class^="team-box-"] > div table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; } [class^="team-box-"] > div td { background-color: #efefef; border: 1px solid #ccc; line-height: 2; text-align: center; cursor: default; } [class^="team-box-"] > div a { color: #000; text-decoration: none; display: block; width: 100% } [class^="team-box-"] > div a:hover { color: #50ae26; } [class^="team-box-"] > div a.link-inactive { color: #aaa; } */ Audio intro : Ian Phillips, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio interstitial 1 : Austin Klewan, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio interstitial 2 : Alex Ferrin, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : Nate Emerson, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Link to Yankees announcement Link to story on policy change Link to story on policy origins Link to Simpsons clip Link to Gleyber photo Link to Castillo hair story Link to Castro hair story Link to McCutchen hair story Link to Vlad/Yankees story Link to Williams reaction Link to ESPN opt-out story 1 Link to ESPN opt-out story 2 Link to Ben on the WBC Link to Ben on Hang Up Link to offseason spending Link to FG payrolls page Link to Rangers depth chart Link to Rangers offseason tracker Link to Kennedi’s author archive Link to Pirates depth chart Link to Pirates offseason tracker Link to John’s author archive Link to Brebbia links Link to EW gift subscriptions Sponsor Us on Patreon Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com EW Subreddit Effectively Wild Wiki iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Spotify Feed Facebook Group Bluesky Account Twitter Account Get Our Merch! var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source