The Rundown Ultralite: Hoerner Extension Official, Early ABS Challenge Stats

I’m still holding the reins for this column until Mike Canter resumes later in the week, but I also happen to be out of town for college visits and baseball games with my son. We watched a wild doubleheader yesterday in which the second game featured 36 total runs with a bunch of homers. There’s a very short porch in right due to the park’s construction up against a bordering street, setting it up nicely for a lefty batter with a little pop.

In any case, my point is that I’m cobbling this together between periods of inactivity. That means we’re going with bullets today. Or maybe I should call them wizards. Either would work for Gilbert Arenas, though now I’m crossing the streams with basketball. Let’s just get to it, shall we?

• The Cubs officially announced Nico Hoerner’s contract extension with a press conference following Sunday’s loss, which is funny because news of the deal came out following their Opening Day loss.
• Hoerner’s $141 million guarantee is the fourth-largest ever for a second baseman, and the Cubs also had to overpay a bit in the form of a full no-trade clause. Jed Hoyer said that was a non-negotiable item for Team Hoerner, as he wanted to ensure he’d be in Chicago for the duration of the deal. You think that had anything to do with him being constantly mentioned in trade rumors the last two years?
• Seiya Suzuki got in some outfield work, along with agility drills and baserunning, ahead of Sunday’s game. It sounds like he’ll continue that work during the remainder of the homestand before heading out on a rehab assignment “at some point,” per Craig Counsell.
• The Cubs have outrighted righty reliever Jack Neely to Triple-A Iowa after he cleared waivers. Neely had been designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Michael Conforto.
• There have been some big ABS moments already in the young season, most notably when Eugenio Suárez twice fended off a strikeout by challenging CB Bucknor’s calls.
• It’s no surprise that Bucknor would find himself at odds with the system as much as any of his peers, but it’s not just him. It may be a matter of age, whether that’s due to vision or cognition, as the league’s oldest umps have been overturned far more frequently than their youngest counterparts. Through the first 35 games of the season, MLB’s 10 youngest umps had been overturned 39% of the time. The 10 oldest had a 69% overturn rate. Not nice.
• That difference in perception doesn’t just apply to umps, as there’s quite a disparity between pitchers, batters, and catchers. Through Saturday, batters were 26-for-57 (45.6%), catchers were 40-for-63 (63.5%), and pitchers were 1-for-4 (25%). Though the last sample is too small, I think we can all agree that pitchers are probably the worst judges of their results. Not to mention they’re just physically farther away. Catchers clearly have the best perspective, hence the better results.
• That’s important when you’re talking about fractions of inches, though I’m not sure I’m vibing with overturning a call this close. It’s like when a runner’s body loses contact with the base to the extent that only high-def cameras in super slow motion can perceive it. Getting the calls right is the goal, of course, but it seems like there should be a buffer to account for infinitesimal disparities.

about as close as it gets pic.twitter.com/4L9n18RGbZ

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 29, 2026

• Twins manager Derek Shelton was ejected yesterday after Orioles closer Ryan Helsley successfully challenged what had been called a full-count ball, resulting in a strikeout of Josh Bell. Shelton obviously couldn’t argue that the review was incorrect, but he was enraged because he felt Helsley hadn’t tapped his cap in time.
• That’s all for now, sorry it’s so thin.