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

BAL	CHW	ATH
BOS	CLE	HOU
NYY	DET	LAA
TBR	KCR	SEA
TOR	MIN	TEX

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