Breakouts, a breakdown

Don’t trust us with knives. For the second time in past six months, a Jomboy Media employee has been sent to urgent care after cutting themselves while slicing a bagel in our kitchen. And yes we have a bagel slicer device but no one uses it.

Scroll for guys making the adjustment, tres leches cake, and The Kid Mero.

Let us know if you’ve tried mofongo.

— Team TSN

“Breakout” seasons are less a light turning on and more a light staying on. They happen when a player has enough space to figure out how to adjust to the league. The Talkin’ Baseball crew recently listed their 2026 breakout candidates and zeroing in on three (Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle, Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter, and Astros OF Cam Smith) show guys at different stages on the breakout curve.

The adjuster: Jack Leiter’s 2025 first half looked like a talented arm still learning the league, but in the second half his whole game tightened up—better run prevention, better baserunner control, and an improved strikeout rate. And in 2026 we’ll see a new cutter learned from Garrett Crochet that could help him end at-bats earlier and thereby go deeper into games. You don’t make the leap by becoming a different guy, but by converting “good innings” into “good starts.”

The survivor: Cam Smith, the crown jewel of the Kyle Tucker trade, made the Astros 2025 Opening Day roster with only 32 games of pro experience. And he was solid early (.765 OPS in the first half) but struggled late (.489 OPS in the second) as pitchers counterpunched. If 2026 is the breakout, it’s because he’s no longer guessing at how to bust out of a slump and he’s ready to adjust to the adjustments.

The rookie: Kevin McGonigle hasn’t played in the bigs yet, but last season, split between High-A and Double-A, he hit .305/.408/.583 with 19 homers in 88 games. Baseball America gave him their first 80-grade hit tool since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Add in an Arizona Fall League MVP to cap 2025, and you’ve got a player who’s already stacking “this is real” receipts. Assuming he gets to the show in 2026, will his path look like Leiter’s, Cam Smith’s, or something else?

A few weeks ago we were trying to come up with an offbeat way to celebrate the WBC when we realized that we’re based in NYC, which is generally the greatest city in the world but specifically the greatest city in the world for food from every culture and country. Thus was born the Home Plate Tournament wherein one of our creators would rate a national dish from each of the teams in the WBC, progressing from pool play to eventually crowning a world champion. When it came time to choose a creator to take the challenge, naturally we went with the guy who grew up eating Midwestern cuisine and wiffleballs: Jimmy Knorp.

I don’t know, Jim: At a few points in the challenge, Jimmy’s palate was going through it. Australia’s entry, Vegemite, was declared to taste “like eating a tire” (and guys from Detroit know what tires taste like). The other lowest scores in the tourney were given out to mofongo (Puerto Rico) and falafel & hummus (Israel), where Jimmy just didn’t vibe with the texture, and beef goulash (Czechia), which triggered too many Crock-Pot memories.

The sweet tooth: As the tournament progressed, a pattern emerged: Jimmy Knorp loves the sweet stuff. Italy’s tiramisu rocked his world in pool play, as did Nicaragua’s tres leches cake. While sushi made a surprise run to the finals along with Canada’s poutine, in the end it was a battle of two wet cakes.