Spring training will begin in a matter of days. Baseball, as always, will move forward.
But for some of the people who were supposed to be there to cover it, the season ended before it even started.
On Wednesday, MLB.com laid off multiple reporters as part of a wave of industry-wide cuts that also saw the Washington Post eliminate its entire sports department and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cut 50 employees, including roughly half its newsroom.
Among those let go were St. Louis Cardinals reporter John Denton and Pittsburgh Pirates reporter Alex Stumpf. Denton had covered the Cardinals for MLB.com for four years after decades in the business, while Stumpf had reported on the Pirates in some form since 2014 and joined MLB.com in 2024. Both learned on Wednesday that they were being laid off, effective immediately, as part of a restructuring at the company.
The media business is a tough one, but journalists still sign up for it everyday.
Today is a rough one as I — and a few other colleagues — were informed by MLB that we were being laid off, effective immediately. The timing is tough with Spring Training a few days away. (1/2)
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) February 4, 2026
Some personal news. I was let go by MLB dot com today as part of a restructuring within the company.
I’m proud of the work I did there, and I want to thank everyone who read along. Onto the next chapter.
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) February 4, 2026
Both said they weren’t the only ones let go, but the full extent of the cuts remains unclear. Outside Denton and Stumpf — who posted about their departures on social media — Awful Announcing hasn’t independently confirmed how many people lost their jobs.
The layoffs suggest MLB is rethinking how — or whether — it wants to maintain dedicated beat coverage for all 30 teams on its own platform. It’s not immediately clear whether MLB.com plans to replace them with other in-house writers or to abandon the dedicated-beat model entirely for specific teams.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.