January 2026 - All Mississippi Baseball

tagging up

Four teams in three months? It has been a wild off-season for Ryan Rolison, the former Ole Miss star who made his MLB debut for Colorado last summer. The 28-year-old lefty was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. He had been designated for assignment by the White Sox on Dec. 23 after the team signed former Mississippi Braves star Sean Newcomb. The White Sox had claimed Rolison off waivers from Atlanta, which had DFA’d him on Dec. 11 after signing Robert Suarez. The Braves had traded for Rolison on Nov. 18 after Colorado DFA’d him. The injury-dogged Rolison, a first-round pick by Colorado out of Oxford in 2018, had a 7.20 ERA in 31 games for the Rockies in 2025. The Cubs have room for him on their 40-man roster — at the moment. Of note: The Cubs lost lefty reliever Drew Pomeranz, another Ole Miss product, to free agency this off-season. … Mississippi State third baseman Ace Reese was named a first-team preseason All-America by Perfect Game. Reese hit .352 with 21 home runs in his first season with the Bulldogs in 2025. Southern Miss reliever Colby Allen (seven wins, 12 saves in 2015) made PG’s second team, and Ole Miss lefty Hunter Elliott (a 10-game winner) is on the third team. Allen is a Louisville native, Elliott is from Tupelo. The NCAA Division I season starts on Feb. 13. … Former Mississippi Braves star Justin Dean, who won a World Series ring last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was designated for assignment by the San Francisco Giants. Dean, a member of the M-Braves’ 2021 pennant winner, was DFA’d by the Dodgers after the season. … M-Braves alum Justyn-Henry Malloy was traded by Detroit to Tampa Bay for cash. Malloy batted .221 in 52 games for the Tigers in 2025. … The independent Mississippi Mud Monsters have added catcher Gray Bane, shortstop Jackson Cobb, catcher Tevis Payne II, right-hander Julio Bonilla, righty Juan Carlos Mendez, catcher Geral Siri and shortstop Cristopher Navarro to their roster for 2026.

on this date

Seattle shook up its outfield on Jan. 6, 2017, with a pair of trades, acquiring one Mississippi native from Kansas City and shipping another to Baltimore. The Mariners, coming off an 86-76 season, got McComb’s Jarrod Dyson from the Royals for Nate Karns and dealt Jackson’s Seth Smith to the Orioles for Yovani Gallardo. Oddly enough, Ole Miss alum Smith, a 10-year MLB vet entering 2017, played just one season for Buck Showalter’s Orioles, batting .258 with 13 homers for a losing club, and then quietly retired at age 35. Dyson — a World Series champ in 2015 with KC — spent just one season in Seattle, batting .251 with 30 stolen bases in 111 games for a losing team. Dyson played four more years for five different teams before bowing out in 2021 after 12 seasons. … After six solid years with San Francisco, Jeff Brantley officially signed as a free agent with Cincinnati on this date in 1994. The former Mississippi State star had gone 29-20 with 42 saves and a 3.24 ERA for the Giants, his original club, but performed even better with the Reds. He saved 88 games — an MLB-best 44 in 1996 — with a 2.64 ERA over four seasons with Cincy and twice helped the club make the postseason. He last pitched in the majors in 2001. Now a broadcaster with the Reds, Brantley — aka “The Cowboy” — was recently named Ohio’s sportscaster of the year. … On a somber note, Yazoo City native Mike Miley — who starred in baseball and football at LSU — died in a car crash in Baton Rouge on this date in 1977. A first-round pick by California in 1974, Miley played in 84 MLB games in 1975-76.