Cup of Coffee: January 29, 2026

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

The Daily Briefing

A Rockies-Twins trade

Yesterday the Minnesota Twins traded (mostly) second baseman Edouard Julien and reliever Pierson Ohl to the Colorado Rockies for minor league pitcher Jace Kaminska.

Julien had a nice rookie season in 2023, hitting 16 homers and getting on base at a healthy clip in 109 games. The past two years have been pretty dreadful for him, however, as he's combined to hit .208/.299/.324 (75 OPS+) in 158 big league contests. He also strikes out a lot and he is not a good second baseman so he probably needs to play first. He has, however, consistently raked and gotten on base at a fantastic clip in parts of five minor league seasons (.277/.427/.472) so Rockies President Paul DePodesta no doubt views him as a Moneyball-style project. Which, hell, it's the Rockies, so why not try something and see if it works?

Also heading to the Rockies is Ohl, who has just 14 big league appearances under his belt. The Twins had already designated him for assignment, so he wasn't going to be a part of their plans in 2026 anyway.

Heading back to Minnesota is Kaminska, who was the Rockies' 10th round draft pick in 2023. He posted a 2.78 ERA in 87 innings at Single-A in 2024 but he missed last season after he underwent Tommy John surgery, so who knows what his future is. Given that Julien was out of options and the Twins either had to play him or risk losing him for nothing, it wasn't like they had the hope of a bigger return than a somewhat promising but damaged arm.

A Rockies-Yankees trade

The Twins weren't the only team that decided it needed a member of the 119-loss 2025 Rockies yesterday. The New York Yankees acquired reliever Angel Chivilli from Colorado. In exchange they sent minor league infielder T.J. Rumfield back west.

Chivilli, 23, posted a 7.06 ERA in 43 relief appearances for the Rockies last year and a 4.55 ERA in 30 appearances with them in 2024. Over his two seasons in the bigs he has appeared in 73 games and has struck out 71 batters while walking 33 and allowing 20 dingers in 90.1 innings. The best I can say here is that he'll likely do better in Yankee Stadium than he will in Coors Field, but I don't suppose that's saying much.

Rumfield is a first baseman who has spent most of his time in Triple-A over the course of five minor league seasons. He was a 12th round pick of the Phillies in 2021 before being traded to New York in a minor deal a few years back. He hit .285/.378/.447 with 16 homers and 31 doubles over 138 games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season.

I suppose he and Julien now get to fight to see who plays first base for the Rockies. Either way, a team picking up two quad-A (at best) first basemen in trades in one day is the kind of thing that would've made Baseball Primer go CRAZY circa 2002, so I was happy to see it. Made me think of those simpler times.

The trade deadline will be late this year

Usually the trade deadline is at the end of July. Indeed, until the current Collective Bargaining Agreement it was always set for July 31. The current CBA, however, allows the deadline to be set on any date between July 28 and August 3. This year it will, in fact, occur on August 3.

The reasoning is that MLB doesn't like the deadline to happen during day games. Someone in the comments yesterday said it was because they don't like to have the "hug watch" in which players are notified during games that they're being traded ahead of the late afternoon deadline, which can create some awkward in-game situations and scenes (or, in the case of Wilmer Flores back in 2015, some downright emotional ones). I think that's partially right, but I'm guessing that preventing teams from being shorthanded and/or allowing them to get minor leaguers to the ballpark before game time to replace dealt players plays a part in it too.

Anyway, August 3 is a Monday, only half the league will be in action that day, and all of the games will be evening contests while the several days before that one involve full slates with some afternoon tilts. Ergo, an August 3 trade deadline. Plan your obsessing accordingly.

Other Stuff

Judge blasts ICE for violating scores of court orders

As someone who spent a good chunk of his life as a lawyer and who still thinks, mostly, like a lawyer, I probably get more worked up about the Trump Regime's disregard for the Rule of Law than I do about basically anything. Absolutely everything that matters in a putatively democratic nation flows from its laws and from the understanding that everyone, including the government, is subject to those laws. It's a concept that is fucking foundational to my understanding of the world and to my sense of justice. To the extent I've gone sorta crazy and have been cast into panics and depression over the past year it's mostly revolved around the Regime's contempt for the Rule of Law. The excesses and atrocities of this Regime are not accidents or oversights. They are all rooted in that contempt and for the law and the conscious decision by political actors to ignore the law.

A judge in Minnesota issued an order yesterday that reminded me that I'm not the only one losing my goddamn mind over the end of the Rule of Law in this country.

The order was the final result of a habeas corpus petition that was filed three weeks ago by a person unjustifiably imprisoned by ICE. Government attorneys were supposed to answer the petition by January 12 but refused to do so. In light of the government's failure to respond, the judge then ordered the government to either give the prisoner a bond petition or release him. It refused to do that as well. At that point the judge issued a show‐cause order and scheduled a hearing at which it ordered ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear, personally, and show cause why he and his agency should not be held in contempt of court. That, finally, got ICE's attention and they released the prisoner.

Yesterday's order went beyond merely noting ICE's belated compliance and disposing of the matter, however. In it the judge, Patrick J. Schiltz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, excoriated the government in terms that I was very, very happy to see in writing even if I wish the circumstances which led to it never existed.

The bold text has been added by me, for emphasis:

That does not end the Court’s concerns, however.  Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases.  The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated.  This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges.  Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted.

This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law.  ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.  The Court warns ICE that future noncompliance with court orders may result in future show‐cause orders requiring the personal appearances of Lyons or other government officials.  ICE is not a law unto itself.  ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.

The fact that a judge would've had to write those words in a court order was unthinkable as recently as a year ago. The fact that ICE and other arms of this Regime will no doubt continue to ignore court orders and disregard the Rule of Law despite orders like this one is heartbreaking and demoralizing.

"Streets of Minneapolis"

Yesterday Bruce Springsteen followed Billy Bragg in releasing a song denouncing the Trump Regime's actions in Minneapolis. The track, “Streets Of Minneapolis" contains lyrics like “A city aflame fought fire and ICE/‘Neath an occupier’s boots/King Trump’s private army from the DHS.” Which, OK, a bit clunky, but (a) when you're writing topical protest music speed is more important than finely-honed lyrics; and (b) it's Bruce Springsteen and he has earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants to do.

Along with its release Springsteen said, “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free, Bruce Springsteen.” 

Listen:

Agents who killed Alex Pretti placed on leave

A DHS spokesperson said yesterday that the two Border Patrol agents who shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis have been placed on administrative leave. One would've assumed that would be the barest possible minimum and that it would've happened immediately after the shooting, but Greg Bovino had said on Sunday that they had been reassigned to another city and were still on active duty, so I suppose this is progress.

They still have not been identified, which is also something that usually happens immediately after a shooting. And they have not been thrown into an oubliette, which should be another bare minimum given all of the circumstances but since when do I get what I want?

I don't understand things anymore

I spend a lot of time scanning headlines to find interesting stuff to write about. It's not a super difficult job as I generally know what's going on in the world and, even when it's horrible news, I am usually able to contextualize it. It's just something I'm good at.

But there are always days when I read a headline and think "wait, what?" Yesterday two of 'em crossed my screen in the space of like an hour. The first one:

And the second one:

Every day that passes I feel more and more like Brooks in "The Shawshank Redemption" after he gets released from prison and realizes that he was not made for the world in which he finds himself.

Two cool things about Spain

The first thing:

Spain's government announced Tuesday it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization, the latest way the country has bucked a trend toward increasingly harsh immigration policies imposed in the United States and much of Europe . . . "If they kidnap children, murder and terrorize people, we give them papers," [Spanish EU Parliament rep Irene Montero] said during a rally alongside migrant rights activists . . . "In the end, telling people that immigration is bad may appeal to them, but deporting the woman who cleans their house is a different story," she said.

As I wrote when I was in Madrid back in November,  Spain's economy is one of the strongest in Europe, primarily because it has aggressively encouraged immigration. Allowing the hundreds of thousands of people upon whom Spain's economy and way of life depend to come out of the dark and into the light is good for both those people and for Spain as a whole. It's sensible, humane, and compassionate in ways that the racist and nativist governments of the United States and many European countries seem not to understand and seem uninterested in understanding. Good for Spain.

The second thing:

That place, which is in Barcelona, popped up on one of the celiac foodie accounts Allison follows. We don't have any plans to go to Barcelona at the moment, but if that changes we will have at least one night's dinner planned. Come for the gluten-free dining experience, stay for the post-dinner photo op in front of the sign. Which is what Stephen Nesbitt of The Athletic told me he did after I posted this to Bluesky yesterday morning:

Between all of that and the fact that, contrary to what I said in yesterday's newsletter, our morning low actually reached negative 13 degrees yesterday morning, we probably need to move to Spain.

Just under a minute and a half to midnight

The non-profit organization The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist is the group which came up with the famous Doomsday Clock which, in addition to serving as some background color in Watchmen, serves as a proxy mechanism for threats to the existence of humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. It started in 1947, at the dawn of the nuclear age. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist folks update the settings periodically, with midnight representing Doomsday brought on by a human-made global catastrophe. The closer we creep to midnight the worse things are in their eyes.

The Doomsday Clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has since been set backward eight times and forward 18 times depending on world events. The farthest time from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991, as the Cold War was coming to end. That little respite was short-lived, however. It's usually in the single digits of minutes. Like, do you recall the Iron Maiden song "2 Minutes to Midnight?" That was where the clock was set in 1953, when the United States and Soviet Union tested H-bombs within nine months of one another. That seemed pretty ominous and thus that was the closest to midnight the Clock ever was in the 20th Century, when nuclear annihilation seemed like something that was definitely on the table.

I mention all of that because . . .

Earth is closer than it has ever been to destruction as Russia, China, the US and other countries become “increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic”, a science-oriented advocacy group said on Tuesday as it advanced its Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds until midnight . . .

. . . The scientists cited risks of nuclear war, the climate crisis, potential misuse of biotechnology and the increasing use of artificial intelligence without adequate controls as it made the annual announcement . . . The group also highlighted droughts, heatwaves and floods linked to global warming, as well as the failure of countries to adopt meaningful agreements to fight global warming – singling out Donald Trump’s efforts to boost fossil fuels and hobble renewable energy production.

You probably need to reassess some things as a species when even Iron Maiden can be like, "dudes, this is even worse than we thought."

Smoke 'em if you got 'em I guess.

Have a great (?) day everyone.