More than any other major London theatre, Hampstead has been at the sharp end of recent funding struggles: its last artistic director Roxana Silbert quit in 2022 as a result of the venue losing all of its Arts Council funding. Still, the remaining team have limped on valiantly, in part helped by the patronage of the the late, great Tom Stoppard: annual revivals of his more obscure plays the last three Christmases have guaranteed bums on seats, and the rest of the programme has been no slouch.
Tim Hyers will return for his second year as hitting coach, as expected. It was an uneven first year under Hyers, but the club hit much better in the second half of the season (107 wRC+) than the first (96 wRC+). All eyes will be on Atlanta's hitters to see if they can collectively rebound and get back to the heights of previous campaigns.
Anthony Volpe spent much of the 2025 season playing through a partially torn left labrum, and the Yankees shortstop addressed the problem in the form of a surgical procedure yesterday, according to Joel Sherman and Greg Joyce of the New York Post. The exact timeline for Volpe's recovery isn't yet clear, but if everything goes normally, a source tells Sherman/Joyce that Volpe would be ready for the start of the 2026 season.