There is no better feeling than starting the season with a win, and that’s how the Dodgers began the 2026 season, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday 8-2.

The Dodgers used a pair of four-run innings in the bottom of the fifth and seventh innings to erase their brief deficit against Arizona, and Kyle Tucker began the rally in the seventh with an RBI double to give him his first hit in a Dodger uniform. He later scored on a Mookie Betts single and finished the night 1-4 with a double, a walk and an RBI.

Tucker spoke with Bob Costas at NBC about getting his first game as a Dodger under his belt and about playing for a team that has their aspirations set on a third consecutive championship.

“It feels great,” Tucker said. “It started off well tonight. The audience— the fans coming out to and supporting us— is unbelievable… There’s some phenomenal players on this roster. They love the city of L.A. and try to do the best for everyone that comes out and supports us.”

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Will Smith ended his night on Thursday the same way he ended the 2025 World Series— with a home run. Smith’s home run capped off the second four-run inning for the Dodgers, and the All-Star catcher finished 2-4 with three RBI.

Smith spoke with David Vassegh of AM 570 post-game about the depth of this new-look Dodgers lineup, noting that there are zero weaknesses from top to bottom.

“It’s a really tough lineup,” Smith said. “You got guys that can slug, guys that can get on base. There’s no off at-bats for the other team. There’s no easy outs and we take pride in that, whoever’s on the roster. It should be a really fun year. We started off 1-0 and that was the goal today.”

Miguel Rojas has now played in the final opening day of his 13-year playing career, going 1-4 with a run scored in Thursday’s victory. Rojas found out only on Tuesday that he was given the start at second base, noting that he wasn’t expecting any favors from Dave Roberts, notes Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times.

“I didn’t know if ‘Thank you’ was the right thing to say because it’s something I earned,” Rojas recounted before the Dodgers’ 8-2 win Thursday against the Diamondbacks. “It’s not something that I asked for as a favor. So I was just kind of speechless.”

We’ve given you plenty of Brewers preview content this week (and all month), but let’s take a more detailed (but still Brewers-fan-centric) look around the rest of the division and see what the teams who are trying to knock the Brewers off their perch are bringing to the table this year.

We’ll go in alphabetical order (which just so happens to be the order in which I think they’ll finish), with a rating out of 10 on the threat level they pose to the Brewers this year, as determined by your humble author, who still thinks Milwaukee should be regarded as the favorite.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are viewed by essentially every major media outlet as the favorite in the National League Central. The headline additions for the Cubs are third baseman Alex Bregman (who signed a five-year, $175 million deal) and starting pitcher Edward Cabrera, who came over from the Marlins for a package headlined by top prospect Owen Caissie. The Cubs also added several bullpen pieces, most notably Hunter Harvey, Phil Maton, and Hoby Milner. (They also signed Shelby Miller, but he may not pitch at all in 2025 after he needed Tommy John surgery after a late-season injury with the Brewers last year.)

On the way out, the big Cubs loss was Kyle Tucker, who of course signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But they also watched several bullpen arms go, including a couple who were quite good for them in 2025 (Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz).

Chicago has been widely praised for the signing of Bregman, who is viewed as one of the league’s best clubhouse presences, plays good defense, and is a solidly above average hitter. Bregman, though, turns 32 in a few days, and played only 114 games in 2025, so that’s something to keep an eye on. And while Bregman has been a good player over the last six years, he hasn’t been a legitimate star since 2018 and 2019, when he had back-to-back top-five MVP finishes.

Bregman’s signing should help, but we need to look at it through the prism of who he “replaced,” Tucker. Even in what was viewed as a “down season” at times, Tucker put up a 143 OPS+ in 2025, made the All-Star Game, and earned 4.6 WAR in 135 games, a better rate than the 3.5 WAR Bregman earned in 114 games. Tucker is also three years younger than Bregman, and has been unequivocally better over the past five seasons.

Bregman is a good pickup for the Cubs, but he’s a step down from Tucker, and I don’t know why this isn’t being more widely considered.

As for Cabrera, he was quite good in 2025 (3.53 ERA/3.83 FIP, 3.13 K:BB in 137 2/3 innings) in his age-27 season. The question, really, is whether that’s who Cabrera is now or whether the significant control problems that plagued him from 2022-2024 will rear their head. Prior to 2025, Cabrera had made 63 career appearances (61 starts) and thrown 294 innings and walked over five batters per nine. That’s a huge number over such a large sample; for instance, the highest BB/9 among qualified starting pitchers in 2025 was Gavin Williams at 4.5. Jacob Misiorowski only walked 4.2 batters per nine in the big leagues in 2025.

Of course, the fact that Cabrera substantially lowered that rate over a large sample (last year was the first time he’d thrown more than 100 innings in his career) is encouraging. Cabrera does have good stuff—he sits around 97 with his fastball and had some of the better offspeed stuff in the league last year, according to Statcast. But if I were a Cubs fan, I’d be nervous watching his walks, at least early in the season.

Chicago should also be helped this season by the return of Justin Steele, who had surgery on his UCL about a year ago. He’s pitching again, but the Cubs just placed him on the 60-day IL, so he obviously won’t be back for at least a couple of months. Steele was one of the league’s best pitchers in 2023 and more-or-less replicated those results (although in a smaller sample) in 2024, but made only four starts before his injury in 2025.

The infield is good: alongside Bregman, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner (my pick for the league’s best second baseman last season, and who the Cubs just signed to a lucrative extension) are both excellent defensive players who can hit a bit, and Michael Busch, who was the hitter in Chicago’s lineup who scared me the most in last year’s NLDS, looks to be the real deal, at least as long as he’s facing right-handed pitching.

Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the outfield, but we’ll have to see how he adjusts this season. After exploding out of the gate and making himself a Bonafide MVP candidate by mid summer, PCA struggled badly in the second half of the season and finished with a .287 on-base percentage. There are real, nearly existential questions about his plate discipline, but he did hit 31 homers and steal 35 bases last year, and if nothing else he’s a dynamic player who provides true A+ defense in center field. Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, and Matt Shaw are all players who should help, while Dylan Carlson and Michael Conforto are looking to get their careers back on track.

Threat level: 7/10. The Cubs won 92 games in 2025, and went five with the Brewers in the NLDS. They’re well-funded. They have some star power, and maybe the best everyday infield in the game (though I wouldn’t want to be the one writing the checks in 2029, when Bregman and Swanson will be 35 and Hoerner 32 and they’ll make something like $75m combined). But I still see problems with the pitching staff, and while the narrative out there seems to be that Chicago greatly improved this offseason, I don’t really see it. They should win 90-ish games again and they certainly could usurp the Brewers at the top of the division, but I think the universal consensus that they will is a little bizarre, frankly.

Cincinnati Reds

The Reds won 83 games in 2025 and snuck into the playoffs, where they lost two lopsided Wild Card games to the Dodgers. They’re a team with some intriguing talent, but the health of their pitching staff is in question at the beginning of the season and that’s a problem.

The biggest issue is Hunter Greene, their best pitcher, who made only 19 starts last year but pitched to a 2.76 ERA (166 ERA+) and struck out 11 batters per nine while walking only 2.2. Greene is one of the hardest throwers in the league—he averaged 99.5 on his fastball last year, higher even than Misiorowski—and has been one of the best pitchers in baseball while on the mound over the last two seasons. But he needed surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow earlier this month, and isn’t expected back in the big leagues until July, and of course any sort of elbow injury for a guy who throws in triple digits is alarming. The Reds probably need Greene in order to be good enough to make the postseason, and I’m not sure they’re going to get enough of him.

Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer, Nick Lodolo, and Chase Burns round out what is hypothetically one of the best five-man rotations anywhere in baseball. Abbott had a 2.87 ERA in over 165 innings last season, and while there are some concerns that he’s outperforming his peripherals, he’d still be a well above-average pitcher even if his ERA ticked back closer to his FIP.

Lodolo has shown a lot of promise, but he’s also struggled at times to stay on the mound. He made only 28 starts between 2023 and 2024, and while he did appear in 29 games last season, he missed some time in August. He’s dealing with a blister that landed him on the IL to start this season, which isn’t exactly what you want.

Singer doesn’t bring many durability concerns; he’s topped 125 innings in each of his five full seasons and hasn’t thrown less than 153 since 2021. Singer isn’t going to be a star but he’s as reliable an innings eater as you’re likely to find in 2026. Burns is electric, and debuted to much fanfare last season, when in 43 1/3 innings he struck out 67 batters. He was a top-25 overall prospect prior to last season, and figures to be one of the most exciting young pitchers in the league.

Speaking of exciting, on the other side of the ball the Reds boast one of the most dynamic players in baseball, Elly De La Cruz. Over his first three seasons, things have been kind of all over the place, as you’d expect for a player with so much raw talent in his early 20s—for instance, in 2024 he stole a league-leading 67 bases and hit 36 doubles, 10 triples, and 25 homers, but also struck out a league-leading 218 times. His offensive game took a slight step back in 2025. But he’s still very young—he just turned 24 in January—and Reds fans have every reason to believe that this athletic freak with real power and good defensive tools (he’s rated as not bad, but not great at shortstop so far) will be a star for years to come. Heck, Keith Law even picked him for NL MVP.

There’s also a prime bounceback candidate in Matt McLain, a new (old) guy with potential for 50 homers in Eugenio Suárez, and a big-time prospect in Sal Stewart. Noelvi Marte occasionally looks like a star, though a steroid suspension threw a pretty big wrench in his career. TJ Friedl is pretty good. But this isn’t an overwhelming lineup unless a lot of things go right.

Threat level: 5/10. There are some interesting pieces here, and the rotation, at full health, is loaded. But will we ever get that rotation at full health? That remains to be seen, and while I like some parts of this lineup I’m not thrilled about others. I’ve also got questions about the bullpen. The skeleton of a good team is here, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to put it together this year.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates are a trendy pick to improve greatly, and I saw them in multiple “bold predictions” columns and segments for “will make the playoffs in 2026.” Let’s even give them the benefit of the doubt and ignore (at least, mostly) the first game of the season, in which Paul Skenes didn’t even make it out of the first inning.

Yes, they have Skenes, and his dud of a start notwithstanding (Skenes was charged with five runs but should’ve gotten out of the first with only a run in; his center fielder, Oneil Cruz, made two awful plays in a row that cost the team at least three runs) he might be the best pitcher in baseball, and is certainly the best pitcher in the National League.

My big question here is: how far does one starting pitcher get you in an era where starting pitchers rarely throw even 200 innings?

That question is kind of central to the Pittsburgh Pirates problem. Their offense should be better this year, but that’s a low bar—they were dead last in 2025, 60 runs behind the third-worst Cleveland Guardians. Their offense in 2025 wasn’t just bad, it was atrocious. So what’d they do to address it? They traded for Brandon Lowe (who homered twice off Freddy Peralta on Opening Day), which should help a bit, and they signed Ryan O’Hearn, who had a good 2025 season, and they also signed Marcell Ozuna, who can still hit, I think.

There are a couple of problems here, though. First, none of those guys is at a stage where you’d expect them to get any better. In July, O’Hearn will turn 33 and Lowe will turn 32. Ozuna is 35, and while he was still an above-average hitter in 2025, he took a pretty major step back from the previous two seasons. The other issue here is defense. Lowe played second base today, while O’Hearn was in right field and Ozuna played the only position he can play: designated hitter. Lowe was one of the worst defensive second basemen in baseball last year, while O’Hearn has kind of mixed defensive numbers. But Pittsburgh is also going with Cruz in center—which, if early returns are any indication, is not going to go well—and while Ke’Bryan Hayes wasn’t helping their league-worst offense, he was one of the best defensive players in the league (he was traded to Cincinnati at least year’s trade deadline). Pittsburgh ranked a healthy ninth in defense in 2025. Their offense should be better in 2026, but they might give most of those runs back on the other side of the ball.

Might Konnor Griffin, the game’s top prospect, solve a lot of these issues? Yes, it’s certainly possible. As soon as the Pirates are certain they’ll get that extra year of service, I’d expect to see Griffin in the majors, and he’ll be in instant mega-upgrade over Jared Triolo at short. Griffin can handle himself defensively and has major offensive upside. He could be a star even this year.

But that’s one guy. This lineup still sent out Triolo, Spencer Horwitz, Nick Gonzales, and Henry Davis on Opening Day, not to mention the boom-or-bust Cruz and Bryan Reynolds, who despite his escapades against the Brewers, was a below-league-average hitter in 2025 (and who is also now on the wrong side of 30). In the rotation, there is some promise, but a lot of that is tied up in Bubba Chandler, who has only 31 major league innings, and Jared Jones, who can’t stay healthy (and is on the 60-day IL to start the season, meaning a late-May debut at the earliest). The bullpen looks like a weakness.

Threat level: 2/10. I don’t see it. The Angels had Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout and couldn’t make the playoffs. I don’t see the Pirates doing it with Skenes and Griffin.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals are doing a full rebuild for the first time I can ever really remember. They haven’t lost less than 70 games in a full, 162-game season since 1981. 1981! They didn’t even have Ozzie Smith yet in 1981. (The Cardinals did go 53-61 in 1994 and 62-81 in 1995, but those weren’t quite full seasons due to the strike.)

I’d say that streak is certainly in jeopardy this year. St. Louis traded Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray to the Red Sox, Nolan Arenado to the Diamondbacks, and Brendan Donovan to the Mariners. Donovan and Contreras were, by WAR, the Cards’ two best players last year. Gray was their best starter. Arenado had a rough, injury-plagued season, but he’s still Nolan Arenado.

The Cardinals are not trying to hide that they aren’t really trying to compete this year. John Mozeliak, who’d been at the helm of the front office since 2007, stepped down at the end of his contract after last season and was replaced by Chaim Bloom. The new leadership clearly demonstrated that they weren’t attached to any of the team’s veteran players, nor to winning, for that matter. Strange, for this team.

There are some interesting pieces. JJ Wetherholt is one of the league’s top prospects, and hit a homer in his major-league debut on Thursday. He could win Rookie of the Year. Masyn Winn is a defensive wizard. Victor Scott II is very fast. Lars Nootbaar has an interesting Statcast page. Iván Herrera is a good player.

But guys like these are interesting pieces, not foundational ones, at least not at this point in their career. The pitching staff might be a disaster. There’s not much else to it. I know I said in our division predictions the other day that I thought they’d win 71 games… but I don’t think they’re going to do that, actually.

Threat level: 0/10. It’s hard to ignore what 37 years of life on this Earth have told me about Cardinals Devil Magic, but they’re gonna be bad.

A couple of social media posts from yesterday

Indeed.

But then I saw this and did an “awwww”:

Let’s get this season started!

Addi Weakly at KSHB writes about some new innovations for the Royals broadcast crew:

Fourteen MLB.TV or Royals.TV teams have wire cams this season, including the Royals. However, what makes Kansas City stand out is that the Royals are one of two teams to have a wire cam and a drone. The other team to have both is the Milwaukee Brewers.

At The Star, Vahe Gregorian profiles Maikel Garcia:

And it speaks to why Garcia has become who he is, a pillar of the Royals, despite a future in baseball that was somewhere between improbable and unfathomable a decade ago.

Back then, maybe the only thing measurably clear about the then-16-year-old’s stature was his meager weight. When longtime Royals executive Rene Francisco told me a few years ago that Garcia had been 127 pounds, Garcia smiled and simply said “one hundred twenty-eight.” And when Picollo put it at 130 pounds last December after the Royals signed him to a contract extension, Garcia again smiled and said … 128.

Sam McDowell asks if they have fixed the outfield:

The outfield is more tweaked than overhauled this year — Kyle Isbel is now likely in a platoon with Lane Thomas in centerfield, and while Starling Marte appears more prepared to serve as a designated hitter, he’s still capable of playing there. Jac Caglianone is back after some rookie-year struggles, though those struggles were only at the big-league level. And the Royals have added Isaac Collins.

That group doesn’t include a middle-of-the-order addition they would have liked to make — the Royals avoided sacrificing their financial future or prospect future to acquire a power bat — but it still should be better.

Pete Grathoff looked at Kauffman’s new outfield dimensions:

“The distance and the height of the fence, both of those factors were part of how we did our research,” Picollo said. “With every foot you brought the fence in, it had an effect on fly balls. And for every, I’ll say, 6 inches you brought the fences down, it had an effect as well. So with our algorithms, our R&D (research and development) department, we were able to figure out what we were trying to accomplish with our field overall, whether it’s the height of the fence or the distance of the fence.

“We were trying to get the park to still play really below league average. We didn’t want to get to the point where it’s league average. We want it to play fair. So we had a sliding scale that essentially measured every foot you brought the fences in, and every 6 inches you brought the fences down, and where we landed was in the range that we were trying to accomplish.”

At KCUR, Halle Jackson reports on life at the Truman Sports Complex after the teams leave:

“The easy process is to just sign up a data center, make the county a bunch of money and call it a day. But I want Jackson County to think bigger,” LeVota said. “I want that area to be a vibrant, economically driven space that contributes to the financial engine of the region and for the benefit of Jackson County residents for years to come.”

The county released renderings that show potential jumping-off points for the sports complex’s future. Shopping, tennis courts, an amphitheater and more take the place of parking lots. One rendering even shows Arrowhead Stadium renamed and redeveloped into “Arrowhead Downs,” a horse racing facility.

It’s blog time!

At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky makes his predictions.

The AL Central is something I’ve obviously discussed a ton, so I won’t waste a ton of internet ink on it, but I think the Tigers are the best team and the Royals are the second-best team. So that of course means I’ll be wrong and the Guardians with their lineup held together by bubble gum that’s been under a desk for a week will win 95 games and run away with the thing. I do think the Twins continue their sell-off and end up worse than the White Sox.

Meanwhile, at Into the Fountains, Craig Brown writes about the Royals setting their roster:

All of this movement meant that Drew Waters, who was out of options, was designated for assignment. He finishes his Royals career hitting .234/.300/.369 in 684 plate appearances spread over four seasons. Beyond a brief early showing back in ’22, there just wasn’t enough there. And if you couldn’t push your way into the starting outfield mix on this club the last couple of seasons, that’s going to be a problem. He’s still 27 and is a switch hitter. He will hook on with some team and maybe even find himself back on a major league bench in the not too distant future.

Kevin O’Brien also talked about this at Royals Keep:

Unfortunately, Lange and Falter are both out of Minor League options. Thus, to keep them on the 40-man roster, they both need to be on the active roster. While they haven’t had great Spring Training campaigns by any means, they certainly did enough to merit longer looks, even if there may be marginally better options in Triple-A, like Luinder Avila, Steven Cruz, and Ryan Bergert. 

At this time of the year, the “option” game often carries a bigger weight, especially since teams do not want to lose possible MLB contributors for nothing on the waiver wire or in free agency. Thus, Lange and Falter will get a little more time at the beginning of the season to show if they can find their roles on the Royals’ pitching staff this season, and, perhaps, beyond.

Blog Roundup:

• Also, Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep: Omaha Releases 2026 Opening Day Roster
• Jackson Huxel at Royals Keep: Three Keys To The Royals Winning On Opening Day
• Patrick Glancy at Powder Blue Nostalgia: 2026 MLB Predictions
• Caleb Moody at KOK: Star-studded Opening Day matchup might be exactly what Royals’ ace Cole Ragans needs
• Andy Nesbitt at SI: MLB Teams Are Offering the Saddest 9-9-9 Beer/Hot Dog Challenges at Games This Season
• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: March 26

On a final little note, I wonder if Darin would ever do one of those ignominious years. Like “This Date in Royals History – 2004 Edition”. This was the Best Opening Day! This was the Grimsley/Harvey game (amusingly, one of the “next up on YouTube” clips is “Shocking Plane Crashes and Mistakes Caught on Camera”). This was the Chip Ambes game. This was the end of the 19-game losing streak. Think about it, Darin!

Ever since they moved Opening Day to Thursday, I like to do a little look in at all of the games around the league for OT.

Pirates at Mets – First game of the day was broadcast over the air on NBC. Good deal! A Brandon Lowe homer in the first gives the Pirates a 2-0 lead. That’s all Paul Skenes should need, right?

Oneil Cruz misplays not one, but two fly balls leading to 4 Mets runs. Skenes and his 67.50 ERA don’t make it out of the first. New Mets ace Freddy Peralta gave up 4 runs across 5 innings but the Mets offense kept producing, en route to an 11-7 win.

White Sox at Brewers – The revamped White Sox were no match for Jacob Misiorowski. His 11 strikeouts were a Brewers Opening Day record. But the Brewers weren’t done, as four relievers added 9 more Ks, “tying the modern Major League mark for strikeouts in any nine-inning game since at least 1900.” Miz was also just the 7th youngest pitcher to get double-digit strikeouts on Opening Day. Looking at the box score, I think I’m also impressed that 11 different White Sox struck out; it wasn’t just a couple golden sombreros and a couple other guys.

Tigers at Padres – Hyped Tigers prospect Kevin McGonigle had himself an MLB debut. His first major league hit was a 2-run double. He would tack on 3 more, going 4 for 5 with a pair of doubles, 2 runs, and 2 RBIs. A 2.000 OPS? Not bad, rook. Tarik Skubal was locked in, giving up only a single, unearned run in 6 IP. The Tigers lineup combination of Torkelson-McGonigle-Dingler… kindof makes me giggle. It sounds like a trio that suited up for the Boston Beaneaters. That said, they went 7 for 14 with 5 R and 6 RBI so they’ll probably make me eat my words later this season.

Nationals at Cubs – Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nica Hoerner have both signed 6-year contract extensions this week. But today belonged to the Nats. Joey Wiemer, who spent time in Omaha after arriving in the Brady Singer for Jonathan India swap, homered and collected 2 more hits and a walk. Going from a .603 OPS last year in AAA to 3.000 today. Not bad. Gametime temp at Wrigley this afternoon? A blustery 49 with 22 mph winds.

Twins at Orioles – Looking at the box score, nothing really jumped out, so I’m going to let MLB’s Jake Rill help me with this one: “In many ways, Thursday was truly Day One of what Baltimore believes could be a new era of O’s baseball. There was a new jumbo videoboard in center field at Camden Yards, a new superstar at first base (Pete Alonso), a new manager in the dugout and new faces all around.” Trevor Rogers went 7 scoreless. The O’s picked up a pair in the 7th, going single-single-sac fly-single-flyout-single, and held on for a 2-1 win.

Red Sox at Reds – Remember when Cincy got to host the first game of Opening Day? We should go back to that. The Reds have an Opening Day parade in downtown and treat the day like a holiday. Like we all should. As for the game, Garrett Crochet and Andrew Abbott traded 0s through 6 innings. But then the Red Sox plated 1 in the 7th and 2 in the 9th. Former Red (and Royal) Aroldis Chapman got the save.

Angels at Astros – This was another game that was scoreless through 6. José Soriano went for the Angels while Hunter Brown pitched for the Astros. Can we get just a couple more healthy seasons out of Mike Trout, enough to get him to 500 home runs? After 3 walks, he hit an absolute bomb to break the scoreless tie and the Angels went on to win 3-0.

Rays at Cardinals – If this game didn’t have a 6th inning, it would have been a ho-hum 1-1 snoozer. However, games do, indeed, have a 6th inning. In the top of that frame, Tampa batted around and then some, putting up a 6-spot. However, the Cardinals answered with 8(!) of their own, capped off with 2 sacrifice flies, and an Alec Burleson home run. After giving up 5 ER in 0 IP, poor Ian Seymour of the Rays has an ERA of, checks notes: infinity.

Rangers at Phillies – This seemed like a nice, easy win for Philadelphia. Kyle Schwarber homered in the 1st, Alec Bohm homered in the 5th, and Cristopher Sánchez threw 6 scoreless. Former Royal Jonathan Bowlan and a reliever named Zach Pop got to pitch an inning. It was 5-0 going into the 9th. But then the Rangers put 3 on the board in the 9th and had the tying run up to bat. However, Evan Carter grounded out to end the game.

Guardians at Mariners – Is-not-a-Royal Brendan Donovan became the first Mariner in franchise history to lead off the season with a home run. Dominic Canzone, of WBC Team Italy fame, added a pair of bombs for the M. However, it was not enough. Rookie Chase DeLauter had 2 home runs for the Guardians in his MLB regular-season debut (he played in last year’s playoffs). Cleveland won 6-4.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers – This was the late game and it just finished a little bit ago. The Dodgers bazillion dollar lineup hit a couple of homers, Yamamoto shoved in his season debut, and LA won 8-2.

I got the first game of Spring Training and now I get the first day of the regular season. I don’t care that it’s a repeat.

It’s a brave new world for the Orioles’ farm system.

After years of the Orioles’ position player prospects outshining their counterparts on the mound, the tide has started to change in the upper minors. At Triple-A Norfolk in particular, there’s an impressive array of pitching prospects who appear poised to contribute to the Orioles sometime in the near future.

The Tides begin their 2026 tonight with a three-game series against the Nashville Sounds. Let’s take a look at the break-camp roster for the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate:

Catchers

Silas Ardoin, Maverick Handley, Sam Huff, Creed Willems

The Tides listed Ardoin, Handley, and Willems on their opening roster on Tuesday, but since then the O’s have sent the veteran Huff to the minors as well. Four catchers seems like overkill, so someone is likely going to be the odd man out. The only prospect among the group is Willems, the Orioles’ eighth-round pick in 2021, who is coming off a solid season at Double-A Chesapeake (16 HRs, .779 OPS). MLB Pipeline ranks him as the club’s #19 prospect. The 22-year-old will get a chance to test his bat at the Triple-A level, but if the Orioles need a third catcher at some point, they’d likely go with Huff or Handley, who both have major league experience.

Infielders

José Barrero, Ryan Noda, Bryan Ramos, Willy Vasquez, Luis Vázquez, Weston Wilson

After the original Norfolk break-camp roster listed only Noda and Vasquez, the O’s sent a slew of other infielders to Triple-A when they made their final cuts before Opening Day. These guys are minor league journeymen; there are no actual prospects here. Vázquez, who broke his hand after getting hit by a pitch in the Orioles’ penultimate exhibition game, won’t be available for a while. Wilson, a former Phillie, was a candidate for the Birds’ utility infield spot before being reassigned on the final day. So too was Ramos, a waiver claim from the Cardinals who was out of options. Ramos cleared waivers yesterday and will stay in the organization.

Outfielders

Enrique Bradfield Jr. (Camden Chat’s #7 prospect), Jud Fabian, Jhonkensy Noel, Will Robertson, Reed Trimble

Norfolk’s best position-player prospect is in the outfield, where Bradfield will hope to improve upon his 10-for-56 performance in a 15-game sample at Triple-A last year. The 24-year-old’s blazing speed and elite defense are MLB-ready right now, but he’ll need to show a little more on offense before the O’s are comfortable subjecting him to major league pitching. Bradfield figures to make his Orioles debut at some point this season, but whether it’s as a regular starter or as a defensive replacement off the bench will hinge on how he performs at Norfolk.

Another intriguing name here is Trimble, a former top-30 O’s prospect whose career has been sidetracked by injuries. Between left shoulder surgery in 2021 and a hamstring injury in 2024, he has never played more than 90 games in any of his four professional seasons. He is incredibly good at one thing, though: stealing bases. Trimble is a perfect 61-for-61 in stolen base attempts in his minor league career. The Orioles added him to the 40-man roster this past winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, so they must think the 25-year-old still has some promise.

A fellow former top-30 prospect, Fabian, has all but stalled out at Triple-A, posting a .628 OPS since arriving in Norfolk in 2024. The second round of the 2022 draft, in which the Orioles selected both Fabian and the since-released Max Wagner, was not one of Mike Elias’s finest efforts. Rounding out the Tides’ outfield group is Noel, a.k.a. “Big Christmas,” who hits prodigious dingers every so often but doesn’t do much else.

Pitchers

RHP Jose Espada, RHP Cameron Foster, RHP Nestor German (#11 prospect), RHP Trey Gibson (#5 prospect), RHP Jackson Kowar, RHP Dean Kremer, LHP Andrew Magno, RHP Chayce McDermott, RHP Enoli Paredes, LHP Cade Povich, RHP Albert Suárez, LHP Josh Walker, RHP Levi Wells (#16 prospect), RHP Cameron Weston, RHP Brandon Young

Oh yeah, here’s the good stuff. In a stark contrast to last year, the Norfolk rotation is stacked with prospects. Gibson, German, and Wells make for a stellar trio of homegrown right-handers, all drafted (or in Gibson’s case, signed as an undrafted free agent) and developed by the Orioles. We’ve been waiting for a Mike Elias-drafted starting pitcher to make it to the majors, and it will likely happen this year. Gibson is the closest to MLB ready, though his eight-game debut at Triple-A last year was a struggle (8.90 ERA). Trey will take the mound for the Tides’ opener tonight.

I still can’t believe that Dean Kremer is back in Triple-A. I mean, I understand why it happened, but it’s just weird. Other than rehab stints, it’s his first time in the minors since 2021. His stay is expected to be short, as he’ll probably be back in the majors once the O’s need to give extra rest to their other starters, or if one of them gets hurt. It speaks to the Birds’ improved rotation depth that they didn’t have room for an essentially MLB-average starter like Kremer. And Povich and Young, who combined for 32 mostly unimpressive starts for the Orioles last year, will also serve as depth if needed.

Meanwhile, if there’s any hope for former top pitching prospect Chayce McDermott, he’s running out of chances to show it. The O’s converted him to relief last season and he performed well at Triple-A, only to cough up eight runs in just two appearances in the majors. He’s been passed on the bullpen depth chart by guys like Espada and Foster, who were part of the Birds’ bullpen competition in spring training, as well as Kowar, the hard-throwing righty who cleared waivers yesterday. The veteran Suárez returned to the O’s on a minor league deal and will likely be one of the first up when the Orioles need another arm.

When the Detroit Tigers confirmed that young infielder Kevin McGonigle had made their Opening Day roster, the expectations could not have been higher.

Yet somehow, one of Major League Baseball’s top prospects managed to exceed them in his first game.

McGonigle roped the first pitch he saw on Thursday for a bases-loaded, two-run double, and added three more hits on the afternoon to finish the day 4-for-5 with two runs batted in, and two runs scored. In the process, he became just the third-youngest player with four or more hits on Opening Day in the last century of MLB action.

“What a debut,” manager A.J. Hinch said after Detroit’s 8-2 win. “He can hit.”

Hinch penciled McGonigle into the sixth spot in Detroit’s lineup, starting him at third base. He came to the plate with the bases loaded in the top of the first inning, and jumped on the first pitch he saw, a 91-mph cutter on the inside part of the plate. He laced that down the right-field line, bringing two teammates home on the very first pitch he saw:

“I was nervous, but it’s weird — I feel like right when I started my load to hit, it just went away,” McGonigle said after the game. “I felt great out there. Very confident. Looking to keep that same mindset going.”

McGonigle certainly had that same mindset in his second at-bat, which came in the top of the third inning. After falling down 0-2 in the count after missing on a fastball and taking a curve for the second strike, he battled back to even the count at 2-2. That’s when McGonigle jumped on another fastball on the inner half of the plate, roping a line drive off the top of the wall in right field:

While he just missed his first MLB home run, his head-first slide into second ahead of the throw from Fernando. Tatis Jr. gave him his second double in two at-bats.

He reached on an infield single in the fifth, and then popped out to third in the seventh, recording his first MLB out. But McGonigle had one more at-bat in the game, as he came to the dish in the top of the ninth.

That’s when he laced a single to right center for his fourth hit of the day:

“He won’t be as nervous as that at-bat, and if that’s the nervous version of him, we’re in for a fun year,” Hinch said. “I like the fact he was aggressive on his pitch. Obviously a big hit to open up the game a little bit and give us some breathing room. That set the tone for a really good day for him and for us.”

McGonigle was the youngest Tigers player named to an Opening Day roster since Omar Infante in 2003. And as noted above he became the third-youngest player in the last 100 years of MLB action to record four or more hits on Opening Day.

The only two players younger? Ken Griffey Jr. and Delino DeShields Jr., both of whom accomplished that feat on Opening Day in 1990.

“[I told myself] it’s just another game,” McGonigle said. “I kept that mindset, and I’m looking forward to keeping that going.”

It might have felt like just another game to McGonigle. But it certainly did not to Tigers fans.

To them, it felt like the future. And a very bright one at that.