Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

The Yankees fell to the Chicago Cubs, 15-6, on Monday afternoon at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. 

Here are the takeaways...

-- After an impressive spring, Carlos Lagrange had a tough Monday, allowing eight runs on nine hits across 2.2 IP. He struck out four and walked one on 66 pitches (38 strikes).

The 22-year-old let up two straight hits in the bottom of the first inning and nearly got out of the jam thanks to a double play. However, he surrendered a two-out knock to Carson Kelly that tied the game up at 1-1. Lagrange bounced back and struck out the side in the second inning, but couldn't maintain the momentum in the third. 

The righty let up back-to-back home runs -- a two-run homer to Michael Busch and a solo shot to Alex Bregman that put Chicago up 4-1. He struck out Ian Happ following a mound visit, but then allowed a double to Kelly. The results didn't change when he came back out to pitch the fourth inning, allowing a single, an RBI-double, and a walk before getting pulled again.

-- Will Brian came in for relief in the third inning and things didn't get better for the Yanks. Brian let up a single to Michael Conforto, and after a strikeout, gave up a three-run blast to Matt Shaw that made it a 7-1 game. Cade Winquest later entered for Lagrange in the fourth, allowing a two-run triple to Conforto before getting a flyout to end the frame.

-- New York took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Shota Imanaga thanks to some two-out hitting as Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had back-to-back singles, with Chisholm driving in Paul Goldschmidt from second base. The Yanks had another scoring chance in the third inning after Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch and Aaron Judge singled, but the 3-5 hitters went down in order.

-- Goldschmidt and Judge continued to provide the offense, as the first baseman doubled and the reigning AL MVP singled in the top of the fifth inning. Cody Bellinger drove in Goldschmidt on a sac-fly to make it a 10-2 game.

-- Yerry De los Santos allowed three runs on five hits in the sixth inning as the Cubs scored five runs overall in the frame to push the lead to 15-2.

-- Spencer Jones hit a solo home run off veteran Phil Maton in the top of the seventh inning. The slugging prospect blasted another HR in the ninth, this time a two-run shot to give him six home runs this spring. Max Schuemann joined in on the fun and went back-to-back with Jones, hitting a solo homer to cut the Cubs' lead to 15-6.

What's next

The Yankees will stay in Mesa, Ariz. for their final spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday.

After that, Max Fried will take on Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants to open the 2026 regular season on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. 

The Cincinnati Reds got bogus news early in spring camp when Hunter Greene needed elbow surgery to remove bone spurs, setting back their ace until the All Star break in July. Aside from that doozy, though, things had mostly been OK on the injury front (aside from Caleb Ferguson’s oblique issue).

As the heat ramped up down in the desert, though, a plague of blisters descended upon Goodyear. Yesterday we found out Nick Lodolo had one (that was bad enough to need popping), and that came on the heels of Brady Singer dealing with one, too – not the kind of news you want on the eve of Opening Day when things had already been seemingly set with the pitching staff.

As things stand, though, it appears Singer dodged any blistering that was bad enough to set him back, and he’ll get the ball tonight in Milwaukee as the Reds face off against the Brewers in a pre-season exhibition game at American Family Field.

(It’s Miller Park. It’ll always be Miller Park.)

Cincinnati has effectively set their Opening Day roster, so there aren’t really any position battles still ongoing in camp. That said, there are still a handful of non-roster players who made the trip with the big league club, as each of Michael Chavis, Garrett Hampson, Hector Rodriguez, Tejay Antone, and Michael Toglia are available off the bench tonight.

Doug Gray of Redleg Nation once again was kind enough to relay the travel roster on Bluesky, which features a conscious decision by manager Terry Francona to let Ke’Bryan Hayes DH for the night from the #2 spot in the lineup.

If you’d like a reminder of how old you are, I’ll point out that lefty Aaron Ashby is on the mound for the Brewers tonight, and the Reds have put together a lineup featuring TJ Friedl (in LF) and an entire fleet of right-handed hitters behind him to counter. Ashby, of course, is the nephew of longtime big league righty Andy Ashby, who last pitched two years after Joey Votto’s professional career begin in the Reds system.

Sal Stewart will start at 2B, Dane Myers gets CF for the night, and Eugenio Suarez will man the hot corner with a glove for a turn.

First pitch is slated for 7:40 PM ET, and to answer your question…no, you cannot watch it on television. 700 WLW will have the radio feed, however.

You just don’t want to read too much into spring training results. The ball flies in the desert air, pitchers are building up arm strength and sometimes even working on secondary pitches they haven’t mastered, the adrenaline isn’t pumping like it will be on Friday.

Then again, when a pitcher comes to camp showing the exact weaknesses that have plagued him prior, it can be informative. Such was the fate of the talented-but-wild Jack Perkins who came into camp with the question of “Will he be put into the rotation or maybe slotted in as the closer?” The answer, as it turns out, is “No.” Perkins has been optioned to AAA to continue working on throwing more strikes.

Still standing, and presumed to be in the A’s rotation when camp breaks, is another highly talented, but also raw, RHP in Luis Morales. Now 23, Morales got a taste of the big leagues in 2025 and generally acquitted himself well putting up a solid 3.14 ERA albeit it with less gushing underlying metrics (4.42 xERA, 4.54 xFIP).

Morales has a plus fastball and a wicked slider, but not always the ability to throw them where he wants to. This leads both to high walk totals and also centered pitches that can get whacked around. The hope, of course, is that with experience Morales can throw more and more quality strikes and harness the terrific arm he brings to the mound.

So far so bad.

Morales got knocked around again today, mostly thanks to a bases clearing double that followed 3 walks to load the bases. His final line today? 2.1 IP, 1 hit, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K. To get just 8 outs, Morales threw 61 pitches of which only 34 were strikes.

This only continues a trend from throughout the Cactus League. Here’s where Morales’ numbers stand at the end of spring training:

2-2, 7.58 ERA, 19 IP, 21 hits, 16 ER (3 HR), 14 BB, 17 K. For those of you scoring at home that BB/9 IP rate is 6.63.

Here’s where if the A’s had “too many starting pitchers” (a baseball oxymoron) they would probably send Morales to join Perkins at AAA to start the season. But with the only alternatives being JT Ginn, who faded terribly the second half of spring training, and Luis Medina, who has returned from Tommy John surgery electric and wild as ever (7.1 IP, 9 BB), it appears that Morales’ spot is safe and that he will most likely face the Toronto Blue Jays or Atlanta Braves on the first road trip.

Watching Kade Morris carve up the #1 farm system yesterday, he looked far more ready to toss 6 quality big league innings than Morales currently does. Morris threw just 56 pitches in his 4 innings, 37 for strikes (that’s 2/3).

Without question Morales has big time talent and stuff — there’s no question you would want him in your organization over any of the alternatives that could make starts in April. But whether that means he’s going to be at all effective in the big leagues now? You wonder.

Hopefully the natural talent wins out, but far more electric arms have been taken to the cleaners because they couldn’t find the strike zone or couldn’t stay out of the middle of it. Count me as one fan who will watching anxiously as he (presumably) toes the rubber in Atlanta. He doesn’t look ready to me — but ready or not here he comes.

This is not something that I would categorize as a surprise, but at least we have confirmation of what the St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day roster will look like in its final form. MLB Trade Rumors has confirmed that JJ Wetherholt, José Fermín, Thomas Saggese and Nathan Church will all head to St. Louis with the Cardinals while Nelson Velázquez will be sent to Triple A Memphis.

This is the video that the St. Louis Cardinals just dropped on social media as a tease of the JJ Wetherholt promotion.

Going into the 2026 campaign, the San Diego Padres are seeking to stabilize their starting rotation. Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning will open the season on the injured list, while Yu Darvish’s elbow surgery will cause him to miss the entire 2026 campaign.

In the meantime, the Padres will start Nick Pivetta on Opening Day and patiently wait for Michael King to return to form. If so, he will become the staff’s No. 1 starter. A young pitcher has the opportunity to prove his place in the rotation until Musgrove is ready to come back. 

Vasquez could save Padres from starting pitching woes

Randy Vasquez has positioned himself to exceed everyone’s 2026 expectations with an outstanding Spring Training. It was enough to impress Friars first-year manager Craig Stammen to move Vasquez up in the rotation order. And if he continues to dominate opposing lineups, it will be tough to take the young right-hander out of the third starter’s role. 

Vasquez has shown several flashes of success during his time in San Diego. Coming off a 3.84 ERA last season, he came into camp throwing with newfound velocity. His four-seam fastball gained nearly three miles per hour after throwing it at 93.5 MPH in 2025. 

Often, Vasquez was hitting 96 MPH, as he posted 8.2 innings of shutout baseball in early Cactus League contests. The third-year pitcher allowed only two hits and struck out eight batters. His strikeout rate was above 30%, as the hitter’s chase rate was nearly 40% in Arizona. It was higher than his career rate.

Spring Training does not answer all the questions

However, Vasquez did struggle in the later stages of Spring Training. Granted, pitchers are refining and simplifying their pitching repertoire. Vasquez was working to improve the effectiveness of his sweeper and curveball, the latter of which ranked in the 98th percentile for spin rate last season.

However, it might be time for Vasquez to phase out the cutter, as the pitch was continually getting pounded by hitters. You cannot ignore that his ERA rose to 4.86 at the tail end of the spring schedule. 

Nevertheless, Vasquez was a standout performer, as he had an impressive 1.04 WHIP and a 15-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 18.1 innings pitched. 

To have a breakout season, Vasquez must continue to pitch with the confidence he found in Peoria, Ariz. It is time to translate potential into wins this season. 

If you have been watching the Nationals at all this spring, you would know that the offense has struggled. When you look at the box scores, most of the players OPS numbers begin with a 4, 5 or 6. The Nats hit just .194 with a .592 OPS this spring. As the team heads into the season, how concerned should we be?

Personally, I am moderately concerned, but not totally panicked yet. It is a bit alarming to see the struggles of guys like Dylan Crews and James Wood, but again, it is still Spring Training. The new regime is teaching these players a lot of new things, and clearly, it has been easier for the pitchers to translate those teachings into the game. 

The pitching staff is the reason the Nats still finished this spring with a record above .500. The Nats were 29th in scoring this spring, averaging 3.5 runs per game. However, they only allowed 3.7 per game, which was 4th. The slate is clean when the regular season begins, but I would not be surprised if the pitchers were ahead of the hitters early on.

Nats drop the exhibition finale, 2-0. They scored 1 run yesterday in Baltimore. They finished the spring with 3.5 runs scored per game (29th out of 30 clubs). The pitching staff, though, only gave up 3.7 runs per game (4th out of 30 clubs).

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) March 23, 2026

It is a lot easier for a pitcher to add a pitch or tweak their mechanics than it is for a hitter to change things up. Pitching has become so scientific, while hitting is still more of an art. Some changes that sound good on paper could have adverse effects. Even if they do, it could sometimes be worth it to stick with those tweaks for a while to see if things click. Clearly, the transition to a new style of hitting has not been smooth so far. 

For years, the Nats have been at or near the top of the league in ground ball rate, and that is something the new regime wants to change. However, trying to lift the ball comes with some tradeoffs like more pop ups and a bit more whiff. Finding a balance will be important for this team. This new regime also seems willing to experiment until they find the right combination.

One thing that Blake Butera said that I found interesting was that he thinks the offense will improve as they see guys more. He talked about how it can be tough to “fly blind” when you keep seeing different pitchers in Spring Training. Hopefully the Nats will be able to make those sorts of adjustments.

Blake Butera noted concerns with the offense, but said he believes they’ll benefit from having more info on pitchers and more at-bats off starters during the season.

For me: This means I’ll be keeping an eye on how well they adjust in-game. Wasn’t a strength for WSH last year. https://t.co/CJb91cvJikpic.twitter.com/RHZWUmvY8C

— Spencer Nusbaum (@spencernusbaum_) March 23, 2026

This struggling Nats offense will be challenged right off the bat with series against the Cubs, Phillies and Dodgers. The Phillies and Dodgers in particular have very strong staffs that will happily feast on a lineup trying to find an identity. Now that Spring Training is over, it is time to lock in. Maybe some hitters should go back to what works best for them, at least in the short term. The two exhibitions against the O’s were not pretty offensively. The Nats better be ready because they will be challenged by some high end arms to start the season.

A couple weeks ago I talked about the Nats offensive concerns. I attributed a lot of the struggles to guys just getting going, but as we enter the regular season, I am a little worried. The Nats offense last year was not great by any means, but they showed some promise, especially in the first half. It has been really ugly so far this spring.

There have been a lot of positives for the Nats this spring but the offense has not been one of them. Should we be worried? https://t.co/f6vr4OBmK0

— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) March 15, 2026

I would not be surprised if the trend of the pitching being better than the hitting continues into the season. Obviously the gap will not be as extreme, but I believe the pitchers will be ahead of the hitters. They seem to have responded to the new coaching better.

Hopefully this is all Spring Training noise and the offense can start the year hot. However, I do not think the bad offense is totally fluky. There are some real growing pains here. I hope things start to click as Matt Borgschutle gets more time with the guys because it has not been pretty so far.

It’s official. Nick Pivetta will start for the San Diego Padres this Thursday. They’ll put up their best fight on Opening Day against fearsome lefty Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers as they seek to return to the postseason for the third year in a row.

Pivetta will be the fourth starting pitcher in as many years to take the mound for San Diego’s Opening Day. 

The unicorn year

Pivetta will pitch on March 26 for the Friars after having the best season of his career last year. Pivetta and Padres fans were waiting for manager Craig Stammen to announce the Opening Day starter. If Pivetta can retain anything from last year, the starting rotation will be a lot closer to elite than it is now.

There’s obviously upside, tremendously so, but it’s shaky. Pivetta has never had an ERA below 4.00 until last year’s 2.87 mark. Michael King and Joe Musgrove are coming back from injury, and the back end of the rotation looks a little messy. 

Pivetta was a workhorse last year. He pitched 181 ⅔ innings and almost topped 200 strikeouts across 31 starts. 

The Padres desperately needed him then and they may need him even more now.

Concerning news out of camp

A few weeks ago, Pivetta missed a start in Spring Training due to arm fatigue. Immediately questions of depth sprang up and San Diego fans everywhere lost their collective minds. 

But then he started against the Cleveland Guardians with his fastball sitting around 94-96 mph and all was well again. 

The hope is that even if Pivetta isn’t as much of a surprise ace pitcher as he turned out to be last season, he’ll still be serviceable and eat innings this season. There’s plenty of underlying metrics to suggest the turnaround he had will continue to be the case, but nothing will be sure until it’s proved on the mound this season.

However Pivetta’s season shakes out, the Friar Faithful can be excited to watch him duel it out against one of the best pitchers on the planet this Thursday. He has the stuff to dominate this Tigers lineup. And this Padres lineup has the ability to take Skubal out.

With Opening Day finally here, one thing’s certain: we’ll all be cheering for a San Diego win Thursday.

In the latest SB Nation Reacts poll, we learn that San Francisco Giants fans have a pretty sober view of the roster:

This question was asked before the Giants optioned Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A Sacramento; and, as you can see here, the majority saw which way the wind was blowing, given the performance of the top prospect. Maybe it didn’t take the powers of a fortune teller to foresee what was going to happen with a guy who needs some experience, but it speaks to some degree of integrity for voters that they didn’t vote what they wanted to happen.

Then again, maybe Giants fans don’t want a struggling prospect to struggle at the major league level right now. Maybe they want to see what the more experienced guys can do. That’s a perfectly reasonable perspective, and it’s plausibly what 63% of the voting body believes. Indeed, if you scan through the comments thread here on McCovey Chronicles after the SB Nation Reacts poll went live, you’ll see this sentiment:

PGBreaker
I’m leaning against Eldridge breaking camp with the big squad. Half a season or more of AAA at-bats, then bring him up (if ready). I’m guessing Matos hasn’t done enough in Spring Training to make the 26-man. Ce la vie…

11
I said before Spring Training that he might start the season in AAA and I don’t think he’s done enough to make the roster. He has to cut down the K’s.

roberto96
I wish I could say I am sold on Eldridge, but I am not. When he’s not striking out he’s making loud outs. Great. Not at the expense of Matos or Encarnacion who are out of options not making the team. And with his speed and defense don’t wanna see McCray going down either.

RU_Sirius
No. He’s not ready. He shouldn’t have been on the team last season. Felt like they brought him up just to get some fan interest because the Giants had slipped out of contention. I still believe he could be a really good player. Let him start at AAA – it makes other roster decisions easier, too.

With the regular season about 51 hours away, fans who called this Eldridge move and others throughout the Spring might be feeling confident enough to see if they can try their luck. It’s one thing to wager on an untested and very young prospect whose position(s) is (are) easily duplicated with literally Rafael Devers and a hodgepodge of experienced hitters, it’s quite another to see if there’s money to be made gambling on the rest of the team. How will the Giants do this season? Is there another Ryan Boruckiesque move coming up just before they finalize the Opening Night roster? This is the test of every fan every season. Is your gut on to something?

However you feel, at least the Giants are on the same page as the fandom in some respects. It would be quite something if the team was committed to making Bryce Eldridge stick at the major league level despite strong evidence at the moment to the contrary.

---

The latest national poll questions were about the World Baseball Classic, which saw such a viewership increase that it might’ve been a contributor to the stark decline in ratings for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony (which had popular films up for major awards). But enough about ratings. Here were voters’ thoughts:

Who knew that baseball fans liked to see competitive baseball during what’s normally quasi-competitive Spring Training?

The Texas Rangers’ fifth start to start the season will be Kumar Rocker, the team announced today. Jacob Latz, who was competing with Rocker for the fifth starter spot, will open the season in the bullpen.

In addition, the team announced that Andrew McCutchen, Sam Haggerty and Ezequiel Duran have made the club, and Mark Canha, barring an injury, will not.

Finally, Evan Carter will be the primary center fielder, with Wyatt Langford shifting to center field when Carter gets a day off. Carter, per team president Chris Young, will sit against some lefties, but will not be platooned to start the year.

It appears that 25 of the 26 spots in the roster are now set, with the only question remaining being who will get the final spot in the bullpen. Carter Baumler, Josh Sborz and Luis Curvelo are considered the leading candidates. Baumler, as a Rule 5 selection, would have to be put on waivers and, if he clears, offered back to the Baltimore Orioles, from whom he was selected, if he’s not on the major league roster or the major league injured list.

I don’t think there are any real surprises with these announcements. From the time he was signed, it appeared that a roster spot was McCutchen’s to lose, and he has performed well in exhibition games since signing. Rocker’s strong finish to the spring, along with Latz seeing a velocity dip in his last start and his overall value as a reliever, seemed to give Rocker the edge for the fifth starter spot.

Spencer Strider is back on the bench.

Strider will begin the 2026 season on the injured list with an oblique strain, Braves manager Walt Weiss told reporters Monday, yet another setback in Strider’s young career.

“l think we’ve gotten out in front of this thing to a degree,” Weiss said of Strider’s designation. “So we’re hoping it’s not going to be a big deal.

“It’s hard for (Strider) to feel it, but it is there when he throws. There’s a chance, if he would have went out and made a start today, it would have set him back further.”

Strider was scratched from his start Monday against the Pirates. There’s currently no timetable for his return, though Weiss mentioned Atlanta hopes he can return in a few weeks.

Strider is not the only issue with the Braves’ rotation. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep are both on the 60-day injured list, while Joey Wentz suffered a season-ending ACL tear. They retained 2024 Cy Young winner Chris Sale in free agency, but the rest of the rotation currently includes Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder.

And it’s the third major injury Strider has faced in the last three years.

In 2024, he missed nearly the entire season after he hurt his UCL and underwent internal brace surgery. Last year, he was sidelined for the first six weeks of the season, and when he returned, he was not up to his past standard. Strider made 23 starts and finished with a 4.45 ERA and 131 strikeouts.

Atlanta hopes Strider can return to his 2023 form, though — the best year of his career. Strider led the league in wins (20), strikeouts (281) and FIP (2.85), while finishing with a 3.86 ERA. He finished fourth in the National League Cy Young Award voting and made the All-Star team.

Strider was in the midst of a hopeful spring training, going 2-0 with a 3.24 ERA over 8 1/3 innings.

The Braves faltered to fourth place in the NL East last year, ending the year at 76-86 and missing the playoffs. They fired manager Brian Snitker after the year and hired Weiss.

Their quest to return to the postseason is already off to a rough start in 2026 because of Strider and Co.’s injuries.

Besides the pitching staff, shortstop Ha-Seong Kim is sidelined with a hand injury he suffered while falling on ice in January. Outfielder Jurickson Profar will miss the entire season after testing positive for PEDs and receiving a suspension.

Texas Rangers lineup for March 23, 2026 against the Kansas City Royals: starting pitchers are MacKenzie Gore for the Rangers and Michael Wacha for the Royals.

Tonight is the first of two exhibitions between the Rangers at the Royals at the Shed. Apparently they enjoy each other’s company so much that even after spending the whole spring together at Surprise, they want more together time.

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Langford — CF

Seager — SS

Burger — 1B

Smith — 2B

Jung — 3B

Pederson — DH

Carter — LF

Jansen — C

7:05 p.m. Central start time.

The Atlanta Braves took on the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, FL today in their second to last Spring Training game. We got to see the continuation of Didier Fuentes’ fantastic spring, but it was not due to good circumstances. Spencer Strider was initially supposed to start this game but was scratched due to an oblique injury and will start the year on the IL.

The Braves are hoping Strider misses just a couple weeks. But there's always a lot of uncertainty with oblique strains

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026

Fuentes continued to look sharp at the start of the game. In his first two innings he saw the minimum number of hitters. He did however give up his first hit of the spring in the second inning fittingly to former teammate Marcell Ozuna. Ryan O’Hearn grounded into a double play though and Fuentes continued his streak of scoreless innings at eleven after completing the second inning.

Interestingly, Fuentes had seventeen strikeouts in his first 9.0 innings of spring, but did not have any strikeouts through his first 3.2 innings today. He was able to get revenge on Ozuna by striking him out to end the fourth for his first strikeout of the day on an eight pitch at-bat.

Fuentes ended his scoreless streak by giving up his first earned run after 13.2 innings in the spring. The way he gave it up was not entirely his fault though, even the box score will show it that way. He was replaced by Samuel Strickland after walking Spencer Horwitz with two outs and the bases empty. Strickland then gave up a double to the first batter he faced that scored Horwitz.

Fuentes ended his excellent spring with 13.2 innings pitched, eighteen strikeouts, one walk, two singles, and one HBP while maintaining an ERA of 0.66.

Another positive pitching note is that Joel Payamps continued to look sharp yet again. He did give up a single, but had two strikeouts and zero walks in 2.0 innings pitched.

The Braves’ offense was mostly players who will likely see most of the playing time against RHP this season. They were facing Carson Fulmer who had yet to give up a hit in his 4.0 spring innings. That did not slow down the Braves as Matt Olson took him deep in the first and Eli White took him deep in the second. It should also be noted that Ronald Acuña Jr. doubled in the first, but got caught trying to steal third.

The long balls continued for the Braves as Mike Yastrzemski and Matt Olson both went deep in the top of the sixth off of Mike Clevinger. After his two HRs today, Matt Olson has six longballs this spring. This is encouraging considering it seemed that Olson had been trading his HRs for doubles the past few seasons.

The key takeaways from this game were that Ozzie Albies, and Michael Harris seem to continue to struggle while Matt Olson is continuing to heat up. Didier Fuentes was not as dominant today, but it is still clear he deserves a shot on the MLB team. With today’s injury to Strider he may even get some starts.

Fuentes is easily a better option than some of the other slated starters.

Braves likely rotation to start the season:
Chris Sale
Reynaldo Lopez (FB averaged 89.4 mph yesterday)
Grant Holmes (MRI showed UCL tear in August)
Bryce Elder (5.30 ERA in 2025)
Jose Suarez (More teams (2) than starts (1) since start of 2025)

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026

The Braves took this game 5-2 and continued to have the best run differential amongst all MLB teams in spring training. Of course, spring numbers don’t truly matter, but it does show the offense has had life, at a minimum. Although there is bad news today with Strider, the good news is the there is only one more spring game, and then it is Opening Day.

The Braves will finish up their spring training tomorrow against the Tampa Bay Rays where newly minted number three rotation arm Grant Holmes will take the mound at 1:05 at EDT.

It’s the last game of spring training and I thought it started at one but it started at noon, whoops sorry. Talk about it here!

Luis Castillo pulls the final start of the srping, which feels bookend-y.

Call this the “we’re just trying some things” lineup. Garver at first? Sure.

Game information:

Game time: NOW

TV: No, which feels rude for the final day of spring but whatever

Radio: 710 AM Seattle Sports

We’ve talked quite a bit about the Detroit Tigers’ long-term drought in the international free agent market throughout our spring prospect coverage. Players like Wenceel Pérez and Keider Montero have at least provided some value the past few seasons, but it’s been a long time since the Tigers found a really good major leaguer outside the draft or the trade market. Scott Harris has revamped the scouting and player development work, and the Tigers’ recent class is probably their best regarded ever between catcher Manuel Bolivar and tooled up outfielder Randy Santana, among others. It may not take that long for the Tigers to find their next IFA star, however. Josue Briceño’s future at the catcher position is still up in the air, but his combination of power, contact ability, and plate discipline are primed to make him a very dangerous hitter at the major league level in the years to come.

The Tigers signed the then 17-year-old Briceño for $800,000 in their January 2022 signing class. Hailing from the fascinating town of Colonia Tovar, a sort of mini-Bavarian village set high in the mountains of north central Venezuela, the young catcher got off to a decent start playing in the Dominican Republic, and then came stateside in 2024 and broke out in a big way in 2024.

Our first real looks at Briceño came from Single-A ball with the Lakeland Flying Tigers that spring. The young catcher was a little sluggish behind the plate, but his bat was already making a ton of noise when a PCL sprain in his right knee in mid-May cost him most of the season. He returned for the final two weeks of regular season action but only as a DH, but it was already clear this wasn’t a different player to the one who hit the injured list. Briceño worked his tail off in his rehab work, trimming down while building a lot of strength and flexibility. His legs were much stronger, and he and the Tigers made some adjustments to help him generate more power from his lower half. With that came a good amount of natural loft, and suddenly the ball was exploding off his bat to all fields. Briceño went out for work in the Arizona Fall League just after his 20th birthday, and despite only a brief look at even the Single-A level, he tore the Fall League apart in October.

He announced his coming out party with a dead center bomb off top pitching prospect Andrew Painter’s 98 mph heat early on, and then continued to maul far more experienced pitching than he’d ever faced before en route to a league MVP award. To keep pressure off his repaired knee, the Tigers only had him DH out there, and Briceño went on to hit 10 home runs, posting a .433/.509/.867 line in 105 plate appearances.

That performance opened everyone’s eyes nationally, and Briceño found himself a consensus top 100 prospect last offseason. His reign of terror continued at the High-A level in 2025, as he spent nearly four months with Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark setting the table for him as part of one of the best offenses in Midwest League history.

In 55 games for the Whitecaps, Briceño walloped 15 home runs, showing plus power to all fields. He hit .296/.422/.602 with a 16.8 percent walk rate outpacing his 16.4 percent strikeout rate. The discipline, contact, and raw power were extremely impressive, and what stood out beyond the numbers was that despite his fairly long limbs, he was able to delivery great batspeed even on pitches away, staying through those balls for some real tape measure blasts to left and left-center field. All that while still retaining the ability to crush anything on the inner half to the pull field.

By midseason, with Thayron Liranzo sidelined from catching duties by a shoulder issue, Briceño took over more work behind the plate. After the injury shortened 2024 campaign, he wasn’t quite up to the task and seemed to wear down somewhat over the final two months of the year. His on-base percentages were still great and he topped .800 OPS in both August and September, hitting five homers in 45 games, but he finally did start expanding the zone against better offspeed and breaking stuff, and his strikeout rate popped to 23.7 percent in that stretch for the Erie SeaWolves. Still, he was still pretty good, just not great, and enthusiasm wasn’t at all diminished. He didn’t even turn 21 until the season was over, and he’d both destroyed High-A pitching and still had a reasonably good start at the Double-A level.

Most remain skeptical of Briceño’s ability to catch at the major league level, but confidence in his bat continues to grow. Even sites that expect him to move to first base full-time still have in the middle of their top 100 rankings nationally. Personally I still think it’s a bit early to judge with certainty. Because of the knee injury, Briceño still only has 67 games caught in full season ball. That’s a pretty small sample with which to come to a hard and fast conclusion.

Briceño has an average throwing arm for a catcher, and that certainly says that he’s not going to be an everyday catcher in the major leagues. However, he’s a smart, hard-working player whose blocking and framing has shown pretty steady improvement in two seasons worth of part-time work. He had a couple of rough stretches last year where he gave up a few passed balls, but he has enough athleticism to be good back there with more work, and the Tigers do an excellent job coaching up their catchers. In time, he’s still got a fair chance to be good enough to handle the backup catcher duties behind Dillon Dingler. The bigger question is whether the Tigers will give it the time required, as Briceño’s bat is quite far advanced already.

Briceño makes a ton of hard contact, he has plus power, and he doesn’t chase out of the zone too much. Better pitching at the Double-A level did challenge him, particularly advanced left-handers. So, he needs some more time to adapt to upper level pitching, but he’s ahead of the curve, and way ahead when you consider his age and limited experience in pro ball.

One challenge left is to develop more against left-handed pitching, and that’s mostly a matter of experience. Even in Erie, Briceño was really tough for advanced right-handers to deal with. However, hitters don’t see a regular diet of good left-handers with command until they reach the Double-A level, and while he held his own against them, his numbers were signficantly worse against southpaws. He didn’t chase and strikeout that much against them, actually whiffing more against right-handed pitching last year, but he also did most of his damage against right-handers, while lefties were able to get him reaching more on pitches down and away to pop him up and keep him on the ground more often. He could use a little more time to acclimate to the level, and he’ll spend most of this season in Erie when he returns from the injured list.

Ultimately, Liranzo has the higher upside as a defensive catcher, and so I expect that while the Tigers will keep Briceño working behind the plate a while longer, his future is mainly at first base. His 6’4” frame and good reach plays well there, and he already looks pretty good around the base, though he does need to improve his fielding on ground balls.

His timelines, both defensive and offensive, are both aggravated by the torn tendon in his wrist while taking a swing early in spring camp. The tear required surgery, and Briceño is pretty likely to miss half the season. This probably clarifies the defensive question, as he’s going to lose out on getting a lot more catching reps this spring. Expect him to return to Erie sometime around midseason, looking to get his full strength and timing back in the second half before probably getting a look at Toledo late this summer. In 2027 he should be playing first base for the Toledo Mud Hens, ready to make the jump as soon as his bat is ready.

The Tigers have a pretty good pure hitter here with plus power to all fields. His defense doesn’t need to carry him much at all, and sometime next year I expect him to be splitting time with Spencer Torkelson and taking plenty of DH days for the Detroit Tigers.

This afternoon, the Mets announced that Carson Benge has officially made the Opening Day roster and will be playing right field when the Mets take on Paul Skenes and the Pirates on March 26 at Citi Field.

The team’s number 2 ranked prospect was impressive in camp, hitting .366/.435/.439 in 41 at-bats during Grapefruit League action. During the offseason, David Stearns made it clear that Benge would be given the opportunity to compete for a spot and the 23-year-old made the most of his opportunity. A path for him to the majors became even clearer when the team announced that Juan Soto would be moving to left field this year, which opened up a more natural spot for Benge.

Outfielder Mike Tauchman was having a strong spring and was also competing for the last outfield spot but, unfortunately for him, he tore his meniscus in his knee, which will put him out for a lengthy amount of time. But even before the injury to Tauchman, Benge had firmly placed himself in the conversation for the Opening Day roster.

On the flip side, veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel was told he did not make the team, but the 37-year-old is sticking with the organization in the minor leagues. He allowed three runs in six innings this spring and could be a useful piece to the bullpen if a spot opens up during the season.