Category: Baseball

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

With their final bench spot still in a bit of flux, the Mets made another addition to their very large group of players in camp, signing veteran Mike Tauchman to a minor league deal, according to Will Sammon of The Athletic. Tauchman, despite being on a minor league contract, will have a very open opportunity to make the team with a strong camp.

Tauchman, now 35 years old, has been around, as one could easily surmise. Originally drafted by the Colorado Rockies in tenth round way back in 2013, Tauchman worked his way up with a very strong minor league career until making his Major League debut with the Rockies in 2017. He spent the 2018 season shuttled between the Rockies and Triple-A Albuquerque, never finding his footing as a regular major league player.

That changed for him prior to the 2019 season, when he was traded to the Yankees and immediately became a strong contributor for them, hitting .277/.361/.504 (128 wRC+), earning 3.0 fWAR in just 89 games.

2020 and 2021 were not as kind to Tauchman, as a shoulder injury hampered him in 2020. He hit just .242/.342/.305 (79 wRC+) in the COVID-shortened campaign. 2021 was even tougher on him, hitting .181/.284/.283 (63 wRC+) between the Yankees and Giants.

In 2022, he took his talents to South Korea, playing for the Hanwha Eagles. He was excellent in Korea, hitting .289/.366/.430, earning himself a shot in MLB again, this time with his home state Chicago Cubs. He’s spent the last three years in Chicago, two with the Cubs (2023 and 2024), and one with the White Sox (2025), before hitting free agency this winter. He was remarkably consistent in those three seasons, earning a 108, 110 and 115 wRC+ in 108, 109, and 93 games respectively. He also grades out as bang average defensively per Outs Above Average, though he is more of a corner outfielder than center fielder nowadays.

Tauchman, being a solid-but-unspectacular Major League contributor will do wonders for the Mets bench, should he make the team. Recent signing MJ Melendez still has a minor league option, so they can afford to keep both in the organization if Tauchman hits the ground running. His ability to help in right field should Carson Benge struggle, and give Carlos Mendoza another option at DH should Brett Baty be in the field, makes his roster fit easy to envision. On top of that, Luis Robert Jr. has had his fair share of injury struggles in his career, and while Tauchman is not much of a center fielder anymore, he can provide cover in right should Benge have to shift over in case of an injury.

The news that Corbin Carroll had suffered a broken hamate bone in his hand was not the way the D-backs wanted to start spring training. I guess the good news – if there is any – is that the injury happened at the beginning of the pre-season, minimizing the amount of regular season time lost. Indeed, with almost six weeks between the injury and Opening Day, he may not end up missing much time, if any at all. However, there is a common perception that even after the player returns, the injury can have a negative impact, particularly in regard to their power. According to orthopedic sports surgeon Dr Deepak Chona:

“The amount of time varies, but generally projects to six weeks after returning. Most likely, this timing correlates with the recovery of grip strength and control of the bat. This dips after surgery (1) because of the generalized trauma/swelling to the muscles of the hand and (2) because the part of the bone (called the hook of the hamate) that they cut out to treat the fracture is involved in generating grip force as well.”

Is there statistical data to back up a drop in power? To see if there is, I used Fangraph’s Injury Report tool to find the occurrences of broken hamates in the majors over the last five years. There were seventeen, including some to names you might recognize – backup catcher James McCann suffered the same injury, while on the Mets in 2022. Three of those took place in September, and the players concerned didn’t return that year. So I excluded those from the sample, because they will have been well past the period of weakness described by Dr. Chona, by the start of the following campaign.

Firstly, the average date between the event and the player coming off the Injured List was 61 days. That’s a little longer than expected, but is skewed by two players who each spent more than a hundred days on the IL. Half the fourteen players returned in seven weeks or less – which fits in with the 6-8 week time-frame often reported – the quickest being Emmanuel Rivera’s 36 days. So there is a chance that Carroll could indeed be back on the active roster in time for Opening Day, though it is more likely he will miss some time. But what might his performance be like when he comes back?

To look at that, I took the final thirty games for each player (which may be partly or all from the previous season), and compared their numbers there, against the first thirty games after their reactivation (or up until the end of the year). Angel Martinez and Emmanuel Rivera had made zero and two major-league appearances respectively before suffering their fractures. On the other hand, Rafael Marchán did not appear in the majors at all in 2023 after coming off the IL, and Mike Trout played only one game post his injury. So I skipped all four of their numbers entirely, even though this does reduce our sample-size to ten.

I then took the quick and dirty approach of simply averaging the triple-slash lines plus OPS. To be entirely accurate, I should have weighted these by PAs, but life’s too short, and this isn’t a doctoral thesis, so I’m happy with a “good enough” approach. Again, I do caution that this is a very small sample, and every individual case is going to be different. Past performance is no guarantee of future production, and please consult with your financial advisor before making any decisions based on these numbers. But the results we have, are as listed in the table below:

Before hamate: .192/.268/.328 = .596 OPS
After hamate: .217/.293/.358 = .651 OPS

Hence the disclaimer above. Because otherwise, I’m sure there would be a rush of players running off to get their hamate bones removed, in order to boost their batting average by 25 points. Hey, Tommy John surgery makes you throw harder, doesn’t it? But if we look in particular at the isolated power metric of ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average), it hardly changes: .136 before, and just five clicks higher afterward, at .141. With a sample size of less than three hundred games on each side, that doesn’t seem statistically significant. While Dr. Chona’s logic makes sense, over the past five years it doesn’t appear that hamate injuries have led to a decline in power post-procedure.

It is possible that this is a relatively recent phenomena, resulting from improvement in care after the operation and rehabilitation processes. We’ve seen this in regard to Tommy John, which was once seen as the kiss of death to a pitcher’s career, but is now “super easy, barely an inconvenience.” Ok, I exaggerate, but it does take time for broader perceptions to catch up with advances in medical technology and procedure. It is possible that, previously, hamate surgery did have an impact on player power, but that no longer seems – at least, necessarily – to be the case. Which is good news for Corbin Carroll and the Diamondbacks.

Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when it opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.

The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.

“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks," Roberts said. "So, how can we be methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”

Read more:Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes responds to Manny Machado, Bryce Harper comments about spending

Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before opening day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.

“That was always kind of a stretch, just due to the nature of the injury and the timing of the surgery and everything,” Edman said. “I think, having been out of the boot for a little over a month now, I was just kind of waiting to see how it progressed, and everything has gone exactly on-schedule. We were kind of leaving opening day open, just in case it happened to feel way better than expected. Everything’s on the expected schedule so far. As I get into more baseball stuff, I still have to work into the adaptation of volume. As the volume goes up, the swelling kind of increases a little bit, so I’ve got to take it slow and let the progress play out the way it was planned all along, instead of trying to speed it up.”

For now, Edman is slow-playing it.

“He took some swings a couple days ago, [from] both sides,” Roberts said. “He did some skipping, some light jogging, I think it was. He’s getting his body into baseball shape, so obviously he’s not going to be ready for the start of camp. He’s in that same bucket of, ‘When he’s ready, he’s ready.’ But each day, there’s been progress.”

Evan Phillips excited to be back

Days after signing a one-year contract to return to the Dodgers — despite being non-tendered earlier in the offseason — Evan Phillips expressed relief at being back.

“[The offseason] was quiet for a little bit,” Phillips said. “I leaned on my agent to be patient and trust that things were going to work out and we're certainly glad that we're back. It was definitely a very, very wild ride this offseason. It feels like I never left, so it's kind of weird to get all the handshakes and hugs, but it’s just another spring training to me. I'm certainly glad to be back in Dodger blue.”

Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told reporters Sunday that Phillips should return to the Dodgers sometime in the middle of the season. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June.

“[I’ve been] doing long toss a few times a week, hoping to get on the bullpen or on the mound for a bullpen next month,” Phillips said. “I'll start that mound progression here in the next couple of weeks. I think, actually, Tuesday I'll throw off of the mound for the first time, but it won't be to a catcher or anything. It'll just be a catcher standing up and there's a slow progression, week by week. So [there will be] plenty of steps ahead that's going to keep me busy here in Arizona, but I’m definitely looking forward to that progression.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The San Diego Padres will go into the 2026 season with a better roster than in 2025. It is already a better roster and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller isn’t done yet. He said so in his morning media scrum on Sunday.

It is not a World Series winning team as it currently stands. But it is good enough to compete for the first half of the season and Preller could still make improvements over the next few weeks and at the trade deadline this summer.

By July, we will have a better idea of which players in the minor leagues he can use as trade bait to complete the team. For those who don’t like the way Preller operates, you should probably get used to it. It was made public on Monday that he has been extended for multiple years.

Prospects are capital to Preller. If he falls in love with one, like he did Jackson Merrill, then we could see that player with the Padres. But otherwise, they are used to get players he feels the major league team needs.

The 2025 Padres won 90 games and started the season with Yuli Gurriel as DH, Jason Heyward in left field and Elias Diaz/Martin Maldonado behind the plate. Heyward and Gurriel were gone by May, but it was painful to watch until then. Diaz and Maldonado lasted until Freddy Fermin was acquired at the trade deadline when Diaz became the backup and Maldonado was released.

Here is a look at how the current roster compares to the one we saw in spring of 2025. Anyone would be hard-pressed to argue we aren’t in a better place.

Starting pitchers

This is the one area where the Padres, on paper, appear to be behind last season. With a starting group of Dylan Cease, Michael King, Nick Pivetta, Randy Vasquez, an injured Yu Darvish and Kyle Hart the Padres were taking a big swing with hoping that Cease, King, Darvish, Pivetta and Vasquez would carry them through, and Hart could be a depth piece. On paper that looked serviceable.

We didn’t know that Darvish had a torn UCL and Cease would be ineffective through parts of the year. We didn’t know that King would get hurt after being dominant for a couple months and Hart would flame out as a starter and be shuttled between the bullpen and Triple-A.

Pivetta stepped forward and carried the load for this team, allowing Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert to get starts and shine. Vasquez, who struggled early on and wasn’t sharp, came on late in the season and helped prop up the rotation.

It was a patchwork group who looked good to start the year but were injury-riddled and still managed to pitch the Padres to 90 wins (with a bullpen assist).

For 2026, Cease is gone and King is healthy. Joe Musgrove is back from Tommy John surgery and Vasquez looks to build on the step forward he took late last season. Pivetta has earned the front-of-the-rotation status that should come his way on Opening Day.

The rotation needs a fifth starter and depth. With the acquisition of Germán Márquez and Griffin Canning (not on roster yet), the Padres now have JP Sears, Márquez, Matt Waldron, Hart, Marco Gonzales, Triston McKenzie and Canning in competition for the fifth spot and depth for the rotation. This should make for an interesting spring to see who fills out the roster.

If last season’s pieced together rotation, with the help of their shut-down bullpen, was able to have a good season then this group should have an equal chance.

Bullpen

The Padres had Tom Cosgrove, Sean Reynolds, Alek Jacob, Ron Marinaccio, Omar Cruz and Juan Nuñez competing for bullpen jobs last season. The back of the bullpen had Robert Suarez, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Jeremiah Estrada. Middle relief was Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta. Bryan Hoeing got hurt early and wasn’t a factor.

Suarez is now the set-up man for the Atlanta Braves. Of the other prior bullpen options, only Jacob and Marinaccio are still with the team.

For 2026, the Padres have Mason Miller to close. Adam, Morejon and Estrada are late-inning options, and a host of other contenders fill out and add depth to the bullpen.

Peralta and Matsui are likely locks with the team. David Morgan made a great first impression last season and earned a 2.66 ERA in 47.1 innings pitched. Bradgley Rodriguez was only in seven games but showed wipeout stuff with a 1.17 ERA.

Hoeing could be competing for the long-man role with Hart or Marinaccio. There are many other options with Preller adding Ty Adcock and Daison Acosta to the roster for the bullpen. Then there are the Padres minor league options with Garrett Hawkins and Francis Peña (not on the roster).

Non-roster invites in camp include Ethan Routzhan, Manuel Castro, Sean Boyle, Logan Gillaspie, Justin Yeager, Ryan Och and Evan Fitterer.

An area of deep depth for the Padres, the bullpen competition will mean someone who should be a big-league pitcher will either leave the team or be in the minor leagues.

With the news from Preller that Jhonny Brito will not be ready until May or June, that takes him out of the running but adds another arm for later in the season. He was recently moved to the 60-day IL.

Outfielders

The Padres did serious dumpster-diving last offseason to acquire over-the-hill major league players to fill out their roster. Gurriel, Heyward, and Maldonado all signed and made the opening roster for the team. Aging and largely ineffective Jose Iglesias still played good defense but added little with his bat. Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano didn’t come along until after the trades made at the deadline.

Connor Joe was signed to platoon at first base and the outfield but had nothing left and was traded to the Reds in May. The Padres used Brandon Lockridge, Tyler Wade, Gavin Sheets and Oscar Gonzalez to piece together left field and relief for Jackson Merrill when he was injured and Fernando Tatis Jr. when he needed a day off.

After acquiring Laureano, the Padres had a much improved outfield and he is retained for one more season. To add depth, the Padres have Bryce Johnson, Sheets (in a pinch), newly acquired Miguel Andujar and new signee Nick Castellanos as well as Tirso Ornelas.

Adujar and Castellanos are probably guaranteed to make the team as depth and DH options as well as platoon options for first base.

Jase Bowen, Carlos Rodriguez, Nick Schnell and Pablo Reyes were all minor league signs with invites to spring camp.

Infielders

The Padres have Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth to provide good defense and reliable offense on the left side. Luis Arraez was the regular first baseman in 2025. Although an excellent contact hitter, he provides little else. His below-average defense and lack of power hampered the lineup during 2025.

Sheets is a power-hitting lefty first baseman who plays league average defense but has significant splits versus left-handed pitchers. A platoonmate for first base is an area of emphasis for Preller this offseason. Andujar plays first, Castellanos has started working out at first during the offseason and Preller added first baseman Ty France to the mix on Monday morning. Signed to a minor league deal, France has the best glove of the group with 10 OAA (outs above average) ranking for his range as an infielder. His overall fWAR for 2025 was 1.0.

There are multiple options now for the starting group in the infield and a stiff competition should take place for the right-handed platoon piece for Sheets at first base. Minor league sign Jose Miranda is a bounce-back candidate for the infield. Minor league depth includes Marcos Castanõn, Franciso Acuna, Nick Solak, Samad Taylor and Romeo Sanabria. All were non-roster invites to spring camp.

Catchers

Things get really interesting behind the plate in 2026. Freddy Fermin is the frontline catcher but has never been the top guy before and will need to ease into increased playing time to avoid what we saw last year after his trade to San Diego. With the wear and tear of playing almost every game, Fermin’s offense deteriorated significantly.

His pre-All-Star game average was .274 with a .354 on base. He was traded to San Diego and played more games those last two months than he had previously for any two months of his career. His post-All-Star average was .226 with a .259 on base.

All those numbers were a big improvement over the Diaz/Maldonado tandem the team started with, but it seems clear that to get the best out of Fermin he needs a solid backup catcher to give him time off.

The Padres are going all in on Luis Campusano this spring. Both Preller and manager Craig Stammen have stated that fact repeatedly. He is the No. 2 and will get a lot of playing time this spring to show what he can do on both sides of the ball. Campusano is out of options. This is his last chance to prove he can be a major league player with San Diego.

Behind Campusano are Blake Hunt and Rodolfo Duran. Both were mentioned by Stammen as compliments to the backup job. If Campusano washes out, those two will be the first options for the Padres.

Top prospect Ethan Salas will get lots of work this spring in a run up to his minor league season where he hopes to re-establish himself as a top prospect in baseball.

Bench

The Padres bench in 2025 consisted of Gurriel as the DH and fill-in for first base (he hit .111 before his release). Iglesias and Sheets provided infield depth with Sheets also filling in for Heyward in left field. Lockridge was the fourth outfielder. Maldonado was the backup catcher.

For 2026, the bench options are Castellanos, Andujar, Johnson, Ornelas, Campusano, Mason McCoy, France, Will Wagner and the newly acquired infielder Sung-Mun Song from Korea. Song was primarily a third baseman in Korea but has voiced a willingness to work all around the field for the Padres. He will get work at first base and the outfield, as well as at second and third base.

The only position Song hasn’t been mentioned for is shortstop. It isn’t clear who the primary backup at shortstop will be. Cronenworth is the most experienced player on the team at that position to back up Bogaerts.

As Bogaerts will be gone to the WBC for a lot of spring camp, we will see who gets the bulk of playing time for the Padres. McCoy and Wagner are both shortstops by trade and Wagner is left-handed. This could be the best opportunity for one of them to make the roster.

So there you have it. The floor of talent for this team far exceeds the one put on the field for the start of the 2025 season. The ceiling for this team is yet to be determined. Much will be discovered as the spring goes on and Preller continues to make adjustments to the roster.

The competition should be fierce and entertaining to see who rises to the challenge and pushes their way onto the 26-man roster for the 2026 Padres.

Yankees captain Aaron Judge spoke following Monday’s first full squad workout…

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On this offseason…

Judge admitted it was brutal watching this offseason play out early on with the team not very active in free agency, and the uncertainty around Cody Bellinger’s future stretching in to the New Year. 

“I see a lot of free agent’s out there, I see a lot of guys like the Bellinger’s, the [Trent] Grisham’s, the [Paul] Goldschmidt’s -- it was like let’s sign these guys right now and then start adding some more pieces because I’m seeing other teams around the league get better with trades and signings.

“It was tough there in the beginning, but I think once we solidified Bellinger back, we solidified Trent back as our centerfielder, then you add a guy like Goldy and some of the backend bullpen pieces like we’ve been doing, I think we’re in a good spot,” he said. 

“But early on, it was definitely tough to watch, it’s like we’re the New York Yankees, let’s go out there and get the right people, get the right pieces and go out there and finish this things off -- it was frustrating, but I think we’re right where we need to be.”

Judge admitted that he did voice some frustration to the front office, particularly on retaining Bellinger, but is glad they were able to take care of business. 

On the Yanks “running it back…”

While much has been made with this squad essentially running it back with the same roster that fell short last season, he loves the team as currently constructed.

“People might have their opinions on it, because we didn’t win it all last year and we fell short in the division series, but we get a chance to bring a lot of those guys back -- they’re impact players for us.

“You bring a guy back like Bellinger who can play all over the diamond, come up a big hit when you need him. Goldschmidt who is an MVP, has played all over, just what he brings not only on the field but in the clubhouse, he elevates with the young group we have,” Judge said. 

“I’m excited. You get another year for the young guys to develop, bring back some big pieces, especially Grisham our center fielder who had a breakout year, so I’m looking forward to it. Then you add G Cole down the line with some other guys, I like our chances.”

On his elbow…

Judge was slowed down by a flexor strain in his right elbow towards the end of last season, but he’s back to 100 percent at the beginning of camp. 

“It’s feeling great,” he said. “I haven’t had any issues so far, I think we’re ready to go. I’m out there throwing confidently, I’ve thrown to the bases a couple of times already, so no worries -- excited to get out there and have that confidence.

“That was the toughest thing for me last year, the pitcher working his butt off and the guys working their butts off, and a ball gets hit to me and it’s kind of like I had no shot -- so excited to get back out there and do my thing for the team.”

Judge is scheduled to play in “four or five” of the Yanks’ first nine spring games. 

On leading USA in the WBC…

Judge is excited for the opportunity to captain USA in his first World Baseball Classic. 

“The time is right,” he said. “In 2023 being a free agent I didn’t know where I was going to go, then coming back to the Yankees and being named the captain, I didn’t want to miss out on that first spring training being the captain, I wanted to be around the guys.

“The time is now to do it. USA came up a little short year, but it’s an exciting group of guys. [Mark DeRosa’s] got quite a squad he’s put together so far, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s happened -- it’s pretty cool.”

He’s looking forward to a rematch with the defending champion, Team Japan. 

“Definitely hoping to see them in the Finals,” Judge said. “They’re the reigning champs and they have a great squad coming back, so I think that’s why Team USA really bulked it up this year to go out there and take care of business.

“If they’re bringing back the same crew, it’s gonna be a heavyweight fight, that’s for sure.”

Judge began throwing a little earlier than usual, but he didn’t have to change his offseason routine too much to ensure he’s ready for USA’s opening matchup. 

On what he’s working on…

Judge doesn’t have too much to improve after taking home his second straight MVP, but he’s been working on taking a step forward in one area of his game in particular.

“Baserunning’s on my mind this year a lot,” he said. “I saw a lot of guys around the league with 40, 30 stolen bases that you don’t normally expect to be running that much -- especially with how the game’s changed with the pickoffs and pitch clock.

“I think that’s one way we can utilize some of my skills a little bit more.

“With the lineup we have, this was probably the best offense in all of baseball last year -- if I can find a way to get myself in scoring position, if they're going to walk me or do something, then some good things are going to happen.”

Judge swiped 12 bases last season, just four shy of his career-high. 

On the energy so far in camp...

Judge feels a different energy after the Yanks were knocked out by the division-rival Blue Jays in the ALDS last year. 

"Any time you don't take it all the way and win the championship you get a bad taste in your mouth," he said. "I think guys are definitely motivated and ready to go, there's a different energy coming in, especially when you lose to a division rival like that where you're tied with the same record, they have the tiebreaker.

"The boys came ready to work, so I'm looking forward to changing that script and going all the way."

MESA, Arizona — By the time I got to the Cubs Sloan Park complex this morning, much of the activity had slowed down for the day. However, I do have some photos and video to show you. First, though, since this was the first full squad workout day for the team, Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts had a few comments after meeting with players:

Tom Ricketts: "It's about winning. All of this other stuff, it all leads to one thing and that's winning. We just have to put the kind of teams on the field that can be in the playoffs every year and get back on top." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/R6BTMOt2hP

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) February 16, 2026

It’s the usual thing he says every spring. This year, though, I think the team is in very good position to win.

After the catchers workout was done, Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya stopped and signed autographs — for everyone waiting. There were a couple dozen kids waiting and the catchers obliged everyone.

So that’s a good thing.

Then, I went over to Field 1, where I had heard Ian Happ, Michael Busch and Alex Bregman were supposed to be hitting. But, I found out those three had been there earlier and were done for the day.

Instead, I saw some brief hitting sessions from Dansby Swanson and Kevin Alcántara, so I can share some videos of that with you.

That’s a very brief visit to Cubs camp today. There was actually a game going on at Sloan Park today. The Cubs (along with several other Spring Training parks) are hosting the Desert Invitational involving college baseball teams. Today’s Sloan Park game was Air Force vs. Kansas State — I saw quite a few fans dressed in KSU purple.

Tuesday is supposed to be a bit rainy and cool in the Valley so practices will likely be indoors. The Cubs’ first spring game will be Friday against the White Sox at Sloan Park at 2:05 p.m. CT. That game will be televised on Marquee Sports Network, with a radio broadcast on The Score.

Spring training is here, and exhibition games will be on the schedule as early as the end of this week. With that in mind, it’s time to kick the mailbag back into high gear, and get back to answering your questions on a weekly basis. The Yankees are gearing up in camp, and have gotten some promising news so far with both Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón aiming to get into Grapefruit League games by the end of spring. There are a couple of minor bumps to address, namely Ben Rice sitting out a couple of days with a sore neck, but they avoided dropping any major bombs on us in the first presser of the year so all things considered that’s a great start.

The floor is wide open for questions about this team. They’ve infamously decided to run it back with the roster that took them to the ALDS last year, plus or minus some bullpen tweaking, and they’ve got a bigger role in store for both Rice and Trent Grisham compared to the start of last year. Will their gamble to bet on themselves work out? Will they get reinforcements for the rotation earlier than expected, or is that a pipedream? Can Aaron Judge really be a superhuman for another consecutive year?  If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of February 19th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone spoke to the media following Monday's workouts in Tampa…

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Carlos Lagrange 'excellent' in first live BP session

The first full-squad workout of camp began with rising prospect Carlos Lagrange on the mound for live batting practice, and he turned some heads with fans in attendance.

Facing the heart of the Yankees' lineup, Lagrange showcased his triple-digit velocity, inducing strikeouts of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger across a 49-pitch session.

While the appearance wasn't flawless for the right-hander -- he served up a monstrous home run to Judge on a fastball down the middle -- he ultimately got revenge by fanning the Yankees' captain on three pitches. The third-strike fastball reached 102 mph.

Lagrange also forced Giancarlo Stanton to ground out and pop out in at-bats before walking off the field with a changing-speeds punchout of Bellinger. The performance was met with cheers.

"I thought he was excellent. First one to go out there on first full-squad day," Boone said. "The crowd's full, he's facing the big boys. What I liked is, he was filling up the zone with it too. The stuff obviously jumps off the page at you. Thought he held his stuff, most importantly held his strike throwing. February, but really good to see him out there."

Lagrange, the No. 79 prospect on MLB Pipeline's latest Top 100 rankings, logged a 3.22 ERA with 104 punchouts over 78.1 innings in Double-A Somerset last season. Boone has compared the 22-year-old to former Yankees reliever Dellin Betances, based on his 6-foot-7 frame and blistering fastball.

The next step for Lagrange is to develop the "next layer" of strike throwing, according to Boone, but his overall makeup and leadership traits have grabbed the coaching staff's attention. Lagrange's composure against Judge and other Yankees sluggers was lauded, too.

"That's a big thing to walk in to, for a guy who hasn't been over here," Boone said. "It didn't seem like a big thing to him. He was just out there executing... After the homer, he really came back and executed. The chanegup is special. I thought the sweeper was a good pitch for him, got a lot of outs with it. Fun to watch all that unfold."

The Yankees will begin Grapefruit League action on Friday against the Orioles, and Boone said Lagrange has a very strong chance of starting the game in Sarasota.

Positive updates on Cam Schlittler, Anthony Volpe

Anthony Volpe took the next step forward in his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery, starting a hitting program on Monday that included some dry swings, per Boone.

With the expectation of Volpe missing at least all of April while rehabbing, utilityman Jose Caballero should see ample playing time at shortstop and create some in-season competition.

Meanwhile, Cam Schlittler is scheduled to throw off the mound on Tuesday, less than a week after revealing a minor back issue.

The right-hander was never shut down completely -- he threw on flat ground over the weekend and neither Schlittler nor Boone expressed actual concern about the mild injury.

"He was built up pretty good and we didn't shut him down at all," Boone said. "I don't think we thought it was a big issue, but more of one we wanted to get out in front of, just in case."

Carlos Lagrange strikes out Aaron Judge with a 102.6 MPH fastball 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/9XStI8hdu3

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 16, 2026

Righthanded pitcher Zak Kent has been claimed off of waivers by the St. Louis Cardinals, it was announced today. The Rangers had designated Kent for assignment a few days ago to clear a 40 man roster spot for the newly signed Jordan Montgomery.

This is the second time this offseason that the Cardinals have claimed Kent, who was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2019, and then traded to Cleveland for international bonus pool money at the end of spring training 2024 when the Rangers were opening 40 man roster spots for Jared Walsh, Wyatt Langford and Jose Urena.

Kent made his major league debut for Cleveland in 2025, but was placed on waivers in December, with St. Louis claiming him. The Cardinals then waived him in January, and Texas claimed him. Now he’s back with St. Louis, and I would wager he’ll be placed on waivers again towards the end of spring training when the Cards need a 40 man roster spot and teams are flooding the waiver wire with similar guys, making it more likely he goes unclaimed and can be outrighted.

FanGraphs on Monday put out its top prospects in baseball, with five Dodgers ranked in the top 110 entering the 2026.

Eric Longenhagen, Brendan Gawlowski, and James Fegan wrote up the prospects, a list that was expanded from 100 to 110 to account for the prospects with a Future Value rating of 50 (on the 20-to-80 scouting scale) or higher.

Three outfielders lead the Dodgers contingent represented here, with Josue De Paula ranked 17th, Zyhir Hope 41st, and Eduardo Quintero 43rd.

De Paula is ranked between 14th and 24th on prospect lists at FanGraphs, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, The Athletic, and MLB Pipeline, with an average ranking of 18.5. Says FanGraphs of his future: “De Paula’s combination of present raw power and long-term physical projection give him a great shot to develop 40-homer raw power at peak, though it’s debatable whether his hitting skills are the kind that will allow him to actualize all of that raw thump in games.”

Other Dodgers to show up on the list at FanGraphs are shortstop Emil Morales ranked 61st and pitcher River Ryan at 107th coming back from Tommy John surgery. De Paula (48th) and Ryan (101st) are the only Dodgers returning from last year’s preseason ranking at FanGraphs.

Based on the FanGraphs Dodgers team prospect rankings from December, the next prospects in line in the system are, in order, outfielder Mike Sirota, pitcher Christian Zazueta, and shortstop Alex Freeland.

Player	Pos	2026 preseason	2025 preseason
Josue De Paula	OF	17	48
Zyhir Hope	OF	41	NR
Eduardo Quintero	OF	43	NR
Emil Morales	SS	61	NR
River Ryan	SP	107	101

Corey Seager attempted to defuse questions surrounding what has been described this winter as a “toxic” relationship with Marcus Semien, leading to his double-play partner’s offseason trade from Texas to the Mets.

The poor relationship between their shortstop and second baseman prompted the Rangers to take back Brandon Nimmo and $5 million from the Mets to shed the final three years and $72 million left on Semien’s deal, according to a Jan. 23 report by The Post’s Joel Sherman.

“I mean, I think that’s things that I heard in-house that people don’t know about, right, that’s just all speculation,” Seager said Monday at the Rangers’ spring-training facility in Surprise, Ariz. “Me and Marcus had a fine relationship, we both respected each other, we were both professional and we knew how to go about our business and try to accomplish a goal, and we did that in ’23, so like I said, you can’t take that away from us.”

The middle infield duo teamed up with the Rangers via free agency ahead of the 2022 season, with Seager leaving the Dodgers for a 10-year contract worth $325 million and Semien bolting the Blue Jays for a seven-year deal worth $175 million. Texas captured the franchise’s first World Series title in 2023, but the team has posted a combined record of 159-165 the past two seasons, including a .500 finish last year.

The 31-year-old Seager, the MVP of the ’23 Series win over the Diamondbacks, was limited to 102 games in 2025 due to season-ending appendectomy surgery in August.

The 35-year-old Semien, a three-time All-Star, endured a down year offensively with 15 homers, 62 RBIs and a career-worst .669 OPS.

Still, the former shortstop also earned the second Gold Glove award of his career — both as a second baseman — with only two errors and a .996 fielding percentage. Semien’s defense was attractive to the Mets, who sought to improve their run prevention in the offseason.

Thomas Saggese has proven that he is a versatile player, but does he have the skill set to transition to the outfield? There are reports that the St. Louis Cardinals are at least considering it.

I came across this story from MLB Trade Rumors over the weekend that says the St. Louis Cardinals are exploring internal options for its outfield and right-handed bat needs. In their report, they refer to a story by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch saying the Cardinals have not been seriously engaged with Randall Grichuk and that Austin Hays had chosen the White Sox over the Cardinals due to playing time expectations. Their conclusion was that the St. Louis Cardinals were considering Jose Fermin and/or Thomas Saggese for outfield playing time. The Post-Dispatch just shared video today of Chaim Bloom saying Saggese in the outfield is a possibility.

Jose Fermin has already played a handful of MLB games in the outfield, but Saggese hasn’t played in the outfield since he was a 10-year-old kid. As we have shared here previously, Thomas Saggese has solid defensive numbers at 2nd and 3rd base with less impressive metrics at shortstop. Speed plays a much larger role in the outfield than it does the infield and Baseball America rates Thomas as having average to below-average speed rated to around 45 on a 20 to 80 scale. With his work ethic, I don’t question that he can adapt and learn a corner outfield position, but his natural skill set doesn’t seem to be a comfortable fit.

The concept for possibly transitioning Saggese to the outfield would allow him more playing time since his primary infield positions will be filled by Gorman, Winn and likely Wetherholt. If he could earn outfield playing time, that would get his right-handed bat into the lineup, but that’s not the thump many of us were hoping for. My initial impressions of Thomas Saggese was that he was a scrappy hitter similar to David Eckstein. That’s not a bad thing since he did end up being a World Series MVP, but David was known as a slap hitter with limited power. To be fair to Thomas Saggese, his performance in the minors in 2023 and 2024 show he does have some pop with 26 homers in 2023 and 21 in 2024. As I recall, David Eckstein only had 35 home runs over his 11-year career.

We’re still at the genesis of Spring Training so it’s too early to know if the St. Louis Cardinals envision Thomas Saggese as a middle infielder primarily and an outfielder only on rare occasions, but it’s obvious that the team would really love for him to be able to take on the super-utility role that Brendan Donovan excelled at. Does the thought of Thomas Saggese in the outfield make you nervous or is this a brilliant use of an already versatile right-handed bat? No matter what your opinion on Saggese in the outfield is, here’s something that is guaranteed to brighten your day as shared by the St. Louis Cardinals this morning.

Three days ago, ESPN published a tongue-in-cheek article called “Why Your Team Didn’t Do What You Wanted This Winter.” In a spectrum that ran Dodgers-to-Rockies, the Mariners were thankfully much closer to the Dodgers side of things, but Bradford Doolittle, the author, did question why the Mariners didn’t get another lefty bullpen arm to help Gabe Speier, saying some not-so-nice things about Jose Ferrer in the process and giving minimal attention to Robinson Ortiz, one of the Mariners’ early moves this winter. I’m not sure that today’s move of bringing in Josh Simpson from Miami to take Logan Evans’ spot on the 40-man will make Doolittle feel like the Mariners Didmore to address their lefty bullpen issues, but there is now another lefty in the mix along with Speier, Ferrer, and Ortiz.

Simpson got dumped right before Valentine’s Day as the Marlins DFA’d him on Thursday, allowing the Mariners to swoop in and acquire the Columbia product, who has so far spent his entire career in the Marlins organization after being drafted in the 32nd round in 2019. Simpson has had some injury issues in his career, missing a year in between his sophomore and junior seasons at Columbia with TJ. After being drafted he made steady progress through the Marlins system, dominating at the lower levels; but in 2023, he struggled with both injury (shoulder impingement) and throwing strikes at Double-A. 2024 wasn’t kinder on the injury front, as Simpson missed most of the season with “left elbow ulnar neuritis,” also known as cubital tunnel syndrome; you might recognize that as the thing that sidelined flamethrowing Angels pitcher Ben Joyce.

Simpson’s fastball comes in about ten miles slower than Joyce’s, so that’s not the concern with him; it’s more keeping him on the field, which he was able to do in 2025, and throwing strikes, which he was not as able to do. Simpson has enormous strikeout potential thanks to a deep repertoire and ability to spin a breaking ball; his sweeper is a whiff-machine, especially effective against lefties, and when he has a feel for his changeup, it’s deadly:

But there is a troubling amount of his highlight film titled “Josh Simpson escapes a jam,” because he often found himself in jams due to poor command.

There is a lot of raw material to work with for the 28-year-old, who might benefit from a different set of developmental eyes on him. He doesn’t have an overpowering fastball, coming in around 94 and depending more on weak contact than whiffs, and he pairs that with a sinker that is supposed to be a weapon against lefties but winds up in the middle of the plate too often. The Mariners, despite popular perception, don’t tend to make a ton of mechanical adjustments with their pitchers, but just from watching a couple pitches our John Trupin suggested there’s a lack of front-side consistency with Simpson that could be addressed. Then there’s the issue of being able to consistently land his curveball, sweeper, and changeup, which seems like a big ask for a pitcher who’s struggling to throw strikes, so perhaps some selective arsenal editing could be helpful. There’s also the injury aspect to consider, although Simpson is coming off a healthy 2025.

The question in Doolittle’s article still stands; if Ferrer and Ortiz don’t merit much mention, Simpson, at this stage at least, is a tick down from either of those two. But there are a lot of interesting components here that hearken back to the previous lefty duo of Speier and Tayler Saucedo, with Speier raining down hellfire and Saucedo—when he was on—coaxing ugly swings and weak contact. It’s a good lefty one-two punch, in theory; the Mariners’ job this spring will be to find Speier the right sparring partner, and now a new contender has entered the ring.