Category: MLB

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Yankees ace Gerrit Cole crossed off another milestone in his recovery from Tommy John surgery in the spring of 2025. For the first time since going under the knife, the 35-year-old righty faced hitters, and it went as well as one could have expected. The 2023 AL Cy Young threw an inning and about 20 pitches, facing hitters such as Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, and Jasson Dominguez. He struck out the center fielder, induced Judge to hit a grounder to second, and allowed hard contact to the Martian to round out the day.

Cole’s fastball sat in the 95-96 mph range, awfully encouraging at this time of the year. He won’t be ready for the start of the season, but should be back once he is fully stretched out, probably around late April.

Brendan Kuty on X: Everybody in attendance was impressed with Cole’s live batting practice session, his first after blowing up his elbow last spring. One of them, of course, was Yankees captain Aaron Judge.

“It looked like the old 45 that I’ve seen for years,” Judge said about his teammate. With his fastball sitting in the mid-90s and touching 96 mph, it’s a matter of making sure Cole’s command is on point and his breaking stuff rebounds all the way back after surgery, plus stretching out to a full starter’s workload. That could take a few weeks, but things are trending in the right direction. Can Cole and Judge lead the Yankees to the promised land?

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees had their spring training debut on Friday afternoon at Ed Smith Stadium, losing 2-0 to the Baltimore Orioles. A Pete Alonso two-run shot versus Bradley Hanner was the difference between the two teams. Prospect Elmer Rodríguez stole the show for the Yankees, touching 97 mph on the radar gun and tossing three scoreless frames. He conceded just three hits and no walks, striking out one. He looked in control for most of the afternoon, and his stuff was crisp.

“It felt good,” Rodríguez told Hoch. “That first inning, my adrenaline was high in the moment, but I was able to use it and channel it, and use it to my advantage.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr., Amed Rosario, Austin Wells, and José Caballero played on Friday, and Jake Bird contributed a scoreless frame in relief. Carson Coleman struck out the side in the seventh.

Spring Training is officially upon us! The wintry woes of the offseason are behind us as San Diego Padres faced off against the Seattle Mariners at their shared complex in Peoria, Ariz. for the first game of the year. Baseball is back!

While a great deal of prospects got plenty of use today, and will continue to get looked at this preseason. One in particular, Jagger Haynes, held his ground and did a fantastic job facing a (mostly MLB-starting) Seattle lineup. 

Play-by-play of today’s game

Across two innings, Haynes allowed two singles in the first, and a single and home run in the second. Admittedly, that line doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But there’s more nuance to the situation than just that line.

To start the game, Haynes allowed a single from the leadoff hitter, Luke Raley. After that he got Mariners superstar Cal Raleigh to fly out before giving up another single to Julio Rodríguez. With two on and two outs, he induced a double play from Josh Naylor to end the inning.

When he came back in the second, he made quick work of his first two batters. Randy Arozarena lined out and J.P Crawford struck out. Haynes then got Dominic Canzone to hit a fly ball where an easy catch could have ended the inning, but left fielder Nick Schnell lost the ball in the sun and was unable to complete the inning-ending catch. 

Due to that error, Haynes had to continue pitching and now had Canzone on first base. He immediately gave up a home run to Michael Arroyo before getting Colt Emerson to fly out to right field to end it.

It’s hard to speak to how difficult it is to regroup mentally after an error like that, but for Haynes to immediately end the inning after giving up a two-run home run (to a batter he wasn’t even supposed to face) was an indicator of the mental fortitude Haynes has.

Haynes’ minors career

Across his last three years in the San Diego organization, he has spent time in three different levels of the minors, owning a 4.33 ERA with a 1.40 WHIP. Again, the numbers aren’t inspiring, but his ability to come back from Tommy John surgery in 2021, especially after a long rehabilitation process, is. 

After being drafted in 2020, Haynes lost out on the ‘21 and ‘22 season and had to wait to pitch for the organization until the 2023 season. But since joining the Friars at the minor league level, he has shown himself to be a worthwhile prospect.

Obviously, today’s game is a small sample size, it’s only two innings after all. But the stuff that Haynes put on display showed he is beginning to make a case to join the major league roster in the next few years (maybe even getting a call up later this year in the dog days of summer). Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see what the season has in store for Haynes in the Padres’ organization.

For an offense that finished 2025 at the bottom of the league in slugging (22^nd) and home runs (28^th), it was nice to see the San Diego Padres produce their first runs of Cactus League play on the strength of a solo home run from Romeo Sanabria in the top of the sixth inning and a two-run home run from Jose Miranda in the top of the seventh inning during their 7-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Peoria Stadium on Friday. Of course, Sanabria and Miranda will not be everyday players for the Padres, but it could indicate the offensive approach in San Diego is changing or has changed under new hitting coach Steven Souza Jr.

The lineup definitely changed under new Padres manager Craig Stammen and it was a welcome sight for Padres fans who watched former manager Mike Shildt refuse to move Luis Arraez out of the second spot in the lineup despite his struggles last season. Xander Bogaerts, Jackson Merrill, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. were the top four in the lineup, and they produced just one hit on an infield single to start the game by Bogaerts. Jake Cronenworth, Nick Castellanos, Luis Campusano, Ty France and Nick Schnell combined to add just two more hits in the contest.

Hitters often take longer to find their swing in Spring Training and with this being the first game of the spring, there is no reason to get too excited about the success of Sanabria and Miranda or too upset about the stat lines of the big names at the top of the lineup. Cronenworth was the only other regular in the San Diego lineup to record a hit, but he should have had two and two RBI. It took a diving play in the first inning by Seattle right fielder Dominic Canzone to keep Cronenworth off the basepaths and the Padres off the scoreboard. Cronenworth hit the ball well in his two plate appearances.

Castellanos, who got the start at first base, made two nice plays of his own on defense in the bottom of the fourth inning. The first play required him to range to his right to field a ground ball off the bat of J.P. Crawford and then make an underhand throw to pitcher Wandy Peralta who was covering first base for the first out of the inning. The second play resulted in the final out of the inning. Castellanos made a diving play to his right on a hard ground ball by Colt Emmerson with a runner on second base, recovered and made an overhand throw to Peralta at first to end the frame and keep the Mariners from adding to their 3-0 lead.

Stammen was unable to get his first win as a manager in the first game of the spring season, but he and the Padres will have another chance when San Diego plays the Kansas City Royals at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz. on Saturday at 12:05 p.m.

This season, we will get our first official taste of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) in Major League Baseball. It has been used in the minors, and was used in the Arizona Fall League the last few years, but will officially be making its MLB debut this year.

Here’s the overview: each team has two challenges on an umpire’s ball-strike call per game. However, only pitchers, catchers and batters can appeal. If they do, ABS is used to determine whether the appeal is justified. If so, that team get to retain the challenge.

Yesterday, we saw its first action of it in the Rockies-Diamondbacks game. The Dbacks challenged three times and the Rockies challenged twice. The teams went 4-1 in their challenges.

Each challenge takes a few seconds, but it gives players a chance to challenge a call, which hasn’t happened in the past. In the Fall League, it looked a “checked swing” challenge was also being developed, but that won’t be added this spring.

So, Purple Row Night Owls, what are you thoughts on ABS? If you watched the game earlier today, what are your impressions? Do you like it, or do you worry it’ll slow down the game (after Rob Manfred added things like the pitch clock to speed up games)?

Let us know!

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

2025 stats: 34 GS, 207 IP, 3.22 ERA, 2.60 FIP, 9.7 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9, 5.5 fWAR

Writing out Logan Webb’s statline just now made me giggle. A 2.60 FIP in 207 innings? That’s not real. That’s silly. On the other hand, that sort of feeling generally defines the feeling of Logan Webb pitch. A guy who has been so dominant as a groundball pitcher that it almost feels like a fluke. And then he goes and leads the National League in strikeouts in 2025 and posting the best K/9 of his career. It’s hard not to land from the bird’s eye view of his year and think, “He can do everything!” So, it felt appropriate to (finally) end our season reviews with him.

He is the best and, certainly, the most important Giant. The perfect Giant. If the team did not have him, then in any season post-2021 there would’ve been no thought or even hope that they could contend. Certainly not for the division (for the truly delusional set of fans out there) and not for the third Wild Card deep into September (the median hope). The franchise has come to count on his innings. He is a load-bearing talent, even as ownership has all but expressed resentment over having to pay him.

2025 didn’t add to or even cement Logan Webb’s reputation across the industry or San Francisco. He did that at some point near the end of 2023. Instead, the season was yet another reminder that the Giants have a genuine talent in the fold and they’d do well to get him back into the postseason as quickly as possible. For fans who can still remember the championship era, it’s very hard not to go absolutely wild imagining how Postseason Webb might look, leading a team that has a lineup with Rafael Devers in it.

Was it a perfect season? Not exactly. In February, Steven Kennedy wrote this detailed analysis of Logan Webb’s changeup, a critical pitch in his arsenal that had faltered in 2024.

Obviously, Webb has expressed frustration with how the pitch performed last year. Though the league took some serious strides, it wasn’t just an improved plate approach that sent the pitch spiraling. Something was off. Something was weird, an apt word for the change-up’s mercurial nature. On the surface though, there was nothing noticeably problematic. Nothing as obvious as lack of command, leaving the pitch up in the zone, or throwing with his left arm instead of his right. Webb did mention to Andrew Baggarly that he made a minor grip adjustment to “restore some of its familiar fading action.” Though the induced movement between 2023 and 2024 seem pretty comparable, there is an inch-and-a-half of lost horizontal run evident in the year-to-year numbers.

Oh, wait, no Webb wound up totally fixing the changeup, getting the veritcal movement (6.1”) right back in line with 2023 (6.2”) and plussing the run value from +1 in 2024 to +11 in 2025. Admittedly, it was +30 in 2023, but still, that’s a massive improvement year over year. Also, Statcast’s Run Value is context-dependent, meaning the situation matters, so there’s perhaps a little bit of evidence that, despite executing the pitch better than the year before, the league has adjusted and can recognize it better or understand how it moves or simply knows when in a sequence he’s most likely to use it.

As great as the final line was, it’s worth pointing out that Webb’s total arsenal run value wound up just +12. That’s not just the changeup (+11), but the sinker (+7), the four-seamer (+0), the sweeper (-2), and the cutter (-4). The total run value of his arsenal was +23 the year before and +29 the year before. That’s a definite trendline worth keeping an eye on over the course of the season.

This review wouldn’t dare suggest that the Giants’ ace is on some sort of decline… even if he had the second-worst second half of his career. I mean… it was still pretty good, but here are some numbers:

2019: (8 GS, 39.2 IP, 2-3) 5.22 ERA | 1.462 WHIP | 8.5 K/9 | 3.2 BB/9 | 1.2 HR/9
2021: (16 GS, 96.1 IP, 7-0) 2.71 ERA | 1.038 WHIP| 9.3 K/9 | 1.8 BB/9 | 0.5 HR/9
2022: (13 GS, 74.2 IP, 6-6) 3.01 ERA | 1.246 WHIP| 7.5 K/9 | 2.6 BB/9 | 0.4 HR/9
2023: (14 GS, 90 IP, 3-6) 3.40 ERA | 1.022 WHIP | 6.7 K/9 | 0.8 BB/9 | 0.7 HR/9
2024: (13 GS, 80.1 IP, 6-3) 3.47 ERA| 1.220 WHIP |7.3 K/9 | 2.5 BB/9 | 0.6 HR/9
2025: (14 GS, 81.1 IP, 6-5) 3.65 ERA | 1.340 WHIP | 9.4 K/9 | 2.0 BB/9 | 0.6 HR/9

I mean, look at that… it’s terrible, right? What a collapse.

Okay, in all seriousness, though, that second half saw him throttled by the Blue Jays in Toronto (11 hits in 6 IP with 4 ER and just 1 strikeout), blasted by the New York Mets in Oracle (8 hits and 6 ER in 4 IP), frustrated by the Padres in Oracle (8 hits and 4 ER in 6.1 IP with just 3 K), and bookending this trio of letdowns during a key run of games were a pair of pastings by those Los Angeles Bums.

The Giants wound up winning the game where allowed 6 earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Dodgers in Oracle on July 11th, and that was a game where Webb seemed to run out of gas. With an 8-2 lead in the 6th, he hit Mookie Betts, gave up back-to-back doubles to Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez and then gave up a 2-run home run to Michael Conforto. Okay, well, you know what? Michael Conforto was a corpse for all of last year except when he played the Giants, so, maybe I won’t hold that start against him.

The September start in Oracle, when the Giants had managed to recover a bit of their record and headed into the contest 75-72 having won game one of the series, was perhaps an even greater letdown. The Giants scored 4 in the bottom of the 1st to jump ahead 4-1, but then in the 5th, he walked Mookie Betts to lead it off, gave up a single to Freddie Freeman, then a walk to Max Muncy, and that was that. Jose Butto came in and did not do the job, and Webb would get tagged with 6 earned runs on top of 10 hits in just 4 completed innings of work.

He’d turn it around five days later in Dodger Stadium, holding Los Angeles to just 2 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings of work, but as ace-y as he was all season, as truly great as he was overall, there were still some unfortunate hiccups along the way against superior opponents.

That’s probably been the knock against him over the years: he might be the Giants’ ace, but he’s not necessarily an ace in the way the industry thinks of one. For his part, he was 4th in NL Cy Young voting this year, the fourth year in a row in which he’s gotten Cy Young votes, but unable to crack the finalists list (Paul Skenes, Cristopher Sanchez, Yoshinobu Yamamato). He was an NL All-Star for the second straight season and won his first Gold Glove, too. For the third straight season, he led the National League in innings pitched and it was also the second time in three seasons that he led MLB in innings pitched.

An indication that he’s a perfect San Francisco Giant is in this note: two of his three best games of the season, according to Bill James’s Game Score (which Baseball Reference tracks), wound up being Giants losses:

• April 7th against the Reds in San Francisco (Game Score: 79). He struck out 10 in 7 shutout innings and walked 0. The Giants lost 2-0.
• June 2nd against the Padres in San Francisco (Game Score: 77). He struck out 7 in 8 shutout innings and walked 0. The Giants lost 1-0 in 10 innings.

Now, you might see that and think back to all of the tough losses Logan Webb has suffered throughout the years and think, “Well, sure. He’s the new Matt Cain.” And that’s a fair starting point. But Matt Cain never had the strikeout-ability that Logan Webb did or the ability to suppress home runs at the same level. So, I’d say he’s note quite Matt Cain. He’s certainly not Tim Lincecum, of course… or… the 2010-2011 versions of Tim Lincecum are an awfully interesting comparison. Which isn’t to say that we’ve been watching the next Tim Lincecum. No, what I mean to say is that we’ve been watching some third thing, a perhaps “holy” fusion of Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, a freak of his own flavor, frustrating hitters with groundballs when they’re not whiffing.

If you disagree with that imagery or assessment, I would hope you’d agree with me at the very least that he’s as important to the Giants as both of those pitchers were during their heyday. He compels the Giants to act — or stand pat! Why bring back Carlos Rodon? We have Logan Webb. Why stay entangled with Blake Snell? We have Logan Webb? Who needs Kevin Gausman? We’ve already got Logan Webb. Is that decision-making sound? Probably not, but Logan Webb keeps backing up their kinda nutty plan every single year. “Yeah, okay, maybe Robbie Ray doesn’t have to be that good or maybe Landen Roupp doesn’t have to become a #2 starter because we have Logan Webb.“ He’s so great that he simultaneously strengthens the team and papers over its weaknesses.

When you put it all together, it’s no wonder the Giants have pinned their entire present on Logan Webb. Every year, he shows the team that he’s perfect.

The days of trying to get a glimpse of a Michael King throwing session or Manny Machado participating in fielding drills are over. It is time to play baseball, as the Cactus League schedule kicked off today. 

The next month is crucial for the San Diego Padres, as it leads up to hosting the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day, March 26, at Petco Park. The Friar Faithful hope this season’s roster will play with an edge. 

But before the season opener, the Padres have three questions to answer:

Who is starting at 1B and DH?

The Friars have plenty of candidates (Nick Castellanos, Ty France, Miguel Andujar and Gavin Sheets) battling for these two positions in Peoria. The front office plans to let the Cactus League schedule unfold before deciding which player will be in the lineup to open the 2026 season.

Everyone has their own personal favorite for each position, but producing in Cactus League games will dictate who is starting on Opening Day. If I have to predict an early leaderboard, let’s put Castellanos at first base with France as his late-innings defensive replacement. Andujar and Sheets will platoon at the designated hitter position. 

However, all is subject to change, especially if Castellanos has a few fielding mishaps while attempting to learn a new position. Padres manager Craig Stammen may opt to utilize his bat as a full-time DH to start a better defensive infield. No team can survive by giving their opponents extra outs in an inning.

One thing is for certain: Castellanos will have a major role in the Friars’ offense this season.

Who is the Padres’ fifth starter? 

Like it or not, the fifth starter will have a pivotal role in the success of the 2026 Padres. The organization added Walker Buehler, German Marquez and Griffin Canning to an already crowded field, as Stammen has a major decision ahead of him. 

Most teams prefer an experienced starting pitcher in the fifth starter’s role. They understand how to use their entire pitching repertoire to get batters out and earn a quality start. It may not be pretty, but a veteran starter knows how to avoid overworking a bullpen. 

Too often, young starting pitchers are thrown into this role with no knowledge of how to pitch out of trouble. They stumble in their starts and leave a mess for the bullpen to clean up. Too many outs to record that reduces the effectiveness of the relievers moving forward through the season.

It is unclear if one of the losers in the starter competition will become the long-man out of the bullpen. Stammen does not have to make that decision at this time. It may come down to whether the pitcher has experience as a reliever. 

The goal is to find a fifth starter who can exceed their 2026 innings threshold. Whatever direction the Friars go, they have enough quality candidates to choose from.

Will the final bench spot go to a glove or a bat?

The 2025 Padres bench can be characterized as a veteran group that struggled with offensive production. This year’s bench seems set with names from the first base and designated hitter competition. Other candidates include Sung-Mun Song and Luis Campusano, but Stammen has a tough decision for the final bench spot.

Often, the choice comes down to what the roster needs: a good glove or bat. Ideally, you want a seasoned veteran who is versatile enough to play multiple positions. Still, the candidate must be able to contribute at the plate.

Stammen’s decision may hinge on the number of relievers kept on the roster for the first few weeks of the regular season. With multiple off days, the Friars may be able to keep an extra position player on the bench. But that luxury will be short-lived.

The winner of this competition may not be known until the team is introduced to the Petco Park crowd.

In what was an evenly matched contest from the get-go, it was the little things that made a difference In Nebraska’s 4-2 loss to Louisville.  Ty Horn and Ethan Eberle faced off, both of them coming up with huge pitches when they needed them.  Both of them have pitched better than they did today, but what was on display was their toughness, which is fun to watch.  

Horn was probably the sharper as he made big pitch after big pitch with runners on base throughout his five innings.  The defense came up big as well with timely double plays and picking runners off base.  With his pitch count running up, Horn came out for the 6^th inning, but surrendered a lead-off double to cleanup batter Kade Elam.  Coach Childress decided that his day was done and Horn walked off to a standing ovation from both fan bases.

Nebraska did not have a problem putting runners on base.  They did not go three up, three down until the final inning.  They had a chance to break it open in the top of the second as they loaded the bases with one out and Mac Moyer smoked one down the third base line.  Bayram Hot, playing the hot corner for the Cardinals, made a diving grab on the grounder, hustled to his feet to step on third and fired it across the diamond just a split second before Moyer’s foot hit the bag.

The Big Red did strike first in the third with two outs and Joshua Overbeek and Dylan Carey hitting back-to-back singles.  Designated hitter Cole Ktchens then got a single of his own to put the first run of the game up on the scoreboard.

The strikeout was Horn’s best friend today as twice he struck out Cardinals batters with two runners on base to end an inning.  The double he gave up to Elam was his 80^th pitch, which is plenty this time of the season.

Dylan “No More Mister Nice Guy” Carey added to the Cornhusker lead in the fifth with a home run the opposite way over the right-center field wall.  Casey also singled in the third and doubled in the seventh.

With Horn out of the game, lefty Caleb Clark came in to hold the fort.  Clark pitched well last weekend, and frankly, he didn’t pitch horrible today.  However, the Baseball Gods have once again used Clark as their voodoo doll. 

He walked the first batter he faced, but the base was open, so no harm no foul.  Up came Jax Hisle, who hit a sharp hopper right back at Clark.  Double play baby!  No, that’s not what happened.  The ball got to Clark really fast yet he rushed the throw to second base, sailing it to the left field side way out of reach of Carey.  Lucas Moore, scored and there were two runners on and no outs.

The bullpen jumped into action and the Cornhuskers tried to buy time with visits to the mound.  Clark gave up a single and the bases were loaded.  This was make or break time for the veteran lefthander from Canada.  He induced a pop up to Overbeek to get the first out and then Coach Childress opted to go right on right, bringing in Ryan Harrahill, who also pitched well las weekend. He got his first batter to pop up to third and Cornhusker fans rose to their feel to help him get the third out.  It was not to be.  The number nine batter in the lineup, Griffin Crain, ripped a double to put Louisville ahead 3-2.

The Cardinals added a run in the bottom of the seventh on a solo home run by Tague Davis, and that was basically all she wrote.  Both teams went three up, three down the rest of the way and Louisville added a 4-2 victory in their win column.

Louisville is a strong baseball program, and most definitely the best team Nebraska has faced this season so far.  Nebraska fans that are also College World Series fans are familiar with the Louisville Cardinals as they have made a number of appearances under Head Coach Dan McDonnell, who is in his 20^th season leading the boys from Derby City.  In fact, they played in one of the semifinals last year at The Chuck.

The Cornhuskers will be back at it tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. against the Kansas State Wildcats.  There were a lot of purple fans piling in after the game but the bet is more Nebraska fans will show up tomorrow.

Notes:

• I bagged on Jeter Worthley last weekend regarding the fact that teams were able to steal second base relatively easy.  Lucas Moore swiped on in the first inning, but Worthley evened the score in the third inning, nailing him with a throw overturned on review.  Actually, the throw was there in plenty of time.  The tag was higher than one would like to see.
• The DJ, or whatever you call the guy responsible for the music in a ballpark, at Globe Life Field was incredible.  Good tunes throughout, and the right song at the right time.  Aaron and I chuckled when Dylan Carey came to the plate and his walkup song was the 70’s Alice Cooper rocker No More Mister Nice Guy.  Usually, media people send walkup songs and other music to these tournaments, so if Carey really did choose this song, my hat is tipped to him.  Why?  Because he has been too nice of a guy!  We actually saw a little emotion out of him today as well.

It’s been four months since the Seattle Mariners played a baseball game. Four months can feel like a long time. A lot happened: the holidays came and went, various roster moves were (and weren’t) made, Rick Rizzs announced his impending retirement, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, nearly the entirety of the Winter Olympics have happened… et cetera. Still, despite how much has happened, just 123 days have passed since the Seattle Mariners last played a baseball game.

“123 days” feels like a lot less time than “4 months”. I’m not sure why — maybe just a quirk of human bias and perception. For most of the last month, I’d identified more with the “4 months” side of things. It seemed like forever since we had baseball. To have gone from each day being punctuated with the joy of the 2025 Mariners, to each having no clear punctuation at all… well, they call it the bleak midwinter for a reason.

Today, though, it felt like baseball never left. From the moment this morning that the Mariners posted the first lineup card of 2026, all the way through the last pitch that non-roster invitee Nick Davila delivered to close out the ninth inning, today was a continuation of the excitement, joy, and momentum of 2025. Peoria Sports Complex looked and sounded like it was at capacity. Nary a patch of grass in the outfield was unoccupied, and every exciting moment on the field was answered by a chorus of jubilant cheers.

It helped that the Mariners’ starting lineup was mostly comprised of their actual projected Opening Day lineup. The same cannot be said of the pitching, as the team looks to more slowly bring their big-league staff up to speed. Non-roster invitee Dane Dunning took the bump for Seattle. Dunning, who projects to be a (hopefully unneeded) depth piece for the Mariners this year, ended up throwing 1.2 scoreless innings after working around some early traffic. His fastball, which last year averaged a hair above 90 MPH, sat around 89 MPH for most of the day. The presence of full Statcast numbers in Spring Training this year is fun. However, as I scour Dane Dunning’s February 20th velocity and vertical break, searching for meaning, it occurs to me that the availability of these data may not be optimal for my mental health. Verdict: Dunning looked fine.

The rest of today’s pitching staff for Seattle was comprised mainly of Guys on the Pile. One highlight was newcomer Cooper Criswell, acquired from the Red Sox over the offseason. Criswell, a soft-tossing righty, induced three strikeouts over two innings, including a particularly nasty one of Manny Machado.

Another familiar face was Troy Taylor, who looks to bounce back from a disappointing 2025. Taylor’s velocity was great: he was already up and over last year’s average speed of 96. Less great was a hung sinker that Romeo Sanabria whacked 416 feet over the center field fence.

Right hander Alex Hoppe, who the Mariners also acquired from the Red Sox this winter, had a doubly disappointing afternoon. A dinger surrendered to Jose Miranda might have been bad enough, but the broadcasting team outed Hoppe as a true sicko: apparently his favorite player growing up was Jack Flaherty? First of all, Flaherty is literally 30 years old and Hoppe is 27, so I truly do not know when he would have idolized Flaherty. Secondly, even if the timeline did make any sense, Hoppe is likely the first person ever to idolize Jack Flaherty.

Fortunately, the hitters on Seattle’s side were a lot more interesting than the pitchers. Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor, Leo Rivas, and Dom Canzone each checked in with hits in their first game back (Raley had two). Canzone made a flashy play in right field, laying out for a sinking line drive to rescue Dunning’s first inning. The real story of today, though, was the young guys. Most specifically Michael Arroyo.

Arroyo, a 21-year-old second baseman who just today was revealed to be working out at third base and in the outfield, watched the first pitch he was thrown. It was a changeup on the corner, called a ball. The Padres challenged, and it was overturned. Arroyo fouled off a second changeup to go down 0-2. A third changeup went right down the middle, and Arroyo took it the other way. It looked somewhat innocuous off the bat, but the ball carried, and carried, and carried. 406 feet later, Arroyo had recorded Seattle’s first home run of 2026.

Star prospect Colt Emerson immediately hit a ball in nearly the exact same spot, but it died before reaching the fence.

Arroyo’s very next at bat saw him hit another ball hard to the same spot. This one dropped short of the fence, but Arroyo was left standing on second base for a double. Not a bad showing for the 67th ranked prospect in all of baseball.

The final effort from today that I wanted to highlight was from fellow Top 100 Prospect Lazaro Montes. In the box score, Montes’ day didn’t look overly impressive: 1-for-3 with a single and a strikeout. The single, however, was one of the more difficult ones you’re likely to see.

The at bat in question was against Padres flamethrower Mason Miller, who we all know well from his days with the Athletics. Montes started by working a 2-2 count off Miller — an impressive feat in its own right. Miller responded by dialing up a 101.5 MPH fastball, which he lost control of. The resulting errant pitch nearly decapitated Montes, who had to leap out of the way. With a slight smile on his face, Montes dug back into the box and fouled off another 101.5 MPH fastball. Miller tried to switch it up with a slider, which Montes pulled for a line drive single into right field. Talk about Big League stuff from the 21-year-old.

Countless battles of NRI-on-NRI later, the Mariners were left standing with a 7-4 advantage over the Padres. Sure, the game was meaningless. Though, isn’t every game meaningless in the long run? Everything, even?

With meaning ultimately left as an exercise for the reader, I hope you enjoyed seeing the sunlight today, even if it was through a laptop or television screen. Fewer than five weeks remain until Opening Day and fewer than three until Daylight Savings. We made it.

The Colorado Rockies lost their spring training opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2. For more details, go here.

We’re not yet to the point in the season where we’re doing game recaps, but we wanted to share manager Warren Schaeffer’s postgame comments.

And here’s that Cole Carrigg triple:

What were your takeaways from today’s game?

Let us know in the comments.

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SARASOTA, Fla. — Watching the Yankees’ veteran pitchers in his first week of big league camp, Elmer Rodriguez noticed their presence on the mound and how calm they looked.

Tasked with a notable assignment of his own Friday — starting the Grapefruit League opener against an Orioles lineup full of regulars — the 22-year-old Rodriguez took a page out of their books and continued to show why the Yankees are so high on his future as one of their top pitching prospects.

Rodriguez tossed three shutout innings against the Orioles, flashing his six-pitch arsenal and navigating a nearly full-strength lineup without much issue.

“First inning, the adrenaline was high in the moment,” said Rodriguez, who scattered three singles, struck out one and recorded seven of his nine outs on the ground. “But I was able to channel it and use it to my advantage. I felt like I was executing well and felt good.”

Rodriguez, acquired from the Red Sox last winter in exchange for catcher Carlos Narváez, broke out last season while posting a 2.58 ERA across three levels, with 176 strikeouts in 150 innings.

Depending on which scout you talk to, Rodriguez and Carlos Lagrange are, in some order, the organization’s top minor league arms — Rodriguez with a higher floor as a starter but Lagrange perhaps with a higher ceiling, both with plenty of potential.

And while the stakes are about to get higher for Rodriguez when he goes to pitch for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, the Yankees were still interested to see how he handled Friday’s environment.

“That was pleasantly surprising for Elmer, just because you never know what it’s going to look like the first time you get on the major league mound with a major league lineup up there,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “That’s borderline their ‘A’ lineup there, minus one or two pieces. But to have some poise out there, to control the strike zone, to move some different shapes around and just see that his stuff’s going to play in the zone versus these types of hitters, that was really encouraging.”

Blake described Rodriguez as having “a good, crafty arsenal” that he could use on all hitters.

The right-hander used his sinker most often, sitting 94-97 mph, but also mixed in a changeup, cutter, curveball, slider and four-seam fastball.

“I thought he was great,” catcher Austin Wells said. “He mixed it really well, hit the spots when he needed to and got some big ground balls. … He’s got a lot of really good pitches, got the talent and he’s just got to go do it.”

Rodriguez, who is likely to start the year at Triple-A as long as the Yankees get through camp relatively healthy, indicated that it was at least a somewhat difficult decision whether to leave his first big league spring training for the WBC.

But he has always wanted to represent his country, which he will do in a starting role, and believes he can continue to show the Yankees what he is capable of on an even bigger stage than he would be facing in the Grapefruit League.

“Just trying to use everything to my advantage,” he said. “Get some experience there, learn from guys here, learn from guys there. Having the experience to play there against good competition, just trying to learn as much as I can and get the most experience.

“I feel like it’s probably going to be higher-intensity games. Everybody says it’s like playing in the playoffs.”

It will only add to it that Puerto Rico is serving as a host for pool play, allowing Rodriguez to pitch in his native country.

Before then, Rodriguez passed his first test in big league camp.

“Very much under control,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously running up against a pretty real lineup there. The poise that we continue to see is something you like, even though it’s not that big a deal, but first time in a big league spring training game, kicking off the spring, handled it well.

“I really think he’s got a bright future,” Boone added. “So he’s going to get some run down here.”

MESA, Arizona — The Cubs lost to the White Sox 8-1 in the first Spring Training game of 2026.

To which I say: Who cares? Wins and losses mean nothing until March 26.

A few notable things happened in this game, so let’s look at them.

Seiya Suzuki homered in his first spring at-bat [VIDEO].

So that’s good. That came after Austin Hays homered off Jameson Taillon in the top of the first. Taillon also served up another homer, a two-run job, in the second. I’m not concerned about that sort of thing this early; often, pitchers work on various things in spring outings and sometimes throw nothing but fastballs.

Of a bit of concern: Porter Hodge looked awful in facing six batters in the fourth inning. He walked four of them and allowed a two-run double to new Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami. It might have been more runs, but Grant Kipp induced an inning-ending double play.

Hopefully this was just Hodge “working on something” because he wasn’t anywhere near the strike zone most of the time, throwing only eight strikes in 25 pitches.

Gavin Hollowell, who also might be in the bullpen mix because he has options, struck out all three batters he faced in the sixth. Two of them (Hays and Murakami) are MLB hitters and the third is top Sox prospect Braden Montgomery. So Hollowell might be someone to watch going forward.

There were three ABS challenges in the game. If you didn’t see it, here are all of them.

A pitch was called a ball on Sox pitcher Jonathan Cannon in the second. It was overturned on review [VIDEO].

A call of ball 3 on Hollowell in the sixth was also overturned [VIDEO].

A pitch was called a ball in the bottom of the eighth and the call was confirmed [VIDEO].

These calls were all made seamlessly, quickly by the players, announced at the park by the plate umpire and all completed within just a few seconds. This is exactly how the ABS challenge system is supposed to work and once it’s in place for regular-season games you probably won’t even notice. I would imagine there will be more challenges in Spring Training games than you’ll see in the regular season so that players get used to doing it.

It was a gorgeous, though a bit coolish (60 degrees at game time) afternoon in Sloan Park, with the berm getting a bit crowded as folks from seats in the shade came to get some sunshine. Announced attendance was 14,419, about 1,000 short of a sellout. It’s still very early, many people aren’t on spring break or taking vacations yet, and I’d expect the crowds to get larger as the spring goes by.

Matthew Boyd will start Saturday afternoon at Sloan Park against the Rangers. Kumar Rocker will take the mound for Texas. Game time is again 2:05 p.m. CT. TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network and there will also be radio broadcasts via The Score as well as the Rangers radio network.