Category: MLB

Place your bets!

The pool stage of the World Baseball Classic is complete, the matchups are set, and we’re gearing up for what should be five days of incredible baseball starting Friday night with Team USA taking on Canada in Houston and the Dominican Republic facing Korea in Miami. The following night, Puerto Rico will face Italy and Japan will take on Venezuela.

Here’s the full broadcast schedule.

There are eight teams remaining, which includes eight remaining Rockies:

• Team Canada: Eduoard Julien, Antoine Jean
• Team Italy: Michael Lorenzen
• Team Dominican Republic: Juan Mejia
• Team Puerto Rico: Willi Castro
• Team Venezuela: Ezequiel Tovar, Antonio Senzatela
• Team Japan: Tomoyuki Sugano

On Monday, we asked you who you thought was having the best WBC and which team you were rooting for. Tonight, we ask you a separate question: who do you think will win the whole thing?

Japan, USA and the Dominican Republic appear to be the favorites on paper, but anything can happen! (That’s baseball, and all that.)

Let us know your thoughts!

And in the meantime, see what the WBC means to some of the players:

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

Introduction

After reviewing the offseason of the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers the last two weeks, today we continue our NL West Offseason reviews with a look at the San Diego Padres.

2025 Season Overview/Recap

The Padres got off to a great start to begin the 2025 season, matching their best-19 game start in franchise history with a 15-4 record. The team experienced a roster makeover thanks to a busy trade deadline, trading for Ramon Laureano, Ryan O’Hearn, Nestor Cortes, Freddy Fermín, JP Sears, and probably the most impactful piece, All-Star closer Mason Miller. The Padres held a lead at top of the NL West on August 23, the latest they’ve held a lead in the division during a season since 2010, however, they finished in second place in the division behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the second straight season. They did make the postseason as the fifth NL Wild Card seed though, but ultimately lost to the Chicago Cubs 2-1 in the Wild Card series, ending their season in disappointment. In spite of the disappointing end to their season, I still think it’s fair to call the Padres 2025 season a success.

Notable acquisitions:
SP Michael King (re-signed; 3 yr, $75M) 
INF Sung-Mun Song (4 yr, $15M)
3B/OF Miguel Andujar (1 yr, $4M) 
SP Kyle Hart (re-signed; 1 yr, $1.2M) 
RP Ty Adcock (1-year deal) 
RP Daison Acosta (1-year deal)
SP Triston McKenzie (MiLB deal) 
SP Griffin Canning (1 yr, $2.5M) 
OF Nick Castellanos (1 yr, $780k) 
1B Ty France (MiLB deal) 
SP Germán Márquez (1 yr, $1.75M)
SP Walker Buehler (MiLB deal) 

Notable subtractions:

UTIL Jose Iglesias, SP Dylan Cease (Blue Jays), 1B/2B Luis Arraez (Giants), RP Robert Suarez (Braves), 1B/OF Ryan O’Hearn (Pirates)

Offseason Summary and Review

The Padres have one of the biggest subtractions of the offseason in the NL West with Dylan Cease leaving sunny San Diego for the exact opposite weather in Toronto, Canada. However, the Padres did manage to avoid also losing starting pitchers Michael King and Kyle Hart to free agency. While German Marquez and Walker Buehler are a big step down from Cease, they are very low risk additions, especially considering the market for free agent starting pitching. I really like the addition of German Marquez, who in theory should have a much easier time pitching at sea level in San Diego, especially compared to the challenge that is pitching at altitude in Denver’s Coors Fields. Walker Buehler probably won’t come close again to what he did when he was with the Dodgers, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he returned to form in 2026. Starting pitcher Griffin Canning, who ruptured his Achilles tendon playing for the Mets in 2025, might be one of the better under-the-radar signings of the offseason. While he’s still rehabbing that injury, he’ll likely provide a boost to the Padres rotation early into the 2026 season. While not a free agent signing, Joe Musgrove, who missed all of 2025 thanks to Tommy John surgery he had back in October of 2024, should provide a boost to the Padres rotation early in the season as well.

Before going into the details of the Sung-Mun Song, Nick Castellanos, or Miguel Andujar signings, it’s worth noting that they’re improvements just from the fact that the Padres won’t have to suffer through Jose Iglesias playing in 112 games games in 2026. Despite having a career high 2.5 fWAR and 136 wRC+ in 86 games for the Mets in 2024, Iglesias fell off hard in 2025, putting up an anemic 73 wRC+ and negative defensive value when not playing shortstop, leading to a -0.2 fWAR/-0.7 bWAR season.

Sung-Mun Song is coming off two excellent seasons in the Korean Baseball. In 2024 Song played in all but one of the Kiwoom Heroes games and hit .340/.409/.518, finishing with a career high 19 homeruns and 21 stolen bases, which works out to a 143 wRC+ or 43% better than league average. He’d follow that up with an arguably better 2025 season. He played in all 144 games, hit .315/.387/.530 with 26 homeruns and 25 stolen bases. In a season where offense was down in the KBO, that works out to a 151 wRC+ or 51% better than a league average hitter. The real concerns with Song are that prior to 2024 he had been a below average hitter in all but one of his prior seven seasons, in addition to having only one season where he had appeared in more than 105 games. So the big question for Song will he able to continue his offensive breakout in a more competitive league, while staying healthy for a full season? ZIPs and other projection systems are skeptical of Song succeeding in MLB, but he does at least project to be an average hitter.

Miguel Andujar is coming off his best season in MLB since 2018. While not anywhere close to his production that season, in 2025 he still managed to hit .318/.352/.470 with a 125 wRC+ in 98 games split between the Athletics and Reds. While I wouldn’t expect him to follow up with an equal or better 2026, he should at least give the Padres an offensive boost.

Adding Nick Castellanos is possibly the biggest surprise of the Padres offseason. Castellanos, who turned 34 a week ago, was DFA’d by the Phillies after a disappointing 2025 campaign in which he hit .250/.294/.400 with a 90 wRC+. Although Castellanos will be used as part of a platoon, the fact that his hitting against both left and right handers cratered in 2025 is a massive red flag entering the 2026 season. While Castellanos might have been a good fit for Petco earlier in his career, I don’t think the ballpark will do him any favors in 2026. All that said, taking a flier on Castellanos for league minimum is definitely worth the risk.

This is still a very talented roster, especially with the core of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr, Xander Bogaerts, and Jake Cronenworth, which doesn’t even get into Jackson Merrill and flamethrowing closer Mason Miller, both of whom should only be getting better going forward. While there are some concerns with the lengthy deals the Padres inked over the last decade, that’s really a problem for next year.

On paper this looks like the NL West with the best chances of beating the likely division winner the Los Angeles Dodgers. I really love the moves they made to improve their pitching staff and lineup, especially the lower risk moves. My offseason grade for the San Diego Padres is an A.

The Dodgers are back after their day off on Wednesday as they host the Cincinnati Reds at Camelback Ranch on Thursday. Cole Irvin gets the start for the Dodgers, facing left-hander Nick Lodolo.

THURSDAY GAME INFO

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Reds
• Ballpark: Camelback Ranch
• Time: 6:05 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: none

The Kansas City Royals went 0-for-2 yesterday in split-squad action and will regroup against the San Diego Padres. The two teams face off in Peoria Sports Complex down in Arizona, with left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic taking the mound.

Things have been rough for the boys in blue since the World Baseball Classic began. With players like Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino gone, the Royals are 1-8 in nine Cactus League games.

Tonight’s Royals Lineup

Tonight’s Padres Lineup

Jake Eisenberg is calling tonight’s game on the Royals Radio Network. Fans can watch the Padres feed of tonight’s game on MLB Network and Royals.TV.

Tonight’s probable pitchers are Bubic, Steven Cruz, Lucas Erceg, Nick Mears, Eli Morgan, and Hector Neris.

Happy 312 Day, Sox fans! Prior to tonight’s game, the team shared photos from the Los White Sox mural at Midway Airport, which spans 13,600 square feet.

The White Sox look to bounce back after two straight losses in a rare late-night Spring Training matchup. It might be a tough hill to climb, though, as the Giants have had a successful spring, with a 15-3 record.

Edgar Quero will be behind the plate tonight, and with Kyle Teel sidelined by a recent World Baseball Classic injury, we’ll likely be seeing plenty of him. Ryan Borucki will start the contest after pitching four innings so far this spring. He’s done fairly well, only giving up two hits and a walk, while striking out six as a relief arm.

Trevor McDonald will take the mound for San Francisco. The righthander has pitched a total of seven innings so far and has a similar line to Borucki’s, with two hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts.

Unless you live in the Bay Area, you won’t be able to watch or listen to tonight’s matchup. The game starts at 8:05 p.m. CT.

Grant Holmes went into this evening’s spring training start against the Pittsburgh Pirates having not given up a single run across two starts and three appearances. He’s now up to three starts and four appearances without giving up a run so far through spring training and his fourth appearance here in camp was probably the best one of them all so far.

Holmes ended up going five innings in this one against a lineup that very likely won’t look too much different from the one that the Pirates will be rolling out there in a couple of weeks for Opening Day. Holmes struck out Spencer Horowitz to start this one and then followed that up by walking Ryan O’Hearn. That was as good as it got for the Pirates against Holmes as he completely dominated Pittsburgh from this point forward. Holmes got former Braves DH Marcell Ozuna to fly out to end the inning after racking up his second strikeout of the frame and that was the start of a very productive outing for him.

All six pitches from Grant Holmes were put on display on this one — that includes the sinker that Holmes has apparently been working on throughout the offseason and during camp as well. As you can tell by the fact that Holmes didn’t give up a single hit and only had to deal with one baserunner throughout the time that he was on the mound on Thursday evening, each of those six pitches were working like a charm for him in this one.

The Pirates were unable to do much of anything about what Grant Holmes was delivering from the mound tonight and the swings-and-misses were further proof of that. They were also proof that his slider was the key to befuddling Pittsburgh’s batters in this one — of the nine strikeouts that Holmes racked up during this game, eight of them came from a slider. This was one of those outings that made me think “Dude, save some of that for the regular season!” Spring training or not, this was a fantastic performance from Grant Holmes and if he can bring that with him to the regular season then there will be a lot of happy campers here watching Holmes pitch.

As far as the Braves go, that was basically the sparkling highlight of the night. The Pirates started Bubba Chandler (the No. 2 pitching prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline) in this one and he absolutely lived up to the lofty status that he’s already achieved during his time on the farm. Chandler got his evening started by getting Michael Harris II to ground out on a 99-mph fastball that was inside and that basically set the tone for what came next. As good as Grant Holmes was in this one, Bubba Chandler wasn’t too far behind.

Chandler also went five innings in this one and struck out eight batters while only giving up one hit and one walk. Fortunately for the Braves, the one hit that he gave up ended up being a long ball. Former Twins prospect Jair Camargo has been having a very quiet spring training for the Braves so far and he was down 0-2 to Chandler in this AB before he got a hold of a slider and sent it flying onto the party deck out there in left field for a solo shot that put the Braves on the board and in the lead.

Fast forward to the sixth inning and we got to see a truly rare sight: A Michael Harris II walk. The free pass at the expense of Pirates pitcher Evan Sisk ended up being the start of something, as Money Mike stole second base and then eventually made it home on an RBI single from Kyle Farmer. Farmer’s single continues to bolster his care for making a roster spot while Michael Harris II’s fourth walk of spring training so far ended up paying off in dividends a little bit down the road.

The Braves led 2-0 at that point but ended up losing 5-2 after the Pirates ended up plating five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning due to a mixture of a rough outing from Blayne Enlow and a pair of backbreaking errors that allowed Pittsburgh to flip the game upside down. As a result, the Pirates were able to knock the Braves off of their lofty perch in the prestigious Grapefruit League as Atlanta fell to 12-5 with a couple of ties to their name.

With that being said, the most important takeaway here is that Grant Holmes appears to be champing at the bit to get out there for the regular season. He looked excellent on the mound today and has been locked in all spring. Sure, it may be spring training but he’s certainly looking the part when it comes to regular season readiness. We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m. ET when the Braves welcome the Yankees to North Port.

After dropping below .500 in yesterday’s game, the Brewers are looking to get back to even tonight against the Guardians. This is their second meeting this spring, with the first a 9-6 loss on February 21.

DL Hall gets the start this evening for the Brewers. It’s his fourth appearance this spring, but only his first start for the Brewers. So far this spring, he has pitched six innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts. His last appearance came against the Brewers as he pitched with Great Britain in their exhibition. Hall allowed a run, a hit, two walks, and two strikeouts in three innings.

Three other Brewers are scheduled to pitch tonight. Easton McGee is making his fourth appearance of the spring. He’s pitched 4 1/3 innings this spring and not allowed a run, along with two hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. Jacob Waguespack has also not allowed a run this spring in 5 1/3 innings. He’s also allowed one hit and one walk and struck out four. Drew Rom is over from minor league camp after being reassigned on March 8. He’s allowed a run in 3 1/3 innings, with two hits, four walks, and six strikeouts. Peter Strzelecki is also over from minor league camp and has allowed two runs in four innings, with two hits and four strikeouts.

With the Brewers on the road, many of the bench players and minor league players are getting starts tonight. Garrett Mitchell is leading off with Brandon Lockridge batting second as the designated hitter. Christian Yelich is batting third with Gary Sánchez catching and batting fourth. Jett Williams is playing third and batting fifth, with Mike Boeve at first and batting sixth. Cooper Pratt, Jacob Hurtubise, and Eddys Leonard round out the lineup.

In recent injury news out of camp, Quinn Priester is expected to begin the season on the IL with a return TBD as he deals with a nerve issue “in the T.O.S. [thoracic outlet syndrome] family,” per manager Pat Murphy. He isn’t expected to require surgery. Additionally, outfielder Akil Baddoo’s quad injury is worse than expected, and he’s expected to miss 3-4 weeks.

Tonight’s pitch is set for 8:05 p.m. CT. The game will have an audio broadcast available on MLB.com.

Kansas City Royals at San Diego Padres, March 12, 2026, 6:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.

• Don’t troll in your comments; create conversation rather than destroying it
• Remember Gaslamp Ball is basically a non-profanity site
• Out of respect to broadcast partners who have paid to carry the game, no mentions of “alternative” (read: illegal) viewing methods are allowed in our threads

GB community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

The Texas Rangers are signing lefthanded reliever Jalen Beeks to a one year deal, per Evan Grant.

Beeks, 32, first debuted in 2018 with the Boston Red Sox, and was traded to Tampa mid-season for Nathan Eovaldi. He was with the Rays until the 2023 offseason, when he was claimed on waivers by the Colorado Rockies, who dealt him to Pittsburgh at the 2024 trade deadline. He signed with Houston 363 days ago, was released 12 days later, and then signed with Arizona, where he spent the 2025 season.

Beeks is a ground ball pitcher who doesn’t strike out a lot of guys and isn’t great at avoiding walks. He has been durable the past two seasons, however, appearing in 132 games, and he had a decent season for Arizona in 2025, putting up a 3.77 ERA and a 3.88 xERA.

Beeks will make five free agent relievers signed to major league deals by the Rangers this offseason, with the other four being Tyler Alexander, Alexis Diaz, Jakob Junis, and Chris Martin. The Rangers also acquired Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler.

With Alexander, Beeks, and holdover Robert Garcia, the Rangers have three lefties who would appear to be slated for the Opening Day bullpen. Jacob Latz is also a bullpen candidate, but he appears more likely to be in the Opening Day rotation, as he appears to currently have the edge over Kumar Rocker for the final spot.

Diaz has struggled mightily to throw strikes this spring. Throwing strikes has never been his strong point, but his control issues have been particularly bad the past couple of seasons. The Rangers felt there were some things they could do with him to improve in that regard, but it hasn’t appeared to have taken yet. He has an option remaining, so it is possible that he could be sent down to start the season.

The Rangers will have to open up a 40 man roster spot to add Beeks. Waiver claims Dairon Blanco and Michel Otanez would seem to be the most likely candidates to be dropped. However, Texas will also need to open up a roster spot for Andrew McCutchen (or Mark Canha, though McCutchen would seem to be the heavy favorite for that bench spot), so neither player would seem to be safe.

In addition, Evan’s article mentions that Gavin Collyer, Payton Gray and Josh Sborz are in contention for a bullpen spot. None of them are currently on the 40 man roster, so if any of them were to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster, a 40 man move would have to be made there, as well.

As of now, Alexander, Beeks, Garcia, Martin, Junis, and Winn would appear to have six of the eight bullpen spots. One would think that Baumler has shown enough to start the season on with the club, though it remains to be seen whether he will be able to pitch well enough to maintain his hold on a job.

That would, barring injury, leave one bullpen spot open for Diaz, Collyer, Gray, Sborz, Luis Curvelo, or someone else.

The Cincinnati Reds will play under the lights on Thursday when they travel across the Land of the Endless Strip Mall to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Not resting on their World Series laurels, the Dodgers are 12-6 in Cactus League play so far this spring, proving that they are equally adept at winning games that don’t matter as they are at winning games that do.

The Reds will send left-hander Nick Lodolo to the mound for the start as he looks to stretch out to four full innings for the first time this spring. Cincinnati is also sending out a lineup chock full of regulars for the evening, one that includes Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart hitting back to back in the 3/4 holes.

Sal, for the record, will slide back over and play 1B on the night. Spencer Steer is also in the lineup showing his versatility as he’ll play in RF (while Noelvi Marte gets a night at DH).

First pitch is set for 9:05 PM ET, and you’ll be able to watch it through MLB.tv thanks to SportsNet LA carrying Dodgers coverage.

Here’s the travel roster for the night, one that features top prospect Tyson Lewis available off the bench as well as Tejay Antone down in the bullpen.

MESA, Arizona — It’s getting hot in the Valley of the Sun — over 90 degrees Thursday, when the average high is about 77 — and Edward Cabrera is heating up, too, getting ready for his spot in the Cubs rotation.

Cabrera threw 60 pitches (43 strikes) in throwing until there were two out in the fourth. He struck out three. He left with the lead and the Cubs hung on to defeat the Mariners 7-4.

One of Cabrera’s strikeouts was notable. In the first inning, former Cubs prospect Brennen Davis was at bat with one out and a runner on first. Cabrera ran a 3-2 count on Davis and then threw a pitch that was called ball four. Carson Kelly challenged, and the call was overturned, resulting in a called strikeout. Here’s the at-bat in question:

Davis had a pretty good at-bat, as you can see, fouling off a bunch of Cabrera’s offerings. But you can also see that pitch 10, the one that was overturned, was definitely in the zone. This was a good use of the ABS challenge in the first inning. Not that you’d necessarily do that in a regular-season game, but it was definitely good practice for Kelly to challenge that pitch.

The Mariners scored a run in the third off Cabrera on a single, stolen base, fly to right and infield out. The Cubs took the lead in the bottom of the inning. BJ Murray led off with a double and went to third on a single by Michael Busch. One out later, Ian Happ doubled in both runners. Sorry — no video available.

As noted, Cabrera was lifted in the fourth. Here’s his pitch breakdown [VIDEO].

The Cubs extended their lead to 3-1 in the fifth. Jefferson Rojas singled with one out and took third on another single by Busch. Nico Hoerner hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Rojas, but Busch was tagged out trying to take second.

The Cubs broke the game open in the seventh, all with minor leaguers and NRI’s. The most important hit was a home run by Chas McCormick, who still has a chance to make the Opening Day roster.

Of Cubs relievers who will be on that roster, Phil Maton threw a scoreless inning, but he did walk a pair. Otherwise the collection of relievers was guys who won’t be there Opening Day (Corbin Martin, Jack Neely, Tyler Beede and Vince Reilly).

Attendance watch: 14,717 paid to see this afternoon affair. That makes the season total for 12 dates 147,731, or 12,311 per date.

The Cubs will head to Glendale to take on the White Sox Friday afternoon. Ben Brown will start for the Cubs and Davis Martin goes for the Sox. Game time is again 3:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via the White Sox channel CHSN. There’s also a radio broadcast with the Sox announcers on WMVP/ESPN 1000.

Record 8-12. Change on 2025: -1.5. 5-inning record: 4-14-2.

Another day, another spring-worst margin of defeat. After losing by ten runs yesterday, the D-backs went one better (or worse?) this afternoon at Salt River Fields. It was an ugly afternoon for the Arizona pitchers, who handed out a dozen free passes to Colorado hitters, thanks to nine walks and three hit batters. The worst culprit was Brandyn Garcia, who threw 26 pitches to five batters in the sixth, without recording an out: one hit, two walks and two plunkings, part of an eight-run inning. But it had started well. Taylor Clarke and Juan Morillo tossed three hitless innings. John Curtiss also pitched well, with 1.2 scoreless frames. Drey Jameson? Less so: three runs in his 1.2 frames, on two hits and three walks.

The Diamondbacks actually led after the first inning here, before the Rockies got those pesky thirteen unanswered runs. Jordan Lawlar singled, then Tim Tawa got his second home-run of spring, to give Arizona a 2-0 lead before they had a hitter retired. It was all very much downhill from there, however. The D-backs got only four hits and three walks the rest of the way. LuJames Groover accounted for half of the hits with his double and single; Tawa added a walk to his home-run. At least all thirteen runs were earned, I guess? Arizona’s collective ERA in the Cactus League is now 6.22.

We hope for better tomorrow up in Surprise against the Royals. That will see Merrill Kelly return to the mound, as he restarts his build-up: fingers cross that goes well.

LAKELAND, Fla. — Though Jasson Domínguez knew before he even went to bed Wednesday night that he’d be going up against Justin Verlander on Thursday at Joker Marchant Stadium, Will Warren was blissfully unaware until after he arrived to the ballpark and saw the future Hall of Famer getting ready for his Grapefruit League start.

“I didn’t realize he was pitching today until I went to warm up,’’ Warren said. “He was doing his own thing and I just said, ‘I’m gonna move over. He’s done it a lot longer than I have.’ ”

Warren looked good in his outing, lasting six full innings as he tries to follow up on a season in which he made 33 starts — only Giants ace Logan Webb made more.

The move to the third base side of the rubber is paying dividends, with Warren saying it “opened up a lot.”

“My pitches seem sharper,’’ the right-hander said. “I’m not falling behind as much, and that gives me confidence I can get anyone out.”

Max Fried is slated to start the March 25 season opener in San Francisco, and Aaron Boone said after Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Tigers that he “had an idea” of how the rest of the rotation would look to start the season, but declined to elaborate.

But he’s been impressed with Warren’s swing-and-miss stuff and efficiency. Warren’s next step is to avoid the occasional disastrous outing that plagued him a year ago.

“To me, he looks another year along in his development,’’ Boone said.

Boone has few questions about the top relievers in the bullpen, but with less than two weeks remaining until the start of the regular season, he and his staff are still looking for answers about the final two spots.

A pair of candidates, Cade Winquest and Angel Chivilli, were acquired in the offseason and pitched Thursday.

Winquest, a Rule 5 acquisition from St. Louis, tossed a scoreless inning, and Chivilli, picked up in a trade with Colorado, allowed a run in his lone inning of work. 

“He’s had some good and some struggles,’’ Boone said of Chivilli. 

Chivilli’s changeup and slider have stood out, but as Boone has noted about several bullpen arms this spring, “It’s about commanding the strike zone. He’s got weapons to get you out. He’s had ups and downs.” 

George Lombard Jr., Brendan Beck and Ben Hess were reassigned to minor league camp Thursday. Lombard continued to display his defensive versatility by starting at second base against the Tigers.

The Yankees remain confident Lombard’s bat will come around, especially as the 20-year-old fills out.

For the spring, Lombard is 5-for-27 with three extra-base hits, six walks and a dozen strikeouts.

And as was the case with Spencer Jones, who also is no longer with the major league team, Lombard will continue to get playing time with the big league roster.

Left-hander Caleb Ferguson was signed by the Cincinnati Reds this offseason to a 1-year contract that will pay him $4.5 million, the first move of several to help backfill a bullpen that had seen quite the exodus.

Taylor Rogers was jettisoned at the trade deadline last year due to poor performance, while each of Brent Suter, Reiver Sanmartin, and Joe La Sorsa headed elsewhere after the season. Southpaw relief for the bullpen was a primary need for Nick Krall and Co. heading into the winter, and signing Ferguson – the owner of a career 3.66 ERA and 10.0 K/9 across 7 seasons – was the first big domino to fall.

The problem now, though, is that it looks like Ferguson won’t be around on Opening Day to help the Reds at all. As MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed today, Ferguson is dealing with an oblique injury, one that will sideline him for at least a couple of weeks and effectively rule him out for the first active Reds roster of the year.

That leaves Sam Moll and Brock Burke as lefty relievers who are almost assured to make the Opening Day roster. Just how creative the Reds get beyond those two is where it gets a little interesting.

With Hunter Greene now out for months following elbow surgery, there will be two starting rotation spots up for grabs over the coming weeks, too. Each of Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder appear to have the inside track for those, but Brandon Williamson – a fellow lefty – is very much still in the mix. Whether or not the Reds would choose to carry all three of those talented arms in order to a) make sure there’s another lefty on-staff and b) to potentially piggy-back those guys to save innings for later in the year remains to be seen, but it would certainly be one way of making sure the most talented arms in the organization are all at the highest level.

More likely, of course, is that the Reds will simply use that open bullpen spot on one of their arms who is already set as a reliever and keep one of that trio of starters stretched out at AAA Louisville. That means the likes of Zach Maxwell, Luis Mey, and the inconsistent Connor Phillips each got a boost to their Opening Day roster chances with this news. It would also, I would assume, put the recently acquired Kyle Nicolas in-line to be on the roster for Game 1, too.

Led by a dominant 3 shutout innings from recently named Opening Day starter Cade Cavalli, the Nats beat the Cardinals 3-1 yesterday to improve to 10-4 on the spring, 2nd second in all of baseball. Cavalli has had as good of a Spring Training as you could hope for, as he has now thrown 9 shutout innings over 3 starts, with just 1 hit allowed. His newly added sweeper is looking sharp as well, generating lots of weak contact from right-handed hitters so far.

Jake Irvin takes the mound tonight for the Nats, and he has looked impressive as well this month, throwing 5 scoreless innings and striking out 6 batters. The lineup behind him looks rather standard, with James Wood and Daylen Lile being the only starters sitting, and Robert Hassell III and Christian Franklin taking their places. One notable defensive positioning is Nasim Nunez getting the start at third base, an opportunity to hone his skills at another position on the dirt.

The Astros will counter with a lineup filled with starters, with Jose Altuve and Isaac Paredes being the most notable names missing from the starting 9. On the bump for the Astros is right-handed pitcher Mike Burrows, who was acquired from the Pirates in the winter and has thrown 8.2 scoreless innings to start his spring.

With the addition of Zack Littell, room in the Nationals’ rotation is tightening, and guys like Jake Irvin are on the chopping block, making every start critical for him to show he’s made real improvements from last season. I will be watching how he uses his pitch mix today and if he can maintain strong velocity throughout the outing. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats!

Game Info:

Stadium: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches

Time: 6:05 PM EST

TV: MLB.TV

Radio: N/A